No nesting of DIVs or jQuery necessary, Altho for brevity I have left out the -moz and -webkit variants of some of the CSS. You can see the result above
.outline {
border: 2px dotted transparent;
border-radius: 5px;
display: inline-block;
padding: 2px;
margin: -4px;
}
/* :focus-within does not work in Edge or IE */
.outline:focus-within, .outline.edge {
border-color: blue;
}
br {
margin-bottom: 0.75rem;
}
<h3>Javascript-Free Demo</h3>
<div class="outline edge"><input type="text" placeholder="I always have an outline"/></div><br><div class="outline"><input type="text" placeholder="I have an outline when focused"/></div> *<i>Doesn't work in Edge or IE</i><br><input type="text" placeholder="I have never have an outline" />
<p>Note that the outline does not increase the spacing between the outlined input and other elements around it. The margin (-4px) compensates for the space that the outlines padding (-2px) and width (2px) take up, a total of 4px.</p>
<h3>Javascript-Enabled Demo</h3>
<div class="flex">
<div class="box outline-me">I'm outlined because I contain<br>the "outline-me" class</div>
<div class="box clickable">Click me to toggle outline</div>
</div>
<hr>
<input type="text" placeholder="I'm outlined when focused" />
<script>
// Called on an element to wrap with an outline and passed a styleObject
// the styleObject can contain the following outline properties:
// style, width, color, offset, radius, bottomLeftRadius,
// bottomRightRadius, topLeftRadius, topRightRadius
// It then creates a new div with the properties specified and
// moves the calling element into the div
// The newly created wrapper div receives the class "simulated-outline"
Element.prototype.addOutline = function (styleObject, hideOutline = true) {
var element = this;
// create a div for simulating an outline
var outline = document.createElement('div');
// initialize css formatting
var css = 'display:inline-block;';
// transfer any element margin to the outline div
var margins = ['marginTop', 'marginBottom', 'marginLeft', 'marginRight'];
var marginPropertyNames = {
marginTop: 'margin-top',
marginBottom: 'margin-bottom',
marginLeft: 'margin-left',
marginRight: 'margin-right'
}
var outlineWidth = Number.parseInt(styleObject.width);
var outlineOffset = Number.parseInt(styleObject.offset);
for (var i = 0; i < margins.length; ++i) {
var computedMargin = Number.parseInt(getComputedStyle(element)[margins[i]]);
var margin = computedMargin - outlineWidth - outlineOffset;
css += marginPropertyNames[margins[i]] + ":" + margin + "px;";
}
element.style.cssText += 'margin:0px !important;';
// compute css border style for the outline div
var keys = Object.keys(styleObject);
for (var i = 0; i < keys.length; ++i) {
var key = keys[i];
var value = styleObject[key];
switch (key) {
case 'style':
var property = 'border-style';
break;
case 'width':
var property = 'border-width';
break;
case 'color':
var property = 'border-color';
break;
case 'offset':
var property = 'padding';
break;
case 'radius':
var property = 'border-radius';
break;
case 'bottomLeftRadius':
var property = 'border-bottom-left-radius';
break;
case 'bottomRightRadius':
var property = 'border-bottom-right-radius';
break;
case 'topLeftRadius':
var property = 'border-top-left-radius-style';
break;
case 'topRightRadius':
var property = 'border-top-right-radius';
break;
}
css += property + ":" + value + ';';
}
// apply the computed css to the outline div
outline.style.cssText = css;
// add a class in case we want to do something with elements
// receiving a simulated outline
outline.classList.add('simulated-outline');
// place the element inside the outline div
var parent = element.parentElement;
parent.insertBefore(outline, element);
outline.appendChild(element);
// determine whether outline should be hidden by default or not
if (hideOutline) element.hideOutline();
}
Element.prototype.showOutline = function () {
var element = this;
// get a reference to the outline element that wraps this element
var outline = element.getOutline();
// show the outline if one exists
if (outline) outline.classList.remove('hide-outline');
}
Element.prototype.hideOutline = function () {
var element = this;
// get a reference to the outline element that wraps this element
var outline = element.getOutline();
// hide the outline if one exists
if (outline) outline.classList.add('hide-outline');
}
// Determines if this element has an outline. If it does, it returns the outline
// element. If it doesn't have one, return null.
Element.prototype.getOutline = function() {
var element = this;
var parent = element.parentElement;
return (parent.classList.contains('simulated-outline')) ? parent : null;
}
// Determines the visiblity status of the outline, returning true if the outline is
// visible and false if it is not. If the element has no outline, null is returned.
Element.prototype.outlineStatus = function() {
var element = this;
var outline = element.getOutline();
if (outline === null) {
return null;
} else {
return !outline.classList.contains('hide-outline');
}
}
// this embeds a style element in the document head for handling outline visibility
var embeddedStyle = document.querySelector('#outline-styles');
if (!embeddedStyle) {
var style = document.createElement('style');
style.innerText = `
.simulated-outline.hide-outline {
border-color: transparent !important;
}
`;
document.head.append(style);
}
/*########################## example usage ##########################*/
// add outline to all elements with "outline-me" class
var outlineMeStyle = {
style: 'dashed',
width: '3px',
color: 'blue',
offset: '2px',
radius: '5px'
};
document.querySelectorAll('.outline-me').forEach((element)=>{
element.addOutline(outlineMeStyle, false);
});
// make clickable divs get outlines
var outlineStyle = {
style: 'double',
width: '4px',
offset: '3px',
color: 'red',
radius: '10px'
};
document.querySelectorAll('.clickable').forEach((element)=>{
element.addOutline(outlineStyle);
element.addEventListener('click', (evt)=>{
var element = evt.target;
(element.outlineStatus()) ? element.hideOutline() : element.showOutline();
});
});
// configure inputs to only have outline on focus
document.querySelectorAll('input').forEach((input)=>{
var outlineStyle = {
width: '2px',
offset: '2px',
color: 'black',
style: 'dotted',
radius: '10px'
}
input.addOutline(outlineStyle);
input.addEventListener('focus', (evt)=>{
var input = evt.target;
input.showOutline();
});
input.addEventListener('blur', (evt)=>{
var input = evt.target;
input.hideOutline();
});
});
</script>