Inside a long text document there are some "special words" to which I want to display notes/annotations on the left. Each note should be as close as possible to the level of the word it is refering to.
The HTML for this is organised in a table. Each paragraph is one table row, consisting on annotations in the left and main text in the right table column. the notes/annotations go to the left. However, unfortunately, there are also some other elements/text nodes in there.
<table>
<tr>
<td class"ments">
<span id="dog" class="note">Note for dog</span>
<span id="cat" class="note">Note for cat</span>
<span id="horse" class="note">Note for horse</span>
Somethin else than a note.
</td>
<td>[Text...]
<span id="dog_anchor" class="reference">Dog</span>
<span id="cat_anchor" class="reference">Cat</span>
<span id="horse_anchor" class="reference">Horse</span>
[Text...]
</td>
</tr>
</table>
It's easy to change the "note"-spans to absolute and positioned them on the level of their reference:
$('span[class*="note"]').each(function (index, value) {
var my_id = $(this).attr('id');
var element_ref = document.getElementById(my_id + "_anchor"); // get reference element
var pos_of_ref = element_ref.offsetTop; // get position of reference element
$(this).css('top', pos_of_ref); // set own position to position of reference element
});
However, life is not so simple here. Since there could be a lot of reference words in one line (while on other there are none of them) I need a rather sophisticated way to distribute the notes so that they are as close as possible to their references without destroying anything in the layout (e.g. being placed outside of the table cell or overlapping with other elements).
Furthermore, the height of the table cells could not be changed. Elements which are not notes must not be moved. (Note elements are always in the order they appear in the main text. That's not the problem.) So, I need an algorithm like this:
Is there any fast and elegant way to do this without having to write hundreds of lines of code?
Here is a JSfiddle: /
[Update on suggested solutions]
Simply setting the position of the side notes to relative or just moving notes down won't work, because in this case, the side notes will just go downwards relative to their desired position which results in side notes way to far from their reference words. After all, for a neat solution I need to side notes spread in both directions: up and down.
[Update] The expected result would be something like this:
As you see, it's never possible to place all the notes at the height of their reference. However, the free space is used to position them as close as possible, moving them up and down.
Inside a long text document there are some "special words" to which I want to display notes/annotations on the left. Each note should be as close as possible to the level of the word it is refering to.
The HTML for this is organised in a table. Each paragraph is one table row, consisting on annotations in the left and main text in the right table column. the notes/annotations go to the left. However, unfortunately, there are also some other elements/text nodes in there.
<table>
<tr>
<td class"ments">
<span id="dog" class="note">Note for dog</span>
<span id="cat" class="note">Note for cat</span>
<span id="horse" class="note">Note for horse</span>
Somethin else than a note.
</td>
<td>[Text...]
<span id="dog_anchor" class="reference">Dog</span>
<span id="cat_anchor" class="reference">Cat</span>
<span id="horse_anchor" class="reference">Horse</span>
[Text...]
</td>
</tr>
</table>
It's easy to change the "note"-spans to absolute and positioned them on the level of their reference:
$('span[class*="note"]').each(function (index, value) {
var my_id = $(this).attr('id');
var element_ref = document.getElementById(my_id + "_anchor"); // get reference element
var pos_of_ref = element_ref.offsetTop; // get position of reference element
$(this).css('top', pos_of_ref); // set own position to position of reference element
});
However, life is not so simple here. Since there could be a lot of reference words in one line (while on other there are none of them) I need a rather sophisticated way to distribute the notes so that they are as close as possible to their references without destroying anything in the layout (e.g. being placed outside of the table cell or overlapping with other elements).
Furthermore, the height of the table cells could not be changed. Elements which are not notes must not be moved. (Note elements are always in the order they appear in the main text. That's not the problem.) So, I need an algorithm like this:
Is there any fast and elegant way to do this without having to write hundreds of lines of code?
Here is a JSfiddle: https://jsfiddle/5vLsrLa7/7/
[Update on suggested solutions]
Simply setting the position of the side notes to relative or just moving notes down won't work, because in this case, the side notes will just go downwards relative to their desired position which results in side notes way to far from their reference words. After all, for a neat solution I need to side notes spread in both directions: up and down.
[Update] The expected result would be something like this:
As you see, it's never possible to place all the notes at the height of their reference. However, the free space is used to position them as close as possible, moving them up and down.
