Show loading gif while image is loading

Question

I made some code where the user can upload some images from a zip. On the next page I need to show all the images seperatly in a 85*85 px frame.

The problem is that it may take some time for all the images to load. So I want to show a loading gif while the user waits for the image to load.

I've set the src of the images to be the loading gifs, while I created some checkboxes with the real source as id

echo "<td><img src=\"beelden/ajax-loader-black-16.png\" id=\"img".$image."\" style=\" width: 85px; height: 85px; border: 1px solid gray; background-color: #fff; padding: 10px;\">";
echo "<input type=\"checkbox\" id=\"img[".$image."]\" name=\"check_image[]\" value=\"".$filename."\" /></td>";
<input type="hidden" name="aantal" id="aantal" value="<?=$image?>" >

Then I created some javascript to check if the image is loaded, and when it is, it is supposed to replace the source of the image.

<script>
    var aantal = document.getElementById("aantal").value;
    for(var i = 0; i < aantal; i++){
        var source = document.getElementById("img["+i+"]").value;
        var img = new Image();
        img.onload = function(){
            $("#img"+i).attr('src', source);
        }();
        img.src = source;
    }
</script>

But this does not work the way I expected, I think it fires for all of the images as soon as the first one is loaded. Any ideas what I am doing wrong or how to fix this?

Answer 1

You can set the background of an image to the loading gif. It is a simple css trick. You wouldn't need then to make a js script.

.loading {
  background: transparent url('http://thinkfuture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/loading_spinner.gif') center no-repeat;
}

<img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=1" width="106px" height="106px" />
<img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=2" width="106px" height="106px" />
<img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=3" width="106px" height="106px" />
<img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=4" width="106px" height="106px" />
<img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=5" width="106px" height="106px" />
<img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=6" width="106px" height="106px" />
<img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=7" width="106px" height="106px" />

Update :

In case you have transparent images then the story becames a bit more complicated but, still can be done with css and some div elements.

.image-wrapper {
  overflow: hidden;
  width: 106px;
  height: 106px;
  display: inline-block;
}

.image-wrapper img {
  float: left;
  display: block;
  opacity: 0.2; /* simulating a semitransparent image */
}

.image-wrapper:after, .loading {
  content: ' ';
  background: transparent url('http://thinkfuture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/loading_spinner.gif')  center no-repeat ;
  background-size : auto 100%;
  width: 106px;
  height: 106px;
  float: left;
  display: block;
}

<div class="image-wrapper">
  <!-- simulates a hard loading image -->
  <img src="http://placehold.it/not-existing" alt="" />
</div>
<div class="image-wrapper">
  <img src="http://placehold.it/106x106&text=2" alt="" />
</div>
<div class="image-wrapper">
  <img src="http://placehold.it/106x106&text=3" alt="" />
</div>
<div class="image-wrapper">
  <img src="http://placehold.it/106x106&text=4" alt="" />
</div>
<div class="image-wrapper">
  <img src="http://placehold.it/106x106&text=5"  alt="" />
</div>
<div class="image-wrapper">
  <img src="http://placehold.it/106x106&text=6"  alt="" />
</div>
<div class="image-wrapper">
  <img src="http://placehold.it/106x106&text=7"  alt="" />
</div>

Unfortunately the browser adds a broken icon or a ? while loading, this is why the image contains an empty alt;

Update 2 :

The second variant relies very much on the image size, if you have difrent sizes than the loading gif won't be pushed away properly, as an alternative would be to use the first variant and a little js script that will remove the background as soon as the image is loaded:

$('img').load(function(){
   $(this).css('background','none');
});

   .loading {
      background: transparent url('http://thinkfuture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/loading_spinner.gif') center no-repeat;
    }

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<img class="loading" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/SRU-Logo-Transparent.png" width="106px" height="106px" />
    <img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=2" width="106px" height="106px" />
    <img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=3" width="106px" height="106px" />
    <img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=4" width="106px" height="106px" />
    <img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=5" width="106px" height="106px" />
    <img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=6" width="106px" height="106px" />
    <img class="loading" src="http://placehold.it/106&text=7" width="106px" height="106px" />