Google Images heterogeneous Thumb Positioning - html

Google Image Search returns Images of different sizes. even their Thumbs are of different size. But still they are arranged in such a way that keeps a clean margin. even resizing the browser keeps the left and right alignment proper. What I've noticed is they group a Page of Image into an ul and each image is in an li. not all rows contain same amount of images. But still how they manage to keep images of different sizes properly aligned ?
EDIT
Though I've accepted an answer Its not exact match. It may be a near match. However I still want to know What is the exact procedure they are doing. I cannot chalk out the pattern.
It seems that they wrap a page in a <ol> and put images in <li> But when I resize the images are redistributed among pages. But how many images the page <ol> should contain now is to be decided. What procedure can be used to accomplish that ? and also images are resized based on a standard height I think. and that standard height is changed on resize. How how much ? how that is decided ?

It's not exactly the same thing, but you might get some useful ideas about how to optimize image "packing" by looking at the approach taken by the jQuery Masonry plug-in.

They know how big each thumbnail is, since it's stored in their image database. They just make each <li> float left, and make them a fixed size based on whatever the largest image is within that section of images.

I've written a little plugin just to do that HERE you can watch it in action:
(function($){
//to arrange elements like google image
//start of the plugin
var tm=TweenMax;
var positionFunc= function(options, elem){
var setting=$.extend({
height:150,
container:$('body'),
margin:5,
borderWidth:1,
borderColor:'#000',
borderStyle:'solid',
boxShadow:'0 0 0 #000',
borderRadius:0,
type:'img'
},options);
tm.set($(elem),{
'max-height':setting.height
});
$(elem).wrap('<div class="easyPositionWrap"></div>');
var winsize=setting.container.width();
var thisrow=0;
var elementsused=0;
var row=0;
tm.set($('.easyPositionWrap'),{
border:setting.borderWidth+'px '+setting.borderStyle+' '+setting.borderColor,
borderRadius:setting.borderRadius,
boxShadow:setting.boxShadow,
margin:setting.margin,
height:setting.height,
position:'relative',
display:'block',
overflow:'hidden',
float:'left'
});
$('.easyPositionWrap').each(function(index, element) {
if(thisrow<winsize){
thisrow+=$(this).width()+(setting.margin*2)+(setting.borderWidth*2);
}
else{
var currentwidth=thisrow-$(this).prevUntil('.easyPositionWrap:eq('+(elementsused-1)+')').width()-(setting.margin*2)+(setting.borderWidth*2);
var nextimagewidth=$(this).prev('.easyPositionWrap').width()+(setting.margin*2)+(setting.borderWidth*2);
var elems=$(this).prevAll('.easyPositionWrap').length-elementsused;
var widthtobetaken=(nextimagewidth-(winsize-currentwidth))/(elems);
if(widthtobetaken!=0){
if(elementsused==0){
$(this).prevUntil('.easyPositionWrap:eq(0)').each(function(index, element) {
$(this).width($(this).width()-widthtobetaken);
$(this).find(setting.type+':first-child').css('margin-left','-'+(widthtobetaken/2)+'px');
});
$('.easyPositionWrap:eq(0)').width($('.easyPositionWrap:eq(0)').width()-widthtobetaken);
$('.easyPositionWrap:eq(0) '+setting.type).css('margin-left','-'+(widthtobetaken/2)+'px');
}
else{
$(this).prevUntil('.easyPositionWrap:eq('+(elementsused-1)+')').each(function(index, element) {
$(this).width($(this).width()-widthtobetaken);
$(this).find(setting.type+':first-child').css('margin-left','-'+(widthtobetaken/2)+'px');
});
}
}
elementsused+=elems;
thisrow=$(this).width()+(setting.margin*2)+(setting.borderWidth*2);
}
});
$(window).resize(function(){
clearTimeout(window.thePositionTO);
window.thePositionTO=setTimeout(function(){
$(elem).each(function(index, element) {
$(this).unwrap('.easyPositionWrap');
$(this).data('easyPositioned',false);
});
$(elem).easyPosition(options);
},200);
});
}
$.fn.easyPosition= function(options){
if($(this).data('easyPositioned')) return;
positionFunc(options, this);
$(this).data('easyPositioned',true);
};
//end of the plugin
}(jQuery));
$(window).load(function(){
$('img').easyPosition();
});
libraries to include:
jQuery
GreenSock's TweenMax

Related

Is it possible to hide an html element if dynamic content requires more space?

