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13 April 2006

1. Document Object Model Events

Editors:
Björn Höhrmann
Philippe Le Hégaret, W3C (until November 2003)
Tom Pixley, Netscape Communications Corporation (until July 2002)

Table of Contents

1.1 Introduction

DOM Events is designed with two main goals. The first goal is the design of an event system which allows registration of event listeners and describes event flow through a tree structure. Additionally, the specification will provide standard modules of events for user interface control and document mutation notifications, including defined contextual information for each of these event modules.

The second goal of the DOM Events is to provide a common subset of the current event systems used in DOM Level 0 browsers. This is intended to foster interoperability of existing scripts and content. It is not expected that this goal will be met with full backwards compatibility. However, the specification attempts to achieve this when possible.

The following sections of the specification define both the specification for the DOM Event Model and a number of conformant event modules designed for use within the model. The DOM Event Model consists of:

1.1.1 Event flows

This document specifies an event flow for tree-based structures: DOM event flow. While it is expected that HTML and XML applications will follow this event flow, applications might reuse the interfaces defined in this document for non tree-based structures. In that case, it is the responsibility of such applications to define their event flow and how it relates to the DOM event flow. An example of such use can be found in [DOM Level 3 Load and Save].

1.1.2 Conformance

An implementation is DOM Level 3 Events conformant if it supports the Core module defined in [DOM Level 2 Core], the DOM event flow and the interfaces with their associated semantics defined in Basic interfaces. An implementation conforms to a DOM Level 3 Events module if it conforms to DOM Level 3 Events and the event types defined in the module. An implementation conforms to an event type if it conforms to its associated semantics and DOM interfaces. For example, an implementation conforms to the DOM Level 3 User Interface Events module (see User Interface event types) if it conforms to DOM Level 3 Events (i.e. implements all the basic interfaces), can generate the event types DOMActivate, DOMFocusIn, DOMFocusOut, focus, and blur accordingly to their semantics, supports the UIEvent interface, and conforms to the DOM Level 2 Core module.

Note: An implementation which does not conform to an event module can still implement the DOM interfaces associated with it. The DOM application can then create an event object using the DocumentEvent.createEvent() method and dispatch an event type associated with this interface using the EventTarget.dispatchEvent() method.

A DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature, version) method of the DOMImplementation interface with parameter values "Events" and "3.0" (respectively) to determine whether or not DOM Level 3 Events is supported by the implementation. In order to fully support DOM Level 3 Events, an implementation must also support the "Core" feature defined in the DOM Level 2 Core specification [DOM Level 2 Core] and use the DOM event flow. For additional information about conformance, please see the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core]. DOM Level 3 Events is built on top of DOM Level 2 Events [DOM Level 2 Events], i.e. a DOM Level 3 Events implementation where hasFeature("Events", "3.0") returns true must also return true when the version number is "2.0", "" or, null.

Each event module describes its own feature string in the event module listing.

Note: This specification is to be understood in the context of the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core] and the general considerations for DOM implementations apply. For example, handling of namespace URIs is discussed in XML Namespaces, and behavior in exceptional circumstances (such as when a null argument is passed when null was not expected) is discussed under DOMException.

1.2 DOM event flow

The DOM event flow is the process through which the event originates from the DOM Events implementation and is dispatched into a tree. Each event has an event target, a targeted node in the case of the DOM Event flow, toward which the event is dispatched by the DOM Events implementation.

1.2.1 Phases

The event is dispatched following a path from the root of the tree to this target node. It can then be handled locally at the target node level or from any target's ancestors higher in the tree. The event dispatching (also called event propagation) occurs in three phases and the following order:

  1. The capture phase: the event is dispatched to the target's ancestors from the root of the tree to the direct parent of the target node.
  2. The target phase: the event is dispatched to the target node.
  3. The bubbling phase: the event is dispatched to the target's ancestors from the direct parent of the target node to the root of the tree.
graphical representation of an event dispatched in a DOM tree using the DOM event flow

Figure: graphical representation of an event dispatched in a DOM tree using the DOM event flow [SVG 1.0 version]

The target's ancestors are determined before the initial dispatch of the event. If the target node is removed during the dispatching, or a target's ancestor is added or removed, the event propagation will always be based on the target node and the target's ancestors determined before the dispatch.

Some events may not necessarily accomplish the three phases of the DOM event flow, e.g. the event could only be defined for one or two phases. As an example, events defined in this specification will always accomplish the capture and target phases but some will not accomplish the bubbling phase ("bubbling events" versus "non-bubbling events", see also the Event.bubbles attribute).

1.2.2 Event listeners

Each node encountered during the dispatch of the event may contain event listeners.

1.2.2.1 Registration of event listeners

Event listeners can be registered on all nodes in the tree for a specific type of event (Event types) or event category (Event types and event categories), phase, and group (Event groups).

If the event listener is being registered on a node while an event gets processed on this node, the event listener will not be triggered during the current phase but may be triggered during a later phase in the event flow, i.e. the bubbling phase.

1.2.2.2 Event groups

An event listener is always part of a group. It is either explicitly in a group if a group has been specified at the registration or implicitly in the default group if no group has been specified. Within a group, event listeners are ordered in their order of registration. If two event listeners {A1, A2}, which are part of the same group, are registered one after the other (A1, then A2) for the same phase, the DOM event flow guarantees their triggering order (A1, then A2). If the two listeners are not part of the same group, no specification is made as to the order in which they will be triggered.

In general, a DOM application does not need to define and use a separate group unless other event listeners, external to the DOM application, may change the event propagation (e.g. from a concurrent DOM application, from imported functionalities that rely on the event system, etc.).

Note: While this specification does not specify a full ordering (i.e. groups are still unordered), it does specify ordering within a group. This implies that if the event listeners {A1, A2, B1, B2}, with A and B being two different groups, are registered for the same phase in the order A1, A2, B1, and B2, the following triggering orders are possible and conform to the DOM event flow:

  • {A1, A2, B1, B2}
  • {A1, B1, A2, B2}
  • {B1, A1, A2, B2}
  • {A1, B1, B2, A2}
  • {B1, A1, B2, A2}
  • {B1, B2, A1, A2}

DOM Events implementations may impose priorities on groups but DOM applications must not rely on it. Unlike this specification, [DOM Level 2 Events] did not specify any triggering order for event listeners.

1.2.2.3 Triggering an event listener

When the event is dispatched through the tree, from node to node, event listeners registered on the node are triggered if the following three conditions are all met:

  1. they were registered for the same type of event, or the same category.
  2. they were registered for the same phase;
  3. the event propagation has not been stopped for the group.

1.2.2.4 Removing an event listener

If an event listener is removed from a node while an event is being processed on the node, it will not be triggered by the current actions. Once removed, the event listener is never invoked again (unless registered again for future processing).

1.2.2.5 Reentrance

It is expected that actions taken by an event listener may cause additional events to be dispatched. Additional events should be handled in a synchronous manner and may cause reentrance into the event model. If an event listener fires a new event using EventTarget.dispatchEvent(), the event propagation that causes the event listener to be triggered will resume only after the event propagation of the new event is completed.

Since implementations may have restrictions such as stack-usage or other memory requirements, applications should not depend on how many synchronous events may be triggered.

1.2.2.6 Event propagation and event groups

All event listeners are part of a group (see Registration of event listeners). An event listener may prevent event listeners that are part of a same group from being triggered. The effect can be:

  • immediate: no more event listeners from the same group will be triggered by the event object (see Event.stopImmediatePropagation());
  • deferred until all event listeners from the same group have been triggered on the current node, i.e. the event listeners of the same group attached on other nodes will not be triggered (see Event.stopPropagation()).

If two event listeners are registered for two different groups, one cannot prevent the other from being triggered.

1.3 Default actions and cancelable events

Implementations may have a default action associated with an event type. An example is the [HTML 4.01] form element. When the user submits the form (e.g. by pressing on a submit button), the event submit is dispatched to the element and the default action for this event type is generally to send a request to a Web server with the parameters from the form.

The default actions are not part of the DOM Event flow. Before invoking a default action, the implementation must first dispatch the event as described in the DOM event flow.

A cancelable event is an event associated with a default action which is allowed to be canceled during the DOM event flow. At any phase during the event flow, the triggered event listeners have the option of canceling the default action or allowing the default action to proceed. In the case of the hyperlink in the browser, canceling the action would have the result of not activating the hyperlink. Not all events defined in this specification are cancelable events. See also Default actions and cancelable keyboard events.

Different implementations will specify their own default actions, if any, associated with each event. The DOM Events specification does not attempt to specify these actions.

This specification does not provide mechanisms for accessing default actions or adding new ones.

Implementations could react to an event before dispatching it and do changes on the display and the DOM tree. In such case, if a DOM attribute is changed before the event is fired, cancelling the device event type will also reverse the change. A good example is the attribute HTMLInputElement.checked: as described in [DOM Level 2 HTML], the value of this property may be changed before the dispatch of the event; the user clicks on the radio button, the radio button is being checked (or unchecked) on the display, the attribute HTMLInputElement.checked is changed as well, and then the device event type click is being dispatched. If the default action of the device event type is prevented, or if the default action attached to the DOMActivate event type is prevented, the property HTMLInputElement.checked will need to be changed back to its original value.

