Question

I have a script that adds full images dynamically over thumbnails when you hover over them. I’ve also given the full images a CSS :hover style to make them expand to a larger width (where normally they are constrained to the dimensions of the thumbnail). This works fine if the image loads quickly or is cached, but if the full image takes a long time to load and you don’t move the mouse while it’s loading, then once it does appear it will usually stay at the thumbnail width (the non-:hover style) until you move the mouse again. I get this behavior in all browsers that I’ve tried it in. I’m wondering if this is a bug, and if there’s a way to fix or work around it.

It may be worth noting that I’ve also tried to do the same thing in Javascript with .on('mouseenter'), and encountered the same problem.

Due to the nature of the issue, it can be hard to reproduce, especially if you have a fast connection. I chose a largish photo from Wikipedia to demonstrate, but to make it work you might have to change it to something especially large or from a slow domain. Also note that you may have to clear the cache for successive retries.

If you still can’t reproduce, you can add an artificial delay to the fullimage.load before the call to anchor.show().

HTML:

<img id="image" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Cairo_International_Stadium.jpg/220px-Cairo_International_Stadium.jpg" />

CSS:

.kiyuras-image {
    position: absolute;
    top: 8px;
    left: 8px;
    max-width: 220px;
}

.kiyuras-image:hover {
    max-width: 400px;
}

JS:

$(function () {

    var fullimageurl = 'http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Cairo_International_Stadium.jpg';

    var fullimage = $('<img/>')
        .addClass('kiyuras-image')
        .load(function () {
            anchor.show();
        });

    var anchor = $('<a/>').hide().append(fullimage);

    $('body').prepend(anchor);

    $("#image").on('mouseenter', function () {
        fullimage.attr('src',fullimageurl);
        $(this).off('mouseenter');
    });

});

JS Bin

Updated JS Bin with 1.5-second delay added (Hopefully makes issue clearer)

Again: Reproducing the issue involves clearing your cache of the large image, and then hovering over the original image to initial the loading of large image, then not moving your mouse while it’s loading. Intended behavior is for the large image to properly take on the :hover pseudo-class when it eventually loads. Issue I see when it takes longer than ~0.75 secs to load is that it does not take on :hover until you jiggle the mouse a little.

Edit: See my comments on @LucaFagioli’s answer for further details of my use case.

Edit, the sequel: I thought I already did this, but I just tried to reproduce the issue in Firefox and I couldn’t. Perhaps this is a Chrome bug?

Answer 1

Most browsers update their hover states only when the cursor moves over an element by at least one pixel. When the cursor enters the thumbnail’s img it gets hover applied and runs your mouseenter handler. If you keep your cursor still until the full-sized image loads, your old img (the thumbnail) will keep the hover state and the new one won’t get it.

To get it working in these browsers, move the hover pseudo-class to a common parent element in the CSS; for example, enclose both imgs in a span.