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

Anthony Verdes
Anthony Verdes
7,443 Points
Posted by Anthony Verdes
Anthony Verdes
7,443 Points

What am I missing here?

I've looked on the jQuery API Documentation and I can not for the life of me figure out why this is returning wrong.

When attaching the "target=_blank" attribute to all external links, I would expect the jQuery to be

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

Am I missing something here?

js/app.js 
$(".external a").attr("target", "_blank");
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>

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points

It's the selector.

The descendant selector ".external a" would target links that are inside some other element that has the class "external".

But a selector for all links with the class "external" would be "a.external".

Anthony Verdes
Anthony Verdes
7,443 Points
Anthony Verdes
Anthony Verdes
7,443 Points

Ahhh, that makes total sense but the answer is still going through incorrectly. Any other ideas?

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points

Maybe you had a typo, try again. I just tried it myself and it passed.

Anthony Verdes
Anthony Verdes
7,443 Points
Anthony Verdes
Anthony Verdes
7,443 Points

Yup! I had a typo. I was doing

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

I was including a space between the "a" and the "external".

Thanks for the help!!!!

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,657 Points

Right, the space makes it a descendant selector (something inside another thing) instead of something that has a certain thing.