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createElementNS method (document, XMLDocument)

Browser support:

9

Creates an element with the specified namespace prefix and name.

Note: Internet Explorer supports the createElementNS method from version 9, but only for HTML documents, not for XML documents.

After the element is created, use the appendChild or insertBefore method to insert it into a document.

If you do not want to specify a namespace for the newly created element, use the createElement method instead.

Syntax:

object.createElementNS (namespaceURI, name);

You can find the related objects in the Supported by objects section below.

Parameters:

namespaceURI

Required. String that specifies the namespace URI of the element to be created. The namespaceURI property of the created element is set to this value.

name

Required. String that specifies the name of the element to be created. The nodeName property of the created element is set to this value.

Return value:

Returns the newly created element.

Example HTML code 1:

This example illustrates the use of the createElementNS method:

Code

ajax.js

ns.xml

<head>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="ajax.js"></script>
    
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var httpRequest = null;
        
        function SendRequest () {
            if (!httpRequest) {
                httpRequest = CreateHTTPRequestObject ();   // defined in ajax.js
            }
            if (httpRequest) {          
                    // The requested file must be in the same domain that the page is served from.
                var url = "ns.xml";
                httpRequest.open ("GET", url, true);    // async
                httpRequest.onreadystatechange = OnStateChange;
                httpRequest.send (null);
            }
        }

        function OnStateChange () {
            if (httpRequest.readyState == 0 || httpRequest.readyState == 4) {
                if (IsRequestSuccessful (httpRequest)) {    // defined in ajax.js
                    Test_CreateAttributeNS ();
                }
                else {
                    alert ("Operation failed.");
                }
            }
        }

        function Test_CreateAttributeNS () {
            var xmlDoc = ParseHTTPResponse (httpRequest);   // defined in ajax.js
            if (!xmlDoc)
                return;

            var itemTags = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName ("item");
            var firstItem = itemTags[0];

            if (xmlDoc.createElementNS) {
                var placeTag = xmlDoc.createElementNS ("http://help.dottoro.com/NS", "place");
                var placeText = xmlDoc.createTextNode ("Alabama");
                placeTag.appendChild (placeText);
                firstItem.appendChild (placeTag);
                
                var serializer = new XMLSerializer();
                alert(serializer.serializeToString(firstItem));
            }
            else {
                alert ("Your browser does not support this example!");
            }
        }

    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <button onclick="SendRequest ()">Test the createAttributeNS method</button>
</body>


function CreateHTTPRequestObject () {
        // although IE supports the XMLHttpRequest object, but it does not work on local files.
    var forceActiveX = (window.ActiveXObject && location.protocol === "file:");
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest && !forceActiveX) {
        return new XMLHttpRequest();
    }
    else {
        try {
            return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
        } catch(e) {}
    }
    alert ("Your browser doesn't support XML handling!");
    return null;
}

function CreateMSXMLDocumentObject () {
    if (typeof (ActiveXObject) != "undefined") {
        var progIDs = [
                        "Msxml2.DOMDocument.6.0", 
                        "Msxml2.DOMDocument.5.0", 
                        "Msxml2.DOMDocument.4.0", 
                        "Msxml2.DOMDocument.3.0", 
                        "MSXML2.DOMDocument", 
                        "MSXML.DOMDocument"
                      ];
        for (var i = 0; i < progIDs.length; i++) {
            try { 
                return new ActiveXObject(progIDs[i]); 
            } catch(e) {};
        }
    }
    return null;
}

function CreateXMLDocumentObject (rootName) {
    if (!rootName) {
        rootName = "";
    }
    var xmlDoc = CreateMSXMLDocumentObject ();
    if (xmlDoc) {
        if (rootName) {
            var rootNode = xmlDoc.createElement (rootName);
            xmlDoc.appendChild (rootNode);
        }
    }
    else {
        if (document.implementation.createDocument) {
            xmlDoc = document.implementation.createDocument ("", rootName, null);
        }
    }
    
    return xmlDoc;
}

function ParseHTTPResponse (httpRequest) {
    var xmlDoc = httpRequest.responseXML;

            // if responseXML is not valid, try to create the XML document from the responseText property
    if (!xmlDoc || !xmlDoc.documentElement) {
        if (window.DOMParser) {
            var parser = new DOMParser();
            try {
                xmlDoc = parser.parseFromString (httpRequest.responseText, "text/xml");
            } catch (e) {
                alert ("XML parsing error");
                return null;
            };
        }
        else {
            xmlDoc = CreateMSXMLDocumentObject ();
            if (!xmlDoc) {
                return null;
            }
            xmlDoc.loadXML (httpRequest.responseText);

        }
    }

            // if there was an error while parsing the XML document
    var errorMsg = null;
    if (xmlDoc.parseError && xmlDoc.parseError.errorCode != 0) {
        errorMsg = "XML Parsing Error: " + xmlDoc.parseError.reason
                  + " at line " + xmlDoc.parseError.line
                  + " at position " + xmlDoc.parseError.linepos;
    }
    else {
        if (xmlDoc.documentElement) {
            if (xmlDoc.documentElement.nodeName == "parsererror") {
                errorMsg = xmlDoc.documentElement.childNodes[0].nodeValue;
            }
        }
    }
    if (errorMsg) {
        alert (errorMsg);
        return null;
    }

        // ok, the XML document is valid
    return xmlDoc;
}

    // returns whether the HTTP request was successful
function IsRequestSuccessful (httpRequest) {
        // IE: sometimes 1223 instead of 204
    var success = (httpRequest.status == 0 || 
        (httpRequest.status >= 200 && httpRequest.status < 300) || 
        httpRequest.status == 304 || httpRequest.status == 1223);
    
    return success;
}

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ns xmlns="http://help.dottoro.com/defaultNS" xmlns:dotto="http://help.dottoro.com/NS">
    <item dotto:color="red">
        <dotto:title>Namespace example</dotto:title>
        <dotto:description>Describes how to use namespaces with tags and attributes.</dotto:description>
        <dotto:pubDate>Wed, 17 Aug 2009 13:58:41 +0200</dotto:pubDate>
        <dotto:link>http://help.dottoro.com</dotto:link>
    </item>
    <order>
        <dotto:param name="sortBy" value="title" />
        <dotto:param name="sortDir" value="ascending" />
    </order>
</ns>