How to handle touch events for mobile devices in JavaScript?
13/03/2024
•
5
min
Handling touch events on mobile devices in JavaScript requires the understanding of several touch events such as touchstart, touchend, touchmove, and touchcancel. These events are built into the browser's Document Object Model (DOM), which allows us to interact with the document in a structured manner.
The touch events are similar to mouse events except they are designed to handle the user's touch input.
Here's how you can handle touch events for mobile devices in JavaScript.
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Step 1: Create a HTML markup containing an element that would respond to the touch event.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<button id="myButton"> Click Me </button>
</body>
</html>
Step 2: Get the reference to the desired element using JavaScript DOM manipulations.
You can either place your JavaScript code inline in a script tag in the HTML file or in a separate JavaScript (*.js) file.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<button id="myButton"> Click Me </button>
<script>
var button = document.getElementById("myButton");
</script>
</body>
</html>
Step 3: Next, you add event listeners for the events. Let's add a touchstart and touchend event listener to the button.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<button id="myButton"> Click Me </button>
<script>
var button = document.getElementById("myButton");
button.addEventListener("touchstart", function(e) {
e.preventDefault()
//Your logic goes here.
console.log("Button touch started")
});
button.addEventListener("touchend", function(e){
e.preventDefault()
//Your logic goes here.
console.log("Button touch ended")
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
In the above code, 'e' is the event object passed to the event handler function. preventDefault() is a method that tells the User Agent that if the event does not get explicitly handled, its default action should not be taken as it normally would.
Note: You could also add events for touchmove (fires when a touch point is moved) and touchcancel (fires when a touch point has been disrupted in an implementation-specific manor, such as too many touch points are created) using the same method.
A user's touch on the screen generates a touchstart event. When they lift their finger, a touchend event is generated. During movement, the touchmove event is generated.
Remember, handling touch events is very important, especially for mobile web development, as it ensures your web application is responsive and accessible to mobile users.
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