NAME

HTML::DOM::EventTarget - Perl implementation of the DOM EventTarget interface

VERSION

Version 0.058

SYNOPSIS

  use HTML::DOM;
  $doc = HTML::DOM->new;
  $doc->isa('HTML::DOM::EventTarget'); # true

  $event = $doc->createEvent('MouseEvents');
  $event->initEvent('click',1,1);

  $doc->trigger_event('click');
  $doc->dispatchEvent($event);
  # etc

DESCRIPTION

This class provides the W3C's EventTarget DOM interface. It serves as a base class for HTML::DOM::Node and HTML::DOM::Attr, but any class you write can inherit from it.

This class provides the methods listed under "METHODS", but will also use a few others defined by subclasses, if they are present:

parentNode
event_parent: These are used to determine the 'ancestry' of the event target, through which the event will be dispatched. For each object, starting with the target, the "parentNode" method is called; if it doesn't exist or returns false, the "event_parent" method is tried. If that fails, then the object is taken to be the topmost object.
error_handler: The return value of this method, if it exists and returns one, is presumed to be a code ref, and is called whenever an event handler (listener) dies. If there is no "error_handler" method that returns true, then "$target->ownerDocument->error_handler" is used instead. If that fails, then errors are ignored.
event_listeners_enabled: If this method exists and returns false, then event handlers are not called. If there is no "event_listeners_enabled" method, then "$target->ownerDocument->event_listeners_enabled" is used instead.
ownerDocument: See "error_handler" and "event_listeners_enabled".

METHODS

If a subclass needs to store event handlers and listeners elsewhere (e.g., associating them with another object), it can override "addEventListener", "removeEventListener", "event_handler" and "get_event_listeners".

addEventListener($event_name, $listener, $capture)

The $listener should be either a coderef or an object with a "handleEvent" method. (HTML::DOM does not implement any such object since it would just be a wrapper around a coderef anyway, but has support for them.) An object with "&{}" overloading will also do.

$capture is a boolean indicating whether this is to be triggered during the 'capture' phase.

removeEventListener($event_name, $listener, $capture)

The $listener should be the same reference passed to "addEventListener".

on* (onthis, onthat, onclick, onfoo, etc.)

This applies to any all-lowercase method beginning with "on". Basically, "$target->onclick(\&sub)" is equivalent to "$target->addEventListener('click', \&sub, 0)", except that it replaces any event handler already assigned via "onclick", returning it. "$target->onclick" (without arguments) returns the event handler previously assigned to "onclick" if there is one.

event_handler ( $name )

event_handler ( $name, $new_value )

This is an accessor method for event listeners created by HTML or DOM attributes beginning with 'on'. This is used internally by the "on*" methods. You can use it directly for efficiency's sake.

This method used to be called "attr_event_listener", but that was a mistake, as there is a distinction between handlers and listeners. The old name is still available but will be removed in a future release. It simply calls "event_handler".

get_event_listeners($event_name, $capture)

This is not a DOM method (hence the underscores in the name). It returns a list of all event listeners for the given event name. $capture is a boolean that indicates which list to return, either 'capture' listeners or normal ones.

If there is an event handler for this event (and $capture is false), then "get_event_listeners" tacks a wrapper for the event handler on to the end of the list it returns.

dispatchEvent($event_object)

$event_object is an object returned by HTML::DOM's "createEvent" method, or any object that implements the interface documented in HTML::DOM::Event.

"dispatchEvent" does not automatically call the handler passed to the document's "default_event_handler". It is expected that the code that calls this method will do that (see also "trigger_event").

The return value is a boolean indicating whether the default action should be taken (i.e., whether preventDefault was not called).

trigger_event($event, ...)

Here is another non-DOM method. $event can be an event object or simply an event name. This method triggers an event for real, first calling "dispatchEvent" and then running the default action for the event unless an event listener cancels it.

It can take named args following the $event arg. These are passed to the event object's "init" method. Any omitted args will be filled in with reasonable defaults. These are completely ignored if $event is an event object.

Also, you can use the "default" arg to provide a coderef that will be called as the default event handler. HTML::DOM::Node overrides it to do just that, so you shouldn't need to use this arg except on a custom subclass of EventTarget.

When $event is an event name, "trigger_event" automatically chooses the right event class and a set of default args for that event name, so you can supply just a few. E.g.,

  $elem->trigger_event('click',  shift => 1, button => 1);

POD ERRORS

Hey! The above document had some coding errors, which are explained below: