How to access id attribute of any element in Raphael

Question

I'm using Raphael for drawing some elements on a website. The elements include rectangle, line (path). I have given an id to the path element and trying to access it in the onclick event of that line. but when I do an alert of the id, nothing is visible. Following is the code snippet

function createLine() 
{ 
  var t = paper.path("M" + xLink + " " + yLink +"L" + linkWidth + " " + linkHeight);
  t.attr('stroke-width','3');
  t.attr('id','Hello');
  t.node.onclick = processPathOnClick; 
}

function processPathOnClick() 
{
    alert($(this).attr("id"));
}

Can anyone please tell me what is the problem with the above code. Any pointer will be helpful.

Thanks

Answer 1

Are you sure you don't want to write $(t.node).attr('id','Hello'); instead?

Update: someone just downvoted this answer. And I truly feel obligated to point out this way of setting the id isn't particularly good. You would be better off using:

t.node.id = 'Hello';

I wish there was a way to credit Juan Mendes, other than upvoting his comment to this answer.

Answer 2

Try this:

function createLine()  { 
    var t = paper.path("M" + xLink + " " + yLink +"L" + linkWidth + " " + linkHeight);
    t.attr('stroke-width','3');
    t.id = 'Hello';
    t.node.onclick = processPathOnClick;
}

function processPathOnClick() {
    alert($(this).id);
    alert(this.id); // This should work too...
}

Basically you are creating a new property called "id" on your Raphael line instance variable "t". It's kind of hacking, in my opinion, but it does the trick just fine.