document.getElementById().innerHTML fails with 'Unknown Error' in IE

document.getElementById().innerHTML fails with 'Unknown Error' in IE

• David Godwin

  In my case the issue was caused by trying to adjust the .innerHTML of a form. Works fine in FF, blows up with an unknown error in IE. The IE script debugger was, unfortunately, useless.
  
  this fails:
  

  Code Block

  <form id='test'></form>
  <script>document.getElementById('test').innerHTML = 'whatever';</script>

  
  

  
  
  this works:
  

  Code Block

  <span id='test'><form></form></span>
  <script>document.getElementById('test').innerHTML = '<form>whatever</form>'; </script>

  
  

  
  

• careymc

  //Got some code from :
  //http://www.permadi.com/tutorial/jsInnerHTMLDOM/index.html
  //hope this helps...
  
  if (document.getElementById)
  {
  var replace=document.getElementById('abc');
  if (replace)
  {
  if (replace.childNodes[0])
  {
  replace.childNodes[0].nodeValue=thisHtml;
  }
  else if (replace.value)
  {
  replace.value=thisHtml;
  }
  else //if (replace.innerHTML)
  {
  replace.innerHTML=thisHtml;
  }
  }
  }
  
  
  

• Sinan Ussakli

  I am having the same issue, but the code snippet geekinout posted above results in the same error. Has anyone else figured out a different solution
  
  

• YodaC

  Working on the same problem...
  
  tried
  
  "getElementsByName" (instead of "getElementById")... no luck
  
  tried using
  
  name="myelement" id="myelement" .... no luck
  
  also tried
  
  document.all.getElementById ... no luck
  
  Of course there's no issue in Firefox...., just IE...
  
  

• DaveMuc

  I'm having the same error. It is caused because I put a <div> into it, but there is no way I can remove it.
  
  someone please help! (it would help if everyone used firefox.....)
  
  

• DJoyce

  I have little doubt that there are a hundred ways to cause this problem. Here's what happened to me.
  
  I tried to discover if I even had the right <div> using...
  
  var container = document.getElementById("total");
  alert(container.innerHTML);
  
  It came up empty when it shouldn't. So I gave the <div> a name, "name=blah" and tried to see it.
  
  alert(container.name);
  
  The name the alert gave me was "total"!!!!! So I searched through my code to see what else used the name "total." Sure enough, I found something. What my code had was...
  
  ...
  <input type=hidden name=total value=0>
  ...
  <div id=total name=blah>some text</div>
  
  Brain-dead IE was taking the first item using EITHER the name or ID assigned "total" rather than the ONLY item with an ID of "total." It took me hours to figure this out.
  
  I changed my <div>'s ID to "dangiedivtotal" and re-ran my alert test. Sure enough, everything worked, including the innerHTML assignment.
  
  So, Rule #1: never use the same name for name= or id= in multiple tags assuming IE is smart enough to know the difference between them --- it isn't. IE's implementation of getElementById looks at **both** the name= and id= references and takes the first one it finds.
  
  

• Robert Johnson

  The problem you described above is exactly what I have run into...how did you solve it exactly Did you move the element out of the table Pleeease let me know :)
  Thanks a million!
  
  
  

• Thenend

  I've been fighting this issue a lot as well. I was confused where the error was coming from because I'm passing Javascript to the page via PHP, and then using execScript to run it in an already loaded page and change out content using innerHTML
  
  The source of the error, though, was simply in what I was putting in the element via innerHTML. eg, don't put <form> or <p> inside a <p> element!
  
  I hope this helps someone. I'm sure I'll run into the error again, though. Apparently it comes up quite a bit, with very little explaination.
  
  

• el-neilios

  In my code, I'm swapping out the content of a DIV element using the innerHTML property. The string of HTML I was assigning the DIV's innerHTML property to contained <FORM> tags. Sometimes (very rarely) it would generate an 'Unknown Error' in IE6. I fixed this error by removing the <FORM> tags from the HTML string I was assigning to the DIV's innerHTML property.
  
  

• Adam_T

  I have the same error. It is caused by a <div> that should be in the <div> in the body, but the <div> I want to insert can't be removed. Can someone help me
  
  (it would help if everyone used firefox..)
  
  

• Engineer1

  Support for .innerHTML on tables in IE is sketchy at best.
  
  The bugs are reported/tracked here:
  
  http://webbugtrack.blogspot.com/2007/12/bug-210-no-innerhtml-support-on-tables.html
  
  Your best bet is to insert the whole table as one .innerHTML call, or use the DOM methods (be weary of attribute naming)
  
  
  
  

• chopper

  After many hours of testing different methods and routines, I finally was able to make a not so W3C complient method that works as it should. The method works in both FF and IE without error. Additionally this not so W3C complient method works without having to write the entire table elements, rather just the text to be changed. I guess you can't always rely on the documentation.
  
  I no longer need your assistance.
  
• document.getElementById().innerHTML fails with 'Unknown Error' in IE