Loading a jquery-ui dialogbox on clicking a link

I have an tag as follows:

<a onClick="showDialog();"> 
    <?php Print $s; ?> 
</a>

In my document.ready() function, i have the showDialog() function

function showDialog()
{
    $('#userdata').dialog('open');
}

And i make the dialog not to appear, by including this in my document.ready() function

$("#userdata").dialog({autoOpen:false}); 

Also, in my body section, i have the "userdata" div element

<div id="userdata">hello</div>

But,when i click on the link, nothing happens.... But if i add an alert() inside the showDialog() function, it is getting triggered. can someone tell me how to display t开发者_开发问答he jquery dialog box ?

thanks

When a link is clicked it will open content in dialog box.

var p = '<p>test test test test test test</p>';
$('a').click(function(){    
    $(p).dialog({
       ...
    });

Check working example at http://jsfiddle.net/msKZt/2/

on your click event of the link add this

$('#ElementID').dialog('open');