[javascript] Detect click outside React component

I'm looking for a way to detect if a click event happened outside of a component, as described in this article. jQuery closest() is used to see if the target from a click event has the dom element as one of its parents. If there is a match the click event belongs to one of the children and is thus not considered to be outside of the component.

So in my component I want to attach a click handler to window. When the handler fires I need to compare the target with the dom children of my component.

The click event contains properties like "path" which seems to hold the dom path that the event has travelled. I'm not sure what to compare or how to best traverse it, and I'm thinking someone must have already put that in a clever utility function... No?

The Ez way...

const componentRef = useRef();

useEffect(() => {
    document.addEventListener("click", handleClick);
    return () => document.removeEventListener("click", handleClick);
    function handleClick(e: any) {
        if(componentRef && componentRef.current){
            const ref: any = componentRef.current
            if(!ref.contains(e.target)){
                // put your action here
            }
        }
    }
}, []);

then put the ref on your component

<div ref={componentRef as any}> My Component </div>

My biggest concern with all of the other answers is having to filter click events from the root/parent down. I found the easiest way was to simply set a sibling element with position: fixed, a z-index 1 behind the dropdown and handle the click event on the fixed element inside the same component. Keeps everything centralized to a given component.

Example code

#HTML
<div className="parent">
  <div className={`dropdown ${this.state.open ? open : ''}`}>
    ...content
  </div>
  <div className="outer-handler" onClick={() => this.setState({open: false})}>
  </div>
</div>

#SASS
.dropdown {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0px;
  left: 0px;
  z-index: 100;
  &.open {
    display: block;
  }
}
.outer-handler {
    position: fixed;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    opacity: 0;
    z-index: 99;
    display: none;
    &.open {
      display: block;
    }
}

I like the @Ben Bud's answer but when there are visually nested elements, contains(event.target) not works as expected.

So sometimes it's better to calculate the clicked point is visually inside of the element or not.

Here is my React Hook code for the situation.

import { useEffect } from 'react'

export function useOnClickRectOutside(ref, handler) {
  useEffect(() => {
    const listener = (event) => {
      const targetEl = ref.current
      if (targetEl) {
        const clickedX = event.clientX
        const clickedY = event.clientY
        const rect = targetEl.getBoundingClientRect()
        const targetElTop = rect.top
        const targetElBottom = rect.top + rect.height
        const targetElLeft = rect.left
        const targetElRight = rect.left + rect.width

        if (
          // check X Coordinate
          targetElLeft < clickedX &&
          clickedX < targetElRight &&
          // check Y Coordinate
          targetElTop < clickedY &&
          clickedY < targetElBottom
        ) {
          return
        }

        // trigger event when the clickedX,Y is outside of the targetEl
        handler(event)
      }
    }

    document.addEventListener('mousedown', listener)
    document.addEventListener('touchstart', listener)

    return () => {
      document.removeEventListener('mousedown', listener)
      document.removeEventListener('touchstart', listener)
    }
  }, [ref, handler])
}

import ReactDOM from 'react-dom' ;

class SomeComponent {

  constructor(props) {
    // First, add this to your constructor
    this.handleClickOutside = this.handleClickOutside.bind(this);
  }

  componentWillMount() {
    document.addEventListener('mousedown', this.handleClickOutside, false); 
  }

  // Unbind event on unmount to prevent leaks
  componentWillUnmount() {
    window.removeEventListener('mousedown', this.handleClickOutside, false);
  }

  handleClickOutside(event) {
    if(!ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this).contains(event.path[0])){
       console.log("OUTSIDE");
    }
  }
}

I made a solution for all occasions.

You should use a High Order Component to wrap the component that you would like to listen for clicks outside it.

This component example has only one prop: "onClickedOutside" that receives a function.

ClickedOutside.js

import React, { Component } from "react";

export default class ClickedOutside extends Component {
  componentDidMount() {
    document.addEventListener("mousedown", this.handleClickOutside);
  }

  componentWillUnmount() {
    document.removeEventListener("mousedown", this.handleClickOutside);
  }

  handleClickOutside = event => {
    // IF exists the Ref of the wrapped component AND his dom children doesnt have the clicked component 
    if (this.wrapperRef && !this.wrapperRef.contains(event.target)) {
      // A props callback for the ClikedClickedOutside
      this.props.onClickedOutside();
    }
  };

  render() {
    // In this piece of code I'm trying to get to the first not functional component
    // Because it wouldn't work if use a functional component (like <Fade/> from react-reveal)
    let firstNotFunctionalComponent = this.props.children;
    while (typeof firstNotFunctionalComponent.type === "function") {
      firstNotFunctionalComponent = firstNotFunctionalComponent.props.children;
    }

