What does href="javascript:" mean?

[Tryst]

Hi all,

I have come across the following today...

<a href="javascript:">image here that has a onclick javascript call</a>

can anybody explain what it means, please?

Thanks

[Dan Grossman]

That alone does nothing, but normally javascript: precedes some JavaScript code to indicate that the browser should execute the code instead of treat the href attribute as a URL. It's not the recommended way of attaching JavaScript code to a link.

[AlexDawson]

It's not the recommended way of attaching JavaScript code to a link.

The exception to the rule being Bookmarklets which of course are small JavaScript powered widgets which bring extended functionality to the page.

[Tryst]

Hi Dan, and thanks for the reply.

The full statement is below...

<a href="javascript:">
	<img src="images/panel_Plus.gif" onclick="changepic()" border="0"/>
</a>

What is the recommended way of attaching JS to a hyperlink?

[Dan Grossman]

The link is completely superfluous. Your image will already execute the code on click without the link being there.

[Tryst]

My bad,

what I posted was coming from an XSL file, and I just noticed that the <a> contains some XSL...

<xsl:attribute name="onClick">javascript:document.images['<xsl:value-of select="$source-id"/>'].click()</xsl:attribute>

which is basically assigning an onclick JS event to the <a> which is wrapped around this statement.