Clicking a disabled input or button

Question

Is it possible to click on a disabled button and provide some feedback to the user?

HTML:

<input type="button" value="click" disabled> 

and JavaScript:

$('input').mousedown(function(event) {     alert('CLICKED'); }); 

The above code is not working for me; neither is this:

$('input').live('click', function () {     alert('CLICKED'); }); 

Answer 1

There is no way to capture a click on disabled elements. Your best bet is to react to a specific class on the element.

HTML Markup:

<input type="button" class="disabled" value="click" /> 

JavaScript code:

$('input').click(function (event) {     if ($(this).hasClass('disabled')) {         alert('CLICKED, BUT DISABLED!!');     } else {         alert('Not disabled. =)');     } }); 

You could then use CSS styling to simulate a disabled look:

.disabled {     background-color: #DDD;     color: #999; } 

Here's a jsFiddle demonstrating its use.

Answer 2

Making the field readonly can help, because the click event will be fired. Though be aware of the differences in behaviour.

<input type="button" value="click" readonly="readonly" />