Question

Okay so this one has some similar threads but I couldn’t find anything that nailed it on the head, so here we go.

I’m trying to simulate a link using the anchor tag, like so:

<a onClick="javascript: DownloadPorn();">Click Here!</a>

All of this works fine and dandy; the link shows, I can click it, and my javascript method is successfully executed.

The question here, is how can I correctly force the link to display in the ‘same manner’ as an actual ‘HTML Link’? Or rather, in the ‘same manner’ as if I were to have an href in the above mentioned tag; like so:

<a href="#" onClick="javascript: DownloadMorePorn();">Click Here!</a>

Now… THIS Code snippet forces the link to display in the manner that I expect it to, but in using this method, when a link is clicked, the scroll location is bounced back to the top.

It’s probably clear, that this is not an intended behavior for the framework I am trying to develop. If anyone has any suggestions to overcome this particular issue, I would greatly appreciate your input.

— While typing this all up, I considered that I could place a static anchor at the top of the screen( say 0,0 or -,- ), and force all of my links to reference that anchor. If anyone sees any viability in this solution, I’m likely to explore it.

— Edited —

Accepted Answer:

In order to have an anchor behave as a hyperlink, without manipulating the browsers current position; utilize a Javascript method returning nothing(?) in the href attribute, or a valid return of ‘false’ in one of the alternate event handlers for an anchor, I.E. the onClick method.

Possible solutions:

<a href="javascript: DoSomething();">Link</a>
<a href="javascript: void(0);" onClick="javascript: DoSomething();">Link</a>
<a href="#" onClick="javascript: DoSomething(); return false;">Link</a>

Thanks again, everyone.

— End Edit —

Answer 1

If you use return false at the end of your onclick attribute it will not make it scroll anywhere.

<a href="#" onClick="someFunc(); return false;">Click Here!</a>

or you can make your function return false, and return its result (false) as well as execute it in the onclick attribute, which is shorter:

<script type="text/javascript">
function someFunc() {
    // all your function code here
    return false;
}
</script>
<a href="#" onClick="return someFunc()">Click Here!</a>