Akashic Seer

You have probably used events in Javascript many times.  Especially if you have done any User Interface programming. There are many types of events provided by browsers and the Javascript engines.

Did you know you can create your own custom events with the CustomEvent() constructor? Here is a minimal example. In this article I will explain custom events and how to use them.

First off what would you use a custom event for? You use them to notify other objects in your app that actions have occurred such as “user clicked x” or “user closed dialog”. Using events prevents code coupling and reduces dependencies.

I came across this need when creating a dialog box where I wanted an overlay to show beneath it blocking out the page behind. I didn’t want my DialogBox to have to know about my Overlay.  I didn’t want them coupled. I didn’t want my DialogBox to have to have an Overlay object as an argument creating a dependency. I didn’t want my DialogBox to even know that an Overlay object existed.

The answer is for my DialogBox to emit/create/dispatch a custom Javascript Event and have a listener for that event to close the Overlay.

So lets look at some code.

import {Utils} from "./Utils";

class DialogBox {

    /**
     *
     * @param {string} dialogId
     * @param {string} dialogClass
     */
    constructor(dialogId = 'dialogId', dialogClass = '') {
        this.closeDialogId = 'closeDialog';
        this.dialogBoxBottomRowId = 'dialogBoxBottomRow';
        this.dialogBoxClass = 'dialogBox ' + dialogClass;
        this.contentContainerId = 'dialogContentContainer';
        this.dialogHtml = '';
        this.dialogBoxId = dialogId;
        this.closeHandler = null;
        this.divElement = null;
    }

    /**
     *
     * @param {string} rowContent : the content HTML etc to be added as a row
     * @param {string} cssClass : applied only if passed in
     * @returns {void}
     */
    bottomRow(rowContent = '', cssClass = 'dialog-bottom-row') {

        let bottomRow = document.getElementById(this.dialogBoxBottomRowId);

        //if the bottom row does not exist add it to the html
        if ( Utils.isEmpty(bottomRow)) {
            let rowHtml = '<div id="' + this.dialogBoxBottomRowId + '" ';
            rowHtml += ' class="' + cssClass + '" ';
            rowHtml += ' >' + rowContent + '</div>';
            this.dialogHtml += rowHtml;
        } else {
            //if a bottom row exists replace it
            bottomRow.className = cssClass;
            bottomRow.innerText = rowContent;
        }
    }
    /**
     * Centers the dialog vertically and horizontally in the parent element
     * @param {string} parentElementId
     */
    centerDialog(parentElementId = 'body') {

        let parentWidth = 0;
        let parentHeight = 0;
        //need the dialog boxes calculated width and height
        let dialogHeight = this.divElement.clientHeight;
        let dialogWidth = this.divElement.clientWidth;

        //must use two different ways to get the height and width
        if (parentElementId === 'body') {
            parentWidth = window.innerWidth;
            parentHeight = window.innerHeight;
        } else {
            let parentElement = document.getElementById(parentElementId);
            //make sure null or undefined were not returned
            if (!Utils.isEmpty(parentElement)) {
                parentHeight = parentElement.clientHeight;
                parentWidth = parentElement.clientWidth;
            }
        }
        let left = (parentWidth / 2) - (dialogWidth / 2);
        let top = (parentHeight / 2) - (dialogHeight / 2);
        //must add px or it doesn't work at all
        this.divElement.style.top = top + 'px';
        this.divElement.style.left = left + 'px';
    }
    /**
     *
     * @param {string} content
     * @param {string} containerClass
     */
    contentContainer(content, containerClass = 'dialog-content') {
        let contentDiv = document.getElementById(this.contentContainerId);

        //if the container exists replace it contents
        if (Utils.isEmpty(contentDiv)) {
            let contentHtml = '<div id="' + this.contentContainerId + '"';
            contentHtml += ' class="' + containerClass + '" >';
            contentHtml += content + '</div>';
            this.dialogHtml += contentHtml;
        } else {
            contentDiv.innerHTML = content;
            contentDiv.className = containerClass;
        }
    }
    /**
     * calls removeDialogBox which removes the dialog and event listeners
     */
    hideDialogBox() {
        this.removeDialogBox();
    }

    /**
     *
     * @param {string} menuText
     * @param {string} menuTextClass
     */
    menuBar(menuText, menuTextClass = '') {
        let menuTextId = 'dialog-menu-text';
        /*
         * if dialogMenuBar is present then the length will be non zero or true
         * if this is the case replace the content, this allows this method to be called
         * again later to change the value
         */
        let menuBarID = 'dialog-menu-bar';
        let menuTextDiv = document.getElementById(menuTextId);

        if (Utils.isEmpty(menuTextDiv)) {
            this.dialogHtml = '<div class="dialog-menu-bar" id="dialog-menu-bar" >';
            this.dialogHtml += '<div id="' + menuTextId + '" class="dialog-menu-text ';
            this.dialogHtml += menuTextClass + '" >' + menuText + '</div>';
            this.dialogHtml += '<div id="' + this.closeDialogId + '" class="close-dialog" >';
            this.dialogHtml += '<img src="/images/drawing/close-window.png" ';
            this.dialogHtml += 'alt="Close dialog" >';
            this.dialogHtml += '</div></div>';
        } else {
            menuTextDiv.innerText = menuText;
            menuTextDiv.className = menuTextClass;
        }
    }

