When I hover over the navigation bar, a submenu pops up. However, as I try to navigate to the submenu, I often end up accidentally selecting a different item on the navigation bar

Question

When I hover over the navigation bar, a submenu pops up. However, as I try to navigate to the submenu, I often end up accidentally selecting a different item on the navigation bar

I'm trying to find an answer but can't seem to remember where I saw it. Here's the situation: a horizontal nav bar with a dark blue selection and a red sub-menu. When the user hovers over a black arrow, it crosses into a light-blue nav item which opens a sub-menu. I want to keep the dark-blue sub-menu open.

As far as I know, this should work on any platform, but just so you know, I am using React.

I recall seeing something about tracking mouse position to understand user intent, rather than relying on timeouts. Any thoughts or direction would be appreciated!

Edit: After doing more research, it seems like "menu aiming" might be the solution, although I'm not completely sure about the potential implications.

css reactjs navigation

Answer 1

Answer №1

To achieve this task, one approach is to set a boolean variable called is_mouse_over which becomes true when the mouseover event occurs and false when the mouseleave event happens. Within the mouseover event callback function, include a setTimeout method that waits for a specific number of milliseconds to confirm that the user intends to open the menu. After the specified time has passed, only call the function that opens the menu if is_mouse_over is still true. Similarly, in order to close the menu, repeat the process in the mouseleave event - use a setTimeout to check if is_mouse_over is false before closing it. The code implementation will need to be customized according to your React project requirements, but in plain JavaScript, it could look like this:

function openSubmenu() {
  // Your implementation
}

function closeSubmenu() {
  // Your implementation
}

time_to_confirm_user_intent = 350
mouse_is_over_nav_item = false

navItem.addEventListener("mouseover", () => {
    mouse_is_over_nav_item = true
    setTimeout(() => {
        if (mouse_is_over_nav_item)
            openSubMenu()
    }, time_to_confirm_user_intent)
})

navItem.addEventListener("mouseleave", () => {
    mouse_is_over_nav_item = false
    setTimeout(() => {
        if (!mouse_is_over_nav_item)
            closeSubMenu()
    }, time_to_confirm_user_intent)
})

Answer 2

To achieve this task, one approach is to set a boolean variable called is_mouse_over which becomes true when the mouseover event occurs and false when the mouseleave event happens. Within the mouseover event callback function, include a setTimeout method that waits for a specific number of milliseconds to confirm that the user intends to open the menu. After the specified time has passed, only call the function that opens the menu if is_mouse_over is still true. Similarly, in order to close the menu, repeat the process in the mouseleave event - use a setTimeout to check if is_mouse_over is false before closing it. The code implementation will need to be customized according to your React project requirements, but in plain JavaScript, it could look like this:

function openSubmenu() {
  // Your implementation
}

function closeSubmenu() {
  // Your implementation
}

time_to_confirm_user_intent = 350
mouse_is_over_nav_item = false

navItem.addEventListener("mouseover", () => {
    mouse_is_over_nav_item = true
    setTimeout(() => {
        if (mouse_is_over_nav_item)
            openSubMenu()
    }, time_to_confirm_user_intent)
})

navItem.addEventListener("mouseleave", () => {
    mouse_is_over_nav_item = false
    setTimeout(() => {
        if (!mouse_is_over_nav_item)
            closeSubMenu()
    }, time_to_confirm_user_intent)
})

When I hover over the navigation bar, a submenu pops up. However, as I try to navigate to the submenu, I often end up accidentally selecting a different item on the navigation bar

Answer №1

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