Dynamically enable/disable links w/ jQuery?

Question

I have some links displayed on a page, that I would like to enable/disable based on other events on the page. Is there a way to do this w/ jQuery?

Answer 1

You could do something like:

$('.links').click(function(e){
  if( [some conditions] ){
    e.preventDefault();
  }
});

Be sure to show that they no longer work somehow, otherwise your users will get confused, lol.

Answer 2

it depends on what you mean by "disable".

this will make them do nothing:

$("A").click(function() { return false; });

Answer 3

$('selector_for_links_to_disable').bind('click', function(e){
        e.preventDefault();
})

and for enabling:

$('selector_for_links_to_enable').unbind('click')

Answer 4

$(document).delegate('.links', 'click', function () {
  if ([your condition is true]) {
    return false;
  }
})

delegation is better than handlers, because you can call them before the dom is loaded

Answer 5

You can do something like this:

<script>
    $(document).ready(function() {
        $('input#disableall').live('click', function(){
            $('a').attr( 'class', 'disabled' );
            alert('All links are disabled.');
        });


        $('input#enableall').live('click', function(){
            $('a').attr( 'class', 'enabled' );
            alert('All links are enabled.');
        });

        $('a.disabled').live('click', function(event){
            event.preventDefault();
        });
    });
</script>

<a href='http://www.google.com'&gt;Google&lt;a/&gt;
<a href='http://www.yahoo.com'&gt;Yahoo&lt;a/&gt;
<a href='http://www.hotmail.com'&gt;Hotmail&lt;a/&gt;

<input type='button' id='disableall' value='Disable Links' />
<input type='button' id='enableall'  value='Enable Links' />