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JavaScript JavaScript and the DOM (Retiring) Getting a Handle on the DOM Practice Selecting Elements

Eli Caldwell
Eli Caldwell
6,766 Points
Posted by Eli Caldwell
Eli Caldwell
6,766 Points

Can't select just the 'li' elements of the 'nav' element

I can select the 'nav' element, but that's only one link, or the 'li' elements, but then I get 5.

Not sure how to select only the subset of li under nav.

js/app.js 
let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll('li:nav');
let galleryLinks;
let footerImages;
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Nick Pettit | Designer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/normalize.css">
    <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Changa+One|Open+Sans:400italic,700italic,400,700,800' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/responsive.css">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  </head>
  <body>
    <header>
      <a href="index.html" id="logo">
        <h1>Nick Pettit</h1>
        <h2>Designer</h2>
      </a>
      <nav>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="index.html" class="selected">Portfolio</a></li>
          <li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
          <li><a href="contact.html">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
      </nav>
    </header>
    <div id="wrapper">
      <section>
        <ul id="gallery">
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-01.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-01.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Experimentation with color and texture.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-02.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-02.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Playing with blending modes in Photoshop.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </section>
      <footer>
        <a href="http://twitter.com/nickrp"><img src="img/twitter-wrap.png" alt="Twitter Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <a href="http://facebook.com/nickpettit"><img src="img/facebook-wrap.png" alt="Facebook Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <p>&copy; 2016 Nick Pettit.</p>
      </footer>
    </div>
  <script src="js/app.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

2 Answers

Danny Martin
Danny Martin
10,912 Points
Danny Martin
Danny Martin
10,912 Points

Hi Eli, I just saw your post while trying to figure out the solution myself and found that you need to specify the anchor tag ('a') rather than the list tag ('li') to get the program to function properly. Hope this helps. Cheers.

Eli Caldwell
Eli Caldwell
6,766 Points
Eli Caldwell
Eli Caldwell
6,766 Points

Thanks, that solved it!

Bram Peirs
Bram Peirs
8,132 Points
Bram Peirs
Bram Peirs
8,132 Points

If you only want to select the li elements within the nav element, I think it should be:

let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll('nav li');
Eli Caldwell
Eli Caldwell
6,766 Points
Eli Caldwell
Eli Caldwell
6,766 Points

That doesn't work, but thanks for offering the idea!