How to display an individual tooltip for each item in a listbox (select box)

H

hiroshi ochi

Hello,

Using MSIE 6.0 and above, with javascript is it possible to display an
individual tooltip for each item in a listbox?

I need this functionality to show the listitems that are longer than the
listbox size.

Please refer to this link to get the idea of what I would like to do.
Unfortunately this one is for VB.

http://www.codeguru.com/vb/controls/vb_listbox/article.php/c2767/

Is there any event that I can catch when I am moving between the items
in listbox selection? Is it possible to get the value of the item
currently selected while expanding the listbox?

Thanks in advanced.

rgs,
hiroshi
 
P

pcx99

hiroshi said:
Is there any event that I can catch when I am moving between the items
in listbox selection? Is it possible to get the value of the item
currently selected while expanding the listbox?

While onMouseOver works on the Select tag it doesn't work on the
individual items in the option tags (In IE anyway). This means you
can't really use a select box to do what you want to do. Fortunately
you can simulate this effect.

Create a new HTML page and have it be nothing but your select list
as
<A HREF="javascript:parent.boxClick(1)">A really, really, really long
list item 1</A>
<A HREF="javascript:parent.boxClick(2)">A really, really, really long
list item 2</A>
etc.

Now use an iframe on your main page to display your list (as narrow as
you want as large as you want). To prevent horizontal scrolling in your
iframe in your <BODY> in the list (not the main page) do this... <body
style="overflow-x:hidden; overflow-y: auto;">

On your main page create a function called boxClick(value) that sets the
value of a hidden field. When the user clicks in the iframe it will
call boxClick on your main page with the value the user clicked on.

Now as for the individual tooltips there's already a very powerful
pre-existing flyover tooltip maker at http://www.bosrup.com/web/overlib/
-- in your list html just include the overlib.js script, and set
onmouseover and onmouseout events for each link as described in the
documentation.

It's a lot of work to get around a failing in IE but it can be done and
in a way that will remain true to your vision.

Hope this helps you out a bit.
 
R

Randy Webb

pcx99 wrote:

Create a new HTML page and have it be nothing but your select list
as
<A HREF="javascript:parent.boxClick(1)">A really, really, really long
list item 1</A>
<A HREF="javascript:parent.boxClick(2)">A really, really, really long
list item 2</A>
etc.

http://www.jibbering.com/faq/#FAQ4_24

Better would be:

<a href="URLToGoToWithJSDisabled.html"
onclick="parent.boxClick(this.href)">A really.........</a>

And simply pass the href property, and have boxClick navigate accordingly.
 
H

Hiroshi Ochi

Thanks pcx99 and Randy for your reply and information.

If possible, I would like to avoid using iframe because there will be
too much amendment I have to do in my application.

The main problem I am facing right now is that the width I can assign
for each listbox is limited, but the text contents of each items in
listbox is pretty long. Thus, it will be hard for user to select items
that looks the similar.

First, I thought of using tooltip to assist user to select, but then I
got another simpler idea by using <span> to wrap the <select> tag. I
just set the <span> width to a certain value, and not restricting the
width in the <select> part.

Please take a look at the sample code below (tested in MSIE 6.0):
<!-- start sample code -->
<html>
<script>
function setLabelSpan(element){
var label = document.getElementById('labelSpan');
label.innerHTML=element.options[element.selectedIndex].text;
}
function setLabelNoSpan(element){
var label = document.getElementById('labelNoSpan');
label.innerHTML=element.options[element.selectedIndex].text;
}
</script>
<body>
<form >
<table border="1" bordercolor="#000000">
<tr>
<td nowrap>Using Span </td>
<td><span style="overflow:hidden;width:150px">
<select name="select" border=0 onchange="setLabelSpan(this)">
<option value="">Select Product Code</option>
<option value="100">AE000 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
100mlx24 </option>
<option value="101">AE001 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
200mlx24 </option>
<option value="102">AE002 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
400mlx24 </option>
<option value="103">AE003 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
800mlx24 </option>
<option value="104">AE004 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
100mlx72 </option>
<option value="105">AE005 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
200mlx72 </option>
<option value="106">AE006 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
400mlx72 </option>
<option value="107">AE007 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
800mlx72 </option>
<option value="108">AE008 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
100mlx24 </option>
<option value="109">AE009 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
200mlx24 </option>
<option value="110">AE010 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
400mlx24 </option>
<option value="111">AE011 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
800mlx24 </option>
<option value="112">AE012 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
100mlx72 </option>
<option value="113">AE013 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
200mlx72 </option>
<option value="114">AE014 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
400mlx72 </option>
<option value="115">AE015 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
800mlx72 </option>
</select>
</span> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap>Without Span </td>
<td>
<select name="select" style="overflow:hidden;width:150px" border=0
onchange="setLabelNoSpan(this)">
<option value="">Select Product Code</option>
<option value="100">AE000 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
100mlx24 </option>
<option value="101">AE001 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
200mlx24 </option>
<option value="102">AE002 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
400mlx24 </option>
<option value="103">AE003 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
800mlx24 </option>
<option value="104">AE004 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
100mlx72 </option>
<option value="105">AE005 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
200mlx72 </option>
<option value="106">AE006 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
400mlx72 </option>
<option value="107">AE007 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(G) -
800mlx72 </option>
<option value="108">AE008 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
100mlx24 </option>
<option value="109">AE009 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
200mlx24 </option>
<option value="110">AE010 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
400mlx24 </option>
<option value="111">AE011 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
800mlx24 </option>
<option value="112">AE012 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
100mlx72 </option>
<option value="113">AE013 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
200mlx72 </option>
<option value="114">AE014 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
400mlx72 </option>
<option value="115">AE015 : Johnson's Baby Lotion (A/V)(N) -
800mlx72 </option>
</select>
</td>
</tr>

</table>
<br> Selected Value using span = <span id="labelSpan"></span>
<br> Selected Value without span = <span id="labelNoSpan"></span>
</form>
</body>
</html>

<!-- end sample code -->


The row 'without span' in the table is what the original looks like, and
row 'using span' is after using the span.

I hope this one idea can help another people too.

thanks,
hiroshi
 

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