I am having problems with javascript not allowing my to use whitespace so I'm having to squash all the code making it hard to read.
Sample A: - Working:
output += '<li><a href="#">test here</a><li>';
Sample B: - Not Working:
output += '<li>
<a href="#">test here</a>
</li>';
Is there a way where I could get the above for work without having to first squash it all together?
You can do something like this. I find it slightly easier to read, but harder to maintain.
output += '<li>' +
'<a href="#">test here</a>' +
'</li>';
You may want to check out multi line strings in javascript. Like so: http://www.electrictoolbox.com/javascript-multi-line-strings/
For some code example, try:
output += '<li>\
<a href="#">test here</a>\
</li>'
The solution is a backspace:
output += '<li>\
<a href="#">test here</a>\
</li>';
EDIT
If you do want to keep the newlines, put \n before the \.
Don't write markup in JS, unless it's just a couple of tags.
Consider creating elements in jQuery:
var output = $('<li>').append(
$('<a>').attr('href', '#dalink')
);
or much better, use templating, i.e. markup templates with placeholders and little presentational logic like loops for populating lists.
