MessageEvent: MessageEvent() constructor

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since August 2016.

Note: This feature is available in Web Workers.

The MessageEvent() constructor creates a new MessageEvent object.

Syntax

js
new MessageEvent(type)
new MessageEvent(type, options)

Parameters

type

A string with the name of the event. It is case-sensitive and browsers always set it to message.

options Optional

An object that, in addition of the properties defined in Event(), can have the following properties:

data Optional

The data you want contained in the MessageEvent. This can be of any data type, and will default to null if not specified.

origin Optional

A string representing the origin of the message emitter. This defaults to an empty string ('') if not specified.

lastEventId Optional

A string representing a unique ID for the event. This defaults to an empty string ("") if not specified.

source Optional

A MessageEventSource (which can be a Window, a MessagePort, or a ServiceWorker object) representing the message emitter. This defaults to null if not set.

ports Optional

An array of MessagePort objects containing all MessagePort objects sent with the message, in order. This defaults to an empty array ([]) if not specified.

Return value

A new MessageEvent object.

Examples

js
const myMessage = new MessageEvent("message", {
  data: "hello",
});

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# the-messageevent-interface:dom-event-constructor

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile server
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
Bun
Deno
Node.js
MessageEvent() constructor
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 16 (Release date: 2011-12-13)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 14 (Release date: 2016-08-02)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 26 (Release date: 2013-12-10)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 6 (Release date: 2012-07-25)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 26 (Release date: 2013-12-10)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 12.1 (Release date: 2012-10-09)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 6 (Release date: 2012-09-10)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 6 (Release date: 2012-09-10)
footnote Full support
Bun – Full support
Bun 1 (Release date: 2023-09-08)
footnote Full support
Deno – Full support
Deno 1.4 (Release date: 2020-09-13)
footnote Full support
Node.js – Full support
Node.js 15 (Release date: 2020-10-20)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also

  • ExtendableMessageEvent — similar to this interface but used in interfaces that needs to give more flexibility to authors.