ASP.NET MVC Ajax - Is it possible to execute a -GENERATED- Ajax link with keyboard input?

Question

Is anybody able to -execute- a generated Ajax.ActionLink when a user presses a key on the keyboard? (This is needed for accessibility)

NOTE: I'm using ASP.NET MVC + Microsoft Js libraries (...Ajax.js / ...MvcAjax.js) + jQuery

Javascript to capture keypress (IE + Firefox)

$(document).keypress(function(event) {
    if(event.keyCode == 27) {
        //execution here
        var a = document.getElementById('linkid');
    }
});

Html generated by ASP.NET MVC (Ajax.ActionLink())

<a id="linkid" href="/controller/action" onclick="
Sys.Mvc.AsyncHyperlink.handleClick(this, new Sys.UI.DomEvent(event), 
{ insertionMode: Sys.Mvc.InsertionMode.replace, 
updateTargetId: 'SomeDivId' });
">LinkText</a>

---

The following is not what i'm looking for, this doesn't work!

$(document).keypress(function(event) {
    if(event.keyCode == 27) {
        var a = document.getElementById('linkid');
        a.onclick();           //doesn't exist in Firefox
        a.click();             //doesn't "work" in Firefox (reference to "this" [a] is needed .NET MVC javascript)
        a["onclick"]();        //same as .onclick()
        a["click"]();          //same as .click()

        //or even:
        a.onclick.apply(a);    //doesn't exist in Firefox
        a.click.apply(a);      //Somehow keeps "this" reference, but throws Sys.ArgumentUndefinedException
    }
});

Answer 1

Have you tried using jQuery's trigger mechanism?

$(document).keypress( function(e) {
    if (e.keyCode == 27) {
       $(this).trigger('click');
    }
}

Failing that, you could just invoke the href, which will do a full postback, but should accomplish the desired action if the action is written to handle both AJAX and non-AJAX requests.

$(document).keypress( function(e) {
    if (e.keyCode == 27) {
       location.href = $(this).attr('href');
    }
}