Cannot access html element in Javascript

Question

I am trying to access the title of an html div element which is on the page, from a browser extension. When I console log the element in firefox and view it in the dev tools, I get this output:

<div class="X" A="Y" B="Z" C="XX">

When I click the on the above to expand it, I get the list of element characteristics:

...
tagName: "DIV"
textContent: "what is in the text"
title: "what I want to get"

Yet, when I console log element.title I get an empty string. I get undefined when I do element.innerHTML, when there is clearly something there.

When I click on it, I get the expanded list of attributes which includes the title. — John Abel Doe
– John Abel Doe, Commented Jul 11, 2019 at 15:10

shrys · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-11 04:57:05Z

1

If the element does not have a title attribute it won't log anything. I assume you might be seeing a different div, consider the following:

console.log("class X div title: ", document.getElementsByClassName('X')[0].title);
console.log("class F div title: ", document.getElementsByClassName('F')[0].title);
//jQuery
console.log("class X div title: ", $(".X").prop('title'));
console.log("class F div title: ", $(".F").prop('title'));

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="X" A="Y" B="Z" C="XX">innerHTML for X</div>
<div class="F" A="Y" B="Z" C="XX" title="target title">innerHTML for F</div>

answered Jul 11, 2019 at 4:57

shrys

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2 Comments

John Abel Doe Over a year ago

I am certain I am seeing the correct div. What I am doing is: console.log(element); console.log(element.title);

shrys Over a year ago

@JohnAbelDoe could you try out the same in another browser, say chrome? Does it have the same behavior?

Brad · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-11 04:59:01Z

0

If you want to access to the title of an htmlElement, it must be set on, on your example it haven't, take a look on mine :

<div class="X" A="Y" B="Z" C="XX" style="styleX" title="myAwesomeTitle">

edited Jul 11, 2019 at 4:59

Brad

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answered Jul 11, 2019 at 4:56

Benoit Chassignol

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