Expanding hover area to outside element

Question

I have a dropdown menu, which the sub-menu placed on different element. So basically when the mouse leave the menu item, the sub-menu get closed immediately because the sub-menu is not the child.

var menuItem = $(".menu-item");


menuItem.hover(hoverIn, hoverOut);

function hoverIn() {
  var mnItemMeta = $(this)[0].getBoundingClientRect();

  $(".sub-menu").css({
    opacity: 1,
    left: mnItemMeta.left
  })
}

function hoverOut() {
  $(".sub-menu").css({
    opacity: 0
  })
}

html,body{background-color: #efefef;}
.menu {
  list-style: none;
  padding-left: 0;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
}
a {
  display: block;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  text-decoration: none;
  color: inherit;
}
.sub-menu {
  opacity: 0;
  background-color: white;
  position: absolute;
  transition: .2s ease;
}
.sub-menu-list {
  list-style: none;
  padding-left: 0;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<ul class="menu">
  <li class="menu-item"><a href="#">Menu Item</a>
  </li>
</ul>
<div class="sub-menu">
  <ul class="sub-menu-list">
    <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 1</a>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 2</a>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 3</a>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 4</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div>

https://jsfiddle.net/yans_fied/6wj0of90/

The question is how to extend the hover area, so when the cursor point into sub-menu it ignore the hoverOut action.

NOTE: don't tell me to place the sub-menu inside the menu-item, I already how that worked. It's for different case that need the sub-menu to be placed outside the menu-item.

Answer 1

You could just place the sub-menu in the menu-item.

var menuItem = $(".menu-item");
menuItem.hover(hoverIn, hoverOut);

function hoverIn() {
  var mnItemMeta = $(this)[0].getBoundingClientRect();

  $(".sub-menu").css({
    opacity: 1,
    left: mnItemMeta.left
  })
}

function hoverOut() {
  $(".sub-menu").css({
    opacity: 0
  })
}

html, body {
  background-color: #efefef;
}
.menu {
  list-style: none;
  padding-left: 0;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
}
a {
  display: block;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  text-decoration: none;
  color: inherit;
}
.sub-menu {
  opacity: 0;
  background-color: white;
  position: absolute;
  transition: .2s ease;
}
.sub-menu-list {
  list-style: none;
  padding-left: 0;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<ul class="menu">
  <li class="menu-item"><a href="#">Menu Item</a>
    <div class="sub-menu">
      <ul class="sub-menu-list">
        <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 4</a></li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </li>
</ul>

Another way would be to check the hover state of .menu-item and .sub-menu. You need to work with a little timeout here, to prevent it from closing to early.

var timeout,
    hovered = false,
    menuItem = $(".menu-item, .sub-menu").hover(hoverIn, hoverOut);;

function hoverIn() {
    hovered = true;

    var mnItemMeta = this.getBoundingClientRect();

    $(".sub-menu").show().css({
        opacity: 1,
        left: mnItemMeta.left,
    });
}

function hoverOut() {
  hovered = false;

    clearTimeout(timeout);
    timeout = setTimeout(function() {
        if (!hovered) {
            $(".sub-menu").css({
                opacity: 0,
            }).hide()
        }
    }, 100);
}

html, body {
  background-color: #efefef;
}
.menu {
  list-style: none;
  padding-left: 0;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
}
a {
  display: block;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  text-decoration: none;
  color: inherit;
}
.sub-menu {
  opacity: 0;
  background-color: white;
  position: absolute;
  transition: .2s ease;
}
.sub-menu-list {
  list-style: none;
  padding-left: 0;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<ul class="menu">
  <li class="menu-item"><a href="#">Menu Item</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="sub-menu">
  <ul class="sub-menu-list">
    <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 3</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Sub Menu 4</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

Answer 2

You could add

.sub-menu::before{
     content:'';
     height: <height of menu item>
     width: 100%;
     position:absolute;
     bottom:100%;
}

and place the hoverOut on the .sub-menu.