I would like to hide an html Element (in my case a headline) only when the dynamic content of the site expands so far vertically that a scrollbar would appear. I am aware how to hide an element but I don't know how to trigger the event. I am searching for something like the #media rule in css, only that it shouldn't be triggered on the viewport resolution, but the size of the content (vertically).
Does anyone know a solution to this?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks to Nicks comment I figured out a solution.
If anyone is looking for the same thing, here is a working Javascript solution (no JQuery needed):
var callback = function(){
// Handler when the DOM is fully loaded
// Check if the body height is bigger than the clients viewport
if (document.body.scrollHeight > document.body.clientHeight) {
// Assign a class with display:none (in my case 'hide')
document.getElementById("headline").className = 'hide';
}
};
// This part ensures that the script will be loaded once the site is loaded
if (
document.readyState === "complete" ||
(document.readyState !== "loading" && !document.documentElement.doScroll)
) {
callback();
} else {
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", callback);
}
With help by https://www.sitepoint.com/jquery-document-ready-plain-javascript/

Html - Wrong letters (sometimes)

I have created a website with wordpress and i have a bulleted list on it as follows:
Pros
realistic colors
very sharp
The problem is sometimes (like each fifth time) when i load the page in Chrome, the letters of the word Pros are wrong like Qspt. See the following picture:
Does anybody have an idea?
Your hints got me on the right path. It was a javascript issue in 'jquery.appear':
if ($('.review-wrapper').length) {
$('.review-wrapper').appear().on('appear', function(event) {
// this element is now inside browser viewport
var $this = $(this);
if ($this.hasClass('delay-animation')) {
$this.removeClass('delay-animation');
}
});
$.force_appear(); // if it's right there on document.ready
}
It seems that force_appear was responsible for the wrong letters. So I am using force_process option now instead:
if ($('.review-wrapper').length) {
$('.review-wrapper').appear({force_process: true}).on('appear', function(event) {
// this element is now inside browser viewport
var $this = $(this);
if ($this.hasClass('delay-animation')) {
$this.removeClass('delay-animation');
}
});
}

issue with iOS fixed position css [duplicate]

