What's coming up next?

The DOM was approved as a standard by the W3C in October 1998

It reflects cross-industry agreement on a standard API (Applications Programming Interface) for manipulating documents and data through a programming language (such as Java or ECMAScript)

It defines a foundation of a platform- and language-neutral interface to access and update dynamically a document's content, structure, and style

The DOM allow programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents

The document can be further processed and the results of that processing can be incorporated back into the presented page

It is a model in which the document or Web page contains objects (elements, links, etc.) that can be manipulated

Authors will be able to delete, add, or change an element, change its content or add, delete or change an attribute.

The DOM Level 1 provides a standard:

• Set of objects for representing HTML and XML documents and data

• Model of how these objects may be combined

• Interface for accessing and manipulating these documents

HTML 4.0 includes a standard way to embed scripts in a document, but does not specify how those scripts can manipulate the document's content, structure, and style

Several vendors already offer mechanisms for manipulation, but their solutions (scripting languages) are not interoperable

The DOM originated as a specification to allow JavaScript scripts and Java programs to be portable among Web browsers.

The DOM defines a standard API that allows authors to write programs that work without changes across tools and browsers from different vendors.

There will be two ways of using the DOM

You can write JavaScript or VBScript in your page

Or, you can use an external application such as a plug-in or ActiveX control, that accesses the document through your browser

A simple example (from the DOM specification)

Here is a table:

<TABLE>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD>Shady Grove</TD>
<TD>Aeolian</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Over the River, Charlie</TD>
<TD>Dorian</TD>
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>