1.4 Activation requests and behavior

Event targets may have associated activation behavior that implementations perform in response to an activation request. As an example, the typical activiation behavior associated with hyperlinks is to follow the link. Activation requests are typically initiated by users through an input device.

In terms of this specification, the activation behavior of the event target is the default action of the event type DOMActivate. DOM applications should use this event type whenever they wish to make or react to an activation request.

Implementations dispatch the DOMActivate event as default action of a click event. This click event is either part of the activation request (e.g., a user requests activiation using a mouse), or synthesized by the implementation to accomodate legacy applications. Context information of such a click event is implementation dependent.

When implementations dispatch a synthesized click event, the expectation is that they do so as default action of another event type. For example, when a user activates a hyperlink using a keyboard, the click event would be dispatched as default action of respective keyboard event.

Implementations are, however, required to dispatch the synthesized click event as described above even if they do not dispatch such an event (e.g., when activation is requested by a voice command since this specification does not address event types for voice input).

Note: The activation of an event target is device dependent but is also application dependent, e.g. a link in a document can be activated using a mouse click or a mouse double click.

1.5 Event types

Each event is associated with a type, called event type. The event type is composed of a local name and a namespace URI as used in [DOM Level 3 Core]. All events defined in this specification are in no namespace.

1.5.1 Event types and event categories

An event type could be part of one or more categories. A category is represented using a local name and a namespace URI as defined in [XML Namespaces 1.1]. The event types defined in this specification are not associated with one or more event categories and this specification does not provide methods to associate them. Other specifications may create and associate event categories with event listeners but in such case would need to inform the dispatch mechanism of those event categories. An example of the use of categories is given at Using VoiceXML Events.

1.5.2 Complete list of event types

Depending on the level of DOM support, or the devices used for display (e.g. screen) or interaction (e.g., mouse, keyboard, touch screen, and voice), these event types can be generated by the implementation. When used with an [XML 1.0] or [HTML 4.01] application, the specifications of those languages may restrict the semantics and scope (in particular the possible target nodes) associated with an event type. Refer to the specification defining the language used in order to find those restrictions or to find event types that are not defined in this document.

The following table provides a non-normative summary of the event types defined in this specification. All event types are in no namespace and this specification refers to them by their local name only. All events will accomplish the capture and target phases, but not all of them will accomplish the bubbling phase (see also DOM event flow). Some events are not cancelable (see Default actions and cancelable events). Some events will only be dispatched to a specific set of possible targets, specified using node types. Contextual information related to the event type is accessible using DOM interfaces.

type Bubbling phase Cancelable Target node types DOM interface
DOMActivate Yes Yes Element UIEvent
DOMFocusIn Yes No Element UIEvent
DOMFocusOut Yes No Element UIEvent
focus No No Element UIEvent
blur No No Element UIEvent
textInput Yes Yes Element TextEvent
click Yes Yes Element MouseEvent
mousedown Yes Yes Element MouseEvent
mouseup Yes Yes Element MouseEvent
mouseover Yes Yes Element MouseEvent
mousemove Yes Yes Element MouseEvent
mouseout Yes Yes Element MouseEvent
keydown Yes Yes Element KeyboardEvent
keyup Yes Yes Element KeyboardEvent
DOMSubtreeModified Yes No Document, DocumentFragment, Element, Attr MutationEvent
DOMNodeInserted Yes No Element, Attr, Text, Comment, CDATASection, DocumentType, EntityReference, ProcessingInstruction MutationEvent
DOMNodeRemoved Yes No Element, Attr, Text, Comment, CDATASection, DocumentType, EntityReference, ProcessingInstruction MutationEvent
DOMNodeRemovedFromDocument No No Element, Attr, Text, Comment, CDATASection, DocumentType, EntityReference, ProcessingInstruction MutationEvent
DOMNodeInsertedIntoDocument No No Element, Attr, Text, Comment, CDATASection, DocumentType, EntityReference, ProcessingInstruction MutationEvent
DOMAttrModified Yes No Element MutationEvent
DOMCharacterDataModified Yes No Text, Comment, CDATASection, ProcessingInstruction MutationEvent
DOMElementNameChanged Yes No Element MutationNameEvent
DOMAttributeNameChanged Yes No Element MutationNameEvent
load No No Document, Element Event
unload No No Document, Element Event
abort Yes No Element Event
error Yes No Element Event
select Yes No Element Event
change Yes No Element Event
submit Yes Yes Element Event
reset Yes Yes Element Event
resize Yes No Document, Element UIEvent
scroll Yes No Document, Element UIEvent

As an example, the event load will trigger event listeners attached on Element nodes for that event and on the capture and target phases. This event cannot be cancelled. If an event listener for the load event is attached to a node other than Document or Element nodes, or if it is attached to the bubbling phase only, this event listener cannot be triggered.

The event objects associated with the event types described above may contain context information. Refer to the description of the DOM interfaces for further information.

1.5.3 Compatibility with DOM Level 2 Events

Namespace URIs were only introduced in DOM Level 3 Events and were not part of DOM Level 2 Events. All event types in this specification are defined to be in no namespace, DOM Level 2 methods have been modified to refer to event types in no namespace when adding or removing event listeners and initializing event objects, and new methods have been added to provide equivalent functionality for event types in a namespace. A future draft of this document will provide guidelines on defining new event types.

DOM Level 3 Events considers the Event.type attribute to be case-sensitive, while DOM Level 2 Events considers Event.type to be case-insensitive.

1.6 Event listener registration

Note: This section is non-normative.

There are mainly two ways to associate an event listener to a node in the tree:

  1. at the programming level using the EventTarget methods.
  2. at the document level using [XML Events] or an ad-hoc syntax, as the ones provided in [XHTML 1.0] or [SVG 1.1].

1.6.1 Using the EventTarget methods

The user can attach an event listener using the methods on the EventTarget interface:

aCircle.addEventListener("DOMActivate", aListener, false);

The methods do not provide the ability to register the same event listener more than once for the same event type and the same phase. It is not possible to register an event listener:

  • for only one of the target and bubbling phases since those phases are coupled during the registration (but the listener itself could ignore events during one of these phases if desired).
  • for a specific event category.

To register an event listener, DOM applications use the methods EventTarget.addEventListener() and EventTarget.addEventListenerNS().

An EventListener being registered on an EventTarget may choose to have that EventListener triggered during the capture phase by specifying the useCapture parameter of the EventTarget.addEventListener() or EventTarget.addEventListenerNS() methods to be true. If false, the EventListener will be triggered during the target and bubbling phases.

1.6.2 Using XML Events

In [XML Events], event listeners are attached using elements and attributes:

<listener event="DOMActivate" observer="aCircle" handler="#aListener"
          phase="default" propagate="stop"/>

Event listeners can only be registered on Element nodes, other Node types are not addressable, and cannot be registered for a specific group either, they are always attached to the default group. The target phase and the bubbling phase are coupled during the registration. [XML Events] does not address namespaces in event types.

1.6.3 Using VoiceXML Events

In [VoiceXML 2.0], event listeners are attached using elements:

<form>
  <field>
    <prompt>Please say something</prompt>
    <catch event="error.noauthorization">
     <prompt>You don't have the authorization!</prompt>
    </catch>
    <catch event="connection.disconnect.hangup">
     <prompt>Connection error</prompt>
    </catch>
    <catch event="connection.disconnect">
     <prompt>Connection error</prompt>
    </catch>
  </field>
  <catch event="error">
    <prompt>Unknown error</prompt>
  </catch>
</form>

Event listeners can only be registered on Element nodes, other Node types are not addressable, and cannot be registered for a specific group either, they are always attached to the default group. The target phase and the bubbling phase are coupled during the registration. [VoiceXML 2.0] does not address namespaces in event types but uses the notion of event categories. The event type "connection.disconnect.hangup" could be associated to the event categories {"http://www.example.org/2003/voicexml", "connection"} and {"http://www.example.org/2003/voicexml", "connection.disconnect"}.

1.6.4 Using XML or HTML attributes

In languages such as [HTML 4.01], [XHTML 1.0], or [SVG 1.1], event listeners are specified as attributes:

<circle id="aCircle" onactivate="aListener(evt)"
        cx="300" cy="225" r="100" fill="red"/>

Since only one attribute with the same name can appear on an element, it is not possible to register more than one event listener on a single EventTarget for the event type. Also, event listeners can only be registered on Element nodes for the target phase and bubbling phase, other Node types and the capture phase are not addressable with these languages. Event listeners cannot be registered for a specific group either, they are always attached to the default group.

1.7 Basic interfaces

The interfaces described in this section are fundamental to DOM Level 3 Events and must always be supported by the implementation.

Interface Event (introduced in DOM Level 2)

The Event interface is used to provide contextual information about an event to the listener processing the event. An object which implements the Event interface is passed as the parameter to an EventListener. More specific context information is passed to event listeners by deriving additional interfaces from Event which contain information directly relating to the type of event they represent. These derived interfaces are also implemented by the object passed to the event listener.

