Plain JavaScript tooltip

Question

I am trying to make a tooltip in plain JavaScript which is shown on hover. Like the one in Stack Overflow on hover over the profile name a div is shown.

I tried using onmouseover , onmouseout and added setTimeout to give the user a few seconds to move mouse over the tooltip content. But it was not working as I thought.

I really like pure JavaScript more than using any libraries. Can some one help me out?

This is what I did in pure JavaScript.

HTML

<div class = "name" onmouseover="show()" onmouseout="hide()">
    NAME
        <div class = "tooltip">
            PROFILE DETAILS
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class = "name" onmouseover="show()" onmouseout="hide()">
    NAME 2
        <div class = "tooltip" >
            PROFILE DETAILS 2
        </div>
    </div>

    <div class = "name" onmouseover="show()" onmouseout="hide()">
    NAME 3
        <div class = "tooltip" >
            PROFILE DETAILS 3
        </div>
    </div>

CSS

.name{
        float:left;
        margin:100px;
        border:1px solid black;
    }
    .tooltip{
        position:absolute;
        margin:5px;
        width:200px;
        height:100px;
        border:1px solid black;
        display:none;
    }

JavaScript

var name = document.getElementsByclassName("name");
    var tp = document.getElementsByclassName("tooltip");

    function show(){
        tp.style.display="block";
    }
    function hide(){
        tp.style.display="";
    }

in pure js i need to use transitions to make the content stay for few seconds which doesnt help in cross brower — Kishore, Aug 21 '13 at 13:51

epascarello · Answer 1 · 2013-08-21T14:39:45.490

Solution with no JavaScript

This uses CSS pseudo hover to set the display of the hidden element. The display none needs to be in the style and not on the element so it can be overwritten in the hover.

HTML:

<div class="couponcode">First Link
    <span class="coupontooltip">Content 1</span> <!-- UPDATED -->
</div>

<div class="couponcode">Second Link
    <span class="coupontooltip"> Content 2</span> <!-- UPDATED -->
</div>

CSS:

.couponcode:hover .coupontooltip { /* NEW */
    display: block;
}


.coupontooltip {
    display: none;  /* NEW */
    background: #C8C8C8;
    margin-left: 28px;
    padding: 10px;
    position: absolute;
    z-index: 1000;
    width:200px;
    height:100px;
}

.couponcode {
    margin:100px;
}

Example:

jsFiddle

Follow-Up:

If you need to support really old browsers, you would need to add a class to the outside element when the mouse enters the div. And remove that class when mouse leaves.

EDIT

Your code did not work because what is tp? Is a collection of elements and you are treating it as one. What you would need to do is pass in the reference to the element

HTML:

<div class = "name" onmouseover="show(this)" onmouseout="hide(this)">  <!-- added "this" 2 times -->

**JavaScript:

//var name = document.getElementsByclassName("name");  /* not needed */
//    var tp = document.getElementsByclassName("tooltip"); /* not needed */


function show (elem) {  /* added argument */
    elem.style.display="block"; /* changed variable to argument */
}
function hide (elem) { /* added argument */
    elem.style.display="";  /* changed variable to argument */
}

will this help if i wanted to get contents from database using ajax inside tooltip — Kishore, Aug 21 '13 at 14:14
This is an elegant solution and deserves way more votes IMO. The fiddle is wonderful +1 — khaverim, May 15 '14 at 21:39
@MemetOlsen, I like this tooltip. Is there a way to move the tooltip to the right edge of the control? I know it is using margin-left, but is there a way to have it, say start at the rightmost edge of an inputbox? — Rick, Oct 07 '14 at 19:45
`:hover>.coupontooltip` would let you put tooltips inside of anything. — Brandon Henry, Nov 23 '14 at 03:48

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 20 '14 at 08:21

Fix for the original code

I was looking for something like this, and i came across this page. It helpd me, but i had to fix your code, for it to work. I think that this is what you tried. You have to refference your objects by their "ID". Here is what I've done, and it works:

HTML

<div class = "name" onmouseover="show(tooltip1)" onmouseout="hide(tooltip1)">
NAME
    <div class = "tooltip" id= "tooltip1">
        PROFILE DETAILS
    </div>
</div>

<div class = "name" onmouseover="show(tooltip2)" onmouseout="hide(tooltip2)">
NAME 2
    <div class = "tooltip" id= "tooltip2">
        PROFILE DETAILS 2
    </div>
</div>

<div class = "name" onmouseover="show(tooltip3)" onmouseout="hide(tooltip3)">
NAME 3
    <div class = "tooltip" id= "tooltip3">
        PROFILE DETAILS 3
    </div>
</div>

CSS

.name{
    float:left;
    margin:100px;
    border:1px solid black;
}
.tooltip{
    position:absolute;
    margin:5px;
    width:200px;
    height:50px;
    border:1px solid black;
    display:none;
}

JS

function show (elem) {  
    elem.style.display="block";
}
function hide (elem) { 
    elem.style.display=""; 
}

http://jsfiddle.net/5qbP3/28/

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 14 '15 at 15:07

5

For non-customized tooltip, you can just add the message you want to display in tooltip in the title attribute of the main div. Just like this:

<div class = "name" onmouseover="show()" onmouseout="hide()" title="PROFILE DETAILS">

Then there is no need to add the onmouseover and onmouseout event handlers.

edited Oct 14 '15 at 15:07

Jon Surrell

8,394
6
44
52

answered Oct 14 '15 at 14:22

user5445555

51
1
2

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

Even for $(document).ready, it’s hard to accomplish in pure JS—see here: $(document).ready equivalent without jQuery

So I’m using a simple version:

window.addEventListener("load", function () {
    var couponcodes = document.getElementsByClassName("couponcode");
    for (var i = 0; i < couponcodes.length; i++) {
        couponcodes[i].addEventListener("mouseover", function () {
            var coupontooltip = this.getElementsByClassName("coupontooltip")[0];
            coupontooltip.removeAttribute("style");
        });
        couponcodes[i].addEventListener("mouseout", function () {
            var coupontooltip = this.getElementsByClassName("coupontooltip")[0];
            coupontooltip.style.display = "none";
        });
    }
});

http://jsfiddle.net/mynetx/5qbP3/

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 24 '19 at 00:01

document.addEventListener("mousemove",function awesome(e){
if(e.target.id != ""){
e.target.title = "#"+e.target.id;
}
});

<div id="dkf">random stuff</div>
<div id="dkls">some more random stuff</div>

and you can do it with lots of other stuff, like className, tagName,etc...

Plain JavaScript tooltip

5 Answers5

Solution with no JavaScript

EDIT

Fix for the original code

Linked