Keeping javascript from endlessly appending dom - javascript

I have a javascript that adjusts the dom depending on the JSON response it receives for each field. an example is:
if (data.errors.firstName) {
document.getElementById("firstName-group").classList.add("has-error");
let helpBlock = document.createElement('div');
helpBlock.classList.add('help-block');
helpBlock.innerHTML = data.errors.firstName;
document.getElementById("firstName-group").append(helpBlock);
}
The problem here is that this will result in the dom being repeatedly appending like so:
image
so how do I avoid this issue when appending the dom? should this clear out any appended messages already? or how to accomplish this?

You can can check if the #firstName-group element has already the .help-block div under it, and only append if it doesn't.
Here is an example:
if (data.errors.firstName && !document.querySelector('#firstName-group .help-block')) {
document.getElementById("firstName-group").classList.add("has-error");
let helpBlock = document.createElement('div');
helpBlock.classList.add('help-block');
helpBlock.innerHTML = data.errors.firstName;
document.getElementById("firstName-group").append(helpBlock);
}

Related

Programatically import and attach polymer element with iron-ajax

I load a polymer element through iron-ajax as a document.
I get the following response:
Then I want to "import/register" it, create a "pacs-pull" element and attach it to my current element:
// should import/register the pacs-pull element from the response?
// should I use the whole response?
// should I retrieve it as text?
var elt = this.response.querySelector('#pacs-pull');
// how do I import it?
document.importNode(elt, true);
// create it
var importedElt = document.createElement("pacs-pull");
// attach it
this.$.container.appendChild(importedElt);
The pacs-pull element appended is empty.
Should I get an HTML element from iron-ajax?
How do I import/register the retrieved element?
How do I create it?
How do I attach it?
I went through the polymer doc and through stack overflow but couldn't find an answer to my first 2 questions.
Using importRef is not an option as I do not have direct access to the element (call goes through and API).
Note - it seems iron-ajax text is better because it exactly returns the proper element:
But still I do not see how to use it then:
var plugin = document.createElement("plugin");
plugin.innerHTML = this.response;
document.importNode(plugin, true);
//document.registerElement('pacs-pull', this.plugin);
var elt = document.createElement("pacs-pull");
this.$.pluginContainer.appendChild(elt);
Thanks!

Efficient OOP way to generate DOM elements dynamically with JavaScript?

I'm tinkering with writing a more efficient methodology in the creation of dynamically generated DOM elements via JavaScript. This is something I intend to add into my own JS framework later on. Looking for other OOP devs that could help better refine what I do have.
Here's a link to the working CodePen:
http://codepen.io/DaneTheory/pen/yeLvmm/
Here's the JS:
function CreateDOMEl() {};
CreateDOMEl.prototype.uiFrag = document.createDocumentFragment();
CreateDOMEl.prototype.elParent = function(elParent, index) {
this.elParent = document.getElementsByTagName(elParent)[index];
}
CreateDOMEl.prototype.elType = function(type) {
newEl = document.createElement(type);
this.uiFrag.appendChild(newEl);
}
CreateDOMEl.prototype.elContent = function(elContent) {
this.elContent = elContent;
newEl.textContent = elContent;
}
CreateDOMEl.prototype.buildEl = function() {
this.elParent.appendChild(this.uiFrag);
}
var div = new CreateDOMEl();
div.elParent('body', 0);
div.elType('DIV');
div.elContent('OK');
div.buildEl();
console.log(div);
var bttn = new CreateDOMEl();
bttn.elParent('body', 0);
bttn.elType('BUTTON');
bttn.elContent('SUBMIT');
bttn.buildEl();
console.log(bttn);
And some CSS to get elements to appear on page:
div {
width:100px;
height:100px;
border: 1px solid red;
}
My thoughts:
For performance, using the prototype to build methods versus placing all the logic in the constructor.
Rather than directly appending elements to the page, append to a single Document Fragment. Once the element is built out as a Doc Frag, appending the Doc Frag to to the DOM. I like this method for performance, but would like to improve upon it. Any useful implementations of requestnimationFrame, or using range and other versions of the document fragment method?
Silly, but I think for debugging it'd be nice to see the generated Element type within the Object property's on console log. As of right now, console logging a created element will show the elements parent and text content. It'd be great to show the elements type as well.
Creating more than one element at a time is another piece of functionality I'd like to offer as an option. For instance, creating a div element creates one div element. What's a good way to add another optional method to create multiple instances of div's.
div.elType('DIV');
// After calling the elType method, do something like this:
div.elCount(20);
// This would create 20 of the same divs
Lastly, a nice clean way to optionally add attributes (i.e: classes, an ID, value, a placeholder, custom attributes, data-* attributes, etc.). I've got a nice helper function I use that adds multiple attributes to an element in an object literal syntax looking way. Adding this as a method of the constructor would be ideal. Here's that function:
function setAttributes(el, attrs) {
for(var key in attrs) {
el.setAttribute(key, attrs[key]);
}
}
// A use case using the above
// function would be:
var anInputElement = document.createElement("TEXTAREA");
setAttributes(anInputElement, {
"type": "text",
"id": "awesomeID",
"name": "coolName",
"placeholder": "Hey I'm some placeholder example text",
"class": "awesome"
});
// Which creates the following HTML snippet:
<textarea type="text" id="awesomeID" name="coolName" placeholder="Hey I'm some placeholder example text" class="awesome">
As a side note, realizing now that the above helper function needs rewritten so that multiple classes could be created.
Respectfully, I believe you may be overthinking it. Just use the tools available in JavaScript and get 'er done. In terms of performance, computers are so fast at running your JavaScript that you (and me) are unable to perceive, or even comprehend, the speed. Here's how I add a link to an MDL nav menu, for example. It's just vanilla JS. Don't forget to add event listeners.
function navMenuAdd(type,text){
var newAnchor = doc.createElement("anchor");
newAnchor.classList.add('mdl-navigation__link');
newAnchor.classList.add(type);
newAnchor.href = "javascript:void(0)";
var anchorContent = doc.createTextNode(text);
newAnchor.appendChild(anchorContent);
newAnchor.addEventListener('click', navMenuClickHandler, false);
//newAnchor.style.display = 'none';
if (type === 'Thingy A'){
//insertAfter(newAnchor, navMenuCredentials);
navMenuCredentialsPanel.appendChild(newAnchor);
} else if (type === 'Thingy B'){
//insertAfter(newAnchor, navMenuDevices);
navMenuDevicesPanel.appendChild(newAnchor);
}
}

