Do not preventDefault when a key is pressed

Question

I'm using window.history and intercepting link clicks:

document.querySelector('a[data-history]').addEventListener('click', function (e) {
  e.preventDefault()
  // window.history stuff
})

The problem now is that if I want to open the link in a new tab instead, it doesn't work. That is, the Javascript disables opening the link in a new tab and just does the same window.history code. Specifically, this is when you hold down COMMAND + CLICK on Mac. What is the best way to not preventDefault when a key is pressed?

This post might help you (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1357118/event-preventdefault-vs-return-false). — icanc, Feb 08 '13 at 02:48
Set up an event handler for when you press the Ctrl/Command keys, then don't execute the above statement when you hit that event. — matthewpavkov, Feb 08 '13 at 02:49
is there a way to detect if a key is currently pressed without listening for events? — Jonathan Ong, Feb 08 '13 at 03:02

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 17 '13 at 01:39

1

use event.ctrlKey, shiftKey, altKey, metaKey

answered Apr 17 '13 at 01:39

Jonathan Ong

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Do not preventDefault when a key is pressed

1 Answers1