I have a hyperlink in my page. I am trying to automate a number of clicks on the hyperlink for testing purposes. Is there any way you can simulate 50 clicks on the hyperlink using JavaScript?
MSDN
I'm looking for onClick event trigger from the JavaScript.
Performing a single click on an HTML element: Simply do element.click(). Most major browsers support this.
To repeat the click more than once: Add an ID to the element to uniquely select it:
Google Chrome
and call the .click() method in your JavaScript code via a for loop:
var link = document.getElementById('my-link');
for(var i = 0; i < 50; i++)
link.click();
You should just use click. For more advanced event firing, use dispatchEvent.
const body = document.body;
body.addEventListener('click', e => {
console.log('clicked body');
});
console.log('Using click()');
body.click();
console.log('Using dispatchEvent');
body.dispatchEvent(new Event('click'));
Original Answer - Obsolete
Here is what I use for IE9+ http://jsfiddle.net/mendesjuan/rHMCy/4/
/**
* Fire an event handler to the specified node. Event handlers can detect that the event was fired programatically
* by testing for a 'synthetic=true' property on the event object
* #param {HTMLNode} node The node to fire the event handler on.
* #param {String} eventName The name of the event without the "on" (e.g., "focus")
*/
function fireEvent(node, eventName) {
// Make sure we use the ownerDocument from the provided node to avoid cross-window problems
var doc;
if (node.ownerDocument) {
doc = node.ownerDocument;
} else if (node.nodeType == 9){
// the node may be the document itself, nodeType 9 = DOCUMENT_NODE
doc = node;
} else {
throw new Error("Invalid node passed to fireEvent: " + node.id);
}
if (node.dispatchEvent) {
// Gecko-style approach (now the standard) takes more work
var eventClass = "";
// Different events have different event classes.
// If this switch statement can't map an eventName to an eventClass,
// the event firing is going to fail.
switch (eventName) {
case "click": // Dispatching of 'click' appears to not work correctly in Safari. Use 'mousedown' or 'mouseup' instead.
case "mousedown":
case "mouseup":
eventClass = "MouseEvents";
break;
case "focus":
case "change":
case "blur":
case "select":
eventClass = "HTMLEvents";
break;
default:
throw "fireEvent: Couldn't find an event class for event '" + eventName + "'.";
break;
}
var event = doc.createEvent(eventClass);
event.initEvent(eventName, true, true); // All events created as bubbling and cancelable.
event.synthetic = true; // allow detection of synthetic events
// The second parameter says go ahead with the default action
node.dispatchEvent(event, true);
} else if (node.fireEvent) {
// IE-old school style, you can drop this if you don't need to support IE8 and lower
var event = doc.createEventObject();
event.synthetic = true; // allow detection of synthetic events
node.fireEvent("on" + eventName, event);
}
};
Note that calling fireEvent(inputField, 'change'); does not mean it will actually change the input field. The typical use case for firing a change event is when you set a field programmatically and you want event handlers to be called since calling input.value="Something" won't trigger a change event.
What
l.onclick();
does is exactly calling the onclick function of l, that is, if you have set one with l.onclick = myFunction;. If you haven't set l.onclick, it does nothing. In contrast,
l.click();
simulates a click and fires all event handlers, whether added with l.addEventHandler('click', myFunction);, in HTML, or in any other way.
I'm quite ashamed that there are so many incorrect or undisclosed partial applicability.
The easiest way to do this is through Chrome or Opera (my examples will use Chrome) using the Console. Enter the following code into the console (generally in 1 line):
var l = document.getElementById('testLink');
for(var i=0; i<5; i++){
l.click();
}
This will generate the required result
.click() does not work with Android (look at mozilla docs, at mobile section). You can trigger the click event with this method:
function fireClick(node){
if (document.createEvent) {
var evt = document.createEvent('MouseEvents');
evt.initEvent('click', true, false);
node.dispatchEvent(evt);
} else if (document.createEventObject) {
node.fireEvent('onclick') ;
} else if (typeof node.onclick == 'function') {
node.onclick();
}
}
From this post
Use a testing framework
This might be helpful - http://seleniumhq.org/ - Selenium is a web application automated testing system.
You can create tests using the Firefox plugin Selenium IDE
Manual firing of events
To manually fire events the correct way you will need to use different methods for different browsers - either el.dispatchEvent or el.fireEvent where el will be your Anchor element. I believe both of these will require constructing an Event object to pass in.
The alternative, not entirely correct, quick-and-dirty way would be this:
var el = document.getElementById('anchorelementid');
el.onclick(); // Not entirely correct because your event handler will be called
// without an Event object parameter.
IE9+
function triggerEvent(el, type){
var e = document.createEvent('HTMLEvents');
e.initEvent(type, false, true);
el.dispatchEvent(e);
}
Usage example:
var el = document.querySelector('input[type="text"]');
triggerEvent(el, 'mousedown');
Source: https://plainjs.com/javascript/events/trigger-an-event-11/
Please call trigger function any where and button will click.
<a href="#" id="myBtn" title="" >Button click </a>
function trigger(){
document.getElementById("myBtn").click();
}
Fair warning:
element.onclick() does not behave as expected. It only runs the code within onclick="" attribute, but does not trigger default behavior.
I had similar issue with radio button not setting to checked, even though onclick custom function was running fine. Had to add radio.checked = "true"; to set it. Probably the same goes and for other elements (after a.onclick() there should be also window.location.href = "url";)
Related
I have a hyperlink in my page. I am trying to automate a number of clicks on the hyperlink for testing purposes. Is there any way you can simulate 50 clicks on the hyperlink using JavaScript?
MSDN
I'm looking for onClick event trigger from the JavaScript.