I have a mobile website which has a div pinned to the bottom of the screen via position:fixed. All works fine in iOS 5 (I'm testing on an iPod Touch) until I'm on a page with a form. When I tap into an input field and the virtual keyboard appears, suddenly the fixed position of my div is lost. The div now scrolls with the page as long as the keyboard is visible. Once I click Done to close the keyboard, the div reverts to its position at the bottom of the screen and obeys the position:fixed rule.
Has anyone else experienced this sort of behavior? Is this expected? Thanks.
I had this problem in my application. Here's how I'm working around it:
input.on('focus', function(){
header.css({position:'absolute'});
});
input.on('blur', function(){
header.css({position:'fixed'});
});
I'm just scrolling to the top and positioning it there, so the iOS user doesn't notice anything odd going on. Wrap this in some user agent detection so other users don't get this behavior.
I had a slightly different ipad issue where the virtual keyboard pushed my viewport up offscreen. Then after the user closed the virtual keyboard my viewport was still offscreen. In my case I did something like the following:
var el = document.getElementById('someInputElement');
function blurInput() {
window.scrollTo(0, 0);
}
el.addEventListener('blur', blurInput, false);
This is the code we use to fix problem with ipad. It basically detect discrepancies between offset and scroll position - which means 'fixed' isn't working correctly.
$(window).bind('scroll', function () {
var $nav = $(".navbar")
var scrollTop = $(window).scrollTop();
var offsetTop = $nav.offset().top;
if (Math.abs(scrollTop - offsetTop) > 1) {
$nav.css('position', 'absolute');
setTimeout(function(){
$nav.css('position', 'fixed');
}, 1);
}
});
The position fixed elements simply don't update their position when the keyboard is up. I found that by tricking Safari into thinking that the page has resized, though, the elements will re-position themselves. It's not perfect, but at least you don't have to worry about switching to 'position: absolute' and tracking changes yourself.
The following code just listens for when the user is likely to be using the keyboard (due to an input being focused), and until it hears a blur it just listens for any scroll events and then does the resize trick. Seems to be working pretty well for me thus far.
var needsScrollUpdate = false;
$(document).scroll(function(){
if(needsScrollUpdate) {
setTimeout(function() {
$("body").css("height", "+=1").css("height", "-=1");
}, 0);
}
});
$("input, textarea").live("focus", function(e) {
needsScrollUpdate = true;
});
$("input, textarea").live("blur", function(e) {
needsScrollUpdate = false;
});
Just in case somebody happens upon this thread as I did while researching this issue. I found this thread helpful in stimulating my thinking on this issue.
This was my solution for this on a recent project. You just need to change the value of "targetElem" to a jQuery selector that represents your header.
if(navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i) != null){
var iOSKeyboardFix = {
targetElem: $('#fooSelector'),
init: (function(){
$("input, textarea").on("focus", function() {
iOSKeyboardFix.bind();
});
})(),
bind: function(){
$(document).on('scroll', iOSKeyboardFix.react);
iOSKeyboardFix.react();
},
react: function(){
var offsetX = iOSKeyboardFix.targetElem.offset().top;
var scrollX = $(window).scrollTop();
var changeX = offsetX - scrollX;
iOSKeyboardFix.targetElem.css({'position': 'fixed', 'top' : '-'+changeX+'px'});
$('input, textarea').on('blur', iOSKeyboardFix.undo);
$(document).on('touchstart', iOSKeyboardFix.undo);
},
undo: function(){
iOSKeyboardFix.targetElem.removeAttr('style');
document.activeElement.blur();
$(document).off('scroll',iOSKeyboardFix.react);
$(document).off('touchstart', iOSKeyboardFix.undo);
$('input, textarea').off('blur', iOSKeyboardFix.undo);
}
};
};
There is a little bit of a delay in the fix taking hold because iOS stops DOM manipulation while it is scrolling, but it does the trick...
None of the other answers I've found for this bug have worked for me. I was able to fix it simply by scrolling the page back up by 34px, the amount mobile safari scrolls it down. with jquery:
$('.search-form').on('focusin', function(){
$(window).scrollTop($(window).scrollTop() + 34);
});
This obviously will take effect in all browsers, but it prevents it breaking in iOS.
This issue is really annoying.
I combined some of the above mentioned techniques and came up with this:
$(document).on('focus', 'input, textarea', function() {
$('.YOUR-FIXED-DIV').css('position', 'static');
});
$(document).on('blur', 'input, textarea', function() {
setTimeout(function() {
$('.YOUR-FIXED-DIV').css('position', 'fixed');
$('body').css('height', '+=1').css('height', '-=1');
}, 100);
});
I have two fixed navbars (header and footer, using twitter bootstrap).
Both acted weird when the keyboard is up and weird again after keyboard is down.
With this timed/delayed fix it works. I still find a glitch once in a while, but it seems to be good enough for showing it to the client.
Let me know if this works for you. If not we might can find something else. Thanks.
I was experiencing same issue with iOS7. Bottom fixed elements would mess up my view not focus properly.
All started working when I added this meta tag to my html.
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no,height=device-height" >
The part which made the difference was:
height=device-height
Hope that helps someone.
I've taken Jory Cunningham answer and improved it:
In many cases, it's not just one element who goes crazy, but several fixed positioned elements, so in this case, targetElem should be a jQuery object which has all the fixed elements you wish to "fix". Ho, this seems to make the iOS keyboard go away if you scroll...
Needless to mention you should use this AFTER document DOM ready event or just before the closing </body> tag.
(function(){
var targetElem = $('.fixedElement'), // or more than one
$doc = $(document),
offsetY, scrollY, changeY;
if( !targetElem.length || !navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone|iPad|iPod/i) )
return;
