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Answer 1

+2 A:

Either remove your base tag or change your href attributes to be fully qualified. What you are observing is the intended behavior when you mix base with a elements.

Ken Browning 2009-03-18 16:49:50

+1 Brad, you're trying to work around a problem that doesn't need to exist. Do you really need to use the base tag?

sanchothefat 2009-03-18 17:31:26

Answer 2

A:

Return false on the onclick event to disable the link:

<a href="#" onclick="doSomething(); return false">Link Text</a>

(This is just an example of how you’d do it inline. But try to avoid inline declarations and use techniques of progressive enhancements.)

Gumbo 2009-03-18 16:50:39

OP specified "That way, when someone clicks the link before the page loads nothing terrible happens" which suggests the onclick handler hasn't been attached yet. Inline javascript is ugly and should be avoided

Gareth 2009-03-18 16:52:33

After your edit, it's progressive enhancement which is *causing* this problem. The problem is the user is clicking the "link" *before* the extra click handlers have been added. In that case, there's no way to avoid link navigation. The solution is to make it *not* a link

Gareth 2009-03-18 17:21:23

Or, of course, make it a link which has an equivalent non-javascript action. Depending on what the action is, that's probably the best solution anyway

Gareth 2009-03-18 17:22:33

Answer 3

+1 A:

If there's no URL that is suitable for a non-javascript user, then don't use an <a>. <a> tags are for links to other pages.

Any visible HTML element can have an onclick and won't have this problem you describe.

Gareth 2009-03-18 16:51:33

I second this motion. Use a <span> or something that isn't an <a> if it doesn't actually go anywhere.

Zack Mulgrew 2009-03-18 16:57:14

This has negative implications for keyboard users though: now you can't focus the element. There is an argument for using <button>/<input type="button"> here.

bobince 2009-03-19 10:14:26

Answer 4

A:

If you're inclined to use an a tag another solution is to not use # as the href target (when you don't specify one it causes a jump to the top of the page which I find undesirable). What you can do is:

<a href="javascript:">Some Link that Goes nowhere</a>

Really though, unless you are doing something that requires that to be an a tag a span would be your best bet:

CSS:

.generic_link {
  text-decoration:underline;
}
.generic_link:hover {
  text-decoration:none;
}

HTML:

<span class="generic_link">Something that really isn't a link</span>

Adam 2009-03-18 17:38:56

See Gumbo's comment, returning false from a click handler stops the link being followed. javascript: URLs are generally best avoided.

bobince 2009-03-19 10:16:07

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Url Hash with Html Base Tag

window.location.hash

Html Base Tag

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