EventCatcherWidget

12th October 2022 at 7:42pm

Introduction

This is an advanced widget intended for use by those familiar with HTML, CSS and JavaScript handling of DOM events.

The event catcher widget traps DOM-initiated Javascript events dispatched within its child content, and allows invoking a series of ActionWidgets in response to those events.

In order for the events to be trapped:

The event must be of one of the events specified in the event catcher widget's events attribute
The event must target a DOM node with an ancestor that matches the widget's selector attribute
Introduced in v5.2.2 Optionally, the DOM node targeted by the event must also match the widgets matchSelector attribute
The event must support event bubbling

Use of the event catcher widget is beneficial when using large numbers of other trigger widgets such as the ButtonWidget is causing performance problems. The workflow it enables is akin to what is referred to as "event delegation" in JavaScript parlance.

Content and Attributes

The content of the <$eventcatcher> widget is displayed normally.

Attribute	Description
selector	A CSS selector. Only events originating inside a DOM node with this selector will be trapped
matchSelector	Introduced in v5.2.2 An optional CSS selector. Only events targeting DOM nodes matching this selector will be trapped
{any attributes starting with $}	Introduced in v5.2.0 Each attribute name (excluding the $) specifies the name of an event, and the value specifies the action string to be invoked. For example: `$click=<<clickActions>>`
tag	Optional. The HTML element the widget creates to capture the events, defaults to: » `span` when parsed in inline-mode » `div` when parsed in block-mode
class	Optional. A CSS class name (or names) to be assigned to the widget HTML element
stopPropagation	Introduced in v5.2.0 Optional. Set to "always" to always stop event propagation even if there are no corresponding actions to invoke, "never" to never stop event propagation, or the default value "onaction" with which event propagation is only stopped if there are corresponding actions that are invoked.
events	(deprecated – see below) Space separated list of JavaScript events to be trapped, for example "click" or "click dblclick"
actions-*	(deprecated – see below) Action strings to be invoked when a matching event is trapped. Each event is mapped to an action attribute name of the form `actions-event` where `event` represents the type of the event. For example: `actions-click` or `actions-dblclick`

Introduced in v5.2.0 Note that the attributes events and actions-* are no longer needed. Instead you can use attributes starting with $ where the attribute name (excluding the $) specifies the name of the event and the value specifies the action string to be invoked. If any attributes with the prefix $ are present then the types attribute is ignored.

Variables

The following variables are made available to the actions:

Variables	Description
`dom-*`	All DOM attributes of the node matching the given selector are made available as variables, with the prefix `dom-`
`modifier`	The modifier Variable contains the Modifier Key held during the event (can be "normal", "ctrl", "shift", "alt" or combinations thereof)
`event-mousebutton`	The mouse button (if any) used to trigger the event (can be "left", "right" or "middle"). Note that not all event types support the mousebutton property
`event-type`	The type property of the JavaScript event
`event-detail-*`	Any properties in the detail attribute of the event are made available with the prefix `event-detail-`
`tv-popup-coords`	A relative co-ordinate string that can be used with the ActionPopupWidget to trigger a popup at the DOM node matching the selector where the event originated (see Coordinate Systems for more information)
`tv-popup-abs-coords`	Introduced in v5.2.4 An absolute co-ordinate string that can be used with the ActionPopupWidget to trigger a popup at the DOM node matching the selector where the event originated (see Coordinate Systems for more information)
`tv-widgetnode-width`	Introduced in v5.2.3 `offsetWidth` of the DOM node created by the eventcatcher widget
`tv-widgetnode-height`	Introduced in v5.2.3 `offsetHeight` of the DOM node created by the eventcatcher widget
`tv-selectednode-posx`	`x` offset position of the selected DOM node
`tv-selectednode-posy`	`y` offset position of the selected DOM node
`tv-selectednode-width`	`offsetWidth` of the selected DOM node
`tv-selectednode-height`	`offsetHeight` of the selected DOM node
`event-fromselected-posx`	`x` position of the event relative to the selected DOM node
`event-fromselected-posy`	`y` position of the event relative to the selected DOM node
`event-fromcatcher-posx`	`x` position of the event relative to the event catcher DOM node
`event-fromcatcher-posy`	`y` position of the event relative to the event catcher DOM node
`event-fromviewport-posx`	Introduced in v5.2.0 `x` position of the event relative to the viewport
`event-fromviewport-posy`	Introduced in v5.2.0 `y` position of the event relative to the viewport

Example

This example uses the ActionLogWidget and will log the data-item-id attribute of the clicked DOM node to the browser's JavaScript console

\define clickactions()
<$action-log item=<<dom-data-item-id>> event=<<event-type>>/>
\end

\define contextmenu-actions()
<$action-log item=<<dom-data-item-id>> event=<<event-type>>/>
\end

<$eventcatcher selector=".item" $click=<<clickactions>> $contextmenu=<<contextmenu-actions>> tag="div">

<div class="item" data-item-id="item1">
Click events here will be trapped
</div>

<div class="item" data-item-id="item2">
And here too
</div>

<div data-item-id="item3">
Not here
</div>

<div class="item" data-item-id="item4">
And here
</div>

</$eventcatcher>