IE 8 - Invalid source HTML for this operation - html

Question

What is wrong with
el.insertAdjacentHTML(hashVal[0], html);
where html is "<a title=\"\">1</a>" and hashVal[0] is "afterBegin".
This is related to a rating functionality. I think due to this error, the rating star is not displaying in ie 8. Other browsers are ok.
I have given the full flow of code below. I am using extjs.
var starLink = star.createChild({
tag: 'a',
html: this.values[i],
title: this.showTitles ? this.titles[i] : ''
});
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
createChild : function(config, insertBefore, returnDom) {
config = config || {tag:'div'};
if (insertBefore) {
return Ext.DomHelper.insertBefore(insertBefore, config, returnDom !== true);
}
else {
return Ext.DomHelper[!this.dom.firstChild ? 'insertFirst' : 'append'](this.dom, config, returnDom !== true);
}
},
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
insertFirst : function(el, o, returnElement){
return doInsert(el, o, returnElement, afterbegin, 'firstChild');
},
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function doInsert(el, o, returnElement, pos, sibling, append){
el = Ext.getDom(el);
var newNode;
if (pub.useDom) {
newNode = createDom(o, null);
if (append) {
el.appendChild(newNode);
} else {
(sibling == 'firstChild' ? el : el.parentNode).insertBefore(newNode, el[sibling] || el);
}
} else {
newNode = Ext.DomHelper.insertHtml(pos, el, Ext.DomHelper.createHtml(o));
}
return returnElement ? Ext.get(newNode, true) : newNode;
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function createHtml(o){
var b = '',
attr,
val,
key,
cn,
i;
if(typeof o == "string"){
b = o;
} else if (Ext.isArray(o)) {
for (i=0; i < o.length; i++) {
if(o[i]) {
b += createHtml(o[i]);
}
}
} else {
b += '<' + (o.tag = o.tag || 'div');
for (attr in o) {
val = o[attr];
if(!confRe.test(attr)){
if (typeof val == "object") {
b += ' ' + attr + '="';
for (key in val) {
b += key + ':' + val[key] + ';';
}
b += '"';
}else{
b += ' ' + ({cls : 'class', htmlFor : 'for'}[attr] || attr) + '="' + val + '"';
}
}
}
if (emptyTags.test(o.tag)) {
b += '/>';
} else {
b += '>';
if ((cn = o.children || o.cn)) {
b += createHtml(cn);
} else if(o.html){
b += o.html;
}
b += '</' + o.tag + '>';
}
}
return b;
}
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
insertHtml : function(where, el, html){
var hash = {},
hashVal,
range,
rangeEl,
setStart,
frag,
rs;
where = where.toLowerCase();
hash[beforebegin] = ['beforeBegin', 'previousSibling'];
hash[afterend] = ['afterEnd', 'nextSibling'];
if (el.insertAdjacentHTML) {
if(tableRe.test(el.tagName) && (rs = insertIntoTable(el.tagName.toLowerCase(), where, el, html))){
return rs;
}
hash[afterbegin] = ['afterBegin', 'firstChild'];
hash[beforeend] = ['beforeEnd', 'lastChild'];
if ((hashVal = hash[where])) {
el.insertAdjacentHTML(hashVal[0], html);
return el[hashVal[1]];
}
} else {