Replace a textNode with HTML text in Javascript?

Question

I was directed to the Linkify project on GitHub (https://github.com/cowboy/javascript-linkify) for finding and "linkifying" URLs and domains just floating in text.

It's awesome! It totally works on text!

However, I'm not quite sure how to make it work on a textNode which has the text I want to Linkify.

I understand the textNode only has textContent since.. it's all text. Since this Linkify function returns HTML as text, is there a way to take a textNode and "rewrite" the HTML within it with the Linkify output?

I've been playing with it on JSFiddle here: http://jsfiddle.net/AMhRK/9/

function repl(node) {
  var nodes = node.childNodes;
  for (var i = 0, m = nodes.length; i < m; i++) {
    var n = nodes[i];
    if (n.nodeType == n.TEXT_NODE) {
      // do some swappy text to html here?
      n.textContent = linkify(n.textContent);
    } else {
      repl(n);
    }
  }
}

Your example code is so messy and so much, I don't even know where to begin! Can you clean it up a little bit, and just have a normal example, and the one you want with textNode? — Hanlet Escaño
– Hanlet Escaño, Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 16:50
@ryan it's close but you see it mangles the already properly hyperlinked URLs. — Jippers
– Jippers, Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 17:28
@HanletEscaño here's a "cleaned up" fiddle jsfiddle.net/AMhRK/6 — Jippers
– Jippers, Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 17:39

Will Scott · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-21 17:11:01Z

35

You'll need to replace the textNode with an HTML element, like a span, and then set your linkified-text as that element's innerHTML.

var replacementNode = document.createElement('span');
replacementNode.innerHTML = linkify(n.textContent);
n.parentNode.insertBefore(replacementNode, n);
n.parentNode.removeChild(n);

answered Mar 21, 2013 at 17:11

Will Scott

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7 Comments

Rodrigo Siqueira Over a year ago

It's not that simple as a text node may contain a lot of "unlinkfied" elements

Jippers Over a year ago

This seems to work! Here's a Fiddle fork with Will Scott's addition: jsfiddle.net/H2aHH

neaumusic Over a year ago

this maintains the user's Selection, where .replaceChild() does not!! brilliant

Gromo Over a year ago

var replacementNode = document.createElement('span'); var newHtml = linkify(n.textContent); n.parentNode.insertBefore(replacementNode, n); n.parentNode.removeChild(n); replacementNode.outerHTML = newHtml;

Gabriel Luci Over a year ago

@Gromo I like your solution since it doesn't end up leaving new span elements around.

|

driconmax · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-05 19:22:58Z

11

Additionally to previous answer I propose more short way (based on jQuery):

$(n).replaceWith('Some text with <b>html</b> support');

where n - is textNode.

Or the native version

var txt = document.createElement("span");
txt.innerHTML = "Some text with <b>html</b> support";
node.replaceWith(txt);

where node is the textNode

edited Aug 5, 2019 at 19:22

driconmax

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answered Feb 2, 2017 at 17:11

IStranger

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2 Comments

Franklin Yu Over a year ago

replaceWith() is available as vanilla JavaScript on modern browsers (Chrome and Firefox; Edge is under development).

Kokodoko Over a year ago

But in the vanilla version there is no HTML support. Tags just appear as text.

ja0nz · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-21 08:28:06Z

5

Build on @AlexJeffcott's answer: Perf optimized version utilizing DocumentFragment instead of messing around with <span>, innerHTML and childNodes😁

const enhanceNodes = (textNodes) => {
    textNodes.forEach((node) => {
        const oldText = node.textContent;
        const newText = fancyTextTranformation(oldText);
        const fragment = document.createRange().createContextualFragment(newText);
        node.replaceWith(fragment);
    })
}

answered May 21, 2022 at 8:28

ja0nz

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Comments

AlexJeffcott · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-04 10:56:37Z

1

Build on Will Scott's accepted answer, if you do not wish to have to wrap everything in a span, you could do the following:

const enhanceNodes = (textNodes) => {
    const renderNode = document.createElement('span');
    textNodes.forEach((node) => {
        const oldText = node.textContent;
        renderNode.innerHTML = fancyTextTranformation(oldText);
        node.replaceWith(...renderNode.childNodes);
    })
}

answered Apr 4, 2022 at 10:56

AlexJeffcott

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