Using an HTML button to call a JavaScript function

Question

There are a few ways to handle events with HTML/DOM. There's no real right or wrong way but different ways are useful in different situations.

1: There's defining it in the HTML:

<input id="clickMe" type="button" value="clickme" onclick="doFunction();" />

2: There's adding it to the DOM property for the event in Javascript:

//- Using a function pointer:
document.getElementById("clickMe").onclick = doFunction;

//- Using an anonymous function:
document.getElementById("clickMe").onclick = function () { alert('hello!'); };

3: And there's attaching a function to the event handler using Javascript:

var el = document.getElementById("clickMe");
if (el.addEventListener)
    el.addEventListener("click", doFunction, false);
else if (el.attachEvent)
    el.attachEvent('onclick', doFunction);

Both the second and third methods allow for inline/anonymous functions and both must be declared after the element has been parsed from the document. The first method isn't valid XHTML because the onclick attribute isn't in the XHTML specification.

The 1st and 2nd methods are mutually exclusive, meaning using one (the 2nd) will override the other (the 1st). The 3rd method will allow you to attach as many functions as you like to the same event handler, even if the 1st or 2nd method has been used too.

Most likely, the problem lies somewhere in your CapacityChart() function. After visiting your link and running your script, the CapacityChart() function runs and the two popups are opened (one is closed as per the script). Where you have the following line:

CapacityWindow.document.write(s);

Try the following instead:

CapacityWindow.document.open("text/html");
CapacityWindow.document.write(s);
CapacityWindow.document.close();

EDIT
When I saw your code I thought you were writing it specifically for IE. As others have mentioned you will need to replace references to document.all with document.getElementById. However, you will still have the task of fixing the script after this so I would recommend getting it working in at least IE first as any mistakes you make changing the code to work cross browser could cause even more confusion. Once it's working in IE it will be easier to tell if it's working in other browsers whilst you're updating the code.

I would say it would be better to add the javascript in an un-obtrusive manner...

if using jQuery you could do something like:

<script>
  $(document).ready(function(){
    $('#MyButton').click(function(){
       CapacityChart();
    });
  });
</script>

<input type="button" value="Capacity Chart" id="MyButton" >

Your HTML and the way you call the function from the button look correct.

The problem appears to be in the CapacityCount function. I'm getting this error in my console on Firefox 3.5: "document.all is undefined" on line 759 of bendelcorp.js.

Edit:

Looks like document.all is an IE-only thing and is a nonstandard way of accessing the DOM. If you use document.getElementById(), it should probably work. Example: document.getElementById("RUnits").value instead of document.all.Capacity.RUnits.value

This looks correct. I guess you defined your function either with a different name or in a context which isn't visible to the button. Please add some code