jQuery keep active menu item highlighted

Question

I have a menu: http://jsfiddle.net/hu5x3hL1/3/

<ul id="menu" class="sidebar">
<li> <a href="#" class="clickme">Menu</a>
    <ul id="menu1">
        <li><a class="dropdown-class-name" href="#">Dropdown link1</a></li>
        <li><a class="dropdown-class-name" href="#">Dropdown link2</a></li>
    </ul>
</li>

    $('#menu1 li a').click(function(e) {
    $('a').removeClass('dropdown-class-name active');
    $(this).addClass('dropdown-class-name active');
});

#menu1 li a.active{
    font-weight:bold;
}

Active menu item is highlighted in bold. But on my web-site when I click some drop down link, the new page opens, but active menu item already isn't bold. How to keep it highlighted in bold on the new page of the web-site?

I tried do this:

            $("#menu1 li a").click(function () {
          var url = window.location.href;
            if (url == (this.href)) {
                $('a').removeClass('dropdown-class-name active');
                $(this).addClass('dropdown-class-name active');
            }
        });

but this.href returns undefined , and actually if I use some link instead of this.href , this code also works incorrect.

Answer 1

You will have to do the check in the dom ready handler, not in the click handler

$('#menu1 li a').click(function (e) {
    $('a').removeClass('dropdown-class-name active');
    $(this).addClass('dropdown-class-name active');
});

var url = window.location.pathname;//need to make sure that this is the href value
$('#menu1 li a[href="'+url+'"]').addClass('dropdown-class-name active');

Answer 2

Try this

$('#menu1 li a').click(function(e) {
    if($('a').hasClass('dropdown-class-name active')=="false"){$('a').removeClass('dropdown-class-name active');}
    $(this).addClass('dropdown-class-name active');
});

http://jsfiddle.net/hu5x3hL1/4/

Answer 3

did you tried to put the anchor reference in the selector?

var localURL = '[href="'+window.location.href+'"]'

$('#menu1 li a'+localURL).click(function(e) {
    $('a').removeClass('dropdown-class-name active');
    $(this).addClass('dropdown-class-name active');
});

http://jsfiddle.net/hnxhcbgw/1/

keep in mind that this will only run on click events, you should do it too on load event.

Answer 4

the below code should work

$("#menu1 li a").click(function() {
    var $Link = $(this); // cache it as we will use ot mote than once
    //also url == a.href cannot return true if you use relative url in the link.
    //url most likely http://domain.com/pagename href will be just a page name
    //if active do nothing
    if (!$Link.hasClass("active")) {
        $Link.closest("ul") //find menu container
            .find("a.active").removeClass('active'); //find active and remove it
        $Link.addClass('active');
    }
});