Render DOM element

JavaScript, Browser, Recursion · Oct 13, 2021

Renders the given DOM tree in the specified DOM element.

Destructure the first argument into type and props. Use type to determine if the given element is a text element.
Based on the element's type, use either Document.createTextNode() or Document.createElement() to create the DOM element.
Use Object.keys() to add attributes to the DOM element and set event listeners, as necessary.
Use recursion to render props.children, if any.
Finally, use Node.appendChild() to append the DOM element to the specified container.

const renderElement = ({ type, props = {} }, container) => {
  const isTextElement = !type;
  const element = isTextElement
    ? document.createTextNode('')
    : document.createElement(type);

  const isListener = p => p.startsWith('on');
  const isAttribute = p => !isListener(p) && p !== 'children';

  Object.keys(props).forEach(p => {
    if (isAttribute(p)) element[p] = props[p];
    if (!isTextElement && isListener(p))
      element.addEventListener(p.toLowerCase().slice(2), props[p]);
  });

  if (!isTextElement && props.children && props.children.length)
    props.children.forEach(childElement =>
      renderElement(childElement, element)
    );

  container.appendChild(element);
};

const myElement = {
  type: 'button',
  props: {
    type: 'button',
    className: 'btn',
    onClick: () => alert('Clicked'),
    children: [{ props: { nodeValue: 'Click me' } }]
  }
};

renderElement(myElement, document.body);

Written by Angelos Chalaris

I'm Angelos Chalaris, a JavaScript software engineer, based in Athens, Greece. The best snippets from my coding adventures are published here to help others learn to code.

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