JavaScript click event does not work on mobile touchscreen [duplicate] - javascript

I'm working on a mobile web site that has to work on a variety of devices. The ones giving me a headache at the moment are BlackBerry.
We need to support both keyboard clicks as well as touch events.
Ideally I'd just use:
$thing.click(function(){...})
but the issue we're running into is that some of these blackberry devices have a very annoying delay from the time of the touch to it triggering a click.
The remedy is to instead use touchstart:
$thing.bind('touchstart', function(event){...})
But how do I go about binding both events, but only firing one? I still need the click event for keyboard devices, but of course, don't want the click event firing if I'm using a touch device.
A bonus question: Is there anyway to do this and additionally accommodate browsers that don't even have a touchstart event? In researching this, it looks like BlackBerry OS5 doesn't support touchstart so will also need to rely on click events for that browser.
ADDENDUM:
Perhaps a more comprehensive question is:
With jQuery, is it possible/recommended to handle both touch interactions and mouse interactions with the same bindings?
Ideally, the answer is yes. If not, I do have some options:
We use WURFL to get device info so could create our own matrix of devices. Depending on the device, we'll use touchstart OR click.
Detect for touch support in the browser via JS (I need to do some more research on that, but it seems like that is doable).
However, that still leaves one issue: what about devices that support BOTH. Some of the phones we support (namely the Nokias and BlackBerries) have both touch screens and keyboards. So that kind of takes me full circle back to the original question...is there a way to allow for both at once somehow?

Update: Check out the jQuery Pointer Events Polyfill project which allows you to bind to "pointer" events instead of choosing between mouse & touch.
Bind to both, but make a flag so the function only fires once per 100ms or so.
var flag = false;
$thing.bind('touchstart click', function(){
if (!flag) {
flag = true;
setTimeout(function(){ flag = false; }, 100);
// do something
}
return false
});

This is the fix that I "create" and it take out the GhostClick and implements the FastClick. Try on your own and let us know if it worked for you.
$(document).on('touchstart click', '.myBtn', function(event){
if(event.handled === false) return
event.stopPropagation();
event.preventDefault();
event.handled = true;
// Do your magic here
});

You could try something like this:
var clickEventType=((document.ontouchstart!==null)?'click':'touchstart');
$("#mylink").bind(clickEventType, myClickHandler);

Usually this works as well:
$('#buttonId').on('touchstart click', function(e){
e.stopPropagation(); e.preventDefault();
//your code here
});

Just adding return false; at the end of the on("click touchstart") event function can solve this problem.
$(this).on("click touchstart", function() {
// Do things
return false;
});
From the jQuery documentation on .on()
Returning false from an event handler will automatically call event.stopPropagation() and event.preventDefault(). A false value can also be passed for the handler as a shorthand for function(){ return false; }.

I had to do something similar. Here is a simplified version of what worked for me. If a touch event is detected, remove the click binding.
$thing.on('touchstart click', function(event){
if (event.type == "touchstart")
$(this).off('click');
//your code here
});
In my case the click event was bound to an <a> element so I had to remove the click binding and rebind a click event which prevented the default action for the <a> element.
$thing.on('touchstart click', function(event){
if (event.type == "touchstart")
$(this).off('click').on('click', function(e){ e.preventDefault(); });
//your code here
});

I succeeded by the following way.
Easy Peasy...
$(this).on('touchstart click', function(e){
e.preventDefault();
//do your stuff here
});

I believe the best practice is now to use:
$('#object').on('touchend mouseup', function () { });
touchend
The touchend event is fired when a touch point is removed from the touch surface.
The touchend event will not trigger any mouse events.
mouseup
The mouseup event is sent to an element when the mouse pointer is over the element, and the mouse button is released. Any HTML element can receive this event.
The mouseup event will not trigger any touch events.
EXAMPLE
$('#click').on('mouseup', function () { alert('Event detected'); });
$('#touch').on('touchend', function () { alert('Event detected'); });
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<h1 id="click">Click me</h1>
<h1 id="touch">Touch me</h1>
EDIT (2017)
As of 2017, browsers starting with Chrome are making steps towards making the click event .on("click") more compatible for both mouse and touch by eliminating the delay generated by tap events on click requests.
This leads to the conclusion that reverting back to using just the click event would be the simplest solution moving forward.
I have not yet done any cross browser testing to see if this is practical.

check fast buttons and chost clicks from google https://developers.google.com/mobile/articles/fast_buttons

Well... All of these are super complicated.
If you have modernizr, it's a no-brainer.
ev = Modernizr.touch ? 'touchstart' : 'click';
$('#menu').on(ev, '[href="#open-menu"]', function(){
//winning
});

Generally you don't want to mix the default touch and non-touch (click) api. Once you move into the world of touch it easier to deal only with the touch related functions. Below is some pseudo code that would do what you want it to.
If you connect in the touchmove event and track the locations you can add more items in the doTouchLogic function to detect gestures and whatnot.
var touchStartTime;
var touchStartLocation;
var touchEndTime;
var touchEndLocation;
$thing.bind('touchstart'), function() {
var d = new Date();
touchStartTime = d.getTime();
touchStartLocation = mouse.location(x,y);
});
$thing.bind('touchend'), function() {
var d = new Date();
touchEndTime= d.getTime();
touchEndLocation= mouse.location(x,y);
doTouchLogic();
});
function doTouchLogic() {
var distance = touchEndLocation - touchStartLocation;
var duration = touchEndTime - touchStartTime;
if (duration <= 100ms && distance <= 10px) {
// Person tapped their finger (do click/tap stuff here)
}
if (duration > 100ms && distance <= 10px) {
// Person pressed their finger (not a quick tap)
}
if (duration <= 100ms && distance > 10px) {
// Person flicked their finger
}
if (duration > 100ms && distance > 10px) {
// Person dragged their finger
}
}

Another implementation for better maintenance. However, this technique will also do event.stopPropagation (). The click is not caught on any other element that clicked for 100ms.
var clickObject = {
flag: false,
isAlreadyClicked: function () {
var wasClicked = clickObject.flag;
clickObject.flag = true;
setTimeout(function () { clickObject.flag = false; }, 100);
return wasClicked;
}
};
$("#myButton").bind("click touchstart", function (event) {
if (!clickObject.isAlreadyClicked()) {
...
}
}

Just for documentation purposes, here's what I've done for the fastest/most responsive click on desktop/tap on mobile solution that I could think of:
I replaced jQuery's on function with a modified one that, whenever the browser supports touch events, replaced all my click events with touchstart.
$.fn.extend({ _on: (function(){ return $.fn.on; })() });
$.fn.extend({
on: (function(){
var isTouchSupported = 'ontouchstart' in window || window.DocumentTouch && document instanceof DocumentTouch;
return function( types, selector, data, fn, one ) {
if (typeof types == 'string' && isTouchSupported && !(types.match(/touch/gi))) types = types.replace(/click/gi, 'touchstart');
return this._on( types, selector, data, fn);
};
}()),
});
Usage than would be the exact same as before, like:
$('#my-button').on('click', function(){ /* ... */ });
But it would use touchstart when available, click when not. No delays of any kind needed :D

