:touch CSS pseudo-class or something similar?

89
votes

I am trying to make a button, such that when the user clicks on it, it changes its style while the mouse button is being held down. I also want it to change its style in a similar way if it is touched in a mobile browser. The seemingly-obvious thing to me was to use the CSS :active pseudo-class, but that didn't work. I tried :focus, and it didn't work too. I tried :hover, and it seemed to work, but it kept the style after I took my finger off the button. All of these observations were on an iPhone 4 and a Droid 2.

Is there any way to replicate the effect on mobile browsers (iPhone, iPad, Android, and hopefully others)? For now, I am doing something like this:

<style type="text/css">
    #testButton {
        background: #dddddd;
    }
    #testButton:active, #testButton.active {
        background: #aaaaaa;
    }
</style>

...

<button type="button" id="testButton">test</button>

...

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.6.1.min.js'></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
    $("*").live("touchstart", function() {
      $(this).addClass("active");
    }).live("touchend", function() {
      $(this).removeClass("active");
    });
</script>

The :active pseudo-class is for desktop browsers, and the active class is for touch browsers.

I am wondering if there is a simpler way to do it, without involving Javascript.

3
javascriptjqueryhtmlcssmobile
Almost every touch browser handles things such as hover and mousedown/mouseup differently, its hard to accommodate them all. – Chad
Android and iOS both have :touchstart, :touchmove, :touchend, and :touchcancel pseudoclasses that you can use. – Paul Hanbury
I tried setting styles for the :touchstart and :touchend pseudo-classes and they didn't work on the iPhone or the Droid. @Paul Hanbury, are you sure you are not confusing CSS pseudo-classes with Javascript events? – Elias Zamaria
@mikez302 - I think your right. plugins.jquery.com/plugin-tags/touchstart – Doug Chamberlain
I would feel silly submitting this as an answer, but in fact, the answer is "No, it's not possible, you have to use Javascript." What you're asking for isn't part of CSS2 or CSS3. I think the fact that :active doesn't work is a user-agent problem you could potentially report as a bug in the iOS and Android browsers, but just to solve your end-user problem ... yeah, you have to use JS. You could wrap your compatibility code in a check for ontouchstart support. – joelhardi

3 Answers

52
votes

There is no such thing as :touch in the W3C specifications, http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/selector.html#pseudo-class-selectors

:active should work, I would think.

Order on the :active/:hover pseudo class is important for it to function correctly.

Here is a quote from that above link

Interactive user agents sometimes change the rendering in response to user actions. CSS provides three pseudo-classes for common cases:

  • The :hover pseudo-class applies while the user designates an element (with some pointing device), but does not activate it. For example, a visual user agent could apply this pseudo-class when the cursor (mouse pointer) hovers over a box generated by the element. User agents not supporting interactive media do not have to support this pseudo-class. Some conforming user agents supporting interactive media may not be able to support this pseudo-class (e.g., a pen device).
  • The :active pseudo-class applies while an element is being activated by the user. For example, between the times the user presses the mouse button and releases it.
  • The :focus pseudo-class applies while an element has the focus (accepts keyboard events or other forms of text input).
22
votes

Since mobile doesn't give hover feedback, I want, as a user, to see instant feedback when a link is tapped. I noticed that -webkit-tap-highlight-color is the fastest to respond (subjective).

Add the following to your body and your links will have a tap effect.

body {
    -webkit-tap-highlight-color: #ccc;
}
1
votes

I was having trouble with mobile touchscreen button styling. This will fix your hover-stick / active button problems.

body, html {
  width: 600px;
}
p {
  font-size: 20px;
}

button {
  border: none;
  width: 200px;
  height: 60px;
  border-radius: 30px;
  background: #00aeff;
  font-size: 20px;
}

button:active {
  background: black;
  color: white;
}

.delayed {
  transition: all 0.2s;
  transition-delay: 300ms;
}

.delayed:active {
  transition: none;
}
<h1>Sticky styles for better touch screen buttons!</h1>

<button>Normal button</button>

<button class="delayed"><a href="https://www.google.com"/>Delayed style</a></button>

<p>The CSS :active psuedo style is displayed between the time when a user touches down (when finger contacts screen) on a element to the time when the touch up (when finger leaves the screen) occures.   With a typical touch-screen tap interaction, the time of which the :active psuedo style is displayed can be very small resulting in the :active state not showing or being missed by the user entirely.  This can cause issues with users not undertanding if their button presses have actually reigstered or not.</p>

<p>Having the the :active styling stick around for a few hundred more milliseconds after touch up would would improve user understanding when they have interacted with a button.</p>