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

John Wilson
John Wilson
11,739 Points
Posted by John Wilson
John Wilson
11,739 Points

In jquery perform part 3 challenge adding attr(), why is it not reading my jquery variable correctly?

I am getting the message: I was expecting the $target attribute to be "blank", not ''

can someone please help? Thank you

js/app.js 
var $external = $("class external");
var $target = "_blank";
$external.attr("$target");
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>Links Page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Links</h1>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="http://google.com" class="external">Google</a></li>
    <li><a href="http://yahoo.com" class="external">Yahoo</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

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,783 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,783 Points

In case you'd prefer hints to an explicit spoiler and/or would like to know what was wrong...

:point_right: It looks like you have several issues here:

  • to select items by class, the class name must have a period (.) prepended
  • a selector with two items separated by space is a descendant selector (not what the challenge asked)
  • when setting an attribute, the attr() method must have two parameters
  • variable names should not be enclosed in quotes
Erik Nuber
Erik Nuber
20,629 Points
Erik Nuber
Erik Nuber
20,629 Points

This should work

$("a.external").attr('target' ,'_blank');
John Wilson
John Wilson
11,739 Points
John Wilson
John Wilson
11,739 Points

thanks, worked perfect!