button - Archive of obsolete content

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A button that can be pressed by the user. Event handlers can be used to trap mouse, keyboard and other events. It is typically rendered as a grey outset rectangle. You can specify the label of the button using the label attribute or by placing content inside the button.

More information is available in the XUL tutorial.

Attributes: accesskey, autocheck, checkState, checked, command, crop, dir, disabled, dlgtype, group, icon, image, label, open, orient, tabindex, type

Properties: accessKey, accessibleType, autoCheck, checkState, checked, command, crop, dir, disabled, dlgType, group, image, label, open, orient, tabIndex, type

Examples

<button label="Press Me"
        oncommand="alert('You pressed me!');"/>

Attributes

accesskey: Type: character; This should be set to a character that is used as a shortcut key. This should be one of the characters that appears in the label attribute for the element.

autocheck: Type: boolean; If this attribute is true or left out, the checked state of the button will be switched each time the button is pressed. If this attribute is false, the checked state must be adjusted manually. When autocheck is true, the button type should be "checkbox" or "radio".

checkState: Type: integer, values 0, 1, or 2; This attribute may be used to create three state buttons, numbered 0, 1 and 2. When in state 0 or 1, pressing the button will switch to the opposite state. When in state 2, pressing the button will switch to state 0. This means that the button acts like a checkbox except that there is a third state which must be set manually by adjusting the check state. If you wish to have different behavior for how the states are adjusted, set the autoCheck attribute to false and adjust the state with a script. The type attribute must be set to checkbox for buttons with a check state. Constants for the possible values for this attribute are in the nsIDOMXULButtonElement interface.

checked: Type: boolean; Indicates whether the element is checked or not.; Use hasAttribute() to determine whether this attribute is set instead of getAttribute().; For buttons, the type attribute must be set to checkbox or radio for this attribute to have any effect.

command: Type: id; Set to the id of a command element that is being observed by the element.

crop

Type: one of the values below

If the label of the element is too big to fit in its given space, the text will be cropped on the side specified by the crop attribute. An ellipsis will be used in place of the cropped text. If the box direction is reversed, the cropping is reversed.

start: The text will be cropped on its left side in left-to-right text locales, and the right side in right-to-left locales.
end: The text will be cropped on its right side in left-to-right text locales, and the right side in right-to-left locales.
left: The text will be cropped on its left side.
right: The text will be cropped on its right side.
center: The text will be cropped in the middle, showing both the start and end of the text normally.
none: The text will be not be cropped using an ellipsis. However, the text will simply be cut off if it is too large. The side depends on the CSS text alignment.

Depending on the platform and theme being used, some elements will have set a maximum width so they will always appear cropped. If you wish to use the value none and the displayed text is larger than this maximum width, you may be able to use the max-width CSS property (or the maxwidth attribute) to override this size. For example, for a menuitem in a menu you can add the following CSS rule when you want to use the value none:

menupopup > menuitem, menupopup > menu { max-width: none; }

dir

Type: one of the values below

The direction in which the child elements of the element are placed.

normal: For scales, the scale's values are ordered from left to right (for horizontal scales) or from top to bottom (for vertical scales) For other elements, the elements are placed left to right or top to bottom in the order they appear in the XUL code.
reverse: For scales, the scale's values are ordered from right to left (for horizontal scales) or from bottom to top (for vertical scales). For other elements, they are placed right to left or bottom to top. This is reverse of the order in which they appear in the XUL code.

disabled: Type: boolean; Indicates whether the element is disabled or not. If this attribute is set, the element is disabled. Disabled elements are usually drawn with grayed-out text. If the element is disabled, it does not respond to user actions, it cannot be focused, and the command event will not fire. In the case of form elements, it will not be submitted. Do not set the attribute to true, as this will suggest you can set it to false to enable the element again, which is not the case.
The disabled attribute is allowed only for form controls. Using it with an anchor tag (an <a> link) will have no effect.

The element will, however, still respond to mouse events. To enable the element, leave this attribute out entirely.; Visible controls have a disabled property which, except for menus and menuitems, is normally preferred to use of the attribute, as it may need to update additional state.

dlgtype

Type: one of the values below

The dialog type of the button, used only when the button is in a dialog box. You can use this feature to replace the standard dialog box buttons with custom buttons, yet the dialog event methods will still function. For example, if the dlgType is set to accept, the button will replace the dialog box's accept button, which is usually labeled OK. Using this attribute on a button that is not in a dialog box has no effect. The following values can be used as the dialog type:

accept: The OK button, which will accept the changes when pressed.
cancel: The cancel button which will cancel the operation.
help: A help button for displaying help about the dialog.
disclosure: A button to show more information. This might be a button or a disclosure triangle.
extra1: An optional additional button.
extra2: A second optional additional button.