I just came up with the idea to memorize if ontouchstart was ever triggered. In this case we are on a device which supports it and want to ignore the onclick event. Since ontouchstart should always be triggered before onclick, I'm using this:
<script> touchAvailable = false; </script>
<button ontouchstart="touchAvailable=true; myFunction();" onclick="if(!touchAvailable) myFunction();">Button</button>

You could try like this:
var clickEvent = (('ontouchstart' in document.documentElement)?'touchstart':'click');
$("#mylink").on(clickEvent, myClickHandler);

In my case this worked perfectly:
jQuery(document).on('mouseup keydown touchend', function (event) {
var eventType = event.type;
if (eventType == 'touchend') {
jQuery(this).off('mouseup');
}
});
The main problem was when instead mouseup I tried with click, on touch devices triggered click and touchend at the same time, if i use the click off, some functionality didn't worked at all on mobile devices. The problem with click is that is a global event that fire the rest of the event including touchend.

This worked for me, mobile listens to both, so prevent the one, which is the touch event. desktop only listen to mouse.
$btnUp.bind('touchstart mousedown',function(e){
e.preventDefault();
if (e.type === 'touchstart') {
return;
}
var val = _step( _options.arrowStep );
_evt('Button', [val, true]);
});

This hasn't been mentioned here, but you may want to check out this link: https://joshtronic.com/2015/04/19/handling-click-and-touch-events-on-the-same-element/
To recap for posterity, instead of trying to assign to both handlers and then sort out the result, you can simply check if the device is a touchscreen or not and only assign to the relevant event. Observe:
var clickEvent = (function() {
if ('ontouchstart' in document.documentElement === true)
return 'touchstart';
else
return 'click';
})();
// and assign thusly:
el.addEventListener( clickEvent, function( e ){
// things and stuff
});
I am using this to bind my events so that I can test on touchscreens that handle both touchstart and click events which would fire twice, and on my development PC which only hears the click
One problem the author of that link mentions though, is touchscreen laptops designed to handle both events:
I learned about a third device I was not considering, the touchscreen laptop. It’s a hybrid device that supports both touch and click events. Binding one event means only that event be supported. Does that mean someone with a touchscreen and mouse would have to explicitly touch because that’s the only event I am handling?
Binding touchstart and click seemed ideal to handle these hybrid devices. To keep the event from firing twice, I added e.stopPropagation() and e.preventDefault() to the callback functions. e.stopPropagation() stops events from “bubbling up” to their parents but also keeps a second event from firing. I included e.preventDefault() as a “just in case” but seems like it could be omitted.

Being for me the best answer the one given by Mottie, I'm just trying to do his code more reusable, so this is my contribution:
bindBtn ("#loginbutton",loginAction);
function bindBtn(element,action){
var flag = false;
$(element).bind('touchstart click', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
if (!flag) {
flag = true;
setTimeout(function() {
flag = false;
}, 100);
// do something
action();
}
return false;
});

I am also working on an Android/iPad web app, and it seems that if only using "touchmove" is enough to "move components" ( no need touchstart ).
By disabling touchstart, you can use .click(); from jQuery. It's actually working because it hasn't be overloaded by touchstart.
Finally, you can binb .live("touchstart", function(e) { e.stopPropagation(); }); to ask the touchstart event to stop propagating, living room to click() to get triggered.
It worked for me.

There are many things to consider when trying to solve this issue. Most solutions either break scrolling or don't handle ghost click events properly.
For a full solution see https://developers.google.com/mobile/articles/fast_buttons
NB: You cannot handle ghost click events on a per-element basis. A delayed click is fired by screen location, so if your touch events modify the page in some way, the click event will be sent to the new version of the page.

It may be effective to assign to the events 'touchstart mousedown' or 'touchend mouseup' to avoid undesired side-effects of using click.

Taking advantage of the fact that a click will always follow a touch event, here is what I did to get rid of the "ghost click" without having to use timeouts or global flags.
$('#buttonId').on('touchstart click', function(event){
if ($(this).data("already")) {
$(this).data("already", false);
return false;
} else if (event.type == "touchstart") {
$(this).data("already", true);
}
//your code here
});
Basically whenever an ontouchstart event fires on the element, a flag a set and then subsequently removed (and ignored), when the click comes.

Why not use the jQuery Event API?
http://learn.jquery.com/events/event-extensions/
I've used this simple event with success. It's clean, namespaceable and flexible enough to improve upon.
var isMobile = /Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry/i.test(navigator.userAgent);
var eventType = isMobile ? "touchstart" : "click";
jQuery.event.special.touchclick = {
bindType: eventType,
delegateType: eventType
};

If you are using jQuery the following worked pretty well for me:
var callback; // Initialize this to the function which needs to be called
$(target).on("click touchstart", selector, (function (func){
var timer = 0;
return function(e){
if ($.now() - timer < 500) return false;
timer = $.now();
func(e);
}
})(callback));
Other solutions are also good but I was binding multiple events in a loop and needed the self calling function to create an appropriate closure. Also, I did not want to disable the binding since I wanted it to be invoke-able on next click/touchstart.
Might help someone in similar situation!

For simple features, just recognize touch or click I use the following code:
var element = $("#element");
element.click(function(e)
{
if(e.target.ontouchstart !== undefined)
{
console.log( "touch" );
return;
}
console.log( "no touch" );
});
This will return "touch" if the touchstart event is defined and "no touch" if not. Like I said this is a simple approach for click/tap events just that.

I am trying this and so far it works (but I am only on Android/Phonegap so caveat emptor)
function filterEvent( ob, ev ) {
if (ev.type == "touchstart") {
ob.off('click').on('click', function(e){ e.preventDefault(); });
}
}
$('#keypad').on('touchstart click', '.number, .dot', function(event) {
filterEvent( $('#keypad'), event );
console.log( event.type ); // debugging only
... finish handling touch events...
}
I don't like the fact that I am re-binding handlers on every touch, but all things considered touches don't happen very often (in computer time!)
I have a TON of handlers like the one for '#keypad' so having a simple function that lets me deal with the problem without too much code is why I went this way.

