jQuery - Trigger event when an element is removed

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to execute some js code when an element is removed from the page:

jQuery('#some-element').remove(); // remove some element from the page
/* need to figure out how to independently detect the above happened */

is there an event tailored for that, something like:

jQuery('#some-element').onremoval( function() {
    // do post-mortem stuff here
});

thanks.

Answer 1

referencing to @David answer:

When You want to do soo with another function, eg. html() like in my case, don't forget to add return in new function:

(function() {
    var ev = new $.Event('html'),
        orig = $.fn.html;
    $.fn.html = function() {
        $(this).trigger(ev);
        return orig.apply(this, arguments);
    }
})();

Answer 2

I like mtkopone's answer using jQuery special events, but note that it doesn't work a) when elements are detached instead of removed or b) when some old non-jquery libraries use innerHTML to destroy your elements

Answer 3

There is no built-in event for removing elements, but you can create one by fake-extending jQuery's default remove method. Note that the callback must be called before actually removing it to keep reference.

(function() {
    var ev = new $.Event('remove'),
        orig = $.fn.remove;
    $.fn.remove = function() {
        $(this).trigger(ev);
        return orig.apply(this, arguments);
    }
})();

$('#some-element').bind('remove', function() {
    console.log('removed!');
    // do pre-mortem stuff here
    // 'this' is still a reference to the element, before removing it
});

// some other js code here [...]

$('#some-element').remove();

---

Note: some problems with this answer have been outlined by other posters.

1. This won't work when the node is removed via html() replace() or other jQuery methods
2. This event bubbles up
3. jQuery UI overrides remove as well

The most elegant solution to this problem seems to be: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10172676/216941

Answer 4

You can use jQuery special events for this.

In all simplicity,

Setup:

(function($){
  $.event.special.destroyed = {
    remove: function(o) {
      if (o.handler) {
        o.handler()
      }
    }
  }
})(jQuery)

Usage:

$('.thing').bind('destroyed', function() {
  // do stuff
})

Addendum to answer Pierre and DesignerGuy's comments:

To not have the callback fire when calling $('.thing').off('destroyed'), change the if condition to: if (o.handler && o.type !== 'destroyed') { ... }

Answer 5

I'm not sure there is an event handle for this, so you would have to keep a copy of the DOM and compare to the existing DOM in some kind of polling loop - which could be quite nasty. Firebug does this though - if you inspect the HTML and run some DOM-changes, it highlights the changes in yellow in the Firebug console for a short time.

Alternatively, you could create a remove function...

var removeElements = function(selector) {
    var elems = jQuery(selector);

    // Your code to notify the removal of the element here...
    alert(elems.length + " elements removed");

    jQuery(selector).remove();
};

// Sample usage
removeElements("#some-element");
removeElements("p");
removeElements(".myclass");

Answer 6

Just checked, it is already built-in in current version of JQuery:

jQuery - v1.9.1

jQuery UI - v1.10.2

$("#myDiv").on("remove", function () {
    alert("Element was removed");
})

Important: This is functionality of Jquery UI script (not JQuery), so you have to load both scripts (jquery and jquery-ui) to make it work. Here is example: http://jsfiddle.net/72RTz/