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How To Make Floating and Dimming a Div using JavaScript

By , 14 Feb 2006
 
Sample Image - js_floating_dimming_div.jpg

Introduction

This script allows you to simulate, dimming the page, a pop up window message using a div. You can also use it to create an input window to ask for additional information.
This script has been tested only with Internet Explorer 6.0, Firefox 1.0.7 and Opera 8.51 on Windows 2003 Server.

How It Works

The first peculiarity of this script is to dim the page and to use any div, identified by an id, you write in your HTML code.
To dim the page, my code uses a dynamically added dimmer div having a semi-transparent PNG image as background. The source file contains a few PNG background images.
The script dynamically sets the dimmer's size equal to the window screen size as shown below:

//
// dynamically add a div to
// dim all the page
//
function buildDimmerDiv()
{
    document.write('<div id="dimmer" class="dimmer" style="width:'+
    window.screen.width + 'px; height:' + window.screen.height +'px"></div>');
}

And this is its CSS style:

div.dimmer
{
    visibility: hidden;
    position:absolute;
    left:0px;
    top:0px;
    font-family:verdana;
    font-weight:bold;
    padding:40px;

    background-image:url(honey.png);
    /* ieWin only stuff */
        /* with this trick only IE
           manage the following 2 attributes */
    _background-image:none;
    _filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader
        (enabled=true, sizingMethod=scale src='honey.png');
}

The script changes its visibility to visible before showing the floating div.

document.getElementById('dimmer').style.visibility = "visible";

The second script's feature is the chance to move the div. We are able to do it writing handlers for the main mouse events.

//
//
//
function MouseDown(e)
{
    if (over)
    {
        if (isMozilla) {
            objDiv = document.getElementById(DivID);
            X=e.layerX;
            Y=e.layerY;
            return false;
        }
        else {
            objDiv = document.getElementById(DivID);
            objDiv = objDiv.style;
            X=event.offsetX;
            Y=event.offsetY;
        }
    }
}

//
//
//
function MouseMove(e)
{
    if (objDiv) {
        if (isMozilla) {
            objDiv.style.top = (e.pageY-Y) + 'px';
            objDiv.style.left = (e.pageX-X) + 'px';
            return false;
        }
        else
        {
            objDiv.pixelLeft = event.clientX-X + document.body.scrollLeft;
            objDiv.pixelTop = event.clientY-Y + document.body.scrollTop;
            return false;
        }
    }
}

//
//
//
function MouseUp()
{
    objDiv = null;
}

//
//
//
function init()
{
    // check browser
    isMozilla = (document.all) ? 0 : 1;

    if (isMozilla)
    {
        document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN | Event.MOUSEMOVE | Event.MOUSEUP);
    }

    document.onmousedown = MouseDown;
    document.onmousemove = MouseMove;
    document.onmouseup = MouseUp;

    // add the div
    // used to dim the page
    buildDimmerDiv();

}

How To Use It

The layout of the dimmer and floating div is customizable using the dimming.css file. To use the script, first you must insert the following HTML code in the head section of your page:

<link REL=StyleSheet HREF="dimming.css" TYPE="text/css">
<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="dimmingdiv.js">
</script>

Then define in your HTML code, a div containing the code to display:

<!--<span class="code-comment">  the following hidden div will be used by the script --></span>
<div style="width: 518px; height: 287px;visibility:hidden" id="windowcontent">
            <script language="javascript">
            function Hello()
            {
               alert('Hello '+  document.getElementById('yourname').value + '!');
            }
            </script>
            <table >
            <tr><td colspan="2"></td></tr>
            <tr>
            <td>Your name:</td>
            <td><input type="text" style="width: 292px" id="yourname" /></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
            <td colspan="2">
            <input type="button" value="Hello button" onclick="Hello();"
                style="width: 119px"/></td>
            </tr>
            <tr><td colspan="2">
Click the left mouse button on the blue header then move the floating div!!!</td></tr>
            </table>
</div>

Call the displayFloatingDiv function to show the div. This function accepts six input parameters:

  • ID of the div to show
  • title
  • width
  • height
  • left position
  • top position

//
//
//
function displayFloatingDiv(divId, title, width, height, left, top)
{
    DivID = divId;

    document.getElementById('dimmer').style.visibility = "visible";

    document.getElementById(divId).style.width = width + 'px';
    document.getElementById(divId).style.height = height + 'px';
    document.getElementById(divId).style.left = left + 'px';
    document.getElementById(divId).style.top = top + 'px';

    var addHeader;

    if (originalDivHTML == "")
        originalDivHTML = document.getElementById(divId).innerHTML;

    addHeader = '<table style="width:' + width + 'px" class="floatingHeader">' +
                '<tr><td ondblclick="void(0);" onmouseover="over=true;" onmouseout=
                     "over=false;" style="cursor:move;height:18px">' + title + '</td>' +
                '<td style="width:18px" align="right">
                <a href="javascript:hiddenFloatingDiv(\'' + divId + '\');void(0);">' +
                '<img title="Close..." alt="Close..." src="close.jpg" border="0" /</a>
                </td></tr></table>';


    // add to your div an header
    document.getElementById(divId).innerHTML = addHeader + originalDivHTML;


    document.getElementById(divId).className = 'dimming';
    document.getElementById(divId).style.visibility = "visible";
}

A displayFloatingDiv calling example is shown below:

var w, h, l, t;
w = 400;
h = 200;
l = screen.width/4;
t = screen.height/4;

// no title
// displayFloatingDiv('windowcontent', '', w, h, l, t);

// with title
displayFloatingDiv('windowcontent', 'Floating and Dimming Div', w, h, l, t);

Screenshots

Firefox screenshot

An Internet Explorer screenshot.

Firefox screenshot

An Opera screenshot.

Conclusion

The zip source file contains the script, CSS, PNG images and a demo HTML page.
I hope you enjoy this article.

Code4dotnet

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Massimo Beatini
Web Developer
Italy Italy
No Biography provided

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Comments and Discussions

 
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GeneralDimmer only the displayed part of pagememberkenpeck4-Mar-10 6:23 
GeneralCannot round the corner of the dimming floating divisionmemberkenpeck24-Feb-10 6:20 
GeneralRe: Cannot round the corner of the dimming floating divisionmemberMassimo Beatini24-Feb-10 22:15 
GeneralRe: Cannot round the corner of the dimming floating divisionmemberkenpeck4-Mar-10 6:26 
GeneralRe: Cannot round the corner of the dimming floating divisionmemberkenpeck9-Mar-10 7:20 
GeneralFloating dimmermemberkenpeck19-Feb-10 3:52 
Generalfloating Div dimmermemberkenpeck18-Feb-10 6:44 
GeneralRe: floating Div dimmermemberMassimo Beatini18-Feb-10 23:13 
GeneralInteraction with servermembersigurdur einarsson6-Nov-09 4:06 
Generaldisable controls problem in IEmemberhans heijstee14-Apr-09 4:20 
GeneralFocus doesnt come in firefoxmemberShweta228122-Nov-07 19:36 
Generalmultiple windows on same page.memberDannau9-Oct-07 11:02 
NewsHighly Recomended...memberRamene Anthony17-Apr-07 19:09 
GeneralResize browser window problemmemberMember #224538021-Mar-07 21:31 
Generaldisplay div on top only when there is long pagememberMember #38831916-Mar-07 2:07 
AnswerRe: display div on top only when there is long pagememberMassimo Beatini6-Mar-07 2:48 
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AnswerRe: asp:DropDownList zOrder problemmemberksellers20-Jan-07 10:53 
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