Question

I’m a jQuery newbie and for now I rely on modifying existing scripts, but in the near future I plan to dig into the depths of jQuery API.

So, I’m using a jQuery snippet, which does a couple of things inside navigation menu dropdown with 5 submenus, which are dynamically populated with checkboxes.

On the bottom of the each submenu I have 4 buttons:

• select all (selects all checkboxes inside submenu), id=”checkAll”
• deselect all (deselects all checked checkboxes inside submenu), id=”uncheckAll”
• cancel (deselects all checked checkboxes if any and toggles submenu style display to none), id=”cancelSelection”
• confirm (toggles submenu style display to none), id=”confirmSelection”

So, for this buttons to work I put together this peace of code:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function(){
    // dropdown 1
    $("#mega-menu-item-1 #checkAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-1 .ez-checkbox").addClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-1 #uncheckAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-1 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-1 #cancelSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-1").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-1 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
      $("#mega-menu-item-1 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-1 #confirmSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-1").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-1 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    // dropdown 2
    $("#mega-menu-item-2 #checkAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-2 .ez-checkbox").addClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-2 #uncheckAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-2 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-2 #cancelSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-2").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-2 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
      $("#mega-menu-item-2 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-2 #confirmSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-2").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-2 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    // dropdown 3
    $("#mega-menu-item-3 #checkAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-3 .ez-checkbox").addClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-3 #uncheckAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-3 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-3 #cancelSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-3").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-3 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
      $("#mega-menu-item-3 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-3 #confirmSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-3").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-3 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    // dropdown 4
    $("#mega-menu-item-4 #checkAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-4 .ez-checkbox").addClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-4 #uncheckAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-4 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-4 #cancelSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-4").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-4 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
      $("#mega-menu-item-4 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-4 #confirmSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-4").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-4 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    // dropdown 5
    $("#mega-menu-item-5 #checkAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-5 .ez-checkbox").addClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-5 #uncheckAll").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-5 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-5 #cancelSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-5").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-5 .ez-checkbox").removeClass("ez-checked");
      $("#mega-menu-item-5 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
    $("#mega-menu-item-5 #confirmSelection").click(function () {
      $("#mega-menu-item-5").removeClass("mega-hover");
      $("#mega-menu-item-5 ul.sub").toggle();
    });
});

Each submenu has id #mega-menu-item-1/2/3/4/5, so I repeat each button action for every submenu item.

To explain it a little bit further:

1. Class .mega-hover is added to parent html element by megamenu script, which I’m using when submenu is displayed (it has state display: block). So I must also remove this class on closing the submenu with .removeClass(“mega-hover”).

2. Class .ez-checked is used by jquery snippet for checkbox styling so each checkbox element is wrapped inside div with class .ez-checkbox. When checkbox is checked, additional class .ez-checked is appended, so on cancel or uncheck I must remove this class with .removeClass(“ez-checked”).

3. As I mentioned in point 1 I’m using megamenu script, which also toggles display state of submenu. So on #confirmSelection or #cancelSelection I must toggle it with $(“#mega-menu-item ul.sub”).toggle();

I’m sure this isn’t the smoothest way to do all of this, so I’m asking experienced developers to suggest, how could this code be optimized, I guess there is a lot of repeating at least.

Answer 1

Start by working with classes instead of id’s.
You can simplify the checkall click like this for example:

$(".checkAll").click(function() {
    var parent = $(this).closest(".mega-menu-item");
    parent.removeClass("mega-hover");
    $("ul.sub", parent).toggle();
}