Event Handling

Overview

In fritz2, all HTML-Events are either encapsulated within a Tag-scope or within the special Window-object, which both offer access to all global events. A complete list can be found in the events.kt file.

The most important aspect to understand is that an event in fritz2 is just a type derived by Flow. You can use all events as the source of an action which should be handled by a handler-function.

Take the click-event as a simple example:

render { 
    button {
        +"Click me!"
        clicks handledBy { alert("Button was clicked!") }
    //  ^^^^^^
    //  this is just a `Flow` that can be handled     
    }
}

As a naming convention, all HTML events will be suffixed with an s in order to emphasize them being a flow transporting all values that are emitted by the DOM API.

Since events can carry important data and information, events in fritz2 are more or less Flows that emit Event-objects. Their type is called Listener, but that is really just a name. Think of a Listener as a "flow of events". Such a Listener will therefore provide those data as the value of its own flow:

div {
    val storedName = storeOf("")
    input {
        type("text")
        changes.map { it.target.unsafeCast<HTMLInputElement>().value } handledBy storedName.update
        //            ^^
        //            grab the value of type `Event` and access its fields
        //            there are different sub-types of `Event` like `PointerEvent`, `KeyboardEvent` or `InputEvent`
        //            in this case
    }
    storedName.data.renderText()
}

Depending on the Event-type, you can access its special fields. For common use cases like getting the value of the input-element, there are special convenience functions to make event handling more pleasant:

div {
    val storedName = storeOf("")
    input {
        type("text")
        changes.values() handledBy storedName.update
        //      ^^^^^^^^
        //      extracts the value of the `InputEvent`
    }
    storedName.data.renderText()
}

Essentials

Controlling the Event-Flow

Besides using some UI-event as source of action to modify application state, there are two types of dedicated event functions that enable further operations to control the event-flow within the DOM:

Stopping the propagation and preventing the default behaviour.
Filtering the event and in certain cases preventing that values are emitted

Stop Propagation

In order to stop an event from bubbling up the tree (or down by capture), the DOM-API exposes these two methods upon the Event-objects:

In order to apply those methods before the Event is emitted on the Flow, fritz2 offers two variants of factory functions to create the event-flow:

one is named exactly like the property itself: clicks(init: MouseEvent.() -> Unit)
the other adds an If-suffix like this: clicksIf(selector: MouseEvent.() -> Boolean)

Those two factories enable a user to control the further processing (in addition to the custom written Flow-Handler-binding).

Look at the example below:

div {
    +"Parent"
    button {
        +"default propagation"
        type("button")
        // first event handling
        clicks handledBy { console.log("default propagation clicked!") }
        // second event handling
        clicks handledBy { window.alert("Button was clicked!") }
    }
    // `clicks` "bubbles" per default -> event will reach the parent DOM-node, so we can react to it:
    clicks handledBy { console.log("click reached Parent!") }
}

When the button is clicked, a click event is emitted and appears on the clicks-Listener Flow. There are two event-handlers defined inside the button-element. The first just logs to the console, the second opens an alert-window.

Inside the parent-div-element, we establish another event handling which also reacts to a click-event.

The user can now click on the button. The expected result is:

a log message in the console: default propagation clicked!
an alert window opens with the text message Button was clicked!
and after closing it, there is another log message click reached Parent!, as click bubbles per default.

Now let uns investigate how the behaviour changes if we use the clicks()-method with the init-parameter on the first event-handling in order to call stopPropagation of the Event-object:

div {
    +"Parent"
    button {
        +"stopPropagation"
        // We use the `clicks(init: MouseEvent.() -> Unit)` variant here:
        clicks { stopPropagation() } handledBy { console.log("stopPropagation clicked!") }
        //       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        //       we want the event processing to stop bubbling to its parent.
        //       as the receiver type is `MouseEvent`, which derives from `Event`, we can call
        //       its method directly
        clicks handledBy { window.alert("Button was clicked!") }
    }
    // no value will appear on this `clicks`-Listener anymore!
    clicks handledBy { console.log("click reached Parent!") }
}

The user can now click on the button. The expected result is:

a log message in the console: stopPropagation clicked!
an alert window opens with the text message Button was clicked!

The log message of the parent-div does no longer appear!

This is the desired effect of the Event.stopPropagation()-call: All event handling within the DOM-Element itself will be executed, but the bubbling stops after that.

It is not important on which event-processing code the call is made. We could easily call the stopPropagation within the alert-handling without getting a different behaviour.

clicks handledBy { console.log("stopPropagation clicked!") }
clicks { stopPropagation() } handledBy { window.alert("Button was clicked!") }
//       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
//       the sequence of the call is not important!

