Secret copy to clipboard JavaScript function in Chrome and Firefox?

Question

Update

Looks like browsers are starting to support copy natively in JS

---

In the console windows of both Chrome and Firefox on Mac I can execute

copy("party in your clipboard!");

and the text gets copied to my clipboard. I have searched SO and Google and can't seem to find anything on this.

• Are these specific to each browser?
• Where can I find more information on these JavaScript functions?

Browser versions:

JavaScript returned from Chrome console when executing 'copy'

function (object)
    {
        if (injectedScript._type(object) === "node") {
            var nodeId = InjectedScriptHost.pushNodePathToFrontend(object, false, false);
            InjectedScriptHost.copyNode(nodeId);
        } else
            InjectedScriptHost.copyText(object);
    }

• What does this code mean?

Here are 2 screenshots of executing copy function in Chrome console with all chrome extensions disabled

Answer 1

I believe these are predefined Firebug console functions - at least that seems to be the case for Firebug. If you try calling window.copy for instance, you'll get a warning about function not defined, so it's definitely not a browser function, and cannot be used in normal JavaScript files. The following functions also seems to work in the JavaScript console, after playing around with it a bit:

• clear()
• profile()

---

Running these in the Chrome console reveals the source behind these functions in the Webkit console:

> profile
function ()
{
return console.profile.apply(console, arguments)
}

> clear
function ()
{
InjectedScriptHost.clearConsoleMessages();
}

> copy
function (object)
{
if (injectedScript._type(object) === "node")
object = object.outerHTML;
InjectedScriptHost.copyText(object);
}

While the Firebug source also defines a list of functions:

this.clear = function()  // no web page interaction
{
    Firebug.Console.clear(context);
};

this.inspect = function(obj, panelName)  // no web page interaction
{
    Firebug.chrome.select(obj, panelName);
};

this.keys = function(o)
{
    return FBL.keys(o);  // the object is from the page, unwrapped
};

this.values = function(o)
{
    return FBL.values(o); // the object is from the page, unwrapped
};

// etc...