Creating Javascript object from JQuery object

Question

Hi all:

Currently I'm unit testing the following code:

if ($(selectedElement).innerText == 'blah')
{
    // do something
}

with selectedElement being an anchor object selected from the UI.

In my test code, I have created a DOM structure which has that anchor in the proper position ready to be selected. The problem here is that since selectedElement is originally a javascript object, I need to convert the anchor I got from the DOM structure (which is a JQuery object) in order to get into the above condition.

I have tried the following, with no success:

// DOM structure using HtmlDoc
/*:DOC += <span id='testSpan' class='testSpanClass'><a href='#' id='selectedElem'>blah</a></span> */
selectedElement = $('#selectedElem')[0];

My goal is to be able to use a normal Javascript object to satisfy the condition, and also be able to switch it back to a jQuery object to satisfy conditions further down the function. But if there is a better approach I'll give it a go.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about this problem?

EDIT: Is there a solution that does not require changing of the code? selectedElement is actually a global variable.

Thanks.

Answer 1

can you use jquery's .html() ?

if ($(selectedElement).html() == 'blah')
{
    // do something
}

otherwise, without changing code:

var selectedElement = $('#selectedElem')[0];

if (selectedElement.innerHTML == 'blah')
{
    // do something
}

Answer 2

jQuery's get method returns the original DOM elements for that jQuery object. I think perhaps you need to use $('#selectedElem').get(0)

Answer 3

I am not sure what browser you are testing in, but innerText is an IE only property. Since you are already using jQuery, I would suggest you just call the .text() method on the selected element like this:

selectedElement = $('#selectedElem')[0]; // Get DOM element

if ($(selectedElement).text() == 'blah')
{
    // do something
}

You're method of getting the DOM object is fine: $('#selectedElem')[0] or $('#selectedElem').get(0) are equivalent, but the first one is faster in large loops.