JavaScript Function Doesn’t Work When Link is Clicked

Have you ever made a function in JavaScript and expected it to return something when someone clicks on a link, but nothing happens when the user really clicks on it? If this thing happened to you, then you are not alone. This is a common issue faced by many developers, especially when you are just starting with JavaScript. In this blog, you will explore the different reasons why your function might not be working and the steps to fix this.

Table of Contents:

• The Problem
• Common Reasons Why It Fails And Its Solution
  1. The Link Reloads the Page
  2. Errors in the Console
  3. The Script Runs Before the DOM Is Ready
  4. Event Listener Attached to the Wrong Element
  5. You are Using Dynamically Added Elements
• Best Practices
• Conclusion

The Problem

The problem is very simple – when the user clicks on the link, the function that is applied to the link is not working properly and doesn’t perform any action. Let us understand this with the help of an example:

Example:

The above code works fine, but sometimes, this might be possible that the function is not working properly or not performing any action. This can happen for various reasons.

Common Reasons Why It Fails And Its Solution

Here are some of the possible reasons why clicking on a link sometimes does not perform any action:

1. The Link Reloads the Page

If your link contains an href=”#”, then the browser treats it as a valid link and will reload the web page. This can stop your JavaScript function from triggering an action.

Solution: Use an event.preventDefault() inside your function to stop the default behaviour of your browser.

2. Errors in the Console

Sometimes your function does not work because of some hidden JavaScript errors. You can get these errors, maybe because of writing the wrong function name.

Solution: Open your browser developer console by pressing F12 or right click then going to inspect, and check for the red error messages.

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3. The Script Runs Before the DOM Is Ready

If your JavaScript code runs before the browser has fully loaded the HTML, it may happen that your browser doesn’t find the link element, and the event listener won’t be attached.

Solution: Wrap your code inside a DOMContentLoaded event, or you can place your <script> tag at the bottom of your HTML, just before the closing </body> tag.

4. Event Listener Attached to the Wrong Element

If you attach an event listener to the wrong element, then no action will be triggered.

Solution: Make sure the selector that you are using matches the right element. And you can check this using browser developer tools.

5. You are Using Dynamically Added Elements

If you are adding the HTML elements dynamically to the page after running the JavaScript code, then the function didn’t work properly.

Solution: Use event delegation (attaching a single event listener to the parent element instead of adding to each child element separately) by attaching the event listener to a parent element that already exists.

Best Practices 

Here are some of the best practices that you need to follow while handling link clicks in JavaScript:

• Use the addEventListeners instead of inline onClick
• Always call the event.preventDefault() if you don’t want the link to navigate.
• Test the code in multiple browsers and check the console of the browser for errors.
• Wrap your code inside DOMContentLoaded to ensure elements exist before targeting them.

Conclusion

If your JavaScript function doesn’t work after clicking a link, then the reason behind this is very simple, like a missing preventDefault(), a script loading too early, or a function being out of scope. By understanding how links behave and how events are handled, you will be able to debug code easily and write efficient code.

Why JavaScript Function Doesn’t Work When Link is Clicked – FAQs