Javascript: Capture mouse wheel event and do not scroll the page?

I'm trying to prevent a mousewheel event captured by an element of the page to cause scrolling.

I expected false as last parameter to have the expected result, but using the mouse wheel over this "canvas" element still causes scrolling:

this.canvas.addEventListener('mousewheel', function(event) {
   mouseController.wheel(event);
}, false);

Outside of this "canvas" element, the scroll needs to happen. Inside, it must only trigger the .wheel() method. What am I doing wrong?

Solution 1:

You can do so by returning false at the end of your handler (OG).

this.canvas.addEventListener('wheel',function(event){
    mouseController.wheel(event);
    return false; 
}, false);

Or using event.preventDefault()

this.canvas.addEventListener('wheel',function(event){
    mouseController.wheel(event);
    event.preventDefault();
}, false);

Updated to use the wheel event as mousewheel deprecated for modern browser as pointed out in comments.

The question was about preventing scrolling not providing the right event so please check your browser support requirements to select the right event for your needs.

Updated a second time with a more modern approach option.

Solution 2:

Have you tried event.preventDefault() to prevent the event's default behaviour?

this.canvas.addEventListener('mousewheel',function(event){
    mouseController.wheel(event);
    event.preventDefault();
}, false);

Keep in mind that nowadays mouswheel is deprecated in favor of wheel, so you should use

this.canvas.addEventListener('wheel',function(event){
    mouseController.wheel(event);
    event.preventDefault();
}, false);

Solution 3:

Just adding, I know that canvas is only HTML5 so this is not needed, but just in case someone wants crossbrowser/oldbrowser compatibility, use this:

/* To attach the event: */
addEvent(el, ev, func) {
    if (el.addEventListener) {
        el.addEventListener(ev, func, false);
    } else if (el.attachEvent) {
        el.attachEvent("on" + ev, func);
    } else {
        el["on"+ev] = func; // Note that this line does not stack events. You must write you own stacker if you don't want overwrite the last event added of the same type. Btw, if you are going to have only one function for each event this is perfectly fine.
    }
}

/* To prevent the event: */
addEvent(this.canvas, "mousewheel", function(event) {
    if (!event) event = window.event;
    event.returnValue = false;
    if (event.preventDefault)event.preventDefault();
    return false;
});