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JavaScript jQuery Basics (2014) Creating a Simple Drawing Application Perform: Part 3

Posted by ninyo
ninyo
15,367 Points

on()

So basically if the intent for clicking is to append elements dynamically to a parent container, you should always use the on() method? could we just use on() for all clicking or is there a downfall to that? Thanks!

1 Answer

Dave McFarland
STAFF
Dave McFarland
Treehouse Teacher
Dave McFarland
Dave McFarland
Treehouse Teacher

There's no real downside to using .on() instead of .click(). In fact, .click() is just an alias for .on("click"). In other words,

$('button').click(function() {
   alert('ouch!');
});

is the same as

$('button').on('click',function() {
  alert('ouch!');
});

The only benefit of .click() is that it saves you a small amount of typing. The big benefit of .on() is that it lets you delegate events, so that you can apply event handlers to elements that are added to the page after the page has loaded -- that's the case in the video. Andrew Chalkley uses .on() applied to the controls list to listen for any clicks on list items within that element. So when a new color is added to the drawing application (after the page has loaded) you can then click that new color to select it.