How to wait until an element exists?

I'm working on an Extension in Chrome, and I'm wondering: what's the best way to find out when an element comes into existence? Using plain javascript, with an interval that checks until an element exists, or does jQuery have some easy way to do this?

Solution 1:

DOMNodeInserted is being deprecated, along with the other DOM mutation events, because of performance issues - the recommended approach is to use a MutationObserver to watch the DOM. It's only supported in newer browsers though, so you should fall back onto DOMNodeInserted when MutationObserver isn't available.

let observer = new MutationObserver((mutations) => {
  mutations.forEach((mutation) => {
    if (!mutation.addedNodes) return

    for (let i = 0; i < mutation.addedNodes.length; i++) {
      // do things to your newly added nodes here
      let node = mutation.addedNodes[i]
    }
  })
})

observer.observe(document.body, {
    childList: true
  , subtree: true
  , attributes: false
  , characterData: false
})

// stop watching using:
observer.disconnect()

Solution 2:

Here is a core JavaScript function to wait for the display of an element (well, its insertion into the DOM to be more accurate).

// Call the below function
waitForElementToDisplay("#div1",function(){alert("Hi");},1000,9000);

function waitForElementToDisplay(selector, callback, checkFrequencyInMs, timeoutInMs) {
  var startTimeInMs = Date.now();
  (function loopSearch() {
    if (document.querySelector(selector) != null) {
      callback();
      return;
    }
    else {
      setTimeout(function () {
        if (timeoutInMs && Date.now() - startTimeInMs > timeoutInMs)
          return;
        loopSearch();
      }, checkFrequencyInMs);
    }
  })();
}

This call will look for the HTML tag whose id="div1" every 1000 milliseconds. If the element is found, it will display an alert message Hi. If no element is found after 9000 milliseconds, this function stops its execution.

Parameters:

1. selector: String : This function looks for the element ${selector}.
2. callback: Function : This is a function that will be called if the element is found.
3. checkFrequencyInMs: Number : This function checks whether this element exists every ${checkFrequencyInMs} milliseconds.
4. timeoutInMs : Number : Optional. This function stops looking for the element after ${timeoutInMs} milliseconds.

NB : Selectors are explained at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/querySelector

Solution 3:

I was having this same problem, so I went ahead and wrote a plugin for it.

$(selector).waitUntilExists(function);

Code:

;(function ($, window) {

var intervals = {};
var removeListener = function(selector) {

    if (intervals[selector]) {

        window.clearInterval(intervals[selector]);
        intervals[selector] = null;
    }
};
var found = 'waitUntilExists.found';

/**
 * @function
 * @property {object} jQuery plugin which runs handler function once specified
 *           element is inserted into the DOM
 * @param {function|string} handler 
 *            A function to execute at the time when the element is inserted or 
 *            string "remove" to remove the listener from the given selector
 * @param {bool} shouldRunHandlerOnce 
 *            Optional: if true, handler is unbound after its first invocation
 * @example jQuery(selector).waitUntilExists(function);
 */

$.fn.waitUntilExists = function(handler, shouldRunHandlerOnce, isChild) {

    var selector = this.selector;
    var $this = $(selector);
    var $elements = $this.not(function() { return $(this).data(found); });

    if (handler === 'remove') {

        // Hijack and remove interval immediately if the code requests
        removeListener(selector);
    }
    else {

        // Run the handler on all found elements and mark as found
        $elements.each(handler).data(found, true);

        if (shouldRunHandlerOnce && $this.length) {

            // Element was found, implying the handler already ran for all 
            // matched elements
            removeListener(selector);
        }
        else if (!isChild) {

            // If this is a recurring search or if the target has not yet been 
            // found, create an interval to continue searching for the target
            intervals[selector] = window.setInterval(function () {

                $this.waitUntilExists(handler, shouldRunHandlerOnce, true);
            }, 500);
        }
    }

    return $this;
};

}(jQuery, window));