added in v3.10.0

Observer

Quick Start

CDN Link

gsap.registerPlugin(Observer) 

Minimal usage

Observer.create({
  target: window, // can be any element (selector text is fine)
  type: "wheel,touch", // comma-delimited list of what to listen for
  onUp: () => previous(),
  onDown: () => next(),
});

Super-flexible, unified way to sense meaningful events across all (touch/mouse/pointer) devices without wrestling with all the implementation details. Perhaps you want to respond to "scroll-like" user behavior which could be a mouse wheel spin, finger swipe on a touch device, a scrollbar drag, or a pointer press & drag...and of course you need directional data and velocity. No problem!

Detailed Walkthrough

Tell Observer which event types to watch (wheel, touch, pointer, and/or scroll) and it will collect delta values over the course of each requestAnimationFrame tick (debounced for performance by default) and automatically determine the biggest delta and then trigger the appropriate callback(s) like onUp, onDown, onDrag, etc. (see the full list below).

Look how easy it is to trigger next()/previous() functions based on when the user swipes up/down or uses their mouse wheel:

Observer.create({
  target: window, // can be any element (selector text is fine)
  type: "wheel,touch", // comma-delimited list of what to listen for ("wheel,touch,scroll,pointer")
  onUp: () => previous(),
  onDown: () => next(),
});

Demo

Notice there's no actual scrolling in the demo below but you can use your mouse wheel (or swipe on touch devices) to initiate movement so it "feels" like a scroll:

loading...

Feature Highlights

• Rich callback system including onDown, onUp, onLeft, onRight, onDrag, onDragStart, onDragEnd, onHover, onHoverEnd, onToggleY, onToggleX, onChangeX, onChangeY, onChange, onClick, onPress, onRelease, onMove, onWheel, and onStop
• Debounced by default for maximum performance (you can set debounce: false if you prefer)
• Cross-browser compatible - automatically senses if TouchEvents, PointerEvents, or MouseEvents should be used.
• Automatically prioritizes the event with the largest delta (like if a wheel and scroll and touch event all occur during the same debounced period)

read more...

• Ignore certain elements, like ignore: ".deadzone"
• Get velocity (on x and y axis separately) as well as the clientX and clientY coordinates (for touch/pointer events)
• Set a minimum threshold for dragging. For example, dragMinimum: 5 would only fire the onDragStart/onDrag/onDragEnd callbacks if the user moved 5 pixels or more.
• Set a tolerance so that the movement-related callbacks only fire when a minimum delta is reached, so tolerance: 50 would wait until there has been a change of at least 50 pixels, and then once that's reached it starts over.
• Set a wheelSpeed multiplier if you'd like to tweak the wheel-related deltas (speed them up or slow them down).
• Integrated with GSAP and ScrollTrigger
• Roughly 3.5kb gzipped

Config Object

The configuration object that is passed to Observer.create() can have any of the following optional properties:

Property

Description

• axis

  string - when lockAxis: true is set, the first drag movement (with type: "pointer" and/or "touch") after each press will set the axis property to "x" or "y", depending on which direction the user moved. You can use the onLockAxis() callback to know when it gets set.

• capture

  Boolean - if true, it will make the touch/pointer-related listeners use the capture phase. Like doing addEventListener("[type]", func, {capture: true});

• debounce

  Boolean - by default, Observer will debounce events so that deltas are additive over the course of each requestAnimationFrame() tick in order to maximize performance, but you can disable that with debounce: false in which case it will check immediately on every event. The debounce affects all callbacks except onPress, onRelease, onHover, onHoverEnd, onClick, onDragStart, and onDragEnd because those aren't delta-related.

• dragMinimum

  Number - the minimum distance (in pixels) necessary to be considered "dragging". This can help prevent tiny motions especially on touch devices from indicating intent. For example, just pressing down with a finger on a phone may register slight movement of a few pixels even though the user thinks their finger was stationary. dragMinimum only applies to the initial movement after pressing down, but continued dragging thereafter would only be subject to "tolerance" throttling.

• id

  String - an arbitrary string ID which an be used to get the Observer via Observer.getById().

• ignore

  Element | String | Array - elements that you'd like the observer to IGNORE, so that when a scroll/touch/pointer/mouse event is triggered by one of these elements, it gets ignored completely. It checks the event.target to discern if the event should be ignored. You can define ignore as an Element reference, selector text like ".ignore-me", or an Array of elements (it can be as many as you'd like).

• lockAxis

  Boolean - if true, the Observer will watch the direction of the very first drag move after each press (with type: "pointer" and/or "touch") and lock into that direction until the user releases the pointer/touch. So if the first drag is horizontal, then only the horizontal-related callbacks like onChangeX() will fire until the pointer/touch is released. There's even an onLockAxis() callback that you can tie into.

• onChange

  Function - function to call when there is movement on either the y-axis (vertically) or the x-axis (horizontally). It will keep calling the function as long as the movement continues (subject to any tolerance threshold).

