JavaScript Examples Bible - UserWorks Technologies

80 JavaScript Examples Bible: The Essential Companion to JavaScript Bible
Example
Use The Evaluator to experiment with the normalize() method in NN6. The following
sequence adds a text node adjacent to one in the myP element. A subsequent
invocation of the normalize() method removes the division between the adjacent
text nodes.
Begin by confirming the number of child nodes of the myP element:
document.getElementById(“myP”).childNodes.length
Three nodes initially inhabit the element. Next, create a text node and append it as
the last child of the myP element:
a = document.createTextNode(“This means you!”)
document.getElementById(“myP”).appendChild(a)
With the new text now rendered on the page, the number of child nodes
increases to four:
document.getElementById(“myP”).childNodes.length
You can see that the last child node of myP is the text node you just created:
document.getElementById(“myP”).lastChild.nodeValue
But by invoking normalize() on myP, all adjacent text nodes are accumulated into
single nodes:
document.getElementById(“myP”).normalize()
You can now see that the myP element is back to three child nodes, and the last
child is a combination of the two previously distinct, but adjacent, text nodes:
document.getElementById(“myP”).childNodes.length
document.getElementById(“myP”).lastChild.nodeValue
releaseCapture()
setCapture(containerBoolean)
NN2 NN3 NN4 NN6 IE3/J1 IE3/J2 IE4 IE5 IE5.5
Compatibility ✓ ✓
Example
Listing 15-30 demonstrates the usage of setCapture() and releaseCapture()
in a “quick-and-dirty” context menu for IE5+/Windows. The job of the context menu
is to present a list of numbering styles for the ordered list of items on the page.
Whenever the user brings up the context menu atop the OL element, the custom
context menu appears. Event capture is turned on in the process to prevent mouse
actions elsewhere on the page from interrupting the context menu choice. Even a
click on the link set up as the title of the list is inhibited while the context menu is
visible. A click anywhere outside of the context menu hides the menu. Clicking a
elementObject.releaseCapture()