XML DOM: Node Object | Tutorial Reference

Understand the Node object in the XML DOM, including its properties (nodeName, nodeValue, childNodes), node types (ELEMENT_NODE, TEXT_NODE), and key methods (appendChild, cloneNode, removeChild) for manipulating document trees.

The Node object represents a single node in the document tree.

A node can be any type that is an attribute node, a text node or any other node. The attributes nodeName, nodeValue and attributes are included as a mechanism to get at node information without casting down to the specific derived interface.

Properties

Property	Description
`attributes`	This is of type NamedNodeMap containing the attributes of this node (if it is an Element) or null otherwise.
`baseURI`	Returns a string representing the base URL of the document containing the Node
`childNodes`	Returns a NodeList of child nodes for a node
`firstChild`	Returns the first child of a node
`lastChild`	Returns the last child of a node
`nextSibling`	Returns the node immediately following a node
`nodeName`	Returns the name of a node, depending on its type
`nodeType`	Returns the type of a node
`nodeValue`	Sets or returns the value of a node, depending on its type
`ownerDocument`	Returns the root element (document object) for a node
`parentNode`	Returns the parent node of a node
`prefix`	Sets or returns the namespace prefix of a node
`previousSibling`	Returns the node immediately before a node
`textContent`	Sets or returns the textual content of a node and its descendants

Node Types

Name	Value
`ELEMENT_NODE`	1
`ATTRIBUTE_NODE`	2
`TEXT_NODE`	3
`CDATA_SECTION_NODE`	4
`PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE`	7
`COMMENT_NODE`	8
`DOCUMENT_NODE`	9
`DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE`	10
`DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE`	11

Methods

Method	Description
`appendChild(Node newChild)`	Appends a new child node to the end of the list of children of a node
`cloneNode(boolean deep)`	Create a duplicate node, when overridden in a derived class. It returns the duplicated node.
`compareDocumentPosition(Node other)`	Compares the placement of two nodes in the DOM hierarchy (document)
~~`getFeature(DOMString feature, DOMString version)`~~	Returns a DOM object which implements the specialized APIs of the specified feature and version
~~`getUserData(DOMString key)`~~	Returns the object associated to a key on a this node. The object must first have been set to this node by calling setUserData with the same key
~~`hasAttributes()`~~	Returns true if the specified node has any attributes, otherwise false
`hasChildNodes()`	Returns true if the specified node has any child nodes, otherwise false
`insertBefore(Node newChild, Node refChild)`	Inserts a new child node before an existing child node
`isDefaultNamespace(DOMString namespaceURI)`	Returns whether the specified namespaceURI is the default
`isEqualNode(Node arg)`	Tests whether two nodes are equal
~~`isSameNode(Node other)`~~	Tests whether the two nodes are the same node
~~`isSupported(DOMString feature, DOMString version)`~~	Returns whether the specified DOM module is supported by the current node. Returns true if the specified feature is supported on this node, false otherwise.
`lookupNamespaceURI(DOMString prefix)`	Returns the namespace URI associated with a given prefix
`lookupPrefix(DOMString namespaceURI)`	Returns the prefix associated with a given namespace URI
`normalize()`	Puts all Text nodes underneath a node (including attribute nodes) into a "normal" form where only structure (e.g., elements, comments, processing instructions, CDATA sections, and entity references) separates Text nodes, i.e., there are neither adjacent Text nodes nor empty Text nodes
`removeChild(Node oldChild)`	Removes a specified child node from the current node
`replaceChild(Node newChild, Node oldChild)`	Replaces a child node with a new node
~~`setUserData(key,data,handler)`~~	Associates an object to a key on a node