How to make a simple prettyprint <pre> with jquery

Question

http://jsfiddle.net/JamesKyle/L4b8b/

I am attempting to make an extremely simple prettyprint function with jQuery, but I do not know how to find elements, attributes, and values (shown in the jsfiddle).

I am trying to accomplish the following:

1. Wrap elements with <span class="element" />
2. Wrap attributes with <span class="attribute" />
3. Wrap values with <span class="value" />
4. Replace < with &lt
5. Replace > with &gt

Here is the current jQuery that I have:

$(document).ready(function() {

    $('pre.prettyprint').each(function() {

        $(this).css('whitespace','pre-line');
        /* Why isnt ^this^ working? */

        var code = $(this).html();

        // How should I define the following

        var element = $(code).find(/* ELEMENTS */);
        var attribute = $(code).find(/* ATTRIBUTES */);
        var value = $(code).find(/* Values */);

        $(element).wrap('<span class="element" />');
        $(attribute).wrap('<span class="attribute" />');
        $(value).wrap('<span class="value" />');

        $(code).find('<').replaceWith('&lt');
        $(code).find('>').replaceWith('&gt');
    });
});

Which is attempting to format this:

<pre class="prettyprint">
    <a href="http://website.com">Visit Website</a>
    <a href="#top">Back to Top</a>
</pre> 

into this:

<pre class="prettyprint">
    <span class="element">a <span class="attribute">href</span>=<span class="value">”http://website.com”</span></span>Visit Website<span class="element">/a</span>
    <br/>
    <span class="element">a <span class="attribute">href</span>=<span class="value">”#top”</span></span>Back to Top<span class="element">/a</span>
</pre>

Thank you ahead of time!

You can see the jsfiddle here: http://jsfiddle.net/JamesKyle/L4b8b/

Answer 1

The real magic would come in handling a tag of arbitrary properties. Here's the simple "anchor" version: jsFiddle

$('pre.prettyprint').each(function() {
    $('a').each(function(){
        $anchor = $(this);
        html = '<span class="element">&lt;a ';
        html += '<span class="attribute">href</span>=<span class="value">"' + $anchor.attr('href') + '"&gt;</span>';
        html += '</span>' + $anchor.text() + '<span class="element">&lt;/a&gt;</span>'
        $anchor.replaceWith(html);
    });
});