Find Text and Clone with jQuery - javascript

I have this sorta working without the if statement, but I'm not sure why it's not working when I used the if statement and with $(this).
So this:
if ($('.class--item:contains("Some random text items")'))
{
$(this).parent().clone().appendTo($(".other--class"));
}
Does not work. But this one does:
$('.class--item:contains("Some random text items")').parent().clone().appendTo($(".other--class"));
I'm not completely sure why one would work over the other, but I'm pretty sure I'm missing something. I'm also wondering if it's better to use one over the other as well since the if statement could offer some other "checking" rather than just "look for thing and clone it"

From the documentation you are using :contains() Selector but this does not return a boolean value. Instead, you should try jQuery.contains, which does return a boolean.

Related

Using variables with jQuery's replaceWith() method

Ok this one seems pretty simple (and it probably is). I am trying to use jQuery's replace with method but I don't feel like putting all of the html that will be replacing the html on the page into the method itself (its like 60 lines of HTML). So I want to put the html that will be the replacement in a variable named qOneSmall like so
var qOneSmall = qOneSmall.html('..........all the html');
but when I try this I get this error back
Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGAL
I don't see any reserved words in there..? Any help would be appreciated.
I think the solution is to only grab the element on the page you're interested in. You say you have like 60 lines. If you know exactly what you want to replace..place just that text in a div with an id='mySpecialText'. Then use jQuery to find and replace just that.
var replacementText = "....all the HTML";
$("#mySpecialText").text(replacementText);
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="mySpecialText">Foo</div>
If you're only looking to replace text then jaj.laney's .text() approach can be used. However, that will not render the string as HTML.
The reason the way you're using .html() is likely illegal is that qSmallOne is not a JQuery object. The method cannot be performed on arbitrary variables. You can set the HTML string to a variable and pass that string to the .html() function like this:
var htmlstring = '<em>emphasis</em> and <strong>strong</strong>';
$('#target').html(htmlstring);
To see the difference between using .html() and .text() you can check out this short fiddle.
Edit after seeing the HTML
So there is a lot going on here. I'm just going to group these things into a list of issues
The HTML Strings
So I actually learned something here. Using the carriage return and tab keys in the HTML string is breaking the string. The illegal-ness is coming from the fact the string is never properly terminated since it thinks it ends at the first line. Strip out the white space in your strings and they're perfectly valid.
Variable Names
Minor thing, you've got a typo in qSmallOne. Be sure to check your spelling especially when working with these giant variables. A little diligence up front will save a bunch of headache later.
Selecting the Right Target
Your targets for the change in content are IDs that are in the strings in your variables and not in the actual DOM. While it looks like you're handling this, I found it rather confusing. I would use one containing element with a static ID and target that instead (that way you don't have to remember why you're handling multiple IDs for one container in the future).
Using replaceWith() and html()
.replaceWith() is used to replace an element with something else. This includes the element that is being targeted, so you need to be very aware of what you're wanting to replace. .html() may be a better way to go since it replaces the content within the target, not including the target itself.
I've made these updates and forked your fiddle here.

What does $($(this)) mean?

I saw some code around the web that uses the following statement
if ($($(this)).hasClass("footer_default")) {
$('#abc')
.appendTo($(this))
.toolbar({position: "fixed"});
}
What is the use of $($(this)) and why is that necessary here?
Yes, $($(this)) is the same as $(this), the jQuery() or $() function is wonderfully idempotent. There is no reason for that particular construction (double wrapping of this), however, something I use as a shortcut for grabbing the first element only from a group, which involves similar double wrapping, is
$($('selector')[0])
Which amounts to, grab every element that matches selector, (which returns a jQuery object), then use [0] to grab the first one on the list (which returns a DOM object), then wrap it in $() again to turn it back into a jQuery object, which this time only contains a single element instead of a collection. It is roughly equivalent to
document.querySelectorAll('selector')[0];, which is pretty much
document.querySelector('selector');
You can wrap $ as many times as you want, it won't change anything.
If foo is a DOM element, $(foo) will return the corresponding jQuery object.
If foo is a jQuery object, $(foo) will return the same object.
That's why $($(this)) will return exactly the same as $(this).
There is no specific need for double-wrapping and $($(this)) is exactly the same as $(this).
That said, I once found this double-wrapping in one file in my project, committed by another developer. Tracking the changes through revision, turned out that it started as $($(this).find('selector').first()) - that is, the result of some selector was wrapped to create a new object. Then for whatever reasons, the selector was removed and only the double-wrapping of this remained. Needless to say, on the next commit it was changed to $(this).
As explained before me, $($(this)) and $(this) are absolutely identical. jQuery returns the same jQuery object if you try to wrap it more than once.
Additionally, for performance considerations it is a good practice to reuse jQuery objects - it is quite expensive to create jQuery objects, especially the ones with complex selectors. Example:
var $this = $(this);
if ($this.hasClass("footer_default")) {
$('#abc')
.appendTo($this)
.toolbar({position: "fixed"});
}
Just google for 'jQuery best practices' - it will take a 30 min for you to learn these basics and you will use jQuery way more effectively.
There is no meainig of doing that.
The following code return the same:
console.log($($(this)).hasClass("footer_default"))
console.log($(this).hasClass("footer_default"))
a boolean value depenging on if the selected element has or not the class footer_default:
.hasClass( className )Returns: Boolean
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/IrvinDominin/aSzFn/
$(this) and $($(this)) both return jquery object.
There is no difference between these two.

