Disable a href links in php-javascript

Question

I have 4 links in my page(.phtml file) as follows

<ul id="fileMenu" class="contextMenu">
    <li class="add"><a id ="addbtn" href="#add" style="display:none;">Add</a></li>
    <li class="download"><a href="#download">Download</a></li>
    <li class="rename"><a href="#rename">Rename</a></li>
    <li class="del"><a href="#delete">Delete</a></li>
    <li class="copypath"><a href="#copypath">Copypath</a></li>
</ul>

I want to disable the add,rename and delete links Just disable it from UI .

User should be able to see it but no click event should be performed(linksshould be grayed out) .

I have used

1. disable="disabled"

2. display =none;

but they are not serving the purpose.

Any other way this would work out ?

Answer 1

I would use this CSS to visually disable a link:

.disable {
    position: relative;
}
.disable:before {
    content: '';
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    z-index: 100;
}
.disable a {
    color: gray;
    cursor: default;
}

Then in order to disable a link you would put a class disable on corresponding li:

<li class="download disable"><a href="#download">Download</a></li>

What it does is basically overlays a link with transparent pseudo element :before.

Another solution could be using pointer-events: none rule but it's not well supported in IE.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/LPz2Z/1/

Answer 2

Use pointer-events:none;

<a  style='pointer-events:none;background-color:#CFCFCF;color:#000' href="javascript: void(0)">Delete</a>

Answer 3

If you are using jQuery, you might want to do this

$(function() {
 $('#addbtn').click(function(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    //do other stuff when a click happens
 });
}

More Information, Stackoverflow Question

Answer 4

i'm not sure it's the best way but it can do the trick ,

if you use

pointer-events: none; in your css 

or if you want to call it from javascript:

elem.style.display.pointerEvents = "none";

to disabled interaction with your users.

Answer 5

There are a few options. With plain old javascript, you can do, for example:

<a href="mylink.html" onclick="return false;">Download</a>

or

<a href="javascript: void(0);">Download</a>

With jQuery you can easily disable a lot of links:

<a href="mylink.html" class="disabled">Download</a>
<a href="anotherlink.html" class="disabled">Delete</a>

<script>
    jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
        $('a.disabled').on('click', function(e) {
            e.preventDefault();
        });
    });
</script>

And you can even use CSS!

<a href="mylink.html" class="disabled">Download</a>
<style type="text/css">
    a.disabled { pointer-events: none; }
</style>

Although, it wouldn't surprise you, IE <= v9 (if I'm correct) doesn't support this... And on most browsers you can't force the browser to use a pointer as a cursor...

All in a fiddle demo!

Answer 6

Even this served the purpose

$("#fileMenu").disableContextMenuItems('#add');
  $("#fileMenu").disableContextMenuItems('#rename');
  $("#fileMenu").disableContextMenuItems('#delete');

as I am using contextMenu class in my ul list.