How to get javscript event to fire only when the background is clicked (and not other elements)?

Answer 1

You can capture the target element, e.g.:

$('*').click(function(e) {
    alert(e.target);
    alert(e.target.tagName);
    if(e.target.tagName == 'html') {
        // show background menu
    }
});

Answer 2

You have to work with the Javascript Event Propagation model. What happens is that your click event is automatically passed down the layers of objects on a page that have been registered as event listeners, unless you explicitly tell it to stop, try something like this:

function setupClickHandlers()
{
    document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].onclick = doBodyMenu;
    document.getElementById('tableID').onclick = doTableMenu;
}

function doBodyMenu()
{
    //do whatever it does
}

function doTableMenu(e)
{
    //do whatever it does

    //stop the event propagating to the body element
    var evt = e ? e : window.event;

    if (evt.stopPropagation) {evt.stopPropagation();}
    else {evt.cancelBubble=true;}
    return false;
}

This should deal with the way each browser handles events.