Develop Reference

How do I make a HTML canvas rectangle resize along with mouse drag?

I am creating a web-based annotation application for annotating images via the HTML canvas element and Javascript. I would like the user to mouse down to indicate the start of the rectangle, drag to the desired end coordinate and let go to indicate the opposite end of the rectangle.
Currently, I am able to take the starting coordinates and end coordinates to create a rectangle on the image with the context.rects() function, however as I am uncertain on how to resize a specific rectangle on the canvas, that leaves me with the rectangle only being drawn after the user has released the mouse click.
How would I be able to resize a specific rectangle created onmousedown while dragging?
The following is the code snippet that performs the function:
var isMouseDown = false;
var startX;
var startY;
canvas.onmousedown = function(e) {
if(annMode){
isMouseDown = true;
var offset = $(this).offset();
startX = parseInt(e.pageX - offset.left);
startY = parseInt(e.pageY - offset.top);
}
};
canvas.onmousemove = function(e) {
if(isMouseDown) {
var offset = $(this).offset();
var intermediateX = parseInt(e.pageX - offset.left);
var intermediateY = parseInt(e.pageY - offset.top);
console.log(intermediateX);
}
};
canvas.onmouseup = function(e) {
if(annMode&&isMouseDown){
isMouseDown = true;
var offset = $(this).offset();
var endX = parseInt(e.pageX - offset.left);
var endY = parseInt(e.pageY - offset.top);
var width = endX - startX;
var height = endY - startY;
context.strokeStyle = "#FF0000";
context.rect(startX, startY, width, height);
context.stroke();
}
isMouseDown = false
};

Here my handy-front-end scripts come in handy!
As I understood the question, you wanted to be able to move your mouse to any point on the canvas, hold the left mouse button, and drag in any direction to make a rectangle between the starting point and any new mouse position. And when you release the mouse button it will stay.
Scripts that will help you accomplish what you are trying to do:
https://github.com/GustavGenberg/handy-front-end/blob/master/README.md#canvasjs
https://github.com/GustavGenberg/handy-front-end/blob/master/README.md#pointerjs
Both scripts just makes the code a lot cleaner and easier to understand, so I used those.
Here is a fiddle as simple as you can make it really using
const canvas = new Canvas([]);
and
const mouse = new Pointer();
https://jsfiddle.net/0y8cbao3/
Did I understand your question correctly?
Do you want a version with comments describing every line and what is does?
There are still some bugs at the moment but im going to fix those soon!
EDIT
After reading your questions again, I reacted to: "...however as I am uncertain on how to resize a specific rectangle on the canvas...".
Canvas is like an image. Once you have drawn to it, you can NOT "resize" different shapes. You can only clear the whole canvas and start over (ofcourse you can clear small portions too).
That's why the Canvas helper is so helpful. To be able to "animate" the canvas, you have to create a loop that redraws the canvas with a new frame each 16ms (60 fps).

The canvas API does not preserve references to specific shapes drawn with it (unlike SVG). The canvas API simply provides convenient functions to apply operations to the individual pixels of the canvas element.
You have a couple options to achieve a draggable rectangle:
You can position a styled div over your canvas while the user is dragging. Create a container for your canvas and the div, and update the position and size the div. When the user releases, draw your rectangle. Your container needs to have position: relative and the div needs to be absolutely positioned. Ensure the div has a higher z-index than the canvas.
In your mouse down method, set div.style.display to block. Then update the position (style.left, style.top, style.width, and style.height) as the mouse is dragged. When the mouse is released, hide it again (style.display = 'none').
You can manually store references to each item you want to draw, clear the canvas (context.clearRect), and redraw each item on the canvas each frame. This kind of setup is usually achieved through recursive usage of the window.requestAnimationFrame method. This method takes a callback and executes on the next draw cycle of the browser.
The first option is probably easier to achieve in your case. If you plan to expand the capabilities of your app further, the 2nd will provide more versatility. A basic loop would be implemented as so:
// setup code, create canvas & context
function mainLoop() {
context.clearRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
/** do your logic here and re-draw **/
requestAnimationFrame(mainLoop);
}
function startApp() {
requestAnimationFrame(mainLoop)
}
This tutorial has detailed explanation of event loops for HTML canvas: http://www.isaacsukin.com/news/2015/01/detailed-explanation-javascript-game-loops-and-timing
I also have a fully featured implementation on my GitHub that's part of rendering engine I wrote: https://github.com/thunder033/mallet/blob/master/src/mallet/webgl/webgl-app.ts#L115

