how to get the caller element in href javascript function?

Question

I have an anchor tag element coming in the html like:

<a href="javascript:handleEvent(this, 'abc')"></a>

Now in the javascript function, I have written:

function handleEvent(sourceElement, txt) {
    console.log(sourceElement);
}

the consoled element is coming as the window in this case. I tried sourceElement.document.activeElement but it doesnt seem to work in chrome, where it is coming as body element.

I cannot change the structure of the anchor tag to 'onClick' function as this is coming from some other source. Is there some way to find the calling element in this scenario?

Answer 1

The real answer here is to change the HTML, which you've said you can't do. I'd push back on that if you can. If you're writing the function, and the function name is in the HTML, how is it you can't change the HTML??

But if you really, really can't, you can update the DOM once it's loaded:

var list = document.querySelectorAll('a[href^="javascript:"]');
var x, link;
for (x = 0; x < list.length; ++x) {
    link = list[x];
    link.onclick = new Function(link.href.substring(11));
    link.href = "javascript:;";
}

Live Copy | Live Source

This is fairly naughty, as it uses the Function constructor (which is very much like eval), but if you trust the source of the HTML, that should be okay.

Or of course, if you don't have to use whatever was in the href to start with, just hook up your event handler in the code above and don't use new Function.