JavaScript Tips
Creating accessible JavaScript pop-up windows
The usual script for creating pop-up windows does not a) work with
JavaScript turned off and b) does not meet accessibility requirements.
This
method meets both of these requirements and is what I used, with a few enhancements, in the
PopWin EW Add-In
Lightbox
A neat way to open images over the main page. Some Ajax sites use a
similar technique.
Lightbox
Ajatix have an EW Add-In (all versions) that makes using the
lightbox effect a cinch.
Forcing a download for files
If you have downloadable files on your site, doc, xls or pdf for
example, you may wish to force the users to download the files rather
than open them. This requires some complex script in asp or php
but a simple bit of JavaScript can at least prompt users to download
and force them to take the decision, rather than have files open
automatically.
Try this document link
Copy the code below and paste into your Code view in EW, then amend
as needed.
Showing / Hiding text when a link is clicked
It's sometimes useful to hide text on a page and only show it when a user
clicks a relevant link. On a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for example.
Try the following links. Click to show, click to hide again.
What is Expression Web?
Expression Web is Microsoft's professional web design tool
Where is the home page for the Expression family?
The Expression family home page is
here
How?
Use the Show-Hide V4 Add-In.
My site won't validate. The JavaScript gives errors.
A simple thing that often catches you out when you first validate a
page on the W3C site. (Use the browser toolbars to give easy access to
this).
The solution is to comment out the JavaScript as you might have done
in the past for old browsers. Eg:
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
.........
-->
</script>
Once this is done the page will valid normally without errors from
the JavaScript
Compress your JavaScript files to minimise page download time
It very easy to end up with a JavaScript file of several kilobytes
and compressing it can reduce the size significantly. There are several
compression tolls available on-line and one of the best is
JS
Minifier