The mouse's position is reported on the event
object received by a handler for the mousemove
event, which you can attach to the window (the event bubbles):
(function() {
document.onmousemove = handleMouseMove;
function handleMouseMove(event) {
var dot, eventDoc, doc, body, pageX, pageY;
event = event || window.event; // IE-ism
// If pageX/Y aren't available and clientX/Y are,
// calculate pageX/Y - logic taken from jQuery.
// (This is to support old IE)
if (event.pageX == null && event.clientX != null) {
eventDoc = (event.target && event.target.ownerDocument) || document;
doc = eventDoc.documentElement;
body = eventDoc.body;
event.pageX = event.clientX +
(doc && doc.scrollLeft || body && body.scrollLeft || 0) -
(doc && doc.clientLeft || body && body.clientLeft || 0);
event.pageY = event.clientY +
(doc && doc.scrollTop || body && body.scrollTop || 0) -
(doc && doc.clientTop || body && body.clientTop || 0 );
}
// Use event.pageX / event.pageY here
}
})();
(Note that the body of that if
will only run on old IE.)
Example of the above in action - it draws dots as you drag your mouse over the page. (Tested on IE8, IE11, Firefox 30, Chrome 38.)
If you really need a timer-based solution, you combine this with some state variables:
(function() {
var mousePos;
document.onmousemove = handleMouseMove;
setInterval(getMousePosition, 100); // setInterval repeats every X ms
function handleMouseMove(event) {
var dot, eventDoc, doc, body, pageX, pageY;
event = event || window.event; // IE-ism
// If pageX/Y aren't available and clientX/Y are,
// calculate pageX/Y - logic taken from jQuery.
// (This is to support old IE)
if (event.pageX == null && event.clientX != null) {
eventDoc = (event.target && event.target.ownerDocument) || document;
doc = eventDoc.documentElement;
body = eventDoc.body;
event.pageX = event.clientX +
(doc && doc.scrollLeft || body && body.scrollLeft || 0) -
(doc && doc.clientLeft || body && body.clientLeft || 0);
event.pageY = event.clientY +
(doc && doc.scrollTop || body && body.scrollTop || 0) -
(doc && doc.clientTop || body && body.clientTop || 0 );
}
mousePos = {
x: event.pageX,
y: event.pageY
};
}
function getMousePosition() {
var pos = mousePos;
if (!pos) {
// We haven't seen any movement yet
}
else {
// Use pos.x and pos.y
}
}
})();
As far as I'm aware, you can't get the mouse position without having seen an event, something which this answer to another Stack Overflow question seems to confirm.
Side note: If you're going to do something every 100ms (10 times/second), try to keep the actual processing you do in that function very, very limited. That's a lot of work for the browser, particularly older Microsoft ones. Yes, on modern computers it doesn't seem like much, but there is a lot going on in browsers... So for example, you might keep track of the last position you processed and bail from the handler immediately if the position hasn't changed.
event
object when the function is called for the second time. You probably should listen to some event than usesetTimeout
. – Felix Kling Oct 17 '11 at 7:47window.event
will beundefined
ornull
. If there is no event, there is noevent
object. – Felix Kling Oct 17 '11 at 7:51