[Javascript] Code optimization

Mon Aug 7 17:52:22 CDT 2006

Paul,

I appreciate your help and the general guidelines you are presenting.  
I am not trying to ignore them or disregard your advise. I am just  
not at that level in my Javascript programming. Actually moving my  
Javascript out of my HTML was part of my original question. I thought  
I would simplify my question as an aid to my learning, however the  
only solution I received was one I had already found via google. That  
being parentNode. However this returns UNDEFINED. Here is the exact  
code I am referring to. If you would like the larger context, I am  
building a web based file manager, and my HTML is being  
programmatically generated.

<html>
<div class="nor" id="otherstuff">
<a href="#" >Test</A>
<a href="javascript:alert(this.parentNode)" class="DIR">otherstuff</a>
</div>
</html>

I would be very interested in how to convert the above snip to not  
use inline scripting. btw. I prefer inline scripting when testing as  
I dont have to worry about external files being cached and wondering  
why my code changes are not working. However once I get things  
working I dont mind moving everything to an external library.

Thanks,

Terry Riegel

On Aug 7, 2006, at 6:15 PM, Paul Novitski wrote:

> At 07:05 AM 8/7/2006, Terry Riegel wrote:
>> I need a little help optimizing the following code.
>>
>> <div class="nor" id="004LukeShannon.jpg">
>>  <A href="javascript:windowHandle=window.open('http://  
>> clearimageonline.com/pages/htmlos/94150.128.040923622659991927',
>> 'CIclearimage004LukeShannonjpg',
>> 'width=550,height=550,status=yes,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,left=15 
>> 0') ;windowHandle.focus();" >
>>   <img src="/clearimage/images/pict-small.gif" border="0" width="12"
>> height="12" align="left">
>>  </A>
>>  <a href="javascript:changedest('004LukeShannon.jpg','FILE')"
>> ondblclick="changedest2('004LukeShannon.jpg','FILE')">
>>   004LukeShannon.jpg
>>  </a>
>> </div>
>>
>>
>> What I would like to do is replace some of the references in the
>> second <a> tag with a relative reference to the containing div. I
>> would also like to replace all of the links on the page with similar
>> code, I think there is a way to do this in a script that will apply
>> to all links globally for that page. I would just need to know the
>> second argument in my code either "FILE" or "DIR"
>
>
> You might be looking for the parentNode property; see http:// 
> developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Gecko_DOM_Reference
>
> What I'd do, however, would be to write a loop that cycled through  
> parent nodes and examined child nodes, rather than starting at the  
> child level and looking up.
>
> More generally, I recommend:
>
> - Export your javascript to an external file.  Don't use inline  
> javascript at all.
>
> - Locate your target elements by id, by class name, by parentage &  
> tag name, etc., and apply the desired behaviors to all applicable  
> elements.
>
> - Google "unobtrusive javascript" and read up on some great  
> techniques and practices.
>
> Doing these things will let you design your software in a more  
> abstract way and makes your scripting more independent of your  
> markup.  It also makes it easy to write scripts that fail  
> gracefully when javascript is not enabled or expected page elements  
> are not found.
>
> Paul
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