Question

Having trouble with a function hitting the page as soon as possible, so i need to write it in pure javascript and include it in the head. not sure how to go about it, because as i understand it, by using .replace() the new element will be moved to a different location on the page. jQuery’s replaceWith() behavior is ideal.

$("#imagefiles").replaceWith("<input type='file' name='imagefiles' id='imagefiles' />");

Answer 1

var image = document.getElementById('imagefiles'), parent = image.parentNode,
tempDiv = document.createElement('div');

tempDiv.innerHTML = "<input type='file' name='imagefiles' id='imagefiles' />"

var input = tempDiv.childNodes[0];

parent.replaceChild(input, image);

DEMO

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EDIT as per am not i am:

var image = document.getElementById('imagefiles'), parent = image.parentNode,
input = document.createElement('input');
input.id = input.name = "imagefiles";
input.type = 'file';

parent.replaceChild(input, image);

edited DEMO