Issue Explanation
The reason for this issue is that the MenuItem
is directly nested within the Select
component, behaving similarly to what is described in the documentation for a Selected menu. When the Menu
(or Select
) is opened, focus automatically shifts to the selected MenuItem
, causing the TextField
to lose focus, despite having an autoFocus
attribute attached.
To address this, one solution involves using the useRef
hook on the TextField
element and manually calling the focus()
method when the Select
opens:
const inputRef = useRef(null);
...
<Select onAnimationEnd={() -> inputRef.current.focus()} ... >
...
<TextField ref={inputRef} ... />
...
</Select>
However, there's a caveat to consider!
The issue arises when you open the select menu and shift focus to the input field as expected. If you enter search text that filters out the currently selected value and then remove that text using backspace until the initially selected item reappears, the focus will automatically switch from the input field back to the selected option. This behavior may seem plausible initially but it leads to a less than ideal user experience and lacks the stable behavior we desire.
Solution Proposal
Your question lacks clarity without any accompanying code or detailed explanation. Nonetheless, I perceive it to be valuable as I too was seeking a similar resolution: a Searchable Select MUI Component with optimal user experience. Hence, I present my interpretation of your query and offer a potential solution.
Here is a link to a CodeSandbox showcasing my implemented solution. The critical components are elucidated in the code comments and summarized below:
- An essential modification involves adding the
MenuProps={{ autoFocus: false }}
attribute to the Select
component and the autoFocus
attribute to the TextField
component.
- I encapsulated the search
TextField
within a ListSubheader
to prevent it from being recognized as a selectable item in the menu, allowing users to interact with the search input sans triggering any selections.
- A custom
renderValue
function has been included to prevent rendering an empty string in the Select's value field if the search text eliminates the currently selected option.
- Event propagation on the
TextField
has been disabled using the onKeyDown
function to avoid automatic selection of items while typing, which is the default behavior of the Select
.
- [ADDITIONAL] The component can be easily expanded to support multi-selection functionality. However, since this goes beyond the scope of your original inquiry, I have omitted these details here.