jQuery .on() instead of .delegate() without event

Question

Is it possible to use jquery .on() method instead of .delegate() when there is no event to be listened to?

According to the .on() documentation:

.on( events [, selector] [, data] , handler(eventObject) )

The events argument is not optional.

The use of .on()/.delegate() is for elements that are added dynamically.

What is the purpose of using `on` or `delegate` without an event? — FishBasketGordo, Aug 09 '12 at 14:34
@FishBasketGordo `As of jQuery 1.7, .delegate() has been superseded by the .on() method` Jquery Docs for .delegate() — KoU_warch, Aug 09 '12 at 14:36
Maybe I'm mistaken, but doesn't delegate require an event as well? — FishBasketGordo, Aug 09 '12 at 14:42
Totally true, there is no point on using delegate or on if there is not a event attached. ~Genius~ sorry all. — KoU_warch, Aug 09 '12 at 14:45
well, the question is - what were you trying to do with it? Perhaps it's just a problem of understanding how to solve this initial problem? — Christoph, Aug 09 '12 at 14:54
@Christoph the feature is needed to customize an eventsink without modifying jquery source code. — Bamboo, Nov 05 '12 at 11:36

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 09 '12 at 14:51

You can use custom events:(it IS still an event, but YOUR event )

markup:

<div id='mePlease'>
 <div id='noWay'>Hi</div>
</div>

$('#mePlease').on('wacky','#noWay',function(){
   alert('wackyEnough');
});
$('#noWay').trigger('wacky');

but really, this could be done with a simple function call.

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 09 '12 at 14:46

The purpose of these functions is to delegate functionality to events; so no, you can't omit the events parameter from either of these function calls.

I suspect what you want is to "do stuff" to some elements that are loaded after page-load (asynchronously), no? Maybe you also need to do this stuff to elements that already exist on page-load?

In that case I suggest you wrap your declarations in a function, and call that function both on page-load and once the asynchronous call is complete.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 09 '12 at 14:47

Since .on()s purpose it to attach event-handlers to a certain element, it makes absolutely no sense to use it without an event. That's why the event parameter is required.

From the doc:

Description: Attach an event handler function for one or more events to the selected elements.

jQuery .on() instead of .delegate() without event

3 Answers3