Javascript event handler with parameters

Question

I want to make an eventHandler that passes the event and some parameters. The problem is that the function doesn't get the element. Here is an example:

doClick = function(func){
    var elem = .. // the element where it is all about
    elem.onclick = function(e){
        func(e, elem);
    }
}
doClick(function(e, element){
    // do stuff with element and the event
});

The elem must be defined outside of anonymous function. How can i get the passed element to use within the anonymous function? Is there a way to do this?

And what about addEventListener? I don't seem to be able to pass the event through an addEventListener at all do I ?

Update

I seemed to fix the problem with 'this'

doClick = function(func){
    var that = this;
    this.element.onclick = function(e){
        func(e, that);
    }
}

Where this contains this.element that i can access in the function.

The addEventListener

But i'm wondering about the addEventListener:

function doClick(elem, func){
    element.addEventListener('click', func(event, elem), false);
}

Answer 1

I don't understand exactly what your code is trying to do, but you can make variables available in any event handler using the advantages of function closures:

function addClickHandler(elem, arg1, arg2) {
    elem.addEventListener('click', function(e) {
        // in the event handler function here, you can directly refer
        // to arg1 and arg2 from the parent function arguments
    }, false);
}

Depending upon your exact coding situation, you can pretty much always make some sort of closure preserve access to the variables for you.

From your comments, if what you're trying to accomplish is this:

element.addEventListener('click', func(event, this.elements[i]))

Then, you could do this with a self executing function (IIFE) that captures the arguments you want in a closure as it executes and returns the actual event handler function:

element.addEventListener('click', (function(passedInElement) {
    return function(e) {func(e, passedInElement); };
}) (this.elements[i]), false);

For more info on how an IIFE works, see these other references:

Javascript wrapping code inside anonymous function

Immediately-Invoked Function Expression (IIFE) In JavaScript - Passing jQuery

What are good use cases for JavaScript self executing anonymous functions?

This last version is perhaps easier to see what it's doing like this:

// return our event handler while capturing an argument in the closure
function handleEvent(passedInElement) {
    return function(e) {
        func(e, passedInElement); 
    };
}

element.addEventListener('click', handleEvent(this.elements[i]));

---

It is also possible to use .bind() to add arguments to a callback. Any arguments you pass to .bind() will be prepended to the arguments that the callback itself will have. So, you could do this:

elem.addEventListener('click', function(a1, a2, e) {
    // inside the event handler, you have access to both your arguments
    // and the event object that the event handler passes
}.bind(elem, arg1, arg2));