How might I determine the XPath of a DOM element? - javascript

In JavaScript, supposing I have a reference to an element, how do I retrieve an XPath expression that would select it?
Is there something like objElement.xpath?

Since Annibigi doesn't want to post the solution, I'll do it: See this snippet.

This is not XPATH related, but just to show you how you can get the parent/child relationship with a damn simple while loop.
var pathAt = function(node) {
var stack = [];
while(node.parentNode !== null) {
stack.unshift(node.tagName);
node = node.parentNode;
}
return stack.join('/');
}
// Usage : pathAt(document.getElementBy('moo'));
// Outputs : "HTML/BODY/CENTER/TABLE/TBODY/TR/TD/TABLE/TBODY/TR/TD/TABLE/TBODY/TR/TD/TABLE/TBODY/TR/TD"

Related

Is there a way to test a css-selector query to an unappended element?

I have this code:
Element.prototype.queryTest = function(strQuery) {
var _r;
if (this.parentElement == null) {
_r = Array.prototype.slice.call(document.querySelectorAll(strQuery)).indexOf(this);
} else {
_r = Array.prototype.slice.call(this.parentElement.querySelectorAll(strQuery)).indexOf(this);
}
return !!(_r+1);
}
I am searching for some way to test a query to an unappended element.
I want to change the first code to make this work:
var t = document.createElement("span");
t.classList.add("asdfg");
console.log(t.queryTest("span.adsfg"));
If there is a way to detect if the element isn't appended I could create a new temporary unappended one and append the target one to the temporary one to test the css-selector query.
Is there a way to detect if the element hasn't been appended jet? Could the target element be accessible even after freeing the temporary parent one? I have tested it on Chrome and it is accessible but I don't know if that is the case for firefox.
I know I can use document.querySelectorAll("*") to get a list of nodes but... isn't too CPU-demmanding the process to turn this NodeList to an Array? This is why I prefer not to use that way.
Thanks in advance.
There is already a native Element.prototype.matches method which does that:
const el = document.createElement('span');
el.classList.add('test');
console.log(el.matches('span.test'));
Note that to check if a node is connected or not, there is the Node.prototype.isConnected getter.
I did it.
Element.prototype.querySelectorTest = function(strQuery) {
var _r;
if (this.parentElement != null) {
_r = Array.prototype.indexOf.call(this.parentElement.querySelectorAll(strQuery),this);
} else if (this == document.documentElement) {
_r = ((document.querySelector(strQuery) == this)-1);
} else {
_r = ((this == document.createElement("i").appendChild(this).parentElement.querySelector(strQuery))-1);
}
return !!(_r+1);
}
I changed the way it check the nodeList.
I renamed the function to a more proper name.
If the target element is the root one there's no need to make a querySelectorAll.
If you append the unappended element to a temporary one to test the child you don't loose the reference (variable value in case there is one).
This is not my native language so please consider that.

How to compare if an HTML element exists in the node array?

selectedContentWrap: HTML nodes.
htmlVarTag: is an string.
How do I check if the HTML element exists in the nodes?
The htmlVarTag is a string and don't understand how to convert it so it check again if there is a tag like that so that if there is I can remove it?
here is output of my nodes that is stored in selectedContentWrap
var checkingElement = $scope.checkIfHTMLinside(selectedContentWrap,htmlVarTag );
$scope.checkIfHTMLinside = function(selectedContentWrap,htmlVarTag){
var node = htmlVarTag.parentNode;
while (node != null) {
if (node == selectedContentWrap) {
return true;
}
node = node.parentNode;
}
return false;
}
Well if you could paste the content of selectedContentWrap I would be able to test this code, but I think this would work
// Code goes here
var checkIfHTMLinside = function(selectedContentWrap,htmlVarTag){
for (item of selectedContentWrap) {
if (item.nodeName.toLowerCase() == htmlVarTag.toLowerCase()){
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
Simplest is use angular.element which is a subset of jQuery compatible methods
$scope.checkIfHTMLinside = function(selectedContentWrap,htmlVarTag){
// use filter() on array and return filtered array length as boolean
return selectedContentWrap.filter(function(str){
// return length of tag collection found as boolean
return angular.element('<div>').append(str).find(htmlVarTag).length
}).length;
});
Still not 100% clear if objective is only to look for a specific tag or any tags (ie differentiate from text only)
Or as casually mentioned to actually remove the tag
If you want to remove the tag it's not clear if you simply want to unwrap it or remove it's content also ... both easily achieved using angular.element
Try using: node.innerHTML and checking against that
is it me or post a question on stackoverflow and 20min after test testing I figure it.,...
the answer is that in the selectedContentWrap I already got list of nodes, all I need to do i compare , so a simple if for loop will fit.
To compare the names I just need to use .nodeName as that works cross browser ( correct me if I am wrong)
Some dev say that "dictionary of tag names and anonymous closures instead" - but couldn't find anything. If anyone has this library could you please post it to the question?
here is my code.
var node = selectedContentWrap;
console.log('node that is selectedwrapper', selectedContentWrap)
for (var i = 0; i < selectedContentWrap.length; i++) {
console.log('tag name is ',selectedContentWrap[i].nodeName);
var temptagname = selectedContentWrap[i].nodeName; // for debugging
if(selectedContentWrap[i].nodeName == 'B' ){
console.log('contains element B');
}
}

