Date: 2009jan23 Language: javaScript Keywords: descendants, enabled, disable Q. How can I enable/disable all children and children's children of a node? A. This function does just that:

function enableDescendants(obj, is_enable) { if (obj == null) return; var children = obj.childNodes; for (var i = 0; i < children.length; i++) { if (children[i].nodeType == 1) { // IE only allows elements children[i].disabled = !is_enable; } enableDescendants(children[i], is_enable); } } // Examples... function exampleDisable() { var obj = document.getElementById('my_element'); enableDescendants(obj, false); } function exampleEnable() { var obj = document.getElementById('my_element'); enableDescendants(obj, true); }