XML DOM - The Document Object
The Document object represents the entire XML document.
The XML Document Object
The Document object is the root of an XML document tree, and gives us the primary access to the document's data.
Since element nodes, text nodes, comments, processing instructions, etc. cannot exist outside the document, the Document object also contains methods to create these objects. The Node objects have a ownerDocument property which associates them with the Document where they were created.
Document Object Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| childNodes | Returns a NodeList of child nodes for the document |
| doctype | Returns the Document Type Declaration associated with the document |
| documentElement | Returns the root node of the document |
| documentURI | Sets or returns the location of the document |
| domConfig | Returns the configuration used when normalizeDocument() is invoked |
| firstChild | Returns the first child node of the document |
| implementation | Returns the DOMImplementation object that handles this document |
| inputEncoding | Returns the encoding used for the document (when parsing) |
| lastChild | Returns the last child node of the document |
| nodeName | Returns the name of a node (depending on its type) |
| nodeType | Returns the node type of a node |
| nodeValue | Sets or returns the value of a node (depending on its type) |
| xmlEncoding | Returns the XML encoding of the document |
| xmlStandalone | Sets or returns whether the document is standalone |
| xmlVersion | Sets or returns the XML version of the document |
Document Object Methods
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| adoptNode(sourcenode) | Adopts a node from another document to this document, and returns the adopted node |
| createAttribute(name) | Creates an attribute node with the specified name, and returns the new Attr object |
| createAttributeNS(uri,name) | Creates an attribute node with the specified name and namespace, and returns the new Attr object |
| createCDATASection() | Creates a CDATA section node |
| createComment() | Creates a comment node |
| createDocumentFragment() | Creates an empty DocumentFragment object, and returns it |
| createElement() | Creates an element node |
| createElementNS() | Creates an element node with a specified namespace |
| createEntityReference(name) | Creates an EntityReference object, and returns it |
| createProcessingInstruction(target,data) | Creates a ProcessingInstruction object, and returns it |
| createTextNode() | Creates a text node |
| getElementById(id) | Returns the element that has an ID attribute with the given value. If no such element exists, it returns null |
| getElementsByTagName() | Returns a NodeList of all elements with a specified name |
| getElementsByTagNameNS() | Returns a NodeList of all elements with a specified name and namespace |
| importNode(nodetoimport,deep) | Imports a node from another document to this document. This method creates a new copy of the source node. If the deep parameter is set to true, it imports all children of the specified node. If set to false, it imports only the node itself. This method returns the imported node |
| normalizeDocument() | |
| renameNode() | Renames an element or attribute node |
DocumentType Object Properties
Each document has a DOCTYPE attribute that whose value is either null or a DocumentType object.
The DocumentType object provides an interface to the entities defined for an XML document.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| name | Returns the name of the DTD |
| publicId | Returns the public identifier of the DTD |
| systemId | Returns the system identifier of the external DTD |
DocumentImplementation Object Methods
The DOMImplementation object performs operations that are independent of any particular instance of the document object model.
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| createDocument(nsURI, name, doctype) | Creates a new DOM Document object of the specified doctype |
| createDocumentType(name, pubId, systemId) | Creates an empty DocumentType node |
| getFeature(feature, version) | Returns an object which implements the APIs of the specified feature and version, if the is any |
| hasFeature(feature, version) | Checks whether the DOM implementation implements a specific feature and version |
ProcessingInstruction Object Properties
The ProcessingInstruction object represents a processing instruction.
A processing instruction is used as a way to keep processor-specific information in the text of the XML document.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| data | Sets or returns the content of this processing instruction |
| target | Returns the target of this processing instruction |