How do I detect a click outside an element?

Solution 1:

Note: Using stopPropagation is something that should be avoided as it breaks normal event flow in the DOM. See this CSS Tricks article for more information. Consider using this method instead.

Attach a click event to the document body which closes the window. Attach a separate click event to the container which stops propagation to the document body.

$(window).click(function() {
  //Hide the menus if visible
});

$('#menucontainer').click(function(event){
  event.stopPropagation();
});

Solution 2:

You can listen for a click event on document and then make sure #menucontainer is not an ancestor or the target of the clicked element by using .closest().

If it is not, then the clicked element is outside of the #menucontainer and you can safely hide it.

$(document).click(function(event) { 
  var $target = $(event.target);
  if(!$target.closest('#menucontainer').length && 
  $('#menucontainer').is(":visible")) {
    $('#menucontainer').hide();
  }        
});

Edit – 2017-06-23

You can also clean up after the event listener if you plan to dismiss the menu and want to stop listening for events. This function will clean up only the newly created listener, preserving any other click listeners on document. With ES2015 syntax:

export function hideOnClickOutside(selector) {
  const outsideClickListener = (event) => {
    const $target = $(event.target);
    if (!$target.closest(selector).length && $(selector).is(':visible')) {
        $(selector).hide();
        removeClickListener();
    }
  }

  const removeClickListener = () => {
    document.removeEventListener('click', outsideClickListener)
  }

  document.addEventListener('click', outsideClickListener)
}

Edit – 2018-03-11

For those who don't want to use jQuery. Here's the above code in plain vanillaJS (ECMAScript6).

function hideOnClickOutside(element) {
    const outsideClickListener = event => {
        if (!element.contains(event.target) && isVisible(element)) { // or use: event.target.closest(selector) === null
          element.style.display = 'none'
          removeClickListener()
        }
    }

    const removeClickListener = () => {
        document.removeEventListener('click', outsideClickListener)
    }

    document.addEventListener('click', outsideClickListener)
}

const isVisible = elem => !!elem && !!( elem.offsetWidth || elem.offsetHeight || elem.getClientRects().length ) // source (2018-03-11): https://github.com/jquery/jquery/blob/master/src/css/hiddenVisibleSelectors.js 

NOTE: This is based on Alex comment to just use !element.contains(event.target) instead of the jQuery part.

But element.closest() is now also available in all major browsers (the W3C version differs a bit from the jQuery one). Polyfills can be found here: Element.closest()

Edit – 2020-05-21

In the case where you want the user to be able to click-and-drag inside the element, then release the mouse outside the element, without closing the element:

      ...
      let lastMouseDownX = 0;
      let lastMouseDownY = 0;
      let lastMouseDownWasOutside = false;

      const mouseDownListener = (event: MouseEvent) => {
        lastMouseDownX = event.offsetX
        lastMouseDownY = event.offsetY
        lastMouseDownWasOutside = !$(event.target).closest(element).length
      }
      document.addEventListener('mousedown', mouseDownListener);

And in outsideClickListener:

const outsideClickListener = event => {
        const deltaX = event.offsetX - lastMouseDownX
        const deltaY = event.offsetY - lastMouseDownY
        const distSq = (deltaX * deltaX) + (deltaY * deltaY)
        const isDrag = distSq > 3
        const isDragException = isDrag && !lastMouseDownWasOutside

        if (!element.contains(event.target) && isVisible(element) && !isDragException) { // or use: event.target.closest(selector) === null
          element.style.display = 'none'
          removeClickListener()
          document.removeEventListener('mousedown', mouseDownListener); // Or add this line to removeClickListener()
        }
    }