    // Here I'm cloning the element because I have to pass a new prop, the "reference" 
    const children = React.cloneElement(firstNotFunctionalComponent, {
      ref: node => {
        this.wrapperRef = node;
      },
      // Keeping all the old props with the new element
      ...firstNotFunctionalComponent.props
    });

    return <React.Fragment>{children}</React.Fragment>;
  }
}

Bit late to the party, but I was having issues getting any of these to work with a React.Select dropdown as the option clicked would no longer be contained within the parent I was looking to click out of by the time onClick was fired.

I got round this issue by using:

componentDidMount() {
    document.addEventListener('mousedown', this.onClick );
}

componentWillUnmount() {
    document.removeEventListener('mousedown', this.onClick );
}

onClick = (event) => {
    if(!event.path.includes(this.detectOutsideClicksDiv)) {
        // Do stuff here
    }
}

I was stuck on the same issue. I am a bit late to the party here, but for me this is a really good solution. Hopefully it will be of help to someone else. You need to import findDOMNode from react-dom

import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
// ... ?

componentDidMount() {
    document.addEventListener('click', this.handleClickOutside, true);
}

componentWillUnmount() {
    document.removeEventListener('click', this.handleClickOutside, true);
}

handleClickOutside = event => {
    const domNode = ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this);

    if (!domNode || !domNode.contains(event.target)) {
        this.setState({
            visible: false
        });
    }
}

React Hooks Approach (16.8 +)

You can create a reusable hook called useComponentVisible.

import { useState, useEffect, useRef } from 'react';

export default function useComponentVisible(initialIsVisible) {
    const [isComponentVisible, setIsComponentVisible] = useState(initialIsVisible);
    const ref = useRef(null);

    const handleClickOutside = (event) => {
        if (ref.current && !ref.current.contains(event.target)) {
            setIsComponentVisible(false);
        }
    };

    useEffect(() => {
        document.addEventListener('click', handleClickOutside, true);
        return () => {
            document.removeEventListener('click', handleClickOutside, true);
        };
    });

    return { ref, isComponentVisible, setIsComponentVisible };
}

Then in the component you wish to add the functionality to do the following:

const DropDown = () => {
    const { ref, isComponentVisible } = useComponentVisible(true);
    return (
       <div ref={ref}>
          {isComponentVisible && (<p>Dropdown Component</p>)}
       </div>
    );

}

Find a codesandbox example here.

I found a solution thanks to Ben Alpert on discuss.reactjs.org. The suggested approach attaches a handler to the document but that turned out to be problematic. Clicking on one of the components in my tree resulted in a rerender which removed the clicked element on update. Because the rerender from React happens before the document body handler is called, the element was not detected as "inside" the tree.

The solution to this was to add the handler on the application root element.

main:

window.__myapp_container = document.getElementById('app')
React.render(<App/>, window.__myapp_container)

component:

import { Component, PropTypes } from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

export default class ClickListener extends Component {

  static propTypes = {
    children: PropTypes.node.isRequired,
    onClickOutside: PropTypes.func.isRequired
  }

  componentDidMount () {
    window.__myapp_container.addEventListener('click', this.handleDocumentClick)
  }

  componentWillUnmount () {
    window.__myapp_container.removeEventListener('click', this.handleDocumentClick)
  }

  /* using fat arrow to bind to instance */
  handleDocumentClick = (evt) => {
    const area = ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this.refs.area);

    if (!area.contains(evt.target)) {
      this.props.onClickOutside(evt)
    }
  }

  render () {
    return (
      <div ref='area'>
       {this.props.children}
      </div>
    )
  }
}

[Update] Solution with React ^16.8 using Hooks

CodeSandbox

import React, { useEffect, useRef, useState } from 'react';

const SampleComponent = () => {
    const [clickedOutside, setClickedOutside] = useState(false);
    const myRef = useRef();

    const handleClickOutside = e => {
        if (!myRef.current.contains(e.target)) {
            setClickedOutside(true);
        }
    };

    const handleClickInside = () => setClickedOutside(false);

    useEffect(() => {
        document.addEventListener('mousedown', handleClickOutside);
        return () => document.removeEventListener('mousedown', handleClickOutside);
    });

    return (
        <button ref={myRef} onClick={handleClickInside}>
            {clickedOutside ? 'Bye!' : 'Hello!'}
        </button>
    );
};

export default SampleComponent;

