Easy Tutorial
Dom Node Met Text Replacedata Prop Documenttype Internalsubset Dom Nodes Navigate Dom Nodes Replace Met Element Hasattributes Met Element Hasattributens Dom Nodes Access Dom Prop Node Nodetype Dom Comment Met Element Lookupprefix Met Node Lookupnamespaceuri Met Text Substringdata Prop Documenttype Entities Prop Element Nodetype Prop Element Parentnode Met Element Appendchild Prop Document Lastchild Dom Nodes Clone Met Element Comparedocumentposition Dom Parser Met Text Appenddata Dom Met Element Removeattributenode Prop Cdata Length Dom Processinginstruction Prop Attr Nodename Met Element Lookupnamespaceuri Dom Prop Node Lastchild Dom Documenttype Dom Prop Element Tagname Dom Met Document Createelement Prop Attr Localname Met Nodemap Removenameditem Prop Element Prefix Dom Prop Node Textcontent Dom Prop Document Stricterrorchecking Dom Met Node Removechild Met Comment Deletedata Met Element Getattributens Dom Met Nodelist Item Dom Met Node Hasattributes Dom Met Document Createtextnode Dom Prop Document Doctype Index Prop Attr Nodevalue Dom Met Element Hasattribute Dom Met Node Haschildnodes Dom Met Element Getelementsbytagname Prop Document Xmlencoding Prop Document Xmlversion Dom Nodelist Dom Met Node Appendchild Dom Met Document Getelementsbytagname Dom Prop Node Childnodes Dom Prop Document Inputencoding Dom Prop Node Nodename Prop Element Nodename Prop Element Namespaceuri Dom Nodes Met Document Createelementns Dom Errors Dom Loadxmldoc Dom Met Element Removeattribute Prop Element Lastchild Prop Element Previoussibling Dom Met Element Setattribute Met Element Getelementsbytagnamens Prop Documenttype Systemid Dom Prop Attr Specified Dom Prop Attr Isid Dom Nodes Add Dom Met Node Replacechild Met Text Deletedata Prop Element Nextsibling Prop Attr Nodetype Dom Prop Node Firstchild Dom Nodes Get Met Cdata Insertdata Met Element Haschildnodes Xml Dom Examples Dom Prop Nodelist Length Met Element Insertbefore Prop Cdata Data Dom Prop Document Implementation Met Comment Appenddata Dom Met Element Setattributenode Met Element Removechild Met Cdata Substringdata Dom Tutorial Met Text Splittext Prop Text Data Prop Node Localname Dom Met Node Comparedocumentposition Dom Met Node Issamenode Dom Mozilla Vs Ie Met Document Getelementsbytagnamens Prop Document Nodetype Dom Prop Document Documentelement Prop Attr Baseuri Dom Met Node Clonenode Dom Nodes Set Met Cdata Replacedata Dom Prop Node Nextsibling Prop Element Firstchild Met Element Getattributenodens Dom Met Document Renamenode Dom Namednodemap Dom Prop Document Documenturi Dom Nodes Traverse Met Element Clonenode Dom Intro Dom Prop Attr Name Dom Met Node Insertbefore Dom Methods Prop Node Baseuri Dom Document Met Cdata Deletedata Met Node Lookupprefix Dom Validate Prop Element Childnodes Dom Summary Dom Nodes Remove Met Text Insertdata Prop Nodemap Length Dom Attribute Dom Nodes Info Met Element Isequalnode Met Element Setattributens Met Element Replacechild Dom Met Element Getattribute Met Nodemap Item Dom Http Dom Nodetype Prop Attr Ownerdocument Prop Document Firstchild Dom Met Document Createcomment Prop Text Length Prop Element Textcontent Prop Attr Namespaceuri Dom Cdatasection Dom Prop Node Namespaceuri Prop Element Ownerdocument Met Comment Substringdata Prop Element Attributes Prop Comment Length Dom Prop Node Previoussibling Met Element Issamenode Prop Document Nodevalue Dom Prop Node Ownerdocument Prop Document Async Prop Document Nodename Prop Node Prefix Dom Prop Node Nodevalue Dom Text Prop Documenttype Name Prop Comment Data Prop Attr Ownerelement Dom Documentimplementation Prop Attr Prefix Prop Attr Textcontent Met Comment Replacedata Met Cdata Appenddata Prop Document Childnodes Met Nodemap Getnameditem Dom Prop Attr Value Met Document Createcdatasection Dom Errors Crossbrowser Dom Nodes Create Met Comment Insertdata Dom Nodetree Met Element Removeattributens Met Cdata Splittext Dom Httprequest Dom Met Element Getattributenode Dom Met Node Isequalnode Prop Document Xmlstandalone Prop Element Baseuri Prop Element Localname Dom Prop Node Parentnode Dom Nodes Nodelist Dom Element
❮ Prop Documenttype Internalsubset Dom Nodes Replace ❯

XML DOM - Navigating Nodes

Nodes can be navigated using the relationships between nodes.

Navigating DOM Nodes

Accessing nodes in the node tree through relationships between nodes is commonly referred to as navigating nodes ("navigating nodes").

In the XML DOM, the relationships between nodes are defined as node properties:

The following image shows a part of the node tree from books.xml and illustrates the relationships between nodes:

DOM - Parent Node

All nodes have only one parent node. The following code navigates to the parent node of <book>:

Example

xmlDoc = loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[0];
document.write(x.parentNode.nodeName);

Example explanation:

Avoiding Empty Text Nodes

Firefox and some other browsers treat empty whitespace or line breaks as text nodes, while Internet Explorer does not.

This can cause an issue when using properties like firstChild, lastChild, nextSibling, and previousSibling.

To avoid navigating to empty text nodes (spaces and line breaks between element nodes), we use a function to check the node type:

function get_nextSibling(n) {
  y = n.nextSibling;
  while (y.nodeType != 1) {
    y = y.nextSibling;
  }
  return y;
}

The above function allows you to use get_nextSibling(node) instead of node.nextSibling.

Code explanation:

The type of an element node is 1. If the sibling node is not an element node, move to the next node until an element node is found. This way, you get the same result in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Getting the First Child Element

The following code displays the first element of the first <book>:

Example

<html>
<head>
<script src="loadxmldoc.js"></script>
<script>
// Check if the first node is an element node
function get_firstChild(n) {
  y = n.firstChild;
  while (y.nodeType != 1) {
    y = y.nextSibling;
  }
  return y;
}
</script>
</head>

<body>
<script>
xmlDoc = loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x = get_firstChild(xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[0]);
document.write(x.nodeName);
</script>
</body>
</html>

Output:

title

Example explanation:

More Examples

lastChild()

nextSibling()

previousSibling()

❮ Prop Documenttype Internalsubset Dom Nodes Replace ❯