Tooltips for mobile browsers

Question

I currently set the title attribute of some HTML if I want to provide more information:

An 

        

Answer 1

Slightly more elaborated version of flavaflo's answer:

• Uses pre-defined div as pop-up that can hold HTML, rather than reading from a title attribute
• Opens/closes on rollover if mouse is used
• Opens on click (touch screen) and closes on click on the open pop-up or anywhere else on the document.

HTML:

  <span class="more_info">Main Text<div class="popup">Pop-up text can use <b>HTML</b><div></span>

CSS:

.more_info {
    border-bottom: 1px dotted #000;
  position: relative;
    cursor: pointer;
}

.more_info .popup {
    position: absolute;
    top: 15px; /*must overlap parent element otherwise pop-up doesn't stay open when rolloing over '*/
    background: #fff;
    border: 1px solid #ccc;
    padding: 8px;
    left: 0;
    max-width: 240px;
    min-width: 180px;
    z-index: 100;
    display: none;
}

JavaScript / jQuery:

$(document).ready(function () {

    //init pop-ups
    $(".popup").attr("data-close", false);

    //click on pop-up opener
    //pop-up is expected to be a child of opener
    $(".more_info").click(function () {
        var $title = $(this).find(".popup");
        //open if not marked for closing
        if ($title.attr("data-close") === "false") {
            $title.show();
        }
        //reset popup         
        $title.attr("data-close", false);
    });

    //mark pop-up for closing if clicked on
    //close is initiated by document.mouseup, 
    //marker will stop opener from re-opening it
    $(".popup").click(function () {
        $(this).attr("data-close",true);
    });

    //hide all pop-ups
    $(document).mouseup(function () {
        $(".popup").hide();

    });

    //show on rollover if mouse is used
    $(".more_info").mouseenter(function () {
        var $title = $(this).find(".popup");
        $title.show();
    });

    //hide on roll-out
    $(".more_info").mouseleave(function () {
        var $title = $(this).find(".popup");
        $title.hide();
    });  

});

Demo here https://jsfiddle.net/bgxC/yvs1awzk/

Answer 2

Depending on how much information you want to give the user, a modal dialogue box might be an elegant solution.

Specifically, you could try the qTip jQuery plugin, which has a modal mode fired on $.click():

Answer 3

The title attribute is not supported in any mobile browsers **in a way that it would show the tooltip the same as to desktop mouse users** *(the attribute itself is ofcourse supported in the markup)*.
It's only basically for desktop users with a mouse, keyboard only users can't use it either, or screenreaders.

You can achieve almost similar with javascript as you said.