/* * Copyright (c) 2000 World Wide Web Consortium, * (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institut National de * Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Keio University). All * Rights Reserved. This program is distributed under the W3C's Software * Intellectual Property License. This program is distributed in the * hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even * the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR * PURPOSE. * See W3C License http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ for more details. */ package org.w3c.dom; /** * The <code>Attr</code> interface represents an attribute in an * <code>Element</code> object. Typically the allowable values for the * attribute are defined in a document type definition. * <p><code>Attr</code> objects inherit the <code>Node</code> interface, but * since they are not actually child nodes of the element they describe, the * DOM does not consider them part of the document tree. Thus, the * <code>Node</code> attributes <code>parentNode</code>, * <code>previousSibling</code>, and <code>nextSibling</code> have a * <code>null</code> value for <code>Attr</code> objects. The DOM takes the * view that attributes are properties of elements rather than having a * separate identity from the elements they are associated with; this should * make it more efficient to implement such features as default attributes * associated with all elements of a given type. Furthermore, * <code>Attr</code> nodes may not be immediate children of a * <code>DocumentFragment</code>. However, they can be associated with * <code>Element</code> nodes contained within a * <code>DocumentFragment</code>. In short, users and implementors of the * DOM need to be aware that <code>Attr</code> nodes have some things in * common with other objects inheriting the <code>Node</code> interface, but * they also are quite distinct. * <p> The attribute's effective value is determined as follows: if this * attribute has been explicitly assigned any value, that value is the * attribute's effective value; otherwise, if there is a declaration for * this attribute, and that declaration includes a default value, then that * default value is the attribute's effective value; otherwise, the * attribute does not exist on this element in the structure model until it * has been explicitly added. Note that the <code>nodeValue</code> attribute * on the <code>Attr</code> instance can also be used to retrieve the string * version of the attribute's value(s). * <p>In XML, where the value of an attribute can contain entity references, * the child nodes of the <code>Attr</code> node may be either * <code>Text</code> or <code>EntityReference</code> nodes (when these are * in use; see the description of <code>EntityReference</code> for * discussion). Because the DOM Core is not aware of attribute types, it * treats all attribute values as simple strings, even if the DTD or schema * declares them as having tokenized types. * <p>See also the <a href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Core-20001113'>Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification</a>. */ public interface Attr extends Node { /** * Returns the name of this attribute. */ public String getName(); /** * If this attribute was explicitly given a value in the original * document, this is <code>true</code>; otherwise, it is * <code>false</code>. Note that the implementation is in charge of this * attribute, not the user. If the user changes the value of the * attribute (even if it ends up having the same value as the default * value) then the <code>specified</code> flag is automatically flipped * to <code>true</code>. To re-specify the attribute as the default * value from the DTD, the user must delete the attribute. The * implementation will then make a new attribute available with * <code>specified</code> set to <code>false</code> and the default * value (if one exists). * <br>In summary: If the attribute has an assigned value in the document * then <code>specified</code> is <code>true</code>, and the value is * the assigned value. If the attribute has no assigned value in the * document and has a default value in the DTD, then * <code>specified</code> is <code>false</code>, and the value is the * default value in the DTD. If the attribute has no assigned value in * the document and has a value of #IMPLIED in the DTD, then the * attribute does not appear in the structure model of the document. If * the <code>ownerElement</code> attribute is <code>null</code> (i.e. * because it was just created or was set to <code>null</code> by the * various removal and cloning operations) <code>specified</code> is * <code>true</code>. */ public boolean getSpecified(); /** * On retrieval, the value of the attribute is returned as a string. * Character and general entity references are replaced with their * values. See also the method <code>getAttribute</code> on the * <code>Element</code> interface. * <br>On setting, this creates a <code>Text</code> node with the unparsed * contents of the string. I.e. any characters that an XML processor * would recognize as markup are instead treated as literal text. See * also the method <code>setAttribute</code> on the <code>Element</code> * interface. * @exception DOMException * NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly. */ public String getValue(); public void setValue(String value) throws DOMException; /** * The <code>Element</code> node this attribute is attached to or * <code>null</code> if this attribute is not in use. * @since DOM Level 2 */ public Element getOwnerElement(); }