setting a whole style string to an element from javascript (not individual style parameters)

Question

I need to set an arbitrary style to a span via javascript.

I know I can do things like: span.style.height="250px"; But I need to be able to insert a random full style definition from a template

for example

float:left; 
text-decoration:underline; 
cursor:pointer; 
color:blue;

Is there a way to do that in Javascript? Something like element.style=" all style definition here"; ?

Answer 1

you can use JQUERY. link : http://docs.jquery.com/CSS

example :

$("p").mouseover(function () { $(this).css("color","red"); });

Answer 2

There is element.setAttribute('style', '...');, but it fails in IE.

There is a solution, but I haven't tried.

Answer 3

If you want it to be lightweight, create a function such as:

function setStyles(element, styles)
{
    for(var s in styles) {
        element.style[s] = styles[s];
    }
}

Then you would pass the styles in as an object literal:

setStyles(element, {float: "left",
                    textDecoration: "underline",
                    cursor: "pointer",
                    color: "blue"});

Note that the style references passed in have to follow the naming from a JavaScript standpoint, since the function simply changes the styles by accessing the element's style object through JavaScript.

If you must take your style input from a string then you could quite easily parse it and create the object literal.

Answer 4

How about the .style.cssText property? Here's Microsoft's explanation.

Throw it the styles you'd like to apply like so:

document.getElementById('myEl').style.cssText('float:left;margin-top:75px;');

As for browser support, although it was IE-proprietary I believe it's well-supported (works in the IEs, FF3, and Safari 3.2 WIN at least).