Originally published in Netscape World, archived at the Wayback Machine
Prior to Netscape implementing JavaScript in Netscape Navigator, web developers had few tools to create interactive content for their web pages. Now this scripting language gives developers the ability to do things such as check form contents, communicate with the user based on their actions, and modify the web page dynamically without the web page being re-loaded and without the use of Java, plug-ins or ActiveX controls.
Unfortunately, JavaScript was not usable by any other browser until Microsoft released Internet Explorer (IE) 3.0. With this release web developers could deliver interactive content that would at least work with the two most widely used browsers. Or could they?
On the surface, the JavaScript supported by both companies is identical. They both provide the same conditional control statements, have defined objects such as window or document,and can be used directly in HTML documents. They both support events based on user actions and support functions in a similar manner. However, this article will demonstrate that though the languages may look the same on the surface, there are differences that can trip the unwary developer.
JavaScript Objects
To understand the differences between the two implementations of JavaScript you must examine the objects both support. As an example, with Navigator 3.0 Netscape provides a new object image which is an array (defined as images that contains the images in the document currently loaded. This object allows the developer to change the images of a document without re-loading the document or using Java or other technique. With this capability the developer can write the following JavaScript code section without error:
sSelected = "http://www.some.com/some.gif"
document.images[iIndex].src = sSelected
This code will change the src property of the image that is contained in the array at the index given in the variable iIndex. If this variable contained the value 2, the 3rd image as loaded in the document (the array indices begin at 0) would be changed to the image located in the given URL. An example using images can be found here.
Running the same example with Internet Explorer will result in a alert message that states that “‘images’ is not an object”.
Other examples of objects that are defined for Netscape Navigator but not for Microsoft Internet Explorer are:
- The Area object, which is an array of links for an image map that allows the developer to capture certain events for the image map that can be used to provide additional information to the user. With this, the developer can capture a mouseOver event to write out information about the link in the status bar.
- The FileUpload object which provides a text like control and a button marked with “Browse” that will allow a reader to enter a file name. The JavaScript can then access the name of the file.
- The Function object which allows the developer to define and assign a function to a variable which can then be assigned to an event.
- The mimeTypes Array of supported MIME types.
- The option object which is an array of the options implemented for SELECT and which allows the developer to change the text of the option at runtime
- The applet object, which is an array of Applets in the document (read-only)
- The plugin object, which is an array called embeds that contains the plug-ins contained in the document (read-only)
- The plugins array, which is an array of plug-ins currently installed in the client browser
At this time there are no JavaScript or JScript objects defined for Internet Explorer that are also not defined for Netscape. However, as JScript is an implementation script for IE and Microsoft has defined their own IE scripting model, this could change in the future.
JavaScript Object Behavior and Ownership
Internet Explorer may not have additional objects but it has defined a different hierarchy and ownership for some of the objects that are used by both it and Navigator. All objects are contained within the window object in the IE scripting model, which can be viewed here, but not all objects are owned by window with the Navigator model, which can be viewed with the JavaScript Authoring Guide. The object Navigator, which is the object that stores information about the browser currently being used, is an example of an owned object by window in IE but not in Navigator.
This will not present an incompatibility problem between the two browsers as the developer will usually not preface the object with the term “window” as the following code demonstrates:
<FORM NAME="form1">
<input type=button value='press' onClick="alert(navigator.appName)">
</FORM>
The above code will work with both browsers.
The differences between the ownership can become a problem when an object is owned by different levels of objects. An example is the history object, which is owned by the windowobject in IE, but by the document object in Navigator. When used in the current window and document, the object will work the same as the following code will demonstrate:
<FORM NAME="form1">
<input type=button value='press' onClick="history.back()">
</FORM>
The reason the same code can work for both is that window is assumed for both IE and Netscape and document is assumed for Navigator, at least in this instance because history is also an object in its own right. In the case of a document being opened as part of a frame, the differences then become noticeable. The following code will work when the document is opened as a frame in IE, but will not work in Navigator:
<body>
<script>
function clicked() {
history.back()
}
</script>
<FORM NAME="form1">
<input type=button value='press' onClick="clicked()">
</FORM>
</body>
Clicking on the button from the code above will work for IE. The previous document in the History list will be opened, but the same code will not work for Navigator. Clicking on the button will result in neither a change of document nor an error. Prefacing the history object with parent will enable this code to work with both browsers.
