How to disable the click if a function is in active status

Question

I have created a fiddle of my function here( http://jsfiddle.net/rhy5K/10/ ) . Now i want to disable the button click i.e play/pause if the sound is playing like Get ready,5,4,3,2,1 .

I know only how to disable the form submit button , but I am very confused how to disable the click in my case the hyperlinks.

Explanation using code example:

I want to disable this

<a href="#" id="btn_start">PLAY</a>

click, while interpreter is executing the below code:

var playGetReady = function (done) {
    var ids = ['audiosource', 'a_5', 'a_4', 'a_3', 'a_2', 'a_1'],
        playNext = function () {
            var id = ids.shift();
            document.getElementById(id).play();
            if (ids.length) {
                setTimeout(playNext, 1000);
            } else {
                done();
            }
        };
    playNext();
};

Warning: This JS fiddle demo may play sound on load

Answer 1

You may try this (Changes in following function), but not sure if this is you want and maybe there are other ways to do it.

App.prototype.start = function () {
    var self = this;
    // unbind for a while
    self.$button.unbind('click', self.buttonHandler); // <--
    var start = function () {
            // start countdown
            self.intervalHandle = setInterval($.proxy(self.tick, self), 1000);
            // bind again
            self.$button.click($.proxy(self.buttonHandler, self)); // <--
            // change button text to PAUSE
            self.$button.text('PAUSE');
        };

    if (this.newTimer) {
        playGetReady(start);
    } else {
        start();
    }
};

DEMO.

Answer 2

In jquery, it can be done easily by cancel default action. Here's the sample.

$("#btn_start").click(function(event){      
    if(not_active_flag){
        // Prevent anchor to active
        return false;
    }else{
        // Anchor active as usual
        return true;
    }       
});

Answer 3

In your case, the link will ultimately call this.buttonHandler, which has the following code:

App.prototype.buttonHandler = function (e) {
    e.preventDefault(); // prevent anchor default action
    this.toggle(); // toggle play/pause
};

Because buttonHandler is attached before playGetReady is executed, it is not possible to let playGetReady attach a click handler to that anchor element that uses .stopImmediatePropagation() to prevent the other click handler from executing.

In this case @gp.'s solution in the comments is most likely the best solution. In your case you might even be able to use a local variable in your app. If you use a global variable, reference it with window.yourglobalvariable. If you use a local variable, make sure you define it somewhere and reference it with this.yourvariable. Change your buttonHandler to:

App.prototype.buttonHandler = function (e) {
    e.preventDefault(); // prevent anchor default action
    if( this.soundready )
        this.toggle(); // toggle play/pause
};

On the appropiate place make this variable false to prevent the 'button' from working. When the button should work, change the variable to true. I think that should be just before done() in the code you have in your question, but you probably have a better idea in what order the code is executed.