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How to get the click coordinates relative to SVG element holding the onclick listener?

I haven't been able to calculate the click coordinates (x and y) relative to the element triggering the event. I have not found an easy example online.

I have a simple svg (with 100px left margin) in an HTML page. It contains a group (translated 30px 30px) which has an onclick listener attached. And inside that group I have a rect with 50px width and height.

After I click any part of the group element, I get an event object with coordinates relative to the HTML page (evt.clientX and evt.clientY).

What I need to know is where exactly the user clicked inside the group element (the element holding the onclick listener).

How do I convert clientX and clientY coordinates to the group element coordinates. So say, if I click the top leftmost part of the rect it should give me x=0 and y=0.

Here is currently what I have:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <style>
            body{
                background:black;
            }
            svg{
                fill:white;
                background:white;
                position: absolute;
                top:100px;
                left:100px;
            }
            
        </style>
        <script>
            function clicked(evt){
                alert("x: "+evt.clientX+" y:"+evt.clientY);
            }
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div>
            <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" width="200" height="200">
                <g transform="translate(30 30)" onclick="clicked(evt)">
                    <rect x="0" y="0" width="50" height="50" fill="red"/>
                </g>
            </svg>      
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo
3 answers
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0

Tolokoban's solution has the limitation that it doesn't work if your viewBox deviates from the default, that is if it is different from viewBox="0 0 width height". A better solution that also takes viewBox into account is this:

var pt = svg.createSVGPoint();  // Created once for document

function alert_coords(evt) {
    pt.x = evt.clientX;
    pt.y = evt.clientY;

    // The cursor point, translated into svg coordinates
    var cursorpt =  pt.matrixTransform(svg.getScreenCTM().inverse());
    console.log("(" + cursorpt.x + ", " + cursorpt.y + ")");
}

(Credit goes to Smerk, who posted the code)

If the viewBox is not set or set to the default, this script will return the same values as Tolokoban's script. But if you have an SVG like <svg width="100px" height="100" viewBox="0 0 200 200">, only this version will give you the correct results.

over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo Report

0

Try to use getBoundingClientRect(): http://jsfiddle.net/fLo4uatw/

function clicked(evt){
    var e = evt.target;
    var dim = e.getBoundingClientRect();
    var x = evt.clientX - dim.left;
    var y = evt.clientY - dim.top;
    alert("x: "+x+" y:"+y);
}  
over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo Report

0

The proposed solutions are great, but they won't work in all scenarios.

The OP's post is titled

How to get the click coordinates relative to SVG element holding the onclick listener?

So if you put the onclick listener onto your root svg element, whenever you click on any of its child elements, getBoundingClientRect will give you the child's Rect and you won't get the click coordinates relative to the root svg.

This was my case as I needed the coordinates relative to the root at all times, and the solution that worked for me was to use e.target.farthestViewportElement. Here's an excerpt from my (JSX) code:

const onClickSvg = e => {
  const { farthestViewportElement: svgRoot } = e.target;
  const dim = svgRoot.getBoundingClientRect();
  const x = e.clientX - dim.left;
  const y = e.clientY - dim.top;
  console.log(`x: ${x}, y: ${y}`);
};

<svg onClick={onClickSvg}>...</svg>
over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo Report
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