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element.setCapture

Call this method during the handling of a mousedown event to retarget all mouse events to this element until the mouse button is released or document.releaseCapture() is called.

Syntax

element.setCapture(retargetToElement);
retargetToElement
If true, all events are targeted directly to this element; if false, events can also fire at descendants of this element.

Example

In this example, the current mouse coordinates are drawn while you mouse around after clicking and holding down on an element.

<html>
<head>
  <title>Mouse Capture Example</title>
  <style type="text/css">
    #myButton {
      border: solid black 1px;
      color: black;
      padding: 2px;
      box-shadow: black 2px 2px;
    }
  </style>
  
  <script type="text/javascript">
    function init() {
      var btn = document.getElementById("myButton");
      btn.addEventListener("mousedown", mouseDown, false);
      btn.addEventListener("mouseup", mouseUp, false);
    }
    
    function mouseDown(e) {
      //e.target.setCapture(); // this method needs to be defined
      e.target.addEventListener("mousemove", mouseMoved, false);
    }
    
    function mouseUp(e) {
      e.target.removeEventListener("mousemove", mouseMoved, false);
    }
    
    function mouseMoved(e) {
      var output = document.getElementById("output");
      output.innerHTML = "Position: " + e.clientX + ", " + e.clientY;
    }
  </script>
</head>
<body onload="init()">
  <p>This is an example of how to use mouse capture on elements in Gecko 2.0.</p>
  <p><a id="myButton" href="#">Test Me</a></p>
  <div id="output">No events yet</div>
</body>
</html>

View Live Examples

Notes

The element may not be scrolled completely to the top or bottom, depending on the layout of other elements.

Specification

Based on Internet Explorer's implementation.

See also

© 2005–2018 Mozilla Developer Network and individual contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/element/setCapture