So, I use jQuery quite extensively and I am well aware of the "right" way to do the below, but there are times where I want to solve it in a more generic way. I'll explain.

So, I may have a link, like this: <a href='menu' class='popup'>Show menu</a>. Now, I have a jQuery function that fires on click for all a.popup that takes the href-attribute and shows the <div id='menu'></div> item (in this case). It also handles URL's if it can't find a DOM item with that ID.

No problem here. But, there are times when I don't have the same control over the coe where I can create a selectable target that way. Either because the code isn't created by me or because it is created through a chain of function that would all need a huge ovrhaul which I won't do.

So, from time to time, I would like to have this code:

<a href="javascript:popup('menu')">Show menu</a>

This would be in a case where I can only submit the label and the HREF for a link. No class, no nothing.

Problem here is that the function popup() has no idea about what element invoked it, and in most cases that's not a problem for me, since I only need to know where the mouse cursor was upon invokation.

But in some cases, I use someone elses jQuery functions, like qTip or something else. so I still want to fire off qTip(); when clicking a link that runs this JS function, but what do I attach it to to make it show? I can't just runt $().qTip(); because that implies $(this) and "this" is undefined inside the function.

So how do I do it? Any ideas?