## org.w3c.dom
Interface Document

All Known Subinterfaces:
  HTMLDocument, WMLDocument

All Known Implementing Classes:
  CoreDocumentImpl

public interface Document
extends Node

The `Document` interface represents the entire HTML or XML document. Conceptually, it is the root of the document tree, and provides the primary access to the document's data.

Since elements, text nodes, comments, processing instructions, etc. cannot exist outside the context of a `Document`, the `Document` interface also contains the factory methods needed to create these objects. The `Node` objects created have a `ownerDocument` attribute which associates them with the `Document` within whose context they were created.

See also the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification.

Fields inherited from interface org.w3c.dom.Node
`ATTRIBUTE_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE, ELEMENT_NODE, ENTITY_NODE, ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE, NOTATION_NODE, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE, TEXT_NODE`

Method Summary
`Node` `adoptNode(Node source)` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..
`Attr` `createAttribute(java.lang.String name)` Creates an `Attr` of the given name.
`Attr` `createAttributeNS(java.lang.String namespaceURI, java.lang.String qualifiedName)` Creates an attribute of the given qualified name and namespace URI.
`CDATASection` `createCDATASection(java.lang.String data)` Creates a `CDATASection` node whose value is the specified string.
`Comment` `createComment(java.lang.String data)` Creates a `Comment` node given the specified string.
`DocumentFragment` `createDocumentFragment()` Creates an empty `DocumentFragment` object.
`Element` `createElement(java.lang.String tagName)` Creates an element of the type specified.
`Element` `createElementNS(java.lang.String namespaceURI, java.lang.String qualifiedName)` Creates an element of the given qualified name and namespace URI.
`EntityReference` `createEntityReference(java.lang.String name)` Creates an `EntityReference` object.
`ProcessingInstruction` `createProcessingInstruction(java.lang.String target, java.lang.String data)` Creates a `ProcessingInstruction` node given the specified name and data strings.
`Text` `createTextNode(java.lang.String data)` Creates a `Text` node given the specified string.
`DocumentType` `getDoctype()` The Document Type Declaration (see `DocumentType`) associated with this document.
`Element` `getDocumentElement()` This is a convenience attribute that allows direct access to the child node that is the root element of the document.
`Element` `getElementById(java.lang.String elementId)` Returns the `Element` whose `ID` is given by `elementId`.
`NodeList` `getElementsByTagName(java.lang.String tagname)` Returns a `NodeList` of all the `Elements` with a given tag name in the order in which they are encountered in a preorder traversal of the `Document` tree.
`NodeList` `getElementsByTagNameNS(java.lang.String namespaceURI, java.lang.String localName)` Returns a `NodeList` of all the `Elements` with a given local name and namespace URI in the order in which they are encountered in a preorder traversal of the `Document` tree.
`java.lang.String` `getEncoding()` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..
`DOMImplementation` `getImplementation()` The `DOMImplementation` object that handles this document.
`boolean` `getStandalone()` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..
`boolean` `getStrictErrorChecking()` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..
`java.lang.String` `getVersion()` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..
`Node` `importNode(Node importedNode, boolean deep)` Imports a node from another document to this document.
`void` `setEncoding(java.lang.String encoding)` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..
`void` `setStandalone(boolean standalone)` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..
`void` `setStrictErrorChecking(boolean strictErrorChecking)` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..
`void` `setVersion(java.lang.String version)` EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

Methods inherited from interface org.w3c.dom.Node
`appendChild, cloneNode, getAttributes, getChildNodes, getFirstChild, getLastChild, getLocalName, getNamespaceURI, getNextSibling, getNodeName, getNodeType, getNodeValue, getOwnerDocument, getParentNode, getPrefix, getPreviousSibling, hasAttributes, hasChildNodes, insertBefore, isSupported, normalize, removeChild, replaceChild, setNodeValue, setPrefix`

Method Detail

### getDoctype

    public DocumentType getDoctype()

  The Document Type Declaration (see `DocumentType`) associated with this document. For HTML documents as well as XML documents without a document type declaration this returns `null`. The DOM Level 2 does not support editing the Document Type Declaration. `docType` cannot be altered in any way, including through the use of methods inherited from the `Node` interface, such as `insertNode` or `removeNode`.

