JavaScript Document.Write Replaces All Body Content When Using AJAX
I am creating a simple ajax call that retrieves the content of a specified url and writes it to the page. The problem I am having is that it replaces the entire body contents with this information
here is the JS:
(function(){
var mb = window.mb = {};
function get_ad(url, parameters){
var result = "";
var http_request = false;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari,...
http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
http_request.overrideMimeType('text/html');
}
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
var avers = ["Microsoft.XmlHttp", "MSXML2.XmlHttp", "MSXML2.XmlHttp.3.0", "MSXML2.XmlHttp.4.0", "MSXML2.XmlHttp.5.0"];
for (var i = avers.length -1; i >= 0; i--) {
try {
http_request = new ActiveXObject(avers[i]);
if (http_request){
break;
}
} catch(e) {}
}
}
if (!http_request) {
alert('Cannot create XMLHTTP instance');
return false;
}
http_request.onreadystatechange = function(){
if (http_request.readyState == 4) {
if (http_request.status == 200) {
gen_output(http_request.responseText);
} else {
alert('Error');
}
}
}
http_request.open('GET', url + parameters, true);
http_request.send(null);
}
function gen_output(ad_content){
document.write("<div id=\"mb_ad\">");
document.write(ad_content);
document.write("</div>");
}
get_ad("http://localhost/test/test.html", "");
})();
and here is the html:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<body>
i am text before <br/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="mb.js"></script>
<br />
i am text after
</body>
</html>
using firebug to inspect, i do not see the text before or the text after, just the <div id="mb_ad"> and the content from the test.html page. If i remove the ajax call and just do 3 document.writes the text before and the text after will display properly. jQuery is not an option, I have to do this without the help of a large library as size and speed are of the essence.
Answers:
You can't use document.write once the document has completed loading. If you do, the browser will open a new document that replaces the current.
Use the innerHTML property to put HTML code inside an element:
function gen_output(ad_content){
document.getElementById('mb_ad').innerHTML = ad_content;
}
Put the element before the script, so that you are sure that it exists when the callback function is called:
i am text before
<div id="mb_ad"></div>
i am text after
<script type="text/javascript" src="mb.js"></script>
It doesn't matter much where you place the script, as nothing will be written to the document where it is.
in case you cant control the remote script you might be able to write something like so:
<script>
var tmp = document.write;
document.write = function () {
document.getElementById('someId').innerHTML = [].concat.apply([], arguments).join('');
};
</script>
<script .....>
document.write = tmp;
Well it is a nasty hack but it seems to work...
var div = document.createElement('div');
div.id = 'mb_ad';
div.innerHTML = ad_content;Now, you can append this node wherever you want it to be.
you can use <script>document.body.innerHTML+="//Your HTML Code Here";</script>
Same Leon Fedotov answer but more jQuery
{
var old_write = document.write;
var $zone = $('.zone.zone_' + name);
// redefine document.write in this closure
document.write = function () {
$zone.append([].concat.apply([], arguments).join(''));
};
// OA_output[name] contains dangerous document.write
$zone.html(OA_output[name]);
document.write = old_write;
}
I had the same problem with the following code :
$html[] = '<script>
if($("#mf_dialogs").length == 0) {
document.write("<div id=\"mf_dialogs\"></div>");
}
</script>';
The following code replaces document.write efficiently :
$html = '<div id="dialogHolder"></div>
<script>
if($("#mf_dialogs").length == 0) {
document.getElementById("dialogHolder").innerHTML="<div id=\"mf_dialogs\"></div>";
}
</script>';