Clicking A tag in IE6 and FF using jQuery

Question

I have a div that is returned from an ajax call which contains an a. I need to click it in javascript, however I cannot find a way that works in both IE6 and FF.

This works in FF but generates an object required error in IE6:

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

This works in IE6 but generates a $("#mylink").get(0).click is not a function error in FF.

$('#mylink').get(0).click();

Any ideas on why this is and what kind of solution is available?

EDIT:

Using trigger returns the same error as click in IE6:

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

EDIT:

Placing the code in a timer does not change the behavior:

 setTimeout(function() {
  $('#mylink').click();
 }, 100);

EDIT:

As a workaround, this functions. But it would be nice to better understand the issue. This is not a jQuery issue alone (or maybe at all). The IE6 JavaScript error comes out of MicrosoftAjax.js so it has something to do with that.

 var anchor = $('#mylink');
 if (anchor.get(0).click) {
  anchor.get(0).click();
 }
 else {
  anchor.click();
 }

Answer 1

How about using a trigger ?

$("#mylink").trigger('click');

Answer 2

The get method returns the DOM element. You shoudl use eq instead.

$('#mylink').eq(0).click();

Answer 3

Try:

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

Should be the same as your first example, though... Do some alerts in IE to make sure the element exists and all that (maybe you have a duplicated ID somewhere or something?).

Answer 4

The object required is likely generated because IE can't find the #mylink selector in time. Make sure you do the call in the success callback function or provide a timeout function that checks if the element is available before triggering the click:

window.setTimeout(function() {
    if ($("#mylink").length) {
        $("#mylink").trigger('click');
        return false;
    }
    window.setTimeout(arguments.callee, 1);
},1);

Answer 5

If $("#mylink").click() isn't found but $("#mylink").get(0).click() is, then could you use this as the basis for a test?

eg

if ($("#mylink").click)
{
    $("#mylink").click()
}
elseif ($("#mylink").get(0))
{
    $("#mylink").get(0).click();
}

Far from ideal I know but such is the way of things when dealing with IE6