How to temporarily house arbitrary dom nodes

I'm doing a bit of advanced work in KnockoutJS, whereby I generate some html outside of the KO process, apply bindings to them, and then insert them in my page.
The problem is housing the new html. My html is a couple of table rows, and when I do
var div = document.createElement('div');
div.innerHTML = template(viewModel);
the div strips out all the table content (my tr and td tags), presumably since divs can't contain table rows.
My cheesy workaround for the moment is below: use a tbody. But I'd like something a bit more generalized. I thought to use a document fragment, but that doesn't seem to have an innerHTML property to set.
What's the preferred way to handle this?
var div = document.createElement('tbody');
div.innerHTML = template(viewModel);
ko.applyBindingsToDescendants(bindingContext, div);
$(element).after($(div).contents());
As a workaround you could fetch the type of the parent node, create an empty detached new node of that type to house your contents, and later fetch the items from there.
It might look something like this, assuming you don't mind inserting the content before element, rather than after it:
var container = document.createElement(element.parentNode.tagName),
frag = document.createDocumentFragment();
container.innerHTML = template(viewModel);
ko.applyBindingsToDescendants(bindingContext, container);
while (container.childNodes.length){
frag.appendChild(container.childNodes[0]);
}
element.parentNode.insertBefore(frag, element);
But it'd be better to figure out why your contents are stripped to begin with.
I think you will get this problem only with table parts.
Hence you can do this:
var templ = template(viewModel);
var newElement = document.createElement(
$(templ).is("tr, tbody, thead") ? 'table' : 'div'
);
newElement.innerHTML(templ);
Nit's answer works but its still a bit of a hack, I would use a custom template source instead.
First you need to create a engine that uses strings as source, like
var stringTemplateSource = function (template) {
this.template = template;
};
stringTemplateSource.prototype.text = function () {
return this.template;
};
var stringTemplateEngine = new ko.nativeTemplateEngine();
stringTemplateEngine.makeTemplateSource = function (template) {
return new stringTemplateSource(template);
};
Then you can use it from a custom binding like
ko.renderTemplate(template, bindingContext.createChildContext(data), { templateEngine: stringTemplateEngine }, element, "replaceChildren");
Were template is a string containing the actual html

Why does onclick's handling function not work as expected?

I have the following little piece of code:
var instance = this;
window.onload = function () {
for (var i = 0; i < array.length; ++i) {
var currentDivId= array[i];
var currentDiv = document.getElementById(currentDivId);
try {
if (!currentDiv) {
throw 'Div id not found: ' + currentDivId;
}
var image = document.createElement('img');
image.src = 'img.jpg';
image.onclick = function() {
instance.doSomething(currentDivId);
};
currentDiv.appendChild(image);
}
catch(e) {
console.warn('oops');
}
}
};
This code is passed an array of id of divs. What it does is that, it renders an image at each of those divs and set their onclick property.
Say I have an array of strings: ['abc', 'xyz']
I want the code to place an image inside <div id="abc"></div> and another image inside <div id="xyz"></div>.
When you click the first image, instance.doSomething function should be called with parameter 'abc' and vice versa.
But the code does not work as expected. It always calls instance.doSomething with the last parameter in the array, in this case, 'xyz'.
I'm new to JS and still don't have a solid grasp of its inner workings. What's wrong here and how can I fix it?
Any help appreciated.
image.onclick = function() {
instance.doSomething(this.parentNode.id);
};
That should do it. Since we know that the image is inside the div we want to get at, just go one dom element up and get its id.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Javascript scoping issues. As it stands now, JS is treating your onclick code as something like "when this object is clicked, fetch the value stored in the currentDivID variable AT THE TIME THE CLICK occurs and pass it to the doSomething function".
What you should do is base the argument on the image object itself. Every DOM object knows where it is in the DOM tree, so at the time it's clicked, the onclick code should use DOM traversal operations to figure out which div it's inside of and dynamically retrieve its ID. That way you don't have to worry about binding variables and scoping issues... just figure out which div contains your image and get the ID at run time.
Try:
image.onclick = (function() {
var currentD = currentDivId;
return function() {
instance.doSomething(currentD);
}
})();
Hope it helps

