onLongPress AngularJS Directive - Great for mobile!

controller.js

// Somewhere in your controllers for this given example

// Example functions
$scope.itemOnLongPress = function(id) {
	console.log('Long press');
}

$scope.itemOnTouchEnd = function(id) {
	console.log('Touch end');
}

directive.js

// Add this directive where you keep your directives
.directive('onLongPress', function($timeout) {
	return {
		restrict: 'A',
		link: function($scope, $elm, $attrs) {
			$elm.bind('touchstart', function(evt) {
				// Locally scoped variable that will keep track of the long press
				$scope.longPress = true;

				// We'll set a timeout for 600 ms for a long press
				$timeout(function() {
					if ($scope.longPress) {
						// If the touchend event hasn't fired,
						// apply the function given in on the element's on-long-press attribute
						$scope.$apply(function() {
							$scope.$eval($attrs.onLongPress)
						});
					}
				}, 600);
			});

			$elm.bind('touchend', function(evt) {
				// Prevent the onLongPress event from firing
				$scope.longPress = false;
				// If there is an on-touch-end function attached to this element, apply it
				if ($attrs.onTouchEnd) {
					$scope.$apply(function() {
						$scope.$eval($attrs.onTouchEnd)
					});
				}
			});
		}
	};
})

example.html

<ion-item ng-repeat="item in list" on-long-press="itemOnLongPress(item.id)" on-touch-end="itemOnTouchEnd(item.id)">
{{ item }}
</ion-item>

Excellent, easy-to-implement hack for angularjs. Works great!

No Demo or Fiddle?
I also can't get this to work...

work like a charm! thank u!

Here is a working Plunk. I updated it to display messages on-screen instead of using the Console. Bear in mind that this won't work with mouse clicks.... You'll need to look at it on a mobile device or a proper emulator.

http://plnkr.co/edit/Glt3h1?p=preview

@bennekrouf to make it work with mouse clicks replace 'touchstart' for 'mousedown' and 'touchend' for 'mouse up'
@michaeloryl your plunker needs to add "track by $index" on ng-repeat message's section.

Really good directive, thanks!

Do any of you know how to prevent the default long-press behaviour on iOS (both in Safari and Chrome)? For example I added the on-long-press attribute to an image that should open a modal. When I long press it, the modal is opened, but I also got the "default" behaviour of the iOS browser (on Safari: Save Image/Copy).

If I set the $timeout's time (in line 19) to, let's say, 300 milliseconds, the function set by the long-press directive is called before the default, but I have to be very careful that I don't leave my finger on the screen any longer.

Edit:
Other workaround

wow! that looks very neat, however isn't eval a bit risky ?

.directive('onLongPress', function ($timeout, $parse) {

    return {
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function ($scope, $elm, $attrs) {
            $elm.bind('touchstart', function (evt) {
                // Locally scoped variable that will keep track of the long press
                $scope.longPress = true;
                var functionHandler = $parse($attrs.onLongPress);
                // We'll set a timeout for 600 ms for a long press
                $timeout(function () {
                    if ($scope.longPress) {
                        // If the touchend event hasn't fired,
                        // apply the function given in on the element's on-long-press attribute
                        $scope.$apply(function () {
                            functionHandler($scope, {$event: evt});
                        });
                    }
                }, 600);
            });

            $elm.bind('touchend', function (evt) {
                // Prevent the onLongPress event from firing
                $scope.longPress = false;
                var functionHandler = $parse($attrs.onLongPress);
                // If there is an on-touch-end function attached to this element, apply it
                if ($attrs.onTouchEnd) {
                    $scope.$apply(function () {
                        functionHandler($scope, {$event: evt});
                    });
                }
            });
        }
    };
});

Modify a little bit the directive to pass the event to the controller. Used $parse instead of $eval. In my case it was necessary.

@oxsav thanks for your alternative method, just want to point out typo for those stumbling upon this in the future, in the touchend event binding functionHandler should instead be assigned to onTouchEnd as follows:

var functionHandler = $parse($attrs.onTouchEnd);

It triggers also when moving the page with a finger. Touchmove event must be handled too.

I found it helpful to change:

$scope.$apply(function() {
  $scope.$eval($attrs.onLongPress);
});

to:

$scope.$apply(function() {
  #scope.$event = event;
  $scope.$eval($attrs.onLongPress);
});

So you can work with the event in the controller.