To create an instance of the Event interface, use the DocumentEvent.createEvent("Event") method call.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
interface Event {

  // PhaseType
  const unsigned short      CAPTURING_PHASE                = 1;
  const unsigned short      AT_TARGET                      = 2;
  const unsigned short      BUBBLING_PHASE                 = 3;

  readonly attribute DOMString       type;
  readonly attribute EventTarget     target;
  readonly attribute EventTarget     currentTarget;
  readonly attribute unsigned short  eventPhase;
  readonly attribute boolean         bubbles;
  readonly attribute boolean         cancelable;
  readonly attribute DOMTimeStamp    timeStamp;
  void               stopPropagation();
  void               preventDefault();
  void               initEvent(in DOMString eventTypeArg, 
                               in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                               in boolean cancelableArg);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  readonly attribute DOMString       namespaceURI;
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               stopImmediatePropagation();
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  readonly attribute boolean         defaultPrevented;
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               initEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURIArg, 
                                 in DOMString eventTypeArg, 
                                 in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                 in boolean cancelableArg);
};

Definition group PhaseType

An integer indicating which phase of the event flow is being processed as defined in DOM event flow.

Defined Constants
AT_TARGET
The current event is in the target phase, i.e. it is being evaluated at the event target.
BUBBLING_PHASE
The current event phase is the bubbling phase.
CAPTURING_PHASE
The current event phase is the capture phase.
Attributes
bubbles of type boolean, readonly
Used to indicate whether or not an event is a bubbling event. If the event can bubble the value is true, otherwise the value is false.
cancelable of type boolean, readonly
Used to indicate whether or not an event can have its default action prevented (see also Default actions and cancelable events). If the default action can be prevented the value is true, otherwise the value is false.
currentTarget of type EventTarget, readonly
Used to indicate the EventTarget whose EventListeners are currently being processed. This is particularly useful during the capture and bubbling phases. This attribute could contain the target node or a target ancestor when used with the DOM event flow.
defaultPrevented of type boolean, readonly, introduced in DOM Level 3
Used to indicate whether Event.preventDefault() has been called for this event.
eventPhase of type unsigned short, readonly
Used to indicate which phase of event flow is currently being accomplished.
namespaceURI of type DOMString, readonly, introduced in DOM Level 3
The namespace URI associated with this event at creation time, or null if it is unspecified.
For events initialized with a DOM Level 2 Events method, such as Event.initEvent(), this is always null.
target of type EventTarget, readonly
Used to indicate the event target. This attribute contains the target node when used with the DOM event flow.
timeStamp of type DOMTimeStamp, readonly
Used to specify the time at which the event was created in milliseconds relative to 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z. Due to the fact that some systems may not provide this information the value of timeStamp may be not available for all events. When not available, the value is 0.
type of type DOMString, readonly
The local name of the event type. The name must be an NCName as defined in [XML Namespaces 1.1] and is case-sensitive.
Methods
initEvent
The initEvent method is used to initialize the value of an Event created through the DocumentEvent.createEvent method. This method may only be called before the Event has been dispatched via the EventTarget.dispatchEvent() method. If the method is called several times before invoking EventTarget.dispatchEvent, only the final invocation takes precedence. This method has no effect if called after the event has been dispatched. If called from a subclass of the Event interface only the values specified in this method are modified, all other attributes are left unchanged.
This method sets the Event.type attribute to eventTypeArg, and Event.namespaceURI to null. To initialize an event with a namespace URI, use the Event.initEventNS() method.
Parameters
eventTypeArg of type DOMString
Specifies Event.type, the local name of the event type.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Specifies Event.bubbles. This parameter overrides the intrinsic bubbling behavior of the event.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Specifies Event.cancelable. This parameter overrides the intrinsic cancelable behavior of the event.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
initEventNS introduced in DOM Level 3
The initEventNS method is used to initialize the value of an Event object and has the same behavior as Event.initEvent().
Parameters
namespaceURIArg of type DOMString
Specifies Event.namespaceURI, the namespace URI associated with this event, or null if no namespace.
eventTypeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
preventDefault
If an event is cancelable, the preventDefault method is used to signify that the event is to be canceled, meaning any default action normally taken by the implementation as a result of the event will not occur (see also Default actions and cancelable events), and thus independently of event groups. Calling this method for a non-cancelable event has no effect.

Note: This method does not stop the event propagation; use Event.stopPropagation() or Event.stopImmediatePropagation() for that effect.

No Parameters
No Return Value
No Exceptions
stopImmediatePropagation introduced in DOM Level 3
This method is used to prevent event listeners of the same group to be triggered and, unlike Event.stopPropagation() its effect is immediate (see Event propagation and event groups). Once it has been called, further calls to that method have no additional effect.

Note: This method does not prevent the default action from being invoked; use Event.preventDefault() for that effect.

No Parameters
No Return Value
No Exceptions
stopPropagation
This method is used to prevent event listeners of the same group to be triggered but its effect is deferred until all event listeners attached on the Event.currentTarget have been triggered (see Event propagation and event groups). Once it has been called, further calls to that method have no additional effect.

Note: This method does not prevent the default action from being invoked; use Event.preventDefault() for that effect.

No Parameters
No Return Value
No Exceptions
Interface CustomEvent (introduced in DOM Level 3)

The CustomEvent interface is the recommended interface for application-specific event types. Unlike the Event interface, it allows applications to provide contextual information about the event type. Application-specific event types should have an associated namespace to avoid clashes with future general-purpose event types.

To create an instance of the CustomEvent interface, use the DocumentEvent.createEvent("CustomEvent") method call.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 3:
interface CustomEvent : Event {
  readonly attribute DOMObject       detail;
  void               initCustomEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                       in DOMString typeArg, 
                                       in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                       in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                       in DOMObject detailArg);
};

Attributes
detail of type DOMObject, readonly
Specifies some detail information about the Event.
Methods
initCustomEventNS
The initCustomEventNS method is used to initialize the value of a CustomEvent object and has the same behavior as Event.initEventNS().
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
detailArg of type DOMObject
Specifies CustomEvent.detail. This value may be null.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
Interface EventTarget (introduced in DOM Level 2)

The EventTarget interface is implemented by all the objects which could be event targets in an implementation which supports the Event flows. The interface allows registration and removal of event listeners, and dispatch of events to an event target.

When used with DOM event flow, this interface is implemented by all target nodes and target ancestors, i.e. all DOM Nodes of the tree support this interface when the implementation conforms to DOM Level 3 Events and, therefore, this interface can be obtained by using binding-specific casting methods on an instance of the Node interface.

Invoking addEventListener or addEventListenerNS repeatedly on the same EventTarget with the same values for the parameters namespaceURI, type, listener, and useCapture has no effect. Doing so does not cause the EventListener to be called more than once and does not cause a change in the triggering order. In order to register a listener for a different event group (Event groups) the previously registered listener has to be removed first.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
interface EventTarget {
  void               addEventListener(in DOMString type, 
                                      in EventListener listener, 
                                      in boolean useCapture);
  void               removeEventListener(in DOMString type, 
                                         in EventListener listener, 
                                         in boolean useCapture);
  // Modified in DOM Level 3:
  boolean            dispatchEvent(in Event evt)
                                        raises(EventException, 
                                               DOMException);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               addEventListenerNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                        in DOMString type, 
                                        in EventListener listener, 
                                        in boolean useCapture, 
                                        in DOMObject evtGroup);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               removeEventListenerNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                           in DOMString type, 
                                           in EventListener listener, 
                                           in boolean useCapture);
};

Methods
addEventListener
This method allows the registration of an event listener in the default group and, depending on the useCapture parameter, on the capture phase of the DOM event flow or its target and bubbling phases. Invoking this method is equivalent to invoking addEventListenerNS with the same values for the parameters type, listener, and useCapture, and the value null for the parameters namespaceURI and evtGroup.
Parameters
type of type DOMString
Specifies the Event.type associated with the event for which the user is registering.
listener of type EventListener
The listener parameter takes an object implemented by the user which implements the EventListener interface and contains the method to be called when the event occurs.
useCapture of type boolean
If true, useCapture indicates that the user wishes to add the event listener for the capture phase only, i.e. this event listener will not be triggered during the target and bubbling phases. If false, the event listener will only be triggered during the target and bubbling phases.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
addEventListenerNS introduced in DOM Level 3
This method allows the registration of an event listener in a specified group or the default group and, depending on the useCapture parameter, on the capture phase of the DOM event flow or its target and bubbling phases.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Specifies the Event.namespaceURI associated with the event for which the user is registering.
type of type DOMString
Refer to the EventTarget.addEventListener() method for a description of this parameter.
listener of type EventListener
Refer to the EventTarget.addEventListener() method for a description of this parameter.
useCapture of type boolean
Refer to the EventTarget.addEventListener() method for a description of this parameter.
evtGroup of type DOMObject
The object that represents the event group to associate with the EventListener (see also Event propagation and event groups). Use null to attach the event listener to the default group.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
dispatchEvent modified in DOM Level 3
This method allows the dispatch of events into the implementation's event model. The event target of the event is the EventTarget object on which dispatchEvent is called.
Parameters
evt of type Event
The event to be dispatched.
Return Value

boolean

Indicates whether any of the listeners which handled the event called Event.preventDefault(). If Event.preventDefault() was called the returned value is false, else it is true.
Exceptions

EventException

UNSPECIFIED_EVENT_TYPE_ERR: Raised if the Event.type was not specified by initializing the event before dispatchEvent was called. Specification of the Event.type as null or an empty string will also trigger this exception.

