How to switch between tabs using href?

Question

I've created a tabbed pane here - LINK

In Tab 1, I have a piece of text. When clicked, I'd like it to show the second tab. I've tried all variations of #tab2, #mtabs#tab2 , etc but nothing seems to work.

How do I navigate it to the second tab's content?

HTML Code:

<div id="mtabs">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#tab1" rel="tab1">Tab 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#tab2" rel="tab2">Tab 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#tab3" rel="tab3">Tab 3</a></li>
        <li class="active"><a href="#tab4" rel="tab4">Tab 4</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

<div id="mtabs_content_container">
    <div id="tab1" class="mtab_content">
      <p><a href="#mtabs_wrapper#mtabs_content_container#tab2">Take me to Tab 2</a></p>
    </div>
    <div id="tab2" class="mtab_content">
        <p>Tab content 2</p>
    </div>
    <div id="tab3" class="mtab_content">
        <p>Tab content 3</p>
    </div>
<div id="tab4" class="mtab_content" style="display: block;">
  <p>Tab content 4</p>
    </div>

</div>
<!-- Original tabs END -->

CSS Code:

#mtabs_wrapper {
    width: 422px;
}
#mtabs_container {
    border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc;
}
#mtabs {
    list-style: none;
    padding: 5px 0 4px 0;
    margin: 0 0 0 0px;
    /* font: 0.75em arial; */
}
#mtabs li {
    display: inline;
}
#mtabs li a {
    border: 1px solid #ccc;
    padding: 4px 6px;
    text-decoration: none;
    color:#000;
    font-family: Artifika, serif; 
    background-color: #eeeeee;
    font-size:14px;
    /*border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc;
    outline: none;*/
    border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
    -moz-border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
    -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 5px;
    -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 5px;
}
#mtabs li a:hover {
    background-color: #dddddd;
    padding: 4px 6px;
}
#mtabs li.active a {
    border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc;
    background-color: #fff;
    padding: 4px 6px 5px 6px;
    /*border-bottom: none;*/
}
#mtabs li.active a:hover {
    background-color: #eeeeee;
    padding: 4px 6px 5px 6px;
    /*border-bottom: none;*/
}

#mtabs li a.icon_accept {
    background-image: url(accept.png);
    background-position: 5px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    padding-left: 24px;
}
#mtabs li a.icon_accept:hover {
    padding-left: 24px;
}

#mtabs_content_container {
    border: 1px solid #ccc;
    border-top: 1px solid #ccc;
    padding: 10px;
    width: 600px;
}
.mtab_content {
    display: none;
}

/* TAB CSS END */

Javascript (jQuery actually):

$(document).ready(function(){
    //  When user clicks on tab, this code will be executed
    $("#mtabs li").click(function() {
        //  First remove class "active" from currently active tab
        $("#mtabs li").removeClass('active');

        //  Now add class "active" to the selected/clicked tab
        $(this).addClass("active");

        //  Hide all tab content
        $(".mtab_content").hide();

        //  Here we get the href value of the selected tab
        var selected_tab = $(this).find("a").attr("href");

        //  Show the selected tab content
        $(selected_tab).fadeIn();

        //  At the end, we add return false so that the click on the link is not executed
        return false;
    });
});

Answer 1

if You do not want to use external libraries you can use this. Add an identifier to the link and add the click event and emulate a click on the preferred tab. is not practical to do this. but it is an option only if you don't want to use libraries

<a id="simulate">Take me to Tab 2</a>

look at this example.

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/hEpGK