Node interface is the primary datatype for the entire
* Document Object Model. It represents a single node in the document tree.
* While all objects implementing the Node interface expose
* methods for dealing with children, not all objects implementing the
* Node interface may have children. For example,
* Text nodes may not have children, and adding children to
* such nodes results in a DOMException being raised.
* The attributes nodeName, nodeValue and
* attributes are included as a mechanism to get at node
* information without casting down to the specific derived interface. In
* cases where there is no obvious mapping of these attributes for a
* specific nodeType (e.g., nodeValue for an
* Element or attributes for a Comment
* ), this returns null. Note that the specialized interfaces
* may contain additional and more convenient mechanisms to get and set the
* relevant information.
*
The values of nodeName,
* nodeValue, and attributes vary according to the
* node type as follows:
*
| Interface | *nodeName | *nodeValue | *attributes | *
|---|---|---|---|
* Attr |
* same as Attr.name |
* same as
* Attr.value |
* null |
*
CDATASection |
*
* "#cdata-section" |
* same as CharacterData.data, the
* content of the CDATA Section |
* null |
*
Comment |
*
* "#comment" |
* same as CharacterData.data, the
* content of the comment |
* null |
*
Document |
*
* "#document" |
* null |
* null |
*
* DocumentFragment |
* "#document-fragment" |
*
* null |
* null |
*
DocumentType |
* same as
* DocumentType.name |
* null |
* null |
*
* Element |
* same as Element.tagName |
* null |
*
* NamedNodeMap |
*
Entity |
* entity name | *null |
*
* null |
*
EntityReference |
* name of entity referenced | *
* null |
* null |
*
Notation |
* notation name | *
* null |
* null |
*
ProcessingInstruction |
* same
* as ProcessingInstruction.target |
* same as
* ProcessingInstruction.data |
* null |
*
Text |
*
* "#text" |
* same as CharacterData.data, the content
* of the text node |
* null |
*
See also the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification.
*/
public interface Node {
// NodeType
/**
* The node is an Element.
*/
public static final short ELEMENT_NODE = 1;
/**
* The node is an Attr.
*/
public static final short ATTRIBUTE_NODE = 2;
/**
* The node is a Text node.
*/
public static final short TEXT_NODE = 3;
/**
* The node is a CDATASection.
*/
public static final short CDATA_SECTION_NODE = 4;
/**
* The node is an EntityReference.
*/
public static final short ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE = 5;
/**
* The node is an Entity.
*/
public static final short ENTITY_NODE = 6;
/**
* The node is a ProcessingInstruction.
*/
public static final short PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE = 7;
/**
* The node is a Comment.
*/
public static final short COMMENT_NODE = 8;
/**
* The node is a Document.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_NODE = 9;
/**
* The node is a DocumentType.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE = 10;
/**
* The node is a DocumentFragment.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE = 11;
/**
* The node is a Notation.
*/
public static final short NOTATION_NODE = 12;
/**
* The name of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
*/
public String getNodeName();
/**
* The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
* When it is defined to be null, setting it has no effect,
* including if the node is read-only.
* @exception DOMException
* DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return more characters than
* fit in a DOMString variable on the implementation
* platform.
*/
public String getNodeValue()
throws DOMException;
/**
* The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
* When it is defined to be null, setting it has no effect,
* including if the node is read-only.
* @exception DOMException
* NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly and if
* it is not defined to be null.
*/
public void setNodeValue(String nodeValue)
throws DOMException;
/**
* A code representing the type of the underlying object, as defined above.
*/
public short getNodeType();
/**
* The parent of this node. All nodes, except Attr,
* Document, DocumentFragment,
* Entity, and Notation may have a parent.
* However, if a node has just been created and not yet added to the
* tree, or if it has been removed from the tree, this is
* null.
*/
public Node getParentNode();
/**
* A NodeList that contains all children of this node. If
* there are no children, this is a NodeList containing no
* nodes.
*/
public NodeList getChildNodes();
/**
* The first child of this node. If there is no such node, this returns
* null.
*/
public Node getFirstChild();
/**
* The last child of this node. If there is no such node, this returns
* null.
*/
public Node getLastChild();
/**
* The node immediately preceding this node. If there is no such node,
* this returns null.
*/
public Node getPreviousSibling();
/**
* The node immediately following this node. If there is no such node,
* this returns null.
*/
public Node getNextSibling();
/**
* A NamedNodeMap containing the attributes of this node (if
* it is an Element) or null otherwise.
