XML : highlight depending on value of atriubute in xml element

I need to create a java function that highlights a search result changing the color depending on the value of the attribute of the XML element.

XML element exemple:

  <tok id="w-9" pos="NP" lemma="University">University</tok>    

The "pos" attribute has different values, for instance:

• NN
• NNS
• NP
• NPS
• JJ
• JJR
• JJS
• RB
• RBR
• RBS
• etc...

So the desired behavior would be:

• if the hit has value N* at pos attribute, highlight color is #992200
• if the hit has value JJ* at pos attribute, highlight color is #FFBB00
• if the hit has value RB* at pos attribute, highlight color is #FFCC11

In this moment, I do the search on the XML file and a java function highlights the hit but always with the same color and based on the id value:

Current function:

  function highlight ( id, color ) {          if ( !id )  { return -1; };          if ( document.getElementById(id) ) {                  var element = document.getElementById(id);                    // Move up to TOK when we are trying to highlight a DTOK                  if ( element.parentNode.tagName == "TOK" ) { element = element.parentNode; color = '#00ffff'; };                  if ( element.parentNode.parentNode.tagName == "TOK" ) { element = element.parentNode.parentNode; color = '#00ffff'; };                    element.style['background-color'] = color;                  element.style.backgroundColor= color;          };  };    

I'm not sure, but more or less the function should be something like:

  function highlightpos (id) {      // determine color       if ( …N* ) color = "#992200";      ...  };    

where the check for N* should be something like

  element.getAttribute('pos').substr(0,2) == "N*"    

The element.parentNode.tagName is only there because sometimes you get a dtok, which does not show in and by itself, only the tok is part of shows…

Thanks