KeyboardEvent: initKeyboardEvent() method

The KeyboardEvent.initKeyboardEvent() method initializes the attributes of a keyboard event object. This method was introduced in draft of DOM Level 3 Events, but deprecated in newer draft. Gecko won't support this feature since implementing this method as experimental broke existing web apps (see Firefox bug 999645). Web applications should use constructor instead of this if it's available.

Syntax

initKeyboardEvent(type, canBubble, cancelable,
                  view, key, location, ctrlKey,
                  altKey, shiftKey, metaKey)

Parameters

type

The type of keyboard event; browsers always set it to one of keydown, keypress, or keyup.

canBubble Optional

Indicates whether or not the event can bubble. Defaults to false.

cancelable Optional

Indicates whether or not the event can be canceled. Defaults to false.

view Optional

The WindowProxy it is associated to. Defaults to null.

key Optional

The value of the key attribute. Defaults to "".

location Optional

The value of the location attribute. Defaults to 0.

ctrlKey Optional

Indicates whether the control key modifier is active. Defaults to false.

altKey Optional

Indicates whether the alt key modifier is active. Defaults to false.

shiftKey Optional

Indicates whether the shift key modifier is active. Defaults to false.

metaKey Optional

Indicates whether the meta key modifier is active. Defaults to false.

Return value

None (undefined).

Specifications

The KeyboardEvent interface specification went through numerous draft versions, first under DOM Events Level 2 where it was dropped as no consensus arose, then under DOM Events Level 3. This led to the implementation of non-standard initialization methods, the early DOM Events Level 2 version, KeyboardEvent.initKeyEvent() by Gecko browsers and the early DOM Events Level 3 version, KeyboardEvent.initKeyboardEvent() by others. Both have been superseded by the modern usage of a constructor: KeyboardEvent().

Browser compatibility