Custom incoming email address field in category setting loses focus after every character you enter

Moin · February 9, 2026, 9:34pm

When simplified category creation is disabled, it is very difficult to enter an incoming email address for a category because the field loses focus after every letter you enter.

zogstrip · February 10, 2026, 3:35pm

That should fix it

github.com/discourse/discourse

FIX: email fields lose focus in legacy category settings (#37669)

main ← fix/legacy-category-email-settings-focus-loss

opened 12:14PM - 10 Feb 26 UTC

ZogStriP

+26 -12

When `enable_simplified_category_creation` is disabled, the email fields in cate…gory settings lose focus after every keystroke, making it impossible to type an email address. The legacy category editor wraps all tabs in a FormKit `<Form>` component. The Form wrapper uses `{{#each (array @data)}}` which destroys and recreates the entire component tree when `@data` changes identity. Since the controller's `formData` getter returns a new object (via `getProperties`) every time a model property changes, any two-way binding mutation — including every keystroke in a `<TextField>` — triggers a full teardown and rebuild of all form elements, destroying the focused input. This commit converts the email section inputs (`email_in`, `email_in_allow_strangers`, `mailinglist_mirror`) from two-way model bindings to use FormKit's data layer (`form.set` / `transientData`). Edits to these fields no longer mutate the model, so `formData` isn't invalidated and the form is not recreated. This commit also passes `form` to the `category-email-in` and `category-custom-settings` plugin outlets on the legacy page, matching what the simplified page already does, so that plugins can adopt FormKit as well. https://meta.discourse.org/t/395609

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Custom incoming email address field in category setting loses focus after every character you enter

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