This specification defines the Document Object Model Level 2
HTML, a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows
programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the
content and structure of
This is the 09 January 2003 of "DOM Level 2 HTML". This document has been reviewed by W3C Members, software developers, and other W3C groups and interested parties, and has been endorsed by the Director as a W3C Recommendation. It is a stable document and may be used as reference material or cited as a normative reference from another document. W3C's role in making the Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This document enhances the interoperability of the Web.
Patent disclosures relevant to this specification may be found on the
This document has been produced as part of the
The English version of this specification is the only normative
version. Information about
The
Comments on this document are invited and are to be sent to the
public mailing list
An
A list of
This specification renders the DOM Level 1 HTML Recommendation obsolete given that some changes from DOM Level 1 HTML are incompatible with that specification but represent more accurately the state of deployed software. W3C strongly suggests that developers and authors conform to DOM Level 2 HTML instead.
Created in electronic form.
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This section extends the DOM Level 2 Core API
The goals of the HTML-specific DOM API are:
to specialize and add functionality that relates
specifically to HTML documents and elements. to address issues of backwards compatibility with the
to provide
The key differences between the core DOM and the HTML
application of DOM is that the HTML Document Object Model
exposes a number of
More specifically, this document includes the following specializations
for HTML:
An An Specializations for all HTML elements that have attributes
that extend beyond those specified in the HTMLDocument interface, derived from the core
Document interface. HTMLDocument
specifies the operations and queries that can be made on a HTML
document.HTMLElement interface, derived from the core
Element interface. HTMLElement specifies
the operations and queries that can be made on any HTML
element. Methods on HTMLElement include those that
allow for the retrieval and modification of attributes that apply
to all HTML elements.HTMLElement
interface. For all such attributes, the derived interface for the
element contains explicit methods for setting and getting the
values.
The DOM Level 2 includes mechanisms to access and modify style specified through CSS and defines an event model that can be used with HTML documents.
The interfaces found within this section are not mandatory. A
DOM application may use the hasFeature(feature,
version) method of the DOMImplementation
interface with parameter values "HTML" and "2.0" (respectively)
to determine whether or not this module is supported by the
implementation. In addition to the feature string "HTML", the
feature string "XHTML" (version string "2.0") can be used to
check if the implementation supports XHTML (this is equivalent
to checking the features "XML" and "HTML"). In order to fully
support this module, an implementation must also support the
"Core" feature defined
A DOM
application can use the hasFeature method of the
DOMImplementation interface to determine whether they
are supported or not. The feature string for all the interfaces listed in
this section is "HTML" and the version is "2.0". In order to fully
support this feature, an implementation needs also to support the "Core"
feature defined in the Document Object Model Level 2 Core
The interfaces in this specification are designed for
This specification does not intend to define exactly how a
user agent will respond to a change to any attribute on an
element that directly or indirectly references external data,
such elements are HTMLAppletElement,
HTMLFrameElement,
HTMLFrameSetElement,
HTMLIFrameElement, HTMLImageElement,
HTMLLinkElement, HTMLObjectElement,
HTMLParamElement, and
HTMLScriptElement.
The HTML DOM follows a naming convention for properties, methods, events, collections, and data types. All names are defined as one or more English words concatenated together to form a single string.
The property or method name starts with the initial keyword in lowercase, and each subsequent word starts with a capital letter. For example, a property that returns document meta information such as the date the file was created might be named "fileDateCreated". In the ECMAScript binding, properties are exposed as properties of a given object. In Java, properties are exposed with get and set methods.
While most of the interfaces defined below can
be mapped directly to elements defined in the HTML 4.01
Recommendation, some of them cannot. Similarly, not
all attributes listed below have counterparts in the
HTML 4.01 specification (and some do, but have been
renamed to avoid conflicts with scripting languages).
Interfaces and attribute definitions that have links
to the HTML 4.0 specification have corresponding element
and attribute definitions there; all
others are added by this specification, either for
convenience or backwards compatibility with
The DOM HTML Level 1 API
From the DOM point of view, The biggest difference between HTML 4.01 (and earlier) and XHTML 1.0 is that XHTML is case sensitive, whereas HTML 4.01 is case insensitive. The HTML case insensitivity is also reflected in the DOM HTML API. For instance, element and attribute names are exposed as all uppercase (for consistency) when used on an HTML document, regardless of the character case used in the markup. Since XHTML is based on XML, in XHTML everything is case sensitive, and element and attribute names must be lowercase in the markup.
Developers need to take two things into account when writing code
that works on both HTML and XHTML documents. When comparing
element or attribute names to strings, the string compare needs to
be case insensitive, or the element or attribute name needs to be
converted into lowercase before comparing against a lowercase
string. Second, when calling methods that are case insensitive
when used on a HTML document (such as
getElementsByTagName() and namedItem()),
the string that is passed in should be lowercase.
