jQuery: keep toggled child element open when hovering over it

Question

My question is similar, but different from jquery-hover-menu-when-hovering-over-child-menu-disappears.

I originally had the hover event on the li.item, which was a little quirky, but did what i needed it to do. I switched the hover to the span so that the event would fire on the text block, rather than the list block, which expands the full width of the list.

The effect I'm trying to achieve is when hovering over ul.sub. I'd like it to continue with the animation in queue from span.text's hover, which is displaying it, but also keep it open.

What is happening is that the mouse is leaving the span, so the li.item is firing its mouseout portion of the trigger.

jsFiddle Page

HTML

---

   <ul id="main">
       <li class="head">Title Bar</li>
       <li class="item odd">
           <span class="text">A</span>
           <ul class="sub">
               <li>1</li>
               <li>2</li>
           </ul>
       </li>
       <li class="item even">
           <span class="text">B</span>
           <ul class="sub">
               <li>3</li>
               <li>4</li>
           </ul>
       </li>
       <li class="item odd">
           <span class="text">C</span>
           <ul class="sub">
               <li>5</li>
               <li>6</li>
           </ul>
       </li>
       <li class="item even">
           <span class="text">D</span>
           <ul class="sub">
               <li>7</li>
               <li>8</li>
           </ul>
       </li>
   </ul>

CSS

---

/* colors used are not for production; they are
   used only to enhance the example's visual distinction */

   #main{width:10em;}
   .head,.item{border:1px solid black;padding:.5em;}
   .head{font-weight:bold; background:#336; color:#fff; cursor:pointer;}
   .item{background:#f90;}
   .sub{display:none;}
   .sub li{padding-left:1em;}
   .text,.sub{cursor:pointer;}

JavaScript

---

   $(document).ready(function(){
      // specific here because of other divs/list items

      $('#main li.item span.text').hover(function(){
         $(this).siblings().stop(true,true).toggle('slow');     
      });       

      $('li.head').hover(function(){
         $(this).parent().find('ul.sub').stop(true,true).toggle('slow');
      });
   });

Edit:

I think something along these lines is what I need, however the animation is refired when going from the sub to the span.

$(document).ready(function(){
   // specific here because of other divs/list items

   $('#main li.item span.text').hover(
       function(){$(this).siblings().stop(false,true).show('slow');}
      ,function(){$(this).siblings().stop(true,true).hide('slow');}     
   );    

   $('#main li.item ul.sub').hover(
        function(){$(this).stop(false,true).show();}
       ,function(){$(this).stop(false,true).hide('slow');}
   );    

   $('li.head').hover(function(){
      $(this).parent().find('ul.sub').stop(true,true).toggle('slow');
   });
});

Answer 1

Split the hover behavior into its two constituents, mouseenter and mouseleave. Also split toggle() into show() and hide(). Bind mouseenter to the span.text and mouseleave to the li.item:

$(document).ready(function() {
    // specific here because of other divs/list items
    $('#main li.item span.text').mouseenter(function() {
        $(this).siblings().stop(true, true).show('slow');
    });

    $('#main li.item').mouseleave(function() {
        $(this).children("ul").stop(true, true).hide('slow');
    });

    $('li.head').hover(function() {
        $(this).parent().find('ul.sub').stop(true, true).toggle('slow');
    });
});

That way, the hover is not triggered by whitespace, which is what you want.