JavaScript Examples Bible - UserWorks Technologies

extractContents()
Chapter 5 ✦ Body Text Objects (Chapter 19)
NN2 NN3 NN4 NN6 IE3/J1 IE3/J2 IE4 IE5 IE5.5
Compatibility ✓
Example
When Netscape outfits the NN6 browser with the extractContents() method,
use The Evaluator (Chapter 13 in the JavaScript Bible) to see how the method
works. Begin by creating a new range object that contains the text of the myP paragraph
element.
a = document.createRange()
a.selectNode(document.getElementById(“myP”))
Next, extract the original range’s content and preserve the copy in variable b:
b = a.extractContents()
Move the original range so that it is an insertion point at the end of the body by
first expanding it to encompass the entire body and then collapse it to the end
a.selectNode(document.body)
a.collapse(false)
Now, insert the extracted fragment at the very end of the body:
a.insertNode(b)
If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you see a copy of the text.
insertNode(nodeReference)
NN2 NN3 NN4 NN6 IE3/J1 IE3/J2 IE4 IE5 IE5.5
Compatibility ✓
Example
Listing 19-5, which relies on selection and Range object features not implemented
in the first release of NN6, demonstrates the insertNode() method plus
some additional items from the NN6 selection object. The example even includes
a rudimentary undo buffer for scripted changes to a text range. In the page generated
by this listing, users can select any text in a paragraph and have the script
automatically convert the text to all uppercase characters. The task of replacing a
selection with other text requires several steps, starting with the selection, which is
retrieved via the window.getSelection() method. After making sure the selection
contains some text (that is, the selection isn’t collapsed), the selection is preserved
as a range object so that the starting text can be stored in a global variable (as a
285
Range.insertNode()