jQuery Mobile Events

This is a series of plugins that create additional events that can be used in combination with jQuery when developing for mobile devices. The events are also compatible with desktop browsers to ensure ultimate compatibility for your projects. In time, we will update the Repository to include some very basic demos to get you started with using the events, but for now, we've put together a list of the events that are provided, and what they do.

As explained, the events are each triggered by native touch events, or alternatively by click events. The plugin automatically detects whether the user's device is touch compatible, and will use the correct native events whenever required. It is hoped that these events will help to aid single-environment development with jQuery for mobile web app development.

• tapstart Fired as soon as the user begins touching an element (or clicking, for desktop environments).
• tapend Fired after the user releases their finger from the target element (or releases their mouse button on desktops).
• tap This event is fired whenever the user taps and releases their finger on the target element. Caution should be observed when using this event in conjuction without tap events, especially doubletap. This event will be fired twice when doubletap is used, so it is recommended to use singletap in this case.
• singletap Unlike tap this event is only triggered once we are certain the user has only tapped the target element a single time. This will not be triggered by doubletap or taphold, unlike tap. Since we need to run some tests to make sure the user isn't double tapping or holding a tap on the target element, this event is fired with a short delay (currently of 500 milliseconds).
• doubletap Triggered whenever the user double taps on the target element. The threshold (time between taps) is currently set at 500 milliseconds.
• taphold This event is triggered whenever the user taps on the target element and leaves their finger on the element for at least 750 milliseconds.
• swipe This is called whenever the user swipes their finger on the target element. It is not direction-dependent, and is fired regardless of the direction the user swiped.
• swipeup Similar to swipe, except only called when the user swipes their finger in an upward direction on the target element (i.e. bottom to top)
• swiperight Similar to swipe, but triggered only when the user swipes their finger left to right on the target element.
• swipedown Similar to swipe, but triggered only when the user swipes their finger top to bottom on the target element.
• swipeleft Similar to swipe, but triggered only when the user swipes their finger from right to left.
• scrollstart Triggered as soon as scrolling begins on the target element.
• scrollend Triggered as soon as scrolling is stopped on the target element.
• orientationchange This event is triggered when the orientiation of the device is changed. Please note that it uses throttling for non-mobile devices, or devices which do not support the native orientationchange event. In the latter instance, a detection of the viewport size change occurs.

All of the events outlined above have been written using jQuery's event.special object, and so can be used in conjuction with jQuery's event handling functions, as well as shortcut wrappers. Binding a tap event to an element:
$('#myElement').bind('tap', function(e) { console.log('User tapped #myElement'); });
Using with .on() and .live():
$('#myElement').live('tap', function(e) { console.log('User tapped #myElement'); });
$('#myElement').on('tap', function(e) { console.log('User tapped #myElement'); });
Triggering the event:
$('#myElement').trigger('tap');
Removing the event with .off(), .die() and .unbind():
$('#myElement').off('tap', hander);
$('#myElement').die('tap', hander);
$('#myElement').unbind('tap', hander);
Using method wrapper:
$('#myElement').tap(function(e) { console.log('User tapped #myElement'); });
Method chaining. Chaining has also been preserved, so you can easily use these events in conjuction with other jQuery functions, or attach multiple events in a single, chained LOC:
$('#myElement').singletap(function() { console.log('singletap'); }).doubletap(function() { console.log('doubletap'); });

You can also define custom thresholds to be used for swipe events (swipeup, swiperight, swipedown and swipeleft) to prevent interference with scrolling and other events. To do so, simply assign a data-xthreshold or date-ythreshold to the target element as follows:

The value you define is the difference in pixels that the user must move before the event is triggered on the target element. If no threshold is defined, a default of 50px will be used.
data-xthreshold defines the horizontal threshold.
data-ythreshold defines the vertical threshold.