XML and DOM

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The DOM is a specification for a set of interfaces that facilitates programmatic access to XML data. The Document Object Model (DOM) is an Application Programming Interface (API) for valid HTML and well-formed XML documents. It defines the logical structure of documents and the way a document is accessed and manipulated. In the DOM specification, the term "document" is used in a very broad sense, and XML is being used as a way of representing many different kinds of information that may be stored in diverse systems. Much of this would traditionally be seen as data rather than as documents, however, XML presents this data as documents, and the DOM may be used to manage this data. With the Document Object Model, programmers can build documents, navigate their structure, and add, modify, or delete elements and content. Anything found in an HTML or XML document can be accessed, changed, deleted, or added using the Document Object Model (Microsoft.com, n.d).

The Document Object Model (DOM) is the foundation of Extensible Markup Language, or XML. XML documents have a hierarchy of informational units called nodes; the DOM is a way of describing those nodes and the relationships between them. The DOM, in essence, is a collection of nodes. With different types of information potentially contained in a document, there are several different types of nodes defined. The most common ones are document, element, attribute and text nodes.

Taking an example using the DOM into consideration, the following XML document orders.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE orders (View Source for full doctype...)>
- <orders>
- <order>
<customerid limit="1000">12341</customerid>
<status>pending</status>
- <item instock="Y" itemid="SA15">
...