On Jun 2, 4:01=A0pm, Joe Kesselman <keshlam.cat.nos...@verizon.net>
wrote:
> >> That still won't work on IE. XML nodes, implemented by MSXML,
> >> are a different and incompatible kind of COM component to
> >> the HTML nodes implemented in MSHTML :-(
>
> > That would not necessarily matter as the - importNode - method would
> > be able to create new nodes in the target document based upon the
> > nodes it received as arguments. Indeed the - importNode - method is
> > required to create new nodes rather than directly employing its
> > argument nodes.
>
> Exactly. importNode()'s job is to read the data from the source node
> (using the public DOM APIs) and to recreate equivalent nodes in the
> target DOM.

And it does so poorly (and not at all in IE.)

>
> > Of course the reason that won't work with IE is that Microsoft DOMs
> > (at very lest the HTML DOM that is the target here) does not have the
> > - importNode - method implemented.
>
> ... Which means you have to go back to the solution used before
> importNode() was added: Write your own importing subroutine which walks
> the source tree and builds equivalent nodes in the target. Easy with
> recursion; more difficult but sometimes more efficient with an iterative
> engine.

It's been done to death.  All a waste of time.  Use innerHTML or JSON.

[snip]