275620 - node.appendChild() is not displaying the imported nodes

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

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

Description

[Chris Schmitt]

I have been playing with zool and firefox for a while and I think I have found a
bug in the implementation of the DOM.  The attached url is a link to the post I
have put up on the XUL forums, but I think it might be deeper then that.

I have an element in a web page (XUL tree).  I am trying to append child nodes
to the element through javascript using the following statments:

Code:
	var tr = document.getElementById("tree-rows");
	
	var stream = "	<treeitem><treerow>";
	stream += "		<treecell label=\"1\"/>";
	stream += "		<treecell label=\"this is my name\"/>";
	stream += "		</treerow></treeitem>";
	
	var doc = new DOMParser().parseFromString("<treechildren>" + stream +
"</treechildren>", 'text/xml');
	doc=doc.firstChild;
	tr.appendChild(tr.ownerDocument.importNode(doc,true));

	//------------------------------------------------
	//  this way also works but doesn't render
	//range = doc.createRange();
	//range.selectNodeContents(doc.getElementsByTagName("treechildren")[0]);
	//tr.appendChild(range.extractContents());
	
	var items = document.getElementsByTagName("treeitem");
	alert("Rows Loaded: " + items.length);

The really strange part is the elements appear in the DOM Inspector and can be
referenced in the document (as the alert shows).  But the tree is not rendering
the rows.  

Also if I use the DOM Inspector and click on the tree's rows, a red debug box
appears round the area I would expect to see the rendered nodes in.

The javascript console is not throwing any error's on running this code.

Comment 1

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

Not sure if this belongs to DOM or XP Toolkit/Widgets: XUL, but I'm sure it
doesn't belong to Firefox : General.

Comment 2

[Chris Schmitt]

I see the catagory has been changed for this, but has anyone picked it up?  Do I need to do something 
else?

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

You have two bugs in your code:

1)  You're appending a <treechildren> as a child of another <treechildren>.
2)  When you parse, you're creating elements in the null namespace, not XUL
    elements.

Fixing these bugs makes the treeitem show up, as one would expect.

Comment 4

[Chris Schmitt]

Boris,
  Thanks for updating my case notes.  Is there any chance you could possible post an example of your 
working code.  I understand the whole "treechildren" one, but your second point I just don't get.  I 
would really appricate it if you could help me out. 

Thanks

Comment 5

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Make two changes:

1)  Replace:

  doc=doc.firstChild;

with:

  doc=doc.firstChild.firstChild.nextSibling;

2)  Replace:

	var stream = "	<treeitem><treerow>";

with:

	var stream = "	<treeitem
xmlns='http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul'><treerow>";

Or put the XUL namespace on the <treechildren> you parse.  Or something.  But at
some point you have to tell the parser that you're creating XUL elements, and
not, say, HTML.

Comment 6

[Chris Schmitt]

Thanks for your help.. I will add those changes to my app in the morning.  It will make a huge 
performace difference in what I was doing...