With the HTML DOM, JavaScript can access and change all the elements of an HTML document.
The HTML DOM (Document Object Model)
When a web page is loaded, the browser creates a Document Object Model of the page.
The HTML DOM model is constructed as a tree of Objects:
The HTML DOM Tree of Objects
With the object model, JavaScript gets all the power it needs to create dynamic HTML:
- JavaScript can change all the HTML elements in the page
- JavaScript can change all the HTML attributes in the page
- JavaScript can change all the CSS styles in the page
- JavaScript can remove existing HTML elements and attributes
- JavaScript can add new HTML elements and attributes
- JavaScript can react to all existing HTML events in the page
- JavaScript can create new HTML events in the page
What You Will Learn
In the next chapters of this tutorial you will learn:
- How to change the content of HTML elements
- How to change the style (CSS) of HTML elements
- How to react to HTML DOM events
- How to add and delete HTML elements
What is the DOM?
The DOM is a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard.
The DOM defines a standard for accessing documents:
"The W3C Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of a document."
The W3C DOM standard is separated into 3 different parts:
- Core DOM - standard model for all document types
- XML DOM - standard model for XML documents
- HTML DOM - standard model for HTML documents
What is the HTML DOM?
The HTML DOM is a standard object model and programming interface for HTML. It defines:
- The HTML elements as objects
- The properties of all HTML elements
- The methods to access all HTML elements
- The events for all HTML elements
In other words: The HTML DOM is a standard for how to get, change, add, or delete HTML elements.