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JavaScript JavaScript and the DOM (Retiring) Getting a Handle on the DOM Practice Selecting Elements

Vincent Trombino
Vincent Trombino
12,246 Points
Posted by Vincent Trombino
Vincent Trombino
12,246 Points

Bug Issue?

Im not sure why I cant select the navigation links using any of the methods learned previously.

.getElementsByTagName('a') ; Selects too many tags

The interface doesnt seem to be responding to any HTML changes I make - it will not recognize all class names given to the navigation links.

Am I just not understanding something?

js/app.js 
let navigationLinks = document.getElementsByClassName('test');
let galleryLinks;
let footerImages;
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Nick Pettit | Designer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/normalize.css">
    <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Changa+One|Open+Sans:400italic,700italic,400,700,800' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/responsive.css">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  </head>
  <body>
    <header>
      <a href="index.html" id="logo">
        <h1>Nick Pettit</h1>
        <h2>Designer</h2>
      </a>
      <nav>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="index.html" class="selected test">Portfolio</a></li>
          <li><a class="test"href="about.html">About</a></li>
          <li><a class="test"href="contact.html">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
      </nav>
    </header>
    <div id="wrapper">
      <section>
        <ul id="gallery">
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-01.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-01.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Experimentation with color and texture.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-02.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-02.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Playing with blending modes in Photoshop.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </section>
      <footer>
        <a href="http://twitter.com/nickrp"><img src="img/twitter-wrap.png" alt="Twitter Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <a href="http://facebook.com/nickpettit"><img src="img/facebook-wrap.png" alt="Facebook Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <p>&copy; 2016 Nick Pettit.</p>
      </footer>
    </div>
  <script src="js/app.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

1 Answer

trio-group I.AM
trio-group I.AM
25,713 Points
trio-group I.AM
trio-group I.AM
25,713 Points

Hey!

Yes, you are selecting too many links when using getElementsByTagName and you should not be changing the markup. Revert your changes to the HTML and try selecting the links using 

var navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll('nav a');

The querySelectorAll returns an array which is exactly what you are looking for.

Theoretically, you can also make it work with *getElementsByTagName' but you'll have to be more specific like so:

var navigationLinks = document.getElementsByTagName('nav')[0].getElementsByTagName('a');

So what this is doing is selecting the first element with the tag name 'nav' by its index of 0 because getElementsByTagName also returns an array. After having selected the correct nav element we chain another getElementsByTagName to get all the links.