[W3C]
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification
Version 1.0
W3C Proposed Recommendation 27 September, 2000
This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-DOM-Level-2-Core-20000927
( PostScript file, PDF file, plain text, ZIP file)
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Core
Previous version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-DOM-Level-2-20000510
Editors:
Mark Davis, IBM
Arnaud Le Hors, W3C team contact until October 1999, then IBM
Philippe Le Hégaret, W3C, team contact (from November 1999)
Jonathan Robie, Texcel Research and Software AG
Lauren Wood, SoftQuad Software Inc., chair
Copyright © 2000 W3C® (MIT, INRIA, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C
liability, trademark, document use and software licensing rules apply.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract
This specification defines the Document Object Model Level 2 Core, a
platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to
dynamically access and update the content and structure of documents. The
Document Object Model Level 2 Core builds on the Document Object Model Level
1 Core.
The DOM Level 2 Core is made of a set of core interfaces to create and
manipulate the structure and contents of a document. The Core also contains
specialized interfaces dedicated to XML.
Status of this document
This is a W3C Proposed Recommendation for review by W3C members and other
interested parties. W3C Advisory Committee Members are invited to send
formal comments, visible only to the W3C Team, to dom-review@w3.org until
October 25, 2000.
Comments on this document are invited and are to be sent to the public
mailing list www-dom@w3.org. An archive is available at
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-dom/.
Publication as a Proposed Recommendation does not imply endorsement by the
W3C membership. This is still a draft document and may be updated, replaced
or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite W3C
Proposed Recommendations as other than "work in progress."
This document has been produced as part of the W3C DOM Activity. The authors
of this document are the DOM WG members. Different modules of the Document
Object Model have different editors.
A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be
found at http://www.w3.org/TR.
Table of contents
* Expanded Table of Contents
* Copyright Notice
* What is the Document Object Model?
* 1. Document Object Model Core
* Appendix A: Changes
* Appendix B: Accessing code point boundaries
* Appendix C: IDL Definitions
* Appendix D: Java Language Binding
* Appendix E: ECMA Script Language Binding
* Appendix F: Acknowledgements
* Glossary
* References
* Index
27 September, 2000
Expanded Table of Contents
* Expanded Table of Contents
* Copyright Notice
o W3C Document Copyright Notice and License
o W3C Software Copyright Notice and License
* What is the Document Object Model?
o Introduction
o What the Document Object Model is
o What the Document Object Model is not
o Where the Document Object Model came from
o Entities and the DOM Core
o Compliance
o DOM Interfaces and DOM Implementations
* 1. Document Object Model Core
o 1.1. Overview of the DOM Core Interfaces
+ 1.1.1. The DOM Structure Model
+ 1.1.2. Memory Management
+ 1.1.3. Naming Conventions
+ 1.1.4. Inheritance vs. Flattened Views of the API
+ 1.1.5. The DOMString type
+ 1.1.6. The DOMTimeStamp type
+ 1.1.7. String comparisons in the DOM
+ 1.1.8. XML Namespaces
o 1.2. Fundamental Interfaces
o 1.3. Extended Interfaces
* Appendix A: Changes
o A.1. Changes between DOM Level 1 Core and DOM Level 2 Core
+ A.1.1. Changes to DOM Level 1 Core interfaces and exceptions
+ A.1.2. New features
* Appendix B: Accessing code point boundaries
o B.1. Introduction
o B.2. Methods
* Appendix C: IDL Definitions
* Appendix D: Java Language Binding
* Appendix E: ECMA Script Language Binding
* Appendix F: Acknowledgements
o F.1. Production Systems
* Glossary
* References
o 1. Normative references
o 2. Informative references
* Index
27 September, 2000
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2000 World Wide Web Consortium, (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en
Automatique, Keio University). All Rights Reserved.
This document is published under the W3C Document Copyright Notice and
License. The bindings within this document are published under the W3C
Software Copyright Notice and License. The software license requires "Notice
of any changes or modifications to the W3C files, including the date changes
were made." Consequently, modified versions of the DOM bindings must
document that they do not conform to the W3C standard; in the case of the
IDL binding, the pragma prefix can no longer be 'w3c.org'; in the case of
the Java binding, the package names can no longer be in the 'org.w3c'
package.
W3C Document Copyright Notice and License
Note: This section is a copy of the W3C Document Notice and License and
could be found at
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents-19990405.
Copyright © 1994-2000 World Wide Web Consortium, (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en
Automatique, Keio University). All Rights Reserved.
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/
Public documents on the W3C site are provided by the copyright holders under
the following license. The software or Document Type Definitions (DTDs)
associated with W3C specifications are governed by the Software Notice. By
using and/or copying this document, or the W3C document from which this
statement is linked, you (the licensee) agree that you have read,
understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions:
Permission to use, copy, and distribute the contents of this document, or
the W3C document from which this statement is linked, in any medium for any
purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you
include the following on ALL copies of the document, or portions thereof,
that you use:
1. A link or URL to the original W3C document.
2. The pre-existing copyright notice of the original author, or if it
doesn't exist, a notice of the form: "Copyright © [$date-of-document]
World Wide Web Consortium, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Keio
University). All Rights Reserved. http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/"
(Hypertext is preferred, but a textual representation is permitted.)
3. If it exists, the STATUS of the W3C document.
When space permits, inclusion of the full text of this NOTICE should be
provided. We request that authorship attribution be provided in any
software, documents, or other items or products that you create pursuant to
the implementation of the contents of this document, or any portion thereof.
No right to create modifications or derivatives of W3C documents is granted
pursuant to this license. However, if additional requirements (documented in
the Copyright FAQ) are satisfied, the right to create modifications or
derivatives is sometimes granted by the W3C to individuals complying with
those requirements.
THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND COPYRIGHT HOLDERS MAKE NO
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE,
NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR TITLE; THAT THE CONTENTS OF THE DOCUMENT ARE SUITABLE
FOR ANY PURPOSE; NOR THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUCH CONTENTS WILL NOT
INFRINGE ANY THIRD PARTY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS.
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THE DOCUMENT OR THE
PERFORMANCE OR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONTENTS THEREOF.
The name and trademarks of copyright holders may NOT be used in advertising
or publicity pertaining to this document or its contents without specific,
written prior permission. Title to copyright in this document will at all
times remain with copyright holders.
W3C Software Copyright Notice and License
Note: This section is a copy of the W3C Software Copyright Notice and
License and could be found at
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software-19980720
Copyright © 1994-2000 World Wide Web Consortium, (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en
Automatique, Keio University). All Rights Reserved.
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/
This W3C work (including software, documents, or other related items) is
being provided by the copyright holders under the following license. By
obtaining, using and/or copying this work, you (the licensee) agree that you
have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and
conditions:
Permission to use, copy, and modify this software and its documentation,
with or without modification, for any purpose and without fee or royalty is
hereby granted, provided that you include the following on ALL copies of the
software and documentation or portions thereof, including modifications,
that you make:
1. The full text of this NOTICE in a location viewable to users of the
redistributed or derivative work.
2. Any pre-existing intellectual property disclaimers. If none exist, then
a notice of the following form: "Copyright © [$date-of-software] World
Wide Web Consortium, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institut
National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Keio
University). All Rights Reserved. http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/."
3. Notice of any changes or modifications to the W3C files, including the
date changes were made. (We recommend you provide URIs to the location
from which the code is derived.)
THIS SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR
PURPOSE OR THAT THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENTATION WILL NOT INFRINGE
ANY THIRD PARTY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS.
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR
DOCUMENTATION.
The name and trademarks of copyright holders may NOT be used in advertising
or publicity pertaining to the software without specific, written prior
permission. Title to copyright in this software and any associated
documentation will at all times remain with copyright holders.
27 September, 2000
What is the Document Object Model?
Editors
Jonathan Robie, Software AG
Introduction
The Document Object Model (DOM) is an application programming interface
(API) for valid HTML and well-formed XML documents. It defines the logical
structure of documents and the way a document is accessed and manipulated.
In the DOM specification, the term "document" is used in the broad sense -
increasingly, XML is being used as a way of representing many different
kinds of information that may be stored in diverse systems, and much of this
would traditionally be seen as data rather than as documents. Nevertheless,
XML presents this data as documents, and the DOM may be used to manage this
data.
With the Document Object Model, programmers can build documents, navigate
their structure, and add, modify, or delete elements and content. Anything
found in an HTML or XML document can be accessed, changed, deleted, or added
using the Document Object Model, with a few exceptions - in particular, the
DOM interfaces for the XML internal and external subsets have not yet been
specified.
As a W3C specification, one important objective for the Document Object
Model is to provide a standard programming interface that can be used in a
wide variety of environments and applications. The DOM is designed to be
used with any programming language. In order to provide a precise,
language-independent specification of the DOM interfaces, we have chosen to
define the specifications in Object Management Group (OMG) IDL [OMGIDL], as
defined in the CORBA 2.3.1 specification [CORBA]. In addition to the OMG IDL
specification, we provide language bindings for Java [Java] and ECMAScript
[ECMAScript] (an industry-standard scripting language based on JavaScript
[JavaScript] and JScript [JScript]).
Note: OMG IDL is used only as a language-independent and
implementation-neutral way to specify interfaces. Various other IDLs could
have been used ([COM], [JavaIDL], [MIDL], ...). In general, IDLs are
designed for specific computing environments. The Document Object Model can
be implemented in any computing environment, and does not require the object
binding runtimes generally associated with such IDLs.
What the Document Object Model is
The DOM is a programming API for documents. It is based on an object
structure that closely resembles the structure of the documents it models.
For instance, consider this table, taken from an HTML document:
| Shady Grove |
Aeolian |
| Over the River, Charlie |
Dorian |
The DOM represents this table like this:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[DOM representation of the example table]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DOM representation of the example table
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In the DOM, documents have a logical structure which is very much like a
tree; to be more precise, which is like a "forest" or "grove", which can
contain more than one tree. Each document contains zero or one doctype
nodes, one root element node, and zero or more comments or processing
instructions; the root element serves as the root of the element tree for
the document. However, the DOM does not specify that documents must be
implemented as a tree or a grove, nor does it specify how the relationships
among objects be implemented. The DOM is a logical model that may be
implemented in any convenient manner. In this specification, we use the term
structure model to describe the tree-like representation of a document. We
also use the term "tree" when referring to the arrangement of those
information items which can be reached by using "tree-walking" methods;
(this does not include attributes). One important property of DOM structure
models is structural isomorphism: if any two Document Object Model
implementations are used to create a representation of the same document,
they will create the same structure model, in accordance with the XML
Information Set [Infoset].
Note: There may be some variations depending on the parser being used to
build the DOM. For instance, the DOM may not contain whitespaces in element
content if the parser discards them.
The name "Document Object Model" was chosen because it is an "object model"
in the traditional object oriented design sense: documents are modeled using
objects, and the model encompasses not only the structure of a document, but
also the behavior of a document and the objects of which it is composed. In
other words, the nodes in the above diagram do not represent a data
structure, they represent objects, which have functions and identity. As an
object model, the DOM identifies:
* the interfaces and objects used to represent and manipulate a document
* the semantics of these interfaces and objects - including both behavior
and attributes
* the relationships and collaborations among these interfaces and objects
The structure of SGML documents has traditionally been represented by an
abstract data model, not by an object model. In an abstract data model, the
model is centered around the data. In object oriented programming languages,
the data itself is encapsulated in objects that hide the data, protecting it
from direct external manipulation. The functions associated with these
objects determine how the objects may be manipulated, and they are part of
the object model.
What the Document Object Model is not
This section is designed to give a more precise understanding of the DOM by
distinguishing it from other systems that may seem to be like it.
* The Document Object Model is not a binary specification. DOM programs
written in the same language binding will be source code compatible
across platforms, but the DOM does not define any form of binary
interoperability.
* The Document Object Model is not a way of persisting objects to XML or
HTML. Instead of specifying how objects may be represented in XML, the
DOM specifies how XML and HTML documents are represented as objects, so
that they may be used in object oriented programs.
* The Document Object Model is not a set of data structures; it is an
object model that specifies interfaces. Although this document contains
diagrams showing parent/child relationships, these are logical
relationships defined by the programming interfaces, not
representations of any particular internal data structures.
* The Document Object Model does not define what information in a
document is relevant or how information in a document is structured.
For XML, this is specified by the W3C XML Information Set [Infoset].
The DOM is simply an API to this information set.
* The Document Object Model, despite its name, is not a competitor to the
Component Object Model (COM). COM, like CORBA, is a language
independent way to specify interfaces and objects; the DOM is a set of
interfaces and objects designed for managing HTML and XML documents.
The DOM may be implemented using language-independent systems like COM
or CORBA; it may also be implemented using language-specific bindings
like the Java or ECMAScript bindings specified in this document.
Where the Document Object Model came from
The DOM originated as a specification to allow JavaScript scripts and Java
programs to be portable among Web browsers. "Dynamic HTML" was the immediate
ancestor of the Document Object Model, and it was originally thought of
largely in terms of browsers. However, when the DOM Working Group was formed
at W3C, it was also joined by vendors in other domains, including HTML or
XML editors and document repositories. Several of these vendors had worked
with SGML before XML was developed; as a result, the DOM has been influenced
by SGML Groves and the HyTime standard. Some of these vendors had also
developed their own object models for documents in order to provide an API
for SGML/XML editors or document repositories, and these object models have
also influenced the DOM.
Entities and the DOM Core
In the fundamental DOM interfaces, there are no objects representing
entities. Numeric character references, and references to the pre-defined
entities in HTML and XML, are replaced by the single character that makes up
the entity's replacement. For example, in:
This is a dog & a cat
the "&" will be replaced by the character "&", and the text in the P
element will form a single continuous sequence of characters. Since numeric
character references and pre-defined entities are not recognized as such in
CDATA sections, or in the SCRIPT and STYLE elements in HTML, they are not
replaced by the single character they appear to refer to. If the example
above were enclosed in a CDATA section, the "&" would not be replaced by
"&"; neither would the be recognized as a start tag. The representation
of general entities, both internal and external, are defined within the
extended (XML) interfaces of DOM Level 1 [DOM Level 1].
Note: When a DOM representation of a document is serialized as XML or HTML
text, applications will need to check each character in text data to see if
it needs to be escaped using a numeric or pre-defined entity. Failing to do
so could result in invalid HTML or XML. Also, implementations should be
aware of the fact that serialization into a character encoding ("charset")
that does not fully cover ISO 10646 may fail if there are characters in
markup or CDATA sections that are not present in the encoding.
Compliance
The Document Object Model level 2 consists of several modules: Core, HTML,
Views, StyleSheets, CSS, Events, Traversal, and Range. The DOM Core
represents the functionality used for XML documents, and also serves as the
basis for DOM HTML.
A compliant implementation of the DOM must implement all of the fundamental
interfaces in the Core chapter with the semantics as defined. Further, it
must implement at least one of the HTML DOM and the extended (XML)
interfaces with the semantics as defined. The other modules are optional.
A DOM application can use the hasFeature method of the DOMImplementation
interface to determine whether the module is supported or not. The feature
strings for all modules in DOM Level 2 are listed in the following table;
(strings are case-insensitive):
Module Feature String
XML XML
HTML HTML
Views Views
StyleSheets StyleSheets
CSS CSS
CSS (extended interfaces) CSS2
Events Events
User Interface Events (UIEvent interface)UIEvents
Mouse Events (MouseEvents interface) MouseEvents
Mutation Events (MutationEvent interface)MutationEvents
HTML Events HTMLEvents
Traversal Traversal
Range Range
The following table contains all dependencies between modules:
Module Implies
Views XML or HTML
StyleSheets StyleSheets and XML or HTML
CSS StyleSheets, Views and XML or HTML
CSS2 CSS, StyleSheets, Views and XML or HTML
Events XML or HTML
UIEvents Views, Events and XML or HTML
MouseEvents UIEvents, Views, Events and XML or HTML
MutationEventsEvents and XML or HTML
HTMLEvents Events and HTML
Traversal XML or HTML
Range XML or HTML
DOM Interfaces and DOM Implementations
The DOM specifies interfaces which may be used to manage XML or HTML
documents. It is important to realize that these interfaces are an
abstraction - much like "abstract base classes" in C++, they are a means of
specifying a way to access and manipulate an application's internal
representation of a document. Interfaces do not imply a particular concrete
implementation. Each DOM application is free to maintain documents in any
convenient representation, as long as the interfaces shown in this
specification are supported. Some DOM implementations will be existing
programs that use the DOM interfaces to access software written long before
the DOM specification existed. Therefore, the DOM is designed to avoid
implementation dependencies; in particular,
1. Attributes defined in the IDL do not imply concrete objects which must
have specific data members - in the language bindings, they are
translated to a pair of get()/set() functions, not to a data member.