The interfaces provided in this document are only for
An HTMLCollection is a list of nodes. An individual node
may be accessed by either ordinal index or the node's
name or id attributes.
Collections in the HTML DOM are assumed to be
This attribute specifies the length or
This method retrieves a node specified by ordinal index. Nodes are numbered in tree order (depth-first traversal order).
The index of the node to be fetched. The index origin is 0.
The Node at the corresponding position upon
success. A value of null is returned if the index is
out of range.
This method retrieves a Node using a name. With
Node with a matching id attribute. If it
doesn't find one, it then searches for a Node with a
matching name attribute, but only on those elements
that are allowed a name attribute. With Nodes with a
matching id attribute. This method is case
insensitive in HTML documents and case sensitive in XHTML
documents.
The name of the Node to be fetched.
The Node with a name or
id attribute whose value corresponds to the specified
string. Upon failure (e.g., no node with this name exists),
returns null.
An HTMLOptionsCollection is a list of nodes representing
HTML option element. An individual node may be accessed by either ordinal
index or the node's name or id attributes.
Collections in the HTML DOM are assumed to be
This attribute specifies the length or
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: if setting the length is not allowed by the implementation.
This method retrieves a node specified by ordinal index. Nodes are numbered in tree order (depth-first traversal order).
The index of the node to be fetched. The index origin is 0.
The Node at the corresponding position upon success. A
value of null is returned if the index is out of
range.
This method retrieves a Node using a name. It first
searches for a Node with a matching id
attribute. If it doesn't find one, it then searches for a
Node with a matching name attribute, but only
on those elements that are allowed a name attribute. This method is case
insensitive in HTML documents and case sensitive in XHTML documents.
The name of the Node to be fetched.
The Node with a name or id
attribute whose value corresponds to the specified string. Upon failure
(e.g., no node with this name exists), returns null.
An HTMLDocument is the root of the HTML
hierarchy and holds the entire content. Besides providing access to the
hierarchy, it also provides some
The following properties have been deprecated in favor of the
corresponding ones for the BODY element:
alinkColor
background
bgColor
fgColor
linkColor
vlinkColor
In DOM Level 2, the method getElementById is
inherited from the Document interface where it was
moved to.
The title of a document as specified by the TITLE
element in the head of the document.
Returns the URI
The domain name of the server that served the document, or null
if the server cannot be identified by a domain name.
The absolute URI
The element that contains the content for the document. In documents
with BODY contents, returns the BODY
element. In frameset documents, this returns the outermost
FRAMESET element.
A collection of all the IMG elements in a document.
The behavior is limited to IMG elements for backwards compatibility.
As suggested by OBJECT element or the IMG
element. Therefore, it is recommended not to use this attribute to find
the images in the document but getElementsByTagName with
HTML 4.01 or getElementsByTagNameNS with XHTML 1.0.
A collection of all the OBJECT elements that include
applets and APPLET (
A collection of all AREA elements and
anchor (A) elements in a document
with a value for the href attribute.
A collection of all the forms of a document.
A collection of all the anchor (A) elements in a document
with a value for the name attribute.
For reasons of backward compatibility, the returned set of
anchors only contains those anchors created with the
name attribute, not those created with the
id attribute. Note that in name attribute (see id attribute is used instead.
Users should prefer the iterator mechanisms provided by
This mutable string attribute denotes persistent state
information that (1) is associated with the current frame
or document and (2) is composed of information described
by the cookies non-terminal of
If no persistent state information is available for the current frame or document document, then this property's value is an empty string.
When this attribute is read, all cookies are returned as a single string, with each cookie's name-value pair concatenated into a list of name-value pairs, each list item being separated by a ';' (semicolon).
When this attribute is set, the value it is set to should be a
string that adheres to the cookie non-terminal of
See
The precise nature of a user agent session is not defined by this specification.
SYNTAX_ERR: If the new value does not adhere to the
cookie syntax specified by
Open a document stream for writing. If a document exists in the target, this method clears it.
This method and the ones following
allow a user to add to or replace the structure
model of a document using strings of unparsed HTML. At the time of
writing alternate methods for providing similar functionality for
both HTML and XML documents were being considered (see
Closes a document stream opened by open()
and forces rendering.
Write a string of text to a document stream opened by
open(). Note that the function will produce a document
which is not necessarily driven by a DTD and therefore might be produce
an invalid result in the context of the document.
The string to be parsed into some structure in the document structure model.
Write a string of text followed by a newline character to a document
stream opened by open(). Note that the function will produce a document
which is not necessarily driven by a DTD and therefore might be produce
an invalid result in the context of the document
The string to be parsed into some structure in the document structure model.
With name
value is given by elementName. In
The name attribute value for an element.
