Web/API/Event/explicitOriginalTarget

Non-standard This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.

The explicit original target of the event. (Mozilla-specific)

If the event was [[../../../../DOM/event_retargeting|retargeted]] for some reason other than an [[../../../../DOM/anonymous_boundary_crossing|anonymous boundary crossing]], this will be set to the target before the retargeting occurs. For example, mouse events are retargeted to their parent node when they happen over text nodes (see bug 185889), and in that case currentTarget will show the parent and explicitOriginalTarget will show the text node.

explicitOriginalTarget differs from originalTarget in that it will never contain [[../../../../DOM/anonymous_content|anonymous content]].

Example

This property can be used with <command> to get the event details of the original object calling the command.

function myCommand(ev) {
  alert(ev.explicitOriginalTarget.nodeName); // returns 'menuitem'
}

<xul:command id="my-cmd-anAction" oncommand="myCommand(event);"/>

<xul:menulist>
  <xul:menupopup>
    <xul:menuitem label="Get my element name!" command="my-cmd-anAction"/>
  </xul:menupopup>
</menulist>

Specifications

This is a Mozilla-specific property. Defined in /dom/public/idl/events/nsIDOMNSEvent.idl

This event property is not defined in the W3.org DOM Level 2 Events

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
explicitOriginalTarget Non-standard'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support Yes	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support  

Full support

No support  

No support

Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.'

Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.

See also

• Comparison of Event Targets

Event.explicitOriginalTarget by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.