JavaScript createElementNS and SVG

Solution 1:

I hope, the following example will help you:

function CreateSVG() {
    var xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/2000/svg";
    var boxWidth = 300;
    var boxHeight = 300;

    var svgElem = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "svg");
    svgElem.setAttributeNS(null, "viewBox", "0 0 " + boxWidth + " " + boxHeight);
    svgElem.setAttributeNS(null, "width", boxWidth);
    svgElem.setAttributeNS(null, "height", boxHeight);
    svgElem.style.display = "block";

    var g = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "g");
    svgElem.appendChild(g);
    g.setAttributeNS(null, 'transform', 'matrix(1,0,0,-1,0,300)');

    // draw linear gradient
    var defs = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "defs");
    var grad = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "linearGradient");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "id", "gradient");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "x1", "0%");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "x2", "0%");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "y1", "100%");
    grad.setAttributeNS(null, "y2", "0%");
    var stopTop = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "stop");
    stopTop.setAttributeNS(null, "offset", "0%");
    stopTop.setAttributeNS(null, "stop-color", "#ff0000");
    grad.appendChild(stopTop);
    var stopBottom = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "stop");
    stopBottom.setAttributeNS(null, "offset", "100%");
    stopBottom.setAttributeNS(null, "stop-color", "#0000ff");
    grad.appendChild(stopBottom);
    defs.appendChild(grad);
    g.appendChild(defs);

    // draw borders
    var coords = "M 0, 0";
    coords += " l 0, 300";
    coords += " l 300, 0";
    coords += " l 0, -300";
    coords += " l -300, 0";

    var path = document.createElementNS(xmlns, "path");
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'stroke', "#000000");
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'stroke-width', 10);
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'stroke-linejoin', "round");
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'd', coords);
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'fill', "url(#gradient)");
    path.setAttributeNS(null, 'opacity', 1.0);
    g.appendChild(path);

    var svgContainer = document.getElementById("svgContainer");
    svgContainer.appendChild(svgElem);
}
#svgContainer {
  width: 400px;
  height: 400px;
  background-color: #a0a0a0;
}
<body onload="CreateSVG()">
    <div id="svgContainer"></div>
</body>

Solution 2:

Firstly, use createElementNS, as you are doing. createElement (without NS) automatically lowercases element names inside HTML documents, according to the Mozilla documentation.

Secondly, don't trust Google Chrome's "Inspect Element" feature here. It seems to display every element in lowercase, no matter what the actual nodeName is. Try this:

document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "textPath").nodeName
// Output: "textPath"

document.createElement("textPath").nodeName
// Output: "TEXTPATH"

Your problem might be an unrelated issue. For example, this code works fine in Firefox, but breaks in Chrome (12.0.742.112):

function animateSVG() {
  var svgNS = "http://www.w3.org/2000/svg";
  var textElement = document.getElementById("TextElement");
  var amElement = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "animateMotion");
  console.log(textElement);
  console.log(amElement);
  console.log(amElement.nodeName);
  amElement.setAttribute("path", "M 0 0 L 100 100");
  amElement.setAttribute("dur", "5s");
  amElement.setAttribute("fill", "freeze");
  textElement.appendChild(amElement);
  //amElement.beginElement();
};
<body onload="animateSVG()">
  <svg width="100%" height="100%" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <g transform="translate(100,100)">
      <text id="TextElement" x="0" y="0" style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:24">
        It's SVG!
        <!-- <animateMotion path="M 0 0 L 100 100" dur="5s" fill="freeze"/> -->
      </text>
    </g>
  </svg>
</body>

My issue probably has something to do with the broken handling of animateMotion in Chrome (Issue 13585).

Your issue might be the same, or it might be another issue, but make sure you're not being fooled by the element inspector.

Solution 3:

I have just resolved a similar problem. document.createElement (and I assume document.createElementNS), when called from a HTML page creates a HTML node (where case doesnt matter), not an xml node.

The following works in Chrome:

doc = document.implementation.createDocument(null, null, null); doc.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg","textPath");

you will get your mixed case node.