org.w3c.dom.events

Interface Event

All Known Subinterfaces:

CustomEvent, KeyboardEvent, MouseEvent, MutationEvent, MutationNameEvent, TextEvent, UIEvent

public interface Event

The Event interface is used to provide contextual information about an event to the listener processing the event. An object which implements the Event interface is passed as the parameter to an EventListener. More specific context information is passed to event listeners by deriving additional interfaces from Event which contain information directly relating to the type of event they represent. These derived interfaces are also implemented by the object passed to the event listener.

To create an instance of the Event interface, use the DocumentEvent.createEvent("Event") method call.

See also the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification .

Since:

DOM Level 2

Field Summary

Fields

Modifier and Type	Field and Description
static short	AT_TARGET The current event is in the target phase, i.e.
static short	BUBBLING_PHASE The current event phase is the bubbling phase.
static short	CAPTURING_PHASE The current event phase is the capture phase.

Method Summary

Methods

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
boolean	getBubbles() Used to indicate whether or not an event is a bubbling event.
boolean	getCancelable() Used to indicate whether or not an event can have its default action prevented (see also ).
EventTarget	getCurrentTarget() Used to indicate the EventTarget whose EventListeners are currently being processed.
boolean	getDefaultPrevented() Used to indicate whether Event.preventDefault() has been called for this event.
short	getEventPhase() Used to indicate which phase of event flow is currently being accomplished.
String	getNamespaceURI() The namespace URI associated with this event at creation time, or null if it is unspecified.
EventTarget	getTarget() Used to indicate the event target.
long	getTimeStamp() Used to specify the time at which the event was created in milliseconds relative to 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z.
String	getType() The local name of the event type.
void	initEvent(String eventTypeArg, boolean canBubbleArg, boolean cancelableArg) The initEvent method is used to initialize the value of an Event created through the DocumentEvent.createEvent method.
void	initEventNS(String namespaceURIArg, String eventTypeArg, boolean canBubbleArg, boolean cancelableArg) The initEventNS method is used to initialize the value of an Event object and has the same behavior as Event.initEvent().
void	preventDefault() If an event is cancelable, the preventDefault method is used to signify that the event is to be canceled, meaning any default action normally taken by the implementation as a result of the event will not occur (see also ), and thus independently of event groups.
void	stopImmediatePropagation() This method is used to prevent event listeners of the same group to be triggered and, unlike Event.stopPropagation() its effect is immediate (see ).
void	stopPropagation() This method is used to prevent event listeners of the same group to be triggered but its effect is deferred until all event listeners attached on the Event.currentTarget have been triggered (see ).

Field Detail

CAPTURING_PHASE

static final short CAPTURING_PHASE

The current event phase is the capture phase.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

AT_TARGET

static final short AT_TARGET

The current event is in the target phase, i.e. it is being evaluated at the event target.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

BUBBLING_PHASE

static final short BUBBLING_PHASE

The current event phase is the bubbling phase.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Method Detail

getType

String getType()

The local name of the event type. The name must be an NCName as defined in [XML Namespaces 1.1] and is case-sensitive.

getTarget

EventTarget getTarget()

Used to indicate the event target. This attribute contains the target node when used with the .

getCurrentTarget

EventTarget getCurrentTarget()

Used to indicate the EventTarget whose EventListeners are currently being processed. This is particularly useful during the capture and bubbling phases. This attribute could contain the target node or a target ancestor when used with the .

getEventPhase

short getEventPhase()

Used to indicate which phase of event flow is currently being accomplished.

getBubbles

boolean getBubbles()

Used to indicate whether or not an event is a bubbling event. If the event can bubble the value is true, otherwise the value is false.

getCancelable

boolean getCancelable()

Used to indicate whether or not an event can have its default action prevented (see also ). If the default action can be prevented the value is true, otherwise the value is false .

getTimeStamp

long getTimeStamp()

Used to specify the time at which the event was created in milliseconds relative to 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z. Due to the fact that some systems may not provide this information the value of timeStamp may be not available for all events. When not available, the value is 0.

stopPropagation

void stopPropagation()

This method is used to prevent event listeners of the same group to be triggered but its effect is deferred until all event listeners attached on the Event.currentTarget have been triggered (see ). Once it has been called, further calls to that method have no additional effect.

Note: This method does not prevent the default action from being invoked; use Event.preventDefault() for that effect.

preventDefault

void preventDefault()

If an event is cancelable, the preventDefault method is used to signify that the event is to be canceled, meaning any default action normally taken by the implementation as a result of the event will not occur (see also ), and thus independently of event groups. Calling this method for a non-cancelable event has no effect.

Note: This method does not stop the event propagation; use Event.stopPropagation() or Event.stopImmediatePropagation() for that effect.

initEvent

void initEvent(String eventTypeArg,
             boolean canBubbleArg,
             boolean cancelableArg)

The initEvent method is used to initialize the value of an Event created through the DocumentEvent.createEvent method. This method may only be called before the Event has been dispatched via the EventTarget.dispatchEvent() method. If the method is called several times before invoking EventTarget.dispatchEvent, only the final invocation takes precedence. This method has no effect if called after the event has been dispatched. If called from a subclass of the Event interface only the values specified in this method are modified, all other attributes are left unchanged.
This method sets the Event.type attribute to eventTypeArg, and Event.namespaceURI to null. To initialize an event with a namespace URI, use the Event.initEventNS() method.

Parameters:

eventTypeArg - Specifies Event.type, the local name of the event type.

canBubbleArg - Specifies Event.bubbles. This parameter overrides the intrinsic bubbling behavior of the event.

cancelableArg - Specifies Event.cancelable. This parameter overrides the intrinsic cancelable behavior of the event.

getNamespaceURI

String getNamespaceURI()

The namespace URI associated with this event at creation time, or null if it is unspecified.
For events initialized with a DOM Level 2 Events method, such as Event.initEvent(), this is always null.

Since:

DOM Level 3

stopImmediatePropagation

void stopImmediatePropagation()

This method is used to prevent event listeners of the same group to be triggered and, unlike Event.stopPropagation() its effect is immediate (see ). Once it has been called, further calls to that method have no additional effect.

Note: This method does not prevent the default action from being invoked; use Event.preventDefault() for that effect.

Since:

DOM Level 3

getDefaultPrevented

boolean getDefaultPrevented()

Used to indicate whether Event.preventDefault() has been called for this event.

Since:

DOM Level 3

initEventNS

void initEventNS(String namespaceURIArg,
               String eventTypeArg,
               boolean canBubbleArg,
               boolean cancelableArg)

The initEventNS method is used to initialize the value of an Event object and has the same behavior as Event.initEvent().

Parameters:

namespaceURIArg - Specifies Event.namespaceURI, the namespace URI associated with this event, or null if no namespace.

eventTypeArg - Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.

canBubbleArg - Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.

cancelableArg - Refer to the Event.initEvent() method for a description of this parameter.

Since:

DOM Level 3