Javascript: Capture mouse wheel event and do not scroll the page?

Jem picture Jem · Apr 25, 2012 · Viewed 39.8k times · Source

I'm trying to prevent a mousewheel event captured by an element of the page to cause scrolling.

I expected false as last parameter to have the expected result, but using the mouse wheel over this "canvas" element still causes scrolling:

this.canvas.addEventListener('mousewheel', function(event) {
   mouseController.wheel(event);
}, false);

Outside of this "canvas" element, the scroll needs to happen. Inside, it must only trigger the .wheel() method. What am I doing wrong?

Answer

GillesC picture GillesC · Apr 25, 2012

You can do so by returning false at the end of your handler (OG).

this.canvas.addEventListener('wheel',function(event){
    mouseController.wheel(event);
    return false; 
}, false);

Or using event.preventDefault()

this.canvas.addEventListener('wheel',function(event){
    mouseController.wheel(event);
    event.preventDefault();
}, false);

Updated to use the wheel event as mousewheel deprecated for modern browser as pointed out in comments.

The question was about preventing scrolling not providing the right event so please check your browser support requirements to select the right event for your needs.

Updated a second time with a more modern approach option.