Extend Prototype with more DOM functions Login or Register to Bookmark this snippet

Description Javascript

Extend the Prototype JS API by adding this afterwards.

This will give your DOM Elements 3 more functions:

searchUp
elm.searchUp('table');
Will return the DOM element that is the first ancestor up the DOM tree.
removeChildren
elm.removeChildren();
Will remove all DOM nodes from the element.
destroy
elm.destroy();
Will remove itself from the DOM tree.

The Code Download

var MyUtils = {
 
    // searchUp - searches the dom tree upwards for the findElm node starting from elm.
    // @author jcurnow
    searchUp: function (element, find_node_name) {
        element = $(element);
        while (element && element.parentNode && element.nodeName.toLowerCase() != find_node_name && element.nodeName.toLowerCase() != 'body') {
            element = element.parentNode;
        }
        return element;
    },
 
    // removeChildren - removes all dom childs
    // @author jcurnow
    removeChildren: function(element) {
        element = $(element);
        while (element.hasChildNodes()) {
            element.removeChild(element.firstChild);
        }
        return true;
    },
 
    // destroy - Removes the element from the dom
    // @author jcurnow
    destroy: function(element){
        element = $(element);
        if (element && element.parentNode.removeChild(element)){
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
 
}
Element.addMethods(MyUtils);

Snippets v2

Extend Prototype with more DOM functions Login or Register to Bookmark this snippet