CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascripteventsprototypejs
Neil Aitken
Neil Aitken

Reputation: 7854

Trigger an event with Prototype

Does anybody know of a method to trigger an event in Prototype, as you can with jQuery's trigger function?

I have bound an event listener using the observe method, but I would also like to be able to fire the event programatically.

Upvotes: 62

Views: 65220

Answers (4)

Greg
Greg

Reputation: 321834

I don't think there is one built in to Prototype, but you can use this (not tested but should at least get you in the right direction):

Element.prototype.triggerEvent = function(eventName)
{
    if (document.createEvent)
    {
        var evt = document.createEvent('HTMLEvents');
        evt.initEvent(eventName, true, true);

        return this.dispatchEvent(evt);
    }

    if (this.fireEvent)
        return this.fireEvent('on' + eventName);
}

$('foo').triggerEvent('mouseover');

Upvotes: 35

Haqa
Haqa

Reputation: 476

The answers here are true for "Normal" events, that is events which are defined by the User Agent, but for custom events you should use prototype's "fire" method. e.g.

$('something').observe('my:custom', function() { alert('Custom'); });
.
.
$('something').fire('my:custom'); // This will cause the alert to display

Upvotes: 3

John D
John D

Reputation: 51

I found this post helpful... http://jehiah.cz/archive/firing-javascript-events-properly

It covers a way to fire events in both Firefox and IE.

function fireEvent(element,event){
    if (document.createEventObject){
        // dispatch for IE
        var evt = document.createEventObject();
        return element.fireEvent('on'+event,evt)
    }
    else{
        // dispatch for firefox + others
        var evt = document.createEvent("HTMLEvents");
        evt.initEvent(event, true, true ); // event type,bubbling,cancelable
        return !element.dispatchEvent(evt);
    }
}

Upvotes: 5

Aron Rotteveel
Aron Rotteveel

Reputation: 83213

event.simulate.js fits your needs.

I've used this several times and it works like a charm. It allows you to manually trigger native events, such as click or hover like so:

$('foo').simulate('click');

The great thing about this is that all attached event handlers will still be executed, just as if you would have clicked the element yourself.

For custom events you can use the standard prototype method Event.fire().

Upvotes: 85

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