JavaScript createElementNS and SVG

pat picture pat · Aug 16, 2010 · Viewed 68.6k times · Source

I want to create inline SVG graphics using Javascript.

However, it seems like createElementNS function applies some normalization and transforms all tags to lowercase. That is fine for HTML but not for XML/SVG. The NS I used is http://www.w3.org/2000/svg.

In particular I have problems creating a element. As it will be appended as <textpath> and thus will not work.

I did some search but could not find a solution yet.

Does anybody know a solution?

document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg","textPath");

results in

<textpath></textpath>

Answer

gumape picture gumape · Aug 16, 2010

I hope, the following example will help you:

function CreateSVG() {
    var xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/2000/svg";
    var boxWidth = 300;
    var boxHeight = 300;

    var svgElem = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "svg");
    svgElem.setAttributeNS(null, "viewBox", "0 0 " + boxWidth + " " + boxHeight);
    svgElem.setAttributeNS(null, "width", boxWidth);
    svgElem.setAttributeNS(null, "height", boxHeight);
    svgElem.style.display = "block";

    var g = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "g");
    svgElem.appendChild(g);
    g.setAttributeNS(null, 'transform', 'matrix(1,0,0,-1,0,300)');

    // draw linear gradient
    var defs = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "defs");
    var grad = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "linearGradient");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "id", "gradient");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "x1", "0%");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "x2", "0%");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "y1", "100%");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "y2", "0%");
    var stopTop = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "stop");
    stopTop.setAttributeNS(null, "offset", "0%");
    stopTop.setAttributeNS(null, "stop-color", "#ff0000");
    grad.appendChild(stopTop);
    var stopBottom = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "stop");
    stopBottom.setAttributeNS(null, "offset", "100%");
    stopBottom.setAttributeNS(null, "stop-color", "#0000ff");
    grad.appendChild(stopBottom);
    defs.appendChild(grad);
    g.appendChild(defs);

    // draw borders
    var coords = "M 0, 0";
    coords += " l 0, 300";
    coords += " l 300, 0";
    coords += " l 0, -300";
    coords += " l -300, 0";

    var path = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "path");
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'stroke', "#000000");
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'stroke-width', 10);
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'stroke-linejoin', "round");
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'd', coords);
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'fill', "url(#gradient)");
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'opacity', 1.0);
    g.appendChild(path);

    var svgContainer = document.getElementById("svgContainer");
    svgContainer.appendChild(svgElem);
}
#svgContainer {
  width: 400px;
  height: 400px;
  background-color: #a0a0a0;
}
<body onload="CreateSVG()">
    <div id="svgContainer"></div>
</body>