Is there a way to store a reference of an HTML tag for future use?
For instance, if I click on a div and save a pointer to that div in JavaScript, is it possible to serialize this pointer and then de-serialize it to use in another part of the web application?
Here are a couple of methods I've considered:
Utilizing id or name attributes
Creating a CSS selector for the element
Any other suggestions? =)
To uniquely identify an element, you can create a customized XPath string. The complexity of the string determines its accuracy and portability.
For instance, a basic element-only XPath query like '//html/body/div/div/p/strong' may not be distinct enough:
'//html/body[@onclick="somereallylongjavascript" and class="nosidebar"]/div[@id="wrapper" and @class="posts"]/div[@class="entry" and @id="firstentry"]/p[@class="first"]/strong'</pre>But focusing on specific attributes, such as IDs, can strike a good balance:'//html/body/div[@id="wrapper"]/div[@id="firstentry"]/p/strong'
All web browsers support native retrieval of XPath. For W3C compliant method:
var myElement=document.evaluate( XPathstring, document, function(ns){return{'html':'http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml','':null}[ns];}, 9, null ).singleNodeValue;(the ns function is mainly for application/xhtml+xml support)
Internet Explorer offers a simpler but less versatile approach:
var myElement=document.selectSingleNode(XPathString);
Creating the XPath string requires additional tools since there's no built-in solution. One option is using XPather, a Mozilla add-on with an interface for this purpose. Alternatively, shorter scripts are available for quicker solutions.
Edit: Check out Justin Johnson's link to a concise XPath-generation function on Stack Overflow. While it has some quirks like non-standard ID notation and lack of
toLowerCase()for tag names, it could suit your needs perfectly.
What is the specific item you are attempting to preserve? And in what specific location do you plan on reusing it?
A DOM element is unique to the browser rendering of a particular page -- Simply refreshing the page will result in an entirely new DOM element being generated. Therefore, what aspects of it do you need to retain and recreate?
What is the content inside the element's innerHTML?
The most effective method is to utilize the id attribute.
Assigning an id to crucial elements based on database values is typically straightforward.
It seems that achieving your goal may not be feasible based on the way you have phrased your inquiry. Can you provide more information about what you mean by "another instance of the web application"? As JavaScript operates on the client side, sharing data among multiple clients is typically not possible. However, storing and retrieving information from a database could be a potential solution. Please elaborate on the specific functionality you are aiming to accomplish.
XPath is considered to be the most suitable method, especially when the page structure remains relatively static up to a certain node. Check out these helpful references and example code:
Tutorial on extracting the xpath of any node with an illustration of its usage.
getPathTo($("a")[4]):
Resulting in:
"id("hlinks-custom")/A[2]"
For more information, you can refer to the MDC XPath documentation.
If you're in need of achieving your desired outcome, consider utilizing JSON.stringify( yourDivReference ) along with JSON.parse( serializedObjectString ).
UPDATE: As it turns out, the JSON methods may encounter issues when dealing with circular references within the DOM. To delve deeper into this matter, check out this question: How to serialize DOM node to JSON even if there are circular references?
Nevertheless, I tend to agree with Sergey that opting for the ID route seems like a more efficient approach.
One potential solution is to create unique custom IDs for each element based on specific rules:
For example, this approach could result in IDs like "body-0/item-0" or "body-0/div-4" when a regular ID is unavailable.
By using these custom IDs, you can easily locate elements even after the page has been modified by comparing stored custom IDs to the new ones generated.
I attempted a similar approach with the following code snippet:
{tag:"div", style:"float:left;", "class":"fancy", inner:[
{tag:"a", href:"http://google.com", inner:"A link to google!" },
{tag:"a", href:"http://yahoo.com", inner:"A link to yahoo!" }
]}
It seems to be functioning properly, although the abundance of curly brackets can make it difficult to follow.
Upon further consideration - I may have misunderstood your requirements... If you are looking to serialize an element handle like what getElementById returns, using the id attribute might be a simpler solution.
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