[javascript] How do I programmatically force an onchange event on an input?

How do I programmatically force an onchange event on an input?

I've tried something like this:

var code = ele.getAttribute('onchange');
eval(code);

But my end goal is to fire any listener functions, and that doesn't seem to work. Neither does just updating the 'value' attribute.

This is the most correct answer for IE and Chrome::

javascript=>

var element = document.getElementById('xxxx');
var evt = document.createEvent('HTMLEvents');
evt.initEvent('change', false, true);
element.dispatchEvent(evt);

ugh don't use eval for anything. Well, there are certain things, but they're extremely rare. Rather, you would do this:

document.getElementById("test").onchange()

Look here for more options: http://jehiah.cz/archive/firing-javascript-events-properly

if you're using jQuery you would have:

$('#elementId').change(function() { alert('Do Stuff'); });

or MS AJAX:

$addHandler($get('elementId'), 'change', function(){ alert('Do Stuff'); });

Or in the raw HTML of the element:

<input type="text" onchange="alert('Do Stuff');" id="myElement" />

After re-reading the question I think I miss-read what was to be done. I've never found a way to update a DOM element in a manner which will force a change event, what you're best doing is having a separate event handler method, like this:

$addHandler($get('elementId'), 'change', elementChanged);
function elementChanged(){
  alert('Do Stuff!');
}
function editElement(){
  var el = $get('elementId');
  el.value = 'something new';
  elementChanged();
}

Since you're already writing a JavaScript method which will do the changing it's only 1 additional line to call.

Or, if you are using the Microsoft AJAX framework you can access all the event handlers via:

$get('elementId')._events

It'd allow you to do some reflection-style workings to find the right event handler(s) to fire.

If you add all your events with this snippet of code:

//put this somewhere in your JavaScript:
HTMLElement.prototype.addEvent = function(event, callback){
  if(!this.events)this.events = {};
  if(!this.events[event]){
    this.events[event] = [];
    var element = this;
    this['on'+event] = function(e){
      var events = element.events[event];
      for(var i=0;i<events.length;i++){
        events[i](e||event);
      }
    }
  }
  this.events[event].push(callback);
}
//use like this:
element.addEvent('change', function(e){...});

then you can just use element.on<EVENTNAME>() where <EVENTNAME> is the name of your event, and that will call all events with <EVENTNAME>

Using JQuery you can do the following:

// for the element which uses ID
$("#id").trigger("change");

// for the element which uses class name
$(".class_name").trigger("change");

For triggering any event in Javascript.

 document.getElementById("yourid").addEventListener("change", function({
    //your code here
})

For some reason ele.onchange() is throwing a "method not found" expception for me in IE on my page, so I ended up using this function from the link Kolten provided and calling fireEvent(ele, 'change'), which worked:

function fireEvent(element,event){
    if (document.createEventObject){
        // dispatch for IE
        var evt = document.createEventObject();
        return element.fireEvent('on'+event,evt)
    }
    else{
        // dispatch for firefox + others
        var evt = document.createEvent("HTMLEvents");
        evt.initEvent(event, true, true ); // event type,bubbling,cancelable
        return !element.dispatchEvent(evt);
    }
}

I did however, create a test page that confirmed calling should onchange() work:

<input id="test1" name="test1" value="Hello" onchange="alert(this.value);"/>
<input type="button" onclick="document.getElementById('test1').onchange();" value="Say Hello"/>

Edit: The reason ele.onchange() didn't work was because I hadn't actually declared anything for the onchange event. But the fireEvent still works.

In jQuery I mostly use:

$("#element").trigger("change");

Taken from the bottom of QUnit

function triggerEvent( elem, type, event ) {
    if ( $.browser.mozilla || $.browser.opera ) {
        event = document.createEvent("MouseEvents");
        event.initMouseEvent(type, true, true, elem.ownerDocument.defaultView,
            0, 0, 0, 0, 0, false, false, false, false, 0, null);
        elem.dispatchEvent( event );
    } else if ( $.browser.msie ) {
        elem.fireEvent("on"+type);
    }
}

You can, of course, replace the $.browser stuff to your own browser detection methods to make it jQuery independent.

To use this function:

var event;
triggerEvent(ele, "change", event);

This will basically fire the real DOM event as if something had actually changed.