XML DOM: Document Object and DocumentType Object

Explore the Document and DocumentType objects in XML DOM, including key properties, methods, and how they provide structured access to XML document elements, attributes, and DTD declarations.

Document Object

The Document object represents the entire XML document.

It is the root of an XML document tree, and gives us the primary access to the document's data.

Document Object Properties

Property	Description
`childNodes`	Returns a NodeList of child nodes for the document
`doctype`	Returns the Document Type Declaration associated with the document
`documentElement`	Returns the root node of the document
`documentURI`	Sets or returns the location of the document
`firstChild`	Returns the first child node of the document
`implementation`	Returns the DOMImplementation object that handles this document
`inputEncoding`	Returns the encoding used for the document (when parsing)
`lastChild`	Returns the last child node of the document
`nodeName`	Returns the name of a node (depending on its type)
`nodeType`	Returns the node type of a node
`nodeValue`	Sets or returns the value of a node (depending on its type)
`xmlEncoding`	Returns the XML encoding of the document
`xmlStandalone`	Sets or returns whether the document is standalone
`xmlVersion`	Sets or returns the XML version of the document

Document Object Methods

Method	Description
`adoptNode(sourcenode)`	Adopts a node from another document to this document, and returns the adopted node
`createAttribute(name)`	Creates an attribute node with the specified name, and returns the new Attr object
`createAttributeNS(uri,name)`	Creates an attribute node with the specified name and namespace, and returns the new Attr object
`createCDATASection()`	Creates a CDATA section node
`createComment()`	Creates a comment node
`createDocumentFragment()`	Creates an empty DocumentFragment object, and returns it
`createElement()`	Creates an element node
`createElementNS()`	Creates an element node with a specified namespace
`createEntityReference(name)`	Creates an EntityReference object, and returns it
`createProcessingInstruction(target,data)`	Creates a ProcessingInstruction object, and returns it
`createTextNode()`	Creates a text node
`getElementById(id)`	Returns the element that has an ID attribute with the given value. If no such element exists, it returns null
`getElementsByTagName()`	Returns a NodeList of all elements with a specified name
`getElementsByTagNameNS()`	Returns a NodeList of all elements with a specified name and namespace
`importNode(nodetoimport,deep)`	Imports a node from another document to this document. This method creates a new copy of the source node. If the deep parameter is set to true, it imports all children of the specified node. If set to false, it imports only the node itself. This method returns the imported node
`normalizeDocument()`
`renameNode()`	Renames an element or attribute node

DocumentType Object

The DocumentType objects are the key to access the document's data and in the document, the doctype attribute can have either the null value or the DocumentType Object value. These DocumentType objects act as an interface to the entities described for an XML document.

DocumentType Object Properties

Property	Description
`name`	It returns the name of the DTD which is written immediately next to the keyword !DOCTYPE.
`entities`	It returns a NamedNodeMap object containing the general entities, both external and internal, declared in the DTD.
`notations`	It returns a NamedNodeMap containing the notations declared in the DTD.
~~`internalSubset`~~	It returns an internal subset as a string, or null if there is none.
`publicId`	It returns the public identifier of the external subset.
`systemId`	It returns the system identifier of the external subset. This may be an absolute URI or not.

DocumentType Object Methods

DocumentType inherits methods from its parent, Node, and implements the ChildNode interface.