[whatwg] getElementsByIdPart

[Doron Rosenberg]

Wouldn't a getElementsByAttribute be a more flexiable solution?

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 19:03:03 +0000 (UTC), Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Jul 2004 chriswa at comcast.net wrote:
> >
> > It would be nice if you can add an API to that permit you to get
> > elements based on part of the Id name.  This would permit you to create
> > classes of controls in JavaScript.
> 
> I've added a getElementsByClass() method to the Web Apps spec draft which
> is probably a more semantically correct solution:
> 
>    http://whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#selecting
> 
> 
> > For example ASP.NET labels the id of controls as
> > ControlOuter1_ControlInner1_element.  If use such an API I can obtain
> > all the elements of ControlOuter1 then all the elements of
> > ControlInner1.  Thus I can build a control heirarchy in JavaScript.
> 
> You could loop over all the elements and make their class attributes equal
> their ID attributes with underscores changed to spaces quite easily, which
> would then allow you to use the method mentioned above, as well as letting
> you use CSS and other class-based mechanisms.
> 
> Does this help, or do you really think a getElementByIdPart() method
> would be better? What worries me about such a method is that an element's
> ID is supposed to be unique and opaque, and such an API suggests that IDs
> have some sort of structure.
> 
> --
> Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
>