Try to use Virtual Mouse (vmouse) Bindings from jQuery Mobile.
It's virtual event especially for your case:
$thing.on('vclick', function(event){ ... });
http://api.jquerymobile.com/vclick/
Browser support list: http://jquerymobile.com/browser-support/1.4/

EDIT: My former answer (based on answers in this thread) was not the way to go for me. I wanted a sub-menu to expand on mouse enter or touch click and to collapse on mouse leave or another touch click. Since mouse events normally are being fired after touch events, it was kind of tricky to write event listeners that support both touchscreen and mouse input at the same time.
jQuery plugin: Touch Or Mouse
I ended up writing a jQuery plugin called "Touch Or Mouse" (897 bytes minified) that can detect whether an event was invoked by a touchscreen or mouse (without testing for touch support!). This enables the support of both touchscreen and mouse at the same time and completely separate their events.
This way the OP can use touchstart or touchend for quickly responding to touch clicks and click for clicks invoked only by a mouse.
Demonstration
First one has to make ie. the body element track touch events:
$(document.body).touchOrMouse('init');
Mouse events our bound to elements in the default way and by calling $body.touchOrMouse('get', e) we can find out whether the event was invoked by a touchscreen or mouse.
$('.link').click(function(e) {
var touchOrMouse = $(document.body).touchOrMouse('get', e);
if (touchOrMouse === 'touch') {
// Handle touch click.
}
else if (touchOrMouse === 'mouse') {
// Handle mouse click.
}
}
See the plugin at work at http://jsfiddle.net/lmeurs/uo4069nh.
Explanation
This plugin needs to be called on ie. the body element to track touchstart and touchend events, this way the touchend event does not have to be fired on the trigger element (ie. a link or button). Between these two touch events this plugin considers any mouse event to be invoked by touch.
Mouse events are fired only after touchend, when a mouse event is being fired within the ghostEventDelay (option, 1000ms by default) after touchend, this plugin considers the mouse event to be invoked by touch.
When clicking on an element using a touchscreen, the element gains the :active state. The mouseleave event is only fired after the element loses this state by ie. clicking on another element. Since this could be seconds (or minutes!) after the mouseenter event has been fired, this plugin keeps track of an element's last mouseenter event: if the last mouseenter event was invoked by touch, the following mouseleave event is also considered to be invoked by touch.

Here's a simple way to do it:
// A very simple fast click implementation
$thing.on('click touchstart', function(e) {
if (!$(document).data('trigger')) $(document).data('trigger', e.type);
if (e.type===$(document).data('trigger')) {
// Do your stuff here
}
});
You basically save the first event type that is triggered to the 'trigger' property in jQuery's data object that is attached to the root document, and only execute when the event type is equal to the value in 'trigger'. On touch devices, the event chain would likely be 'touchstart' followed by 'click'; however, the 'click' handler won't be executed because "click" doesn't match the initial event type saved in 'trigger' ("touchstart").
The assumption, and I do believe it's a safe one, is that your smartphone won't spontaneously change from a touch device to a mouse device or else the tap won't ever register because the 'trigger' event type is only saved once per page load and "click" would never match "touchstart".
Here's a codepen you can play around with (try tapping on the button on a touch device -- there should be no click delay): http://codepen.io/thdoan/pen/xVVrOZ
I also implemented this as a simple jQuery plugin that also supports jQuery's descendants filtering by passing a selector string:
// A very simple fast click plugin
// Syntax: .fastClick([selector,] handler)
$.fn.fastClick = function(arg1, arg2) {
var selector, handler;
switch (typeof arg1) {
case 'function':
selector = null;
handler = arg1;
break;
case 'string':
selector = arg1;
if (typeof arg2==='function') handler = arg2;
else return;
break;
default:
return;
}
this.on('click touchstart', selector, function(e) {
if (!$(document).data('trigger')) $(document).data('trigger', e.type);
if (e.type===$(document).data('trigger')) handler.apply(this, arguments);
});
};
Codepen: http://codepen.io/thdoan/pen/GZrBdo/

Related

Is there in JQuery or JS event only for mouse click but not for touch [duplicate]

