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menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 History 2 Standards 3 Applications Toggle Applications subsection 3.1 Web browsers 3.2 JavaScript 4 DOM tree structure Toggle DOM tree structure subsection 4.1 Elements as nodes 4.2 Text nodes 4.3 Attributes as properties 5 Manipulating the DOM tree 6 Implementations Toggle Implementations subsection 6.1 Layout engines 6.2 Libraries 7 See also 8 References Toggle References subsection 8.1 General references 9 External links Toggle the table of contents Document Object Model 44 languages Afrikaans العربية Български Català کوردی Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Eesti Euskara فارسی Suomi Français Nordfriisk עברית Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Italiano 日本語 한국어 Македонски മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Nederlands Norsk nynorsk Norsk bokmål Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Slovenčina Shqip Српски / srpski Svenska தமிழ் ไทย Türkmençe Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 粵語 中文 Edit links Article Talk English Read Edit View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read Edit View history General What links here Related changes Upload file Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Switch to legacy parser Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Computer document convention All versioning refers to W3C DOM only.</ref>"},"version_date":{"wt":"{{Start date and age|2015|11|19}}"},"preview":{"wt":""},"preview_date":{"wt":""},"organization":{"wt":"[[World Wide Web Consortium]], [[WHATWG]]"},"committee":{"wt":""},"editors":{"wt":""},"authors":{"wt":""},"base_standards":{"wt":"[https://dom.spec.whatwg.org/ WHATWG DOM Living Standard]<br />[https://www.w3.org/TR/dom/ W3C DOM4]"},"related_standards":{"wt":""},"abbreviation":{"wt":"DOM"},"domain":{"wt":""},"license":{"wt":""}},"i":0}}]}'> Document Object Model (DOM) Example of DOM hierarchy in an HTML document AbbreviationDOM Latest versionDOM4[1] November 19, 2015; 10 years ago (2015-11-19) OrganizationWorld Wide Web Consortium, WHATWG Base standardsWHATWG DOM Living Standard W3C DOM4 HTML HTML and variants Dynamic HTML HTML5 XHTML Basic Mobile Profile HTML elements and attributes HTML element article audio blink canvas div and span marquee meta video HTML attribute alt attribute HTML frame Editing HTML editor Text editor Character encodings and language Character encodings Character entity references (named characters) Unicode Language code Document and browser models Document Object Model Browser Object Model Style sheets CSS Font family Web colors Client-side scripting and APIs JavaScript WebCL HTMX Graphics and Web3D technology Web3D WebGL WebGPU WebXR W3C Validator WHATWG Quirks mode Web storage Rendering engine Comparisons Document markup languages Comparison of browser engines v t e The Document Object Model (DOM) is a cross-platform[2] and language-independent API that treats an HTML or XML document as a tree structure wherein each node is an object representing a part of the document. The DOM represents a document with a logical tree. Each branch of the tree ends in a node, and each node contains objects. DOM methods allow programmatic access to the tree; with them one can change the structure, style or content of a document.[2] Nodes can have event handlers (also known as event listeners) attached to them. Once an event is triggered, the event handlers get executed.[3] The principal standardization of the DOM was handled by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which last developed a recommendation in 2004. WHATWG took over the development of the standard, publishing it as a living document. The W3C now publishes stable snapshots of the WHATWG standard. In HTML DOM (Document Object Model), every element is a node[clarification needed]:[4] A document is a document node. All HTML elements are element nodes. All HTML attributes are attribute nodes. Text inserted into HTML elements are text nodes. Comments are comment nodes. History [edit] The history of the Document Object Model is intertwined with the history of the "browser wars" of the late 1990s between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, as well as with that of JavaScript and JScript, the first scripting languages to be widely implemented in the JavaScript engines of web browsers.