From 16942f22243b939e79f432cf27d347c4e97a3929 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Fred Drake Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 04:47:51 +0000 Subject: Lots of additional information. Not done, but much better. --- Doc/lib/xmldom.tex | 213 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------- Doc/lib/xmldomminidom.tex | 7 +- 2 files changed, 173 insertions(+), 47 deletions(-) diff --git a/Doc/lib/xmldom.tex b/Doc/lib/xmldom.tex index 671a270..85547eb 100644 --- a/Doc/lib/xmldom.tex +++ b/Doc/lib/xmldom.tex @@ -89,8 +89,7 @@ the strict mapping from IDL). See section \ref{dom-conformance}, \subsection{Objects in the DOM \label{dom-objects}} The definitive documentation for the DOM is the DOM specification from -the W3C. This section lists the properties and methods supported by -\refmodule{xml.dom.minidom}. +the W3C. Note that DOM attributes may also be manipulated as nodes instead of as simple strings. It is fairly rare that you must do this, however, @@ -98,8 +97,14 @@ so this usage is not yet documented. \begin{tableiii}{l|l|l}{class}{Interface}{Section}{Purpose} + \lineiii{DOMImplementation}{\ref{dom-implementation-objects}} + {Interface to the underlying implementation.} \lineiii{Node}{\ref{dom-node-objects}} {Base interface for most objects in a document.} + \lineiii{NodeList}{\ref{dom-nodelist-objects}} + {Interface for a sequence of nodes.} + \lineiii{DocumentType}{\ref{dom-documenttype-objects}} + {Information about the declarations needed to process a document.} \lineiii{Document}{\ref{dom-document-objects}} {Object which represents an entire document.} \lineiii{Element}{\ref{dom-element-objects}} @@ -115,6 +120,19 @@ so this usage is not yet documented. \end{tableiii} +\subsubsection{DOMImplementation Objects + \label{dom-implementation-objects}} + +The \class{DOMImplementation} interface provides a way for +applications to determine the availability of particular features in +the DOM they are using. DOM Level 2 added the ability to create new +\class{Document} and \class{DocumentType} objects using the +\class{DOMImplementation} as well. + +\begin{methoddesc}[DOMImplementation]{hasFeature}{feature, version} +\end{methoddesc} + + \subsubsection{Node Objects \label{dom-node-objects}} All of the components of an XML document are subclasses of @@ -131,7 +149,11 @@ types are on the \class{Node} object: \constant{DOCUMENT_NODE}, \end{memberdesc} \begin{memberdesc}[Node]{parentNode} -The parent of the current node. \code{None} for the document node. +The parent of the current node, or \code{None} for the document node. +The value is always a \class{Node} object or \code{None}. For +\class{Element} nodes, this will be the parent element, except for the +root element, in which case it will be the \class{Document} object. +For \class{Attr} nodes, this is always \code{None}. \end{memberdesc} \begin{memberdesc}[Node]{attributes} @@ -144,12 +166,14 @@ The node that immediately precedes this one with the same parent. For instance the element with an end-tag that comes just before the \var{self} element's start-tag. Of course, XML documents are made up of more than just elements so the previous sibling could be text, a -comment, or something else. +comment, or something else. If this node is the first child of the +parent, this attribute will be \code{None}. \end{memberdesc} \begin{memberdesc}[Node]{nextSibling} The node that immediately follows this one with the same parent. See -also \member{previousSibling}. +also \member{previousSibling}. If this is the last child of the +parent, this attribute will be \code{None}. \end{memberdesc} \begin{memberdesc}[Node]{childNodes} @@ -164,11 +188,18 @@ The first child of the node, if there are any, or \code{None}. The last child of the node, if there are any, or \code{None}. \end{memberdesc} +\begin{memberdesc}[Element]{namespaceURI} +The namespace associated with the element name. This will be a +string. +\end{memberdesc} + \begin{memberdesc}[Node]{nodeName} Has a different meaning for each node type. See the DOM specification for details. You can always get the information you would get here from another property such as the \member{tagName} property for -elements or the \member{name} property for attributes. +elements or the \member{name} property for attributes. For all node +types, the value of this attribute will be either a string or +\code{None}. \end{memberdesc} \begin{memberdesc}[Node]{nodeValue} @@ -213,13 +244,91 @@ DOM tree for many applications. \begin{methoddesc}[Node]{cloneNode}{deep} Clone this node. Setting \var{deep} means to clone all child nodes as -well. +well. This returns the clone. +\end{methoddesc} + + +\subsubsection{NodeList Objects \label{dom-nodelist-objects}} + +A \class{NodeList} represents a sequence of nodes. These objects are +used in two ways in the DOM Core recommendation: the +\class{Element} objects provides one as it's list of child nodes, and +the \method{getElementsByTagName()} and +\method{getElementsByTagNameNS()} methods of \class{Node} return +objects with this interface to represent query results. -\strong{Warning:} Although this method was present in the version of -\refmodule{xml.dom.minidom} packaged with Python 2.0, it