davidflanagan.com/javascript5

/**
 * DataEvent.js: send and receive ondataavailable events.
 * 
 * This module defines two functions, DataEvent.send() and DataEvent.receive(),
 * for dispatching synthetic dataavailable events and registering event 
 * handlers for those events.  The code is written to work in Firefox and other
 * DOM-compliant browsers and also in IE.
 * 
 * The DOM event model allows synthetic events of any type, but the IE model
 * supports only synthetic events of predefined types.  dataavailable events
 * are the most generic predefined type supported by IE and are used here.
 *
 * Note that events dispatched with DataEvent.send() are not queued the way
 * real events would be. Instead, registered handlers are invoked immediately.
 */
var DataEvent = {};

/**
 * Send a synthetic ondataavailable event to the specified target.
 * The event object will include properties named datatype and data
 * that have the specified values.  datatype is intended to be a string
 * or other primitive value (or null) identifying the type of this message, 
 * and data can be any JavaScript value, including an object or array.
 */
DataEvent.send = function(target, datatype, data) {
    if (typeof target == "string") target = document.getElementById(target);

    // Create an event object.  If we can't create one, return silently
    if (document.createEvent) {            // DOM event model
        // Create the event, specifying the name of the event module.
        // For a mouse event, we'd use "MouseEvents"
        var e = document.createEvent("Events");
        // Initialize the event object, using a module-specific init method.
        // Here we specify the event type, bubbling, and noncancelable.
        // See Event.initEvent, MouseEvent.initMouseEvent, UIEvent.initUIEvent.
        e.initEvent("dataavailable", true, false); 
    }
    else if (document.createEventObject) { // IE event model
        // In the IE event model, we just call this simple method
        var e = document.createEventObject();
    }
    else return;  // Do nothing in other browsers
    
    // Here we add some custom properties to the event object.
    // We could set existing properties as well.
    e.datatype = datatype;
    e.data = data;

    // Dispatch the event to the specified target
    if (target.dispatchEvent) target.dispatchEvent(e); // DOM 
    else if (target.fireEvent) target.fireEvent("ondataavailable", e); // IE
};

/**
 * Register an event handler for an ondataavailable event on the specified 
 * target element.
 */
DataEvent.receive = function(target, handler) {
    if (typeof target == "string") target = document.getElementById(target);
    if (target.addEventListener)
        target.addEventListener("dataavailable", handler, false);
    else if (target.attachEvent) 
        target.attachEvent("ondataavailable", handler);
};