[citation needed] JavaScript was released by Netscape Communications in 1995 within Netscape Navigator 2.0. Netscape's competitor, Microsoft, released Internet Explorer 3.0 the following year with a reimplementation of JavaScript called JScript. JavaScript and JScript let web developers create web pages with client-side interactivity. The limited facilities for detecting user-generated events and modifying the HTML document in the first generation of these languages eventually became known as "DOM Level 0" or "Legacy DOM." No independent standard was developed for DOM Level 0, but it was partly described in the specifications for HTML 4. Legacy DOM was limited in the kinds of elements that could be accessed. Form, link and image elements could be referenced with a hierarchical name that began with the root document object. A hierarchical name could make use of either the names or the sequential index of the traversed elements. For example, a form input element could be accessed as either document.myForm.myInput or document.forms[0].elements[0]. The Legacy DOM enabled client-side form validation and simple interface interactivity like creating tooltips. In 1997, Netscape and Microsoft released version 4.0 of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer respectively, adding support for Dynamic HTML (DHTML) functionality enabling changes to a loaded HTML document. DHTML required extensions to the rudimentary document object that was available in the Legacy DOM implementations. Although the Legacy DOM implementations were largely compatible since JScript was based on JavaScript, the DHTML DOM extensions were developed in parallel by each browser maker and remained incompatible. These versions of the DOM became known as the "Intermediate DOM". After the standardization of ECMAScript, the W3C DOM Working Group began drafting a standard DOM specification. The completed specification, known as "DOM Level 1", became a W3C Recommendation in late 1998. By 2005, large parts of W3C DOM were well-supported by common ECMAScript-enabled browsers, including Internet Explorer 6 (from 2001), Opera, Safari and Gecko-based browsers (like Mozilla, Firefox, SeaMonkey and Camino). Standards [edit] WHATWG DOM The W3C DOM Working Group published its final recommendation and subsequently disbanded in 2004. Development efforts migrated to the WHATWG, which continues to maintain a living standard.[5] In 2009, the Web Applications group reorganized DOM activities at the W3C.[6] In 2013, due to a lack of progress and the impending release of HTML5, the DOM Level 4 specification was reassigned to the HTML Working Group to expedite its completion.[7] Meanwhile, in 2015, the Web Applications group was disbanded and DOM stewardship passed to the Web Platform group.[8] Beginning with the publication of DOM Level 4 in 2015, the W3C creates new recommendations based on snapshots of the WHATWG standard. DOM Level 1 provided a complete model for an entire HTML or XML document, including the means to change any portion of the document. DOM Level 2 was published in late 2000. It introduced the getElementById function as well as an event model and support for XML namespaces and CSS. DOM Level 3, published in April 2004, added support for XPath and keyboard event handling, as well as an interface for serializing documents as XML. HTML5 was published in October 2014. Part of HTML5 had replaced DOM Level 2 HTML module. DOM Level 4 was published in 2015 and retired in November 2020.[9] DOM 2020-06 was published in September 2021 as a W3C Recommendation.[10] It is a snapshot of the WHATWG living standard. Applications [edit] Web browsers [edit] To render a document such as a HTML page, most web browsers use an internal model similar to the DOM. The nodes of every document are organized in a tree structure, called the DOM tree, with the topmost node named as "Document object". When an HTML page is rendered in browsers, the browser downloads the HTML into local memory and automatically parses it to display the page on screen. However, the DOM does not necessarily need to be represented as a tree,[11] and some browsers have used other internal models.