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sachin Reddy
Courses Plus Student 228 PointsUsing jQuery only, add to all links with the class "external", the target attribute with the value of "_blank".
Using jQuery only, add to all links with the class "external", the target attribute with the value of "_blank".
<!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>
4 Answers
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherHi there! I really wish I knew what you'd tried already that's failing. I believe it would be a better learning opportunity for you if I could say where you're going wrong or what you're not understanding. I'll show you my solution and walk you through it.
$(".external").attr("target","_blank");
Here we first select the class "external". We can tell this is a class and not an id as it is preceded with a period. Then we use attr on our selected class. This method takes two strings: the attribute to be set and the value it is to be set to. The result of this code will be that all links that have the class "external" will be opened in a new window/tab when clicked. Happy coding!
Steve Linn
11,841 Pointswhy is it it that you do not have to specify the link attribute of a?
$(".external a").attr("target","_blank");
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherBecause if you look at the HTML you'll notice that only links have the class of external 
Steve Linn
11,841 Pointsso is it semantically incorrect - meaning it would throw an error? or just the quiz example. I lean on the side of more specificity
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherActually, I retract my previous comment. After re-reading the challenge it says explicitly to target all links with the class "external". So besides my original answer you could also do this one:
$("a.external").attr("target","_blank");
This will select all links with the class "external". There's a subtle but important difference between this code and yours. Your code selects all links within the class "external". Let's say for example that these links have no class assigned but they reside inside a div with the class "external". Your code would select them.
But let's say we have a div with no class, but the links have the class "external". That's what this code selects.
Hope this helps!
Steve Linn
11,841 PointsOh right! the specificity of the a.external --- good catch!