XML DOM » Objects » ProcessingInstruction
The ProcessingInstruction object represents a processing instruction, which is used in XML as a way to include processor-specific information in the text of the document. A ProcessingInstruction consists of a target and content. The target is the first token following the tag, while the content is that text from the first non-white-space character after the target through the character immediately before the '?' which terminates the instruction.
Examples
Code:
pi = xml_doc.firstChild;
document.write(pi.nodeType);
document.write("<br>" + pi.target);
document.write("<br>" + pi.data);Output:
7
xml
version="1.0"
Explanation:
For example, consider the following, typical processing instruction for an XML document:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
The code to extract and display the type, target and content of this ProcessingInstruction node is seen here.
Language(s): JavaScript
Properties
- attributes
Syntax: node.attributes
This is a read-only property that returns a NamedNodeMap for nodes that can have attributes.
- baseName
Syntax: document.basename
This is a read-only property that returns the base name for a node.
- childNodes
Syntax: node.childNodes
This is a read-only property containing a node list of all children for those elements that can have them.
- data
Syntax: processingInstruction.data
This is a read-only property that returns the 'content' of a ProcessingInstruction.
- dataType
Syntax: node.dataType
This is a read-only property that specifies the data type for the node.
- definition
Syntax: node.definition
This property returns the definition of the node in the DTD or schema.
- firstChild
Syntax: node.firstChild
This is a read-only property that returns the first child node of a node. If there is none, it returns null.
- lastChild
Syntax: node.lastChild
This is a read-only property that returns the last child node of a node. If there is none, it returns null.
- namespaceURI
Syntax: object.namespaceURI
This property is read-only and returns the URI (Universal Resource Indentifier) of the namespace.
- nextSibling
Syntax: node.nextSibling
This property returns the next node in the parent's child list, or null if there is none or the node is of a type that cannot be a child node (Attr, Document, DocumentFragment).
- nodeName
Syntax: node.nodeName
This property is read-only and contains the name of the node, depending on type.
- nodeType
Syntax: node.nodeType
This property is read-only and contains the name of the node, depending on type.
- nodeTypedValue
Syntax: node.nodeTypedValue
This property contains the value of this node expressed in its defined data type.
- nodeTypeString
Syntax: node.nodeTypeString
This property is read-only and returns the node type in string form.
- nodeValue
Syntax: node.nodeValue
This property contains the value of the node, depending on type.
- ownerDocument
Syntax: node.ownerDocument
This property returns the Document object to which the node belongs. If the node itself is a document, then it returns null.
- parentNode
Syntax: node.parentNode
This is a read-only property that returns the parent node of all nodes except Document, DocumentFragment and Attr, which cannot have parent nodes.
- parsed
Syntax: node.parsed
This property returns a boolean value of true if this node and all of its descendants have been parsed and instantiated. Otherwise it returns false.
- prefix
Syntax: object.prefix
Property This property is read-only and returns the namespace prefix, or an empty string if none is specified. For example, it would return 'xxx' for the element xxx:yyy.
- previousSibling
Syntax: node.previousSibling
This property returns the previous node in the parent's child list, or null if there is none or the node is of a type that cannot be an child node (Attr, Document, DocumentFragment).
- specified
Syntax: node.specified
This property returns a boolean value which indicates whether or not this attribute has a value specified in the XML document.
- target
Syntax: processingInstruction.target
This is a read-only property that returns the 'target' of a ProcessingInstruction.
- text
Syntax: node.text
This property contains the text content of this node and its subtrees.
- xml
Syntax: node.xml
This property contains the XML representation of this node and its descendants.
Methods
- appendChild
Syntax: node.appendChild(tagName)
This method appends a new child node to the list of children for this node.
- cloneNode
Syntax: node.cloneNode(deep)
This method creates a clone node which is an exact replica of this node.
- hasChildNodes
Syntax: node.hasChildNodes
This method is a convenient way to determine whether a node has child nodes, returning true if it has, and false if not.
- insertBefore
Syntax: node.insertBefore(newChild, refChild)
This method is used to insert a new child node before an existing one. If no child node exists, the new child node becomes the first.
- removeChild
Syntax: node.removeChild(oldChild)
This method removes the specified node from the list of children and returns it.
- replaceChild
Syntax: node.replaceChild(newChild, oldChild)
This method is used to replace one of a node's children with another. It returns the old child.
- selectNodes
Syntax: node.selectNodes(patternString)
This method creates a NodeList of all matching descendant nodes returned by the specified pattern-matching operation.
- selectSingleNode
Syntax: node.selectSingleNode(patternString)
This method returns an object for the first descendant node to match the specified pattern.
- transformNode
Syntax: node.transformNode(stylesheet)
This method processes this node and its descendants using the specified XSL stylesheet, and returns the resulting transformation.
- transformNodeToObject
Syntax: node.transformNodeToObject(stylesheet, outputObject)
This method processes this node and its descendants using the specified XSL stylesheet, and returns the resulting transformation in the specified object.
See Also:
