I notice that in a lot of template engines, in the HTML5 Boilerplate, in various frameworks and in plain php sites there is the no-js
class added onto the
The no-js
class is used by the Modernizr feature detection library. When Modernizr loads, it replaces no-js
with js
. If JavaScript is disabled, the class remains. This allows you to write CSS which easily targets either condition.
From Modernizrs' Anotated Source (no longer maintained):
Remove "no-js" class from element, if it exists:
docElement.className=docElement.className.replace(/\bno-js\b/,'') + ' js';
Here is a blog post by Paul Irish describing this approach: http://www.paulirish.com/2009/avoiding-the-fouc-v3/
I like to do this same thing, but without Modernizr.
I put the following <script>
in the <head>
to change the class to js
if JavaScript is enabled. I prefer to use .replace("no-js","js")
over the regex version because its a bit less cryptic and suits my needs.
<script>
document.documentElement.className =
document.documentElement.className.replace("no-js","js");
</script>
Prior to this technique, I would generally just apply js-dependant styles directly with JavaScript. For example:
$('#someSelector').hide();
$('.otherStuff').css({'color' : 'blue'});
With the no-js
trick, this can Now be done with css
:
.js #someSelector {display: none;}
.otherStuff { color: blue; }
.no-js .otherStuff { color: green }
This is preferable because: