John Dalesandro

This JavaScript function disables all links within the specified DIV by setting the link object to ‘disabled’ as well as removing the ‘onclick’ and ‘href’ attributes. This is a useful JavaScript function for form submissions since it prevents the user from clicking another link while an action is pending.

function DisableAllDIVLinks(DivId) {
  var div = document.getElementById(DivId);
  var anchorList = div.getElementsByTagName('a');

  for(var i = 0; i < anchorList.length; i++) {
    anchorList[i].disabled = true;
    anchorList[i].onclick = '';
    anchorList[i].removeAttribute('href');
  }
}

The following is a modified version that disables all links within a specified DIV, but it retains a backup of the links so that they can be re-enabled with the EnableAllDIVLinks function.

function DisableAllDIVLinks(DivId) {
  var div = document.getElementById(DivId);
  var anchorList = div.getElementsByTagName('a');

  for(var i = 0; i < anchorList.length; i++) {
    anchorList[i].disabled = true;
    anchorList[i].setAttribute('backup_href', anchorList[i].getAttribute("href"));
    anchorList[i].removeAttribute('href');
  }
}

function EnableAllDIVLinks(DivId) {
  var div = document.getElementById(DivId);
  var anchorList = div.getElementsByTagName('a');

  for(var i = 0; i < anchorList.length; i++) {
    anchorList[i].disabled = false;
    anchorList[i].setAttribute('href', anchorList[i].getAttribute("backup_href"));
    anchorList[i].removeAttribute('backup_href');
  }
}