How to make background links not clickable until menu is shown?

Question

Trying to incorporate this menu concept into a friends art exhibition website but I am running into a problem with the menu links being clickable regardless of whether they are visible or not. I have been messing around with pointer-events:none; but can't quite fix the problem. I can make the links totally unclickable even when then menu is shown but that defeats the purpose. Any help would be appreciated.

A link to working demo and code can be found here

console.clear();

var app = function () {
 var body = void 0;
 var menu = void 0;
 var menuItems = void 0;

 var init = function init() {
  body = document.querySelector('body');
  menu = document.querySelector('.menu-icon');
  menuItems = document.querySelectorAll('.nav__list-item');

  applyListeners();
 };

 var applyListeners = function applyListeners() {
  menu.addEventListener('click', function () {
   return toggleClass(body, 'nav-active');
  });
 };

 var toggleClass = function toggleClass(element, stringClass) {
  if (element.classList.contains(stringClass)) element.classList.remove(stringClass);else element.classList.add(stringClass);
 };

 init();
}();

body {
  background-color: #1e2023;
  font-family: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
  -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
  -moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
}

.site-content {
  max-width: 1100px;
  height: 100vh;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  display: -webkit-box;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: flex;
  -webkit-box-align: center;
      -ms-flex-align: center;
          align-items: center;
  -webkit-box-pack: center;
      -ms-flex-pack: center;
          justify-content: center;
}
.site-content__headline {
  font-weight: 200;
  color: #ffffff;
  font-size: calc(2vw + 10px);
}

.menu-icon {
  height: 30px;
  width: 30px;
  position: fixed;
  z-index: 2;
  left: 50px;
  top: 30px;
  cursor: pointer;
}
.menu-icon__line {
  height: 2px;
  width: 30px;
  display: block;
  background-color: #ffffff;
  margin-bottom: 4px;
  -webkit-transition: background-color .5s ease, -webkit-transform .2s ease;
  transition: background-color .5s ease, -webkit-transform .2s ease;
  transition: transform .2s ease, background-color .5s ease;
  transition: transform .2s ease, background-color .5s ease, -webkit-transform .2s ease;
}
.menu-icon__line-left {
  width: 15px;
}
.menu-icon__line-right {
  width: 15px;
  float: right;
}

.nav {
  position: fixed;
  z-index: 1;
}
.nav:before, .nav:after {
  content: "";
  position: fixed;
  width: 100vw;
  height: 100vh;
  background: rgba(234, 234, 234, 0.2);
  z-index: -1;
  -webkit-transition: -webkit-transform cubic-bezier(0.77, 0, 0.175, 1) 0.8s;
  transition: -webkit-transform cubic-bezier(0.77, 0, 0.175, 1) 0.8s;
  transition: transform cubic-bezier(0.77, 0, 0.175, 1) 0.8s;
  transition: transform cubic-bezier(0.77, 0, 0.175, 1) 0.8s, -webkit-transform cubic-bezier(0.77, 0, 0.175, 1) 0.8s;
  -webkit-transform: translateX(0%) translateY(-100%);
          transform: translateX(0%) translateY(-100%);
}
.nav:after {
  background: white;
  -webkit-transition-delay: 0s;
          transition-delay: 0s;
}
.nav:before {
  -webkit-transition-delay: .1s;
          transition-delay: .1s;
}
.nav__content {
  position: fixed;
  top: 50%;
  -webkit-transform: translate(0%, -50%);
          transform: translate(0%, -50%);
  width: 100%;
  text-align: center;
  font-size: calc(2vw + 10px);
  font-weight: 200;
  cursor: pointer;
}
.nav__list-item {
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
  -webkit-transition-delay: 0.8s;
          transition-delay: 0.8s;
  opacity: 0;
  -webkit-transform: translate(0%, 100%);
          transform: translate(0%, 100%);
  -webkit-transition: opacity .2s ease, -webkit-transform .3s ease;
  transition: opacity .2s ease, -webkit-transform .3s ease;
  transition: opacity .2s ease, transform .3s ease;
  transition: opacity .2s ease, transform .3s ease, -webkit-transform .3s ease;
  margin-right: 25px;
}
.nav__list-item:before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  background: #000000;
  width: 20px;
  height: 1px;
  top: 100%;
  -webkit-transform: translate(0%, 0%);
          transform: translate(0%, 0%);
  -webkit-transition: all .3s ease;
  transition: all .3s ease;
  z-index: -1;
}
.nav__list-item:hover:before {
  width: 100%;
}

