How to get dropdown menu to open/close on click rather than hover?

Question

I am very new to javascript and ajax/jquery and have been working on trying to get a script to open and close the drop menu on click rather that hover.

The menu in question is found on http://www.gamefriction.com/Coded/ and is the dark menu on the right side under the header. I would like it to open and close like the other menu that is further below it (it is light gray and is in the "Select Division" module).

The gray menu is part of a menu and the language menu is not.

I have a jquery import as well which can be found in the view source of the above link.

My Javascript Code:

<script type="text/javascript">

 /* Language Selector */

 $(function() {
     $("#lang-selector li").hover(function() {
         $('ul:first',this).css('display', 'block');
     }, function() {
         $('ul:first',this).css('display', 'none');
     });
 });

 $(document).ready(function(){ 

  /* Navigation */
  $('.subnav-game').hide();
  $('.subnav-game:eq(0)').show();
  $('.preorder-type').hide();


  $('.preorder-type:eq(3)').show();


 });


 </script>

My CSS:

#lang-selector 
  {
  font-size: 11px;
  height: 21px;
  margin: 7px auto 17px auto;
  width: 186px;
  }

 #lang-selector span 
  {
  color: #999;
  float: left;
  margin: 4px 0 0 87px;
  padding-right: 4px;
  text-align: right;
  }

 #lang-selector ul 
  {
  float: left;
  list-style: none;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  }

 #lang-selector ul li a 
  {
  padding: 3px 10px 1px 10px;
  }

 #lang-selector ul, #lang-selector a 
  {
  width: 186px;
  }

 #lang-selector ul ul 
  {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  }

 #lang-selector ul ul li
  {
  border-top: 1px solid #666;
  float: left;
  position: relative;
  }

 #lang-selector a 
  {
  background: url("http://www.gamefriction.com/Coded/images/language_bg.png") no-repeat;
  color: #666;
  display: block;
  font-size: 10px;
  height: 17px;
  padding: 4px 10px 0 10px;
  text-align: left;
  text-decoration: none;
  width: 166px;
  }

 #lang-selector ul ul li a 
  {
  background: #333;
  color: #999;
  }

 #lang-selector ul ul li a:hover 
  {
  background: #c4262c;
  color: #fff;
  }

My HTML:

<div id="lang-selector">
      <ul>
       <li>
        <a href="#">Choose a Language</a>
        <ul>
         <li><a href="?iw_lang=en">English</a></li>
         <li><a href="?iw_lang=de">Deutsch</a></li>
         <li><a href="?iw_lang=es">Espa&ntilde;ol</a></li>
         <li><a href="?iw_lang=fr">Fran&ccedil;ais</a></li>
         <li><a href="?iw_lang=it">Italiano</a></li>
        </ul>
       </li>
      </ul> 
     </div>

Thanks!

Answer 1

 $(function() {
     $("#lang-selector li:first").click(function(){
         $('ul:first',this).toggle();
     })
 });

Using toggle will require you to click to open then reclick to close

Answer 2

I would do something like this...

$(function() {
 $("#lang-selector > li").click(function() {
     $('ul:first',this).toggleClass('active');
 });
});

And, then, in the CSS add this:

.active { display: block; }

<< EDIT: Removed "ul" from ".active" class for CSS rendering efficiency >>

Also make sure that the sub-nav <ul> has "display: none;" on it by default in your CSS.

This will make it so that clicking an <li> tag in #lang-selector, but not in any sub-nav <ul> tags will either open or close the sub-nav, depending on it's current state.

If you're worried about the accessibility of having "display: none" on the sub-nav by default, you can do something like this...

 $(function() {
  $("#lang-selector li ul").addClass("hidden");
  $("#lang-selector li").click(function(e) {
      e.preventDefault();
      $('ul:first',$(this)).toggleClass('hidden active');
    });
 });

<< EDIT: Altered selectors to match example provided, turned "this" into jQuery object. >>

And then also add this to the CSS

.hidden { display: none; }

In this scenario, you have the <ul> showing by default, then when the document loads, jQuery adds the "hidden" class to all of them to hide them, then on the click of the <li> it will toggle the hidden and active classes, displaying them or hiding them.

You'll also need to remove your current "display: none" from your #lang-selector ul ul in CSS, otherwise it takes priority over the hidden / active classes.