Javascript Events: How to trigger event when ALT+NUM character is entered

Question

I first used the onKeyUp event to detect input changes in a textbox. However, when the user enters in a French character using ALT+Num, the event doesn't detect the change until i enter the next character...

Which event should I be using to detect the special character changes. I've tried onChange but does not seem to be working.

I've tried using onkeypress event because I notice that it triggers it after i release the ALT key, however even though once the ALT is release, the onkeypress is triggered and you see the accented character, but when I use this.value for the inputbox, it only registers up to and before the new ALT+Num character is input.

for example: i entered vidé, but the search would not dynamically find vidé, but only vid because the é has not been saved in the - this.value yet, until another key event is triggered.

Hence I was wondering if there's way to simulate/send a key press to trigger it.

Answer 1

There's a reference at http://unixpapa.com/js/key.html which might be a good idea to have a look at, and according to section 2.1, ALT should generate a keydown and keyup in modern browsers..

I would suggest you use jQuery or a similar library to ease the issues you're facing cross-browser. Have a look at http://jsfiddle.net/qvDbu/1/ for a proof of concept which works fine.

Keypress is not triggered by only modifier-presses, so that's probably the way to go, it allows you to pick up the character entered as well, rather then which key is pressed. Edit: Seems to not be the case in Fx that keypress is triggered by modifiers, but I'm not able to reproduce actually loosing any characters.

Answer 2

use keyup. The new character will not be added until the user releases the ALT key and at that point the keyup event will fire.

Answer 3

You need to bind onkeypress, which won't fire until you finish entering the alt code.

http://jsfiddle.net/c5FvH/

Answer 4

FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT!! :D

here's the code, however the String converting event.which code does not work on the jsFiddle though, nonetheless the code works :)

http://jsfiddle.net/qvDbu/30/