document.getElementById as a variable in xhtml

[Martins]

I am trying to insert some new links using ‘innerHTML’. As there may be a number of calls on the same ‘ids’ I thought it would be wise to use variables. The following does not respond beyond the alert? The process works fine if I don’t use ‘var link’ and just enter it in full. Is there an issue perhaps trying to do this with xhtml?

Thanks.

var newlink = '<a title="new link" href="newlink.htm">New Link</a>';
var link  = "document.getElementById('idlink')";

if( link )  { 
alert("link confirmed");
link.innerHTML = newlink;
}

[devnull69]

document.getElementById() is a Javascript command and will not work if put into quotes. Just omit the string delimiter quotes around this command!

[Martins]

Thanks devnull69.

I started without the quotes, but then I'm not even getting as far as a response to the alert?

[ckeyrouz]

Post full code.

Maybe the HTML tag with id 'idlink' does not exist in your file.

Post the full code so we can help.

[Martins]

Thanks ckeyrouz.

This was more or less the problem. I was assigning the 'var link' in the head of the document. If I assign it further down the page after the element it works fine.

Presumably if I put the variable in an external.js this will also have to be loaded after the element?

[ckeyrouz]

Yes, you should assign your variable and your code after the load of the page.

You can put either after the element or in a window.onload in an external js file like this:

window.onload = function() {
var newlink = '<a title="new link" href="newlink.htm">New Link</a>';
var link  = "document.getElementById('idlink')";

if( link )  { 
alert("link confirmed");
link.innerHTML = newlink;
}
}

[Martins]

Thank you.