How to get JQuery.trigger('click'); to initiate a mouse click

I'm having a hard time understand how to simulate a mouse click using JQuery. Can someone please inform me as to what i'm doing wrong.

HTML:

<a id="bar" href="http://stackoverflow.com" target="_blank">Don't click me!</a>
<span id="foo">Click me!</span>

jQuery:

jQuery('#foo').on('click', function(){
    jQuery('#bar').trigger('click');
});

Demo: FIDDLE

when I click on button #foo I want to simulate a click on #bar however when I attempt this, nothing happens. I also tried jQuery(document).ready(function(){...}) but without success.

You need to use jQuery('#bar')[0].click(); to simulate a mouse click on the actual DOM element (not the jQuery object), instead of using the .trigger() jQuery method.

Note: DOM Level 2 .click() doesn't work on some elements in Safari. You will need to use a workaround.

http://api.jquery.com/click/

You just need to put a small timeout event before doing .click() like this :

setTimeout(function(){ $('#btn').click()}, 100);

This is JQuery behavior. I'm not sure why it works this way, it only triggers the onClick function on the link.

Try:

jQuery(document).ready(function() {
    jQuery('#foo').on('click', function() {
        jQuery('#bar')[0].click();
    });
});

See my demo: http://jsfiddle.net/8AVau/1/

jQuery(document).ready(function(){
    jQuery('#foo').on('click', function(){
         jQuery('#bar').simulateClick('click');
    });
});

jQuery.fn.simulateClick = function() {
    return this.each(function() {
        if('createEvent' in document) {
            var doc = this.ownerDocument,
                evt = doc.createEvent('MouseEvents');
            evt.initMouseEvent('click', true, true, doc.defaultView, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, false, false, false, false, 0, null);
            this.dispatchEvent(evt);
        } else {
            this.click(); // IE Boss!
        }
    });
}

May be useful:

The code that calls the Trigger should go after the event is called.

For example, I have some code that I want to be executed when #expense_tickets value is changed, and also, when page is reload

$(function() { 
    
  $("#expense_tickets").change(function() {
    // code that I want to be executed when #expense_tickets value is changed, and also, when page is reload
  });

  // now we trigger the change event
  $("#expense_tickets").trigger("change");

})

jQuery's .trigger('click'); will only cause an event to trigger on this event, it will not trigger the default browser action as well.

You can simulate the same functionality with the following JavaScript:

jQuery('#foo').on('click', function(){
    var bar = jQuery('#bar');
    var href = bar.attr('href');
    if(bar.attr("target") === "_blank")
    {
        window.open(href);
    }else{
        window.location = href;
    }
});

Try this that works for me:

$('#bar').mousedown();

Technically not an answer to this, but a good use of the accepted answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/20928975/82028) to create next and prev buttons for the tabs on jQuery ACF fields:

$('.next').click(function () {
    $('#primary li.active').next().find('.acf-tab-button')[0].click();
});

$('.prev').click(function () {
    $('#primary li.active').prev().find('.acf-tab-button')[0].click();
});

I have tried top two answers, it doesn't worked for me until I removed "display:none" from my file input elements. Then I reverted back to .trigger() it also worked at safari for windows.

So conclusion, Don't use display:none; to hide your file input , you may use opacity:0 instead.

Just use this:

$(function() {
 $('#watchButton').trigger('click');
});

You can't simulate a click event with javascript. jQuery .trigger() function only fires an event named "click" on the element, which you can capture with .on() jQuery method.