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Adding styles using javascript based on browser/platform

I want to add multiple css styles to a dom element and it should also work in different browsers.
So, performance wise which one of the below would be the better option?
Adding all different prefixed css together leaving the browser to work on which one to select
domElement.style.cssText = "-webkit-transform: scaleY(1.25); transform: scaleY(1.25)";
Adding css based on the browser or platform programmatically
if(platform == "Chrome"){ //assume platform is found initially using js
domElement.style.cssText = "-webkit-transform: scaleY(1.25);
} else {
domElement.style.cssText = "transform: scaleY(1.25);
}

You should not try to optimize what the browser already does on its own.
Just throw in as many invalid CSS properties as you want. An invalid CSS selector or property is not evaluated by the browser.
You are doing some mistakes/errors:
1.) Do not use inline stylesheets. There are already too many question on SO on how to overwrite such inline styles. The short answer is: you can't. The longer answer is: you can, but not without opening a door to the !important hell.
2.) You are doing client-detection in a case that clearly requires feature detection. There is no possibility for your code to recognize, that a newer Chrome version already uses the un-prefixed notation of that property.
It would be much simpler and gaining more performance if you can do that without any JS at all:
.my-element:hover {
-webkit-transform: scale(0, 1.25);
-ms-transform: scale(0, 1.25); // IE9 only
transform: scale(0, 1.25);
}

See through effect with CSS (like iOS 7/Aero)

I am trying to design an application that runs on Node-Webkit. I have this crazy idea for the background, but I have no idea how I should approach implementing this with CSS.
This is the app how it looks right now:
I would like to give all dark green/blue backgrounds a see through effect (there are two, the darker for the top and the slightly lighter for the toolbar). Like this: (mock up, background is maybe a little too blurred)
I do not aim for a solution that has real see-through windows (like aero and iOS 7/OS X 10.10). A faked effect with a predefined, static background image is fine (which does not have to move when the window position change).
The implementation has to be memory and performance efficient.
I want to specify the type of background (dark or light) by setting the class of each element (like the tabs, toolbars, etc) to 'bg-dark' and 'bg-light'.
The approach I would take is this:
create two images, one for the darker background and one for the lighter background. (1920x1080px each, because my app must handle full screen nicely)
give each element a background class 'bg-dark' or 'bg-light'. This class defines a CSS background image.
with javascript, for each element in a certain class, calculate a value for background-position.
The issue that I see with this approach is that for each element, webkit/blink has to load the entire background image to memory. Is this true? Is there a better, more sane way to do this? It doesn't have to be cross-browser friendly, as I only need it for a Node-Webkit app (which uses one of the latest blink engines).
Edit:
Note that CSS opacity does not do the trick. I want the background to be kind of blurred, so simple transparency is not sufficient. Also, if the selected tab was actually translucent (opacity < 1), the dark topbar whould show through (which is not what I want).

Please monitor #issue132.
It would be a feature later.

In CSS there is a feature called transparency. Maybe this will get you through this.
.transparent {
/* Required for IE 5, 6, 7 */
/* ...or something to trigger hasLayout, like zoom: 1; */
width: 100%;
/* Theoretically for IE 8 & 9 (more valid) */
/* ...but not required as filter works too */
/* should come BEFORE filter */
-ms-filter:"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=50)";
/* This works in IE 8 & 9 too */
/* ... but also 5, 6, 7 */
filter: alpha(opacity=50);
/* Older than Firefox 0.9 */
-moz-opacity:0.5;
/* Safari 1.x (pre WebKit!) */
-khtml-opacity: 0.5;
/* Modern!
/* Firefox 0.9+, Safari 2?, Chrome any?
/* Opera 9+, IE 9+ */
opacity: 0.5;
}
With this you don't need to load another image which will consume memory and bandwith.
€dit: missed source: http://css-tricks.com/css-transparency-settings-for-all-broswers/

opacity is a way to do that.
But beware that it'll make entire container transparent.
ex:
container{
/* IE 4-8 */
filter: alpha(opacity=50);
/* Older than Firefox 0.9 */
-moz-opacity:0.5;
/* Safari 1.x (pre WebKit!) */
-khtml-opacity: 0.5;
/* All Modern Browsers */
opacity: 0.5;
}
In order to make only background transparent, I'll Suggest You to use transparent background-color.
AS:
container{
background:rgba(150,255,255,0.5); /*IE 9+*/
}
rgba stands for red,green,blue & alpha. I think that's what you're looking for.
Hope it'll help you.

