Element: setCapture() method

Deprecated: This feature is no longer recommended. Though some browsers might still support it, it may have already been removed from the relevant web standards, may be in the process of being dropped, or may only be kept for compatibility purposes. Avoid using it, and update existing code if possible; see the compatibility table at the bottom of this page to guide your decision. Be aware that this feature may cease to work at any time.

Non-standard: This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.

Call this method during the handling of a mousedown event to retarget all mouse events to this element until the mouse button is released or document.releaseCapture() is called.

Warning: This interface never had much cross-browser support and you probably looking for element.setPointerCapture instead, from the Pointer Events API.

Syntax

js
setCapture(retargetToElement)

Parameters

retargetToElement

If true, all events are targeted directly to this element; if false, events can also fire at descendants of this element.

Return value

None (undefined).

Examples

In this example, the current mouse coordinates are drawn while you mouse around after clicking and holding down on an element.

html
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <title>Mouse Capture Example</title>
    <style>
      #myButton {
        border: solid black 1px;
        color: black;
        padding: 2px;
        box-shadow: black 2px 2px;
      }
    </style>

    <script>
      function init() {
        const btn = document.getElementById("myButton");
        if (btn.setCapture) {
          btn.addEventListener("mousedown", mouseDown, false);
          btn.addEventListener("mouseup", mouseUp, false);
        } else {
          document.getElementById("output").textContent =
            "Sorry, there appears to be no setCapture support on this browser";
        }
      }

      function mouseDown(e) {
        e.target.setCapture();
        e.target.addEventListener("mousemove", mouseMoved, false);
      }

      function mouseUp(e) {
        e.target.removeEventListener("mousemove", mouseMoved, false);
      }

      function mouseMoved(e) {
        const output = document.getElementById("output");
        output.textContent = `Position: ${e.clientX}, ${e.clientY}`;
      }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body onload="init()">
    <p>
      This is an example of how to use mouse capture on elements in Gecko 2.0.
    </p>
    <p><a id="myButton" href="#">Test Me</a></p>
    <div id="output">No events yet</div>
  </body>
</html>

View Live Examples

Notes

The element may not be scrolled completely to the top or bottom, depending on the layout of other elements.

Specifications

Not part of any specification.

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also