Non-standard
This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.
Deprecated
This feature has been removed from the Web standards. Though some browsers may still support it, it is in the process of being dropped. Do not use it in old or new projects. Pages or Web apps using it may break at any time.
The KeyboardEvent.initKeyEvent method is used to initialize the value of an event created using document.createEvent("KeyboardEvent"). Events initialized in this way must have been created with the document.createEvent("KeyboardEvent") method. initKeyEvent must be called to set the event before it is dispatched.
Do not use this method any more, use the KeyboardEvent() constructor instead.
This method is based on early drafts of Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Events Specification and is implemented in Gecko-based browsers; other browsers implemented KeyboardEvent.initKeyboardEvent based on early drafts of Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification. Favor the modern constructor structure as the only cross-browser way of building events.
Syntax
event.initKeyEvent (type, bubbles, cancelable, viewArg,
ctrlKeyArg, altKeyArg, shiftKeyArg, metaKeyArg,
keyCodeArg, charCodeArg)
Parameters
type- Is a
DOMStringrepresenting the type of event. bubbles- Is a
Booleanindicating whether the event should bubble up through the event chain or not (see bubbles). cancelable- Is a
Booleani indicating whether the event can be canceled (see cancelable). viewArg- Specifies the
UIEvent.view; this value may benull. ctrlKeyArg- Is a
Booleanthat istrueif the virtual key to be generated is a combination of keys containing the Ctrl key. altKeyArg- Is a
Booleanthat istrueif the virtual key to be generated is a combination of keys containing the Alt key. shiftKeyArg- A
Booleanthat istrueif the virtual key to be generated is a combination of keys containing the Shift key. metaKeyArg- Is a
Booleanthat istrueif the virtual key to be generated is a combination of keys containing the Meta key. keyCodeArg- Is a
unsigned longrepresenting the virtual key code value of the key which was depressed, otherwise0. SeeKeyboardEvent.keyCodefor the list of key codes. charCodeArg- Is a
unsigned longrepresentingthe Unicode character associated with the depressed key otherwise0.
Example
var event = document.createEvent('KeyboardEvent'); // create a key event
// define the event
event.initKeyEvent("keypress", // typeArg,
true, // canBubbleArg,
true, // cancelableArg,
null, // viewArg, Specifies UIEvent.view. This value may be null.
false, // ctrlKeyArg,
false, // altKeyArg,
false, // shiftKeyArg,
false, // metaKeyArg,
9, // keyCodeArg,
0); // charCodeArg);
document.getElementById('blah').dispatchEvent(event);
Specification
This implementation of keyboard events is based on the key events spec in the early versions of DOM 2 Events, later removed from that spec.
The initKeyEvent is the current Gecko equivalent of the DOM Level 3 Events (initially drafted and also deprecated in favor of KeyboardEvent() Keyboard.initKeyboardEvent() method with the following arguments :
typeArg of type DOMString canBubbleArg of type boolean cancelableArg of type boolean viewArg of type views::AbstractView keyIdentifierArg of type DOMString keyLocationArg of type unsigned long modifiersList of type DOMString);