10 JavaScript DOM Tips and Tricks That Every Developer Should Know

The DOM stands for ‘Document Object Model’, it’s a programming interface for  HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language)  documents. DOM represents the structure of a document which means a  hierarchical tree-like structure, where each existing element in the document are represented as a node in the tree. It also provides properties and methods, including dynamically structured to manipulate the content and styling of Web Pages by interacting with nodes that allow developer changes in the document. 

Example:

Imagine you are a developer and building a blog website that includes so many blogs, posts, and comments where users can post the comments and put their reviews. Now you as a developer want to dynamically display the latest comments on the page as well without refreshing the page. So here you can go with the DOM to achieve this shown below.

<div id="commentsContainer">
  <h2>Comments</h2>
  <ul id="commentsList"></ul>
</div>

<button id="postComment">Post Comment</button>

// Get references to the necessary DOM elements
const commentsListElement = document.getElementById('commentsList');
const postCommentButton = document.getElementById('postComment');

// Attach an event listener to the "Post Comment" button
postCommentButton.addEventListener('click', function() {
  // Create a new comment item
  const comment = document.createElement('li');
  comment.textContent = 'New comment';

  // Append the new comment to the comments list
  commentsListElement.appendChild(comment);
});

JavaScript DOM Tips and Tricks

JavaScript is a very powerful programming language for developers that allows us to create dynamic and interactive web pages with full responsiveness. One of the key elements of JavaScript is the Document Object Model (DOM) which represents the structure of the whole HTML document and provides a better way to interact with it programmatically. By utilizing the DOM effectively, it can enhance the developer’s ability to manipulate and controlling of web pages. In this blog, you going to explore 10 JavaScript DOM tips and tricks that every developer should know which will make it easy to analyze features in the context of programming to skill the next level. 

1. Selecting DOM Elements

In web pages, when we make changes to elements we need to select them first. If we use JavaScript it makes easier work for the developer because it provides simple methods to do this, like ‘getElementById()’,  ‘getElementByClassName()’, and ‘querySelector()’. Let’s go with an example. 

Example:

// Select an element by ID
const headerElement = document.getElementById('header');

// Select elements by class name
const buttons = document.getElementsByClassName('btn');

// Select elements using a CSS selector
const mainElement = document.querySelector('main');

2. Changing Element Attributes

This feature allows you to modify element attributes dynamically by using methods, like ‘getAttribute()’, ‘setAttribute()’, and ‘removeAttribute()’ to access,  change an element attribute or remove attributes like ‘src’, ‘href’. By using these attribute manipulation methods (‘getAttribute’, ‘setAttribute’, and  ‘removeAttribute’) by utilizing you will have the flexibility in accessing,  modifying, and removing the attributes of elements dynamically. This could be very useful and essential while adapting the element behaviors, also in changing  URLs, or manipulating the custom data attributes which are based on user interaction or in the specific application logic, the following example demonstrates how to get the value, Set the value, and Remove the value of an attribute. 

Example:

// Get the value of an attribute
const image = document.getElementById('my-image');
const source = image.getAttribute('src');
console.log(source);

// Set the value of an attribute
const link = document.querySelector('a');
link.setAttribute('href', 'https://www.example.com');

// Remove an attribute
const button = document.getElementById('my-button');
button.removeAttribute('disabled');

3. Handling Form Inputs

Handling form inputs means that working with forms in web development is a  common task. Where JavaScript helps you to access and validate the form input fields. It uses the properties like ‘value’ or ‘checked’ to get and set the input field values. Additionally, the ‘submit()’ method can also be used to submit the form as well, it will be more clear by the following example.

Example:

// Access the value of an input field

const nameInput = document.getElementById('name');
const name = nameInput.value;

console.log(name);

// Set the value of an input field

const emailInput = document.getElementById('email');
emailInput.value = '[email protected]';

// Prevent form submission

const form = document.getElementById('my-form');
form.addEventListener('submit', function(event) {
  event.preventDefault(); // Perform form validation and submission
});

4. Styling Elements Working with CSS (Cascading Styling  Sheet) Classes

The Cascading Styling Sheet (CSS) gives a way to style our web pages, with  JavaScript you can easily add or remove CSS classes dynamically. It provides help with such methods as the ‘classList’ property providing methods as ‘add()’,  ‘remove()’, ‘toggle()’, and ‘contains()’ which help you to manage the CSS  classes. You can also use properties like ‘backgroundColor’, ‘font size’, or  ‘display’. This will give you interactive animated effects on your web page. 