JavaScript Properties
Even when IE and Navigator share a common object and a common object ownership, they can differ on the properties for an object. An example is the document object. The properties for both implementations are the same except for an URL property for the Navigator implementation and a location property for the IE implementation. However, if you examine both properties, they are identical! Both contain the URL of the document. Both are read-only. The following code will work with Navigator, but results in an empty Alert message box for IE:
<FORM NAME="form1">
<input type=button value='press' onClick="alert(document.URL)">
</FORM>
According to Microsoft documentation, the equivalent for IE would be to use document.location.href. However, though this does not result in an error, it also results in an empty alert box. The following code achieves the desired results and, happily, works in both browsers:
<FORM NAME="form1">
<input type=button value='press' onClick="alert(location.href)">
</FORM>
The above example does demonstrate another area of caution when using the JavaScript language: this language is unstable in both environments and is changing continuously. Don’t assume something will work because the documentation states it will, and don’t assume it will work the same on all operating systems. Both browsers can have different behaviors across different operating systems, sometimes because of operating system differences and sometimes because of bugs that were missed during testing on that specific OS.
JavaScript Methods and Events
A web developer can find ways of working around differences in objects and properties, but working around differences in methods may not be so easy. When we develop we expect a certain behavior to result when we call a specific function and pass to it certain parameters. With Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, the best case scenario is that we can use a pre-defined object method with both browsers and have the same result. The worst case scenario is that the method works with both browsers, but the result is different.
An example of the best case scenario is to use JavaScript to validate form field contents which have changed or to use these contents to calculate a value used elsewhere. Calling a JavaScript function from the onChange event to process the changed contents as demonstrated below will work with both browsers:
<!--- Form fields
<p>Item Quantity: <INPUT TYPE="text" Name="qty">
Item Cost: <INPUT TYPE="text" Name="cost"
onChange="NewCost()">
Total Cost: <INPUT TYPE="text" Name="total" Value=0>
…
<!--- Function
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript">
<!--- hide script from old browsers
// NewCost will
// calculate cost of qty and item
function NewCost() {
var iCost = parseFloat(document.Item.cost.value)
var iQty = parseInt(document.Item.qty.value)
var iTotal = iCost * iQty
document.Item.total.value = iTotal
}
The above will work as expected with both IE and Navigator. When the user enters a quantity and a cost, the onChange event will fire for the cost field and a JavaScript function called NewCost() will be called. This function will call two built-in JavaScript functions, parseFloat() and parseInt(), to access and convert the form field values. These will then be used to compute a total which is placed in the total field.
So far so good. Another JavaScript function in the web page will be processed when the user presses the submit button. This pre-defined button style will normally submit the form. The developer can capture the submission and perform validation on the fields. Coding this for Navigator would look like the following:
<FORM NAME="Item"
ACTION="some.cgi" onSubmit="return SendOrder()">
…
<!--- Function
// submit order
function SendOrder() {
// validate data
if (document.Item.Name.value == "") {
alert("You must enter your name")
return false
}
return true
}
Capturing the onSubmit event will allow the developer to call a function to process the form fields. If they choose, they can perform validation in this function. If the validation fails, say the user did not provide a name, the function notifies the reader and returns false, preventing the form from being submitted. If the user did provide a name, the function would return true, and the form would be submitted.
Following the documentation that can be found at the Microsoft site, the developer would expect something like this to work for IE as well as Navigator. It does, to a point.
With IE the onSubmit event is captured and the SendOrder() function is called. If the user did not enter a name value, an alert would occur. The behavior is the same for both browsers at this point. However, if the user does provide a value, Navigator would then submit the form and a follow-up form would be displayed. This does NOT occur with IE IF you are testing the page locally, probably due to a bug missed during the testing. It does work if you run the web page documents through a web server.
However, without knowing that the difference between the two results was a matter of document location rather than document coding the web page developer could have spent considerable time trying to get the same behavior for both browsers.
Aside from the differences already noted, the browsers may process code in a funtionally identical manner and yet perform quite differently. This can be demonstrated with another popular use of JavaScript which is to open a secondary window for some purpose and to maintain communication between the two windows. This is widely used by Netscape for their tutorials.