I'm working on a mobile web site that has to work on a variety of devices. The ones giving me a headache at the moment are BlackBerry.
We need to support both keyboard clicks as well as touch events.
Ideally I'd just use:
$thing.click(function(){...})
but the issue we're running into is that some of these blackberry devices have a very annoying delay from the time of the touch to it triggering a click.
The remedy is to instead use touchstart:
$thing.bind('touchstart', function(event){...})
But how do I go about binding both events, but only firing one? I still need the click event for keyboard devices, but of course, don't want the click event firing if I'm using a touch device.
A bonus question: Is there anyway to do this and additionally accommodate browsers that don't even have a touchstart event? In researching this, it looks like BlackBerry OS5 doesn't support touchstart so will also need to rely on click events for that browser.
ADDENDUM:
Perhaps a more comprehensive question is:
With jQuery, is it possible/recommended to handle both touch interactions and mouse interactions with the same bindings?
Ideally, the answer is yes. If not, I do have some options:
We use WURFL to get device info so could create our own matrix of devices. Depending on the device, we'll use touchstart OR click.
Detect for touch support in the browser via JS (I need to do some more research on that, but it seems like that is doable).
However, that still leaves one issue: what about devices that support BOTH. Some of the phones we support (namely the Nokias and BlackBerries) have both touch screens and keyboards. So that kind of takes me full circle back to the original question...is there a way to allow for both at once somehow?
Update: Check out the jQuery Pointer Events Polyfill project which allows you to bind to "pointer" events instead of choosing between mouse & touch.
Bind to both, but make a flag so the function only fires once per 100ms or so.
var flag = false;
$thing.bind('touchstart click', function(){
if (!flag) {
flag = true;
setTimeout(function(){ flag = false; }, 100);
// do something
}
return false
});
This is the fix that I "create" and it take out the GhostClick and implements the FastClick. Try on your own and let us know if it worked for you.
$(document).on('touchstart click', '.myBtn', function(event){
if(event.handled === false) return
event.stopPropagation();
event.preventDefault();
event.handled = true;
// Do your magic here
});
You could try something like this:
var clickEventType=((document.ontouchstart!==null)?'click':'touchstart');
$("#mylink").bind(clickEventType, myClickHandler);
Usually this works as well:
$('#buttonId').on('touchstart click', function(e){
e.stopPropagation(); e.preventDefault();
//your code here
});
Just adding return false; at the end of the on("click touchstart") event function can solve this problem.
$(this).on("click touchstart", function() {
// Do things
return false;
});
From the jQuery documentation on .on()
Returning false from an event handler will automatically call event.stopPropagation() and event.preventDefault(). A false value can also be passed for the handler as a shorthand for function(){ return false; }.
I had to do something similar. Here is a simplified version of what worked for me. If a touch event is detected, remove the click binding.
$thing.on('touchstart click', function(event){
if (event.type == "touchstart")
$(this).off('click');
//your code here
});
In my case the click event was bound to an <a> element so I had to remove the click binding and rebind a click event which prevented the default action for the <a> element.
$thing.on('touchstart click', function(event){
if (event.type == "touchstart")
$(this).off('click').on('click', function(e){ e.preventDefault(); });
//your code here
});
I succeeded by the following way.
Easy Peasy...
$(this).on('touchstart click', function(e){
e.preventDefault();
//do your stuff here
});
I believe the best practice is now to use:
$('#object').on('touchend mouseup', function () { });
touchend
The touchend event is fired when a touch point is removed from the touch surface.
The touchend event will not trigger any mouse events.
mouseup
The mouseup event is sent to an element when the mouse pointer is over the element, and the mouse button is released. Any HTML element can receive this event.
The mouseup event will not trigger any touch events.
EXAMPLE
$('#click').on('mouseup', function () { alert('Event detected'); });
$('#touch').on('touchend', function () { alert('Event detected'); });
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<h1 id="click">Click me</h1>
<h1 id="touch">Touch me</h1>
EDIT (2017)
As of 2017, browsers starting with Chrome are making steps towards making the click event .on("click") more compatible for both mouse and touch by eliminating the delay generated by tap events on click requests.
This leads to the conclusion that reverting back to using just the click event would be the simplest solution moving forward.
I have not yet done any cross browser testing to see if this is practical.
check fast buttons and chost clicks from google https://developers.google.com/mobile/articles/fast_buttons
Well... All of these are super complicated.
If you have modernizr, it's a no-brainer.
ev = Modernizr.touch ? 'touchstart' : 'click';
$('#menu').on(ev, '[href="#open-menu"]', function(){
//winning
});
Generally you don't want to mix the default touch and non-touch (click) api. Once you move into the world of touch it easier to deal only with the touch related functions. Below is some pseudo code that would do what you want it to.
If you connect in the touchmove event and track the locations you can add more items in the doTouchLogic function to detect gestures and whatnot.
var touchStartTime;
var touchStartLocation;
var touchEndTime;
var touchEndLocation;
$thing.bind('touchstart'), function() {
var d = new Date();
touchStartTime = d.getTime();
touchStartLocation = mouse.location(x,y);
});
$thing.bind('touchend'), function() {
var d = new Date();
touchEndTime= d.getTime();
touchEndLocation= mouse.location(x,y);
doTouchLogic();
});
function doTouchLogic() {
var distance = touchEndLocation - touchStartLocation;
var duration = touchEndTime - touchStartTime;
if (duration <= 100ms && distance <= 10px) {
// Person tapped their finger (do click/tap stuff here)
}
if (duration > 100ms && distance <= 10px) {
// Person pressed their finger (not a quick tap)
}
if (duration <= 100ms && distance > 10px) {
// Person flicked their finger
}
if (duration > 100ms && distance > 10px) {
// Person dragged their finger
}
}
Another implementation for better maintenance. However, this technique will also do event.stopPropagation (). The click is not caught on any other element that clicked for 100ms.
var clickObject = {
flag: false,
isAlreadyClicked: function () {
var wasClicked = clickObject.flag;
clickObject.flag = true;
setTimeout(function () { clickObject.flag = false; }, 100);
return wasClicked;
}
};
$("#myButton").bind("click touchstart", function (event) {
if (!clickObject.isAlreadyClicked()) {
...
}
}
Just for documentation purposes, here's what I've done for the fastest/most responsive click on desktop/tap on mobile solution that I could think of:
I replaced jQuery's on function with a modified one that, whenever the browser supports touch events, replaced all my click events with touchstart.
$.fn.extend({ _on: (function(){ return $.fn.on; })() });
$.fn.extend({
on: (function(){
var isTouchSupported = 'ontouchstart' in window || window.DocumentTouch && document instanceof DocumentTouch;
return function( types, selector, data, fn, one ) {
if (typeof types == 'string' && isTouchSupported && !(types.match(/touch/gi))) types = types.replace(/click/gi, 'touchstart');
return this._on( types, selector, data, fn);
};
}()),
});
Usage than would be the exact same as before, like:
$('#my-button').on('click', function(){ /* ... */ });
But it would use touchstart when available, click when not. No delays of any kind needed :D
I just came up with the idea to memorize if ontouchstart was ever triggered. In this case we are on a device which supports it and want to ignore the onclick event. Since ontouchstart should always be triggered before onclick, I'm using this:
<script> touchAvailable = false; </script>
<button ontouchstart="touchAvailable=true; myFunction();" onclick="if(!touchAvailable) myFunction();">Button</button>
You could try like this:
var clickEvent = (('ontouchstart' in document.documentElement)?'touchstart':'click');
$("#mylink").on(clickEvent, myClickHandler);
In my case this worked perfectly:
jQuery(document).on('mouseup keydown touchend', function (event) {
var eventType = event.type;
if (eventType == 'touchend') {
jQuery(this).off('mouseup');
}
});
The main problem was when instead mouseup I tried with click, on touch devices triggered click and touchend at the same time, if i use the click off, some functionality didn't worked at all on mobile devices. The problem with click is that is a global event that fire the rest of the event including touchend.
This worked for me, mobile listens to both, so prevent the one, which is the touch event. desktop only listen to mouse.
$btnUp.bind('touchstart mousedown',function(e){
e.preventDefault();
if (e.type === 'touchstart') {
return;
}
var val = _step( _options.arrowStep );
_evt('Button', [val, true]);
});
This hasn't been mentioned here, but you may want to check out this link: https://joshtronic.com/2015/04/19/handling-click-and-touch-events-on-the-same-element/
To recap for posterity, instead of trying to assign to both handlers and then sort out the result, you can simply check if the device is a touchscreen or not and only assign to the relevant event. Observe:
var clickEvent = (function() {
if ('ontouchstart' in document.documentElement === true)
