element.firstChild is returning '<TextNode …' instead of an Object in FF

Question

I wrote a tab system using some very basic Javascript and it runs like a champ in IE 8 but, in FireFox 3 I am coming up short. The pertitent HTML is as follows:

<         


        

Answer 1

You should skip the TextNodes, a simple function can help you:

function getFirstChild(el){
  var firstChild = el.firstChild;
  while(firstChild != null && firstChild.nodeType == 3){ // skip TextNodes
    firstChild = firstChild.nextSibling;
  }
  return firstChild;
}

Usage:

var tabContainer = document.getElementById(TabContainer);
var tabs = getFirstChild(tabContainer);