Section 25.195. Link: a hyperlink or anchor in an HTML document

25.195. Link: a hyperlink or anchor in an HTML document

DOM Level 0: Node Element HTMLElement Link

25.195.1. Properties

The most important property of a Link is its href, which is the URL to which it links. The Link object also defines a number of other properties that hold portions of the URL. For each of these properties, the example given is a portion of the following (fictitious) URL:

 http://www.oreilly.com:1234/catalog/search.html?q=JavaScript&m=10#results 

String hash

Specifies the anchor portion of the Link's URL, including the leading hash (#) markfor example, "#results". This anchor portion of a URL refers to a named position within the document referenced by the Link. In HTML files, positions are named with the name attribute of the <a> tag. (see Anchor).

String host

Specifies the hostname and port portions of a Link's URLfor example, "www.oreilly.com:1234".

String hostname

Specifies the hostname portion of a Link's URLfor example, "www.oreilly.com".

String href

Specifies the complete text of the Link's URL, unlike other Link URL properties that specify only portions of the URL.

String pathname

Specifies the pathname portion of a Link's URLfor example, "/catalog/search.html".

String port

Specifies the port portion of a Link's URLfor example, "1234".

String protocol

Specifies the protocol portion of a Link's URL, including the trailing colonfor example, "http:".

String search

Specifies the query portion of a Link's URL, including the leading question markfor example, "?q=JavaScript&m=10".

In addition to these URL-related properties, Link objects also define properties that correspond to the attributes for the HTML <a> and <area> tags:

Property	Attribute	Description
String accessKey	accesskey	Keyboard shortcut
String charset	charset	Encoding of the destination document
String coords	coords	For <area> tags
String hreflang	hreflang	Language of the linked document
String name	name	Anchor name; see Anchor
String rel	rel	Link type
String rev	rev	Reverse link type
String shape	shape	For <area> tags
long tabIndex	tabindex	Link's position in tabbing order
String target	target	Name of the frame or window in which the destination document is to be displayed
String type	type	Content type of the destination document

25.195.2. Methods

blur( )

Takes keyboard focus away from the link.

focus( )

Scrolls the document so the link is visible and gives keyboard focus to the link.

25.195.3. Event Handlers

The Link object has special behavior for three event handlers:

onclick

Invoked when the user clicks on the link.

onmouseout

Invoked when the user moves the mouse off the link.

onmouseover

Invoked when the user moves the mouse over the link.

25.195.4. HTML Syntax

A Link object is created with standard <a> and </a> tags. The href attribute is required for all Link objects. If the name attribute is also specified, an Anchor object is also created:

 <a href="url"                  // The destination of the link     [ name="anchor_tag" ]      // Creates an Anchor object     [ target="window_name" ]   // Where the new document should be displayed     [ onclick="handler" ]      // Invoked when link is clicked     [ onmouseover="handler" ]  // Invoked when mouse is over link     [ onmouseout="handler" ]   // Invoked when mouse leaves link >link text or image  // The visible part of the link </a> 

25.195.5. Description

A Link object represents a hyperlink in a document. Links are usually created with <a> tags that have an href attribute defined, but they may also be created with <area> tags inside a client-side image map. When an <a> tag has a name attribute instead of an href attribute, it defines a named position in a document and is represented by an Anchor object instead of a Link object. See Anchor for details.

All links in a document (whether created with <a> or <area> tags) are represented by Link objects in the links[] array of the Document object.

The destination of a hypertext link is a URL, of course, and many of the properties of the Link object specify the contents of that URL. In this way, the Link object is similar to the Location object, which also has a full set of URL properties.

25.195.6. Example

 // Get the URL of the first hyperlink in the document var url = document.links[0].href; 

25.195.7. See Also

Anchor, Location