$('a').trigger('click'); not working

Question

How do I make jquery click <a href="test.zip" id="mylink">test</a>

<script>
    // this wont work
    $('#mylink').trigger('click'); 
</script>

Please can you help

Answer 1

If your intention is to navigate to the specified URL as if the user had clicked the link try calling the DOM .click() method instead of the jQuery .click() method:

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

The jQuery .click() will call event handlers that you've bound but not cause the default click behaviour.

Answer 2

$(document).ready(function(){
    $('#mylink').trigger('click');
});

Answer 3

You need to trigger the default click method, not the one by jQuery. This can be done by adding the default click option within a click event of jQuery using this.

<a href="http://about.com/"></a>

This is how the JavaScript looks. It basically creates the event when the DOM is ready, and clicks it intermediately, thus following the link.

$(function() {
    $('a').click(function() {
        // 'this' is not a jQuery object, so it will use
        // the default click() function
        this.click();
    }).click();
});

To see a live example (opening about.com), see: http://jsfiddle.net/8H9UX/