How to tell if an image has loaded correctly

Question

Is there a way to tell, after the fact, whether an image (placed with the <img> tag, not via JS) has loaded correctly into a page? I have a gallery of head shots, and occasionally the third-party image server ends up serving up a 404. I can change the server-side code to use an onerror="showGenericHeadshot()", but I really want to avoid making changes to server-side code. Ultimately, I want to determine if an image is missing or broken and replace it with a generic "Image Not Found" graphic. Things I've tried:

1. Image.prototype.onerror = showGenericHeadshot -- doesn't work for <img> tags
2. $('img[src*=thirdpartyserver.com]).error(showGenericHeadshot) -- doesn't work in IE
3. $('img[src*=thirdpartyserver.com]).css('backgroundImage','url(replacementimage.gif)') -- works, but still doesn't get rid of the broken image icon in IE

Answer 1

<img scr='someUrl' id="testImage" />

jQuery('#testImage').bind('load',function(){
         alert ('iamge loaded');
});

to avoid race condition do as below

<img _src="http://www.caregiving.org/intcaregiving/flags/UK.gif" />
// i have added an underscore character before src



jQuery('img').each(function(){
        var _elm=jQuery(this);
        _elm.bind('load',_imageLoaded).attr('src',_elm.attr('_src'))
    });

    function _imageLoaded()
    {
        alert('img loaded');
    }

Answer 2

Unfortunately, I'm not able to accept either @TJ Crowder's nor @Praveen's excellent answers, though both do perform the desired image-replacement. @Praveen's answer would require a change to the HTML (in which case I should just hook into the <img> tag's own error="" event attribute. And judging by network activity, it look like if you try to create a new image using the url of an image that just 404ed in the same page, the request actually does get sent a second time. Part of the reason the image server is failing is, at least partly, our traffic; so I really have to do everything I can to keep requests down or the problem will only get worse..

The SO question referred to in @danp's comment to my question actually had the answer for me, though it was not the accepted answer there. I'm able to confirm that it works with IE 7 & 8, FF and webkit browsers. I'm doubtful it will work with older browsers, so I've got a try/catch in there to handle any exceptions. The worse case will be that no image-replacement happens, which is no different from what happens now without doing anything. The implementation I'm using is below:

$(function() {
    $('img[src*=images.3rdparty.com]').each(
        function() {
            try {
                if (!this.complete || (!$.browser.msie && (typeof this.naturalWidth == "undefined" || this.naturalWidth == 0))) {
                    this.src = 'http://myserver.com/images/no_photo.gif';
                }
            } catch(e) {}
        }
    );
});

Answer 3

Would an alternate text be sufficient? If so you can use the alt attribute of the img tag.

Answer 4

I think I've got it: When the DOM is loaded (or even on the window.load event — after all, you want to do this when all images are as complete as they're going to get), you can retroactively check that the images are okay by creating one new img element, hooking its load and error events, and then cycling through grabbing the src from each of your headshots. Something like the code below (live example). That code was just dashed off, it's not production quality — for instance, you'll probably want a timeout after which if you haven't received either load or error, you assume error. (You'll probably have to replace your checker image to handle that reliably.)

This technique assumes that reusing a src does not reload the image, which I think is a fairly reliable assumption (it is certainly an easily testable one) because this technique has been used for precaching images forever.

I've tested the below on Chrome, Firefox, and Opera for Linux as well as IE6 (yes, really) and IE8 for Windows. Worked a treat.

jQuery(function($) {
    var imgs, checker, index, start;

    // Obviously, adjust this selector to match just your headshots
    imgs = $('img');

    if (imgs.length > 0) {
        // Create the checker, hide it, and append it
        checker = $("<img>").hide().appendTo(document.body);

        // Hook it up
        checker.load(imageLoaded).error(imageFailed);

        // Start our loop
        index = 0;
        display("Verifying");
        start = now();
        verify();
    }

    function now() {
        return +new Date();
    }

    function verify() {
        if (!imgs || index >= imgs.length) {
            display("Done verifying, total time = " + (now() - start) + "ms");
            checker.remove();
            checker = undefined;
            return;
        }
        checker[0].src = imgs[index].src;
    }

    function imageLoaded() {
        display("Image " + index + " loaded successfully");
        ++index;
        verify();
    }

    function imageFailed() {
        display("Image " + index + " failed");
        ++index;
        verify();
    }

    function display(msg) {
        $("<p>" + now() + ": " + msg + "</p>").appendTo(document.body);
    }
});​

Live example