XML DOM - The Node Object

XML DOM - The Node Object

The Node Object

The Node object represents a single node in the document tree.

A node can be an element node, an attribute node, a text node, or any other of the node types explained in the Node Types chapter.

Notice that while all objects inherits the Node properties / methods for dealing with parents and children, not all objects can have parents or children. For example, Text nodes may not have children, and adding children to such nodes results in a DOM error.

IE: Internet Explorer, F: Firefox, O: Opera, W3C: World Wide Web Consortium (Internet Standard)

Node Object Properties

Property	Description	IE	F	O	W3C
baseURI	Returns the absolute base URI of a node	No	1	No	Yes
childNodes	Returns a NodeList of child nodes for a node	5	1	9	Yes
firstChild	Returns the first child of a node	5	1	9	Yes
lastChild	Returns the last child of a node	5	1	9	Yes
localName	Returns the local part of the name of a node	No	1	9	Yes
namespaceURI	Returns the namespace URI of a node	No	1	9	Yes
nextSibling	Returns the node immediately following a node	5	1	9	Yes
nodeName	Returns the name of a node, depending on its type	5	1	9	Yes
nodeType	Returns the type of a node	5	1	9	Yes
nodeValue	Sets or returns the value of a node, depending on its type	5	1	9	Yes
ownerDocument	Returns the root element (document object) for a node	5	1	9	Yes
parentNode	Returns the parent node of a node	5	1	9	Yes
prefix	Sets or returns the namespace prefix of a node	No	1	9	Yes
previousSibling	Returns the node immediately before a node	5	1	9	Yes
textContent	Sets or returns the textual content of a node and its descendants	No	1	No	Yes
text	Returns the text of a node and its descendants. IE-only property	5	No	No	No
xml	Returns the XML of a node and its descendants. IE-only property	5	No	No	No

Node Object Methods

Method	Description	IE	F	O	W3C
appendChild()	Adds a new child node to the end of the list of children of a node	5	1	9	Yes
cloneNode()	Clones a node	5	1	9	Yes
compareDocumentPosition()	Compares the document position of two nodes	No	1	No	Yes
getFeature(feature,version)	Returns a DOM object which implements the specialized APIs of the specified feature and version			No	Yes
getUserData(key)	Returns the object associated to a key on a this node. The object must first have been set to this node by calling setUserData with the same key			No	Yes
hasAttributes()	Returns true if a node has any attributes, otherwise it returns false	No	1	9	Yes
hasChildNodes()	Returns true if a node has any child nodes, otherwise it returns false	5	1	9	Yes
insertBefore()	Inserts a new child node before an existing child node	5	1	9	Yes
isDefaultNamespace(URI)	Returns whether the specified namespaceURI is the default			No	Yes
isEqualNode()	Checks if two nodes are equal	No	No	No	Yes
isSameNode()	Checks if two nodes are the same node	No	1	No	Yes
isSupported(feature,version)	Returns whether a specified feature is supported on a node			9	Yes
lookupNamespaceURI()	Returns the namespace URI matching a specified prefix	No	1	No	Yes
lookupPrefix()	Returns the prefix matching a specified namespace URI	No	1	No	Yes
normalize()	Puts all text nodes underneath a node (including attributes) 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	5	1	9	Yes
removeChild()	Removes a child node	5	1	9	Yes
replaceChild()	Replaces a child node	5	1	9	Yes
setUserData(key,data,handler)	Associates an object to a key on a node			No	Yes

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