Problem with finding dimensions of hidden elements
Reported by datamagi | August 28th, 2008 @ 11:34 PM | in 1.6.1
In the getDimensions method you make an attempt at discovering the dimensions of hidden elements (i.e. display: none) by making them absolute, invisible and unhiding them. The invisible/unhide-approach makes sense, but making the hidden element absolute also makes it shrinkwrap its contents (say, if it's a div - at least on the few browsers I tested) and the width you then get is possibly much smaller than if it wasn't made absolute.
For a demonstration, see the attachment of issue #310 (the blue-bordered div).
Comments and changes to this ticket
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John-David Dalton August 28th, 2008 @ 11:49 PM
- → Milestone changed from “” to “1.6.1”
- → State changed from “new” to “enhancement”
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John-David Dalton August 28th, 2008 @ 11:52 PM
They made it absolute so it wouldn't warp the rest of the page content around. They may not be an issue since it happens so fast, but I have seen things appear constantly visible when used with onmousemove events and things. We should test for this to make sure. Omitting the position:absolute, did fix my web application. The content kept shrinking everytime I opened a tooltip. This fixed it :) -
datamagi August 28th, 2008 @ 11:57 PM
Oh, I forgot this comment fra #310:
"I suppose it's made absolute in order to prevent any flicker or movement in the flow of the page that could appear otherwise, but I'd still prefer getting the correct dimensions over infrequent (and minor?) inconveniences like that. Or maybe even the user could be allowed decide if the library should make an attempt at discovering dimensions for hidden elements or not, i.e. change the signature to getDimensions(element[, discoverHidden])? discoverHidden would default to true for backwards compatibility, obviously."
If a discoverHidden-option was added, it would need to be documented (something resembling the paragraph above), so people can see the trade-offs.
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The Prototype JavaScript library.
