Handling Events

Events are actions that the user performs while visiting your page. Submitting a form and moving a mouse over an image are two examples of events.

JavaScript deals with events using commands called event handlers. An action by the user on the page triggers an event handler in your script. The 12 most common JavaScript event handlers are listed in Table 1.1. We deal with other, more advanced event handlers in Chapter 9.

Table 1.1. Event Handlers

Event	What It Handles
onabort	The user aborted loading the page
onblur	The user left the object
onchange	The user changed the object
onclick	The user clicked an object
onerror	The script encountered an error
onfocus	The user made an object active
onload	The object finished loading
onmouseover	The cursor moved over an object
onmouseout	The cursor moved off an object
onselect	The user selected the contents of an object
onsubmit	The user submitted a form
onunload	The user left the page

For example, let's say that our cat handles the event onpetting by performing the actions purr and stretch.

In JavaScript, if the user clicks a button, the onclick event handler takes note of the action and perform whatever duties it was assigned.

When you write a script, you don't have to anticipate every possible action that the user might take, just the ones where you want something special to occur. For instance, your page will load just fine without an onload event handler. But you use the onload command if you want to trigger a script as soon as the page loads.