Find first <a> tag whose href matches regex

I'm building a chrome extension, and one thing this extension does is to look for the first <a> tag in the current page whose href attribute matches a given regex. JS only.
I have a several solutions in mind, I tried them, but each time, the page freezes because of the solution I tried (i.e. if I comment the lines doing this logic, the pages loads correctly). So I need a fast solution.
Here is what I tried:
Solution 1: Xpath
var reg = something;
var result = document.evaluate(
'//*[local-name()="a"][contains(#href, "rss") or contains(#href, "feed")]', //first filtering
document, null, 0, null
);
var item;
while (item = result.iterateNext()) {
if (item.href.matches(reg)) // second and real filtering
return item.href;
}
Page freezes.
Solution 2: Xpath using matches()
var result = document.evaluate(
"//*[local-name()='a'][matches(#href, my_regex)]", //first filtering
document, null, 0, null
);
var item;
while (item = result.iterateNext()) {
return item.href;
}
I tried to hardcode my_regex between ''s, but I got an error in the chrome console (not a valid Xpath expression). Even putting some as simple as [matches(#href, 'rss')] gives the same error. Suspecting something related to xpath 1.0 or 2.0, but didn't investigate too long
Solution 3: document.body.innerHTML.match()
if (url = document.body.innerHTML.toString().match(reg)[0])
return url;
Page freezes.
So now I have not so many ideas left, maybe try to investigate using the xpath's match(), but that's basically all. Any thoughts from you guys?
Here's a solution that you can adapt to look for strings, regexps or both:
var string_match = "";
var regexp_match = new RegExp("www.*", "i");
var filter = {
acceptNode: function(node){
if((node.nodeType === 1) && (node.tagName === "A")){
return NodeFilter.FILTER_ACCEPT;
}
}
}
var tree_walker = document.createTreeWalker(document.body, NodeFilter.SHOW_ELEMENT, filter, false);
while(tree_walker.nextNode()){
if(tree_walker.currentNode.href === string_match){
console.log(tree_walker.currentNode);
break;
}else if(regexp_match.test(tree_walker.currentNode.href)){
console.log(tree_walker.currentNode);
break;
}
}
here's the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/59vFt/2/
I'm using document.TreeWalker which I think is more asynchronous that getting element tags and stuff, although that will also work.
Btw, innerHTML is terrible - try to avoid using it :P

My function returns empty. why?

I know that this is a basic question but I am stuck with it somewhere in my code. I got that code from somewhere but now I am modifying it according to my need.
What does jQuery('#selector') do? In my code it always return empty.
Here is my code
query: function (selector, context) {
var ret = {}, that = this, jqEls = "", i = 0;
if(context && context.find) {
jqEls = context.find(selector);
} else {
jqEls = jQuery(selector);
}
ret = jqEls.get();
ret.length = jqEls.length;
ret.query = function (sel) {
return that.query(sel, jqEls);
}
return ret;
}
when I call this query function then I pass selector as parameter. When I do console.log(selector) it does have all the selectors which I need in this function. But the problem is on this line jqEls = jQuery(selector);. when I do console.log(jqEls) after this it returns empty thus the whole function returns empty.
Can I use something different then this to make it work?
jquery('#selector') is the equivalent of document.getElementById('selector'). If there is no DOM node with an id of selector, you get an empty result.
e.g.
<div id="selector">...</div>
would return the dom node corresponding to this div. Do you have jquery loaded?
jQuery(selector) is looking for a DOM element that meets the selector criteria.
$('#example') == jQuery('#example')
Both will look for something with id "example"
$(selector).get() will return undefined if no element is found. This is why your function returns undefined. To fix this, you could use a default value if there is no element found:
ret = jqEls.length ? jqEls.get() : {};
This way your function will always return an object that has your length and query properties, but it will not have an element if jQuery did not find one.
After reading your code I have a question : do you put the # in your variable selector ?
A solution to solve this by replacing the bad line by jqEls = jQuery("#" + selector);
If the problem isn't due to that can you say the type of selector ? string ? object ? jQueryObject ?

