Question

I am looking to have a user click on a word and a tip shows up above the word showing the definition. The definitions will come from a glossary of words we already have. We are using Ruby and Jquery for the site.

Any suggestions or a finger pointing in a direction?

Answer 1

If you’re using jQuery then attach a click or hover event to the words container. So if you have <div class="WordDef">Word</div> then you attach like;

$('.WordDef').click(function(){ 
  var word = $(this).text(); 
  //do postback to get definition then show definition 
})

Showing the definition might make another div visible that contains the definition of the word.

$('.DivDefinition').text("Definition of word from jQuery ajax postback");
$('.DivDefinition').show();

Consider using a jQuery plugin that will give you a tooltip look that you can place where the mouse was when it was clicked.

Edit

I found this link which might help you do an Ajax postback in rails. I’m not a rails developer so unsure if this will help.

http://jimneath.org/2008/06/18/using-jquery-with-ruby-on-rails/