If you reorganize your code, you can separate the JavaScript from the HTML completely and deal with events there. Here's how I'd set it up:
<div id="main_area" class="row-fluid">
<div class="span10 offset1">
<div id="formAlert" class="alert hide">
<a class="close">×</a>
<strong>Warning!</strong> Make sure all fields are filled and try again.
</div>
<form name="register" action="" method="post">
<input type="text" name="username" />
<br />
<input type="submit" class="btn btn-primary" value="Submit" />
</form>
</div>
</div>
And the JS:
$(document).ready(function () {
// Run this code only when the DOM (all elements) are ready
$('form[name="register"]').on("submit", function (e) {
// Find all <form>s with the name "register", and bind a "submit" event handler
// Find the <input /> element with the name "username"
var username = $(this).find('input[name="username"]');
if ($.trim(username.val()) === "") {
// If its value is empty
e.preventDefault(); // Stop the form from submitting
$("#formAlert").slideDown(400); // Show the Alert
} else {
e.preventDefault(); // Not needed, just for demonstration
$("#formAlert").slideUp(400, function () { // Hide the Alert (if visible)
alert("Would be submitting form"); // Not needed, just for demonstration
username.val(""); // Not needed, just for demonstration
});
}
});
$(".alert").find(".close").on("click", function (e) {
// Find all elements with the "alert" class, get all descendant elements with the class "close", and bind a "click" event handler
e.stopPropagation(); // Don't allow the click to bubble up the DOM
e.preventDefault(); // Don't let any default functionality occur (in case it's a link)
$(this).closest(".alert").slideUp(400); // Hide this specific Alert
});
});
DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/VzVy6/8/
The data-dismiss
attribute on the <a class="close">×</a>
actually removes the Alert when clicked, so you can't show it again later. So instead of using that attribute, you can do what you want by manually hiding/showing the specific Alert associated with the class="close"
elements.