DISPATCH_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if the Event object is already being dispatched.

DOMException

NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if the Event object has not been created using DocumentEvent.createEvent().

INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if Event.type is not an NCName as defined in [XML Namespaces 1.1].
removeEventListener
This method allows the removal of event listeners from the default group. Calling removeEventListener with arguments which do not identify any currently registered EventListener on the EventTarget has no effect. The Event.namespaceURI for which the user registered the event listener is implied and is null.

Note: Event listeners registered for other event groups than the default group cannot be removed using this method; see EventTarget.removeEventListenerNS() for that effect.

Parameters
type of type DOMString
Specifies the Event.type for which the user registered the event listener.
listener of type EventListener
The EventListener to be removed.
useCapture of type boolean
Specifies whether the EventListener being removed was registered for the capture phase or not. If a listener was registered twice, once for the capture phase and once for the target and bubbling phases, each must be removed separately. Removal of an event listener registered for the capture phase does not affect the same event listener registered for the target and bubbling phases, and vice versa.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
removeEventListenerNS introduced in DOM Level 3
This method allows the removal of an event listener, independently of the associated event group. Calling removeEventListenerNS with arguments which do not identify any currently registered EventListener on the EventTarget has no effect.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Specifies the Event.namespaceURI associated with the event for which the user registered the event listener.
type of type DOMString
Refer to the EventTarget.removeEventListener() method for a description of this parameter.
listener of type EventListener
Refer to the EventTarget.removeEventListener() method for a description of this parameter.
useCapture of type boolean
Refer to the EventTarget.removeEventListener() method for a description of this parameter.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
Interface EventListener (introduced in DOM Level 2)

The EventListener interface is the primary way for handling events. Users implement the EventListener interface and register their event listener on an EventTarget. The users should also remove their EventListener from its EventTarget after they have completed using the listener.

Copying a Node, with methods such as Node.cloneNode or Range.cloneContents, does not copy the event listeners attached to it. Event listeners must be attached to the newly created Node afterwards if so desired.

Moving a Node, with methods Document.adoptNode, Node.appendChild, or Range.extractContents, does not affect the event listeners attached to it.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
interface EventListener {
  void               handleEvent(in Event evt);
};

Methods
handleEvent
This method is called whenever an event occurs of the event type for which the EventListener interface was registered.
Parameters
evt of type Event
The Event contains contextual information about the event.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
Exception EventException introduced in DOM Level 2

Event operations may throw an EventException as specified in their method descriptions.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
exception EventException {
  unsigned short   code;
};
// EventExceptionCode
const unsigned short      UNSPECIFIED_EVENT_TYPE_ERR     = 0;
// Introduced in DOM Level 3:
const unsigned short      DISPATCH_REQUEST_ERR           = 1;

Definition group EventExceptionCode

An integer indicating the type of error generated.

Defined Constants
DISPATCH_REQUEST_ERR, introduced in DOM Level 3.
If the Event object is already dispatched in the tree.
UNSPECIFIED_EVENT_TYPE_ERR
If the Event.type was not specified by initializing the event before the method was called. Specification of the Event.type as null or an empty string will also trigger this exception.

1.7.1 Event creation

In most cases, the events dispatched by the DOM Events implementation are also created by the implementation. It is however possible to simulate events such as mouse events by creating the Event objects and dispatch them using the DOM Events implementation.

Creating Event objects that are known to the DOM Events implementation is done using DocumentEvent.createEvent(). The application must then initialize the object by calling the appropriate initialization method before invoking EventTarget.dispatchEvent(). The Event objects created must be known by the DOM Events implementation; otherwise an event exception is thrown.

Interface DocumentEvent (introduced in DOM Level 2)

The DocumentEvent interface provides a mechanism by which the user can create an Event object of a type supported by the implementation. If the feature "Events" is supported by the Document object, the DocumentEvent interface must be implemented on the same object. If the feature "+Events" is supported by the Document object, an object that supports the DocumentEvent interface must be returned by invoking the method Node.getFeature("+Events", "3.0") on the Document object.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
interface DocumentEvent {
  Event              createEvent(in DOMString eventType)
                                        raises(DOMException);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  boolean            canDispatch(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                 in DOMString type);
};

Methods
canDispatch introduced in DOM Level 3
Test if the implementation can generate events of a specified type.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Specifies the Event.namespaceURI of the event.
type of type DOMString
Specifies the Event.type of the event.
Return Value

boolean

true if the implementation can generate and dispatch this event type, false otherwise.
No Exceptions
createEvent
Parameters
eventType of type DOMString
The eventType parameter specifies the name of the DOM Events interface to be supported by the created event object, e.g. "Event", "MouseEvent", "MutationEvent" and so on. If the Event is to be dispatched via the EventTarget.dispatchEvent() method the appropriate event init method must be called after creation in order to initialize the Event's values.
As an example, a user wishing to synthesize some kind of UIEvent would invoke DocumentEvent.createEvent("UIEvent"). The UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method could then be called on the newly created UIEvent object to set the specific type of user interface event to be dispatched, DOMActivate for example, and set its context information, e.g. UIEvent.detail in this example.

Note: For backward compatibility reason, "UIEvents", "MouseEvents", "MutationEvents", and "HTMLEvents" feature names are valid values for the parameter eventType and represent respectively the interfaces "UIEvent", "MouseEvent", "MutationEvent", and "Event".

Return Value

Event

The newly created event object.
Exceptions

DOMException

NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if the implementation does not support the Event interface requested.

1.8 Event module definitions

The DOM Event Model allows a DOM implementation to support multiple modules of events. The model has been designed to allow addition of new event modules if required. The DOM will not attempt to define all possible events. For purposes of interoperability, the DOM defines a module of user interface events including lower level device dependent events and a module of document mutation events.

1.8.1 User Interface event types

The User Interface event module contains basic event types associated with user interfaces.

Interface UIEvent (introduced in DOM Level 2)

The UIEvent interface provides specific contextual information associated with User Interface events.

To create an instance of the UIEvent interface, use the DocumentEvent.createEvent("UIEvent") method call.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
interface UIEvent : Event {
  readonly attribute views::AbstractView view;
  readonly attribute long            detail;
  void               initUIEvent(in DOMString typeArg, 
                                 in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                 in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                 in views::AbstractView viewArg, 
                                 in long detailArg);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               initUIEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                   in DOMString typeArg, 
                                   in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                   in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                   in views::AbstractView viewArg, 
                                   in long detailArg);
};

Attributes
detail of type long, readonly
Specifies some detail information about the Event, depending on the type of event.
view of type views::AbstractView, readonly
The view attribute identifies the AbstractView from which the event was generated.
Methods
initUIEvent
The initUIEvent method is used to initialize the value of a UIEvent object and has the same behavior as Event.initEvent().
Parameters
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
viewArg of type views::AbstractView
Specifies UIEvent.view. This value may be null.
detailArg of type long
Specifies UIEvent.detail.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
initUIEventNS introduced in DOM Level 3
The initUIEventNS method is used to initialize the value of a UIEvent object and has the same behavior as Event.initEventNS().
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
viewArg of type views::AbstractView
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
detailArg of type long
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
No Return Value
No Exceptions

The User Interface event types are listed below. A DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature, version) method of the DOMImplementation interface with parameter values "UIEvents" and "3.0" (respectively) to determine whether or not the DOM Level 3 User Interface event module are supported by the implementation. In order to fully support this module, an implementation must also support the "Events" feature defined in this specification and the "Views" feature defined in the DOM Level 2 Views specification [DOM Level 2 Views]. For additional information about conformance, please see the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core]. The DOM Level 3 User Interface Events module is built on top of the DOM Level 2 User Interface Events [DOM Level 2 Events] module, i.e. a DOM Level 3 User Interface Events implementation where hasFeature("UIEvents", "3.0") returns true must also return true when the version number is "2.0", "" or, null.

DOMActivate
Type DOMActivate
Namespace None
Interface UIEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view is in use.
Refer to Activation requests and behavior.
DOMFocusIn
Type DOMFocusIn
Namespace http://www.w3.org/2001/xml-events
Interface UIEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view is in use.
An event target receives focus. The focus is given to the element before the dispatch of this event type. This event type is dispatched after the event type focus.
DOMFocusOut
Type DOMFocusOut
Namespace http://www.w3.org/2001/xml-events
Interface UIEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view is in use.
An event target loses focus. The focus is taken from the element before the dispatch of this event type. This event type is dispatched after the event type blur.
focus
Type focus
Namespace None
Interface UIEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles No
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view is in use.
An event target receives focus. The focus is given to the element before the dispatch of this event type.
blur
Type blur
Namespace None
Interface UIEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles No
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view is in use.
An event target loses focus. The focus is taken from the element before the dispatch of this event type.

