HTML DOM Properties and Methods
Properties and methods define the programming interface to the
HTML DOM.
Programming Interface
The DOM models HTML as a set of node objects. The nodes can be accessed with
JavaScript or other programming languages. In this tutorial we use JavaScript.
The programming interface to the DOM is defined by a set standard properties
and methods.
Properties are often referred to as something that is (i.e. nodename
is "p").
Methods are often referred to as something that is done (i.e. delete
"p").
XML DOM Properties
These are some typical DOM properties:
- x.nodeName - the name of x
- x.nodeValue - the value of x
- x.parentNode - the parent node of x
- x.childNodes - the child nodes of x
- x.attributes - the attributes nodes of x
Note: In the list above, x is a node object.
XML DOM Methods
- x.getElementByID(id) - get the element with a specified id
- x.getElementsByTagName(name) - get all elements with a specified
tag name
- x.appendChild(node) - insert a child node to x
- x.removeChild(node) - remove a child node from x
Note: In the list above, x is a node object.
Example
The JavaScript code to get the text from a <p> element with the id "intro" in
a HTML document:
txt=document.getElementById("intro").childNodes[0].nodeValue
After the execution of the statement, txt will hold the value "Hello World!"
Explained:
- document - the current HTML document
- getElementsById("intro") - the <p> element with the id "intro"
- childNodes[0] - the first child of the <p> element (the text
node)
- nodeValue - the value of the node (the text itself)
In the example above, getElementsById is a method, while childNodes and
nodeValue are properties.
Try it
yourself
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