Why didn't a jQuery trigger send some keydown events to an input element?

Question

I have tried the following in jQuery to trigger a keydown event into an input box:

and wonder why no keydown event with A and Enter was triggered. If I do type it in and press Enter myself, the form does get submitted.

The code:

$(function () {

    $("#the-input").trigger("focus");

    $("#the-input").trigger(
        jQuery.Event('keydown', {
            keyCode: 65
    }));

    $("#the-input").trigger(
        jQuery.Event('keydown', {
            keyCode: 13
    }));

    $("#the-input").trigger(
        jQuery.Event('keydown', {
            which: 65
    }));

    $("#the-input").trigger(
        jQuery.Event('keydown', {
            which: 13
    }));

});

with html:

<form id="the-form" action="some.php" method="get">
    <input id="the-input" type="text" name="var">
</form>

`.trigger` only calls events that were bound via JavaScript. It can't emulate events that are triggered naturally by the browser. Check this updated demo (look in your console): http://jsfiddle.net/W5fNh/6/ — gen_Eric, Mar 28 '13 at 20:07
@RocketHazmat I was under the impression that `.trigger` only calls events that were bound via __jQuery__ — Zach Lysobey, Mar 28 '13 at 20:10
Maybe this question will help? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/832059/definitive-way-to-trigger-keypress-events-with-jquery — Zach Lysobey, Mar 28 '13 at 20:30
@ZachL I have tried all those and they don't enter the character or press Enter — nonopolarity, Mar 28 '13 at 20:49
sry I don't have any experience with this stuff... but with the `trigger("focus")`, should you maybe just be using [`.focus()`](http://api.jquery.com/focus/)? — Zach Lysobey, Mar 28 '13 at 21:22
`trigger("focus")` works, just as `trigger("submit")` (like `.submit()`) — nonopolarity, Mar 28 '13 at 21:54

nonopolarity · Answer 1 · 2013-04-02T00:04:59.410

Ok, it seems like the answer is: jQuery's trigger can cause the event handlers to be called, but not to actually emulate a user typing things in, to appear on the browser.

That is, except for the focus or blur, which actually will show up in the browser. So what will show and what will not, I wonder what it is for each event.

P.S. for example, if it is radio buttons, then in fact they get "clicked": jsfiddle example: http://jsfiddle.net/awbus/2/

Why didn't a jQuery trigger send some keydown events to an input element?

1 Answers1