group: Type: string group name; Buttons with type="radio" and the same value for their group attribute are put into the same group. Only one button from each group can be checked at a time. If the user selects one the buttons, the others in the group are unchecked.

icon: Mozilla 1.8; Type: string; This attribute should be used to set the usage for common buttons. Some platforms display these buttons with a small icon indicating their usage. This should be used in place of the image attribute. Possible values include: accept, cancel, help, open, save, find, clear, yes, no, apply, close, print, add, remove, refresh, go-forward, go-back, properties, select-font, select-color, network. If you are using a button that matches one of these common usages, use the icon attribute to indicate this. See the appearance of the different icons on some available platforms.

image: Type: URI; The URI of the image to appear on the element. If this attribute is empty or left out, no image appears. The position of the image is determined by the dir and orient attributes.

label: Type: string; The label that will appear on the element. If this is left out, no text appears. For an editable menuitem element the value of this attribute is copied to the menulist.value property upon user selection of the menuitem.

open: Type: boolean; For the menu type buttons, the open attribute is set to true when the menu is open. The open attribute is not present if the menu is closed.

orient

Type: one of the values below

Used to specify whether the children of the element are oriented horizontally or vertically. The default value depends on the element. You can also use the -moz-box-orient style property.

horizontal: Child elements of the element are placed next to each other in a row in the order that they appear in the XUL source.
vertical: Child elements of the element are placed under each other in a column in the order that they appear in the XUL source.

tabindex: Type: integer; The tab order of the element. The tab order is the order in which the focus is moved when the user presses the "tab" key. Elements with a higher tabindex are later in the tab sequence.

type

Type: one of the values below

The type of button. If this attribute is not present, a normal button is created. Leave the attribute out for a normal button.

checkbox: This type of button can be in two states. The user can click the button to switch between the states. This is not the same as a checkbox because it looks like a button.
menu: Set the type attribute to the value menu to create a button with a menu popup. Place a menupopup element inside the button in this case. The user may click anywhere on the button to open and close the menu.
menu-button: You can also use the value menu-button to create a button with a menu. Unlike the menu type, this type requires the user to press the arrow to open the menu, but a different command may be invoked when the main part of the button is pressed.
panel: Similar to the menu type, this opens a popup. Place a panel element inside the button. panel elements are popups that support any type of content.
radio: The button acts like a radio button. Only one button in the group can be on a once.
repeat: This button will fire its command event repeatedly while the mouse button is held down.

Properties

accessKey: Type: character; Gets and sets the value of the accesskey attribute.

accessibleType: Type: integer; A value indicating the type of accessibility object for the element.

autoCheck: Type: boolean; Gets and sets the value of the autoCheck attribute.

checkState: Type: integer, values 0, 1, or 2; Gets and sets the value of the checkState attribute.

checked: Type: boolean; Gets and sets the value of the checked attribute.

command: Type: element id; Gets and sets the value of the command attribute.

crop: Type: string; Gets and sets the value of the crop attribute.

dir: Type: string; Gets and sets the value of the dir attribute.

disabled: Type: boolean; Gets and sets the value of the disabled attribute.

dlgType: Type: string; Gets and sets the value of the dlgType attribute.

group: Type: string group name; Gets and sets the value of the group attribute.

image: Type: image URL; Gets and sets the value of the image attribute.

label: Type: string; Gets and sets the value of the label attribute.

open: Type: boolean; Gets and sets the value of the open attribute.

orient: Type: string; Gets and sets the value of the orient attribute.

tabIndex: Type: integer; Gets and sets the value of the tabindex attribute.

type: Type: string; Gets and sets the value of the type attribute.

Methods

Inherited Methods
addEventListener(), appendChild(), blur, click, cloneNode(), compareDocumentPosition, dispatchEvent(), doCommand, focus, getAttribute(), getAttributeNode(), getAttributeNodeNS(), getAttributeNS(), getBoundingClientRect(), getClientRects(), getElementsByAttribute, getElementsByAttributeNS, getElementsByClassName(), getElementsByTagName(), getElementsByTagNameNS(), getFeature, getUserData, hasAttribute(), hasAttributeNS(), hasAttributes(), hasChildNodes(), insertBefore(), isDefaultNamespace(), isEqualNode, isSameNode, isSupported(), lookupNamespaceURI, lookupPrefix, normalize(), querySelector(), querySelectorAll(), removeAttribute(), removeAttributeNode(), removeAttributeNS(), removeChild(), removeEventListener(), replaceChild(), setAttribute(), setAttributeNode(), setAttributeNodeNS(), setAttributeNS(), setUserData

Interfaces: nsIAccessibleProvider, nsIDOMXULButtonElement