What does the jQuery function $('#myelement').is('*') do?

What does the following code do:
$('#myelement').is('*')
What does the asterisk signify? Since there is only one element, #myelement, I can't understand the point of using is(), which checks if an element matches a set of elements?
This is some seriously existential JavaScript.
$('#myelement').is('*')
It will fail whenever #myelement doesn't exist, and return true otherwise.
Basically check to see if an element exists or not. Not the best method...
is checks the element fits the criteria. In this case, "*" means all elements.
So, it simply returns true if the previous selector returns anything.
Take a look here for an example: http://jsfiddle.net/b7DwB/
http://api.jquery.com/is/
Pretty much what it does well from my understanding of it at least, and how I tend to use it. Is return true or false on whatever its called on.
Example I have a checkbox that I want to make sure is checked before I submit my form via AJAX I would do something like
if( $('input#tosCheck').is(':checked') ){
/*its checked submit form*/
}else{
alert('Error');
}
All in all the link to the API from jQuery better describes it then I ever could, but I wanted to at least share an example of use to help you gauge some idea.
Can't say I've ever seen that jQuery code used before, but it seems to be a poor way of checking for the existence of an element. Since * is the universal selector, the expression in question will always return true if #myelement exists, otherwise it will return false.
I say this is a "poor" way of checking the existence of an element because you can simply check the length of the jQuery object instead:
$('#myelement').length > 0
I haven't done any testing, but I assume the above is faster since it doesn't have the overhead of the is() function call.

bookmarklet: inserting text into textarea with js?

What I am doing wrong?
javascript:document.getElementsByTagName('textarea').innerHTML='inserted';
I want to create a bookmarklet to insert simple text to a textarea on a given webpage.
Use the value property rather than innerHTML and make sure your code evaluates to undefined, which you can do by wrapping it in a function with no return statement. If you don't do this, the contents of the page will be replaced with whatever your code evaluates to (in this case, the string 'inserted').
javascript:(function() {document.getElementsByTagName('textarea')[0].value = 'inserted';})();
Update 14 January 2012
I failed to spot the fact that the original code was treating document.getElementsByTagName('textarea') as a single element rather than the NodeList it is, so I've updated my code with [0]. #streetpc's answer explains this in more detail.
Unlinke getElementById, getElementsByTagName has an sat Elements because it returns an array array-like NodeList of the matching elements. So you'll have to access one of the elements first, let's say the first one for simplicity:
javascript:void((function(){document.getElementsByTagName('textarea')[0].value='inserted'})())
Also, as mentioned by others, value property rather than innerHTML here.
In case anyone wonders how to use the currently focused text field, use the following:
document.activeElement.value = "...";
In jQuery you have to use if this way:
for single element -> $('#element_id').html('your html here')
for all text areas -> $('textarea').val('your html here')
I have to confess that I`m not sure why it works this way but it works. And use rameworks, they will save you time and nerves.

jQuery: is element.click(func) or element.attr('onclick','func()') more efficient?

I'm populating a list by cloning elements into it. Then I change attrs to make each item unique. They need to call a function on click, so I'm wondering if it's more efficient to use new_element.click(func); or new_element.attr('onlick','func();');
new_element.attr('onclick','func();');
Is:
inefficient (needlessly creating a new inline function from a string, that does nothing except call func and lose the this reference);
aggravating to put any complex code in, since it all has to be JS string escaped;
broken in IE, due to bugs in setAttribute.
Avoid. click()/bind('click') is there for a reason.
onclick has a number of limitations, including cluttering the DOM and only allowing one function at a time. So you should use click. See Quirks Mode for more information.
Directly referencing the function will be more efficient than having to interpret a string.
The lowest touch way of doing this, however, is this way:
$(links_selector).live('click', func);
links_selector will presumably be something like ul.listClass a.actionClass. This will not require anything to be done when new list elements get added.
Since you are using jQuery then make it this way
new_element.click(function(){
// your code
});
or you can bind the click event handler like
new_element.bind("click", function(){
// your code
});
Any difference in performance between the two is most likely going to be negligible. You should use the one that reads better, and that's element.click. (Plus, onclick has many disadvantages, as #Matthew Flaschen mentioned.)

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