1.8.2 Text events types

The text event module originates from the [HTML 4.01] onkeypress attribute. Unlike this attribute, the event type textInput applies only to characters and is designed for use with any text input devices, not just keyboards. Refer to Appendix A, "Keyboard events and key identifiers", for examples on how text events are used in combination with keyboard events.

Interface TextEvent (introduced in DOM Level 3)

The TextEvent interface provides specific contextual information associated with Text Events.

To create an instance of the TextEvent interface, use the DocumentEvent.createEvent("TextEvent") method call.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 3:
interface TextEvent : UIEvent {
  readonly attribute DOMString       data;
  void               initTextEvent(in DOMString typeArg, 
                                   in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                   in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                   in views::AbstractView viewArg, 
                                   in DOMString dataArg);
  void               initTextEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                     in DOMString type, 
                                     in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                     in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                     in views::AbstractView viewArg, 
                                     in DOMString dataArg);
};

Attributes
data of type DOMString, readonly
data holds the value of the characters generated by the character device. This may be a single Unicode character or a non-empty sequence of Unicode characters [Unicode]. Characters should be normalized as defined by the Unicode normalization form NFC, defined in [UAX #15]. This attribute cannot be null or contain the empty string.
Methods
initTextEvent
The initTextEvent method is used to initialize the value of a TextEvent object and has the same behavior as UIEvent.initUIEvent(). The value of UIEvent.detail remains undefined.
Parameters
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
viewArg of type views::AbstractView
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
dataArg of type DOMString
Specifies TextEvent.data.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
initTextEventNS
The initTextEventNS method is used to initialize the value of a TextEvent object and has the same behavior as UIEvent.initUIEventNS(). The value of UIEvent.detail remains undefined.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
type of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
viewArg of type views::AbstractView
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
dataArg of type DOMString
Refer to the TextEvent.initTextEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
No Return Value
No Exceptions

The text event type is listed below. A DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature, version) method of the DOMImplementation interface with parameter values "TextEvents" and "3.0" (respectively) to determine whether or not the Text event module is supported by the implementation. In order to fully support this module, an implementation must also support the "UIEvents" feature defined in this specification. For additional information about conformance, please see the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core].

textInput
Type textInput
Namespace None
Interface TextEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view and TextEvent.data are in use.
One or more characters have been entered. The characters can originate from a variety of sources. For example, it could be characters resulting from a key being pressed or released on a keyboard device, characters resulting from the processing of an input method editor, or resulting from a voice command. Where a "paste" operation generates a simple sequence of characters, i.e. a text without any structure or style information, this event type should be generated as well.

1.8.3 Mouse event types

The Mouse event module originates from the [HTML 4.01] onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove, and onmouseout attributes. This event module is specifically designed for use with pointing input devices, such as a mouse or a trackball.

Interface MouseEvent (introduced in DOM Level 2)

The MouseEvent interface provides specific contextual information associated with Mouse events.

In the case of nested elements mouse events are always targeted at the most deeply nested element. Ancestors of the targeted element may use bubbling to obtain notification of mouse events which occur within theirs descendent elements.

To create an instance of the MouseEvent interface, use the DocumentEvent.createEvent("MouseEvent") method call.

Note: When initializing MouseEvent objects using initMouseEvent or initMouseEventNS, implementations should use the client coordinates clientX and clientY for calculation of other coordinates (such as target coordinates exposed by DOM Level 0 implementations).


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
interface MouseEvent : UIEvent {
  readonly attribute long            screenX;
  readonly attribute long            screenY;
  readonly attribute long            clientX;
  readonly attribute long            clientY;
  readonly attribute boolean         ctrlKey;
  readonly attribute boolean         shiftKey;
  readonly attribute boolean         altKey;
  readonly attribute boolean         metaKey;
  readonly attribute unsigned short  button;
  readonly attribute EventTarget     relatedTarget;
  void               initMouseEvent(in DOMString typeArg, 
                                    in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                    in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                    in views::AbstractView viewArg, 
                                    in long detailArg, 
                                    in long screenXArg, 
                                    in long screenYArg, 
                                    in long clientXArg, 
                                    in long clientYArg, 
                                    in boolean ctrlKeyArg, 
                                    in boolean altKeyArg, 
                                    in boolean shiftKeyArg, 
                                    in boolean metaKeyArg, 
                                    in unsigned short buttonArg, 
                                    in EventTarget relatedTargetArg);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  boolean            getModifierState(in DOMString keyIdentifierArg);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               initMouseEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                      in DOMString typeArg, 
                                      in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                      in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                      in views::AbstractView viewArg, 
                                      in long detailArg, 
                                      in long screenXArg, 
                                      in long screenYArg, 
                                      in long clientXArg, 
                                      in long clientYArg, 
                                      in unsigned short buttonArg, 
                                      in EventTarget relatedTargetArg, 
                                      in DOMString modifiersList);
};

Attributes
altKey of type boolean, readonly
true if the alt (alternative) key modifier is activated.

Note: The Option key modifier on Macintosh systems must be represented using this key modifier.

button of type unsigned short, readonly
During mouse events caused by the depression or release of a mouse button, button is used to indicate which mouse button changed state. 0 indicates the normal button of the mouse (in general on the left or the one button on Macintosh mice, used to activate a button or select text). 2 indicates the contextual property (in general on the right, used to display a context menu) button of the mouse if present. 1 indicates the extra (in general in the middle and often combined with the mouse wheel) button. Some mice may provide or simulate more buttons, and values higher than 2 can be used to represent such buttons.
clientX of type long, readonly
The horizontal coordinate at which the event occurred relative to the DOM implementation's client area.
clientY of type long, readonly
The vertical coordinate at which the event occurred relative to the DOM implementation's client area.
ctrlKey of type boolean, readonly
true if the control (Ctrl) key modifier is activated.
metaKey of type boolean, readonly
true if the meta (Meta) key modifier is activated.

Note: The Command key modifier on Macintosh system must be represented using this meta key.

relatedTarget of type EventTarget, readonly
Used to identify a secondary EventTarget related to a UI event, depending on the type of event.
screenX of type long, readonly
The horizontal coordinate at which the event occurred relative to the origin of the screen coordinate system.
screenY of type long, readonly
The vertical coordinate at which the event occurred relative to the origin of the screen coordinate system.
shiftKey of type boolean, readonly
true if the shift (Shift) key modifier is activated.
Methods
getModifierState introduced in DOM Level 3
This methods queries the state of a modifier using a key identifier. See also Modifier keys.
Parameters
keyIdentifierArg of type DOMString
A modifier key identifier, as defined by the KeyboardEvent.keyIdentifier attribute. Common modifier keys are "Alt", "AltGraph", "CapsLock", "Control", "Meta", "NumLock", "Scroll", or "Shift".

Note: If an application wishes to distinguish between right and left modifiers, this information could be deduced using keyboard events and KeyboardEvent.keyLocation.

Return Value

boolean

true if it is modifier key and the modifier is activated, false otherwise.
No Exceptions
initMouseEvent
The initMouseEvent method is used to initialize the value of a MouseEvent object and has the same behavior as UIEvent.initUIEvent().
Parameters
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
viewArg of type views::AbstractView
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
detailArg of type long
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
screenXArg of type long
Specifies MouseEvent.screenX.
screenYArg of type long
Specifies MouseEvent.screenY.
clientXArg of type long
Specifies MouseEvent.clientX.
clientYArg of type long
Specifies MouseEvent.clientY.
ctrlKeyArg of type boolean
Specifies MouseEvent.ctrlKey.
altKeyArg of type boolean
Specifies MouseEvent.altKey.
shiftKeyArg of type boolean
Specifies MouseEvent.shiftKey.
metaKeyArg of type boolean
Specifies MouseEvent.metaKey.
buttonArg of type unsigned short
Specifies MouseEvent.button.
relatedTargetArg of type EventTarget
Specifies MouseEvent.relatedTarget. This value may be null.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
initMouseEventNS introduced in DOM Level 3
The initMouseEventNS method is used to initialize the value of a MouseEvent object and has the same behavior as UIEvent.initUIEventNS().
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
viewArg of type views::AbstractView
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
detailArg of type long
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
screenXArg of type long
Refer to the MouseEvent.initMouseEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
screenYArg of type long
Refer to the MouseEvent.initMouseEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
clientXArg of type long
Refer to the MouseEvent.initMouseEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
clientYArg of type long
Refer to the MouseEvent.initMouseEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
buttonArg of type unsigned short
Refer to the MouseEvent.initMouseEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
relatedTargetArg of type EventTarget
Refer to the MouseEvent.initMouseEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
modifiersList of type DOMString
A white space separated list of modifier key identifiers to be activated on this object. As an example, "Control Alt" will activated the control and alt modifiers.
No Return Value
No Exceptions

The Mouse event types are listed below. In the case of nested elements, mouse event types are always targeted at the most deeply nested element. Ancestors of the targeted element may use bubbling to obtain notification of mouse events which occur within its descendent elements.

A DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature, version) method of the DOMImplementation interface with parameter values "MouseEvents" and "3.0" (respectively) to determine whether or not the Mouse event module is supported by the implementation. In order to fully support this module, an implementation must also support the "UIEvents" feature defined in this specification. For additional information about conformance, please see the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core]. The DOM Level 3 Mouse Events module is built on top of the DOM Level 2 Mouse Events [DOM Level 2 Events] module, i.e. a DOM Level 3 Mouse Events implementation where hasFeature("MouseEvents", "3.0") returns true must also return true when the version number is "2.0", "" or, null.

click
Type click
Namespace None
Interface MouseEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MouseEvent.screenX, MouseEvent.screenY, MouseEvent.clientX, MouseEvent.clientY, MouseEvent.altKey, MouseEvent.ctrlKey, MouseEvent.shiftKey, MouseEvent.metaKey, MouseEvent.button, and UIEvent.view are in use. The UIEvent.detail attribute indicates the number of consecutive clicks of a pointing device button during a user action. The attribute value is 1 when the user begins this action and increments by 1 for each click. The notion of consecutive clicks depends on the environment configuration. For example, a "double click" will not happen if there is a long delay between the two clicks, even if the pointing device did not move.
A pointing device button is clicked over an element. The definition of a click depends on the environment configuration; i.e. may depend on the screen location or the delay between the press and release of the pointing device button. In any case, the target node must be the same between the mousedown, mouseup, and click. The sequence of these events is: mousedown, mouseup, and click. It depends on the environment configuration whether the event type click can occur if one or more of the event types mouseover, mousemove, and mouseout occur between the press and release of the pointing device button. In the case of nested elements, this event type is always targeted at the most deeply nested element. In addition, the event type is dispatched as described in Activation requests and behavior.
mousedown
Type mousedown
Namespace None
Interface MouseEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MouseEvent.screenX, MouseEvent.screenY, MouseEvent.clientX, MouseEvent.clientY, MouseEvent.altKey, MouseEvent.ctrlKey, MouseEvent.shiftKey, MouseEvent.metaKey, MouseEvent.button, and UIEvent.view are in use. The UIEvent.detail attribute indicates the number of consecutive clicks, incremented by one, of a pointing device button during a user action. For example, if no click happened before the mousedown, UIEvent.detail will contain the value 1.
A pointing device button is pressed over an element. In the case of nested elements, this event type is always targeted at the most deeply nested element.
mouseup
Type mouseup
Namespace None
Interface MouseEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MouseEvent.screenX, MouseEvent.screenY, MouseEvent.clientX, MouseEvent.clientY, MouseEvent.altKey, MouseEvent.ctrlKey, MouseEvent.shiftKey, MouseEvent.metaKey, MouseEvent.button, and UIEvent.view are in use. The UIEvent.detail attribute indicates the number of consecutive clicks, incremented by one, of a pointing device button during a user action.
A pointing device button is released over an element. In the case of nested elements, this event type is always targeted at the most deeply nested element.
mouseover
Type mouseover
Namespace None
Interface MouseEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MouseEvent.screenX, MouseEvent.screenY, MouseEvent.clientX, MouseEvent.clientY, MouseEvent.altKey, MouseEvent.ctrlKey, MouseEvent.shiftKey, MouseEvent.metaKey, and UIEvent.view are in use. MouseEvent.relatedTarget indicates the event target a pointing device is exiting, if any.
A pointing device is moved onto an element. In the case of nested elements, this event type is always targeted at the most deeply nested element.
mousemove
Type mousemove
Namespace None
Interface MouseEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MouseEvent.screenX, MouseEvent.screenY, MouseEvent.clientX, MouseEvent.clientY, MouseEvent.altKey, MouseEvent.ctrlKey, MouseEvent.shiftKey, MouseEvent.metaKey, and UIEvent.view are in use.
A pointing device is moved while it is over an element. In the case of nested elements, this event type is always targeted at the most deeply nested element.
mouseout
Type mouseout
Namespace None
Interface MouseEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MouseEvent.screenX, MouseEvent.screenY, MouseEvent.clientX, MouseEvent.clientY, MouseEvent.altKey, MouseEvent.ctrlKey, MouseEvent.shiftKey, MouseEvent.metaKey, and UIEvent.view are in use. MouseEvent.relatedTarget indicates the event target a pointing device is entering, if any.
A pointing device is moved away from an element. In the case of nested elements, this event type is always targeted at the most deeply nested element.

As an example, a "double click" on a mouse device will produce the following events (the value of UIEvent.detail is indicated in parenthesis):

  1. "mousedown" (1)
  2. "mouseup" (1)
  3. "click" (1)
  4. "mousedown" (2)
  5. "mouseup" (2)
  6. "click" (2)

1.8.4 Keyboard event types

Keyboard events are device dependent, i.e. they rely on the capabilities of the input devices and how they are mapped in the operating systems. It is therefore highly recommended to rely on Text events types when dealing with character input.

Interface KeyboardEvent (introduced in DOM Level 3)

The KeyboardEvent interface provides specific contextual information associated with keyboard devices. Each keyboard event references a key using an identifier. Keyboard events are commonly directed at the element that has the focus.

The KeyboardEvent interface provides convenient attributes for some common modifiers keys: KeyboardEvent.ctrlKey, KeyboardEvent.shiftKey, KeyboardEvent.altKey, KeyboardEvent.metaKey. These attributes are equivalent to use the method KeyboardEvent.getModifierState(keyIdentifierArg) with "Control", "Shift", "Alt", or "Meta" respectively.

To create an instance of the KeyboardEvent interface, use the DocumentEvent.createEvent("KeyboardEvent") method call.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 3:
interface KeyboardEvent : UIEvent {

  // KeyLocationCode
  const unsigned long       DOM_KEY_LOCATION_STANDARD      = 0x00;
  const unsigned long       DOM_KEY_LOCATION_LEFT          = 0x01;
  const unsigned long       DOM_KEY_LOCATION_RIGHT         = 0x02;
  const unsigned long       DOM_KEY_LOCATION_NUMPAD        = 0x03;

  readonly attribute DOMString       keyIdentifier;
  readonly attribute unsigned long   keyLocation;
  readonly attribute boolean         ctrlKey;
  readonly attribute boolean         shiftKey;
  readonly attribute boolean         altKey;
  readonly attribute boolean         metaKey;
  boolean            getModifierState(in DOMString keyIdentifierArg);
  void               initKeyboardEvent(in DOMString typeArg, 
                                       in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                       in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                       in views::AbstractView viewArg, 
                                       in DOMString keyIdentifierArg, 
                                       in unsigned long keyLocationArg, 
                                       in DOMString modifiersList);
  void               initKeyboardEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                         in DOMString typeArg, 
                                         in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                         in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                         in views::AbstractView viewArg, 
                                         in DOMString keyIdentifierArg, 
                                         in unsigned long keyLocationArg, 
                                         in DOMString modifiersList);
};

Definition group KeyLocationCode

This set of constants is used to indicate the location of a key on the device. In case a DOM implementation wishes to provide a new location information, a value different from the following constant values must be used.

Defined Constants
DOM_KEY_LOCATION_LEFT
The key activated is in the left key location (there is more than one possible location for this key). Example: the left Shift key on a PC 101 Key US keyboard.
DOM_KEY_LOCATION_NUMPAD
The key activation originated on the numeric keypad or with a virtual key corresponding to the numeric keypad. Example: the '1' key on a PC 101 Key US keyboard located on the numeric pad.
DOM_KEY_LOCATION_RIGHT
The key activation is in the right key location (there is more than one possible location for this key). Example: the right Shift key on a PC 101 Key US keyboard.
DOM_KEY_LOCATION_STANDARD
The key activation is not distinguished as the left or right version of the key, and did not originate from the numeric keypad (or did not originate with a virtual key corresponding to the numeric keypad). Example: the 'Q' key on a PC 101 Key US keyboard.
Attributes
altKey of type boolean, readonly
true if the alternative (Alt) key modifier is activated.

Note: The Option key modifier on Macintosh systems must be represented using this key modifier.

ctrlKey of type boolean, readonly
true if the control (Ctrl) key modifier is activated.
keyIdentifier of type DOMString, readonly
keyIdentifier holds the identifier of the key. The key identifiers are defined in Appendix A.2 "Key identifiers set". Implementations that are unable to identify a key must use the key identifier "Unidentified".
keyLocation of type unsigned long, readonly
The keyLocation attribute contains an indication of the location of they key on the device, as described in Keyboard event types.
metaKey of type boolean, readonly
true if the meta (Meta) key modifier is activated.

