Question

I am trying to show a loading image before HTML content loads, but it’s not appearing before the HTML loads for some reason:

You can see it in action here:
http://www.machinas.com/wip/esprit/games/2013_Spring_game/html/

click Play >>> Start the game… this then loads in the HTML.

HTML

<div id="loading-image"></div>

CSS

#loading-image{
    background:url(../img/ajax-loader.gif) no-repeat 0 0;
    position:absolute;
    top:50%;
    left:50%;
    width:16px;
    height:16px;    
    margin-left:-8px;
    display:none;
}

JQUERY:

$('body').on('click', '.mch-ajax', function(e){
        e.preventDefault();
        $('#mch-overlay').fadeOut(300);
        $( ".content" ).load("game.html", function() {
            $("#loading-image").show();
                var myBackgroundImage = new Image();
                myBackgroundImage.src = "http://www.machinas.com/wip/esprit/games/2013_Spring_game/html/img/bg-map.png";        
                myBackgroundImage.onload = function () {
                    $("#loading-image").hide();
                    $( ".map" ).fadeIn(300);
                    $( ".note" ).delay(400).fadeIn(700);
                    $( ".route" ).delay(800).fadeIn(700);
                    $( ".start-btn" ).delay(1200).fadeIn(700);
                };

        }); 
    });

Answer 1

The second argument you post to .load() is the callback, which is executed after the content has loaded. You simply need to move the loading image logic before you call .load().

$('body').on('click', '.mch-ajax', function(e){
        e.preventDefault();
        $('#mch-overlay').fadeOut(300);
        $("#loading-image").show();
        $( ".content" ).load("game.html", function() {
                var myBackgroundImage = new Image();
                myBackgroundImage.src = "http://www.machinas.com/wip/esprit/games/2013_Spring_game/html/img/bg-map.png";        
                myBackgroundImage.onload = function () {
                    $("#loading-image").hide();
                    $( ".map" ).fadeIn(300);
                    $( ".note" ).delay(400).fadeIn(700);
                    $( ".route" ).delay(800).fadeIn(700);
                    $( ".start-btn" ).delay(1200).fadeIn(700);
                };

        }); 
    });