jquery hover and setTimeout / clearTimeOut

Question

I\'m currently trying to do a menu with submenu. Here is what i want to do.

On hover a link (#mylink) i want to display a div (lets call it \"#submenu\") right under

Answer 1

Here is how I would do it

var timer
$("#mylink").mouseenter(function(){clearTimeout(timer);$('#submenu').show()})
$("#mylink").mouseout(function(){timer = setTimeout(function(){$('#submenu').hide();}, 1000);})

Answer 2

If you put #submenu inside of #mylink you won't need a second event handler for #submenu and you would have something like this:

var timer;
$(document).ready(function()
{
    $('#mylink').hover(function()
    {
        clearTimeout(timer);
        $('#submenu').show();
    },function()
    {
        timer = setTimeout(function(){$('#submenu').hide();},5000);
    });
}

By the way, you don't need jQuery for this. In plain js won't be so long to code.

Answer 3

var timer is a local variable.
It doesn't exist outside that handler.

You need to make it a global variable.

Answer 4

SLaks has the right answer, but to elaborate on it, you would put var timer outside the function handler. Note that this example doesn't make timer a global variable - it just widens its scope so all handlers can use it.

$(document).ready(function(){
    var timer;
    $("#mylink").hover(
        function(){
            $('#submenu').show();
        }, function(){
            timer = setTimeout(function(){$('#submenu').hide();}, 5000);
        }
    );

    $("#submenu").hover(
        function(){
            clearTimeout(timer);
        }, function(){
            $('#submenu').show();
        }
    );
}