*/
public NamedNodeMap getAttributes();
/**
* The Document object associated with this node. This is
* also the Document object used to create new nodes. When
* this node is a Document or a DocumentType
* which is not used with any Document yet, this is
* null.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 2
*/
public Document getOwnerDocument();
/**
* Inserts the node newChild before the existing child node
* refChild. If refChild is null,
* insert newChild at the end of the list of children.
*
If newChild is a DocumentFragment object,
* all of its children are inserted, in the same order, before
* refChild. If the newChild is already in the
* tree, it is first removed.
*
Note: Inserting a node before itself is implementation
* dependent.
* @param newChild The node to insert.
* @param refChild The reference node, i.e., the node before which the
* new node must be inserted.
* @return The node being inserted.
* @exception DOMException
* HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is of a type that does not
* allow children of the type of the newChild node, or if
* the node to insert is one of this node's ancestors or this node
* itself, or if this node is of type Document and the
* DOM application attempts to insert a second
* DocumentType or Element node.
*
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newChild was created
* from a different document than the one that created this node.
*
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly or
* if the parent of the node being inserted is readonly.
*
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if refChild is not a child of
* this node.
*
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: if this node is of type Document,
* this exception might be raised if the DOM implementation doesn't
* support the insertion of a DocumentType or
* Element node.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 3
*/
public Node insertBefore(Node newChild,
Node refChild)
throws DOMException;
/**
* Replaces the child node oldChild with newChild
* in the list of children, and returns the oldChild node.
*
If newChild is a DocumentFragment object,
* oldChild is replaced by all of the
* DocumentFragment children, which are inserted in the
* same order. If the newChild is already in the tree, it
* is first removed.
*
Note: Replacing a node with itself is implementation
* dependent.
* @param newChild The new node to put in the child list.
* @param oldChild The node being replaced in the list.
* @return The node replaced.
* @exception DOMException
* HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is of a type that does not
* allow children of the type of the newChild node, or if
* the node to put in is one of this node's ancestors or this node
* itself, or if this node is of type Document and the
* result of the replacement operation would add a second
* DocumentType or Element on the
* Document node.
*
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newChild was created
* from a different document than the one that created this node.
*
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node or the parent of
* the new node is readonly.
*
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if oldChild is not a child of
* this node.
*
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: if this node is of type Document,
* this exception might be raised if the DOM implementation doesn't
* support the replacement of the DocumentType child or
* Element child.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 3
*/
public Node replaceChild(Node newChild,
Node oldChild)
throws DOMException;
/**
* Removes the child node indicated by oldChild from the list
* of children, and returns it.
* @param oldChild The node being removed.
* @return The node removed.
* @exception DOMException
* NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
*
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if oldChild is not a child of
* this node.
*
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: if this node is of type Document,
* this exception might be raised if the DOM implementation doesn't
* support the removal of the DocumentType child or the
* Element child.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 3
*/
public Node removeChild(Node oldChild)
throws DOMException;
/**
* Adds the node newChild to the end of the list of children
* of this node. If the newChild is already in the tree, it
* is first removed.
* @param newChild The node to add.If it is a
* DocumentFragment object, the entire contents of the
* document fragment are moved into the child list of this node
* @return The node added.
* @exception DOMException
* HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is of a type that does not
* allow children of the type of the newChild node, or if
* the node to append is one of this node's ancestors or this node
* itself, or if this node is of type Document and the
* DOM application attempts to append a second
* DocumentType or Element node.
*
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newChild was created
* from a different document than the one that created this node.
*
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly or
* if the previous parent of the node being inserted is readonly.
*
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: if the newChild node is a child
* of the Document node, this exception might be raised
* if the DOM implementation doesn't support the removal of the
* DocumentType child or Element child.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 3
*/
public Node appendChild(Node newChild)
throws DOMException;
/**
* Returns whether this node has any children.
* @return Returns true if this node has any children,
* false otherwise.
*/
public boolean hasChildNodes();
/**
* Returns a duplicate of this node, i.e., serves as a generic copy
* constructor for nodes. The duplicate node has no parent (
* parentNode is null) and no user data. User
* data associated to the imported node is not carried over. However, if
* any UserDataHandlers has been specified along with the
* associated data these handlers will be called with the appropriate
* parameters before this method returns.
