DOM Factory

The DOM Factory is a utility class that adds a shorthand way of creating DOM elements on the fly.

The heart of the DOM Factory is the build function. This function will create a HTMLElement with any provided tag, and assign it the given properties, CSS classes, and text content.

By leveraging the use of a Proxy for the class's initializer, we give it the ability to accept any HTML tag as a method name, and thus skip the need for the full build method.

Due to the nature of HTML, almost any possible string is accepted as a tag name, though some limitations are enforced by the DOM Factory. Those limitations are:

• The tag name must start with an ASCII letter in the range A-Z
• The tag name must only contain characters in the ranges of A-Z, 0-9, or a hypen
• The tag name must end with a character in the ranges of A-Z, or 0-9

On account of limitations with JavaScript, custom tags with name containing hyphens must be created using the build function.

Documentation

build

Summary

Build an HTML element

Description

A shorthand call for document.createElement(), while providing the added benefit of being able to assign properties and attributes to the element during the creation process.

Must be used for elements that contain a hyphen in their tag name.

Parameters

• tag: string - The name of the HTML tag to build.
• properties?: object - An object of n-depth containing properties and attributes to assign the element. This may include things like an id, a type attribute, or even data- attributes.
• classes?: string[] - An array of CSS classes to assign to the element.
• textContent?: string - The initial text content of the element

Returns

• HTMLElement - An HTMLElement object of the given HTML tag name with the provided attributes and properties.

Example

const header = factory.build("h2", { id: "intro-to-computer-science" }, ["section-header"], "Intro to Computer Science");

text

Summary

Build a text node

Description

A shorthand call for document.createTextNode().

Parameters

• textContent?: string - The text to initialize the text node with

Returns

• TextNode - A text node with the given content

Example

const modal = factory.build("dialog");

const modalBody = factory.text("Do you wish to proceed?");

modal.appendChild(modalBody);

<any non-hypthenated tag name>

Summary

Build an HTMLElement with the tag name of the function name used

Description

A shorthand call for build() for any non-hyphenated HTML tag. Creates an HTML element with the same name as the called function.

Parameters

• properties?: object - An object of n-depth containing properties and attributes to assign the element. This may include things like an id, a type attribute, or even data- attributes.
• classes?: string[] - An array of CSS classes to assign to the element.
• textContent?: string - The initial text content of the element

Returns

• HTMLElement - An HTMLElement object of the given HTML tag name with the provided attributes and properties.

Example

/**
 * Display an alert to the user
 *
 * Builds an alert component and appends it to the main element
 * of the document
 *
 * @param alertText The text to display to the user
 */
function displayAlert(alertText) {
    const alertBody = factory.div({ id: `alert-${Date.now()}`}, ["alert"]);
    const alertTitle = factory.p({}, ["alert", "alert-title"], "Alert!");
    const alertMessage = factory.p({}, ["alert", "alert-message"], alertText);
    const alertClose = factory.build("alert-close", {}, ["alert", "alert-close"], "x");

    alertBody.append(alertClose, alertTitle, alertMessage);

    document.getElementById("main")?.appendChild(alertBody);
}

Assigning data- Attributes

The properties parameter can be used to add properties and attributes to the create element. A common "gotcha" seen when using the DOM Factory is that when trying to add a data attribute to an element, e.g. data-opened-by="button-4321", one might assume that the property should look something like the following,

function ShowDialog(openerID) {
    const myDialog = factory.dialog({
        data: {
            openedBy: openerID
        }
    },/* ... */);
}

Per the documentation, though, the correct property to reference is dataset. Thus, the correct version of the above would be:

function ShowDialog(openerID) {
    const myDialog = factory.dialog({
        dataset: {
            openedBy: openerID
        }
    },/* ... */);
}

Acknowledgements

tsconfig created using Matt Pocock's TSConfig Cheat Sheet