Question

I would like to simulate the user pressing tab then enter when they press enter. I know this sounds bad, but I have an asp.net web application that will only allow me to have one form with runat=”server” on it so when the user hits return the main form gets submitted. I have another textbox on the page though (that ideally should have it’s own form but can’t because it is asp), and when enter is hit from there obviously the main form is submitted. The simplest way I could think is to simulate tab then enter using javascript, but I have been unsuccessful in that. I am welcome to any other solutions to this problem. So far I have simulated pressing tab, but I don’t know how to simulate more than one keypress though.

Here is the code I have so far, I imagine return 9; needs to be replaced with something else. JQuery will also do.

function suppressEnter (e) {
    var keyPressed;
    if (window.event) { keyPressed = window.event.keyCode }  // IE
    else if (e) { keyPressed = e.which };  // Netscape
    if (keyPressed == 13) {
        return 9;
    }
    else {
        return true;
    }
}

EDIT: return 9 + 13; works in chrome, but not IE

Answer 1

Something like this would work:

function keyPress(e) {
    if (e.which == 13) {
         $(document).trigger(jQuery.Event('keydown', {which: 9}));
        // do something
        alert('Enter')
    }
    if (e.which == 9) {
         // do something
         alert('Tab');
    }

};

$(document).bind("keydown", keyPress);

I’ve coded it up in a fiddle – http://jsfiddle.net/FAe6U/

---

Also With regards to @nnnnnn comment:

It seems to me you should just code that directly rather than trying
to simulate keystrokes.

Try this:

var tabPress;
function keyPress(e) {
    if (e.which == 13) {
        if (tabPress == 1){
            e.preventDefault();
            alert('tab and enter');
        }
        else{e.preventDefault(); alert('enter')}
    }
    else if (e.which == 9) {
        e.preventDefault();
        tabPress = 1;
    };
};

function keyRelease(){tabPress = 0;}
$(document).bind("keydown", keyPress);
$(document).bind("keyup", keyRelease);

I’ve coded it up in a fiddle – http://jsfiddle.net/f4Ybn/