The matching elements.
HTML attributes are exposed as properties on the element
object. The DOM naming conventions always determine the name
of the exposed property, and are independent of the case of the
attribute in the source document. The data type of the
property is in general determined by the type of the attribute
as determined by the HTML 4.01 (transitional and frameset) and
XHTML 1.0 DTDs. The attributes have the semantics (including
case-sensitivity) given in the
The attributes are exposed as properties for compatibility
with Element interface for setting, getting and removing
attributes.
| DTD Data Type | |
|---|---|
| CDATA | DOMString |
| Value list (e.g., (left | right | center)) | DOMString |
| one-value Value list (e.g., (disabled)) | boolean |
| Number | long int |
In an HTML document the return value of an attribute that has a data type that is a value list is normalized to lowercase (independent of the case of the value in the source document).
For example, if the value of the align attribute on a P
element is "Left" (which is not a valid value in XHTML due to
the case sensitivity of XHTML) then the value is returned as
"left". For attributes with the CDATA data type,
the case of the return value is that given in the source
document.
The return value of an attribute that is unspecified and does not have a default value is the empty string if the return type is a DOMString, false if the return type is a boolean and 0 if the return type is a number.
To avoid namespace conflicts, two attributes with the same name
as a keyword in one of our chosen for attribute of the
LABEL and SCRIPT elements collides
with loop construct naming conventions and is renamed
htmlFor. The class attribute of the
HTML elements collides with class definitions naming conventions
and is renamed className.
tagName, (nodeName))
If the document is an HTML 4.01 document the element type
names exposed through a property are in uppercase. For
example, the body element type name is exposed through the
tagName property as BODY. If the
document is an XHTML 1.0 document the element name
is exposed as it is written in the XHTML file. This means
that the element type names are exposed in lowercase for
XHTML documents since the XHTML 1.0 DTDs defines element
type names as lowercase, and XHTML, being derived from XML,
is case sensitive.
All HTML element interfaces derive from this class. Elements that only
expose the HTML core attributes are represented by the base
HTMLElement interface. These elements are as follows:
special: SUB, SUP, SPAN, BDO
font: TT, I, B, U, S, STRIKE, BIG, SMALL
phrase: EM, STRONG, DFN, CODE, SAMP, KBD, VAR, CITE, ACRONYM, ABBR
list: DD, DT
NOFRAMES, NOSCRIPT
ADDRESS, CENTER
The style attribute of an HTML element is accessible
through the ElementCSSInlineStyle interface which is defined
in the CSS module
The element's identifier. See the
The element's advisory title. See the
Language code defined in RFC 1766. See the
Specifies the base direction of directionally neutral
text and the directionality of tables. See the
The class attribute of the element. This attribute has been renamed
due to conflicts with the "class" keyword exposed by many languages. See the
Root of an HTML document. See the
Version information about the document's DTD. See the
Document head information. See the
URI
The LINK element specifies a link to an external
resource, and defines this document's relationship to that resource
(or vice versa). See the LinkStyle interface in the StyleSheet
module
Enables/disables the link. This is currently only used for style sheet links, and may be used to activate or deactivate style sheets.
The character encoding of the resource being linked to. See the
The URI
Language code of the linked resource. See the
Designed for use with one or more target media. See the
Forward link type. See the
Reverse link type. See the
Frame to render the resource in. See the
Advisory content type. See the
The document title. See the
The specified title as a string.
This contains generic meta-information about the document. See the
Associated information. See the
HTTP response header name
Meta information name. See the
Select form of content. See the
Document base URI
The base URI
The default target frame. See the
This element is used
for single-line text input. See the
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
The prompt message. See the
Style information. See the LinkStyle interface in the StyleSheets module
Enables/disables the style sheet.
Designed for use with one or more target media. See the
The content type of the style sheet language. See the
The HTML document body. This element is always present in the DOM API,
even if the tags are not present in the source document. See the
Color of active links (after mouse-button down, but before
mouse-button up). See the
URI
Document background color. See the
Color of links that are not active and unvisited. See the
Document text color. See the
Color of links that have been visited by the user. See the
The FORM element encompasses behavior similar to a
collection and an element. It provides direct access to the contained
form controls as well as the attributes of the form element. See the
Returns a collection of all form control elements in the form.
The number of form controls in the form.
Names the form.
List of character sets supported by the server. See the
Server-side form handler. See the
The content type of the submitted form, generally
"application/x-www-form-urlencoded". See the
The onsubmit even handler is not guaranteed to be triggered when invoking this method. The behavior is inconsistent for historical reasons and authors should not rely on a particular one.
HTTP method
Frame to render the resource in. See the
Submits the form. It performs the same action as a submit button.
Restores a form element's default values. It performs the same action as a reset button.
