document.title needs special handling in Internet Explorer

[hjess]

In IE (versions 6, 7 & 8 on my PC); a few issues:

jQuery('title').html() returns the title (== document.title)

jQuery('title').text() is empty

jQuery('title').text('new title')

and

jQuery('title').html('new title') both raise an error:

Error: Unexpected call to method or property access.

These all work in Firefox (I'm using 3.5.7). Finally, these work better in IE, but still not quite right :(

jQuery('title').attr('text') returns document.title

jQuery('title').attr('text','new title') sets document.title properly. However, the title displayed in the browser chrome reflects the new title only in IE6. In IE7/IE8, even though the value of document.title matches the title element's 'text' attribute, the browser chrome changes only when you set document.title.

[dmethvin]

Using the document.title property is the simple cross-browser way to set or retrieve the document title. IE just doesn't want to play right.

[hjess]

Replying to dmethvin:

Using the document.title property is the simple cross-browser way to set or retrieve the document title. IE just doesn't want to play right.

Agreed -- but we've progressed to the point where developers would rather use jQuery access to elements rather than their direct DOM0 counterparts -- I've seen code like this:

function getById(id) {return jQuery('#'+id)[0]}

So, given that, it would be nice if jQuery supported IE's weirdness.

[snover]

The correct way to set the title is to set document.title. Manipulating the DOM is incredibly slow and is very much the wrong way to do this.

[anonymous]

I've been trying a few things, what works best is indeed the document.title property. However, if you want to use as much JQ as you can, I found that

$("title").innerHTML = $("title").attr("text", "New title");

works on IE8. A pointless workaround, if you ask me.

If anyone has a better idea...

[jitter]

Duplicate of #2755.

[anonymous]

​http://ui.stackexchange.com/questions/1060/should-you-place-the-add-a-comment-form-above-or-below-the-list-of-comments/4197#4197