Prevent Default Event Actions Using MooTools 1.2

By  on  

Many sweet JavaScript events are trigger by clicking on a link or a submit button. What if you don't want the browser to follow the link? What if you don't want the form to be submitted traditionally? MooTools allows you to prevent the default actions of most elements by using the preventDefault() method.

The Sample XHTML

<p><a href="http://scriptandstyle.com" class="prevent">ScriptAndStyle.com</a></p>
<p><input type="checkbox" class="prevent" /></p>
<p><input type="submit" class="prevent" value="Submit Form" /></p>

The action of any element with the prevent class will be nullified upon click.

The MooTools 1.2 Code

window.addEvent('domready', function() {
	$each($$('.prevent'),function(el) {
		el.addEvent('click',function(event) {
			event.preventDefault();
		});
	});
});

You can also prevent the browser from allowing image dragging! I did, however, notice that this function did not work correctly on a radio input.

Recent Features

  • By
    fetch API

    One of the worst kept secrets about AJAX on the web is that the underlying API for it, XMLHttpRequest, wasn't really made for what we've been using it for.  We've done well to create elegant APIs around XHR but we know we can do better.  Our effort to...

  • By
    7 Essential JavaScript Functions

    I remember the early days of JavaScript where you needed a simple function for just about everything because the browser vendors implemented features differently, and not just edge features, basic features, like addEventListener and attachEvent.  Times have changed but there are still a few functions each developer should...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Dynamically Create Charts Using MooTools MilkChart and Google Analytics

    The prospect of creating graphics charts with JavaScript is exciting. It's also the perfect use of JavaScript -- creating non-essential features with unobtrusive scripting. I've created a mix of PHP (the Analytics class), HTML, and MooTools JavaScript that will connect to Google Analytics...

  • By
    CSS :target

    One interesting CSS pseudo selector is :target.  The target pseudo selector provides styling capabilities for an element whose ID matches the window location's hash.  Let's have a quick look at how the CSS target pseudo selector works! The HTML Assume there are any number of HTML elements with...

Discussion

  1. thomasd

    You can use the $lambda function and a little bit of the Elements-Class magic to make this a one-liner:

    window.addEvent('domready', function() {
           //Now every click on one of the .prevent-Elements returns a 'false' and the propagation of the event gets stopped.
        $$('.prevent').addEvent('click',$lambda(false));
    });
    
  2. @thomasd: Sweet tip!

  3. asdf123

    i found that the method that fails the least is:

    $("bla").addEvent('click',function(_e){
    
    new Event(_e).preventDefault().stopPropagation();
    
    
    //alternatively:
    
    new Event(_e).stop();
    
    //or very simple in mootools 1.2:
    
    return false;
    
    })
    

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!