$doc.on('focus.iOSKeyboardFix', 'input, textarea, [contenteditable]', bind);
function bind(){
$(window).on('scroll.iOSKeyboardFix', react);
react();
}
function react(){
offsetY = targetElem.offset().top;
scrollY = $(window).scrollTop();
changeY = offsetY - scrollY;
targetElem.css({'top':'-'+ changeY +'px'});
// Instead of the above, I personally just do:
// targetElem.css('opacity', 0);
$doc.on('blur.iOSKeyboardFix', 'input, textarea, [contenteditable]', unbind)
.on('touchend.iOSKeyboardFix', unbind);
}
function unbind(){
targetElem.removeAttr('style');
document.activeElement.blur();
$(window).off('scroll.iOSKeyboardFix');
$doc.off('touchend.iOSKeyboardFix blur.iOSKeyboardFix');
}
})();
I have a solution similar to #NealJMD except mine only executes for iOS and correctly determines the scroll offset by measuring the scollTop before and after the native keyboard scrolling as well as using setTimeout to allow the native scrolling to occur:
var $window = $(window);
var initialScroll = $window.scrollTop();
if (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone|iPad|iPod/i)) {
setTimeout(function () {
$window.scrollTop($window.scrollTop() + (initialScroll - $window.scrollTop()));
}, 0);
}
I have fixed my Ipad main layout content fixed position this way:
var mainHeight;
var main = $('.main');
// hack to detects the virtual keyboard close action and fix the layout bug of fixed elements not being re-flowed
function mainHeightChanged() {
$('body').scrollTop(0);
}
window.setInterval(function () {
if (mainHeight !== main.height())mainHeightChanged();
mainHeight = main.height();
}, 100);
I had a similar problem to #ds111 s. My website was pushed up by the keyboard but didn't move down when the keyboard closed.
First I tried #ds111 solution but I had two input fields. Of course, first the keyboard goes away, then the blur happens (or something like that). So the second input was under the keyboard, when the focus switched directly from one input to the other.
Furthermore, the "jump up" wasn't good enough for me as the whole page only has the size of the ipad. So I made the scroll smooth.
Finally, I had to attach the event listener to all inputs, even those, that were currently hidden, hence the live.
All together I can explain the following javascript snippet as:
Attach the following blur event listener to the current and all future input and textarea (=live): Wait a grace period (= window.setTimeout(..., 10)) and smoothly scroll to top (= animate({scrollTop: 0}, ...)) but only if "no keyboard is shown" (= if($('input:focus, textarea:focus').length == 0)).
$('input, textarea').live('blur', function(event) {
window.setTimeout(function() {
if($('input:focus, textarea:focus').length == 0) {
$("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: 0 }, 400);
}
}, 10)
})
Be aware, that the grace period (= 10) may be too short or the keyboard may still be shown although no input or textarea is focused. Of course, if you want the scrolling faster or slower, you may adjust the duration (= 400)
really worked hard to find this workaround, which in short looks for focus and blur events on inputs, and scrolling to selectively change the positioning of the fixed bar when the events happen. This is bulletproof, and covers all cases (navigating with <>, scroll, done button). Note id="nav" is my fixed footer div. You can easily port this to standard js, or jquery. This is dojo for those who use power tools ;-)
define([
"dojo/ready",
"dojo/query",
], function(ready, query){
ready(function(){
/* This addresses the dreaded "fixed footer floating when focusing inputs and keybard is shown" on iphone
*
*/
if(navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i)){
var allInputs = query('input,textarea,select');
var d = document, navEl = "nav";
allInputs.on('focus', function(el){
d.getElementById(navEl).style.position = "static";
});
var fixFooter = function(){
if(d.activeElement.tagName == "BODY"){
d.getElementById(navEl).style.position = "fixed";
}
};
allInputs.on('blur', fixFooter);
var b = d.body;
b.addEventListener("touchend", fixFooter );
}
});
}); //end define
This is a difficult problem to get 'right'. You can try and hide the footer on input element focus, and show on blur, but that isn't always reliable on iOS. Every so often (one time in ten, say, on my iPhone 4S) the focus event seems to fail to fire (or maybe there is a race condition), and the footer does not get hidden.
After much trial and error, I came up with this interesting solution:
<head>
...various JS and CSS imports...
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write( '<style>#footer{visibility:hidden}#media(min-height:' + ($( window ).height() - 10) + 'px){#footer{visibility:visible}}</style>' );
</script>
</head>
Essentially: use JavaScript to determine the window height of the device, then dynamically create a CSS media query to hide the footer when the height of the window shrinks by 10 pixels. Because opening the keyboard resizes the browser display, this never fails on iOS. Because it's using the CSS engine rather than JavaScript, it's much faster and smoother too!
Note: I found using 'visibility:hidden' less glitchy than 'display:none' or 'position:static', but your mileage may vary.
Works for me
if (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone|iPad|iPod/i)) {
$(document).on('focus', 'input, textarea', function() {
$('header').css({'position':'static'});
});
$(document).on('blur', 'input, textarea', function() {
$('header').css({'position':'fixed'});
});
}
In our case this would fix itself as soon as user scrolls. So this is the fix we've been using to simulate a scroll on blur on any input or textarea:
$(document).on('blur', 'input, textarea', function () {
setTimeout(function () {
window.scrollTo(document.body.scrollLeft, document.body.scrollTop);
}, 0);
});
My answer is that it can't be done.
I see 25 answers but none work in my case. That's why Yahoo and other pages hide the fixed header when the keyboard is on. And Bing turns the whole page non-scrollable (overflow-y: hidden).
The cases discussed above are different, some have issues when scrolling, some on focus or blur. Some have fixed footer, or header. I can't test now each combination, but you might end up realizing that it can't be done in your case.
