Develop Reference

Traverse XML with jQuery to get element value

I have some XML that looks like so:
<closure1>
<topClosure>
<ellipsoidalHead>
<standardComponentData>
<variousElements>
<idNumber>234567</idNumber>
<nominalThickness units="in">0.3750</nominalThickness>
</standardComponentData>
</ellipsoidalHead>
</topClosure>
</closure1>
<shell>
<standardComponentData>
<various_elements>
<nominalThickness units="in">0.6250</nominalThickness>
<idNumber>123456</idNumber>
</standardComponentData>
</shell>
<nozzle>
<standardComponentData>
<various_elements>
<attachedToidNumber>123456</attachedToidNumber>
</standardComponentData>
<nozzle>
In my JS code, I already have the <nozzle> element bomNode as a jQuery set, i.e.
var bomNode = $("nozzle");
So, for each nozzle element, I need to
Get the value of <attachedToidNumber> in the <nozzle> element.
Find the element that contains the <idNumber> that matches
<attachedToidNumber> (<shell> in this case).
Get the value in the <nominalThickess>
element.
As you can see, the depth of the desired <idNumber> element can vary. This is also a very small subset of the whole XML structure, so it can be very large.
I've tried something like this:
var attachedToElement = bomNode.parents().find('idNumber').text() === attachedToId;
but I get false returned. What's the easiest way to get the desired idNumber value? I'm sure it's something simple, but I'm just missing it.
Thanks.
UPDATE: I realized that bomNode is at the top level, I don't need to go up. a level. Doing something like this
var attachedToElement = bomNode.parents().siblings().find('idNumber')
gives me a list of children elements that have an <idNumber> element. So, I need to find the one that has the desired value. My thought is to use .each(). However, that value is defined outside of the .each() function, so I don't have anything to match against. Once I have the list of matches, what's the easiest way to get the set that has the <idNumber> value I want?

You were right - you missed a simple thing:
shell is not a parent of nozzle. They are siblings. Try this:
var attachedToElement = bomNode.siblings().find('idNumber').text() === attachedToId;
But this would return true (if true) - not the actual value.

SYNTAX HELP: How to Find control in javascript ?

I am trying to implement server side code on client side. "trvddl1" is a ascx control which contains a dropdownlist "ddltree". It was easy on server side but I am facing difficulty using the same in javascript.
How do I write the following code in javascript?
((DropDownList)trvddl1.FindControl("ddltree")).SelectedValue;
I tried
var abc = document.getElementById('<%=trvddl1.ClientID%>').value;
and
var Region = document.getElementById('<%=trvddl1.FindControl("ddltree")%>').value;
but javascript returned error. Is there some other keyword I am missing ?

Check the HTML output (Browser-->View Source) and locate the control there, see what the ID of that control has, and put that one into the getElementById() function.
Example:
<input id='ddltree' .... />
Then use:
var abc = document.getElementById('ddltree').value;

Perhaps you can try something like that:
// find all controls that have an id that ends with ddltree
// starts with would be [id*=ddltree]
var abc = document.querySelectorAll("[id$=ddltree]");
if(abc.length > 0) {
// got it !
console.log(abc[0].value);
}
Please note that querySelectorAll is not supported in all browsers (even though - most). Here is a reference.

jQuery navigating XML parent child nodes and selecting appropriate attributes from each?