Javascript Shorthand for getElementById

Is there any shorthand for the JavaScript document.getElementById? Or is there any way I can define one? It gets repetitive retyping that over and over.
var $ = function( id ) { return document.getElementById( id ); };
$( 'someID' )
Here I used $, but you can use any valid variable name.
var byId = function( id ) { return document.getElementById( id ); };
byId( 'someID' )
To save an extra character you could pollute the String prototype like this:
pollutePrototype(String, '绎', {
configurable: false, // others must fail
get: function() {
return document.getElementById(this);
},
set: function(element) {
element.id = this;
}
});
function pollutePrototype(buildIn, name, descr) {
var oldDescr = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(buildIn.prototype, name);
if (oldDescr && !oldDescr.configurable) {
console.error('Unable to replace ' + buildIn.name + '.prototype.' + name + '!');
} else {
if (oldDescr) {
console.warn('Replacing ' + buildIn.name + '.prototype.' + name + ' might cause unexpected behaviour.');
}
Object.defineProperty(buildIn.prototype, name, descr);
}
}
It works in some browsers and you can access elements this way:
document.body.appendChild(
'footer'.绎 = document.createElement('div')
);
'footer'.绎.textContent = 'btw nice browser :)';
I have chosen the name of the property almost randomly. If you actually wanted to use this shorthand I would suggest coming up with something easier to type.
You can easily create shorthand easily yourself:
function getE(id){
return document.getElementById(id);
}
id's are saved to the window.
HTML
<div id='logo'>logo</div>
JS
logo.innerHTML;
is the same as writing:
document.getElementById( 'logo' ).innerHtml;
I don't suggest using the former method as it is not common practice.
A quick alternative to contribute:
HTMLDocument.prototype.e = document.getElementById
Then just do:
document.e('id');
There's a catch, it doesn't work in browsers that don't let you extend prototypes (e.g. IE6).
(Shorthand for not only getting element by ID, but also getting element by class :P)
I use something like
function _(s){
if(s.charAt(0)=='#')return [document.getElementById(s.slice(1))];
else if(s.charAt(0)=='.'){
var b=[],a=document.getElementsByTagName("*");
for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)if(a[i].className.split(' ').indexOf(s.slice(1))>=0)b.push(a[i]);
return b;
}
}
Usage : _(".test") returns all elements with class name test, and _("#blah") returns an element with id blah.
<script>
var _ = function(eId)
{
return getElementById(eId);
}
</script>
<script>
var myDiv = _('id');
</script>
There are several good answers here and several are dancing around jQuery-like syntax, but not one mentions actually using jQuery. If you're not against trying it, check out jQuery. It let's you select elements super easy like this..
By ID:
$('#elementId')
By CSS class:
$('.className')
By element type:
$('a') // all anchors on page
$('inputs') // all inputs on page
$('p a') // all anchors within paragaphs on page
There's none built-in.
If you don't mind polluting the global namespace, why not:
function $e(id) {
return document.getElementById(id);
}
EDIT - I changed the function name to be something unusual, but short and not otherwise clashing with jQuery or anything else that uses a bare $ sign.
I frequently use:
var byId='getElementById'
var byClass='getElementsByClass'
var byTag='getElementsByTag'
var mydiv=document[byId]('div')
/* as document["getElementById"] === document.getElementById */
I think it's better than a external function (e.g. $() or byId()) because you can do things like this:
var link=document[byId]('list')[byClass]('li')[0][byTag]('a')[0]
Btw, don't use jQuery for this, jQuery is much, much slower than document.getElementById(), an external function like $() or byId(), or my method: http://jsperf.com/document-getelementbyid-vs-jquery/5
Yes, it gets repetitive to use the same function over and over each time with a different argument:
var myImage = document.getElementById("myImage");
var myDiv = document.getElementById("myDiv");
So a nice thing would be a function that takes all those arguments at the same time:
function getElementsByIds(/* id1, id2, id3, ... */) {
var elements = {};
for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
elements[arguments[i]] = document.getElementById(arguments[i]);
}
return elements;
}
Then you would have references to all your elements stored in one object:
var el = getElementsByIds("myImage", "myDiv");
el.myImage.src = "test.gif";
But you would still have to list all those ids.
You could simplify it even more if you want all elements with ids:
function getElementsWithIds() {
var elements = {};
var elementList = document.querySelectorAll("[id]");
for (var i = 0; i < elementList.length; i++) {
elements[elementList[i].id] = elementList[i];
}
return elements;
}
But it would be pretty expensive to call this function if you have many elements.