*
Cloning an Element copies all attributes and their
* values, including those generated by the XML processor to represent
* defaulted attributes, but this method does not copy any children it
* contains unless it is a deep clone. This includes text contained in
* an the Element since the text is contained in a child
* Text node. Cloning an Attr directly, as
* opposed to be cloned as part of an Element cloning
* operation, returns a specified attribute (specified is
* true). Cloning an Attr always clones its
* children, since they represent its value, no matter whether this is a
* deep clone or not. Cloning an EntityReference
* automatically constructs its subtree if a corresponding
* Entity is available, no matter whether this is a deep
* clone or not. Cloning any other type of node simply returns a copy of
* this node.
*
Note that cloning an immutable subtree results in a mutable copy,
* but the children of an EntityReference clone are readonly
* . In addition, clones of unspecified Attr nodes are
* specified. And, cloning Document,
* DocumentType, Entity, and
* Notation nodes is implementation dependent.
* @param deep If true, recursively clone the subtree under
* the specified node; if false, clone only the node
* itself (and its attributes, if it is an Element).
* @return The duplicate node.
*/
public Node cloneNode(boolean deep);
/**
* Puts all Text nodes in the full depth of the sub-tree
* underneath this Node, including attribute nodes, into a
* "normal" form where only structure (e.g., elements, comments,
* processing instructions, CDATA sections, and entity references)
* separates Text nodes, i.e., there are neither adjacent
* Text nodes nor empty Text nodes. This can
* be used to ensure that the DOM view of a document is the same as if
* it were saved and re-loaded, and is useful when operations (such as
* XPointer [XPointer]
* lookups) that depend on a particular document tree structure are to
* be used. If the parameter "normalize-characters" of the
* DOMConfiguration object attached to the
* Node.ownerDocument is true, this method
* will also fully normalize the characters of the Text
* nodes.
*
Note: In cases where the document contains
* CDATASections, the normalize operation alone may not be
* sufficient, since XPointers do not differentiate between
* Text nodes and CDATASection nodes.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 3
*/
public void normalize();
/**
* Tests whether the DOM implementation implements a specific feature and
* that feature is supported by this node, as specified in .
* @param feature The name of the feature to test.
* @param version This is the version number of the feature to test.
* @return Returns true if the specified feature is
* supported on this node, false otherwise.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 2
*/
public boolean isSupported(String feature,
String version);
/**
* The namespace URI of this node, or null if it is
* unspecified (see ).
*
This is not a computed value that is the result of a namespace
* lookup based on an examination of the namespace declarations in
* scope. It is merely the namespace URI given at creation time.
*
For nodes of any type other than ELEMENT_NODE and
* ATTRIBUTE_NODE and nodes created with a DOM Level 1
* method, such as Document.createElement(), this is always
* null.
*
Note: Per the Namespaces in XML Specification [XML Namespaces]
* an attribute does not inherit its namespace from the element it is
* attached to. If an attribute is not explicitly given a namespace, it
* simply has no namespace.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 2
*/
public String getNamespaceURI();
/**
* The namespace prefix of this node, or null if it is
* unspecified. When it is defined to be null, setting it
* has no effect, including if the node is read-only.
*
Note that setting this attribute, when permitted, changes the
* nodeName attribute, which holds the qualified name, as
* well as the tagName and name attributes of
* the Element and Attr interfaces, when
* applicable.
*
Setting the prefix to null makes it unspecified,
* setting it to an empty string is implementation dependent.
*
Note also that changing the prefix of an attribute that is known to
* have a default value, does not make a new attribute with the default
* value and the original prefix appear, since the
* namespaceURI and localName do not change.
*
For nodes of any type other than ELEMENT_NODE and
* ATTRIBUTE_NODE and nodes created with a DOM Level 1
* method, such as createElement from the
* Document interface, this is always null.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 2
*/
public String getPrefix();
/**
* The namespace prefix of this node, or null if it is
* unspecified. When it is defined to be null, setting it
* has no effect, including if the node is read-only.
*
Note that setting this attribute, when permitted, changes the
* nodeName attribute, which holds the qualified name, as
* well as the tagName and name attributes of
* the Element and Attr interfaces, when
* applicable.
*
Setting the prefix to null makes it unspecified,
* setting it to an empty string is implementation dependent.
*
Note also that changing the prefix of an attribute that is known to
* have a default value, does not make a new attribute with the default
* value and the original prefix appear, since the
* namespaceURI and localName do not change.
*
For nodes of any type other than ELEMENT_NODE and
* ATTRIBUTE_NODE and nodes created with a DOM Level 1
* method, such as createElement from the
* Document interface, this is always null.
