Attaching click event to a JQuery object not yet added to the DOM

Question

I've been having a lot of trouble attaching the click event to a JQuery object before adding it to the DOM.

Basically I have this button that my function returns, then I append it to the DOM. What I want is to return the button with its own click handler. I don't want to select it from the DOM to attach the handler.

My code is this:

createMyButton = function(data) {

  var button = $('<div id="my-button"></div>')
    .css({
       'display' : 'inline',
       'padding' : '0px 2px 2px 0px',
       'cursor' : 'pointer'
     }).append($('<a>').attr({
       //'href' : Share.serializeJson(data),
       'target' : '_blank',
       'rel' : 'nofollow'
     }).append($('<image src="css/images/Facebook-icon.png">').css({
       "padding-top" : "0px",
       "margin-top" : "0px",
       "margin-bottom" : "0px"
     })));

     button.click(function () {
        console.log("asdfasdf");
     });

     return button;     
}

The button that is return is unable to catch the click event. However, if I do this (after the button is added to the DOM):

$('#my-button').click(function () {
    console.log("yeahhhh!!! but this doesn't work for me :(");
});

It works... but not for me, not what I want.

It seems to be related to the fact that the object is not yet a part of the DOM.

Oh! By the way, I'm working with OpenLayers, and the DOM object that I'm appending the button to is an OpenLayers.FramedCloud (Which is not yet a part of the DOM but will be once a couple of events are triggered.)

Answer 1

Use this. You can replace body with any parent element that exists on dom ready

$('body').on('click', '#my-button', function () {
     console.log("yeahhhh!!! but this doesn't work for me :(");
});

Look here http://api.jquery.com/on/ for more info on how to use on() as it replaces live() as of 1.7+.

Below lists which version you should be using

$(selector).live(events, data, handler); // jQuery 1.3+

$(document).delegate(selector, events, data, handler); // jQuery 1.4.3+

$(document).on(events, selector, data, handler); // jQuery 1.7+