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CSS jQuery Basics (2014) Creating a Simple Lightbox Fixing the Simple Lightbox

Aaron HARPT
Aaron HARPT
19,845 Points

Code challenge problem

I am having trouble with the following code challenge. I think that I need to pass in a preventDefault method somewhere but am not sure where.

Thanks.

"Oh no! When you click on an image the browser follows the link. Fix it."

js/app.js
//Problem: User when clicking on image goes to a dead end
//Solution: Create an overlay with the large image - Lightbox

var $overlay = $('<div id="overlay"></div>');
var $image = $("<img>");
var $caption = $("<p></p>");

//An image to overlay
$overlay.append($image);

//A caption to overlay
$overlay.append($caption);

//Add overlay
$("body").append($overlay);

//Capture the click event on a link to an image
$("#imageGallery a").click(function(event){

  var imageLocation = $(this).attr("href");
  //Update overlay with the image linked in the link
  $image.attr("src", imageLocation);

  //Show the overlay.
  $overlay.show();

  //Get child's alt attribute and set caption
  var captionText = $(this).children("img").attr("alt");
  $caption.text(captionText);
});

//When overlay is clicked
$overlay.click(function(){
  //Hide the overlay
  $overlay.hide();
});
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" type="text/css" media="screen" title="no title" charset="utf-8">
    <title>Image Gallery</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Image Gallery</h1>
    <ul id="imageGallery">
        <li><a href="images/refferal_machine.png"><img src="images/refferal_machine.png" width="100" alt="Refferal Machine By Matthew Spiel"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/space-juice.png"><img src="images/space-juice.png" width="100" alt="Space Juice by Mat Helme"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/education.png"><img src="images/education.png" width="100" alt="Education by Chris Michel"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/copy_mcrepeatsalot.png"><img src="images/copy_mcrepeatsalot.png" width="100" alt="Wanted: Copy McRepeatsalot by Chris Michel"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/sebastian.png"><img src="images/sebastian.png" width="100" alt="Sebastian by Mat Helme"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/skill-polish.png"><img src="images/skill-polish.png" width="100" alt="Skill Polish by Chris Michel"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/chuck.png"><img src="images/chuck.png" width="100" alt="Chuck by Mat Helme"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/library.png"><img src="images/library.png" width="100" alt="Library by Tyson Rosage"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/boat.png"><img src="images/boat.png" width="100" alt="Boat by Griffin Moore"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/illustrator_foundations.png"><img src="images/illustrator_foundations.png" width="100" alt="Illustrator Foundations by Matthew Spiel"></a></li>
        <li><a href="images/treehouse_shop.jpg"><img src="images/treehouse_shop.jpg" width="100" alt="Treehouse Shop by Eric Smith"></a></li>
    </ul>
    <script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.0.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
    <script src="js/app.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
</body>
</html>

2 Answers

0yzh 󠀠
0yzh 󠀠
17,276 Points

Hey Aaron, the challenge wants you to prevent the browser from following the link when you click on the images. You are correct you need to use the preventDefault() method and in this case since you want to prevent the browser from opening the link on an image click, you would put this method inside the ".click" event function.

//Capture the click event on a link to an image
$("#imageGallery a").click(function(event){
  event.preventDefault();  // <--- preventDefault goes here
  var imageLocation = $(this).attr("href");
  //Update overlay with the image linked in the link
  $image.attr("src", imageLocation);

  //Show the overlay.
  $overlay.show();

  //Get child's alt attribute and set caption
  var captionText = $(this).children("img").attr("alt");
  $caption.text(captionText);
});

event.preventDefault();

var imageLocation = $(this).attr("href"); console.log("custom js is loaded"); console.log($('<div></div>'));