dojo.byId

Available:since V0.3

Contents

This is a simple alias to ‘’document.getElementById’‘, which not only is shorter to write, but fortunately works in all browsers. It turns a domNode reference to some Node byId, or the same node reference if passed a domNode.

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// fetch a node by id="someNode"
var node = dojo.byId("someNode");

The node variable is just a native domNode, with properties you can manipulate. The most common, ''innerHTML'':

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// set some node to say "Hello World"
dojo.byId("someNode").innerHTML = "Hello World";

If you pass byId a domNode reference, the same node is returned:

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var node = dojo.byId("someNode");
var other = dojo.byId(node);
console.log(node == other);
>>> true

If you pass dojo.byId a string, and no domNode is found to match, ''undefined'' or the null object is returned (depending on the browser), which is adequate truthiness to use conditionally:

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var node = dojo.byId("fooBar");
if(node){
  node.innerHTML = "I was found!";
}else{
  console.log("no node with id='fooBar' found!");
}

Most (if not all) functions in Dojo accept either a string or DomNode as a parameter. If passed a string, the function typically calls dojo.byId(), ensuring a domNode is always the object. For instance:

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dojo.style(dojo.byId("foo"), "opacity", 0.5);
// is identical to:
dojo.style("foo", "opacity", 0.5);

The latter is preferred, as the call to dojo.byId is made in both cases. The passing of a string ID is consistent throughout the Dojo Toolkit.

JavaScript has a fun convention for conditionals inline. Imagine wanting a domNode reference, and if not present, default to some other node:

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var othernode = dojo.byId("fallbackNode");
var node = dojo.byId("missingNode") || othernode;
node.innerHTML = "Which one?";

Above, if the node id="missingNode" is in fact missing, the logical OR will continue, and use othernode as the value of node.

Examples

Fade-out a node

The following example lets a node by id dissapear from the screen

<script type="text/javascript">
dojo.require("dijit.form.Button");

dojo.addOnLoad(function(){
  var node = dojo.byId("findMe");
  dojo.connect(dijit.byId("buttonOne"), "onClick", function(){
    dojo.fadeOut({node: node, duration: 300}).play();
  });
  dojo.connect(dijit.byId("buttonTwo"), "onClick", function(){
    dojo.fadeIn({node: node, duration: 300}).play();
  })
});
</script>
<button dojoType="dijit.form.Button" id="buttonOne">Hide Me!</button> <button dojoType="dijit.form.Button" id="buttonTwo">Show Me!</button>
<div id="findMe">Hiya!</div>
<style type="text/css">
  #findMe {
    width: 200px;
    height: 100px;
    background: #f3f3f3;
    border: 1px dotted #ccc;
    color: #444;
    padding: 10px;
    margin: 10px;
  }
</style>

See Also

References

  • DOM - Official documentation on the Document Object Model.
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