JS Dom Walk

dom_walk.js

/**
 * Recursive funciton to walk dom and replace any matched dictionary
 * terms with a span tag and special css class
 * @param element DOMElement
 */
function _walkElement(element){
  //loop over all children of element
  var el = element.firstChild;
  if(el){
    do{
      //console.log(el.childNodes.length);
      
      /* Are we at a text node? */
      if(el.nodeType === 3){
        var oldvalue = el.nodeValue;
        var newvalue = oldvalue;
        
        //Do something here
        
        if(newvalue !== oldvalue){
            /* Element only contained a single text node. */
            if(element.childNodes.length == 1){
              element.innerHTML = newvalue;
            } else {
              el.nodeValue = newvalue;
            }
        }

      /* we have children. lets get recursive */
      } else {
        
        /* Recursion GO! */
        _walkElement(el);
      }
      
      /* Fix for IE. It pukes if you call nextSibling on a text node with no next sibling */
      try{ var testel = el.nextSibling; }catch(ex){ break; }
      
      /* Let's process the next sibling */
    }while(el = el.nextSibling);
  }
}