Converting "document.getElementById" into jQuery

Question

I've been thinking/searching for an equivalent of the problem that I am having below, and nothing could be found. Is there a way I can rewrite this to work with jQuery as an alternative?

First half of the code.

<a href="link.php?test=true" onclick="request(this)" target="_blank">

<a id="step2" href="javascript:alert('NOT FINISHED!');">

Second half of the code.

<script language="javascript">
var requests = 16;

function request(self)
{if(self.href != "#")
requests -= 1;

self.childNodes[0].src = "images/clear.gif";

if(requests === 0)
document.getElementById("step2").href = "next.php";}
</script>

Whereas I want to do a jQuery var request type thing. I want onclick="request(this) to work with my jQuery.

Answer 1

The answer to your question (title) is to replace

document.getElementById('about').href = '#';

with

$('#about').attr('href','#');

I have no idea if this will actually help you solve your problem, though, since I really don't know what you are trying to do. Based on your comments and code sample, it appears that you are trying to do some sort of wizard, but I have no idea how it would actually work given what you've posted.

Update:

Maybe something like:

<a href="link.php?test=true" onclick="request(this)" target="_blank" class='request'></a>

<a id="step2" href="next.php">Step 2</a>

<script language="javascript">
    $(function() {
       var requests = 16;
       $('#step2').click( function() {
           alert('Not finished');
           return false;
       });
       $('.request').click( function() {
           var $this = $(this); // save jQuery reference to element clicked

           // swap indicator image source
           $this.find('img:first').attr('src','images/clear.gif');

           // if the number of flipped indicators equals the number of requests
           // remove the click handler from the step 2 link
           // this removes the alert and allows the user to proceed
           if ($('.request img[src="images/clear.gif"]').length == requests) {
              $('#step2').unbind('click');
           }

           ...do something with the href for this request via ajax???

           // replace this handler with one that simply returns false
           // and remove the href since we're done with this request
           $(this).unbind('click').attr('href','#').click( function() { return false; } );

            // stop the default action for the request
           return false;
    });
</script>