I am creating a templating system which can be interpreted at client side with Javascript to construct a fill in the blanks form e.g. for a letter to a customer etc.
I have the template constructed and the logic set out in pseudo code, however my unfamiliarity with jQuery I could use some direction to get me started.
The basic idea is there is a markup in my text node that denotes a field e.g. ${prologue} this is then added to an array called "fields" which will then be used to search for corresponding node names in the xml.
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<message>
<text>${Prologue} - Dear ${Title} ${Surname}. This is a message from FUBAR. An engineer called but was unable to gain access, a new appointment has been made for ${ProductName} with order number ${VOLNumber}, on ${AppointmentDate} between ${AppointmentSlot}.
Please ensure you are available at your premises for the engineer. If this is not convenient, go to fubar.com or call 124125121515 before 12:00 noon the day before your appointment. Please refer to your order confirmation for details on what will happen on the day. ${Epilogue} - Free text field for advisor input<
</text>
<inputTypes>
<textBox type="text" fixed="n" size="100" alt="Enter a value">
<Prologue size="200" value="BT ENG Appt Reschedule 254159" alt="Prologue field"></Prologue>
<Surname value="Hoskins"></Surname>
<ProductName value=""></ProductName>
<VOLNumber size="8" value="" ></VOLNumber>
<Epilogue value=""></Epilogue>
</textBox>
<date type="datePicker" fixed="n" size="8" alt="Select a suitable appointment date">
<AppointmentDate></AppointmentDate>
</date>
<select type="select" >
<Title alt="Select the customers title">
<values>
<Mr selected="true">Mr</Mr>
<Miss>Miss</Miss>
<Mrs>Mrs</Mrs>
<Dr>Dr</Dr>
<Sir>Sir</Sir>
</values>
</Title>
<AppointmentSlot alt="Select the appointment slot">
<values>
<Morning>9:30am - 12:00pm</Morning>
<Afternoon>1:00pm - 5:00pm</Afternoon>
<Evening>6:00pm - 9:00pm</Evening>
</values>
</AppointmentSlot>
</select>
</inputTypes>
</message>
Pseudocode
Get list of tags from text node and build array called "fields"
For each item in "fields" array:
Find node in xml that equals array item's name
Get attributes of that node
Jump to parent node
Get attributes of parent node
If attributes of parent node != child node then ignore
Else add the parent attributes to the result
Build html for field using all the data gathered from above
Addendums
Is this logic ok, is it possible to start at the parent of the node and navigate downwards instead?
Also with regards to inheritence could we get the parent attributes and if the child attributes are different then add them to the result? What about if the number of attributes in the parent does not equal the number in the child?
Please do not provide fully coded solutions, just a little teasers to get me started.
Here is what I have so far which is extracting the tags from text node
//get value of node "text" in xml
var start = $(xml).find("text").text().indexOf('$');
var end = $(xml).find("text").text().indexOf('}');
var tag = "";
var inputType;
// find all tags and add them to a tag array
while (start >= 0)
{
//console.log("Reach In Loop " + start)
tag = theLetter.slice(start + 2, end);
tagArray.push(tag);
tagReplaceArray.push(theLetter.slice(start, end + 1));
start = theLetter.indexOf('$', start + 1);
end = theLetter.indexOf('}', end + 1);
}
Any other recommendations or links to similar problems would be welcome.
Thankyou!

I am using a similar technique to do html templating.
Instead of working with elements, I find it easier to work with a string and then convert it to html. In your case with jQuery, you could do something similar:
Have your xml as a string:
var xmlString='<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><message><text>${Prologue} - Dear ${Title} ${Surname}... ';
Iterate through the string to do the replacements with a regex ($1 is the captured placeholder, for example Surname):
xmlString.replace(/$\{([^}]+)}/g,function($0,$1)...}
Convert to nodes if needed:
var xml=$(xmlString);
The benefits of the regex:
faster (just a string, you're not walking the DOM)
global replace (for example if Surname appears several times), just loop through your object properties once
simple regex /${([^}]+)}/ to target the placeholder

Get list of tags from text node and build array called "fields"
To create the array I would rather user regular expression, this is one of the best use for it (in my opinion) because we are indeed searching for a pattern :
var reg = /\$\{(\w+)\}/gm;
var i = 0;
var fields = new Array();
while ( (m = reg.exec(txt)) !== null)
{
fields[i++] = m[1];
}
For each item in "fields" array
jQuery offers some utility functions :
To iterate through your fields you could do this : $.each(fields, function(index, value){});
Navigating through the nodes and retrieving the values
Just use the jQuery function like you are already doing.
Building the HTML
I would create templates objects for each types you would take in charge (in this example : Text, Select)
Then using said templates you could replace the tokens with the HTML of your templates.
Displaying the HTML
Last step would be to parse the result string and append it at the right place:
var ResultForm = $.parseHTML(txt);
$("#DisplayDiv").append(ResultForm);
Conclusion
Like you asked, I did not prepare anything that works right out of the box, I hope it will help you prepare your own answer. (And then I hope you will share it with the community)

