The Element object represents an element in an XML document. Elements may contain attributes, other elements, or text. If an element contains text, the text is represented in a text-node.
IMPORTANT! Text is always stored in text nodes. A common error in DOM processing is to navigate to an element node and expect it to contain the text. However, even the simplest element node has a text node under it. For example, in <year>2005</year>, there is an element node (year), and a text node under it, which contains the text (2005).
Because the Element object is also a Node, it inherits the Node object's properties and methods.
IE: Internet Explorer, F: Firefox, O: Opera, W3C: World Wide Web Consortium (Internet Standard)
| Property | Description | IE | F | O | W3C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| attributes | Returns a NamedNodeMap of attributes for the element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| baseURI | Returns the absolute base URI of the element | No | 1 | No | Yes |
| childNodes | Returns a NodeList of child nodes for the element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| firstChild | Returns the first child of the element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| lastChild | Returns the last child of the element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| localName | Returns the local part of the name of the element | No | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| namespaceURI | Returns the namespace URI of the element | No | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| nextSibling | Returns the node immediately following the element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| nodeName | Returns the name of the node, depending on its type | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| nodeType | Returns the type of the node | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| ownerDocument | Returns the root element (document object) for an element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| parentNode | Returns the parent node of the element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| prefix | Sets or returns the namespace prefix of the element | No | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| previousSibling | Returns the node immediately before the element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| schemaTypeInfo | Returns the type information associated with the element | No | Yes | ||
| tagName | Returns the name of the element | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| textContent | Sets or returns the text content of the element and its descendants | No | 1 | No | Yes |
| text | Returns the text of the node and its descendants. IE-only property | 5 | No | No | No |
| xml | Returns the XML of the node and its descendants. IE-only property | 5 | No | No | No |
| Method | Description | IE | F | O | W3C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| appendChild() | Adds a new child node to the end of the list of children of the node | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| cloneNode() | Clones a node | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| compareDocumentPosition() | Compares the document position of two nodes | No | 1 | No | Yes |
| getAttribute() | Returns the value of an attribute | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| getAttributeNS() | Returns the value of an attribute (with a namespace) | No | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| getAttributeNode() | Returns an attribute node as an Attribute object | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| getAttributeNodeNS() | Returns an attribute node (with a namespace) as an Attribute object | No | 9 | Yes | |
| getElementsByTagName() | Returns a NodeList of matching element nodes, and their children | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| getElementsByTagNameNS() | Returns a NodeList of matching element nodes (with a namespace), and their children | No | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| getFeature(feature,version) | Returns a DOM object which implements the specialized APIs of the specified feature and version | No | Yes | ||
| getUserData(key) | Returns 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 | No | Yes | ||
| hasAttribute() | Returns whether an element has any attributes matching a specified name | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| hasAttributeNS() | Returns whether an element has any attributes matching a specified name and namespace | No | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| hasAttributes() | Returns whether the element has any attributes | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| hasChildNodes() | Returns whether the element has any child nodes | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| insertBefore() | Inserts a new child node before an existing child node | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| isDefaultNamespace(URI) | Returns whether the specified namespaceURI is the default | No | Yes | ||
| isEqualNode() | Checks if two nodes are equal | No | No | No | Yes |
| isSameNode() | Checks if two nodes are the same node | No | 1 | No | Yes |
| isSupported(feature,version) | Returns whether a specified feature is supported on the element | 9 | Yes | ||
| lookupNamespaceURI() | Returns the namespace URI matching a specified prefix | No | 1 | No | Yes |
| lookupPrefix() | Returns the prefix matching a specified namespace URI | No | 1 | No | Yes |
| normalize() | Puts all text nodes underneath this element (including attributes) 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 | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| removeAttribute() | Removes a specified attribute | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| removeAttributeNS() | Removes a specified attribute (with a namespace) | No | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| removeAttributeNode() | Removes a specified attribute node | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| removeChild() | Removes a child node | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| replaceChild() | Replaces a child node | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| setUserData(key,data,handler) | Associates an object to a key on the element | No | Yes | ||
| setAttribute() | Adds a new attribute | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| setAttributeNS() | Adds a new attribute (with a namespace) | 1 | 9 | Yes | |
| setAttributeNode() | Adds a new attribute node | 5 | 1 | 9 | Yes |
| setAttributeNodeNS(attrnode) | Adds a new attribute node (with a namespace) | 9 | Yes | ||
| setIdAttribute(name,isId) | If the isId property of the Attribute object is true, this method declares the specified attribute to be a user-determined ID attribute | No | Yes | ||
| setIdAttributeNS(uri,name,isId) | If the isId property of the Attribute object is true, this method declares the specified attribute (with a namespace) to be a user-determined ID attribute | No | Yes | ||
| setIdAttributeNode(idAttr,isId) | If the isId property of the Attribute object is true, this method declares the specified attribute to be a user-determined ID attribute | No | Yes |
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