return 'touchstart';
else
return 'click';
})();
// and assign thusly:
el.addEventListener( clickEvent, function( e ){
// things and stuff
});
I am using this to bind my events so that I can test on touchscreens that handle both touchstart and click events which would fire twice, and on my development PC which only hears the click
One problem the author of that link mentions though, is touchscreen laptops designed to handle both events:
I learned about a third device I was not considering, the touchscreen laptop. It’s a hybrid device that supports both touch and click events. Binding one event means only that event be supported. Does that mean someone with a touchscreen and mouse would have to explicitly touch because that’s the only event I am handling?
Binding touchstart and click seemed ideal to handle these hybrid devices. To keep the event from firing twice, I added e.stopPropagation() and e.preventDefault() to the callback functions. e.stopPropagation() stops events from “bubbling up” to their parents but also keeps a second event from firing. I included e.preventDefault() as a “just in case” but seems like it could be omitted.
Being for me the best answer the one given by Mottie, I'm just trying to do his code more reusable, so this is my contribution:
bindBtn ("#loginbutton",loginAction);
function bindBtn(element,action){
var flag = false;
$(element).bind('touchstart click', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
if (!flag) {
flag = true;
setTimeout(function() {
flag = false;
}, 100);
// do something
action();
}
return false;
});
I am also working on an Android/iPad web app, and it seems that if only using "touchmove" is enough to "move components" ( no need touchstart ).
By disabling touchstart, you can use .click(); from jQuery. It's actually working because it hasn't be overloaded by touchstart.
Finally, you can binb .live("touchstart", function(e) { e.stopPropagation(); }); to ask the touchstart event to stop propagating, living room to click() to get triggered.
It worked for me.
There are many things to consider when trying to solve this issue. Most solutions either break scrolling or don't handle ghost click events properly.
For a full solution see https://developers.google.com/mobile/articles/fast_buttons
NB: You cannot handle ghost click events on a per-element basis. A delayed click is fired by screen location, so if your touch events modify the page in some way, the click event will be sent to the new version of the page.
It may be effective to assign to the events 'touchstart mousedown' or 'touchend mouseup' to avoid undesired side-effects of using click.
Taking advantage of the fact that a click will always follow a touch event, here is what I did to get rid of the "ghost click" without having to use timeouts or global flags.
$('#buttonId').on('touchstart click', function(event){
if ($(this).data("already")) {
$(this).data("already", false);
return false;
} else if (event.type == "touchstart") {
$(this).data("already", true);
}
//your code here
});
Basically whenever an ontouchstart event fires on the element, a flag a set and then subsequently removed (and ignored), when the click comes.
Why not use the jQuery Event API?
http://learn.jquery.com/events/event-extensions/
I've used this simple event with success. It's clean, namespaceable and flexible enough to improve upon.
var isMobile = /Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry/i.test(navigator.userAgent);
var eventType = isMobile ? "touchstart" : "click";
jQuery.event.special.touchclick = {
bindType: eventType,
delegateType: eventType
};
If you are using jQuery the following worked pretty well for me:
var callback; // Initialize this to the function which needs to be called
$(target).on("click touchstart", selector, (function (func){
var timer = 0;
return function(e){
if ($.now() - timer < 500) return false;
timer = $.now();
func(e);
}
})(callback));
Other solutions are also good but I was binding multiple events in a loop and needed the self calling function to create an appropriate closure. Also, I did not want to disable the binding since I wanted it to be invoke-able on next click/touchstart.
Might help someone in similar situation!
For simple features, just recognize touch or click I use the following code:
var element = $("#element");
element.click(function(e)
{
if(e.target.ontouchstart !== undefined)
{
console.log( "touch" );
return;
}
console.log( "no touch" );
});
This will return "touch" if the touchstart event is defined and "no touch" if not. Like I said this is a simple approach for click/tap events just that.
I am trying this and so far it works (but I am only on Android/Phonegap so caveat emptor)
function filterEvent( ob, ev ) {
if (ev.type == "touchstart") {
ob.off('click').on('click', function(e){ e.preventDefault(); });
}
}
$('#keypad').on('touchstart click', '.number, .dot', function(event) {
filterEvent( $('#keypad'), event );
console.log( event.type ); // debugging only
... finish handling touch events...
}
I don't like the fact that I am re-binding handlers on every touch, but all things considered touches don't happen very often (in computer time!)
I have a TON of handlers like the one for '#keypad' so having a simple function that lets me deal with the problem without too much code is why I went this way.
Try to use Virtual Mouse (vmouse) Bindings from jQuery Mobile.
It's virtual event especially for your case:
$thing.on('vclick', function(event){ ... });
http://api.jquerymobile.com/vclick/
Browser support list: http://jquerymobile.com/browser-support/1.4/
EDIT: My former answer (based on answers in this thread) was not the way to go for me. I wanted a sub-menu to expand on mouse enter or touch click and to collapse on mouse leave or another touch click. Since mouse events normally are being fired after touch events, it was kind of tricky to write event listeners that support both touchscreen and mouse input at the same time.
jQuery plugin: Touch Or Mouse
I ended up writing a jQuery plugin called "Touch Or Mouse" (897 bytes minified) that can detect whether an event was invoked by a touchscreen or mouse (without testing for touch support!). This enables the support of both touchscreen and mouse at the same time and completely separate their events.
This way the OP can use touchstart or touchend for quickly responding to touch clicks and click for clicks invoked only by a mouse.
Demonstration
First one has to make ie. the body element track touch events:
$(document.body).touchOrMouse('init');
Mouse events our bound to elements in the default way and by calling $body.touchOrMouse('get', e) we can find out whether the event was invoked by a touchscreen or mouse.
$('.link').click(function(e) {
var touchOrMouse = $(document.body).touchOrMouse('get', e);
if (touchOrMouse === 'touch') {
// Handle touch click.
}
else if (touchOrMouse === 'mouse') {
// Handle mouse click.
}
}
See the plugin at work at http://jsfiddle.net/lmeurs/uo4069nh.
Explanation
This plugin needs to be called on ie. the body element to track touchstart and touchend events, this way the touchend event does not have to be fired on the trigger element (ie. a link or button). Between these two touch events this plugin considers any mouse event to be invoked by touch.
Mouse events are fired only after touchend, when a mouse event is being fired within the ghostEventDelay (option, 1000ms by default) after touchend, this plugin considers the mouse event to be invoked by touch.
When clicking on an element using a touchscreen, the element gains the :active state. The mouseleave event is only fired after the element loses this state by ie. clicking on another element. Since this could be seconds (or minutes!) after the mouseenter event has been fired, this plugin keeps track of an element's last mouseenter event: if the last mouseenter event was invoked by touch, the following mouseleave event is also considered to be invoked by touch.
Here's a simple way to do it:
// A very simple fast click implementation
$thing.on('click touchstart', function(e) {
if (!$(document).data('trigger')) $(document).data('trigger', e.type);
if (e.type===$(document).data('trigger')) {
// Do your stuff here
}
});
You basically save the first event type that is triggered to the 'trigger' property in jQuery's data object that is attached to the root document, and only execute when the event type is equal to the value in 'trigger'. On touch devices, the event chain would likely be 'touchstart' followed by 'click'; however, the 'click' handler won't be executed because "click" doesn't match the initial event type saved in 'trigger' ("touchstart").
The assumption, and I do believe it's a safe one, is that your smartphone won't spontaneously change from a touch device to a mouse device or else the tap won't ever register because the 'trigger' event type is only saved once per page load and "click" would never match "touchstart".
Here's a codepen you can play around with (try tapping on the button on a touch device -- there should be no click delay): http://codepen.io/thdoan/pen/xVVrOZ
I also implemented this as a simple jQuery plugin that also supports jQuery's descendants filtering by passing a selector string:
// A very simple fast click plugin
// Syntax: .fastClick([selector,] handler)
$.fn.fastClick = function(arg1, arg2) {
var selector, handler;
switch (typeof arg1) {
case 'function':
selector = null;
handler = arg1;
break;
case 'string':
selector = arg1;
if (typeof arg2==='function') handler = arg2;
else return;
break;
default:
return;
}
this.on('click touchstart', selector, function(e) {
if (!$(document).data('trigger')) $(document).data('trigger', e.type);
if (e.type===$(document).data('trigger')) handler.apply(this, arguments);
});
};
Codepen: http://codepen.io/thdoan/pen/GZrBdo/

