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Implementing Hover Delay on the GridView Rows

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26 May 2009CPOL3 min read 65.6K   571   35   19
This article describes how to implement Hover Delay on the GridView rows for click event.
HoverDelay.gif

Introduction

In this article, I'm going to present here an implementation of Hover Delay functionality on the GridView rows for the click event.

Background

In a recent project, my client wanted to implement Hover Delay to avoid unintentional clicks on the GridView rows. Actually in this project, Items were displaying in the GridView and there was a functionality to edit each item through a popup. Popup was opened by clicking on a GridView row. So the client required the user to hover over an item for 1 second before clicking became active to open a popup on a GridView row. When a user had hovered over an item for 1 second, the item got highlighted with some other color background to indicate that the user could now click to edit, i.e. before hovering over an item for 1 second, clicking should not be active. In other world if a user clicks on an item before sparing 1 second on a GridView row, popup should not be opened to edit a particular item. This is called Hover Delay. So I started digging into this problem and in conclusion came with the following solution.

CSS Code

I've used four CSS classes for this demo- Header class for GridView’s Header row and Row and AlternateRow classes for GridView’s Normal and Alternate rows respectively. HoverDelay class is used to change the appearance of a GridView row (Normal or Alternate) on mouseover event.

CSS
.Header
{
    background-color:DarkOrange;
    color:White;
    font-weight:bold;
    text-align:center;
    vertical-align:middle;
}

.Row
{
    background-color:Moccasin;
    color:Black;
    text-align:center;
    vertical-align:middle;
    cursor:default;
}

.AlternateRow
{
    background-color:#FFCC66;
    color:Black;
    text-align:center;
    vertical-align:middle;
    cursor:default;
}

.HoverDelay
{
    background-color:White;
    color:Black;
    font-weight:bold;
    text-align:center;
    vertical-align:middle;
    cursor:hand;
}

I've put these CSS classes in a separate StyleSheet.css file and attached its reference in the Default.aspx page as:

ASP.NET
<link href="CSS/StyleSheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

HTML Code

Below is the HTML code of the GridView. I've applied Row, AlternateRow & Header CSS classes in the GridView’s RowStyle, AlternatingRowStyle and HeaderStyle respectively.

ASP.NET
<asp:GridView ID="gvHoverDelay" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False"
                               OnRowDataBound="gvHoverDelay_RowDataBound">
  <Columns>
      <asp:BoundField DataField="RandomNo" HeaderText="Random Number">
         <HeaderStyle Width="150px" />
         <ItemStyle Width="150px" />
      </asp:BoundField>
      <asp:BoundField DataField="Date" HeaderText="Date">
         <HeaderStyle Width="75px" />
         <ItemStyle Width="75px" />
      </asp:BoundField>
      <asp:BoundField DataField="Time" HeaderText="Time">
         <HeaderStyle Width="100px" />
         <ItemStyle Width="100px" />
      </asp:BoundField>
  </Columns>
  <RowStyle CssClass="Row" />
  <AlternatingRowStyle CssClass="AlternateRow" />
  <HeaderStyle CssClass="Header" />
</asp:GridView>

Attaching Events

I've attached click, mouseover and mouseout events respectively on each GridView row through RowDataBound event as:

C#
if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow
   && (e.Row.RowState == DataControlRowState.Normal ||
       e.Row.RowState == DataControlRowState.Alternate))
{
   string CssClass = (e.Row.RowState == DataControlRowState.Normal
                       ? ((GridView)sender).RowStyle.CssClass :
           ((GridView)sender).AlternatingRowStyle.CssClass);

   e.Row.Attributes["onmouseover"] = string.Format
                                     {
                                        "javascript:OnHoverDelay(this, '{0}',
                           'HoverDelay');",
                                         CssClass
                                     );

   e.Row.Attributes["onmouseout"] = "javascript:OffHoverDelay(this);";
   e.Row.Attributes["onselectstart"] = "javascript:return false;";
   e.Row.Attributes["onclick"] = "javascript:Click(this);";
}

GridView Row’s Mouseover Event

This event gets fired whenever we put the mouse pointer over any GridView’s rows (Normal or Alternate). In this event, first of all, the CSS class of the current row is stored in the row’s custom attribute Class and then the Ready method is invoked. Call of the Ready method is delayed by 1 second through the JavaScript setTimeout method. Here I've used JavaScript closure to delay the call of the Ready method with certain arguments.

JavaScript
function OnHoverDelay(This, CurrentCSS, HoverCSS)
{  
   This.Class = CurrentCSS;
                    
   TimeOut = setTimeout( function() { Ready(This, HoverCSS); }, 1000);                
}  

GridView Row’s Mouseout Event

This event gets fired whenever we take away the mouse pointer from any of the GridView’s rows (Normal or Alternate). In this event, first of all the delay in the call of Ready method is cancelled through the JavaScript clearTimeout method if any. After that, the CSS class is restored and the value of the custom attribute IsReady is made false for the current GridView row:

JavaScript
function OffHoverDelay(This)
{
   clearTimeout(TimeOut);
   This.className = This.Class; 
   This.IsReady = false; 
}

GridView Row’s Click Event

This event gets fired whenever we click on any GridView’s rows (Normal or Alternate). In this event alert message is shown if the value of the custom attribute IsReady for the current row is found to be true. You can invoke your own method instead of calling the alert() message.

