How to disable Link for some time after being clicked?

Question

To prevent impatient users from clicking on a link to a webstart application too often, I tried to disable the hyperlink for some seconds after it has been called the first time.

<a href="file.jnlp" onclick="if (!this.clicked){this.clicked = true; setTimeout('this.clicked = false' ,10000); return true;} return false">

The code above only works for disabling the link, but it doesn't get re-enabled after the timeout of 10 seconds.

I've seen that the 'this.clicked' variable isn't true (as it is supposed to be) when I check it in the setTimeout call. Maybe i'm missing some basic JS-knowledge here..

Or perhaps there is a different approach to solve this problem?

Answer 1

give this anchor an ID and then change your timeout call to:

setTimeout('document.getElementById("<id>").clicked = false;' , 10000);

I think the 'this' is not evaluated to anything when the timer comes around.

Answer 2

using your code modifying only a small part it may work

<a href="file.jnlp" onclick="if (!this.clicked){this.clicked = true; setTimeout(function(){this.clicked = false;} ,10000); return true;} return false">

looks like people say that didnt work and it didnt form a closure around 'this'

Answer 3

var a=this;setTimeout(function(){a.clicked = false} ,10000);

Answer 4

First add a this function to a Javascript Script block

function Debounce()
{

    var self = this
    if (this.clicked) return false;

    this.clicked = true;
    setTimeout(function() {self.clicked = false;}, 10000);

    return true;
}

Now change your onclick to:-

onclick="return Debounce.call(this)"

Answer 5

The this object is not defined in the code being evaluated by setTimeout which is done in the global scope.

Give the link an ID then use getElementById e.g.

<a href="file.jnlp" id='my_link' onclick="if(!this.clicked){this.clicked = true; setTimeout('document.getElementById("my_link").clicked = false;' ,10000); return true;} return false;">

Answer 6

while im refreshing the web page the link is working even the time's not completed