Solution with React ^16.3:

CodeSandbox

import React, { Component } from "react";

class SampleComponent extends Component {
  state = {
    clickedOutside: false
  };

  componentDidMount() {
    document.addEventListener("mousedown", this.handleClickOutside);
  }

  componentWillUnmount() {
    document.removeEventListener("mousedown", this.handleClickOutside);
  }

  myRef = React.createRef();

  handleClickOutside = e => {
    if (!this.myRef.current.contains(e.target)) {
      this.setState({ clickedOutside: true });
    }
  };

  handleClickInside = () => this.setState({ clickedOutside: false });

  render() {
    return (
      <button ref={this.myRef} onClick={this.handleClickInside}>
        {this.state.clickedOutside ? "Bye!" : "Hello!"}
      </button>
    );
  }
}

export default SampleComponent;

For those who need absolute positioning, a simple option I opted for is to add a wrapper component that is styled to cover the whole page with a transparent background. Then you can add an onClick on this element to close your inside component.

<div style={{
        position: 'fixed',
        top: '0', right: '0', bottom: '0', left: '0',
        zIndex: '1000',
      }} onClick={() => handleOutsideClick()} >
    <Content style={{position: 'absolute'}}/>
</div>

As it is right now if you add a click handler on content, the event will also be propagated to the upper div and therefore trigger the handlerOutsideClick. If this is not your desired behavior, simply stop the event progation on your handler.

<Content style={{position: 'absolute'}} onClick={e => {
                                          e.stopPropagation();
                                          desiredFunctionCall();
                                        }}/>

`

https://stackoverflow.com/a/42234988/9536897 it's not work on mobile mode.

than you can try:

  // returns true if the element or one of its parents has the class classname
  hasSomeParentTheClass(element, classname) {
    if(element.target)
    element=element.target;
    
    if (element.className&& element.className.split(" ").indexOf(classname) >= 0) return true;
    return (
      element.parentNode &&
      this.hasSomeParentTheClass(element.parentNode, classname)
    );
  }

  componentDidMount() {
    const fthis = this;

    $(window).click(function (element) {
      if (!fthis.hasSomeParentTheClass(element, "myClass"))
        fthis.setState({ pharmacyFocus: null });
    });
  }

• On the view, gave className to your specific element.

After trying many methods here, I decided to use github.com/Pomax/react-onclickoutside because of how complete it is.

I installed the module via npm and imported it into my component:

import onClickOutside from 'react-onclickoutside'

Then, in my component class I defined the handleClickOutside method:

handleClickOutside = () => {
  console.log('onClickOutside() method called')
}

And when exporting my component I wrapped it in onClickOutside():

export default onClickOutside(NameOfComponent)

That's it.

None of the other answers here worked for me. I was trying to hide a popup on blur, but since the contents were absolutely positioned, the onBlur was firing even on the click of inner contents too.

Here is an approach that did work for me:

// Inside the component:
onBlur(event) {
    // currentTarget refers to this component.
    // relatedTarget refers to the element where the user clicked (or focused) which
    // triggered this event.
    // So in effect, this condition checks if the user clicked outside the component.
    if (!event.currentTarget.contains(event.relatedTarget)) {
        // do your thing.
    }
},

Hope this helps.

This already has many answers but they don't address e.stopPropagation() and preventing clicking on react links outside of the element you wish to close.

Due to the fact that React has it's own artificial event handler you aren't able to use document as the base for event listeners. You need to e.stopPropagation() before this as React uses document itself. If you use for example document.querySelector('body') instead. You are able to prevent the click from the React link. Following is an example of how I implement click outside and close.
This uses ES6 and React 16.3.

import React, { Component } from 'react';

class App extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      isOpen: false,
    };

    this.insideContainer = React.createRef();
  }

  componentWillMount() {
    document.querySelector('body').addEventListener("click", this.handleClick, false);
  }

  componentWillUnmount() {
    document.querySelector('body').removeEventListener("click", this.handleClick, false);
  }

  handleClick(e) {
    /* Check that we've clicked outside of the container and that it is open */
    if (!this.insideContainer.current.contains(e.target) && this.state.isOpen === true) {
      e.preventDefault();
      e.stopPropagation();
      this.setState({
        isOpen: false,
      })
    }
  };

  togggleOpenHandler(e) {
    e.preventDefault();

    this.setState({
      isOpen: !this.state.isOpen,
    })
  }

  render(){
    return(
      <div>
        <span ref={this.insideContainer}>
          <a href="#open-container" onClick={(e) => this.togggleOpenHandler(e)}>Open me</a>
        </span>
        <a href="/" onClick({/* clickHandler */})>
          Will not trigger a click when inside is open.
        </a>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default App;

import { useClickAway } from "react-use";

useClickAway(ref, () => console.log('OUTSIDE CLICKED'));

To extend on the accepted answer made by Ben Bud, if you are using styled-components, passing refs that way will give you an error such as "this.wrapperRef.contains is not a function".

