Trigger an event with Javascript

This is non-trivial because you need to fake event objects and require different code for different browsers. Luckily, there is tool support for most types of events.

In jQuery you can say:

$('a#close_window').click();

In Prototype you can use event.simulate.js Show archive.org snapshot from the Protolicious library to say:

$$('a#close_window')[0].simulate('click');

To trigger custom events with Prototype, you can use the built-in Element.fire() Show archive.org snapshot function. In Prototype, custom events MUST be namespaced.

this.fire('custom:event');