Event binding on dynamically created elements?

JavascriptJqueryEventsUnobtrusive Javascript

Javascript Problem Overview


I have a bit of code where I am looping through all the select boxes on a page and binding a .hover event to them to do a bit of twiddling with their width on mouse on/off.

This happens on page ready and works just fine.

The problem I have is that any select boxes I add via Ajax or DOM after the initial loop won't have the event bound.

I have found this plugin (jQuery Live Query Plugin), but before I add another 5k to my pages with a plugin, I want to see if anyone knows a way to do this, either with jQuery directly or by another option.

Javascript Solutions


Solution 1 - Javascript

As of jQuery 1.7 you should use jQuery.fn.on with the selector parameter filled:

$(staticAncestors).on(eventName, dynamicChild, function() {});

Explanation:

This is called event delegation and works as followed. The event is attached to a static parent (staticAncestors) of the element that should be handled. This jQuery handler is triggered every time the event triggers on this element or one of the descendant elements. The handler then checks if the element that triggered the event matches your selector (dynamicChild). When there is a match then your custom handler function is executed.


Prior to this, the recommended approach was to use live():

$(selector).live( eventName, function(){} );

However, live() was deprecated in 1.7 in favour of on(), and completely removed in 1.9. The live() signature:

$(selector).live( eventName, function(){} );

... can be replaced with the following on() signature:

$(document).on( eventName, selector, function(){} );

For example, if your page was dynamically creating elements with the class name dosomething you would bind the event to a parent which already exists (this is the nub of the problem here, you need something that exists to bind to, don't bind to the dynamic content), this can be (and the easiest option) is document. Though bear in mind document may not be the most efficient option.

$(document).on('mouseover mouseout', '.dosomething', function(){
    // what you want to happen when mouseover and mouseout 
    // occurs on elements that match '.dosomething'
});

Any parent that exists at the time the event is bound is fine. For example

$('.buttons').on('click', 'button', function(){
    // do something here
});

would apply to

<div class="buttons">
    <!-- <button>s that are generated dynamically and added here -->
</div>

Solution 2 - Javascript

There is a good explanation in the documentation of jQuery.fn.on.

In short:

> Event handlers are bound only to the currently selected elements; they must exist on the page at the time your code makes the call to .on().

Thus in the following example #dataTable tbody tr must exist before the code is generated.

$("#dataTable tbody tr").on("click", function(event){
    console.log($(this).text());
});

If new HTML is being injected into the page, it is preferable to use delegated events to attach an event handler, as described next.

Delegated events have the advantage that they can process events from descendant elements that are added to the document at a later time. For example, if the table exists, but the rows are added dynamically using code, the following will handle it:

$("#dataTable tbody").on("click", "tr", function(event){
    console.log($(this).text());
});

In addition to their ability to handle events on descendant elements which are not yet created, another advantage of delegated events is their potential for much lower overhead when many elements must be monitored. On a data table with 1,000 rows in its tbody, the first code example attaches a handler to 1,000 elements.

A delegated-events approach (the second code example) attaches an event handler to only one element, the tbody, and the event only needs to bubble up one level (from the clicked tr to tbody).

Note: Delegated events do not work for SVG.

Solution 3 - Javascript

This is a pure JavaScript solution without any libraries or plugins:

document.addEventListener('click', function (e) {
    if (hasClass(e.target, 'bu')) {
        // .bu clicked
        // Do your thing
    } else if (hasClass(e.target, 'test')) {
        // .test clicked
        // Do your other thing
    }
}, false);

where hasClass is

function hasClass(elem, className) {
    return elem.className.split(' ').indexOf(className) > -1;
}

Live demo

Credit goes to Dave and Sime Vidas

Using more modern JS, hasClass can be implemented as:

function hasClass(elem, className) {
    return elem.classList.contains(className);
}

The same jsfiddle Live demo embeded below:

function hasClass(elem, className) {
  return elem.classList.contains(className);
}

document.addEventListener('click', function(e) {
  if (hasClass(e.target, 'bu')) {
    alert('bu');
    document.querySelector('.bu').innerHTML = '<div class="bu">Bu<div class="tu">Tu</div></div>';
  } else if (hasClass(e.target, 'test')) {
    alert('test');
  } else if (hasClass(e.target, 'tu')) {
    alert('tu');
  }

}, false);

.test,
.bu,
.tu {
  border: 1px solid gray;
  padding: 10px;
  margin: 10px;
}

<div class="test">Test
  <div class="bu">Bu</div>test
</div>

Solution 4 - Javascript

You can add events to objects when you create them. If you are adding the same events to multiple objects at different times, creating a named function might be the way to go.

var mouseOverHandler = function() {
    // Do stuff
};
var mouseOutHandler = function () {
    // Do stuff
};

$(function() {
    // On the document load, apply to existing elements
    $('select').hover(mouseOverHandler, mouseOutHandler);
});

// This next part would be in the callback from your Ajax call
$("<select></select>")
    .append( /* Your <option>s */ )
    .hover(mouseOverHandler, mouseOutHandler)
    .appendTo( /* Wherever you need the select box */ )
;

Solution 5 - Javascript

You could simply wrap your event binding call up into a function and then invoke it twice: once on document ready and once after your event that adds the new DOM elements. If you do that you'll want to avoid binding the same event twice on the existing elements so you'll need either unbind the existing events or (better) only bind to the DOM elements that are newly created. The code would look something like this:

function addCallbacks(eles){
	eles.hover(function(){alert("gotcha!")});
}

$(document).ready(function(){
	addCallbacks($(".myEles"))
});

// ... add elements ...
addCallbacks($(".myNewElements"))

Solution 6 - Javascript

Try to use .live() instead of .bind(); the .live() will bind .hover to your checkbox after the Ajax request executes.