The suggested fix, in the comments, to wrap the styled component with a div and pass the ref there, works. Having said that, in their docs they already explain the reason for this and the proper use of refs within styled-components:

Passing a ref prop to a styled component will give you an instance of the StyledComponent wrapper, but not to the underlying DOM node. This is due to how refs work. It's not possible to call DOM methods, like focus, on our wrappers directly. To get a ref to the actual, wrapped DOM node, pass the callback to the innerRef prop instead.

Like so:

<StyledDiv innerRef={el => { this.el = el }} />

Then you can access it directly within the "handleClickOutside" function:

handleClickOutside = e => {
    if (this.el && !this.el.contains(e.target)) {
        console.log('clicked outside')
    }
}

This also applies for the "onBlur" approach:

componentDidMount(){
    this.el.focus()
}
blurHandler = () => {
    console.log('clicked outside')
}
render(){
    return(
        <StyledDiv
            onBlur={this.blurHandler}
            tabIndex="0"
            innerRef={el => { this.el = el }}
        />
    )
}

In my DROPDOWN case the Ben Bud's solution worked well, but I had a separate toggle button with an onClick handler. So the outside clicking logic conflicted with the button onClick toggler. Here is how I solved it by passing the button's ref as well:

import React, { useRef, useEffect, useState } from "react";

/**
 * Hook that triggers onClose when clicked outside of ref and buttonRef elements
 */
function useOutsideClicker(ref, buttonRef, onOutsideClick) {
  useEffect(() => {

    function handleClickOutside(event) {
      /* clicked on the element itself */
      if (ref.current && !ref.current.contains(event.target)) {
        return;
      }

      /* clicked on the toggle button */
      if (buttonRef.current && !buttonRef.current.contains(event.target)) {
        return;
      }

      /* If it's something else, trigger onClose */
      onOutsideClick();
    }

    // Bind the event listener
    document.addEventListener("mousedown", handleClickOutside);
    return () => {
      // Unbind the event listener on clean up
      document.removeEventListener("mousedown", handleClickOutside);
    };
  }, [ref]);
}

/**
 * Component that alerts if you click outside of it
 */
export default function DropdownMenu(props) {
  const wrapperRef = useRef(null);
  const buttonRef = useRef(null);
  const [dropdownVisible, setDropdownVisible] = useState(false);

  useOutsideClicker(wrapperRef, buttonRef, closeDropdown);

  const toggleDropdown = () => setDropdownVisible(visible => !visible);

  const closeDropdown = () => setDropdownVisible(false);

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={toggleDropdown} ref={buttonRef}>Dropdown Toggler</button>
      {dropdownVisible && <div ref={wrapperRef}>{props.children}</div>}
    </div>
  );
}

Here is the solution that best worked for me without attaching events to the container:

Certain HTML elements can have what is known as "focus", for example input elements. Those elements will also respond to the blur event, when they lose that focus.

To give any element the capacity to have focus, just make sure its tabindex attribute is set to anything other than -1. In regular HTML that would be by setting the tabindex attribute, but in React you have to use tabIndex (note the capital I).

You can also do it via JavaScript with element.setAttribute('tabindex',0)

This is what I was using it for, to make a custom DropDown menu.

var DropDownMenu = React.createClass({
    getInitialState: function(){
        return {
            expanded: false
        }
    },
    expand: function(){
        this.setState({expanded: true});
    },
    collapse: function(){
        this.setState({expanded: false});
    },
    render: function(){
        if(this.state.expanded){
            var dropdown = ...; //the dropdown content
        } else {
            var dropdown = undefined;
        }

        return (
            <div className="dropDownMenu" tabIndex="0" onBlur={ this.collapse } >
                <div className="currentValue" onClick={this.expand}>
                    {this.props.displayValue}
                </div>
                {dropdown}
            </div>
        );
    }
});

componentWillMount(){

  document.addEventListener('mousedown', this.handleClickOutside)
}

handleClickOutside(event) {

  if(event.path[0].id !== 'your-button'){
     this.setState({showWhatever: false})
  }
}

Event path[0] is the last item clicked

I know this is an old question, but I keep coming across this and I had a lot of trouble figuring this out in a simple format. So if this would make anyones life a bit easier, use OutsideClickHandler by airbnb. It is a the simplest plugin to accomplish this task without writing your own code.

