How to wait until an element exists?

Question

I\'m working on an Extension in Chrome, and I\'m wondering: what\'s the best way to find out when an element comes into existence? Using plain javascript, with an interval t

Answer 1

Here's a function that acts as a thin wrapper around MutationObserver. The only requirement is that the browser support MutationObserver; there is no dependency on JQuery. Run the snippet below to see a working example.

function waitForMutation(parentNode, isMatchFunc, handlerFunc, observeSubtree, disconnectAfterMatch) {
  var defaultIfUndefined = function(val, defaultVal) {
    return (typeof val === "undefined") ? defaultVal : val;
  };

  observeSubtree = defaultIfUndefined(observeSubtree, false);
  disconnectAfterMatch = defaultIfUndefined(disconnectAfterMatch, false);

  var observer = new MutationObserver(function(mutations) {
    mutations.forEach(function(mutation) {
      if (mutation.addedNodes) {
        for (var i = 0; i < mutation.addedNodes.length; i++) {
          var node = mutation.addedNodes[i];
          if (isMatchFunc(node)) {
            handlerFunc(node);
            if (disconnectAfterMatch) observer.disconnect();
          };
        }
      }
    });
  });

  observer.observe(parentNode, {
    childList: true,
    attributes: false,
    characterData: false,
    subtree: observeSubtree
  });
}

// Example
waitForMutation(
  // parentNode: Root node to observe. If the mutation you're looking for
  // might not occur directly below parentNode, pass 'true' to the
  // observeSubtree parameter.
  document.getElementById("outerContent"),
  // isMatchFunc: Function to identify a match. If it returns true,
  // handlerFunc will run.
  // MutationObserver only fires once per mutation, not once for every node
  // inside the mutation. If the element we're looking for is a child of
  // the newly-added element, we need to use something like
  // node.querySelector() to find it.
  function(node) {
    return node.querySelector(".foo") !== null;
  },
  // handlerFunc: Handler.
  function(node) {
    var elem = document.createElement("div");
    elem.appendChild(document.createTextNode("Added node (" + node.innerText + ")"));
    document.getElementById("log").appendChild(elem);
  },
  // observeSubtree
  true,
  // disconnectAfterMatch: If this is true the hanlerFunc will only run on
  // the first time that isMatchFunc returns true. If it's false, the handler
  // will continue to fire on matches.
  false);

// Set up UI. Using JQuery here for convenience.

$outerContent = $("#outerContent");
$innerContent = $("#innerContent");

$("#addOuter").on("click", function() {
  var newNode = $("
Outer
");
  $outerContent.append(newNode);
});
$("#addInner").on("click", function() {
  var newNode = $("
Inner
");
  $innerContent.append(newNode);
});

.content {
  padding: 1em;
  border: solid 1px black;
  overflow-y: auto;
}
#innerContent {
  height: 100px;
}
#outerContent {
  height: 200px;
}
#log {
  font-family: Courier;
  font-size: 10pt;
}

Create some mutations

  Add outer node
  Add inner node
  

    

  

Log