This is just a framework to get you going, like you asked.
first concept is using a regex to just find all matches of ${ }. it returns an array like ["${one}","${t w 0 }","${ three}"].
second concept is a htmlGenerator json object mapping "inputTypes-->childname" to a function responsible for the html print out.
third is not to forget about natural javascript. .localname will give you the xml element's name, and node.attributes should give you a namedNodeMap back (remember not to perform natural javascript against the jquery object, make sure you're referencing the node element jQuery found for you).
the actual flow is simple.
find all the '${}'tokens and store the result in an array.
find all the tokens in the xml document and using their parents info, store the html in an map of {"${one}":"<input type='text' .../>","${two}":"<select><option value='hello'>world!</option></select>" ...}
iterate through the map and replace every token in the source text with the html you want.
javascript
var $xmlDoc = $(xml); //store the xml document
var tokenSource =$xmlDoc.find("message text").text();
var tokenizer=/${[^}]+/g; //used to find replacement locations
var htmlGenerators = {
"textBox":function(name,$elementParent){
//default javascript .attributes returns a namedNodeMap, I think jquery can handle it, otherwise parse the .attributes return into an array or json obj first.
var parentAttributes = ($elementParent[0] && $elementParent.attributes)?$elementParent.attributes:null;
//this may be not enough null check work, but you get the idea
var specificAttributes =$elementParent.find(name)[0].attributes;
var combinedAttributes = {};
if(parentAttributes && specificAttributes){
//extend or overwrite the contents of the first obj with contents from 2nd, then 3rd, ... then nth [$.extend()](http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.extend/)
$.extend(combinedAttributes,parentAttributes,specificAttributes);
}
return $("<input>",combinedAttributes);
},
"date":function(name,$elementParent){
//whatever you want to do for a 'date' text input
},
"select":function(name,$elementParent){
//put in a default select box implementation, obviously you'll need to copy options attributes too in addition to their value / visible value.
}
};
var html={};
var tokens = tokenSource.match(tokenizer); //pull out each ${elementKey}
for(index in tokens){
var elementKey = tokens[index].replace("${","").replace("}"),"");//chomp${,}
var $elementParent = $xmlDoc.find(elementKey).parent();//we need parent attributes. javascript .localname should have the element name of your xml node, in this case "textBox","date" or "select". might need a [0].localname....
var elementFunction = ($elementParent.localname)?htmlGenerators[elementParent.localname]:null; //lookup the html generator function
if(elementFunction != null){ //make sure we found one
html[tokens[index]] = elementFunction(elementKey,elementParent);//store the result
}
}
for(index in html){
//for every html result, replace it's token
tokenSource = tokenSource.replace(index,html[index]);
}

Replace all strings "<" and ">" in a variable with "<" and ">"

I am currently trying to code an input form where you can type and format a text for later use as XML entries. In order to make the HTML code XML-readable, I have to replace the code brackets with the corresponding symbol codes, i.e. < with < and > with >.
The formatted text gets transferred as HTML code with the variable inputtext, so we have for example the text
The <b>Genji</b> and the <b>Heike</b> waged a long and bloody war.
which needs to get converted into
The <b>Genji</b> and the <b>Heike</b> waged a long and bloody war.
I tried it with the .replace() function:
inputxml = inputxml.replace("<", "<");
inputxml = inputxml.replace(">", ">");
But this would just replace the first occurrence of the brackets. I'm pretty sure I need some sort of loop for this; I also tried using the each() function from jQuery (a friend recommended I looked at the jQuery package), but I'm still new to coding in general and I have troubles getting this to work.
How would you code a loop which would replace the code brackets within a variable as described above?
Additional information
You are, of course, right in the assumption that this is part of something larger. I am a graduate student in Japanese studies and currently, I am trying to visualize information about Japenese history in a more accessible way. For this, I am using the Simile Timeline API developed by MIT grad students. You can see a working test of a timeline on my homepage.
The Simile Timeline uses an API based on AJAX and Javascript. If you don't want to install the AJAX engine on your own server, you can implement the timeline API from the MIT. The data for the timeline is usually provided either by one or several XML files or JSON files. In my case, I use XML files; you can have a look at the XML structure in this example.
Within the timeline, there are so-called "events" on which you can click in order to reveal additional information within an info bubble popup. The text within those info bubbles originates from the XML source file. Now, if you want to do some HTML formatting within the info bubbles, you cannot use code bracket because those will just be displayed as plain text. It works if you use the symbol codes instead of the plain brackets, however.
The content for the timeline will be written by people absolutely and totally not accustomed to codified markup, i.e. historians, art historians, sociologists, among them several persons of age 50 and older. I have tried to explain to them how they have to format the XML file if they want to create a timeline, but they occasionally slip up and get frustrated when the timeline doesn't load because they forgot to close a bracket or to include an apostrophe.
In order to make it easier, I have tried making an easy-to-use input form where you can enter all the information and format the text WYSIWYG style and then have it converted into XML code which you just have to copy and paste into the XML source file. Most of it works, though I am still struggling with the conversion of the text markup in the main text field.
The conversion of the code brackets into symbol code is the last thing I needed to get working in order to have a working input form.

