Secret copy to clipboard JavaScript function in Chrome and Firefox?

Question

Update

Looks like browsers are starting to support copy natively in JS

In the console windows of both Chrome and Firefox on Mac I can execute

copy("party in your clipboard!");

and the text gets copied to my clipboard. I have searched SO and Google and can't seem to find anything on this.

Are these specific to each browser?
Where can I find more information on these JavaScript functions?

Browser versions:

alt text

JavaScript returned from Chrome console when executing 'copy'

function (object)
    {
        if (injectedScript._type(object) === "node") {
            var nodeId = InjectedScriptHost.pushNodePathToFrontend(object, false, false);
            InjectedScriptHost.copyNode(nodeId);
        } else
            InjectedScriptHost.copyText(object);
    }

What does this code mean?

Here are 2 screenshots of executing copy function in Chrome console with all chrome extensions disabled

alt text

I'm no C++ programmer, but I found void InjectedScriptHost::copyText(const String& text) in opensource.apple.com/source/WebCore/WebCore-7533.18.1/inspector/… — Kai
@Kai, Hmmmmmm... looks like maybe it is built in to Apple's open source webkit then? — Mike Grace
Unfortunately this command doesn't work from a Chrome extension, so it must be specific to the developer tools console in WebKit. — atomicules

Yi Jiang Yi Jiang · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-30T01:19:30

I believe these are predefined Firebug console functions - at least that seems to be the case for Firebug. If you try calling window.copy for instance, you'll get a warning about function not defined, so it's definitely not a browser function, and cannot be used in normal JavaScript files. The following functions also seems to work in the JavaScript console, after playing around with it a bit:

clear()
profile()

Running these in the Chrome console reveals the source behind these functions in the Webkit console:

> profile
function ()
{
return console.profile.apply(console, arguments)
}

> clear
function ()
{
InjectedScriptHost.clearConsoleMessages();
}

> copy
function (object)
{
if (injectedScript._type(object) === "node")
object = object.outerHTML;
InjectedScriptHost.copyText(object);
}

While the Firebug source also defines a list of functions:

this.clear = function()  // no web page interaction
{
    Firebug.Console.clear(context);
};

this.inspect = function(obj, panelName)  // no web page interaction
{
    Firebug.chrome.select(obj, panelName);
};

this.keys = function(o)
{
    return FBL.keys(o);  // the object is from the page, unwrapped
};

this.values = function(o)
{
    return FBL.values(o); // the object is from the page, unwrapped
};

// etc...

Secret copy to clipboard JavaScript function in Chrome and Firefox?

2 Answers