javascript dom-injected elements don't pick up css-styling in IE

Question

I'm having the weird problem that after having javascript inject some dom-elements the css-rules defined for those elements are not obeyed in IE7(i.e: styling for these elements doesn't happen). (firefox and chrome work fine, others not tested)

Things I tried: - cleared the cache - no other css-rule takes precedence (no 'more-specific' styles, etc. )

the JS (in the body) (I used prototype for the injection here, but I don't think its related) (ABout the Js: some Jsonp trickery adding photos to a div based on latitude/longitude)

<script type="text/javascript">
     function ws_results(json) {
         var div = document.createElement('div');
         div.setAttribute('class', 'pano_img_cont');
         var paras = $A(json.photos);
         paras.each(function(para){
              var img = document.createElement('img');
              img.setAttribute('src', para.photo_file_url);
              div.appendChild(img);
         });
         var cc = $('panaramio_anchor');
         Element.insert(cc.up(),{top:div});
     }
  </script>
  <script src="http://www.panoramio.com/map/get_panoramas.php?order=popularity&amp;amp;set=public&amp;amp;from=0&amp;amp;to=15&amp;amp;minx=13.375&amp;amp;miny=52.4917&amp;amp;maxx=13.424999&amp;amp;maxy=52.541702&amp;amp;size=square&amp;amp;callback=ws_results" type="text/javascript"></script>

THE CSS (to be sure, added as last styles in ie.css)

.pano_img_cont{ 
    display:block;  
    float:left;
    position:relative;  
    width:100%;     
    margin-left:6px;    
    margin-top:3px; 
    padding-right:5px;  
    margin-bottom:-18px; 
    white-space:normal; 
    padding:10px;   
    background:#f00;
}

.pano_img_cont img{
    display:inline-block; 
    width:67px; 
    height:55px;
    margin:0 3px 5px 3px;
    background:#eee;
    float:left;
}

Anyone knows what's up? perhaps css doesn't do a 're-run' of css-styling after the dom is updated automatically? hmm, just guessing here..

Thanks.

Answer 1

Don't use setAttribute, use jQuery's addClass method:

http://api.jquery.com/addClass/

Answer 2

setAttribute is broken in IE7 and lower.

Use

div.className = 'pano_img_cont'

instead.

---

IE's implementation of setAttribute is effectively:

HTMLElement.prototype.setAttribute = function (attribute, value) {
    this[attribute] = value;
}

… which is fine so long as the attribute name and the DOM property name are the same. class, however, is a reserved keyword in JS so the property is called className instead. This breaks in IE.

If you set the property directly, it works everywhere.