Is event bubbling supported by all browsers?

Question

jQuery uses event bubbling strategy to handle events.

And it claims to be cross browser,

but is "event bubbling" supported by all browsers?

There is another strategy: event capturing, which is reverse to event bubbling,is it extinct?

Or my question could be re-stated as:

Can Javascript decides on whether choosing "event capturing" strategy or "event bubbling" strategy by itself?

Answer 1

All browsers? No. Lynx, for instance, doesn't support JavaScript at all.

However, event bubbling is a standard DOM feature. The jQuery documentation is not lying to you.

Answer 2

In short, yes. Netscape Navigator 4 doesn't support it, but I don't think there's a lot of worry about supporting Netscape 4 these days.

Answer 3

Either they are lying, or the definition for "Cross-Browser" needs to be slightly altered. It's either cross-browser or it isn't there's no in-between.

Answer 4

From the jQuery compatibility page, it supports the following browsers:

• Firefox 2+
• IE6+
• Safari 3+
• Opera 9+
• Chrome 1+

All of which support event bubbling.

According to the W3Schools browser usage page those browsers account for 99.2% of all browser usage in July 2009, I'd say this is cross-browser support covered. Ignore those peddling pointless pedantry about browser support being all or nothing. If you're a user of any other browser you are probably far enough from the mainstream to have your own methods of dealing with browser issues.