Tricklin

I generally save this blog for web development issues, but have been in a slump lately. So I decided to finally voice my opinion on a burning issue. The great thing about it, this can be said with little words.

Q: Is Bonds on steriods?

A:
    Is there really any doubt?

It's been quite a long while since I submitted a request to activate Google Analytics on my website. So long, in fact, that I forgot I even put in a request in the first place. Then the other day, I checked my e-mail, and there it was, my invite to Google Analytics. Needless to say, I immediately went to the site, created an account, grabbed the necessary tracking code, and implemented it on my website. I must say, it's great! The amount of information at your fingertips is fantastic. The best part: It's FREE!!!

Some of the nice features include:

• Ability to add multiple websites (5 total)
  • Ability to Add Multiple Users to View Reports (per website)
• Geo Map Overly report (I've had visitors from Australia, Paris, & Athens)
• Overall Keyword Conversion report
• Web Design Parameter reports
  • What are the common browsers used to view your site
  • What are the common screen resolutions used
  • What OSs are being used

Overall, I'd say it was worth the wait (considering it's free). It's just great to see if people visit your site, and if so, where do they go. Thanks Google, yet another amazing product you've created.

I was recently working on an idea I had to be able to increase and decrease the size of a div using a little JavaScript. I figured the best way to do this was by using DOM objects and methods. The specific nodes I was going to use were getAttribute (to grab the height of the div) and setAttribute (to set the new height of the div). Guess what? It worked great in Firefox, while returning an error in IE. Surprise, surprise!

getAttribute('style') - The Problem

Using document.getElementById('[id_of_element]').ge tAttribute('style') returns a string in Firefox (ex. "height: 200px"), yet in IE it merely returns an object. Which means additional code to get this into a string.

getAttribute('style') - The Solution

var el = document.getElementById('[id_of_element]');
var styleattribute = el.getAttribute('style');
if (typeof styleattribute == 'string') { // what Firefox returns
    ...
} else if (typeof styleattribute == 'object') { // what IE returns
    styleattribute = styleattribute .cssText;
}

One thing to note here, is that styleattribute.cssText returns ALL CAPS. Meaning: if the element contains style="height:200px;", styleattribute.cssText will return HEIGHT: 200px.

setAttribute('style') - The Problem

This just flat out doesn't work in IE. See entry at quirksmode.org.

setAttribute('style') - The Solution

document.getElementById('[id_of_element]').style.he ight = 250;

So, there you have it. Yet another reason to hate IE. At least there's a solution to the problem, albeit a rather annoying one.