Pass backspace key pressed event to the applet and stop it propagation

Question

I have a java applet on web page that allows editing text. When user tries to modify text, pressing backspace button, browser forwards to previous page. If filter backspace pressing like

var a = function () {
        var event = window.event;
        if (event.keyCode == 8){
            alert('backspace');
            return false;
        }
}
document.onkeydown = a;

then backspace doesn't propogate to applet, thus not modifying text. The question is how to pass event to the applet ant stop further propagating?

Answer 1

if (event.keyCode === 8)
{
   var newEvent = document.createEvent('KeyboardEvent');
   newEvent.initKeyEvent(                                                                                      
                 "keypress",        //  in DOMString typeArg,                                                           
                  true,             //  in boolean canBubbleArg,                                                        
                  true,             //  in boolean cancelableArg,                                                       
                  null,             //  in nsIDOMAbstractView viewArg,  Specifies UIEvent.view. This value may be null.     
                  false,            //  in boolean ctrlKeyArg,                                                               
                  false,            //  in boolean altKeyArg,                                                        
                  false,            //  in boolean shiftKeyArg,                                                      
                  false,            //  in boolean metaKeyArg,                                                       
                   8,               //  in unsigned long keyCodeArg,                                                      
                   0);              //  in unsigned long charCodeArg); 
   document.getElementById('myjavaapplet').dispatchEvent(newEvent);
}

Answer 2

if (event.keyCode === 8)
{
    var newEvent = document.createEvent('UIEvents');
    newEvent.initUIEvent( 'keypress', true, true, window, 1 );
    newEvent.keyCode = 8;
    document.getElementById('myjavaapplet').dispatchEvent(newEvent);
}

Answer 3

For now I find solution in using jQuery sendkeys plugin. Since using jQuery in our project is not an option I'll try to rewrite it in plain javascript.

Answer 4

// assumes IE8, but you could write detection code based on if (document.createEventObject)

if (event.keyCode === 8)
{
    var newEvent = document.createEventObject();
    newEvent.keyCode = 8;
    document.getElementById('myjavaapplet').fireEvent('onkeypress',newEvent);
}