Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

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

I keep getting 1 or 5 links, but never 3.

Trying to attach 3 links to my .js file, but when I do I keep getting either 1 or 5 links. I think I'm typing the descendant selectors incorrectly.

Could someone verify this please?

js/app.js
let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll("ul li");
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">Portfolio</a></li>
          <li><a href="about.html" class="selected">About</a></li>
          <li><a href="contact.html" class="selected">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
      </nav>
    </header>
    <div id="wrapper">
      <section>
        <ul id="gallery">
          <li>
            <a class="selected" href="img/numbers-01.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-01.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Experimentation with color and texture.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a class="selected" 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 class="selected" href="http://twitter.com/nickrp"><img src="img/twitter-wrap.png" alt="Twitter Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <a class="selected" 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>
Mark Wilkowske
Mark Wilkowske
Courses Plus Student 18,131 Points

Hi Zachary, the challenge asks you to select links, not li's.

2 Answers

Your JavaScript is looking for document.querySelectorAll("ul li"), which collects every <li> tag that's inside a <ul> tag (that's what "ul li" means). Your index.html file has 5 such <li> tags: 3 in your <nav>, and 2 in your <ul id="gallery">. So your JavaScript is correctly getting 5. You'd have to change something in your index.html file to ever get 1 here.

If you are trying to get 3 -- for example, the 3 links in your <nav> only -- you'd change the JavaScript selector like so:

let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll("nav ul li");

or

let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll("header li");

...just something that makes the <li>s you are selecting a little more specific.

Hope that clarifies enough for you!

Derek Ebie
Derek Ebie
4,928 Points

I have the same problem and i've tried both of your solutions but get this. "the wrong links or elements were selected. Be sure to select all links inside '<nav>'."

As Mark Wilkowske said, if the challenge is asking for links, we should put:

document.querySelectorAll('nav a');

not

document.querySelectorAll('nav ul li');

The tag "a" is for links and the tag "li" is for a list item.