Element.shadowRoot

The Element.shadowRoot read-only property represents the shadow root hosted by the element. Use Element.attachShadow() to add a shadow root to an existing element.

Syntax

var shadowroot = element.shadowRoot;

Value

A ShadowRoot object instance, or null if the associated shadow root was attached with its mode set to closed. (See Element.attachShadow() for further details).

Examples

The following snippets are taken from our life-cycle-callbacks example (see it live also), which creates an element that displays a square of a size and color specified in the element's attributes.

Inside the <custom-square> element's class definition we include some life cycle callbacks that make a call to an external function, updateStyle(), which actually applies the size and color to the element. You'll see that we are passing it this (the custom element itself) as a parameter.

connectedCallback() {
  console.log('Custom square element added to page.');
  updateStyle(this);
}

attributeChangedCallback(name, oldValue, newValue) {
  console.log('Custom square element attributes changed.');
  updateStyle(this);
}

In the updateStyle() function itself, we get a reference to the shadow DOM using Element.shadowRoot. From here we use standard DOM traversal techniques to find the <style> element inside the shadow DOM and then update the CSS found inside it:

function updateStyle(elem) {
  const shadow = elem.shadowRoot;
  const childNodes = Array.from(shadow.childNodes);

  childNodes.forEach(childNode => {
    if (childNode.nodeName === 'STYLE') {
      childNode.textContent = `
        div {
          width: ${elem.getAttribute('l')}px;
          height: ${elem.getAttribute('l')}px;
          background-color: ${elem.getAttribute('c')};
        }
      `;
    }
  });
}

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
DOM
The definition of 'shadowRoot' in that specification.
Living Standard

Browser compatibility

DesktopMobile
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung Internet
shadowRootChrome Full support 43Edge Full support 79Firefox Full support 63
Full support 63
No support 59 — 63
Disabled
Disabled From version 59 until version 63 (exclusive): this feature is behind the dom.webcomponents.shadowdom.enabled preference (needs to be set to true). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.
IE No support NoOpera Full support 40Safari Full support 10WebView Android Full support 43Chrome Android Full support 43Firefox Android Full support 63
Full support 63
No support 59 — 63
Disabled
Disabled From version 59 until version 63 (exclusive): this feature is behind the dom.webcomponents.shadowdom.enabled preference (needs to be set to true). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.
Opera Android Full support 41Safari iOS Full support YesSamsung Internet Android Full support 4.0

Legend

Full support
Full support
No support
No support
User must explicitly enable this feature.
User must explicitly enable this feature.

See also