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JavaScript JavaScript and the DOM (Retiring) Getting a Handle on the DOM Practice Selecting Elements

David Avila
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David Avila
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 5,410 Points

How to pick what to select without classes or ids?

The instructions are to select the <li> elements from the navigation bar only.

I've added the class navButton to the html elements <li> that are nested in the <nav> so that I could select them using either document.getElementsByClassName('navButton'); or document.querySelectorAll('.navButton'); but neither way is accepted by the exercise.

So I'm wondering how can I select those 3 <li> without selecting the rest of the <li> in the html without making use of classes, id's or attributes?

Thnx

js/app.js
let navigationLinks = document.getElementsByClassName('navButton');
let galleryLinks;
let footerImages;
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Nick Pettit | Designer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/normalize.css">
    <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Changa+One|Open+Sans:400italic,700italic,400,700,800' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/responsive.css">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  </head>
  <body>
    <header>
      <a href="index.html" id="logo">
        <h1>Nick Pettit</h1>
        <h2>Designer</h2>
      </a>
      <nav>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="index.html" class="selected navButton">Portfolio</a></li>
          <li><a href="about.html" class="navButton">About</a></li>
          <li><a href="contact.html" class="navButton">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
      </nav>
    </header>
    <div id="wrapper">
      <section>
        <ul id="gallery">
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-01.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-01.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Experimentation with color and texture.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-02.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-02.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Playing with blending modes in Photoshop.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </section>
      <footer>
        <a href="http://twitter.com/nickrp"><img src="img/twitter-wrap.png" alt="Twitter Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <a href="http://facebook.com/nickpettit"><img src="img/facebook-wrap.png" alt="Facebook Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <p>&copy; 2016 Nick Pettit.</p>
      </footer>
    </div>
  <script src="js/app.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

3 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

I think the purpose of the challenge is to select without modifying the HTML.

Also, the tag for a "link" is "a". An "li" tag represents a list item.

Remember that querySelectorAll will use combined selectors just like CSS. This is a good place to use a descendant selector that combines the nav element and the a element names separated by a space.

David Avila
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
David Avila
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 5,410 Points

Thank you very much for pointing out that I could use a descendant selector, I don't think that is actually mentioned on the vids. If it is I must have missed it.

anyhow, I used let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll('nav ul li a') and It works like a charm.

Cheers :)

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Since the intermediate elements are not important to the selection, you can shorten the selector (and improve it's efficiency) to just "nav a".