Trying to clean out form inputs with jQuery so I can add it back into the form

I have a pretty simple HTML form where users can enter in information about a person. Below that form is a button which allows them to 'add more'. When clicked, the 'person' form is copied and appended to the page.
The way I used to do this was to take my HTML file, copy out the relevant section (the part that gets 'added more') and then save it into a variable in the Javascript. This became rather annoying when I had to make changes to the form as I would then have to make the same changes to the Javascript variable.
My new method is to create the variable dynamically in Javascript. When the page loads, I use jQuery to grab out the 'add more' part of the code and cache the HTML into a variable. Then when the 'add more' button is clicked, I append that cached HTML to the page.
The problem is with form inputs. The server-side code autofills the form with the user's data from the database. I want to cache that HTML data with no form inputs...
My current function looks like this:
function getHTML($obj, clean)
{
if (clean)
{
var $html = $obj.clone();
$html.find('input').each(function() { $(this)[0].value = ''; });
}
else
{
var $html = $obj;
}
var html = $html.wrap('<div></div>').parent()[0].innerHTML;
$html.unwrap();
return html;
}
It doesn't work. I'm also unsure if this is the best approach to solving the problem.
Any ideas?
I don't know why this wouldn't work. I can't see how the function is being called, or what is being passed to it.
I guess one thing I'd do differently would be to create a .clone() whether or not you're "cleaning" the inputs. Then you're not wrapping and unwrapping an element that is in the DOM. Just use the if() statement to decide whether or not to clean it.
Something like this:
function getHTML($obj, clean) {
var $clone = $obj.clone();
if (clean) {
$clone.find('input').each(function() { this.value = ''; });
}
return $clone.wrap('<div></div>').parent()[0].innerHTML;
}
Or a little more jQuery and less code:
function getHTML($obj) {
return $obj.clone().find('input').val('').end().wrap('<div/>').parent().html();
}
A little less efficient, but if it only runs once at the page load, then perhaps not a concern.
Or if it is going to be made into a jQuery object eventually anyway, why not just return that?
function getHTML($obj) {
return $obj.clone().find('input').val('').end();
}
Now you've returned a cleaned clone of the original that is ready to be inserted whenever you want.
EDIT:
Can't figure out right now why we can't get a new string.
Here's a function that will return the DOM elements. Beyond that, I'm stumped!
function getHTML($obj, clean) {
var $clone = $obj.clone();
if (clean) {
$clone.find('input').each(function() {
this.value = '';
});
}
return $clone.get(); // Return Array of DOM Elements
}
EDIT: Works now.
I ditched most of the jQuery, and used .setAttribute("value","") instead of this.value.
Give it a try:
function getHTML($obj, clean) {
var clone = $obj[0].cloneNode(true);
var inputs = clone.getElementsByTagName('input');
console.log(inputs);
for(var i = 0, len = inputs.length; i < len; i++) {
inputs[i].setAttribute('value','');
}
return $('<div></div>').append(clone)[0].innerHTML;
}
I would wrap the part of the form that needs to be cloned in a <fieldset>:
<form id="my_form">
<fieldset id="clone_1">
<input name="field_1_1">
<input name="field_2_1">
<input name="field_3_1">
</fieldset>
</form>
Add one more
Then for the jQuery script:
$("#fieldset_clone").click(function(event) {
// Get the number of current clones and set the new count ...
var cloneCount = parseInt($("fieldset[id^=clone_]").size());
var newCloneCount = cloneCount++;
// ... then create new clone based on the first fieldset ...
var newClone = $("#clone_1").clone();
// .. and do the cleanup, make sure it has
// unique IDs and name for server-side parsing
newClone.attr('id', 'clone_' + newCloneCount);
newClone.find("input[id^=clone_]").each(function() {
$(this).val('').attr('name', ($(this).attr('name').substr(0,7)) + newCloneCount);
});
// .. and finally insert it after the last fieldset
newClone.insertAfter("#clone_" + cloneCount);
event.preventDefault();
});
This would not only clone and clean the set of input fields, but it would also set new ID's and names so once the form is posted, their values would not be overwritten by the last set.
Also, in case you want to add the option of removing sets as well (one might add too many by mistake, or whatever other reason), having them wrapped in a <fieldset> that has an unique ID will help in accessing it and doing a .remove() on it.
Hope this helps.

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