Project

General

Profile

1
<!--
2
  * domapi.html
3
  *
4
  *      Authors: Jivka Bojilova
5
  *    Copyright: 2000 Regents of the University of California and the
6
  *               National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
7
  *  For Details: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/
8
  *      Created: 2000 April 5
9
  *      Version: 0.01
10
  *    File Info: '$Id: domapi.html 3780 2008-04-02 23:28:31Z daigle $'
11
  * 
12
  * October Meeting SDSC, 2000
13
-->
14
<HTML>
15
<HEAD>
16
<TITLE>Metacat</TITLE>
17
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./default.css">
18
</HEAD> 
19
<BODY>
20
  <table width="100%">
21
    <tr>
22
      <td class="tablehead" colspan="2"><p class="label">Document Object
23
      Model (DOM)</p></td>
24
      <td class="tablehead" colspan="2" align="right">
25
        <a href="./xmltree.html">Back</a> | <a href="./metacattour.html">Home</a> | 
26
        <a href="./metacat.html">Next</a>
27
      </td>
28
    </tr>
29
  </table>
30
  
31
  <P> The Document Object Model (DOM) is an 
32
  application programming interface (API) that defines the logical structure 
33
  of HTML and XML documents. It provides interfaces for accessing and 
34
  manipulating of documents. With DOM, programmers can build documents, 
35
  navigate their structure, and add, modify, or delete elements and content. 
36
  Anything found in an HTML or XML document can be accessed, changed, deleted, 
37
  or added using DOM. The DOM presents documents as a hierarchy of 
38
  Node objects.
39
  <P> <img alt="tree representation of the DOM API" src="domapi.gif">
40
  <P> The name "Document Object Model" was chosen because it is an 
41
  "object model" in the traditional object oriented design sense: documents 
42
  are modeled using objects, and the model encompasses not only the structure 
43
  of a document, but also the behavior of a document and the objects of which 
44
  it is composed. In other words, the nodes in the above diagram do not 
45
  represent a data structure, they represent objects, which have functions 
46
  and identity. As an object model, the DOM identifies:<br>
47
  <ul>
48
    <li>the interfaces and objects used to represent and manipulate a document</li>
49
    <li>the semantics of these interfaces and objects - including both behavior 
50
    and attributes </li>
51
    <li>the relationships and collaborations among these interfaces and 
52
    objects</li> 
53
  </ul>
54
  <P> The DOM specifies interfaces which may be used to manage XML or HTML 
55
  documents. It is important to realize that these interfaces are an abstraction 
56
  - much like "abstract base classes" in C++, they are a means of specifying a 
57
  way to access and manipulate an application's internal representation of a 
58
  document. Interfaces do not imply a particular concrete implementation. 
59
  <b>Each DOM application is free to maintain documents in any convenient 
60
  representation, as long as the interfaces shown in this specification are 
61
  supported. </b>
62
  <P> The DOM is designed to be used with any programming language. In order 
63
  to provide a precise, language-independent specification of the DOM 
64
  interfaces, W3C have chosen to define the specifications in Object Management 
65
  Group (OMG) IDL [OMGIDL]. They provide language bindings for Java [Java] and 
66
  ECMAScript [ECMAScript] (an industry-standard scripting language based on 
67
  JavaScript [JavaScript] and JScript [JScript]).
68

    
69
  <br>
70
  <a href="./xmltree.html">Back</a> | <a href="./metacattour.html">Home</a> | 
71
  <a href="./metacat.html">Next</a>
72
  
73
</BODY>
74
</HTML>
75

    
(13-13/65)