Android significantly slower in resizing and moving multiple canvas elements

I need to build a kind of map in canvas, which must be able to hold more than 10.000 elements and thus has quiet big dimensions in some cases (> 8000px width, >4000 px height). Also I need to pan and zoom the map.
After some fiddeling around with existing libraries (Paper.js) and possible other solutions (Leaflet Map) I eventually wrote an own library from scratch, because the main requirement is, that is should be really really fast (loading, mouseovers, ...) and none of the libraries I tried could offer all of the aspects.
The structure is as follows:
I have one map object with an associated Control object, which registers events and has resize methods etc.
A map is divided in mutliple even sized tiles (1024px x 1024px - customizable) because using the map with only one canvas at a size over 8000px width made it incredibly slow
Each tile is associated with a canvas
The elements (just circles) are added to one or multiple tiles (If it's on the edge) - more specifically to the tiles' canvas.
The tiles are placed within an container div which has the dimensions of the map area (when not zoomed out)
The container div is placed within a viewport div to enable the map being displayed as a "widget"
Zooming scales every tile/canvas and the container. For sake of performance I sacrificed smooth zoom and implemented a customizable amount of zoom steps, which still feels okay.
Panning set's the topand left style of the container.
Events used are window.resize, mousewheel, DOMMouseScrol, mousedown, mouseup, mousemove, touchstart,touchend,touchmove and Hammertime pinch
This alltogether runs satisfying on Desktop Browsers, and iPhones (tested with SE, 6S) but on every Android device I tested it (Samsung S4, One Plus One and another 1 year old device, and android studio emulator) it runs extremly slow. Drawing of the Map is fine in speed, but zooming and panning is near to impossible.
The code is too comprehensive to post it here, so I'm asking you if there are any known problems with canvas on android, that could explain this problem, or maybe some issues with the way I built the structure that could produce issues with android. I'm really clueless here, since it works on desktop and iPhone.

The real problem you're hitting is you're overloading the GPU. Loading that much data all and once then moving it around is going to put a toll on the GPU and likely force the browser into software rendering mode, which is a big performance hit.
Instead, I'd suggest changing your approach. Rather than having various large canvases, you should have one canvas that is, at most, the size of the users screen. Then, utilize methods of the canvas API such as scale and translate to render what you need. For an added bonus, avoid trying to render things which are off screen.
It may seem like having to redraw the scene every time you move around would be slow but it's not. The reality is that either you specify exactly what needs to be drawn or the browser has to attempt to draw all of it again when you shift it around. Here's a brief example of how you can render and move large images.
var ctx = document.querySelector('canvas').getContext('2d');
var img = new Image();
img.src = 'https://placeimg.com/1000/1000/nature';
img.onload = start;
function start() {
var xDirection = -1;
var yDirection = -1;
var xPosition = 0;
var yPosition = 0;
var prev = Date.now();
(function render() {
var now = Date.now();
var delta = (now - prev) / 1000;
xPosition += xDirection * delta * 20;
yPosition += yDirection * delta * 40;
if (xPosition > 0) {
xPosition = 0;
xDirection *= -1;
} else if (xPosition < -320) {
xPosition = -320;
xDirection *= -1;
}
if (yPosition > 0) {
yPosition = 0;
yDirection *= -1;
} else if (yPosition < -240) {
yPosition = -240;
yDirection *= -1;
}
prev = now;
ctx.save();
ctx.translate(xPosition, yPosition);
ctx.drawImage(img, 0, 0);
ctx.restore();
requestAnimationFrame(render);
})();
}
body {
background: #111;
}
canvas {
background: #FFF;
}
<canvas width="320" height="240"></canvas>

