[javascript] changing visibility using javascript

hi i have web page which uses ajax to retrieving data from another pages and while doing that i want to show a loading gif in the page so i've create a div with my gif on it.

 <div id="loading"><img src="images/loadinfo.net.gif" width="48" height="48" /></div>

here is my css code :

#content #loading {
    visibility:hidden;
    position: fixed;
    width: 48px;
    top: 0px;
}

now i figured all i need to do is to set the visibility of loading div to 'visible' at the beginning of my loading content ajax function and then at the end make it hidden again but its not working weird thing is if i create loading div visible and then turn it hidden at the beginning of ajax function it works fine !!!

here is my function :

function ajaxpage(url, containerid) {
    document.getElementById('loading').style.visibility = 'visible';

    var bustcachevar = 1 //bust potential caching of external pages after initial request? (1=yes, 0=no)
    var loadedobjects = ""
    var rootdomain = "http://" + window.location.hostname
    var bustcacheparameter = ""

    var page_request = false
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest) // if Mozilla, Safari etc
    page_request = new XMLHttpRequest()
    else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // if IE
        try {
            page_request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP")
        } catch (e) {
            try {
                page_request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
            } catch (e) {}
        }
    } else
    return false
    page_request.onreadystatechange = function () {
        loadpage(page_request, containerid)
    }
    if (bustcachevar) //if bust caching of external page
    bustcacheparameter = (url.indexOf("?") != -1) ? "&" + new Date().getTime() : "?" + new Date().getTime()
    page_request.open('GET', url + bustcacheparameter, true)
    page_request.send(null)
}

function loadpage(page_request, containerid) {
    if (page_request.readyState == 4 && (page_request.status == 200 || window.location.href.indexOf("http") == -1)) document.getElementById(containerid).innerHTML = page_request.responseText

}

function loadobjs() {
    if (!document.getElementById) return
    for (i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
        var file = arguments[i]
        var fileref = ""
        if (loadedobjects.indexOf(file) == -1) { //Check to see if this object has not already been added to page before proceeding
            if (file.indexOf(".js") != -1) { //If object is a js file
                fileref = document.createElement('script')
                fileref.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript");
                fileref.setAttribute("src", file);
            } else if (file.indexOf(".css") != -1) { //If object is a css file
                fileref = document.createElement("link")
                fileref.setAttribute("rel", "stylesheet");
                fileref.setAttribute("type", "text/css");
                fileref.setAttribute("href", file);
            }
        }
        if (fileref != "") {
            document.getElementsByTagName("head").item(0).appendChild(fileref)
            loadedobjects += file + " " //Remember this object as being already added to page
        }
    }
    document.getElementById('loading').style.visibility = 'hidden';
}

Use display instead of visibility. display: none for invisible and no setting for visible.

If you just want to display it when you get a response add this to your loadpage()

function loadpage(page_request, containerid){
   if (page_request.readyState == 4 && page_request.status==200) { 
      var container = document.getElementById(containerid);
      container.innerHTML=page_request.responseText;
      container.style.visibility = 'visible';
      // or 
      container.style.display = 'block';
}

but this depend entirely on how you hid the div in the first place