what to use instead of document.all

Question

I have some JavaScript functions that include code like:

if (document.all)
{ document.getElementById('subrow').style.display = 'block'; }
else
{ document.getElementById('subrow').style.display = 'table-row'; }

IE 11 returns false for document.all so the above code no longer works, but I need it to work for earlier versions of IE as well as IE 11 and other browsers.

How can I achieve that? Earlier versions of IE do not understand table-row so I have to be able to differentiate.

I'm not - interested in IE7 and later. And IE7 does not understand 'table-row' — Martin Smellworse, Jan 08 '14 at 10:05
refer : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2408424/document-all-vs-document-getelementbyid http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13663023/what-does-document-all-mean — Muthu, Jan 08 '14 at 10:08

Jordan Gray · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-08T12:26:19.513

Don't—use feature detection.

Trying to detect browsers with indirect tests like checking for document.all is, as you have discovered, very unreliable. Best practice is to use feature detection, not browser detection.

Instead, if you want to know if table-row is supported, you can check for that directly. This makes your code far more portable because it doesn't tie it to particular versions. Here's one way you could do this based on the Modernizr display test for table layout:

function isTableRowSupported() {
    try {
        var style = document.createElement("div").style;
        style.display = 'table-row';
        return style.display == 'table-row';
    } catch (e) {
        return false;
    }
}

jsFiddle demo

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 08 '14 at 10:06

0

You can use and check "ActiveXObject" in window instead which will apply to all IE versions.

document.all was(!) a quick check to see if it's IE.

so :

if ("ActiveXObject" in window)
{ document.getElementById('subrow').style.display = 'block'; }
else
{ document.getElementById('subrow').style.display = 'table-row'; }

answered Jan 08 '14 at 10:06

Royi Namir

144,742
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That seems to have broken it for Firefox. IE7 and IE11 work - the row becomes visible. But Firefox no longer works. – Martin Smellworse Jan 08 '14 at 10:20
My apologies. I had a typo in the table-row line (on my site). – Martin Smellworse Jan 08 '14 at 10:32
Are there any benefits/disadvantages to your solution as opposed to using if (/msie/i.test(navigator.userAgent))? – Martin Smellworse Jan 08 '14 at 10:34
@MartinSmellworse much(!) faster – Royi Namir Jan 08 '14 at 12:43

Ashish Kumar · Answer 3 · 2014-01-08T10:39:32.513

0

Instead of document.all, if you want to do a check for IE then do it like this:

if(/msie|trident/i.test(navigator.userAgent)){
   document.getElementById('subrow').style.display = 'block';
} else {
   document.getElementById('subrow').style.display = 'table-row';
}

Note: Trident is the rendering engine of IE, which is available in all the versions of IE.

edited Jan 08 '14 at 10:39

answered Jan 08 '14 at 10:11

Ashish Kumar

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That works for IE7. It doesn't work for IE11 or Firefox. – Martin Smellworse Jan 08 '14 at 10:23
My apologies. I had a typo in the table-row line. – Martin Smellworse Jan 08 '14 at 10:31
Are there any benefits/disadvantages to your solution as opposed to using if ("ActiveXObject" in window)? – Martin Smellworse Jan 08 '14 at 10:33
1

try searching for ***Trident***, the rendering engine of IE. – Ashish Kumar Jan 08 '14 at 10:39
I'm wondering if IE11 will apply 'block' to a table row - or whether it has moved to using 'table-row'. – Martin Smellworse Jan 08 '14 at 10:42
Just tested, IE11 will show a row using block or table-row and so will latest version of Firefox. Firefox never used to show a row using 'block' - what is going on? – Martin Smellworse Jan 08 '14 at 10:50
yes, so you should do it then just using css. like: *.trClass{display:block; display:table-row;}* so, if *table-row* is applicable in any browser, that will replace *block*, otherwise, this will be ignored by the browser. – Ashish Kumar Jan 08 '14 at 10:52

what to use instead of document.all

3 Answers3