jQuery hover and class selector

Question

I wan't to change the background color of a div dynamicly using the following HTML, CSS and javascript. HTML:

<div id="menu">
    <div class="menuItem"><a href=#>Bla</a></div>
    <div class="menuItem"><a href=#>Bla</a></div>
    <div class="menuItem"><a href=#>Bla</a></div>
</div>

CSS:

.menuItem{
  display:inline;
  height:30px;
  width:100px;
  background-color:#000;
}

Javascript:

$('.menuItem').hover( function(){
     $(this).css('background-color', '#F00');
},
function(){
     $(this).css('background-color', '#000');
});

EDIT: I forgot to say that I had reasons not to want to use the css way.

And I indeed forgot to check if the DOM was loaded.

Answer 1

This can be achieved in CSS using the :hover pseudo-class. (:hover doesn't work on <div>s in IE6)

HTML:

<div id="menu">
   <a class="menuItem" href=#>Bla</a>
   <a class="menuItem" href=#>Bla</a>
   <a class="menuItem" href=#>Bla</a>
</div>

CSS:

.menuItem{
  height:30px;
  width:100px;
  background-color:#000;
}
.menuItem:hover {
  background-color:#F00;
}

Answer 2

I would suggest not to use JavaScript for this kind of simple interaction. CSS is capable of doing it (even in Internet Explorer 6) and it will be much more responsive than doing it with JavaScript.

You can use the ":hover" CSS pseudo-class but in order to make it work with Internet Explorer 6, you must use it on an "a" element.

.menuItem
{
    display: inline;
    background-color: #000;

    /* width and height should not work on inline elements */
    /* if this works, your browser is doing the rendering  */
    /* in quirks mode which will not be compatible with    */
    /* other browsers - but this will not work on touch mobile devices like android */

}
.menuItem a:hover 
{
    background-color:#F00;
}