The select element allows the selection of an option. The contained
options can be directly accessed through the select element as a
collection. See the
The type of this form control. This is the string
"select-multiple" when the multiple attribute is true and
the string "select-one" when false.
The ordinal index of the selected option, starting from 0. The value -1 is returned if no element is selected. If multiple options are selected, the index of the first selected option is returned.
The current form control value (i.e. the value of the currently selected option), if multiple options are selected this is the value of the first selected option.
The number of options in this SELECT.
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: if setting the length is not allowed by the implementation.
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
The collection of OPTION elements contained by this element.
The control is unavailable in this context. See the
If true, multiple OPTION elements may
be selected in this SELECT. See the
Form control or object name when submitted with a form. See the
Number of visible rows. See the
Index that represents the element's position in the tabbing order. See the
Add a new element to the collection of OPTION
elements for this SELECT. This method is the
equivalent of the appendChild method of the
Node interface if the before parameter
is null. It is equivalent to the
insertBefore method on the parent of
before in all other cases. This method may have no
effect if the new element is not an OPTION or an
OPTGROUP.
The element to add.
The element to insert before, or null for the
tail of the list.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if before is not
a descendant of the SELECT element.
Remove an element from the collection of OPTION elements
for this SELECT. Does nothing if no element has the given
index.
The index of the item to remove, starting from 0.
Removes keyboard focus from this element.
Gives keyboard focus to this element.
Group options together in logical subdivisions. See the
The control is unavailable in this context. See the
Assigns a label to this option group. See the
A selectable choice. See the
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
Represents the value of the HTML selected attribute. The
value of this attribute does not change if the state of the
corresponding form control, in an interactive user agent,
changes. See the
The text contained within the option element.
The index of this OPTION in its parent
SELECT, starting from 0.
The control is unavailable in this context. See the
Option label for use in hierarchical menus. See the
Represents the current state of the corresponding form control, in an interactive user agent. Changing this attribute changes the state of the form control, but does not change the value of the HTML selected attribute of the element.
The current form control value. See the
Form control.
Depending upon the environment
in which the page is being viewed, the value property may be read-only for the
file upload input type. For the "password" input type, the actual value
returned may be masked to prevent unauthorized use. See the
When the type attribute of the element has the
value "text", "file" or "password", this represents the HTML value
attribute of the element. The value of this attribute does not change
if the contents of the corresponding form control, in an interactive
user agent, changes. See the
When type has the value "radio" or "checkbox",
this represents the HTML checked attribute of the element. The value of
this attribute does not change if the state of the corresponding form
control, in an interactive user agent, changes. See the
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
A comma-separated list of content types that a server processing this
form will handle correctly. See the
A single character access key to give access to the form control. See the
Aligns this object (vertically or horizontally)
with respect to its surrounding text. See the
Alternate text for user agents not rendering the normal content
of this element. See the
When the type attribute of the element has the
value "radio" or "checkbox", this represents the current state of the
form control, in an interactive user agent. Changes to this attribute
change the state of the form control, but do not change the value of
the HTML checked attribute of the INPUT element.
During the handling of a click event on an input element with a type attribute that has the value "radio" or "checkbox", some implementations may change the value of this property before the event is being dispatched in the document. If the default action of the event is canceled, the value of the property may be changed back to its original value. This means that the value of this property during the handling of click events is implementation dependent.
The control is unavailable in this context. See the
Maximum number of characters for text fields, when type
has the value "text" or "password". See the
Form control or object name when submitted with a form. See the
This control is read-only. Relevant only when type has the value "text" or "password". See the
Size information. The precise meaning is specific to each type of
field.
See the
When the type attribute has the value "image", this
attribute specifies the location of the image to be used to decorate
the graphical submit button. See the
Index that represents the element's position in the tabbing order. See the
The type of control created (all lower case). See the
Use client-side image map. See the
When the type attribute of the element has the
value "text", "file" or "password", this represents the current
contents of the corresponding form control, in an interactive user
agent. Changing this attribute changes the contents of the form
control, but does not change the value of the HTML value attribute of
the element. When the type attribute of the element has
the value "button", "hidden", "submit", "reset", "image", "checkbox" or
"radio", this represents the HTML value attribute of the element. See
the
Removes keyboard focus from this element.
Gives keyboard focus to this element.
Select the contents of the text area. For INPUT elements
whose type attribute has one of the following values:
"text", "file", or "password".
Simulate a mouse-click. For INPUT elements whose
type attribute has one of the following
values: "button", "checkbox", "radio", "reset", or "submit".
Multi-line text field. See the
Represents the contents of the element. The value of this attribute does not change if the contents of the corresponding form control, in an interactive user agent, changes.
