getAttribute in Firefox 3.5 and IE8 doesn't work how it used to.

Question

I am creating a javascript function that would find an anchor in a page (specifically with , not an id) and then iterate through the parents of it until it reached one that contains a certain class. I used the following code and it works fine in Firefox 3.0 but fails at getAttribute in both Firefox 3.5 and Internet Explorer 8.

var tab = document.getElementsByName(headerName).item(0);

while (tab.getAttribute('class') != 'card') {
    tab = tab.parentNode;
}

I know this would be easy in jQuery but I am highly constrained. How has getAttribute been changed in these new browsers and what can I do to fix this?

Answer 1

Try tab.className?

Answer 2

So my first guess is that tab is undefined if .className returns nothing.

I'm thinking there is something wrong with

document.getElementsByName(headerName).item(0);

Set a breakpoint on the while loop with Firebug and then type "tab" in the console and hit Enter. If there is no Firebug available for FF 3.5. Try using it to find other ways to get at the desired elements.