.InnerHTML Not working properly in Internet Explorer

Asked 9/3, 2011 at 9:33 Answered 19/10, 2013 at 13:9

javascript html string internet-explorer innerhtml

I wanted to assign a link tag to innerHTML of a HTML control. But this is not working properly in Internet Explorer. However when I try to assign anything other than <link> & <style> tags it works fine.

<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function getValue()
  {
  var x=document.getElementById("myHeader");
  x.innerHTML='<link \"http://test.com/css/template.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\"><div>abc</div>';
  alert(x.innerHTML);
  }
</script>
</head>
<body>

<h1 id="myHeader" onclick="getValue()">Click me!</h1>

</body>
</html>

Also, If I change sequence of <div> tag and <link> tag above it works fine in Internet Explorer also.

x.innerHTML='<div>abc</div><link \"http://test.com/css/template.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\">';

Please suggest! Thanks.

EDIT: This is a bug in Internet Explorer with ExtJs. More information at

http://www.sencha.com/forum/showthread.php?30110-internet-explorer-autoLoad-css-not-applied

Puttier answered 9/3, 2011 at 9:33 Comment(1)

What do you actually want to accomplish? Give exact finished html sample how it should look when everything is done successfully. You are trying to insert <link> into body of html document for what purpose? Do you want inline css, or inline <style> or what? Thanks for clarification :) – Phelgon 20/3, 2011 at 11:3

innerHTML won't work in IE, but using DOM methods it will:

function getValue()
{
  var x=document.getElementById("myHeader")
    , link = document.createElement('link')
    , div = document.createElement('div');
  x.innerHTML = '';
  x.appendChild(link);
  x.appendChild(div);
  div.innerHTML = 'abc';
  link.href = 'http://test.com/css/template.css';
  link.rel = 'stylesheet';
  alert(x.innerHTML);
}

Although the reference states a link tag may only appear in the header, interesting enough the style link does work if you use the code I provided, in all browsers I tried (IE, firefox, chrome). See this jsfiddle (where I used a real css-href from test.com ;-)

If you however want to place the link in it's rightful section (<head>), use:

var header = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
  , link = document.createElement('link');
header.appendChild(link);
link.href = 'http://test.com/css/template.css';
link.rel = 'stylesheet';

Grassgreen answered 24/3, 2011 at 11:59 Comment(0)

For starters, you are missing an href attribute on your <link>.

<link href=\"http://test.com/css/template.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" />

And don't put link and style tags into the <body>. Inject them into the <head>

  var link = document.createElement("link");
  link.href = "http://test.com/css/template.css";
  link.rel = "StyleSheet";
  document.head.appendChild(link);

Unstained answered 9/3, 2011 at 9:41 Comment(2)

Oops! Sorry..missing href was a typo..Actually I get a HTML as a string which has links and other HTML in it. Injecting links only for IE becomes overhead. – Puttier 9/3, 2011 at 9:46

That being said, create an off screen div element and set the .innerHTML property on that. Then setTimeout(callback,1) to let the element get realized. In the callback function, extract all the children of the div. Reparent the elements on the document.head or within the <h1> tag in your body. Use removeChild and appendChild methods as appropriate. – Unstained 9/3, 2011 at 9:53

A lot of people are missing the point here. What he is trying to do ( after fixing the typo where the href attribute is missing ) works in any other browser.

IE 8 and below have a bug where if the first element in the text when setting innerHTML is a tag (maybe others), it is ignored. If you just put a space or newline or other tag first, it works.

He even discovered this when he said putting the <div> first fixes it.

It isn't valid, but that's how you fix it.

Edit: in other words: foo.innerHTML = "\n" + yourHtmlWithLinkInIt;

Phototypography answered 4/8, 2011 at 23:14 Comment(0)

<link> can only be contained in <head>.

This element defines a link. Unlike A, it may only appear in the HEAD section of a document, although it may appear any number of times.

reference: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html#edef-LINK

Phelgon answered 9/3, 2011 at 9:37 Comment(3)

<link> ain't for hyperlinks. – Uchish 5/8, 2011 at 10:1

No kidding? And what did you not understand from my answer? Good day to you, sir ;) – Phelgon 13/8, 2011 at 17:18

The question asked for style-sheet, you suggest using <a>. Who is kidding? – Uchish 15/8, 2011 at 1:50

i think the problem is that the <link> hast to be an empty element. change your code to this:

x.innerHTML='<link \"http://test.com/css/template.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" /><div>abc</div>';
                                                     // this is the trick ^^^

EDIT: i havn't tested this, but it's the first thing that hurts my eyes.

EDIT2: <link> tags should only occur inside of the <head>-section... i hope you know what you're trying to do.

Andraandrade answered 9/3, 2011 at 9:37 Comment(2)

Closing style tag doesn't help :( – Puttier 9/3, 2011 at 9:41

The trailing / "self-closing" slash is only necessary for XHTML syntax, which is definitely not relevant when using innerHTML; in HTML syntax, it is neither necessary nor desirable. – Rinse 26/3, 2011 at 5:44

to the set text properly, i would recommend you to go what i generally do. if you have ie 8 then open the html in ie. press f12 to show the developer tool. now in the new window go to script tag. set break point from where your javascript starts. now press on the button start debugging. execute the js function from your by some event or the way it executes. now on the object in the javascripg function, when the break point hits, right click and add watch. expand the object and see, where your earlier text was and where is your new text.

Nickola answered 20/3, 2011 at 12:29 Comment(0)

What exactly are you trying to achieve, as your end goal? As said previously a link tag should really only appear in the <head> of an html document.

JavaScript can be a tricky thing in its vanilla flavour, you're better off using a framework, my personal favourite is MooTools though I hear JQuery is pretty good, but MooTools has OOP (for real programmers - tehe).

This'll allow you to do a lot more, and probably get to your end goal, if you let me / us know then you should get a more direct answer to your issue.

Chrysa answered 25/3, 2011 at 23:57 Comment(0)

The thing is it works in FireFox and Google Chrome, but not in IE.

This is, because you cannot set the innerHTML tag of InternetExplorer with a string, if the string is more than text, ie a HTML element.

I experienced this trying to dynamically populate a ComboBox into a table cell with AJAX...

The solution is to use JQuery.
Then you can do:
$("#YourElementID").html('<link \"http://test.com/css/template.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" /> <div>abc</div>');
and JQuery will do the DOM stuff, that selbie and KooiInc describe, for you.

Clarethaclaretta answered 26/3, 2011 at 13:34 Comment(0)

Found different and easy solution here for "link" and "sytle", but "script" needs to be added using appendChild. Very much similar to what Vectorjohn has said, also provides more references.

http://allofetechnical.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/ies-innerhtml-method-with-script-and-style-tags/

Waldheim answered 7/2, 2012 at 10:58 Comment(0)

try

document.getElementById('tblList').outerHTML="ypur html";

Ember answered 19/10, 2013 at 13:9 Comment(0)

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