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
A single character access key to give access to the form control. See the
Width of control (in characters). See the
The control is unavailable in this context. See the
Form control or object name when submitted with a form. See the
This control is read-only. See the
Number of text rows. See the
Index that represents the element's position in the tabbing order. See the
The type of this form control. This the string "textarea".
Represents the current contents of the corresponding form
control, in an interactive user agent. Changing this attribute changes
the contents of the form control, but does not change the contents of
the element. If the entirety of the data can not fit into a single
DOMString, the implementation may truncate the
data.
Removes keyboard focus from this element.
Gives keyboard focus to this element.
Select the contents of the TEXTAREA.
Push button. See the
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
A single character access key to give access to the form control. See the
The control is unavailable in this context. See the
Form control or object name when submitted with a form. See the
Index that represents the element's position in the tabbing order. See the
The type of button (all lower case).
See the
The current form control value. See the
Form field label text. See the
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
A single character access key to give access to the form control. See the
This attribute links this label with another form control
by id attribute. See the
Organizes form controls into logical groups. See the
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
Provides a caption for a FIELDSET grouping. See the
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
A single character access key to give access to the form control. See the
Text alignment relative to FIELDSET. See the
Unordered list. See the
Reduce spacing between list items. See the
Bullet style. See the
Ordered list. See the
Reduce spacing between list items. See the
Starting sequence number. See the
Numbering style. See the
Definition list. See the
Reduce spacing between list items. See the
Directory list. See the
Reduce spacing between list items. See the
Menu list. See the
Reduce spacing between list items. See the
List item. See the
List item bullet style. See the
Reset sequence number when used in OL. See the
Generic block container. See the
Horizontal text alignment. See the
Paragraphs. See the
Horizontal text alignment. See the
For the H1 to H6 elements. See the
Horizontal text alignment. See the
For the Q and BLOCKQUOTE elements. See the
A URI
Preformatted text. See the
Fixed width for content. See the
Force a line break. See the
Control flow of text around floats. See the
Base font. See the
Font color. See the
Font face identifier. See the
Computed font size. See the
Local change to font. See the
Font color. See the
Font face identifier. See the
Font size. See the
Create a horizontal rule. See the
Align the rule on the page. See the
Indicates to the user agent that there should be no shading in the
rendering of this element. See the
The height of the rule. See the
The width of the rule. See the
Notice of modification to part of a document. See the
A URI
The date and time of the change. See the
The anchor element. See the
A single character access key to give access to the form control. See the
The character encoding of the linked resource. See the
Comma-separated list of lengths, defining an active region geometry.
See also shape for the shape of the region. See the
The absolute URI
Language code of the linked resource. See the
Anchor name. See the
Forward link type. See the
Reverse link type. See the
The shape of the active area. The coordinates are given
by coords. See the
Index that represents the element's position in the tabbing order. See the
Frame to render the resource in. See the
Advisory content type. See the
Removes keyboard focus from this element.
Gives keyboard focus to this element.
Embedded image. See the
The name of the element (for backwards compatibility).
Aligns this object (vertically or horizontally)
with respect to its surrounding text. See the
Alternate text for user agents not rendering the normal content
of this element. See the
Width of border around image. See the
DOMString in DOM Level 1
HTML
Height of the image in pixels. See the DOMString in DOM Level 1
HTML
Horizontal space to the left and right of this
image in pixels. See the DOMString in DOM Level 1 HTML
Use server-side image map. See the
URI
URI
Use client-side image map. See the
Vertical space above and below this image in
pixels. See the
The width of the image in pixels. See the DOMString in DOM Level 1
HTML
Generic embedded object.
In principle, all
properties on the object element are read-write but in some
environments some properties may be read-only once the underlying
object is instantiated. See the
Returns the FORM element containing this control.
Returns null if this control is not within the context of a form.
Applet class file. See the code attribute for
HTMLAppletElement.
Aligns this object (vertically or horizontally)
with respect to its surrounding text. See the
Space-separated list of archives. See the
Width of border around the object. See the
Base URI classid, data, and
archive attributes. See the
Content type for data downloaded via classid attribute. See the
A URI
Declare (for future reference), but do not instantiate, this
object. See the
Override height. See the
Horizontal space, in pixels, to the left and right of this image, applet, or object. See the
Form control or object name when submitted with a form. See the
Message to render while loading the object. See the
Index that represents the element's position in the tabbing order. See the
Content type for data downloaded via data attribute. See the
Use client-side image map. See the
Vertical space, in pixels, above and below this image, applet, or object. See the
Override width. See the
The document this object contains, if there is any and it
is available, or null otherwise.