look here:
http://www.bradino.com/javascript/string-replace/
just use this regex to replace all:
str = str.replace(/\</g,"<") //for <
str = str.replace(/\>/g,">") //for >

To store an arbitrary string in XML, use the native XML capabilities of the browser. It will be a hell of a lot simpler that way, plus you will never have to think about the edge cases again (for example attribute values that contain quotes or pointy brackets).
A tip to think of when working with XML: Do never ever ever build XML from strings by concatenation if there is any way to avoid it. You will get yourself into trouble that way. There are APIs to handle XML, use them.
Going from your code, I would suggest the following:
$(function() {
$("#addbutton").click(function() {
var eventXml = XmlCreate("<event/>");
var $event = $(eventXml);
$event.attr("title", $("#titlefield").val());
$event.attr("start", [$("#bmonth").val(), $("#bday").val(), $("#byear").val()].join(" "));
if (parseInt($("#eyear").val()) > 0) {
$event.attr("end", [$("#emonth").val(), $("#eday").val(), $("#eyear").val()].join(" "));
$event.attr("isDuration", "true");
} else {
$event.attr("isDuration", "false");
}
$event.text( tinyMCE.activeEditor.getContent() );
$("#outputtext").val( XmlSerialize(eventXml) );
});
});
// helper function to create an XML DOM Document
function XmlCreate(xmlString) {
var x;
if (typeof DOMParser === "function") {
var p = new DOMParser();
x = p.parseFromString(xmlString,"text/xml");
} else {
x = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
x.async = false;
x.loadXML(xmlString);
}
return x.documentElement;
}
// helper function to turn an XML DOM Document into a string
function XmlSerialize(xml) {
var s;
if (typeof XMLSerializer === "function") {
var x = new XMLSerializer();
s = x.serializeToString(xml);
} else {
s = xml.xml;
}
return s
}

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/replace
You might use a regular expression with the "g" (global match) flag.
var entities = {'<': '<', '>': '>'};
'<inputtext><anotherinputext>'.replace(
/[<>]/g, function (s) {
return entities[s];
}
);

You could also surround your XML entries with the following:
<![CDATA[...]]>
See example:
<xml>
<tag><![CDATA[The <b>Genji</b> and the <b>Heike</b> waged a long and bloody war.]]></tag>
</xml>
Wikipedia Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDATA

What you really need, as mentioned in comments, is to XML-encode the string. If you absolutely want to do this is Javascript, have a look at the PHP.js function htmlentities.

I created a simple JS function to replace Greater Than and Less Than characters
Here is an example dirty string: < noreply#email.com >
Here is an example cleaned string: [ noreply#email.com ]
function RemoveGLthanChar(notes) {
var regex = /<[^>](.*?)>/g;
var strBlocks = notes.match(regex);
strBlocks.forEach(function (dirtyBlock) {
let cleanBlock = dirtyBlock.replace("<", "[").replace(">", "]");
notes = notes.replace(dirtyBlock, cleanBlock);
});
return notes;
}
Call it using
$('#form1').submit(function (e) {
e.preventDefault();
var dirtyBlock = $("#comments").val();
var cleanedBlock = RemoveGLthanChar(dirtyBlock);
$("#comments").val(cleanedBlock);
this.submit();
});

