JavaScript - IE6 (SP1) throws errors on Microsoft's own page!

[Philip Herlihy]

I get more JS errors than I'd expect, on a wide range of sites. (It's
possible I only know this because the Debug is set on).

I found an error on a Microsoft site, and decided to investigate. I traced
it to this line:
document.all("c haracterCount") .innerText = commentTextLeng th;

This is on a page deep inside a secure ordering sequence, so it's probably
not
worth copying the URL here.

According to my crib-sheet, "document.a ll" is only valid in the javascript
of IE4 and later. My browser is IE6 (SP1) which qualifies, but the
javascript I have doesn't like it. I also have other browsers and
Frontpage 2002 installed.

Any ideas? I do seem to see a lot of javascript errors, and not just my
own!

Here are the first lines of Javascript on the page, including the offending
line, marked with an added comment (//###....) on the line before:

------------------------------------

script src="/OMLibrary/script/functionsICS.js "
language="javas cript"></script>
<!-- /common head -->
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javas cript">
<!--
//---------------------------------------------------------
// this function counts up the text in the comment area and
// displays it on the page
//---------------------------------------------------------
function countText()
{
var commentText = document.forms. frmFeedback.com mentArea.value;
var commentTextLeng th = 0;
commentTextLeng th = commentText.len gth;
//### marker comment added by OP - see next line ###
document.all("c haracterCount") .innerText = commentTextLeng th;
if (commentTextLen gth > 1000)
{
alert('Please limit your comments to 1000 characters.');
document.forms. frmFeedback.com mentArea.value =
commentText.sub string(0,1000);
countText();
}
return true;
}

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## PH, London ##
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[Philip Herlihy]

Re: JavaScript - IE6 (SP1) throws errors on Microsoft's own page! [found it]

Roland Hall wrote (in microsoft.publi c.intexplorer.s cripting):
....[color=blue]
> The reason is document.all is trying to reference the element by ID,
> not name. So, to make it work, you need to add an ID to the SPAN.[/color]


That's it! Here's the original form code:

<td>
<textarea cols="50" rows="5" style="width:42 0px;"
onKeyUp="countT ext()" id="commentArea " name="sFeedback Comment"></textarea>
</td>

And the offending line from function CountText():

document.all("c haracterCount") .innerText = commentTextLeng th;
Should be:
document.all("c ommentArea").in nerText = commentTextLeng th;

The error was "document.all(" ...") is null or not an object. So it's just a
programming error, not something wrong with my setup.

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## PH, London ##
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