discriminately capturing onkeypress events

jbigham

Hello,

I'd like to capture key events using javascript, but don't want to
process such events when the user is typing into an input box or into a
textarea. As an example, gmail has a feature where you can type "r"
anywhere on the page while viewing a message and it will open a reply
box, but if you type an "r" while entering text into a form, it doesn't
do this.

My question is how to do this most efficiently.

Should I capture all events of interest and then determine whether to
act based on the object that has focus?

Should I define many onkeypress events for each of the objects on the
page that aren't text boxes?

Should I define the onkeypress at page level but return null for
onkeypress from each of the text boxes on the page?

What do you think?

Thanks!
Jeff

Mar 28 '06 #1

Subscribe Post Reply

2258

Csaba Gabor

jb*****@cs.washington.edu wrote:

Hello,

I'd like to capture key events using javascript, but don't want to
process such events when the user is typing into an input box or into a
textarea. As an example, gmail has a feature where you can type "r"
anywhere on the page while viewing a message and it will open a reply
box, but if you type an "r" while entering text into a form, it doesn't
do this.

My question is how to do this most efficiently. .... Should I define the onkeypress at page level but return null for
onkeypress from each of the text boxes on the page?

I would capture the 'keydown' event (there is also keyup and keypress),
and use the event object to see what the original target was. If it
was a textbox or textarea (which you can check using .tagName and
..type), then return immediately. Otherwise do your thing and
subsequently perhaps cancel the event from bubbling / continuing.

Csaba Gabor from Vienna

Mar 28 '06 #2

Jim

Jeff,
This should do the trick: type 'r' in the form input and text areas and
nothing will happen; type it anywhere in the body and the paragraph
text will change. this should work in both msie and firefox; also, I
found that onKeyup seems to be more browser compatible.
-------------------------------------------------------------
<script type='text/javascript' >
function showStuff(evt){
var node = (evt.target) ? evt.target : ((evt.srcElement)
?evt.srcElement : null );
evt = (evt) ? evt : ((event) ? event : null);
var keynumber = evt.keyCode;
if(keynumber == 82){
if((node.tagName =="INPUT")||(node.tagName =="TEXTAREA")){
//do nothing;
}else{
document.getElementById("para").innerHTML = "you pressed the R key";
}
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body onkeyup = "showStuff(event)" onClick="showStuff(event)">
<form>
<input type="text" id="entry" size = "60" ><br>
<textarea rows="7" cols="57"></textarea></p>
</form>
<p id="para">some paragraph text</p>
</body>

Mar 29 '06 #3

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discriminately capturing onkeypress events

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