css 'pointer-events' property alternative

Question

I have a drop down navigation menu in which some of the title should not navigate to other page when clicked(these title open a drop down menu when clicked on) while others should navigate (these dont have dropdown and navigate directly).However, both types have href defined to them

To solve this i added the following css for the former type of titles

pointer-events: none;

and it is working fine.But since this property is not supported by IE, i am looking for some work-around. The annoying thing is that i don't have access and privilege to change the HTML and JavaScript code completely.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Here is another solution that is very easy to implement with 5 lines of code:

1. Capture the 'mousedown' event for the top element (the element you want to turn off pointer events).
2. In the 'mousedown' hide the top element.
3. Use 'document.elementFromPoint()' to get the underlying element.
4. Unhide the top element.
5. Execute the desired event for the underlying element.

Example:

//This is an IE fix because pointer-events does not work in IE
$(document).on('mousedown', '.TopElement', function (e) {

    $(this).hide();
    var BottomElement = document.elementFromPoint(e.clientX, e.clientY);
    $(this).show();
    $(BottomElement).mousedown(); //Manually fire the event for desired underlying element

    return false;

});

Answer 2

Best solution:

.disabled{filter: alpha(opacity=50);opacity: 0.5;z-index: 1;pointer-events: none;}

Runs perfectly on all browsers

Answer 3

Use OnClientClick = "return false;"

Answer 4

I spent almost two days on finding the solution for this problem and I found this at last.

This uses javascript and jquery.

(GitHub) pointer_events_polyfill

This could use a javascript plug-in to be downloaded/copied. Just copy/download the codes from that site and save it as pointer_events_polyfill.js. Include that javascript to your site.

<script src="JS/pointer_events_polyfill.js></script>

Add this jquery scripts to your site

$(document).ready(function(){
    PointerEventsPolyfill.initialize({});
});

And don't forget to include your jquery plug-in.

It works! I can click elements under the transparent element. I'm using IE 10. I hope this can also work in IE 9 and below.

EDIT: Using this solution does not work when you click the textboxes below the transparent element. To solve this problem, I use focus when the user clicks on the textbox.

Javascript:

document.getElementById("theTextbox").focus();

JQuery:

$("#theTextbox").focus();

This lets you type the text into the textbox.

Answer 5

It's worth mentioning that specifically for IE, disabled=disabled works for anchor tags:

<a href="contact.html" onclick="unleashTheDragon();" disabled="disabled">Contact</a>

IE treats this as an disabled element and does not trigger click event. However, disabled is not a valid attribute on an anchor tag. Hence this won't work in other browsers. For them pointer-events:none is required in the styling.

UPDATE 1: So adding following rule feels like a cross-browser solution to me

UPDATE 2: For further compatibility, because IE will not form styles for anchor tags with disabled='disabled', so they will still look active. Thus, a:hover{} rule and styling is a good idea:

a[disabled="disabled"] {
        pointer-events: none; /* this is enough for non-IE browsers */
        color: darkgrey;      /* IE */
    }
        /* IE - disable hover effects */   
        a[disabled="disabled"]:hover {
            cursor:default;
            color: darkgrey;
            text-decoration:none;
        }

Working on Chrome, IE11, and IE8.
Of course, above CSS assumes anchor tags are rendered with disabled="disabled"

Answer 6

Here's a small script implementing this feature (inspired by the Shea Frederick blog article that Kyle mentions):

• Pointer Events Polyfill.