Working on an AB test, I had to write some code that involved using a clone for a clickable element. The original HTML element, an <svg> element, had to be hidden and replaced by a button. What this button should do is simple: hide a pop up on click.

My first thought was, I add a click event listener to that button and just pass that click to the original element like so:

// (this code is what my ab test framework expects to create an HTML element 😉 )
{
   tagName: "a",
   attributes: {
      class: "a-button a-button--size-small a-button--mode-primary a-button--color-red ra-031-pin-weiter-button",
      innerHTML: `<div class="a-button__text">Weiter mit gewählten Markt</div>`,
      onclick: () => closeButton.click() // simple, right?
   },
   position: "beforeend",
   target: messageContainer
}

Simple! Thank you all those years of experience, this should do the trick, right?

What I did not yet realize however was that <svg> elements do not support the HTMLElement.click() method so running into this error kind of stumped me…:

So then I started looking for a solution. The first thing I found was this, and it looked promising, but somehow did not cut the cake for me:

// click() is a function that's only defined on HTML elements.
// Fortunately it's a convenience function that we 
// can implement it ourselves pretty easily like so:

const target = document.querySelector("svg");

target.dispatchEvent(new Event('click'));

Also, since the handler for the original element’s click event was out of reach for me, I could not approach it directly so I just had to find a way to make this simulated click work.

Then I found this piece of code, but when I started using it I discovered that parts of it were deprecated but, great news, now I was getting somewhere! The click actually worked!

const ev = document.createEvent("SVGEvents");
ev.initEvent("click",true,true); // deprecated.. 🙁

target.dispatchEvent(ev);

But.. using deprecated code is something I rather avoid. Looking for an even better solution should not be that hard anymore since I’m looking in the right direction. Then I found this, the final solution to my problem and come to think of it, quite predictable 😉

const dispatchClick = target => {
   const ev = new MouseEvent('click', {
      view: window,
      bubbles: true,
      cancelable: true
   });
   target.dispatchEvent(ev);
};

Guess when you’re confused by a totally unexpected error, finding the correct solution sometimes takes you on a slight detour…

In my AB testing Framework I have a method that creates DOM nodes, sets their properties and attributes, and adds them to the DOM for me. Since in 90% of all the tests we run, we need one or more custom elements, I decided to create a function that does all that for me. The requirements were:

• create (one or more) DOM Element(s) by config
• add attributes to element (class, style, innerText/ -HTML, and even events like onclick)
• insert element in DOM relative to a target, or replace that target
• return a reference to the element for later use

OK, let’s write a function that can do all of that – it’s possible to do it in only a few lines of code!

const buildNodesFromConfigArray = nodes => nodes.map(({tag, attributes, position, target}) => {
	// create the element
	const node = document.createElement(tag);
	// iterate through property list,
	// match innerText, innerHTML or event attributes (event attributes should be wrapped functions!),
	// else just set the attribute
	Object.entries(attributes).map(([key, value]) => (/^(inner|on)\w+$/i.test(key)) ? node[key] = attributes[key] : node.setAttribute(key, value));
	// [optional] place it in the DOM
	if (position && target) (position === "replace") ? target.replaceWith(node) : target.insertAdjacentElement(position, node);
	// return it for use in the caller function
	return node;
});

As you can see, first we create a DOM element. Then comes a pretty magical line of code if I may say so, we map over the attributes object so we can check these as key-value pair, one by one. If the regex matches on the key, we have to set either innerText or innerHTML, or an event like ‘onclick’ or ‘onmousesomething’ or whatever event you fancy. If it does not, we set an attribute with name ‘key’ and value ‘value’. Finally, if a position and target are set in our config, we add the element to the DOM relative to a target, or replace that target. Now, let’s see this awesome code in action!

