JS drag perimiters

[public-image]

Hi Guys! :)
Erm im using JS to make divs on my site draggable, but I dont want my divs to go beyond a certain boundry as such, I was wondering if any of you could maybe help improve the script I am using (included below) so that users must stay within a certain area of the page..

function Browser() {

  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;
  }
}

var browser = new Browser();

// Global object to hold drag information.

var dragObj = new Object();
dragObj.zIndex = 0;

function dragStart(event, id) {

  var el;
  var x, y;

  // If an element id was given, find it. Otherwise use the element being
  // clicked on.

  if (id)
    dragObj.elNode = document.getElementById(id);
  else {
    if (browser.isIE)
      dragObj.elNode = window.event.srcElement;
    if (browser.isNS)
      dragObj.elNode = event.target;

    // If this is a text node, use its parent element.

    if (dragObj.elNode.nodeType == 3)
      dragObj.elNode = dragObj.elNode.parentNode;
  }

  // Get cursor position with respect to the page.

  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;
  }

  // Save starting positions of cursor and element.

  dragObj.cursorStartX = x;
  dragObj.cursorStartY = y;
  dragObj.elStartLeft  = parseInt(dragObj.elNode.style.left, 10);
  dragObj.elStartTop   = parseInt(dragObj.elNode.style.top,  10);

  if (isNaN(dragObj.elStartLeft)) dragObj.elStartLeft = 0;
  if (isNaN(dragObj.elStartTop))  dragObj.elStartTop  = 0;

  // Update element's z-index.

  dragObj.elNode.style.zIndex = ++dragObj.zIndex;

  // Capture mousemove and mouseup events on the page.

  if (browser.isIE) {
    document.attachEvent("onmousemove", dragGo);
    document.attachEvent("onmouseup",   dragStop);
    window.event.cancelBubble = true;
    window.event.returnValue = false;
  }
  if (browser.isNS) {
    document.addEventListener("mousemove", dragGo,   true);
    document.addEventListener("mouseup",   dragStop, true);
    event.preventDefault();
  }
}

function dragGo(event) {

  var x, y;

  // Get cursor position with respect to the page.

  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;
  }

  // Move drag element by the same amount the cursor has moved.

  dragObj.elNode.style.left = (dragObj.elStartLeft + x - dragObj.cursorStartX) + "px";
  dragObj.elNode.style.top  = (dragObj.elStartTop  + y - dragObj.cursorStartY) + "px";

  if (browser.isIE) {
    window.event.cancelBubble = true;
    window.event.returnValue = false;
  }
  if (browser.isNS)
    event.preventDefault();
}

function dragStop(event) {

  // Stop capturing mousemove and mouseup events.

  if (browser.isIE) {
    document.detachEvent("onmousemove", dragGo);
    document.detachEvent("onmouseup",   dragStop);
  }
  if (browser.isNS) {
    document.removeEventListener("mousemove", dragGo,   true);
    document.removeEventListener("mouseup",   dragStop, true);
  }
}

I'd be so thankful for any help I receive on regarding this issue.

Thank you in advance!

[Airshow]

I would definately use a javascript lib which offers draggability. You will save yourself loads of time and your code will be very concise.

The advantages are speed of development and cross-browser compatibility. I just tried it with jQuery/jQueryUI - 11 lines of CSS plus seven lines of javascript including three script tags (the main lib, the plugin, and one for my own code).

The disadvantages are the overhead in deploying the lib and its plugin, and (arguably) poorer performance compared to hand cut, dediacted code. JQuery main lib is about 72Kbytes. jQueryUI plugin is customisable and runs from about 28KBytes (for just "draggable") up to about 200KBytes (for full capability).

For more details:

• http://jquery.com/
• http://jqueryui.com/home

Airshow