Raphael opacity not displaying on IE

I'm having a problem with the opacity of a div when my site is viewed on Internet Explorer. Using Raphael 2.0 (un-minified) I create a rectangle using the following code:
var rIn = Raphael("myDiv", "100%", "100%");
rIn.rect(0, 0, "100%", "100%").attr({fill:"black", stroke:"none", opacity:0.6});
In my CSS files if I have transparent divs using the opacity tag, I also write it include filter which seems to work fine for IE.
opacity:0.6; filter: alpha(opacity = 60);
However, Raphael does not appear to allow filter as a property, so this rectangle does not show up at all. This is only a problem on IE - it works on FF/Chrome/Safarai on Win/Mac without a problem.

filter only works for IE5-7. To support IE8, you need this property as well before your filter property:
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=60)";
This QuirksMode article should help you as well.
Actually, try a class:
.opacity60 {
opacity: 0.6;
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=60)";
filter: alpha(opacity=60);
}
And set your rectangle's class to opacity60 via a setAttribute('class', 'opacity60') call.

Rotating a div element

Is it possible to rotate a div element using Javascript & NOT using HTML 5?
If so what attributes of the element do I set/change to make it rotate? Ie, div.what?
PS: When I say rotate I mean rotate an imagae around an axis, not every x milliseconds show a different image rotation.

Old question, but the answer might help someone...
You can rotate elements using proprietary CSS markup in all major browsers (the term HTML5 isn't specifically relevant here though).
Example of how to rotate a element 45 degrees using CSS:
.example {
-webkit-transform: rotate(45deg); /* Chrome & Safari */
-moz-transform: rotate(45deg); /* Firefox */
-ms-transform: rotate(45deg); /* IE 9+ */
-o-transform: rotate(45deg); /* Opera */
transform: rotate(45deg); /* CSS3 */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(M11=0.70710678, M12=0.70710678, M21=-0.70710678, M22=0.70710678, sizingMethod='auto expand'); /* IE 7-8 */
}
Yes, the MSIE syntax is that horrible. Note the "sizingMethod='auto expand'" - that's crucial to avoid the result being cropped.
I'm fairly sure Matrix transforms (at least in some capacity) are also supported In MSIE 6, but it's more pernickety about under what circumstances it supports them (and it's increasingly hard to care 8).

Yes, it is possible to rotate a div not using HTML5, but using CSS3.
You can experiment with CSS rotation on CSS3 Please (toggle the .box_rotate rule on).
For more info, Google for: css rotate
If you want a way to have rotated text that works on all browsers (including IE6) then try Raphaël.

I know I am late. For posterity's sake, I wanted to post this: This website is pretty good and it even performs the matrix transformations for its corresponding css3 counterparts

You can do it using Matrix in IE. Here is a function that solves it in a crossbrowser way.
http://kaisarcode.com/javascript-rotate

If you are looking for a way to do it instantaneously, than you can use
element.style.transform = "rotateZ(90deg");
Make sure to use quotes around the CSS statement.
If you want it over the duration of, say, a second (I know you don't want this, I am just doing it anyways), you can put
element.style.transition = "1s";
element.style.transform = "rotateZ(90deg)";

PNG transparency issue in IE8

I'm having problems with a transparent PNG image showing black dithered pixel artifacts around the edge of the non transparent part of the image. It only does this in Internet Explorer and it only does it from a Javascript file it is used in.
Here's what I'm talking about...
http://70.86.157.71/test/test3.htm (link now dead)
...notice the girl in the bottom right corner. She has artifacts around her in IE8 (I haven't tested it in previous versions of IE, but I'm assuming it probably does the same). It works perfectly in Firefox and Chrome. The image is loaded from a Javascript file to produce the mouseover effect.
If you load the image all by itself, it works fine.
Here's the image...
http://70.86.157.71/test/consultant2.png
How to fix this?
The image was produced in Photoshop CS3.
I've read things about removing the Gama, but that apparently was in previous versions of Photoshop and when I load it in TweakPNG, it doesn't have Gama.

FIXED!
I've been wrestling with the same issue, and just had a breakthrough! We've established that if you give the image a background color or image, the png displays properly on top of it. The black border is gone, but now you've got an opaque background, and that pretty much defeats the purpose.
Then I remembered a rgba to ie filter converter I came across. (Thanks be to Michael Bester). So I wondered what would happen if I gave my problem pngs an ie filtered background emulating rgba(255,255,255,0), fully expecting it not to work, but lets try it anyway...
.item img {
background: transparent;
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr=#00FFFFFF,endColorstr=#00FFFFFF)"; /* IE8 */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr=#00FFFFFF,endColorstr=#00FFFFFF); /* IE6 & 7 */
zoom: 1;
}
Presto! Goodbye black, and hello working alpha channels in ie7 and 8. Fade your pngs in and out, or animate them across the screen - it's all good.