I changed move() function as follows:
function move(){
var prev_offset = 0;
$('span.note').each(function (index, value){
var my_id = $(this).attr('id');
var element_ref = document.getElementById(my_id + "_anchor"); // get reference element
var pos_of_ref = element_ref.offsetTop; // get position of reference element
if (prev_offset >= pos_of_ref){
pos_of_ref = prev_offset + 30;
}
$(this).css('top', pos_of_ref); // set own position to position of reference element
prev_offset = pos_of_ref;
});
}
I'm assuming that your element's notes will be in the correct order always
I made some changes to your javascript:
function move()
{
var arrayTops = [];
$('span[class*="note"]').each(function (index, value)
{
var my_id = $(this).attr('id');
var element_ref = document.getElementById(my_id + "_anchor"); // get reference element
var pos_of_ref = element_ref.offsetTop; // get position of reference element
pos_of_ref = getCorrectTopPosition(arrayTops,pos_of_ref);
$(this).css('top', pos_of_ref); // set own position to position of reference element
arrayTops.push(pos_of_ref);
});
}
function getCorrectTopPosition(arrayTops, newOffsetTop)
{
var notesHeight = 18;
var marginBetweenNotes = 3;
var noteheightWithMargin = notesHeight + marginBetweenNotes;
var lastTop = arrayTops[arrayTops.length-1];
if((lastTop + noteheightWithMargin) >= newOffsetTop)
return lastTop + noteheightWithMargin;
return newOffsetTop;
}
Thanks for all the answers and ments. I was finally able to figure out at least a partical solution which works for me.
First of all, I was able to restructure my HTML, so that now the "non note" elements in the left td are all wrapped in one div which is now the very first element in the td. So, now there is nothing between notes, maybe something before them.
The idea of my solution is not to give the notes a new position but to set a new margin-top to each of them. The maximum amount of margin-top values to be added within a table cell is calculated before (called "roaming space"), being the space below the last note in a table cell. Thus, the table layout is not destroyed.
function move_notes() {
$('tr').each(function (index, value) {
var current_tr = $(this);
var last_app_element_in_tr = $(this).find('span[class*="note"]').last();
if ($(last_app_element_in_tr).length) /* Only preceed if there is at least one note in the table row */ {
var tr_height = $(this).height();
var tr_offset = $(this).offset().top;
var bottom_of_tr = tr_offset + tr_height;
var bottom_of_last_app_el = $(last_app_element_in_tr).offset().top + $(last_app_element_in_tr).height();
var roaming_space = bottom_of_tr - bottom_of_last_app_el; // Calculate the amount of pixels which are "free": The space below the very last note element
$(this).find('span[class*="note"]').each(function (index, value) {
var my_id = $(this).attr('id');
var element_ref = $(current_tr).find("#" + my_id + "_anchor");
var pos_of_ref = $(element_ref).offset().top;
var new_margin_top;
/* Calculate the new margin top: The note should be at the same level as the reference element.
When loading, in most cases the notes are placed too high. So, the margin top of the note should equal
the amount of pixels which the note is "too high". So we subtract the height and the offset of the element
before the current note from the offset of the reference. */
var previous_note = $(this).prev();
// not just notes, but every element in the td in general
if (! $(previous_note).length) // If there is no previous_note, than take the table cell
{
closest_td = $(this).closest("td");
new_margin_top = pos_of_ref - $(closest_td).offset().top;
} else {
new_margin_top = pos_of_ref - $(previous_note).offset().top - $(previous_note).height();
}
var difference_to_previous = $(this).css('marginTop').replace(/[^-\d\.]/g, '') - new_margin_top; // Calculate the difference between the old and the new margin top
if (new_margin_top > 0 && Math.abs(difference_to_previous) > 2) // Only move, if the new margin is greater than zero (no negative margins!) if the difference is greater than 2px (thus preventing ugly "micro moving".
{
var new_roaming_space = roaming_space - difference_to_previous;
if (new_roaming_space > 0) /* if there is still room to move */ {
var margin_top_ready = new_margin_top + "px";
$(this).css('margin-top', margin_top_ready);
roaming_space = new_roaming_space;
} else /* If there is no more space to move: */ {
var margin_top_ready = roaming_space + "px"; // take the rest of the "roaming space" left as margin top
$(this).css('margin-top', margin_top_ready);
return false; // Stop the execution because there is nothing left to do.
}
}
});
}
});
}
window.onload = function () {
move_notes();
};
$(window).resize(function () {
move_notes();
});
As you will notice, one of my main concerns is still not addressed: Notes are only moved down, never up. Because of various problems with my real world webpage I didn't implement that yet. However, an algorith could be something like: If the new margin top is greater than the height of the current note and the difference between the offet of the current note anchor and the following note anchor is less than the height of the current note, than subtract the height of the current note from the new margin.
Still, two problems remain:
document.ready to window.onload)