Read-only attributes have only a get() function in the language
bindings.
2. DOM applications may provide additional interfaces and objects not
found in this specification and still be considered DOM compliant.
3. Because we specify interfaces and not the actual objects that are to be
created, the DOM cannot know what constructors to call for an
implementation. In general, DOM users call the createX() methods on the
Document class to create document structures, and DOM implementations
create their own internal representations of these structures in their
implementations of the createX() functions.
The Level 1 interfaces were extended to provide both Level 1 and Level 2
functionality.
DOM implementations in languages other than Java or ECMA Script may choose
bindings that are appropriate and natural for their language and run time
environment. For example, some systems may need to create a Document2 class
which inherits from Document and contains the new methods and attributes.
DOM Level 2 does not specify multithreading mechanisms.
27 September, 2000
1. Document Object Model Core
Editors
Arnaud Le Hors, IBM
Mike Champion, ArborText (for DOM Level 1 from November 20, 1997)
Steve Byrne, JavaSoft (for DOM Level 1 until November 19, 1997)
Gavin Nicol, Inso EPS (for DOM Level 1)
Lauren Wood, SoftQuad, Inc. (for DOM Level 1)
Table of contents
* 1.1. Overview of the DOM Core Interfaces
o 1.1.1. The DOM Structure Model
o 1.1.2. Memory Management
o 1.1.3. Naming Conventions
o 1.1.4. Inheritance vs. Flattened Views of the API
o 1.1.5. The DOMString type
o 1.1.6. The DOMTimeStamp type
o 1.1.7. String comparisons in the DOM
o 1.1.8. XML Namespaces
* 1.2. Fundamental Interfaces
o DOMException, ExceptionCode, DOMImplementation, DocumentFragment,
Document, Node, NodeList, NamedNodeMap, CharacterData, Attr,
Element, Text, Comment
* 1.3. Extended Interfaces
o CDATASection, DocumentType, Notation, Entity, EntityReference,
ProcessingInstruction
1.1. Overview of the DOM Core Interfaces
This section defines a set of objects and interfaces for accessing and
manipulating document objects. The functionality specified in this section
(the Core functionality) is sufficient to allow software developers and web
script authors to access and manipulate parsed HTML and XML content inside
conforming products. The DOM Core API also allows creation and population of
a Document object using only DOM API calls; loading a Document and saving it
persistently is left to the product that implements the DOM API.
1.1.1. The DOM Structure Model
The DOM presents documents as a hierarchy of Node objects that also
implement other, more specialized interfaces. Some types of nodes may have
child nodes of various types, and others are leaf nodes that cannot have
anything below them in the document structure. For XML and HTML, the node
types, and which node types they may have as children, are as follows:
* Document -- Element (maximum of one), ProcessingInstruction, Comment,
DocumentType (maximum of one)
* DocumentFragment -- Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text,
CDATASection, EntityReference
* DocumentType -- no children
* EntityReference -- Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text,
CDATASection, EntityReference
* Element -- Element, Text, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATASection,
EntityReference
* Attr -- Text, EntityReference
* ProcessingInstruction -- no children
* Comment -- no children
* Text -- no children
* CDATASection -- no children
* Entity -- Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection,
EntityReference
* Notation -- no children
The DOM also specifies a NodeList interface to handle ordered lists of
Nodes, such as the children of a Node, or the elements returned by the
getElementsByTagName method of the Element interface, and also a
NamedNodeMap interface to handle unordered sets of nodes referenced by their
name attribute, such as the attributes of an Element. NodeList and
NamedNodeMap objects in the DOM are live; that is, changes to the underlying
document structure are reflected in all relevant NodeList and NamedNodeMap
objects. For example, if a DOM user gets a NodeList object containing the
children of an Element, then subsequently adds more children to that element
(or removes children, or modifies them), those changes are automatically
reflected in the NodeList, without further action on the user's part.
Likewise, changes to a Node in the tree are reflected in all references to
that Node in NodeList and NamedNodeMap objects.
Finally, the interfaces Text, Comment, and CDATASection all inherit from the
CharacterData interface.
1.1.2. Memory Management
Most of the APIs defined by this specification are interfaces rather than
classes. That means that an implementation need only expose methods with the
defined names and specified operation, not implement classes that correspond
directly to the interfaces. This allows the DOM APIs to be implemented as a
thin veneer on top of legacy applications with their own data structures, or
on top of newer applications with different class hierarchies. This also
means that ordinary constructors (in the Java or C++ sense) cannot be used
to create DOM objects, since the underlying objects to be constructed may
have little relationship to the DOM interfaces. The conventional solution to
this in object-oriented design is to define factory methods that create
instances of objects that implement the various interfaces. Objects
implementing some interface "X" are created by a "createX()" method on the
Document interface; this is because all DOM objects live in the context of a
specific Document.
The DOM Level 2 API does not define a standard way to create
DOMImplementation objects; DOM implementations must provide some proprietary
way of bootstrapping these DOM interfaces, and then all other objects can be
built from there.
The Core DOM APIs are designed to be compatible with a wide range of
languages, including both general-user scripting languages and the more
challenging languages used mostly by professional programmers. Thus, the DOM
APIs need to operate across a variety of memory management philosophies,
from language bindings that do not expose memory management to the user at
all, through those (notably Java) that provide explicit constructors but
provide an automatic garbage collection mechanism to automatically reclaim
unused memory, to those (especially C/C++) that generally require the
programmer to explicitly allocate object memory, track where it is used, and
explicitly free it for re-use. To ensure a consistent API across these
platforms, the DOM does not address memory management issues at all, but
instead leaves these for the implementation. Neither of the explicit
language bindings devised by the DOM Working Group (for ECMAScript and Java)
require any memory management methods, but DOM bindings for other languages
(especially C or C++) may require such support. These extensions will be the
responsibility of those adapting the DOM API to a specific language, not the
DOM Working Group.
1.1.3. Naming Conventions
While it would be nice to have attribute and method names that are short,
informative, internally consistent, and familiar to users of similar APIs,
the names also should not clash with the names in legacy APIs supported by
DOM implementations. Furthermore, both OMG IDL and ECMAScript have
significant limitations in their ability to disambiguate names from
different namespaces that make it difficult to avoid naming conflicts with
short, familiar names. So, some DOM names tend to be long and quite
descriptive in order to be unique across all environments.
The Working Group has also attempted to be internally consistent in its use
of various terms, even though these may not be common distinctions in other
APIs. For example, we use the method name "remove" when the method changes
the structural model, and the method name "delete" when the method gets rid
of something inside the structure model. The thing that is deleted is not
returned. The thing that is removed may be returned, when it makes sense to
return it.
1.1.4. Inheritance vs. Flattened Views of the API
The DOM Core APIs present two somewhat different sets of interfaces to an
XML/HTML document: one presenting an "object oriented" approach with a
hierarchy of inheritance, and a "simplified" view that allows all
manipulation to be done via the Node interface without requiring casts (in
Java and other C-like languages) or query interface calls in COM
environments. These operations are fairly expensive in Java and COM, and the
DOM may be used in performance-critical environments, so we allow
significant functionality using just the Node interface. Because many other
users will find the inheritance hierarchy easier to understand than the
"everything is a Node" approach to the DOM, we also support the full
higher-level interfaces for those who prefer a more object-oriented API.
In practice, this means that there is a certain amount of redundancy in the
API. The Working Group considers the "inheritance" approach the primary view
of the API, and the full set of functionality on Node to be "extra"
functionality that users may employ, but that does not eliminate the need
for methods on other interfaces that an object-oriented analysis would
dictate. (Of course, when the O-O analysis yields an attribute or method
that is identical to one on the Node interface, we don't specify a
completely redundant one.) Thus, even though there is a generic nodeName
attribute on the Node interface, there is still a tagName attribute on the
Element interface; these two attributes must contain the same value, but the
Working Group considers it worthwhile to support both, given the different
constituencies the DOM API must satisfy.
1.1.5. The DOMString type
To ensure interoperability, the DOM specifies the following:
* Type Definition DOMString
A DOMString is a sequence of 16-bit units.
IDL Definition
typedef sequence DOMString;
* Applications must encode DOMString using UTF-16 (defined in [Unicode]
and Amendment 1 of [ISO/IEC 10646]).
The UTF-16 encoding was chosen because of its widespread industry
practice. Note that for both HTML and XML, the document character set
(and therefore the notation of numeric character references) is based
on UCS [ISO-10646]. A single numeric character reference in a source
document may therefore in some cases correspond to two 16-bit units in
a DOMString (a high surrogate and a low surrogate).
Note: Even though the DOM defines the name of the string type to be
DOMString, bindings may use different names. For example for Java,
DOMString is bound to the String type because it also uses UTF-16 as
its encoding.
Note: As of August 2000, the OMG IDL specification ([OMGIDL]) included a
wstring type. However, that definition did not meet the interoperability
criteria of the DOM API since it relied on negotiation to decide the width
and encoding of a character.
1.1.6. The DOMTimeStamp type
To ensure interoperability, the DOM specifies the following:
* Type Definition DOMTimeStamp
A DOMTimeStamp represents a number of milliseconds.
IDL Definition
typedef unsigned long long DOMTimeStamp;
* Note: Even though the DOM uses the type DOMTimeStamp, bindings may use
different types. For example for Java, DOMTimeStamp is bound to the
long type. In ECMAScript, TimeStamp is bound to the Date type because
the range of the integer type is too small.
1.1.7. String comparisons in the DOM
The DOM has many interfaces that imply string matching. HTML processors
generally assume an uppercase (less often, lowercase) normalization of names
for such things as elements, while XML is explicitly case sensitive. For the
purposes of the DOM, string matching is performed purely by binary
comparison of the 16-bit units of the DOMString. In addition, the DOM
assumes that any case normalizations take place in the processor, before the
DOM structures are built.
Note: Besides case folding, there are additional normalizations that can be
applied to text. The W3C I18N Working Group is in the process of defining
exactly which normalizations are necessary, and where they should be
applied. The W3C I18N Working Group expects to require early normalization,
which means that data read into the DOM is assumed to already be normalized.
The DOM and applications built on top of it in this case only have to assure
that text remains normalized when being changed. For further details, please
see [Charmod].
1.1.8. XML Namespaces
The DOM Level 2 supports XML namespaces [Namespaces] by augmenting several
interfaces of the DOM Level 1 Core to allow creating and manipulating
elements and attributes associated to a namespace.
As far as the DOM is concerned, special attributes used for declaring XML
namespaces are still exposed and can be manipulated just like any other
attribute. However, nodes are permanently bound to namespace URIs as they
get created. Consequently, moving a node within a document, using the DOM,
in no case results in a change of its namespace prefix or namespace URI.
Similarly, creating a node with a namespace prefix and namespace URI, or
changing the namespace prefix of a node, does not result in any addition,
removal, or modification of any special attributes for declaring the
appropriate XML namespaces. Namespace validation is not enforced; the DOM
application is responsible. In particular, since the mapping between
prefixes and namespace URIs is not enforced, in general, the resulting
document cannot be serialized naively. For example, applications may have to
declare every namespace in use when serializing a document.
DOM Level 2 doesn't perform any URI normalization or canonicalization. The
URIs given to the DOM are assumed to be valid (e.g., characters such as
whitespaces are properly escaped), and no lexical checking is performed.
Absolute URI references are treated as strings and compared literally. How
relative namespace URI references are treated is undefined. To ensure
interoperability only absolute namespace URI references (i.e., URI
references beginning with a scheme name and a colon) should be used. Note
that because the DOM does no lexical checking, the empty string will be
treated as a real namespace URI in DOM Level 2 methods. Applications must
use the value null as the namespaceURI parameter for methods if they wish to
have no namespace.
Note: In the DOM, all namespace declaration attributes are by definition
bound to the namespace URI: "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/". These are the
attributes whose namespace prefix or qualified name is "xmlns". Although, at
the time of writing, this is not part of the XML Namespaces specification
[Namespaces], it is planned to be incorporated in a future revision.
In a document with no namespaces, the child list of an EntityReference node
is always the same as that of the corresponding Entity. This is not true in
a document where an entity contains unbound namespace prefixes. In such a
case, the descendants of the corresponding EntityReference nodes may be
bound to different namespace URIs, depending on where the entity references
are. Also, because, in the DOM, nodes always remain bound to the same
namespace URI, moving such EntityReference nodes can lead to documents that
cannot be serialized. This is also true when the DOM Level 1 method
createEntityReference of the Document interface is used to create entity
references that correspond to such entities, since the descendants of the
returned EntityReference are unbound. The DOM Level 2 does not support any
mechanism to resolve namespace prefixes. For all of these reasons, use of
such entities and entity references should be avoided or used with extreme
care. A future Level of the DOM may include some additional support for
handling these.
The new methods, such as createElementNS and createAttributeNS of the
Document interface, are meant to be used by namespace aware applications.
Simple applications that do not use namespaces can use the DOM Level 1
methods, such as createElement and createAttribute. Elements and attributes
created in this way do not have any namespace prefix, namespace URI, or
local name.
Note: DOM Level 1 methods are namespace ignorant. Therefore, while it is
safe to use these methods when not dealing with namespaces, using them and
the new ones at the same time should be avoided. DOM Level 1 methods solely
identify attribute nodes by their nodeName. On the contrary, the DOM Level 2
methods related to namespaces, identify attribute nodes by their
namespaceURI and localName. Because of this fundamental difference, mixing
both sets of methods can lead to unpredictable results. In particular, using
setAttributeNS, an element may have two attributes (or more) that have the
same nodeName, but different namespaceURIs. Calling getAttribute with that
nodeName could then return any of those attributes. The result depends on
the implementation. Similarly, using setAttributeNode, one can set two
attributes (or more) that have different nodeNames but the same prefix and
namespaceURI. In this case getAttributeNodeNS will return either attribute,
in an implementation dependent manner. The only guarantee in such cases is
that all methods that access a named item by its nodeName will access the
same item, and all methods which access a node by its URI and local name
will access the same node. For instance, setAttribute and setAttributeNS
affect the node that getAttribute and getAttributeNS, respectively, return.
1.2. Fundamental Interfaces
The interfaces within this section are considered fundamental, and must be
fully implemented by all conforming implementations of the DOM, including
all HTML DOM implementations [DOM Level 2 HTML], unless otherwise specified.
Exception DOMException
DOM operations only raise exceptions in "exceptional" circumstances,
i.e., when an operation is impossible to perform (either for logical
reasons, because data is lost, or because the implementation has become
unstable). In general, DOM methods return specific error values in
ordinary processing situations, such as out-of-bound errors when using
NodeList.
Implementations may raise other exceptions under other circumstances.
For example, implementations may raise an implementation-dependent
exception if a null argument is passed.
Some languages and object systems do not support the concept of
exceptions. For such systems, error conditions may be indicated using
native error reporting mechanisms. For some bindings, for example,
methods may return error codes similar to those listed in the
corresponding method descriptions.
IDL Definition
exception DOMException {
unsigned short code;
};
// ExceptionCode
const unsigned short INDEX_SIZE_ERR = 1;
const unsigned short DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR = 2;
const unsigned short HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR = 3;
const unsigned short WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR = 4;
const unsigned short INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR = 5;
const unsigned short NO_DATA_ALLOWED_ERR = 6;
const unsigned short NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR = 7;
const unsigned short NOT_FOUND_ERR = 8;
const unsigned short NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR = 9;
const unsigned short INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR = 10;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short INVALID_STATE_ERR = 11;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short SYNTAX_ERR = 12;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR = 13;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short NAMESPACE_ERR = 14;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short INVALID_ACCESS_ERR = 15;
Definition group ExceptionCode
An integer indicating the type of error generated.
Note: Other numeric codes are reserved for W3C for possible future
use.
Defined Constants
DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR
If the specified range of text does not fit into a
DOMString
HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR
If any node is inserted somewhere it doesn't belong
INDEX_SIZE_ERR
If index or size is negative, or greater than the
allowed value
INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR
If an attempt is made to add an attribute that is
already in use elsewhere
INVALID_ACCESS_ERR, introduced in DOM Level 2.
If a parameter or an operation is not supported by the
underlying object.
INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR
If an invalid or illegal character is specified, such as
in a name. See production 2 in the XML specification for
the definition of a legal character, and production 5
for the definition of a legal name character.
INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR, introduced in DOM Level 2.
If an attempt is made to modify the type of the
underlying object.
