setting parent node in javascript

Question

when Im cloning an object in javascript by doing object.cloneNode(true) the parentNode is null in the new copy. Im trying to set it but with no success. my code look like this:

old_DataRoot = DataRoot.cloneNode(true);
old_DataRoot.parentNode=DataRoot.parentNode.cloneNode(true);

also tried:

    old_DataRoot = DataRoot.cloneNode(true);
    old_DataRoot.parentNode.appendChild(DataRoot.parentNode.cloneNode(true));

both options give me "old_DataRoot.parentNode is null or not an object" what am I doing wrong?

thanks alot, Yoni.

Answer 1

Is this what you're trying to do?

old_DataRoot = DataRoot.cloneNode(true);
DataRoot.parentNode.appendChild(old_DataRoot);

Answer 2

Yes, that's true, parentNode is a read-only property.

In your second case you need know that only one of the nodes is attached to the DOM. It's dataRoot which still has the parentnode, the result of the clone (which you called old_DataRoot) is unattached:

dataRoot.parentNode.appendChild(newDataRoot = dataRoot.cloneNode(true));

Answer 3

If you're trying

to make a backup of the original DataRoot in order to recover it later.

then consider

// Backup
var DataRootBackup = {
    nodes: DataRoot.cloneNode(true),
    parent: DataRoot.parentNode
};

// Restore
DataRootBackup.parent.appendChild( DataRootBackup.nodes );