Chapter 15: Scripting and Interactivity

15.1. Introduction

SVG content can be interactive (i.e., responsive to user-initiated events) by utilizing the following features in the SVG language:

• User-initiated actions such as button presses on the pointing device (e.g., a mouse) can cause animations or scripts to execute.
• The user can initiate hyperlinks to new Web pages (see Links out of SVG content: the ‘a’ element) by actions such as mouse clicks when the pointing device is positioned over particular graphics elements.
• In many cases, depending on the value of the ‘zoomAndPan’ attribute on the ‘svg’ element and on the characteristics of the user agent, users are able to zoom into and pan around SVG content.
• User movements of the pointing device can cause changes to the cursor that shows the current position of the pointing device.

This chapter describes:

• information about events, including under which circumstances events are triggered
• how to indicate whether a given document can be zoomed and panned
• how to specify which cursors to use

Related information can be found in other chapters:

• hyperlinks are discussed in Links
• SVG's relationship to UI Events is discussed in Relationship with UI Events
• animation is discussed in Animating SVG Documents

15.2. Supported events

The following aspects of SVG are affected by events:

• Using SVG Document Object Model (DOM), a script can add or remove DOM event listeners ([DOM], section 3.6 Interface EventTarget) so that script can be invoked or ignored when a given event occurs on an event target
• SVG's animation elements can be defined to begin or end based on events.

A number of events defined in SVG 1.1, SVGLoad, SVGError etc, have been replaced with the equivalent unprefixed events defined in UI EVENTS and HTML.

There should be some more modern examples of using events in svg, e.g touch events (w reference to touch events spec). Device orientation events might also be of interest.

The following table lists the events defined by this specification, or that have further requirements or clarifications compared to the specification(s) where they are defined.

The Event name in the first column is the name to use within SVG's animation elements to define the events which can start or end animations. The UI Event name in the second column is the name to use when defining DOM event listeners ([DOM], section 3.6).

For events not listed in the table, such as events introduced in HTML or UI Events, the respective event type is the name to use within SVG's animation elements.

Requirements in the table on whether an event of a given type bubbles or is cancelable apply only to events that are created and dispatched by the user agent. Events of those types created from script using the createEvent method on the Document interface can be made to bubble or be cancelable with the initEvent method.

Details on the parameters passed to event listeners for the event types for UI Events can be found in the ([uievents]) and ([DOM]) specifications. For other event types, the parameters passed to event listeners are described elsewhere in this specification.

Likewise, event-value timing specifiers used in animation element ‘begin’ and ‘end’ attributes are resolved to concrete times only in response to "bubbling" and "at target" phase events dispatched to the relevant element.

15.3. User interface events

On user agents which support interactivity, it is common for authors to define SVG documents such that they are responsive to user interface events. Among the set of possible user events are pointer events, keyboard events, and document events.

In response to user interface (UI) events, the author might start an animation, perform a hyperlink to another Web page, highlight part of the document (e.g., change the color of the graphics elements which are under the pointer), initiate a "roll-over" (e.g., cause some previously hidden graphics elements to appear near the pointer) or launch a script which communicates with a remote database.

15.4. Pointer events

User interface events that occur because of user actions performed on a pointer device are called pointer events.

Many systems support pointer devices such as a mouse or trackball. On systems which use a mouse, pointer events consist of actions such as mouse movements and mouse clicks. On systems with a different pointer device, the pointing device often emulates the behavior of the mouse by providing a mechanism for equivalent user actions, such as a button to press which is equivalent to a mouse click.

For each pointer event, the SVG user agent determines the target element of a given pointer event. The target element is the topmost graphics element whose relevant graphical content is under the pointer at the time of the event. (See property pointer-events for a description of how to determine whether an element's relevant graphical content is under the pointer, and thus in which circumstances that graphic element can be the target element for a pointer event.) When an element is not displayed (i.e., when the display property on that element or one of its ancestors has a value of none), that element cannot be the target of pointer events.

If a target element for the pointer event exists, then the event is dispatched to that element according to the normal event flow ([uievents], section 3.1). For shadow trees created by the ‘use’ element or via script, the event must follow the Shadow DOM event dispatching algorithm [SHADOWDOM]

If a target element for the pointer event does not exist, then the event is ignored.

