We've seen a lot of use for getElementsBySelector lately for some
javascript implementations of bindings and behaviors [1][2]. [1] use
Simon Willison's implementation[3] and there is also one by Dean Edward[4].
I'm not writing this just to do some link dropping. I'm writing this to
suggest a related method that takes an element and returns true if it
matches a CSS rule
interface GetElementsBySelector {
NodeList getElementsBySelector(in DOMString cssSelector);
// returns true if an element matches the given CSS selector
boolean matchesSelector(in Element el, in DOMString cssSelector);
}
I'm not too sure about the name of this method so suggestions for a
better name are welcome (as well as any other comment of course).
Another thing that just I'm not too sure about is whether these should
include pseudo classes? It would be good but it makes things harder to
implement.
In the light of the bindings and behaviors scenario it would also be
very useful to have observers so one call tell when the matching
changes. It might be outside the scope of web apps 1.0 though?
[1] http://bennolan.com/behaviour/
[2] http://altas.asp.net
[3] http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/03/25/getElementsBySelector
[4] http://dean.edwards.name/my/cssQuery/
--
erik