Solution 7 - Javascript

This is done by event delegation. Event will get bind on wrapper-class element but will be delegated to selector-class element. This is how it works.

$('.wrapper-class').on("click", '.selector-class', function() {
    // Your code here
});

And HTML

<div class="wrapper-class">
    <button class="selector-class">
      Click Me!
    </button>
</div>    

#Note: wrapper-class element can be anything ex. document, body or your wrapper. Wrapper should already exist. However, selector doesn't necessarily needs to be presented at page loading time. It may come later and the event will bind on selector without fail.

Solution 8 - Javascript

Event binding on dynamically created elements

Single element:

$(document.body).on('click','.element', function(e) {  });

Child Element:

 $(document.body).on('click','.element *', function(e) {  });

Notice the added *. An event will be triggered for all children of that element.

I have noticed that:

$(document.body).on('click','.#element_id > element', function(e) {  });

It is not working any more, but it was working before. I have been using jQuery from Google CDN, but I don't know if they changed it.

Solution 9 - Javascript

I prefer using the selector and I apply it on the document.

This binds itself on the document and will be applicable to the elements that will be rendered after page load.

For example:

$(document).on("click", 'selector', function() {
    // Your code here
});

Solution 10 - Javascript

You can use the live() method to bind elements (even newly created ones) to events and handlers, like the onclick event.

Here is a sample code I have written, where you can see how the live() method binds chosen elements, even newly created ones, to events:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
        <title>Untitled Document</title>
    </head>

    <body>
        <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
        <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.ui/1.8.16/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>

        <input type="button" id="theButton" value="Click" />
        <script type="text/javascript">
            $(document).ready(function()
                {
                    $('.FOO').live("click", function (){alert("It Works!")});
                    var $dialog = $('<div></div>').html('<div id="container"><input type ="button" id="CUSTOM" value="click"/>This dialog will show every time!</div>').dialog({
                                                                                                         autoOpen: false,
                                                                                                         tite: 'Basic Dialog'
                                                                                                     });
                    $('#theButton').click(function()
                    {
                        $dialog.dialog('open');
                        return('false');
                    });
                    $('#CUSTOM').click(function(){
                        //$('#container').append('<input type="button" value="clickmee" class="FOO" /></br>');
                        var button = document.createElement("input");
                        button.setAttribute('class','FOO');
                        button.setAttribute('type','button');
                        button.setAttribute('value','CLICKMEE');
                        $('#container').append(button);
                    });
                    /* $('#FOO').click(function(){
                                                     alert("It Works!");
                                                 }); */
            });
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

Solution 11 - Javascript

Another solution is to add the listener when creating the element. Instead of put the listener in the body, you put the listener in the element in the moment that you create it:

var myElement = $('<button/>', {
    text: 'Go to Google!'
});

myElement.bind( 'click', goToGoogle);
myElement.append('body');


function goToGoogle(event){
    window.location.replace("http://www.google.com");
}

Solution 12 - Javascript

Try like this way -

$(document).on( 'click', '.click-activity', function () { ... });

Solution 13 - Javascript

Take note of "MAIN" class the element is placed, for example,

<div class="container">
     <ul class="select">
         <li> First</li>
         <li>Second</li>
    </ul>
</div>

In the above scenario, the MAIN object the jQuery will watch is "container".

Then you will basically have elements names under container such as ul, li, and select:

$(document).ready(function(e) {
    $('.container').on( 'click',".select", function(e) {
        alert("CLICKED");
    });
 });

Solution 14 - Javascript

You can attach event to element when dynamically created using jQuery(html, attributes).

> As of jQuery 1.8, any jQuery instance method (a method of jQuery.fn) can be used as a property of the object passed to the > second parameter:

function handleDynamicElementEvent(event) {
  console.log(event.type, this.value)
}
// create and attach event to dynamic element
jQuery("<select>", {
    html: $.map(Array(3), function(_, index) {
      return new Option(index, index)
    }),
    on: {
      change: handleDynamicElementEvent
    }
  })
  .appendTo("body");

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js">
</script>

Solution 15 - Javascript

you could use

$('.buttons').on('click', 'button', function(){
    // your magic goes here
});

or

$('.buttons').delegate('button', 'click', function() {
    // your magic goes here
});

these two methods are equivalent but have a different order of parameters.