• onChangeX

  Function - function to call when there is movement on the x-axis (horizontally). It will keep calling the function as long as the movement continues (subject to any tolerance threshold).

• onChangeY

  Function - function to call when there is movement on the y-axis (vertically). It will keep calling the function as long as the movement continues (subject to any tolerance threshold).

• onClick

  Function - function to call when the target is clicked.

• onDown

  Function - function to call when downward motion is detected, meaning the delta values increase (like dragging your finger/mouse DOWNWARD...which makes the y coordinate increase). If you want to invert only the mouse wheel delta, you can set wheelSpeed: -1 because it's a multiplier.

• onDragStart

  Function - function to call when the user presses down on the target and then begins dragging (subject to dragMinimum). This only applies to "touch" and/or "pointer" types.

• onDrag

  Function - function to call when the user moves the pointer/touch/mouse while pressing on the target element (only applies to "touch" and/or "pointer" types).

• onDragEnd

  Function - function to call when the user stops dragging on the target element (only applies to "touch" and/or "pointer" types).

• onLeft

  Function - function to call when motion is detected toward the left direction.

• onLockAxis

  Function - function to call when the axis gets locked (requires lockAxis: true). You can check which axis via the Observer's axis property ("x" or "y").

• onHover

  Function - function to call when the pointer/mouse hovers over the target ("pointerenter"/"mouseenter" event).

• onHoverEnd

  Function - function to call when the pointer/mouse moves off the target ("pointerleave"/"mouseleave" event).

• onMove

  Function - function to call when the user moves the pointer/mouse while hovered over the target element (only applies to "pointer" types). It listens for "pointermove"/"mousemove" events internally. Use onDrag if you want it to fire only while pressing and dragging. Note that when you define an onMove, it causes the Observer to measure delta values while hovering over the target, consequently triggering the appropriate movement-related callbacks like onUp, onDown, onChange, etc. for any pointer/mouse movement while over the target. Normally the movement-related callbacks are only triggered when the user presses and drags.

• onPress

  Function - function to call when the user presses down on the target element (only applies to "touch" and/or "pointer" types).

• onRelease

  Function - function to call when the touch/pointer is released after the onPress was called (only applies to "touch" and/or "pointer" types).

• onRight

  Function - function to call when motion is detected toward the right direction.

• onStop

  Function - function to call when changes have ceased for at least 0.25 seconds (configurable with onStopDelay)

• onStopDelay

  Number - number of seconds to wait after changes have ceased firing before the onStop gets called (default: 0.25 seconds).

• onToggleX

  Function - function to call when motion switches direction on the x-axis (horizontally).

• onToggleY

  Function - function to call when motion switches direction on the y-axis (vertically).

• onUp

  Function - function to call when upward motion is detected, meaning the delta values decrease (like dragging your finger/mouse UPWARD...which makes the y coordinate decrease). If you want to invert only the mouse wheel delta, you can set wheelSpeed: -1 because it's a multiplier.

• onWheel

  Function - function to call when the mouse wheel is used.

• scrollSpeed

  Number - a multiplier for scroll delta values. This only applies to type "scroll", meaning when the target dispatches a scroll event which is different than a wheel event. You could set scrollSpeed: -1 to invert the delta values and have it call onUp instead of onDown (and vice versa). scrollSpeed: 0.5 would make the delta values half of what they'd normally be. Note: there's also a separate wheelSpeed option that only applies to wheel events.

• target

  Element | String - the element whose events should be listened for. By default, it's the main viewport.

• tolerance

  Number - the minimum distance (in pixels) necessary to trigger one of the callbacks like onUp, onDown, onChangeY, etc. So, for example, if the tolerance is 10 but the user only moves 8 pixels, no callback will be fired. Once the distance exceeds the tolerance amount, it fires the callbacks and resets, waiting for that distance to be exceeded again before firing the callback(s).

• type

  String - a comma-delimited list of the types of actions you'd like to listen for which can include any (or all) of the following: "wheel,touch,scroll,pointer". "touch" works on any touch devices regardless of browser (iOS/Android may use TouchEvents under the hood whereas Microsoft may use PointerEvents but Observer includes them both in "touch"). "pointer" covers any non-touch pointer/mouse press/drag/swipe movements. "wheel" is for mouse wheel movements, and "scroll" is for scroll events. Default is "wheel,touch,pointer"

• wheelSpeed

  Number - a multiplier for wheel delta values. By default, it merely passes along the wheel event's delta that the browser reports but perhaps it seems faster/slower than when you press/drag with the pointer and you need a way to make them more similar. To make the wheel delta values half of what they normally are, for example, you'd do wheelSpeed: 0.5. You could set wheelSpeed: -1 to invert the delta values and have it call onUp instead of onDown (and vice versa). Note: there's also a separate scrollSpeed option that only applies to scroll events.

