DOM throwing error because of Multiple HTML files

Question

I am trying to create a simple recipe-app with javascript. I have 3 HTML files: index.html, create.html, edit.html and 2 JS files.

I have a couple of DOM elements. One on index.html, Two on edit, Two on create. Now when I open index.html I get an error:

recipe.js:14 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'value' of null

The problem here is that the code that the error is it's about edit.html not index.html. Same problem on edit.html

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'appendChild' of null
at recipe.js:55

recipe.js code 55 is about index.html, not edit.html.

Is there a way to target an HTML file when using DOM.

document.getElementById("edit-body").value = getRecipeBody();

I want the code above to be only for edit.html, not for index.html or create.html.

edit-body is a form that is only on edit.html, not on index or create.html

document.getElementById('recipes').appendChild(recipeEl)

I want this code to be for index.html not for other HTML files because there is no #recipes ID on those files. The #recipes is only on index.html

I am using localStorage.

Answer 1

window.location.pathname would let you execute code for a specific path.

if(window.location.pathname === '/edit.html') {
  document.getElementById("edit-body").value = getRecipeBody();
}

Note that if you load index.html by default (as in, http://localhost:80/ as opposed to http://localhost:80/index.html ), then the pathname will simply be / , so make sure you handle both of those, ie:

if(window.location.pathname === '/index.html' || window.location.pathname === '/') {
  document.getElementById('recipes').appendChild(recipeEl)
}

A better approach would be to code it defensively. Check that the element you're getting exists before running a function against it. For example:

var editEl = document.getElementById("edit-body");
if (editEl) {
  editEl.value = getRecipeBody();
}

Instead of either of these, you could also just load index.js on index.html , edit.js on edit.html , etc., though you'd want to split out any shared functions into a separate (common) JS file.