INVALID_STATE_ERR, introduced in DOM Level 2.
If an attempt is made to use an object that is not, or
is no longer, usable.
NAMESPACE_ERR, introduced in DOM Level 2.
If an attempt is made to create or change an object in a
way which is incorrect with regard to namespaces.
NOT_FOUND_ERR
If an attempt is made to reference a node in a context
where it does not exist
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR
If the implementation does not support the type of
object requested
NO_DATA_ALLOWED_ERR
If data is specified for a node which does not support
data
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR
If an attempt is made to modify an object where
modifications are not allowed
SYNTAX_ERR, introduced in DOM Level 2.
If an invalid or illegal string is specified.
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR
If a node is used in a different document than the one
that created it (that doesn't support it)
Interface DOMImplementation
The DOMImplementation interface provides a number of methods for
performing operations that are independent of any particular instance
of the document object model.
IDL Definition
interface DOMImplementation {
boolean hasFeature(in DOMString feature,
in DOMString version);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
DocumentType createDocumentType(in DOMString qualifiedName,
in DOMString publicId,
in DOMString systemId)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Document createDocument(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString qualifiedName,
in DocumentType doctype)
raises(DOMException);
};
Methods
createDocument introduced in DOM Level 2
Creates an XML Document object of the specified type with its
document element. HTML-only DOM implementations do not need
to implement this method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the document element to create.
qualifiedName of type DOMString
The qualified name of the document element to be
created.
doctype of type DocumentType
The type of document to be created or null.
When doctype is not null, its Node.ownerDocument
attribute is set to the document being created.
Return Value
Document A new Document object.
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
qualified name contains an illegal character.
NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the qualifiedName is
malformed, if the qualifiedName has a prefix
and the namespaceURI is null, or if the
qualifiedName has a prefix that is "xml" and
the namespaceURI is different from
"http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace"
[Namespaces].
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if doctype has
already been used with a different document or
was created from a different implementation.
createDocumentType introduced in DOM Level 2
Creates an empty DocumentType node. Entity declarations and
notations are not made available. Entity reference expansions
and default attribute additions do not occur. It is expected
that a future version of the DOM will provide a way for
populating a DocumentType.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
qualifiedName of type DOMString
The qualified name of the document type to be created.
publicId of type DOMString
The external subset public identifier.
systemId of type DOMString
The external subset system identifier.
Return Value
DocumentType A new DocumentType node with Node.ownerDocument
set to null.
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
qualified name contains an illegal character.
NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the qualifiedName is
malformed.
hasFeature
Test if the DOM implementation implements a specific feature.
Parameters
feature of type DOMString
The name of the feature to test (case-insensitive). The
values used by DOM features are defined throughout the
DOM Level 2 specifications and listed in the Compliance
section. The name must be an XML name. To avoid possible
conflicts, as a convention, names referring to features
defined outside the DOM specification should be made
unique by reversing the name of the Internet domain name
of the person (or the organization that the person
belongs to) who defines the feature, component by
component, and using this as a prefix. For instance, the
W3C SVG Working Group defines the feature
"org.w3c.dom.svg".
version of type DOMString
This is the version number of the feature to test. In
Level 2, the string can be either "2.0" or "1.0". If the
version is not specified, supporting any version of the
feature causes the method to return true.
Return Value
boolean true if the feature is implemented in the specified
version, false otherwise.
No Exceptions
Interface DocumentFragment
DocumentFragment is a "lightweight" or "minimal" Document object. It is
very common to want to be able to extract a portion of a document's
tree or to create a new fragment of a document. Imagine implementing a
user command like cut or rearranging a document by moving fragments
around. It is desirable to have an object which can hold such fragments
and it is quite natural to use a Node for this purpose. While it is
true that a Document object could fulfill this role, a Document object
can potentially be a heavyweight object, depending on the underlying
implementation. What is really needed for this is a very lightweight
object. DocumentFragment is such an object.
Furthermore, various operations -- such as inserting nodes as children
of another Node -- may take DocumentFragment objects as arguments; this
results in all the child nodes of the DocumentFragment being moved to
the child list of this node.
The children of a DocumentFragment node are zero or more nodes
representing the tops of any sub-trees defining the structure of the
document. DocumentFragment nodes do not need to be well-formed XML
documents (although they do need to follow the rules imposed upon
well-formed XML parsed entities, which can have multiple top nodes).
For example, a DocumentFragment might have only one child and that
child node could be a Text node. Such a structure model represents
neither an HTML document nor a well-formed XML document.
When a DocumentFragment is inserted into a Document (or indeed any
other Node that may take children) the children of the DocumentFragment
and not the DocumentFragment itself are inserted into the Node. This
makes the DocumentFragment very useful when the user wishes to create
nodes that are siblings; the DocumentFragment acts as the parent of
these nodes so that the user can use the standard methods from the Node
interface, such as insertBefore and appendChild.
IDL Definition
interface DocumentFragment : Node {
};
Interface Document
The Document interface represents the entire HTML or XML document.
Conceptually, it is the root of the document tree, and provides the
primary access to the document's data.
Since elements, text nodes, comments, processing instructions, etc.
cannot exist outside the context of a Document, the Document interface
also contains the factory methods needed to create these objects. The
Node objects created have a ownerDocument attribute which associates
them with the Document within whose context they were created.
IDL Definition
interface Document : Node {
readonly attribute DocumentType doctype;
readonly attribute DOMImplementation implementation;
readonly attribute Element documentElement;
Element createElement(in DOMString tagName)
raises(DOMException);
DocumentFragment createDocumentFragment();
Text createTextNode(in DOMString data);
Comment createComment(in DOMString data);
CDATASection createCDATASection(in DOMString data)
raises(DOMException);
ProcessingInstruction createProcessingInstruction(in DOMString target,
in DOMString data)
raises(DOMException);
Attr createAttribute(in DOMString name)
raises(DOMException);
EntityReference createEntityReference(in DOMString name)
raises(DOMException);
NodeList getElementsByTagName(in DOMString tagname);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Node importNode(in Node importedNode,
in boolean deep)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Element createElementNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString qualifiedName)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Attr createAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString qualifiedName)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
NodeList getElementsByTagNameNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Element getElementById(in DOMString elementId);
};
Attributes
doctype of type DocumentType, readonly
The Document Type Declaration (see DocumentType) associated
with this document. For HTML documents as well as XML
documents without a document type declaration this returns
null. The DOM Level 2 does not support editing the Document
Type Declaration. docType cannot be altered in any way,
including through the use of methods inherited from the Node
interface, such as insertNode or removeNode.
documentElement of type Element, readonly
This is a convenience attribute that allows direct access to
the child node that is the root element of the document. For
HTML documents, this is the element with the tagName "HTML".
implementation of type DOMImplementation, readonly
The DOMImplementation object that handles this document. A
DOM application may use objects from multiple
implementations.
Methods
createAttribute
Creates an Attr of the given name. Note that the Attr
instance can then be set on an Element using the
setAttributeNode method.
To create an attribute with a qualified name and namespace
URI, use the createAttributeNS method.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The name of the attribute.
Return Value
Attr A new Attr object with the nodeName attribute set to
name, and localName, prefix, and namespaceURI set to
null. The value of the attribute is the empty string.
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
name contains an illegal character.
createAttributeNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Creates an attribute of the given qualified name and
namespace URI. HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to
implement this method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the attribute to create.
qualifiedName of type DOMString
The qualified name of the attribute to instantiate.
Return Value
Attr A new Attr object with the following attributes:
Attribute Value
Node.nodeName qualifiedName
Node.namespaceURI namespaceURI
Node.prefix prefix, extracted from
qualifiedName, or null if there is
no prefix
Node.localName local name, extracted from
qualifiedName
Attr.name qualifiedName
Node.nodeValue the empty string
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
qualified name contains an illegal character.
NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the qualifiedName is
malformed, if the qualifiedName has a prefix
and the namespaceURI is null, if the
qualifiedName has a prefix that is "xml" and
the namespaceURI is different from
"http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace", or if
the qualifiedName is "xmlns" and the
namespaceURI is different from
"http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/".
createCDATASection
Creates a CDATASection node whose value is the specified
string.
Parameters
data of type DOMString
The data for the CDATASection contents.
Return Value
CDATASection The new CDATASection object.
Exceptions
DOMException NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if this document is
an HTML document.
createComment
Creates a Comment node given the specified string.
Parameters
data of type DOMString
The data for the node.
Return Value
Comment The new Comment object.
No Exceptions
createDocumentFragment
Creates an empty DocumentFragment object.
Return Value
DocumentFragment A new DocumentFragment.
No Parameters
No Exceptions
createElement
Creates an element of the type specified. Note that the
instance returned implements the Element interface, so
attributes can be specified directly on the returned object.
In addition, if there are known attributes with default
values, Attr nodes representing them are automatically
created and attached to the element.
To create an element with a qualified name and namespace URI,
use the createElementNS method.
Parameters
tagName of type DOMString
The name of the element type to instantiate. For XML,
this is case-sensitive. For HTML, the tagName parameter
may be provided in any case, but it must be mapped to
the canonical uppercase form by the DOM implementation.
Return Value
Element A new Element object with the nodeName attribute set
to tagName, and localName, prefix, and namespaceURI
set to null.
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
name contains an illegal character.
createElementNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Creates an element of the given qualified name and namespace
URI. HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement
this method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the element to create.
qualifiedName of type DOMString
The qualified name of the element type to instantiate.
Return Value
Element A new Element object with the following attributes:
Attribute Value
Node.nodeName qualifiedName
Node.namespaceURI namespaceURI
Node.prefix prefix, extracted from
qualifiedName, or null if there
is no prefix
Node.localName local name, extracted from
qualifiedName
Element.tagName qualifiedName
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
qualified name contains an illegal character.
NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the qualifiedName is
malformed, if the qualifiedName has a prefix
and the namespaceURI is null, or if the
qualifiedName has a prefix that is "xml" and
the namespaceURI is different from
"http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace"
[Namespaces].
createEntityReference
Creates an EntityReference object. In addition, if the
referenced entity is known, the child list of the
EntityReference node is made the same as that of the
corresponding Entity node.
Note: If any descendant of the Entity node has an unbound
namespace prefix, the corresponding descendant of the created
EntityReference node is also unbound; (its namespaceURI is
null). The DOM Level 2 does not support any mechanism to
resolve namespace prefixes.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The name of the entity to reference.
Return Value
EntityReference The new EntityReference object.
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
name contains an illegal character.
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if this document is
an HTML document.
createProcessingInstruction
Creates a ProcessingInstruction node given the specified name
and data strings.
Parameters
target of type DOMString
The target part of the processing instruction.
data of type DOMString
The data for the node.
Return Value
ProcessingInstruction The new ProcessingInstruction object.
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
target contains an illegal character.
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if this document is
an HTML document.
createTextNode
Creates a Text node given the specified string.
Parameters
data of type DOMString
The data for the node.
Return Value
Text The new Text object.
No Exceptions
getElementById introduced in DOM Level 2
Returns the Element whose ID is given by elementId. If no
such element exists, returns null. Behavior is not defined if
more than one element has this ID.
Note: The DOM implementation must have information that says
which attributes are of type ID. Attributes with the name
"ID" are not of type ID unless so defined. Implementations
that do not know whether attributes are of type ID or not are
expected to return null.
Parameters
elementId of type DOMString
The unique id value for an element.
Return Value
Element The matching element.
No Exceptions
getElementsByTagName
Returns a NodeList of all the Elements with a given tag name
in the order in which they are encountered in a preorder
traversal of the Document tree.
Parameters
tagname of type DOMString
The name of the tag to match on. The special value "*"
matches all tags.
Return Value
NodeList A new NodeList object containing all the matched
Elements.
No Exceptions
getElementsByTagNameNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Returns a NodeList of all the Elements with a given local
name and namespace URI in the order in which they are
encountered in a preorder traversal of the Document tree.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the elements to match on. The
special value "*" matches all namespaces.
localName of type DOMString
The local name of the elements to match on. The special
value "*" matches all local names.
Return Value
NodeList A new NodeList object containing all the matched
Elements.
No Exceptions
importNode introduced in DOM Level 2
Imports a node from another document to this document. The
returned node has no parent; (parentNode is null). The source
node is not altered or removed from the original document;
this method creates a new copy of the source node.
For all nodes, importing a node creates a node object owned
by the importing document, with attribute values identical to
the source node's nodeName and nodeType, plus the attributes
related to namespaces (prefix, localName, and namespaceURI).
As in the cloneNode operation on a Node, the source node is
not altered.
Additional information is copied as appropriate to the
nodeType, attempting to mirror the behavior expected if a
fragment of XML or HTML source was copied from one document
to another, recognizing that the two documents may have
different DTDs in the XML case. The following list describes
the specifics for each type of node.
ATTRIBUTE_NODE
The ownerElement attribute is set to null and the
specified flag is set to true on the generated Attr. The
descendants of the source Attr are recursively imported
and the resulting nodes reassembled to form the
corresponding subtree.
Note that the deep parameter has no effect on Attr
nodes; they always carry their children with them when
imported.
DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE
If the deep option was set to true, the descendants of
the source element are recursively imported and the
resulting nodes reassembled to form the corresponding
subtree. Otherwise, this simply generates an empty
DocumentFragment.
DOCUMENT_NODE
Document nodes cannot be imported.
DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
DocumentType nodes cannot be imported.
ELEMENT_NODE
Specified attribute nodes of the source element are
imported, and the generated Attr nodes are attached to
the generated Element. Default attributes are not
copied, though if the document being imported into
defines default attributes for this element name, those
are assigned. If the importNode deep parameter was set
to true, the descendants of the source element are
recursively imported and the resulting nodes reassembled
to form the corresponding subtree.
ENTITY_NODE
Entity nodes can be imported, however in the current
release of the DOM the DocumentType is readonly. Ability
to add these imported nodes to a DocumentType will be
considered for addition to a future release of the DOM.
On import, the publicId, systemId, and notationName
attributes are copied. If a deep import is requested,
the descendants of the the source Entity are recursively
imported and the resulting nodes reassembled to form the
corresponding subtree.
ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE
Only the EntityReference itself is copied, even if a
deep import is requested, since the source and
destination documents might have defined the entity
differently. If the document being imported into
provides a definition for this entity name, its value is
assigned.
NOTATION_NODE
Notation nodes can be imported, however in the current
release of the DOM the DocumentType is readonly. Ability
to add these imported nodes to a DocumentType will be
considered for addition to a future release of the DOM.
On import, the publicId and systemId attributes are
copied.
Note that the deep parameter has no effect on Notation
nodes since they never have any children.
PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE
The imported node copies its target and data values from
those of the source node.
TEXT_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE
These three types of nodes inheriting from CharacterData
copy their data and length attributes from those of the
source node.
Parameters
importedNode of type Node
The node to import.
deep of type boolean
If true, recursively import the subtree under the
specified node; if false, import only the node itself,
as explained above. This has no effect on Attr,
EntityReference, and Notation nodes.
Return Value
Node The imported node that belongs to this Document.
Exceptions
DOMException NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if the type of node
being imported is not supported.
Interface Node
The Node interface is the primary datatype for the entire Document
Object Model. It represents a single node in the document tree. While
all objects implementing the Node interface expose methods for dealing
with children, not all objects implementing the Node interface may have
children. For example, Text nodes may not have children, and adding
children to such nodes results in a DOMException being raised.
The attributes nodeName, nodeValue and attributes are included as a
mechanism to get at node information without casting down to the
specific derived interface. In cases where there is no obvious mapping
of these attributes for a specific nodeType (e.g., nodeValue for an
Element or attributes for a Comment), this returns null. Note that the
specialized interfaces may contain additional and more convenient
mechanisms to get and set the relevant information.
