Question

How do I create an SVG element with JavaScript? I tried this:

var svg = document.createElement('SVG');
    svg.setAttribute('style', 'border: 1px solid black');
    svg.setAttribute('width', '600');
    svg.setAttribute('height', '250');
    svg.setAttribute('version', '1.1');
    svg.setAttribute('xmlns', 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg');
document.body.appendChild(svg);

However it creates an SVG element with zero width and zero height.

Answer 1

You forgot the Namespace URI of your svg element and xmlns attribute.

Also, version is ignored by all browsers.

var svg = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "svg");
    svg.setAttribute('style', 'border: 1px solid black');
    svg.setAttribute('width', '600');
    svg.setAttribute('height', '250');
    svg.setAttributeNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/", "xmlns:xlink", "http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink");
    document.body.appendChild(svg);