Javascript: document.execCommand cross-browser?

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+6 Q:

Javascript: document.execCommand cross-browser?

I just stumble on a piece of code which I never saw before (granted I can't call myself a JS expert):

document.execCommand('Copy');

which seems to copy the clipboard contents to the element in focus.

Q: Is this functionality available cross-browser?

Edit 1: I found this interesting link. The page shows a compatibility matrix for document.execCommand.

+1 A:

Update: Well, document.execCommand is documented in the Mozilla DOM documentation, but its description there looks slightly different from the MSDN documentation.

I'm still pretty sure it's not in the ECMA-262 standard.

Daniel Pryden 2009-11-30 01:27:51

How come is there some blips of it on Mozilla.org ? https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Document.execCommand

jldupont 2009-11-30 01:29:48

Why would a DOM method be in a language standard? I'm pretty sure `document` or `window` are not part of the ECMA-262 standard either.

Eli Grey 2009-11-30 01:47:06

@Elijah Grey: Good point. The JavaScript language is standardized by ECMA, while the DOM is standardized by the W3C. But I don't think `document.execCommand` is in the W3C DOM standard either. (A quick check of the DOM-1 spec on w3c.org seems to confirm this.)

Daniel Pryden 2009-11-30 17:46:00

+1 A:

This is for 'design mode' where the browser effectively turns the document into an editor. The execCommand API originated with IE. It is non-standard but has been adopted by most major browsers. Exactly which commands are supported, as well as their behavior varies across browsers. Clipboard access is considered a security risk.

peller 2009-11-30 04:55:14

Clipboard access: that's what I thought i.e. security risk. Thanks!

jldupont 2009-11-30 10:55:35

ansaurus

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Javascript: document.execCommand cross-browser?

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