Preserved Topic: how to report color of table cell?

i have a table with cell backgrounds set to various colors through frontpage
and want to report the HEX color value for the clicked cell via 'alert'
without hard-coding the result for each cell as in: <td onClick="alert('Color is #FF66CC')">
and if possible, without naming each cell as in: <td name="cell_1">

i'm thinking that <table onClick="showColor();" could launch a javascript function to:
a) obtain "theElement" - an object reference for the clicked cell
b) interrogate theElement for background color hex value
c) report that value with javascript alert(theElement.bgcolor);

any thoughts on how to write such a function?
i would appreciate any help on this.

thanks!
alphakid42
also, anyone know what 'Disable Slimies in This Post' means? (he asked with fear).

alphakid42

The easiest way to obtain theElement is through the "this" keyword in the onclick function. You can pass it into the showColor function, like so:

<td onclick="showColor(this);">

Then, the showColor function can use that argument:

function showColor(theElement)
{
alert('Color is ' + theElement.style.backgroundColor);
}

hi, mad scientist.
thanks for your splendid reply re: js 'this' -- about like 'self' for the current window.

best holiday gift i got!

scott
new asylum inmate.
alameda, california (it's raining cats and dogs here).

alphakid42

You're welcome =)

The "this" keyword can be used in *any* event of an element. (onclick, onmouseover, onkeydown, you name it.) Actually, it can be used for any *method* of an *object*... but I don't know if you know what those are yet. (events are a type of method, and html elements are one of many types of objects.)