Miscellaneous : Page Glossary / The JavaScript Source

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General

This script collects all of the abbreviations, acronyms, and definitions on a page and builds a definition list of the terms, which is appended to a specified container. The script checks for duplicate terms and also alphabetizes the terms.

Lorem ipsum Internet Explorer dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit 18 kB, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet HTML dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

Notes

Created by: Aaron Gustafson
Web Site: http://www.easy-designs.net/
Posted: June 6, 2008

In the last section of the script, the ids for the content and glossary are given, in this example they are 'content' and 'extras'. The script will process the abbreviations, acronyms, and definitions contained in the 'content' id and then place them within the 'extras' id.

Source Code

Paste this source code into the designated areas.

External file

Paste this code into an external JavaScript file named: pageGlossary.js

/* This script and many more are available free online at
The JavaScript Source!! http://javascript.internet.com
Created by: Aaron Gustafson | http://www.easy-designs.net/ */

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
//                             onLoad Handler
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------
var old = window.onload; // catch any existing onload calls 1st
window.onload = function () {
  if (old) { // execute existing onloads
    old();
  };
  for (var ii = 0; arguments.callee.actions.length > ii; ii++) {
    arguments.callee.actions[ii]();
  };
};
window.onload.actions = [];


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Object:         pageGlossary (formerly makeGlossary)
Author:         Aaron Gustafson (aaron at easy-designs dot net)
Creation Date:  27 November 2005
Version:        1.0
Homepage:       http://www.easy-designs.net/code/pageGlossary/
License:        Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 License
                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Note:           If you change or improve on this script, please let us know by 
                emailing the author (above) with a link to your demo page.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
var pageGlossary = {
  getFrom:  false,
  buildIn:  false,
  glossArr: [],
  usedArr:  [],
  init:     function( fromId, toId ){
    if( !document.getElementById || 
        !document.getElementsByTagName || 
        !document.getElementById( fromId ) || 
        !document.getElementById( toId ) ) return;
    pageGlossary.getFrom = document.getElementById( fromId );
    pageGlossary.buildIn = document.getElementById( toId );
    pageGlossary.collect();
    if( pageGlossary.usedArr.length < 1 ) return;
    pageGlossary.glossArr = pageGlossary.ksort( pageGlossary.glossArr );
    pageGlossary.build();
  },
  collect:  function(){
    var dfns  = pageGlossary.getFrom.getElementsByTagName('dfn');
    var abbrs = pageGlossary.getFrom.getElementsByTagName('abbr');
    var acros = pageGlossary.getFrom.getElementsByTagName('acronym');
    var arr = [];
    arr = arr.concat( dfns, abbrs, acros );
    if( ( arr[0].length == 0 ) &&
        ( arr[1].length == 0 ) && 
        ( arr[2].length == 0 ) ) return;
    var arrLength = arr.length;
    for( var i=0; i < arrLength; i++ ){
      var nestedLength = arr[i].length;
      if( nestedLength < 1 ) continue;
      for( var j=0; j < nestedLength; j++ ){
        if( !arr[i][j].hasChildNodes() ) continue;
        var trm = arr[i][j].firstChild.nodeValue;
        var dfn = arr[i][j].getAttribute( 'title' );
        if( !pageGlossary.inArray( trm, pageGlossary.usedArr ) ){
          pageGlossary.usedArr.push( trm );
          pageGlossary.glossArr[trm] = dfn;
        }
      }
    }
  },
  build:    function(){
    var h2 = document.createElement('h2');
    h2.appendChild( document.createTextNode( 'Page Glossary' ) );
    var dl = document.createElement('dl');
    dl.className = 'glossary';
    for( key in pageGlossary.glossArr ){
      var dt = document.createElement( 'dt' );
      dt.appendChild( document.createTextNode( key ) );
      dl.appendChild( dt );
      var dd = document.createElement('dd');
      dd.appendChild( document.createTextNode( pageGlossary.glossArr[key] ) );
      dl.appendChild( dd );
    }
    pageGlossary.buildIn.appendChild( h2 );
    pageGlossary.buildIn.appendChild( dl );
  },
  addEvent: function( obj, type, fn ){  // the add event function
    if (obj.addEventListener) obj.addEventListener( type, fn, false );
    else if (obj.attachEvent) {
      obj['e'+type+fn] = fn;
      obj[type+fn] = function() {
        obj['e'+type+fn]( window.event );
      };
      obj.attachEvent( 'on'+type, obj[type+fn] );
    }
  },
  ksort:    function( arr ){
    var rArr = [], tArr = [], n=0, i=0, el;
    for( el in arr ) tArr[n++] = el + '|' + arr[el];
    tArr = tArr.sort();
    var arrLength = tArr.length;
    for( var i=0; i < arrLength; i++ ){
      var x = tArr[i].split( '|' );
      rArr[x[0]] = x[1];
    }
    return rArr;
  },
  inArray:  function( needle, haystack ){
    var arrLength = haystack.length;
    for( var i=0; i < arrLength; i++ ){
      if( haystack[i] === needle ) return true;
    }
    return false;
  }
};

pageGlossary.addEvent(
  window, 'load', function(){
    pageGlossary.init('content','extras');
  }
);

CSS

Paste this code into your external CSS file or in the <style> section within the HEAD section of your HTML document.

dl.glossary:after {
  content: "."; 
  display: block; 
  height: 0; 
  clear: both; 
  visibility: hidden;
}
dl.glossary dt {
  float: left;
  clear: left;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0 0 5px;
}
dl.glossary dt:after {
  content: ":";
}
dl.glossary dd {
  float: left;
  clear: right;
  margin: 0 0 0 5px;
  padding: 0 0 5px;
}
* html dl.glossary dd {
  clear: none;
  width: 80%;
}

Head

Paste this code into the HEAD section of your HTML document.


<script type="text/javascript" src="pageGlossary.js"></script>

Body

Paste this code into the BODY section of your HTML document


<div id="content">
<p>
Lorem ipsum <dfn title="A Web browser created by Microsoft">Internet Explorer</dfn> dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit 18 <abbr title="kilobytes">kB</abbr>, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet <acronym title="Hypertext Markup Language">HTML</acronym> dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
</div>

<div id="extras">
<!--  The page glossary is built here  -->
</div>

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