Performing a single click on an HTML element: Simply do element.click(). Most major browsers support this.
To repeat the click more than once: Add an ID to the element to uniquely select it:
Google Chrome
and call the .click() method in your JavaScript code via a for loop:
var link = document.getElementById('my-link');
for(var i = 0; i < 50; i++)
link.click();
You should just use click. For more advanced event firing, use dispatchEvent.
const body = document.body;
body.addEventListener('click', e => {
console.log('clicked body');
});
console.log('Using click()');
body.click();
console.log('Using dispatchEvent');
body.dispatchEvent(new Event('click'));
Original Answer - Obsolete
Here is what I use for IE9+ http://jsfiddle.net/mendesjuan/rHMCy/4/
/**
* Fire an event handler to the specified node. Event handlers can detect that the event was fired programatically
* by testing for a 'synthetic=true' property on the event object
* #param {HTMLNode} node The node to fire the event handler on.
* #param {String} eventName The name of the event without the "on" (e.g., "focus")
*/
function fireEvent(node, eventName) {
// Make sure we use the ownerDocument from the provided node to avoid cross-window problems
var doc;
if (node.ownerDocument) {
doc = node.ownerDocument;
} else if (node.nodeType == 9){
// the node may be the document itself, nodeType 9 = DOCUMENT_NODE
doc = node;
} else {
throw new Error("Invalid node passed to fireEvent: " + node.id);
}
if (node.dispatchEvent) {
// Gecko-style approach (now the standard) takes more work
var eventClass = "";
// Different events have different event classes.
// If this switch statement can't map an eventName to an eventClass,
// the event firing is going to fail.
switch (eventName) {
case "click": // Dispatching of 'click' appears to not work correctly in Safari. Use 'mousedown' or 'mouseup' instead.
case "mousedown":
case "mouseup":
eventClass = "MouseEvents";
break;
case "focus":
case "change":
case "blur":
case "select":
eventClass = "HTMLEvents";
break;
default:
throw "fireEvent: Couldn't find an event class for event '" + eventName + "'.";
break;
}
var event = doc.createEvent(eventClass);
event.initEvent(eventName, true, true); // All events created as bubbling and cancelable.
event.synthetic = true; // allow detection of synthetic events
// The second parameter says go ahead with the default action
node.dispatchEvent(event, true);
} else if (node.fireEvent) {
// IE-old school style, you can drop this if you don't need to support IE8 and lower
var event = doc.createEventObject();
event.synthetic = true; // allow detection of synthetic events
node.fireEvent("on" + eventName, event);
}
};
Note that calling fireEvent(inputField, 'change'); does not mean it will actually change the input field. The typical use case for firing a change event is when you set a field programmatically and you want event handlers to be called since calling input.value="Something" won't trigger a change event.
What
l.onclick();
does is exactly calling the onclick function of l, that is, if you have set one with l.onclick = myFunction;. If you haven't set l.onclick, it does nothing. In contrast,
l.click();
simulates a click and fires all event handlers, whether added with l.addEventHandler('click', myFunction);, in HTML, or in any other way.
I'm quite ashamed that there are so many incorrect or undisclosed partial applicability.
The easiest way to do this is through Chrome or Opera (my examples will use Chrome) using the Console. Enter the following code into the console (generally in 1 line):
var l = document.getElementById('testLink');
for(var i=0; i<5; i++){
l.click();
}
This will generate the required result
.click() does not work with Android (look at mozilla docs, at mobile section). You can trigger the click event with this method:
function fireClick(node){
if (document.createEvent) {
var evt = document.createEvent('MouseEvents');
evt.initEvent('click', true, false);
node.dispatchEvent(evt);
} else if (document.createEventObject) {
node.fireEvent('onclick') ;
} else if (typeof node.onclick == 'function') {
node.onclick();
}
}
From this post
Use a testing framework
This might be helpful - http://seleniumhq.org/ - Selenium is a web application automated testing system.
You can create tests using the Firefox plugin Selenium IDE
Manual firing of events
To manually fire events the correct way you will need to use different methods for different browsers - either el.dispatchEvent or el.fireEvent where el will be your Anchor element. I believe both of these will require constructing an Event object to pass in.
The alternative, not entirely correct, quick-and-dirty way would be this:
var el = document.getElementById('anchorelementid');
el.onclick(); // Not entirely correct because your event handler will be called
// without an Event object parameter.
IE9+
function triggerEvent(el, type){
var e = document.createEvent('HTMLEvents');
e.initEvent(type, false, true);
el.dispatchEvent(e);
}
Usage example:
var el = document.querySelector('input[type="text"]');
triggerEvent(el, 'mousedown');
Source: https://plainjs.com/javascript/events/trigger-an-event-11/
Please call trigger function any where and button will click.
<a href="#" id="myBtn" title="" >Button click </a>
function trigger(){
document.getElementById("myBtn").click();
}
Fair warning:
element.onclick() does not behave as expected. It only runs the code within onclick="" attribute, but does not trigger default behavior.
I had similar issue with radio button not setting to checked, even though onclick custom function was running fine. Had to add radio.checked = "true"; to set it. Probably the same goes and for other elements (after a.onclick() there should be also window.location.href = "url";)
I have a page where some event listeners are attached to input boxes and select boxes. Is there a way to find out which event listeners are observing a particular DOM node and for what event?
Events are attached using:
Prototype's Event.observe;
DOM's addEventListener;
As element attribute element.onclick.
Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi and Safari support getEventListeners(domElement) in their Developer Tools console.
For majority of the debugging purposes, this could be used.
Below is a very good reference to use it:
getEventListeners function
Highly voted tip from Clifford Fajardo from the comments:
getEventListeners($0) will get the event listeners for the element you have focused on in the Chrome dev tools.