How to run a function only once when it's triggered by both focus and click events

I have an input element with 2 events attached: focus and click. They both fire off the same helper function.
When I tab to the input, the focus event fires and my helper is run once. No problems there.
When the element already has focus, and I click on it again, the click event fires and my helper runs once. No problems there either.
But when the element does not have focus, and I click on it, BOTH events fire, and my helper is run TWICE. How can I keep this helper only running once?
I saw a couple similar questions on here, but didn't really follow their answers. I also discovered the .live jQuery handler, which seems like it could work if I had it watch a status class. But seems like there should be a simpler way. The .one handler would work, except I need this to work more than once.
Thanks for any help!
The best answer here would be to come up with a design that isn't trying to trigger the same action on two different events that can both occur on the same user action, but since you haven't really explained the overall problem you're coding, we can't really help you with that approach.
One approach is to keep a single event from triggering the same thing twice is to "debounce" the function call and only call the function from a given element if it hasn't been called very recently (e.g. probably from the same user event). You can do this by recording the time of the last firing for this element and only call the function if the time has been longer than some value.
Here's one way you could do that:
function debounceMyFunction() {
var now = new Date().getTime();
var prevTime = $(this).data("prevActionTime");
$(this).data("prevActionTime", now);
// only call my function if we haven't just called it (within the last second)
if (!prevTime || now - prevTime > 1000) {
callMyFunction();
}
}
$(elem).focus(debounceMyFunction).click(debounceMyFunction);
This worked for me:
http://jsfiddle.net/cjmemay/zN8Ns/1/
$('.button').on('mousedown', function(){
$(this).data("mouseDown", true);
});
$('.button').on('mouseup', function(){
$(this).removeData("mouseDown");
});
$('.button').on('focus', function(){
if (!$(this).data("mouseDown"))
$(this).trigger('click.click');
});
$(".button").on('click.click',evHandler);
Which I stole directly from this:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/9440580/264498
You could use a timeout which get's cleared and set. This would introduce a slight delay but ensures only the last event is triggered.
$(function() {
$('#field').on('click focus', function() {
debounce(function() {
// Your code goes here.
console.log('event');
});
});
});
var debounceTimeout;
function debounce(callback) {
clearTimeout(debounceTimeout);
debounceTimeout = setTimeout(callback, 500);
}
Here's the fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/APEdu/
UPDATE
To address a comment elsewhere about use of a global, you could make the doubleBounceTimeout a collection of timeouts with a key passed in the event handler. Or you could pass the same timeout to any methods handling the same event. This way you could use the same method to handle this for any number of inputs.
Live demo (click).
I'm just simply setting a flag to gate off the click when the element is clicked the first time (focus given). Then, if the element gets focus from tabbing, the flag is also removed so that the first click will work.
var $foo = $('#foo');
var flag = 0;
$foo.click(function() {
if (flag) {
flag = 0;
return false;
}
console.log('clicked');
});
$foo.focus(function() {
flag = 1;
console.log('focused');
});
$(document).keyup(function(e) {
if (e.which === 9) {
var $focused = $('input:focus');
if ($focused.is($foo)) {
flag = 0;
}
}
});
It seems to me that you don't actually need the click handler. It sounds like this event is attached to an element which when clicked gains focus and fires the focus handler. So clicking it is always going to fire your focus handler, so you only need the focus handler.
If this is not the case then unfortunately no, there is no easy way to achieve what you are asking. Adding/removing a class on focus and only firing the click when the class isn't present is about the only way I can think of.
I have it - 2 options
1 - bind the click handler to the element in the focus callback
2 - bind the focus and the click handler to a different class, and use the focus callback to add the click class and use blur to remove the click class
Thanks for the great discussion everybody. Seems like the debouncing solution from #jfriend00, and the mousedown solution from Chris Meyers, are both decent ways to handle it.
I thought some more, and also came up with this solution:
// add focus event
$myInput.focus(function() {
myHelper();
// while focus is active, add click event
setTimeout(function() {
$myInput.click(function() {
myHelper();
});
}, 500); // slight delay seems to be required
});
// when we lose focus, unbind click event
$myInput.blur(function() {
$myInput.off('click');
});
But seems like those others are slightly more elegant. I especially like Chris' because it doesn't involve dealing with the timing.
Thanks again!!
Improving on #Christopher Meyers solution.
Some intro: Before the click event fires, 2 events are preceding it, mousedown & mouseup, if the mousedown is fired, we know that probably the mouseup will fire.
Therefore we probably wouldn't like that the focus event handler would execute its action. One scenario in which the mouseup wouldn't fire is if the user starts clicking the button then drags the cursor away, for that we use the blur event.
let mousedown = false;
const onMousedown = () => {
mousedown = true;
};
const onMouseup = () => {
mousedown = false;
// perform action
};
const onFocus = () => {
if (mousedown) return;
// perform action
};
const onBlur = () => {
mousedown = false;
// perform action if wanted
};
The following events would be attached:
const events = [
{ type: 'focus', handler: onFocus },
{ type: 'blur', handler: onBlur },
{ type: 'mousedown', handler: onMousedown },
{ type: 'mouseup', handler: onMouseup }
];

How to bind both Mousedown and Touchstart, but not respond to both? Android, JQuery