* @exception DOMException
* INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified prefix contains an
* illegal character according to the XML version in use specified in
* the Document.xmlVersion attribute.
*
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
*
NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the specified prefix is
* malformed per the Namespaces in XML specification, if the
* namespaceURI of this node is null, if the
* specified prefix is "xml" and the namespaceURI of this
* node is different from "
* http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace", if this node is an attribute and the specified prefix is "xmlns" and
* the namespaceURI of this node is different from "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/", or if this node is an attribute and the qualifiedName of
* this node is "xmlns" [XML Namespaces]
* .
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 2
*/
public void setPrefix(String prefix)
throws DOMException;
/**
* Returns the local part of the qualified name of this node.
*
For nodes of any type other than ELEMENT_NODE and
* ATTRIBUTE_NODE and nodes created with a DOM Level 1
* method, such as Document.createElement(), this is always
* null.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 2
*/
public String getLocalName();
/**
* Returns whether this node (if it is an element) has any attributes.
* @return Returns true if this node has any attributes,
* false otherwise.
*
* @since 1.4, DOM Level 2
*/
public boolean hasAttributes();
/**
* The absolute base URI of this node or null if the
* implementation wasn't able to obtain an absolute URI. This value is
* computed as described in . However, when the Document
* supports the feature "HTML" [DOM Level 2 HTML]
* , the base URI is computed using first the value of the href
* attribute of the HTML BASE element if any, and the value of the
* documentURI attribute from the Document
* interface otherwise.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public String getBaseURI();
// DocumentPosition
/**
* The two nodes are disconnected. Order between disconnected nodes is
* always implementation-specific.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED = 0x01;
/**
* The second node precedes the reference node.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING = 0x02;
/**
* The node follows the reference node.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING = 0x04;
/**
* The node contains the reference node. A node which contains is always
* preceding, too.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS = 0x08;
/**
* The node is contained by the reference node. A node which is contained
* is always following, too.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY = 0x10;
/**
* The determination of preceding versus following is
* implementation-specific.
*/
public static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC = 0x20;
/**
* Compares the reference node, i.e. the node on which this method is
* being called, with a node, i.e. the one passed as a parameter, with
* regard to their position in the document and according to the
* document order.
* @param other The node to compare against the reference node.
* @return Returns how the node is positioned relatively to the reference
* node.
* @exception DOMException
* NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: when the compared nodes are from different DOM
* implementations that do not coordinate to return consistent
* implementation-specific results.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public short compareDocumentPosition(Node other)
throws DOMException;
/**
* This attribute returns the text content of this node and its
* descendants. When it is defined to be null, setting it
* has no effect. On setting, any possible children this node may have
* are removed and, if it the new string is not empty or
* null, replaced by a single Text node
* containing the string this attribute is set to.
*
On getting, no serialization is performed, the returned string
* does not contain any markup. No whitespace normalization is performed
* and the returned string does not contain the white spaces in element
* content (see the attribute
* Text.isElementContentWhitespace). Similarly, on setting,
* no parsing is performed either, the input string is taken as pure
* textual content.
*
The string returned is made of the text content of this node
* depending on its type, as defined below:
*
| Node type | *Content | *
|---|---|
| * ELEMENT_NODE, ATTRIBUTE_NODE, ENTITY_NODE, ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE, * DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE | *concatenation of the textContent
* attribute value of every child node, excluding COMMENT_NODE and
* PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE nodes. This is the empty string if the
* node has no children. |
*
| TEXT_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, * PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE | *nodeValue |
*
| DOCUMENT_NODE, * DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE, NOTATION_NODE | *null | *
DOMString variable on the implementation
* platform.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public String getTextContent()
throws DOMException;
/**
* This attribute returns the text content of this node and its
* descendants. When it is defined to be null, setting it
* has no effect. On setting, any possible children this node may have
* are removed and, if it the new string is not empty or
* null, replaced by a single Text node
* containing the string this attribute is set to.
* Text.isElementContentWhitespace). Similarly, on setting,
* no parsing is performed either, the input string is taken as pure
* textual content.