Thank you for your code. It has helped me tremendously.

But I wanted to mention one thing.

By integrating the code into a project with ionic, I noticed that if you touched repeatedly on the screen of the device, this triggering the "onLongPress" event.

To prevent that from happening. I made a small modification. Introducing the "$ timeout" into a variable to cancel it if you stop pressing the screen.

I hope you find useful this modification.

Thanks again.

// Add this directive where you keep your directives
.directive('onLongPress', function($timeout) {
    //Global variable, to cancel timer on touchend.
    var timer;

    return {
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function($scope, $elm, $attrs) {
            $elm.bind('touchstart', function(evt) {
                // Locally scoped variable that will keep track of the long press
                $scope.longPress = true;

                // We'll set a timeout for 600 ms for a long press
                timer = $timeout(function() {
                    if ($scope.longPress) {
                        // If the touchend event hasn't fired,
                        // apply the function given in on the element's on-long-press attribute
                        $scope.$apply(function() {
                            $scope.$eval($attrs.onLongPress)
                        });
                    }
                }, 600);
                timer;
            });

            $elm.bind('touchend', function(evt) {
                // Prevent the onLongPress event from firing
                $scope.longPress = false;

                // Prevent on quick presses, unwanted onLongPress selection.
                $timeout.cancel(timer);

                // If there is an on-touch-end function attached to this element, apply it
                if ($attrs.onTouchEnd) {
                    $scope.$apply(function() {
                        $scope.$eval($attrs.onTouchEnd)
                    });
                }
            });
        }
    };
})

Hi there. Great snippet to get going. However, two points: Keeping track of state via $scope.longPress is entirely unnessessary (and in fact buggy, as the previous commenter rightly notes). It suffices to simply cancel the $timeout-delayed function invocation. Also, using $scope.$apply is redundant. Which leaves us with a no-frills link function like:

  link: function(scope, elem, attrs) {
    var timeoutHandler;

    elem.bind('touchstart', function() {
      timeoutHandler = $timeout(function() {
        scope.$eval(attrs.longPress);
      }, 600);
    });

    elem.bind('touchend', function() {
      $timeout.cancel(timeoutHandler);
    });
  }

Super dope!

Just a small typo on @mbaer3000:

elem.bind('touchstart', function() {
    timeoutHandler = $timeout(function() {
        scope.$eval(attrs.onLongPress); // onLongPress instead longPress :D
    }, 600);
});

@vargavince91 Your answer for dealing with default long-press behaviour really helped. Saved me a some long hours. Cheers!

@ejmarino Brilliant! Hey just a small typo. For mouse clicks the 'touchend' is replaced with 'mouseup'. Not 'mouse up'. I'm sure more experienced programmers than me would know this, but me not being one, spent around half hour trying to figure out what was wrong. But great tip for including mouse clicks. This is exactly what I was looking for. I wanted long press on the mobile website and long click on the desktop version! Cheers!!!

Hey! I found this helpful for my feature with dialpad, and I need get "0" in case of click, and "+" in longpress

There was some issue: if user clicks zero button twice - first time short and second long, he'd get "0++". So I thought some time and past onStage variable to prevent firing of longPress event after "fastPress" was fired:

function DirectiveLongpress($timeout) {
return {
restrict: 'A',
link: function($scope, $elm, $attrs) {
//customized for mouse purpose

        var onStage = false;
        var timeoutHandler;

        $elm.bind('mousedown', function(evt) {
            if (onStage) return false;
            onStage = true;
            // Locally scoped variable that will keep track of the long press
            $scope.longPress = true;

            // We'll set a timeout for 600 ms for a long press
            timeoutHandler = $timeout(function() {
                if ($scope.longPress && onStage) {
                    // If the touchend event hasn't fired,
                    // apply the function given in on the element's on-long-press attribute
                    $scope.$apply(function() {
                        $scope.$eval($attrs.onLongPress);
                        onStage = false;
                    });
                }
            }, 600);
        });

        $elm.bind('mouseup', function(evt) {
            // Prevent the onLongPress event from firing
            $scope.longPress = false;
            // If there is an on-touch-end function attached to this element, apply it
            if ($attrs.onTouchEnd) {
                $scope.$apply(function() {
                    $scope.$eval($attrs.onTouchEnd);
                    onStage = false;
                });
            }
        });
    }
};

}

If any one is still looking for this solution
@bennekrouf I've even solved the mouse event as well

Project Page: http://puneethrai.github.io/angular-long-press/

Installation and usage link in the page

I have other solution, implementing the "on-click" "on-touch" "on-touch-end" "on-long-press" and "time-out" attributes: https://jsfiddle.net/reduardo7/u47ok38e/

Awesome thanks!!

