Closed Bug 154447 Opened 22 years ago Closed 22 years ago

document.element defaults to the 'name' attribute instead of the 'id' attribute

Categories

(Core :: DOM: Core & HTML, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
DOM: Core & HTML
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: dan_smeltz, Assigned: jst)

Details

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.0) Gecko/20020530
BuildID:    2002053012

When trying to access the 'form' element via the document.formid syntax, the
script does not find the element if there is a colon (:) in the form name.  The
form id being used matches the id on the 'form' tag, but the name contains a
colon (:).

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Please view the sample HTML/Javascript below


<html>
<body>
<script language="javascript">
<!--
	function __doPostBack(eventTarget, eventArgument) {
		var theform = document.frmMain_frmMain;
		theform.submit();
	}
// -->
</script>

<form 
	id="frmMain_frmMain" 
	name="frmMain:frmMain" 
	method="post" 
	action="" 
	language="javascript" 
	enctype="multipart/form-data">

<input 
	id="frmMain__ctl0__ctl1_cbxTest" 
	type="checkbox" 
	name="frmMain:_ctl0:_ctl1:cbxTest" 
	onclick="__doPostBack('frmMain:_ctl0:_ctl1:cbxTest','')"
	language="javascript" 
	checked=true />
</form>
</body>
</html>

*** The above code does not work.  If you change the colon in the name
attribute, of the form tag, to an underscore, then this code will work.
This bug is invalid for two reasons:


1. In JavaScript, colons are not allowed in variable names. This is 
true in IE as well as in Mozilla. The reason is, colons are special
symbols that the JS parser looks for, denoting "labels" in the code.

To see it generates an error, copy the first javascript:URL below
and hit <Enter> in any browser. Then copy the second one and <Enter>:

  javascript: void(window.onerror = function(e) {alert('ERROR: ' + e)}); 
  javascript: var a:b = 1;

Maybe the DOM allows colons in HTML names; I don't know. But in 
JavaScript, colons are a no-no in any identifier -



2. The |document.formid| syntax that you refer to is IE-only.
   What works across all browsers is |document.formname|. So in your
   example above, when you do |var theform = document.frmMain_frmMain;|,
   this works in IE because IE syntax accepts |document.formid| syntax.


> If you change the colon in the name attribute of the form tag,
> to an underscore, then this code will work.

b. That's because the identifier you're using in the function,
   |frmMain_frmMain|, is now a formname! So Mozilla (and all 
   browsers) can successfully resolve |document.frmMain_frmMain|,
   because they all can resolve |document.formname|.


Have to mark this one invalid, sorry -
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 22 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
Marking Verified -

See bug 154072, "Site uses proprietary IE-only DOM syntax",
where the same issue came up.

That bug is assigned to the Evangelism component, which will try
to contact the site listed there and advocate W3C-compliant HTML.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Status: VERIFIED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: INVALID → ---
This is from the HTML 4.01 spec.  According to the W3C, the name attribute is
only for backward compatibility.  Please see quote below:

name = cdata [CI] 
This attribute names the element so that it may be referred to from style sheets
or scripts. Note. This attribute has been included for backwards compatibility.
Applications should use the id attribute to identify elements.
OK, reassigning to the DOM experts -
Assignee: rogerl → jst
Component: JavaScript Engine → DOM Level 0
QA Contact: pschwartau → desale
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
document.foo is also only for backwards compatiblity, so arguing that
document.foo should resolve to something other than what it used to resolve to
based on arguments that themselves are about backwards compatibility only is not
enough for us to change how mozilla works. If you use ID attributes, then
document.getElementById('my_id') will do what you want, it's straight forward,
clean, and it's obvious what the code does by looking at the code.

WONTFIX.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 22 years ago → 22 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
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