change href link in plain javascript

Question

I'm creating a new DOM element so I can later populate it with data:

var bubbleDOM = document.createElement('div');
bubbleDOM.setAttribute('class', 'selection_bubble');
document.body.appendChild(bubbleDOM);

I want to iterate over links in this newly created element to turn addresses like "something.something" into "http://www.something.something". I don't want jQuery, so I tried this without success:

var links = bubbleDOM.getElementsByTagName("a"); 
for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) { 
    links[i].href = "http://www." + links[i].href.value;
}

What does your debugger say links is? Is it finding anything? — josh.trow
– josh.trow, Commented Feb 2, 2012 at 20:36
You should always try debugging JS before asking the community. — kitti
– kitti, Commented Feb 2, 2012 at 20:38

pseudosavant · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-02 20:44:50Z

1

Couple of things stand out.

links[i].href.value isn't valid. Just use links[i].href.
You should check to make sure the href actually has something in it.

Here is an example that works for me:

var links = bubbleDOM.getElementsByTagName("a"); 
for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) { 
    if (!!links[i].href && links[i].href.length > 0) { // Check that there is an href
        links[i].href = "http://www." + links[i].href;
    }
}

answered Feb 2, 2012 at 20:44

pseudosavant

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Comments

Mike Samuel · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-02 20:40:23Z

0

links[i].href.value will always be an absolute URL, so if the attribute in HTML looks like

<a href="something.something">

then the value of links[i].href.value will be something like

"http://current.domain/something.something"

Try using getAttribute('href') instead.

answered Feb 2, 2012 at 20:40

Mike Samuel

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Comments

gion_13 · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-02 20:42:02Z

0

use getters and setter to access/modify the attributes : getAttribute and setAttribue.

Here's a demo : http://jsfiddle.net/rF9qk/

answered Feb 2, 2012 at 20:42

gion_13

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2 Comments

Tom Over a year ago

hey thanks. it's not even getting inside the loop.. tried to put an alert inside it.. i know there are 15 links so would could be the problem?

gion_13 Over a year ago

could you post a fiddle with your code, or link us to your page?

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