Programmatically creating an SVG image element with javascript

Question

Like my title says, I'm trying to programmatically creating an SVG image element in a HTML page using javascript. For some reason my basic javascript code isn't working, however if I use the raphaeljs library it works fine. So there's obviously a problem with my js - I just can't seem to figure out what it is.

(note: the target browser is FF4+)

Here is the basic page with an html version of what I'm trying to achieve up the top:

<html>
    <head>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="http://raphaeljs.com/raphael.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>

       <svg
        xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
        xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
        id="test1"
        height="200px"
        width="200px">
            <image
            id="testimg1"
            xlink:href="http://i.imgur.com/LQIsf.jpg"
            width="100"
            height="100"
            x="0"
            y="0"/>
        </svg>

        <hr />

        <p id="testP1">


        </p>
        <hr />      
        <p id="testP2">


        </p>        
    </body>
</html>

And here is my javascript:

var paper = Raphael(document.getElementById("testP1"), 200, 200);
paper.image("http://i.imgur.com/LQIsf.jpg", 0,0, 100, 100);



var svg = document.createElementNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','svg');
svg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','xlink','http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink');
svg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','height','200');
svg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','width','200');
svg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','id','test2');

var svgimg = document.createElementNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','image');
svgimg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','height','100');
svgimg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','width','100');
svgimg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','id','testimg2');
svgimg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink','href','http://i.imgur.com/LQIsf.jpg');
svgimg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','x','0');
svgimg.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg','y','0');

svg.appendChild(svgimg);

document.querySelector('#testP2').appendChild(svg);

Live example: http://jsfiddle.net/Yansky/UVFBj/5/

Phrogz · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-15 02:00:45Z

45

SVG native attributes (not including xlink:href) do not share the SVG namespace; you can either use just setAttribute instead of setAttributeNS, or use

svgimg.setAttributeNS(null,'x','0');

for example.

Here it is, working: http://jsfiddle.net/UVFBj/8/

Note that I changed your fiddle to properly use XHTML, so that SVG works nicely within it in all major browsers.

edited Jul 15, 2011 at 2:00

answered Jul 15, 2011 at 1:54

Phrogz

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4 Comments

Max Yari Over a year ago

You saved my day, You are a Gentleman and a Scholar, think you sir.

Zander Over a year ago

One question, is the image need to be linked fully from an address domain, or also can be linked from internal server with relative/absolute path?

Zander Over a year ago

@Phrogz what does TIAS mean?

Phrogz Over a year ago

@Cheshire: Try It And See.

Paulo Bueno · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-27 17:52:33Z

12

For futher reference.

I've been using the function bellow to create SVG elements and it was failing to create images because of xlink:href must be created using setAtributeNS.

The code bellow is corrected to do that (create any svg element on the fly)

function makeSVG(parent, tag, attrs) {
            var el= document.createElementNS('http://www.w3.org/2000/svg', tag);
            for (var k in attrs){
                if(k=="xlink:href"){
                    el.setAttributeNS('http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink', 'href', attrs[k]);
                }else{
                    el.setAttribute(k, attrs[k]);
                }
            }
        }

Sample usage:

makeSVG('#map-tiles', 'image', { class:'map-tile', 'xlink:href':'map/xxx.jpg', width:'512px', height: '512px' x:'0', y:'0'});

The parent is used to organize 'layers' on svg groups tag.

edited Jun 27, 2020 at 17:52

answered Apr 17, 2014 at 20:03

Paulo Bueno

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2 Comments

dkellner Over a year ago

I think you should insert the new element after creating it. That's what you have the "parent" parameter for.

VirtuosiMedia Over a year ago

Thank you for this. I found it after about 8 hours of searching for solutions.

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