patch DOM insertBefore and removeChild, workaround for DOM translators#2937
Merged
huumn merged 4 commits intostackernews:masterfrom Apr 27, 2026
Merged
patch DOM insertBefore and removeChild, workaround for DOM translators#2937huumn merged 4 commits intostackernews:masterfrom
huumn merged 4 commits intostackernews:masterfrom
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Soxasora
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Apr 26, 2026
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| // classes used by DOM translators | ||
| if (html.classList.contains('translated-ltr')) return true | ||
| if (html.classList.contains('translated-rtl')) return true | ||
| if (html.classList.contains('translated')) return true |
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*only Chromium-based DOM translations, needs to be tested on Safari and Firefox.
Soxasora
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Apr 26, 2026
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| Node.prototype.insertBefore = function (newNode, referenceNode) { | ||
| if (referenceNode && referenceNode.parentNode !== this) { | ||
| if (translateActive) { | ||
| return newNode | ||
| } | ||
| } | ||
| return originalInsertBefore.call(this, newNode, referenceNode) | ||
| } |
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We could technically fallback to appendChild here instead of creating phantom DOM nodes.
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Description
Fixes #2936 with a workaround.
This PR patches
Node.removeChildandNode.insertBeforewith a widely-used community patch that silences theDOMExceptionthrown by them.A
MutationObserveris used to track whether the user is using a DOM Translator, this way the patch is applied only to DOM Translation users.Screenshots
patched-dom-translation.mov
Additional Context
Of course it's not a good idea to silence
DOMExceptions thrown by React, this bug appeared in 2017 for the first time and has never been fixed since: facebook/react#11538The original community patch involved silencing these exception globally, but I personally think it's better to be conservative and silence these exceptions only for DOM Translation users, as the tools they use already mess up the DOM, a DOM drift won't be the end of the world. Even if there's a DOM drift, React will fix it on the next render.
Other methods
translate=noon every impacted node, making sure that translation will still workChecklist
Are your changes backward compatible? Please answer below:
Yes
On a scale of 1-10 how well and how have you QA'd this change and any features it might affect? Please answer below:
6, tested only with Google Chrome's Translate feature.
For frontend changes: Tested on mobile, light and dark mode? Please answer below:
n/a
Did you introduce any new environment variables? If so, call them out explicitly here:
n/a
Did you use AI for this? If so, how much did it assist you?
Observer suggestion
Note
Medium Risk
Patches global DOM
Nodeprototype methods, which can have wide-reaching side effects if the translation detection is wrong or interacts unexpectedly with other code, though it is gated to only activate while translation appears enabled.Overview
Adds
patchDOMTranslations()(newlib/patch-dom-translate.js) that detects DOM translation via<html>classes and uses aMutationObserverto track when translation is active.When active, it monkey-patches
Node.removeChildandNode.insertBeforeto suppress/adjust operations that would otherwise throwNotFoundErrordue to translator-modified DOM, and wires this patch to run globally frompages/_app.js.Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 502e817. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.