I have been playing with this issue today, I figured I would share my results...
Using the example from jQueryUI tooltip, custom styling and custom content
I wanted to have a hybrid of these two. I wanted to be able to have a popover and not a tooltip, and the content needed to be custom HTML. So no hover state, but instead a click state.
My JS is like this:
$(function() {
$( document ).tooltip({
items: "input",
content: function() {
return $('.myPopover').html();
},
position: {
my: "center bottom-20",
at: "center top",
using: function( position, feedback ) {
$( this ).css( position );
$( "<div>" )
.addClass( "arrow" )
.addClass( feedback.vertical )
.addClass( feedback.horizontal )
.appendTo( this );
}
}
});
$('.fireTip').click(function () {
if(!$(this).hasClass('open')) {
$('#age').trigger('mouseover');
$(this).addClass('open');
} else {
$('#age').trigger('mouseout');
$(this).removeClass('open');
}
})
});
The first part is more or less a direct copy of the code example from UI site with the addition of items and content in the tooltip block.
My HTML:
<p>
<input class='hidden' id="age" />
<a href=# class="fireTip">Click me ya bastard</a>
</p>
<div class="myPopover hidden">
<h3>Hi Sten this is the div</h3>
</div>
Bacially we trick the hover state when we click the anchor tag (fireTip class), the input tag that holds the tooltip has a mouseover state invoked, thus firing the tooltip and keeping it up as long as we wish... The CSS is on the fiddle...
Anyways, here is a fiddle to see the interaction a bit better:
http://jsfiddle.net/AK7pv/