* | Node type | *Content | *
|---|---|
| * ELEMENT_NODE, ATTRIBUTE_NODE, ENTITY_NODE, ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE, * DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE | *concatenation of the textContent
* attribute value of every child node, excluding COMMENT_NODE and
* PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE nodes. This is the empty string if the
* node has no children. |
*
| TEXT_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, * PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE | *nodeValue |
*
| DOCUMENT_NODE, * DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE, NOTATION_NODE | *null | *
Node references returned by the implementation reference
* the same object. When two Node references are references
* to the same object, even if through a proxy, the references may be
* used completely interchangeably, such that all attributes have the
* same values and calling the same DOM method on either reference
* always has exactly the same effect.
* @param other The node to test against.
* @return Returns true if the nodes are the same,
* false otherwise.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public boolean isSameNode(Node other);
/**
* Look up the prefix associated to the given namespace URI, starting from
* this node. The default namespace declarations are ignored by this
* method.
* null if none is found. If more than one prefix are
* associated to the namespace prefix, the returned namespace prefix
* is implementation dependent.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public String lookupPrefix(String namespaceURI);
/**
* This method checks if the specified namespaceURI is the
* default namespace or not.
* @param namespaceURI The namespace URI to look for.
* @return Returns true if the specified
* namespaceURI is the default namespace,
* false otherwise.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public boolean isDefaultNamespace(String namespaceURI);
/**
* Look up the namespace URI associated to the given prefix, starting from
* this node.
* null, the method will return the default namespace URI
* if any.
* @return Returns the associated namespace URI or null if
* none is found.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public String lookupNamespaceURI(String prefix);
/**
* Tests whether two nodes are equal.
* Node.isSameNode(). All nodes that are the
* same will also be equal, though the reverse may not be true.
* nodeName, localName,
* namespaceURI, prefix, nodeValue
* . This is: they are both null, or they have the same
* length and are character for character identical.
* attributes NamedNodeMaps are equal. This
* is: they are both null, or they have the same length and
* for each node that exists in one map there is a node that exists in
* the other map and is equal, although not necessarily at the same
* index.
* childNodes NodeLists are equal.
* This is: they are both null, or they have the same
* length and contain equal nodes at the same index. Note that
* normalization can affect equality; to avoid this, nodes should be
* normalized before being compared.
* DocumentType nodes to be equal, the following
* conditions must also be satisfied:
* publicId, systemId,
* internalSubset.
* entities
* NamedNodeMaps are equal.
* notations
* NamedNodeMaps are equal.
* ownerDocument, baseURI, and
* parentNode attributes, the specified
* attribute for Attr nodes, the schemaTypeInfo
* attribute for Attr and Element nodes, the
* Text.isElementContentWhitespace attribute for
* Text nodes, as well as any user data or event listeners
* registered on the nodes.
* Note: As a general rule, anything not mentioned in the
* description above is not significant in consideration of equality
* checking. Note that future versions of this specification may take
* into account more attributes and implementations conform to this
* specification are expected to be updated accordingly.
* @param arg The node to compare equality with.
* @return Returns true if the nodes are equal,
* false otherwise.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public boolean isEqualNode(Node arg);
/**
* This method returns a specialized object which implements the
* specialized APIs of the specified feature and version, as specified
* in . The specialized object may also be obtained by using
* binding-specific casting methods but is not necessarily expected to,
* as discussed in . This method also allow the implementation to
* provide specialized objects which do not support the Node
* interface.
* @param feature The name of the feature requested. Note that any plus
* sign "+" prepended to the name of the feature will be ignored since
* it is not significant in the context of this method.
* @param version This is the version number of the feature to test.
* @return Returns an object which implements the specialized APIs of
* the specified feature and version, if any, or null if
* there is no object which implements interfaces associated with that
* feature. If the DOMObject returned by this method
* implements the Node interface, it must delegate to the
* primary core Node and not return results inconsistent
* with the primary core Node such as attributes,
* childNodes, etc.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public Object getFeature(String feature,
String version);
/**
* Associate an object to a key on this node. The object can later be
* retrieved from this node by calling getUserData with the
* same key.
* @param key The key to associate the object to.
* @param data The object to associate to the given key, or
* null to remove any existing association to that key.
* @param handler The handler to associate to that key, or
* null.
* @return Returns the DOMUserData previously associated to
* the given key on this node, or null if there was none.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public Object setUserData(String key,
Object data,
UserDataHandler handler);
/**
* Retrieves the object associated to a key on a this node. The object
* must first have been set to this node by calling
* setUserData with the same key.
* @param key The key the object is associated to.
* @return Returns the DOMUserData associated to the given
* key on this node, or null if there was none.
*
* @since 1.5, DOM Level 3
*/
public Object getUserData(String key);
}