How to click a link from javascript

Question

I would like to click a link in my page using javascript. I would like to Fire event handlers on the link without navigating. How can this be done?

Thanks

What do you want to accomplish? Navigating to the page in the `href`? Fire event handlers on the link *without* navigating? — Crescent Fresh, Nov 12 '09 at 15:19

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 12 '09 at 15:10

7

window.onload = function() {
  var myLink = document.getElementById("YOUR_A_TAG_ID");
  fireClick(myLink);
};

function fireClick(elem) {
  if(typeof elem == "string") elem = document.getElementById(objID);
  if(!elem) return;

  if(document.dispatchEvent) {   // W3C
    var oEvent = document.createEvent( "MouseEvents" );
    oEvent.initMouseEvent("click", true, true,window, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, false, false, false, false, 0, elem);
    elem.dispatchEvent( oEvent );
  }
  else if(document.fireEvent) {   // IE
    elem.click();
  }    
}

answered Nov 12 '09 at 15:10

Josh Stodola

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FYI, *if* the goal of the OP is to navigate to the page specified in the `href` attribute, this code will have no effect in Firefox (all versions). – Crescent Fresh Nov 12 '09 at 15:21
Thanks, Crescent Fresh. I can't test on FF right now. Does it fall through the `if(document.dispatchEvent)` at all? – Josh Stodola Nov 12 '09 at 15:33
Or does FireFox simply disallow this behavior on HTML anchors? Any documentation? I can see how it would be perceived as a semi-security risk. – Josh Stodola Nov 12 '09 at 15:34
@Josh: yes, the `document.dispatchEvent` code path will definately be hit, and all the usual "fire event handlers", "bubble and repeat" will happen (as you've specified it should). It's just that Firefox simply doesn't then navigate to the page. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/809057/how-do-i-programmatically-click-on-an-element-in-firefox/809611#809611 IMO it's just a bug. – Crescent Fresh Nov 12 '09 at 15:42
A potential (ugly) hack would be to check to see if the window.unload event fires after attempting to programmatically dispatch the click event. If not, set location.href to the anchor href. Far from ideal, but it could work. – Josh Stodola Nov 12 '09 at 18:00

Clark · Answer 2 · 2009-11-12T17:31:05.100

3

With JQuery It would be like this.

$("#YOUR_A_TAG_ID").click();

This only fires the function assigned to the click event. It will not navigate to the path specified in the href attribute.

JQuery documentation for click

edited Nov 12 '09 at 17:31

answered Nov 12 '09 at 15:14

Clark

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FYI: This only fires the function assigned to the click event. – Josh Stodola Nov 12 '09 at 15:31
Yes, depending on if the OP wants to actually navigate to the page specified in the `href` attribute, this will only do what Josh states. – Crescent Fresh Nov 12 '09 at 15:44

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 12 '09 at 15:15

0

Another way is using JQuery's trigger feature.

<span onmouseover="$('#alink').trigger('click');">Hello World</span>

<a href="http://someurl" id="alink">A Link</a>

answered Nov 12 '09 at 15:15

o.k.w

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How to click a link from javascript

3 Answers3

Linked