DaniWeb IT Discussion Community - Accessing objects that are not in the form fields

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Accessing objects that are not in the form fields

http://www.contentmart.com/ContentMa...images/dom.gif
I want to ask if there is a way to access an obcect which is not in a form field. My textbook doesn't cover that topic. All the sample code in it is done with the form fields.
The picture above illustrates the DOM object model that is used in JavaScript. What I understand from the picture is there is no way to access a control which is not in a form field.

For example, is there any way to make the code below work?

<html>

    <body>

        <script language="javascript">

            function Function1() { document.TextBox.value = "You clicked the first button.";}

            function Function2() { document.TextBox.value = "You clicked the second button.";}

        </script>

        <input type="text"  name="TextBox"  value="This is the text box."><br>

        <input type="button" name="Button1" value="Button 1" onClick="Function1();">

        <input type="button" name="Button2" value="Button 2" onClick="Function2();">

    </body>

</html>

Re: Accessing objects that are not in the form fields

The easiest way is to identify the inputs rather than name them:

<html>

    <body>

        <script language="javascript">

            function Function1() { document.getElementById('TextBox').value = "You clicked the first button.";}

            function Function2() { document.getElementById('TextBox').value = "You clicked the second button.";}

        </script>

        <input type="text"  id="TextBox" name="TextBox"  value="This is the text box."><br>

        <input type="button" name="Button1" value="Button 1" onClick="Function1();">

        <input type="button" name="Button2" value="Button 2" onClick="Function2();">

    </body>

</html>

Those 'id' attributes have got to be unique.

There are other ways to get at objects that aren't id'ed; see this page:

http://www.pageresource.com/dhtml/ryan/part4-2.html