What is the Nice Titles Script do?

[dpk87]

I have seen his script several times, and I was just wondering what exactly it does. Its called "Nice Titles" and it is seen on many of the sites where the programmers really know what they are doing. heh. I believe it has something to do with xml, but maybe not. I also think it might be something to make up for IE's crappy browsers, but again, this is only a guess.

Please help.

addEvent(window, "load", makeNiceTitles);

var XHTMLNS = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml";
var CURRENT_NICE_TITLE;
var browser = new Browser();

function makeNiceTitles() {
if (!document.createElement || !document.getElementsByTagName) return;
// add namespace methods to HTML DOM; this makes the script work in both
// HTML and XML contexts.
if(!document.createElementNS)
{
document.createElementNS = function(ns,elt) {
return document.createElement(elt);
}
}

if( !document.links )
{
document.links = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
}
for (var ti=0;ti<document.links.length;ti++) {
var lnk = document.links[ti];
if (lnk.title) {
lnk.setAttribute("nicetitle",lnk.title);
lnk.removeAttribute("title");
addEvent(lnk,"mouseover",showNiceTitle);
addEvent(lnk,"mouseout",hideNiceTitle);
addEvent(lnk,"focus",showNiceTitle);
addEvent(lnk,"blur",hideNiceTitle);
}
}
var instags = document.getElementsByTagName("ins");
if (instags) {
for (var ti=0;ti<instags.length;ti++) {
var instag = instags[ti];
if (instag.dateTime) {
var strDate = instag.dateTime;
var dtIns = new Date(strDate.substring(0,4),parseInt(strDate.substring(4,6)-1),strDate.substring(6,8),strDate.substring(9,11),strDate.substring(11,13),strDate.substring(13,15));
instag.setAttribute("nicetitle","Added on "+dtIns.toString());
addEvent(instag,"mouseover",showNiceTitle);
addEvent(instag,"mouseout",hideNiceTitle);
addEvent(instag,"focus",showNiceTitle);
addEvent(instag,"blur",hideNiceTitle);
}
}
}
}

function findPosition( oLink ) {
if( oLink.offsetParent ) {
for( var posX = 0, posY = 0; oLink.offsetParent; oLink = oLink.offsetParent ) {
posX += oLink.offsetLeft;
posY += oLink.offsetTop;
}
return [ posX, posY ];
} else {
return [ oLink.x, oLink.y ];
}
}

function showNiceTitle(e) {
if (CURRENT_NICE_TITLE) hideNiceTitle(CURRENT_NICE_TITLE);
if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
if (window.event && window.event.srcElement) {
lnk = window.event.srcElement
} else if (e && e.target) {
lnk = e.target
}
if (!lnk) return;
if (lnk.nodeType == 3) {
// lnk is a textnode -- ascend parents until we hit a link
lnk = getParent(lnk,"A");
}
if (!lnk) return;
nicetitle = lnk.getAttribute("nicetitle");

var d = document.createElementNS(XHTMLNS,"div");
d.className = "nicetitle";
tnt = document.createTextNode(nicetitle);
pat = document.createElementNS(XHTMLNS,"p");
pat.className = "titletext";
pat.appendChild(tnt);
d.appendChild(pat);
if (lnk.href) {
tnd = document.createTextNode(lnk.href);
pad = document.createElementNS(XHTMLNS,"p");
pad.className = "destination";
pad.appendChild(tnd);
d.appendChild(pad);
}

STD_WIDTH = 300;
if (lnk.href) {
h = lnk.href.length;
} else { h = nicetitle.length; }
if (nicetitle.length) {
t = nicetitle.length;
}
h_pixels = h*6; t_pixels = t*10;

if (h_pixels > STD_WIDTH) {
w = h_pixels;
} else if ((STD_WIDTH>t_pixels) && (t_pixels>h_pixels)) {
w = t_pixels;
} else if ((STD_WIDTH>t_pixels) && (h_pixels>t_pixels)) {
w = h_pixels;
} else {
w = STD_WIDTH;
}

d.style.width = w + 'px';

/*
mx = lnk.offsetLeft;
my = lnk.offsetTop;
*/
mpos = findPosition(lnk);
mx = mpos[0];
my = mpos[1];
//xy = getMousePosition(e);
//mx = xy[0]; my = xy[1];

d.style.left = (mx+15) + 'px';
d.style.top = (my+35) + 'px';
if (window.innerWidth && ((mx+w) > window.innerWidth)) {
d.style.left = (window.innerWidth - w - 25) + "px";
}
if (document.body.scrollWidth && ((mx+w) > document.body.scrollWidth)) {
d.style.left = (document.body.scrollWidth - w - 25) + "px";
}

document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].appendChild(d);

CURRENT_NICE_TITLE = d;
}

function hideNiceTitle(e) {
if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
if (CURRENT_NICE_TITLE) {
document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].removeChild(CURRENT_NICE_TITLE);
CURRENT_NICE_TITLE = null;
}
}

// Add an eventListener to browsers that can do it somehow.
// Originally by the amazing Scott Andrew.
function addEvent(obj, evType, fn){
if (obj.addEventListener){
obj.addEventListener(evType, fn, true);
return true;
} else if (obj.attachEvent){
var r = obj.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
return r;
} else {
return false;
}
}

function getParent(el, pTagName) {
if (el == null) return null;
else if (el.nodeType == 1 && el.tagName.toLowerCase() == pTagName.toLowerCase()) // Gecko bug, supposed to be uppercase
return el;
else
return getParent(el.parentNode, pTagName);
}

function getMousePosition(event) {
if (browser.isIE) {
x = window.event.clientX + document.documentElement.scrollLeft
+ document.body.scrollLeft;
y = window.event.clientY + document.documentElement.scrollTop
+ document.body.scrollTop;
}
if (browser.isNS) {
x = event.clientX + window.scrollX;
y = event.clientY + window.scrollY;
}
return [x,y];
}

// Determine browser and version.

function Browser() {
// blah, browser detect, but mouse-position stuff doesn't work any other way
var ua, s, i;

this.isIE = false;
this.isNS = false;
this.version = null;

ua = navigator.userAgent;

s = "MSIE";
if ((i = ua.indexOf(s)) >= 0) {
this.isIE = true;
this.version = parseFloat(ua.substr(i + s.length));
return;
}

s = "Netscape6/";
if ((i = ua.indexOf(s)) >= 0) {
this.isNS = true;
this.version = parseFloat(ua.substr(i + s.length));
return;
}

// Treat any other "Gecko" browser as NS 6.1.

s = "Gecko";
if ((i = ua.indexOf(s)) >= 0) {
this.isNS = true;
this.version = 6.1;
return;
}
}