Removing event listener which was added with bind

In JavaScript, what is the best way to remove a function added as an event listener using bind()?

Example

(function(){

    // constructor
    MyClass = function() {
        this.myButton = document.getElementById("myButtonID");
        this.myButton.addEventListener("click", this.clickListener.bind(this));
    };

    MyClass.prototype.clickListener = function(event) {
        console.log(this); // must be MyClass
    };

    // public method
    MyClass.prototype.disableButton = function() {
        this.myButton.removeEventListener("click", ___________);
    };

})();

The only way I can think of is to keep track of every listener added with bind.

Above example with this method:

(function(){

    // constructor
    MyClass = function() {
        this.myButton = document.getElementById("myButtonID");
        this.clickListenerBind = this.clickListener.bind(this);
        this.myButton.addEventListener("click", this.clickListenerBind);
    };

    MyClass.prototype.clickListener = function(event) {
        console.log(this); // must be MyClass
    };

    // public method
    MyClass.prototype.disableButton = function() {
        this.myButton.removeEventListener("click", this.clickListenerBind);
    };

})();

Are there any better ways to do this?

Although what @machineghost said was true, that events are added and removed the same way, the missing part of the equation was this:

A new function reference is created after .bind() is called.

See Does bind() change the function reference? | How to set permanently?

So, to add or remove it, assign the reference to a variable:

var x = this.myListener.bind(this);
Toolbox.addListener(window, 'scroll', x);
Toolbox.removeListener(window, 'scroll', x);

This works as expected for me.

For those who have this problem while registering/removing listener of React component to/from Flux store, add the lines below to the constructor of your component:

class App extends React.Component {
  constructor(props){
    super(props);
    // it's a trick! needed in order to overcome the remove event listener
    this.onChange = this.onChange.bind(this);  
  }
  // then as regular...
  componentDidMount (){
    AppStore.addChangeListener(this.onChange);
  }
  
  componentWillUnmount (){
    AppStore.removeChangeListener(this.onChange);
  }

  onChange () {
    let state = AppStore.getState();
    this.setState(state);
  }
  
  render() {
    // ...
  }
  
}

It doesn't matter whether you use a bound function or not; you remove it the same way as any other event handler. If your issue is that the bound version is its own unique function, you can either keep track of the bound versions, or use the removeEventListener signature that doesn't take a specific handler (although of course that will remove other event handlers of the same type).

(As a side note, addEventListener doesn't work in all browsers; you really should use a library like jQuery to do your event hook-ups in a cross-browser way for you. Also, jQuery has the concept of namespaced events, which allow you to bind to "click.foo"; when you want to remove the event you can tell jQuery "remove all foo events" without having to know the specific handler or removing other handlers.)

Removing event listener which was added with bind

Related

Recent Posts