JavaScript print Events
Media queries provide a great way to programmatically change behavior depending on viewing state. We can target styles to device, pixel ratio, screen size, and even print. That said, it's also nice to have JavaScript events that also allow us to change behavior. Did you know you're provided events both before and after printing?
I've always used @media print
in stylesheets to control print display, but JavaScript provides beforeprint
and afterprint
events:
function toggleImages(hide = false) {
document.querySelectorAll('img').forEach(img => {
img.style.display = hide ? 'none' : '';
});
}
// Hide images to save toner/ink during printing
window.addEventListener('beforeprint', () => toggleImages(true))
window.addEventListener('afterprint', () => toggleImages());
It may sound weird but considering print is very important, especially when your website is documentation-centric. In my early days of web, I had a client who only "viewed" their website from print-offs. Styling with @media print
is usually the best options but these JavaScript events may help!
MooTools has always gotten a bit of grief for not inherently using and standardizing namespaced-based JavaScript classes like the Dojo Toolkit does. Many developers create their classes as globals which is generally frowned up. I mostly disagree with that stance, but each to their own. In any event...
Back in late 2012 it was not easy to find open source projects using requestAnimationFrame()
- this is the hook that allows Javascript code to synchronize with a web browser's native paint loop. Animations using this method can run at 60 fps and deliver fantastic...
As much as developers now loathe Flash, we're still playing a bit of catch up to natively duplicate the animation capabilities that Adobe's old technology provided us. Of course we have canvas, an awesome technology, one which I highlighted 9 mind-blowing demos. Another technology available...
My favorite web technology is quickly becoming the WebSocket API. WebSocket provides a welcomed alternative to the AJAX technologies we've been making use of over the past few years. This new API provides a method to push messages from client to server efficiently...