DOM Element Reference

This chapter provides a brief reference for all of the methods, properties, and events available to all HTML and XML elements in the Netscape 6 DOM.

These DOM interfaces cross the various specification levels, but tend to concentrate on the published DOM Level 2 HTML recommendation. Each member includes a link to the appropriate place in the W3C DOM specifications.

DOM Elements Interface

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In this case, Elements refers to the interface that all HTML and XML elements have available to them from the DOM. There are more specialized interfaces for particular objects-the BODY element, for example, has extra functions and properties you can use, as do tables. This chapter refers to the interface that all elements share.

Properties

attributes	Returns an array of the attributes on the element.
childNodes	Returns an array of the child nodes on the element.
className	Gets/sets the class of the element.
dir	Gets/sets the directionality of the element.
firstChild	Returns the first direct child of the current node.
id	Gets/sets the id of the current element.
innerHTML	innerHTML returns all of the markup and content within a given element.
lang	Specifies the base language of an element's attribute values and text content.
lastChild	Returns the last child of the current node.
length	Returns the number of items in a list (e.g. childNodes).
localName	localName returns the local part of the qualified name of this node.
namespaceURI	The namespace URI of this node, or NULL if it is unspecified.
nextSibling	Returns the node immediately following the current one in the tree.
nodeName	Returns the name of the current node.
nodeType	Returns the type of the current node.
nodeValue	Returns the value of the current node.
offsetHeight	offsetHeight gets the number of pixels that the current element is offset within the offsetParent node
offsetLeft	offsetLeft gets/sets the number of pixels that the current element is offset to the left within the offsetParent node.
offsetParent	offsetParent returns a reference to the object in which the current element is offset (i.e., the parent element).
offsetTop	offsetTop returns the position of the current element relative to the top of the offsetParent node.
offsetWidth	offsetWidth gets the number of pixels that the current element is offset within the offsetParent node.
ownerDocument	Returns the document in which this node appears.
parentNode	Returns the parent node of the current node.
prefix	prefix returns the namespace prefix of the current node, or NULL if it is unspecified.
previousSibling	Returns the node immediately previous to the current one in the tree.
style	style returns the block of style rules on the current element.
tabIndex	Gets/sets the position of the element in the tabbing order.
tagName	tagName returns the name of the element.
title	title returns the title of the document.

Methods

addEventListener	addEventListener allows the registration of event listeners on the event target.
appendChild	The appendChild method inserts the specified node into the list of nodes on the current document.
blur	The blur method removes keyboard focus from the current element.
click	The click method excecutes a click on the current element.
cloneNode	The cloneNode method returns a duplicate of the current node.
dispatchEvent	The dispatchEvent method allows the dispatch of events into the implementation's event model.
focus	focus sets focus on the current element.
getAttribute	getAttribute returns the value of the named attribute on the current node.
getAttributeNS	getAttributeNS returns the value of the attribute with the given name and namespace.
getAttributeNode	Returns the attribute of the current element as a separate node.
getElementsByTagName	Returns the elements of a particular name that are children of the current element.
hasAttribute	hasAttribute returns a boolean value indicating whether the current element has the specified attribute or not.
hasAttributeNS	hasAttribute is a boolean value indicating whether the current element has an attribute with the specified name and namespace.
hasChildNodes	hasChildNodes is a boolean value indicating whether the current element has children or not.
insertBefore	The insertBefore method allows you to insert a node before the current element in the DOM.
item	The item method retrieves a node from the tree by index.
normalize	The normalize method puts the current node and all of its subtree into a "normalized" form (see below).
removeAttribute	The removeAttribute() method removes an attribute from the current element.
removeAttributeNode	removeAttributeNode removes the specified attribute from the current element.
removeChild	The removeChild() method removes a child node from the current element.
removeEventListener	removeEventListener() allows the removal of event listeners from the event target.
replaceChild	The replaceChild() method replaces one child node on the current element with another.
setAttribute	setAttribute adds a new attribute or changes the value of an existing attribute on the current element.
setAttributeNS	setAttributeNS adds a new attribute or changes the value of an attribute with the given namespace and name.
setAttributeNode	setAttributeNode adds a new attribute node to the current element.
supports	The supports method tests if this DOM implementation supports a particular feature.

Event Handlers

These element properties cannot be assigned to in the way that the event handlers on the document and window objects can. All of the folllowing event handler properties are read-only, and are made to return the event handling code, if any, that has already been added to the element in the HTML or XML itself.

onblur	Returns the event handling code for the blur event.
onclick	Returns the event handling code for the click event.
ondblclick	Returns the event handling code for the dblclick event.
onfocus	Returns the event handling code for the focus event.
onkeydown	Returns the event handling code for the keydown event.
onkeypress	Returns the event handling code for the keypress event.
onkeyup	Returns the event handling code for the keyup event.
onmousedown	Returns the event handling code for the mousedown event.
onmousemove	Returns the event handling code for the mousemove event.
onmouseout	Returns the event handling code for the mouseout event.
onmouseover	Returns the event handling code for the mouseover event.
onmouseup	Returns the event handling code for the mouseup event.
onresize	Returns the event handling code for the resize event.