Coding with Jesse

onAfterClick

March 10th, 2006

Okay, some time ago I posted onAfterPaste, a way to run some code after pasting. You can actually do the same thing with any event. Let's say you want to put an onclick handler on a submit button, but you don't want the function to execute until after the form is submitted. You may want to close the window after launching a new window or submitting a form, but putting window.close() in the onclick would prevent the form from being submitted. Then, do this:

function onAfterClick (e) {
     window.close();
}

var submit= document.getElementById('submit');
submit.onclick = function(e) {
     setTimeout(function() {
          onAfterClick(e);
     }, 1);
}

That's it. It's like the browser processes the click handler, then goes and does it's default click behaviour, then executes the timeout function. So it's almost a kind of magic.. but not really. Anyway, setTimeout is a great tool for making things happen at the right time.

About the author

Jesse Skinner Hi, I'm Jesse Skinner. I work with development teams to speed up and stabilize web applications, reduce server costs, fix difficult bugs, modernize legacy applications, and improve developer productivity. I'd love to hear from you and see how I can make your life easier.