Question

I hope I’m not creating a duplicate here, but I just don’t really know what to look for/didn’t find anything useful yet.

I got several links (<a>) on my page that trigger the jquery click() handler, which will load a new page into a div without reload. To make those links available to non-javascript users, I want to link them to the same page (that’s why I’m using s and not just any div/span/button). Propblem with that is that the script will reload anyway, so you can say jaavascript is overwritten.

So how do I prevent the browser using the link as a link with javascript? Or what’s the correct solution to allow non-javascript users to be able to use the site properly as well ?

The only solution I could come up with by myself is just using buttons, but I find that quite bulky as I have to use a form although I only submit 1 variable via GET which is only specified in the link itself. Thanks for help 🙂

Answer 1

For what you’re doing, returning false will work as others have answered, but beware of overusing return false; in jQuery event handlers.

You would probably be better served by calling preventDefault() to stop the click action only. It will prevent the link from being followed, but not stop any other handlers that may be attached. See jQuery events: stop misusing return false for a detailed explanation.

example:

$("a").click(function(event) {
    // your custom code
    event.preventDefault();
});