Note: The Command key modifier on Macintosh systems must be represented using this key modifier.

shiftKey of type boolean, readonly
true if the shift (Shift) key modifier is activated.
Methods
getModifierState
This methods queries the state of a modifier using a key identifier. See also Modifier keys.
Parameters
keyIdentifierArg of type DOMString
A modifier key identifier. Common modifier keys are "Alt", "AltGraph", "CapsLock", "Control", "Meta", "NumLock", "Scroll", or "Shift".

Note: If an application wishes to distinguish between right and left modifiers, this information could be deduced using keyboard events and KeyboardEvent.keyLocation.

Return Value

boolean

true if it is modifier key and the modifier is activated, false otherwise.
No Exceptions
initKeyboardEvent
The initKeyboardEvent method is used to initialize the value of a KeyboardEvent object and has the same behavior as UIEvent.initUIEvent(). The value of UIEvent.detail remains undefined.
Parameters
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
viewArg of type views::AbstractView
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
keyIdentifierArg of type DOMString
Specifies KeyboardEvent.keyIdentifier.
keyLocationArg of type unsigned long
Specifies KeyboardEvent.keyLocation.
modifiersList of type DOMString
A white space separated list of modifier key identifiers to be activated on this object.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
initKeyboardEventNS
The initKeyboardEventNS method is used to initialize the value of a KeyboardEvent object and has the same behavior as UIEvent.initUIEventNS(). The value of UIEvent.detail remains undefined.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
viewArg of type views::AbstractView
Refer to the UIEvent.initUIEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
keyIdentifierArg of type DOMString
Refer to the KeyboardEvent.initKeyboardEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
keyLocationArg of type unsigned long
Refer to the KeyboardEvent.initKeyboardEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
modifiersList of type DOMString
A white space separated list of modifier key identifiers to be activated on this object. As an example, "Control Alt" will activated the control and alt modifiers.
No Return Value
No Exceptions

Depending on the character generation device, keyboard events may or may not be generated.

The keyboard event types are listed below. A DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature, version) method of the DOMImplementation interface with parameter values "KeyboardEvents" and "3.0" (respectively) to determine whether or not the Keyboard event module is supported by the implementation. In order to fully support this module, an implementation must also support the "UIEvents" feature defined in this specification. For additional information about conformance, please see the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core].

keydown
Type keydown
Namespace None
Interface KeyboardEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view, KeyboardEvent.keyIdentifier, KeyboardEvent.keyLocation, KeyboardEvent.altKey, KeyboardEvent.shiftKey, KeyboardEvent.ctrlKey, and KeyboardEvent.metaKey are in use.
A key is pressed down. This event type is device dependent and relies on the capabilities of the input devices and how they are mapped in the operating system. This event type is generated after the keyboard mapping but before the processing of an input method editor. This event should logically happen before the event keyup is produced. Whether a keydown contributes or not to the generation of a text event is implementation dependent.
keyup
Type keyup
Namespace None
Interface KeyboardEvent
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view, KeyboardEvent.keyIdentifier, and KeyboardEvent.keyLocation are in use. KeyboardEvent.altKey, KeyboardEvent.shiftKey, KeyboardEvent.ctrlKey, and KeyboardEvent.metaKey are in use unless the KeyboardEvent.keyIdentifier corresponds to the key modifier itself.
A key is released. This event type is device dependent and relies on the capabilities of the input devices and how they are mapped in the operating system. This event type is generated after the keyboard mapping but before the processing of an input method editor. This event should logically happen after the event keydown is produced. Whether a keyup contributes or not to the generation of a text event is implementation dependent.

1.8.5 Mutation and mutation name event types

The mutation and mutation name event modules are designed to allow notification of any changes to the structure of a document, including attribute, text, or name modifications. It may be noted that none of the event types associated with the modules are designated as cancelable. This stems from the fact that it is very difficult to make use of existing DOM interfaces which cause document modifications if any change to the document might or might not take place due to cancelation of the resulting event. Although this is still a desired capability, it was decided that it would be better left until the addition of transactions into the DOM.

Many single modifications of the tree can cause multiple mutation events to be dispatched. Rather than attempt to specify the ordering of mutation events due to every possible modification of the tree, the ordering of these events is left to the implementation.

Interface MutationEvent (introduced in DOM Level 2)

The MutationEvent interface provides specific contextual information associated with Mutation events.

To create an instance of the MutationEvent interface, use the DocumentEvent.createEvent("MutationEvent") method call.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
interface MutationEvent : Event {

  // attrChangeType
  const unsigned short      MODIFICATION                   = 1;
  const unsigned short      ADDITION                       = 2;
  const unsigned short      REMOVAL                        = 3;

  readonly attribute Node            relatedNode;
  readonly attribute DOMString       prevValue;
  readonly attribute DOMString       newValue;
  readonly attribute DOMString       attrName;
  readonly attribute unsigned short  attrChange;
  void               initMutationEvent(in DOMString typeArg, 
                                       in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                       in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                       in Node relatedNodeArg, 
                                       in DOMString prevValueArg, 
                                       in DOMString newValueArg, 
                                       in DOMString attrNameArg, 
                                       in unsigned short attrChangeArg);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               initMutationEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                         in DOMString typeArg, 
                                         in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                         in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                         in Node relatedNodeArg, 
                                         in DOMString prevValueArg, 
                                         in DOMString newValueArg, 
                                         in DOMString attrNameArg, 
                                         in unsigned short attrChangeArg);
};

Definition group attrChangeType

An integer indicating in which way the Attr was changed.

Defined Constants
ADDITION
The Attr was just added.
MODIFICATION
The Attr was modified in place.
REMOVAL
The Attr was just removed.
Attributes
attrChange of type unsigned short, readonly
attrChange indicates the type of change which triggered the DOMAttrModified event. The values can be MODIFICATION, ADDITION, or REMOVAL.
attrName of type DOMString, readonly
attrName indicates the name of the changed Attr node in a DOMAttrModified event.
newValue of type DOMString, readonly
newValue indicates the new value of the Attr node in DOMAttrModified events, and of the CharacterData node in DOMCharacterDataModified events.
prevValue of type DOMString, readonly
prevValue indicates the previous value of the Attr node in DOMAttrModified events, and of the CharacterData node in DOMCharacterDataModified events.
relatedNode of type Node, readonly
relatedNode is used to identify a secondary node related to a mutation event. For example, if a mutation event is dispatched to a node indicating that its parent has changed, the relatedNode is the changed parent. If an event is instead dispatched to a subtree indicating a node was changed within it, the relatedNode is the changed node. In the case of the DOMAttrModified event it indicates the Attr node which was modified, added, or removed.
Methods
initMutationEvent
The initMutationEvent method is used to initialize the value of a MutationEvent object and has the same behavior as Event.initEvent().
Parameters
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
relatedNodeArg of type Node
Specifies MutationEvent.relatedNode.
prevValueArg of type DOMString
Specifies MutationEvent.prevValue. This value may be null.
newValueArg of type DOMString
Specifies MutationEvent.newValue. This value may be null.
attrNameArg of type DOMString
Specifies MutationEvent.attrname. This value may be null.
attrChangeArg of type unsigned short
Specifies MutationEvent.attrChange. This value may be null.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
initMutationEventNS introduced in DOM Level 3
The initMutationEventNS method is used to initialize the value of a MutationEvent object and has the same behavior as Event.initEventNS().
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the Event.initEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
relatedNodeArg of type Node
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
prevValueArg of type DOMString
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
newValueArg of type DOMString
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
attrNameArg of type DOMString
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
attrChangeArg of type unsigned short
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
No Return Value
No Exceptions

The mutation event types are listed below. A DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature, version) method of the DOMImplementation interface with parameter values "MutationEvents" and "3.0" (respectively) to determine whether or not the Mutation event module is supported by the implementation. In order to fully support this module, an implementation must also support the "Events" feature defined in this specification. For additional information about conformance, please see the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core]. This MutationEvent interface is built on top of the DOM Level 2 Mutation Events [DOM Level 2 Events] module, i.e. a DOM Level 3 MutationEvent interface implementation where hasFeature("MutationEvents","3.0") returns true must also return true when the version number is "2.0", "" or, null.

