get parentNode of clicked element in plain JS

Question

I need to get the parentNode of a clicked element in plain JS (no jQuery or other frameworks) I am currently using document.getElementById(\"item_click\") but

Answer 1

function new_class(event) {
    wTile = event.target.parentNode;
    wTile.className = wTile.className + " added-class";
}

Answer 2

"I just don't know how to integrate this in the script"

Use .call() to invoke the handler to set its this value to the element that has the handler...

<div id="item_click" onmousedown="new_class.call(this,event)" ...>

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function new_class(event) {
    var wTile = this.parentNode;
    wTile.className = wTile.className + " added-class";
}

Answer 3

You can just use event.target.parentNode (Don't need to even pass the event in the function):

function new_class() {
    var parent = event.target.parentNode;
    // Do whatever...
}