### getImplementation

    public DOMImplementation getImplementation()

  The `DOMImplementation` object that handles this document. A DOM application may use objects from multiple implementations.

### getDocumentElement

    public Element getDocumentElement()

  This is a convenience attribute that allows direct access to the child node that is the root element of the document. For HTML documents, this is the element with the tagName "HTML".

### createElement

    public Element createElement(java.lang.String tagName)
                          throws DOMException

  Creates an element of the type specified. Note that the instance returned implements the `Element` interface, so attributes can be specified directly on the returned object.
  In addition, if there are known attributes with default values, `Attr` nodes representing them are automatically created and attached to the element.
  To create an element with a qualified name and namespace URI, use the `createElementNS` method.
  Parameters:
    `tagNameThe` - name of the element type to instantiate. For XML, this is case-sensitive. For HTML, the `tagName` parameter may be provided in any case, but it must be mapped to the canonical uppercase form by the DOM implementation.
  Returns:
    A new `Element` object with the `nodeName` attribute set to `tagName`, and `localName`, `prefix`, and `namespaceURI` set to `null`.
  Throws:
    DOMException - INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified name contains an illegal character.

### createDocumentFragment

    public DocumentFragment createDocumentFragment()

  Creates an empty `DocumentFragment` object.
  Returns:
    A new `DocumentFragment`.

### createTextNode

    public Text createTextNode(java.lang.String data)

  Creates a `Text` node given the specified string.
  Parameters:
    `dataThe` - data for the node.
  Returns:
    The new `Text` object.

### createComment

    public Comment createComment(java.lang.String data)

  Creates a `Comment` node given the specified string.
  Parameters:
    `dataThe` - data for the node.
  Returns:
    The new `Comment` object.

### createCDATASection

    public CDATASection createCDATASection(java.lang.String data)
                                    throws DOMException

  Creates a `CDATASection` node whose value is the specified string.
  Parameters:
    `dataThe` - data for the `CDATASection` contents.
  Returns:
    The new `CDATASection` object.
  Throws:
    DOMException - NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if this document is an HTML document.

### createProcessingInstruction

    public ProcessingInstruction createProcessingInstruction(java.lang.String target,
                                                             java.lang.String data)
                                                      throws DOMException

  Creates a `ProcessingInstruction` node given the specified name and data strings.
  Parameters:
    `targetThe` - target part of the processing instruction.
    `dataThe` - data for the node.
  Returns:
    The new `ProcessingInstruction` object.
  Throws:
    DOMException - INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified target contains an illegal character.
    NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if this document is an HTML document.

### createAttribute

    public Attr createAttribute(java.lang.String name)
                         throws DOMException

  Creates an `Attr` of the given name. Note that the `Attr` instance can then be set on an `Element` using the `setAttributeNode` method.
  To create an attribute with a qualified name and namespace URI, use the `createAttributeNS` method.
  Parameters:
    `nameThe` - name of the attribute.
  Returns:
    A new `Attr` object with the `nodeName` attribute set to `name`, and `localName`, `prefix`, and `namespaceURI` set to `null`. The value of the attribute is the empty string.
  Throws:
    DOMException - INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified name contains an illegal character.

### createEntityReference

    public EntityReference createEntityReference(java.lang.String name)
                                          throws DOMException

  Creates an `EntityReference` object. In addition, if the referenced entity is known, the child list of the `EntityReference` node is made the same as that of the corresponding `Entity` node.If any descendant of the `Entity` node has an unbound namespace prefix, the corresponding descendant of the created `EntityReference` node is also unbound; (its `namespaceURI` is `null`). The DOM Level 2 does not support any mechanism to resolve namespace prefixes.
  Parameters:
    `nameThe` - name of the entity to reference.
  Returns:
    The new `EntityReference` object.
  Throws:
    DOMException - INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified name contains an illegal character.
    NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if this document is an HTML document.

