Implementing Standard Updates in JavaScript Pages

Consistent update in JavaScript websites is one of the main features of the client side programming language. Through JavaScript, developers will be able to update their website without having to affect other parts of the application.

Before JavaScript, a website has to be fully reloaded before the changes will be implemented. But this concern is long gone with JavaScript. Developers will be able to provide a more interactive application without requiring a lot of bandwidth from users. Some sites are even configured to reload just to ensure real time information is conveyed to users.

The technique that made this possible is the smart use of innerHTML, instead of using HTML as the main programming language in the website. JavaScript, particularly, DOM will use innerHTML so that various HTML codes will be separated. The interaction in terms of data connection is there but any changes in their end will not have any full effect on the entire webpage.

This is often used by developers for online application since HTML offers an opportunity to develop a lightweight application. HTML will not require intensive coding but would still behave as powerful as JavaScript since HTML will be part of innerHTML.

The Standard Approach

The innerHTML approach of developing an application is essentially not the standard approach for implementing updates in the application.

The standard approach works with another function: removeChild. This function basically removes the contents of the information and replaces it with new data.

There are two steps necessary before removeChild could be implemented as an updater. The first step is to implement the method that will provide the new data in the container. This will provide the source of data needed by removeChild. The second step is to allow removeChild to connect or reference to the method.

As you may have noticed, the standard method in updating information within JavaScript has an extra step compared to the popular version. Developers using innerHTML will only have to work directly on an HTML function and the rest will be taken cared of by innerHTML.

Advantage of the Standard Method

Although the standard method in updating an online JavaScript application is not that popular, it's still a highly recommended practice. RemoveChild is not just a function set to confuse and frustrate developers. The function still works like innerHTML with additional advantages:

• Security - even though removeChild do not provide the most powerful security feature on earth, it's still a lot better compared to innerHTML. Since removeChild is not that popular, developers can be assured that the function is not the focus on many attacks. And if attacks would happen, the extra step will provide additional security gate for the application.

• Recognition - while many DOM functions are not recognized in various browsers, removeChild has been part of many major browsers. This will allow developers to update their websites faster without seeing the need to adjust their functions just to ensure that the innerHTML will be read.

Although removeChild may not be the perfect function in terms of ease of implementation, its advantages might be able to outweigh its coding requirements.