Programming Atlas

Appendix B. DOM Reference

This Appendix assembles all DOM methods and properties that JavaScript exposes. The DOM used is the W3C DOM supported by recent versions of Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari/Konqueror, and Opera. Methods and properties that are not supported by either of the two “main” browsers—Internet Explorer and Mozilla brands—are not mentioned.

Square brackets [] denote an array; parentheses () indicate a method.

Generic Methods and Properties

The methods and properties in this section exist for all DOM elements.

Methods

Method	Description
appendChild(node)	Appends a node to the element
appendData(data)	Appends data to a node, not overwriting existing data
blur()	Removes the focus from the element
click()	Simulates a click on the element
cloneNode(deep)	Creates a copy of the node (if deep is true, all subnodes are copied as well)
deleteData(start, length)	Deletes a number of characters
focus()	Gives the focus to the element
getAttribute(attribute)	Returns the value of the given attribute
getAttributeNode(attribute)	Returns the node containing the given attribute
getElementsByTagName(name)	Returns an array of all elements with the given tag name
hasChildNodes()	Whether the element has subnodes or not
insertBefore(node)	Insert a node before the element
insertData(position, data)	Inserts data at a certain position
removeAttribute(attribute)	Removes the given attribute from the element