What would be a good way to show hidden content with javascript, without having the image elements <img src="myimage.jpg"> of the hidden content load their images in google chrome or any other browsers until the content is actually shown?
hiding the content with the css rule display: none will not prevent the images from loading, and I would like to avoid using ajax calls.
EDIT 1 as discussed in the comments, a better alternative would be to use a template. As an example I picked John Resig’s Microtemplating engine:
<div id="content_container">
<script type="text/html" id="content">
<div>
<img src="..."/>
</div>
</script>
</div>
<button onclick="document.getElementById('content_container').innerHTML = tmpl('content', {});">show div</button>
See fiddle
EDIT 2
As the original poster commented, it's perfectly possible to grab the contents of a <script type="text/html"> element. Templating engine's not necessary:
<div id="content_container">
<script type="text/html" id="content">
<div>
<img src="..."/>
</div>
</script>
</div>
<button onclick="document.getElementById('content_container').innerHTML = document.getElementById('content').innerHTML;">show div</button>
First Answer
(see in edits)
First, define a CSS style:
.invisible {
display: none;
}
Add this class to the objects in the HTML. Then anywhere in the JavaScript, simply add or remove the class, or change the display to block or float etc. In jQuery:
http://api.jquery.com/addClass/
EDIT:
If you don't want the image to load, then use an AJAX call instead.
http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.get/
jQuery.get('myImage.jpg', function(data) {
jQuery('.imageContainer').html(data);
});
EDIT 2:
Load the src into the img once it's needed. You could check the scroll position etc.
To do what you want within your requirements you could have javascript write the content when you want it displayed. So you would store your HTML in a javascript string and just use script to then insert it into the page when you want it. Its not a very nice way of doing it but it would mean that it would only load images at that point.
Alternatively you could put the HTML in but have the images pointing at nothing (or a blank placeholder, etc.) and then use script to programatically populate the image sources to the correct values when you call the show function to show the page.
Which of these you choose is probably more about readability than anything else though I would favour the second approach (just tweaking the image sources).
Seems like it is possible to hide content using a script tag with type="text/html", it even prevents any images and iframes from loading in the background, for example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.addEventListener('click',function(e){
if(e.target.id=='content_show'){
e.preventDefault();
document.getElementById('content_visible').innerHTML = document.getElementById('content_hidden').innerHTML;//document.getElementById('content_hidden').text also works
}
});
</script>
</head>
</body>
<img src="image1.jpg"/>
<script type="text/html" id="content_hidden">
<img src="image2.jpg"/>
<img src="image3.jpg"/>
<img src="image4.jpg"/>
</script>
<a href="#showcontent" id="content_show">Show Content</a>
<div id="content_visible"></div>
</body>
</html>
Only thing to keep in mind is to avoid placing script tags inside #content_hidden.
Now if anyone is friendly enough to point out every flaw in this method, so that we can all benefit.