[javascript] How to distinguish between left and right mouse click with jQuery

If you are looking for "Better Javascript Mouse Events" which allow for

  • left mousedown
  • middle mousedown
  • right mousedown
  • left mouseup
  • middle mouseup
  • right mouseup
  • left click
  • middle click
  • right click
  • mousewheel up
  • mousewheel down

Have a look at this cross browser normal javascript which triggers the above events, and removes the headache work. Just copy and paste it into the head of your script, or include it in a file in the <head> of your document. Then bind your events, refer to the next code block below which shows a jquery example of capturing the events and firing the functions assigned to them, though this works with normal javascript binding as well.

If your interested in seeing it work, have a look at the jsFiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/BNefn/

/**
   Better Javascript Mouse Events
   Author: Casey Childers
**/
(function(){
    // use addEvent cross-browser shim: https://gist.github.com/dciccale/5394590/
    var addEvent = function(a,b,c){try{a.addEventListener(b,c,!1)}catch(d){a.attachEvent('on'+b,c)}};

    /* This function detects what mouse button was used, left, right, middle, or middle scroll either direction */
    function GetMouseButton(e) {
        e = window.event || e; // Normalize event variable

        var button = '';
        if (e.type == 'mousedown' || e.type == 'click' || e.type == 'contextmenu' || e.type == 'mouseup') {
            if (e.which == null) {
                button = (e.button < 2) ? "left" : ((e.button == 4) ? "middle" : "right");
            } else {
                button = (e.which < 2) ? "left" : ((e.which == 2) ? "middle" : "right");
            }
        } else {
            var direction = e.detail ? e.detail * (-120) : e.wheelDelta;
            switch (direction) {
                case 120:
                case 240:
                case 360:
                    button = "up";
                break;
                case -120:
                case -240:
                case -360:
                    button = "down";
                break;
            }
        }

        var type = e.type
        if(e.type == 'contextmenu') {type = "click";}
        if(e.type == 'DOMMouseScroll') {type = "mousewheel";}

        switch(button) {
            case 'contextmenu':
            case 'left':
            case 'middle':
            case 'up':
            case 'down':
            case 'right':
                if (document.createEvent) {
                  event = new Event(type+':'+button);
                  e.target.dispatchEvent(event);
                } else {
                  event = document.createEventObject();
                  e.target.fireEvent('on'+type+':'+button, event);
                }
            break;
        }
    }

    addEvent(window, 'mousedown', GetMouseButton);
    addEvent(window, 'mouseup', GetMouseButton);
    addEvent(window, 'click', GetMouseButton);
    addEvent(window, 'contextmenu', GetMouseButton);

    /* One of FireFox's browser versions doesn't recognize mousewheel, we account for that in this line */
    var MouseWheelEvent = (/Firefox/i.test(navigator.userAgent)) ? "DOMMouseScroll" : "mousewheel";
    addEvent(window, MouseWheelEvent, GetMouseButton);
})();

Better Mouse Click Events Example (uses jquery for simplicity, but the above will work cross browser and fire the same event names, IE uses on before the names)

<div id="Test"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
    $('#Test').on('mouseup',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('mouseup:left',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('mouseup:middle',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('mouseup:right',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})

              .on('click',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('click:left',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('click:middle',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('click:right',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})

              .on('mousedown',function(e){$(this).html('').append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('mousedown:left',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('mousedown:middle',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('mousedown:right',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})

              .on('mousewheel',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('mousewheel:up',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              .on('mousewheel:down',function(e){$(this).append(e.type+'<br />');})
              ;
</script>

And for those who are in need of the minified version...

!function(){function e(e){e=window.event||e;var t="";if("mousedown"==e.type||"click"==e.type||"contextmenu"==e.type||"mouseup"==e.type)t=null==e.which?e.button<2?"left":4==e.button?"middle":"right":e.which<2?"left":2==e.which?"middle":"right";else{var n=e.detail?-120*e.detail:e.wheelDelta;switch(n){case 120:case 240:case 360:t="up";break;case-120:case-240:case-360:t="down"}}var c=e.type;switch("contextmenu"==e.type&&(c="click"),"DOMMouseScroll"==e.type&&(c="mousewheel"),t){case"contextmenu":case"left":case"middle":case"up":case"down":case"right":document.createEvent?(event=new Event(c+":"+t),e.target.dispatchEvent(event)):(event=document.createEventObject(),e.target.fireEvent("on"+c+":"+t,event))}}var t=function(e,t,n){try{e.addEventListener(t,n,!1)}catch(c){e.attachEvent("on"+t,n)}};t(window,"mousedown",e),t(window,"mouseup",e),t(window,"click",e),t(window,"contextmenu",e);var n=/Firefox/i.test(navigator.userAgent)?"DOMMouseScroll":"mousewheel";t(window,n,e)}();

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