Parameters fed to the OBJECT element. See the
The name of a run-time parameter. See the
Content type for the value attribute when
valuetype has the value "ref". See the
The value of a run-time parameter. See the
Information about the meaning of the value attribute
value. See the
An embedded Java applet. See the
Aligns this object (vertically or horizontally)
with respect to its surrounding text. See the
Alternate text for user agents not rendering the normal content
of this element. See the
Comma-separated archive list. See the
Applet class file. See the
Optional base URI
Override height. See the
Horizontal space, in pixels, to the left and right of this image, applet, or object. See the
The name of the applet. See the
The value of the "object" attribute. See the
Vertical space, in pixels, above and below this image, applet, or object. See the
Override width. See the
Client-side image map. See the
The list of areas defined for the image map.
Names the map (for use with usemap). See the
Client-side image map area definition. See the
A single character access key to give access to the form control. See the
Alternate text for user agents not rendering the normal content
of this element. See the
Comma-separated list of lengths, defining an active region geometry.
See also shape for the shape of the region. See the
The URI
Specifies that this area is inactive, i.e., has no associated action. See the
The shape of the active area. The coordinates are given
by coords. See the
Index that represents the element's position in the tabbing order. See the
Frame to render the resource in. See the
Script statements. See the
The script content of the element.
The character encoding of the linked resource. See the
Indicates that the user agent can defer processing of the script. See the
URI
The content type of the script language. See the
The create* and delete* methods on the table allow authors to construct
and modify tables. CAPTION, THEAD, and TFOOT
elements may exist in a table. Therefore, if one exists, and the
createTHead() or createTFoot() method is called, the method returns
the existing THead or TFoot element. See the
Returns the table's CAPTION, or void if
none exists.
HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: if the element is not a CAPTION.
Returns the table's THEAD, or
null if none exists.
HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: if the element is not a THEAD.
Returns the table's TFOOT, or
null if none exists.
HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: if the element is not a TFOOT.
Returns a collection of all the rows in the table,
including all in THEAD, TFOOT, all
TBODY elements.
Returns a collection of the table bodies (including implicit ones).
Specifies the table's position with respect to the rest of the document. See the
Cell background color. See the
The width of the border around the table. See the
Specifies the horizontal and vertical space between cell content and
cell borders. See the
Specifies the horizontal and vertical separation between cells. See the
Specifies which external table borders to render. See the
Specifies which internal table borders to render. See the
Description about the purpose or structure
of a table. See the
Specifies the desired table width. See the
Create a table header row or return an existing one.
A new table header element (THEAD).
Delete the header from the table, if one exists.
Create a table footer row or return an existing one.
A footer element (TFOOT).
Delete the footer from the table, if one exists.
Create a new table caption object or return an existing one.
A CAPTION element.
Delete the table caption, if one exists.
Insert a new empty row in the table. The new row is inserted
immediately before and in the same section as the current
indexth row in the table. If index is
-1 or equal to the number of rows, the new row is appended. In addition, when
the table is empty the row is inserted into a TBODY which
is created and inserted into the table.
A table row cannot be empty
according to
The row number where to insert a new row. This index starts from 0 and is relative to the logical order (not document order) of all the rows contained inside the table.
The newly created row.
INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified index is greater than the number of rows or if the index is a negative number other than -1.
Delete a table row.
The index of the row to be deleted. This index starts from 0 and is relative to the logical order (not document order) of all the rows contained inside the table. If the index is -1 the last row in the table is deleted.
INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified index is greater than or equal to the number of rows or if the index is a negative number other than -1.
Table caption See the
Caption alignment with respect to the table. See the
Regroups the COL and COLGROUP elements. See the
Horizontal alignment of cell data in column. See the
Alignment character for cells in a column. See the
Offset of alignment character. See the
Indicates the number of columns in a group or affected by a grouping. See the
Vertical alignment of cell data in column. See the
Default column width. See the
The THEAD, TFOOT, and TBODY
elements.
Horizontal alignment of data in cells. See the align
attribute for HTMLTheadElement for details.
Alignment character for cells in a column. See the
Offset of alignment character. See the
Vertical alignment of data in cells.
See the valign
attribute for HTMLTheadElement for details.
The collection of rows in this table section.
Insert a row into this section. The new row is inserted
immediately before the current indexth row in this
section. If index is -1 or equal to the number of rows in this
section, the new row is appended.
The row number where to insert a new row. This index starts from 0 and is relative only to the rows contained inside this section, not all the rows in the table.
The newly created row.
INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified index is greater than the number of rows of if the index is a negative number other than -1.
Delete a row from this section.
The index of the row to be deleted, or -1 to delete the last row. This index starts from 0 and is relative only to the rows contained inside this section, not all the rows in the table.
INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified index is greater than or equal to the number of rows or if the index is a negative number other than -1.
A row in a table. See the
This is in logical order and not in document order. The
rowIndex does take into account sections
(THEAD, TFOOT, or
TBODY) within the table, placing
THEAD rows first in the index, followed by
TBODY rows, followed by TFOOT
rows.