Example:

// Add a CSS class to an element
const element = document.getElementById('my-element');
element.classList.add('highlight');
 
// Remove a CSS class from an element
const button = document.querySelector('.btn');
button.classList.remove('active');
 
// Toggle a CSS class on an element
const div = document.querySelector('div');
div.classList.toggle('visible');
 
// Change the background color of an element
const box = document.getElementById('my-box');
box.style.backgroundColor = 'blue';
 
// Increase the font size of an element
const heading = document.querySelector('h1');
heading.style.fontSize = '24px';
 
// Show or hide an element
const image = document.getElementById('my-image');
image.style.display = 'none';

5. Moving through the DOM

When it’s required to find the specific elements based on their relationships, we need to navigate through DOM tree-like structure. As a developer, you should know these methods like ‘parentNode’, ‘childNode’, ‘nextSibling’, and  ‘previousSibling’ which will demonstrate a view for you to move up, down, and sideways through the DOM. 

Example:

// Get the parent node of an element
const paragraph = document.getElementById("my-paragraph");
const parentElement = paragraph.parentNode;

// Get the child nodes of an element
const container = document.querySelector('.container');
const childNodes = container.childNodes;

// Get the next sibling of an element
const heading = document.querySelector('h1');
const nextSibling = heading.nextSibling;

// Get the previous sibling of an element
const paragraph = document.getElementById("my-paragraph");
const previousSibling = paragraph.previousSibling;

6. Efficient DOM Manipulation

It’s very important to reduce unnecessary reflows from the working DOM. To achieve this, we need to perform multiple DOM (Document Object Model)  manipulations simultaneously by creating a document fragment and manipulating elements within it, also then appending the fragment to the  Document Object Model (DOM). This helps in reducing the number of times the browser is updating the page's layout as well as improves performance.  Let’s explore the following example.

Example:

// Create a document fragment
const fragment = document.createDocumentFragment();

// Manipulate elements within the fragment
for (let i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
  const newElement = document.createElement('div');
  newElement.textContent = 'Element ' + i;
  fragment.appendChild(newElement);
}

// Append the fragment to the DOM
const container = document.getElementById('my-container');
container.appendChild(fragment);

Example:

Shopping Cart Updates, when someone as a user adds items to their shopping cart, their developer creates directly manipulating the DOM for each addition instead of this you can create a document fragment that will update it with the new items as well. Once all the items are added to the cart you can append the fragment to the DOM easily into a single operation, which will reduce reflows and enhance the performance.  

7. Event Delegation – Filtering Dynamic Content

In the context of the website, there will be a list of items that can be filtered by different categories, here you can use event delegation for handling the filter buttons over there. If you attach a single event listener to the parent container and check the event target, then you could dynamically filter the content without attaching such individual event listeners with there each respective filter button. So, it’s a better way instead of attaching the event listeners to individual elements, you may go with event delegation, which involves attaching a single event listener to the parent element and also using event bubbling to handle events on child elements. This will enhance performance, especially when dealing with a large number of created elements dynamically.

Example:

// Attach a single event listener to the parent element
const parentElement = document.getElementById('parent');

parentElement.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
  // Check if the event target matches the desired element
  if (event.target.matches('.child')) {
    // Handle the event
    console.log('Child element clicked!');
  }
});

8. Handling Asynchronous Operations

When the developer is working with asynchronous operations, like fetching the data or making AJAX calls, async/wait, or callback functions for ensuring the proper handling of asynchronous flow and preventing blocking of the main thread. This avoids freezing the browser and enhances the smoother user experience. If the developer masters these important tricks, the developer can write more performant, maintainable, and efficient JavaScript code when working with the document object model.

Example:

fetch('https://api.example.com/data')
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(data => {
    // Process the retrieved data
    console.log(data);
  })
  .catch(error => {
    // Handle any errors
    console.error(error);
  });

Example:

Dynamic content loading, when we are loading content dynamically from a server, like fetching additional posts from a social media new feed, you can use async/wait, or callbacks to handle the asynchronous operations. This feature allows you to display and load new content without any blockage of the main thread.  

9. Exploring Browser APIs

While working with DOM manipulation in JavaScript beyond its basics modern web browsers are available that provide many APIs and allow developers to interact with different sorts of aspects and criteria of web pages.  Let’s explore two main popular browser APIs – the Geolocation API and the  Web Storage API. 

