Question

I am trying to make a menu in javascript/JQuery (css is also an option) that allows me to make it do things like show a particular drop down menu, activate a button in the menu and mimic mouseover effects without the mouse actually doing any of these things.

The reason for this is that I am making an interface that uses a function similar to let me google that for you, meaning an image of a mouse moving on the screen “showing” you where to find things in the menu. Therefore I need to be able to code in things to make a particular menu button pretend to have mouseover or having been clicked.

So basicly, how do I make a menu with unique identifiers for each button that can be called for desired effects?

Answer 1

If you make all of your event handlers stand alone functions you can call them manually as well. For example, instead of registering an anonymous click handler like so:

$('#myelement').click(function(){ /* do stuff */ });

You would have:

function doStuff() { /* do stuff */ }

$('#myelement').click(doStuff);

// somewhere else in your code
doStuff();

Alternatively, if you are using jQuery, you can just call $('#myelement').click() somewhere else in your code, and it will call whatever onclick handlers are attached to the element, the same as if someone had physically clicked on it.