### getElementsByTagName

    public NodeList getElementsByTagName(java.lang.String tagname)

  Returns a `NodeList` of all the `Elements` with a given tag name in the order in which they are encountered in a preorder traversal of the `Document` tree.
  Parameters:
    `tagnameThe` - name of the tag to match on. The special value "*" matches all tags.
  Returns:
    A new `NodeList` object containing all the matched `Elements`.

### importNode

    public Node importNode(Node importedNode,
                           boolean deep)
                    throws DOMException

  Imports a node from another document to this document. The returned node has no parent; (`parentNode` is `null`). The source node is not altered or removed from the original document; this method creates a new copy of the source node.
  For all nodes, importing a node creates a node object owned by the importing document, with attribute values identical to the source node's `nodeName` and `nodeType`, plus the attributes related to namespaces (`prefix`, `localName`, and `namespaceURI`). As in the `cloneNode` operation on a `Node`, the source node is not altered.
  Additional information is copied as appropriate to the `nodeType`, attempting to mirror the behavior expected if a fragment of XML or HTML source was copied from one document to another, recognizing that the two documents may have different DTDs in the XML case. The following list describes the specifics for each type of node.
  ATTRIBUTE_NODE
    The `ownerElement` attribute is set to `null` and the `specified` flag is set to `true` on the generated `Attr`. The descendants of the source `Attr` are recursively imported and the resulting nodes reassembled to form the corresponding subtree. Note that the `deep` parameter has no effect on `Attr` nodes; they always carry their children with them when imported.
  DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE
    If the `deep` option was set to `true`, the descendants of the source element are recursively imported and the resulting nodes reassembled to form the corresponding subtree. Otherwise, this simply generates an empty `DocumentFragment`.
  DOCUMENT_NODE
    `Document` nodes cannot be imported.
  DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
    `DocumentType` nodes cannot be imported.
  ELEMENT_NODE
    Specified attribute nodes of the source element are imported, and the generated `Attr` nodes are attached to the generated `Element`. Default attributes are not copied, though if the document being imported into defines default attributes for this element name, those are assigned. If the `importNode` `deep` parameter was set to `true`, the descendants of the source element are recursively imported and the resulting nodes reassembled to form the corresponding subtree.
  ENTITY_NODE
    `Entity` nodes can be imported, however in the current release of the DOM the `DocumentType` is readonly. Ability to add these imported nodes to a `DocumentType` will be considered for addition to a future release of the DOM.On import, the `publicId`, `systemId`, and `notationName` attributes are copied. If a `deep` import is requested, the descendants of the the source `Entity` are recursively imported and the resulting nodes reassembled to form the corresponding subtree.
  ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE
    Only the `EntityReference` itself is copied, even if a `deep` import is requested, since the source and destination documents might have defined the entity differently. If the document being imported into provides a definition for this entity name, its value is assigned.
  NOTATION_NODE
    `Notation` nodes can be imported, however in the current release of the DOM the `DocumentType` is readonly. Ability to add these imported nodes to a `DocumentType` will be considered for addition to a future release of the DOM.On import, the `publicId` and `systemId` attributes are copied. Note that the `deep` parameter has no effect on `Notation` nodes since they never have any children.
  PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE
    The imported node copies its `target` and `data` values from those of the source node.
  TEXT_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE
    These three types of nodes inheriting from `CharacterData` copy their `data` and `length` attributes from those of the source node.
    Parameters:
      `importedNodeThe` - node to import.
      `deepIf` - `true`, recursively import the subtree under the specified node; if `false`, import only the node itself, as explained above. This has no effect on `Attr` , `EntityReference`, and `Notation` nodes.
    Returns:
      The imported node that belongs to this `Document`.
    Throws:
      DOMException - NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if the type of node being imported is not supported.
    Since:
      DOM Level 2

