Trigger click event on keypress for any focused element

Question

Is there a default way to trigger a click event anytime enter is pressed on a focused element?

What I am referencing is the differences from pressing enter while focused on a <button> vs. pressing enter while focused on a <div> <li> <span>, etc. The <button> keypress enter triggers as expected. However, <div> keypress enter does nothing. I believe you have to specifically write the event in for that keypress.

$('li').click(function() {  
    //toggles something 
});

$("li").keydown(function(e){
    if(e.which === 13){
        $(this).click();
    }
});

Answer 1

Is there a default way to trigger a click event anytime enter is pressed on a focused element?

There's no solution without javascript.

Although the onclick has a special behavior as the W3C mentions

While "onclick" sounds like it is tied to the mouse, the onclick event is actually mapped to the default action of a link or button.

this does not work with other elements than links and buttons.

You could be tempted to add role="button" to a div with a tabindex="0". This does not work.

The Mozilla documentation explicitely says that you have to define handler, even with the button role.

This is easily understandable as this is a browser feature. When you define role=link on an element, you can't right click on it, hoping that it will open your browser context menu. For the same reason, defining the role=button attribute won't affect the default behavior. From this discussion:

ARIA simply conveys the accessibility semantics intended by the author that are conveyed to an assistive technology.

Also do not forget to handle the space key. Read Karl Groves article and example about the subject.