If you just need to inspect what's happening on a page, you might try the Visual Event bookmarklet.
Update: Visual Event 2 available.
It depends on how the events are attached. For illustration presume we have the following click handler:
var handler = function() { alert('clicked!') };
We're going to attach it to our element using different methods, some which allow inspection and some that don't.
Method A) single event handler
element.onclick = handler;
// inspect
console.log(element.onclick); // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
Method B) multiple event handlers
if(element.addEventListener) { // DOM standard
element.addEventListener('click', handler, false)
} else if(element.attachEvent) { // IE
element.attachEvent('onclick', handler)
}
// cannot inspect element to find handlers
Method C): jQuery
$(element).click(handler);
1.3.x
// inspect
var clickEvents = $(element).data("events").click;
jQuery.each(clickEvents, function(key, value) {
console.log(value) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
})
1.4.x (stores the handler inside an object)
// inspect
var clickEvents = $(element).data("events").click;
jQuery.each(clickEvents, function(key, handlerObj) {
console.log(handlerObj.handler) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
// also available: handlerObj.type, handlerObj.namespace
})
1.7+ (very nice)
Made using knowledge from this comment.
events = $._data(this, 'events');
for (type in events) {
events[type].forEach(function (event) {
console.log(event['handler']);
});
}
(See jQuery.fn.data and jQuery.data)
Method D): Prototype (messy)
$(element).observe('click', handler);
1.5.x
// inspect
Event.observers.each(function(item) {
if(item[0] == element) {
console.log(item[2]) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
}
})
1.6 to 1.6.0.3, inclusive (got very difficult here)
// inspect. "_eventId" is for < 1.6.0.3 while
// "_prototypeEventID" was introduced in 1.6.0.3
var clickEvents = Event.cache[element._eventId || (element._prototypeEventID || [])[0]].click;
clickEvents.each(function(wrapper){
console.log(wrapper.handler) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
})
1.6.1 (little better)
// inspect
var clickEvents = element.getStorage().get('prototype_event_registry').get('click');
clickEvents.each(function(wrapper){
console.log(wrapper.handler) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
})
When clicking the resulting output in the console (which shows the text of the function), the console will navigate directly to the line of the function's declaration in the relevant JS file.
WebKit Inspector in Chrome or Safari browsers now does this. It will display the event listeners for a DOM element when you select it in the Elements pane.
It is possible to list all event listeners in JavaScript: It's not that hard; you just have to hack the prototype's method of the HTML elements (before adding the listeners).
function reportIn(e){
var a = this.lastListenerInfo[this.lastListenerInfo.length-1];
console.log(a)
}
HTMLAnchorElement.prototype.realAddEventListener = HTMLAnchorElement.prototype.addEventListener;
HTMLAnchorElement.prototype.addEventListener = function(a,b,c){
this.realAddEventListener(a,reportIn,c);
this.realAddEventListener(a,b,c);
if(!this.lastListenerInfo){ this.lastListenerInfo = new Array()};
this.lastListenerInfo.push({a : a, b : b , c : c});
};
Now every anchor element (a) will have a lastListenerInfo property wich contains all of its listeners. And it even works for removing listeners with anonymous functions.
Use getEventListeners in Google Chrome:
getEventListeners(document.getElementByID('btnlogin'));
getEventListeners($('#btnlogin'));
(Rewriting the answer from this question since it's relevant here.)
When debugging, if you just want to see the events, I recommend either...
Visual Event
The Elements section of Chrome's Developer Tools: select an element and look for "Event Listeners" on the bottom right (similar in Firefox)
If you want to use the events in your code, and you are using jQuery before version 1.8, you can use:
$(selector).data("events")
to get the events. As of version 1.8, using .data("events") is discontinued (see this bug ticket). You can use:
$._data(element, "events")
Another example: Write all click events on a certain link to the console:
var $myLink = $('a.myClass');
console.log($._data($myLink[0], "events").click);
(see http://jsfiddle.net/HmsQC/ for a working example)
Unfortunately, using $._data this is not recommended except for debugging since it is an internal jQuery structure, and could change in future releases. Unfortunately I know of no other easy means of accessing the events.
1: Prototype.observe uses Element.addEventListener (see the source code)
2: You can override Element.addEventListener to remember the added listeners (handy property EventListenerList was removed from DOM3 spec proposal). Run this code before any event is attached:
(function() {
Element.prototype._addEventListener = Element.prototype.addEventListener;
Element.prototype.addEventListener = function(a,b,c) {
this._addEventListener(a,b,c);
if(!this.eventListenerList) this.eventListenerList = {};
if(!this.eventListenerList[a]) this.eventListenerList[a] = [];
this.eventListenerList[a].push(b);
};
})();
Read all the events by:
var clicks = someElement.eventListenerList.click;
if(clicks) clicks.forEach(function(f) {
alert("I listen to this function: "+f.toString());
});
And don't forget to override Element.removeEventListener to remove the event from the custom Element.eventListenerList.
3: the Element.onclick property needs special care here:
if(someElement.onclick)
alert("I also listen tho this: "+someElement.onclick.toString());
4: don't forget the Element.onclick content attribute: these are two different things:
someElement.onclick = someHandler; // IDL attribute
someElement.setAttribute("onclick","otherHandler(event)"); // content attribute
So you need to handle it, too:
var click = someElement.getAttribute("onclick");
if(click) alert("I even listen to this: "+click);
The Visual Event bookmarklet (mentioned in the most popular answer) only steals the custom library handler cache:
It turns out that there is no standard method provided by the W3C
recommended DOM interface to find out what event listeners are
attached to a particular element. While this may appear to be an
oversight, there was a proposal to include a property called
eventListenerList to the level 3 DOM specification, but was
unfortunately been removed in later drafts. As such we are forced to
looked at the individual Javascript libraries, which typically
maintain a cache of attached events (so they can later be removed and
perform other useful abstractions).
