Started using fabric.js and trying to add a canvas inside another canvas, so that the top canvas stays constant and I'll add objects to inner canvas.

Here is the snippet of adding a canvas to another canvas.

canvas  = new fabric.Canvas('artcanvas');
innerCanvas = new fabric.Canvas("innerCanvas");
canvas.add(innerCanvas);

and my html looks like this

<canvas id="artcanvas" width="500" height="500"></canvas>
<canvas id="innerCanvas" width="200" height="200" ></canvas>

Once adding these successfully, what I am going to do is , add the coordinates to the inner canvas, so that it looks like one on another to the end user.

However, ran into the below error for the tried code

    Uncaught TypeError: obj.setCoords is not a function
    at klass._onObjectAdded (fabric.js:6894)
    at klass.add (fabric.js:231)
    at main.js:60
    at fabric.js:19435
    at HTMLImageElement.fabric.util.loadImage.img.onload (fabric.js:754)
_onObjectAdded @ fabric.js:6894
add @ fabric.js:231
(anonymous) @ main.js:60
(anonymous) @ fabric.js:19435
fabric.util.loadImage.img.onload @ fabric.js:754

Looking at the error message, just went to the line of error and here is what I found in chrome console

Can someone point the mistake in my codes ?

Started using fabric.js and trying to add a canvas inside another canvas, so that the top canvas stays constant and I'll add objects to inner canvas.

Here is the snippet of adding a canvas to another canvas.

canvas  = new fabric.Canvas('artcanvas');
innerCanvas = new fabric.Canvas("innerCanvas");
canvas.add(innerCanvas);

and my html looks like this

<canvas id="artcanvas" width="500" height="500"></canvas>
<canvas id="innerCanvas" width="200" height="200" ></canvas>

Once adding these successfully, what I am going to do is , add the coordinates to the inner canvas, so that it looks like one on another to the end user.

However, ran into the below error for the tried code

    Uncaught TypeError: obj.setCoords is not a function
    at klass._onObjectAdded (fabric.js:6894)
    at klass.add (fabric.js:231)
    at main.js:60
    at fabric.js:19435
    at HTMLImageElement.fabric.util.loadImage.img.onload (fabric.js:754)
_onObjectAdded @ fabric.js:6894
add @ fabric.js:231
(anonymous) @ main.js:60
(anonymous) @ fabric.js:19435
fabric.util.loadImage.img.onload @ fabric.js:754

Looking at the error message, just went to the line of error and here is what I found in chrome console

Can someone point the mistake in my codes ?

• javascript
• html
• canvas
• html5-canvas
• fabricjs

• Are you sure that fabric allows nested canvas? You can also use CSS positioning if the goal is to overlay canvas over each other. – Mr. Alien Commented Jun 8, 2017 at 12:13
• What does console.log(t) says? – Praveen Kumar Purushothaman Commented Jun 8, 2017 at 12:15
• @PraveenKumar t is minified version. It is obj in extracted version. Updated the screenshot – Suresh Atta Commented Jun 8, 2017 at 12:17
• DId you try my answer? should really be what you are looking for – AndreaBogazzi Commented Jun 18, 2017 at 11:01

5 Answers 5

After going through no.of discussions and internet solutions, for time being I am using Fabric Rectangle as a clipper and setting it's boundaries so user can be able to drop/play with in that particular clipper.

Dotted red(image below) is my clipper and now I can bound the dropping and below is the code to add an image with a clipper.

function addImageToCanvas(imgSrc) { 
    fabric.Object.prototype.transparentCorners = false;    
    fabric.Image.fromURL(imgSrc, function(myImg) {
        var img1 = myImg.set({
            left: 20,
            top: 20,
            width: 460,
            height: 460
        });
        img1.selectable = false;
        canvas.add(img1);

        var clipRectangle = new fabric.Rect({
            originX: 'left',
            originY: 'top',
            left: 150,
            top: 150,
            width: 200,
            height: 200,
            fill: 'transparent',
            /* use transparent for no fill */
            strokeDashArray: [10, 10],
            stroke: 'red',
            selectable: false
        });

        clipRectangle.set({
            clipFor: 'layer'
        });
        canvas.add(clipRectangle);

    });
}

Now while appending any image/layer to the canvas, I bind that image/layer/text to the clipper I created.

function addLayerToCanvas(laImg) {

    var height = $(laImg).height();
    var width = $(laImg).width();
    var clickedImage = new Image();
    clickedImage.onload = function(img) {

        var pug = new fabric.Image(clickedImage, {

            width: width,
            height: height,
            left: 150,
            top: 150,
            clipName: 'layer',
            clipTo: function(ctx) {
                return _.bind(clipByName, pug)(ctx)
            }
        });
        canvas.add(pug);
    };
    clickedImage.src = $(laImg).attr("src");

}

And the looks like, after restriction of bounds,

Here is the fiddle I have created with some static image url.

https://jsfiddle.net/sureshatta/yxuoav39/

So I am staying with this solution for now and I really feel like this is hacky and dirty. Looking for some other clean solutions.

