How do I get the reference to the dom node I just appeneded in JQuery?

Question

I just appended some html to another JQuery object. I want to get a reference to the newly created dom node so that I can call another function on it. As seen in the code below, I am not getting a reference to what I wanted. Instead of the new node, I am getting the node with the original id.

var a = $("#id").append("some_html");
a.live('click', function(event){
    alert("hello!");
});

Answer 1

It depends on what the HTML is. If it can be contained in a div then do this:

var a = $("some_html").appendTo("#id");

A full example (using 1.4+ syntax) is this:

var a = $("<a />", { href: "/new/page", text: "Click Me" }).appendTo("#id");

This difference is append returns the parent object (it doesn't break the existing chain), and appendTo returns the newly created object, even after it is appended.

EDIT: Also, you are using live incorrectly. In this situation, just use bind or the click helper method:

a.click(function(event){
    alert("hello!");
});

Best use: Finally, using jQuery 1.4+, you can just do this, no variable retention necessary:

$("<a />", { 
  href: "#", 
  text: "Click Me",
  click: function (e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    alert("hello!");
  } 
}).appendTo("#id");

Answer 2

var newNode = $('some_html');
$('#id').append(newNode);

newNode.live('click', function(event) {
    alert('hello!');
});