Update:
After a lot of comments (back and forth) I set up a fiddle, with a working version of this code (the code here works, too, but needed some debugging). The eventTrigger
function in the fiddle has been stripped of all comments, but I've added an example usage of this function, which is generously sprinkled with comments.
Browse through it, fork it, play around and get familiar with the code and concepts used there. Have fun:
If by "finding a way to click it" you mean: how to programmatically click this anchor element, then this is what you can use:
Here's a X-browser, slightly verbose yet comprehensive approach:
var eventTrigger = function(node, event)
{
var e, eClass,
doc = node.ownerDocument || (node.nodeType === (document.DOCUMENT_NODE || 9) ? node : document);
//after checking John Resig's Pro JavaScript Techniques
//the statement above is best written with an explicit 9
//Given the fact that IE doesn't do document.<NODE_CONSTANT>:
//doc = node.ownerDocument || (node.nodeType === 9 ? node : document);
if (node.dispatchEvent)
{//dispatchEvent method is present, we have an OK browser
if (event === 'click' || event.indexOf('mouse') >= 0)
eClass = 'MouseEvents';//clik, mouseup & mousedown are MouseEvents
else
eClass = 'HTMLEvents';//change, focus, blur... => HTMLEvents
//now create an event object of the corresponding class
e = doc.createEvent(eClass);
//initialize it, if it's a change event, don't let it bubble
//change events don't bubble in IE<9, but most browsers do
//e.initEvent(event, true, true); would be valid, though not standard
e.initEvent(event, !(event === 'change'), true);
//optional, non-standard -> a flag for internal use in your code
e.synthetic = true;//mark event as synthetic
//dispatch event to given node
node.dispatchEvent(e, true);
//return here, to avoid else branch
return true;
}
if (node.fireEvent)
{//old IE's use fireEvent method, its API is simpler, and less powerful
//a standard event, IE events do not contain event-specific details
e = doc.createEventObject();
//same as before: optional, non-standard (but then IE never was :-P)
e.synthetic = true;
//~same as dispatchEvent, but event name preceded by "on"
node.fireEvent('on' + event, e);
return true;//end IE
}
//last-resort fallback -> trigger any directly bound handler manually
//alternatively throw Error!
event = 'on' + event;
//use bracket notation, to use event's value, and invoke
return node[event]();//invoke "onclick"
};
In your case, you can use this function by querying the DOM for that particular element, like so:
var elem = document.querySelector('.buttonright');//IE8 and up, will only select 1 element
//document.querySelectorAll('.buttonright'); returns a nodelist (array-like object) with all elements that have this class
eventTrigger(elem, 'click');
That should have the effect of clicking the anchor element
If you're looking for a way to handle click events on this element (an anchor that has a buttonright
class), then a simple event listener is all you need:
document.body.addEventListener('click', function(e)
{
e = e || window.event;
var target = e.target || e.srcElement;
if (target.tagName.toLowerCase() === 'a' && target.className.match(/\bbuttonright\b/))
{//clicked element was a link, with the buttonright class
alert('You clicked a button/link thingy');
}
}, false);
That's the cleanest way to do things (one event listener handles all click events). Of course, you can bind the handler to specific elements, too:
var buttons = document.querySelectorAll('.buttonright'),
handler = function(e)
{
alert('Clicked!');
};
for (var i=0;i<buttons.length;++i)
{
buttons[i].addEventListener('click',handler, false);
}