Using jQuery to programmatically click an <a> link

Question

I know this question has been asked before, but after a search on the web I can't seem to find a straight forward answer.

the HTML

<a id=myAnchor href=index.php>

the jQuery (Both of these do not work)

 $('#myAnchor').click();

or

$('#myAnchor').trigger('click');

What is the simplest and most efficient way to achieve this?

Solution 1

Try this:

$('#myAnchor')[0].click();

It works for me.

Solution 2

Click just triggers the click event / events not the actually "goto-the-links-href" action.

You have to write your own handler and then your $('#myAnchor').trigger('click'); will work...

$("#myAnchor").click(function(event)
{
  var link = $(this);
  var target = link.attr("target");

  if($.trim(target).length > 0)
  {
    window.open(link.attr("href"), target);
  }
  else
  {
     window.location = link.attr("href");
  }

  event.preventDefault();
});

Solution 3

Add onclick="window.location = this.href" to your <a> element. After this modification it could be .click()ed with expected behaviour. To do so with every link on your page, you can add this:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function () {
        $("a").attr("onclick", "window.location = this.href");
    });
</script>

Solution 4

<a href="#" id="myAnchor">Click me</a>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
    $('#myAnchor').click(function(){
       window.location.href = 'index.php';
    });
})
</script>

Solution 5

I tried few of the above solutions but they didn't worked for me. Here is a link to the page which worked for me automatically click a link

Above link has many solutions and here's the one which worked for me,

    <button onclick="fun();">Magic button</button>

    <!--The link you want to automatically click-->
    <a href='http://www.ercafe.com' id="myAnchor">My website</a>

Now within the <script> tags,

<script>

     function fun(){
          actuateLink(document.getElementById('myAnchor'));
     }

     function actuateLink(link)
     {
          var allowDefaultAction = true;

          if (link.click)
          {
              link.click();
              return;
          }
          else if (document.createEvent)
          {
              var e = document.createEvent('MouseEvents');
              e.initEvent(
                   'click'     // event type
                   ,true      // can bubble?
                   ,true      // cancelable?
              );
              allowDefaultAction = link.dispatchEvent(e);           
          }

          if (allowDefaultAction)       
          {
              var f = document.createElement('form');
              f.action = link.href;
              document.body.appendChild(f);
              f.submit();
          }
    }

</script>

Copy paste the above code and click on clicking the 'Magic button' button, you will be redirected to ErCafe.com.

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