I'm writing a simple web site and would like to run some simple javascript when the user presses a button on their keyboard. Something as simple as running alert("Hello!"); or showing a modal box when the user presses enter would do.
After searching for a good while, I've only been able to find solutions that work if the page contains an input text field. Is it possible without it?
Yes, it is possible to do so, and here's how you'd do it:
document.body.addEventListener("keydown", function(event) {
if (event.keyCode == 13) {
alert("Hello! You pressed the enter key!");
}
});
Yes, you can actually use eventListener for this. For example, check out this sample page.
<html>
<body>
<script>
document.addEventListener("keypress", function(event) {
if (event.keyCode == 13) {
alert('You just hit enter.');
}else if(event.keyCode ==65){
alert('You just press A.');
}else if(event.keyCode==97){
alert('You just hit a.');
}else{
alert('You press something other than A, a and ENTER key');
}
})
</script>
</body>
</html>In order to get the keycode for the various keypress you can use this:
<html>
<body>
<p>Press a key on the keyboard in the input field to get the KeyCode for that key.</p>
<input type="text" size="40" onkeypress="getKeyCode(event)">
<p id="keyCode"></p>
<script>
function getKeyCode(event) {
var x = event.which || event.keyCode;
document.getElementById("keyCode").innerHTML = "The keyCode is: " + x;
}
</script>
</body>
</html>