Question

I am new to JavaScript and actually quite desperate by now

I have an HTML file that:

1. gets data from an XML file and displays them in various divs (e.g. )
2. these divs are hidden (by default) by a class name (class=’box’)
3. when a link is clicked, I pass the ‘href’ to the function showContent, remove the #, and then look for an element with that ID in the document.
4. then I add a new class name (‘show’) – so that this element shows up!

If you run the code you will see that every time you click on a link a new div is displayed…

So current problems:

1. replace already shown divs with the new clicked ID so that only one div shows up every time.
2. How can I avoid inserting the onClick event in every single tag – and make this more automated?

---

My code is as follows:

function showContent(obj)
{
var linkTo = obj.getAttribute("href");
var newlinkTo=linkTo.replace('#','');
//alert (newlinkTo);

document.getElementById(newlinkTo).innerHTML=" This is where the xml variable content should go";   
document.getElementById(newlinkTo).className += " Show";

return true;
}

<a href="#b0" onClick="return showContent(this);">
<div id="text_content"> link2 </div>
</a>

<a href="#b1" onClick="return showContent(this);">
<div id="text_content"> link 1 </div>
</a>

<div class='box' id='b0'> abstract content </div>
<div class='box' id='b1'> introduction content </div>

Answer 1

This sort of thing is not hard to do without jQuery.

I would recommend using a hash-bang (#!) for Javascript activated links to keep it separate from other possible links with hashes. (script is at the bottom)

<div id="nav-links">

    <a href="#!b0">
    <div id="text_content"> link2 </div>
    </a>

    <a href="#!b1">
    <div id="text_content"> link 1 </div>
    </a>

</div>

<div class='box' id='b0'> abstract content </div>
<div class='box' id='b1'> introduction content </div>

<script type="text/javascript">

    var links = document.getElementById('nav-links').getElementsByTagName('a');
    for(var i = 0, link; link = links[i]; i++) {
        link.onclick = showContent;
        // Hide content divs by default
        getContentDiv(link).style.display = 'none';
    }
    // Show the first content div
    if(links.length > 0) showContent.apply(links[0]);

    var current;

    function showContent() {

        // hide old content
        if(current) current.style.display = 'none';

        current = getContentDiv(this);
        if(!current) return true;

        //current.innerHTML = "This is where the xml variable content should go";
        current.style.display = 'block';

        return true;

    }

    function getContentDiv(link) {

        var linkTo = link.getAttribute('href');

        // Make sure the link is meant to go to a div
        if(linkTo.substring(0, 2) != '#!') return;
        linkTo = linkTo.substring(2);

        return document.getElementById(linkTo);

    }

</script>​