showOrHide algorithm

Making it easier for me to look up my own most useful block of code for displaying/hiding elements. This is the same bit of code I wrote for Microsoft that shipped with Vista and now Windows 7 with the Sidebar gadgets.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// showOrHide([object|string] oHTMLElement, boolean bShowOrHide)
//           Shows or Hides an HTMLElement.
//           You can pass in the id to an object or the actual object
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function showOrHide(oHTMLElement, bShowOrHide) {
  try   {
    if (typeof(oHTMLElement)=="string")  {
      oHTMLElement = document.getElementById(oHTMLElement);
    }
    if (oHTMLElement && oHTMLElement.style) {
      if (bShowOrHide == 'inherit') {
        oHTMLElement.style.visibility = 'inherit';
      } else {
        if (bShowOrHide) {
          if (oHTMLElement.nodeName == 'TR') {
            oHTMLElement.style.visibility = 'inline-table';
          } else {
            oHTMLElement.style.visibility = 'visible';
          }
        } else {
          oHTMLElement.style.visibility = 'hidden';
        }
        try {
          if (bShowOrHide) {
            oHTMLElement.style.display = 'block';
          } else {
            oHTMLElement.style.display = 'none';
          }
        }
        catch (ex) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
  catch (ex) {
  }
}

Shannon Norrell


Now on GitHub