body.nav-active .menu-icon__line {
  background-color: #000;
  -webkit-transform: translateX(0px) rotate(-45deg);
          transform: translateX(0px) rotate(-45deg);
}
body.nav-active .menu-icon__line-left {
  -webkit-transform: translateX(1px) rotate(45deg);
          transform: translateX(1px) rotate(45deg);
}
body.nav-active .menu-icon__line-right {
  -webkit-transform: translateX(-2px) rotate(45deg);
          transform: translateX(-2px) rotate(45deg);
}
body.nav-active .nav {
  visibility: visible;
}
body.nav-active .nav:before, body.nav-active .nav:after {
  -webkit-transform: translateX(0%) translateY(0%);
          transform: translateX(0%) translateY(0%);
}
body.nav-active .nav:after {
  -webkit-transition-delay: .1s;
          transition-delay: .1s;
}
body.nav-active .nav:before {
  -webkit-transition-delay: 0s;
          transition-delay: 0s;
}
body.nav-active .nav__list-item {
  opacity: 1;
  -webkit-transform: translateX(0%);
          transform: translateX(0%);
  -webkit-transition: opacity .3s ease, color .3s ease, -webkit-transform .3s ease;
  transition: opacity .3s ease, color .3s ease, -webkit-transform .3s ease;
  transition: opacity .3s ease, transform .3s ease, color .3s ease;
  transition: opacity .3s ease, transform .3s ease, color .3s ease, -webkit-transform .3s ease;
}
body.nav-active .nav__list-item:nth-child(0) {
  -webkit-transition-delay: 0.5s;
          transition-delay: 0.5s;
}
body.nav-active .nav__list-item:nth-child(1) {
  -webkit-transition-delay: 0.6s;
          transition-delay: 0.6s;
}
body.nav-active .nav__list-item:nth-child(2) {
  -webkit-transition-delay: 0.7s;
          transition-delay: 0.7s;
}
body.nav-active .nav__list-item:nth-child(3) {
  -webkit-transition-delay: 0.8s;
          transition-delay: 0.8s;
}
body.nav-active .nav__list-item:nth-child(4) {
  -webkit-transition-delay: 0.9s;
          transition-delay: 0.9s;
}

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

    <title>Projects</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="menu.css">


    <script src="menu.js"></script>



</head>


<body>

<div class="menu-icon">
 <span class="menu-icon__line menu-icon__line-left"></span>
 <span class="menu-icon__line"></span>
 <span class="menu-icon__line menu-icon__line-right"></span>
</div>

<div class="nav">
 <div class="nav__content">
  <ul class="nav__list">
            <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1401658/html-overlay-which-allows-clicks-to-fall-through-to-elements-behind-it">
            <li class="nav__list-item">Home</li></a>
            <a href="https://bootsnipp.com/search?q=navigation+">
            <li class="nav__list-item">About</li></a>
   <li class="nav__list-item">Projects</li>
   <li class="nav__list-item">Contact</li>
  </ul>
 </div>
</div>

<div class="site-content">
 <h1 class="site-content__headline">Another menu concept</h1>
</div>
</body>

</html>

Andy Hoffman · Answer 1 · 2017-12-28T20:12:32.167

0

You can achieve what you're trying to do by toggling pointer-events: none on .nav__content. I'm not sure how experienced you are with the parent selector, but it's useful in this situation.

In your SCSS

&__content{
    …
    pointer-events: none;

    .nav-active & { // <-- parent selector
        pointer-events: auto;
    }
}

edited Dec 28 '17 at 20:12

answered Dec 28 '17 at 20:01

Andy Hoffman

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Thanks a lot this solved it. I'll read up parent selector, my html skills are surely lacking. But that's the reason I wanted to help my friend out and take up this project. Thanks for the info link. – Squanchinator Dec 29 '17 at 09:54

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 28 '17 at 20:09

Another way to do this is toggle the display of the menu items. I edited your JS code. By using display none it effectively makes the list item elements not clickable. Then you change the display when the items are active.

const applyListeners = () => {
    menu.addEventListener('click', () => toggleClass(body, 'nav-active'));
    for(let i=0; i<menuItems.length; i++) {
        menuItems[i].style.display="";
    }
}

const init = () => {
    body = document.querySelector('body');
    menu = document.querySelector('.menu-icon');
    menuItems = document.querySelectorAll('.nav__list-item');

    for(let i=0; i<menuItems.length; i++) {
        menuItems[i].style.display="none";
    }

    applyListeners();
}

thanks for your your answer, I appreciate the second approach. — Squanchinator, Dec 29 '17 at 09:56

How to make background links not clickable until menu is shown?

2 Answers2