Found this solution on Github.
https://github.com/Simbul/baker/issues/504#issuecomment-12821392
Make sure you have scrollable content.
// put in your .js file
$(window).load(function(){
window.scrollTo(0, 1);
});
// min-height set for scrollable content
<div id="wrap" style="min-height: 480px">
// website goes here
</div>
The address bar folds up as an added bonus.
In case anyone wanted to try this. I got the following working for me on a fixed footer with an inputfield in it.
<script>
$('document').ready(
function() {
if (navigator.userAgent.match(/Android/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/webOS/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/iPad/i)
|| navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/BlackBerry/i) || navigator.userAgent.match(/Windows Phone/i)) {
var windowHeight = $(window).height();
var documentHeight = $(document).height();
$('#notes').live('focus', function() {
if (documentHeight > windowHeight) {
$('#controlsContainer').css({
position : 'absolute'
});
$("html, body").animate({
scrollTop : $(document).height()
}, 1);
}
});
$('#notes').live('blur', function() {
$('#controlsContainer').css({
position : 'fixed'
});
$("html, body").animate({
scrollTop : 0
}, 1);
});
}
});
</script>
I have the same issue. But I realized that the fixed position is just delayed and not broken (at least for me). Wait 5-10 seconds and see if the div adjusts back to the bottom of the screen. I believe it's not an error but a delayed response when the keyboard is open.
I tried all the approaches from this thread, but if they didn't help, they did even worse.
In the end, I decided force device to loose focus:
$(<selector to your input field>).focus(function(){
var $this = $(this);
if (<user agent target check>) {
function removeFocus () {
$(<selector to some different interactive element>).focus();
$(window).off('resize', removeFocus);
}
$(window).on('resize', removeFocus);
}
});
and it worked like a charm and fixed my sticky login-form.
Please NOTE:
The JS code above is only to present my idea, to execute this snippet please replace values in angular braces (<>) with appropriate values for your situation.
This code is designed to work with jQuery v1.10.2
This is still a large bug for for any HTML pages with taller Bootstrap Modals in iOS 8.3. None of the proposed solutions above worked and after zooming in on any field below the fold of a tall modal, Mobile Safari and/or WkWebView would move the fixed elements to where the HTML body's scroll was situated, leaving them misaligned with where they actually where laid out.
To workaround the bug, add an event listener to any of your modal inputs like:
$(select.modal).blur(function(){
$('body').scrollTop(0);
});
I'm guessing this works because forcing the HTML body's scroll height re-aligns the actual view with where the iOS 8 WebView expects the fixed modal div's contents to be.
If anybody was looking for a completely different route (like you are not even looking to pin this "footer" div as you scroll but you just want the div to stay at the bottom of the page), you can just set the footer position as relative.
That means that even if the virtual keyboard comes up on your mobile browser, your footer will just stay anchored to the bottom of the page, not trying to react to virtual keyboard show or close.
Obviously it looks better on Safari if position is fixed and the footer follows the page as you scroll up or down but due to this weird bug on Chrome, we ended up switching over to just making the footer relative.
None of the scrolling solutions seemed to work for me. Instead, what worked is to set the position of the body to fixed while the user is editing text and then restore it to static when the user is done. This keeps safari from scrolling your content on you. You can do this either on focus/blur of the element(s) (shown below for a single element but could be for all input, textareas), or if a user is doing something to begin editing like opening a modal, you can do it on that action (e.g. modal open/close).
$("#myInput").on("focus", function () {
$("body").css("position", "fixed");
});
$("#myInput").on("blur", function () {
$("body").css("position", "static");
});
iOS9 - same problem.
TLDR - source of the problem. For solution, scroll to bottom
I had a form in a position:fixed iframe with id='subscribe-popup-frame'
As per the original question, on input focus the iframe would go to the top of the document as opposed to the top of the screen.
The same problem did not occur in safari dev mode with user agent set to an idevice. So it seems the problem is caused by iOS virtual keyboard when it pops up.
I got some visibility into what was happening by console logging the iframe's position (e.g. $('#subscribe-popup-frame', window.parent.document).position() ) and from there I could see iOS seemed to be setting the position of the element to {top: -x, left: 0} when the virtual keyboard popped up (i.e. focussed on the input element).
So my solution was to take that pesky -x, reverse the sign and then use jQuery to add that top position back to the iframe. If there is a better solution I would love to hear it but after trying a dozen different approaches it was the only one that worked for me.
Drawback: I needed to set a timeout of 500ms (maybe less would work but I wanted to be safe) to make sure I captured the final x value after iOS had done its mischief with the position of the element. As a result, the experience is very jerky . . . but at least it works
Solution
var mobileInputReposition = function(){
//if statement is optional, I wanted to restrict this script to mobile devices where the problem arose
if(screen.width < 769){
setTimeout(function(){
var parentFrame = $('#subscribe-popup-frame',window.parent.document);
var parentFramePosFull = parentFrame.position();
var parentFramePosFlip = parentFramePosFull['top'] * -1;
parentFrame.css({'position' : 'fixed', 'top' : parentFramePosFlip + 'px'});
},500);
}
}
Then just call mobileInputReposition in something like $('your-input-field).focus(function(){}) and $('your-input-field).blur(function(){})

