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| 54 | ||
| 55 | <H1><A NAME="SECTION0015600000000000000000"> | |
| 56 | 13.6 <tt class="module">xml.dom</tt> -- | |
| 57 | The Document Object Model API</A> | |
| 58 | </H1> | |
| 59 | ||
| 60 | <P> | |
| 61 | <A NAME="module-xml.dom"></A> | |
| 62 | ||
| 63 | <P> | |
| 64 | ||
| 65 | <span class="versionnote">New in version 2.0.</span> | |
| 66 | ||
| 67 | <P> | |
| 68 | The Document Object Model, or ``DOM,'' is a cross-language API from | |
| 69 | the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for accessing and modifying XML | |
| 70 | documents. A DOM implementation presents an XML document as a tree | |
| 71 | structure, or allows client code to build such a structure from | |
| 72 | scratch. It then gives access to the structure through a set of | |
| 73 | objects which provided well-known interfaces. | |
| 74 | ||
| 75 | <P> | |
| 76 | The DOM is extremely useful for random-access applications. SAX only | |
| 77 | allows you a view of one bit of the document at a time. If you are | |
| 78 | looking at one SAX element, you have no access to another. If you are | |
| 79 | looking at a text node, you have no access to a containing element. | |
| 80 | When you write a SAX application, you need to keep track of your | |
| 81 | program's position in the document somewhere in your own code. SAX | |
| 82 | does not do it for you. Also, if you need to look ahead in the XML | |
| 83 | document, you are just out of luck. | |
| 84 | ||
| 85 | <P> | |
| 86 | Some applications are simply impossible in an event driven model with | |
| 87 | no access to a tree. Of course you could build some sort of tree | |
| 88 | yourself in SAX events, but the DOM allows you to avoid writing that | |
| 89 | code. The DOM is a standard tree representation for XML data. | |
| 90 | ||
| 91 | <P> | |
| 92 | The Document Object Model is being defined by the W3C in stages, or | |
| 93 | ``levels'' in their terminology. The Python mapping of the API is | |
| 94 | substantially based on the DOM Level 2 recommendation. The mapping of | |
| 95 | the Level 3 specification, currently only available in draft form, is | |
| 96 | being developed by the <a class="ulink" href="http://www.python.org/sigs/xml-sig/" | |
| 97 | >Python XML Special Interest | |
| 98 | Group</a> as part of the | |
| 99 | <a class="ulink" href="http://pyxml.sourceforge.net/" | |
| 100 | >PyXML package</a>. Refer to the | |
| 101 | documentation bundled with that package for information on the current | |
| 102 | state of DOM Level 3 support. | |
| 103 | ||
| 104 | <P> | |
| 105 | DOM applications typically start by parsing some XML into a DOM. How | |
| 106 | this is accomplished is not covered at all by DOM Level 1, and Level 2 | |
| 107 | provides only limited improvements: There is a | |
| 108 | <tt class="class">DOMImplementation</tt> object class which provides access to | |
| 109 | <tt class="class">Document</tt> creation methods, but no way to access an XML | |
| 110 | reader/parser/Document builder in an implementation-independent way. | |
| 111 | There is also no well-defined way to access these methods without an | |
| 112 | existing <tt class="class">Document</tt> object. In Python, each DOM implementation | |
| 113 | will provide a function <tt class="function">getDOMImplementation()</tt>. DOM Level 3 | |
| 114 | adds a Load/Store specification, which defines an interface to the | |
| 115 | reader, but this is not yet available in the Python standard library. | |
| 116 | ||
| 117 | <P> | |
| 118 | Once you have a DOM document object, you can access the parts of your | |
| 119 | XML document through its properties and methods. These properties are | |
| 120 | defined in the DOM specification; this portion of the reference manual | |
| 121 | describes the interpretation of the specification in Python. | |
| 122 | ||
| 123 | <P> | |
