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

Posted by Doug Hawkinson
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Doug Hawkinson
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 25,073 Points

jQuery Challenge - I'm not even sure what they are asking for

This is the challenge:

Using jQuery only, add to all links with the class "external", the target attribute with the value of "_blank".

I have tried a couple of things as pure guesses. It boils down to the fact that I am not even sure what the challenge is. I think my biggest problem is I don't know what is meant by "target attribute".

3 Answers

Donald Brunais
Donald Brunais
8,895 Points

What is asking is to add a new attribute with the name of target and the value of '_blank' to every tag that has the class of external. So there is two anchor tags with the class of external. You just add target='_blank' within the tag.

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

to 

    <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>

Doing this in JQuery looks like

$('.external').attr('target', '_black');
Jesus Bayona
Jesus Bayona
4,937 Points
Jesus Bayona
Jesus Bayona
4,937 Points

I seen this in another post concerning this question and it works. What's the difference?

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

Donald Brunais
Donald Brunais
8,895 Points

$("a.external").attr('target' ,'_blank'); Is selecting all anchor tag with the class of external. In this example either would work it doesn't change the end result. So if had a paragraph tag in the html with the class of external <p class='external'> ... </p>

$("a.external").attr('target' ,'_blank'); wouldn't select the new p tag. $(".external").attr('target' ,'_blank'); would select the new p tag

Anthony Mejia
Anthony Mejia
8,840 Points
Anthony Mejia
Anthony Mejia
8,840 Points

Hey Doug,

Seems like someone had a similar problem a couple months back. Here's the link to their thread.

Hope this helps!

Doug Hawkinson
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Doug Hawkinson
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 25,073 Points
Doug Hawkinson
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Doug Hawkinson
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 25,073 Points

Donald:

That was simple. There was just something clumsy in the way the challenge was specified that caused me not to "connect". Thanks for the help.