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element.setCapture

Call this method during the handling of a mousedown event to retarget all mouse events to this element until the mouse button is released or document.releaseCapture() is called.

Warning: This interface never had much cross-browser support and you probably looking for element.setPointerCapture instead, from the Pointer Events API.

Syntax

element.setCapture(retargetToElement);

retargetToElement: If true, all events are targeted directly to this element; if false, events can also fire at descendants of this element.

Example

In this example, the current mouse coordinates are drawn while you mouse around after clicking and holding down on an element.

<html>
<head>
  <title>Mouse Capture Example</title>
  <style type="text/css">
    #myButton {
      border: solid black 1px;
      color: black;
      padding: 2px;
      box-shadow: black 2px 2px;
    }
  </style>
  
  <script type="text/javascript">
    function init() {
      var btn = document.getElementById("myButton");
      if (btn.setCapture) {
        btn.addEventListener("mousedown", mouseDown, false);
        btn.addEventListener("mouseup", mouseUp, false);
      } else {
        document.getElementById("output").innerHTML
          = "Sorry, there appears to be no setCapture support on this browser";
      }
    }
    
    function mouseDown(e) {
      e.target.setCapture();
      e.target.addEventListener("mousemove", mouseMoved, false);
    }
    
    function mouseUp(e) {
      e.target.removeEventListener("mousemove", mouseMoved, false);
    }
    
    function mouseMoved(e) {
      var output = document.getElementById("output");
      output.innerHTML = "Position: " + e.clientX + ", " + e.clientY;
    }
  </script>
</head>
<body onload="init()">
  <p>This is an example of how to use mouse capture on elements in Gecko 2.0.</p>
  <p><a id="myButton" href="#">Test Me</a></p>
  <div id="output">No events yet</div>
</body>
</html>

View Live Examples

Notes

The element may not be scrolled completely to the top or bottom, depending on the layout of other elements.

Specification

Based on Internet Explorer's implementation.

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	No	?	?	?	No	?