Detect if I'm clicking an element within an element

Question

I have an element (let\'s say div with id \"Test\") with a set height and width. Randomly placed within this element are other (smaller) elements (let\'s say id\'s \"inner1\

Answer 1

Add an onClick handler to your Test div and use event bubbling to trap clicks on the inner elements. You can extract the clicked element from the event object.

document.getElementById("Test").onclick = function(e) {
    e = e || event
var target = e.target || e.srcElement
// variable target has your clicked element
    innerId = target.id;
    //  do your stuff here. 
    alert("Clicked!");

}

Answer 2

I think this is what you mean?

var test = document.getElementById('test');

function whatClicked(evt) {
  alert(evt.target.id);
}

test.addEventListener("click", whatClicked, false);

div#test {
  width: 300px;
  height: 200px;
  position: relative;
  display: block;
  border: 1px solid blue;
}

div#test div,
div#test span {
  display: block;
  position: absolute;
  border: 1px solid red;
}

div#inner1 {
  top: 15px;
  left: 15px;
  height: 15px;
  width: 15px;
}

span#inner2 {
  top: 65px;
  left: 65px;
  height: 15px;
  width: 15px;
}

div#inner3 {
  top: 155px;
  left: 155px;
  height: 15px;
  width: 15px;
}

<div id="test">
  <div id="inner1"></div>
  <span id="inner2"></span>
  <div id="inner3"></div>
</div>