Question

Remove background colour from <li> so hover effect works

Asked by: CreativewithTechnology

We have a list item which has a hover effect on each <li>, the hover effect simply changes the background colour.

I've created some javascript to look at what page you are viewing, and change the background colour of the matching <li> so the user can visibly see where they are at in the site.

The problem comes, when the user selected to view another page, the javascript sets the background colour of the next <a> inside the <li> to show they are viewing a new pages, and then removes the background colour on the previous <a> by making the background transparent. This works a treat, however once the background colour of the <a> has been set to transparent, the hover effect on links within that particular <li> no longer work.

Is there a way around this? I've attached snippets of code.

**** The javascript that sets the background color ****
// Highlight the nav item being viewed
function setNavItem(item) {
    // Set the background color of the selected item
    document.getElementById(item).style.backgroundColor = '#dbf0b0';
    alert(document.getElementById(item).className);
    if (currentNavItem != '') {
        // Clear the previous nav item
        document.getElementById(currentNavItem).style.backgroundColor = 'transparent';
        }
    // Set currentNavItem to the selected item
    currentNavItem = item;
    }
 
**** The List ****
<div id="lhsInner2" class="leftBoxInner"> <img src="images/left-box-inner-img.png" alt="Left image" height="18" width="287" />
            <ul>
              <li><a id="T2_The_Lucky_Few" href="T2_Success_With_MiLife.aspx?page=T2_The_Lucky_Few">the 'lucky' few?</a></li>
              <li><a id="T2_Why_Try_Again" href="T2_Success_With_MiLife.aspx?page=T2_Why_Try_Again">so, why try again?</a></li>
              <li><a id="T2_Personal_Solutions" href="T2_Success_With_MiLife.aspx?page=T2_Personal_Solutions">we need personal solutions...</a></li>
              <li><a id="T2_Personalisation" href="T2_Success_With_MiLife.aspx?page=T2_Personalisation">the difference is personalisation...</a></li>
            </ul>
          </div>
 
**** The CSS ****
.leftBoxInner {
	width: 287px;
	overflow: hidden;
	background: url(../images/left-box-inner-bg.png) bottom repeat-x;
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 1px;
	}
	
.leftBoxInner ul {
	padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 9px;
	list-style: none;
	}
	
.leftBoxInner ul li {
	color: #93c83a;
	font-size: 75%;
	width: 266px;
	}
	
.leftBoxInner ul li a {
	color: #858484;
	text-decoration: none;
	display: block;
	padding: 3px 0px 3px 20px;
	background: url(../images/left-box-green-bullet.gif) no-repeat left;
	}

                                  
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Asked On
2008-08-28 at 02:42:34ID23684830
Tags

css javascript

Topics

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

,

JavaScript

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: TchukiPosted on 2008-08-28 at 05:35:08ID: 22334027

I reliese this doesn't answer your question directly, however it could pose a solution to your problem.

Rather than using JavaScript to determin what page the user is currently viewing, use the CSS method described in the following link:

http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/highlighting-current-page-with-css

That uses a body id property to identify the current page and do the relevant navigational highlighting.  This should remove your requirement to use JavaScript and therefore your issue.

 

by: CreativewithTechnologyPosted on 2008-08-28 at 07:01:56ID: 22334904

Thanks, but that doesnt provide any help.

The site uses a .NET master page, so the body tag on everypage is the same. There is a div where the content appears, the content of that DIV is all that changes when you click a link. Because the page never refreshes, the body tag will always remain the same.

 

by: nivlamPosted on 2008-08-28 at 07:37:35ID: 22335371

Can you post the code that sets the hover effect for each li?

 

by: CreativewithTechnologyPosted on 2008-08-28 at 07:40:33ID: 22335412

It's all in the attached file with my original post.

 

by: nivlamPosted on 2008-08-28 at 07:52:12ID: 22335552

I don't see an attached file and the code snipplet only contains code that sets the current li.

 

by: CreativewithTechnologyPosted on 2008-08-28 at 08:01:31ID: 22335694

There attached code shows the style sheet at the bottom of it which sets the hover in the CSS

 

by: VirusMinusPosted on 2008-08-28 at 18:26:35ID: 22341443

We could go into cross checking the CSS and tweak the JS, but I would second Tchuki's approach. I have dont this with a .Net master page and added on a class to the body.

If you think the body tag will remain the same I suggest adding a class or id to the navigation ul

like this -> <ul class="<%= GetClassName() %>"

and then follow the same principle as in the link Tchuki provided.

this is a much cleaner way of doing what you're after.

and its hard to troubleshoot this with just snippets. If you can make a few sample pages with just the problem, then we can download them and get to the bottom of it quite easily.

Alternately if you can put the site up on a server can provide a link.

 

by: CreativewithTechnologyPosted on 2008-08-29 at 00:40:03ID: 22343178

milife.webdevclients.co.uk

that's the URL to the site.

If you open up a box on the left hand side, and click the links there is no problem. However, click a link in the left, then if you go through the tabs that appear on the right, the green highlight on the left changes to show which tab you are looking at. The problem occurs when you try to hover over a link on the left after you've just left that tab.

 

by: nivlamPosted on 2008-08-29 at 08:17:36ID: 22346327

This line:
document.getElementById(currentNavItem).style.backgroundColor = 'transparent';

Try doing this:
document.getElementById(currentNavItem).style.backgroundColor = '';

When I removed the transparent styling, it worked fine.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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