IDL Definition
interface Node {
// NodeType
const unsigned short ELEMENT_NODE = 1;
const unsigned short ATTRIBUTE_NODE = 2;
const unsigned short TEXT_NODE = 3;
const unsigned short CDATA_SECTION_NODE = 4;
const unsigned short ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE = 5;
const unsigned short ENTITY_NODE = 6;
const unsigned short PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE = 7;
const unsigned short COMMENT_NODE = 8;
const unsigned short DOCUMENT_NODE = 9;
const unsigned short DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE = 10;
const unsigned short DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE = 11;
const unsigned short NOTATION_NODE = 12;
readonly attribute DOMString nodeName;
attribute DOMString nodeValue;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
// raises(DOMException) on retrieval
readonly attribute unsigned short nodeType;
readonly attribute Node parentNode;
readonly attribute NodeList childNodes;
readonly attribute Node firstChild;
readonly attribute Node lastChild;
readonly attribute Node previousSibling;
readonly attribute Node nextSibling;
readonly attribute NamedNodeMap attributes;
// Modified in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute Document ownerDocument;
Node insertBefore(in Node newChild,
in Node refChild)
raises(DOMException);
Node replaceChild(in Node newChild,
in Node oldChild)
raises(DOMException);
Node removeChild(in Node oldChild)
raises(DOMException);
Node appendChild(in Node newChild)
raises(DOMException);
boolean hasChildNodes();
Node cloneNode(in boolean deep);
// Modified in DOM Level 2:
void normalize();
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
boolean isSupported(in DOMString feature,
in DOMString version);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString namespaceURI;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
attribute DOMString prefix;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString localName;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
boolean hasAttributes();
};
Definition group NodeType
An integer indicating which type of node this is.
Note: Numeric codes up to 200 are reserved to W3C for possible
future use.
Defined Constants
ATTRIBUTE_NODE
The node is an Attr.
CDATA_SECTION_NODE
The node is a CDATASection.
COMMENT_NODE
The node is a Comment.
DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE
The node is a DocumentFragment.
DOCUMENT_NODE
The node is a Document.
DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
The node is a DocumentType.
ELEMENT_NODE
The node is an Element.
ENTITY_NODE
The node is an Entity.
ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE
The node is an EntityReference.
NOTATION_NODE
The node is a Notation.
PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE
The node is a ProcessingInstruction.
TEXT_NODE
The node is a Text node.
The values of nodeName, nodeValue, and attributes vary according
to the node type as follows:
nodeName nodeValue attributes
Attr name of attribute value of null
attribute
CDATASection #cdata-section content of null
the CDATA
Section
Comment #comment content of null
the
comment
Document #document null null
DocumentFragment #document-fragment null null
DocumentType document type name null null
Element tag name null NamedNodeMap
Entity entity name null null
EntityReference name of entity null null
referenced
Notation notation name null null
ProcessingInstructiontarget entire null
content
excluding
the target
Text #text content of null
the text
node
Attributes
attributes of type NamedNodeMap, readonly
A NamedNodeMap containing the attributes of this node (if it
is an Element) or null otherwise.
childNodes of type NodeList, readonly
A NodeList that contains all children of this node. If there
are no children, this is a NodeList containing no nodes.
firstChild of type Node, readonly
The first child of this node. If there is no such node, this
returns null.
lastChild of type Node, readonly
The last child of this node. If there is no such node, this
returns null.
localName of type DOMString, readonly, introduced in DOM Level 2
Returns the local part of the qualified name of this node.
For nodes of any type other than ELEMENT_NODE and
ATTRIBUTE_NODE and nodes created with a DOM Level 1 method,
such as createElement from the Document interface, this is
always null.
namespaceURI of type DOMString, readonly, introduced in DOM Level
2
The namespace URI of this node, or null if it is unspecified.
This is not a computed value that is the result of a
namespace lookup based on an examination of the namespace
declarations in scope. It is merely the namespace URI given
at creation time.
For nodes of any type other than ELEMENT_NODE and
ATTRIBUTE_NODE and nodes created with a DOM Level 1 method,
such as createElement from the Document interface, this is
always null.
Note: Per the Namespaces in XML Specification [Namespaces] an
attribute does not inherit its namespace from the element it
is attached to. If an attribute is not explicitly given a
namespace, it simply has no namespace.
nextSibling of type Node, readonly
The node immediately following this node. If there is no such
node, this returns null.
nodeName of type DOMString, readonly
The name of this node, depending on its type; see the table
above.
nodeType of type unsigned short, readonly
A code representing the type of the underlying object, as
defined above.
nodeValue of type DOMString
The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table
above. When it is defined to be null, setting it has no
effect.
Exceptions on setting
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the
node is readonly.
Exceptions on retrieval
DOMException DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return
more characters than fit in a DOMString
variable on the implementation platform.
ownerDocument of type Document, readonly, modified in DOM Level 2
The Document object associated with this node. This is also
the Document object used to create new nodes. When this node
is a Document or a DocumentType which is not used with any
Document yet, this is null.
parentNode of type Node, readonly
The parent of this node. All nodes, except Attr, Document,
DocumentFragment, Entity, and Notation may have a parent.
However, if a node has just been created and not yet added to
the tree, or if it has been removed from the tree, this is
null.
prefix of type DOMString, introduced in DOM Level 2
The namespace prefix of this node, or null if it is
unspecified.
Note that setting this attribute, when permitted, changes the
nodeName attribute, which holds the qualified name, as well
as the tagName and name attributes of the Element and Attr
interfaces, when applicable.
Note also that changing the prefix of an attribute that is
known to have a default value, does not make a new attribute
with the default value and the original prefix appear, since
the namespaceURI and localName do not change.
For nodes of any type other than ELEMENT_NODE and
ATTRIBUTE_NODE and nodes created with a DOM Level 1 method,
such as createElement from the Document interface, this is
always null.
Exceptions on setting
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
prefix contains an illegal character.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the specified prefix
is malformed, if the namespaceURI of this node
is null, if the specified prefix is "xml" and
the namespaceURI of this node is different from
"http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace", if this
node is an attribute and the specified prefix
is "xmlns" and the namespaceURI of this node is
different from "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/",
or if this node is an attribute and the
qualifiedName of this node is "xmlns"
[Namespaces].
previousSibling of type Node, readonly
The node immediately preceding this node. If there is no such
node, this returns null.
Methods
appendChild
Adds the node newChild to the end of the list of children of
this node. If the newChild is already in the tree, it is
first removed.
Parameters
newChild of type Node
The node to add.
If it is a DocumentFragment object, the entire contents
of the document fragment are moved into the child list
of this node
Return Value
Node The node added.
Exceptions
DOMException HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is
of a type that does not allow children of the
type of the newChild node, or if the node to
append is one of this node's ancestors.
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newChild was
created from a different document than the one
that created this node.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
cloneNode
Returns a duplicate of this node, i.e., serves as a generic
copy constructor for nodes. The duplicate node has no parent;
(parentNode is null.).
Cloning an Element copies all attributes and their values,
including those generated by the XML processor to represent
defaulted attributes, but this method does not copy any text
it contains unless it is a deep clone, since the text is
contained in a child Text node. Cloning an Attribute
directly, as opposed to be cloned as part of an Element
cloning operation, returns a specified attribute (specified
is true). Cloning any other type of node simply returns a
copy of this node.
Note that cloning an immutable subtree results in a mutable
copy, but the children of an EntityReference clone are
readonly. In addition, clones of unspecified Attr nodes are
specified. And, cloning Document, DocumentType, Entity, and
Notation nodes is implementation dependent.
Parameters
deep of type boolean
If true, recursively clone the subtree under the
specified node; if false, clone only the node itself
(and its attributes, if it is an Element).
Return Value
Node The duplicate node.
No Exceptions
hasAttributes introduced in DOM Level 2
Returns whether this node (if it is an element) has any
attributes.
Return Value
boolean true if this node has any attributes, false
otherwise.
No Parameters
No Exceptions
hasChildNodes
Returns whether this node has any children.
Return Value
boolean true if this node has any children, false otherwise.
No Parameters
No Exceptions
insertBefore
Inserts the node newChild before the existing child node
refChild. If refChild is null, insert newChild at the end of
the list of children.
If newChild is a DocumentFragment object, all of its children
are inserted, in the same order, before refChild. If the
newChild is already in the tree, it is first removed.
Parameters
newChild of type Node
The node to insert.
refChild of type Node
The reference node, i.e., the node before which the new
node must be inserted.
Return Value
Node The node being inserted.
Exceptions
DOMException HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is
of a type that does not allow children of the
type of the newChild node, or if the node to
insert is one of this node's ancestors.
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newChild was
created from a different document than the one
that created this node.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly or if the parent of the node
being inserted is readonly.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if refChild is not a
child of this node.
isSupported introduced in DOM Level 2
Tests whether the DOM implementation implements a specific
feature and that feature is supported by this node.
Parameters
feature of type DOMString
The name of the feature to test. This is the same name
which can be passed to the method hasFeature on
DOMImplementation.
version of type DOMString
This is the version number of the feature to test. In
Level 2, version 1, this is the string "2.0". If the
version is not specified, supporting any version of the
feature will cause the method to return true.
Return Value
boolean Returns true if the specified feature is supported
on this node, false otherwise.
No Exceptions
normalize modified in DOM Level 2
Puts all Text nodes in the full depth of the sub-tree
underneath this Node, including attribute nodes, into a
"normal" form where only structure (e.g., elements, comments,
processing instructions, CDATA sections, and entity
references) separates Text nodes, i.e., there are neither
adjacent Text nodes nor empty Text nodes. This can be used to
ensure that the DOM view of a document is the same as if it
were saved and re-loaded, and is useful when operations (such
as XPointer [XPointer] lookups) that depend on a particular
document tree structure are to be used.
Note: In cases where the document contains CDATASections, the
normalize operation alone may not be sufficient, since
XPointers do not differentiate between Text nodes and
CDATASection nodes.
No Parameters
No Return Value
No Exceptions
removeChild
Removes the child node indicated by oldChild from the list of
children, and returns it.
Parameters
oldChild of type Node
The node being removed.
Return Value
Node The node removed.
Exceptions
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if oldChild is not a
child of this node.
replaceChild
Replaces the child node oldChild with newChild in the list of
children, and returns the oldChild node.
If newChild is a DocumentFragment object, oldChild is
replaced by all of the DocumentFragment children, which are
inserted in the same order. If the newChild is already in the
tree, it is first removed.
Parameters
newChild of type Node
The new node to put in the child list.
oldChild of type Node
The node being replaced in the list.
Return Value
Node The node replaced.
Exceptions
DOMException HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is
of a type that does not allow children of the
type of the newChild node, or if the node to
put in is one of this node's ancestors.
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newChild was
created from a different document than the one
that created this node.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node or the parent of the new node is readonly.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if oldChild is not a
child of this node.
Interface NodeList
The NodeList interface provides the abstraction of an ordered
collection of nodes, without defining or constraining how this
collection is implemented. NodeList objects in the DOM are live.
The items in the NodeList are accessible via an integral index,
starting from 0.
IDL Definition
interface NodeList {
Node item(in unsigned long index);
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
};
Attributes
length of type unsigned long, readonly
The number of nodes in the list. The range of valid child
node indices is 0 to length-1 inclusive.
Methods
item
Returns the indexth item in the collection. If index is
greater than or equal to the number of nodes in the list,
this returns null.
Parameters
index of type unsigned long
Index into the collection.
Return Value
Node The node at the indexth position in the NodeList, or
null if that is not a valid index.
No Exceptions
Interface NamedNodeMap
Objects implementing the NamedNodeMap interface are used to represent
collections of nodes that can be accessed by name. Note that
NamedNodeMap does not inherit from NodeList; NamedNodeMaps are not
maintained in any particular order. Objects contained in an object
implementing NamedNodeMap may also be accessed by an ordinal index, but
this is simply to allow convenient enumeration of the contents of a
NamedNodeMap, and does not imply that the DOM specifies an order to
these Nodes.
NamedNodeMap objects in the DOM are live.
IDL Definition
interface NamedNodeMap {
Node getNamedItem(in DOMString name);
Node setNamedItem(in Node arg)
raises(DOMException);
Node removeNamedItem(in DOMString name)
raises(DOMException);
Node item(in unsigned long index);
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Node getNamedItemNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Node setNamedItemNS(in Node arg)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Node removeNamedItemNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName)
raises(DOMException);
};
Attributes
length of type unsigned long, readonly
The number of nodes in this map. The range of valid child
node indices is 0 to length-1 inclusive.
Methods
getNamedItem
Retrieves a node specified by name.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The nodeName of a node to retrieve.
Return Value
Node A Node (of any type) with the specified nodeName, or
null if it does not identify any node in this map.
No Exceptions
getNamedItemNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Retrieves a node specified by local name and namespace URI.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the node to retrieve.
localName of type DOMString
The local name of the node to retrieve.
Return Value
Node A Node (of any type) with the specified local name and
namespace URI, or null if they do not identify any node
in this map.
No Exceptions
item
Returns the indexth item in the map. If index is greater than
or equal to the number of nodes in this map, this returns
null.
Parameters
index of type unsigned long
Index into this map.
Return Value
Node The node at the indexth position in the map, or null if
that is not a valid index.
No Exceptions
removeNamedItem
Removes a node specified by name. When this map contains the
attributes attached to an element, if the removed attribute
is known to have a default value, an attribute immediately
appears containing the default value as well as the
corresponding namespace URI, local name, and prefix when
applicable.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The nodeName of the node to remove.
Return Value
Node The node removed from this map if a node with such a
name exists.
Exceptions
DOMException NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if there is no node named
name in this map.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this map
is readonly.
removeNamedItemNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Removes a node specified by local name and namespace URI. A
removed attribute may be known to have a default value when
this map contains the attributes attached to an element, as
returned by the attributes attribute of the Node interface.
If so, an attribute immediately appears containing the
default value as well as the corresponding namespace URI,
local name, and prefix when applicable.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the node to remove.
localName of type DOMString
The local name of the node to remove.
Return Value
Node The node removed from this map if a node with such a
local name and namespace URI exists.
Exceptions
DOMException NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if there is no node with
the specified namespaceURI and localName in
this map.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this map
is readonly.
setNamedItem
Adds a node using its nodeName attribute. If a node with that
name is already present in this map, it is replaced by the
new one.
As the nodeName attribute is used to derive the name which
the node must be stored under, multiple nodes of certain
types (those that have a "special" string value) cannot be
stored as the names would clash. This is seen as preferable
to allowing nodes to be aliased.
Parameters
arg of type Node
A node to store in this map. The node will later be
accessible using the value of its nodeName attribute.
Return Value
Node If the new Node replaces an existing node the replaced
Node is returned, otherwise null is returned.
Exceptions
DOMException WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if arg was created
from a different document than the one that
created this map.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this map
is readonly.
INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR: Raised if arg is an Attr
that is already an attribute of another Element
object. The DOM user must explicitly clone Attr
nodes to re-use them in other elements.
setNamedItemNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Adds a node using its namespaceURI and localName. If a node
with that namespace URI and that local name is already
present in this map, it is replaced by the new one.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
arg of type Node
A node to store in this map. The node will later be
accessible using the value of its namespaceURI and
localName attributes.
Return Value
Node If the new Node replaces an existing node the replaced
Node is returned, otherwise null is returned.
Exceptions
DOMException WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if arg was created
from a different document than the one that
created this map.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this map
is readonly.
INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR: Raised if arg is an Attr
that is already an attribute of another Element
object. The DOM user must explicitly clone Attr
nodes to re-use them in other elements.
Interface CharacterData
The CharacterData interface extends Node with a set of attributes and
methods for accessing character data in the DOM. For clarity this set
is defined here rather than on each object that uses these attributes
and methods. No DOM objects correspond directly to CharacterData,
though Text and others do inherit the interface from it. All offsets in
this interface start from 0.
As explained in the DOMString interface, text strings in the DOM are
represented in UTF-16, i.e. as a sequence of 16-bit units. In the
following, the term 16-bit units is used whenever necessary to indicate
that indexing on CharacterData is done in 16-bit units.
IDL Definition
interface CharacterData : Node {
attribute DOMString data;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
// raises(DOMException) on retrieval
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
DOMString substringData(in unsigned long offset,
in unsigned long count)
raises(DOMException);
void appendData(in DOMString arg)
raises(DOMException);
void insertData(in unsigned long offset,
in DOMString arg)
raises(DOMException);
void deleteData(in unsigned long offset,
in unsigned long count)
raises(DOMException);
void replaceData(in unsigned long offset,
in unsigned long count,
in DOMString arg)
raises(DOMException);
};
Attributes
data of type DOMString
The character data of the node that implements this
interface. The DOM implementation may not put arbitrary
limits on the amount of data that may be stored in a
CharacterData node. However, implementation limits may mean
that the entirety of a node's data may not fit into a single
DOMString. In such cases, the user may call substringData to
retrieve the data in appropriately sized pieces.
Exceptions on setting
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the
node is readonly.
Exceptions on retrieval
DOMException DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return
more characters than fit in a DOMString
variable on the implementation platform.
length of type unsigned long, readonly
The number of 16-bit units that are available through data
and the substringData method below. This may have the value
zero, i.e., CharacterData nodes may be empty.
Methods
appendData
Append the string to the end of the character data of the
node. Upon success, data provides access to the concatenation
of data and the DOMString specified.
