href="#" without scrolling to top

[Nathan]

I've been reading a bit about proper ways to use <a> tags to launch
javascript functions, but I'm still not clear on one issue.

I understand it is common to create a link in HTML such as

<a href="javascriptless.html">

then override the href in java by setting it to href='#', and setting
an onclick function. The problem I'm having is that when I click on the
# link, the browser scrolls to the top of the page. Is there a way to
get around this?

One workaround I found is to use a nonexistant anchor such as
href='#notonthepage'. Both Firefox and IE7 beta do not scroll in this
case. But it seems like a hack. Is there a better way to deal with
this?

Thanks,
Nathan

 

[Randy Webb]

Nathan said the following on 2/20/2006 10:43 PM:

I've been reading a bit about proper ways to use <a> tags to launch
javascript functions, but I'm still not clear on one issue.

I understand it is common to create a link in HTML such as

<a href="javascriptless.html">

then override the href in java by setting it to href='#', and setting
an onclick function. The problem I'm having is that when I click on the
# link, the browser scrolls to the top of the page. Is there a way to
get around this?

<a href="javascriptless.html" onclick="someFunction();return false">

But, if you don't want the behavior of a link, then don't use a link.
Use a button instead:

<button onclick="someFunction()">Execute some JS function</button>

 

[Nathan]

Thanks Randy - just what I was looking for. This must be a FAQ but I
could not find it anywhere by searching google...

Thanks,

Nathan

 

[David Dorward]

Thanks Randy - just what I was looking for. This must be a FAQ but I
could not find it anywhere by searching google...

http://www.google.com/search?q=comp.lang.javascript faq - first hit.

 

[Nathan]

What I meant was I couldn't find the answer to this question by
searching Google. I hadn't tried looking up the FAQ for the forum
although I should have...

Thanks,

Nathan

 

[Matt Kruse]

What I meant was I couldn't find the answer to this question by
searching Google.

FYI, it's also covered quite well in my Javascript Best Practices document
at
http://www.JavascriptToolbox.com/bestpractices/

 

[Randy Webb]

Matt Kruse said the following on 2/22/2006 10:50 PM:

FYI, it's also covered quite well in my Javascript Best Practices document
at
http://www.JavascriptToolbox.com/bestpractices/

And that URL is in just about every post I make
Anything coming as far as a domain name for that or will it stay a
sub-folder?

 

[Matt Kruse]

Anything coming as far as a domain name for that or will it stay a
sub-folder?

I suppose I could create http://www.JavascriptBestPractices.com/ and
redirect to the above url, but that seems like over-kill to me. I already
have too many domain names