As such, in order for Visual Event to show events, it must be able to
parse the event information out of a Javascript library.
Element overriding may be questionable (i.e. because there are some DOM specific features like live collections, which can not be coded in JS), but it gives the eventListenerList support natively and it works in Chrome, Firefox and Opera (doesn't work in IE7).
Paste in console to get all eventListeners printed beside their HTML element
Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("*")).forEach(element => {
const events = getEventListeners(element)
if (Object.keys(events).length !== 0) {
console.log(element, events)
}
})
You could wrap the native DOM methods for managing event listeners by putting this at the top of your <head>:
<script>
(function(w){
var originalAdd = w.addEventListener;
w.addEventListener = function(){
// add your own stuff here to debug
return originalAdd.apply(this, arguments);
};
var originalRemove = w.removeEventListener;
w.removeEventListener = function(){
// add your own stuff here to debug
return originalRemove.apply(this, arguments);
};
})(window);
</script>
H/T #les2
The Firefox developer tools now does this. Events are shown by clicking the "ev" button on the right of each element's display, including jQuery and DOM events.
If you have Firebug, you can use console.dir(object or array) to print a nice tree in the console log of any JavaScript scalar, array, or object.
Try:
console.dir(clickEvents);
or
console.dir(window);
Fully working solution based on answer by Jan Turon - behaves like getEventListeners() from console:
(There is a little bug with duplicates. It doesn't break much anyway.)
(function() {
Element.prototype._addEventListener = Element.prototype.addEventListener;
Element.prototype.addEventListener = function(a,b,c) {
if(c==undefined)
c=false;
this._addEventListener(a,b,c);
if(!this.eventListenerList)
this.eventListenerList = {};
if(!this.eventListenerList[a])
this.eventListenerList[a] = [];
//this.removeEventListener(a,b,c); // TODO - handle duplicates..
this.eventListenerList[a].push({listener:b,useCapture:c});
};
Element.prototype.getEventListeners = function(a){
if(!this.eventListenerList)
this.eventListenerList = {};
if(a==undefined)
return this.eventListenerList;
return this.eventListenerList[a];
};
Element.prototype.clearEventListeners = function(a){
if(!this.eventListenerList)
this.eventListenerList = {};
if(a==undefined){
for(var x in (this.getEventListeners())) this.clearEventListeners(x);
return;
}
var el = this.getEventListeners(a);
if(el==undefined)
return;
for(var i = el.length - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
var ev = el[i];
this.removeEventListener(a, ev.listener, ev.useCapture);
}
};
Element.prototype._removeEventListener = Element.prototype.removeEventListener;
Element.prototype.removeEventListener = function(a,b,c) {
if(c==undefined)
c=false;
this._removeEventListener(a,b,c);
if(!this.eventListenerList)
this.eventListenerList = {};
if(!this.eventListenerList[a])
this.eventListenerList[a] = [];
// Find the event in the list
for(var i=0;i<this.eventListenerList[a].length;i++){
if(this.eventListenerList[a][i].listener==b, this.eventListenerList[a][i].useCapture==c){ // Hmm..
this.eventListenerList[a].splice(i, 1);
break;
}
}
if(this.eventListenerList[a].length==0)
delete this.eventListenerList[a];
};
})();
Usage:
someElement.getEventListeners([name]) - return list of event listeners, if name is set return array of listeners for that event
someElement.clearEventListeners([name]) - remove all event listeners, if name is set only remove listeners for that event
Opera 12 (not the latest Chrome Webkit engine based) Dragonfly has had this for a while and is obviously displayed in the DOM structure. In my opinion it is a superior debugger and is the only reason remaining why I still use the Opera 12 based version (there is no v13, v14 version and the v15 Webkit based lacks Dragonfly still)
Update 2022:
In the Chrome Developer Tools, in the Elements panel, there is the Event Listeners tab, where you can see listeners for the element.
You can also unselect "Ancestors" so it only shows the listeners for that element
Prototype 1.7.1 way
function get_element_registry(element) {
var cache = Event.cache;
if(element === window) return 0;
if(typeof element._prototypeUID === 'undefined') {
element._prototypeUID = Element.Storage.UID++;
}
var uid = element._prototypeUID;
if(!cache[uid]) cache[uid] = {element: element};
return cache[uid];
}
I am trying to do that in jQuery 2.1, and with the "$().click() -> $(element).data("events").click;" method it doesn't work.
I realized that only the $._data() functions works in my case :
$(document).ready(function(){
var node = $('body');
// Bind 3 events to body click
node.click(function(e) { alert('hello'); })
.click(function(e) { alert('bye'); })
.click(fun_1);
// Inspect the events of body
var events = $._data(node[0], "events").click;
var ev1 = events[0].handler // -> function(e) { alert('hello')
var ev2 = events[1].handler // -> function(e) { alert('bye')
var ev3 = events[2].handler // -> function fun_1()
$('body')
.append('<p> Event1 = ' + eval(ev1).toString() + '</p>')
.append('<p> Event2 = ' + eval(ev2).toString() + '</p>')
.append('<p> Event3 = ' + eval(ev3).toString() + '</p>');
});
function fun_1() {
var txt = 'text del missatge';
alert(txt);
}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<body>
</body>
I was recently working with events and wanted to view/control all events in a page. Having looked at possible solutions, I've decided to go my own way and create a custom system to monitor events. So, I did three things.
