JavaScript code not working IE8

Question

I am trying to make links work which we click to change the language of website using JavaScript. Here is the HTML code:

'<form action="" method="post" name="currlang">'.
    '<input type="hidden" name="languageval" value="'.$session->value("language").'"/>'.
    '<a onclick="langa(this, \'en\');" class="langs'.($session->value("language")=='en'?" active":"").'" id="en"></a>'.
    '<a onclick="langa(this, \'it\');" class="langs'.($session->value("language")=='it'?" active":"").'" id="it"></a>'.
    '<a onclick="langa(this, \'pl\');" class="langs'.($session->value("language")=='pl'?" active":"").'" id="pl"></a>'.
'</form>'.

and here the javascript:

function langa(obj, valu) {
    document.getElementsByName("languageval")[1].value=valu;
    document.getElementsByName('currlang')[1].submit();
}

The script works fine on new browsers (Firefoxe, Opera, Chrome, IE9) but when testing it on IE8 it gives an error:

"'document.getElementsByName(...).1' is null or not an object".

After some research I found out that getElementsByName() is not supported by IE8 and above and maybe the solution would be to use jQuery and this is where I need help. How can I make this work with jQuery or without it?

You only have one input named `languageval` so its index is `[0]`, not `[1]` — Michael Berkowski, Oct 25 '12 at 12:52
you can always put an ID on the inputs and use getElementById. Make sure the ID are unique — Huangism, Oct 25 '12 at 12:53
since you specified jquery in the tags, how come you're not actually using it in your code? — Spudley, Oct 25 '12 at 12:54
Take a look at this [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/278719/getelementsbyname-in-ie7](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/278719/getelementsbyname-in-ie7) — prageeth, Oct 25 '12 at 12:57

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 25 '12 at 12:55

1

You can try using an ID or class to achieve the same purpose instead of name.

Example:

<div id="foo">This is id of foo</div>
<div class="choo">This is class of choo</div>

Then if you use ID then use:

document.getElementById('foo');

and with class use:

document.getElementsByClassName('choo');

I hope this helps!

answered Oct 25 '12 at 12:55

pathurs

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Thank you for your help pathurs but it does the than mikeswright49 it just refreshes the page. – PLM Oct 25 '12 at 13:43
Can you post more code? It's hard to understand it when it's only a very small section – pathurs Oct 25 '12 at 20:42

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '12 at 12:52

-1

For this to work the way you want switch name to Id.

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
   function langa (obj, valu){
      $("#languageval").val(valu);
      $("#currlang").submit();
   }
</script>

The # will pull the element with that Id and val() is the get/set for the element's value.

Edit: added the type and language tags to

answered Oct 25 '12 at 12:52

mikeswright49

3,381
19
22

Probably won't work correctly because OP uses `name` instead of the `id` attribute. – Dennis Traub Oct 25 '12 at 12:58
He said he wanted to use JQuery, so I gave him the JQuery way, but this is why I said he needs to switch name to id in the first line. – mikeswright49 Oct 25 '12 at 13:02
Thank you mikeswright49. I have tried your code and the page refresh but the language doesn't switch. – PLM Oct 25 '12 at 13:28
This is a Jquery implementation have you included jquery? – mikeswright49 Oct 25 '12 at 13:29
Yes I have included jquery v1.7.2 – PLM Oct 25 '12 at 13:44
and you've switched the elements from using name to id right? – mikeswright49 Oct 25 '12 at 13:53
Yes I did exactly as you said. – PLM Oct 25 '12 at 13:56
Alright, have you added this to your html file with the ... being the path? otherwise I can't see why it wouldn't work, sorry. – mikeswright49 Oct 25 '12 at 14:06

JavaScript code not working IE8

2 Answers2