Hammer.js

A javascript library for multi-touch gestures

I told you, homeboy / You CAN touch this / Yeah, that's how we living and you know / You CAN touch this

Hammer.js is a javascript library that can be used to control gestures on touch devices. It supports the following gestures:

• Tap
• Double tap
• Hold
• Drag
• Swipe
• Transform (pinch)

Demo's

While it's rollin', hold on / Pump a little bit and let 'em know it's goin' on / Like that, like that

We've created some demo's to show you the immense power of hammer.js:

Basic demo

A simple demo that demonstrates that hammer.js works and is able to recognize gestures. We output the gestures that are recognized. Check it out

Slideshow

A slideshow that uses hammer.js to switch slides. Note that the drag event in the slideshow is non-blocking for the scrolling of the page. Check it out

Scroll content

A touch-scrollable div. Check it out

Drag

Move boxes around. Check it out

Color traces

We use hammer.js to generate beautiful traces with colorful balls. Balls! Check it out

Pinch to zoom

We use hammer.js to zoom in and out on an image by pinching. Check it out

Momentum

Simulate the drag/throw experience on iOS/Android. Try it

Sites using Hammer.js

Eight Media

Want to add your site? Contact me at Twitter

Documentation

So wave your hands in the air / Bust a few moves / Run your fingers through your hair

A step by step guide on how to use hammer.js:

• Download the hammer javascript or clone the latest version from our github repository:

$ git clone git@github.com:eightmedia/hammer.js.git

• Import jquery and import hammer.js in your project:

<script src="http://eightmedia.github.com/hammer.js/hammer.js"></script>

• Hammertime! Bind hammer to a container element:

var hammer = new Hammer(document.getElementById("container"));

Now, on every gesture that is performed on the container element, you'll receive a callback object with information on the gesture.

hammer.ondragstart = function(ev) { };
hammer.ondrag = function(ev) { };
hammer.ondragend = function(ev) { };
hammer.onswipe = function(ev) { };

hammer.ontap = function(ev) { };
hammer.ondoubletap = function(ev) { };
hammer.onhold = function(ev) { };

hammer.ontransformstart = function(ev) { };
hammer.ontransform = function(ev) { };
hammer.ontransformend = function(ev) { };

hammer.onrelease = function(ev) { };

A jQuery plugin is also available and can be found in this repos.

<script src="http://eightmedia.github.com/hammer.js/jquery.hammer.js"></script>

$("#element")
   .hammer({
        // options...
   })
   .bind("tap", function(ev) {
        console.log(ev);
   });

Brian Rinaldi has written a blogpost about Hammer.js, it explains things a bit more and has a nice looking demo. Read it here.

The Hammer callback objects:

All gestures return:

• originalEvent: The original DOM event.
• position: An object with the x and y position of the gesture (e.g. the position of a tap and the center position of a transform).
• touches: An array of touches, containing an object with the x and the y position for every finger.

Besides these, the Transform gesture returns:

• scale: The distance between two fingers since the start of an event as a multiplier of the initial distance. The initial value is 1.0. If less than 1.0 the gesture is pinch close to zoom out. If greater than 1.0 the gesture is pinch open to zoom in.
• rotation: A delta rotation since the start of an event in degrees where clockwise is positive and counter-clockwise is negative. The initial value is 0.0.

The Drag and Swipe gesture also returns:

• angle: The angle of the drag movement, where right is 0 degrees, left is -180 degrees, up is -90 degrees and down is 90 degrees. This picture makes this approach somewhat clearer
• direction: Based on the angle, we return a simplified direction, which can be either up, right, down or left.
• distance: The distance of the drag in pixels.
• distanceX: The distance on the X axis of the drag in pixels.
• distanceY: The distance on the Y axis of the drag in pixels.

In addition to this the Transform and Drag gestures return start and end events.

Defaults

	default
prevent_default	false	when true all default browser actions are blocked. For instance if you want to drag vertically, try setting this to true.
css_hacks	true	css userSelect, touchCallout, userDrag, tapHighlightColor are added
drag	true
drag_vertical	true
drag_horizontal	true
drag_min_distance	20	pixels
swipe	true
swipe_time	200	max ms of movement
swipe_min_distance	20	minimal movement
transform	true
scale_treshold	0.1	how much scaling needs to be done before firing the transform event
rotation_treshold	15	degrees before firing the transform event
tap	true
tap_double	true
tap_max_interval	300	ms
tap_double_distance:	20	pixels, distance between taps
hold	true
hold_timeout	500	ms

Compatibility

	Tap	Double Tap	Hold	Drag	Transform
Windows
Internet Explorer 8	X	X	X	X
Internet Explorer 9	X	X	X	X
OSX
Firefox 11	X	X	X	X
Opera 11	X	X	X	X
Chrome 16	X	X	X	X
Safari 5	X	X	X	X
iOS
iPad iOS 5	X	X	X	X	X
iPhone iOS 5	X	X	X	X	X
Android 4
Default browser	X	X	X	X	X
Android 3
Default browser	X	X	X	X	X
Android 2
Default browser	X	X	X	X
Firefox 10	X	X	X	X
Opera Mobile 12	X	X	X	X
Opera Mini 6.5	X
Opera Mini 7.0	X
Others
Windows Phone 7.5	X
Kindle Fire	X	X	X	X	X
Nokia N900 - Firefox 1.1	X

On a desktop browser the mouse can be used to simulate touch events with one finger. On Android 2 (and 3?) doesn't support multi-touch events, so there's no transform callback on these Android versions. Firefox 1.1 (Nokia N900) and Windows Phone 7.5 doesnt support touch events, and mouse events are badly supported.

Not all gestures are supported on every device. This matrix shows the support we have tested. This is ofcourse far from extensive. If you've tested hammer.js on a different device, please let us know.

Further notes

Created by Jorik Tangelder and developed further by everyone at Eight Media in Arnhem, the Netherlands.

Add your feature suggestions and bug reports on Github.

We recommend listening to this loop while using hammer.js.