I put this into a jQuery plugin to make it more modular (you supply the transparent gif):
$.fn.pngFix = function() {
if (!$.browser.msie || $.browser.version >= 9) { return $(this); }
return $(this).each(function() {
var img = $(this),
src = img.attr('src');
img.attr('src', '/images/general/transparent.gif')
.css('filter', "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled='true',sizingMethod='crop',src='" + src + "')");
});
};
Usage:
$('.my-selector').pngFix();
Note: It works also if your images are background images. Just apply the function on the div.

I know this thread has been dead some time, but here is another answer to the old ie8 png background issue.
You can do it in CSS by using IE's proprietary filtering system like this as well:
filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled='true',sizingMethod='scale',src='pathToYourPNG');
DEMO
you will need to use a blank.gif for the 'first' image in your background declaration. This is simply to confuse ie8 and prevent it from using both the filter and the background you have set, and only use the filter. Other browsers support multiple background images and will understand the background declaration and not understand the filter, hence using the background only.
You may also need to play with the sizingMethod in the filter to get it to work the way you want.

I had the same thing happen to a PNG with transparency that was set as the background-image of an <A> element with opacity applied.
The fix was to set the background-color of the <A> element.
So, the following:
filter: alpha(opacity=40);
-moz-opacity: 0.4;
-khtml-opacity: 0.4;
opacity: 0.4;
background-image: ...;
Turns into:
/* "Overwritten" by the background-image. However this fixes the IE7 and IE8 PNG-transparency-plus-opacity bug. */
background-color: #FFFFFF;
filter: alpha(opacity=40);
-moz-opacity: 0.4;
-khtml-opacity: 0.4;
opacity: 0.4;
background-image: ...;

PNG transparency prоblеm in IE8
Dan's solution worked for me. I was trying to fade a div with a background image. Caveats: you cannot fade the div directly, instead fade a wrapper image. Also, add the following filters to apply a background image:
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr=#00FFFFFF,endColorstr=#00FFFFFF)progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled='true',sizingMethod='image',src='assets/img/bgSmall.png')"; /* IE8 */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr=#00FFFFFF,endColorstr=#00FFFFFF)progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled='true',sizingMethod='image',src='assets/img/bgSmall.png'); /* IE6 & 7 */
Please note that the paths in the src attributes of the filters are absolute, and not relative to the css sheet.
I also added:
background: transparent\9;
This causes IE to ignore my earlier declaration of the actual background image for the other browsers.
Thanks Dan!!!

please try below code.
background: transparent\0/;
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr=#00FFFFFF,endColorstr=#00FFFFFF)progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled='true',sizingMethod='image',src='assets/img/bgSmall.png'); /* IE7 */
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr=#00FFFFFF,endColorstr=#00FFFFFF)progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(enabled='true',sizingMethod='image',src='assets/img/bgSmall.png')"; /* IE8 */

Dan Tello fix worked well for me.
One additional issue I found with IE8 was that if the PNG was held in a DIV with smaller CSS width or height dimensions than the PNG then the black edge prob was re-triggered.
Correcting the width and height CSS or removing them altogether fixed.

I use a CSS fix rather than JS to workaround my round cornered layer with transparent PNG inside
Try
.ie .whateverDivWrappingTheImage img {
background: #ffaabb; /* this should be the background color matching your design actually */
filter: chroma(#ffaabb); /* and this should match whatever value you put in background-color */
}
This may require more work on ie9 or later.

Just want to add (since I googled for this problem, and this question popped first) IE6 and other versions render PNG transparency very ugly. If you have PNG image that is alpha transparent (32bit) and want to show it over some complex background, you can never do this simply in IE. But you can display it correctly over a single colour background as long as you set that PNG images (or divs) CSS attribute background-color to be the same as the parents background-color.
So this will render black where image should be alpha transparent, and transparent where alpha byte is 0:
<div style="background-color: white;">
<div style="background-image: url(image.png);"/>
</div>
And this will render correctly (note the background-color attribute in the inner div):
<div style="background-color: white;">
<div style="background-color: white; background-image: url(image.png);"/>
</div>
Complex alternative to this which enables alpha image over a complex background is to use AlphaImageLoader to load up and render image of the certain opacity. This works until you want to change that opacity... Problem in detail and its solution (javascript) can be found HERE.

My scenario:
I had a background image that had a
24bit alpha png that was set to an
anchor link.
The anchor was being
faded in on hover using Jquery.
eg.
a.button { background-image: url(this.png; }
I found that applying the mark-up provided by Dan Tello didn't work.
However, by placing a span within the anchor element, and setting the background-image to that element I was able to achieve a good result using Dan Tello's markup.
eg.
a.button span { background-image: url(this.png; }