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<!--
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  * domapi.html
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  *
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  *      Authors: Jivka Bojilova
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  *    Copyright: 2000 Regents of the University of California and the
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  *               National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
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  *  For Details: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/
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  *      Created: 2000 April 5
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  *      Version: 0.01
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  *    File Info: '$Id: domapi.html 878 2001-12-18 18:11:42Z berkley $'
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  * 
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  * October Meeting SDSC, 2000
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<HTML>
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<TITLE>Metacat</TITLE>
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<BODY>
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  <table width="100%">
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    <tr>
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      <td class="tablehead" colspan="2"><p class="label">Document Object
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      Model (DOM)</p></td>
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        <a href="./xmltree.html">Back</a> | <a href="./metacattour.html">Home</a> | 
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  <P> The Document Object Model (DOM) is an 
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  application programming interface (API) that defines the logical structure 
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  of HTML and XML documents. It provides interfaces for accessing and 
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  manipulating of documents. With DOM, programmers can build documents, 
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  navigate their structure, and add, modify, or delete elements and content. 
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  Anything found in an HTML or XML document can be accessed, changed, deleted, 
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  or added using DOM. The DOM presents documents as a hierarchy of 
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  Node objects.
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  <P> <img alt="tree representation of the DOM API" src="domapi.gif">
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  <P> The name "Document Object Model" was chosen because it is an 
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  "object model" in the traditional object oriented design sense: documents 
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  are modeled using objects, and the model encompasses not only the structure 
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  of a document, but also the behavior of a document and the objects of which 
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  it is composed. In other words, the nodes in the above diagram do not 
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  represent a data structure, they represent objects, which have functions 
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  and identity. As an object model, the DOM identifies:<br>
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  <ul>
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    <li>the interfaces and objects used to represent and manipulate a document</li>
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    <li>the semantics of these interfaces and objects - including both behavior 
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    and attributes </li>
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    <li>the relationships and collaborations among these interfaces and 
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    objects</li> 
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  </ul>
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  <P> The DOM specifies interfaces which may be used to manage XML or HTML 
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  documents. It is important to realize that these interfaces are an abstraction 
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  - much like "abstract base classes" in C++, they are a means of specifying a 
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  way to access and manipulate an application's internal representation of a 
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  document. Interfaces do not imply a particular concrete implementation. 
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  <b>Each DOM application is free to maintain documents in any convenient 
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  representation, as long as the interfaces shown in this specification are 
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  supported. </b>
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  <P> The DOM is designed to be used with any programming language. In order 
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  to provide a precise, language-independent specification of the DOM 
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  interfaces, W3C have chosen to define the specifications in Object Management 
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  Group (OMG) IDL [OMGIDL]. They provide language bindings for Java [Java] and 
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  ECMAScript [ECMAScript] (an industry-standard scripting language based on 
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  JavaScript [JavaScript] and JScript [JScript]).
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