Retrieve parent node from selection (range) in Gecko and Webkit

Question

I am trying to add an attribute when using a wysiwyg editor that uses "createLink" command. I thought it would be trivial to get back the node that is created after the browse executes that command.

Turns out, I am only able to grab this newly created node in IE. Any ideas?

The following code demonstrates the issue (debug logs at bottom show different output in each browser):

var getSelectedHTML = function() {
    if ($.browser.msie) {
        return this.getRange().htmlText;
    } else {
        var elem = this.getRange().cloneContents();
        return $("<p/>").append($(elem)).html();
    }
};

var getSelection = function() {
    if ($.browser.msie) {
        return this.editor.selection;
    } else {
        return this.iframe[0].contentDocument.defaultView.getSelection();
    }
};

var getRange = function() {
    var s = this.getSelection();
    return (s.getRangeAt) ? s.getRangeAt(0) : s.createRange();
};

var getSelectedNode = function() {
    var range = this.getRange();
    var parent = range.commonAncestorContainer ? range.commonAncestorContainer : 
                    range.parentElement ? range.parentElement(): 
                    range.item(0);
    return parent;
};


// **** INSIDE SOME EVENT HANDLER ****

if ($.browser.msie) {
    this.ec("createLink", true);
} else {
    this.ec("createLink", false, prompt("Link URL:", "http://"));
}

var linkNode = $(this.getSelectedNode());
linkNode.attr("rel", "external");

$.log(linkNode.get(0).tagName);
    // Gecko: "body"
    // IE: "a"
    // Webkit: "undefined"

$.log(this.getSelectedHTML());
    // Gecko: "<a href="http://site.com">foo</a>"
    // IE: "<A href="http://site.com" rel=external>foo</A>"
    // Webkit: "foo"

$.log(this.getSelection());
    // Gecko: "foo"
    // IE: [object Selection]
    // Webkit: "foo"

Thanks for any help on this, I've scoured related questions on SO with no success!

Answer 1

This is the code I've used to get the "parentNode" of the text cursor:

var getSelectedNode = function() {
    var node,selection;
    if (window.getSelection) {
      selection = getSelection();
      node = selection.anchorNode;
    }
    if (!node && document.selection) {
        selection = document.selection
        var range = selection.getRangeAt ? selection.getRangeAt(0) : selection.createRange();
        node = range.commonAncestorContainer ? range.commonAncestorContainer :
               range.parentElement ? range.parentElement() : range.item(0);
    }
    if (node) {
      return (node.nodeName == "#text" ? node.parentNode : node);
    }
};

I tweaked my IE method to approximate yours. Tested and working IE8, FF3.6, Safari4, Chrome5. I set up a jsbin preview that you can test with.