Now let us investigate the stopImmediatePropagation-method and how it differs from the none immediate variant:

div {
    +"Parent"
    button {
        +"stopImmediatePropagation"
        clicks { stopImmediatePropagation() } handledBy { console.log("stopImmediatePropagation clicked!") }
        //       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        //       we want the event processing to stop bubbling to its parent *and* all following handlers
        
        // this listener follows the `stopImmediatePropagation` -> no value will appear on its `clicks`-Listener 
        // anymore
        clicks handledBy { window.alert("Button was clicked!") }
    }
    // no value will appear on this `clicks`-Listener anymore!
    clicks handledBy { console.log("click reaches Parent!") }
}

The user can now click on the button. The expected result is:

a log message in the console: stopPropagation clicked! - nothing more!

The difference becomes obvious now: All listeners following the stopImmediatePropagation call will not get any of the emitted values. Additionally, the bubbling also is stopped, so no handlers of any parent-elements will be called.

So this time, the sequential order is important! If we switch the sequence, the alert will appear again, but other events will not:

// this handler will be called -> stopping is not applied yet
clicks handledBy { window.alert("Button was clicked!") }

clicks { stopImmediatePropagation() } handledBy { console.log("stopImmediatePropagation clicked!") }

// this listener follows the `stopImmediatePropagation` -> no value will appear on its `clicks`-Listener anymore!
clicks handledBy { console.log("This will not be logged!") }

The same behaviour applies to event capturing - it then works the other way round, so the event values won't appear on handlers within child-elements any longer.

Prevent Default Behaviour

Just like the propagation stopping, the preventDefault()-method can be easily called on an Event by using the dedicated factory-functions with an init-parameter:

clicks { preventDefault() } handledBy { ... }

Filtering events

Sometimes it is useful to filter certain events based on the individual event's values. Good examples are all kinds of KeyboardEvents, like keydowns driving the behaviour of a component, such as reacting specifically to keys like Enter, Escape or alike only.

For those cases, specialized event-factories marked with an If suffix are provided. keydownsIf(selector: KeyboardEvent.() -> Boolean) is one of them.

As you can see, they require a selector, so the underlying mechanism will emit the Event only if the selector resolves to true, but drop it otherwise.

keydownsIf { shortcutOf(this) == Keys.Space } handledBy { ... }
//           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
//           Boolean expression: If "Space" is pressed, resolve to `true` -> emit the event, so it can be handled. 
//           (This syntax is explained in a following section about "Keyboard-Events and Shortcut-API")

Often you need to combine this with Event-modifying calls like preventDefault or stopPropagation. This can be easily done here, too:

keydownsIf {
    if (shortcutOf(this) == Keys.Space) {
        // if "Space" was pressed manipulate the event processing
        stopImmediatePropagation() 
        preventDefault()
        true 
    } else false
} handledBy { ... }

Global Event-Handling With the Window-Object

In order to bind events to a handler reacting on the top outermost level, fritz2 offers the Window-object.

It offers all events that regular DOM-elements expose as well, without the need to be called within a specific node; those events can be called from everywhere inside the initial render-function.

This can be useful to react to certain actions on a global level, like specific keys a user might press.

For example, imagine an app which prohibits vertical scrolling by hitting the "Space" key. This can be realized with the following code snippet:

render {
    Window.keydowns {
        if (shortcutOf(this) == Keys.Space) {
            preventDefault()
        }
    } handledBy { }
}

Keyboard-Events and Shortcut-API

fritz2 offers a handy shortcut API that allows easy combination of shortcuts with modifier shortcuts, constructing those from a KeyboardEvent, and also prevents meaningless combinations of different shortcuts:

// Constructing a shortcut by hand
Shortcut("K") 
// -> Shortcut(key = "K", ctrl = false, alt = false, shift = false, meta = false)

// Or use factory function:
shortcutOf("K")

// Set modifier states, need to use constructor:
Shortcut("K", ctrl = true) // Shortcut(key= "K", ctrl = true, alt = false, shift = false, meta = false)

// Constructing a shortcut from a KeyboardEvent
div {
    keydowns.map { shortcutOf(it) } handledBy { /* use shortcut-object for further processing */ }
    //                        ^^
    //                        use KeyboardEvent to construct a Shortcut-object with all potential
    //                        modifier key states reflected
}

// Using predefined shortcuts from Keys object
Keys.Enter // named-key for the enter keystroke, a `Shortcut`
Keys.Alt // `ModifierShortcut` -> needs to be combined with a "real" shortcut in order to use it for further processing
// The same but more cumbersome and prone to typos
Shortcut("Enter")
// Not the same (!)
Shortcut("Alt") // -> Shortcut(key= "Alt", ..., alt = false)
Keys.Alt // -> ModifierKey-object with alt = true property!

