how to find a html element and then remove it? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Facing weird problem while adding and removing class.

Suppose I have the following html--

     <div class="div_portlet ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all defaultcontentbg portlet-width default_border default_border_color portlet_space">
     <div class="div_header headertitle align_center defaultheadercolor portlet-header-left-padding default_bottom_border default_border_color">
     <span class="ui-icon ui-icon-minusthick"></span>
      Order Header Level Information</div>
      <div id="ordrHdrLvnInfn" class="div_content portlet-width">

What I am trying to do is, check whether span with class ui-icon ui-icon-minusthick exists or not, if it exists first remove it and then add it. I tried in following way, but it's not working

javascript function::

jQuery.fn.initPortlet = function( parent_component ,header , component ){
        this.find(header).find('span.ui-icon').remove();

        this.addClass("ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all")
            .find(header)           
            .addClass("headertitle")
            .addClass("align_center")
            .addClass("defaultheadercolor")
            .end()
            .prepend('<span class="ui-icon ui-icon-minusthick"></span>')
            .find(component);
                   }

and I am calling this function in this way..

$('.div_portlet').initPortlet('.div_portlet','.div_header','.div_content')

It should first remove the span then add it, but if I am calling this function multiple times then it just keep on adding that span.
How can I do this or is there any better way to do this. Thanks!!!!

Answer 1

You are adding your span outside the div_header. Your .end() means you are no longer working with your header filter so the span is getting added to the beginning of your ui_widget...

http://jsfiddle.net/Qjrcg/ is a fiddle of your code. If you look I have a commented out .end() just after the prepend. If you uncomment this and comment out the earlier one then the span (which I put test text in to make it easier to see) only gets created once.

Hopefully this should sort you out.