Question

Hiding multiple divs using setTimeOut

Asked by: Rouchie

In an effort to improve my javaScript skills I've written a *basic* script to show popup menu's underneath a row of hyperlinks.  The idea is that once the cursor moves away from the hyperlink/displayed menu, then after a short delay the menu disappears.

The problem is that if I hover over 1 link, then immediately hover over another, the first popup menu never disappears because the first timer gets overwritten by the second timer.

Therefore, can anyone help me fine tune this script to correct make each popup menu disappear after a given time delay?

<script type="text/javascript">
            /* <![CDATA[ */
            var counterVar;
            
            function displayMenu(hoverMenuID, linkID){
                  var menu = document.getElementById(hoverMenuID);
                  if (menu) {
                        var positionToShowArray = findPos(linkID);
                        menu.style.left = positionToShowArray[0] + 'px';
                        menu.style.top = positionToShowArray[1] + 'px';
                        menu.style.display = '';
                        window.clearTimeout(counterVar);
                  }
            }
            
            function startCountDownForHidingMenu(hoverMenuID){
                  if (document.getElementById(hoverMenuID)) {
                        counterVar = window.setTimeout("hideMenu('"+hoverMenuID+"')", 1000);
                  }
            }
            
            function hideMenu(hoverMenuID){
                  var menu = document.getElementById(hoverMenuID);
                  if (menu) {
                        menu.style.display = 'none';
                  }
            }
            
            function findPos(obj) {
                  // omitted for brevity
            }
            /* ]]> */
      </script>

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2007-10-05 at 07:21:54ID22874780
Tags

divs

,

hiding

,

time

,

delay

,

disappear

Topic

JavaScript

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
10

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. settimeout
    i want to do easy thing. when onmouseover - show me the layer when onmouseout - hide me the layer but only after 3 seconds. (when mouseeout the div will remain visible for 3 seconds.) i try this but it's doing the opposite - when i mouse over it's show me the layer and then i...
  2. SeTTimeOut On MouseOver
    Greetings Expert, Plz help me figure out why the sub-menu doesn't hide if the mouse doesn't hover over the sub-menu. It will hide if mouse does hover over sub-menu and the leaves sub-menu. I appreciate your replies ! <div id="who" style="BORDER-RIGHT:#...
  3. setTimeout problem
    Can anyone tell me why the following code doesn't work? function ddrivetip(thetext, thewidth, thecolor){ setTimeout("mgddrivetip('" + thetext + "','" + thewidth + "','" thecolor + "')", 1000); } function mgddrivetip(thetext, thewidth...
  4. HTML/Javascript Hover Popup
    Hello, I need to setup a hover popup that appears only when someone hovers their mouse over the relevant content. The trick is I need to generate the output contained in this popup with a PHP function and I only want this function to run if someone hovers over the record. ...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: dakydPosted on 2007-10-05 at 07:43:04ID: 20022260

Maybe this is a stupid question, but why does the timeout need to be cleared when you mouse over the new menu item?  It seems like if you just let the timeout happen, it'd make the old menu disappear after a second, and your mouseover could happen by itself.

The only case I can see where it might be an issue would be if you mouseover the item that you just moused out of, but off the top of my head, I figure you can probably add a check for the ID's to prevent that.

Or is there something I'm overlooking?

 

by: RouchiePosted on 2007-10-05 at 07:50:07ID: 20022342

>> The only case I can see where it might be an issue would be if you mouseover the item that you just moused out of, but off the top of my head

Yes that was the reason.  I didn't want menu's popping up that refused to disappear again!  My JS skills aren't too great so I was trying to keep it simple, but as long as I understand any answers here that make it work better then that's great!

 

by: dakydPosted on 2007-10-05 at 12:14:56ID: 20024746

>> I didn't want menu's popping up that refused to disappear again!
I think the issue would actually be the opposite.  Since the timeout is set, it would hide the menu after a second, even if you just finished mousing back over that item.

So, I'd suggest keeping the ID of the item that's going to disappear.  If it matches the ID of the item you moused over, then you clear the timeout.  Otherwise, you can leave the timeout alone, and it'll do its thing.

