The contextmenu event fires when the user attempts to open a context menu. This event is typically triggered by clicking the right mouse button, or by pressing the context menu key.
In the latter case, the context menu is displayed at the bottom left of the focused element, unless the element is a tree, in which case the context menu is displayed at the bottom left of the current row.
Any right-click event that is not disabled (by calling the click event's preventDefault() method) will result in a contextmenu event being fired at the targeted element. One exception to this is that in Firefox, if the user holds down the Shift key while right-clicking, then the context menu will be shown without a contextmenu event being fired.
Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.
addEventListener("contextmenu", (event) => {});
oncontextmenu = (event) => {};
This interface also inherits properties of its parents, UIEvent and Event.
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MouseEvent.altKey Read only
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Returns true if the alt key was down when the mouse event was fired.
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MouseEvent.button Read only
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The button number that was pressed (if applicable) when the mouse event was fired.
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MouseEvent.buttons Read only
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The buttons being pressed (if any) when the mouse event was fired.
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MouseEvent.clientX Read only
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The X coordinate of the mouse pointer in local (DOM content) coordinates.
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MouseEvent.clientY Read only
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The Y coordinate of the mouse pointer in local (DOM content) coordinates.
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MouseEvent.ctrlKey Read only
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Returns true if the control key was down when the mouse event was fired.
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MouseEvent.layerX Non-standard Read only
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Returns the horizontal coordinate of the event relative to the current layer.
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MouseEvent.layerY Non-standard Read only
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Returns the vertical coordinate of the event relative to the current layer.
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MouseEvent.metaKey Read only
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Returns true if the meta key was down when the mouse event was fired.
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MouseEvent.movementX Read only
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The X coordinate of the mouse pointer relative to the position of the last mousemove event.
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MouseEvent.movementY Read only
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The Y coordinate of the mouse pointer relative to the position of the last mousemove event.
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MouseEvent.offsetX Read only
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The X coordinate of the mouse pointer relative to the position of the padding edge of the target node.
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MouseEvent.offsetY Read only
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The Y coordinate of the mouse pointer relative to the position of the padding edge of the target node.
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MouseEvent.pageX Read only
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The X coordinate of the mouse pointer relative to the whole document.
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MouseEvent.pageY Read only
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The Y coordinate of the mouse pointer relative to the whole document.
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MouseEvent.relatedTarget Read only
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The secondary target for the event, if there is one.
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MouseEvent.screenX Read only
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The X coordinate of the mouse pointer in global (screen) coordinates.
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MouseEvent.screenY Read only
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The Y coordinate of the mouse pointer in global (screen) coordinates.
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MouseEvent.shiftKey Read only
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Returns true if the shift key was down when the mouse event was fired.
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MouseEvent.mozPressure Non-standard Deprecated Read only
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The amount of pressure applied to a touch or tablet device when generating the event; this value ranges between 0.0 (minimum pressure) and 1.0 (maximum pressure). Instead of using this deprecated (and non-standard) property, you should use PointerEvent and look at its pressure property.
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MouseEvent.mozInputSource Non-standard Read only
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The type of device that generated the event (one of the MOZ_SOURCE_* constants). This lets you, for example, determine whether a mouse event was generated by an actual mouse or by a touch event (which might affect the degree of accuracy with which you interpret the coordinates associated with the event).
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MouseEvent.webkitForce Non-standard Read only
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The amount of pressure applied when clicking.
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MouseEvent.x Read only
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Alias for MouseEvent.clientX.
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MouseEvent.y Read only
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Alias for MouseEvent.clientY.
In this example, the default action of the contextmenu event is canceled using preventDefault() when the contextmenu event is fired at the first paragraph. As a result, the first paragraph will do nothing when right-clicked, while the second paragraph will show the standard context menu offered by your browser.
Note that in Firefox, if you hold down the Shift key while right-clicking, then the context menu is shown without the contextmenu event being fired, so canceling the event does not stop the context menu from being shown.
HTML
<p id="noContextMenu">The context menu has been disabled on this paragraph.</p>
<p>But it has not been disabled on this one.</p>
JavaScript
const noContext = document.getElementById("noContextMenu");
noContext.addEventListener("contextmenu", (e) => {
e.preventDefault();
});
Result