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 aclickevent. - 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+.