Clicking a link when enter key is pressed using jQuery

Question

I'm trying to make it so when a user is in a text box and they press enter, it is the same as clicking the link, in which case it should take them to another page. Here's what I have and it doesn't work.

The code

//jQuery 
$(document).ready(function() {

  //if focus is in the input box drivingSchoolInput
  $("#drivingSchoolInput").live("click", function() {

    //if enter key is pressed
    if(e.keyCode == 13) {

        //click the button and go to next page
        $("#button1").click();
    }       
  });   
});

The markup

<form>      
  <div class="formDiv">
    <label for="City">Search by Driving School</label>
    <span class="inputBox"><input type="text" name="City" class="input" id="drivingSchoolInput" /></span>
  </div>

  <h4 class="submitButton"><a href="school.html" id="button1">Submit</a></h4>     
</form>

Answer 1

Write a small jQuery plugin:

jQuery.fn.enter = function(callback) {
   if(!callback) {
      //don't attach if we have garbage.
      return;
   }

   $(this).keydown(function(e) {
       var ev = e || event;
       if(ev.keyCode == 13) {
          callback();
          return false;
       }
   }); 
};

Usage: $(element).enter(callback_func);

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Check this out: jQuery Event Keypress: Which key was pressed?

I'll just consolidate the codes from that post here:

$('#searchbox input').bind('keypress', function(e) {
 var code = e.keyCode || e.which;
 if(code == 13) { //Enter keycode
   //Do your stuff + form submit
 }
});

PS: I have never tested it, but it 'should' work. :P

Answer 3

You have a few major problems with this code...

The first one, pygorex1 caught: you need to specify the event argument if you wish to refer to it...

The second one is in the same area of your code: you're trying to check for the key event in a handler for the click event!

The third one can be found on this line:

            //click the button and go to next page
            $("#button1").click();

...which does nothing, since you have no event handlers on that link, and jQuery's click() function does not trigger the browser's default behavior!

Instead, try something like this:

// if a key is pressed and then released
$("#drivingSchoolInput").live("keyup", function(e) {

  // ...and it was the enter key...
  if(e.keyCode == 13) {

    // ...navigate to the associated URL.
    document.location = $("#button1").attr('href');
  }               
});

Answer 4

I wanted to do something similar, so after reading David K Egghead's suggestion above I came up with this which triggers a "click" even on an anchor when enter is pressed. Could be used to "click" a button as well!

$(document).keypress(function(event){if(event.keyCode==13){$('.save_icon').trigger("click");}});