buildHTML utility.js

// my little html string builder
buildHTML = function(tag, html, attrs) {
  // you can skip html param
  var h = document.createElement(tag);
  var attrs = attrs || {};
  
  if (arguments.length == 2 && !((html) instanceof HTMLElement) && typeof(html) == "object") {
    attrs = html;
    html = null;
  }
  for (attr in attrs) {
    if(attrs[attr] === false) continue;
    h.setAttribute(attr, attrs[attr]);
  }

  if ( html instanceof HTMLElement ){
    h.appendChild(html)
  } else if ( typeof(html) == "string" ) {
    h.appendChild(document.createTextNode(html));
  }
  return h;
};

buildHTML("a", "Marc Grabanski", {
  id: "mylink",
  href: "http://marcgrabanski.com"
});
// outputs: <a id="mylink" href="http://marcgrabanski.com">Marc Grabanski</a>

buildHTML("a", buildHTML("strong", "Marc Grabanski"), {
  id: "mylink",
  href: "http://marcgrabanski.com"
});
// outputs: <a id="mylink" href="http://marcgrabanski.com"><strong>Marc Grabanski</strong></a>

buildHTML("a", {
  id: "mylink",
  href: "http://marcgrabanski.com"
});
// outputs: <a id="mylink" href="http://marcgrabanski.com"></a>