15.5. Hit-testing and processing order for user interface events

hit-testing

The process of determining whether a pointer intersects a given graphics element. Hit-testing is used in determining which element to dispatch a mouse event to, which might be done in response to the user moving the pointing device, or by changes in the position, shape and other attributes of elements in the document. Hit-testing is also known as hit detection or picking. See also the definition of the pointer-events property.

There are two distinct aspects of pointer-device interaction with an element or area:

1. hit-testing, to determine if a pointer event (such as a mouse movement or mouse click) occurred within the interaction area of an element, and the subsequent DOM event flow;
2. functional processing of actions associated with any relevant element.

15.5.1. Hit-testing

Determining whether a pointer event results in a positive hit-test depends upon the position of the pointer, the size and shape of the graphics element, and the computed value of the pointer-events property on the element. The definition of the pointer-events property below describes the exact region that is sensitive to pointer events for a given type of graphics element.

Note that the ‘svg’ element is not a graphics element, and in a Conforming SVG Stand-Alone File a outermost svg element will never be the target of pointer events, though events can bubble to this element. If a pointer event does not result in a positive hit-test on a graphics element, then it should evoke any user-agent-specific window behavior, such as a presenting a context menu or controls to allow zooming and panning of an SVG document fragment.

This specification does not define the behavior of pointer events on the outermost svg element for SVG images which are embedded by reference or inclusion within another document, e.g., whether the outermost svg element embedded in an HTML document intercepts mouse click events; future specifications may define this behavior, but for the purpose of this specification, the behavior is implementation-specific.

15.5.2. Event processing

An element which is the target of a user interface event may have particular interaction behaviors, depending upon the type of element and whether it has explicit associated interactions, such as scripted event listeners, CSS pseudo-classes matches, or declarative animations with event-based timing. The algorithm and order for processing user interface events for a given target element, after dispatching the DOM event, is as follows:

1. If an event handler registered on this element invokes the preventDefault() DOM method, then no further processing for this element is performed, and the event follows the event dispatch and DOM event flow processing ([uievents]);
2. If the element has an associated title or description, such as a ‘title’ element, and the user agent supports the display of such information (e.g. via a tooltip or status-bar message), that information should be displayed, as appropriate to the type of pointer event;
3. If the element matches any relevant dynamic pseudo-class selectors appropriate to the type of pointer event, such as :hover, :active, or :focus as described in [CSS2], section 5.11, then the relevant class properties are applied;
4. If the element and the event type are associated with the activation or cancelation of declarative animation though the use of event-value timing specifiers, any corresponding instance times must be resolved, and any conseqential actions of this instance time resolution (such as immediately starting or stopping the animation) must be performed;
5. If the element is a hyperlink (e.g., it is a descendant element of an ‘a’ element), and the pointer event is of a type that activates that hyperlink (e.g. via a mouse click), and if the hyperlink traversal changes the context of the content (e.g. opens a different document, or moves the pointer away from this element by moving to another part of the same document), then no further processing for this element is performed;
6. If the element is a text content element, and the event type is one which the user agent recognizes as part of a text-selection operation (e.g., a mouse click and drag, or a double-click), then the text selection algorithm is performed;
7. If the event type is one which the user agent associates with the evocation of special user-interface controls (e.g., a right-click or command-click evoking a context menu), the user agent should evoke such user-agent-specific behavior, such as presenting a context menu or controls to allow zooming and panning of an SVG document fragment.

15.6. The ‘pointer-events’ property

In different circumstances, authors may want to control under what conditions particular graphic elements can become the target of pointer events. For example, the author might want a given element to receive pointer events only when the pointer is over the stroked perimeter of a given shape. In other cases, the author might want a given element to ignore pointer events under all circumstances so that graphical elements underneath the given element will become the target of pointer events.

The effects of masking and clipping differ with respect to pointer events. A clip path is a geometric boundary, and a given point is clearly either inside or outside that boundary; thus, pointer events must be captured normally over the rendered areas of a clipped element, but must not be captured over the clipped areas, as described in the definition of clipping paths. By contrast, a mask is not a binary transition, but a pixel operation, and different behavior for fully transparent and almost-but-not-fully-transparent may be confusingly arbitrary; as a consequence, for elements with a mask applied, pointer events must still be captured even in areas where the mask goes to zero opacity. If an author wishes to achieve an effect where the transparent parts of a mask allow pointer events to pass to an element below, a combination of masking and clipping may be used.

