Fire a click event in raw javascript

Question

In jQuery I can do something like:

$('#example').click();

What is the equivalent in raw Javascript? I have tried the following:

document.getElementById('example').click();

But that doesn't seem to work. Thanks!

possible duplicate of [How to trigger event in javascript](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2490825/how-to-trigger-event-in-javascript) — AlienWebguy, Apr 26 '12 at 18:25
I think your requirement is same as, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/906486/how-can-i-programmatically-invoke-an-onclick-event-from-a-anchor-tag-while-kee Or may be this can be useful too, http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?t=124704 — vbjain, Apr 26 '12 at 18:31
@AlienWebguy I tried searching... 90% of the search results are jQuery related. — mike, Apr 26 '12 at 19:55

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 27 '12 at 06:40

I use this in my framework:

    function fireEvent() {
        var eventType = null, i, j, k, l, event,
            einstellungen = {
            'pointerX': 0,
            'pointerY': 0,
            'button': 0,
            'ctrlKey': false,
            'altKey': false,
            'shiftKey': false,
            'metaKey': false,
            'bubbles': true,
            'cancelable': true
        }, moeglicheEvents = [
            ['HTMLEvents', ['load', 'unload', 'abort', 'error', 'select', 'change', 'submit', 'reset', 'focus', 'blur', 'resize', 'scroll']],
            ['MouseEvents', ['click', 'dblclick', 'mousedown', 'mouseup', 'mouseover', 'mousemove', 'mouseout']]
        ];

        for(i=0,j=moeglicheEvents.length;i<j;++i) {
            for(k=0,l=moeglicheEvents[i][1].length;k<l;++k) {
                if(arguments[1] === moeglicheEvents[i][1][k]) {
                    eventType = moeglicheEvents[i][0]; i = j; k = l;
                }
            }
        }

        if(arguments.length > 2) {
            if((typeof arguments[2]) === 'object') {
                change(einstellungen, arguments[2]);
            }
        }

        if(eventType === null) {
            throw new SyntaxError('Event type "' + arguments[1] + '" is not implemented!');
        }

        if(document.createEvent) {
            event = document.createEvent(eventType);

            if(eventType === 'HTMLEvents') {
                event.initEvent(arguments[1], einstellungen.bubbles, einstellungen.cancalable);
            } else {
                event.initMouseEvent(arguments[1], einstellungen.bubbles, einstellungen.cancelable, document.defaultView,
                    einstellungen.button, einstellungen.pointerX, einstellungen.pointerY, einstellungen.pointerX, einstellungen.pointerY,
                    einstellungen.ctrlKey, einstellungen.altKey, einstellungen.shiftKey, einstellungen.metaKey, einstellungen.button, arguments[0]);
            }

            arguments[0].dispatchEvent(event);
        } else {
            einstellungen.clientX = einstellungen.pointerX;
            einstellungen.clientY = einstellungen.pointerY;

            event = document.createEventObject();

            event = extend(event, einstellungen);

            arguments[0].fireEvent('on' + arguments[1], event);
        }
    }

argument 1 is the element, the second argument the event, the third (optional) options.

Sorry, i forgot to rewrite some parts:

_.isObject() to (typeof arguments[2]) == 'object'

and _.change to change and this function is needed:

function change() {
    var name;

    for(name in arguments[1]) {
        if((typeof arguments[1][name]) === 'object') {
            if((typeof arguments[0][name]) === 'undefined') {
                arguments[0][name] = {};
            }

            change(arguments[0][name], arguments[1][name]);
        } else {
            arguments[0][name] = arguments[1][name];
        }
    }

    return arguments[0];
};

Edit:

In your case it would be fireEvent(document.getElementById('example'), 'click');

@RakeshJuyal thats German. I often mix German and English names in my scripts (I'm from Germany). — , Apr 27 '12 at 07:28
Could you extract just the fire-click-event please ? x) this works but is not readable xD thanks ! — jave.web, Nov 01 '13 at 18:51

Fire a click event in raw javascript

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