Question

I have a library that build UI using Javascript, and because of the dynamic content involved I sometimes want to put content out to the browser, examine how the layout was changed to support this and then do a different logic depending on the result. For example: detect if some text is overflowing and truncate it with an ellipsis.

Usually I implement this by putting out the changes, then using window.setTimeout(0) to wait for the layout to update and invoke the rest of the logic. This is obviously sub-optimal as different browsers may either implement a minimal timeout that is too slow to prevent flicker or faster that uses a lot of CPU.

Ideally I would like to do the DOM changes, then force the layout to update synchronously and run the “fix-up” logic immediately inline. Any ideas?

Answer 1

We encountered a crazy problem with IE8 (Firefox, Chrome are fine). We use toggleClass(‘enoMyAddressesHide’) on child element.

.enoMyAddressesHide{display:none}

But the parent(s) div container does not refresh/re-layout its height.

setTimeout(), read position, read width and height of element do not help.
Finally we can find out a working solution:

jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {
    var RefreshIE8Layout = function () {
        $('.enoAddressBook:first').css('height', 'auto');
        var height = $('.enoAddressBook:first').height();
        $('.enoAddressBook:first').css('height', height);
    };

    $(".enoRowAddressInfo .enoRowAddressInfoArea ul li img.enoMyAddresses").click(function () {
        $(this).parent().find(".enoAllInfoInAddressBox,img.enoMyAddresses").toggleClass('enoMyAddressesHide');

        RefreshIE8Layout(); // fix IE8 bug, not refresh the DOM dimension after using jQuery to manipulate DOM
    });
});

It looks stupid, but it works!