Originally i had some inline svg which works as i wanted.

<svg width="100%" height="100%" xmlns="">
  <defs>
    <pattern id="smallGrid" width="10" height="10" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse">
      <path d="M 10 0 L 0 0 0 10" fill="none" stroke="gray" stroke-width="0.5"/>
    </pattern>
    <pattern id="grid" width="100" height="100" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse">
      <rect width="100" height="100" fill="url(#smallGrid)"/>
      <path d="M 100 0 L 0 0 0 100" fill="none" stroke="gray" stroke-width="1"/>
    </pattern>
  </defs>
  <rect width="100%" height="100%" fill="url(#grid)" />
</svg>

and was nice because it was inline, i could do jQuery selectors on it to undate: Width/Height and the path.d attributes.

in that way, it was an overlaid div, which didnt do what i wanted.

Next step i was thinking to save it as an svg file, and then reference it:

<div style="background-image:url('images/grid.svg');"></div>

which was PERFECT for me, because i took something already existing and gave it a background instead of having an entire new div with data.

The issue though with the background image route, is that i cant dynamically adjust the Height/Width/ path.d attributes

Is there a way such that i can get the best of both worlds?

background-image + being able to query and update the attributes?

Here is code i had originally for the inline set_gridSize function:

Form.set_gridSize = function (num) {
    num = Number(num);
    Form.gridSize = num;

    var defs = $("div.grid-for-gridlock > svg > defs");
    defs.children("#smallGrid").attr({ Height: num, Width: num });
    var path = defs.children("#smallGrid").children().attr("d");
    var arr = path.split(" ");
    arr[1] = num;
    arr[arr.length - 1] = num;
    path = arr.join(" ");
    defs.children("#smallGrid").children("path").attr("d", path)
    defs.children("#grid").attr({ Height: num * 10, Width: num * 10 });
    defs.children("#grid").children("rect").attr({ eight: num * 10, Width: num * 10 });
    var path = defs.children("#grid").children("path").attr("d");
    var arr = path.split(" ");
    arr[1] = num*10;
    arr[arr.length - 1] = num*10;
    path = arr.join(" ");
    defs.children("#grid").children("path").attr("d",path);
}

Thanks! :)

edit: I used how to draw grid using html5 and (canvas or svg) as my source for figuring out SVG and html5 for grids.

Originally i had some inline svg which works as i wanted.

<svg width="100%" height="100%" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <defs>
    <pattern id="smallGrid" width="10" height="10" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse">
      <path d="M 10 0 L 0 0 0 10" fill="none" stroke="gray" stroke-width="0.5"/>
    </pattern>
    <pattern id="grid" width="100" height="100" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse">
      <rect width="100" height="100" fill="url(#smallGrid)"/>
      <path d="M 100 0 L 0 0 0 100" fill="none" stroke="gray" stroke-width="1"/>
    </pattern>
  </defs>
  <rect width="100%" height="100%" fill="url(#grid)" />
</svg>

and was nice because it was inline, i could do jQuery selectors on it to undate: Width/Height and the path.d attributes.

in that way, it was an overlaid div, which didnt do what i wanted.

Next step i was thinking to save it as an svg file, and then reference it:

<div style="background-image:url('images/grid.svg');"></div>

which was PERFECT for me, because i took something already existing and gave it a background instead of having an entire new div with data.

The issue though with the background image route, is that i cant dynamically adjust the Height/Width/ path.d attributes

Is there a way such that i can get the best of both worlds?

background-image + being able to query and update the attributes?

Here is code i had originally for the inline set_gridSize function:

Form.set_gridSize = function (num) {
    num = Number(num);
    Form.gridSize = num;

    var defs = $("div.grid-for-gridlock > svg > defs");
    defs.children("#smallGrid").attr({ Height: num, Width: num });
    var path = defs.children("#smallGrid").children().attr("d");
    var arr = path.split(" ");
    arr[1] = num;
    arr[arr.length - 1] = num;
    path = arr.join(" ");
    defs.children("#smallGrid").children("path").attr("d", path)
    defs.children("#grid").attr({ Height: num * 10, Width: num * 10 });
    defs.children("#grid").children("rect").attr({ eight: num * 10, Width: num * 10 });
    var path = defs.children("#grid").children("path").attr("d");
    var arr = path.split(" ");
    arr[1] = num*10;
    arr[arr.length - 1] = num*10;
    path = arr.join(" ");
    defs.children("#grid").children("path").attr("d",path);
}

Thanks! :)

edit: I used how to draw grid using html5 and (canvas or svg) as my source for figuring out SVG and html5 for grids.