see: jQuery Delegate Event

Solution 16 - Javascript

Here is why dynamically created elements do not respond to clicks :

var body = $("body");
var btns = $("button");
var btnB = $("<button>B</button>");
// `<button>B</button>` is not yet in the document.
// Thus, `$("button")` gives `[<button>A</button>]`.
// Only `<button>A</button>` gets a click listener.
btns.on("click", function () {
  console.log(this);
});
// Too late for `<button>B</button>`...
body.append(btnB);

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<button>A</button>

As a workaround, you have to listen to all clicks and check the source element :

var body = $("body");
var btnB = $("<button>B</button>");
var btnC = $("<button>C</button>");
// Listen to all clicks and
// check if the source element
// is a `<button></button>`.
body.on("click", function (ev) {
  if ($(ev.target).is("button")) {
    console.log(ev.target);
  }
});
// Now you can add any number
// of `<button></button>`.
body.append(btnB);
body.append(btnC);

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<button>A</button>

This is called "Event Delegation". Good news, it's a builtin feature in jQuery :-)

var i = 11;
var body = $("body");
body.on("click", "button", function () {
  var letter = (i++).toString(36).toUpperCase();
  body.append($("<button>" + letter + "</button>"));
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<button>A</button>

Solution 17 - Javascript

Any parent that exists at the time the event is bound and if your page was dynamically creating elements with the class name button you would bind the event to a parent which already exists

$(document).ready(function(){
  //Particular Parent chield click
  $(".buttons").on("click","button",function(){
    alert("Clicked");
  });  
  
  //Dynamic event bind on button class  
  $(document).on("click",".button",function(){
    alert("Dymamic Clicked");
  });
  $("input").addClass("button");  
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="buttons">
  <input type="button" value="1">
  <button>2</button>
  <input type="text">
  <button>3</button>  
  <input type="button" value="5">  
  </div>
<button>6</button>

Solution 18 - Javascript

Bind the event to a parent which already exists:

$(document).on("click", "selector", function() {
    // Your code here
});

Solution 19 - Javascript

Another flexible solution to create elements and bind events (source)

// creating a dynamic element (container div)
var $div = $("<div>", {id: 'myid1', class: 'myclass'});

//creating a dynamic button
 var $btn = $("<button>", { type: 'button', text: 'Click me', class: 'btn' });
       
// binding the event
 $btn.click(function () { //for mouseover--> $btn.on('mouseover', function () {
    console.log('clicked');
 });

// append dynamic button to the dynamic container
$div.append($btn);

// add the dynamically created element(s) to a static element
$("#box").append($div);

Note: This will create an event handler instance for each element (may affect performance when used in loops)

Solution 20 - Javascript

Use the .on() method of jQuery http://api.jquery.com/on/ to attach event handlers to live element.

Also as of version 1.9 .live() method is removed.

Solution 21 - Javascript

I prefer to have event listeners deployed in a modular function fashion rather than scripting a document level event listener. So, I do like below. Note, you can't oversubscribe an element with the same event listener so don't worry about attaching a listener more than once - only one sticks.

var iterations = 4;
var button;
var body = document.querySelector("body");

for (var i = 0; i < iterations; i++) {
    button = document.createElement("button");
    button.classList.add("my-button");
    button.appendChild(document.createTextNode(i));
    button.addEventListener("click", myButtonWasClicked);
    body.appendChild(button);
}

function myButtonWasClicked(e) {
    console.log(e.target); //access to this specific button
}

Solution 22 - Javascript

<html>
	<head>
		<title>HTML Document</title>
		<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
	</head>
	
	<body>
		<div id="hover-id">
			Hello World
		</div>
	
		<script>
			jQuery(document).ready(function($){
				$(document).on('mouseover', '#hover-id', function(){
					$(this).css('color','yellowgreen');
				});
				
				$(document).on('mouseout', '#hover-id', function(){
					$(this).css('color','black');
				});
			});
		</script>
	</body>
</html>

Solution 23 - Javascript

I was looking a solution to get $.bind and $.unbind working without problems in dynamically added elements.

As on() makes the trick to attach events, in order to create a fake unbind on those I came to:

const sendAction = function(e){ ... }
// bind the click
$('body').on('click', 'button.send', sendAction );

// unbind the click
$('body').on('click', 'button.send', function(){} );

Attributions

All content for this solution is sourced from the original question on Stackoverflow.

The content on this page is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionEliView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Javascriptdev.e.loperView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - JavascriptRonen RabinoviciView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - JavascriptRam PatraView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - JavascriptnickfView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - JavascriptGreg BorensteinView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Javascriptuser670265View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - JavascriptMustkeem KView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - JavascriptMadeInDreamsView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - JavascriptVatsalView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - JavascriptFaziView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - JavascriptMartin Da RosaView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 12 - JavascriptRohit SutharView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 13 - JavascriptAslan KayaView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 14 - Javascriptguest271314View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 15 - JavascriptMensur GriševićView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 16 - Javascriptuser1636522View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 17 - JavascriptAnkit KathiriyaView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 18 - JavascripttruongnmView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 19 - JavascriptPrasad De SilvaView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 20 - JavascriptKalpesh PatelView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 21 - JavascriptRonnie RoystonView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 22 - JavascriptFakhrul HasanView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 23 - JavascriptEvhzView Answer on Stackoverflow