document.adoptNode

Adopts a node. The node and its subtree is removed from the document it's in (if any), and its ownerDocument is changed to the current document. The node can then be inserted into the current document.

Supported since Gecko 1.9 (Firefox 3)

Syntax

node = document.adoptNode(externalNode);

node

is the adopted node that now has this document as its ownerDocument. The node's parentNode is null, since it has not yet been inserted into the document tree. Note that node and externalNode are the same object after this call.

externalNode

is the node from another document to be adopted.

Example

var iframe = document.getElementById('my-iframe');
var iframeImages = iframe.contentDocument.getElementsByTagName('img');

var newParent = document.getElementByTagName('images');

for (var i = 0; i < iframeImages.length; i++) {
    newParent.appendChild(document.adoptNode(iframeImages[i]));
}

Notes

In general the adoptNode call may fail due to the source node coming from a different implementation, however this should not be a problem with browser implementations.

Nodes from external documents should be cloned using document.importNode() (or adopted using document.adoptNode()) before they can be inserted into the current document. For more on the Node.ownerDocument issues, see the W3C DOM FAQ.

Firefox doesn't currently enforce this rule (it did for a while during the development of Firefox 3, but too many sites break when this rule is enforced). We encourage Web developers to fix their code to follow this rule for improved future compatibility.

Specification

• DOM Level 3 Core: Document.adoptNode

See also

• document.importNode