Chapter 3 DynaScript Predefined Objects

DOMNode properties

The DOMNode object has these properties:

attributes property

Syntax

DOMNode.attributes

Description

A DOMNamedNodeMap containing the attributes of this node. This property is applicable only to nodes that are elements.

Example

This fragment tests to see if a node is an element, and assigns the attributes of the element to a DOMNamedNodeMap named attlist.

if( node.nodeType == 1 ){ // Element
  attlist = node.attributes
} else {
  document.writeln( "Not an element" );
}

See also

"DOMNamedNodeMap object".

childNodes property

Syntax

DOMNode.childNodes

Description

A DOMNodeList object that contains all the children of this node. If there are no children, then this is a node list containing zero nodes.

Performance tip
To loop over a childNodes list, it is more efficient to use the nextSibling property than to explicitly use the childNodes list of the parent object.

Not all nodes can have children. This table lists the types of children that are valid for each type of node.

Example

This example loops through the childNodes of a node.

function ChildNodes( domDoc ){
  docElem = domDoc.documentElement;
  var node = docElem.firstChild;
  do {
    document.writeln( node.nodeName );
    node = node.nextSibling;
  } while ( node != null )
}

firstChild property

Syntax

DOMNode.firstChild

Description

The DOMNode object representing the first child of this node, or null if there are no children.

Example

This fragment sets the variable node to the first child of the document element.

var docElem = domDoc.documentElement;
var node = docElem.firstChild;

lastChild property

Syntax

DOMNode.lastChild

Description

The DOMNode object representing the last child of this node, or null if there are no children.

Example

This fragment sets the variable node to the last child of the document element.

var docElem = domDoc.documentElement;
var node = docElem.lastChild;

nextSibling property

Syntax

DOMNode.nextSibling

Description

The DOMNode object representing the node immediately following this node, or null if this is the last node.

Example

This fragment loops over the siblings of an element named node.

do {
  document.writeln( node.nodeName );
  node = node.nextSibling;
} while ( node != null )

nodeName property

Syntax

DOMNode.nodeName

Description

The name of this node. The name of the node depends on the node type. This table lists the contents of the nodeName property for each node type.

XML is case sensitive. If you check the name of a node in a comparison, you must ensure the check is case sensitive.

Example

This fragment writes out the name of each of a set of nodes, held in a variable named node.

do {
  document.writeln( node.nodeName );
  node = node.nextSibling;
} while ( node != null )

See also

"getElementsByTagName method".

nodeType property

Syntax

DOMNode.nodeType

Description

An integer representing the type of node object. This table lists the nodeType number for each type of node.

Example

This fragment performs different operations based on the type of node. The node is held in a variable named domNode.

switch domNode.nodeType {
  case 1: 
    //element operations
    break;
  case 2: 
    //attribute operations
    break;
  case 3: 
    //text operations
    break;
  case 4: 
    //CDATA section     operations
    break;
  case 5: 
    //entity reference     operations
    break;
  case 6: 
    //entity     operations
    break;
  case 7: 
    // processing instruction     operations
    break;
  case 8: 
    //comment     operations
    break;
  case 9: 
    //document     operations
    break;
  case 10: 
    // document type     operations
    break;
  case 11: 
    // document fragment     operations
    break;
  case 12: 
    //notation     operations
    break;
  default:
    document.writeln( "Invalid node type: " +  
               domChild.nodeType );
  }

nodeValue property

Syntax

DOMNode.nodeValue

Description

The value of this node. The value depends on the type of node. This table lists the contents of the nodeValue property for each node type.

Example

This fragment writes out the nodeValue for an attribute named Type:

if( domAtt.nodeName == "Type" ){
  document.writeln( domAtt.nodeValue );
}

ownerDocument property

Syntax

DOMNode.ownerDocument

Description

The DOMDocument object associated with this node. For DOMDocument objects, this property is null.

Example

This fragment writes out the name of the document element for the DOMDocument object that owns domNode.

var domDoc = domNode.ownerDocument;
document.writeln( domDoc.documentElement.nodeName );

See also

"DOMDocument object".

parentNode property

Syntax

DOMNode.parentNode

Description

The DOMNode object representing the parent of this node, or null if there is no parent. This node objects do not have a parent: DOMDocument , DOMDocumentFragment , DOMAttribute, DOMEntity, DOMDocumentType, and DOMNotation .

Example

This example writes out the parent of the node held in the variable domNode, if it exists.

if( domNode.parentNode != null ){
  document.writeln( domNode.parentNode.nodeName;
}

previousSibling property

Syntax

DOMNode.previousSibling

Description

The DOMNode object representing the node immediately preceding this node, or null if no nodes precede this node.

Example

This function loops backwards through the children of a node.

function BackwardsChildNodes( domNode ){
  var domChild = domNode.lastChild;
  do {
    document.writeln( domChild.nodeName ); 
    domChild = domChild.previousSibling;
  } while ( domChild != null )
}

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