Example:

hideresults(){
   this.setState({show:false})
}
render(){
 return(
 <div><div onClick={() => this.setState({show:true})}>SHOW</div> {(this.state.show)? <OutsideClickHandler onOutsideClick={() => 
  {this.hideresults()}} > <div className="insideclick"></div> </OutsideClickHandler> :null}</div>
 )
}

UseOnClickOutside Hook - React 16.8 +

Create a general useOnOutsideClick function

export const useOnOutsideClick = handleOutsideClick => {
  const innerBorderRef = useRef();

  const onClick = event => {
    if (
      innerBorderRef.current &&
      !innerBorderRef.current.contains(event.target)
    ) {
      handleOutsideClick();
    }
  };

  useMountEffect(() => {
    document.addEventListener("click", onClick, true);
    return () => {
      document.removeEventListener("click", onClick, true);
    };
  });

  return { innerBorderRef };
};

const useMountEffect = fun => useEffect(fun, []);

Then use the hook in any functional component.

const OutsideClickDemo = ({ currentMode, changeContactAppMode }) => {

  const [open, setOpen] = useState(false);
  const { innerBorderRef } = useOnOutsideClick(() => setOpen(false));

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => setOpen(true)}>open</button>
      {open && (
        <div ref={innerBorderRef}>
           <SomeChild/>
        </div>
      )}
    </div>
  );

};

Link to demo

Partially inspired by @pau1fitzgerald answer.

you can you a simple way to solve your problem , i show you :

....

const [dropDwonStatus , setDropDownStatus] = useState(false)

const openCloseDropDown = () =>{
 setDropDownStatus(prev => !prev)
}

const closeDropDown = ()=> {
 if(dropDwonStatus){
   setDropDownStatus(false)
 }
}
.
.
.
<parent onClick={closeDropDown}>
 <child onClick={openCloseDropDown} />
</parent>

this works for me , good luck ;)

Typescript with Hooks

Note: I'm using React version 16.3, with React.createRef. For other versions use the ref callback.

Dropdown component:

interface DropdownProps {
 ...
};

export const Dropdown: React.FC<DropdownProps> () {
  const ref: React.RefObject<HTMLDivElement> = React.createRef();
  
  const handleClickOutside = (event: MouseEvent) => {
    if (ref && ref !== null) {
      const cur = ref.current;
      if (cur && !cur.contains(event.target as Node)) {
        // close all dropdowns
      }
    }
  }

  useEffect(() => {
    // Bind the event listener
    document.addEventListener("mousedown", handleClickOutside);
    return () => {
      // Unbind the event listener on clean up
      document.removeEventListener("mousedown", handleClickOutside);
    };
  });

  return (
    <div ref={ref}>
        ...
    </div>
  );
}

I had a case when I needed to insert children into the modal conditionally. Something like this, bellow.

const [view, setView] = useState(VIEWS.SomeView)

return (
    <Modal onClose={onClose}>
      {VIEWS.Result === view ? (
        <Result onDeny={() => setView(VIEWS.Details)} />
      ) : VIEWS.Details === view ? (
        <Details onDeny={() => setView(VIEWS.Result) /> />
      ) : null}
    </Modal>
  )

So !parent.contains(event.target) doesn't work here, because once you detach children, parent (modal) doesn't contain event.target anymore.

The solution I had (which works so far and have no any issue) is to write something like this:

const listener = (event: MouseEvent) => {
   if (parentNodeRef && !event.path.includes(parentNodeRef)) callback()
}

If parent contained element from already detached tree, it wouldn't fire callback.

EDIT: event.path is new and doesn't exit in all browsers yet. Use compoesedPath instead.