jqGrid Resizing Problem

I have a jqGrid at my web page. I have a resizing problem. When I restore down my web page, all the elements at my page resizes automatically however my jqGrid table doesn't. Actually I have edited my table's width as follows:
...
width:1000,
...
I want it has a minimum width but have a automatic resizing when I restore down (get more smaller) my web page.
How can I do that?
EDIT:
I tried thatbut I am not sure is this the right way:
confTable is my jqGrid id and content is the parent element's id of it.
$("#confTable").jqGrid('gridResize', { minWidth: 800, minHeight: 100 });
$(window).bind('resize', function() {
var gridWidth = $("#confTable").width();
var contentWidth = $("#content").width();
if (gridWidth > 0 &&
Math.abs(gridWidth - contentWidth) > 5) {
$("#confTable").jqGrid('setGridWidth', contentWidth);
}
}).trigger('resize');
I wanted to implement the solution here described. However setgridWidht and the lines of .attr() didn't work. Is my code browser compatible and what is the wrong can be while I was trying the implement the solution of that question?
PS:
It says: $("#confTable").setGridWidth is not a function. Actually I need to resize my jqGrid according to its parent's parent.
Here is a simple example you could try:
$(window).resize(function(){
$("#confTable").setGridWidth($(this).width() * .95);
});

Drop down input in IE8

How can I make the drop down show all the content of one option when it is expanded? If an option in the drop down is, for instance, a whole sentence and select tag width is small, the user in IE will not be able to read whole option. This is not the case in Mozilla where the whole content is shown when drop down is expanded.
Is there any way to avoid this behavior in IE8,
Thanks
I had a similar constraint when working against IE8 and the oh so famous drop down list truncating. I have multiple drop down lists on my page, one after another, some inside top nav content, and IE8 decides to cut off my attribute option text properties. Now, like many of us, I don't want to set the width obscurely large, so this option is out of question.
After a lot of research, I couldn't find a great answer, so I went ahead and fixed it with jQuery and CSS:
First, let's make sure we are only passing our function in IE8:
var isIE8 = $.browser.version.substring(0, 2) === "8.";
if (isIE8) {
//fix me code
}
Then, to allow the select to expand outside of the content area, let's wrap our drop down lists in div's with the correct structure, if not already, and then call the helper function:
var isIE8 = $.browser.version.substring(0, 2) === "8.";
if (isIE8) {
$('select').wrap('<div class="wrapper" style="position:relative; display: inline-block; float: left;"></div>').css('position', 'absolute');
//helper function for fix
ddlFix();
}
Now onto the events. Since IE8 throws an event after focusing in for whatever reason, IE will close the widget after rendering when trying to expand. The work around will be to bind to 'focusin' and 'focusout' a class that will auto expand based on the longest option text. Then, to ensure a constant min-width that doesn't shrink past the default value, we can obtain the current select list width, and set it to the drop down list min-width property on the 'onchange' binding:
function ddlFix() {
var minWidth;
$('select')
.each(function () {
minWidth = $(this).width();
$(this).css('min-width', minWidth);
})
.bind('focusin', function () {
$(this).addClass('expand');
})
.change(function () {
$(this).css('width', minWidth);
})
.bind('focusout', function () {
$(this).removeClass('expand');
});
}
Lastly, make sure to add this class in the style sheet:
select:focus, select.expand {
width: auto;
}