was seriously -broken. This has been corrected for subsequent releases. +The DOM Level 2 recommendation defines one method and one attribute +for these objects: + +\begin{methoddesc}[NodeList]{item}{i} + Return the \var{i}'th item from the sequence, if there is one, or + \code{None}. The index \var{i} is not allowed to be less then zero + or greater than or equal to the length of the sequence. \end{methoddesc} +\begin{memberdesc}[NodeList]{length} + The number of nodes in the sequence. +\end{memberdesc} + +In addition, the Python DOM interface requires that some additional +support is provided to allow \class{NodeList} objects to be used as +Python sequences. All \class{NodeList} implementations must include +support for \method{__len__()} and \method{__getitem__()}; this allows +iteration over the \class{NodeList} in \keyword{for} statements and +proper support for the \function{len()} built-in function. + +If a DOM implementation supports modification of the document, the +\class{NodeList} implementation must also support the +\method{__setitem__()} and \method{__delitem__()} methods. + + +\subsubsection{DocumentType Objects \label{dom-documenttype-objects}} + +Information about the notations and entities declared by a document +(including the external subset if the parser uses it and can provide +the information) is available from a \class{DocumentType} object. The +\class{DocumentType} for a document is available from the +\class{Document} object's \member{doctype} attribute. + +\class{DocumentType} is a specialization of \class{Node}, and adds the +following attributes: + +\begin{memberdesc}[DocumentType]{publicId} + The public identifier for the external subset of the document type + definition. This will be a string or \code{None}. +\end{memberdesc} + +\begin{memberdesc}[DocumentType]{systemId} + The system identifier for the external subset of the document type + definition. This will be a URI as a string, or \code{None}. +\end{memberdesc} + +\begin{memberdesc}[DocumentType]{internalSubset} + A string giving the complete internal subset from the document. +\end{memberdesc} + +\begin{memberdesc}[DocumentType]{name} + The name of the root element as given in the \code{DOCTYPE} + declaration, if present. If the was no \code{DOCTYPE} declaration, + this will be \code{None}. +\end{memberdesc} + +\begin{memberdesc}[DocumentType]{entities} + This is a \class{NamedNodeMap} giving the definitions of external + entities. For entity names defined more than once, only the first + definition is provided (others are ignored as required by the XML + recommendation). This may be \code{None} if the information is not + provided by the parser, or if no entities are defined. +\end{memberdesc} + +\begin{memberdesc}[DocumentType]{notations} + This is a \class{NamedNodeMap} giving the definitions of notations. + For notation names defined more than once, only the first definition + is provided (others are ignored as required by the XML + recommendation). This may be \code{None} if the information is not + provided by the parser, or if no notations are defined. +\end{memberdesc} + \subsubsection{Document Objects \label{dom-document-objects}} @@ -232,50 +341,51 @@ The one and only root element of the document. \end{memberdesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Document]{createElement}{tagName} -Create a new element. The element is not inserted into the document -when it is created. You need to explicitly insert it with one of the -other methods such as \method{insertBefore()} or +Create and return a new element node. The element is not inserted +into the document when it is created. You need to explicitly insert +it with one of the other methods such as \method{insertBefore()} or \method{appendChild()}. \end{methoddesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Document]{createElementNS}{namespaceURI, tagName} -Create a new element with a namespace. The \var{tagName} may have a -prefix. The element is not inserted into the document when it is -created. You need to explicitly insert it with one of the other -methods such as \method{insertBefore()} or \method{appendChild()}. +Create and return a new element with a namespace. The +\var{tagName} may have a prefix. The element is not inserted into the +document when it is created. You need to explicitly insert it with +one of the other methods such as \method{insertBefore()} or +\method{appendChild()}. \end{methoddesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Document]{createTextNode}{data} -Create a text node containing the data passed as a parameter. As with -the other creation methods, this one does not insert the node into the -tree. +Create and return a text node containing the data passed as a +parameter. As with the other creation methods, this one does not +insert the node into the tree. \end{methoddesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Document]{createComment}{data} -Create a comment node containing the data passed as a parameter. As -with the other creation methods, this one does not insert the node -into the tree. +Create and return a comment node containing the data passed as a +parameter. As with the other creation methods, this one does not +insert the