Apr 08 28

IE: Could not get the visibility property. Invalid argument.

Web Authoring Add comments

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer never fails to amaze me – coding JavaScript and CSS for the IE is quite a challenge. The other day I tried to show/hide a table based on the value of a dropdown box.

function hideUnhideDateFields() {
	var tarifScheme = document.getElementById("dropdownTarifscheme");
	var dateTable = document.getElementById("dateTable");
	if (tarifScheme && tarifScheme.value == "") {
		dateTable.style.visibility = "collapse";
	} else {
		dateTable.style.visibility = "visible";
	}
}

While this works flawlessly with browsers, the script crashes in IE: it complains about “Could not get the visibility property. Invalid argument.” Hey IE, talk to me, what is your problem?
I couldn’t get behind it and switched stratey, therefore.

function hideUnhideDateFields() {
	var tarifScheme = document.getElementById("dropdownTarifscheme");
	var dateTable = document.getElementById("dateTable");
	if (tarifScheme && tarifScheme.value == "") {
		dateTable.style.display = "none";
	} else {
		dateTable.style.display = "";
	}
}

2 Responses to “IE: Could not get the visibility property. Invalid argument.”

  1. ChrisP Says:
    February 23rd, 2009 at 0:18

    Ran into this very same problem whilst coding my own collapsin menu system. Have had to write two separate sets of code, one for IE and one for non-IE… Not yet got it to work fully, everytime I refresh the page and see it failing in IE it reminds me of one of the reasons why I left this awful browser behind and can’t understand why others swear by it…

  2. Vineeta Nimesh Says:
    August 5th, 2009 at 11:14

    i came across this problem. but it was solved.
    u have to write the code:

    dateTable.style.display = ‘ ‘;

    only in single quotes not double quotes.
    this change when applies to my code works in all browsers

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