[12] JavaScript [edit] When a web page is loaded, the browser creates a Document Object Model of the page, which is an object oriented representation of an HTML document that acts as an interface between JavaScript and the document itself. This allows the creation of dynamic web pages,[13] because within a page JavaScript can: add, change, and remove any of the HTML elements and attributes change any of the CSS styles react to all the existing events create new events DOM tree structure [edit] A Document Object Model (DOM) tree is a hierarchical representation of an HTML or XML document. It consists of a root node, which is the document itself, and a series of child nodes that represent the elements, attributes, and text content of the document. Each node in the tree has a parent node, except for the root node, and can have multiple child nodes. Elements as nodes [edit] Elements in an HTML or XML document are represented as nodes in the DOM tree. Each element node has a tag name and attributes, and can contain other element nodes or text nodes as children. For example, an HTML document with the following structure: \n <head>\n <title>My Website</title>\n </head>\n <body>\n <h1>Welcome to DOM</h1>\n <p>This is my website.</p>\n </body>\n</html>\n"}}'> <html> <head> <title>My Website</title> </head> <body> <h1>Welcome to DOM</h1> <p>This is my website.</p> </body> </html> will be represented in the DOM tree as: - Document (root) - html - head - title - "My Website" - body - h1 - "Welcome to DOM" - p - "This is my website." Text nodes [edit] Text content within an element is represented as a text node in the DOM tree. Text nodes do not have attributes or child nodes and are therefore always leaf nodes in the tree. For example, the text content "My Website" in the title element and "Welcome" in the h1 element are both represented as text nodes. Attributes as properties [edit] Attributes of an element are represented as properties of the element node in the DOM tree. For example, an element with the following HTML: Link</a>\n"}}'> <a href="https://example.com">Link</a> will be represented in the DOM tree as: - a - href: "https://example.com" - "Link" Manipulating the DOM tree [edit] The DOM tree can be manipulated using JavaScript or other programming languages. Common tasks include navigating the tree, adding, removing, and modifying nodes, and getting and setting the properties of nodes. The DOM API provides a set of methods and properties to perform these operations, such as getElementById, createElement, appendChild, and innerHTML. // Create the root element var root = document.createElement("root"); // Create a child element var child = document.createElement("child"); // Add the child element to the root element root.appendChild(child); Another way to create a DOM structure is using the innerHTML property to insert HTML code as a string, creating the elements and children in the process. For example: </child>\";\n"}}'> document.getElementById("root").innerHTML = "<child></child>"; Another method is to use a JavaScript library or framework such as jQuery, AngularJS, React, Vue.js, Svelte, etc. These libraries provide an efficient way to create, manipulate and interact with the DOM. It is also possible to create a DOM structure from an XML or JSON data, using JavaScript methods to parse the data and create the nodes accordingly. Creating a DOM structure does not necessarily mean that it will be displayed in the web page, it only exists in memory and should be appended to the document body or a specific container to be rendered. In summary, creating a DOM structure involves creating individual nodes and organizing them in a hierarchical structure using JavaScript or other programming languages, and it can be done using several methods depending on the use case and the developer's preference. Implementations [edit] Because the DOM supports navigation in any direction (e.g., parent and previous sibling) and allows for arbitrary modifications, implementations typically buffer the document.[14] However, a DOM need not originate in a serialized document at all, but can be created in place with the DOM API. And even before the idea of the DOM originated, there were implementations of equivalent structure with persistent disk representation and rapid access, for example DynaText's model disclosed in [15] and various database approaches. Layout engines [edit] Web browsers rely on layout engines to parse HTML into a DOM. Some layout engines, such as Trident/MSHTML, are associated primarily or exclusively with a particular browser, such as Internet Explorer. Others, including Blink, WebKit, and Gecko, are shared by a number of browsers, such as Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Firefox. The different layout engines implement the DOM standards to varying degrees of compliance. Libraries [edit] DOM implementations: libxml2 MSXML Xerces is a collection of DOM implementations written in C++, Java and Perl xml.dom for Python XML for <SCRIPT> is a JavaScript-based DOM implementation[16] PHP.Gt DOM is a server-side DOM implementation based on libxml2 and brings DOM