Window: message event
BaselineWidely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since August 2017.
Themessage
event is fired on aWindow
object when the window receives a message, for example from a call toWindow.postMessage()
from another browsing context.
This event is not cancellable and does not bubble.
Syntax
Use the event name in methods likeaddEventListener()
, or set an event handler property.
addEventListener("message", (event) => { })onmessage = (event) => { }
Event type
AMessageEvent
. Inherits fromEvent
.
Event properties
This interface also inherits properties from its parent,Event
.
MessageEvent.data
Read onlyThe data sent by the message emitter.
MessageEvent.origin
Read onlyA string representing the origin of the message emitter.
MessageEvent.lastEventId
Read onlyA string representing a unique ID for the event.
MessageEvent.source
Read onlyA
MessageEventSource
(which can be aWindowProxy,MessagePort
, orServiceWorker
object) representing the message emitter.MessageEvent.ports
Read onlyAn array of
MessagePort
objects representing the ports associated with the channel the message is being sent through (where appropriate, e.g., in channel messaging or when sending a message to a shared worker).
Examples
Suppose a script sends a message to a different browsing context, such as another<iframe>
, using code like this:
const targetFrame = window.top.frames[1];const targetOrigin = "https://example.org";const windowMessageButton = document.querySelector("#window-message");windowMessageButton.addEventListener("click", () => { targetFrame.postMessage("hello there", targetOrigin);});
The receiver can listen for the message usingaddEventListener()
with code like this:
window.addEventListener("message", (event) => { console.log(`Received message: ${event.data}`);});
Alternatively the listener could use theonmessage
event handler property:
window.onmessage = (event) => { console.log(`Received message: ${event.data}`);};
Specifications
Specification |
---|
HTML # event-message |
HTML # handler-window-onmessage |
Browser compatibility
See also
- Related events:
messageerror
. Window.postMessage()
.