Appending child node by javascript

Question

I have dynamically generated html thru ajax when a page is loading, something like this,

Dynamically inserted,

<p class="Hello">
  <span id='click lvl1'>1</span>
  <span>2</span>
</p>

Now, I am trying to add another node into my  element. Again, dynamically thru ajax.

Server response is something like,

<p class="Hello lvl2">
  <span id='click'>1</span>
  <span>2</span>
</p>

Which I want to insert into the element which I have got first time.

final result,

<p class="Hello">
  <span id='click'>1</span>
  <span>2</span>
  <p class="Hello lvl2">
   <span id='click'>1</span>
   <span>2</span>
  </p>
</p>

While making an second ajax call I am getting reference to 1 element.

What have I tried so far?

Everthing, I could try I have tried but I am not able to inset the node. I am assuming that I am doing something really wrong. My attempts are,

pElement is `1`

pElement.parent().appendChild(data.expandTreeVal);
pElement.parent().append(data.expandTreeVal);
pElement.parent().after(data.expandTreeVal);
pElement.parentNode().appendChild(data.expandTreeVal);

Debugging

Do I really get anything from server?

Yes, When I do alert(data.expandTreeVal); it shows me my desired HTML.

any thoughts will be a great help.

I think you can use, .prepend() function it should work i suppose. — Dhruvenkumar Shah
– Dhruvenkumar Shah, Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 20:55
debug pElement, does it reference the element that you've dynamically added to the page or the API response before adding it to the page. Then debug pElement.parent() to make sure you're selecting the correct element. — potench
– potench, Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 20:57
@zzzzBov, A very good point! Thanks, Sorry I am from Objective C and Java and getting my feet wet by learning scripting lang :) — TeaCupApp
– TeaCupApp, Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 21:14
Also, [id] attributes need to be unique, you should be using [class] attributes. — zzzzBov
– zzzzBov, Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 21:15

Guffa · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-20 21:04:36Z

2

You can only append DOM elements to an element, you can't append HTML code in a string.

Create an element, use the innerHTML method to put the HTML code in it, then get the first child node from it to get the p element as a DOM element.

var div = document.createElement('DIV');
div.innerHTML = data.expandTreeVal;
var p = div.childNodes[0];

Then you can add it to the document using the parentNode and appendChild methods:

pElement.parentNode.appendChild(p);

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/AfVfE/

answered Sep 20, 2012 at 21:04

Guffa

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1 Comment

TeaCupApp Over a year ago

That worked like a charm, However I missed a good point that I should not add inside a as OP mentioned. But thanks for the enlightenment about what to do.

thewebguy · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-20 21:06:27Z

0

You may need to post a full blown use case for me to fully understand, but I think that the whole issue is that you're referencing methods that don't exist.

My use case worked fine like this:

<p class="Hello">
  <span id='click'>1</span>
  <span>2</span>
  <p class="Hello lvl2">
   <span id='click'>1</span>
   <span>2</span>
  </p>
</p>

With this JS:

var pElement = document.getElementById('click');
alert(pElement.parentNode);

answered Sep 20, 2012 at 21:06

thewebguy

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Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Appending child node by javascript

Dynamically inserted,

Server response is something like,

final result,

What have I tried so far?

pElement is `<span id='click'>1</span>`

Debugging

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

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Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Dynamically inserted,

Server response is something like,

final result,

What have I tried so far?

pElement is <span id='click'>1</span>

Debugging

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

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pElement is `<span id='click'>1</span>`