Click a link with Javascript when there is no element ID

Question

Please forgive me if this has already been answered somewhere but I just can't find what I'm looking for. I'm using Greasemonkey for Firefox and Tampermonkey in Chrome to try to create a Javascipt to change how I interact with a webpage. Upon page load, I'd like to automatically open a link in a new tab in the background. This link is slightly different each time I load the page. The element from the webpage is this:

<a href="/cgi/admin/user/ssh_login/*" target="_blank">SSH</a>

The part with the * is what's different each time.

So how can I automatically click that link upon page load if it doesn't have an elementID or at the very least an elementName?

What is the surrounding markup? Is it inside a `div` container with id provided? — barfoos, Oct 05 '15 at 15:54
why cant you give this link an id? SSH Does something prevent you from doing this when you are generating the link? — david tallon, Oct 05 '15 at 15:54
`document.querySelector('a').fireEvent('click')` - I have to say that this looks dodgy. Open a tab in the background and auto-click a link? You better not want to use this for evil. — somethinghere, Oct 05 '15 at 15:55
@somethinghere Note they might not want to click every `` and only a certain one by it's content or `href`. — Spencer Wieczorek, Oct 05 '15 at 15:57
Exactly. There are lots of on the page. This is the only one I want clicked. — Mister Pyrrhuloxia, Oct 05 '15 at 16:00
@SpencerWieczorek I don't think it is clear from the OPs question that there are multiply links, but `querySelector` would work nonetheless. — somethinghere, Oct 05 '15 at 16:02
Looks like you are trying to open annoying ad pages which we usually see while watching online movies/some free other stuff. — Mr_Green, Oct 05 '15 at 17:04
Nope. If you read the op, you'll see that I'm just trying to click on a link automatically whenever I visit a page using a userscript in Greasemonkey. — Mister Pyrrhuloxia, Oct 05 '15 at 17:18

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

8

var link = document.querySelector('[href*="/cgi/admin/user/ssh_login/"]');
link.click();

Edit:

Open link in a background tab in chrome (based on this answer)

var link = document.querySelector('[href*="/cgi/admin/user/ssh_login/"]');
var url = link.getAttribute('href');
openNewBackgroundTab(url);

function openNewBackgroundTab(url){
    var a = document.createElement("a");
    a.href = url;
    var evt = document.createEvent("MouseEvents");
    //the tenth parameter of initMouseEvent sets ctrl key
    evt.initMouseEvent("click", true, true, window, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
                                true, false, false, false, 0, null);
    a.dispatchEvent(evt);
}

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

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answered Oct 05 '15 at 15:58

bcr

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@Mr_Green `.click()` fires the click event, not `onclick` which defines it. – Spencer Wieczorek Oct 05 '15 at 15:59
3

`onclick` is an inline event listener. `click()` simulates a mouse click. – bcr Oct 05 '15 at 15:59
another question, why `[href*=` wouldn't `[href^=` works here as we know it starts from there only? – Mr_Green Oct 05 '15 at 16:01
@Mr_Green it sure would, `*= ` was just the first one that came to mind. – bcr Oct 05 '15 at 16:03
How would I incorporate this into a javascript to automatically click this upon page load? – Mister Pyrrhuloxia Oct 05 '15 at 16:03
1

@MisterPyrrhuloxia `window.onload = function(){ /*code*/ }` – Spencer Wieczorek Oct 05 '15 at 16:04
@MisterPyrrhuloxia Seriously, why do you want to click something automatically onload? You could forward the user, but this sounds like you are trying to do something that could negatively impact the user. Like I mentioned before, this looks dodgy. – somethinghere Oct 05 '15 at 16:04
@MisterPyrrhuloxia add it above the end of the body tag.. (In script tag) – Mr_Green Oct 05 '15 at 16:06
"I'm using Greasemonkey for Firefox and Tampermonkey in Chrome to try to create a Javascipt to change how I interact with a webpage. Upon page load, I'd like to automatically open a link in a new tab in the background." This is from my OP. This is not a webpage that I can edit. This is for a userscript in Greasemonkey to click this link for me when I load this webpage. – Mister Pyrrhuloxia Oct 05 '15 at 16:08
Then use `window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){ /* Your code here */ }, false)` instead of using the `window.onload` method. – somethinghere Oct 05 '15 at 16:13
@Brian when I do `window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){ var link = document.querySelector('[href*="/cgi/admin/user/ssh_login/"]'); link.click(); }, false)` nothing happens upon page load. But when I do `window.onload = function(){ var link = document.querySelector('[href*="/cgi/admin/user/ssh_login/"]'); link.click(); }` it works. But it does take me to the link immediately. I'd like for the link click to open in the new tab in the background. Is that possible? – Mister Pyrrhuloxia Oct 05 '15 at 16:58
@MisterPyrrhuloxia the first line of my answer, where `link` is set - this gets the link element. From there you want to set the `target` attribute, above `link.click()` add this line - `link.setAttribute('target', '_blank');` – bcr Oct 05 '15 at 17:26
@Brian so opening the link in a new tab is not a problem. Now my problem is that it's not opening that new tab in the background. Any idea? – Mister Pyrrhuloxia Oct 05 '15 at 17:33
@MisterPyrrhuloxia that's a browser specific issue, here is a fix for chrome - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10812628/open-a-new-tab-in-the-background. You'll want to take my code and get the url by using `var url = link.getAttribute('href')` then pass the url into the function given in the accepted answer for the question above. I've edited my answer to include this. – bcr Oct 05 '15 at 17:36
@Brian like this? `var url = link.getAttribute('href') function clicking(){ var link = document.querySelector('[href*="/cgi/admin/user/ssh_login/"]'); link.setAttribute('target', '_blank'); link.click(); } function openNewBackgroundTab(){ var a = document.createElement("a"); a.href = "url"; var evt = document.createEvent("MouseEvents"); //the tenth parameter of initMouseEvent sets ctrl key evt.initMouseEvent("click", true, true, window, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, true, false, false, false, 0, null); a.dispatchEvent(evt); }` – Mister Pyrrhuloxia Oct 05 '15 at 17:46
@Brian thanks so much for your help. That script above that you edited into your original answer works in every way other than actually opening the link in a background tab. I'm using that script and it's just opening the link as a new tab and focusing on it right away. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. :( – Mister Pyrrhuloxia Oct 05 '15 at 20:08

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 05 '15 at 16:00

0

If the content of the anchor is always going to be 'SSH' you can use;

$("a:contains('SSH')")

answered Oct 05 '15 at 16:00

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Click a link with Javascript when there is no element ID

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