Parameters
arg of type DOMString
The DOMString to append.
Exceptions
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
No Return Value
deleteData
Remove a range of 16-bit units from the node. Upon success,
data and length reflect the change.
Parameters
offset of type unsigned long
The offset from which to start removing.
count of type unsigned long
The number of 16-bit units to delete. If the sum of
offset and count exceeds length then all 16-bit units
from offset to the end of the data are deleted.
Exceptions
DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset
is negative or greater than the number of
16-bit units in data, or if the specified count
is negative.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
No Return Value
insertData
Insert a string at the specified 16-bit unit offset.
Parameters
offset of type unsigned long
The character offset at which to insert.
arg of type DOMString
The DOMString to insert.
Exceptions
DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset
is negative or greater than the number of
16-bit units in data.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
No Return Value
replaceData
Replace the characters starting at the specified 16-bit unit
offset with the specified string.
Parameters
offset of type unsigned long
The offset from which to start replacing.
count of type unsigned long
The number of 16-bit units to replace. If the sum of
offset and count exceeds length, then all 16-bit units
to the end of the data are replaced; (i.e., the effect
is the same as a remove method call with the same range,
followed by an append method invocation).
arg of type DOMString
The DOMString with which the range must be replaced.
Exceptions
DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset
is negative or greater than the number of
16-bit units in data, or if the specified count
is negative.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
No Return Value
substringData
Extracts a range of data from the node.
Parameters
offset of type unsigned long
Start offset of substring to extract.
count of type unsigned long
The number of 16-bit units to extract.
Return Value
DOMString The specified substring. If the sum of offset and
count exceeds the length, then all 16-bit units to
the end of the data are returned.
Exceptions
DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset
is negative or greater than the number of
16-bit units in data, or if the specified count
is negative.
DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified
range of text does not fit into a DOMString.
Interface Attr
The Attr interface represents an attribute in an Element object.
Typically the allowable values for the attribute are defined in a
document type definition.
Attr objects inherit the Node interface, but since they are not
actually child nodes of the element they describe, the DOM does not
consider them part of the document tree. Thus, the Node attributes
parentNode, previousSibling, and nextSibling have a null value for Attr
objects. The DOM takes the view that attributes are properties of
elements rather than having a separate identity from the elements they
are associated with; this should make it more efficient to implement
such features as default attributes associated with all elements of a
given type. Furthermore, Attr nodes may not be immediate children of a
DocumentFragment. However, they can be associated with Element nodes
contained within a DocumentFragment. In short, users and implementors
of the DOM need to be aware that Attr nodes have some things in common
with other objects inheriting the Node interface, but they also are
quite distinct.
The attribute's effective value is determined as follows: if this
attribute has been explicitly assigned any value, that value is the
attribute's effective value; otherwise, if there is a declaration for
this attribute, and that declaration includes a default value, then
that default value is the attribute's effective value; otherwise, the
attribute does not exist on this element in the structure model until
it has been explicitly added. Note that the nodeValue attribute on the
Attr instance can also be used to retrieve the string version of the
attribute's value(s).
In XML, where the value of an attribute can contain entity references,
the child nodes of the Attr node provide a representation in which
entity references are not expanded. These child nodes may be either
Text or EntityReference nodes. Because the DOM Core is not aware of
attribute types, it treats all attribute values as simple strings, even
if the DTD or schema declares them as having tokenized types.
IDL Definition
interface Attr : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString name;
readonly attribute boolean specified;
attribute DOMString value;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute Element ownerElement;
};
Attributes
name of type DOMString, readonly
Returns the name of this attribute.
ownerElement of type Element, readonly, introduced in DOM Level 2
The Element node this attribute is attached to or null if
this attribute is not in use.
specified of type boolean, readonly
If this attribute was explicitly given a value in the
original document, this is true; otherwise, it is false. Note
that the implementation is in charge of this attribute, not
the user. If the user changes the value of the attribute
(even if it ends up having the same value as the default
value) then the specified flag is automatically flipped to
true. To re-specify the attribute as the default value from
the DTD, the user must delete the attribute. The
implementation will then make a new attribute available with
specified set to false and the default value (if one exists).
In summary:
+ If the attribute has an assigned value in the document
then specified is true, and the value is the assigned
value.
+ If the attribute has no assigned value in the document
and has a default value in the DTD, then specified is
false, and the value is the default value in the DTD.
+ If the attribute has no assigned value in the document
and has a value of #IMPLIED in the DTD, then the
attribute does not appear in the structure model of the
document.
+ If the ownerElement attribute is null (i.e. because it
was just created or was set to null by the various
removal and cloning operations) specified is true.
value of type DOMString
On retrieval, the value of the attribute is returned as a
string. Character and general entity references are replaced
with their values. See also the method getAttribute on the
Element interface.
On setting, this creates a Text node with the unparsed
contents of the string. I.e. any characters that an XML
processor would recognize as markup are instead treated as
literal text. See also the method setAttribute on the Element
interface.
Exceptions on setting
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the
node is readonly.
Interface Element
The Element interface represents an element in an HTML or XML document.
Elements may have attributes associated with them; since the Element
interface inherits from Node, the generic Node interface attribute
attributes may be used to retrieve the set of all attributes for an
element. There are methods on the Element interface to retrieve either
an Attr object by name or an attribute value by name. In XML, where an
attribute value may contain entity references, an Attr object should be
retrieved to examine the possibly fairly complex sub-tree representing
the attribute value. On the other hand, in HTML, where all attributes
have simple string values, methods to directly access an attribute
value can safely be used as a convenience.
Note: In DOM Level 2, the method normalize is inherited from the Node
interface where it was moved.
IDL Definition
interface Element : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString tagName;
DOMString getAttribute(in DOMString name);
void setAttribute(in DOMString name,
in DOMString value)
raises(DOMException);
void removeAttribute(in DOMString name)
raises(DOMException);
Attr getAttributeNode(in DOMString name);
Attr setAttributeNode(in Attr newAttr)
raises(DOMException);
Attr removeAttributeNode(in Attr oldAttr)
raises(DOMException);
NodeList getElementsByTagName(in DOMString name);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
DOMString getAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
void setAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString qualifiedName,
in DOMString value)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
void removeAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Attr getAttributeNodeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Attr setAttributeNodeNS(in Attr newAttr)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
NodeList getElementsByTagNameNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
boolean hasAttribute(in DOMString name);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
boolean hasAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
};
Attributes
tagName of type DOMString, readonly
The name of the element. For example, in:
...
,
tagName has the value "elementExample". Note that this is
case-preserving in XML, as are all of the operations of the
DOM. The HTML DOM returns the tagName of an HTML element in
the canonical uppercase form, regardless of the case in the
source HTML document.
Methods
getAttribute
Retrieves an attribute value by name.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The name of the attribute to retrieve.
Return Value
DOMString The Attr value as a string, or the empty string if
that attribute does not have a specified or
default value.
No Exceptions
getAttributeNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Retrieves an attribute value by local name and namespace URI.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the attribute to retrieve.
localName of type DOMString
The local name of the attribute to retrieve.
Return Value
DOMString The Attr value as a string, or the empty string if
that attribute does not have a specified or
default value.
No Exceptions
getAttributeNode
Retrieves an attribute node by name.
To retrieve an attribute node by qualified name and namespace
URI, use the getAttributeNodeNS method.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The name (nodeName) of the attribute to retrieve.
Return Value
Attr The Attr node with the specified name (nodeName) or
null if there is no such attribute.
No Exceptions
getAttributeNodeNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Retrieves an Attr node by local name and namespace URI.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the attribute to retrieve.
localName of type DOMString
The local name of the attribute to retrieve.
Return Value
Attr The Attr node with the specified attribute local name
and namespace URI or null if there is no such
attribute.
No Exceptions
getElementsByTagName
Returns a NodeList of all descendant Elements with a given
tag name, in the order in which they are encountered in a
preorder traversal of this Element tree.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The name of the tag to match on. The special value "*"
matches all tags.
Return Value
NodeList A list of matching Element nodes.
No Exceptions
getElementsByTagNameNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Returns a NodeList of all the descendant Elements with a
given local name and namespace URI in the order in which they
are encountered in a preorder traversal of this Element tree.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the elements to match on. The
special value "*" matches all namespaces.
localName of type DOMString
The local name of the elements to match on. The special
value "*" matches all local names.
Return Value
NodeList A new NodeList object containing all the matched
Elements.
No Exceptions
hasAttribute introduced in DOM Level 2
Returns true when an attribute with a given name is specified
on this element or has a default value, false otherwise.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The name of the attribute to look for.
Return Value
boolean true if an attribute with the given name is
specified on this element or has a default value,
false otherwise.
No Exceptions
hasAttributeNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Returns true when an attribute with a given local name and
namespace URI is specified on this element or has a default
value, false otherwise. HTML-only DOM implementations do not
need to implement this method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the attribute to look for.
localName of type DOMString
The local name of the attribute to look for.
Return Value
boolean true if an attribute with the given local name and
namespace URI is specified or has a default value on
this element, false otherwise.
No Exceptions
removeAttribute
Removes an attribute by name. If the removed attribute is
known to have a default value, an attribute immediately
appears containing the default value as well as the
corresponding namespace URI, local name, and prefix when
applicable.
To remove an attribute by local name and namespace URI, use
the removeAttributeNS method.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The name of the attribute to remove.
Exceptions
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
No Return Value
removeAttributeNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Removes an attribute by local name and namespace URI. If the
removed attribute has a default value it is immediately
replaced. The replacing attribute has the same namespace URI
and local name, as well as the original prefix.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the attribute to remove.
localName of type DOMString
The local name of the attribute to remove.
Exceptions
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
No Return Value
removeAttributeNode
Removes the specified attribute node. If the removed Attr has
a default value it is immediately replaced. The replacing
attribute has the same namespace URI and local name, as well
as the original prefix, when applicable.
Parameters
oldAttr of type Attr
The Attr node to remove from the attribute list.
Return Value
Attr The Attr node that was removed.
Exceptions
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if oldAttr is not an
attribute of the element.
setAttribute
Adds a new attribute. If an attribute with that name is
already present in the element, its value is changed to be
that of the value parameter. This value is a simple string;
it is not parsed as it is being set. So any markup (such as
syntax to be recognized as an entity reference) is treated as
literal text, and needs to be appropriately escaped by the
implementation when it is written out. In order to assign an
attribute value that contains entity references, the user
must create an Attr node plus any Text and EntityReference
nodes, build the appropriate subtree, and use
setAttributeNode to assign it as the value of an attribute.
To set an attribute with a qualified name and namespace URI,
use the setAttributeNS method.
Parameters
name of type DOMString
The name of the attribute to create or alter.
value of type DOMString
Value to set in string form.
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
name contains an illegal character.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
No Return Value
setAttributeNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Adds a new attribute. If an attribute with the same local
name and namespace URI is already present on the element, its
prefix is changed to be the prefix part of the qualifiedName,
and its value is changed to be the value parameter. This
value is a simple string; it is not parsed as it is being
set. So any markup (such as syntax to be recognized as an
entity reference) is treated as literal text, and needs to be
appropriately escaped by the implementation when it is
written out. In order to assign an attribute value that
contains entity references, the user must create an Attr node
plus any Text and EntityReference nodes, build the
appropriate subtree, and use setAttributeNodeNS or
setAttributeNode to assign it as the value of an attribute.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
namespaceURI of type DOMString
The namespace URI of the attribute to create or alter.
qualifiedName of type DOMString
The qualified name of the attribute to create or alter.
value of type DOMString
The value to set in string form.
Exceptions
DOMException INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified
qualified name contains an illegal character.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the qualifiedName is
malformed, if the qualifiedName has a prefix
and the namespaceURI is null, if the
qualifiedName has a prefix that is "xml" and
the namespaceURI is different from
"http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace", or if
the qualifiedName is "xmlns" and the
namespaceURI is different from
"http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/".
No Return Value
setAttributeNode
Adds a new attribute node. If an attribute with that name
(nodeName) is already present in the element, it is replaced
by the new one.
To add a new attribute node with a qualified name and
namespace URI, use the setAttributeNodeNS method.
Parameters
newAttr of type Attr
The Attr node to add to the attribute list.
Return Value
Attr If the newAttr attribute replaces an existing
attribute, the replaced Attr node is returned,
otherwise null is returned.
Exceptions
DOMException WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newAttr was
created from a different document than the one
that created the element.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR: Raised if newAttr is
already an attribute of another Element object.
The DOM user must explicitly clone Attr nodes
to re-use them in other elements.
setAttributeNodeNS introduced in DOM Level 2
Adds a new attribute. If an attribute with that local name
and that namespace URI is already present in the element, it
is replaced by the new one.
HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this
method.
Parameters
newAttr of type Attr
The Attr node to add to the attribute list.
Return Value
Attr If the newAttr attribute replaces an existing attribute
with the same local name and namespace URI, the
replaced Attr node is returned, otherwise null is
returned.
Exceptions
DOMException WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newAttr was
created from a different document than the one
that created the element.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR: Raised if newAttr is
already an attribute of another Element object.
The DOM user must explicitly clone Attr nodes
to re-use them in other elements.
Interface Text
The Text interface inherits from CharacterData and represents the
textual content (termed character data in XML) of an Element or Attr.
If there is no markup inside an element's content, the text is
contained in a single object implementing the Text interface that is
the only child of the element. If there is markup, it is parsed into
the information items (elements, comments, etc.) and Text nodes that
form the list of children of the element.
When a document is first made available via the DOM, there is only one
Text node for each block of text. Users may create adjacent Text nodes
that represent the contents of a given element without any intervening
markup, but should be aware that there is no way to represent the
separations between these nodes in XML or HTML, so they will not (in
general) persist between DOM editing sessions. The normalize() method
on Node merges any such adjacent Text objects into a single node for
each block of text.
IDL Definition
interface Text : CharacterData {
Text splitText(in unsigned long offset)
raises(DOMException);
};
Methods
splitText
Breaks this node into two nodes at the specified offset,
keeping both in the tree as siblings. After being split, this
node will contain all the content up to the offset point. A
new node of the same type, which contains all the content at
and after the offset point, is returned. If the original node
had a parent node, the new node is inserted as the next
sibling of the original node. When the offset is equal to the
length of this node, the new node has no data.
Parameters
offset of type unsigned long
The 16-bit unit offset at which to split, starting from
0.
Return Value
Text The new node, of the same type as this node.
Exceptions
DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset
is negative or greater than the number of
16-bit units in data.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this
node is readonly.
Interface Comment
This interface inherits from CharacterData and represents the content
of a comment, i.e., all the characters between the starting ''. Note that this is the definition of a comment in XML,
and, in practice, HTML, although some HTML tools may implement the full
SGML comment structure.
IDL Definition
interface Comment : CharacterData {
};
1.3. Extended Interfaces
The interfaces defined here form part of the DOM Core specification, but
objects that expose these interfaces will never be encountered in a DOM
implementation that deals only with HTML. As such, HTML-only DOM
implementations [DOM Level 2 HTML] do not need to have objects that
implement these interfaces.
A DOM application can use the hasFeature method of the DOMImplementation
interface to determine whether they are supported or not. The feature string
for all the interfaces listed in this section is "XML" and the version is
"2.0".
Interface CDATASection
CDATA sections are used to escape blocks of text containing characters
that would otherwise be regarded as markup. The only delimiter that is
recognized in a CDATA section is the "]]>" string that ends the CDATA
section. CDATA sections cannot be nested. Their primary purpose is for
including material such as XML fragments, without needing to escape all
the delimiters.
The DOMString attribute of the Text node holds the text that is
contained by the CDATA section. Note that this may contain characters
that need to be escaped outside of CDATA sections and that, depending
on the character encoding ("charset") chosen for serialization, it may
be impossible to write out some characters as part of a CDATA section.
The CDATASection interface inherits from the CharacterData interface
through the Text interface. Adjacent CDATASection nodes are not merged
by use of the normalize method of the Node interface.
Note: Because no markup is recognized within a CDATASection, character
numeric references cannot be used as an escape mechanism when
serializing. Therefore, action needs to be taken when serializing a
CDATASection with a character encoding where some of the contained
characters cannot be represented. Failure to do so would not produce
well-formed XML.
One potential solution in the serialization process is to end the CDATA
section before the character, output the character using a character
reference or entity reference, and open a new CDATA section for any
further characters in the text node. Note, however, that some code
conversion libraries at the time of writing do not return an error or
exception when a character is missing from the encoding, making the
task of ensuring that data is not corrupted on serialization more
difficult.
