Question

I am just learning how to define a function and call it back later.
I am stuck trying to define ‘this’ in my function without using an event.

function slide() {
    var imgAlt = $(this).find('img').attr("alt"); 
    var imgTitle = $(this).find('a').attr("href"); 
    var imgDesc = $(this).find('.block').html();  
    var imgDescHeight = $(".main_image").find('.block').height(); 

    $(.active); 
    $(".main_image .block").animate({ opacity: 0, marginBottom: -imgDescHeight }, 250 ,
                function() { 
                    $(".main_image .block").html(imgDesc).animate({ opacity: 0.85,  marginBottom: "0" }, 250 ); 
                    $(".main_image img").attr({ src: imgTitle , alt: imgAlt}); 
                }
            );
     }
   });

On line 6 you will see ‘$(.active); ‘ and this is where I want to select the class active and then apply the following function to it. Normally I used to setting this up on a click or something so I am unsure how to impliment it.

Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks

Here is a js fiddle where you can see the big picture:
http://jsfiddle.net/wzQj6/21/

Answer 1

See lines 3-4 in code below for how to cache your .active elements for reuse (and then use that instead of this!):

function slide() {

    //cache all .active elements for reuse
    var actives = $(".active");

    //use the new 'actives' variable instead of 'this'
    var imgAlt = actives.find('img').attr("alt"); 
    var imgTitle = actives.find('a').attr("href"); 
    var imgDesc = actives.find('.block').html();  
    var imgDescHeight = $(".main_image").find('.block').height(); 

    //$(.active); -- not sure what you were doing with this :p
    $(".main_image .block").animate({ opacity: 0, marginBottom: -imgDescHeight }, 250 ,
                function() { 
                    $(".main_image .block").html(imgDesc).animate({ opacity: 0.85,  marginBottom: "0" }, 250 ); 
                    $(".main_image img").attr({ src: imgTitle , alt: imgAlt}); 
                }
            );
     }
   });

Cheers!