Inspect Javascript Hover in Chrome Developer Tools

Question

I have some Javascript which displays an element on hover. I want to style this element and therefore need to trigger the hover state in the browser using Chrome Dev Tools.

This is easy to do with CSS where you can set the state of an element within Dev Tools. What is the best way to do this with Javascript?

Code Example:

$('#menu').hover(
    function() {
        console.log('test');
        $('#dropdown').show();
    },

    function() {
        $('#dropdown').hide();
    }
);

Answer 1

Another alternative would be to hover over the element with your mouse and press F8 (this will only work in Chrome) to pause the script execution. The hover state will remain in visible to you.

Answer 2

Open dev tools by pressing F12 and click the toggle element state in the top right corner. Here you can activate the hover state

Update: You can trigger the hover/mouseover/mouseenter events on say it's click event:

$("#menu").click(function() {    
    $(this).trigger("mouseover");    
    $(this).trigger("hover");    
    $(this).trigger("mouseenter"); 
});

Answer 3

Take the below snippet of a menu which shows a dropdown on hover:

$('#menu').hover(
  function() {
    $('#dropdown').show();
  }, function() {
    $('#dropdown').hide();
  }
);

#menu {
  width: 100px;
  background-color: #03f;
  color: #fff;
  padding: 2px 5px;
}
#dropdown {
  width: 100px;
  background-color: #03f;
  color: #fff;
  padding: 2px 5px;
  display: none;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="menu">menu</div>
<div id="dropdown">
  <ul>
    <li>menu item 1</li>
    <li>menu item 2</li>
    <li>menu item 3</li>
  </ul>
</div>

Copy this snippet into a local document, as Chrome Dev Tools will not allow you to use Javascript to select any element in this iframe. Then, in your Dev Tools Console, run:

$('#menu').trigger('mouseover');

This will show the dropdown menu, which has a really ugly, unstyled list. Now, instead of using your mouse to right-click the element and selecting "Inspect Element", which I would imagine is how your're used to doing things, run in your Console:

$('#dropdown');

Or whatever selector for whichever element you want to style/manipulate. The Console will show the result of your statement, which is the relevant jQuery object. Now right click on that object in your Console and select Reveal in Elements Panel. Now you can use the Styles tab as you're used to, and your mouse has never triggered the mouseout event, ending the hover.

Answer 4

What worked for me:

At chrome dev tools Elements tab:

1. Right click on a parent of the element that changes on hover
2. Choose Break on -> subtree modifications
3. Inspect the relevant child elements while the browser is paused on the relevant subtree modification.

Answer 5

Per the other answers, you can pause JS execution via the DevTools shortcuts; however, you need to focus on the DevTools window for this to work. If you need to pause without focussing on the DevTools window, you can bind a debugger statement to a keypress event like so:

document.addEventListener('keydown', e => { if (e.keyCode == 123) debugger; })

Running this snippet in the console will add a listener which pauses the code execution when you press F12.

Answer 6

While @missemm 's answer is the most straightforward, another useable option in Chrome is (with the dev tools panel already open) trigger the menu, then right click on the element you want to inspect and choose 'View Page Source' option from the Dev Tools menu. This opens another window and removes the focus from the window you were inspecting, so if the menu is listening for a pointerout event it won't be triggered. Just close the Page Source tab and as long as you keep your mouse clear of the original window viewport, the menu will stay open, but you can still use the dev tools panel.

This is sometimes more convenient if you normally need to press 'fn' and 'f8' at the same time (which is a stretch to do one-handed).

Answer 7

I know this might sound weird but you can do this with keyboard "Tab" button.

Press F12 ->Inspect the element -> hover over the element -> leave the mouse(!important) -> press "tab" till you reach style section of the element ->press "Enter" to start editing the style tags-> use "tab" to move through the style section.

Answer 8

It is also possible with plain javascript:

my_elem = document.getElementById('menu')

const mouseoverEvent = new Event('mouseover');

my_elem.dispatchEvent(mouseoverEvent);

reference answer