How to getElementByClass instead of GetElementById with JavaScript?
I'm trying to toggle the visibility of certain DIV elements on a website depending on the class of each DIV. I'm using a basic JavaScript snippet to toggle them. The problem is that the script only uses getElementById, as getElementByClass is not supported in JavaScript. And unfortunately I do have to use class and not id to name the DIVs because the DIV names are dynamically generated by my XSLT stylesheet using certain category names.
I know that certain browsers now support getElementByClass, but since Internet Explorer doesn't I don't want to go that route.
I've found scripts using functions to get elements by class (such as #8 on this page: http://www.dustindiaz.com/top-ten-javascript/), but I can't figure out how to integrate them with with my toggle script.
Here's the HTML code. The DIVs themselves are missing since they are generated on page load with XML/XSLT.
Main Question: How do I get the below Toggle script to get Element by Class instead of get Element by ID?
<html>
<head>
<!--This is the TOGGLE script-->
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function toggle_visibility(id) {
var e = document.getElementById(id);
if(e.style.display == 'block')
e.style.display = 'none';
else
e.style.display = 'block';
}
//-->
</script>
</head>
<!--the XML/XSLT page contents will be loaded here, with DIVs named by Class separating dozens of li's-->
<a href="#" onclick="toggle_visibility('class1');">Click here to toggle visibility of class 1 objects</a>
<a href="#" onclick="toggle_visibility('class2');">Click here to toggle visibility of class 2 objects</a>
</body>
</html>
Answer
The getElementsByClassName method is now natively supported by the most recent versions of Firefox, Safari, Chrome, IE and Opera, you could make a function to check if a native implementation is available, otherwise use the Dustin Diaz method:
function getElementsByClassName(node,classname) {
if (node.getElementsByClassName) { // use native implementation if available
return node.getElementsByClassName(classname);
} else {
return (function getElementsByClass(searchClass,node) {
if ( node == null )
node = document;
var classElements = [],
els = node.getElementsByTagName("*"),
elsLen = els.length,
pattern = new RegExp("(^|\\s)"+searchClass+"(\\s|$)"), i, j;
for (i = 0, j = 0; i < elsLen; i++) {
if ( pattern.test(els[i].className) ) {
classElements[j] = els[i];
j++;
}
}
return classElements;
})(classname, node);
}
}
Usage:
function toggle_visibility(className) {
var elements = getElementsByClassName(document, className),
n = elements.length;
for (var i = 0; i < n; i++) {
var e = elements[i];
if(e.style.display == 'block') {
e.style.display = 'none';
} else {
e.style.display = 'block';
}
}
}