The index of this row, relative to the current section
(THEAD, TFOOT, or TBODY), starting from
0.
The collection of cells in this row.
Horizontal alignment of data within cells of this row. See the
Background color for rows. See the
Alignment character for cells in a column. See the
Offset of alignment character. See the
Vertical alignment of data within cells of this row. See the
Insert an empty TD cell into this row. If
index is -1 or equal to the number of cells, the new
cell is appended.
The place to insert the cell, starting from 0.
The newly created cell.
INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified index is
greater than the number of cells or if the index is a negative number other than -1.
Delete a cell from the current row.
The index of the cell to delete, starting from 0. If the index is -1 the last cell in the row is deleted.
INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified index is
greater than or equal to the number of cells or if the index
is a negative number other than -1.
The object used to represent the TH and TD
elements. See the
The index of this cell in the row, starting from 0. This index is in document tree order and not display order.
Abbreviation for header cells. See the
Horizontal alignment of data in cell. See the
Names group of related headers. See the
Cell background color. See the
Alignment character for cells in a column. See the
Offset of alignment character. See the
Number of columns spanned by cell. See the
List of id attribute values for header cells. See the
Cell height. See the
Suppress word wrapping. See the
Number of rows spanned by cell. See the
Scope covered by header cells. See the
Vertical alignment of data in cell. See the
Cell width. See the
Create a grid of frames. See the
The number of columns of frames in the frameset. See the
The number of rows of frames in the frameset. See the
Create a frame. See the
Request frame borders. See the
URI
Frame margin height, in pixels. See the
Frame margin width, in pixels. See the
The frame name (object of the target attribute). See the
When true, forbid user from resizing frame. See the
Specify whether or not the frame should have scrollbars. See the
A URI
The document this frame contains, if there is any and it
is available, or null otherwise.
Inline subwindows. See the
Aligns this object (vertically or horizontally)
with respect to its surrounding text. See the
Request frame borders. See the
Frame height. See the
URI
Frame margin height, in pixels. See the
Frame margin width, in pixels. See the
The frame name (object of the target attribute). See the
Specify whether or not the frame should have scrollbars. See the
A URI
Frame width. See the
The document this frame contains, if there is any and it
is available, or null otherwise.
The DOM Level 2 HTML module is not backward compatible with the DOM Level 1 HTML module.
The DOM Level 2 specifications use CORBA 2.3.1 instead of CORBA 2.2.
The DOM Level 2 HTML module supports HTML 4 as well as XHTML
1.0 documents. Therefore, case sensitivity in methods
depends on Document support for the feature
"XML" as well as "HTML".
the method getElementById is now inherited from the
Document interface
The type of the attribute options was changed
from HTMLCollection to
HTMLOptionsCollection.
The attribute length is no longer readonly
and is now unsigned.
Changing the defaultSelected attribute does not
reset the state of the form control.
index is readonly.
the attribute type is no longer read
only.
The type of the attribute size was
changed from DOMString to unsigned
long.
Changing the defaultValue attribute does not
reset the contents of the form control.
this interface has been
removed. BLOCKQUOTE elements are now supported by
the HTMLQuoteElement interface.
The attribute size is of type
long.
The lowSrc attribute was removed.
The types of the attributes height,
hspace, width and
vspace were changed from DOMString
to long.
The attribute contentDocument was added.
The types of the attributes hspace
and vspace were changed from DOMString
to long.
The attribute object returns the value of
the HTML object attribute.
caption, tHead,
tFoot, insertRow, and
deleteRow may raise exceptions.
index uses a logical order, and not a
document order.
The methods insertRow and
deleteRow may raise exceptions.
The attributes rowIndex,
sectionRowIndex, and cells are
readonly.
The methods insertCell and
deleteCell may raise exceptions.
rowIndex uses a logical order, and not a
document order.
the attribute contentDocument was added.
the attribute contentDocument was added.
The module name used in the OMG IDL is now
html2.
The package name used in the Java bindings is now
org.w3c.dom.html2.
The HTMLOptionsCollection interface was
added to the HTML module.
