KeyboardEvent

Constructor

KeyboardEvent()

Crea un objeto KeyboardEvent.

Métodos

Esta interfaz también hereda métodos de sus padres, UIEvent and Event.

KeyboardEvent.getModifierState()

Devuelve un Boolean indicando si una tecla modificadora, como Alt, Shift, Ctrl, Meta, fue pulsada cuando el evento fue creado.

KeyboardEvent.initKeyEvent() Obsoleto

Inicializa un objeto KeyboardEvent. Este método solo ha sido implementado por Gecko (otros usados KeyboardEvent.initKeyboardEvent()) y nunca más será usado. El modo estándar moderno es usar el constructor KeyboardEvent().

KeyboardEvent.initKeyboardEvent() Obsoleto

Inicializa un objeto KeyboardEvent. Este método nunca fue implementado por Gecko (quien usa KeyboardEvent.initKeyEvent()) y no debe ser utilizado más. El modo estándar moderno es usar el constructor KeyboardEvent().

Propiedades

Esta interfaz también hereda propiedades de sus padres UIEvent y Event.

KeyboardEvent.altKey Read only

Devuelve un Boolean que será true si la tecla Alt (Option or ⌥ on OS X) fue activada cuando el evento fue generado.

KeyboardEvent.char No estándar Obsoleto Read only

Devuelve un DOMString representando el valor del carácter de la tecla. Si la tecla corresponde con un carácter imprimible, este valor es una cadena Unicode no vacía que contiene este carácter. Si la tecla no tiene una representación imprimible, esta es una cadena vacía.

Nota: Si la tecla es usada como una macro que inserta múltiples caracteres, If the key is used as a macro that inserts multiple characters, el valor de este atributo es la cadena completa, no solo el primer carácter.

Advertencia: Esta propiedad ha sido eliminada de los eventos del DOM de nivel 3. Esta es únicamente soportada en IE.

KeyboardEvent.charCode Obsoleto Read only

Returns an unsigned long representing the Unicode reference number of the key; this attribute is used only by the keypress event. For keys whose char attribute contains multiple characters, this is the Unicode value of the first character in that attribute. In Firefox 26 this returns codes for printable characters.

Advertencia: This attribute is deprecated; you should use key instead, if available.

KeyboardEvent.code Read only

Returns a DOMString with the code value of the key represented by the event.

KeyboardEvent.ctrlKey Read only

Returns a Boolean that is true if the Ctrl key was active when the key event was generated.

KeyboardEvent.isComposing Read only

Returns a Boolean that is true if the event is fired between after compositionstart and before compositionend.

KeyboardEvent.key Read only

Returns a DOMString representing the key value of the key represented by the event.

KeyboardEvent.keyCode Obsoleto Read only

Returns an unsigned long representing a system and implementation dependent numerical code identifying the unmodified value of the pressed key.

Advertencia: This attribute is deprecated; you should use key instead, if available.

KeyboardEvent.locale Read only

Returns a DOMString representing a locale string indicating the locale the keyboard is configured for. This may be the empty string if the browser or device doesn't know the keyboard's locale.

Nota: This does not describe the locale of the data being entered. A user may be using one keyboard layout while typing text in a different language.

KeyboardEvent.location Read only

Returns an unsigned long representing the location of the key on the keyboard or other input device.

KeyboardEvent.metaKey Read only

Returns a Boolean that is true if the Meta (or Command on OS X) key was active when the key event was generated.

KeyboardEvent.repeat Read only

Returns a Boolean that is true if the key is being held down such that it is automatically repeating.

KeyboardEvent.shiftKey Read only

Returns a Boolean that is true if the Shift key was active when the key event was generated.

KeyboardEvent.which Obsoleto Read only

Returns an unsigned long representing a system and implementation dependent numeric code identifying the unmodified value of the pressed key; this is usually the same as keyCode.

Advertencia: This attribute is deprecated; you should use key instead, if available.

Notes

There are keydown, keypress, and keyup events. For most keys, Gecko dispatches a sequence of key events like this:

1. When the key is first depressed, the keydown event is sent.
2. If the key is not a modifier key, the keypress event is sent.
3. When the user releases the key, the keyup event is sent.

Special cases

Certain keys toggle the state of an LED indicator, such as Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock. On Windows and Linux, these keys dispatch only the keydown and keyup events. Note that on Linux, Firefox 12 and earlier also dispatched the keypress event for these keys.

On Mac, however, Caps Lock dispatches only the keydown event due to a platform event model limitation. Num Lock had been supported on old MacBook (2007 model and older) but Mac hasn't supported Num Lock feature even on external keyboards in these days. On the old MacBook which has Num Lock key, Num Lock doesn't cause any key events. And Gecko supports Scroll Lock key if an external keyboard which has F14 is connected. However, it generates keypress event. This inconsistent behavior is a bug; see Error 602812 en Firefox.

Auto-repeat handling

When a key is pressed and held down, it begins to auto-repeat. This results in a sequence of events similar to the following being dispatched:

1. keydown
2. keypress
3. keydown
4. keypress
5. <<repeating until the user releases the key>>
6. keyup

This is what the DOM Level 3 specification says should happen. There are some caveats, however, as described below.

Auto-repeat on some GTK environments such as Ubuntu 9.4

In some GTK-based environments, auto-repeat dispatches a native key-up event automatically during auto-repeat, and there's no way for Gecko to know the difference between a repeated series of keypresses and an auto-repeat. On those platforms, then, an auto-repeat key will generate the following sequence of events:

1. keydown
2. keypress
3. keyup
4. keydown
5. keypress
6. keyup
7. <<repeating until the user releases the key>>
8. keyup

In these environments, unfortunately, there's no way for web content to tell the difference between auto-repeating keys and keys that are just being pressed repeatedly.

Auto-repeat handling prior to Gecko 4.0

Before Gecko 4.0, keyboard handling was less consistent across platforms.

Windows

Auto-repeat behavior is the same as in Gecko 4.0 and later.

Mac

After the initial keydown event, only keypress events are sent until the keyup event occurs; the inter-spaced keydown events are not sent.

Linux

The event behavior depends on the specific platform. It will either behave like Windows or Mac depending on what the native event model does.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script>
var metaChar = false;
var exampleKey = 16;

function keyEvent(event) {
  var key = event.keyCode || event.which;
  var keychar = String.fromCharCode(key);
  if (key == exampleKey) {
    metaChar = true;
  }
  if (key != exampleKey) {
    if (metaChar) {
      alert("Combination of metaKey + " + keychar);
      metaChar = false;
    } else {
      alert("Key pressed " + key);
    }
  }
}

function metaKeyUp (event) {
  var key = event.keyCode || event.which;

  if (key == exampleKey) {
    metaChar = false;
  }
}
</script>
</head>

<body onkeydown="keyEvent(event)" onkeyup="metaKeyUp(event)">
</body>
</html>

Especificaciones

Compatibilidad con navegadores