First, I needed a container for all the event listeners in the page: that's theEventListeners object. It has three useful methods: add(), remove(), and get().
Next, I created an EventListener object to hold the necessary information for the event, i.e.: target, type, callback, options, useCapture, wantsUntrusted, and added a method remove() to remove the listener.
Lastly, I extended the native addEventListener() and removeEventListener() methods to make them work with the objects I've created (EventListener and EventListeners).
Usage:
var bodyClickEvent = document.body.addEventListener("click", function () {
console.log("body click");
});
// bodyClickEvent.remove();
addEventListener() creates an EventListener object, adds it to EventListeners and returns the EventListener object, so it can be removed later.
EventListeners.get() can be used to view the listeners in the page. It accepts an EventTarget or a string (event type).
// EventListeners.get(document.body);
// EventListeners.get("click");
Demo
Let's say we want to know every event listener in this current page. We can do that (assuming you're using a script manager extension, Tampermonkey in this case). Following script does this:
// ==UserScript==
// #name New Userscript
// #namespace http://tampermonkey.net/
// #version 0.1
// #description try to take over the world!
// #author You
// #include https://stackoverflow.com/*
// #grant none
// ==/UserScript==
(function() {
fetch("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/akinuri/js-lib/master/EventListener.js")
.then(function (response) {
return response.text();
})
.then(function (text) {
eval(text);
window.EventListeners = EventListeners;
});
})(window);
And when we list all the listeners, it says there are 299 event listeners. There "seems" to be some duplicates, but I don't know if they're really duplicates. Not every event type is duplicated, so all those "duplicates" might be an individual listener.
Code can be found at my repository. I didn't want to post it here because it's rather long.
Update: This doesn't seem to work with jQuery. When I examine the EventListener, I see that the callback is
function(b){return"undefined"!=typeof r&&r.event.triggered!==b.type?r.event.dispatch.apply(a,arguments):void 0}
I believe this belongs to jQuery, and is not the actual callback. jQuery stores the actual callback in the properties of the EventTarget:
$(document.body).click(function () {
console.log("jquery click");
});
To remove an event listener, the actual callback needs to be passed to the removeEventListener() method. So in order to make this work with jQuery, it needs further modification. I might fix that in the future.
There exists nice jQuery Events extension :
(topic source)
changing these functions will allow you to log the listeners added:
EventTarget.prototype.addEventListener
EventTarget.prototype.attachEvent
EventTarget.prototype.removeEventListener
EventTarget.prototype.detachEvent
read the rest of the listeners with
console.log(someElement.onclick);
console.log(someElement.getAttribute("onclick"));
Does anybody know of a method to trigger an event in Prototype, as you can with jQuery's trigger function?
I have bound an event listener using the observe method, but I would also like to be able to fire the event programatically.
event.simulate.js fits your needs.
I've used this several times and it works like a charm. It allows you to manually trigger native events, such as click or hover like so:
$('foo').simulate('click');
The great thing about this is that all attached event handlers will still be executed, just as if you would have clicked the element yourself.
For custom events you can use the standard prototype method Event.fire().
I don't think there is one built in to Prototype, but you can use this (not tested but should at least get you in the right direction):
Element.prototype.triggerEvent = function(eventName)
{
if (document.createEvent)
{
var evt = document.createEvent('HTMLEvents');
evt.initEvent(eventName, true, true);
return this.dispatchEvent(evt);
}
if (this.fireEvent)
return this.fireEvent('on' + eventName);
}
$('foo').triggerEvent('mouseover');
I found this post helpful... http://jehiah.cz/archive/firing-javascript-events-properly
It covers a way to fire events in both Firefox and IE.
function fireEvent(element,event){
if (document.createEventObject){
// dispatch for IE
var evt = document.createEventObject();
return element.fireEvent('on'+event,evt)
}
else{
// dispatch for firefox + others
var evt = document.createEvent("HTMLEvents");
evt.initEvent(event, true, true ); // event type,bubbling,cancelable
return !element.dispatchEvent(evt);
}
}
The answers here are true for "Normal" events, that is events which are defined by the User Agent, but for custom events you should use prototype's "fire" method. e.g.
$('something').observe('my:custom', function() { alert('Custom'); });
.
.
$('something').fire('my:custom'); // This will cause the alert to display
I have a page where some event listeners are attached to input boxes and select boxes. Is there a way to find out which event listeners are observing a particular DOM node and for what event?
Events are attached using:
Prototype's Event.observe;
DOM's addEventListener;
As element attribute element.onclick.
Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi and Safari support getEventListeners(domElement) in their Developer Tools console.
For majority of the debugging purposes, this could be used.
Below is a very good reference to use it:
getEventListeners function
Highly voted tip from Clifford Fajardo from the comments:
getEventListeners($0) will get the event listeners for the element you have focused on in the Chrome dev tools.
If you just need to inspect what's happening on a page, you might try the Visual Event bookmarklet.
Update: Visual Event 2 available.
It depends on how the events are attached. For illustration presume we have the following click handler:
var handler = function() { alert('clicked!') };
We're going to attach it to our element using different methods, some which allow inspection and some that don't.
