[javascript] How do I programmatically click a link with javascript?

Is there a way to click on a link on my page using JavaScript?

This question is related to javascript hyperlink click anchor

The answer is


Many of the above methods have been deprecated. It is now recommended to use the constructor found here

function clickAnchorTag() {
    var event = document.createEvent('MouseEvent');
    event = new CustomEvent('click');
    var a = document.getElementById('nameOfID');
    a.dispatchEvent(event);
}

This will cause the anchor tag to be clicked, but it wont show if pop-up blockers are active so the user will need to allow pop-ups.


The jQuery way to click a link is

$('#LinkID').click();

For mailTo link, you have to write the following code

$('#LinkID')[0].click();

Client Side JS function to automatically click a link when...

Here is an example where you check the value of a hidden form input, which holds an error passed down from the server.. your client side JS then checks the value of it and populates an error in another location that you specify..in this case a pop-up login modal.

var signUperror = document.getElementById('handleError')

if (signUperror) {
  if(signUperror.innerHTML != ""){
  var clicker = function(){
    document.getElementById('signup').click()
  }
  clicker()
  }
}

document.getElementById('yourLinkID').click();

Simply like that :

<a id="myLink" onclick="alert('link click');">LINK 1</a>
<a id="myLink2" onclick="document.getElementById('myLink').click()">Click link 1</a>

or at page load :

<body onload="document.getElementById('myLink').click()">
...
<a id="myLink" onclick="alert('link click');">LINK 1</a>
...
</body>

You can't make the user's mouse do anything. But you have full control over what happens when an event triggers.

What you can do is do a click on body load. W3Schools has an example here.


If you only want to change the current page address, you can do that by simply doing this in Javascript :

location.href = "http://www.example.com/test";

You could just redirect them to another page. Actually making it literally click a link and travel to it seems unnessacary, but I don't know the whole story.


For me, I managed to make it work that way. I deployed the automatic click in 5000 milliseconds and then closed the loop after 1000 milliseconds. Then there was only 1 automatic click.

<script> var myVar = setInterval(function ({document.getElementById("test").click();}, 500)); setInterval(function () {clearInterval(myVar)}, 1000));</script>

Instead of clicking, can you forward to the URL that the click would go to using Javascript?

Maybe you could put something in the body onLoad to go where you want.


This function works in at least Firefox, and Internet Explorer. It runs any event handlers attached to the link and loads the linked page if the event handlers don't cancel the default action.

function clickLink(link) {
    var cancelled = false;

    if (document.createEvent) {
        var event = document.createEvent("MouseEvents");
        event.initMouseEvent("click", true, true, window,
            0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
            false, false, false, false,
            0, null);
        cancelled = !link.dispatchEvent(event);
    }
    else if (link.fireEvent) {
        cancelled = !link.fireEvent("onclick");
    }

    if (!cancelled) {
        window.location = link.href;
    }
}

Examples related to javascript

need to add a class to an element How to make a variable accessible outside a function? Hide Signs that Meteor.js was Used How to create a showdown.js markdown extension Please help me convert this script to a simple image slider Highlight Anchor Links when user manually scrolls? Summing radio input values How to execute an action before close metro app WinJS javascript, for loop defines a dynamic variable name Getting all files in directory with ajax Wrapping a react-router Link in an html button How to make a hyperlink in telegram without using bots? React onClick and preventDefault() link refresh/redirect? How to put a link on a button with bootstrap? How link to any local file with markdown syntax? link with target="_blank" does not open in new tab in Chrome How to create a link to another PHP page How to determine the current language of a wordpress page when using polylang? How to change link color (Bootstrap) How can I make a clickable link in an NSAttributedString?

Examples related to click

Javascript Click on Element by Class HTML/Javascript Button Click Counter Angularjs action on click of button python selenium click on button Add and remove a class on click using jQuery? How to get the id of the element clicked using jQuery Why is this jQuery click function not working? Play sound on button click android $(document).on("click"... not working? Simulate a click on 'a' element using javascript/jquery

Examples related to anchor

How to open a link in new tab using angular? Attaching click to anchor tag in angular How to create a link to another PHP page Making href (anchor tag) request POST instead of GET? Difference between _self, _top, and _parent in the anchor tag target attribute How can I create a link to a local file on a locally-run web page? How to open link in new tab on html? Getting a link to go to a specific section on another page Pure CSS scroll animation Make anchor link go some pixels above where it's linked to