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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