If innerHTML is evil, then what's a better way change the text of a link?

Posted by sanj on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by sanj
Published on 2008-12-27T14:40:35Z Indexed on 2010/03/08 11:06 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 244

Filed under:

JavaScript

|

dom

|

innerhtml

I know innerHTML is supposedly evil, but I think it's the simplest way to change link text. For example:

<a id="mylink" href="">click me</a>

In JS you can change the text with:

document.getElementById("mylink").innerHTML = new_text;

And in Prototype/jQuery:

$("mylink").innerHTML = new_text;

works fine. Otherwise you have to replace all of the child nodes first and then add a text node. Why bother?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about JavaScript

CHAT ROOMs 7 by 6

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am looking for chatroom on one page with 7 loggedin users and 6+rows for say 42 users.these users will keep on adding wthnew users.Need urgent help.A PRETTY UNUSUAL Q FOR MOST OF U.What is MORE REQ new features: Usernames are unique to users currently chatting You can see a "currently chatting"… >>> More
Integrating JavaScript Unit Tests with Visual Studio

as seen on Stephen Walter - Search for 'Stephen Walter'
Modern ASP.NET web applications take full advantage of client-side JavaScript to provide better interactivity and responsiveness. If you are building an ASP.NET application in the right way, you quickly end up with lots and lots of JavaScript code. When writing server code, you should be writing… >>> More
Has Javascript developed beyond what it was originally designed to do?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I've been talking with a friend about the purpose of Javascript, when and how it should be used, etc. He quoted that: JavaScript was designed to add interactivity to HTML pages [...] JavaScript gives HTML designers a programming tool HTML authors are normally not programmers… >>> More
PHP, javascript, single quote problems with IE when passing variable from ajax post to javascript fu

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi! I have been trying to get this to work for a while, and I suspect there's an easy solution that I just can't find. My head feels like jelly and I would really appreciate any help. My main page.php makes a .post() to backend.php and fetches a list of cities which it echoes in the form of: <li… >>> More
Javascript in XSL that is loaded by Javascript

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Is there anyway to have javascript run when a XSL sheet has been applied to an XML file by Javascript? I am using a JQuery plugin to apply the sheet to the xml but the javascript that is located inside of the XSL file will not run. I put the Javascript at the bottom of the file and it still does… >>> More

Related posts about dom

DOM: element created with cloneNode(true) missing element when added to DOM

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm creating a tree control and I'm attempting to use a parent element as a template for its children. To this end I'm using the element.cloneNode(true) method to deep clone the parent element. However when I insert the cloned element into the DOM it is missing certain inner elements despite having… >>> More
Java+DOM: How do I convert a DOM tree without namespaces to a namespace-aware DOM tree?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, everyone! I receive a Document (DOM tree) from a certain API (not in JDK). Sadly, this Document is not namespace-aware. As far as I know DOM, once generated, namespace-awareness can't be "added" afterwards. When converting this Document using a Transformer to a string, the XML is correct… >>> More
Java EE 6????????????????! ??????????????????????J2EE??????????J2EE??????JavaOne Tokyo 2012?????

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Java EE???????Java EE???????????????·????????????Core J2EE Patterns(J2EE????)?????????????????????10???????????????? “????????????”?????????????Java EE??????6?????????WebLogic Server?????????????·???????????????J2EE???????????????????????????????2012?4???????JavaOne Tokyo 2012??????????Java EE 6?… >>> More
transfer event from one dom to other dom in javascript

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In javascript, let say I got two nodes(node A, node B). when I click on node A, can I transfer "click" event to node B, so event handler for node B will execute. >>> More
DOM Element Width before Appended to DOM

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm sure the answer is no, but is it possible to determine the width of an element before it is appended to the DOM? Once it's appended, I know I can use offsetWidth and offsetHeight. Thanks >>> More