DOM Question

[Michael Ruebner]

Greetings,

What's the text between checkbox <INPUT> tags in DOM speak?
INPUTobj.childN odes returns true; however, firstChild returns NULL!?

e.g.: <INPUT type="checkbox" name="somename[]" id="id" value="1">text to
be changed on client event</INPUT>

Any pointers greatly appreciated.

Mike

[Richard Cornford]

Re: DOM Question

Michael Ruebner wrote:[color=blue]
> What's the text between checkbox <INPUT> tags in DOM speak?[/color]

That would depend on the HTML.
[color=blue]
> INPUTobj.childN odes returns true;[/color]

An empty childNodes collection is still a collection and so still an
object (it will type-convert to boolean true).
[color=blue]
> however, firstChild returns NULL!?[/color]

INPUT elements don't have content so they would have null firstChild
properties.
[color=blue]
> e.g.: <INPUT type="checkbox" name="somename[]" id="id" value="1">
> text to be changed on client event</INPUT>[/color]

That is invalid mark-up as INPUT elements cannot have contents. Browser
error-correction would probably make the text a nextSibling of the input
element, but with invalid mark-up that cannot be guaranteed.
[color=blue]
> Any pointers greatly appreciated.[/color]

If you want any consistent behaviour when scripting start with formally
valid HTML.

Richard.

[RobG]

Re: DOM Question

Michael Ruebner wrote:[color=blue]
> Greetings,
>
> What's the text between checkbox <INPUT> tags in DOM speak?
> INPUTobj.childN odes returns true; however, firstChild returns NULL!?
>
> e.g.: <INPUT type="checkbox" name="somename[]" id="id" value="1">text to
> be changed on client event</INPUT>[/color]

As Richard says above, text placed in an <input> is a
sibling of the input and is (in Firefox) given a text node
type 3.

To turn it into an element (type 1) that you can
manipulate, put it inside an element tag, such as <p>
<span> <div> or similar valid HTML tags. It will be an
"official" sibling of the input.

Fred.

[Michael Winter]

Re: DOM Question

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 22:39:04 GMT, RobG <rgqld@iinet.ne t.auau> wrote:

[snip]
[color=blue]
> To turn it into an element (type 1) that you can
> manipulate, put it inside an element tag, such as <p>
> <span> <div> or similar valid HTML tags. It will be an
> "official" sibling of the input.[/color]

As the text probably qualifies as a label, the LABEL element would be the
best to use:

<label for="myInput">< input id="myInput" type="checkbox" ...>
Your text here</label>

All DOM-supporting browsers should access that label text with:

inputObj.nextSi bling.data

(Verified with the latest versions of Opera, IE, Mozilla, Netscape, and
Firefox)

When you change the value, remember to add a space before the text so that
it doesn't appear flush next to the checkbox.

Mike

--
Michael Winter
Replace ".invalid" with ".uk" to reply by e-mail.

[Michael Ruebner]

Re: DOM Question

Mike,
[color=blue]
> As the text probably qualifies as a label, the LABEL element would be
> the best to use:[/color]

I settled for a SPAN following the closing <INPUT> tag. Thanks a lot for
your, Rob's, and Richard's input [sic]! I guess Richard is right:
sometimes it pays to use valid HTML....

Bests

Mike