Thursday, August 26, 2010

Javascript Detect for Safari 3

Today I needed a quick way to detect Safari3 for some specific markup tricks, so I wrote this function.
Thought it might be helpful to someone else.

<script type="text/javascript">
var isSafari3 = (function() {
var retval = false;
if (navigator.vendor && navigator.vendor.indexOf('Apple') > -1) {
var index=navigator.appVersion.indexOf('Version');
if (index > -1) {
retval = (parseInt(navigator.appVersion.substring(index+8))==3);
}
}
return retval;
})();
alert(isSafari3);
</script>

Shannon Norrell

Monday, August 23, 2010

IE CSS Hack

Most folks know about the so-called "star hack" for IE.

However, there are two other varieties of IE-only hacks that are perhaps a bit more useful.

All of these work, in some form or another for IE. I tested them all in various flavors to arrive at my favorite (sic).

You can set up a test harness yourself using this code to see for yourself.

<style type=text/css>
body {
background-color:red;
_background-color:blue;
*background-color:green;
background-color:yellow\9;
}
</style>


  • _ hack WORKS for: IE8 Quirks, IE7 Quirks, IE6

  • _ hack DOES NOT WORK for: IE8 IE8 Standards, IE8 IE7 Standards, IE7 IE7 Standards

  • * hack works for: IE8 Quirks, IE8 IE7 Standards, IE7 Quirks, IE7 IE7 Standards, IE6

  • * hack DOES NOT WORK for: IE8 IE8 Standards

  • \9 hack WORKS for: IE8 IE8 Standards, IE8 IE7 Standards, IE8 Quirks mode, IE7 Quirks, IE7 Standards (all varieties of IE8), IE6



So, in short, if you want an IE CSS hack that works in all flavors of IE, use the backslash-nine hack. That is, just put a \9 after *whatever* css value you are assigning.

Examples
width: 9px\9;
background-color:yellow\9;

etc.

Good luck.

Shannon Norrell

Friday, June 4, 2010

HTML5 Demos on Apple.com

The HTML5 demos I worked on for Apple are now live!

http://www.apple.com/html5/

http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/

Most of the demos use my DHTML slider and all use my library.js file

Shannon Norrell

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

EnsureMinimumNumberOfRows

Here I present a useful function called "EnsureMinimumNumberOfRows".

This function operates on a table and effectively clones the last row in the table a given number of times to ensure that a minimum number of rows exist within the table. it does not clone the contetns of the cells, but rather the nodes themselves and their classnames (by way of cloneNode(false).


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// EnsureMinimumNumberOfRows(element, params) - ensures a table will have a minimum
// ========================================== number of visible rows.
// Supported params are:
// numberOfRows - gives the minimum number of rows that will appear
// rowHeight - height, in pixels for added rows
// *NOTE: Does not support empty tables
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function EnsureMinimumNumberOfRows(element, params) {
var minimumNumberOfRows = params.numberOfRows || 10, // default minimumNumberOfRows is 10
rowHeight = params.rowHeight || 30, // default rowHeight (for new rows) is 30px
oTable = $(element).select('div.resultList table')[0], // Get the first element as $(element).select returns an array
numberOfRowsToInsert = minimumNumberOfRows - oTable.rows.length + 1;

if (numberOfRowsToInsert > 0) {
var clonedRow = oTable.rows[ oTable.rows.length - 1 ]
clonedCells = clonedRow.getElementsByTagName('td');
for (var i=0;i<numberOfRowsToInsert;i++) {
var oRow = document.createElement("TR");
for (j=0;j<clonedCells.length;j++) {
var oCell = clonedCells[j].cloneNode(false);
oCell.style.height = rowHeight + "px";
oCell.appendChild( document.createTextNode("\u00a0") );
oRow.appendChild(oCell);
}
oTable.appendChild( oRow );
}
}
}

Shannon Norrell


Now posted on GitHub

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

addClassName and removeClassName

Useful CSS Class handling functions.

Here I present addClassName, hasClass and removeClassName and also my old implementation of Array.indexOf. Since this is built into JS these days, you probably won't need it.

addClassName and removeClassName are useful functions because you can pass in space separated classNames and it will add/remove them all.