Method A) single event handler
element.onclick = handler;
// inspect
console.log(element.onclick); // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
Method B) multiple event handlers
if(element.addEventListener) { // DOM standard
element.addEventListener('click', handler, false)
} else if(element.attachEvent) { // IE
element.attachEvent('onclick', handler)
}
// cannot inspect element to find handlers
Method C): jQuery
$(element).click(handler);
1.3.x
// inspect
var clickEvents = $(element).data("events").click;
jQuery.each(clickEvents, function(key, value) {
console.log(value) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
})
1.4.x (stores the handler inside an object)
// inspect
var clickEvents = $(element).data("events").click;
jQuery.each(clickEvents, function(key, handlerObj) {
console.log(handlerObj.handler) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
// also available: handlerObj.type, handlerObj.namespace
})
1.7+ (very nice)
Made using knowledge from this comment.
events = $._data(this, 'events');
for (type in events) {
events[type].forEach(function (event) {
console.log(event['handler']);
});
}
(See jQuery.fn.data and jQuery.data)
Method D): Prototype (messy)
$(element).observe('click', handler);
1.5.x
// inspect
Event.observers.each(function(item) {
if(item[0] == element) {
console.log(item[2]) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
}
})
1.6 to 1.6.0.3, inclusive (got very difficult here)
// inspect. "_eventId" is for < 1.6.0.3 while
// "_prototypeEventID" was introduced in 1.6.0.3
var clickEvents = Event.cache[element._eventId || (element._prototypeEventID || [])[0]].click;
clickEvents.each(function(wrapper){
console.log(wrapper.handler) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
})
1.6.1 (little better)
// inspect
var clickEvents = element.getStorage().get('prototype_event_registry').get('click');
clickEvents.each(function(wrapper){
console.log(wrapper.handler) // "function() { alert('clicked!') }"
})
When clicking the resulting output in the console (which shows the text of the function), the console will navigate directly to the line of the function's declaration in the relevant JS file.
WebKit Inspector in Chrome or Safari browsers now does this. It will display the event listeners for a DOM element when you select it in the Elements pane.
It is possible to list all event listeners in JavaScript: It's not that hard; you just have to hack the prototype's method of the HTML elements (before adding the listeners).
function reportIn(e){
var a = this.lastListenerInfo[this.lastListenerInfo.length-1];
console.log(a)
}
HTMLAnchorElement.prototype.realAddEventListener = HTMLAnchorElement.prototype.addEventListener;
HTMLAnchorElement.prototype.addEventListener = function(a,b,c){
this.realAddEventListener(a,reportIn,c);
this.realAddEventListener(a,b,c);
if(!this.lastListenerInfo){ this.lastListenerInfo = new Array()};
this.lastListenerInfo.push({a : a, b : b , c : c});
};
Now every anchor element (a) will have a lastListenerInfo property wich contains all of its listeners. And it even works for removing listeners with anonymous functions.
Use getEventListeners in Google Chrome:
getEventListeners(document.getElementByID('btnlogin'));
getEventListeners($('#btnlogin'));
(Rewriting the answer from this question since it's relevant here.)
When debugging, if you just want to see the events, I recommend either...
Visual Event
The Elements section of Chrome's Developer Tools: select an element and look for "Event Listeners" on the bottom right (similar in Firefox)
If you want to use the events in your code, and you are using jQuery before version 1.8, you can use:
$(selector).data("events")
to get the events. As of version 1.8, using .data("events") is discontinued (see this bug ticket). You can use:
$._data(element, "events")
Another example: Write all click events on a certain link to the console:
var $myLink = $('a.myClass');
console.log($._data($myLink[0], "events").click);
(see http://jsfiddle.net/HmsQC/ for a working example)
Unfortunately, using $._data this is not recommended except for debugging since it is an internal jQuery structure, and could change in future releases. Unfortunately I know of no other easy means of accessing the events.
1: Prototype.observe uses Element.addEventListener (see the source code)
2: You can override Element.addEventListener to remember the added listeners (handy property EventListenerList was removed from DOM3 spec proposal). Run this code before any event is attached:
(function() {
Element.prototype._addEventListener = Element.prototype.addEventListener;
Element.prototype.addEventListener = function(a,b,c) {
this._addEventListener(a,b,c);
if(!this.eventListenerList) this.eventListenerList = {};
if(!this.eventListenerList[a]) this.eventListenerList[a] = [];
this.eventListenerList[a].push(b);
};
})();
Read all the events by:
var clicks = someElement.eventListenerList.click;
if(clicks) clicks.forEach(function(f) {
alert("I listen to this function: "+f.toString());
});
And don't forget to override Element.removeEventListener to remove the event from the custom Element.eventListenerList.
3: the Element.onclick property needs special care here:
if(someElement.onclick)
alert("I also listen tho this: "+someElement.onclick.toString());
4: don't forget the Element.onclick content attribute: these are two different things:
someElement.onclick = someHandler; // IDL attribute
someElement.setAttribute("onclick","otherHandler(event)"); // content attribute
So you need to handle it, too:
var click = someElement.getAttribute("onclick");
if(click) alert("I even listen to this: "+click);
The Visual Event bookmarklet (mentioned in the most popular answer) only steals the custom library handler cache:
It turns out that there is no standard method provided by the W3C
recommended DOM interface to find out what event listeners are
attached to a particular element. While this may appear to be an
oversight, there was a proposal to include a property called
eventListenerList to the level 3 DOM specification, but was
unfortunately been removed in later drafts. As such we are forced to
looked at the individual Javascript libraries, which typically
maintain a cache of attached events (so they can later be removed and
perform other useful abstractions).
As such, in order for Visual Event to show events, it must be able to
parse the event information out of a Javascript library.
Element overriding may be questionable (i.e. because there are some DOM specific features like live collections, which can not be coded in JS), but it gives the eventListenerList support natively and it works in Chrome, Firefox and Opera (doesn't work in IE7).
