Question

Weird javascript style background image issue in Safari on Mac

Asked by: jasimon9

I have a weird issue that is driving me nuts, because it makes no sense. I am not sure I am going to be able to give specific enough information, but I'd like to give e-e experts a shot at shedding some light.

We have a web page that I have put a new style of tabs on, by changing the background image. When the tab is clicked, it changes images to show a different background color, as well as changing the text color and weight. This works find in IE6, IE7, Firefox on Windows, Firefox on the Mac, and Safari on Windows. However, in Safari on the Mac, strangely when the tab is clicked, rather than displaying the proper image, the old version of the image is used, which is no longer on the server. This is of course the totally wrong image, and it a mystery.

I have cleared the Safari cache, and looked closely at the code. It would seem if the wrong image is coming from somewhere, the it would also affect the other browsers.

For the above reasons, I suspect that it is an artifact of my development environment, which is on the Mac that I am running the "safari on mac" test. So I am thinking it must be getting that image from my workstation, rather than from the development server. Of course, this makes no sense either.

The code shown in the code snippet is the main code that affects the change.

A second odd thing is that if instead of 'url(/images/tc_tab_hov.gif)' I insert at the front of the path the server name, then it also breaks it in the other browsers. However, this implies that in fact, Safari on the Mac is the only browser getting it right, and the other ones are somehow getting the correct image from some wrong place.

The whole thing makes no sense at this point.

Any ideas?

function setState(tabNum)
{
	if (tabNum==currentPanel)
	{
		document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.backgroundColor = '#ffffff';
		document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.color = 'red';
		document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.fontWeight = 'bold';
		document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.background = 'url(/images/tc_tab_hov.gif)';
	}
	else
	{
		document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.backgroundColor = '#ddddff';
		document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.color = 'navy';
		document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.fontWeight = 'normal';
		document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.background = 'url(/images/tc_tab.gif)';
	}
}

                                  
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Asked On
2009-09-06 at 17:51:03ID24711584
Tags

javascript background image

Topics

Safari Web Browser

,

JavaScript

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: hieloPosted on 2009-09-06 at 18:55:24ID: 25272369

see if this helps

function setState(tabNum)
{
	var cacheBuster=(new Date()).valueOf();
        if (tabNum==currentPanel)
        {
                document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.backgroundColor = '#ffffff';
                document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.color = 'red';
                document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.fontWeight = 'bold';
                document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.backgroundImage = 'url(/images/tc_tab_hov.gif?id='+cacheBuster+')';
        }
        else
        {
                document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.backgroundColor = '#ddddff';
                document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.color = 'navy';
                document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.fontWeight = 'normal';
                document.getElementById('tab'+tabNum).style.backgroundImage = 'url(/images/tc_tab.gif?id='+cacheBuster+')';
        }
}

                                              
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by: jasimon9Posted on 2009-09-07 at 12:07:05ID: 25276777

Amazing!

This workaround seems to "mostly" work!

My conclusion is that there is some kind of bug which shows up only on Safari on the Mac, which causes a file which is no longer on the server to be "squirreled away" persistently somewhere such that even clearing the browser cache does not dislodge it. Or perhaps some proxy somewhere on the Internet is still caching it. And by appending the timestamp, the changing URL forces a reload from the server.

The reason I say "mostly" is that there is a harmless artifact still present, in that when I click on different tabs in Safari on the Mac, for a moment the old image still displays, but then is quickly replaced by the correct image. This must mean that that old image is still floating around somewhere.

I am wondering if it is an artifact of my environment. If so, the issue would not be visible from other systems. Only some further testing with other users having Safari on the Mac will confirm this.

The suggestion is worthy of points, but first I'd like a bit more discussion of

 

by: jasimon9Posted on 2009-09-07 at 12:10:57ID: 25276793

After quitting Safari on the Mac, and reloading, it appears that the "most working" is now "fully working", as the last vestige of the old file no longer briefly appears.

 

by: jasimon9Posted on 2009-09-10 at 07:30:19ID: 25300591

In my post where I first reported the solution is working, I apparently posted it without completing the sentence.

The full sentence should read: "The suggestion is worthy of points, but first I'd like a bit more discussion of why it works."

 

by: hieloPosted on 2009-09-12 at 14:34:11ID: 25317978

>>but first I'd like a bit more discussion of why it works
some browsers are more forgiving than others. On your original post you are using:
...style.background = 'url(/images/tc_tab.gif)';

However, 'background' is a shorthand for 'background-color background-image background-repeat background-attachment background-position', NOT just background-image.

Since you are specifying only the background image, you should actually be using:
...style.backgroundImage = 'url(/images/tc_tab.gif)';

to avoid "unpleasant/unexpected" surprises.

Also, the overall behaviour you described is consistent with caching problems. The:
var cacheBuster=(new Date()).valueOf();

is meant to fool the browser in to "thinking" that the image is completely different every time. Thus avoiding the problems you were having.

 

by: jasimon9Posted on 2009-09-13 at 00:42:37ID: 31625547

Just what I wanted. Thanks!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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