So, theoretically, if you would use the with keyword you could write code like this:
with (getElementsByIds('myButton', 'myImage', 'myTextbox')) {
myButton.onclick = function() {
myImage.src = myTextbox.value;
};
}
But I don't want to promote the use of with. Probably there's a better way to do it.
Well, you could create a shorthand function, that's what I do.
function $(element) {
return document.getElementById(element);
}
and then when you wanted to get it, you just do
$('yourid')
Also, another useful trick that I found, is that if you want to get the value or innerHTML of an item ID, you can make functions like this:
function $val(el) {
return $(el).value;
}
function $inner(el) {
return $(el).innerHTML;
}
Hope you like it!
I actually made a kind of mini javascript library based on this whole idea.
Here it is.
If this is on your own site, consider using a library like jQuery to give you this and many other useful shorthands that also abstract away browser differences. Personally, if I wrote enough code to be bothered by the longhand, I would include jQuery.
In jQuery, the syntax would be $("#someid"). If you then want the actual DOM element and not the jQuery wrapper, it's $("#someid")[0], but you could most likely do whatever you're after with the jQuery wrapper.
Or, if you're using this in a browser developer console, research their built-in utilities. As someone else mentioned, the Chrome JavaScript console includes a $("someid") method, and you can also click an element in the developer tools "Elements" view and then reference it with $0 from the console. The previously selected element becomes $1 and so on.
If the only issue here is typing, maybe you should just get yourself a JavaScript editor with intellisense.
If the purpose is to get shorter code, then you could consider a JavaScript library like jQuery, or you can just write your own shorthand functions, like:
function byId(string) {return document.getElementById(string);}
I used to do the above for better performance. What I learnt last year is that with compression techniques the server does it automatically for you, so my shortening technique was actually making my code heavier. Now I am just happy with typing the whole document.getElementById.
If you are asking for a shorthand function...
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
The content of the body element is displayed in your browser.
<div id="d1">DIV</div>
<script>
var d=document;
d.g=document.getElementById;
d.g("d1").innerHTML = "catch";
</script>
</body>
</html>
or
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
The content of the body element is displayed in your browser.
<div id="d1">DIV</div>
<script>
var w=window;
w["d1"].innerHTML = "catch2";
</script>
</body>
Arrow functions make is shorter.
var $id = (id) => document.getElementById(id);
wrap the document.querySelectorAll ... a jquery like select
function $(selector){
var s = document.querySelectorAll(selector);
return s.length > 1 ? s : s[0];
}
// usage: $('$myId')
Well, if the id of the element does not compete with any properties of the global object, you don't have to use any function.
myDiv.appendChild(document.createTextNode("Once I was myDiv. "));
myDiv.id = "yourDiv";
yourDiv.appendChild(document.createTextNode("But now I'm yourDiv."));
edit: But you don't want to make use of this 'feature'.
Another wrapper:
const IDS = new Proxy({}, {
get: function(target, id) {
return document.getElementById(id); } });
IDS.camelCaseId.style.color = 'red';
IDS['dash-id'].style.color = 'blue';
<div id="camelCaseId">div 1</div>
<div id="dash-id">div 2</div>
This, in case you don't want to use the unthinkable, see above.
You can use a wrapper function like :
const byId = (id) => document.getElementById(id);
Or
Assign document.getElementById to a variable by binding it with document object.
const byId = document.getElementById.bind(document);
Note: In second approach, If you don't bind document.getElementById with document you'll get error :
Uncaught TypeError: Illegal invocation
What Function.bind does is it creates a new function with its this keyword set to value that you provide as argument to Function.bind.
Read docs for Function.bind
const $id = id => document.getElementById(id);
...
$id('header')
I just use: function id(id) {return document.getElementById(id);}", called by id(target id).action;
It works for me in Chrome, Edge & Firefox, though not in Safari or Opera.
I wrote this yesterday and found it quite useful.
function gid(id, attribute) {
var x = 'document.getElementById("'+id+'")';
if(attribute) x += '.'+attribute;
eval('x =' + x);
return x;
}
This is how you use it.
// Get element by ID
var node = gid('someID'); //returns <p id='someID' class='style'>Hello World</p>
// returns 'Hello World'
// var getText = document.GetElementById('someID').innerText;
var getText = gid('someID', 'innerText');
// Get parent node
var parentNode = gid('someID', 'parentNode');

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