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EventTarget: dispatchEvent() method

files/en-us/web/api/eventtarget/dispatchevent/index.md

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{{APIRef("DOM")}}{{AvailableInWorkers}}

The dispatchEvent() method of the {{domxref("EventTarget")}} sends an {{domxref("Event")}} to the object, (synchronously) invoking the affected event listeners in the appropriate order. The normal event processing rules (including the capturing and optional bubbling phase) also apply to events dispatched manually with dispatchEvent().

Calling dispatchEvent() is the last step to firing an event. The event should have already been created and initialized using an {{domxref("Event/Event", "Event()")}} constructor.

[!NOTE] When calling this method, the {{domxref("Event.target")}} property is initialized to the current EventTarget.

Unlike "native" events, which are fired by the browser and invoke event handlers asynchronously via the event loop, dispatchEvent() invokes event handlers synchronously. All applicable event handlers are called and return before dispatchEvent() returns.

Syntax

js-nolint
dispatchEvent(event)

Parameters

  • event
    • : The {{domxref("Event")}} object to dispatch. Its {{domxref("Event.target")}} property will be set to the current {{domxref("EventTarget")}}.

Return value

false if event is cancelable, and at least one of the event handlers which received event called {{domxref("Event.preventDefault()")}}. Otherwise true.

Exceptions

  • InvalidStateError {{domxref("DomException")}}
    • : Thrown if the event's type was not specified during event initialization.

[!WARNING] Exceptions thrown by event handlers are reported as uncaught exceptions. The event handlers run on a nested callstack; they block the caller until they complete, but exceptions do not propagate to the caller.

Example

See Creating and dispatching events.

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also