How to get clicked element from the DOM using AngularJS?

Question

In jQuery, I can get the element that was clicked in the DOM using the following

$(document).click(function(event) {
    var element = $(event.target);
    console.log(element);
    ....
}

How would I do the same with Angular? I've searched for it online but all of the solutions were related to elements that had an ng-click attribute like links and buttons. I'd like to listen to the click event for the entire DOM and then get the element that was clicked(p, li, a, span etc.) Is there anyway I can achieve this using Angular only or would I have to use jQuery?

sjm · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-09 07:05:12Z

2

Place the ng-click on the body

 <body ng-click="go($event)">

In your controller:

 $scope.go = function($event){
     alert($event.currentTarget );
 };

answered Jul 9, 2015 at 7:05

sjm

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4 Comments

stevenw00 Over a year ago

Would you also need to use $event.stopPropagation()?

sjm Over a year ago

Potentially on any inner ng-clicks if the detweiller doesn't want the body ng-click triggered

detweiller Over a year ago

Thanks. If you don't mind me asking, what is this $event.stopPropagation() you speak of? Do I need to use it too?

sjm Over a year ago

If you had ng-click="$event.stopPropagation()" on say a button and you clicked the button it would not trigger the body ng-click as well

Newtt · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-09 07:02:11Z

2

From the docs https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/directive/ngClick and https://docs.angularjs.org/guide/expression#-event-:

Event object is available as $event

html

<div ng-click="functionName()"></div>

js

$scope.functionName = function($event){}

answered Jul 9, 2015 at 7:02

Newtt

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1 Comment

detweiller Over a year ago

Thanks. Apparently, I need to pass the $event as a parameter in functionName() too.

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