This appendix contains the complete OMG IDL
Unfortunately the OMG IDL in this appendix is not conformant due to
problems in the validator that was used to validate Level 1. The
readOnly attribute on the HTMLInputElement and
HTMLTextAreaElement interfaces, as well as the
object attribute on the HTMLAppletElement
interface, are not conformant with OMG IDL 2.2. The valueType
attribute on the HTMLParamElement interface is not conformant
with OMG IDL 2.3.1, which hadn't been released when DOM Level 1
The IDL files are also available as:
This appendix contains the complete Java language
The Java files are also available as
This appendix contains the complete ECMAScript
Exceptions handling is only supported by ECMAScript implementation
conformant with the Standard ECMA-262 3rd. Edition (
HTMLAnchorElement objects in String expressions are evaluated
as HTMLAnchorElement.href. For example:
is equivalent to
Many people contributed to this specification, including members of the DOM Working Group and the DOM Interest Group. We especially thank the following:
Andy Heninger (IBM), Arnaud Le Hors (W3C and IBM), Bill Smith
(Sun), Bill Shea (Merrill Lynch), Chris Lovett (Microsoft),
Chris Wilson (Microsoft), David Brownell (Sun), Glenn Adams
(ATSC), James Davidson (Sun), Joe Kesselman (IBM), Joe Lapp
(webMethods), Joe Marini (Macromedia), Johnny Stenback
(Netscape), Jonathan Marsh (Microsoft), Jonathan Robie (Texcel
Research and Software AG), Kim Adamson-Sharpe (SoftQuad Software
Inc.), Lauren Wood (SoftQuad Software Inc.,
Thanks to all those who have helped to improve this specification by sending suggestions and corrections.
The W3C tried to produce the most useful and accurate
specification as possible but we wouldn't have been able to do
so without the help of the
This specification was written in XML. The HTML, OMG IDL, Java and ECMAScript bindings were all produced automatically.
This document was generated using DOM Level 2. We used
The authors of the DOM Level 1 specification, members of the DOM Working Group, deserve much credit for their hard work:
Lauren Wood (SoftQuad, Inc.,
Thanks to Joe English, author of
Thanks to Jan Kärrman, author of
The editors of the first version of the DOM HTML module were Mike Champion (ArborText), Vidur Apparao (Netscape), Scott Isaacs (Microsoft, January 1998), Chris Wilson (Microsoft, after January 1998), and Ian Jacobs (W3C).
Several of the following term definitions have been borrowed or modified from similar definitions in other W3C or standards documents. See the links within the definitions for more information.
The base unit of a DOMString. This indicates that indexing on a DOMString occurs in units of 16 bits. This must not be misunderstood to mean that
a DOMString can store arbitrary 16-bit units. A DOMString is a character string encoded in UTF-16; this means that the
restrictions of UTF-16 as well as the other relevant restrictions on character
strings must be maintained. A single character, for example in the form of a
numeric character reference, may correspond to one or two 16-bit units.
For more information, see
An
An
A
A [client] application is any software that uses the Document Object Model programming interfaces provided by the hosting implementation to accomplish useful work. Some examples of client applications are scripts within an HTML or XML document.
The
A
A
A model for a document that represents the document after it has
been manipulated in some way. For example, any combination of any of the
following transformations would create a cooked model:
Expansion of internal text entities. Expansion of external entities. Model augmentation with style-specified generated text. Execution of style-specified reordering. Execution of scripts.
A
A
The
When new releases of specifications are released, some older
features may be marked as being
A
The term
The term "
The programming language defined by the ECMA-262 standard
Each document contains one or more elements, the boundaries of which
are either delimited by start-tags and end-tags, or, for empty elements by an
empty-element tag. Each element has a type, identified by name, and may have a
set of attributes. Each attribute has a name and a value. See
This is the idea that an event can affect one object and a set of
related objects. Any of the potentially affected objects can block the event or
substitute a different one (upward event propagation). The event is broadcast
from the node at which it originates to every
Two nodes are
Two nodes are NodeList objects, and their attributes are deeply equivalent.
Two NodeList objects are
Two NamedNodeMap objects are
Two DocumentType nodes are NamedNodeMap objects.
An information item is an abstract representation of some component
of an XML document. See the
A [hosting] implementation is a software module that provides an implementation of the DOM interfaces so that a client application can use them. Some examples of hosting implementations are browsers, editors and document repositories.
The HyperText Markup Language (
An Interface Definition Language (
Companies, organizations, and individuals that claim to support the Document Object Model as an API for their products.
In object-oriented programming, the ability to create new classes
(or interfaces) that contain all the methods and properties of another class
(or interface), plus additional methods and properties. If class (or interface)
D inherits from class (or interface) B, then D is said to be
Also known as the
An
A programming
An object is
A
A
A
A
A
An
A
A
A
The
Two nodes are
When string matching is required, it is to occur as though the
comparison was between 2 sequences of code points from the Unicode 3.0 standard
A document is
An information item such as an
The description given to various information items (for example,
attribute values of various types, but not including the StringType CDATA)
after having been processed by the XML processor. The process includes
stripping leading and trailing white space, and replacing multiple space
characters by one. See the definition of
A document is
See initial structure model.
A document is
Extensible Markup Language (
See
An
For the latest version of any W3C specification please consult the list of
OMG IDL Syntax and Semanticsdefined in
Document Object CSSin
DOM Requirements for DOM Level 3in
Document Object Style Sheetsin
Document Object Model Traversalin
Document Object Model Rangein