DevGuru XML DOM ProcessingInstruction Object



			OBJECT: ProcessingInstruction
			The ProcessingInstruction object represents a processing instruction, which is used in XML as a way to include processor-specific information in the text of the document. A ProcessingInstruction consists of a target and content. The target is the first token following the tag, while the content is that text from the first non-white-space character after the target through the character immediately before the '?>' which terminates the instruction. So, for example, consider the following, typical processing instruction for an XML document: <?xml version="1.0"?> The code to extract and display the type, target and content of this ProcessingInstruction node might look something like this: Code (JavaScript): pi = xml_doc.firstChild; document.write(pi.nodeType); document.write("<br>" + pi.target); document.write("<br>" + pi.data); Output: 7 xml version="1.0" A ProcessingInstruction 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 a ProcessingInstruction, 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 data Property This is a read-only property that returns the 'content' of a ProcessingInstruction. Syntax: ProcessingInstruction.data 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 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 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 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 target Property This is a read-only property that returns the 'target' of a ProcessingInstruction. Syntax: ProcessingInstruction.target 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)