| 124 | The specification provided by the W3C defines the DOM API for Java, | |
| 125 | ECMAScript, and OMG IDL. The Python mapping defined here is based in | |
| 126 | large part on the IDL version of the specification, but strict | |
| 127 | compliance is not required (though implementations are free to support | |
| 128 | the strict mapping from IDL). See section <A href="dom-conformance.html#dom-conformance">13.6.3</A>, | |
| 129 | ``Conformance,'' for a detailed discussion of mapping requirements. | |
| 130 | ||
| 131 | <P> | |
| 132 | <div class="seealso"> | |
| 133 | <p class="heading">See Also:</p> | |
| 134 | ||
| 135 | <dl compact="compact" class="seetitle"> | |
| 136 | <dt><em class="citetitle"><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Core/" | |
| 137 | >Document Object | |
| 138 | Model (DOM) Level 2 Specification</a></em></dt> | |
| 139 | <dd>The W3C recommendation upon which the Python DOM API is | |
| 140 | based.</dd> | |
| 141 | </dl> | |
| 142 | <dl compact="compact" class="seetitle"> | |
| 143 | <dt><em class="citetitle"><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/" | |
| 144 | >Document Object | |
| 145 | Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification</a></em></dt> | |
| 146 | <dd>The W3C recommendation for the | |
| 147 | DOM supported by <tt class="module">xml.dom.minidom</tt>.</dd> | |
| 148 | </dl> | |
| 149 | <dl compact="compact" class="seetitle"> | |
| 150 | <dt><em class="citetitle"><a href="http://pyxml.sourceforge.net" | |
| 151 | >PyXML</a></em></dt> | |
| 152 | <dd>Users that require a | |
| 153 | full-featured implementation of DOM should use the PyXML | |
| 154 | package.</dd> | |
| 155 | </dl> | |
| 156 | <dl compact="compact" class="seetitle"> | |
| 157 | <dt><em class="citetitle"><a href="http://www.omg.org/docs/formal/02-11-05.pdf" | |
| 158 | >Python | |
| 159 | Language Mapping Specification</a></em></dt> | |
| 160 | <dd>This specifies the mapping from OMG IDL to Python.</dd> | |
| 161 | </dl> | |
| 162 | </div> | |
| 163 | ||
| 164 | <P> | |
| 165 | ||
| 166 | <p><br /></p><hr class='online-navigation' /> | |
| 167 | <div class='online-navigation'> | |
| 168 | <!--Table of Child-Links--> | |
| 169 | <A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></a> | |
| 170 | ||
| 171 | <UL CLASS="ChildLinks"> | |
| 172 | <LI><A href="node651.html">13.6.1 Module Contents</a> | |
| 173 | <LI><A href="node652.html">13.6.2 Objects in the DOM</a> | |
| 174 | <UL> | |
| 175 | <LI><A href="dom-implementation-objects.html">13.6.2.1 DOMImplementation Objects</a> | |
| 176 | <LI><A href="dom-node-objects.html">13.6.2.2 Node Objects</a> | |
| 177 | <LI><A href="dom-nodelist-objects.html">13.6.2.3 NodeList Objects</a> | |
| 178 | <LI><A href="dom-documenttype-objects.html">13.6.2.4 DocumentType Objects</a> | |
| 179 | <LI><A href="dom-document-objects.html">13.6.2.5 Document Objects</a> | |
| 180 | <LI><A href="dom-element-objects.html">13.6.2.6 Element Objects</a> | |
| 181 | <LI><A href="dom-attr-objects.html">13.6.2.7 Attr Objects</a> | |
| 182 | <LI><A href="dom-attributelist-objects.html">13.6.2.8 NamedNodeMap Objects</a> | |
| 183 | <LI><A href="dom-comment-objects.html">13.6.2.9 Comment Objects</a> | |
| 184 | <LI><A href="dom-text-objects.html">13.6.2.10 Text and CDATASection Objects</a> | |
| 185 | <LI><A href="dom-pi-objects.html">13.6.2.11 ProcessingInstruction Objects</a> | |
| 186 | <LI><A href="dom-exceptions.html">13.6.2.12 Exceptions</a> | |
| 187 | </ul> | |
| 188 | <LI><A href="dom-conformance.html">13.6.3 Conformance</a> | |
| 189 | <UL> | |
| 190 | <LI><A href="dom-type-mapping.html">13.6.3.1 Type Mapping</a> | |
| 191 | <LI><A href="dom-accessor-methods.html">13.6.3.2 Accessor Methods</a> | |
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| 230 | <span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span> | |
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