Question

<script>
$(function(){
    $('.logger').bind('click',function(){
        alert('we will log that the user shared something');
        return true; //keep going, pretend nothing happened.
    });

    $('.share').bind('click',function(){
        window.open('blah');
        return false; 
    });
});
</script>
<a href="#" class="share logger">Share this</a>

I want to be able to trigger BOTH the logger and the share functions. But right now, only the share function is triggered. If I comment share function, then the logger function works fine.

I’ve also tried to change the “class” so that logger is before share.

Answer 1

When you return false; in an event handler that stops the event propagation, that is why the other handler is not triggered. If you just want to stop the default action, use event.preventDefault().

This article does a good job explaining the concept:

First off, return false is actually
doing three very separate things when
you call it:

1. event.preventDefault();
2. event.stopPropagation();
3. Stops callback execution and returns
   immediately when called.

“Wait a
minute,” you cry! I only needed to
stop the default behavior! I don’t
need these other two items… I think.

The only one of those three actions
needed to cancel the default behavior
is preventDefault(). Unless you mean
to actually stop event propagation
(bubbling), using return false will
greatly increase the brittleness of
your code