Always on Top Message Not Woking in IE

[drmeisner]

1) Script Title: Always on Top Message

2) Script URL (on DD): http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex10/topmsg.htm

3) Describe problem: I have used this script successfully on a site I am running. I am designing a new site, and at this point, I am running a testing server on my local machine, so there is no live link for you to look at. Basically, I am using a bit of PHP code to parse the URL of of the page, and if the condition is met, that is, the directory "census" is found in the URL, then the script is dynamically added and run at the very end of the page, just before the body tag, as it should be. All is fine in Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome. In IE7 which is the only IE on my machine, I get the following error message:
Line: 74
Char:1
Error: topmsg_obj.style is not an object.
Code: 0

Here is the snippet of code that checks for the condition:

<?php
$pageURL = 'http';
 if ($_SERVER["HTTPS"] == "on") {$pageURL .= "s";}
 $pageURL .= "://";
 if ($_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"] != "80") {
  $pageURL .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].":".$_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
 } else {
  $pageURL .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
 }
$parsedURL = parse_url ($pageURL);

$splitPath = explode ('/', $parsedURL['path']);

if (in_array("census",$splitPath))
  {
  echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"/scripts/topmsg.js\"></script>\n";

  }
else
  {
  return;
  }


?>
</body>
</html>

Here is the code for the topmsg.js script that I have modified for my use:

//Always-on-top message Script- © Dynamic Drive (www.dynamicdrive.com)
//For full source code, and Terms Of use, visit dynamicdrive.com
//This credit MUST stay intact for use
//enter the message you wish to be shown, including html tags
var message='<nobr><div style="z-index:10000; position:relative;" class="whiteback greencorners"><a href="javascript:printTranscription();" onclick="window.open(countries.tabs[countries.currentTabIndex].rel + \'.html?tngprint=1\', \'_blank\', \'width=800, height=600\'); return false;" title="Click Here To Print This Census Transcription"><img src="/images/printericon.jpg" width="30" alt="Click Here To Print This Census Transcription"/><span style="font-size:24px;">Click Here To Print This Census Transcription</span><img src="/images/printericon.jpg" width="30" alt="Click Here To Print This Census Transcription"/></a></div></nobr>';

//enter a color name or hex to be used as the background color of the message
var backgroundcolor="#FFFF8A"

//enter 1 for always display, 2 for ONCE per browser session
var displaymode=1

//Set duration message should appear on screen, in seconds (10000=10 sec, 0=perpetual)
var displayduration=0

//enter 0 for non-flashing message, 1 for flashing
var flashmode=1
//if above is set to flashing, enter the flash-to color below
var flashtocolor="lightyellow"


///////////////do not edit below this line////////////////////////////////////////
var ie=document.all
var ieNOTopera=document.all&&navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Opera")==-1

function regenerate(){
window.location.reload()
}

function regenerate2(){
if (document.layers)
setTimeout("window.onresize=regenerate",400)
}

var which=0

function flash(){
if (which==0){
if (document.layers)
topmsg_obj.bgColor=flashtocolor
else
topmsg_obj.style.backgroundColor=flashtocolor
which=1
}
else{
if (document.layers)
topmsg_obj.bgColor=backgroundcolor
else
topmsg_obj.style.backgroundColor=backgroundcolor
which=0
}
}

if (ie||document.getElementById)
document.write('<div id="topmsg" style="position:absolute;visibility:hidden">'+message+'</div>')

var topmsg_obj=ie? document.all.topmsg : document.getElementById? document.getElementById("topmsg") : document.topmsg

function positionit(){
var dsocleft=ie? document.body.scrollLeft : pageXOffset
var dsoctop=ie? document.body.scrollTop : pageYOffset
var window_width=ieNOTopera? document.body.clientWidth : window.innerWidth-20
var window_height=ieNOTopera? document.body.clientHeight : window.innerHeight

if (ie||document.getElementById){
topmsg_obj.style.left=parseInt(dsocleft)+window_width/2-topmsg_obj.offsetWidth/2
topmsg_obj.style.top=parseInt(dsoctop)+parseInt(window_height)-topmsg_obj.offsetHeight-4
}
else if (document.layers){
topmsg_obj.left=dsocleft+window_width/2-topmsg_obj.document.width/2
topmsg_obj.top=dsoctop+window_height-topmsg_obj.document.height-5
}
}

function setmessage(){
if (displaymode==2&&(!display_msg_or_not()))
return
if (document.layers){
topmsg_obj=new Layer(window.innerWidth)
topmsg_obj.bgColor=backgroundcolor
regenerate2()
topmsg_obj.document.write(message)
topmsg_obj.document.close()
positionit()
topmsg_obj.visibility="show"
if (displayduration!=0)
setTimeout("topmsg_obj.visibility='hide'",displayduration)
}
else{
positionit()
topmsg_obj.style.backgroundColor=backgroundcolor
topmsg_obj.style.visibility="visible"
if (displayduration!=0)
setTimeout("topmsg_obj.style.visibility='hidden'",displayduration)
}
setInterval("positionit()",100)
if (flashmode==1)
setInterval("flash()",1000)
}

function get_cookie(Name) {
var search = Name + "="
var returnvalue = ""
if (document.cookie.length > 0) {
offset = document.cookie.indexOf(search)
if (offset != -1) {
offset += search.length
end = document.cookie.indexOf(";", offset)
if (end == -1)
end = document.cookie.length;
returnvalue=unescape(document.cookie.substring(offset, end))
}
}
return returnvalue;
}

function display_msg_or_not(){
if (get_cookie("displaymsg")==""){
document.cookie="displaymsg=yes"
return true
}
else
return false
}

if (document.layers||ie||document.getElementById)
window.onload=setmessage

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Dwayne

[drmeisner]

Thanks anyway, I solved the problem. I had the 1st snippet of code in two different files, and it was echoing the script to both the top of the page (at the very start of the page, before the Doc type declaration, and also at the bottom of the page where it should be. It was just a silly oversight on my part. The funny thing is Firefox, Opera, Google and Safari didn't care about my mistake, just IE...