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JavaScript jQuery Basics (2014) Creating a Simple Lightbox Creating and Appending Detached DOM elements

jQuery Basics Challenge- Last element in modal is $placeholder? What does that mean?

I'm trying to add a button, and am stuck. How is placeholder an element? It's not even one in the index.html? Or am I looking at placeholder wrong?

js/app.js
//Create the Modal
var $modal = $("<div id='modal'></div>");

//Create a placeholder for text in the modal
var $placeHolder = $("<p id='placeHolder'></p>");
$modal.append($placeHolder);

//Create a button to dismiss modal and add it to modal
var $dismissButton = $("<button>Dismiss</button>");
$modal.append();
//Hide modal when button is pressed
$dismissButton.click(function(){
  $modal.hide(300);
});

$("body").append($modal);

//A function to show a modal
function displayModal(message) {
  $placeHolder.text(message);
  $modal.show();
}

//Show an example modal
displayModal("Hello World!");
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>Modal Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Modal Example Page</h1>

    <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>
//Create the Modal
var $modal = $("<div id='modal'></div>");

//Create a placeholder for text in the modal
var $placeHolder = $("<p id='placeHolder'></p>");
$modal.append($placeHolder);

//Create a button to dismiss modal and add it to modal
var $dismissButton = $("<button>Dismiss</button>");
$placeholder.append($dismissButton);
//Hide modal when button is pressed
$dismissButton.click(function(){
  $modal.hide(300);
});

$("body").append($modal);

//A function to show a modal
function displayModal(message) {
  $placeHolder.text(message);
  $modal.show();
}

//Show an example modal
displayModal("Hello World!");

I thought I would append the Dismiss button somewhere. And why does the prompt say that it can't find the variable $placeholder? That variable is defined on the top of the challenge.

1 Answer

I figured out the answer, but why did I have to mention $(modal)? Why couldn't the button be appended to the $(placeholder)?