[javascript] How do you set a JavaScript onclick event to a class with css

Let's say I want that every time the user click any link an alert pops up that says "hohoho". Do I need to add onclick="alert('hohoho')" to every link or can I set this with CSS so that it works with every link?

Many 3rd party JavaScript libraries allow you to select all elements that have a CSS class of a particular name applied to them. Then you can iterate those elements and dynamically attach the handler.

There is no CSS-specific manner to do this.

In JQuery, you can do:

$(".myCssClass").click(function() { alert("hohoho"); });

Asking about "a class" in the question title, the answer is getElementsByClassName:

  var hrefs = document.getElementsByClassName("YOUR-CLASS-NAME-HERE");
  for (var i = 0; i < hrefs.length; i++) {
   hrefs.item(i).addEventListener('click', function(e){
    e.preventDefault(); /*use if you want to prevent the original link following action*/
    alert('hohoho');
   });
  }

Here is my solution through CSS, It does not use any JavaScript at all

HTML:

<a href="#openModal">Open Modal</a>

<div id="openModal" class="modalDialog">
        <div>   <a href="#close" title="Close" class="close">X</a>

                <h2>Modal Box</h2>

            <p>This is a sample modal box that can be created using the powers of CSS3.</p>
            <p>You could do a lot of things here like have a pop-up ad that shows when your website loads, or create a login/register form for users.</p>
        </div>
    </div>

CSS:

.modalDialog {
    position: fixed;
    font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    left: 0;
    background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8);
    z-index: 99999;
    opacity:0;
    -webkit-transition: opacity 400ms ease-in;
    -moz-transition: opacity 400ms ease-in;
    transition: opacity 400ms ease-in;
    pointer-events: none;
}
.modalDialog:target {
    opacity:1;
    pointer-events: auto;
}
.modalDialog > div {
    width: 400px;
    position: relative;
    margin: 10% auto;
    padding: 5px 20px 13px 20px;
    border-radius: 10px;
    background: #fff;
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(#fff, #999);
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#fff, #999);
    background: -o-linear-gradient(#fff, #999);
}
.close {
    background: #606061;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    line-height: 25px;
    position: absolute;
    right: -12px;
    text-align: center;
    top: -10px;
    width: 24px;
    text-decoration: none;
    font-weight: bold;
    -webkit-border-radius: 12px;
    -moz-border-radius: 12px;
    border-radius: 12px;
    -moz-box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px #000;
    -webkit-box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px #000;
    box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px #000;
}
.close:hover {
    background: #00d9ff;
}

CSS alert No JavaScript Just pure HTML and CSS

I believe that it will do the trick for you as it has for me

It can't be done via CSS as CSS only changes the presentation (e.g. only Javascript can make the alert popup). I'd strongly recommend you check out a Javascript library called jQuery as it makes doing something like this trivial:

$(document).ready(function(){
  $("a").click(function(){
    alert("hohoho");
  });
});

You can do this by thinking of it a little bit differently. Detect when the body is clicked (document.body.onclick - i.e. anything on the page) and then check if the element clicked (event.srcElement / e.target) has a class and that that class name is the one you want:

document.body.onclick = function(e) {   //when the document body is clicked
    if (window.event) {
        e = event.srcElement;           //assign the element clicked to e (IE 6-8)
    }
    else {
        e = e.target;                   //assign the element clicked to e
    }

    if (e.className && e.className.indexOf('someclass') != -1) {
        //if the element has a class name, and that is 'someclass' then...
        alert('hohoho');
    }
}

Or a more concise version of the above:

document.body.onclick= function(e){
   e=window.event? event.srcElement: e.target;
   if(e.className && e.className.indexOf('someclass')!=-1)alert('hohoho');
}

You could do it with jQuery.

$('.myClass').click(function() {
  alert('hohoho');
});