From 71d92c72988375e7b6bd73b561379900093c3586 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andreas Kling <andreas@ladybird.org>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2026 23:20:18 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] UI/AppKit: Restore focus when activating a tab

Tabs opened from links on AppKit can be created before their URL is
loaded. That left background open-url tabs with the location field as
their stored responder, so switching to them later restored address-bar
focus instead of web content focus.

Track each tab's preferred responder, restore it when AppKit makes
the tab key, and mark page-backed open-url tabs to prefer the web view.
Blank new-tab pages still keep the location field focused.
---
 UI/AppKit/Application/Application.mm         |  4 ++++
 UI/AppKit/Application/ApplicationDelegate.mm |  5 +++++
 UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.h  |  1 +
 UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.mm |  8 ++++++++
 UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.h          |  2 ++
 UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.mm         | 17 ++++++++++++++---
 6 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/UI/AppKit/Application/Application.mm b/UI/AppKit/Application/Application.mm
index 30759182cc2..e46ad6e769a 100644
--- a/UI/AppKit/Application/Application.mm
+++ b/UI/AppKit/Application/Application.mm
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ Optional<WebView::ViewImplementation&> Application::open_blank_new_tab(Web::HTML
     ApplicationDelegate* delegate = [NSApp delegate];
 
     auto* controller = [delegate createNewTab:activate_tab fromTab:[delegate activeTab]];
+    if (activate_tab == Web::HTML::ActivateTab::Yes)
+        [controller focusWebView];
+    else
+        [controller focusWebViewWhenActivated];
     auto* tab = (Tab*)[controller window];
 
     return [[tab web_view] view];
diff --git a/UI/AppKit/Application/ApplicationDelegate.mm b/UI/AppKit/Application/ApplicationDelegate.mm
index 92141f09776..eb66f7ff99a 100644
--- a/UI/AppKit/Application/ApplicationDelegate.mm
+++ b/UI/AppKit/Application/ApplicationDelegate.mm
@@ -88,6 +88,9 @@
 
     if (url.has_value()) {
         [controller loadURL:*url];
+
+        if (*url != WebView::Application::settings().new_tab_page_url())
+            [controller focusWebView];
     }
 
     return controller;
@@ -104,6 +107,8 @@
         [controller loadURL:*url];
     }
 
+    [controller focusWebView];
+
     return controller;
 }
 
diff --git a/UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.h b/UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.h
index 771ce21fce8..53ab2880a47 100644
--- a/UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.h
+++ b/UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.h
@@ -16,5 +16,6 @@
                      windowRect:(NSRect)window_rect;
 
 @property (nonatomic, strong) LadybirdWebView* web_view;
+@property (nonatomic, weak) NSResponder* preferred_first_responder;
 
 @end
diff --git a/UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.mm b/UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.mm
index b6dedb9c517..818c322bf00 100644
--- a/UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.mm
+++ b/UI/AppKit/Interface/LadybirdWebViewWindow.mm
@@ -52,4 +52,12 @@
     [super setIsMiniaturized:flag];
 }
 
+- (void)becomeKeyWindow
+{
+    [super becomeKeyWindow];
+
+    if (self.preferred_first_responder && [self firstResponder] != self.preferred_first_responder)
+        [self makeFirstResponder:self.preferred_first_responder];
+}
+
 @end
diff --git a/UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.h b/UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.h
index 705b81c8493..ac3e1192074 100644
--- a/UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.h
+++ b/UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.h
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@
 - (void)onEnterFullscreenWindow;
 - (void)onExitFullscreenWindow;
 
+- (void)focusWebViewWhenActivated;
+- (void)focusWebView;
 - (void)focusLocationToolbarItem;
 
 @end
diff --git a/UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.mm b/UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.mm
index 92eee870f04..112c2b94f63 100644
--- a/UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.mm
+++ b/UI/AppKit/Interface/TabController.mm
@@ -329,9 +329,8 @@ static NSInteger autocomplete_suggestion_index(NSString* suggestion_text, Vector
     [self setLocationFieldText:url.serialize()];
 
     // Don't steal focus from the location bar when loading the new tab page
-    if (url != WebView::Application::settings().new_tab_page_url()) {
-        [self.window makeFirstResponder:[self tab].web_view];
-    }
+    if (url != WebView::Application::settings().new_tab_page_url())
+        [self focusWebView];
 }
 
 - (void)onEnterFullscreenWindow
@@ -353,9 +352,21 @@ static NSInteger autocomplete_suggestion_index(NSString* suggestion_text, Vector
 
 - (void)focusLocationToolbarItem
 {
+    [self tab].preferred_first_responder = self.location_toolbar_item.view;
     [self.window makeFirstResponder:self.location_toolbar_item.view];
 }
 
+- (void)focusWebViewWhenActivated
+{
+    [self tab].preferred_first_responder = [self tab].web_view;
+}
+
+- (void)focusWebView
+{
+    [self tab].preferred_first_responder = [self tab].web_view;
+    [self.window makeFirstResponder:[self tab].web_view];
+}
+
 #pragma mark - Private methods
 
 - (Tab*)tab