Working on a website that is also viewable on mobile and need to bind an action on both touchstart and mousedown.
Looks like this
$("#roll").bind("mousedown touchstart", function(event){
someAction();
It works fine on Iphone, but on Android it responds twice.
event.stopPropagation();
event.preventDefault();
Adding this code fixed it for Android Chrome, but NOT for Android default browser. Any other tricks that can fix the problem for all android?
element.on('touchstart mousedown', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
someAction();
});
preventDefault cancels the event, as per specs
You get touchstart, but once you cancel it you no longer get mousedown. Contrary to what the accepted answer says, you don't need to call stopPropagation unless it's something you need. The event will propagate normally even when cancelled. The browser will ignore it, but your hooks will still work.
Mozilla agrees with me on this one:
calling preventDefault() on a touchstart or the first touchmove event of a series prevents the corresponding mouse events from firing
EDIT: I just read the question again and you say that you already did this and it didn't fix the Android default browser. Not sure how the accepted answer helped, as it does the same thing basically, just in a more complicated way and with an event propagation bug (touchstart doesn't propagate, but click does)
I have been using this function:
//touch click helper
(function ($) {
$.fn.tclick = function (onclick) {
this.bind("touchstart", function (e) {
onclick.call(this, e);
e.stopPropagation();
e.preventDefault();
});
this.bind("click", function (e) {
onclick.call(this, e); //substitute mousedown event for exact same result as touchstart
});
return this;
};
})(jQuery);
UPDATE: Modified answer to support mouse and touch events together.
taking gregers comment on win8 and chrome/firefox into account, skyisred's comment doesn't look that dumb after all (:P # all the haters)
though I would rather go with a blacklist than with a whitelist which he suggested, only excluding Android from touch-binds:
var ua = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase(),
isAndroid = ua.indexOf("android") != -1,
supportsPointer = !!window.navigator.msPointerEnabled,
ev_pointer = function(e) { ... }, // function to handle IE10's pointer events
ev_touch = function(e) { ... }, // function to handle touch events
ev_mouse = function(e) { ... }; // function to handle mouse events
if (supportsPointer) { // IE10 / Pointer Events
// reset binds
$("yourSelectorHere").on('MSPointerDown MSPointerMove MSPointerUp', ev_pointer);
} else {
$("yourSelectorHere").on('touchstart touchmove touchend', ev_touch); // touch events
if(!isAndroid) {
// in androids native browser mouse events are sometimes triggered directly w/o a preceding touchevent (most likely a bug)
// bug confirmed in android 4.0.3 and 4.1.2
$("yourSelectorHere").on('mousedown mousemove mouseup mouseleave', ev_mouse); // mouse events
}
}
BTW: I found that mouse-events are NOT always triggered (if stopPropagation and preventDefault were used), specifically I only noticed an extra mousemove directly before a touchend event... really weird bug but the above code fixed it for me across all (tested OSX, Win, iOS 5+6, Android 2+4 each with native browser, Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari and Opera, if available) platforms.
Wow, so many answers in this and the related question, but non of them worked for me (Chrome, mobil responsive, mousedown + touchstart). But this:
(e) => {
if(typeof(window.ontouchstart) != 'undefined' && e.type == 'mousedown') return;
// do anything...
}
Fixed using this code
var mobile = /Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry/i.test(navigator.userAgent);
var start = mobile ? "touchstart" : "mousedown";
$("#roll").bind(start, function(event){
This is a very old question but I came across the same problem and found another solution that does not stopPropagation(), preventDefault() or sniff the type of device. I work on this solution with the assumption that the device supports both touch and mouse inputs.
Explanation: When a touch is initiated, the order of events is 1) touchstart 2) touchmove 3) touchend 4) mousemove 5) mousedown 6) mouseup 7) click. Based on this, we will mark a touch interaction from touchstart (first in chain) until click (last in chain). If a mousedown is registered outside of this touch interaction, it is safe to be picked up.
Below is the logic in Dart, should be very replicable in js.
var touchStarted = false;
document.onMouseDown.listen((evt) {
if (!touchStarted) processInput(evt);
});
document.onClick.listen((evt) {
touchStarted = false;
});
document.onTouchStart.listen((evt) {
touchStarted = true;
processInput(evt);
});
As you can see my listeners are placed on document. It is thus crucial that I do not stopPropagation() or preventDefault() these events so they can bubble up to other elements. This solution helped me single out one interaction to act on and hope it helps you too!
I recommend you try jquery-fast-click. I tried the other approach on this question and others. Each fixed one issue, and introduced another. fast-click worked the first time on Android, ios, desktop, and desktop touch browsers (groan).
Write this code and add j query punch touch js.it will work simulate mouse events with touch events
function touchHandler(event)
{
var touches = event.changedTouches,
first = touches[0],
type = "";
switch(event.type)
{
case "touchstart": type = "mousedown"; break;
case "touchmove": type="mousemove"; break;
case "touchend": type="mouseup"; break;
default: return;
}
var simulatedEvent = document.createEvent("MouseEvent");
simulatedEvent.initMouseEvent(type, true, true, window, 1,
first.screenX, first.screenY,
first.clientX, first.clientY, false,
false, false, false, 0/*left*/, null);
first.target.dispatchEvent(simulatedEvent);
event.preventDefault();
}
function init()
{
document.addEventListener("touchstart", touchHandler, true);
document.addEventListener("touchmove", touchHandler, true);
document.addEventListener("touchend", touchHandler, true);
document.addEventListener("touchcancel", touchHandler, true);
}
This native solution worked best for me:
Add a touchstart event to the document settings a global touch = true.
In the mousedown/touchstart handler, prevent all mousedown events when a touch screen is detected: if (touch && e.type === 'mousedown') return;
I think the best way is :
var hasTouchStartEvent = 'ontouchstart' in document.createElement( 'div' );
document.addEventListener( hasTouchStartEvent ? 'touchstart' : 'mousedown', function( e ) {
console.log( e.touches ? 'TouchEvent' : 'MouseEvent' );
}, false );

Onhashchange with browser buttons only

I've got this issue (I'm using jQuery but I'm not restricted to it):
I'm using a combo of Anchor navigation (#id) and Ajax requests. To get the pages to move into place (using anchor navigation) or to fetch information (using Ajax), I use the onhashchange event.
EDIT: I had a little typo. I forgot to check if the mouseDown flag was true and the hashchange event was triggered so I added that if statement.
with jQuery it looks like this: (of course this code is wrapped in a function and initialized on DOM load but it doesn't matter for the question)
$(window).bind('hashchange', function(e) { }
To ensure only browsers supporting the onhashchange reads the code I encapsulate it like this:
if ('onhashchange' in window) {
$(window).bind('hashchange', function(e) { }
}
My web app is made in such way that I only want the onhashchange event to trigger when I hit the back/forward buttons in the browser. To do that I do like this:
if ('onhashchange' in window) {
$(window).bind('mousedown hashchange', function(e) { }
}
Now if I click within the viewport I will trigger the mousedown event. If the mousedown event is triggered I know that I didn't click the browser back/forward buttons and I can stop the onhashchange event using a flag like this:
var mouseDown = false;
if ('onhashchange' in window) {
$(window).bind('mousedown hashchange', function(e) {
if (e.type === 'mousedown') {
mouseDown = true;
}
if (mouseDown && e.type === 'hashchange') {
// if the mousedown event was triggered and when the haschange event triggers,
// we need to stop the hashchange event and restore the mouseDown flag
mouseDown = false;
e.stopPropagation();
}
if (!mouseDown && e.type === 'hashchange') {
// Do the onhashchange stuff here
}
}
}
This causes a problem for IE since it seams you cannot bind mouse events to the window object (?). IE will never "see" the mousedown event.
To solve this IE issue I can take the "clientY" property. This property is passed in all event calls in IE and tells you the coordinates of the mouse. If e.clientY is less then 0, the mouse is outside the viewport and I will know that I triggered the onhashchange by clicking the browser back/forward buttons. It now looks like this:
var mouseDown = false;
if ('onhashchange' in window) {
$(window).bind('mousedown hashchange', function(e) {
// IE: Use e.clientY to check if the mouse position was within the viewport (i.e. not a nagative value for Y)
// !IE: Use e.type
if (e.type === 'mousedown' || e.clientY > 0 ) {
mouseDown = true;
}
if (mouseDown && e.type === 'hashchange') {
// if the mousedown event was triggered and when the haschange event triggers,
// we need to stop the hashchange event and restore the mouseDown flag
mouseDown = false;
e.stopPropagation();
}
if (!mouseDown && e.type === 'hashchange') {
// Do the onhashchange stuff here
}
}
}
This solution was working like a charm until I had to add support for navigating with the arrows on the keyboard. Now it doesn't matter where on the screen the mouse is. As long as the IE window is "active", the keydown event listening for keyboard input triggers when hitting the keyboard. This means that the clientY check does not work anymore as intended.
The Problem:
As far as I know, the onhashchange must be bound to the window object. All events must be processed within the same callback function if I want to be able to control one event by listening for another.
How can I get this to work?
So, simply put-
"how do I distinguish between a back/forward button press vs. navigation coming from interacting with the DOM".
You may want to have a flag such that when you are changing the hash part of the URL from code, you set this flag, ignore the hashchange event, then unset the flag. In which case the event will be ignored ( a kind of reverse solution as to what you're trying to do). You'd obviously want to wrap this in a function.
In general however, applications that use the hashchange event for navigation will often use the hashchange event as a means for changing the state of the application. Therefore, there is only one entry point and you do not need to distinguish between whether the event is generated by browser navigation vs. dom interaction. I'd probably recommend changing your approach.
I'd also point you to the fact that history can be supported across all browsers (even IE6 and IE7 using an iFrame hack). Take a look at the jQuery history plugin
The reference library to achieve this:
http://benalman.com/projects/jquery-bbq-plugin/
I used it and it works great
Think about putting "!" after "#" in the url, so that google can discover the ajax pages
http://code.google.com/web/ajaxcrawling/docs/getting-started.html

