Use jQuery to hide a DIV when the user clicks outside of it

Question

Had the same problem, came up with this easy solution. It's even working recursive:

$(document).mouseup(function(e) 
{
    var container = $("YOUR CONTAINER SELECTOR");

    // if the target of the click isn't the container nor a descendant of the container
    if (!container.is(e.target) && container.has(e.target).length === 0) 
    {
        container.hide();
    }
});

You'd better go with something like this:

var mouse_is_inside = false;

$(document).ready(function()
{
    $('.form_content').hover(function(){ 
        mouse_is_inside=true; 
    }, function(){ 
        mouse_is_inside=false; 
    });

    $("body").mouseup(function(){ 
        if(! mouse_is_inside) $('.form_wrapper').hide();
    });
});

This code detects any click event on the page and then hides the #CONTAINER element if and only if the element clicked was neither the #CONTAINER element nor one of its descendants.

$(document).on('click', function (e) {
    if ($(e.target).closest("#CONTAINER").length === 0) {
        $("#CONTAINER").hide();
    }
});

You might want to check the target of the click event that fires for the body instead of relying on stopPropagation.

Something like:

$("body").click
(
  function(e)
  {
    if(e.target.className !== "form_wrapper")
    {
      $(".form_wrapper").hide();
    }
  }
);

Also, the body element may not include the entire visual space shown in the browser. If you notice that your clicks are not registering, you may need to add the click handler for the HTML element instead.

Live DEMO

Check click area is not in the targeted element or in it's child

$(document).click(function (e) {
    if ($(e.target).parents(".dropdown").length === 0) {
        $(".dropdown").hide();
    }
});

UPDATE:

jQuery stop propagation is the best solution

Live DEMO

$(".button").click(function(e){
    $(".dropdown").show();
     e.stopPropagation();
});

$(".dropdown").click(function(e){
    e.stopPropagation();
});

$(document).click(function(){
    $(".dropdown").hide();
});

$(document).click(function(event) {
    if ( !$(event.target).hasClass('form_wrapper')) {
         $(".form_wrapper").hide();
    }
});