Help needed in Javascript

[eangulus]

HI all I am having trouble getting a javascript to work as I want it.

The code is as follows:

function oc(a) {
	var o = {};

	for(var i=0;i<a.length;i++) {
		o[a[i]]='';
	}

	return o;

	// USE: if( name in oc(['bobby', 'sue','smith']) ) { ... }
}

function toggle() {
	var tagarray = document.getElementsByTagName("div");
	var padding = document.getElementById('padding');
	var arguments = arguments;

	for(var x=0; x<tagarray.length; x++) {
		var tagname = tagarray[x].getAttribute("id");

		if (tagname in oc(arguments) == true) {
			var tag = document.getElementById(tagname);

			if (tag.style.display == "") {
				tag.style.display = "none";
				padding.style.display = "";
			} else {
				tag.style.display = "";
				padding.style.display = "none";
			}
		} else {
			// tagname.style.display = "";
		}
	}

	for(var i=0; i<arguments.length; i++) {
		// alert(arguments[i]);
	}
}

the oc function is to search for a string in an array I found.

I want to call the script like this:

onclick="java script:toggle('products','content'); return false;"

The call is not restricted to how many items 1 or 10...

What it has to do is toggle the display css for a div to hide/show content. by using multiple names in the onclick I should be able to toggle 2 items at once.

Also to avoid conflict I would like the div id's to have an operating extension as in:

products_toggle == toggle

products_show == force display: ; if it isn;t already

products_hide == force display: none; if it isn;t already

I am going nuts on trying to get this to work. I have had it work half way there but not all features at once. The code above opens and closes the items but doesn't close all others that are open. each div will be a content panel and the reason for the multiple id's is so I can open a page panel and then show the relevant sub content on that page. For example I might call about_open, contact this should force open the about panel and show a contact form. the using about_open, privacy it should open about panel if not already and show the privacy content while closing all other div's.

If needed I can abbreviated each toggled div with a name as in id="about_content", id="contact_content" etc.

Please help me.

[Antaris Veteran]

var arguments = arguments;

What are you doing with that line?

You might be interested in jQuery, it is a javascript framework which augments the standard javascript objects with additional ones, so you could probably achieve the above effect in much fewer lines:

function toggle() {
	for (int i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
		$(arguments[i]).toggle();
	}
}

You should be able to call it simply with: toggle("first", "second", "third"); etc.

[eangulus]

Sorry to be a pain but I don't think I want to use jQuery for just one script. if I was going to use more scripts I would.

The

var arguments = arguments;

is what I have read I must do. arguments is the array of items from the function call, and I have to declare it. I wanted the arguments array to be called arguments.

If its wrong fix it. Im no javascirpt expert. in fact this is the first time I have actually written anything in javascript.

[Antaris Veteran]

jQuery will become very useful if you plan to go into full Web 2.0 development (which according to your other thread, it is planned).

Remove this

var arguments = arguments;

as it is not required, and may be causing your browser to abort the script

[eangulus]

It may not be required but its definetly not aborting the script. As I said before it works, partly.

And your reading my other post? Got any thoughts about that?

My main issue is not only am I a perfectionist, I believe in opensource and accesability (ie API, plugins etc for customization and integration), I also hate writing the same code over and over again, and I like simple clean minimalistic code. I also would like to write using standards as in standard code, formatting, structure etc. for example if I am doing a menu in a web page I'll use a list. hey I even made an accordion style website once using ONLY <ul>. Never used it just did it to see if I can get the structure to work as <ul> not <div>.

So any help on that would be handy. The script above is also not for the site on the other post. thats a different thing all together.

[Antaris Veteran]

Well, a non-jQuery function could work as follows:

function toggle() {
	for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
		var obj = document.getElementById(arguments[i]);
		obj.style.display = (obj.style.display == "none") ? "block" : "none";
	}
}

Called as "java script: toggle('one', 'two', 'three');".

I have attached an example html document.

test.htmlFetching info...

