Please someone help a very desperate and weary novice. I have searched everywhere for an answer but to no avail.

I want to capture the keyCode/charCode to test whether the enter key has been pressed (I have been using keydown but I'm not fussed as long as I get something working). I have tried every conceivable solution and it works fine in IE, Safari, Chrome and Opera but NOT IN FireFox 3.6.25 (the latest)?! I know the event is definitely triggering as I can display a simple alert box from the function I call, but as for declaring a variable to hold the contents of event.keyCode, that's another matter entirely!

The code of my form is basically...

<form method="post" name="giftaidform" onsubmit="javascript:return validateForm();" action="../scripts/form-to-email.php">
<table width="500" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td width="180" align="right">Forename:</td>
    <td align="left"><input name="forename" type="text" size="30" maxlength="30" onfocus="javascript:setUnchecked(this);" onkeydown="javascript:testForEnter(this);" onblur="javascript:isValidName(this);"></td>
  </tr>

and so on...

As for my "testForEnter" function...

function testForEnter(obj) {
// store code of key that was pressed
var keyCode = obj.keyCode;
alert(keyCode);
// if the enter key was pressed then prevent default action
if (keyCode == 13) {
    if(event.preventDefault) event.preventDefault();
    event.returnValue = false;
}
 }

I have tried various other formulations including obj.charCode and stuff like below?!

function checkKey(evt) {
  var keyID = (window.event) ? window.event.keyCode : event.which;
  alert(keyID);
}

Nothing works in FireFox!

Please someone help a very desperate and weary novice. I have searched everywhere for an answer but to no avail.

I want to capture the keyCode/charCode to test whether the enter key has been pressed (I have been using keydown but I'm not fussed as long as I get something working). I have tried every conceivable solution and it works fine in IE, Safari, Chrome and Opera but NOT IN FireFox 3.6.25 (the latest)?! I know the event is definitely triggering as I can display a simple alert box from the function I call, but as for declaring a variable to hold the contents of event.keyCode, that's another matter entirely!

The code of my form is basically...

<form method="post" name="giftaidform" onsubmit="javascript:return validateForm();" action="../scripts/form-to-email.php">
<table width="500" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td width="180" align="right">Forename:</td>
    <td align="left"><input name="forename" type="text" size="30" maxlength="30" onfocus="javascript:setUnchecked(this);" onkeydown="javascript:testForEnter(this);" onblur="javascript:isValidName(this);"></td>
  </tr>

and so on...

As for my "testForEnter" function...

function testForEnter(obj) {
// store code of key that was pressed
var keyCode = obj.keyCode;
alert(keyCode);
// if the enter key was pressed then prevent default action
if (keyCode == 13) {
    if(event.preventDefault) event.preventDefault();
    event.returnValue = false;
}
 }

I have tried various other formulations including obj.charCode and stuff like below?!

function checkKey(evt) {
  var keyID = (window.event) ? window.event.keyCode : event.which;
  alert(keyID);
}

Nothing works in FireFox!

• javascript
• event-handling
• keyboard

• 1 Nothing works because you named the parameter evt and not event. In your code, window.event and event are both referring to window.event, which does not exist in Firefox. You should normalize the event first, using var event = window.event || event;. And the latest Firefox is 9, not 3.6. Also note that when you call a function from your inline event handler, you have to pass the event object to it if you want to access it. – Felix Kling Commented Dec 22, 2011 at 22:59
• You don't need that "javascript:" at the beginning of your "onfoo" handler strings. – Pointy Commented Dec 22, 2011 at 23:00
• @FelixKling you are a legend! I have now passed 'event' and sorted out my dodgy code and its working perfectly - not to mention having upgraded to version 9 of firefox (no idea how i managed to install an old version)! – Dougie Commented Dec 22, 2011 at 23:19
• @Pointy - thank you! i can now simplify my html! – Dougie Commented Dec 22, 2011 at 23:23
• I provided my ment as answer, so that you can accept it (click the tick outline next to it). I also corrected a mistake in my ment. – Felix Kling Commented Dec 22, 2011 at 23:51

3 Answers 3

Nothing works because you named the parameter evt and not event. In your code, window.event and event are both referring to window.event, which does not exist in Firefox.

You should normalize the event first, for example using

var event = evt || window.event;

or rename the parameter from evt to event (and then drop the var above).

Also note that when you call a function from your inline event handler, you have to pass the event object to it if you want to access it.

This is the code that I now have and it is fully operational in all five main browsers:

I now call the functions as follows:

<input name="forename" type="text" size="30" maxlength="30" onkeydown="testForEnter(this,event);" onblur="isValidName(this);">

My function is as follows:

// testForEnter() disables the enter keypress on all form objects except for submit button
// this function works in IE, chrome, safari, opera and firefox
function testForEnter(obj,evt) {
    var keyCode = evt.keyCode;
    var objType = obj.type;
    if ((keyCode == 13) && (objType != "submit")) {
        evt.returnValue = false;
        evt.stopPropagation(); // this line added for firefox
        if(evt.preventDefault) evt.preventDefault();
}
} //end of testForEnter()

Hope this helps somebody else!

Try using

var keycode = evt.charCode;

It seems to work in both browsers.