Paste in console to get all eventListeners printed beside their HTML element
Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("*")).forEach(element => {
const events = getEventListeners(element)
if (Object.keys(events).length !== 0) {
console.log(element, events)
}
})
You could wrap the native DOM methods for managing event listeners by putting this at the top of your <head>:
<script>
(function(w){
var originalAdd = w.addEventListener;
w.addEventListener = function(){
// add your own stuff here to debug
return originalAdd.apply(this, arguments);
};
var originalRemove = w.removeEventListener;
w.removeEventListener = function(){
// add your own stuff here to debug
return originalRemove.apply(this, arguments);
};
})(window);
</script>
H/T #les2
The Firefox developer tools now does this. Events are shown by clicking the "ev" button on the right of each element's display, including jQuery and DOM events.
If you have Firebug, you can use console.dir(object or array) to print a nice tree in the console log of any JavaScript scalar, array, or object.
Try:
console.dir(clickEvents);
or
console.dir(window);
Fully working solution based on answer by Jan Turon - behaves like getEventListeners() from console:
(There is a little bug with duplicates. It doesn't break much anyway.)
(function() {
Element.prototype._addEventListener = Element.prototype.addEventListener;
Element.prototype.addEventListener = function(a,b,c) {
if(c==undefined)
c=false;
this._addEventListener(a,b,c);
if(!this.eventListenerList)
this.eventListenerList = {};
if(!this.eventListenerList[a])
this.eventListenerList[a] = [];
//this.removeEventListener(a,b,c); // TODO - handle duplicates..
this.eventListenerList[a].push({listener:b,useCapture:c});
};
Element.prototype.getEventListeners = function(a){
if(!this.eventListenerList)
this.eventListenerList = {};
if(a==undefined)
return this.eventListenerList;
return this.eventListenerList[a];
};
Element.prototype.clearEventListeners = function(a){
if(!this.eventListenerList)
this.eventListenerList = {};
if(a==undefined){
for(var x in (this.getEventListeners())) this.clearEventListeners(x);
return;
}
var el = this.getEventListeners(a);
if(el==undefined)
return;
for(var i = el.length - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
var ev = el[i];
this.removeEventListener(a, ev.listener, ev.useCapture);
}
};
Element.prototype._removeEventListener = Element.prototype.removeEventListener;
Element.prototype.removeEventListener = function(a,b,c) {
if(c==undefined)
c=false;
this._removeEventListener(a,b,c);
if(!this.eventListenerList)
this.eventListenerList = {};
if(!this.eventListenerList[a])
this.eventListenerList[a] = [];
// Find the event in the list
for(var i=0;i<this.eventListenerList[a].length;i++){
if(this.eventListenerList[a][i].listener==b, this.eventListenerList[a][i].useCapture==c){ // Hmm..
this.eventListenerList[a].splice(i, 1);
break;
}
}
if(this.eventListenerList[a].length==0)
delete this.eventListenerList[a];
};
})();
Usage:
someElement.getEventListeners([name]) - return list of event listeners, if name is set return array of listeners for that event
someElement.clearEventListeners([name]) - remove all event listeners, if name is set only remove listeners for that event
Update 2022:
In the Chrome Developer Tools, in the Elements panel, there is the Event Listeners tab, where you can see listeners for the element.
You can also unselect "Ancestors" so it only shows the listeners for that element
Opera 12 (not the latest Chrome Webkit engine based) Dragonfly has had this for a while and is obviously displayed in the DOM structure. In my opinion it is a superior debugger and is the only reason remaining why I still use the Opera 12 based version (there is no v13, v14 version and the v15 Webkit based lacks Dragonfly still)
Prototype 1.7.1 way
function get_element_registry(element) {
var cache = Event.cache;
if(element === window) return 0;
if(typeof element._prototypeUID === 'undefined') {
element._prototypeUID = Element.Storage.UID++;
}
var uid = element._prototypeUID;
if(!cache[uid]) cache[uid] = {element: element};
return cache[uid];
}
I am trying to do that in jQuery 2.1, and with the "$().click() -> $(element).data("events").click;" method it doesn't work.
I realized that only the $._data() functions works in my case :
$(document).ready(function(){
var node = $('body');
// Bind 3 events to body click
node.click(function(e) { alert('hello'); })
.click(function(e) { alert('bye'); })
.click(fun_1);
// Inspect the events of body
var events = $._data(node[0], "events").click;
var ev1 = events[0].handler // -> function(e) { alert('hello')
var ev2 = events[1].handler // -> function(e) { alert('bye')
var ev3 = events[2].handler // -> function fun_1()
$('body')
.append('<p> Event1 = ' + eval(ev1).toString() + '</p>')
.append('<p> Event2 = ' + eval(ev2).toString() + '</p>')
.append('<p> Event3 = ' + eval(ev3).toString() + '</p>');
});
function fun_1() {
var txt = 'text del missatge';
alert(txt);
}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<body>
</body>
I was recently working with events and wanted to view/control all events in a page. Having looked at possible solutions, I've decided to go my own way and create a custom system to monitor events. So, I did three things.
First, I needed a container for all the event listeners in the page: that's theEventListeners object. It has three useful methods: add(), remove(), and get().
Next, I created an EventListener object to hold the necessary information for the event, i.e.: target, type, callback, options, useCapture, wantsUntrusted, and added a method remove() to remove the listener.
Lastly, I extended the native addEventListener() and removeEventListener() methods to make them work with the objects I've created (EventListener and EventListeners).
Usage:
var bodyClickEvent = document.body.addEventListener("click", function () {
console.log("body click");
});
// bodyClickEvent.remove();
addEventListener() creates an EventListener object, adds it to EventListeners and returns the EventListener object, so it can be removed later.
EventListeners.get() can be used to view the listeners in the page. It accepts an EventTarget or a string (event type).
