Re: javascript variables undefined Firefox

jimmygoogle wrote: 
I posted earlier with a scope problem.  I think I resolved it in IE but
in Firefox it still exists.  Anyone have any ideas/experience with
this? I attached my code sorry it is so long.  You can cut/paste it
into 2 files and run it to see what I mean.

It has nothing to do with scope, it's a surprise to me that it is 'fixed' in IE.

When posting code, use 2 or 4 spaces for indents, not tabs, and manually wrap it at about 70 characters to prevent auto-wrapping by news readers - it will almost certainly introduce errors and obfuscate any that were there in the first place.


###############menu.html###############
<html>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">

	var xmlDoc;

	if (document.implementation &&
document.implementation.createDocument){
		alert ("MOZ");
		xmlDoc = document.implementation.createDocument("", "", null);
		xmlDoc.onload = createTable;
	}

	else if (window.ActiveXObject){
		alert ("IE");
		xmlDoc = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
		xmlDoc.onreadystatechange = function () {
			if (xmlDoc.readyState == 4) createTable()
			};
 	}

	else{
		alert('Your browser can\'t handle this script');
		//return;
	}

	xmlDoc.load("menu.xml");


function createTable(){
	menuItems = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("menuitem");

You define menuItems here as a global variable inside a function that is not called until the xml file has finished loading.


	var e;
	var nodeid;
	var parentid;
	var labelTxt;
	var linkTxt;

for (var i=0;i<menuItems.length;i++){
	// assign each element of the XML file to a variable
	e=menuItems[i];
	childrenTxt = e.getElementsByTagName("node")[0].firstChild.data;
	heightTxt   = e.getElementsByTagName("parent")[0].firstChild.data;
	labelTxt     = e.getElementsByTagName("label")[0].firstChild.data;
	linkTxt       = e.getElementsByTagName("link")[0].firstChild.data;
	widthTxt    = e.getElementsByTagName("link")[0].firstChild.data;

	parentmenu = 'Menu' + childrenTxt;

	menuchildren=0;
	menuwidth=80;
	menuheight=20;

	eval(parentmenu + '= new Array(' + '"' + labelTxt + '"' +  ',' + '"' +
 linkTxt + '"' +  ',"",'  + menuchildren +  ',' + menuheight +  ',' +
menuwidth +');');

Here you use eval to create an unknown number of arrays as global variables - why not use a single object to hold them all, as you've been shown?


} //end for



} // end createTable

function Go(){return}

/***********************************************************************
    YOU CAN MANUALLY CHANGE THE MENU HERE, BUT BE VERY CAREFUL !
***********************************************************************/

var NoOffFirstLineMenus=menuItems.length; // Number of first level

Here you try to use menuItems, but the function that initialises it may not have been called yet. I can only guess that IE has finished loading the file by the time the interpreter gets to here but Firefox hasn't.

I suspect that when you deploy this IE will suffer a similar fate - or maybe the page stops loading completely while the XML file is loaded. It seems a pointless use of XMLHttpRequest in any case.

I can't understand why you need a script that generates over 100 global variables and requires nearly 700 lines of unmaintainable code just to create a menu that could have been done with a few lines of CSS and HTML and not a single line of script.

The code has so many examples of bad coding it's beyond redemption.

e.g. eval is used 30 or 40 times like this:

    WMnu = MName + eval(i);

and

    NoOffSubs = eval(WMnu + '[3]');


Logic is obfuscated like this:

if(SubLt+CCW>ScWinWdth+LScrlld)SubLt=this.Level==1?ScWinWdth+LScrlld-CCW:SubLt-(CCW+(1-2*ChildOverlap)*ThisWt);


Many variables seem to be created for the sake of it:

  var LowBgColor='0080FF';	
  ...

  function MbrSetUp(MmbrCntnr,PrMmbr,WhatMenu,Wdth,Hght){
    ...
    var a,b,c,d;
    ...
    if(RcrsLvl==1){
      a=LowBgColor;

    ...
    this.LoBck=a;
  }

[...]


/***********************************************************************
   DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE - IT WILL BREAK THE SCRIPT !
***********************************************************************/


I don't wonder.

[...]


--
Rob
.

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