Replace text in complex DOM with a node

replaceTextWithNode.js

function replaceTextWithNode( elm, text, replacerNode ){
  var iter = document.createNodeIterator(elm, NodeFilter.SHOW_TEXT),
      textnode,
      idx,
      maxLoops = 100,
      replacedNode;

  while( textnode = iter.nextNode() ){
      if( !maxLoops-- ) break;
      // get the index of which the tag (string) is within the textNode (if at all)
      idx = textnode.nodeValue.indexOf(text);
      if( idx == -1 ) continue;

      replacedNode = textnode.splitText(idx)

      // clean up the tag's string and put tag element instead
      replacedNode.nodeValue = replacedNode.nodeValue.replace(text, '');
      textnode.parentNode.insertBefore(replacerNode, replacedNode);
  }

  elm.normalize()

  return replacedNode
}