A. Geolocation API

This Geolocation API will allow you to retrieve the user’s geographical location, which will enable the developer to create a location-aware web application. Here’s an example for you where this  API is supported by the user’s browser using ‘navigator. geolocation’ that will support a ‘getCurrentPosition()’ for retrieving the user’s current position.

Example:

// Check if Geolocation is supported
if (navigator.geolocation) {
  // Get the current position
  navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
    function(position) {
      const latitude = position.coords.latitude;
      const longitude = position.coords.longitude;
      // Do something with the latitude and longitude
    },
    function(error) {
      console.error('Error:', error.message);
    }
  );
} else {
  console.error('Geolocation is not supported by this browser.');
}

B. Web Storage API

This Web Storage API is a very useful feature that allows you to store the data locally in the user’s browser by providing the following two mechanisms – ‘local storage’ and ‘sessionStorage’ for persistent and session-based storage respectively.  

Example:

// Store data in localStorage
localStorage.setItem('username', 'John');

// Retrieve data from localStorage
const username = localStorage.getItem('username');

// Remove data from localStorage
localStorage.removeItem('username');

By taking advantage of these such helpful APIs like Geolocation API and the  Web Storage API, you can add very interesting and exciting features to your websites which enables the location-based functionalities which will improve the user’s experience as well as a developer go with a smooth implementation, this makes more interactive and personalized web applications. 

10. Traversing the DOM

Traversing the Document Object Model (DOM) for a developer is a very essential skill for any JavaScript developer working with DOM manipulation methods. By traversing the specific elements through your DOM tree and accessing elements based on their relationships. Traversing the DOM is an important trick and tip for every developer as he/she can make a selection of efficient elements, can do element manipulation, and has access to navigate the tree by using such methods like ‘parentNode’, ‘childhood’, ‘nextSibling’, and ‘previous sibling’ will allow you to move up, down and sideways within your DOM tree, the developer will iterating over elements, also can do complex DOM manipulations.

Example:

// Traversing up the DOM tree
const childElement = document.querySelector('li');
const parentElement = childElement.parentNode;
console.log(parentElement); // Output: <ul>...</ul>

// Traversing down the DOM tree
const parentElement = document.getElementById('parent');
const childElements = parentElement.childNodes;
console.log(childElements); // Output: NodeList [text, h2, ul, text]

// Traversing sideways in the DOM
const heading = document.querySelector('h2');
const nextSibling = heading.nextSibling;
console.log(nextSibling); // Output: <ul>...</ul>

const listItem = document.querySelector('li');
const previousSibling = listItem.previousSibling;
console.log(previousSibling);

Important Points for JavaScript DOM

• Some points to be noted are that a developer should know about the JavaScript DOM tricks and tips for better performance and more interactive web applications. Developers can use dynamic form interaction that includes a  multi-step form to handle the form validation and navigation.
   
• Developers can use Interactive image galleries to handle the thumbnail clicks. By using event delegation that will attach a single event listener to the gallery container so that the developer can update the main images based on the clicked thumbnails.  
  
• Developers can have updates of Real-time Data in the live chat application or a displaying real-time dashboard data. The developer can use WebSocket API or AJAX request to fetch data from the server for retrieving real-time data, DOM manipulation updates the UI in real-time which provides the user with the latest information without the need of manual page refreshing. 

Conclusion

JavaScript DOM is crucial for every web developer to master itself in it who looks for interactive and creates dynamic web pages. The tips and tricks discussed above in this blog will provide a solid foundation to you for working with Document Object Model (DOM) efficiently.  

While we access DOM elements, modify the content, manipulate the CSS  classes, create the elements and append the elements, handling the events by using event delegation, traversing the DOM, also handling the asynchronous operations, and optimizing the performance, also using the data attributes, and working with various forms, the web developer can unlock the full potential of  JavaScript and unleash the web development.  

As a delve developer into the world of web development, the mastery of  JavaScript’s DOM will become valuable and embrace the spirit of exploration and experimentation, while pushing the boundaries of what you can achieve with the DOM and elevate your development skills to new heights. So, keep exploring and expanding your knowledge to deep dive into the techie's world of  JavaScript’s DOM.  

By doing so, you as a developer will be able to captivate your users, deliver seamless interactions, and create web applications that will leave a lasting impression.