EventTarget.fireEvent()

Non-standard
This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.

Summary

This is a proprietary Microsoft Internet Explorer alternative to the standard EventTarget.dispatchEvent() method. Unlike EventTarget.dispatchEvent(), an event triggered via fireEvent() never triggers the default activation behavior of an event. For example, triggering a click event on an <input type="checkbox"> via fireEvent() will not toggle the checkedness of the checkbox.

Syntax

cancelled = target.fireEvent(eventNameWithOn, event)
target
The DOM element to fire the event at
eventNameWithOn
The name of the event to fire, prefixed with "on", as if it were an event handler attribute. For example, you would use "onclick" to fire a click event.
event
The event object to fire
cancelled
Boolean indicating whether the event was canceled by an event handler

Specification

Not part of any specification.

Microsoft has a description on MSDN.

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari (WebKit)
Basic support No support No support 6 thru 10 [1] ? No support
Feature Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Phone Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support No support No support ? ? No support

[1]: fireEvent() is no longer supported in IE11+. EventTarget.dispatchEvent() is supported in IE9+.

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: rolfedh, cvrebert
 Last updated by: rolfedh,