After trying to get this to work on mobile safari without "killing" scrolling for 2 hours, i have to thank you and post my solution.

css class
create a css class, that will prevent text selection on mobile devices.
NOTE if you have the onLongPress on a div, that contains input elements, the text inside the input will be selected even with this css

.unselectable {
  -moz-user-select: none;
  -webkit-user-select: none;
  -ms-user-select: none;
}  

The directive

      function ngLongTouch($timeout, $parse) {
        return {
          restrict: 'A',
          link: function(scope, elem, attrs) {
            var timeoutHandler;
            var fn = $parse(attrs.ngLongTouch);

            // disable text selection
            elem.unselectable = "on";
            elem.addClass("unselectable");

            elem.bind('touchstart', function(event) {
              scope.longTouchTriggered = false;
              timeoutHandler = $timeout(function() {
                scope.longTouchTriggered = true;
                fn(scope, { $event:event });

              }, 600);
            });

            elem.bind('touchend', function() {
              if (scope.longTouchTriggered) {
                event.preventDefault();  
              }
              $timeout.cancel(timeoutHandler);
            });
          }
        }
      };
  }
};

To prevent normal ng-click events from firing, i added scope.longPressTriggered that is checked in touchend and calls preventDefault(). I needed this for two cases

• a normal ng-click event on my div was called after the ngLongTouch
• on long touch i open a modal and the buttons inside the modal are "pressed" on touchend

Great directive but it does not work on window's phone. can you help with this?

I got solution for window's phone.. You have to use "pointerdown" and "pointerup" events for windows.
posting code if any one needs:
app.directive('onLongPress', function ($timeout) {
return {
restrict: 'A',
link: function ($scope, $elm, $attrs) {

        var onlongtouch;
        var timer;
        var touchduration = 500;

        onlongtouch = function () {
            $scope.$apply(function () {
                $scope.$eval($attrs.onLongPress);
            });
        };

        touchstart = function () {
            timer = setTimeout(onlongtouch, touchduration);
        };

        touchend = function () {
            //stops short touches from firing the event
            if (timer)
                clearTimeout(timer); // clearTimeout;
        };


        ang_element = angular.element($elm);
        raw_element = ang_element[0];
        raw_element.addEventListener('pointerdown', touchstart);
        raw_element.addEventListener('pointerup', touchend);
        raw_element.addEventListener('touchstart', touchstart);
        raw_element.addEventListener('touchend', touchend);
    }
};

});

When using this directive in combination with ngClick, I encountered a problem on the iPad. On the iPad, a touch even occurs after the long press directive executed the function with $eval. The solution is to just just preventDefault() to prevent this behavior, but this would stop normal ngClick behavior. To make this directive usable on an element with ngClick, I've added logic to only preventDefault() for long presses.

link: function(scope, element, attributes) {
  var timeoutHandler;

  element.bind('mousedown touchstart', function() {
    scope.start = Date.now();
    timeoutHandler = $timeout(function() {
      scope.$eval(attributes.onLongPress);
    }, 600);
  });

  element.bind('mouseup touchend', function(e) {
    scope.end = Date.now();
    if (scope.end - scope.start >= 600) {
      e.preventDefault();
    }
    $timeout.cancel(timeoutHandler);
  });
}

Thanks a lot! Save me much time.

For me not working on ipad guys, please help me out

Thanks I took this code and adapted it, it works well. I'm just not sure it's a good thing to manually "$eval" methods. I've heard that normally you should always let angular eval automatically the things at each cycle.

I've found that the long press event fires even if you just grab on that element to scroll down the page. So I've added the following touchmove event to cancel the long press from firing, and prevent that behavior:

$elm.bind("touchmove", function(evt) {
    $scope.longPress = false;
});

or for @mbaer3000's solution:

elem.bind("touchmove", function(evt) {
    $timeout.cancel(timeoutHandler);
});

touchmove event not working as expected. Any help

i need to select multiple elements on long press can somebody help