document.getElementById is returning null on the button click

Question

I have a textarea and a button. The button submits the data to a page through AJAX through a function. When the button is clicked it calls a function that takes in 3 parameters for this question only one of them is necessary.

Let's look at the code to understand more clearly:

var offers = <? php echo PostOffer::GetOffers($_GET["id"]); ?> ;
for (var i = 0; i < offers.length; i++) {
    var date = offers[i].Date.split(" ");
    document.write('<div class="row-fluid offer">' +
        '<div class="span2">' +
        '<img class="profile_picture" src="' + offers[i].Picture_Path + '" />' +
        '</div>' +
        '<div class="span10">' +
        '<div class="row-fluid">' +
        '<div class="username">' +
        '<p style="font-weight: bold;">' + offers[i].Name + '</p>' +
        '</div>' +
        '</div>' +
        '<div class="row-fluid">' +
        '<div class="content">' +
        '<p class="content">' + offers[i].Text + '</p>' +
        '<textarea class="hide span12" id="edited_content">' + offers[i].Text + '</textarea>' +
        '<button type="button" class="hide btn btn-primary btn-small" id="save_edits" onclick=\'editPostOffer("<?php echo $_GET["id"]; ?>","' + offers[i].Offer_ID + '","' + document.getElementById("edited_content") + '");\'>Save Edits</button>&nbsp;' +
        '<button type="button" class="hide btn btn-primary btn-small cancel_edits">Cancel Edits</button>' +
        '</div>' +
        '</div>' +
        '<div class="row-fluid">' +
        '<div class="date">' +
        '<p class="pull-right"><strong><span class="muted">Offered on: </span></strong>' + date[0] + '</p>' +
        '</div>');
    if (offers[i].Username == "<?php echo $_SESSION["
    username "]; ?>") {
        document.write('<div class="controls pull-right">' +
            '<a href="" class="no_link edit_offer">Edit</a>&nbsp;' +
            '<a href="" class="no_link" onclick="showDeleteOfferModal(' + offers[i].Offer_ID + ');">Delete</a> |&nbsp;' +
            '</div>');
    }
    document.write('</div>' +
        '</div>' +
        '</div>' +
        '<hr />');
}

The important part is:

...
'<div class="row-fluid">' +
    '<div class="content">' +
    '<p class="content">' + offers[i].Text + '</p>' +
    '<textarea class="hide span12" id="edited_content">' + offers[i].Text + '</textarea>' +
    '<button type="button" class="hide btn btn-primary btn-small" id="save_edits" onclick=\'editPostOffer("<?php echo $_GET["id"]; ?>","' + offers[i].Offer_ID + '","' + document.getElementById("edited_content") + '");\'>Save Edits</button>&nbsp;' +
    '<button type="button" class="hide btn btn-primary btn-small cancel_edits">Cancel Edits</button>' +
    '</div>' +
    '</div>' +
...

The most important is:

...
'<button type="button" class="hide btn btn-primary btn-small" id="save_edits" onclick=\'editPostOffer("<?php echo $_GET["id"]; ?>","' + offers[i].Offer_ID + '","' + document.getElementById("edited_content") + '");\'>Save Edits</button>&nbsp;' +
...

In the onclick of that button the function document.getElementById("edited_content") returns a null value. I've tried logging it to the console it prints null. Why is that happening?

Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Because at the point you call document.getElementById("edited_content") , edited_content does not exist.

You are creating it by appending a string, so you'd need to do something like:

// Add the first part
document.write('<div class="row-fluid offer">' +
        '<div class="span2">' +
        '<img class="profile_picture" src="' + offers[i].Picture_Path + '" />' +
        '</div>' +
        '<div class="span10">' +
        '<div class="row-fluid">' +
        '<div class="username">' +
        '<p style="font-weight: bold;">' + offers[i].Name + '</p>' +
        '</div>' +
        '</div>' +
        '<div class="row-fluid">' +
        '<div class="content">' +
        '<p class="content">' + offers[i].Text + '</p>' +
        '<textarea class="hide span12" id="edited_content">' + offers[i].Text + '</textarea>');
// Now we can get edited_content
document.write('<button type="button" class="hide btn btn-primary btn-small" id="save_edits" onclick=\'editPostOffer("<?php echo $_GET["id"]; ?>","' + offers[i].Offer_ID + '","' + document.getElementById("edited_content") + '");\'>Save Edits</button>&nbsp;');
// Write the rest of the HTML
document.write('<button type="button" class="hide btn btn-primary btn-small cancel_edits">Cancel Edits</button>' +
        '</div>' +
        '</div>' +
        '<div class="row-fluid">' +
        '<div class="date">' +
        '<p class="pull-right"><strong><span class="muted">Offered on: </span></strong>' + date[0] + '</p>' +
        '</div>');

PS You tagged the question with jQuery - there are much better ways of doing what you are trying to achieve . Better still, use a templating engine .