Question

I’m trying to create a dialog window using the following CSS:

#blackOverlay {
    display: block;
    position: fixed;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    background-color: #000000;
    -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=80)";
    filter: alpha(opacity=80);
    -moz-opacity: 0.8;
    -khtml-opacity: 0.8;
    opacity: 0.8;
    z-index: 1001;
}

#whiteOverlay {
    display: block;
    position: absolute;
    top: 10%;
    left: 10%;
    width: 80%;
    height: 80%;
    z-index:2002;
    overflow: auto;
    background: #c4e982;
}

and the following JS:

var div = $("<div id='blackOverlay'></div");
$("body").prepend(div);

var div = $("<div id='whiteOverlay'></div");
div.html("Loading......");

var u = "myurl?function=example";
div.load(u);
$("body").prepend(div);

This works correctly in Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.

Unfortunately it fails in IE, at least on version 8.0. The color/opacity is only applied to body and NOT on other DIV’s. Instead of “hidding” everything behind the blackOverlay, everything (links, buttons, input fields, …) is still usable although the loaded content is displayed correctly (in front, center of screen).

Any help is appreciated!

---

Thank you jduren for pointing me in the right direction. After attempting to handle it in similar way as described here I came up with the following workaround:

function shime() {    
    jQuery.each(jQuery.browser, function(i) {
        if($.browser.msie){
            $('div').each(function() {
            $(this).addClass("shine");
            });
        }
    });
}

function unshime() {
    jQuery.each(jQuery.browser, function(i) {
        if($.browser.msie){
            $(".shine").each(function() {
                $(this).removeClass("shine");
            });
        }
    });
}

And the following CSS:

div.shine {
    display: none;
}

I know that it’s not the best solution, but I’m getting tired of running in circles due to IE “features”.

Answer 1

You need to create what’s called an iFrame shim. IE paints controls over everything that isn’t windowed so you won’t be able to handle this by CSS/HTML hacks alone.

Here is a quick overview of Iframe Shimming http://www.macridesweb.com/oltest/IframeShim.html

Also, the Mootools More library includes an iFrame shim Feature http://mootools.net/docs/more/Utilities/IframeShim as do most popular javascript frameworks that create overlayed UI elements.

This is the IFrame Shim class from mootools more library to give you an idea of what’s involved, don’t use this as it depends on other Mootoosl classes.

var IframeShim = new Class({

    Implements: [Options, Events, Class.Occlude],

    options: {
        className: 'iframeShim',
        src: 'javascript:false;document.write("");',
        display: false,
        zIndex: null,
        margin: 0,
        offset: {x: 0, y: 0},
        browsers: (Browser.Engine.trident4 || (Browser.Engine.gecko && !Browser.Engine.gecko19 && Browser.Platform.mac))
    },

    property: 'IframeShim',

    initialize: function(element, options){
        this.element = document.id(element);
        if (this.occlude()) return this.occluded;
        this.setOptions(options);
        this.makeShim();
        return this;
    },

    makeShim: function(){
        if(this.options.browsers){
            var zIndex = this.element.getStyle('zIndex').toInt();

            if (!zIndex){
                zIndex = 1;
                var pos = this.element.getStyle('position');
                if (pos == 'static' || !pos) this.element.setStyle('position', 'relative');
                this.element.setStyle('zIndex', zIndex);
            }
            zIndex = ($chk(this.options.zIndex) && zIndex > this.options.zIndex) ? this.options.zIndex : zIndex - 1;
            if (zIndex < 0) zIndex = 1;
            this.shim = new Element('iframe', {
                src: this.options.src,
                scrolling: 'no',
                frameborder: 0,
                styles: {
                    zIndex: zIndex,
                    position: 'absolute',
                    border: 'none',
                    filter: 'progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(style=0,opacity=0)'
                },
                'class': this.options.className
            }).store('IframeShim', this);
            var inject = (function(){
                this.shim.inject(this.element, 'after');
                this[this.options.display ? 'show' : 'hide']();
                this.fireEvent('inject');
            }).bind(this);
            if (!IframeShim.ready) window.addEvent('load', inject);
            else inject();
        } else {
            this.position = this.hide = this.show = this.dispose = $lambda(this);
        }
    },

    position: function(){
        if (!IframeShim.ready || !this.shim) return this;
        var size = this.element.measure(function(){ 
            return this.getSize(); 
        });
        if (this.options.margin != undefined){
            size.x = size.x - (this.options.margin * 2);
            size.y = size.y - (this.options.margin * 2);
            this.options.offset.x += this.options.margin;
            this.options.offset.y += this.options.margin;
        }
        this.shim.set({width: size.x, height: size.y}).position({
            relativeTo: this.element,
            offset: this.options.offset
        });
        return this;
    },

    hide: function(){
        if (this.shim) this.shim.setStyle('display', 'none');
        return this;
    },

    show: function(){
        if (this.shim) this.shim.setStyle('display', 'block');
        return this.position();
    },

    dispose: function(){
        if (this.shim) this.shim.dispose();
        return this;
    },

    destroy: function(){
        if (this.shim) this.shim.destroy();
        return this;
    }

});

window.addEvent('load', function(){
    IframeShim.ready = true;
});