Basically, I want to make sure that a user has to manually close a javascript alert, and that the user can't simply quit out of the alert by pressing enter.

(This sounds malicious, but in the application you press enter a lot and I need to make sure they don't miss the important information the alert gives them).

I have tried setting the document.onkeydown to no avail:

document.onkeydown = disabled;

and then in the disabled function

function disabled(event) {
    if (event.keyCode==13) {
        event.preventDefault();
    }
}

is there a way to acplish this without having to switch over to using modals?

Basically, I want to make sure that a user has to manually close a javascript alert, and that the user can't simply quit out of the alert by pressing enter.

(This sounds malicious, but in the application you press enter a lot and I need to make sure they don't miss the important information the alert gives them).

I have tried setting the document.onkeydown to no avail:

document.onkeydown = disabled;

and then in the disabled function

function disabled(event) {
    if (event.keyCode==13) {
        event.preventDefault();
    }
}

is there a way to acplish this without having to switch over to using modals?

• javascript
• jquery

Share Improve this question Follow asked Jun 25, 2015 at 16:49 pasquerspasquers 79211 gold badge99 silver badges2929 bronze badges 5

• 6 Change the call to alert() to some custom modal window implementation. – Halcyon Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 16:51
• Slight nitpick... Pressing enter is a manual action, the user is "manually closing the alert". – David Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 16:53
• @Halcyon: The end of the question: "is there a way to acplish this without having to switch over to using modals?" (my emphasis) – T.J. Crowder Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 16:55
• @T.J.Crowder I'm not sure why you made that ment. window.alert() is a modal. I guess the emphasis is on custom. If you're unsure of the term, see: en.wikipedia/wiki/Modal_window – Halcyon Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 16:57
• @Halcyon: To me it's clear that the OP's talking about a custom modal window implementation there. But it's not a big deal. Re your edit: Of course I'm sure of the term. I also have a decent grasp of web programming vernacular. Guess what "modal" means there, 99 out of 100 times. – T.J. Crowder Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 16:59

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2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 8

is there a way to acplish this without having to switch over to using modals?

No. The alert is outside the document and you can't add any event handling to it. The path you've already identified (switching to a "modal" element) is the way you'll have to go. It also has the advantage you can improve styling, prevent the browser from suppressing the alerts, etc. There's some refactoring required to handle the async pletion, of course.

A kludgy solution would be for the alert to always be in the foreground so they will see it, but to grey out the alert by having windows focus on some other object, so that the user's 'enter' will go to that instead.