Bug 309245 – :focus-visible is applied to button when opening native <dialog> via showModal() after pointer interaction

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: DUPLICATE
• Component: Forms

[Mateusz Daniluk]

When a native <dialog> is opened via showModal() after a pointer click, Safari focuses the first button inside the dialog and applies :focus-visible.

This results in a visible focus ring even though the dialog was opened with a mouse/pointer interaction, which seems inconsistent with the intended heuristics of :focus-visible.

According to the expected behavior, :focus-visible should typically appear only when focus is triggered by keyboard navigation or other assistive mechanisms.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open the reproduction example
2. Click the “Open dialog” button
3. The dialog opens via showModal()

Safari focuses the first button inside the dialog and applies :focus-visible

Reproduction
CodePen:
https://codepen.io/ptu14/pen/NPRNRQa

Expected result
The button may receive focus, but :focus-visible should not be applied when the dialog is opened via pointer interaction.

Actual result
The focused button receives :focus-visible, causing a visible focus ring immediately after opening the dialog.

Browser comparison
Chrome and Firefox also focuses the first button inside the dialog upon showModal(), however it correctly does not apply :focus-visible in this case. Chrome inherits the "no focus ring" state from the pointer interaction that triggered showModal(), so the programmatic focus inside the dialog does not show a focus ring.
Safari's behavior diverges. It applies :focus-visible regardless of how the dialog was opened, treating the programmatic focus from showModal() as if it were keyboard-initiated. This appears to be a specific issue with how WebKit propagates the pointer/keyboard interaction state across the showModal() focus boundary. The previously related bug #236782 (script focus after clicking a different button) is already fixed and this is a distinct case specific to <dialog>.showModal().


Environment

Safari Version 18.6 (20621.3.11.11.3) (macOS 15.7.3 (24G419))

[Mateusz Daniluk]

duplicate of https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=247416

[Mateusz Daniluk]

duplicate of https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=247416

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 247416 ***