Trigger action on programmatic change to an input value

The following works everywhere I've tried it, including IE11 (even down to IE9 emulation mode).

It takes your defineProperty idea a bit further by finding the object in the input element prototype chain that defines the .value setter and modifying this setter to trigger an event (I've called it modified in the example), while still keeping the old behavior.

When you run the snippet below, you can type / paste / whatnot in the text input box, or you can click the button that appends " more" to the input element's .value. In either case, the <span>'s content is synchronously updated.

The only thing that's not handled here is an update caused by setting the attribute. You could handle that with a MutationObserver if you want, but note that there's not a one-to-one relationship between .value and the value attribute (the latter is just the default value for the former).

// make all input elements trigger an event when programmatically setting .value
monkeyPatchAllTheThings();                

var input = document.querySelector("input");
var span = document.querySelector("span");

function updateSpan() {
    span.textContent = input.value;
}

// handle user-initiated changes to the value
input.addEventListener("input", updateSpan);

// handle programmatic changes to the value
input.addEventListener("modified", updateSpan);

// handle initial content
updateSpan();

document.querySelector("button").addEventListener("click", function () {
    input.value += " more";
});


function monkeyPatchAllTheThings() {

    // create an input element
    var inp = document.createElement("input");

    // walk up its prototype chain until we find the object on which .value is defined
    var valuePropObj = Object.getPrototypeOf(inp);
    var descriptor;
    while (valuePropObj && !descriptor) {
         descriptor = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(valuePropObj, "value");
         if (!descriptor)
            valuePropObj = Object.getPrototypeOf(valuePropObj);
    }

    if (!descriptor) {
        console.log("couldn't find .value anywhere in the prototype chain :(");
    } else {
        console.log(".value descriptor found on", "" + valuePropObj);
    }

    // remember the original .value setter ...
    var oldSetter = descriptor.set;

    // ... and replace it with a new one that a) calls the original,
    // and b) triggers a custom event
    descriptor.set = function () {
        oldSetter.apply(this, arguments);

        // for simplicity I'm using the old IE-compatible way of creating events
        var evt = document.createEvent("Event");
        evt.initEvent("modified", true, true);
        this.dispatchEvent(evt);
    };

    // re-apply the modified descriptor
    Object.defineProperty(valuePropObj, "value", descriptor);
}
<input><br><br>
The input contains "<span></span>"<br><br>
<button>update input programmatically</button>

if the only problem with your solution is breaking of change event on value set. thn you can fire that event manually on set. (But this wont monitor set in case a user makes a change to the input via browser -- see edit bellow)

<html>
  <body>
    <input type='hidden' id='myInput' />
    <input type='text' id='myInputVisible' />
    <input type='button' value='Test' onclick='return testSet();'/>
    <script>
      //hidden input which your API will be changing
      var myInput=document.getElementById("myInput");
      //visible input for the users
      var myInputVisible=document.getElementById("myInputVisible");
      //property mutation for hidden input
      Object.defineProperty(myInput,"value",{
        get:function(){
          return this.getAttribute("value");
        },
        set:function(val){
          console.log("set");

          //update value of myInputVisible on myInput set
          myInputVisible.value = val;

          // handle value change here
          this.setAttribute("value",val);

          //fire the event
          if ("createEvent" in document) {  // Modern browsers
            var evt = document.createEvent("HTMLEvents");
            evt.initEvent("change", true, false);
            myInput.dispatchEvent(evt);
          }
          else {  // IE 8 and below
            var evt = document.createEventObject();
            myInput.fireEvent("onchange", evt);
          }
        }
      });  

      //listen for visible input changes and update hidden
      myInputVisible.onchange = function(e){
        myInput.value = myInputVisible.value;
      };

      //this is whatever custom event handler you wish to use
      //it will catch both the programmatic changes (done on myInput directly)
      //and user's changes (done on myInputVisible)
      myInput.onchange = function(e){
        console.log(myInput.value);
      };

      //test method to demonstrate programmatic changes 
      function testSet(){
        myInput.value=Math.floor((Math.random()*100000)+1);
      }
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

more on firing events manually

EDIT:

The problem with manual event firing and the mutator approach is that the value property won't change when user changes the field value from browser. the work around is to use two fields. one hidden with which we can have programmatic interaction. Another is visible with which user can interact. After this consideration approach is simple enough.

  1. mutate value property on hidden input-field to observe the changes and fire manual onchange event. on set value change the value of visible field to give user feedback.
  2. on visible field value change update the value of hidden for observer.

Tags:

Javascript

Html Input

Defineproperty

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