Benefits of Observer API
- Mutation observers work asynchronously, so they don’t block the main thread of JavaScript and keep the website responsive/performing for user interactions.
- This API provides information about the mutated elements that helps us to observe the element in an efficient manner.
- Observing multiple elements parallelly is possible with the help of this API so it makes the code clean and more useful for larger applications.
- Event listener’s callback functions are triggered when an event occurs, so their triggering depends on the occurrence of events, but in the case of mutation observer, we can detect changes without the occurrence of events.
- Different types of mutations of the same element or of different elements can be detected at the same time. This can’t be possible without the help of other methods.
Now we know why mutation observer is a more convenient way of observing mutations in the DOM elements, let’s know about its use cases before diving deeper into real-world examples of detecting a DOM mutation.
Web API Mutation Observer
Mutation Observer is a web API (web APIs are APIs provided by the browser itself) that is used to observe (i.e.; detect) the changes of the target HTML element within a web page. For example, when the user wants to know which element has recently been removed and which element has been added to the DOM, we can use Mutation Observer. In dynamic websites, we know that elements are added, removed, or modified dynamically, this API serves as a tool for tracking and reacting to these changes. In this article, we will see the Mutation Observer in the Web API, along with understanding its benefits, use cases, instance methods, & etc.
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