Does properties and Attributes mean same in JavaScript? [closed]

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Closed 9 years ago.

Properties and Attributes are treated similar by IE 8 and below.

Do they mean same?

Answer 1

@all who believes that they are same:

NO.

Properties and Attributes of an HTML element are not the same.

From DOM point of view: Properties are private variables and Attributes are stored in a NamedNodeMap stored as the childNode of the HTML elements

From JavaScript point of view (Implementation): var elem = document.getElementById("ID");

elem.prop = somevalue; //accessing properties

elem.getAttribute("attributeName"); //accessing attributes : getters elem.setAttribute("attributeName","value"); //accessing attributes : setters

Refer to my other answer for implementation details.

Answer 2

What is the difference between attribute and property? has quite a discussion about the semantics ... and different language uses of the terms ...

Answer 3

Properties and Attributes are not same in DOM. However, treated similar in IE 8 and below.

I faced an issue in cross-browser compatibility.

Issue: Custom Attributes being accessed as properties in an HTML4/JavaScript for IE8. Needed to make the HTML compatible for Chrome, Safari and IE9.

Solution: elements can be iterated to check for the custom-attributes and added those as properties.

Sample Code:

var propertyName = obj.attributes[index].nodeName; //(Attribute names are not case sensitive) obj[propertyName] = value; //(Check for the implementation of the obj.customAttribute)

Tip: Unlike IE 8 and below, IE 9 and above has resolved the issue and treats attributes and properties differently.