Use JQuery to select parent element of "this" (element clicked)

Question

I have a jQuery script that creates a carousel to rotate images left and right on user click. At first, I wasnt planning on putting more than one carousel on a single page, but now the need has arrived.

The problem is, I dont know how to refer to one carousel (the one clicked) when the user clicks a button.

Heres the script

$(function()
{
    // Put last item before first item, in case user clicks left
    $('.carousel li:first').before($('.carousel li:last'));

    // Right click handler
    $('.right-button img').click(function()
    {
        // Get width plus margins
        var item_width = $('.carousel li').outerWidth() + (2 * parseInt($('.carousel li').css('margin-right')));

        // Get left indent
        var orig_left_indent = $('.carousel').css('left');

        // Calculate new left indent
        var left_indent = parseInt(orig_left_indent) - item_width;

        $('.carousel:not(:animated)').animate({'left': left_indent}, 500, 'swing', function()
        {
            // Put first item after last item
            $('.carousel li:last').after($('.carousel li:first'));

            // Set left indent to default
            $('.carousel').css({'left': orig_left_indent});
        });
    });

    // Left click handler
    $('.left-button img').click(function()
    {
        // Get width plus margins
        var item_width = $('.carousel li').outerWidth() + (2 * parseInt($('.carousel li').css('margin-right')));

        // Get left indent
        var orig_left_indent = $('.carousel').css('left');

        // Calculate new left indent
        var left_indent = parseInt(orig_left_indent) + item_width;

        $('.carousel:not(:animated)').animate({'left': left_indent}, 500, 'swing', function()
        {
            // Put last item before first item
            $('.carousel li:first').before($('.carousel li:last'));

            // Set left indent to default
            $('.carousel').css({'left': orig_left_indent});
        });
    });

    // Close button handler
    $('.carousel-container .close-button img').click(function()
    {
        $('.carousel-container').fadeOut(1000);
    });
});

As of now, when you click right or left on any carousel, all of them shift. I dont know how to get a reference to the carousel clicked.

heres the HTML

<div class="carousel-container clearfix">
    <div class="header close-button">
        <strong>Check These Out</strong>
        <?php echo html::image('media/images/close.gif'); ?></div>
    <div class="left-button"><?php echo html::image('media/images/left_arrow.png'); ?></div>
        <div class="carousel-inner">
            <ul class="carousel">
                <?php foreach ($items as $item): ?>
                <li> ... </li>
                <?php endforeach; ?>
            </ul>
        </div>
    <div class="right-button"><?php echo html::image('media/images/right_arrow.png'); ?></div>
</div>

How would I achieve this, I dont know how to reference the carousel that the user clicked, because the arrows are child elements of the carousel.

EDIT: Thanks for the answers. carousel = $(this).parent() works, but how do I check if the carousel is :animated using the selector and the new carousel variable?

$(':animated', carousel) ?

Answer 1

Inside of an event handler, the variable:

$(this)

will get you the calling element. From there, to get the containing div you can use the parent() function:

$(this).parent()

Use that to walk through the DOM.

Answer 2

Use the .parent() function go up a level. Your code might look something like this:

$('.right-button img').click(function()
    {
        carousel = $(this).parent();

        //bunch of code
    }