IDL Definition
interface CDATASection : Text {
};
Interface DocumentType
Each Document has a doctype attribute whose value is either null or a
DocumentType object. The DocumentType interface in the DOM Core
provides an interface to the list of entities that are defined for the
document, and little else because the effect of namespaces and the
various XML schema efforts on DTD representation are not clearly
understood as of this writing.
The DOM Level 2 doesn't support editing DocumentType nodes.
IDL Definition
interface DocumentType : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString name;
readonly attribute NamedNodeMap entities;
readonly attribute NamedNodeMap notations;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString publicId;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString systemId;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString internalSubset;
};
Attributes
entities of type NamedNodeMap, readonly
A NamedNodeMap containing the general entities, both external
and internal, declared in the DTD. Parameter entities are not
contained. Duplicates are discarded. For example in:
]>
the interface provides access to foo and the first
declaration of bar but not the second declaration of bar or
baz. Every node in this map also implements the Entity
interface.
The DOM Level 2 does not support editing entities, therefore
entities cannot be altered in any way.
internalSubset of type DOMString, readonly, introduced in DOM
Level 2
The internal subset as a string.
Note: The actual content returned depends on how much
information is available to the implementation. This may vary
depending on various parameters, including the XML processor
used to build the document.
name of type DOMString, readonly
The name of DTD; i.e., the name immediately following the
DOCTYPE keyword.
notations of type NamedNodeMap, readonly
A NamedNodeMap containing the notations declared in the DTD.
Duplicates are discarded. Every node in this map also
implements the Notation interface.
The DOM Level 2 does not support editing notations, therefore
notations cannot be altered in any way.
publicId of type DOMString, readonly, introduced in DOM Level 2
The public identifier of the external subset.
systemId of type DOMString, readonly, introduced in DOM Level 2
The system identifier of the external subset.
Interface Notation
This interface represents a notation declared in the DTD. A notation
either declares, by name, the format of an unparsed entity (see section
4.7 of the XML 1.0 specification [XML]), or is used for formal
declaration of processing instruction targets (see section 2.6 of the
XML 1.0 specification [XML]). The nodeName attribute inherited from
Node is set to the declared name of the notation.
The DOM Level 1 does not support editing Notation nodes; they are
therefore readonly.
A Notation node does not have any parent.
IDL Definition
interface Notation : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString publicId;
readonly attribute DOMString systemId;
};
Attributes
publicId of type DOMString, readonly
The public identifier of this notation. If the public
identifier was not specified, this is null.
systemId of type DOMString, readonly
The system identifier of this notation. If the system
identifier was not specified, this is null.
Interface Entity
This interface represents an entity, either parsed or unparsed, in an
XML document. Note that this models the entity itself not the entity
declaration. Entity declaration modeling has been left for a later
Level of the DOM specification.
The nodeName attribute that is inherited from Node contains the name of
the entity.
An XML processor may choose to completely expand entities before the
structure model is passed to the DOM; in this case there will be no
EntityReference nodes in the document tree.
XML does not mandate that a non-validating XML processor read and
process entity declarations made in the external subset or declared in
external parameter entities. This means that parsed entities declared
in the external subset need not be expanded by some classes of
applications, and that the replacement value of the entity may not be
available. When the replacement value is available, the corresponding
Entity node's child list represents the structure of that replacement
text. Otherwise, the child list is empty.
The DOM Level 2 does not support editing Entity nodes; if a user wants
to make changes to the contents of an Entity, every related
EntityReference node has to be replaced in the structure model by a
clone of the Entity's contents, and then the desired changes must be
made to each of those clones instead. Entity nodes and all their
descendants are readonly.
An Entity node does not have any parent.
Note: If the entity contains an unbound namespace prefix, the
namespaceURI of the corresponding node in the Entity node subtree is
null. The same is true for EntityReference nodes that refer to this
entity, when they are created using the createEntityReference method of
the Document interface. The DOM Level 2 does not support any mechanism
to resolve namespace prefixes.
IDL Definition
interface Entity : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString publicId;
readonly attribute DOMString systemId;
readonly attribute DOMString notationName;
};
Attributes
notationName of type DOMString, readonly
For unparsed entities, the name of the notation for the
entity. For parsed entities, this is null.
publicId of type DOMString, readonly
The public identifier associated with the entity, if
specified. If the public identifier was not specified, this
is null.
systemId of type DOMString, readonly
The system identifier associated with the entity, if
specified. If the system identifier was not specified, this
is null.
Interface EntityReference
EntityReference objects may be inserted into the structure model when
an entity reference is in the source document, or when the user wishes
to insert an entity reference. Note that character references and
references to predefined entities are considered to be expanded by the
HTML or XML processor so that characters are represented by their
Unicode equivalent rather than by an entity reference. Moreover, the
XML processor may completely expand references to entities while
building the structure model, instead of providing EntityReference
objects. If it does provide such objects, then for a given
EntityReference node, it may be that there is no Entity node
representing the referenced entity. If such an Entity exists, then the
subtree of the EntityReference node is in general a copy of the Entity
node subtree. However, this may not be true when an entity contains an
unbound namespace prefix. In such a case, because the namespace prefix
resolution depends on where the entity reference is, the descendants of
the EntityReference node may be bound to different namespace URIs.
As for Entity nodes, EntityReference nodes and all their descendants
are readonly.
IDL Definition
interface EntityReference : Node {
};
Interface ProcessingInstruction
The ProcessingInstruction interface represents a "processing
instruction", used in XML as a way to keep processor-specific
information in the text of the document.
IDL Definition
interface ProcessingInstruction : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString target;
attribute DOMString data;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
};
Attributes
data of type DOMString
The content of this processing instruction. This is from the
first non white space character after the target to the
character immediately preceding the ?>.
Exceptions on setting
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the
node is readonly.
target of type DOMString, readonly
The target of this processing instruction. XML defines this
as being the first token following the markup that begins the
processing instruction.
27 September, 2000
Appendix A: Changes
Editors
Arnaud Le Hors, IBM
Philippe Le Hégaret, W3C
A.1: Changes between DOM Level 1 Core and DOM Level 2 Core
A.1.1: Changes to DOM Level 1 Core interfaces and exceptions
Interface Attr
The Attr interface has one new attribute: ownerElement.
Interface Document
The Document interface has five new methods: importNode,
createElementNS, createAttributeNS, getElementsByTagNameNS and
getElementById.
Interface NamedNodeMap
The NamedNodeMap interface has three new methods: getNamedItemNS,
setNamedItemNS, removeNamedItemNS.
Interface Node
The Node interface has one new method: supports.
normalize, previously in the Element interface, has been moved in the
Node interface.
The Node interface has three new attributes: namespaceURI, prefix and
localName.
The ownerDocument attribute was specified to be null when the node is a
Document. It now is also null when the node is a DocumentType which is
not used with any Document yet.
Interface DocumentType
The DocumentType interface has three attributes: publicId, systemId and
internalSubset.
Interface DOMImplementation
The DOMImplementation interface has two new methods: createDocumentType
and createDocument.
Interface Element
The Element interface has eight new methods: getAttributeNS,
setAttributeNS, removeAttributeNS, getAttributeNodeNS,
setAttributeNodeNS, getElementsByTagNameNS, hasAttribute and
hasAttributeNS.
The method normalize is now inherited from the Node interface where it
was moved.
Exception DOMException
The DOMException has five new exception codes: INVALID_STATE_ERR,
SYNTAX_ERR, INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR, NAMESPACE_ERR and
INVALID_ACCESS_ERR.
A.1.2: New features
A.1.2.1: New types
DOMTimeStamp
The DOMTimeStamp type was added to the Core module.
27 September, 2000
Appendix B: Accessing code point boundaries
Mark Davis, IBM
Lauren Wood, SoftQuad Software Inc.
Table of contents
* 2.1. Introduction
* 2.2. Methods
o StringExtend
B.1: Introduction
This appendix is an informative, not a normative, part of the Level 2 DOM
specification.
Characters are represented in Unicode by numbers called code points (also
called scalar values). These numbers can range from 0 up to 1,114,111 =
10FFFF16 (although some of these values are illegal). Each code point can be
directly encoded with a 32-bit code unit. This encoding is termed UCS-4 (or
UTF-32). The DOM specification, however, uses UTF-16, in which the most
frequent characters (which have values less than FFFF16) are represented by
a single 16-bit code unit, while characters above FFFF16 use a special pair
of code units called a surrogate pair. For more information, see [Unicode]
or the Unicode Web site.
While indexing by code points as opposed to code units is not common in
programs, some specifications such as XPath (and therefore XSLT and
XPointer) use code point indices. For interfacing with such formats it is
recommended that the programming language provide string processing methods
for converting code point indices to code unit indices and back. Some
languages do not provide these functions natively; for these it is
recommended that the native String type that is bound to DOMString be
extended to enable this conversion. An example of how such an API might look
is supplied below.
Note: Since these methods are supplied as an illustrative example of the
type of functionality that is required, the names of the methods,
exceptions, and interface may differ from those given here.
B.2: Methods
Interface StringExtend
Extensions to a language's native String class or interface
IDL Definition
interface StringExtend {
int findOffset16(in int offset32)
raises(StringIndexOutOfBoundsException);
int findOffset32(in int offset16)
raises(StringIndexOutOfBoundsException);
};
Methods
findOffset16
Returns the UTF-16 offset that corresponds to a UTF-32
offset. Used for random access.
Note: You can always roundtrip from a UTF-32 offset to a
UTF-16 offset and back. You can roundtrip from a UTF-16
offset to a UTF-32 offset and back if and only if the
offset16 is not in the middle of a surrogate pair. Unmatched
surrogates count as a single UTF-16 value.
Parameters
offset32 of type int
UTF-32 offset.
Return Value
int UTF-16 offset
Exceptions
StringIndexOutOfBoundsException if offset32 is out of
bounds.
findOffset32
Returns the UTF-32 offset corresponding to a UTF-16 offset.
Used for random access. To find the UTF-32 length of a
string, use:
len32 = findOffset32(source, source.length());
Note: If the UTF-16 offset is into the middle of a surrogate
pair, then the UTF-32 offset of the end of the pair is
returned; that is, the index of the char after the end of the
pair. You can always roundtrip from a UTF-32 offset to a
UTF-16 offset and back. You can roundtrip from a UTF-16
offset to a UTF-32 offset and back if and only if the
offset16 is not in the middle of a surrogate pair. Unmatched
surrogates count as a single UTF-16 value.
Parameters
offset16 of type int
UTF-16 offset
Return Value
int UTF-32 offset
Exceptions
StringIndexOutOfBoundsException if offset16 is out of
bounds.
27 September, 2000
Appendix C: IDL Definitions
This appendix contains the complete OMG IDL [OMGIDL] for the Level 2
Document Object Model Core definitions.
The IDL files are also available as:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-DOM-Level-2-Core-20000927/idl.zip
dom.idl:
// File: dom.idl
#ifndef _DOM_IDL_
#define _DOM_IDL_
#pragma prefix "w3c.org"
module dom
{
typedef sequence DOMString;
typedef unsigned long long DOMTimeStamp;
interface DocumentType;
interface Document;
interface NodeList;
interface NamedNodeMap;
interface Element;
exception DOMException {
unsigned short code;
};
// ExceptionCode
const unsigned short INDEX_SIZE_ERR = 1;
const unsigned short DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR = 2;
const unsigned short HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR = 3;
const unsigned short WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR = 4;
const unsigned short INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR = 5;
const unsigned short NO_DATA_ALLOWED_ERR = 6;
const unsigned short NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR = 7;
const unsigned short NOT_FOUND_ERR = 8;
const unsigned short NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR = 9;
const unsigned short INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR = 10;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short INVALID_STATE_ERR = 11;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short SYNTAX_ERR = 12;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR = 13;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short NAMESPACE_ERR = 14;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
const unsigned short INVALID_ACCESS_ERR = 15;
interface DOMImplementation {
boolean hasFeature(in DOMString feature,
in DOMString version);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
DocumentType createDocumentType(in DOMString qualifiedName,
in DOMString publicId,
in DOMString systemId)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Document createDocument(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString qualifiedName,
in DocumentType doctype)
raises(DOMException);
};
interface Node {
// NodeType
const unsigned short ELEMENT_NODE = 1;
const unsigned short ATTRIBUTE_NODE = 2;
const unsigned short TEXT_NODE = 3;
const unsigned short CDATA_SECTION_NODE = 4;
const unsigned short ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE = 5;
const unsigned short ENTITY_NODE = 6;
const unsigned short PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE = 7;
const unsigned short COMMENT_NODE = 8;
const unsigned short DOCUMENT_NODE = 9;
const unsigned short DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE = 10;
const unsigned short DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE = 11;
const unsigned short NOTATION_NODE = 12;
readonly attribute DOMString nodeName;
attribute DOMString nodeValue;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
// raises(DOMException) on retrieval
readonly attribute unsigned short nodeType;
readonly attribute Node parentNode;
readonly attribute NodeList childNodes;
readonly attribute Node firstChild;
readonly attribute Node lastChild;
readonly attribute Node previousSibling;
readonly attribute Node nextSibling;
readonly attribute NamedNodeMap attributes;
// Modified in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute Document ownerDocument;
Node insertBefore(in Node newChild,
in Node refChild)
raises(DOMException);
Node replaceChild(in Node newChild,
in Node oldChild)
raises(DOMException);
Node removeChild(in Node oldChild)
raises(DOMException);
Node appendChild(in Node newChild)
raises(DOMException);
boolean hasChildNodes();
Node cloneNode(in boolean deep);
// Modified in DOM Level 2:
void normalize();
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
boolean isSupported(in DOMString feature,
in DOMString version);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString namespaceURI;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
attribute DOMString prefix;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString localName;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
boolean hasAttributes();
};
interface NodeList {
Node item(in unsigned long index);
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
};
interface NamedNodeMap {
Node getNamedItem(in DOMString name);
Node setNamedItem(in Node arg)
raises(DOMException);
Node removeNamedItem(in DOMString name)
raises(DOMException);
Node item(in unsigned long index);
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Node getNamedItemNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Node setNamedItemNS(in Node arg)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Node removeNamedItemNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName)
raises(DOMException);
};
interface CharacterData : Node {
attribute DOMString data;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
// raises(DOMException) on retrieval
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
DOMString substringData(in unsigned long offset,
in unsigned long count)
raises(DOMException);
void appendData(in DOMString arg)
raises(DOMException);
void insertData(in unsigned long offset,
in DOMString arg)
raises(DOMException);
void deleteData(in unsigned long offset,
in unsigned long count)
raises(DOMException);
void replaceData(in unsigned long offset,
in unsigned long count,
in DOMString arg)
raises(DOMException);
};
interface Attr : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString name;
readonly attribute boolean specified;
attribute DOMString value;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute Element ownerElement;
};
interface Element : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString tagName;
DOMString getAttribute(in DOMString name);
void setAttribute(in DOMString name,
in DOMString value)
raises(DOMException);
void removeAttribute(in DOMString name)
raises(DOMException);
Attr getAttributeNode(in DOMString name);
Attr setAttributeNode(in Attr newAttr)
raises(DOMException);
Attr removeAttributeNode(in Attr oldAttr)
raises(DOMException);
NodeList getElementsByTagName(in DOMString name);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
DOMString getAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
void setAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString qualifiedName,
in DOMString value)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
void removeAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Attr getAttributeNodeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Attr setAttributeNodeNS(in Attr newAttr)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
NodeList getElementsByTagNameNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
boolean hasAttribute(in DOMString name);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
boolean hasAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
};
interface Text : CharacterData {
Text splitText(in unsigned long offset)
raises(DOMException);
};
interface Comment : CharacterData {
};
interface CDATASection : Text {
};
interface DocumentType : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString name;
readonly attribute NamedNodeMap entities;
readonly attribute NamedNodeMap notations;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString publicId;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString systemId;
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
readonly attribute DOMString internalSubset;
};
interface Notation : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString publicId;
readonly attribute DOMString systemId;
};
interface Entity : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString publicId;
readonly attribute DOMString systemId;
readonly attribute DOMString notationName;
};
interface EntityReference : Node {
};
interface ProcessingInstruction : Node {
readonly attribute DOMString target;
attribute DOMString data;
// raises(DOMException) on setting
};
interface DocumentFragment : Node {
};
interface Document : Node {
readonly attribute DocumentType doctype;
readonly attribute DOMImplementation implementation;
readonly attribute Element documentElement;
Element createElement(in DOMString tagName)
raises(DOMException);
DocumentFragment createDocumentFragment();
Text createTextNode(in DOMString data);
Comment createComment(in DOMString data);
CDATASection createCDATASection(in DOMString data)
raises(DOMException);
ProcessingInstruction createProcessingInstruction(in DOMString target,
in DOMString data)
raises(DOMException);
Attr createAttribute(in DOMString name)
raises(DOMException);
EntityReference createEntityReference(in DOMString name)
raises(DOMException);
NodeList getElementsByTagName(in DOMString tagname);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Node importNode(in Node importedNode,
in boolean deep)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Element createElementNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString qualifiedName)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Attr createAttributeNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString qualifiedName)
raises(DOMException);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
NodeList getElementsByTagNameNS(in DOMString namespaceURI,
in DOMString localName);
// Introduced in DOM Level 2:
Element getElementById(in DOMString elementId);
};
};
#endif // _DOM_IDL_
27 September, 2000
Appendix D: Java Language Binding
This appendix contains the complete Java [Java] bindings for the Level 2
Document Object Model Core.