DOMSubtreeModified
Type DOMSubtreeModified
Namespace None
Interface MutationEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Document, DocumentFragment, Element, Attr
Context info None
This is a general event for notification of all changes to the document. It can be used instead of the more specific mutation and mutation name events listed below. It may be dispatched after a single modification to the document or, at the implementation's discretion, after multiple changes have occurred. The latter use should generally be used to accommodate multiple changes which occur either simultaneously or in rapid succession. The target of this event is the lowest common parent of the changes which have taken place. This event is dispatched after any other events caused by the mutation(s) have occurred.
DOMNodeInserted
Type DOMNodeInserted
Namespace None
Interface MutationEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element, Attr, Text, Comment, CDATASection, DocumentType, EntityReference, ProcessingInstruction
Context info MutationEvent.relatedNode holds the parent node of the node that has been inserted or, in case of Attr nodes, the ownerElement of the Attr node.
A node has been added as a child of another node or, in case of Attr nodes, has been added to an Element. This event is dispatched after the insertion has taken place. The target node of this event is the node being inserted.
DOMNodeRemoved
Type DOMNodeRemoved
Namespace None
Interface MutationEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element, Attr, Text, Comment, CDATASection, DocumentType, EntityReference, ProcessingInstruction
Context info MutationEvent.relatedNode holds the parent node of the node being removed or, in case of Attr nodes, the ownerElement of the Attr node.
A node is being removed from its parent node or, in case of Attr nodes, removed from its ownerElement. This event is dispatched before the removal takes place. The target node of this event is the node being removed.
DOMNodeRemovedFromDocument
Type DOMNodeRemovedFromDocument
Namespace None
Interface MutationEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element, Attr, Text, Comment, CDATASection, DocumentType, EntityReference, ProcessingInstruction
Context info None
A node is being removed from a document, either through direct removal of the node or removal of a subtree in which it is contained; Attr nodes are considered part of an Element's subtree. This event is dispatched before the removal takes place. The target node of this event type is the node being removed. If the node is being directly removed, the event type DOMNodeRemoved occurs before this event type.
DOMNodeInsertedIntoDocument
Type DOMNodeInsertedIntoDocument
Namespace None
Interface MutationEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element, Attr, Text, Comment, CDATASection, DocumentType, EntityReference, ProcessingInstruction
Context info None
A node has been inserted into a document, either through direct insertion of the node or insertion of a subtree in which it is contained; Attr nodes are considered part of an Element's subtree. This event is dispatched after the insertion has taken place. The target node of this event is the node being inserted. If the node is being directly inserted, the event type DOMNodeInserted occurs before this event type.
DOMAttrModified
Type DOMAttrModified
Namespace None
Interface MutationEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MutationEvent.attrName and MutationEvent.attrChange are in use. The value of MutationEvent.relatedNode indicates the Attr node that has been modified, added, or removed. If the Attr node has been added, MutationEvent.newValue is in use. If the Attr node has been removed, MutationEvent.prevValue is in use. If the Attr node has been modified, MutationEvent.newValue and MutationEvent.prevValue are in use.
Occurs after Attr.value has been modified and after an Attr node has been added to or removed from an Element. The target node of this event is the Element node where the change occured. It is implementation dependent whether this event type occurs when the children of the Attr node are changed in ways that do not affect the value of Attr.value.
DOMCharacterDataModified
Type DOMCharacterDataModified
Namespace None
Interface MutationEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Text, Comment, CDATASection, ProcessingInstruction
Context info MutationEvent.prevValue, and MutationEvent.newValue are in use.
Occurs after CharacterData.data or ProcessingInstruction.data have been modified but the node itself has not been inserted or deleted. The target node of this event is the CharacterData node or the ProcessingInstruction node.
Interface MutationNameEvent (introduced in DOM Level 3)

The MutationNameEvent interface provides specific contextual information associated with Mutation name event types.

To create an instance of the MutationNameEvent interface, use the Document.createEvent("MutationNameEvent") method call.


IDL Definition
// Introduced in DOM Level 3:
interface MutationNameEvent : MutationEvent {
  readonly attribute DOMString       prevNamespaceURI;
  readonly attribute DOMString       prevNodeName;
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               initMutationNameEvent(in DOMString typeArg, 
                                           in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                           in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                           in Node relatedNodeArg, 
                                           in DOMString prevNamespaceURIArg, 
                                           in DOMString prevNodeNameArg);
  // Introduced in DOM Level 3:
  void               initMutationNameEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, 
                                             in DOMString typeArg, 
                                             in boolean canBubbleArg, 
                                             in boolean cancelableArg, 
                                             in Node relatedNodeArg, 
                                             in DOMString prevNamespaceURIArg, 
                                             in DOMString prevNodeNameArg);
};

Attributes
prevNamespaceURI of type DOMString, readonly
The previous value of the relatedNode's namespaceURI.
prevNodeName of type DOMString, readonly
The previous value of the relatedNode's nodeName.
Methods
initMutationNameEvent introduced in DOM Level 3
The initMutationNameEvent method is used to initialize the value of a MutationNameEvent object and has the same behavior as MutationEvent.initMutationEvent().
Parameters
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
relatedNodeArg of type Node
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
prevNamespaceURIArg of type DOMString
Specifies MutationNameEvent.prevNamespaceURI. This value may be null.
prevNodeNameArg of type DOMString
Specifies MutationNameEvent.prevNodeName.
No Return Value
No Exceptions
initMutationNameEventNS introduced in DOM Level 3
The initMutationNameEventNS method is used to initialize the value of a MutationNameEvent object and has the same behavior as MutationEvent.initMutationEventNS().
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
typeArg of type DOMString
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
canBubbleArg of type boolean
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
cancelableArg of type boolean
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
relatedNodeArg of type Node
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEventNS() method for a description of this parameter.
prevNamespaceURIArg of type DOMString
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
prevNodeNameArg of type DOMString
Refer to the MutationEvent.initMutationEvent() method for a description of this parameter.
No Return Value
No Exceptions

The mutation name event types are listed below. A DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature, version) method of the DOMImplementation interface with parameter values "MutationNameEvents" and "3.0" (respectively) to determine whether or not the Mutation Name event module is supported by the implementation. In order to fully support this module, an implementation must also support the "MutationEvents" feature defined in this specification and the "Core" feature defined in the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core]. For additional information about conformance, please see the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core].

DOMElementNameChanged
Type DOMElementNameChanged
Namespace None
Interface MutationNameEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MutationNameEvent.prevNamespaceURI, and MutationNameEvent.prevNodeName are in use.
Occurs after the namespaceURI and/or the nodeName of an Element node have been modified (e.g., the element was renamed using Document.renameNode()). The target node of this event is the renamed Element node.
DOMAttributeNameChanged
Type DOMAttributeNameChanged
Namespace None
Interface MutationNameEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info MutationNameEvent.prevNamespaceURI, and MutationNameEvent.prevNodeName are in use. The value of MutationEvent.relatedNode contains the renamed Attr node.
Occurs after the namespaceURI and/or the nodeName of a Attr node have been modified (e.g., the attribute was renamed using Document.renameNode()). The target node of this event is the Element node whose Attr has been renamed.

1.8.6 Basic event types

This event module contains basic event types associated with document manipulation.

A DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature, version) method of the DOMImplementation interface with parameter values "BasicEvents" and "3.0" (respectively) to determine whether or not the basic event module is supported by the implementation. In order to fully support this module, an implementation must also support the "Events" feature defined in this specification. For additional information about conformance, please see the DOM Level 3 Core specification [DOM Level 3 Core].

The basic event types are listed below.

The event types resize and scroll implement the UIEvent interface. All other basic event types implement at least the basic Event interface. However, they may be generated from a user interface; in that case, the event objects also implements the UIEvent interface and UIEvent.view is in use.

load
Type load
Namespace None
Interface Event
Cancelable No
Bubbles No
Target Document, Element
Context info UIEvent.view may be in use.
The DOM Implementation finishes loading the resource (such as the document) and any dependent resources (such as images, style sheets, or scripts). Dependent resources that fail to load will not prevent this event from firing if the resource that loaded them is still accessible via the DOM. If this event type is dispatched, implementations are required to dispatch this event at least on the Document node.
unload
Type unload
Namespace None
Interface Event
Cancelable No
Bubbles No
Target Document, Element
Context info UIEvent.view may be in use.
The DOM implementation removes from the environment the resource (such as the document) or any dependent resources (such as images, style sheets, scripts). The document is unloaded after the dispatch of this event type. If this event type is dispatched, implementations are required to dispatch this event at least on the Document node.
abort
Type abort
Namespace None
Interface Event
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view may be in use.
The loading of the document, or a resource linked from it, is stopped before being entirely loaded.
error
Type error
Namespace None
Interface Event
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view may be in use.
A resource failed to load, or has been loaded but cannot be interpreted according to its semantics such as an invalid image, a script execution error, or non-well-formed XML.
select
Type select
Namespace None
Interface Event
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view may be in use.
A user selects some text. DOM Level 3 Events does not provide contextual information to access the selected text. The selection occured before the dispatch of this event type.
change
Type change
Namespace None
Interface Event
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view may be in use.
A control loses the input focus and its value has been modified since gaining focus. This event type is dispatched before the event type blur.
submit
Type submit
Namespace None
Interface Event
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view may be in use.
A form, such as [HTML 4.01], [XHTML 1.0], or [XForms 1.0] form, is submitted.
reset
Type reset
Namespace None
Interface Event
Cancelable Yes
Bubbles Yes
Target Element
Context info UIEvent.view may be in use.
A form, such as [HTML 4.01], [XHTML 1.0], or [XForms 1.0] form, is reset.
resize
Type resize
Namespace None
Interface UIEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Document, Element
Context info UIEvent.view is in use.
A document view or an element has been resized. The resize occured before the dispatch of this event type.
scroll
Type scroll
Namespace None
Interface UIEvent
Cancelable No
Bubbles Yes
Target Document, Element
Context info UIEvent.view is in use.
A document view or an element has been scrolled. The scroll occured before the dispatch of this event type.

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