• javascript
• jquery
• css
• svg

• This may be of interest: blog.cloudfour.com/media-queries-in-svg-images. However, you'll find that support for media queries on SVGs as background images to be spotty. – cimmanon Commented Feb 20, 2014 at 17:42

4 Answers 4

A simpler method:

var green = '3CB54A';
var red = 'ED1F24';
var svg = '<svg version="1.1" id="Layer_1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" x="0px" y="0px"  width="320px" height="100px" viewBox="0 0 320 100" enable-background="new 0 0 320 100" xml:space="preserve"> <polygon class="mystar" fill="#'+green+'" points="134.973,14.204 143.295,31.066 161.903,33.77 148.438,46.896 151.617,65.43 134.973,56.679 118.329,65.43 121.507,46.896 108.042,33.77 126.65,31.066 "/><circle class="mycircle" fill="#'+red+'" cx="202.028" cy="58.342" r="12.26"/></svg>';      
var encoded = window.btoa(svg);
document.body.style.background = "url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,"+encoded+")";

Fiddle Here

I can't see why you couldn't place ths inline svg in absolute positioned DIV as follows. It would function as a background and accessible via jQuery/Javacript.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<body style='overflow:hidden'>
<div id="svgDiv" style='position:absolute;top:0px;left:0px;width:100%;height:100%'>
<svg id="mySVG" width="100%" height="100%" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <defs>
    <pattern id="smallGrid" width="10" height="10" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse">
      <path d="M 10 0 L 0 0 0 10" fill="none" stroke="gray" stroke-width="0.5"/>
    </pattern>
    <pattern id="grid" width="100" height="100" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse">
      <rect width="100" height="100" fill="url(#smallGrid)"/>
      <path d="M 100 0 L 0 0 0 100" fill="none" stroke="gray" stroke-width="1"/>
    </pattern>
  </defs>
  <rect width="100%" height="100%" fill="url(#grid)" />
</svg>
</div>
</body>
</html>

var svg = document.querySelector('#svg');
var svgCode = encodeURI(svg.outerHTML);

element.style.backgroundImage = "url(data:image/svg+xml;utf8," + svgCode + ")";

I first looked at the requirements, and what was needed. This might be not as efficient as other options. Nevertheless, still a viable solution.

My base svg object is in the xml variable. From there, i will maniuplate it as needed with "num" and then encode it. This returns url(data:..) so i just set it to the background-image of whatever i would like.

Given that this is static, you can improve upon this by just appending to the string as needed. I just wanted it to be generic enough such that i can just replace xml as needed with whatever svg data i needed.

function set_gridSize (num) {
    num = Number(num);

    var xml = '<svg width="100%" height="100%" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><defs><pattern id="smallGrid" width="10" height="10" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse"><path d="M 10 0 L 0 0 0 10" fill="none" stroke="gray" stroke-width="0.5"/> </pattern><pattern id="grid" width="100" height="100" patternUnits="userSpaceOnUse"><rect width="100" height="100" fill="url(#smallGrid)"/><path d="M 100 0 L 0 0 0 100" fill="none" stroke="gray" stroke-width="1"/></pattern></defs><rect width="100%" height="100%" fill="url(#grid)" /></svg>';
    var data = $($.parseXML(xml));

    var defs = data.children("svg").children("defs");
    defs.children("#smallGrid").attr({ height: num, width: num });
    var path = defs.children("#smallGrid").children().attr("d");
    var arr = path.split(" ");
    arr[1] = num;
    arr[arr.length - 1] = num;
    path = arr.join(" ");
    defs.children("#smallGrid").children("path").attr("d", path)
    defs.children("#grid").attr({ height: num * 10, width: num * 10 });
    defs.children("#grid").children("rect").attr({ height: num * 10, width: num * 10 });
    var path = defs.children("#grid").children("path").attr("d");
    var arr = path.split(" ");
    arr[1] = num*10;
    arr[arr.length - 1] = num*10;
    path = arr.join(" ");
    defs.children("#grid").children("path").attr("d", path);

    return "url(data:image/svg+xml;base64," + Base64.encode(new XMLSerializer().serializeToString(defs.parent()[0]))+")";
}