The filter property has no effect on pointer events processing, and must in this context be treated as if the filter wasn't specified.

For example, suppose a circle with a stroke of red (i.e., the outline is solid red) and a fill of none (i.e., the interior is not painted) is rendered directly on top of a rectangle with a fill of blue. The author might want the circle to be the target of pointer events only when the pointer is over the perimeter of the circle. When the pointer is over the interior of the circle, the author might want the underlying rectangle to be the target element of pointer events.

The pointer-events property specifies under what circumstances a given element can be the target element for a pointer event. It affects the circumstances under which the following are processed:

• user interface events such as mouse clicks
• dynamic pseudo-classes (i.e., :hover, :active and :focus; [CSS2], section 5.11)
• hyperlinks (see Links out of SVG content: the ‘a’ element)

bounding-box

The given element must be a target element for pointer events when the pointer is over the bounding box of the element.

visiblePainted

The given element can be the target element for pointer events when the visibility property is set to visible and when the pointer is over a "painted" area. The pointer is over a painted area if it is over the interior (i.e., fill) of the element and the fill property has an actual value other than none or it is over the perimeter (i.e., stroke) of the element and the stroke property is set to a value other than none.

visibleFill

The given element can be the target element for pointer events when the visibility property is set to visible and when the pointer is over the interior (i.e., fill) of the element. The value of the fill property does not affect event processing.

visibleStroke

The given element can be the target element for pointer events when the visibility property is set to visible and when the pointer is over the perimeter (i.e., stroke) of the element. The value of the stroke property does not affect event processing.

visible

The given element can be the target element for pointer events when the visibility property is set to visible and the pointer is over either the interior (i.e., fill) or the perimeter (i.e., stroke) of the element. The values of the fill and stroke do not affect event processing.

painted

The given element can be the target element for pointer events when the pointer is over a "painted" area. The pointer is over a painted area if it is over the interior (i.e., fill) of the element and the fill property has an actual value other than none or it is over the perimeter (i.e., stroke) of the element and the stroke property has an actual value other than none. The value of the visibility property does not affect event processing.

fill

The given element can be the target element for pointer events when the pointer is over the interior (i.e., fill) of the element. The values of the fill and visibility properties do not affect event processing.

stroke

The given element can be the target element for pointer events when the pointer is over the perimeter (i.e., stroke) of the element. The values of the stroke and visibility properties do not affect event processing.

all

The given element can be the target element for pointer events whenever the pointer is over either the interior (i.e., fill) or the perimeter (i.e., stroke) of the element. The values of the fill, stroke and visibility properties do not affect event processing.

none

The given element does not receive pointer events.

For text elements, hit-testing is performed on a character cell basis:

• The value visiblePainted means that the text string can receive events anywhere within the character cell if either the fill property is set to a value other than none or the stroke property is set to a value other than none, with the additional requirement that the visibility property is set to visible.
• The values visibleFill, visibleStroke and visible are equivalent and indicate that the text string can receive events anywhere within the character cell if the visibility property is set to visible. The values of the fill and stroke properties do not affect event processing.
• The value painted means that the text string can receive events anywhere within the character cell if either the fill property is set to a value other than none or the stroke property is set to a value other than none. The value of the visibility property does not affect event processing.
• The values fill, stroke and all are equivalent and indicate that the text string can receive events anywhere within the character cell. The values of the fill, stroke and visibility properties do not affect event processing.
• The value none indicates that the given text does not receive pointer events.

For raster images, hit-testing is either performed on a whole-image basis (i.e., the rectangular area for the image is one of the determinants for whether the image receives the event) or on a per-pixel basis (i.e., the alpha values for pixels under the pointer help determine whether the image receives the event):

• The value visiblePainted means that the raster image can receive events anywhere within the bounds of the image if any pixel from the raster image which is under the pointer is not fully transparent, with the additional requirement that the visibility property is set to visible.
• The values visibleFill, visibleStroke and visible are equivalent and indicate that the image can receive events anywhere within the rectangular area for the image if the visibility property is set to visible.
• The value painted means that the raster image can receive events anywhere within the bounds of the image if any pixel from the raster image which is under the pointer is not fully transparent. The value of the visibility property does not affect event processing.
• The values fill, stroke and all are equivalent and indicate that the image can receive events anywhere within the rectangular area for the image. The value of the visibility property does not affect event processing.
• The value none indicates that the image does not receive pointer events.