JavaScript
function Click(This)
{
   if(This.IsReady)
      alert('Ready to click!!!'); 
}

Ready Method

This method is invoked from the OnHoverDelay method. This method is basically used to change the CSS class as well as to make the value of the custom attribute IsReady equal to true for the current GridView row to indicate that the current GridView row is now ready to click.

JavaScript
function Ready(This, HoverCSS)
{ 
   This.className = HoverCSS; 
   This.IsReady = true; 
} 

I've put all the JavaScript methods (OnHoverDelay, OffHoverDelay, Click & Ready) in a separate JScript.js file and attached its reference in the Default.aspx page as:

ASP.NET
<script type="text/javascript" src="JS/JScript.js"></script>

Winding Up

So this is the approach that I've adopted to solve the Hover Delay problem. Although originally I developed Hover Delay to deactivate the click event for 1 second on a GridView row, later I also used Hover Delay to deactivate Drag n Drop of GridView rows. Kindly let me know if any one has some other better or different solution.

Supporting Browsers

I have successfully tested this code on the following browsers:

Browsers.png

History

  • 26th May, 2009 -- Article updated
  • 12th May, 2009 -- Original version posted

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Technical Lead Infogain India Pvt Ltd
India India


Samir NIGAM is a Microsoft Certified Professional. He is an insightful IT professional with results-driven comprehensive technical skill having rich, hands-on work experience n web-based applications using ASP.NET, C#, AJAX, Web Service, WCF, jQuery, Microsoft Enterprise Library , LINQ, MS Entity Framework, nHibernate, MS SQL Server & SSRS.



He has earned his master degree (MCA) from U.P. Technical University, Lucknow, INDIA, his post graduate dipoma (PGDCA ) from Institute of Engineering and Rural Technology, Allahabad, INDIA and his bachelor degree (BSc - Mathematics) from University of Allahabad, Allahabad, INDIA.



He has good knowledge of Object Oriented Programming, n-Tier Architecture, SOLID Principle, and Algorithm Analysis & Design as well as good command over cross-browser client side programming using JavaScript & jQuery,.



Awards:



Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralMessage Closed Pin
17-Jun-14 1:58
Binu198517-Jun-14 1:58 
GeneralRe: Highlight a particular row in a gridview on MouseOver Pin
Samir NIGAM18-Jun-14 0:48
Samir NIGAM18-Jun-14 0:48 
GeneralVery nice Pin
Arun Gurung4-Sep-09 0:37
Arun Gurung4-Sep-09 0:37 
GeneralMy vote of 1 Pin
jameswhiteuk17-Jun-09 20:38
jameswhiteuk17-Jun-09 20:38 
GeneralRe: My vote of 1 Pin
Samir NIGAM2-Jul-09 2:00
Samir NIGAM2-Jul-09 2:00 
GeneralGood for learner Pin
mlbhaskar25-May-09 19:46
mlbhaskar25-May-09 19:46 
GeneralRe: Good for learner Pin
Samir NIGAM25-May-09 19:55
Samir NIGAM25-May-09 19:55 
GeneralYou r the GEM Pin
Mr Ashish Anand22-May-09 19:03
Mr Ashish Anand22-May-09 19:03 
GeneralRe: You r the GEM Pin
Samir NIGAM22-May-09 19:06
Samir NIGAM22-May-09 19:06 
Generalreally gud one Pin
san_geit13-May-09 19:26
san_geit13-May-09 19:26 
GeneralRe: really gud one Pin
Samir NIGAM13-May-09 19:37
Samir NIGAM13-May-09 19:37 
GeneralNice but Pin
Jeff Circeo13-May-09 4:59
Jeff Circeo13-May-09 4:59 
GeneralRe: Nice but Pin
Samir NIGAM13-May-09 5:16
Samir NIGAM13-May-09 5:16 
GeneralGood Approach Pin
Robert H. L.12-May-09 18:06
Robert H. L.12-May-09 18:06 
GeneralRe: Good Approach Pin
Samir NIGAM12-May-09 18:08
Samir NIGAM12-May-09 18:08 
GeneralYou are genius !!! Pin
adatapost12-May-09 2:40
adatapost12-May-09 2:40 
GeneralRe: You are genius !!! Pin
Samir NIGAM12-May-09 3:22
Samir NIGAM12-May-09 3:22 
GeneralNice article sir. Pin
Sandeep Shekhar11-May-09 21:29
Sandeep Shekhar11-May-09 21:29 
Good article for the developers dealing with time delay using the javascript.
GeneralRe: Nice article sir. Pin
Samir NIGAM11-May-09 21:31
Samir NIGAM11-May-09 21:31 

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