Rotating a shape in KineticJS seems to move it out of sync with it's group

I am working on some image viewing tools in KineticJS. I have a rotate tool. When you move the mouse over an image, a line appears from the centre of the image to the mouse position, and then when you click and move, the line follows and the image rotates around that point, in sync with the line. This works great.
My issue is, I have the following set up:
Canvas->
Stage->
Layer->
GroupA->
GroupB->
Image
This is because I draw tabs for options on GroupA and regard it as a container for the image. GroupB is used because I flip GroupB to flip the image ( and down the track, any objects like Text and Paths that I add to the image ), so that it flips but stays in place. This all works well. I am also hoping when I offer zoom, to zoom groupb and thus zoom anything drawn on the image, but for groupA to create clipping and continue to support drag buttons, etc.
The object I am rotating, is GroupA. Here is the method I call to set up rotation:
this.init = function(control)
{
console.log("Initing rotate for : " + control.id());
RotateTool.isMouseDown = false;
RotateTool.startRot = isNaN(control.getRotationDeg()) ? 0 : control.getRotationDeg();
RotateTool.lastAngle = control.parent.rotation() / RotateTool.factor;
RotateTool.startAngle = control.parent.rotation();
this.image = control.parent;
var center = this.getCentrePoint();
RotateTool.middleX = this.image.getAbsolutePosition().x + center.x;
RotateTool.middleY = this.image.getAbsolutePosition().y + center.y;
this.image.x(this.image.x() + center.x - this.image.offsetX());
this.image.y(this.image.y() + center.y - this.image.offsetY());
this.image.offsetX(center.x);
this.image.offsetY(center.y);
}
getCentrePoint is a method that uses trig to get the size of the image, based on the rotation. As I draw a line to the centre of the image, I can tell it's working well, to start with. I've also stepped in to it and it always returns values only slightly higher than the actual width and height, they always look like they should be about what I'd expect, for the angle of the image.
Here is the code I use on mouse move to rotate the image:
this.layerMouseMove = function (evt, layer)
{
if (RotateTool.isRotating == false)
return;
if (!Util.isNull(this.image) && !Util.isNull(this.line))
{
if (Item.moving && !RotateTool.isRotating)
{
console.log("layer mousemove item moving");
RotateTool.layerMouseUp(evt, layer);
}
else
{
var pt = this.translatePoint(evt.x, evt.y);
var x = pt.x;
var y = pt.y;
var end = this.getPoint(x, y, .8);
RotateTool.line.points([this.middleX, this.middleY, end.x, end.y]);
RotateTool.line.parent.draw();
RotateTool.sign.x(x - 20);
RotateTool.sign.y(y - 20);
var angle = Util.findAngle({ x: RotateTool.startX, y: RotateTool.startY }, { x: x, y: y }, { x: RotateTool.middleX, y: RotateTool.middleY });
var newRot = (angle) + RotateTool.startAngle;
RotateTool.image.rotation(newRot);
console.log(newRot);
}
}
}
Much of this code is ephemeral, it's maintaining the line ( which is 80% of the length from the centre to my mouse, as I also show a rotate icon, over the mouse.
Sorry for the long windedness, I'm trying to make sure I am clear, and that it's obvious that I've done a lot of work before asking for help.
So, here is my issue. After I've rotated a few times, when I click again, the 'centre' point that the line draws to, is way off the bottom right of my screen, and if I set a break point, sure enough, the absolute position of my groups are no longer in sync. This seems to me like my rotation has moved the image in the manner I hoped, but moved my group off screen. When I set offsetX and offsetY, do I need to also set it on all the children ? But, it's the bottom child I can see, and the top group I set those things on, so I don't really understand how this is happening.
I do notice my image jumps a few pixels when I move the mouse over it ( which is when the init method is called ) so I feel like perhaps I am just out slightly somewhere, and it's causing this flow on effect. I've done some more testing, and my image always jumps slightly up and to the right when I move the mouse over it, and the rotate tool continues to work reliably, so long as I don't move the mouse over the image again, causing my init method to call. It seems like every time this is called, is when it breaks. So, I could just call it once, but I'd have to associate the data with the image then, for the simple reason that once I have many images, I'll need to change my data as my selected image changes. Either way, I'd prefer to understand and resolve the issue, than just hide it.
Any help appreciated.

Html5 canvas hittest arbitrary shape

I'm trying to develop program which can render images and text in canvas. I tried to handle click on image in canvas, but it work for rectable images.
My question: Did you know solution or frameworks for handle click on visible part of image (not transparent part) in canvas ?
I'm looking for javascript implementation of ActionScript hitTestObject function, if someone familiar with it.
Here is simple algorithm with rectable hit text: http://jsfiddle.net/V92Gn/298/
var hitted = e.clientX >= position.x &&
e.clientX <= position.x + logoImg.width &&
e.clientY >= position.y &&
e.clientY <= position.y + logoImg.height;

