How do you detect if an html element can append child nodes?

Question

I created a custom jquery event called \'loading\' in my application. I want to append a masking element with a spinner, when this event is triggered. I can figure out tha

Answer 1

You have to check the name:

/*global $, jQuery */

function isVoid(el) {
    var tags = ['area', 'base', 'br', 'col', 'command', 'embed', 'hr', 'img', 'input',
                 'keygen', 'link', 'meta', 'param', 'source', 'track', 'wbr'],
        i = 0,
        l,
        name;

    if (el instanceof jQuery) {
        el = el[0];
    }

    name = el.nodeName.toLowerCase();

    for (i = 0, l = tags.length; i < l; i += 1) {
        if (tags[i] === name) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

And use it like this:

var el = document.getElementById('el'),
    elj = $('#el');

if (!isVoid(el)) {
    // append
}