    /**
     * displays the dialog box, you must call centerDialog to center it
     */
    showDialogBox() {
        //remove any existing dialog boxes first
        this.removeDialogBox();
        this.divElement = document.createElement("div");
        this.divElement.id = this.dialogBoxId;
        this.divElement.className = this.dialogBoxClass;
        this.divElement.innerHTML = this.dialogHtml;
        //position the dialog box now give it the highest z-index to be on top
        this.divElement.style.zIndex = Utils.getHighestZIndex() + 1;
        document.body.appendChild(this.divElement);
        //add the listener for when the user clicks to close

        this.closeHandler = function ( ) {
        this.removeDialogBox();
        }.bind(this);

        let close = document.getElementById(this.closeDialogId);
        close.addEventListener('click', this.closeHandler, false);
    }

    /**
     * removes the dialog html from the page and removes the close listener
     * dispatches event 'dialogClosed' to be used to close an overlay etc.
     */
    removeDialogBox() {
        let dialogElem = document.getElementById(this.dialogBoxId);
        //if a dialog box of the same id exists delete it first to prevent errors and issues
        if (dialogElem) {
            let close = document.getElementById(this.closeDialogId);
            close.removeEventListener('click', this.closeHandler, false);
            dialogElem.remove();
            const dialogEvent = new CustomEvent('dialogClosed');
            document.body.dispatchEvent(dialogEvent);
        }
    }
}

export {DialogBox}

That is a lot of code 169 lines to be exact. I am still in the process of converting this code, still going to add some Template literals instead of the old fashioned string concatenation technique.

There are several very import things to note here in this code. For example the way the addEventListener() and removeEventListener are used. These functions have to be passed THE EXACT SAME parameters or removeEventListener() fails to remove the event listener and that clutters your memory up because you will have listeners referring to elements that don’t exist.

That is why I have this code this.closeHandler

//add the listener for when the user clicks to close

        this.closeHandler = function ( ) {
        this.removeDialogBox();
        }.bind(this);

        let close = document.getElementById(this.closeDialogId);
        close.addEventListener('click', this.closeHandler, false);

See this.closeHandler = function  that stores the function to handle the click on the close button. Both the add and remove event listener functions have to be passed the exact same function.

Look at the removeDialogBox function closer.

let dialogElem = document.getElementById(this.dialogBoxId);
        //if a dialog box of the same id exists delete it first to prevent errors and issues
        if (dialogElem) {
            let close = document.getElementById(this.closeDialogId);
            close.removeEventListener('click', this.closeHandler, false);
            dialogElem.remove();
            const dialogEvent = new CustomEvent('dialogClosed');
            document.body.dispatchEvent(dialogEvent);
        }

Notice that the second argument to removeEventListener is this.closeHandler that is the same function passed to the addEventListener above.

If you use anonymous functions inside add and remove event listeners instead, then they wont be the same function and so your event listener won’t be removed and your memory fills up faster.

Another important note is that the this.handler function must use bind(this) like so

this.closeHandler = function ( ) { this.removeDialogBox(); }.bind(this);

If you don’t bind the function expression then you will get an error about this.removeDialogBox is not a function.
This is because you are storing the closeHandler in memory for later use.  At that later time the context will be different, the code won’t be executing within your class anymore, it will be in it’s own context. That means “this” that was alive in your class, no longer exists. Which means that function no longer exists You must bind “this” by using “.bind(this) at the end of the function.

And now about the Custom Event. You will see it at the bottom of the removeDialogbox() function

const dialogEvent = new CustomEvent('dialogClosed');
document.body.dispatchEvent(dialogEvent);

Those two lines is all it takes to create and dispatch your own Custom event. This means you write code that listens for the custom “dialogClosed” event to be fired like this.

document.body.addEventListener('dialogClosed', function (){
overlay.hideOverlay();
});

Notice I am using document.body this is a very easy way to create the listener. This is using an anonymous function which is bad because this listener can’t be removed. It should be removed right below this. In order to do that you would need to create the handler function above it and pass it to both the add and remove event listeners.

Adding information to the event.
This is one of the most handy parts of custom events, the ability to pass information in the event. This can be any information, a full object even.
In this article it mentions adding custom data with “detail”.  Here is an example from the code above.

const dialogEvent = new CustomEvent('dialogClosed',{ detail: {
        id: this.dialogBoxId
    } });

Here I am passing id you can use this same format to pass many more values just add a comma to the end of each one. Then to access the extra information in your listener you do like this.

document.body.addEventListener( 'dialogClosed', function (event) {

let dialogId = event.detail.id
switch (dialogId) {
case mainDialogId :
mainOverlay.hideOverlay();
break;
case colorDialogId :
overlay2.hideOverlay();
break;
}

}, false);

Above I am using event.detail.id to get the value I stored in id in the detail of the custom event. Notice how I am using a switch statement to compare the id’s of the dialog that closed to close the correct overlay. There is no default behavior for this action, either one dialog closes or another. I could have 5 different dialogs if I wanted.