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JavaScript jQuery Basics (2014) Creating a Simple Lightbox Perform: Part 4

Erik Nuber
Erik Nuber
20,629 Points
Posted by Erik Nuber
Erik Nuber
20,629 Points

Created a Close Button but it doesn't work. JS/JQuery

I have been working on creating an overlay for a series of photos. I have appended an overlay that contains a div tag, image tag, paragraph tag and a button tag.

I am having two issues

1) The overlay stacks, so if an image is clicked on followed by a different image, both overlays stay open.

2) I would like the button to remove the overlay but, I've yet to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Below is my code for the javascript/jQuery portion.

This function is designed to create an Overlay with a specific ID so that I can size the overlay for different sized photos. 

/*jslint browser: true*/
/*global $, jQuery, alert*/

function getOverlay(verifySize) {
    "use strict";
    var $finalOverlay = "";
    if (verifySize) {
        $finalOverlay = $("<div id='overlaySpread'></div>");
        return $finalOverlay;
    } else {
        $finalOverlay = $("<div id='overlayTitlePage'></div>");
        return $finalOverlay;
    }
}

This is where the overlay is created in it's entirety. I create tags to append to the body and then fill those tags in. Finally the overlay is shown with all it's content. 

$(".overlayImage a").click(function (event) {
    "use strict";

    event.preventDefault();                  //prevents the opening of a window to display image
    var getImage, captionText, specificImage,
        $overlay,
        $image = $("<img>"),
        $caption = $("<p></p>"),
        $button = $("<button id='closeIt' class='forClosing'>close</button>"),
        statement = false;
    specificImage = $(this.getElementsByTagName("img"));      //get the specific image tag for the item clicked on.
    if (parseInt($(specificImage).attr("width"), 10) === 150) {   //check the width attribute to verify size of document.
        statement = true;
    } else {
        statement = false;
    }
    $overlay = getOverlay(statement);                   //call function to create the div tag
    $overlay.append($image);                             //append the image tag to the overlay
    $overlay.append($caption);                            //append the p tag to overlay
    $overlay.append($button);
    $("body").append($overlay);                          //append the overlay to the body
    getImage = $(this).attr("href");                     //sets a variable to the href of whatever image is clicked on
    $image.attr("src", getImage);                        //assigns the src of the image tag created above to the href

    captionText = $(this).children("img").attr("alt");  //sets a variable to the alternate text to be used as caption
    $caption.text(captionText);                          //assigns the alt text to the caption tag created above.
    $overlay.show();                                    //shows the overlay itself

});

this is the part I can't seem to get to work. I've messed around with it as you can see some of my idea was I've commented out. I have tried various ways of doing this and, just can't seem to figure out what it is I'm doing wrong.

$(document).ready(function () {
    "use strict";
    $("#closeIt").on('click', function (event) {
    //    var getClass, i;
    //    getClass = document.getElementsByClassName(".forclosing");
    //    for (i = 0; i < getClass.length; i += 1) {
    //        getClass[i].hide();
    //    }
        $(".forClosing).hide();
    });
});

The overlay works as I want, I have it styled using CSS it is the two problems mentioned above I haven't been able to resolve.

Thank You.

3 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points

You didn't give your HTML, so I can't see the whole thing in operation, but I do spot one likely issue: when you establish your click handler for the button, the button hasn't been added to the document yet, so it's not effective. But you can establish the handler as a delegate that will work for elements created later like this:

      $("body").on('click', "#closeIt", function (event) {

If you have any other issues it would help if you create a workspace and then make a snapshot and provide the link.

Erik Nuber
Erik Nuber
20,629 Points
Erik Nuber
Erik Nuber
20,629 Points

https://w.trhou.se/34q3kvn0m4

Here is a snapshot of the workspace. I didn't load all of the photos nor all the various pages of the site as I am working page by page.

The button is appended to the document with the javaScript. By the time the overlay is complete the following gets appended to the document.

<div class="overlayTitlePage" style="display: block;">
<img src="img/articleCS.jpg">
<p>Caption Text Here</p>
<button class="closeIt forClosing">close</button>
</div>

I have tried what you suggested, I will continue to work on it today. I need to create some form of function to check if an overlay is already open and that will help get rid of multiple windows opening but, I still have to figure out why my close button won't operate.

Thank You.

Erik Nuber
Erik Nuber
20,629 Points
Erik Nuber
Erik Nuber
20,629 Points

Thank You, I got it! Your suggestion worked, I had changed my ID to a class last night why I was still trying to mess around with getting it to work. But otherwise that was it!