The Java files are also available as
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-DOM-Level-2-Core-20000927/java-binding.zip
org/w3c/dom/DOMException.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public class DOMException extends RuntimeException {
public DOMException(short code, String message) {
super(message);
this.code = code;
}
public short code;
// ExceptionCode
public static final short INDEX_SIZE_ERR = 1;
public static final short DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR = 2;
public static final short HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR = 3;
public static final short WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR = 4;
public static final short INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR = 5;
public static final short NO_DATA_ALLOWED_ERR = 6;
public static final short NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR = 7;
public static final short NOT_FOUND_ERR = 8;
public static final short NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR = 9;
public static final short INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR = 10;
public static final short INVALID_STATE_ERR = 11;
public static final short SYNTAX_ERR = 12;
public static final short INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR = 13;
public static final short NAMESPACE_ERR = 14;
public static final short INVALID_ACCESS_ERR = 15;
}
org/w3c/dom/DOMImplementation.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface DOMImplementation {
public boolean hasFeature(String feature,
String version);
public DocumentType createDocumentType(String qualifiedName,
String publicId,
String systemId)
throws DOMException;
public Document createDocument(String namespaceURI,
String qualifiedName,
DocumentType doctype)
throws DOMException;
}
org/w3c/dom/DocumentFragment.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface DocumentFragment extends Node {
}
org/w3c/dom/Document.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface Document extends Node {
public DocumentType getDoctype();
public DOMImplementation getImplementation();
public Element getDocumentElement();
public Element createElement(String tagName)
throws DOMException;
public DocumentFragment createDocumentFragment();
public Text createTextNode(String data);
public Comment createComment(String data);
public CDATASection createCDATASection(String data)
throws DOMException;
public ProcessingInstruction createProcessingInstruction(String target,
String data)
throws DOMException;
public Attr createAttribute(String name)
throws DOMException;
public EntityReference createEntityReference(String name)
throws DOMException;
public NodeList getElementsByTagName(String tagname);
public Node importNode(Node importedNode,
boolean deep)
throws DOMException;
public Element createElementNS(String namespaceURI,
String qualifiedName)
throws DOMException;
public Attr createAttributeNS(String namespaceURI,
String qualifiedName)
throws DOMException;
public NodeList getElementsByTagNameNS(String namespaceURI,
String localName);
public Element getElementById(String elementId);
}
org/w3c/dom/Node.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface Node {
// NodeType
public static final short ELEMENT_NODE = 1;
public static final short ATTRIBUTE_NODE = 2;
public static final short TEXT_NODE = 3;
public static final short CDATA_SECTION_NODE = 4;
public static final short ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE = 5;
public static final short ENTITY_NODE = 6;
public static final short PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE = 7;
public static final short COMMENT_NODE = 8;
public static final short DOCUMENT_NODE = 9;
public static final short DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE = 10;
public static final short DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE = 11;
public static final short NOTATION_NODE = 12;
public String getNodeName();
public String getNodeValue()
throws DOMException;
public void setNodeValue(String nodeValue)
throws DOMException;
public short getNodeType();
public Node getParentNode();
public NodeList getChildNodes();
public Node getFirstChild();
public Node getLastChild();
public Node getPreviousSibling();
public Node getNextSibling();
public NamedNodeMap getAttributes();
public Document getOwnerDocument();
public Node insertBefore(Node newChild,
Node refChild)
throws DOMException;
public Node replaceChild(Node newChild,
Node oldChild)
throws DOMException;
public Node removeChild(Node oldChild)
throws DOMException;
public Node appendChild(Node newChild)
throws DOMException;
public boolean hasChildNodes();
public Node cloneNode(boolean deep);
public void normalize();
public boolean isSupported(String feature,
String version);
public String getNamespaceURI();
public String getPrefix();
public void setPrefix(String prefix)
throws DOMException;
public String getLocalName();
public boolean hasAttributes();
}
org/w3c/dom/NodeList.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface NodeList {
public Node item(int index);
public int getLength();
}
org/w3c/dom/NamedNodeMap.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface NamedNodeMap {
public Node getNamedItem(String name);
public Node setNamedItem(Node arg)
throws DOMException;
public Node removeNamedItem(String name)
throws DOMException;
public Node item(int index);
public int getLength();
public Node getNamedItemNS(String namespaceURI,
String localName);
public Node setNamedItemNS(Node arg)
throws DOMException;
public Node removeNamedItemNS(String namespaceURI,
String localName)
throws DOMException;
}
org/w3c/dom/CharacterData.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface CharacterData extends Node {
public String getData()
throws DOMException;
public void setData(String data)
throws DOMException;
public int getLength();
public String substringData(int offset,
int count)
throws DOMException;
public void appendData(String arg)
throws DOMException;
public void insertData(int offset,
String arg)
throws DOMException;
public void deleteData(int offset,
int count)
throws DOMException;
public void replaceData(int offset,
int count,
String arg)
throws DOMException;
}
org/w3c/dom/Attr.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface Attr extends Node {
public String getName();
public boolean getSpecified();
public String getValue();
public void setValue(String value)
throws DOMException;
public Element getOwnerElement();
}
org/w3c/dom/Element.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface Element extends Node {
public String getTagName();
public String getAttribute(String name);
public void setAttribute(String name,
String value)
throws DOMException;
public void removeAttribute(String name)
throws DOMException;
public Attr getAttributeNode(String name);
public Attr setAttributeNode(Attr newAttr)
throws DOMException;
public Attr removeAttributeNode(Attr oldAttr)
throws DOMException;
public NodeList getElementsByTagName(String name);
public String getAttributeNS(String namespaceURI,
String localName);
public void setAttributeNS(String namespaceURI,
String qualifiedName,
String value)
throws DOMException;
public void removeAttributeNS(String namespaceURI,
String localName)
throws DOMException;
public Attr getAttributeNodeNS(String namespaceURI,
String localName);
public Attr setAttributeNodeNS(Attr newAttr)
throws DOMException;
public NodeList getElementsByTagNameNS(String namespaceURI,
String localName);
public boolean hasAttribute(String name);
public boolean hasAttributeNS(String namespaceURI,
String localName);
}
org/w3c/dom/Text.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface Text extends CharacterData {
public Text splitText(int offset)
throws DOMException;
}
org/w3c/dom/Comment.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface Comment extends CharacterData {
}
org/w3c/dom/CDATASection.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface CDATASection extends Text {
}
org/w3c/dom/DocumentType.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface DocumentType extends Node {
public String getName();
public NamedNodeMap getEntities();
public NamedNodeMap getNotations();
public String getPublicId();
public String getSystemId();
public String getInternalSubset();
}
org/w3c/dom/Notation.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface Notation extends Node {
public String getPublicId();
public String getSystemId();
}
org/w3c/dom/Entity.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface Entity extends Node {
public String getPublicId();
public String getSystemId();
public String getNotationName();
}
org/w3c/dom/EntityReference.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface EntityReference extends Node {
}
org/w3c/dom/ProcessingInstruction.java:
package org.w3c.dom;
public interface ProcessingInstruction extends Node {
public String getTarget();
public String getData();
public void setData(String data)
throws DOMException;
}
27 September, 2000
Appendix E: ECMA Script Language Binding
This appendix contains the complete ECMA Script [ECMAScript] binding for the
Level 2 Document Object Model Core definitions.
Note: Exceptions handling is only supported by ECMAScript implementation
compliant with the Standard ECMA-262 3rd. Edition ([ECMAScript]).
Class DOMException
The DOMException class has the following constants:
DOMException.INDEX_SIZE_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 1.
DOMException.DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 2.
DOMException.HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 3.
DOMException.WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 4.
DOMException.INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 5.
DOMException.NO_DATA_ALLOWED_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 6.
DOMException.NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 7.
DOMException.NOT_FOUND_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 8.
DOMException.NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 9.
DOMException.INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 10.
DOMException.INVALID_STATE_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 11.
DOMException.SYNTAX_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 12.
DOMException.INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 13.
DOMException.NAMESPACE_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 14.
DOMException.INVALID_ACCESS_ERR
This constant is of type short and its value is 15.
Exception DOMException
The DOMException object has the following properties:
code
This property is of type unsigned short.
Object DOMImplementation
The DOMImplementation object has the following methods:
hasFeature(feature, version)
This method returns a boolean.
The feature parameter is of type String.
The version parameter is of type String.
createDocumentType(qualifiedName, publicId, systemId)
This method returns a DocumentType.
The qualifiedName parameter is of type String.
The publicId parameter is of type String.
The systemId parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
createDocument(namespaceURI, qualifiedName, doctype)
This method returns a Document.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The qualifiedName parameter is of type String.
The doctype parameter is of type DocumentType.
This method can raise a DOMException.
Object DocumentFragment
DocumentFragment has the all the properties and methods of Node as well
as the properties and methods defined below.
Object Document
Document has the all the properties and methods of Node as well as the
properties and methods defined below.
The Document object has the following properties:
doctype
This read-only property is of type DocumentType.
implementation
This read-only property is of type DOMImplementation.
documentElement
This read-only property is of type Element.
The Document object has the following methods:
createElement(tagName)
This method returns a Element.
The tagName parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
createDocumentFragment()
This method returns a DocumentFragment.
createTextNode(data)
This method returns a Text.
The data parameter is of type String.
createComment(data)
This method returns a Comment.
The data parameter is of type String.
createCDATASection(data)
This method returns a CDATASection.
The data parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
createProcessingInstruction(target, data)
This method returns a ProcessingInstruction.
The target parameter is of type String.
The data parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
createAttribute(name)
This method returns a Attr.
The name parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
createEntityReference(name)
This method returns a EntityReference.
The name parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
getElementsByTagName(tagname)
This method returns a NodeList.
The tagname parameter is of type String.
importNode(importedNode, deep)
This method returns a Node.
The importedNode parameter is of type Node.
The deep parameter is of type boolean.
This method can raise a DOMException.
createElementNS(namespaceURI, qualifiedName)
This method returns a Element.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The qualifiedName parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
createAttributeNS(namespaceURI, qualifiedName)
This method returns a Attr.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The qualifiedName parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
getElementsByTagNameNS(namespaceURI, localName)
This method returns a NodeList.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The localName parameter is of type String.
getElementById(elementId)
This method returns a Element.
The elementId parameter is of type String.
Class Node
The Node class has the following constants:
Node.ELEMENT_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 1.
Node.ATTRIBUTE_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 2.
Node.TEXT_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 3.
Node.CDATA_SECTION_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 4.
Node.ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 5.
Node.ENTITY_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 6.
Node.PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 7.
Node.COMMENT_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 8.
Node.DOCUMENT_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 9.
Node.DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 10.
Node.DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 11.
Node.NOTATION_NODE
This constant is of type short and its value is 12.
Object Node
The Node object has the following properties:
nodeName
This read-only property is of type String.
nodeValue
This property is of type String, can raise a DOMException on
setting and can raise a DOMException on retrieval.
nodeType
This read-only property is of type short.
parentNode
This read-only property is of type Node.
childNodes
This read-only property is of type NodeList.
firstChild
This read-only property is of type Node.
lastChild
This read-only property is of type Node.
previousSibling
This read-only property is of type Node.
nextSibling
This read-only property is of type Node.
attributes
This read-only property is of type NamedNodeMap.
ownerDocument
This read-only property is of type Document.
namespaceURI
This read-only property is of type String.
prefix
This property is of type String and can raise a DOMException
on setting.
localName
This read-only property is of type String.
The Node object has the following methods:
insertBefore(newChild, refChild)
This method returns a Node.
The newChild parameter is of type Node.
The refChild parameter is of type Node.
This method can raise a DOMException.
replaceChild(newChild, oldChild)
This method returns a Node.
The newChild parameter is of type Node.
The oldChild parameter is of type Node.
This method can raise a DOMException.
removeChild(oldChild)
This method returns a Node.
The oldChild parameter is of type Node.
This method can raise a DOMException.
appendChild(newChild)
This method returns a Node.
The newChild parameter is of type Node.
This method can raise a DOMException.
hasChildNodes()
This method returns a boolean.
cloneNode(deep)
This method returns a Node.
The deep parameter is of type boolean.
normalize()
This method has no return value.
isSupported(feature, version)
This method returns a boolean.
The feature parameter is of type String.
The version parameter is of type String.
hasAttributes()
This method returns a boolean.
Object NodeList
The NodeList object has the following properties:
length
This read-only property is of type int.
The NodeList object has the following methods:
item(index)
This method returns a Node.
The index parameter is of type int.
Note: This object can also be dereferenced using square
bracket notation (e.g. obj[1]). Dereferencing with an integer
index is equivalent to invoking the item method with that
index.
Object NamedNodeMap
The NamedNodeMap object has the following properties:
length
This read-only property is of type int.
The NamedNodeMap object has the following methods:
getNamedItem(name)
This method returns a Node.
The name parameter is of type String.
setNamedItem(arg)
This method returns a Node.
The arg parameter is of type Node.
This method can raise a DOMException.
removeNamedItem(name)
This method returns a Node.
The name parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
item(index)
This method returns a Node.
The index parameter is of type int.
Note: This object can also be dereferenced using square
bracket notation (e.g. obj[1]). Dereferencing with an integer
index is equivalent to invoking the item method with that
index.
getNamedItemNS(namespaceURI, localName)
This method returns a Node.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The localName parameter is of type String.
setNamedItemNS(arg)
This method returns a Node.
The arg parameter is of type Node.
This method can raise a DOMException.
removeNamedItemNS(namespaceURI, localName)
This method returns a Node.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The localName parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
Object CharacterData
CharacterData has the all the properties and methods of Node as well as
the properties and methods defined below.
The CharacterData object has the following properties:
data
This property is of type String, can raise a DOMException on
setting and can raise a DOMException on retrieval.
length
This read-only property is of type int.
The CharacterData object has the following methods:
substringData(offset, count)
This method returns a String.
The offset parameter is of type int.
The count parameter is of type int.
This method can raise a DOMException.
appendData(arg)
This method has no return value.
The arg parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
insertData(offset, arg)
This method has no return value.
The offset parameter is of type int.
The arg parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
deleteData(offset, count)
This method has no return value.
The offset parameter is of type int.
The count parameter is of type int.
This method can raise a DOMException.
replaceData(offset, count, arg)
This method has no return value.
The offset parameter is of type int.
The count parameter is of type int.
The arg parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
Object Attr
Attr has the all the properties and methods of Node as well as the
properties and methods defined below.
The Attr object has the following properties:
name
This read-only property is of type String.
specified
This read-only property is of type boolean.
value
This property is of type String and can raise a DOMException
on setting.
ownerElement
This read-only property is of type Element.
Object Element
Element has the all the properties and methods of Node as well as the
properties and methods defined below.
The Element object has the following properties:
tagName
This read-only property is of type String.
The Element object has the following methods:
getAttribute(name)
This method returns a String.
The name parameter is of type String.
setAttribute(name, value)
This method has no return value.
The name parameter is of type String.
The value parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
removeAttribute(name)
This method has no return value.
The name parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
getAttributeNode(name)
This method returns a Attr.
The name parameter is of type String.
setAttributeNode(newAttr)
This method returns a Attr.
The newAttr parameter is of type Attr.
This method can raise a DOMException.
removeAttributeNode(oldAttr)
This method returns a Attr.
The oldAttr parameter is of type Attr.
This method can raise a DOMException.
getElementsByTagName(name)
This method returns a NodeList.
The name parameter is of type String.
getAttributeNS(namespaceURI, localName)
This method returns a String.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The localName parameter is of type String.
setAttributeNS(namespaceURI, qualifiedName, value)
This method has no return value.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The qualifiedName parameter is of type String.