  ### createElementNS

      public Element createElementNS(java.lang.String namespaceURI,
                                     java.lang.String qualifiedName)
                              throws DOMException

    Creates an element of the given qualified name and namespace URI. HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this method.
    Parameters:
      `namespaceURIThe` - namespace URI of the element to create.
      `qualifiedNameThe` - qualified name of the element type to instantiate.
    Returns:
      A new `Element` object with the following attributes:AttributeValue`Node.nodeName` `qualifiedName` `Node.namespaceURI` `namespaceURI` `Node.prefix`prefix, extracted from `qualifiedName`, or `null` if there is no prefix`Node.localName`local name, extracted from `qualifiedName` `Element.tagName` `qualifiedName`
    Throws:
      DOMException - INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified qualified name contains an illegal character.
      NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the `qualifiedName` is malformed, if the `qualifiedName` has a prefix and the `namespaceURI` is `null`, or if the `qualifiedName` has a prefix that is "xml" and the `namespaceURI` is different from " http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace" .
    Since:
      DOM Level 2

  ### createAttributeNS

      public Attr createAttributeNS(java.lang.String namespaceURI,
                                    java.lang.String qualifiedName)
                             throws DOMException

    Creates an attribute of the given qualified name and namespace URI. HTML-only DOM implementations do not need to implement this method.
    Parameters:
      `namespaceURIThe` - namespace URI of the attribute to create.
      `qualifiedNameThe` - qualified name of the attribute to instantiate.
    Returns:
      A new `Attr` object with the following attributes: AttributeValue`Node.nodeName`qualifiedName `Node.namespaceURI` `namespaceURI` `Node.prefix`prefix, extracted from `qualifiedName`, or `null` if there is no prefix`Node.localName`local name, extracted from `qualifiedName` `Attr.name` `qualifiedName` `Node.nodeValue`the empty string
    Throws:
      DOMException - INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified qualified name contains an illegal character.
      NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the `qualifiedName` is malformed, if the `qualifiedName` has a prefix and the `namespaceURI` is `null`, if the `qualifiedName` has a prefix that is "xml" and the `namespaceURI` is different from " http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace", or if the `qualifiedName` is "xmlns" and the `namespaceURI` is different from " http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/".
    Since:
      DOM Level 2

  ### getElementsByTagNameNS

      public NodeList getElementsByTagNameNS(java.lang.String namespaceURI,
                                             java.lang.String localName)

    Returns a `NodeList` of all the `Elements` with a given local name and namespace URI in the order in which they are encountered in a preorder traversal of the `Document` tree.
    Parameters:
      `namespaceURIThe` - namespace URI of the elements to match on. The special value "*" matches all namespaces.
      `localNameThe` - local name of the elements to match on. The special value "*" matches all local names.
    Returns:
      A new `NodeList` object containing all the matched `Elements`.
    Since:
      DOM Level 2

  ### getElementById

      public Element getElementById(java.lang.String elementId)

    Returns the `Element` whose `ID` is given by `elementId`. If no such element exists, returns `null`. Behavior is not defined if more than one element has this `ID`. The DOM implementation must have information that says which attributes are of type ID. Attributes with the name "ID" are not of type ID unless so defined. Implementations that do not know whether attributes are of type ID or not are expected to return `null`.
    Parameters:
      `elementIdThe` - unique `id` value for an element.
    Returns:
      The matching element.
    Since:
      DOM Level 2

  ### getEncoding

      public java.lang.String getEncoding()

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    An attribute specifying, as part of the XML declaration, the encoding of this document. This is `null` when unspecified.

    Since:
      DOM Level 3

  ### setEncoding

      public void setEncoding(java.lang.String encoding)

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    An attribute specifying, as part of the XML declaration, the encoding of this document. This is `null` when unspecified.

