creating a onclick attribute using DOM

[elduderino]

HI,

var titlea = document.createElement('a');
    titlea.id = 'list_' + count;
    titlea.href = '/results.php?' + articleid;
    var txt = document.createTextNode('select....');
    titlea.appendChild(txt);
    con.appendChild(titlea);

I have this code. I've created an a tag with with a href and id attribute. I also need to add some javascript:

onclick="replaceParent();"

I've googled for a solution but can't find an answer....how do i do this?

[imaginethis]

HI,

var titlea = document.createElement('a');
    titlea.id = 'list_' + count;
    titlea.href = '/results.php?' + articleid;
    var txt = document.createTextNode('select....');
    titlea.appendChild(txt);
    con.appendChild(titlea);

I have this code. I've created an a tag with with a href and id attribute. I also need to add some javascript:

onclick="replaceParent();"

I've googled for a solution but can't find an answer....how do i do this?

The best way to do this would be to assign the link an id or a class.

function do_onclick()
{
   var obj = document.getElementByID('IDNAME');
   obj.onclick = function()
   {
      replaceParent();
   }
}

window.onload = function()
{
   do_onclick();
}

With classes its a little be different by not that much.

function do_onclick()
{
  var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
  for(var i=0; i<anchors.lenght; i++)
  {
      var obj = anchors[i];
      if(obj.className == 'CLASSNAME')
         obj.onclick = function()
         {
             replaceParent();
         }
  }
}

window.onload = function()
{
   do_onclick();
}

That's an example of how you would do it. But I don't know if it will work or not so don't take my word for it. I'm in Las Vegas flying to CT and I haven't slept for 24 hours . I may have a few errors here or there. I hop eyou get the general idea though .

[felgall]

onclick is an event handler not an attribute and so trying to create an onclick attribute will not work as event handlers need to be added differently from attributes.

The following will add the event handler you need:

titlea.onclick="replaceParent();"

[elduderino]

Hi,

Aha that'll do the job nicely. thanks...

I do wonder if theres a way to just write that line with javascript. I'm kinda surprised if there isnt.

EDIT: Got you, thanks Felgall

[Pepejeria]

You can set an event handler as an attribute in modern browsers (no, IE is not modern):

<div id="myDiv">test</div>

<script>
var node = document.getElementById("myDiv");
node.setAttribute("onclick", "alert('div was clicked');");
</script>

[felgall]

just using node.onclick = instead of node.setAttribute("onclick", allows it to work in older browsers as well as modern ones. After all event handlers are not really the same as HTML attributes anyway since they don't work when JavaScript is disabled while attributes do.

[paul_wilkins]

After all event handlers are not really the same as HTML attributes anyway since they don't work when JavaScript is disabled while attributes do.

That sounded confusing.

Are you trying to say that you perceive a difference between event attributes and non-event attributes because one is designed for scripting and the other is not?

[Pepejeria]

onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup etc are attributes. At least that is the way W3C calls them.

[paul_wilkins]

I think he may be saying that because they are script attributes, they have a more limited performance than the other attributes.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/index/attributes.html