Jquery treating objects with zero width and height as invisible

Question

When an html element has the height and width set to zero, jQuery does not find the object when using a selector and specifying visible although the object is visible.

for example

$("#test").children(":visible")

the above will ignore children of #test where the width and height is zero. Is this an intended functionality or a bug in jQuery? Is there any workaround to get the object?

Many Thanks, Arun

PS: I'm using the latest version of jQuery - 1.3.2

Answer 1

Not a bug in jQuery (in fact, the Sizzle Selector Engine that jQuery uses). From the jQuery source

Sizzle.selectors.filters.visible = function(elem){
    return elem.offsetWidth > 0 || elem.offsetHeight > 0;
};

Just implement your own filter with different logic. The filter is declared on line 2373 in the jQuery-1.3.2.js source file.

Answer 2

Yes this is the intended functionality. From the docs:

How :visible is calculated was changed in jQuery 1.3.2. Element assumed as visible if it and its parents consumes space in document. CSS visibility isn't taken into account.
http://docs.jquery.com/Selectors/visible

http://docs.jquery.com/Selectors/visible