How can I make my div disappear when I click outside of it using jQuery? I am finding the solution on Stack Overflow to be confusing

Question

How can I make my div disappear when I click outside of it using jQuery? I am finding the solution on Stack Overflow to be confusing

Utilizing jQuery to conceal a DIV upon clicking outside of it

Although I've heard positive feedback about this method, I'm uncertain about its functionality. Can someone provide an explanation? I understand that .has() identifies elements containing a specific child, but how does the function utilize this concept?

javascript jquery html css

Answer 1

Answer №1

Here is the code snippet provided as an answer in another question:

$(document).mouseup(function (e)
{
    var container = $("YOUR CONTAINER SELECTOR");

    if (container.has(e.target).length === 0)
    {
        container.hide();
    }
});

The fundamental concept to understand here is how events propagate in the browser. Events typically "bubble" up from the originating element through its parent elements all the way to the document itself; this mechanism is known as event propagation.

For example, in the following HTML structure:

<body>
    <div>
        <a href="#">Click me!</a>
    </div>
</body>

If you click on the <a> element, the event will trigger at that element but then bubble up to the <div>, followed by the <body>, and ultimately reaching the <document>.

Even if you attach an event handler to the document, clicking on the anchor will still activate that event handler because of the bubbling effect. This forms the basis of the provided code snippet.

Now, let's dissect the event handler function itself. It takes a single argument, e, representing the event object. This object includes a property called target which refers to the element triggering the event initially.

In our simple HTML scenario, clicking on the <a> element would make e.target point to that anchor, even when the event is being handled at the document level. This differs from using this within jQuery event handlers, where it signifies the current event-handling element (in this case, the document).

The first line simply selects the element for which click events should be ignored.

The conditional statement introduces some complexity but essentially checks whether the element triggering the event is not a descendant of our specified container, prompting the hiding action.

By evaluating container.has(e.target), we ascertain if the triggering element lies within our container. If affirmative, the length property becomes greater than zero since we start with a jQuery object containing one element.

If the triggering element is outside our container, the length property evaluates to zero. To detect this condition, we compare the length against zero within the if condition.

Answer 2

Here is the code snippet provided as an answer in another question:

$(document).mouseup(function (e)
{
    var container = $("YOUR CONTAINER SELECTOR");

    if (container.has(e.target).length === 0)
    {
        container.hide();
    }
});

The fundamental concept to understand here is how events propagate in the browser. Events typically "bubble" up from the originating element through its parent elements all the way to the document itself; this mechanism is known as event propagation.

For example, in the following HTML structure:

<body>
    <div>
        <a href="#">Click me!</a>
    </div>
</body>