XML DOM Document Object

The Document object represents the entire XML document.

Document object

The Document object is the root of a document tree, which can provide us with the initial (or top-level) access point to the document data.

For element nodes, text nodes, comments, processing instructions, and others that cannot exist outside the document, the document object also provides methods to create these objects. The Node object provides an ownerDocument property, which can associate them with the Document in which they are created.

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

Properties of the Document object

Property Description IE F O W3C
async Specify whether the download of the XML file should be processed synchronously. 5 1.5 9 No
childNodes Return the node list of the child nodes of the document. 5 1 9 Yes
doctype Return the document type declaration (DTD) related to the document. 6 1 9 Yes
documentElement Return the root node of the document. 5 1 9 Yes
documentURI Set or return the location of the document. No 1 9 Yes
domConfig Return the configuration used when normalizeDocument() is called. 　 　 No Yes
firstChild Return the first child node of the document. 5 1 9 Yes
implementation Return the DOMImplementation object that handles the document. No 1 9 Yes
inputEncoding Return the encoding method used for the document (at parsing time). No 1 No Yes
lastChild Return the last child node of the document. 5 1 9 Yes
nodeName Return the name of the node based on its type. 5 1 9 Yes
nodeType Return the node type of the node. 5 1 9 Yes
nodeValue Set or return the value of the node according to its type. 5 1 9 Yes
strictErrorChecking Set or return whether to force error checking. No 1 No Yes
text Return the text of the node and its descendants (only for IE). 5 No No No
xml Return the XML of the node and its descendants (only for IE). 5 No No No
xmlEncoding Return the encoding method of the document. No 1 No Yes
xmlStandalone Set or return whether the document is standalone. No 1 No Yes
xmlVersion Set or return the XML version of the document. No 1 No Yes

Methods of the Document object

Property Description IE F O W3C
adoptNode(sourcenode) Select a node from another document to this document, and then return the selected node. 　 　 No Yes
createAttribute(name) Create an attribute node with the specified name, and return the new Attr object. 6 1 9 Yes
createAttributeNS(uri,name) Create an attribute node with the specified name and namespace, and return the new Attr object. 　 　 9 Yes
createCDATASection() Create a CDATA section node. 5 1 9 Yes
createComment() Create a comment node. 6 1 9 Yes
createDocumentFragment() Create an empty DocumentFragment object, and return this object. 5 1 9 Yes
createElement() Create an element node. 5 1 9 Yes
createElementNS() Create an element node with the specified namespace. No 1 9 Yes
createEvent() Create a new Event object. 　 　 　 Yes
createEntityReference(name) Create an EntityReference object and return this object. 5 　 No Yes
createExpression() Create an XPath expression for later evaluation. 　 　 　 Yes
createProcessingInstruction() Create a ProcessingInstruction object and return this object. 5 　 9 Yes
createRange() Create a Range object and return this object. No 　 　 Yes
evaluate() Evaluate an XPath expression. No 1 9 Yes
createTextNode() Create a text node. 5 1 9 Yes
getElementById() Find an element with the specified unique ID. 5 1 9 Yes
getElementsByTagName() Return all element nodes with the specified name. 5 1 9 Yes
getElementsByTagNameNS() Return all element nodes with the specified name and namespace. No 1 9 Yes
importNode() Copy a node from another document to this document for application. 　 　 9 Yes
loadXML() Compose a document by parsing an XML tag string. 　 　 　 　
normalizeDocument() 　 　 　 No Yes
renameNode() Rename an element or an attribute node. 　 　 No Yes