Here is my approach (demo - https://jsfiddle.net/agymay93/4/):

I've created special component called WatchClickOutside and it can be used like (I assume JSX syntax):

<WatchClickOutside onClickOutside={this.handleClose}>
  <SomeDropdownEtc>
</WatchClickOutside>

Here is code of WatchClickOutside component:

import React, { Component } from 'react';

export default class WatchClickOutside extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleClick = this.handleClick.bind(this);
  }

  componentWillMount() {
    document.body.addEventListener('click', this.handleClick);
  }

  componentWillUnmount() {
    // remember to remove all events to avoid memory leaks
    document.body.removeEventListener('click', this.handleClick);
  }

  handleClick(event) {
    const {container} = this.refs; // get container that we'll wait to be clicked outside
    const {onClickOutside} = this.props; // get click outside callback
    const {target} = event; // get direct click event target

    // if there is no proper callback - no point of checking
    if (typeof onClickOutside !== 'function') {
      return;
    }

    // if target is container - container was not clicked outside
    // if container contains clicked target - click was not outside of it
    if (target !== container && !container.contains(target)) {
      onClickOutside(event); // clicked outside - fire callback
    }
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div ref="container">
        {this.props.children}
      </div>
    );
  }
}

Material-UI has a small component to solve this problem: https://material-ui.com/components/click-away-listener/ that you can cherry-pick it. It weights 1.5 kB gzipped, it supports mobile, IE 11 and portals.

Add an onClick handler to your top level container and increment a state value whenever the user clicks within. Pass that value to the relevant component and whenever the value changes you can do work.

In this case we're calling this.closeDropdown() whenever the clickCount value changes.

The incrementClickCount method fires within the .app container but not the .dropdown because we use event.stopPropagation() to prevent event bubbling.

Your code may end up looking something like this:

class App extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = {
            clickCount: 0
        };
    }
    incrementClickCount = () => {
        this.setState({
            clickCount: this.state.clickCount + 1
        });
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <div className="app" onClick={this.incrementClickCount}>
                <Dropdown clickCount={this.state.clickCount}/>
            </div>
        );
    }
}
class Dropdown extends Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);
        this.state = {
            open: false
        };
    }
    componentDidUpdate(prevProps) {
        if (this.props.clickCount !== prevProps.clickCount) {
            this.closeDropdown();
        }
    }
    toggleDropdown = event => {
        event.stopPropagation();
        return (this.state.open) ? this.closeDropdown() : this.openDropdown();
    }
    render() {
        return (
            <div className="dropdown" onClick={this.toggleDropdown}>
                ...
            </div>
        );
    }
}

Alternatively:

const onClickOutsideListener = () => {
    alert("click outside")
    document.removeEventListener("click", onClickOutsideListener)
  }

...

return (
  <div
    onMouseLeave={() => {
          document.addEventListener("click", onClickOutsideListener)
        }}
  >
   ...
  </div>

Alternatively to .contains, you can use the .closest method. When you want to check if a click was outside of the element with id="apple" then i can use:

const isOutside = !e.target.closest("#apple");

This checks if any element in the tree above the clicked one has an id of "apple". We have to negate the result!

To make the 'focus' solution work for dropdown with event listeners you can add them with onMouseDown event instead of onClick. That way the event will fire and after that the popup will close like so:

<TogglePopupButton
                    onClick = { this.toggleDropup }
                    tabIndex = '0'
                    onBlur = { this.closeDropup }
                />
                { this.state.isOpenedDropup &&
                <ul className = { dropupList }>
                    { this.props.listItems.map((item, i) => (
                        <li
                            key = { i }
                            onMouseDown = { item.eventHandler }
                        >
                            { item.itemName}
                        </li>
                    ))}
                </ul>
                }

Non of the above answers worked for me so here is what I did eventually:

import React, { Component } from 'react';

/**
 * Component that alerts if you click outside of it
 */
export default class OutsideAlerter extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    this.handleClickOutside = this.handleClickOutside.bind(this);
  }

  componentDidMount() {
    document.addEventListener('mousedown', this.handleClickOutside);
  }

  componentWillUnmount() {
    document.removeEventListener('mousedown', this.handleClickOutside);
  }

  /**
   * Alert if clicked on outside of element
   */
  handleClickOutside(event) {
    if (!event.path || !event.path.filter(item => item.className=='classOfAComponent').length) {
      alert('You clicked outside of me!');
    }
  }

  render() {
    return <div>{this.props.children}</div>;
  }
}

OutsideAlerter.propTypes = {
  children: PropTypes.element.isRequired,
};

I did this partly by following this and by following the React official docs on handling refs which requires react ^16.3. This is the only thing that worked for me after trying some of the other suggestions here...

class App extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.inputRef = React.createRef();
  }
  componentWillMount() {
    document.addEventListener("mousedown", this.handleClick, false);
  }
  componentWillUnmount() {
    document.removeEventListener("mousedown", this.handleClick, false);
  }
  handleClick = e => {
    /*Validating click is made inside a component*/
    if ( this.inputRef.current === e.target ) {
      return;
    }
    this.handleclickOutside();
  };
  handleClickOutside(){
    /*code to handle what to do when clicked outside*/
  }
  render(){
    return(
      <div>
        <span ref={this.inputRef} />
      </div>
    )
  }
}

I used this module (I have no association with the author)

npm install react-onclickout --save

const ClickOutHandler = require('react-onclickout');_x000D_
 _x000D_
class ExampleComponent extends React.Component {_x000D_
 _x000D_
  onClickOut(e) {_x000D_
    if (hasClass(e.target, 'ignore-me')) return;_x000D_
    alert('user clicked outside of the component!');_x000D_
  }_x000D_
 _x000D_
  render() {_x000D_
    return (_x000D_
      <ClickOutHandler onClickOut={this.onClickOut}>_x000D_
        <div>Click outside of me!</div>_x000D_
      </ClickOutHandler>_x000D_
    );_x000D_
  }_x000D_
}

It did the job nicely.

Hook implementation based on Tanner Linsley's excellent talk at JSConf Hawaii 2020:

useOuterClick Hook API

const Client = () => {
  const innerRef = useOuterClick(ev => {/*what you want to do on outer click*/});
  return <div ref={innerRef}> Inside </div> 
};

Implementation

function useOuterClick(callback) {
  const callbackRef = useRef(); // initialize mutable callback ref
  const innerRef = useRef(); // returned to client, who sets the "border" element

  // update callback on each render, so second useEffect has most recent callback
  useEffect(() => { callbackRef.current = callback; });
  useEffect(() => {
    document.addEventListener("click", handleClick);
    return () => document.removeEventListener("click", handleClick);
    function handleClick(e) {
      if (innerRef.current && callbackRef.current && 
        !innerRef.current.contains(e.target)
      ) callbackRef.current(e);
    }
  }, []); // no dependencies -> stable click listener
      
  return innerRef; // convenience for client (doesn't need to init ref himself) 
}

Here is a working example:

/*
  Custom Hook
*/
function useOuterClick(callback) {
  const innerRef = useRef();
  const callbackRef = useRef();

  // set current callback in ref, before second useEffect uses it
  useEffect(() => { // useEffect wrapper to be safe for concurrent mode
    callbackRef.current = callback;
  });

  useEffect(() => {
    document.addEventListener("click", handleClick);
    return () => document.removeEventListener("click", handleClick);

    // read most recent callback and innerRef dom node from refs
    function handleClick(e) {
      if (
        innerRef.current && 
        callbackRef.current &&
        !innerRef.current.contains(e.target)
      ) {
        callbackRef.current(e);
      }
    }
  }, []); // no need for callback + innerRef dep
  
  return innerRef; // return ref; client can omit `useRef`
}

/*
  Usage 
*/
const Client = () => {
  const [counter, setCounter] = useState(0);
  const innerRef = useOuterClick(e => {
    // counter state is up-to-date, when handler is called
    alert(`Clicked outside! Increment counter to ${counter + 1}`);
    setCounter(c => c + 1);
  });
  return (
    <div>
      <p>Click outside!</p>
      <div id="container" ref={innerRef}>
        Inside, counter: {counter}
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

ReactDOM.render(<Client />, document.getElementById("root"));

#container { border: 1px solid red; padding: 20px; }

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react/16.12.0/umd/react.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-Ef0vObdWpkMAnxp39TYSLVS/vVUokDE8CDFnx7tjY6U=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/react-dom/16.12.0/umd/react-dom.production.min.js" integrity="sha256-p2yuFdE8hNZsQ31Qk+s8N+Me2fL5cc6NKXOC0U9uGww=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script> var {useRef, useEffect, useCallback, useState} = React</script>
<div id="root"></div>

Explanation

useOuterClick makes use of mutable refs to create a lean API for the Client. A callback can be set without having to memoize it via useCallback. The callback body still has access to the most recent props and state (no stale closure values).

Note for iOS users

iOS treats only certain elements as clickable. To circumvent this behavior, choose a different outer click listener than document - nothing upwards including body. E.g. you could add a listener on the React root div in above example and expand its height (height: 100vh or similar) to catch all outside clicks. Source: quirksmode.org

If you want to use a tiny component (466 Byte gzipped) that already exists for this functionality then you can check out this library react-outclick.

The good thing about the library is that it also lets you detect clicks outside of a component and inside of another. It also supports detecting other types of events.

If you want to use a tiny component (466 Byte gzipped) that already exists for this functionality then you can check out this library react-outclick. It captures events outside of a react component or jsx element.

