Node Interface

The root of the inheritance structure for DOM objects is the Node. All other interfaces are descended from Node and inherit a number of its methods. The Node interface provides three basic areas of functionality that allow the developer to do the following:

  • Find information about the Node, such as its value, name, and type.

  • Read, update, and delete information.

  • Find children, parent, and sibling Node information.

What we consider the tips of an XML document tree are typically of the following node types: TEXT_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, and COMMENT_NODE. Most of the other nodes are normally found as special purpose children of a document, element, or tip node.

As we saw in Figure 3.4, nodes represent the branches, sub-branches, and ...

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