Add some properties to a <div> element

Question

I want to add some properties to a <div> element. All of the below works except for the .data(). I cannot see it appear in Firefox/Firebug.

$('#menu-container')
  .css('background-image','url("'+big_image+'")')
  .addClass('click_2')                          
  .data("new_link", "new_link.html")
  .css('z-index',"99");

Am I doing it wrong?

Answer 1

data is not just any ordinary attribute you can add, it is a way to attach objects and data to DOM elements. You can't see it in the HTML source or in Firebug, but you can query it using .data()

The data itself is not stored on the element. It's actually stored in $.cache