getAttribute('href', 2)

getAttribute href bug - used to get the attribute rather than derived absolute URL

<a href="../development/test1.html">test page</a>
The browser will look at the pages current URL and derive an absolute URL for the link.

http://www.glenn.jones.net/development/test1.html

This is the root of the problem, some browsers return the text of the attribute and others return the derived absolute URL. The results also differ by the method you use to retrieve the href attribute. There are three common ways to access an attribute:

linkobj.href;
linkobj[‘href’];
linkobj.getAttribute(‘href’);

The linkobj.href and linkobj[‘href’]; methods of accessing the attribute consistently return the derived absolute URL.

Microsoft has tried to address this by problem adding a second parameter to the getAttribute method. The second parameter can be set to 0,1 or 2. If the parameter is set to 2 the method returns the attribute text. Any other setting will return the derived absolute URL.

linkobj.getAttribute(‘href’);
linkobj.getAttribute(‘href’,2);