Note that for raster images, the values of properties opacity, fill-opacity, stroke-opacity, fill and stroke do not affect event processing.

15.7. Magnification and panning

Magnification represents a complete, uniform transformation on an SVG document fragment, where the magnify operation scales all graphical elements by the same amount. A magnify operation has the effect of a supplemental scale and translate transformation placed at the outermost level on the SVG document fragment (i.e., outside the outermost svg element).

Panning represents a translation (i.e., a shift) transformation on an SVG document fragment in response to a user interface action.

SVG user agents that operate in interaction-capable user environments are required to support the ability to magnify and pan.

The outermost svg element in an SVG document fragment has attribute ‘zoomAndPan’, which takes the possible values of disable and magnify, with the default being magnify.

The zoomAndPan attribute is at risk, it has no known implementations and is unlikely to be implemented. See Github issue #56.

Name	Value	Initial value	Animatable
zoomAndPan	[ disable | magnify ]	disable	no

If disable, the user agent shall disable any magnification and panning controls and not allow the user to magnify or pan on the given document fragment.

If magnify, in environments that support user interactivity, the user agent shall provide controls to allow the user to perform a "magnify" operation on the document fragment.

If a ‘zoomAndPan’ attribute is assigned to an inner ‘svg’ element, the ‘zoomAndPan’ setting on the inner ‘svg’ element will have no effect on the SVG user agent.

15.8. Cursors

Some interactive display environments provide the ability to modify the appearance of the pointer, which is also known as the cursor. Three types of cursors are available:

• Standard built-in cursors
• Custom cursors

The cursor property is used to specify which cursor to use. The cursor property can be used to reference standard built-in cursors by specifying a keyword such as crosshair or a custom cursor. Custom cursors are defined by referencing an image that can be used to define a platform-independent cursor.

When defining a platform-independent cursor file, either the SVG or the PNG format are recommended, because they support alpha transparency to define a cursor shape. Cursor images ideally contain at least two colors so that the cursor can be visible over most backgrounds.

15.8.2. The ‘cursor’ element

The cursor element is deprecated, as the standard CSS cursor now supports custom image references. User agents are required to support it in interactive SVG documents only.

The ‘cursor’ element can be used to define an image for a platform-independent custom cursor, and the offset from the image dimensions to the active cursor point.

Attribute definitions:

Name	Value	Initial value	Animatable
x, y	<length>	0	yes

The x- and y-coordinates of the position in the cursor's coordinate system which represents the precise position that is being pointed to. These coordinates apply if coordinates are not specified when the ‘cursor’ is referenced.

Name	Value	Initial value	Animatable
href	URL [URL]	(none)	yes

A URL reference to the file or element which provides the image of the cursor. Refer to the common handling defined for URL reference attributes and deprecated XLink attributes.

SVG user agents are required to support PNG format images as targets of the ‘href’ attribute.

<!doctype html>
<body>
  <style>
  body,html { cursor: auto; }
  circle { pointer-events: all; stroke: black; fill: yellow; stroke-width: 4px; }
  circle:hover { fill: blue; }
  svg { width: 200px; height: 200px; }
  text { font: 32px sans-serif; text-anchor: middle; }

  #test1 { cursor: url(cursor.svg) 8 1, auto; }
  #test2 { cursor: url(#cursor), auto; }
  </style>
  <svg id="test1" viewBox="0 0 200 200">
    <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="75"/>
    <text x="100" y="100">SVG<tspan x="100" dy="1em">cursor</tspan></text>
  </svg>
  <svg id="test2" viewBox="0 0 200 200">
    <cursor id="cursor" xlink:href="cursor.png" x="4" y="0"/>
    <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="75" />
    <text x="100" y="100">PNG<tspan x="100" dy="1em">cursor</tspan></text>
  </svg>
</body>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<button id="A" tabindex="1">First thing</button>
<button id="C" tabindex="2">Third thing</button>
<svg width="200" height="200">
  <text id="B" tabindex="1" x="100" y="100">Second thing</text>
</svg>

15.10. Event attributes

event attribute

An event attribute always has a name that starts with "on" followed by the name of the event for which it is intended. It specifies some script to run when the event of the given type is dispatched to the element on which the attribute is specified.