// let's create a new stylesheet
const [style] = buildNodesFromConfigArray([{
	tag: 'style',
	attributes: {
		id: "ra-stylesheet",
		rel: "stylesheet",
		type: "text/css"
	},
	position: "beforeend",
	target: document.head
}]);

We declare an array and use the destructure technique to have the variable(s) immediately available to us. That way we can use it later on in our code. Like so, for instance:

style.append(document.createTextNode(`
	body {
		background-color: #00ff88;
	}
`))

Here you can see the stylesheet added to the DOM. All the properties are set like we specified.

What if we want to add some meta tags to the head of our site? That would look like this. (You could actually skip the variable declaration if all you want is to add these to the head).

const [meta1, meta2] = buildNodesFromConfigArray([{
	tagName: "meta",
	attributes: {
		class: "ra-133-meta",
		property: "og:type",
		content: "website"
	},
	position: "beforeend",
	target: document.head
}, {
	tagName: "meta",
	attributes: {
		class: "ra-133-meta",
		property: "og:site_name",
		content: document.location.origin
	},
	position: "beforeend",
	target: document.head
}])

Here’s a final example, where we won’t be needing the elements later in our code, we just want them added in the DOM:

buildNodesFromConfigArray([{
	tagName: "div", //
	attributes: {
		class: "first",
		innerText: "My Paragraph",
		onclick: (event) => {
			// make sure the value here is an actual function!
			alert(event)
		}
	},
	position: "beforebegin", // use insertAdjacentElement position parameter, or replace
	target: document.querySelector("#someElement")
}, {
	tagName: "div",
	attributes: {
		class: "second",
	},
	position: "replace",
	target: document.querySelector("#someOtherElement")
}]);

OK, now you know how to create one or more DOM elements LIKE A BOSS. Contact me if you want to know more!

Next time, I’ll share a trick I posted on Twitter a while ago, how I exclude IE from my tests, the recoveryArea way!

Happy coding 🙂

When I am testing elements that take some time to load, the last thing I want is a flash of un-styled content, or see the unchanged element jump into its changed state. Since a few years, browsers have a great API built in that I use to achieve super fast loading of my test code: Mutation Observer. (link opens new tab)

In this post I’ll explain how I use this API to my advantage.

Make sure your script is loaded as soon as possible. It’s OK if you load it asynchronously, but you want it to be available as the first piece of JS the page is loading.

Here’s the function I use to observe when an element gets added to the DOM. I basically wrap a querySelector in a MutationObserver. The latter will fire upon every DOM mutation. The querySelector will then test for the existence of my element. If that returns true, I disconnect the observer if I don’t need it anymore. Finally, I run the callback function that was passed as the second parameter.

const observeDOM = (config, callback) => {
    // use a regular function so `this` refers to the Mutation Observer
    new MutationObserver(function() {
        const element = document.querySelector(config.selector);
        if (element) {
            // disconnect if you don't need it again
            if(config.disconnect) this.disconnect();
            // test and run the callback function
            if(typeof callback === "function") callback(element);
        }
    }).observe(config.parent || document, {
        subtree: config.recursive,
        childList: true
    });
}

I use a ‘normal’ function keyword on the Mutation Observer function because if I don’t, I won’t be able to disconnect it if that is what I want. This will then refer to the Window object and not the MutationObserver instance.

const config = {
    selector: 'li.timeline-item', // what element are we looking for?
    parent: document.querySelector("ul.timeline"), // narrow down search scope if possible...
    recursive: true, // look at descendant elements too
    disconnect: false // set to true when one hit is enough
}

In the config file above you can see that I am observing an unordered list for additions of list items. Since disconnect is set to false, the observer will fire on every mutation and do the element test again. Note: You can prevent triggering on the same element over and over again by adding a class (.found) to the element as soon as it’s found, and change your selector accordingly: a li.timeline-item:not(.found) selector does that trick just fine.

// run this function when the element is found
const callback = console.log;

Here is a simple example of a callback function you can run when you have a hit. In your case you probably want to kick off your AB test code. See what I did there?

// kickoff mutation observer
observeDOM(config, callback);

Last but not least, you want to start observing by calling your function with config and callback parameters.

In the next post, I’ll show you how to create DOM elements – recoveryArea style!

Happy coding!