Solution using pure JavaScript + canvas
For cases where the hit target is mixed with the background you can do two things:
Create a separate canvas which is stacked on top of the main canvas, draw the target object on that and do the testing of that canvas.
Create an off-screen canvas which contains the target object isolated and test on that
In this example I will use an off-screen canvas.
What we do is to basically replicate the image by creating an off-screen canvas the size of the image and draw in the image when loaded. This will protect the background and keep it transparent no matter what is on the main canvas:
Modified fiddle here
/// create an off-screen canvas to hold image
var ocanvas = document.createElement('canvas');
var octx = ocanvas.getContext('2d');
logoImg.onload=function(){
/// set off-screen canvas to same size as image
ocanvas.width = this.width;
ocanvas.height = this.height;
octx.drawImage(this, 0, 0);
... rest of code
Then using your existing code but with an adjustment for mouse position we can use the hitted variable you use to first check if we are inside the target object.
$(canvas).on('mousemove', function(e) {
/// correct mouse position so it becomes relative to canvas
var r = canvas.getBoundingClientRect(),
x = e.clientX - r.left,
y = e.clientY - r.top;
var hitted = x >= position.x && x <= position.x + logoImg.width &&
y >= position.y && y <= position.y + logoImg.height;
Now that we know we are inside the rectangle we can extract a pixel from the off-screen canvas by compensating for the object position:
if (hitted === true) {
/// extract a single pixel at the adjusted position
var pixel = octx.getImageData(x - position.x, y - position.y, 1, 1).data;
/// set hitted again based on alpha value is 0 or not
hitted = pixel[3] > 0;
}
...
As you can see in the modified fiddle we only change the class you use to red when we are on an actual pixel in the target no matter what the background of it is (when drawn separately).
Finally a couple of words on CORS: In this case, as you use DropBox, you can request CORS usage of the image simply by activating the crossOrigin property on the image object before you set the source:
logoImg.crossOrigin = ''; /// this is the same as setting anonymous
logoImg.src="http://dl.dropbox.com/...";
As DropBox (and image sharing sites such as ImgUr.com) support CORS usage they will allow the request and we can therefor extract pixels from the image.
If the servers didn't allow it however we wouldn't be able to do this. To be sure CORS is ok you should host the image in the same domain as the page when you release it.

I recommend using EaselJS which has a hitTest method similar to how it works in Actionscript:
myDisplayObject.hitTest(localX, localY);
Here you can find some demos that show the technique:
http://shallaazm.com/createjs/easeljs/tutorials/HitTest/

HTML5 Canvas Question | Click Tracking

Recently, I have started dabbling with HTML5 and the mighty canvas. However, I am trying to accomplish something and I am not sure what the best way would be to handle it.
I am trying to make a randomly generated set of buildings with windows, as you can see in the following example that uses divs:
Example Using Divs
The issue that I am coming up with is that I want to be able to randomly generate images/content in the windows of these buildings, and be able to easily capture when a window is clicked, but I am not sure how to go about handling it using the canvas.
Example Building:
function Building()
{
this.floors = Math.floor((Math.random()+1)*7); //Number of Floors
this.windows = Math.floor((Math.random()+1)*3); //Windows per Floor
this.height = (this.floors*12); //1px window padding
this.width = (this.windows*12); //1px window padding
//Do I need to build an array with all of my windows and their locations
//to determine if a click occurs?
}
Example Window:
function Window(x,y)
{
this.x = x; //X Coordinate
this.y = y; //Y Coordinate
this.color = //Random color from a range
this.hasPerson //Determines if a person in is the window
this.hasObject //Determines if an object is in the window
}
Summary: I am trying to generate random buildings with windows, however I am unsure how to go about building them, displaying them and tracking window locations using the canvas.
UPDATE:
I was finally able to get the buildings to generate as I was looking for, however now all I need to do is generate the windows within the buildings and keep track of their locations.
Building Generation Demo

I guess if you are drawing the window, you already have the function to create their canvas path. So you can apply the isPointInPath function on all window you have to determine if the user clicked on a window.
canvasContext.beginPath()
{
(functions corresponding to your window path)
}
canvasContext.closePath()
var isInWindow = canvasContext.isInPath(clicPosX,clicPosY);

Actualy you have to check where mouse is clicked, and if it's in window, then call some function. And yes, you will need to have array, of locations.
Take a look here

Draw your squares using fillRect, store their north-western point coordinates into an array. You'll also need these rectangles' dimensions, but since they are all equal squares — no need to store them in the array.
Then add a click listener to the canvas element, in which detect the pointer's position via pageX/pageY minus the position of the canvas element.
Then on each click traverse the array of rectangles and see if they contain the pointer's coordinates:
if (((pageX > rectX && pageX < rectX + rectWidth) || (pageX < rectX && pageX > rectX + rectWidth))) &&
((pageY > rectY && pageY < rectY + rectHeight) || (pageY < rectY && pageY > rectY + rectHeight))) {
/* clicked on a window */
}
Demo.