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Similarities

Property/Method Type R/W Description

stop

Function N/A You can call this method to prevent the further

Propagation()

propagation (bubbling) of the event.

target

Element R

The element/object that caused the event

timeStamp

Long R

The time that this event occurred in milliseconds after

midnight on January 1, 1970

type

String R

The name of the event

Similarities

Here is a brief roundup of the similarities between the two event objects.

Getting the event type

In order to get the event type in either browser, use the following:

var sType = oEvent.type;

This returns a value such as

“click”

“mouseover”

and is useful when one function is used as an

event handler for two different events. For example:

function handleEvent(oEvent) {

if (oEvent.type == “click”) {

alert(“Clicked!”);

} else if (oEvent.type == “mouseover”) {

alert(“Mouse Over!”);

}

oDiv.onclick = handleEvent;

oDiv.onmouseover = handleEvent;

In this code, the function

handleEvent()

is assigned as an event handler for both the

click

and

mouseover

events. Inside of the function, the

type

property is used to determine which course of action

should be taken.

Note that this example uses the DOM method of passing in the event object, but the code inside the

function can also be used in Internet Explorer after the

event

object has been assigned to

oEvent

Getting the key code (keydown/keyup events)

During a

keydown

keyup

event, you can retrieve the code for the key that was pressed by using the

keyCode

property:

var iKeyCode = oEvent.keyCode;

The

keyCode

property always contains a code the represents the key pressed, which may or may not

represent a character. For example, the Enter (or Return) key has a

keyCode

of 13, the space bar has a

keyCode

of 32, and the BackSpace key has a

keyCode

of 8.

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