level 4 compatibility[17] to the PHP programming language Domino is a Server-side (Node.js) DOM implementation based on Mozilla's dom.js. Domino is used in the MediaWiki stack with Visual Editor. SimpleHtmlDom is a simple HTML document object model in C#, which can generate HTML string programmatically. APIs that expose DOM implementations: JAXP (Java API for XML Processing, org.w3c.dom) is an API for accessing DOM providers Lazarus (Free Pascal IDE) contains two variants of the DOM - with UTF-8 and ANSI format Inspection tools: DOM Inspector is a web developer tool See also [edit] Shadow DOM Virtual DOM References [edit] ↑ All versioning refers to W3C DOM only. 1 2 "Document Object Model (DOM): definition, structure and example". IONOS Digitalguide. Retrieved 2022-04-21. ↑ "Document Object Model (DOM)". W3C. Retrieved 2012-01-12. The Document Object Model is a platform- and language-neutral interface that will allow programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. ↑ "JavaScript HTML DOM". ↑ "DOM Standard". Retrieved 23 September 2016. ↑ "W3C Document Object Model". Retrieved 23 September 2016. ↑ (plh@w3.org), Philippe Le Hegaret. "New Charter for the HTML Working Group from Philippe Le Hegaret on 2013-09-30 (public-html-admin@w3.org from September 2013)". Retrieved 23 September 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) ↑ "PubStatus - WEBAPPS". Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2016. ↑ "W3C DOM4 publication history". 3 November 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2024. ↑ "DOM publication history". 28 September 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2024. ↑ "What is the Document Object Model?". W3C. Retrieved 2021-09-12. However, the DOM does not specify that documents must be implemented as a tree or a grove, nor does it specify how the relationships among objects be implemented. The DOM is a logical model that may be implemented in any convenient manner. ↑ "Modernizing the DOM tree in Microsoft Edge". Microsoft. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 2021-09-12. ↑ "JavaScript HTML DOM". Retrieved 23 September 2016. ↑ Kogent Solutions Inc. (2008). Ajax Black Book, New Edition (With Cd). Dreamtech Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-8177228380. ↑ USA Expired 5557722A, Steven DeRose & Jeffrey Vogel, "Data processing system and method for representing, generating a representation of and random access rendering of electronic documents", published 1996-09-17  ↑ Cross Platform XML Parser in JavaScript"},"access-date":{"wt":"23 September 2016"}},"i":0}}]}'/>"XML for <script> Cross Platform XML Parser in JavaScript". Retrieved 23 September 2016. ↑ "The modern DOM API for PHP 7 projects". 5 December 2021. General references [edit] Flanagan, David (2006). JavaScript: The Definitive Guide. O'Reilly & Associates. pp. 312–313. ISBN 0-596-10199-6. Koch, Peter-Paul (May 14, 2001). "The Document Object Model: an Introduction". Digital Web Magazine. Archived from the original on April 27, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2009. Le Hégaret, Philippe (2002). "The W3C Document Object Model (DOM)". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved January 10, 2009. Guisset, Fabian. "What does each DOM Level bring?". Mozilla Developer Center. Mozilla Project. Archived from the original on March 2, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2009. External links [edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to document object models. DOM Living Standard by the WHATWG Original W3C DOM hub by the W3C DOM Working Group (outdated) Latest snapshots of the WHATWG living standard published by the W3C HTML Working Group Web Platform Working Group (current steward of W3C DOM) v t e JavaScript Code analysis ESLint JSHint JSLint Subsets,* supersets JS++ Source* TypeScript (ArkTS) Transpilers AtScript Babel ClojureScript CoffeeScript Dart Elm Emscripten Google Closure Compiler Google Web Toolkit Haxe LiveScript Morfik Nim Opa PureScript ReScript V (Vlang) WebSharper Concepts JavaScript library JavaScript syntax Debuggers Chrome DevTools Firefox Inspector (formerly Firebug) Komodo IDE Safari Web Inspector Documentation generators JSDoc Editors (comparison) Ace Cloud9 IDE Atom CodeMirror Brackets Light Table PhpStorm Orion Visual Studio Visual Studio Express Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Team Services Vim Engines List of JavaScript engines Frameworks Comparison of JavaScript frameworks List of JavaScript libraries Related 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