Firing events on CSS class changes in jQuery

How can I fire an event if a CSS class is added or changed using jQuery? Does changing of a CSS class fire the jQuery change() event?

Solution 1:

Whenever you change a class in your script, you could use a trigger to raise your own event.

$(this).addClass('someClass');
$(mySelector).trigger('cssClassChanged')
....
$(otherSelector).bind('cssClassChanged', data, function(){ do stuff });

but otherwise, no, there's no baked-in way to fire an event when a class changes. change() only fires after focus leaves an input whose input has been altered.

$(function() {
  var button = $('.clickme')
      , box = $('.box')
  ;
  
  button.on('click', function() { 
    box.removeClass('box');
    $(document).trigger('buttonClick');
  });
            
  $(document).on('buttonClick', function() {
    box.text('Clicked!');
  });
});

.box { background-color: red; }

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<div class="box">Hi</div>
<button class="clickme">Click me</button>

More info on jQuery Triggers

Solution 2:

IMHO the better solution is to combine two answers by @RamboNo5 and @Jason

I mean overridding addClass function and adding a custom event called cssClassChanged

// Create a closure
(function(){
    // Your base, I'm in it!
    var originalAddClassMethod = jQuery.fn.addClass;

    jQuery.fn.addClass = function(){
        // Execute the original method.
        var result = originalAddClassMethod.apply( this, arguments );

        // trigger a custom event
        jQuery(this).trigger('cssClassChanged');

        // return the original result
        return result;
    }
})();

// document ready function
$(function(){
    $("#YourExampleElementID").bind('cssClassChanged', function(){ 
        //do stuff here
    });
});

Solution 3:

If you want to detect class change, best way is to use Mutation Observers, which gives you complete control over any attribute change. However you need to define listener yourself, and append it to element you are listening. Good thing is that you don't need to trigger anything manually once listener is appended.

$(function() {
(function($) {
    var MutationObserver = window.MutationObserver || window.WebKitMutationObserver || window.MozMutationObserver;

    $.fn.attrchange = function(callback) {
        if (MutationObserver) {
            var options = {
                subtree: false,
                attributes: true
            };

            var observer = new MutationObserver(function(mutations) {
                mutations.forEach(function(e) {
                    callback.call(e.target, e.attributeName);
                });
            });

            return this.each(function() {
                observer.observe(this, options);
            });

        }
    }
})(jQuery);

//Now you need to append event listener
$('body *').attrchange(function(attrName) {

    if(attrName=='class'){
            alert('class changed');
    }else if(attrName=='id'){
            alert('id changed');
    }else{
        //OTHER ATTR CHANGED
    }

});
});

In this example event listener is appended to every element, but you don't want that in most cases (save memory). Append this "attrchange" listener to element you want observe.

Solution 4:

I would suggest you override the addClass function. You can do it this way:

// Create a closure
(function(){
    // Your base, I'm in it!
    var originalAddClassMethod = jQuery.fn.addClass;

    jQuery.fn.addClass = function(){
        // Execute the original method.
        var result = originalAddClassMethod.apply( this, arguments );

        // call your function
        // this gets called everytime you use the addClass method
        myfunction();

        // return the original result
        return result;
    }
})();

// document ready function
$(function(){
    // do stuff
});