onclick event not firing

Question

var subjectList;

function PageMaster()
{
    this.contentDiv = document.getElementById("content");
}

/**
 * Builds the main part of the web page based on the given XML document object
 *
 * @param {Object} xmlDoc   the given XML document object
 */

PageMaster.prototype.doIt = function(xmlDoc)

{
    alert("PageMaster()");

alert("Clear page...");
this.contentDiv.innerHTML = "";

if (null != xmlDoc) 
{
 alert("Build page...");

 //create div Post
 var divPost = document.createElement("div");
 divPost.className = "post";

 //create h1 element
 var h1Element = document.createElement("h1");
 var headingText = document.createTextNode("Invitations");
 h1Element.appendChild(headingText);

 //insert h1 element into div post
 divPost.appendChild(h1Element);

    subjectList = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("subject"); 
 var groupList = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("group");

 for (var i = 0; i < subjectList.length; i++) //for each subject
 {
  var divEntry = document.createElement("div");
  divEntry.className = "entry";

  var subjectNum = subjectList[i].attributes[0].nodeValue;
  var subjectName = subjectList[i].attributes[1].nodeValue;
  var groupId = groupList[i].attributes[0].nodeValue;
  var groupName = groupList[i].attributes[1].nodeValue;
  var ownerId = groupList[i].attributes[2].nodeValue;

  //set up the invitation table attributes 
  var table = document.createElement("table");
  table.width = 411;
  table.border = 3;
  table.borderColor = "#990000"

  tableRow = table.insertRow(0);
  tableCell = tableRow.insertCell(0);

  var cellContent = "";

  //create invitation message
  var invitationMsg = "<p>Subject : " + subjectNum + " - " + subjectName + "</p>";
  invitationMsg += "<p>You are invited to join " + groupName + " (groupId : " + groupId + ") by owner Id:" + ownerId + "</p>";
  cellContent += invitationMsg;

  //create buttons
  cellContent += "<input type='button' id='acceptButton" + i + "' value='Accept' onclick='acceptInvitation(i)'>"
  cellContent += "<input type='button' id='declineButton" + i + "' value='Decline'>"

  tableCell.innerHTML = cellContent;

  divEntry.appendChild(table);

  var blankSpace = document.createElement("p");
  divEntry.appendChild(blankSpace);
  divPost.appendChild(divEntry); 
 }

 //insert div post into div content
 this.contentDiv.appendChild(divPost);
    }
};

function acceptInvitation(i)
{
    alert("hello");
    //alert(subjectList[i].attributes[0].nodeValue);
}

above is extract of my javascript code. What the code do is to create a table of inviting group from the xml file with accept and decline button. when user press accept, the table will disappear and the table below will move up. For now I am only testing my accept invitation button to see if it works.But my onclick function in the accept button does not work for some reason I don't understand. the alert in acceptInvitation() is not read. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

Try to call it like this

onclick='acceptInvitation();'

Not like this

onclick='acceptInvitation(i)'

Answer 2

What about:

cellContent += "[...] onclick='acceptInvitation("+i+")'>"

This ensures that i is evaluated with the value of the variable instead of as a literal

Answer 3

while perhaps not addressing the central problem,

onclick='acceptInvitation(i)'

in this case i would be undefined.

onclick='acceptInvitation("+i+")'

would solve at least one problem. Also, you're using an unusual mixture of innerHTML and DOM methods. Why not stick to the DOM methods and use attachEvent/AddEventListener?

edit: A list apart has a good article on binding of variables at http://www.alistapart.com/articles/getoutbindingsituations/

The following is a somewhat specialized example. See the article for more generalized case (or use a library like Prototype)

var click_hdlr = function() {
    return function() {
        return acceptInvitation.apply(this,arguments);
    }
}

var acc_btn = document.createElement("input");
acc_btn.setAttribute("type","button");
acc_btn.setAttribute("id","accept");
acc_btn.setAttribute("value","Accept");
acc_btn.addEventListener("click",click_hdlr(i),false);

Answer 4

dont know if that's what's causing your problem but your outputting onclick='acceptInvitation(i)' Im guessing you want to output acceptInvitation(value-of-i), that is acceptInvitation(" + i + ")