Implement MooTools’ Elements.addEvent in jQuery

By  on  

One thing that I've always disliked about the jQuery JavaScript framework is its syntax for adding event listeners to elements. The way to add a click event to an element using jQuery is:

$('#myElement').click(function() {
	//do work
});

I love OOP so the above code tells me that a click is being triggered, not that it's going to add a listener to the element. There's nothing wrong with jQuery using that syntax; I simply don't prefer it. What I do when I need to work with jQuery is Moo-ify its syntax when I can. Here's how you can implement MooTools' "addEvent" syntax in MooTools.

The jQuery JavaScript

jQuery.fn.addEvent = jQuery.fn.bind; //updated

We add the "addEvent" function to the jQuery.fn object. Pretty simple.

The Usage

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('#myElement').addEvent('click',function(){ alert('w00t'); });
});

Looks a lot like MooTools, no? If you like jQuery's syntax of .click() type events, read my post: Implementing jQuery-Like Event Syntax in MooTools

Recent Features

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Retrieve Google Analytics Visits and PageViews with PHP

    Google Analytics is an outstanding website analytics tool that gives you way more information about your website than you probably need. Better to get more than you want than not enough, right? Anyways I check my website statistics more often than I should and...

  • By
    jQuery Chosen Plugin

    Without a doubt, my least favorite form element is the SELECT element.  The element is almost unstylable, looks different across platforms, has had inconsistent value access, and disaster that is the result of multiple=true is, well, a disaster.  Needless to say, whenever a developer goes...

Discussion

  1. More concise :

    jQuery.fn.addEvent = jQuery.fn.bind;

  2. Well put Pierre…well put.

  3. I too prefer verbs like el.setStyle v. el.css. But swapping syntax would totally goof me up!

  4. I don’t get it, why not just use

    $('#myelement').bind('click', function() {...});
    

    It’s even shorter than ‘addEvent’

  5. I agree with Corey, $().bind is exactly what you’re looking for…

  6. Bo Hunter

    I would have to agree, this is nothing more than an alias.

  7. Mysteriously enough in jQuery version 1.4 I get this:

    $(“#website_stock”).addEvent is not a function

    When I set it as just click(fn) it works in Firefox, but not in IE8. It doesn’t return any errors – just the functions do NOT run whatsoever. Same with the bind() option – works in FF on mac, not on IE8.

  8. Pradeep

    Hi David,
    In this site, the two sides with name older and newer and toggle in-out,how to implement it please send me the complete demo with code if possible.
    Thanks in advance

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