Brad has a great idea there. To really protect your page, you need to take one more step. (I assume you have other content on the page, right?)
If ibegin.com is down in a way that results in a slow timeout instead of an immediate "unavailable" response, it will delay loading the rest of your page until the browser times out. To fix this, move the weather gadget out of your page and into an IFRAME. That way, no matter what goes wrong at ibegin.com, it will never affect the rest of your page. Inside the IFRAME, you can use code similar to Brad's. Here's a working test page: <http://mg.to/test/ibegin/ibegin.html> http://mg.to/test/ibegin/ibegin.html The iframe for this page is in: <http://mg.to/test/ibegin/weatherframe.html> http://mg.to/test/ibegin/weatherframe.html And here's a "broken" test page. It's the same code with a deliberate error in the ibegin URL: <http://mg.to/test/ibegin/wunder.html> http://mg.to/test/ibegin/wunder.html That deliberate error is actually in the iframe code, so it uses a different copy of the iframe just for testing: <http://mg.to/test/ibegin/weatherframe1.html> http://mg.to/test/ibegin/weatherframe1.html You'll notice it loads a Weather Underground gadget instead of just a static image. That seems more useful than a static image, and the chances of both weather services being down seems pretty low. (And in that case the rest of your page would still load fine because of the iframe.) For reference, here's the <iframe> tag in ibegin.html: <iframe frameborder="0" style="width:220px; height:320px; overflow:hidden;" src="weatherframe.html"> </iframe> And here's the complete HTML for the iframe (weatherframe.html): <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <html lang="en"> <head> <title></title> </head> <body scroll="no" style="margin:0; padding:0;"> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://weather.ibegin.com/js/us/ak/ninilchik/0/0/1/1/0/custom.js <http://weather.ibegin.com/js/us/ak/ninilchik/0/0/1/1/0/custom.js&background _color=transparent&color=093384&width=200&padding=0&border_width=0&border_co lor=transparent&font_size=18&font_family=inherit&showicons=1> &background_color=transparent&color=093384&width=200&padding=0&border_width= 0&border_color=transparent&font_size=18&font_family=inherit&showicons=1"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> if( ! document.getElementsByTagName('div').length ) document.write( '<div style="text-align:center;">', '<a href="http://www.wunderground.com/US/AK/Ninilchik.html?bannertypeclick=infob ox" <http://www.wunderground.com/US/AK/Ninilchik.html?bannertypeclick=infobox> >', '<img src="http://banners.wunderground.com/weathersticker/infobox/language/www/US/ AK/Ninilchik.gif" border=0 alt="Click for Ninilchik, Alaska Forecast" height=108 width=144>', '</a>', '</div>' ); </script> </body> </html> As you can see, the code doesn't use jQuery, and it doesn't use a 2 second timeout either. There's no need for any of that, and you wouldn't want the overhead of loading jQuery in this little iframe anyway. Script tags are executed in the order in which they appear in the source. When the second script tag is run, the first one (loaded from ibegin.com) has already completed execution and created its DIV elements - or failed to execute, whichever the case may be. So the second script tag can immediately test for the <div> that the first one creates, and if it's not there it does a document.write to add the Weather Undergound gadget instead. -Mike > From: bcbounders > > Brad, > > Interesting approach... I like it! Now I'll see if I can get > this to work on the site... like replacing the missing widget > with a static image or something... so the page doesn't have > a gaping hole where the weather's supposed to be (which is > what was happening when iBegin was down and the widget > wouldn't load, on-and-off all day a few days ago). > > Thanks a lot!!! > > - John > > On Sep 7, 6:22 pm, Brad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Here is a different approach. Include the javascript source for the > > weather.ibegin.com in the body of your page. On load run a delayed > > function to see if it has written its forecast to your page. I ran > > this on a test page and it worked. I could never get the > ibegin source > > to fail, therefore I had to change the script source to > something else > > likehttp://foo.weather.ibegin.com/... to simulate failure. > BTW, I was > > playing with the widget, so my example gets a different > forecast than > > yours. > > > > <script> > > > > var ibeginHTML; > > function ibeginLoaded() { > > ibeginHTML = $("#ibegin div").html(); > > if (ibeginHTML == null) { > > alert('Widget not loaded'); > > // You'd do something useful here > like insert > > your missing widget image > > } > > } > > > > function ibeginTest() { > > // Give the widget a few seconds to load > > setTimeout('ibeginLoaded();',2000); > > } > > > > $().ready(function(){ > > ibeginTest(); > > }); > > > > </script> > > </head> > > <body> > > ... other content ... > > <div id="ibegin"> > > <script type="text/javascript" > src=" <http://foo.weather.ibegin.com/js/> http://foo.weather.ibegin.com/js/ > > us/nm/santa+fe/1/1/1/1/1/ > > > custom.js&background_color=ffffff&color=000000&width=175&padding=10&bo > > rder_ > > > width=1&border_color=000000&font_size=11&font_family=Tahoma&showicons= > > 1"></ > > script><noscript><a href=" <http://weather.ibegin.com/> http://weather.ibegin.com/";>Weather > > Information by iBegin</a></noscript> > > </div> > > ... more content ... > > </body> > > </html> > > > > On Sep 7, 3:55 pm, bcbounders <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > OK... so here's what I've got so far. I'm trying to work out the > > > jQuery so that if the iBegin weather widget is > successfully loaded, > > > then the <div id="weather"> is shown... otherwise, it's hidden. > > > > > <script type="text/javascript"> > > > jQuery.ready(function(){ > > > jQuery("#weather").replaceWith({ > > > jQuery.ajax({ > > > type: "GET", > > > dataType: "script", > > > url: > > > " <http://weather.ibegin.com/js/us/ak/ninilchik/0/0/1/1/0/> http://weather.ibegin.com/js/us/ak/ninilchik/0/0/1/1/0/ > > > > custom.js&background_color=transparent&color=093384&width=200&paddin > > > g=0&bor > > > > der_width=0&border_color=transparent&font_size=18&font_family=inheri > > > t&showi cons=1", > > > success: function(){ > > > > > > jQuery("#weather").show() > > > }, > > > error: function(){ > > > > > > jQuery("#weather").hide() > > > } > > > }); > > > }); > > > }); > > > </script> > > > > > But... what I've got isn't working. And, being new to > jQuery (and > > > Javascript), I'm not sure why it's not working... or even > if this is > > > the best route to try and achieve what I want. > > > > > Can someone take a look and provide some feedback? I'd really > > > appreciate it! > > > > > Thanks a lot! > > > > > - John > > > > > On Sep 6, 10:49 am, bcbounders <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > Rene, > > > > > > Thanks so much for posting. > > > > > > I got the site up, using the iBegin weather widget on > it's own. > > > > If it helps, here's a link: <http://tinyurl.com/5n8mco> http://tinyurl.com/5n8mco > > > > > > I'll take a stab at doing what you suggest... wish me > luck! :D But... > > > > expect to hear more questions from me soon. > > > > > > - John >
