XML DOM Add Nodes

Examples

The examples below use the XML file books.xml.
A function, loadXMLDoc(), in an external JavaScript is used to load the XML file.

Add a node after the last child node
This example uses appendChild() to add a child node to an existing node.

Add a node before a specified child node
This example uses insertBefore() to insert a node before a specified child node.

Add a new attribute
This example uses the setAttribute() method to add a new attribute.

Add data to a text node
This example uses insertData() to insert data into an existing text node.

Add a Node - appendChild()

The appendChild() method adds a child node to an existing node.

The new node is added (appended) after any existing child nodes.

Note: Use insertBefore() if the position of the node is important.

The following code fragment creates an element (<edition>), and adds it after the last child of the first <book> element:

Example explained:

1. Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc using loadXMLDoc()
2. Create a new node <edition>
3. Append the node to the first <book> element

Loop through and append an element to all <book> elements:Try it yourself

Insert a Node - insertBefore()

The insertBefore() method is used to insert a node before a specified child node.

This method is useful when the position of the added node is important:

Example explained:

1. Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc using loadXMLDoc()
2. Create a new element node <book>
3. Insert the new node in front of the last <book> element node

If the second parameter of insertBefore() is null, the new node will be added after the last existing child node.

x.insertBefore(newNode,null) and x.appendChild(newNode) will both append a new child node to x.

Add a New Attribute

There is no method called addAtribute().

The setAttribute() method creates a new attribute if the attribute does not exist:

Example explained:

1. Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc using loadXMLDoc()
2. Set (create) the attribute "edition" with the value "first" for the first <book> element

Note: If the attribute already exists, the setAttribute() method will overwrite the existing value.

Add Text to a Text Node - insertData()

The insertData() method inserts data into an existing text node.

The insertData() method has two parameters:

• offset - Where to begin inserting characters (starts at zero)
• string - The string to insert

The following code fragment will add "Easy" to the text node of the first <title> element of the loaded XML: