JQuery Tabs and Hyperlinking (help me fix my code, please)

Question

I am using multiple pages that each have jQuery tabs. Lets say I have Page1.html with #tab1 and #tab2 and Page2.html with #tab3 and #tab4. My code has issues with:

1) Within the tab content, Page1.html#tab2 has a hyperlink to Page1.html#tab1. The link does not work - the page just stays on #tab1 when clicking the link. However, a hyperlink in the menu container on Page1 to #tab1 does work. Both hyperlinks use the same a href="#tab1" but for whatever reason, only the link outside of the Page1.html#tab2 content works when linking to Page1.html#tab1. The hyperlinks in the menu container always work.

2) If I send someone a hyperlink to www.Page1.html#tab2, the page URL shows as www.Page1.html with tab 1 showing, meaning I cannot link directly to a tab. However, the menu on the website does correctly link to tabs. If I click the menu link for Page2.html#tab3 while browsing Page1.html, the tab will correctly load and the URL shows Page2.html#tab3 and will remain that way even if I click #tab4 on the page. The URL ONLY changes when clicking menu hyperlinks to different pages, ie Page1.html#tab1 to Page2.html#tab3. Clicking Page2.html#tab3 while on Page2.html#tab4, the tab content will correctly change to #tab3 but the URL will remain as Page2.html#tab4.

What I Want:

A) To be able to send someone a link directly to a tab. Sending someone a link to www.Page1.html#tab2 will always load as the URL www.Page1.html with the first tab displaying. However, the menu hyperlinks on the page do work.

B) To be able to link between tabs on the same page if the link is within the tab content. For example, a link in the content of Page1.html#tab1 should be able to link to Page1.html#tab2. Right now, it only works if the link in the content of Page1.html#tab1 is linking to a tab on a separate page like Page2.html#tab3.

C) ** EXTRA CREDIT ** : When I click directly on a tab, the tab image "pops" out and the previously selected tab "unpops". When I click a menu hyperlink to a tab, the previous tab remains popped out even with the correct content for the newly selected tab showing. Or, if using a menu link to travel to a tab on a new page, no tabs "pop" out but the correct tab content shows. I think fixing the above problems will solve this problem, too.

Here is my code:

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
var tabId = location.hash;
if(tabId) {
    $(tabId).show();
}
     $(function () { 
$('a[href^="#"]').click(function(e){        
    e.preventDefault();
    $('html,body').scrollTop($(this.hash).offset().top - 50);
});
});
});
</script>

<script type="text/javascript"> 
$(document).ready(function() {
var tabContents = $(".tab_content").hide(),
tabs = $("ul.tabs li, .rgtPanelBox ul li"); // Second selector to match left hand    sidebar
var tabId = location.hash;
if(tabId) {
    $(tabId).show();
}
 else {
 tabs.first().addClass("active").show();
 tabContents.first().show();
 }
 tabs.click(function() {
 var $this = $(this),
    activeTab = $this.find('a').attr('href');

if(!$this.hasClass('active') && activeTab.length > 1 && activeTab.indexOf('#') === 0){
    $this.addClass('active').siblings().removeClass('active');
    tabContents.hide().filter(activeTab).fadeIn();
}
return;
});
});
</script>

Anyways, I'm a huge noob so the better the code you provide, the easier I can approve your answer as being correct. :)

Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to make your anchor tags hashable , that is, make them 'bookmarkable' for the front-end user. You seem to be on the way to creating your own tab plugin, but jQuery UI will do the hashing part for you. Here is a demonstration setting tabs up as you have mentioned:

http://muledesign.com/2009/05/bookmarkable-tabs-with-jquery-ui/

DEMO:

Here's the demo page -> http://muledesign.com/demo/tabs/default-tabs.html

Demo page with hashable link to tab -> http://muledesign.com/demo/tabs/default-tabs.html#movie

Re: point C) - Try using a lightbox plugin and attaching the lightbox plugins open/init function to the activate event on UI tabs -> http://api.jqueryui.com/tabs/#event-activate

I appreciate you may not want to use plugins, but you're already using jquery so meh.