Unique element ID, even if element doesn't have one

I'm writing a GreaseMonkey script where I'm iterating through a bunch of elements. For each element, I need a string ID that I can use to reference that element later. The element itself doesn't have an id attribute, and I can't modify the original document to give it one (although I can make DOM changes in my script). I can't store the references in my script because when I need them, the GreaseMonkey script itself will have gone out of scope. Is there some way to get at an "internal" ID that the browser uses, for example? A Firefox-only solution is fine; a cross-browser solution that could be applied in other scenarios would be awesome.
Edit:
If the GreaseMonkey script is out of scope, how are you referencing the elements later? They GreaseMonkey script is adding events to DOM objects. I can't store the references in an array or some other similar mechanism because when the event fires, the array will be gone because the GreaseMonkey script will have gone out of scope. So the event needs some way to know about the element reference that the script had when the event was attached. And the element in question is not the one to which it is attached.
Can't you just use a custom property on the element? Yes, but the problem is on the lookup. I'd have to resort to iterating through all the elements looking for the one that has that custom property set to the desired id. That would work, sure, but in large documents it could be very time consuming. I'm looking for something where the browser can do the lookup grunt work.
Wait, can you or can you not modify the document? I can't modify the source document, but I can make DOM changes in the script. I'll clarify in the question.
Can you not use closures? Closuses did turn out to work, although I initially thought they wouldn't. See my later post.
It sounds like the answer to the question: "Is there some internal browser ID I could use?" is "No."

The answer is no, there isn't an internal id you can access. Opera and IE (maybe Safari?) support .sourceIndex (which changes if DOM does) but Firefox has nothing of this sort.
You can simulate source-index by generating Xpath to a given node or finding the index of the node from document.getElementsByTagName('*') which will always return elements in source order.
All of this requires a completely static file of course. Changes to DOM will break the lookup.
What I don't understand is how you can loose references to nodes but not to (theoretical) internal id's? Either closures and assignments work or they don't. Or am I missing something?

Closure is the way to go. This way you'll have exact reference to the element that even will survive some shuffling of DOM.
Example for those who don't know closures:
var saved_element = findThatDOMNode();
document.body.onclick = function()
{
alert(saved_element); // it's still there!
}
If you had to store it in a cookie, then I recommend computing XPath for it (e.g. walk up the DOM counting previous siblings until you find element with an ID and you'll end up with something like [#id=foo]/div[4]/p[2]/a).
XPointer is W3C's solution to that problem.

A bit confused by the wording of your question - you say that you "need a string ID that [you] can use to reference that element later, " but that you "can't store the references in [your] script because when [you] need them, the GreaseMonkey script itself will have gone out of scope."
If the script will have gone out of scope, then how are you referencing them later?!
I am going to ignore the fact that I am confused by what you are getting at and tell you that I write Greasemonkey scripts quite often and can modify the DOM elements I access to give them an ID property. This is code you can use to get a pseudo-unique value for temporary use:
var PseudoGuid = new (function() {
this.empty = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000";
this.GetNew = function() {
var fourChars = function() {
return (((1 + Math.random()) * 0x10000)|0).toString(16).substring(1).toUpperCase();
}
return (fourChars() + fourChars() + "-" + fourChars() + "-" + fourChars() + "-" + fourChars() + "-" + fourChars() + fourChars() + fourChars());
};
})();
// usage example:
var tempId = PseudoGuid.GetNew();
someDomElement.id = tempId;
That works for me, I just tested it in a Greasemonkey script myself.
UPDATE: Closures are the way to go - personally, as a hard-core JavaScript developer, I don't know how you didn't think of those immediately. :)
myDomElement; // some DOM element we want later reference to
someOtherDomElement.addEventListener("click", function(e) {
// because of the closure, here we have a reference to myDomElement
doSomething(myDomElement);
}, false);
Now, myDomElement is one of the elements you apparently, from your description, already have around (since you were thinking of adding an ID to it, or whatever).
Maybe if you post an example of what you are trying to do, it would be easier to help you, assuming this doesn't.