As far as I know you can't add a canvas to another canvas - you're getting that error as it tries to call setCoords() on the object you've added, but in this case it's another canvas and fabric.Canvas doesn't contain that method (see docs). I think a better approach would be to have two canvases and position them relatively using CSS - see this simple fiddle

HTML

<div class="parent">
  <div class="artcanvas">
    <canvas id="artcanvas"  width="500" height="500"></canvas>  
  </div>
  <div class="innerCanvas">
    <canvas id="innerCanvas" width="200" height="200" ></canvas>  
  </div>
</div>

CSS

.parent {
  position: relative;
  background: black;
}


.artcanvas {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
}

.innerCanvas {
  position: absolute;
  left: 150px;
  top: 150px;
}

JS

$(document).ready(function() {
    canvas  = new fabric.Canvas('artcanvas');
  innerCanvas = new fabric.Canvas("innerCanvas");
  var rect = new fabric.Rect({
    fill: 'grey',
    width: 500,
    height: 500
  });
  canvas.add(rect);
  var rect2 = new fabric.Rect({
    fill: 'green',
    width: 200,
    height: 200
  });
  innerCanvas.add(rect2);
})

To handle the object serialization, you can do something like this:

var innerObjs = innerCanvas.toObject();
console.dir(innerObjs);
var outerObjs = canvas.toObject();
innerObjs.objects.forEach(function (obj) {
    obj.left += leftOffset; // offset of inner canvas
  obj.top += topOffset;
  outerObjs.objects.push(obj);
    });
var json = JSON.stringify(outerObjs);

This will then give you the JSON for all objects on both canvases

I have no understanding why you want to do this thing, but to put a canvas inside another canvas, you have one simple way:

canvas  = new fabric.Canvas('artcanvas');
innerCanvas = new fabric.Canvas("innerCanvas");
imageContainer = new fabric.Image(innerCanvas.lowerCanvasEl);
canvas.add(imageContainer);

Then depending what you want to do, you may need additional tweaks, but this should work out of the box.

Don't create a canvas

Most objects in fabric (from my limited experience) are at some point converted to a canvas. Creating an additional fabric canvas to manage a group of objects is kind of pointless as you are just adding overhead and mimicking fabrics built in groups object.

Fabric objects are basically DOM canvases wrappers.

The following example shows how fabric uses a canvas to store the content of a group. The demo creates a group and adds it to the fabric canvas, then gets the groups canvas and adds it to the DOM. Clicking on the group's canvas will add a circle. Note how it grows to accommodate the new circles.

const radius = 50;
const fill = "#0F0";
var pos = 60;

const canvas = new fabric.Canvas('fCanvas');

// create a fabric group and add two circles
const group = new fabric.Group([
    new fabric.Circle({radius, top : 5, fill,  left : 20 }),
    new fabric.Circle({radius, top : 5, fill,  left : 120 })
], { left: 0, top: 0 });

// add group to the fabric canvas;
canvas.add(group);

// get the groups canvas and add it to the DOM
document.body.appendChild(group._cacheContext.canvas);

// add event listener to add circles to the group
group._cacheContext.canvas.addEventListener("click",(e)=>{
  group.addWithUpdate(
      new fabric.Circle({radius, top : pos, fill : "blue",  left : 60 }) 
  );
  canvas.renderAll();
  pos += 60;
});

canvas {
   border : 2px solid black;
}
div {
   margin : 10px;
}

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/fabric.js/1.7.13/fabric.min.js"></script>
<div>Fabric's canvas  "canvas = new fabric.Canvas('fCanvas');"</div>
<canvas id="fCanvas" width="256" height="140"></canvas>
<div>Fabric group canvas below. Click on it to add a circle.</div>

Use a group rather than a new instance of a fabric canvas.

As you can see a canvas is generated for you. Adding another fabric canvas (Note that a fabric canvas is not the same as a DOM canvas) will only add more work for fabric to do, which already has a lot of work to do.

You are best of to use a group and have that hold the content of the other fabric object you wish to shadow. That would also contain its content in a group.

Just an image

And just a side not, a DOM canvas is an image and can be used by fabric just as any other image. It is sometimes better to do the rendering directly to the canvas rather than via fabric so you can avoid rendering overheads that fabric needs to operate.

To add a DOM canvas to fabric just add it as an image. The border and text are not fabric object, and apart from the code to render them take up no memory, and no additional CPU overhead that would be incurred if you used a fabric canvas and objects.

const canvas = new fabric.Canvas('fCanvas');

// create a standard DOM canvas
const myImage = document.createElement("canvas");

// size it add borders and text
myImage.width = myImage.height = 256;
const ctx = myImage.getContext("2d");
ctx.fillRect(0,0,256,256);
ctx.fillStyle = "white";
ctx.fillRect(4,4,248,248);
ctx.fillStyle = "black";
ctx.font = "32px arial";
ctx.textAlign = "center";
ctx.textBaseline = "middle";
ctx.fillText("The DOM canvas!",128,128);

// use the canvas to create a fabric image and add it to fabrics canvas.
canvas.add( new fabric.Image(myImage, {
  left: (400 - 256) / 2,
  top: (400 - 256) / 2,
}));

canvas {
   border : 2px solid black;
}

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/fabric.js/1.7.13/fabric.min.js"></script>
<canvas id="fCanvas" width="400" height="400"></canvas>

innerCanvas.setCoords(); ìs a function, but you need it only after you set the coordinates. Or more precise, set these four elements:

innerCanvas.scaleX = 1;
innerCanvas.scaleY = 1;
innerCanvas.left = 150;
innerCanvas.top = 150;
innerCanvas.setCoords();
canvas.renderAll();