// Constructing a shortcut with some modifier shortcuts
Shortcut("K") + Keys.Control
// Same result, but much more readable the other way round:
Keys.Control + "K"

// Defining some common combination:
val searchKey = Keys.Control + Keys.Shift + "F"
//              ^^^^^^^^^^^^
//              You can start with a modifier shortcut.
//              Appending a String to a ModifierKey will finally lead to a `Shortcut`.

val tabbing = setOf(Keys.Tab, Keys.Shift + Keys.Tab)

// API prevents accidental usage: WON'T COMPILE because real shortcuts can't be combined
Shortcut("F") + Shortcut("P") 

// Shortcut is a data class → equality is total:
Keys.Control + Keys.Shift + "K" == Shortcut("K", shift = true, ctrl= true, alt = false, meta = false)
// But
Keys.Control + Keys.Shift + "K" != Shortcut("K", shift = false, ctrl= true, alt = false, meta = false)
//             ^^^^^^^^^^                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
//                 +-----------------------------------+

// Case sensitive, too. Further impact is explained in next section.
shortcutOf("k") != shortcutOf("K")

Be aware of the fact that the key-property is taken from the event as it is. This is important for all upper case keys: The browser will always send an event with shift-property set to true, so in order to match it, you must construct the matching shortcut with the Shift-Modifier:

// Goal: Match upper case "K" (or to be more precise: "Shift + K")

// Failing attempt
keydownsIf { shortcutOf(it) == shortcutOf("K") } handledBy { /* ... */ }
//           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
//           |                 Shortcut(key = "K", shift = false, ...)
//           |                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^
//           |                                 +-> will never match the event based shortcut!
//           |                                 |   the modifier for shift needs to be added!
//           Shortcut("K", shift = true, ...)--+
//           upper case "K" is (almost) always send with enabled shift modifier.

// Working example
keydownsIf { shortcutOf(it) == Keys.Shift + "K" } handledBy { /* ... */ }

Since most of the time you will be using the keys within the handling of a KeyboardEvent, there are some common patterns to apply:

// Pattern #1: Only execute on specific shortcut:
keydownsIf { shortcutOf(this) == Keys.Shift + "K" }
    .map { /* further processing if needed */ } handledBy { /* ... */ }

// Variant of #1: Only execute the same for a set of shortcuts:
keydownsIf { shortcutOf(this) in setOf(Keys.Enter, Keys.Space) }
    .map { /* further processing if needed */ } handledBy { /* ... */ }

// Pattern #2: Handle a group of shortcuts with similar tasks (navigation for example)
keydownsIf {
    when (shortcutOf(this)) {
        Keys.ArrowDown -> /* create / modify something to be handled */ true
        Keys.ArrowUp -> /* ... */ true 
        Keys.Home -> /* ... */ true 
        Keys.End -> /* ... */ true 
        else -> false // all other key presses should be ignored, so return `false` to stop flow processing
    }.also { if (it) event.preventDefault() // page itself should not scroll up or down! }
    //           ^^
    //           Only if a shortcut was matched
} handledBy { /* ... */ }

Advanced Topics

Event Capturing

Event capturing is less commonly used within UI-Code. Nevertheless, fritz2 supports it via dedicated event-factory-variants suffixed with the Captured-suffix.

Internally, they set the capture-flag within the addEventListener-function of a DOM-element.

Look at the following example:

render {
    div {
        clicksCaptured { stopPropagation() } handledBy { console.log("outer") }
//      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
//      |                stop event handling at this level above the child
//      |
//      bind to event in `capture` mode        

        div(id = innerId) {
            clicks handledBy { console.log("inner") }
//          ^^^^^^
//          will never reach this DOM level because of the captured event of the parent element.
        }
    }
}

For all regular events, a sibling function with the Captured-suffix is provided as well.

Custom events

You can easily create a custom event in fritz2 by using the appropriate DOM-API types and functions, combined with the core function subscribe for lifting the dispatched DOM-Event into a fritz2 Listener (Flow) for further processing.

Have a look at its signature:

fun <E : Event, T : EventTarget> T.subscribe(
    name: String,
    capture: Boolean = false,
    selector: E.() -> Boolean = { true }
): Listener<E, T>

As a minimum, you must provide the event's name, but you can tune the handling with the other parameters. You should have learned about those in the essentials-section.

Have a look at a simple example, demonstrating the usage of subscribe:

// just a simple data class for simulating a specific payload
data class Framework(val name: String, val version: String)

// Create an event
val myEvent = CustomEvent(
    "fritz2",
    CustomEventInit(detail = Framework("fritz2", "1-0-RC18"))
)

div {
    subscribe<CustomEvent>(myEvent.type) handledBy {
//  ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^^
//  |             |        at least provide the name
//  |          Specify the type
//  create a listener
        console.log("My custom event occurred with data: ${it.detail as Framework}")
    }

    button {
        +"Dispatch Event"
        clicks handledBy { this@div.domNode.dispatchEvent(myEvent) }
        //  ^^^^^^                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        //  |                               call DOM-API to dispatch the event
        //  use another event to trigger       
        //  the custom one - could also be
        //  based upon any other `Flow`-source`
    }
}

Event Handling

Overview

Essentials

Controlling the Event-Flow

Stop Propagation

Prevent Default Behaviour

Filtering events

Global Event-Handling With the Window-Object

Keyboard-Events and Shortcut-API

Advanced Topics

Event Capturing

Custom events

On this Page