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) Making Changes to the DOM Modifying Elements

Posted by Sunny Balani
Sunny Balani
7,572 Points

Make sure that you get the value of the selected 'input' element.

keeps giving me the following error

app.js 
var inputValue = document.getElementById('linkName');
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>DOM Manipulation</title>
    </head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />
    <body>
        <div id="content">
            <label>Link Name:</label>
            <input type="text" id="linkName">
            <a id="link" href="https://teamtreehouse.com"></a>
        </div>
        <script src="app.js"></script>
    </body>
</html>
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

:mailbox_with_mail: Hi, I got a "request to answer" but it looks like you got several answers just a few minutes after the request!

3 Answers

Dane Parchment
MOD
Dane Parchment
Treehouse Moderator 11,077 Points
Dane Parchment
Dane Parchment
Treehouse Moderator 11,077 Points

document.getElementById('linkName') Actually returns the dom element, which is an object containing multiple different attributes that describe the html element to the DOM.

One such attribute is value. This value attribute returns the text of input elements, and is exactly what we are looking for. So to solve the issue you should return that specific value, and not the whole object.

Solution: document.getElementById('linkName').value

John Goodwin
John Goodwin
17,921 Points
John Goodwin
John Goodwin
17,921 Points

Hi Sunny,

This is only returning the element with the ID you gave instead of the value of that element. A .value at the end tells it to return the value. So it would look more like this:

var inputValue = document.getElementById('linkName').value;
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
54,971 Points
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
KRIS NIKOLAISEN
54,971 Points

You want to assign the element's value. You are currently assigning the element.