Question

onMouseOut fires unexpectedly

Asked by: meverest

I have a top-level menu where each item is a table cell containing text.
I use onMouseOver and onMouseOut in each cell to trigger functions that switch the background colour and swap the second level menu items in another div when the cursor is rolled in and rolled out of each cell.

As the cursor moves into the cell, onMouseOver fires as expected. Then as the cursor moves over the text within the cell, onMouseOut fires even though we're still inside the same cell. Obviously I only want onMouseOut to be triggered when the cursor leaves the cell. Apparently it may be something to do with "event bubbling" but I can't find any examples on how to fix the problem. I urgently need a fix, time for reading up the theory later.

What I also can't explain is that even though the onMouseOut function is prematurely triggered, the cell background colour is not switched - that works perfectly as intended.

Code snippets (I have simplified it and replaced the 2nd level menu swapping with alert() for testing):

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function rollIn(menu1item) {
  document.getElementById(menu1item).style.background = "#FFFF99";
  alert("Rolled in!");
}

function rollOut(menu1item) {
  document.getElementById(menu1item).style.background = "#DDDDDD";
  alert("Rolled out!");
}
</SCRIPT>


<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="1" CELLPADDING="0" BGCOLOR="#000000"> <TR> <TD ID="welcome" BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" ALIGN="CENTER"
onMouseOver="rollIn('welcome')" onMouseOut="rollOut('welcome')"
onClick="location.href='welcome.htm';"
STYLE="cursor:pointer;"><B>WELCOME</B></TD>
<TD ID="products" BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" ALIGN="CENTER"
onMouseOver="rollIn('products')" onMouseOut="rollOut('products')"
onClick="location.href='products.htm';"
STYLE="cursor:pointer;"><B>PRODUCTS</B></TD>

...etc.

</TR>
</TABLE>

Any suggestions or ideas graciously accepted! :)

Mike.

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Asked On
2005-10-14 at 16:52:37ID21595854
Tags

onmouseout

,

javascript

Topic

JavaScript

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: dbrittPosted on 2005-10-14 at 17:28:39ID: 15089836

Your "simplified" snippet works beautifully ;)

Show us the not simplified version ^^

 

by: meverestPosted on 2005-10-14 at 19:55:27ID: 15090100

Sorry, my simplification removed the WIDTH parameter in the table cell.

This seems to be the key. I've tested the page with the WIDTH added and the problem is back. Complete page as below. First move the cursor into the cell but not on the text, then move over the text. (Use ESC to clear the alert so you don't have to move the mouse out of the cell).

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function rollIn(menu1item) {
  document.getElementById(menu1item).style.background = "#FFFF99";
  alert("Rolled in!");
}

function rollOut(menu1item) {
  document.getElementById(menu1item).style.background = "#DDDDDD";
  alert("Rolled out!");
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="1" CELLPADDING="0" BGCOLOR="#000000"> <TR> <TD ID="welcome" BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" ALIGN="CENTER" WIDTH="150"
onMouseOver="rollIn('welcome')" onMouseOut="rollOut('welcome')"
onClick="location.href='welcome.htm';"
STYLE="cursor:pointer;"><B>WELCOME</B></TD>
<TD ID="products" BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" ALIGN="CENTER" WIDTH="150"
onMouseOver="rollIn('products')" onMouseOut="rollOut('products')"
onClick="location.href='products.htm';"
STYLE="cursor:pointer;"><B>PRODUCTS</B></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</BODY>

 

by: dbrittPosted on 2005-10-14 at 20:10:30ID: 15090138

It actually has nothing to do with the width and everything to do with the embedded <b> element. When you mouse over the <b> element, the <td> is no longer the top-most element. Replacing onMouseOver with onMouseEnter and replacing onMouseOut with onMouseLeave should cure your woes. ;)

 

by: todd_farmerPosted on 2005-10-14 at 20:14:30ID: 15090142

Using alerts is really, really hard to track, since you have to move your mouse to clear the alert.  I changed the code so that it populates the value of a textbox instead, and I can't get it to fire the mouseOut event inappropriately at all (using FireFox and IE):

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function rollIn(menu1item) {
  document.getElementById(menu1item).style.background = "#FFFF99";
  document.testRoll.isIn.value="IN";
}

function rollOut(menu1item) {
  document.getElementById(menu1item).style.background = "#DDDDDD";
  document.testRoll.isIn.value="OUT";
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="1" CELLPADDING="0" BGCOLOR="#000000"> <TR> <TD ID="welcome" BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" ALIGN="CENTER" WIDTH="150"
onMouseOver="rollIn('welcome')" onMouseOut="rollOut('welcome')"
onClick="location.href='welcome.htm';"
STYLE="cursor:pointer;"><B>WELCOME</B></TD>
<TD ID="products" BGCOLOR="#DDDDDD" ALIGN="CENTER" WIDTH="150"
onMouseOver="rollIn('products')" onMouseOut="rollOut('products')"
onClick="location.href='products.htm';"
STYLE="cursor:pointer;"><B>PRODUCTS</B></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

<form name="testRoll">
<input type="text" name="isIn">
</BODY>
</HTML>

 

by: meverestPosted on 2005-10-14 at 23:27:35ID: 15090432

<b> was the culprit all along! When I remove it, everything works as intended. I can always make it bold through the stylesheet. This fixes my problem. Thanks.

BTW onMouseEnter and onMouseOut work great - but only for IE :-(
When I tried with Firefox, no action at all.

 

by: meverestPosted on 2005-10-14 at 23:28:03ID: 15090433


Thanks. OK I can see what is happening now. As the cursor moves into the text from the cell, there is a rapid mouseout then mousein again (move slowly and watch carefully and you will see it). This is what is causing my problem. It does explain why the background colour change works ok (quick switch on and switch off).

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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