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Asked: 2026-06-04T03:30:49+00:00

Can anyone point me to the documentation of the html Event object? Bonus Reading

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Can anyone point me to the documentation of the html Event object?

Bonus Reading

The only reason i know a global Event object exists is because it was mentioned in a Stackoverflow answer:

onclick="SomeEvent(this, event)"

function SomeEvent( el, event ) {
    var target = event.srcElement || event.target;

    if( el === target ) {
        // run your code
    }
}

Where it seems to have the properties:

  • srcElement
  • target

Googling around i found W3 School’s page on the HTML DOM Event object, which lists the following properties:

  • bubbles: Returns whether or not an event is a bubbling event
  • cancelable: Returns whether or not an event can have its default action prevented
  • currentTarget: Returns the element whose event listeners triggered the event
  • eventPhase: Returns which phase of the event flow is currently being evaluated
  • target Returns the element that triggered the event
  • timeStamp Returns the time (in milliseconds relative to the epoch) at which the event was created – type Returns the name of the event

and methods:

  • initEvent(): Specifies the event type, whether or not the event can bubble, whether or not the event’s default action can be prevented
  • preventDefault(): To cancel the event if it is cancelable, meaning that any default action normally taken by the implementation as a result of the event will not occur
  • stopPropagation(): To prevent further propagation of an event during event flow

It’s missing srcElement, so it’s safe to say it’s not complete documentation.

Then there’s Microsoft’s page on the event object. It doesn’t have any documentation; only mentioning the object. But it does mention that:

some properties might not have meaningful values during some events. For example, the fromElement and toElement properties

W3Schools page doesn’t mention fromElement or toElement properties; so it’s not complete.

The MSDN page references a link to W3C:

Standards information

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification, Section 1.6.5

A search of that page contains no mention of fromElement or toElement.

So can anyone point me to documentation of the html Event object?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The MDN site provides very reliable information: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/event. Your event.toElement property is a non-standard Microsoft thing, a quick test showed undefined for the property in Firefox:

    <body onclick="alert(event.srcElement)">Click

    The correct property to use is target. Also note that event is not global, it is only a local variable. You are suggested to use addEventListener for adding DOM events as described in the MDN page.

    quirksmode.org has nice tables on compatibility across browsers.

    W3schools… well http://w3fools.com

    Since you want to know more about the IE-specific srcElement property, consult Microsofts documention. From srcElement property:

    Gets the element that the event was originally dispatched to. Compare to target.

    Remarks

    Note The srcElement property is provided for backward compatibility. Use the target property instead.

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