XML

The XML Document Object Model

The XML Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform-neutral and language-neutral interface that allows developers to create applications and scripts to access and update the content, style, and structure of XML documents. The XML DOM is based on the W3C DOM, which is a recommended specification that has been released by the DOM Working Group (WG) in several stages.

The DOM Level 1 specification introduces the features that can be used to manipulate the content and structure of HTML and XML documents. The W3C is currently working on the DOM Level 2 specification. This specification extends DOM Level 1 with many new features. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 fully supports the W3C Level 1 DOM specification.

For more information about the features included in each DOM level, visit the W3C Web site at http://www.w3.org/dom.

In addition to the XML DOM support included with Internet Explorer 5, Microsoft XML parser version 2.6 and version 3.0 have been released that support several extensions of the XML DOM beyond the current W3C specification, including BizTalk schemas, XPath, and XSL Transformations (XSLT). We will begin this tutorial with a discussion of the implementation of the XML DOM in Internet Explorer 5 and end with a discussion of the new XML parser and the additional functionality that it adds.