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JavaScript jQuery Basics (2014) Creating a Simple Lightbox Adding New Attribute Values with attr()

Sean Lawrenz
Sean Lawrenz
15,886 Points
Posted by Sean Lawrenz
Sean Lawrenz
15,886 Points

I don't understand the question

Just don't understand it.

Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points

Is it just the code challenge or is there something else?

Sean Lawrenz
Sean Lawrenz
15,886 Points
Sean Lawrenz
Sean Lawrenz
15,886 Points

The wording of the question is unclear. I get that I need to select the class external $('.external') and add the attr function to it $('.external').attr() And I understand that we are changing it to _blank, $('.external').attr(??,'_blank')

but I don't understand what "target" is.

3 Answers

Roy Penrod
Roy Penrod
19,810 Points
Roy Penrod
Roy Penrod
19,810 Points

The challenge is asking you to select all the anchor tags with the class "external" using only jQuery and then add an attribute called "target" with the value "_blank" to those anchor tags.

If you look at the HTML, the links look like this:

<li><a href="http://google.com" class="external">Google</a></li>
<li><a href="http://yahoo.com" class="external">Yahoo</a></li>

The challenge wants you to make them look like this:

<li><a href="http://google.com" class="external" target="_blank">Google</a></li>
<li><a href="http://yahoo.com" class="external" target="_blank">Yahoo</a></li>

Adding that target to the anchor tags causes the browser to open the link in a new tab rather than causing your browser to redirect to that link.

Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points
Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points

I agree its poorly worded. What it wants you to do is target all links within the class external. So it should look like this:

$("a.external").attr('target' ,'_blank');

I hope this helps.

Sean Lawrenz
Sean Lawrenz
15,886 Points
Sean Lawrenz
Sean Lawrenz
15,886 Points

Guys I feel like a complete fool. Forgot what the target markup does.

Thanks!

Roy Penrod
Roy Penrod
19,810 Points
Roy Penrod
Roy Penrod
19,810 Points

No reason to feel that way, Sean. It happens to all of us. Web development is complex with a lot of moving parts. No one can remember everything.