OBJECT:  DocumentType

The DocumentType object provides an interface to any entities and notations declared for a document. A DocumentType object is returned by the document's doctype property.

In the example that follows the 'staff.xml' file is used which contains a couple of entities defined in the DOCTYPE declaration:

XML:
<!DOCTYPE staff SYSTEM "staff.dtd" [
   <!ENTITY snrex "senior executive">
   <!ENTITY pa "personal assistant">
]>

<staff>
   <employee ssn="123456" pay="3">
      <name>John Sullivan</name>
      <position>&snrex;</position>
   </employee>
   <employee ssn="987654" pay="2">
      <name>Mary Lopez</name>
      <position>&pa;</position>
   </employee>
</staff>

Note:
The code above represents the raw XML; when viewed in a browser both of the entities '&snrex;' and '&pa;' will be expanded to the values defined for them in the DOCTYPE declaration (i.e. 'senior executive' and 'personal assistant' respectively).

The code then gets a DocumentType object for this document, and produces a NamedNodeMap of all its entities. It then iterates through the list displaying the name and text of each.

Code (VBScript):
Set objXMLDoc = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
objXMLDoc.async = False
objXMLDoc.load("staff.xml")

Set DocType = objXMLDoc.doctype
Set EntList = DocType.entities
For Each Ent In EntList
   document.write(Ent.nodeName)
   document.write(": " & Ent.text & "<br>")
Next

Output:
snrex: senior executive
pa: personal assistant

A DocumentType is also a Node object, and so inherits various properties and methods from it. For details of the values returned by the nodeName, nodeType and nodeValue properties for an DocumentType, see the Node object.

denotes a Microsoft extension to the W3C DOM.

PROPERTIES

attributes Property
This is a read-only property that returns an NamedNodeMap for nodes that can have attributes.

Syntax: Node.attributes

baseName Property
This is a read-only property that returns the base name for a node.

Syntax: Node.baseName

childNodes Property
This is a read-only property containing a node list of all children for those elements that can have them.

Syntax: Node.childNodes

dataType Property
This is a read-only property that specifies the data type for the node.

Syntax: Node.dataType

definition Property
This property returns the definition of the node in the DTD or schema.

Syntax: Node.definition

entities Property
This property contains a NamedNodeMap of all entities (both internal and external) declared in the Document Type Definition. Duplicates are ignored.

Syntax: DocumentType.entities

firstChild Property
This is a read-only property that returns the first child node of a node. If there is none, it returns null.

Syntax: Node.firstChild

lastChild Property
This is a read-only property that returns the last child node of a node. If there is none, it returns null.

Syntax: Node.lastChild

name Property
This property contains the name of the document type; i.e., the name that immediately follows the 'DOCTYPE' keyword.

Syntax: DocumentType.name

namespaceURI Property
This property is read-only and returns the URI (Universal Resource Indentifier) of the namespace.

Syntax: Node.namespaceURI

nextSibling Property
This property returns the next node in the parent's child list, or null if there is none or the node is of a type that cannot be a child node (Attr, Document, DocumentFragment).

Syntax: Node.nextSibling

nodeName Property
This property is read-only and contains the name of the node, depending on type.

Syntax: Node.nodeName

nodeType Property
This is a read-only property specifying the type of the node.

Syntax: Node.nodeType

nodeTypedValue Property
This property contains the value of this node expressed in its defined data type.

Syntax: Node.nodeTypedValue

nodeTypeString Property
This property is read-only and returns the node type in string form.

Syntax: Node.nodeTypeString

nodeValue Property
This property contains the value of the node, depending on type.

Syntax: Node.nodeValue

notations Property
This property contains a NamedNodeMap of all notations declared in the Document Type Definition. Duplicates are ignored. Each node in the map implements the Notation interface.

Syntax: DocumentType.notations

ownerDocument Property
This property returns the Document object to which the node belongs. If the node itself is a document, then it returns null.

Syntax: Node.ownerDocument

parentNode Property
This is a read-only property that returns the parent node of all nodes except Document, DocumentFragment and Attr, which cannot have parent nodes.

Syntax: Node.parentNode

parsed Property
This property returns a boolean value of true if this node and all of its descendants have been parsed and instantiated. Otherwise it returns false.

Syntax: Node.parsed

prefix Property
This property is read-only and returns the namespace prefix, or an empty string if none is specified. For example, it would return 'xxx' for the element <xxx:yyy>.

Syntax: Node.prefix

previousSibling Property
This property returns the previous node in the parent's child list, or null if there is none or the node is of a type that cannot be a child node (Attr, Document, DocumentFragment).

Syntax: Node.previousSibling

specified Property
This property returns a boolean value indicating whether this node (usually an attribute) is explicitly specified or derived from a default value in the DTD or schema.

Syntax: Node.specified

text Property
This property contains the text content of this node and its subtrees.

Syntax: Node.text

xml Property
This property contains the XML representation of this node and its descendants.

Syntax: Node.xml

METHODS

appendChild Method
This method appends a new child node to the list of children for this node.

Syntax: Node.appendChild(tagName)

cloneNode Method
This method creates a clone node which is an exact replica of this node.

Syntax: Node.cloneNode(deep)

hasChildNodes Method
This method is a convenient way to determine whether a node has child nodes, returning true if it has, and false if not.

Syntax: Node.hasChildNodes( )

insertBefore Method
This method is used to insert a new child node before an existing one. If no child node exists, the new child node becomes the first.

Syntax: Node.insertBefore(newChild, refChild)

removeChild Method
This method removes the specified node from the list of children and returns it.

Syntax: Node.removeChild(oldChild)

replaceChild Method
This method is used to replace one of a node's children with another. It returns the old child.

Syntax: Node.replaceChild(newChild, oldChild)

selectNodes Method
This method creates a NodeList of all the matching descendant nodes returned by the specified pattern-matching operation.

Syntax: Node.selectNodes(patternString)

selectSingleNode Method
This method returns a Node object for the first descendant node to match the specified pattern.

Syntax: Node.selectSingleNode(patternString)

transformNode Method
This method processes this node and its descendants using the specified XSL stylesheet, and returns the resulting transformation.

Syntax: Node.transformNode(stylesheet)

transformNodeToObject Method
This method processes this node and its descendants using the specified XSL stylesheet, and returns the resulting transformation in the specified object.

Syntax: Node.transformNodeToObject(stylesheet, outputObject)


Copyright 1999-2001 by Infinite Software Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.
Trademark Information