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Definition: DOM


(1) See disk on module.

(2) (Document Object Model) A programming interface (API) from the W3C that lets applications and scripts render the data in XML, XHTML and HTML files as a hierarchical tree structure.

DOM Creates a Database Record (Row/Tuple)
Introduced in 1998, DOM converts XML documents into a hierarchical node tree in memory (see illustration below). The node tree allows updating in a similar manner to traditional database updating, making data exchange between XML documents and databases more straightforward. Without DOM, the text and tags in an XML document have to be scanned sequentially and rearranged by the program.

Event Processing
In 2000, DOM Level 2 (DOM2) gave the programmer a way to handle events such as mouse down, mouse click and mouse over. Events may be preprocessed at any tag from the top of the tree to the target tag at the bottom ("capture" phase) and then back up ("bubbling" phase). These phases were implemented for backward compatibility with earlier Netscape and IE browsers. See DOM implementation, DOM application, SAX and object model.




Nodes in an XML Record
DOM converts (parses) an XML document into a hierarchical node tree. Writing an XML update program is then similar to writing a database update program, using the same kinds of functions available in a database management system (see DBMS).