'event' equivalent in firefox

Question

I am using the following code and it works perfectly fine in Chrome.

function dayBind(xyzValue) {
    if(event.type == 'click')
       alert('Mouse Clicked')
}

Note that there was no 'event' variable passed to the function but still it was available for me in case of chrome. But when I use firefox I get 'event' undefined. I tried using the following workarounds:

var e=arguments[0] || event;

also:

var e=window.event || event;

But none of them worked for me. Is there any 'event' equivalent in Firefox?

Answer 1

Because IE and Chrome put the event in the global object window, so you can get it. In firefox, you need to let the first parameter be the event.

function dayBind(event, xyzValue) {
    var e=event || window.event;
    if(event.type == 'click')
       alert('Mouse Clicked')
}

Answer 2

If you're setting up the handler with an "onclick" attribute or something (which, since you tagged the question "jQuery", you really should consider not doing), you have to explicitly pass it:

<button type=button onclick='whatever(event)'>Click Me</button>

Answer 3

If you need it to work cross browser, simply use the arguments object:

function dayBind() 
  {
  var e=arguments[0];

  if(!!e && e.type === 'click')
    {
    alert('Mouse Clicked') 
    }
  }

References

• Overview of Events and Handlers
• DOM Event Handlers
• eventTarget.addEventListener

Answer 4

I am working in a plugin's callback function. I cannot call it myself.

One simple question to your suggestion: when you write: onclick="whatever(event)" you are writing javascript in the value of onclick attribute, right?

Why can't you make the same function call inside some other function like this:

function foo(){ whatever(event); // this is also javascript }

// But this doesn't work for me in FireFox 10.0.2

The code in the "onclick" attribute should be thought of as part of a function that the browser creates for you. That function automatically has the "event" parameter available. Writing the attribute as I did in the answer cause that parameter to be passed on the your other function.

Really, you should read about the jQuery API and use that to bind event handlers instead of using "onclick" and other similar attributes.