    Since:
      DOM Level 3

  ### getStandalone

      public boolean getStandalone()

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    An attribute specifying, as part of the XML declaration, whether this document is standalone.

    Since:
      DOM Level 3

  ### setStandalone

      public void setStandalone(boolean standalone)

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    An attribute specifying, as part of the XML declaration, whether this document is standalone.

    Since:
      DOM Level 3

  ### getStrictErrorChecking

      public boolean getStrictErrorChecking()

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    An attribute specifying whether errors checking is enforced or not. When set to `false`, the implementation is free to not test every possible error case normally defined on DOM operations, and not raise any `DOMException`. In case of error, the behavior is undefined. This attribute is `true` by defaults.

    Since:
      DOM Level 3

  ### setStrictErrorChecking

      public void setStrictErrorChecking(boolean strictErrorChecking)

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    An attribute specifying whether errors checking is enforced or not. When set to `false`, the implementation is free to not test every possible error case normally defined on DOM operations, and not raise any `DOMException`. In case of error, the behavior is undefined. This attribute is `true` by defaults.

    Since:
      DOM Level 3

  ### getVersion

      public java.lang.String getVersion()

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    An attribute specifying, as part of the XML declaration, the version number of this document. This is `null` when unspecified.

    Since:
      DOM Level 3

  ### setVersion

      public void setVersion(java.lang.String version)

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    An attribute specifying, as part of the XML declaration, the version number of this document. This is `null` when unspecified.

    Since:
      DOM Level 3

  ### adoptNode

      public Node adoptNode(Node source)
                     throws DOMException

    EXPERIMENTAL! Based on the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Working Draft of 5 June 2001..

    Changes the `ownerDocument` of a node, its children, as well as the attached attribute nodes if there are any. If the node has a parent it is first removed from its parent child list. This effectively allows moving a subtree from one document to another. The following list describes the specifics for each type of node.

    ATTRIBUTE_NODE
      The `ownerElement` attribute is set to `null` and the `specified` flag is set to `true` on the adopted `Attr`. The descendants of the source `Attr` are recursively adopted.
    DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE
      The descendants of the source node are recursively adopted.
    DOCUMENT_NODE
      `Document` nodes cannot be adopted.
    DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
      `DocumentType` nodes cannot be adopted.
    ELEMENT_NODE
      Specified attribute nodes of the source element are adopted, and the generated `Attr` nodes. Default attributes are discarded, though if the document being adopted into defines default attributes for this element name, those are assigned. The descendants of the source element are recursively adopted.
    ENTITY_NODE
      `Entity` nodes cannot be adopted.
    ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE
      Only the `EntityReference` node itself is adopted, the descendants are discarded, since the source and destination documents might have defined the entity differently. If the document being imported into provides a definition for this entity name, its value is assigned.
    NOTATION_NODE
      `Notation` nodes cannot be adopted.
    PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE, TEXT_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE
      These nodes can all be adopted. No specifics.
    Should this method simply return null when it fails? How "exceptional" is failure for this method?Stick with raising exceptions only in exceptional circumstances, return null on failure (F2F 19 Jun 2000).Can an entity node really be adopted?No, neither can Notation nodes (Telcon 13 Dec 2000).Does this affect keys and hashCode's of the adopted subtree nodes?If so, what about readonly-ness of key and hashCode?if not, would appendChild affect keys/hashCodes or would it generate exceptions if key's are duplicate? Update: Hashcodes have been dropped. Given that the key is only unique within a document an adopted node needs to be given a new key, but what does it mean for the application?
      Parameters:
        `source` - The node to move into this document.
      Returns:
        The adopted node, or `null` if this operation fails, such as when the source node comes from a different implementation.
      Throws:
        DOMException - NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: Raised if the source node is of type `DOCUMENT`, `DOCUMENT_TYPE`.
        NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the source node is readonly.
      Since:
        DOM Level 3

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