function allocateElement(element, id, skipChildren)
    if not isElement(element) then
        return false
    end
    local elementType = getElementType(element)
    if (isElement(element) and isValidType(elementType)) then
        deallocateElement(element)
        table.insert (poolTable[elementType], element)
        if indexedPools[elementType] then
            outputChatBox(elementType)
            if not id then
                id = getElementData(element, idelementdata[elementType])
            end
            if id and tonumber(id) then
                indexedPools[elementType][tonumber(id)] = element
            end
        end
    end

    -- add all children
    if not skipChildren and getElementChildren(element) then
        for k, e in ipairs(getElementChildren(element)) do
            allocateElement(e)
        end
    end
end