Vanilla JavaScript
In vanilla JavaScript, one can easily enable and disable a button using the following statement:
button.disabled = state;
This works both when humans try to click a button and when buttons are clicked programmatically:
var button = document.getElementById('myButton');
button.addEventListener('click', function() {
alert('world');
});
button.disabled = true;
button.click(); // No output
button.disabled = false;
button.click(); // Output : "Hello" and "world
button.disabled = true;
button.click(); // No output<input type="button" id="myButton" value="button" onClick="alert('Hello')"/>This also works when using the MouseEvent interface:
var button = document.getElementById('myButton');
var click = new MouseEvent("click", {
"view": window
});
button.addEventListener('click', function() {
alert('world');
});
button.disabled = true;
button.dispatchEvent(click); // No output
button.disabled = false;
button.dispatchEvent(click); // Output : "Hello" and "world
button.disabled = true;
button.dispatchEvent(click); // No output<input type="button" id="myButton" value="button" onClick="alert('Hello')"/>jQuery
I can't seem to be able to do the same with jQuery, though :
var button = $("#myButton");
button.on("click", function() {
alert("world");
});
button.prop("disabled", true);
button.click(); // Output : "world" and "Hello"
button.prop("disabled", false);
button.click(); // Output : "world" and "Hello"
button.prop("disabled", true);
button.click(); // Output : "world" and "Hello"<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.2.min.js"></script>
<input type="button" id="myButton" value="button" onClick="alert('Hello')"/>Both button.prop("disabled", true); and button.attr("disabled", true); simply change the disabled property of the button element, but neither disables the actual click event. This means that events are triggered whenever button.click(); is called, even if the button is disabled!
Additionally, "world" and "Hello" are output in the wrong order.
The simplest code I could come up with to emulate the behavior of the vanilla JavaScript versions, is this :
var button = $("#myButton");
button.on("click", function() {
alert("world");
});
button.disable = (function() {
var onclick = null;
var click = [];
return function(state) {
if(state) {
this.prop('disabled', true);
if(this.prop('onclick') !== null) {
onclick = this.prop('onclick');
this.prop('onclick', null);
}
var listeners = $._data(this.get()[0], "events");
listeners = typeof listeners === 'undefined' ? [] : listeners['click'];
if(listeners && listeners.length > 0) {
for(var i = 0; i < listeners.length; i++) {
click.push(listeners[i].handler);
}
this.off('click');
}
} else {
this.removeProp('disabled');
if(onclick !== null) {
this.prop('onclick', onclick);
onclick = null;
}
if(click.length > 0) {
this.off('click');
for(var i = 0; i < click.length; i++) {
this.on("click", click[i]);
}
click = [];
}
}
}
})();
button.disable(true);
button.click(); // No output
button.disable(false);
button.click(); // Output : "Hello" and "world
button.disable(true);
button.click(); // No output<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.2.min.js"></script>
<input type="button" id="myButton" value="button" onClick="alert('Hello')"/>That is, of course, ridiculously convoluted and "hacky" code to achieve something as simple as disabling a button.
My questions
- Why is it that jQuery - unlike vanilla JS - doesn't disable the events when disabling a button?
- Is this to be considered a bug or a feature in jQuery?
- Is there something I'm overlooking?
- Is there a simpler way to get the expected behavior in jQuery?