The value parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
removeAttributeNS(namespaceURI, localName)
This method has no return value.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The localName parameter is of type String.
This method can raise a DOMException.
getAttributeNodeNS(namespaceURI, localName)
This method returns a Attr.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The localName parameter is of type String.
setAttributeNodeNS(newAttr)
This method returns a Attr.
The newAttr parameter is of type Attr.
This method can raise a DOMException.
getElementsByTagNameNS(namespaceURI, localName)
This method returns a NodeList.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The localName parameter is of type String.
hasAttribute(name)
This method returns a boolean.
The name parameter is of type String.
hasAttributeNS(namespaceURI, localName)
This method returns a boolean.
The namespaceURI parameter is of type String.
The localName parameter is of type String.
Object Text
Text has the all the properties and methods of CharacterData as well as
the properties and methods defined below.
The Text object has the following methods:
splitText(offset)
This method returns a Text.
The offset parameter is of type int.
This method can raise a DOMException.
Object Comment
Comment has the all the properties and methods of CharacterData as well
as the properties and methods defined below.
Object CDATASection
CDATASection has the all the properties and methods of Text as well as
the properties and methods defined below.
Object DocumentType
DocumentType has the all the properties and methods of Node as well as
the properties and methods defined below.
The DocumentType object has the following properties:
name
This read-only property is of type String.
entities
This read-only property is of type NamedNodeMap.
notations
This read-only property is of type NamedNodeMap.
publicId
This read-only property is of type String.
systemId
This read-only property is of type String.
internalSubset
This read-only property is of type String.
Object Notation
Notation has the all the properties and methods of Node as well as the
properties and methods defined below.
The Notation object has the following properties:
publicId
This read-only property is of type String.
systemId
This read-only property is of type String.
Object Entity
Entity has the all the properties and methods of Node as well as the
properties and methods defined below.
The Entity object has the following properties:
publicId
This read-only property is of type String.
systemId
This read-only property is of type String.
notationName
This read-only property is of type String.
Object EntityReference
EntityReference has the all the properties and methods of Node as well
as the properties and methods defined below.
Object ProcessingInstruction
ProcessingInstruction has the all the properties and methods of Node as
well as the properties and methods defined below.
The ProcessingInstruction object has the following properties:
target
This read-only property is of type String.
data
This property is of type String and can raise a DOMException
on setting.
27 September, 2000
Appendix F: Acknowledgements
Many people contributed to this specification, including members of the DOM
Working Group and the DOM Interest Group. We especially thank the following:
Lauren Wood (SoftQuad Software Inc., chair), Andrew Watson (Object
Management Group), Andy Heninger (IBM), Arnaud Le Hors (W3C and IBM), Ben
Chang (Oracle), Bill Smith (Sun), Bill Shea (Merrill Lynch), Bob Sutor
(IBM), Chris Lovett (Microsoft), Chris Wilson (Microsoft), David Brownell
(Sun), David Singer (IBM), Don Park (invited), Eric Vasilik (Microsoft),
Gavin Nicol (INSO), Ian Jacobs (W3C), James Clark (invited), James Davidson
(Sun), Jared Sorensen (Novell), Joe Kesselman (IBM), Joe Lapp (webMethods),
Joe Marini (Macromedia), Johnny Stenback (Netscape), Jonathan Marsh
(Microsoft), Jonathan Robie (Texcel Research and Software AG), Kim
Adamson-Sharpe (SoftQuad Software Inc.), Laurence Cable (Sun), Mark Davis
(IBM), Mark Scardina (Oracle), Martin Dürst (W3C), Mick Goulish (Software
AG), Mike Champion (Arbortext and Software AG), Miles Sabin (Cromwell
Media), Patti Lutsky (Arbortext), Paul Grosso (Arbortext), Peter Sharpe
(SoftQuad Software Inc.), Phil Karlton (Netscape), Philippe Le Hégaret (W3C,
W3C team contact), Ramesh Lekshmynarayanan (Merrill Lynch), Ray Whitmer
(iMall, Excite@Home and Netscape), Rich Rollman (Microsoft), Rick Gessner
(Netscape), Scott Isaacs (Microsoft), Sharon Adler (INSO), Steve Byrne
(JavaSoft), Tim Bray (invited), Tom Pixley (Netscape), Vidur Apparao
(Netscape), Vinod Anupam (Lucent).
Thanks to all those who have helped to improve this specification by sending
suggestions and corrections.
F.1: Production Systems
This specification was written in XML. The HTML, OMG IDL, Java and ECMA
Script bindings were all produced automatically.
Thanks to Joe English, author of cost, which was used as the basis for
producing DOM Level 1. Thanks also to Gavin Nicol, who wrote the scripts
which run on top of cost. Arnaud Le Hors and Philippe Le Hégaret maintained
the scripts.
For DOM Level 2, we used Xerces as the basis DOM implementation and wish to
thank the authors. Philippe Le Hégaret and Arnaud Le Hors wrote the Java
programs which are the DOM application.
Thanks also to Jan Kärrman, author of html2ps, which we use in creating the
PostScript version of the specification.
27 September, 2000
Glossary
Editors
Arnaud Le Hors, W3C and IBM
Lauren Wood, SoftQuad Software Inc.
Robert S. Sutor, IBM Research (for DOM Level 1)
Several of the following term definitions have been borrowed or modified
from similar definitions in other W3C or standards documents. See the links
within the definitions for more information.
16-bit unit
The base unit of a DOMString. This indicates that indexing on a
DOMString occurs in units of 16 bits. This must not be misunderstood to
mean that a DOMString can store arbitrary 16-bit units. A DOMString is
a character string encoded in UTF-16; this means that the restrictions
of UTF-16 as well as the other relevant restrictions on character
strings must be maintained. A single character, for example in the form
of a numeric character reference, may correspond to one or two 16-bit
units.
For more information, see [Unicode] and [ISO/IEC 10646].
ancestor
An ancestor node of any node A is any node above A in a tree model of a
document, where "above" means "toward the root."
API
An API is an application programming interface, a set of functions or
methods used to access some functionality.
child
A child is an immediate descendant node of a node.
client application
A [client] application is any software that uses the Document Object
Model programming interfaces provided by the hosting implementation to
accomplish useful work. Some examples of client applications are
scripts within an HTML or XML document.
COM
COM is Microsoft's Component Object Model [COM], a technology for
building applications from binary software components.
convenience
A convenience method is an operation on an object that could be
accomplished by a program consisting of more basic operations on the
object. Convenience methods are usually provided to make the API easier
and simpler to use or to allow specific programs to create more
optimized implementations for common operations. A similar definition
holds for a convenience property.
data model
A data model is a collection of descriptions of data structures and
their contained fields, together with the operations or functions that
manipulate them.
descendant
A descendant node of any node A is any node below A in a tree model of
a document, where "above" means "toward the root."
ECMAScript
The programming language defined by the ECMA-262 standard [ECMAScript].
As stated in the standard, the originating technology for ECMAScript
was JavaScript [JavaScript]. Note that in the ECMAScript binding, the
word "property" is used in the same sense as the IDL term "attribute."
element
Each document contains one or more elements, the boundaries of which
are either delimited by start-tags and end-tags, or, for empty elements
by an empty-element tag. Each element has a type, identified by name,
and may have a set of attributes. Each attribute has a name and a
value. See Logical Structures in XML [XML].
information item
An information item is an abstract representation of some component of
an XML document. See the [Infoset] for details.
hosting implementation
A [hosting] implementation is a software module that provides an
implementation of the DOM interfaces so that a client application can
use them. Some examples of hosting implementations are browsers,
editors and document repositories.
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a simple markup language used
to create hypertext documents that are portable from one platform to
another. HTML documents are SGML documents with generic semantics that
are appropriate for representing information from a wide range of
applications. [HTML4.0]
inheritance
In object-oriented programming, the ability to create new classes (or
interfaces) that contain all the methods and properties of another
class (or interface), plus additional methods and properties. If class
(or interface) D inherits from class (or interface) B, then D is said
to be derived from B. B is said to be a base class (or interface) for
D. Some programming languages allow for multiple inheritance, that is,
inheritance from more than one class or interface.
interface
An interface is a declaration of a set of methods with no information
given about their implementation. In object systems that support
interfaces and inheritance, interfaces can usually inherit from one
another.
language binding
A programming language binding for an IDL specification is an
implementation of the interfaces in the specification for the given
language. For example, a Java language binding for the Document Object
Model IDL specification would implement the concrete Java classes that
provide the functionality exposed by the interfaces.
local name
A local name is the local part of a qualified name. This is called the
local part in Namespaces in XML [Namespaces].
method
A method is an operation or function that is associated with an object
and is allowed to manipulate the object's data.
model
A model is the actual data representation for the information at hand.
Examples are the structural model and the style model representing the
parse structure and the style information associated with a document.
The model might be a tree, or a directed graph, or something else.
namespace prefix
A namespace prefix is a string that associates an element or attribute
name with a namespace URI in XML. See namespace prefix in Namespaces in
XML [Namespaces].
namespace URI
A namespace URI is a URI that identifies an XML namespace. Strictly
speaking, this actually is a namespace URI reference. This is called
the namespace name in Namespaces in XML [Namespaces].
object model
An object model is a collection of descriptions of classes or
interfaces, together with their member data, member functions, and
class-static operations.
parent
A parent is an immediate ancestor node of a node.
qualified name
A qualified name is the name of an element or attribute defined as the
concatenation of a local name (as defined in this specification),
optionally preceded by a namespace prefix and colon character. See
Qualified Names in Namespaces in XML [Namespaces].
readonly node
A readonly node is a node that is immutable. This means its list of
children, its content, and its attributes, when it is an element,
cannot be changed in any way. However, a readonly node can possibly be
moved, when it is not itself contained in a readonly node.
root node
The root node is the unique node that is not a child of any other node.
All other nodes are children or other descendants of the root node. See
Well-Formed XML Documents in XML [XML].
sibling
Two nodes are siblings if and only if they have the same parent node.
string comparison
When string matching is required, it is to occur as though the
comparison was between 2 sequences of code points from the Unicode 3.0
standard [Unicode].
token
An information item such as an XML Name which has been tokenized.
tokenized
The description given to various information items (for example,
attribute values of various types, but not including the StringType
CDATA) after having been processed by the XML processor. The process
includes stripping leading and trailing white space, and replacing
multiple space characters by one. See the definition of tokenized type.
well-formed document
A document is well-formed if it is tag valid and entities are limited
to single elements (i.e., single sub-trees). See Well-Formed XML
Documents in XML [XML].
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is an extremely simple dialect of
SGML. The goal is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and
processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML. XML
[XML] has been designed for ease of implementation and for
interoperability with both SGML and HTML.
XML name
See XML name in the XML specification [XML].
XML namespace
An XML namespace is a collection of names, identified by a URI
reference [RFC2396], which are used in XML documents as element types
and attribute names. [Namespaces]
27 September, 2000
References
For the latest version of any W3C specification please consult the list of
W3C Technical Reports available at http://www.w3.org/TR.
H.1: Normative references
Charmod
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Character Model for the World Wide Web,
November 1999. Available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-charmod-19991129
ECMAScript
ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) ECMAScript Language
Specification. Available at http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ECMA-262.HTM
HTML4.0
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) HTML 4.0 Specification, April 1998.
Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-html40-19980424
ISO/IEC 10646
ISO (International Organization for Standardization). ISO/IEC
10646-1:2000 (E). Information technology - Universal Multiple-Octet
Coded Character Set (UCS) - Part 1: Architecture and Basic Multilingual
Plane. [Geneva]: International Organization for Standardization.
Java
Sun Microsystems Inc. The Java Language Specification, James Gosling,
Bill Joy, and Guy Steele, September 1996. Available at
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls
Namespaces
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Namespaces in XML, January 1999.
Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xml-names-19990114
OMGIDL
OMG (Object Management Group) IDL (Interface Definition Language)
defined in The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and
Specification, version 2.3.1, October 1999. Available from
http://www.omg.org/
RFC2396
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) RFC 2396: Uniform Resource
Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax, eds. T. Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, L.
Masinter. August 1998. Available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt
Unicode
The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0., February
2000. Available at
http://www.unicode.org/unicode/standard/versions/Unicode3.0.html.
XML
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0,
February 1998. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210
H.2: Informative references
COM
Microsoft Corporation The Component Object Model. Available at
http://www.microsoft.com/com
CORBA
OMG (Object Management Group) The Common Object Request Broker:
Architecture and Specification, version 2.3.1, October 1999. Available
from http://www.omg.org/
DOM Level 1
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) DOM Level 1 Specification, October
1998. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1
DOM Level 2 HTML
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Document Object Model Level 2 HTML
Specification, September 2000. Available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-DOM-Level-2-HTML-20000927
Infoset
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) XML Information Set, December 1999.
Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset
JavaIDL
Sun Microsystems Inc. Java IDL. Available at
http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/guide/idl
JavaScript
Netscape Communications Corporation JavaScript Resources. Available at
http://developer.netscape.com/tech/javascript/resources.html
JScript
Microsoft JScript Resources. Available at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/default.htm
MIDL
Microsoft Corporation MIDL Language Reference. Available at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/psdk/midl/mi-laref_1r1h.htm
XPointer
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) XML Pointer Language (XPointer), June
2000. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/xptr
27 September, 2000
Index
16-bit unit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9
ancestor 1, 2, 3, 4 API 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 appendChild
appendData Attr ATTRIBUTE_NODE
attributes
CDATA_SECTION_NODE CDATASection CharacterData
Charmod 1, 2 child 1, 2, 3 childNodes
client application 1, 2 cloneNode COM 1, 2, 3, 4
Comment COMMENT_NODE convenience 1, 2, 3
CORBA 1, 2 createAttribute createAttributeNS
createCDATASection createComment createDocument
createDocumentFragment createDocumentType createElement
createElementNS createEntityReference createProcessingInstruction
createTextNode
data 1, 2 data model 1, 2 deleteData
descendant 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7 doctype Document
DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE DOCUMENT_NODE DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
documentElement DocumentFragment DocumentType
DOM Level 1 1, 2 DOM Level 2 HTML 1, 2, 3 DOMException
DOMImplementation DOMString DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR
DOMTimeStamp
ECMAScript 1, 2, 3, 4 Element 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ELEMENT_NODE
entities Entity ENTITY_NODE
ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE EntityReference
firstChild
getAttribute getAttributeNode getAttributeNodeNS
getAttributeNS getElementById getElementsByTagName 1, 2
getElementsByTagNameNS 1, 2getNamedItem getNamedItemNS
hasAttribute hasAttributeNS hasAttributes
hasChildNodes hasFeature HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR
hosting implementation 1, 2HTML 1, 2 HTML4.0 1, 2
implementation importNode INDEX_SIZE_ERR
information item 1, 2 Infoset 1, 2, 3, 4 inheritance 1, 2
insertBefore insertData interface 1, 2
internalSubset INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR INVALID_ACCESS_ERR
INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR INVALID_STATE_ERR
ISO/IEC 10646 1, 2, 3 isSupported item 1, 2
Java 1, 2 JavaIDL 1, 2 JavaScript 1, 2, 3
JScript 1, 2
language binding 1, 2 lastChild length 1, 2, 3
live 1, 2, 3 local name 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, localName
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
method 1, 2 MIDL 1, 2 model 1, 2
name 1, 2 NamedNodeMap namespace prefix 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6
namespace URI 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, NAMESPACE_ERR Namespaces 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
13, 14, 15, 16, 17 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
namespaceURI nextSibling NO_DATA_ALLOWED_ERR
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERRNode NodeList
nodeName nodeType nodeValue
normalize NOT_FOUND_ERR NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR
Notation NOTATION_NODE notationName
notations
object model 1, 2, 3 OMGIDL 1, 2, 3 ownerDocument
ownerElement
parent 1, 2 parentNode prefix
previousSibling PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE ProcessingInstruction
publicId 1, 2, 3
qualified name 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9
readonly node 1, 2, 3, 4, 5removeAttribute removeAttributeNode
removeAttributeNS removeChild removeNamedItem
removeNamedItemNS replaceChild replaceData
RFC2396 1, 2 root node 1, 2
setAttribute setAttributeNode setAttributeNodeNS
setAttributeNS setNamedItem setNamedItemNS
sibling 1, 2, 3 specified splitText
string comparison 1, 2, 3 substringData SYNTAX_ERR
systemId 1, 2, 3
tagName target Text
TEXT_NODE token 1, 2 tokenized 1, 2
Unicode 1, 2, 3, 4
value
well-formed document 1, 2 WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR
XML 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 XML name 1, 2 XML namespace 1, 2
XPointer 1, 2