How do you simulate typing using jQuery?

Question

Like how the click() can be used to trigger a click event on an element, is there any way to simulate the typing of a string?

Answer 1

If you really want to simulate typing (i.e. including triggering the events and appending the text to an input or textarea element), you can use the jQuery simulate extended plugin:
http://j-ulrich.github.com/jquery-simulate-ext

Then you can use

$('input').simulate("key-sequence", {sequence: "This is a test", delay: 10});

to simulate the typing of the text "This is a test" with a 10ms delay between each key press.

Disclaimer: I'm the author of the plugin.