Home HTML Data Types DOM JavaScript JS Debugging

Following along

Remember to “git pull” on teacher repository to update to lates.

  • Run this notebook in VSCode
  • Activate Help-Toogel Developer Tools to add console outputs to runtime experience

Referencing HTML elements using javascript

  • To get an HTML element, use document.getElementById("idTag")
  • You will use the ID that you set in your HTML
  • if you console.log the resulting variable you will get some information about the element
%%html
<!-- the ID must be specified within the element -->
<h1 id="domTitleID">My Title</h1>

<!-- javascript goes here -->
<script>
var titleElement = document.getElementById("domTitleID")
<!-- outputs h1 tag -->
console.log("Example #1, show element in DOM")
console.log(titleElement)
</script>

My Title

Getting the data within the HTML element

  • The variable titleElement stores the “object”
  • Basically think of this as the group of data enclosed in HTML tag
  • To access a certain type of data from an “object” we use “.” notation
    • .innerHTML gets data within center of tag
%%html
<!-- the ID must be specified within the element -->
<h1 id="domTitleIDget">My Title</h1>

<!-- javascript goes here -->
<script>
var titleElement = document.getElementById("domTitleIDget")
<!-- outputs h1 innerHTML from h1 tag -->
console.log("Example #2, show innerHTML")
console.log(titleElement.innerHTML)
</script>

My Title

Setting the data within the HTML Element

  • The innerHTML data in this “object” can be set like a variable
    • Change the value of the innerHTML using the “=” (assignment) operator
%%html
<!-- the ID must be specified on the element -->
<h1 id="domTitleIDset">My Title</h1>

<!-- javascript goes here -->
<script>
var titleElement = document.getElementById("domTitleIDset")
titleElement.innerHTML = "Set and Update My Title"
<!-- outputs h1 innerHTML after h1 tag has been updated -->
console.log("Example #3, update innerHTML")
console.log(titleElement.innerHTML)
</script>

My Title

Creating elements

  • Create a new element with the document.createElement function -> takes in the type of element
  • Set properties in the element just like the “h1” example
%%html
<!-- the ID must be specified on the element -->
<div id="divContainerID">
    <h1 id="h1ElementID">My Title</h1>
</div>

<!-- javascript goes here -->
<script>
   // creates a new element
   var pElement = document.createElement("p")
   pElement.innerHTML = "Starting a paragraph of text."
   
   // outputs p tag after it has been created
   console.log("Example #4, create a p tag within JS")
   console.log(pElement)
</script>

My Title

Issue! How to Create element that appears in HTML?

  • Here is a visualization of what is happening => the “p” is not placed inside the HRML page! visual on p tag floating

Solution

  • Correct by placeing the element somewhere in the page
  • For example, we could add the element within the div
    • For this, use the appendChild function on the div object (the parameter would be the p element we created)
    • Remember, use the getELementById to get the object for something in the html (the div!)
  • Updated Diagram visual on p tag in div
%%html
<!-- the ID must be specified on the element -->
<div id="divContainerIDset">
    <h1 id="h1ElementIDset">My Title</h1>
</div>

<!-- javascript goes here -->
<script>
   // creates a new element
   var pElement = document.createElement("p")
   pElement.innerHTML = "Starting a paragraph of text."
   
   // outputs p tag after it has been created
   console.log("Example #5, add p tag to HTML")
   console.log(pElement)
   
   // place the p element inside the HTML page
   var div = document.getElementById("divContainerIDset")
   div.appendChild(pElement)
</script>

My Title

Functions in JavaScript, using with DOM

  • Functions allow you to “do something”
    • ex. “eat food” in a Snake Game
  • Functions were used in previous examples
    • console.log = “print something”
    • document.getElementById = “find an element with id”
  • Functions take in parameters, what to do (inside the parenthesis)
    • the parameter tells console.log what to print
    • the parameter in document.getElementById tells the id of the element
  • Functions can be used with DOM as well, thes will be shown below

Creeating functions

  • document functions functions were used to create a lot of functionality, but how can a developer create their own?
  • function are useful to avoid writing the same code over and over again
  • function can contain parameters for input (they effectively become variables)
  • function can contain a return, the are the “output” of the function

%%html

My Title

OnClick Event

  • Run a function when an event occurs
    • In this case, the p tag is created when the button is clicked

%%html

My Title

Hacks

  • Copy your HTML code from the HTML hacks. Write a Javascript snippet to switch the links of the two a tags when a button is pressed. Once they are switched, change the inner HTML of the top p tag to the word “switched!”
%%html
<head>
  <title>Switching The Links</title>
</head>
<body>
  <p id="output"></p>
  <a href="https://google.com" id="link1">Link 1</a>
  <a href="https://gmail.com" id="link2">Link 2</a>
  <button onclick="switchLinksAndText()">Switch Links and Text</button>

  <script>
    function switchLinksAndText() {
      // Get the link elements
      var link1 = document.getElementById('link1');
      var link2 = document.getElementById('link2');

      // Get the text of the top paragraph
      var topParagraph = document.getElementById('output');

      // Swap the href attributes of the links
      var tempHref = link1.href;
      link1.href = link2.href;
      link2.href = tempHref;

      // Change the text of the top paragraph
      topParagraph.innerHTML = 'Switched Now!';
    }
  </script>
</body>
</html>
Switching The Links

Link 1 Link 2

</html>