Question

In ASP.NET, I am preventing default postback action when user presses enter while textbox control has focus. See the following piece of code

      $("#TextBox1").keydown(function(e)
        {
            if(e.keyCode == 13)
            {
                //alert("Hello");
                return false;
            }
        });

This code works fine. But if I uncomment the alert function call then page post does not stop.

My question is why alert call is creating a problem?

Answer 1

I missed that you were using keydown. To prevent form submission, I’d use a submit handler instead, in this case working with your keydown handler and probably a blur handler as well (to reset the flag):

var cancelFlag = false;

$('#TextBox1')
    .keydown(function(e) {
        cancelFlag = e.keyCode == 13;
    })
    .blur(function() {
        cancelFlag = false;
    });

$('#theform').submit(function() {
    if (cancelFlag) {
        alert("Hello!");
    }
    return cancelFlag;
});

(Or you can call e.preventDefault(); instead of returning false, either works.) You’ll need to do testing to ensure the flag gets cleared in every situation you want it to be cleared in.

---

Alternately, make the alert asynchronous:

$("#TextBox1").keydown(function(e)
{
    if(e.keyCode == 13)
    {
        setTimeout(function()
        {
            alert("Hello");
        }, 10);
        return false;
    }
});

That lets the event stack unwind before putting up the alert. But I’m not at all sure you can reliably (cross-browser and OS) prevent a form submission by cancelling the default action of a keydown. You said it was working, and if it works in your target browsers, great, but…