I have a dropdown menu that works s 2

[rdsjr]

I have a dropdown menu that works similarly to the one on the top right corner of

http://www.microsoft.com

- using <-span->'s with display:none for the dropdown menus, and then mouseovers on the main menu to display the <-spans->.

Now when I mouseover one of the main menu options, a submenu is displayed.

It works fine unless the dropdown menu (the <-span->) overlays a <-select-> tag on the main page. In that case the <-select-> overlays the menu dropdown. The rest of the <-span-> is visible, it's just the part where the <-select-> is that is covered. I want the dropdown to lay over the top of everything else on the page.

Has anyone out there worked through this problem before?

 

[dwarfthrower]

>> Has anyone out there worked through this problem before?

Ooooh, only about a dozen times in this forum - plenty more in the JavaScript forum.

There's even a FAQ written on the subject: FAQ215-2961

 

[rdsjr]

Thanks for the tip.

Is hiding the <-select-> the only way? My dropdowns are coming from an INCLUDE file, so it's a pain to figure out exactly which <-select->'s are affected (they'll differ from page to page). Plus we may be adding additional options to the dropdowns as we go, so a <-select-> that's not affected today may be affected tomorrow.

How do the vendors of canned dropdown menus handle this? Or are they using something beside the <-span->'s and <-div->'s that I'm using for the dropdowns?

Again, thanks for the help.

 

[dwarfthrower]

>> Is hiding the <-select-> the only way?

You can put all your selects into a <div> tag and hide/show the <div> instead.

Or you can recreate the effect of a select control using DHTML in the same manner as your menus. A custom DHTML select control would be subject to normal z-index laws.

>> How do the vendors of canned dropdown menus handle this?

Can't say for sure, since I haven't spoken to them about it, but I'd imagine they would ignore it. Seeing as how it's not the fault of the menu, rather the browser.

 

[rdsjr]

Wow. My users will kill me if I hide all the <-select->'s every time they use the top menu. And re-writing all the <-select->'s in DHTML will take a looong time (probably 500 of them on about 60 ASP's, including a bunch with dynamic dropdown options).

Sounds like there's no easy fix.

Thanks a million for the quick responses.

 

[dwarfthrower]

Your other option, of course is to reposition the selects so they dont get in the way... again, probably a lot of work / run the risk of being stabbed by users.

 

[rdsjr]

Yeah, if my layout deviates from spec I get hammered. But at least I have some ammunition to go to the boss and say &quot;if you want dropdowns, then we need to move the <-select->'s&quot;. As long as the problem is legit I probably won't lose my job, this week anyway.

Do you have any idea if there are other tags with the same issues? I'm thinking I could convert some of the <-select->'s to radio buttons.

Thanks for the input.

 

[dwarfthrower]

Radio buttons are fine... Flash animations and activex controls are not.

I haven't seen a definitive list of what is and isn't a problem though.

If you need more ammunition to take to your bosses, these are probably worth more to them than the opinion of &quot;some guy called dwarfthrower&quot;

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q177/3/78.ASP&NoWebContent=1

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d.../author/dhtml/reference/properties/zindex.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/compat.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...hop/author/dhtml/reference/objects/select.asp

 

[rdsjr]

I think if I say &quot;dwarfthrower says no can do&quot; that should be enough. But if not, I'll use those links.

I marked your post as helpful, because they were! Thanks again!

 

[tlhawkins]

Just to add a nice scream to this post...

I was working on this same problem and found that it isn't a problem with Netscape (at least not version 7)

Why can't they put all the good features in one browser and send all the other ones to ... wherever.

I'm going to try to build a really solid javascript/DHTML select object that echos it's value to a hidden form field so you can still use it as usual, if I get it working I'll post it for everyone.


Travis Hawkins
BeachBum Software
travis@cfm2asp.com

http://www.beachbumsoftware.com

 

[clarkin]

I knew I had recently read a really good article showing this in action and explaining why (basically, SELECT is an operating-system widget, not a browser widget).

A trawl through my history finally got it:

http://www.webreference.com/dhtml/diner/seethru/

Posting code? Wrap it with code tags: [ignore]

[/ignore][code]CodeHere

[ignore][/code][/ignore].