For every event type that the user agent supports, SVG supports that as an event attribute, following the same requirements as for event handler content attributes [HTML]. The event attributes are available on all SVG elements.

The contents of event attributes are always interpreted as ECMAScript, as if processed with the media type 'application/ecmascript'. [rfc2046][rfc4329]

Event attributes are not animatable.

15.10.1. Animation event attributes

Below are the definitions for the animation event attributes. These can be specified on the animation elements.

Attribute definitions:

Name	Value	Initial value	Animatable
onbegin, onend, onrepeat	(see below)	(none)	no

Specifies some script to execute when "bubbling" or "at target" phase listeners for the corresponding event are fired on the element the attribute is specified on. See supported events table to determine which event each of these event attributes corresponds to. There are no restrictions on the values of this attribute.

15.11. The ‘script’ element

A ‘script’ element is equivalent to the ‘script’ element in HTML and thus is the place for scripts (e.g., ECMAScript). Any functions defined within any ‘script’ element have a "global" scope across the entire current document.

The script's text content is never directly rendered; the display value for the ‘script’ element must always be set to none by the user agent style sheet, and this declaration must have importance over any other CSS rule or presentation attribute.

Before attempting to execute the ‘script’ element the resolved media type value for ‘type’ must be inspected. If the SVG user agent does not support the scripting language then the ‘script’ element must not be executed.

This example defines a function circle_click which is called by the ‘onclick’ event attribute on the ‘circle’ element. The drawing below on the left is the initial image. The drawing below on the right shows the result after clicking on the circle.

  <?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
  <svg width="6cm" height="5cm" viewBox="0 0 600 500"
       xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <desc>Example script01 - invoke an ECMAScript function from an onclick event
    </desc>
    <!-- ECMAScript to change the radius with each click -->
    <script type="application/ecmascript"> <![CDATA[
      function circle_click(evt) {
        var circle = evt.target;
        var currentRadius = circle.getAttribute("r");
        if (currentRadius == 100)
          circle.setAttribute("r", currentRadius*2);
        else
          circle.setAttribute("r", currentRadius*0.5);
      }
    ]]> </script>

    <!-- Outline the drawing area with a blue line -->
    <rect x="1" y="1" width="598" height="498" fill="none" stroke="blue"/>

    <!-- Act on each click event -->
    <circle onclick="circle_click(evt)" cx="300" cy="225" r="100"
            fill="red"/>

    <text x="300" y="480"
          font-family="Verdana" font-size="35" text-anchor="middle">

      Click on circle to change its size
    </text>
  </svg>
  

An example demonstrating the effect of the ‘onclick’ event handler on an SVG shape.

View this example as SVG (SVG-enabled browsers only)

Attribute definitions:

Name	Value	Initial value	Animatable
crossorigin	[ anonymous | use-credentials ]?	(see HTML definition of attribute)	yes

The crossorigin attribute is a CORS settings attribute, and unless otherwise specified follows the same processing rules as in html [HTML].

Name	Value	Initial value	Animatable
type	(see below)	application/ecmascript	no

Identifies the scripting language for the given ‘script’ element. The value must be a valid media type, per Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two [rfc2046]. If a ‘type’ is not provided, then the default scripting language assumed is ECMAScript, as if processed with the ‘application/ecmascript’ media type.

Name	Value	Initial value	Animatable
href	URL [URL]	(none)	no

An URL reference to an external resource containing the script code. Refer to the common handling defined for URL reference attributes and deprecated XLink attributes.

The URL is processed and the resource is fetched as described in the Linking chapter.

15.12. DOM interfaces

[Exposed=Window]
interface SVGCursorElement : SVGElement {
  [SameObject] readonly attribute SVGAnimatedLength x;
  [SameObject] readonly attribute SVGAnimatedLength y;
};

SVGCursorElement includes SVGURIReference;

[Exposed=Window]
interface SVGScriptElement : SVGElement {
  attribute DOMString type;
  attribute DOMString? crossOrigin;
};

SVGScriptElement includes SVGURIReference;