Preventing mouse emulation events (i.e. click) from touch events in Mobile Safari / iPhone using Javascript

In doing a single page Javascript app with interactive DOM elements I've found that the "mouseover-mousemove-mousedown-mouseup-click" sequence happens all in a bunch after the "touchstart-touchmove-touchend" sequence of events.
I've also found that it is possible to prevent the "mouse*-click" events from happening by doing an "event.preventDefault()" during the touchstart event, but only then, and not during the touchmove and touchend. This is a strange design, because because it is not possible to know during the touchstart yet whether the user intents to drag or swipe or just tap/click on the item.
I ended up setting up a "ignore_next_click" flag somewhere tied to a timestamp, but this is obviously not very clean.
Does anybody know of a better way of doing this, or are we missing something?
Note that while a "click" can be recognized as a "touchstart-touchend" sequence (ie no "touchmove"), there are certain things, such as keyboard input focus, that can only happen during a proper click event.
Just prevent the touchend event. It will let the browser scroll the page when you touch the element but won't let it emit artificial mouse events.
element.addEventListener('touchend', event => {
event.preventDefault();
});
I've run into similar problems making cross-platform HTML5/JS apps. The only real answer for me was to preventDefault on the touch events, and actually manage the touch states and fire click, drags, etc. events on my own according to my logic. This sounds much much more daunting than it really is, but the mimicked click/mouse events work perfectly on most mobile browsers.
Click and the extra mouse sequence are all there for your convenience (and compatibility). My rule of thumb- if it's for your convenience but it's inconvenient, best kill it.
As far as the input boxes, they only need the touchend events. I've killed click/mouse events and was still able to let mobile browsers respond correctly to touches on inputs. If it's still giving you issues, you can modify the event handler to only supress events on non-inputs:
function touchHandler(event) {
var shouldIgnore = event.target != null
&& ( event.target.tagName.toLowerCase() == "input" || event.target.tagName.toLowerCase() == "textarea" );
if(!shouldIgnore) e.preventDefault();
}
I've made a solution myself, since I have not found a sufficient solution elsewhere:
var isTouch = ('ontouchstart' in window);
function kill(type){
window.document.body.addEventListener(type, function(e){
e.preventDefault();
e.stopPropagation();
return false;
}, true);
}
if( isTouch ){
kill('mousedown');
kill('mouseup');
kill('click');
kill('mousemove');
}
The check of isTouch lets things work as normal on mouse-input devices but kills the emulated events on Safari/iOS. The trick is to use useCapture = true in the call to addEventListener so we scoop up all the mouse events in the page without hacking the code all over the web app. See the docs for the function here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/EventTarget.addEventListener?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=DOM%2Felement.addEventListener
Edit:
Now that libraries for handling this issue are better, you can just use something like Fastclick as an alternative (https://github.com/ftlabs/fastclick).
If you have to support devices which support both mouse and touch, another solution is to use a capture event listener which stops all mouse events which occur either
within a delay after the touch event
at the same position as the touch event
on the same target element as the touch event
The information (time, position or target element) of the touch event can be recorded in another capture event listener.
Wrapping your mouse-only code in a Window.matchesMedia function is the cleanest way I found.
if (window.matchMedia('(hover: hover), (any-hover: hover), (-moz-touch-enabled: 0)').matches) {
el.addEventListener('mouseover', ev => {
// mouse handler, no simulated hover
}
}
This works for preventing simulated hovers but will likely prevent simulated clicks, too.
Note: -moz-touch-enabled part required on Firefox as of version 58.
This solution allows you to listen for PointerEvents if they exist, followed by TouchEvents if they exist, followed by MouseEvents if neither of the other two exist. Mobile Safari will still raise both touchstart and mousedown, but you'll only be listening for touchstart.
if (window.PointerEvent) { /* decent browsers */
etouch.addEventListener('pointerdown', (e) => {
console.log('pointerdown');
});
}
else if (window.TouchEvent) { /* mobile Safari */
etouch.addEventListener('touchstart', (e) => {
console.log('touchstart');
});
}
else { /* desktop Safari */
etouch.addEventListener('mousedown', (e) => {
console.log('mousedown');
});
}
Using 'pointerwhatever' instead of 'mousewhatever' seems to work fine on current browsers (2019).
i.e. they invented a way of having the same code for all the entry devices.
Creating Fast Buttons for Mobile Web Applications has their solution to the problem.
Also beware that when using IE10 preventDefault() doesn't stop the ghost/synthetic/emulated mouse events after a MSPointerDown event, so a true cross-browser solution is harder.
You could try to quit the function on "click", "mousedown" or "mouseup" events when the device supports touch events.
use.addEventListener("click",function(e){
// EXIT FUNCTION IF DEVICE SUPPORTS TOUCH EVENTS
if ("ontouchstart" in document.documentElement) return false;
// YOURMOUSEONLY CODE HERE
});
Add an event listener to touchstart that adds attribute data-touched to the element. Add another event listener to click that checks for data-touched. If it's there, prevent default and remove it. Here's some JS from my implementation.
var menuLinks = document.querySelectorAll('#my-nav>li>a');
for (var i = 0; i < menuLinks.length; i++) {
var menuLink = menuLinks[i];
menuLink.addEventListener('touchstart', function () {
menuLink.setAttribute('data-touched', '');
});
menuLink.addEventListener('click', function (event) {
if (menuLink.hasAttribute('data-touched')) {
menuLink.removeAttribute('data-touched');
event.preventDefault();
}
});
pointer... events have a pointerType property that mouse... events lack. You can use this property to detect and ignore events that were generated by touch rather than by a mouse.
Before:
window.addEventListner('mousemove', (e) => {
/* No way to tell if this event came from a mouse or a finger */
console.log(':(');
});
After:
window.addEventListner('pointermove', (e) => {
if (e.pointerType !== 'mouse') return;
/* This event definitely came from a mouse */
console.log(':)');
});
You can take advantage of this property just by replacing your mouse... event listeners with pointer... listeners. pointer... events are well-supported in modern browsers (going back at least three years).

Categories

Resources