Both browsers support a property for the window object called opener. This property can be used to contain a reference to the window that opened the secondary window.
The following code demonstrates using JavaScript to open a secondary window and to set the opener property to the original window:
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE> Original Window </TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--- hide script from old browsers
// OpenSecondary will open a second window
//
function OpenSecond(iType, sMessage) {
// open window
newWindow=window.open("second.htm","",
"toolbar=no,directories=no,width=500,height=300")
// modify the new windows opener value to
// point to this window
if (newWindow != null && newWindow.opener == null)
newWindow.opener=window
}
// end hiding from old browsers -->
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1> Open a new Window and get information</H1>
<FORM NAME="CallWindow">
<p>Click to open Window:
<p>
<INPUT TYPE="button" NAME="OpenWin" VALUE="Click Here"
onClick="OpenSecond()">
<p>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>
The above HTML and JavaScript creates a simple document with one button. Pressing the button opens a new window (creates a new instance of the browser) that does not have a toolbar or directories and is set to a certain width and height. The HTML source document that is opened into this new window is “second.htm”.
The HTML and JavaScript in the secondary window is shown below:
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE> Information</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--- hide script from old browsers
// SetInformation
// function will get input values
// and set to calling window
function SetInformation() {
opener.document.open()
opener.document.write("<BODY>")
opener.document.write("<H1> Return from Secondary</h1>")
opener.document.write("</BODY>")
opener.document.close()
opener.document.bgColor="#ff0000"
window.close()
}
// end hiding from old browsers -->
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<p><form>
Click on the button:<p>
<INPUT type="button" Value="Click on Me"
onClick="SetInformation()">
</CENTER>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>
This code will display a button labeled “Click on Me”. Pressing this button will result in the document page for the original window being modified to display the words “Return from Secondary”. The JavaScript will also change the background color of the original document and then will close the secondary window. When run in Navigator, the sample behaves as expected. Not so, however, with IE.
First, when you open the secondary window in IE you will notice that the document in the original window seems to blank out for a moment. In addition, the secondary window opens at the top left hand side of the desktop with IE but opens directly over the original window with Navigator, no matter where that original window is.
When you press the button that modifies the original document, IE does modify the document with the new header, as Navigator does, and the background on the original document will change briefly. However, when the secondary window is closed the background color of the original document returns to the original color!
What is worse is that running this sample for a few times with IE will cause the browser to crash! How soon it will crash seems to suggest that resources are not being freed, or are being freed incorrectly. Whatever the cause, this behavior should make a developer feel cautious about opening up a secondary window within IE.
Solutions to working with both Internet Explorer and Navigator
JavaScript is a useful tool for creating interactive content without using Java or some other technique. As we have seen, problems arise out of the incompatibility between Navigator and IE. What are ways to avoid these problems?
- Code for one browser only. This is not really a viable solution. While Netscape Navigator is the most popular browser in use today, Microsoft Internet Explorer is gaining quite a following. Using Navigator-only JavaScript that will limit your web page’s audience.
- Code only to the least common denominator. By limiting the JavaScript to that which works for both Navigator and IE, developers will have access to most of the functionality they need. However, with this approach developers will need to be aware of the gotchas that have been discussed in this article. In other words, the developer has to test with both browsers; the tests will have to occur via the web server as well as run locally; the tests should be repeated several times to ensure that no adverse effects show up over time; the code should be tested with all possible environments.
- Code for each browser within the same page. This is actually my favorite approach though it will require more effort by the developer. Both browsers will process JavaScript labeled as <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=”javascript”>, however only Navigator will process script labeled as <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=”javascript1.1″>. With this approach, the developer can place JavaScript common to both browsers in a SCRIPT tag labeled with “javascript” and Navigator specific code in a SCRIPT tag labeled with “javascript1.1”. To add in IE specific code, the developer would probably want to use VBScript code or use the tag JScript whenever applicable. At this time, JScript is implemented for scripting with events only, not as a language specification for the SCRIPT tag.
Summary
JavaScript is a very effective tool, and a relatively simple method for adding interactive content to a web page. With version 3.0 of Internet Explorer, using JavaScript is viable for both of the most popular browsers in use. However, developersneeds to be aware of the differences between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer and should test thoroughly with both before posting the page to their site.