Trigger a keypress/keydown/keyup event in JS/jQuery?

Question

What is the best way to simulate a user entering text in a text input box in JS and/or jQuery?

I don't want to actually put text in the input box, I just want to trigger all the event handlers that would normally get triggered by a user typing info into a input box. This means focus, keydown, keypress, keyup, and blur. I think.

So how would one accomplish this?

Answer 1

You can trigger any of the events with a direct call to them, like this:

$(function() {
    $('item').keydown();
    $('item').keypress();
    $('item').keyup();
    $('item').blur();
});

Does that do what you're trying to do?

You should probably also trigger .focus() and potentially .change()

If you want to trigger the key-events with specific keys, you can do so like this:

$(function() {
    var e = $.Event('keypress');
    e.which = 65; // Character 'A'
    $('item').trigger(e);
});

There is some interesting discussion of the keypress events here: jQuery Event Keypress: Which key was pressed?, specifically regarding cross-browser compatability with the .which property.