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// addClassName([object|string] oHTMLElement, string classNameToAdd)
// Adds classNameToAdd to an HTMLElement. Guaranteed not to add the same className twice.
// classNameToAdd can be a space separated list of classNames.
// You can pass in the id to an object or the actual object
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function addClassName(oHTMLElement, classNameToAdd) {
if (typeof(oHTMLElement)=="string") { oHTMLElement = document.getElementById(oHTMLElement); }
if (oHTMLElement) {
var theClassName = oHTMLElement.className;
if (theClassName && (theClassName.length > 0)) { // If oHTMLElement already has a class name, some more work is needed
var classNamesToAdd = classNameToAdd.split(" ");
if (classNamesToAdd.length===1 && ((" " + theClassName + " ").lastIndexOf(" " + classNameToAdd + " ") === -1) ) { // If we only have one className to potentially add, take the "less work" approach
oHTMLElement.className = oHTMLElement.className + " " + classNameToAdd;
} else {
var theClassNames = theClassName.split(" "),
iEnd = classNamesToAdd.length,
aClassName,
theClassNamesToAddArray = [];
for (var i=0;i<iEnd;i++) {
aClassName = classNamesToAdd[i];
if (theClassNames.indexOf(aClassName)===-1) {
theClassNamesToAddArray.push( aClassName );
}
}
oHTMLElement.className = oHTMLElement.className + " " + ((theClassNamesToAddArray.length > 1) ? theClassNamesToAddArray.join(" ") : theClassNamesToAddArray[0]);
}
} else {
oHTMLElement.className = classNameToAdd; // If oHTMLElement did not already have a class name, just add it
}
}
}

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// hasClassName([object|string] oHTMLElement, string classNameOfInterest)
// Returns a boolean value of if an HTMLElement has the className of interest
// You can pass in the id to an object or the actual object
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function hasClassName(oHTMLElement, classNameOfInterest) {
return ((" " + oHTMLElement.className + " ").lastIndexOf(" " + classNameOfInterest + " ") > -1);
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// removeClassName([object|string] oHTMLElement, string classNameToRemove)
// Removes classNameToRemove from an HTMLElement, if it exists.
// classNameToRemove can be a space separated list of classNames.
// You can pass in the id to oHTMLElement or the actual object
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function removeClassName(oHTMLElement, classNameToRemove) {
if (typeof(oHTMLElement)=="string") { oHTMLElement = document.getElementById(oHTMLElement); }
if (oHTMLElement) {
var theClassName = oHTMLElement.className;
if (theClassName && (theClassName.length > 0)) {
var theClassNameArray = theClassName.split(" "),
classNamesToRemove = classNameToRemove.split(" "),
iEnd = theClassNameArray.length,
aClassName,
theNewClassNameArray = [];
for (var i=0;i<iEnd;i++) {
aClassName = theClassNameArray[i];
if (classNamesToRemove.indexOf(aClassName)===-1) {
theNewClassNameArray.push( aClassName );
}
}
switch (true) {
case (theNewClassNameArray.length>1) :
oHTMLElement.className = theNewClassNameArray.join(" ");
break;
case (theNewClassNameArray.length==1) :
oHTMLElement.className = theNewClassNameArray[0];
break;
case (theNewClassNameArray.length==0) :
oHTMLElement.className = "";
break;
}
}
}
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Array.indexOf() - returns integer index where valueToSearchFor is in an Array
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
if (Array.prototype.indexOf===undefined) {
Array.prototype.indexOf = function( valueToSearchFor ) {
var iEnd = this.length;
var retVal = -1;
for (var i=0;i<iEnd; i++) {
if (this[i] == valueToSearchFor) {
retVal = i;
break;
}
}
return retVal;
};
}


by Shannon Norrell

Monday, March 1, 2010

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

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Unified Javascript disableTextSelection | enableTextSelection

Unified Text Selection Disable/Enable Routine


If you're doing any kind of drag and drop operation in Javascript/DHTML, you will need to temporarily disable and re-enable text selection in your document while the drag operation is going on.

I wrote this block of code today and it was such a tedious hassle, I thought it worth blogging so others wouldn't have to endure my pain :{.


This works in all browsers except PC Opera.

It DOES work in Mac OSX Safari, Firefox, Chrome and on PC Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox and Chrome.


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// UTILITIES - Section contains general-purpose utilties //
// ========= //
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
utilities : {
savedValueOf : new Object(), // savedValueOf will hold "original" values that we override/restore as needed
disableTextSelection : function() {
switch (true) {
case ( typeof document.onselectstart!="undefined" ) : // IE
this.savedValueOf["onselectstart"] = document.onselectstart;
document.onselectstart=function() { return false; };
break;
case ( typeof document.body.style.MozUserSelect != "undefined" ) : // Firefox
this.savedValueOf["-moz-user-select"] = document.body.style.MozUserSelect || "text";
document.body.style.MozUserSelect="none";
break;
case ( document.body.style["-khtml-user-select"] != "undefined" ) : // Safari
this.savedValueOf["-khtml-user-select"] = document.body.style["-khtml-user-select"];
document.body.style["-khtml-user-select"] = 'none';
break;
}
},
enableTextSelection : function() {
switch (true) {
case ( typeof document.onselectstart!="undefined" ) : // IE
document.onselectstart = this.savedValueOf["onselectstart"]
break;
case (typeof document.body.style.MozUserSelect != "undefined") : // Firefox
document.body.style.MozUserSelect = this.savedValueOf["-moz-user-select"]
break;
case ( document.body.style["-khtml-user-select"]!="undefined" ) : // Safari
document.body.style["-khtml-user-select"] = this.savedValueOf["-khtml-user-select"];
break;
}
}
}


Shannon Norrell



This posting now also on GitHub