Give this a shot as a means to implement that:
<script type="text/javascript">
            /* <![CDATA[ */
            var counterVar;
            var idToBeHidden;
           
            function displayMenu(hoverMenuID, linkID){
                  var menu = document.getElementById(hoverMenuID);
                  if (menu) {
                        var positionToShowArray = findPos(linkID);
                        menu.style.left = positionToShowArray[0] + 'px';
                        menu.style.top = positionToShowArray[1] + 'px';
                        menu.style.display = '';
                        if (hoverMenuID == idToBeHidden)
                        {
                          window.clearTimeout(counterVar);
                          idToBeHidden = null;
                        }
                  }
            }
           
            function startCountDownForHidingMenu(hoverMenuID){
                  if (document.getElementById(hoverMenuID)) {
                        counterVar = window.setTimeout("hideMenu('"+hoverMenuID+"')", 1000);
                        idToBeHidden = hoverMenuID;
                  }
            }
           
            function hideMenu(hoverMenuID){
                  var menu = document.getElementById(hoverMenuID);
                  if (menu) {
                        menu.style.display = 'none';
                  }
            }
           
            function findPos(obj) {
                  // omitted for brevity
            }
            /* ]]> */
      </script>

I haven't had time to test the above (sorry, it's been a hectic day), but the idea is that you set a global ID variable whenever you set the timeout.  When you go to mouse over, you only clear the timeout if the ID of the item you moused over matches the global ID variable.  If they don't match, then you're dealing with separate menu items, and it's safe to hide.  

If you have issues, let us know.  Regardless, hope that helps.

 

by: RouchiePosted on 2007-10-08 at 01:27:49ID: 20032735

Hi dakyd,
Thanks for the post.  It does correctly hide the menus as I hoped, but there is one small problem:

The menus disappear when the mouse is hovered over the links within them.  So, the hover menu appears okay, but when you hover over a hover-menu link, the menu disappears (if that makes sense?)

It might be caused by the way I call the functions, but I'm confused...!

 

by: dakydPosted on 2007-10-08 at 07:24:31ID: 20034220

What does the HTML look like for one of the menu items?  Also, how are the functions being called?  I can take a few educated guesses about the javascript, but not the HTML.

 

by: RouchiePosted on 2007-10-08 at 07:38:07ID: 20034319

Link to make the hover menu appear:

<a id="navbarLink05" onmouseover="displayMenu('about_hover', this)" onmouseout="startCountDownForHidingMenu('about_hover')" href="aboute4.aspx">About</a>

The hover menu div is like this:

<div id="products_hover" style="display:none;" onmouseover="displayMenu(this, 'navbarLink05')">
 <ul>
  <li>Link01</li>
  <li>Link02</li>
  <li>Link03</li>
 </ul>      
</div>

 

by: dakydPosted on 2007-10-08 at 08:26:34ID: 20034666

So where is the <a> in relation to the <div> that contains the sub-menu?

It looks like you're already using a list for the sub-menu items, is the <a> also a part of a list structure?

 

by: RouchiePosted on 2007-10-09 at 00:52:02ID: 20039156

Yes the link is part of a list of links.  There are 2 hover menu div's, and these are directly underneath the link-list in the code, although their CSS rules dictate they obviously aren't shown.    The function called findPos(obj) places and displays each hover menu is the correct place.

 

by: dakydPosted on 2007-10-09 at 18:58:17ID: 20045917

Since you're already using lists, have you considered using a completely list-based drop down menu?  The suckerfish one is a good example: http://www.htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/dropdowns/

This solves your problem because instead of the <div> being separate from the link that displays it, it's all together.  The end results is that mousing over the sub-menu doesn't trigger the mouseout, so the menu doesn't disappear.

It shouldn't be too hard to modify what you already have, but you will have to play with the CSS a little bit.  If you need some help, let us know.  Hope that helps.

 

by: RouchiePosted on 2007-10-10 at 03:00:50ID: 20047255

The problem is that the suckerfish menu seems to rely on the list items being floated left.  The sub-menus can then appear directly underneath.  Normally this would be great but because my list is centered, the menus don't appear in the correct place.

I will investigate a padding attribute on the lists to see if I can correct it using the suckerfish script, but I would prefer my original script to correctly hide the menus if that's possible??

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...