jQuery: Capture anchor href onclick and submit asynchronously

ajax, anchor, hyperlink, jquery

Solution

$('a').click(function(event) { 
    event.preventDefault(); 
    $.ajax({
        url: $(this).attr('href'),
        success: function(response) {
            alert(response);
        }
    });
    return false; // for good measure
});

Problem

I almost never get to play with client-side stuff, and this presumably simple task is kicking my butt :) I have some links. OnClick I want to prevent the default action, capture its href url, submit an ajax GET to that url, and simply `alert()` with the results ... but I can't even get past the starting line :) Example anchors for play-time: ``` <a class="asynch_link" href="good/1.html">Click Here</a> <a class="asynch_link" href="good/2.html">Click Here</a> ``` Now, I've played with a few suggestions for similar requests on SO, but the links still cause the browser to navigate to the href url. Even with just ``` <script type="text/javascript"> $('a').click(function (event) { event.preventDefault(); //here you can also do all sort of things }); </script> ``` ...the links still navigate to the other page. I'm kinda feeling like and infant here :) Any and all help will be deeply appreciated. And, yes, I AM including jQuery :) `<script src="//67.20.99.206/javascripts/jqueryCountdown/1-5-11/jquery.countdown.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>`

Original source