Callback data

Each callback is passed the Observer instance itself as the only parameter so that you can easily access data like self.velocityX, self.velocityY, self.deltaX, self.deltaY, self.x, self.y, etc. (see the sidebar to the left for a list of all the available properties) like:

Observer.create({
  ...
  onChange: (self) =>  {
    console.log("velocity:", self.velocityX, self.velocityY, "delta:", self.deltaX, self.deltaY, "target element:", self.target, "last event:", self.event);
  }
});

There's a list of properties in the nav bar to the left.

Observer is included in ScrollTrigger too!

There's a ScrollTrigger.observe() method that's identical to Observer.create(). Since ScrollTrigger's normalizeScroll() functionality leverages Observer under the hood (thus it's included inside ScrollTrigger anyway), it made sense to expose its functionality so that you can avoid loading Observer as a separate file if you're already using ScrollTrigger in your project. You're welcome. 🙂

Showcase & how-to demos

• Observer showcase

Properties

deltaX : Number	The amount of change (in pixels) horizontally since the last time a callback was fired on that axis. For example, onChangeX or onRight
deltaY : Number	The amount of change (in pixels) vertically since the last time a callback was fired on that axis. For example, onChangeY or onDown
event : Event	The most recent Event object (could be a TouchEvent, PointerEvent, MouseEvent, WheelEvent, or ScrollEvent based on whatever type you define)
isDragging : Boolean	When the user presses on the target and drags more than the dragMinimum (0 by default), isDragging is set to true until the touch/pointer is released (even if the user continues dragging outside the bounds of the target).
isEnabled : Boolean	Indicates whether or not the Observer is enabled. Use the enable() and disable() methods to set the state. When an Observer is disabled, it removes all of its event listeners from the target and obviously won't trigger any callbacks. There are onEnable and onDisable callbacks, though, which of course would be called when you enable/disable the Observer.
isPressed : Boolean	Set to true while the user presses on the target (only applies to type of "pointer" and "touch")
startX : Number	The clientX from the most recent onPress touch/pointer event, which refers to the horizontal distance from the left edge of the viewport. This only gets updated if you set the type to include "touch" and/or "pointer". It's quite useful for dragging logic.
startY : Number	The clientY from the most recent onPress touch/pointer event, which refers to the vertical distance from the top edge of the viewport. This only gets updated if you set the type to include "touch" and/or "pointer". It's quite useful for dragging logic.
Observer.isTouch : Number	A way to discern the touch capabilities of the current device - 0 is mouse/pointer only (no touch), 1 is touch-only, 2 accommodates both.
target : Element	The target Element
vars : Object	The configuration object that was originally passed in to the Observer.create().
velocityX : Number	The horizontal velocity (in pixels per second).
velocityY : Number	The vertical velocity (in pixels per second).
x : Number	the clientX from the most recent touch/pointer event, which refers to the horizontal distance from the left edge of the viewport. This only gets updated if you set the type to include "touch" and/or "pointer".
y : Number	the clientY from the most recent touch/pointer event, which refers to the vertical distance from the top edge of the viewport. This only gets updated if you set the type to include "touch" and/or "pointer".

Methods

disable( ) : void	Disables the Observer, removing the necessary event listeners and firing the onDisable callback if the Observer wasn't already disabled.
enable( event:Event ) : Self	Enables the Observer, adding the necessary event listeners and firing the onEnable callback if the Observer wasn't already enabled.
kill( ) : void	Kills the Observer instance, calling disable() and removing it from the internal Array so that it can no longer be found via .getAll() or .getById(), making it available for garbage collection. This is permanent. If you plan on enabling the instance again later, just use disable() instead of kill().
Observer.create( vars:Object ) : Observer	Creates a new Observer instance according to the configuration details provided.
Observer.getAll( ) : Array	Gets an Array of all Observers that have been created (and not killed). This can be useful if, for example, your framework requires that you kill everything like on a routing change.
Observer.getById( id:String ) : Observer	The Observer instance with the matching id that was defined in the configuration vars object (or undefined if no matching ScrollTriggers are found)

FAQs

Can I apply multiple Observer instances to the same target?

Absolutely! That could be useful if, for example, you want certain callbacks debounced but others not. And remember that you can .disable() and .enable() an Observer anytime.

If I'm loading ScrollTrigger already, do I need to ALSO load Observer?

No, Observer is already included inside the ScrollTrigger file; you can access it via ScrollTrigger.observe() and skip loading the Observer file separately.

How do I include Observer in my project?

See the installation page for all the options (CDN, NPM, download, etc.) where there's even an interactive helper that provides the necessary code. Easy peasy. Don't forget to register Observer like this in your project:

gsap.registerPlugin(Observer)

Is this included in the GSAP core?

No, you must load/import it separately

Is this only for Club GSAP members?

No, it's available to everyone for free! But Club GSAP is pretty awesome...just sayin'.

It works fine during development, but suddenly stops working in the production build! What do I do?

Your build tool is probably dropping the plugin when tree shaking and you forgot to register Observer (which protects it from tree shaking). Just register the plugin like this:

gsap.registerPlugin(Observer)

Is it bad to register a plugin multiple times?

No, it's perfectly fine. It doesn't help anything, nor does it hurt.