I would like to insert an hr element in a different child div (2 child divs within a parent div), as per the set-up below. The insertbefore method works fine for an element within the same div but not for elements in the other child div (see code below). Is there a different method I can use to achieve this or do I want the impossible?
<body>
<div id="whole section">
<div id="group_a">
<h3 id="event_1">Heading 1</h3>
<p> some text </p>
**// I would like to insert an hr element here**
<h3 id="event_2">Heading 2</h3>
<p> more text </p>
</div>
<div id="group_b">
**// I can only insert code here though**
<script type="text/javascript">
function add_hr(){
var new_hr = document.createElement('hr');
var reference = document.getElementById('event_2');
document.body.insertBefore(new_hr, reference);
}
window.onload = function(){add_hr();};
</script>
</div>
</div>
</body>
I would like to insert an hr element in a different child div (2 child divs within a parent div), as per the set-up below. The insertbefore method works fine for an element within the same div but not for elements in the other child div (see code below). Is there a different method I can use to achieve this or do I want the impossible?
<body>
<div id="whole section">
<div id="group_a">
<h3 id="event_1">Heading 1</h3>
<p> some text </p>
**// I would like to insert an hr element here**
<h3 id="event_2">Heading 2</h3>
<p> more text </p>
</div>
<div id="group_b">
**// I can only insert code here though**
<script type="text/javascript">
function add_hr(){
var new_hr = document.createElement('hr');
var reference = document.getElementById('event_2');
document.body.insertBefore(new_hr, reference);
}
window.onload = function(){add_hr();};
</script>
</div>
</div>
</body>
1 Answer
Reset to default 7insertBefore requires that the reference element be a direct child of the element on which you call it. Your line
document.body.insertBefore(new_hr, reference);
...tells the browser to insert new_hr before the reference element directly contained by document.body. But document.body doesn't directly contain the reference element, it's inside a div. So you get an error, because the reference element can't be found directly inside the element you're inserting into.
You can fix that by using the reference element's parent:
reference.parentNode.insertBefore(new_hr, reference);
Live Example | Source