How do I simulate a hover with a touch in touch enabled browsers?

Question

With some HTML like this:

Some Text

Then some CSS like this:

p {
  color:black;
}

p:hover {
  color:red         


        

Answer 1

A mix of native Javascript and jQuery:

var gFireEvent = function (oElem,sEvent) 
{
 try {
 if( typeof sEvent == 'string' && o.isDOM( oElem ))
 {
  var b = !!(document.createEvent),
     evt = b?document.createEvent("HTMLEvents"):document.createEventObject();
  if( b )    
  {  evt.initEvent(sEvent, true, true ); 
    return !oElem.dispatchEvent(evt);
  }
  return oElem.fireEvent('on'+sEvent,evt);
 }
 } catch(e) {}
 return false;
};


// Next you can do is (bIsMob etc you have to determine yourself):

   if( <<< bIsMob || bIsTab || bisTouch >>> )
   {
     $(document).on('mousedown', function(e)
     {
       gFireEvent(e.target,'mouseover' );
     }).on('mouseup', function(e)
     {
       gFireEvent(e.target,'mouseout' );
     });
   }

Answer 2

Use can use CSS too, add focus and active (for IE7 and under) to the hidden link. Example of a ul menu inside a div with class menu:

.menu ul ul {display:none; position:absolute; left:100%; top:0; padding:0;}
.menu ul ul ul {display:none; position:absolute; top:0; left:100%;}
.menu ul ul a, .menu ul ul a:focus, .menu ul ul a:active { width:170px; padding:4px 4%; background:#e77776; color:#fff; margin-left:-15px; }
.menu ul li:hover > ul { display:block; }
.menu ul li ul li {margin:0;}

It's late and untested, should work ;-)