The good thing about the library is that it also lets you detect clicks outside of a component and inside of another. It also supports detecting other types of events.

You could just install a double click handler on the body and another one on this element. In the handler of this element just return false to prevent the event from propagating. So when a double click happens if it is on the element it will be caught and will not propagate to the handler on the body. Otherwise it will be caught by the handler on the body.

Update: if you really do not want to prevent event propagation, you just need to use closest to check whether the click happened on your element or one of his children:

<html>
<head>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.4.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).on('click', function(event) {
    if (!$(event.target).closest('#div3').length) {
    alert("outside");
    }
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
    <div style="background-color:blue;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div1"></div>
    <div style="background-color:red;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div2"></div>
    <div style="background-color:green;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div3"></div>
    <div style="background-color:yellow;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div4"></div>
    <div style="background-color:grey;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div5"></div>
</body>
</html>

Update: without jQuery:

<html>
<head>
<script>
function findClosest (element, fn) {
  if (!element) return undefined;
  return fn(element) ? element : findClosest(element.parentElement, fn);
}
document.addEventListener("click", function(event) {
    var target = findClosest(event.target, function(el) {
        return el.id == 'div3'
    });
    if (!target) {
        alert("outside");
    }
}, false);
</script>
</head>
<body>
    <div style="background-color:blue;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div1"></div>
    <div style="background-color:red;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div2"></div>
    <div style="background-color:green;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div3">
        <div style="background-color:pink;width:50px;height:50px;" id="div6"></div>
    </div>
    <div style="background-color:yellow;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div4"></div>
    <div style="background-color:grey;width:100px;height:100px;" id="div5"></div>
</body>
</html>

An example with Strategy

I like the provided solutions that use to do the same thing by creating a wrapper around the component.

Since this is more of a behavior I thought of Strategy and came up with the following.

I'm new with React and I need a bit of help in order to save some boilerplate in the use cases

Please review and tell me what you think.

ClickOutsideBehavior

import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

export default class ClickOutsideBehavior {

  constructor({component, appContainer, onClickOutside}) {

    // Can I extend the passed component's lifecycle events from here?
    this.component = component;
    this.appContainer = appContainer;
    this.onClickOutside = onClickOutside;
  }

  enable() {

    this.appContainer.addEventListener('click', this.handleDocumentClick);
  }

  disable() {

    this.appContainer.removeEventListener('click', this.handleDocumentClick);
  }

  handleDocumentClick = (event) => {

    const area = ReactDOM.findDOMNode(this.component);

    if (!area.contains(event.target)) {
        this.onClickOutside(event)
    }
  }
}

Sample Usage

import React, {Component} from 'react';
import {APP_CONTAINER} from '../const';
import ClickOutsideBehavior from '../ClickOutsideBehavior';

export default class AddCardControl extends Component {

  constructor() {
    super();

    this.state = {
      toggledOn: false,
      text: ''
    };

    this.clickOutsideStrategy = new ClickOutsideBehavior({
      component: this,
      appContainer: APP_CONTAINER,
      onClickOutside: () => this.toggleState(false)
    });
  }

  componentDidMount () {

    this.setState({toggledOn: !!this.props.toggledOn});
    this.clickOutsideStrategy.enable();
  }

  componentWillUnmount () {
    this.clickOutsideStrategy.disable();
  }

  toggleState(isOn) {

    this.setState({toggledOn: isOn});
  }

  render() {...}
}

Notes

I thought of storing the passed component lifecycle hooks and override them with methods simillar to this:

const baseDidMount = component.componentDidMount;

component.componentDidMount = () => {
  this.enable();
  baseDidMount.call(component)
}

component is the component passed to the constructor of ClickOutsideBehavior.
This will remove the enable/disable boilerplate from the user of this behavior but it doesn't look very nice though

This is the method that suits me the best to make a dropdown menu:

handleClick = () => {
    document.getElementById("myDrop").classList.toggle("showing");
}

render() {

    return (
        <div className="courses">
            <div class="dropdownBody">
                <button onClick={this.handleClick} onBlur={this.handleClick} class="dropbtn">Dropdown</button>
                <div id="myDrop" class="dropdown-content">
                    <a href="#home">Home</a>
                    <a href="#about">About</a>
                    <a href="#contact">Contact</a>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    )
}

I found this from the article below:

render() { return ( { this.node = node; }} > Toggle Popover {this.state.popupVisible && ( I'm a popover! )} ); } }

Here is a great article about this issue: "Handle clicks outside of React components" https://larsgraubner.com/handle-outside-clicks-react/