node into the tree. \end{methoddesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Document]{createProcessingInstruction}{target, data} -Create a processing instruction node containing the \var{target} and -\var{data} passed as parameters. As with the other creation methods, -this one does not insert the node into the tree. +Create and return a processing instruction node containing the +\var{target} and \var{data} passed as parameters. As with the other +creation methods, this one does not insert the node into the tree. \end{methoddesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Document]{createAttribute}{name} -Create an attribute node. This method does not associate the -attribute node with any particular element. You must use +Create and return an attribute node. This method does not associate +the attribute node with any particular element. You must use \method{setAttributeNode()} on the appropriate \class{Element} object to use the newly created attribute instance. \end{methoddesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Document]{createAttributeNS}{namespaceURI, qualifiedName} -Create an attribute node with a namespace. The \var{tagName} may have -a prefix. This method does not associate the attribute node with any -particular element. You must use \method{setAttributeNode()} on the -appropriate \class{Element} object to use the newly created attribute -instance. +Create and return an attribute node with a namespace. The +\var{tagName} may have a prefix. This method does not associate the +attribute node with any particular element. You must use +\method{setAttributeNode()} on the appropriate \class{Element} object +to use the newly created attribute instance. \end{methoddesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Document]{getElementsByTagName}{tagName} @@ -297,27 +407,27 @@ attributes of that class. \begin{memberdesc}[Element]{tagName} The element type name. In a namespace-using document it may have -colons in it. +colons in it. The value is a string. \end{memberdesc} \begin{memberdesc}[Element]{localName} The part of the \member{tagName} following the colon if there is one, -else the entire \member{tagName}. +else the entire \member{tagName}. The value is a string. \end{memberdesc} \begin{memberdesc}[Element]{prefix} The part of the \member{tagName} preceding the colon if there is one, -else the empty string. -\end{memberdesc} - -\begin{memberdesc}[Element]{namespaceURI} -The namespace associated with the tagName. +else the empty string. The value is a string, or \code{None} \end{memberdesc} \begin{methoddesc}[Element]{getAttribute}{attname} Return an attribute value as a string. \end{methoddesc} +\begin{methoddesc}[Element]{getAttributeNode}{attrname} +Return the \class{Attr} node for the attribute named by \var{attrname} +\end{methoddesc} + \begin{methoddesc}[Element]{setAttribute}{attname, value} Set an attribute value from a string. \end{methoddesc} @@ -439,9 +549,27 @@ This section describes the conformance requirements and relationships between the Python DOM API, the W3C DOM recommendations, and the OMG IDL mapping for Python. + \subsubsection{Type Mapping \label{dom-type-mapping}} -XXX Explain what a \class{DOMString} maps to... +The primitive IDL types used in the DOM specification are mapped to +Python types according to the following table. + +\begin{tableii}{l|l}{code}{IDL Type}{Python Type} + \lineii{boolean}{\code{IntegerType} (with a value of \code{0} or \code{1})} + \lineii{int}{\code{IntegerType}} + \lineii{long int}{\code{IntegerType}} + \lineii{unsigned int}{\code{IntegerType}} +\end{tableii} + +Additionally, the \class{DOMString} defined in the recommendation is +mapped to a Python string or Unicode string. Applications should +be able to handle Unicode whenever a string is returned from the DOM. + +The IDL \keyword{null} value is mapped to \code{None}, which may be +accepted or provided by the implementation whenever \keyword{null} is +allowed by the API. + \subsubsection{Accessor Methods \label{dom-accessor-methods}} @@ -476,4 +604,5 @@ implementations. Additionally, the accessor functions are not required. If provided, they should take the form defined by the Python IDL mapping, but these methods are considered unnecessary since the attributes are -accessible directly from Python. +accessible directly from Python. ``Set'' accessors should never be +provided for \keyword{readonly} attributes. diff --git a/Doc/lib/xmldomminidom.tex b/Doc/lib/xmldomminidom.tex index 7821fe2..0557113 100644 --- a/Doc/lib/xmldomminidom.tex +++ b/Doc/lib/xmldomminidom.tex @@ -261,9 +261,6 @@ following mapping rules apply: \item \class{NodeList} objects are implemented as Python's built-in list type, so don't support the official API, but are much more ``Pythonic.'' - -\item \class{NamedNodeMap} is implemented by the class - \class{AttributeList}. This should not impact user code. \end{itemize} @@ -273,9 +270,9 @@ The following interfaces have no implementation in \begin{itemize} \item DOMTimeStamp -\item DocumentType (added for Python 2.1) +\item DocumentType (added in Python 2.1) -\item DOMImplementation (added for Python 2.1) +\item DOMImplementation (added in Python 2.1) \item CharacterData -- cgit v0.12