// EventListeners.get(document.body);
// EventListeners.get("click");
Demo
Let's say we want to know every event listener in this current page. We can do that (assuming you're using a script manager extension, Tampermonkey in this case). Following script does this:
// ==UserScript==
// #name New Userscript
// #namespace http://tampermonkey.net/
// #version 0.1
// #description try to take over the world!
// #author You
// #include https://stackoverflow.com/*
// #grant none
// ==/UserScript==
(function() {
fetch("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/akinuri/js-lib/master/EventListener.js")
.then(function (response) {
return response.text();
})
.then(function (text) {
eval(text);
window.EventListeners = EventListeners;
});
})(window);
And when we list all the listeners, it says there are 299 event listeners. There "seems" to be some duplicates, but I don't know if they're really duplicates. Not every event type is duplicated, so all those "duplicates" might be an individual listener.
Code can be found at my repository. I didn't want to post it here because it's rather long.
Update: This doesn't seem to work with jQuery. When I examine the EventListener, I see that the callback is
function(b){return"undefined"!=typeof r&&r.event.triggered!==b.type?r.event.dispatch.apply(a,arguments):void 0}
I believe this belongs to jQuery, and is not the actual callback. jQuery stores the actual callback in the properties of the EventTarget:
$(document.body).click(function () {
console.log("jquery click");
});
To remove an event listener, the actual callback needs to be passed to the removeEventListener() method. So in order to make this work with jQuery, it needs further modification. I might fix that in the future.
There exists nice jQuery Events extension :
(topic source)
changing these functions will allow you to log the listeners added:
EventTarget.prototype.addEventListener
EventTarget.prototype.attachEvent
EventTarget.prototype.removeEventListener
EventTarget.prototype.detachEvent
read the rest of the listeners with
console.log(someElement.onclick);
console.log(someElement.getAttribute("onclick"));
Pressing space bar in game will make a character shoot, pressing space bar when a confirmation box is shown will make this box disappear and pressing space bar in a highscore form will add a space in an input box. In this example there are several events for the same key, but only one is fired at a time.
Is there a general (or specific for Javascript) method or way of programming to add events to a certain key, so they are only executed under certain circumstances?
Of course it can be done like this:
var inGame = true|false;
var inConfirmationBox = true|false;
function spaceBarHandler(){
if(inGame){ /*shoot*/}
else if(inConfirmationBox){ /*remove box*/}
}
document.onkeydown = function(){ /* call space bar handler if space bar was pressed */ };
But this is a very confusing way of programming, since specific actions are mixed together in a space bar handler function, which makes maintenance hard.
What is the best way to handle multiple events for one key, such that these events are only fired under certain circumstances?
Functions are first-class objects in javascript, which makes them really powerful. Because of this, your problem can be solved very elegantly.
// the whole thing can be encapsulated
// into an object actually
function spaceBarHandler() {
var state = spaceBarHandler.state;
var actions = spaceBarHandler.actions;
// execute function if exists
if (actions[state]) {
actions[state]();
}
}
// spaceBar actions
spaceBarHandler.actions = {
shoot: function() {
// bang bang
},
removeBox: function() {
// do it...
}
};
// change current state from outside
// we are in the game
spaceBarHandler.state = "shoot";
// change current state from outside
// confirmation box is shown
spaceBarHandler.state = "removeBox";
All these cases will be handled by one function. If you want to extend with another case, you just add another function to the actions object. Notice how the whole thing is encapsulated into one object.
you could instead add and remove the event listener as needed.
let's assume you're using a javascript framework (if you're not, then you probably should be considering the amount of JS code involved in a game like this)
using PrototypeJS:
when game starts,
document.observe("keydown",shootHandler());
when the message box is created,
function createBox(text) {
...snip
document.observe("keydown",closeBox());
document.fire("game:pause");
}
and, for example
var paused = false;
function shoothandler() {
if (!paused) {
alert("pew! pew!");
}
}
function closeBox() {
$('messagebox').remove();
document.fire("game:unpaused");
document.stopObserving("keydown",closeBox());
}
document.observe("game:paused", function() { paused = true;});
document.observe("game:unpaused", function() { paused = false;});
document.observe("game:over", function() { document.stopObserving("keydown",shootHandler());});
I haven't included the high score screen but the theory is the same.
As you can see, I also used custom events to notify the pause status. The same event could also be fire by a puase button in the interface, etc...
Attach event listeners to individual elements instead of the entire document.
document.getElementById('highscore').onkeypress = function(keyEvent) {
if (is_spacebar(keyEvent)) //Do something...
};
document.getElementById('game').onkeypress = function(keyEvent) {
if (is_spacebar(keyEvent)) //Do something else...
};
This is a simplistic example. You will probably have to deal with event bubbling which can be controlled when using addEventListener() to attach functions to events. Given browser (IE) compatibility issues involving this, some JS library should be used to deal with events.
There are a few ways, typically involving code-branching for IE's ‘special’ event model.
One way is to stop keypresses handled further down from bubbling up to the document key handler:
confirmationbox.onkeydown = function(event) {
if (event === undefined) event = window.event;
// do something with event.keyCode
if ('stopPropagation' in event) // standards browsers
event.stopPropagation();
else if ('cancelBubble' in event) // IE before version 9
event.cancelBubble = true;
};
document.onkeydown = ... // will not be called for keydowns inside confirmationbox
Another way would be to check the event target element to see if it's in the box:
document.onkeydown = function(event) {
if (event === undefined) event = window.event;
var target = 'target' in event ? event.target : event.srcElement; // srcElement is for IE<9
if (target === containerbox || isDescendantOf(target, containerbox) {
// do containerbox stuff
} else {
// do other stuff
}
};
function isDescendantOf(element, ancestor) {
while (element = element.parentNode)
if (element === ancestor)
return true;
return false;
}