[Javascript] finding an element in the DOM sea

[Robert Kim Wireless Internet Advisor]

Thanks!.. always wonderd that.

On 1/30/06, Paul Novitski <paul at novitskisoftware.com> wrote:
> At 04:41 PM 1/30/2006, Jonathan Gold wrote:
> >I have some text that is inside a <p><ul><li><span class="">
> >situation. My page is about how to change colors on the web. When I
> >change the background color for the whole page, these elements that
> >are inside of lists and span classes ... their background doesn't
> >change. So I want to talk to them. So that I don't have to bother
> >the list each time, my question is: In general, and specifically,
> >how do I determine the (as-it-were) 'address' of each element on my
> >page so I can direct javascript commands to it? Here's the page:
> >http://home.pacbell.net/jonnygee/auxiliary/colorpage.htm Try any
> >change in color and you will see my problem.
>
> You can walk the DOM this way:
> __________________________
>
> HTML:
>
> <ul id="instructions">
>         <li> ... <span class="xxx"> ...
> __________________________
>
> JavaScript:
>
>         // bail if the browser doesn't support the DOM
>         if (!document.getElementById) return;
>         if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
>
> // point to the list
> var oUL = document.getElementById("instructions");
>
> // get an array of the SPAN elements within the list
> var aSpans = oUL.getElementsByTagName("span");
>
> // walk the list
> for (var iSpan = 0; iSpan < aSpans.length; iSpan++)
> {
>         // if this span fits your criteria...
>         if (aSpans[iSpan].className && aSpans[iSpan].className == "xxx")
>         {
>                 do something...
>         }
> }
> __________________________
>
> If you've got a whole whack of spans, only a few of which are ones
> you're interested in, you can add the relevant spans you find to an
> array.  Each element of the array will point to an actual span, so
> you can cycle through the array to examine & modify their classNames,
> adjust their styling, etc., to your heart's content.
>
> The if-test I used above:
>
>         if (aSpans[iSpan].className && aSpans[iSpan].className == "xxx")
>
> means, "if the span has a className and if the className is X" to an
> prevent error if a span doesn't have class at all.  As I recall, this
> extra test isn't necessary if you're using regular expressions to
> test the value of the class name.
>
> Paul


--
Robert Q Kim, Wireless Internet Advisor
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