Tech Stuff - DOM Node Interface Reference

Describes methods and Properties (attributes) of the Node Interface. W3C Reference.

Node Interface

Within the DOM a document is the highest level of organization. A document is simply a collection of Nodes whose identity (and therefore the total set of methods and attributes offered by any node) is determined by its nodeType. Thus, every Node offers the basic set of methods and attributes described here and depending on its nodeType may offer additional methods and attributes. Nodes are returned by most methods of the document object (either by finding or creating them) and when traversing the DOM using Node attributes.

Methods

A Node provides the following methods:

appendChild
cloneNode
hasAttributes
hasChildNodes
insertBefore
isSupported
normalize
removeChild
replaceChild

Attributes

A Node provides the following attributes:

attributes
childNodes
firstChild
lastChild
localName
namespaceURI
nextSibling
nodeName
nodeType
nodeValue
ownerDocument parentNode
prefix previousSibling

Examples:

# create a HTMLElement - which is also a Node
paranode = document.createElement("p");

# paranode supports both Node and HTMLELement methods
# attributes

# obtain a node and traverse DOM
node = document.getElementById("one");
nextnode = node.nextSibling;
firstnode = node.firstChild;
if(nextnode.nodeType == "1"){ // HTML Element?
 if(nextnode.className == "my class"){
   // gotcha
 }
}

# node, nextnode and firstnode all support
# Node methods and attributes
# and may, depending on nodeType support other methods
# and attributes

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