[Jspro-devel] RE: Cross-browser compatibility

[Randolph T. F. <gat...@ci...>]

Stuart -

I am sure that this isn't the answer you were
looking for, but both browsers are correct in
their implementation of the DOM Level 1
Specification
[http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-DOM-Level-1-200
00929/level-one-core.html#ID-F68F082]
(although Microsoft adds a proprietary third
parameter that makes the comparison between
the first parameter of the method and the
actual HTML-element attribute name
case-insensitive
[http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dh
tml/reference/methods/setattribute.asp?frame=3D
true]).

The thing to remember when utilizing the
setAttribute method is that the
method--although a standard DOM method--is
implementation dependent within the
environment the method is running in.
Therefore, in IE, the method is dependent on
the JScript implementation of the DOM and
DHTML, and in Mozilla, the method is
dependent on the JavaScript implementation of
the DOM and DHTML.

Unfortunately, Microsoft's JScript implements
the "class" attribute in the DOM and DHTML as
the property "className".  Likewise, JScript
implements the "colspan" attribute as the
property "colSpan".  Why Microsoft did this
is beyond me, but that is just the way it is
in JScript.  Therefore, the setAttribute
method in IE has to respect these property
names to function correctly, and you will
need to have browser-specific forks in jsPro
if you plan on using these attributes.

Personally, the way the Mozilla team
implemented the DHTML functionality is the
way it should be, since the DHTML property
names match up identically with the
HTML-element attribute names, but we sure
can't do anything about changing JScript.

This won't be the last time we run into this
sort of thing! :-)

Cheers,
Randy

-----Original Message-----
From: jsp...@li...
[mailto:jsp...@li....n
et] On Behalf Of Stuart Wigley
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 5:59 AM
To: jsp...@li...
Subject: [Jspro-devel] Cross-browser
compatibility


Hi,

I've got two problems with the use of
HTMLElement.setAttribute() that i'd like to
discuss in
terms of cross-browser compatibility.

I (kind of) understand why IE and Mozilla are
different in the following examples but I'm
not really
sure which browser is 'correct'.

myTableCell.setAttribute('colspan', 2) -
Mozilla, not
IE
myTableCell.setAttribute('colSpan', 2) - IE,
not
Mozilla

myTableCell.setAttribute('class', 'foo') -
Mozilla,
not IE
myTableCell.setAttribute('className', 'foo')
- IE, not
Mozilla

I've found myself wanting to use these
examples in
jsPro to implement a new Debug class for
handling
custom debug messages and the redirection of
Error
messages.

Lets make this our first Mailing List
discussion :-)

Cheers
Stuart

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