[eangulus]

Sorry to be a pain, but there is not consistancy with your test page. click randomly on the links and the same links give different results.

The link to the page I am going to use it on is here: http://eangulus.homeip.net/clients/eangulu....com/index6.php

On my design there is also a div id="padding" that has to be hidden whenever one of the pages is open. Only one page to be open at a time. but the submenu content in each page is the reason for the multiple id need. this way I can use the toggle in a similar fashion for the sub links to change between contetn. and then I can call for example aboutus, will opn aboutus div with about us contetn as default, but click on contact in the bottom footer and it should open aboutus and show the contact form div instead.

At this stage I have each content area id's and the padding id and also the sample contetn under products has the id="content". THere will be more but I have put in enough for testing.

Anyway going to bed now so I will talk in the morning.

[Antaris Veteran]

There is supposed to be inconsistency, the different links toggle different layers. Look at the html source and see if you can figure out why.

[eangulus]

OK I understand now what your code does.

But I do have some more questions.

How can I search for all elements with an id ending in "_toggle" and have that in an array, then I should be able to go thru each array element and match against the arguments. If it doesn't match close the tag, if it does I want to then search for the ending of the called tag (_open _close or _swap etc) and either open or close according to that answer.

[eangulus]

OK I have it nearly working correctly now. I just can't get it to properlly close the other divs when you open a new one.

The current code is here and ignore the toggle2 function.

http://eangulus.homeip.net/clients/eangulu....com/index6.php

[Antaris Veteran]

Well, unless your planning to increase the number of expanding sections, you could probably get away with an array based function:

function open(id) {
	var layers = ['one','two','three','four','five'];
	for (var i = 0; i < layers.length; i++) {
		var obj = document.getElementById(layers[i]);
		if (obj) {
			if (layers[i] == id) 
				obj.style.display = "block";
			else
				obj.style.display = "none";
		}						
	}
}

[eangulus]

OK. how would that work? I am not ever going to have any more than 3 main panels on this design. BUt I will have an unlimited amount of sub pages within each panel. Would the above code work for open a panel and then opening the appropriate sub page?

[eangulus]

Just thought I'll let you know that the above code crashes FF

[Antaris Veteran]

Ok, final version:

function open(parent, child) {
	var parents = ['one', 'two'];
	for (var i = 0; i < parents.length; i++) {					
		var parentObj = document.getElementById(parents[i]);
		if (parentObj) {
			if (parents[i] == parent) 
				parentObj.style.display = "block";
			else
				parentObj.style.display = "none";
		}	
	}

	var children = document.getElementsByTagName("div");
	for (var j = 0; j < children.length; j++) {
		if (children[j].id.indexOf("_child") > 0) {
			var childId = child + "_child";
			if (children[j].id == childId)
				children[j].style.display = "block";
			else
				children[j].style.display = "none";
		}
	}
}

With an attachment:test.html

[eangulus]

Sorry to sound rude, but it still doesn't work. Please look at the code I have on the link I have provided.I have you code implemented

[Antaris Veteran]

I think you are making it unnecessarily complex.

This attachment works IE8 (IE7 emulation mode):test.html

[eangulus]

LOL, you've been watching my page.....

Thank you so much for that last script. Have another look, its working as I want it too now, (only first 2 links under products are setup atm). I also add in the padding.

I know it was getting complicated but I was trying to learn javascript, and I was really only converting the steps in my head to paper so to speak.

Oh and I apologize. the script samples always worked, it was my practice code that was cause the crash. as soon as I deleted all my stuff it work a treat.

Sorry to be a pain in the ass, but is it hard to make the parent items toggle? If it is don't worry cause I was looking at dropping that feature anyway.

[Antaris Veteran]

From my first reply:

  Quote

function toggle() {

for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {

$(arguments).toggle();

}

}

You can adapt that into the open() function to create a toggle mechanism.

[eangulus]

OK if you have a look at my code, I have managed to adapt yours to make it toggle. I am now only having trouble getting the padding to come back once the parents are closed again.

[eangulus]

Bump