jQuery: get a reference to a specific element without using id

Question

I'm tinkering a bit with jquery to show a hidden div when a link is clicked. This should be fairly simple, but there's a flaw to it in this case. I have the following markup:

<div class="first-row">
        <div class="week">
            <p>Uge 2</p>
            <p>(08-01-11)</p>
        </div>
        <div class="destination">
            <p><a href="#">Les Menuires</a></p>
            <p>(Frankrig)</p>
        </div>
        <div class="days">4</div>
        <div class="transport">Bil</div>
        <div class="lift-card">3 dage</div>
        <div class="accommodation">
            <p><a class="show-info" href="#">Hotel Christelles (halvpension)</a></p>
            <p>4-pers. værelse m. bad/toilet</p>
        </div>
        <div class="order">
            <p><a href="#">2149,-</a></p>
            <p class="old-price">2249,-</p>
        </div>
        <div class="hotel-info">
         <!-- The div I want to display on click -->
        </div>
    </div>

When I click the "show-info" link I want the "hotel-info" div to display. My backend devs don't want me to use ids (don't ask me why..) and the above markup is used over and over again to display data. Therefore I need to be able to access the "hotel-info" div in the "first-row" div where the link is clicked.

I've tried to do something like:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('.show-info').click(function() {
        var parentElement = $(this).parent().parent();
        var lastElementOfParent = parentElement.find(".show-hotel");
        lastElementOfParent.show();
    });
});

But without a result :-/ Is this possible at all?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot in advance!

The div you're looking to show is called `.hotel-info` yet your code is looking for `.show-hotel` - is that just a typo? — Rory McCrossan, Apr 28 '11 at 09:44
Rory, thanks - that was a typo, but unfortuneately it didn't solve my problem :( — bomortensen, Apr 28 '11 at 09:47

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 10 '12 at 07:04

Try this:

$('.show-info').click(function() {
    $(this).closest('.accommodation').siblings('.hotel-info').show();
});

Even better imo, as it would be independent from where the link is in a row, if every "row div" has the same class (I assume only the first one has class first-row), you can do:

$(this).closest('.row-class').find('.hotel-info').show();

Reference: .closest, .siblings

Explanation why your code does not work:

$(this).parent().parent();

gives you the div with class .accommodation and this one has no descendant with class .hotel-info.

It is not a good idea to use this kind of traversal for more than one level anyway. If the structure is changed a bit, your code will break. Always try to use methods that won't break on structure changes.

Hi Felix, that works like a charm! :) the name "first-row" might be quite misleading in that it's actually used every second row to make the background different. So the first solution is briliant ! Thanks so much! — bomortensen, Apr 28 '11 at 09:50

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 28 '11 at 09:48

You're right in not using an ID element to find the DIV you want :)

Use closest and nextAll

Live demo here : http://jsfiddle.net/jomanlk/xTWzn/

$('.show-info').click(function(){
    $(this).closest('.accommodation').nextAll('.hotel-info').toggle();
});

jQuery: get a reference to a specific element without using id

2 Answers2