javascript-tutorial / javascript-tutorial/en.javascript.info
Keyboard events: keydown filtering example can't block IME-composed input (Korean/Japanese/Chinese)
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Description
Article
Keyboard: keydown and keyup — the "Default actions" section, phone-number filter example:
<input onkeydown="return checkPhoneKey(event.key)" placeholder="Phone, please" type="tel">
Problem
The example (and the surrounding text) implies that returning false from keydown reliably prevents unwanted characters from being entered. That holds for direct (Latin) keyboard input, but not for languages typed through an IME (Input Method Editor), such as Korean, Japanese and Chinese.
With an IME active:
keydownfires withevent.key == "Process"(andkeyCode229), not the actual character.- More importantly, calling
preventDefault()/ returningfalseon thatkeydowndoes not cancel the text insertion, because the character is produced by the IME composition, not by the key's default action.
As a result, Korean/Japanese/Chinese characters pass straight through the filter and appear in the field. This was reported by a Korean reader of the Korean translation (ko.javascript.info), and is easy to reproduce by switching to a Korean IME and typing into the demo.
Suggestion
Add a short note after the example, along these lines:
Please note: this filter only works for direct keyboard input. Text composed via an IME (used for languages such as Korean, Japanese or Chinese) is inserted by the input method, not by the key's default action, so it can't be blocked in
keydown. That's one more reason why, for tracking or validating what actually gets into the field, theinputevent is a better choice.
This ties in nicely with the introduction of the article, which already recommends the input event for tracking input from any source.
Happy to send a PR if the note sounds good.
Contributor guide
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Open the Keyboard: keydown and keyup article and review the Default actions section, especially the phone-number filter example and the introduction’s discussion of the input event. Add a short note explaining the IME limitation and why input is preferable for tracking or validating inserted text, then verify the wording against the example.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- html, javascript
- Domain
- documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 76/100