dynamically insert entity without innerHTML?

jemminger · Jul 2, 2005

i'm trying to insert an HTML entity into an element using DOM methods only. i'm having trouble getting entities to be parsed instead of being rendered as plain text, e.g. ">" should display as a right-angle-bracket ">", not the literal text ">". using innerHTML instead of nodeValue works, but i want to avoid non-DOM methods.

any ideas?

Code:

<html>
	<head>
		<title>test</title>

		<script type="text/javascript">
			function foo() {
				document.getElementById("somediv").firstChild.nodeValue = "&gt;";
			}
		</script>
	</head>

	<body>
		<form>
			<input type="button" value="foo();" onclick="foo();" />
			<div id="somediv">&nbsp;</div>
		</form>
	</body>
</html>

-jeff

http://www.jeffemminger.com

try { succeed(); } catch(E) { tryAgain(); } finally { rtfm(); }
i like your sleeves...they're real big

BillyRayPreachersSon · Jul 2, 2005

I faced this issue a few months ago... after thinking about it for a while, I reached the conclusion that as the character entities are for HTML, not JavaScript, you don't need to escape them.

I assumed that the JavaScript engine would do this translation for me when setting the value.

Of course, I can't prove that... but it sounded feasible enough ;o)

Dan

[tt]D'ya think I got where I am today because I dress like Peter Pan here?[/tt]
[banghead]

wray · Jul 3, 2005

cloneNode() is the best I've come up with so far.

Code:

<script type="text/javascript">

function showTest() {
  var oSpan = document.getElementById("nDash");
  var oDiv = document.getElementById("testResponse");
  oDiv.appendChild(document.createTextNode("This ( "));
  oDiv.appendChild( oSpan.cloneNode(true) );
  oDiv.appendChild(document.createTextNode(" ) is a repro"));
}

</script>

<body onload="showTest();">
<h1>display html entitity</h1>
  <p>This is an html entitity ( <span id="nDash">&ndash;</span> ), the n-dash
  </p>
  <div id="testResponse"></div>
  <p>Test concluded.</p>
</body>

It's a bit cumbersome but manageable.

tsdragon · Jul 4, 2005

Check out the createElement method:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...hor/dhtml/reference/methods/createelement.asp

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard. [dragon]

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dynamically insert entity without innerHTML?

jemminger

Programmer

BillyRayPreachersSon

Programmer

wray

Technical User

tsdragon

Programmer

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