Introduction to CSS Pointer Events
The CSS pointer-events property enables control of how HTML elements react to mouse or touch events including CSS hover or active states, JavaScript clicks or tap events, and whether the cursor is visible or not. The CSS pointer-events property sets out under what situations (if there is any) a specified graphic element may become the object of pointer events. The CSS pointer-events are DOM events that a pointing device is fired to. They are intended to create a single model of the DOM event to handle pointing input devices like a mouse.
The property of pointer-events is even more JavaScript-like, to prevent:
- Click on actions to do something
- Default cursor pointer to show
- CSS hover and cause active state
- Click on JavaScript to fire events
Syntax
The syntax for CSS pointer-events can be written as shown below:
pointer-events: auto|none;
- auto: This parameter can be used to specify that the element has to react to the pointer-events.
- none: This parameter can be used to define that element may not react to pointing events.
For instance,
Consider the below code:
<div class="myclass"> click here <a href="https://www.google.com/html"> Google </a> </div>
For this class, we will give CSS with pointer event property as shown below:
div.myclass {
pointer-events: auto;
}
When you hover or click on the above link, the element will react to the pointer-events.
How does CSS Pointer Events property work?
Having a single pointer event model could facilitate website and application development, and can also provide a great user experience irrespective of user’s hardware. Even then, in circumstances where device-specific handling is required, pointer-events identify a pointer type property to inspect the type of device that generated the event. Comparable to mouse events such as mouse down / pointer down, mouse move/pointer move, etc are the events required to handle generic pointer input. Thus, the types of pointer events are purposely equivalent to the types of mouse events.
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Examples to Implement CSS Pointer Events
Below are the examples mentioned:
Example #1
Code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title> CSS pointer-events Example </title>
<style>
.mytext {
pointer-events: auto;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2> Pointer Events - Auto </h2>
<br>
<div class = "mytext">
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</div>
</body>
</html>
Output – Open the file in a browser and it will produce the following result:
Explanation: As shown in the above example, we have set the pointer property to auto which determines that when the user hover on the link, the element will react to the pointer event. In other words, we can see the mouse pointer when we hover over the link, as we have set the property for pointer events.
Example #2
Code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title> CSS pointer-events Example </title>
<style>
.mytext {
pointer-events: none;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2> Pointer Events - None </h2>
<br>
<div class = "mytext">
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</div>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Explanation: As shown in the above example, we have set the pointer property to none which determines that when the user hovers on the link, the element will not react to pointer event. In other words, we cannot see the mouse pointer when we hover over the link, as we have set the none property for pointer events.
Example #3
Code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title> CSS pointer-events Example </title>
<style>
.one {
fill: grey;
}
.two {
fill: cyan;
}
.three {
fill: orange;
pointer-events: none;
}
.pntrevnt:hover {
stroke: red;
stroke-width: 3;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2> Pointer Events - SVG </h2>
<br>
<svg width="250" height="250">
<g transform="translate(30, 30)">
<path class="one pntrevnt" d="M 0 0 L 100 0 L 100 100 L 0 100 z" />
<path class="two pntrevnt" d="M 50 50 l 100 0 l 0 100 l -100 0 z" />
<path class="three pntrevnt" d="M 100 100 l 100 0 l 0 100 l -100 0 z" />
</g>
</svg>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Explanation: In the above example, we have used the SVG element and used stroke value which specifies the target of pointer event when the user moves the mouse pointer over the perimeter of the element. The fill value specifies the target of pointer event when the user moves the mouse pointer over the element’s interior.
Conclusion
So far, we have used CSS pointer event property along with examples. Adopting pointer-events to prevent an element from becoming the target of pointer events does not imply that it will not trigger pointer event listeners. The CSS pointer-events are very effective when set to none to disable the target click and allow elements underneath to click.
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