UPDATE: Closures are indeed the answer. So after fiddling with it some more, I figured out why closures were initially problematic and how to fix it. The tricky thing with a closure is you have to be careful when iterating through the elements not to end up with all of your closures referencing the same element. For example, this doesn't work:
for (var i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) {
var element = elements[i];
var button = document.createElement("button");
button.addEventListener("click", function(ev) {
// do something with element here
}, false)
}
But this does:
var buildListener = function(element) {
return function(ev) {
// do something with event here
};
};
for (var i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) {
var element = elements[i];
var button = document.createElement("button");
button.addEventListener("click", buildListener(element), false)
}
Anyway, I decided not to select one answer because the question had two answers: 1) No, there are no internal IDs you can use; 2) you should use closures for this. So I simply upvoted the first people to say whether there were internal IDs or who recommended generating IDs, plus anyone who mentioned closures. Thanks for the help!

If you can write to the DOM (I'm sure you can). I would solve this like this:
Have a function return or generate an ID:
//(function () {
var idCounter = new Date().getTime();
function getId( node ) {
return (node.id) ? node.id : (node.id = 'tempIdPrefix_' + idCounter++ );
}
//})();
Use this to get ID's as needed:
var n = document.getElementById('someid');
getId(n); // returns "someid"
var n = document.getElementsByTagName('div')[1];
getId(n); // returns "tempIdPrefix_1224697942198"
This way you don't need to worry about what the HTML looks like when the server hands it to you.

If you're not modifying the DOM you can get them all by indexed order:
(Prototype example)
myNodes = document.body.descendants()
alert(document.body.descendants()[1].innerHTML)
You could loop through all of the nodes and give them a unique className that you could later select easily.

You can set the id attribute to a computed value. There is a function in the prototype library that can do this for you.
http://www.prototypejs.org/api/element/identify
My favorite javascript library is jQuery. Unfortunately jQuery does not have a function like identify. However, you can still set the id attribute to a value that you generate on your own.
http://docs.jquery.com/Attributes/attr#keyfn
Here is a partial snippet from jQuery docs that sets id for divs based on the position in the page:
$(document).ready(function(){
$("div").attr("id", function (arr) {
return "div-id" + arr;
});
});

You can generate a stable, unique identifier for any given node in a DOM with the following function:
function getUniqueKeyForNode (targetNode) {
const pieces = ['doc'];
let node = targetNode;
while (node && node.parentNode) {
pieces.push(Array.prototype.indexOf.call(node.parentNode.childNodes, node));
node = node.parentNode
}
return pieces.reverse().join('/');
}
This will create identifiers such as doc/0, doc/0/0, doc/0/1, doc/0/1/0, doc/0/1/1 for a structure like this one:
<div>
<div />
<div>
<div />
<div />
</div>
</div>
There are also a few optimisations and changes you can make, for example:
In the while loop, break when that node has an attribute you know to be unique, for example #id
Not reverse() the pieces, currently it is just there to look more like the DOM structure the ID's are generated from
Not include the first piece doc if you don't need an identifier for the document node
Save the identifier on the node in some way, and reuse that value for child nodes to avoid having to traverse all the way up the tree again.
If you're writing these identifiers back to XML, use another concatenation character if the attribute you're writing is restricted.

Use mouse and/or positional properties of the element to generate a unique ID.

In javascript, you could attach a custom ID field to the node
if(node.id) {
node.myId = node.id;
} else {
node.myId = createId();
}
// store myId
It's a bit of hack, but it'll give each and every node an id you can use. Of course, document.getElementById() won't pay attention to it.

You can also use pguid (page-unique identifier) for unique identifier generation:
pguid = b9j.pguid.next() // A unique id (suitable for a DOM element)
// is generated
// Something like "b9j-pguid-20a9ff-0"
...
pguid = b9j.pguid.next() // Another unique one... "b9j-pguid-20a9ff-1"
// Build a custom generator
var sequence = new b9j.pguid.Sequence({ namespace: "frobozz" })
pguid = sequence.next() "frobozz-c861e1-0"
http://appengine.bravo9.com/b9j/documentation/pguid.html

I 'think' I've just solved a problem similar to this. However, I'm using jQuery in a browser DOM environment.
var objA = $("selector to some dom element");
var objB = $("selector to some other dom element");
if( objA[0] === objB[0]) {
//GREAT! the two objects point to exactly the same dom node
}

OK, there is no ID associated to DOM element automatically.
DOM has a hierarchycal structure of elements which is the main information.
From this perspective, you can associate data to DOM elements with jQuery or jQLite. It can solve some issues when you have to bind custom data to elements.