DOM Specifications

What is the DOM?

The DOM (Document Object Model) is a programming interface for web documents. It's job is to provide things for programming languages like JavaScript to cling on to and make the changes it's programmed to make. Essentially, the DOM is a way for the page to allow interactions between the structure and behavior, as well as providing a way to manipulate the page.

DOM Specifications

According to the W3C, "The Level 1 Core DOM specification provides a low-level set of fundamental interfaces that can represent any structured document, as well as defining extended interfaces for representing an XML document." These low-level fundamental interfaces label set instructions on the code pertaining to the DOM, such as ways to define errors and exceptions, as well as creating and editing elements on the page. Likewise, the HTML specifications provide high-level interfaces similar to those in the previously explained specifications. In summary, these interfaces are what the DOM can manipulate directly and/or have access to.

DOM Implementation in Browsers

When rendering a page, the DOM reads through all the code provided to construct the page as a tree. This then allows elements to be replicated using nodes created, allowing said nodes to be manipulated in various ways, whether it be adding or removing content or changing certain behaviors of the source code.

Summary

The DOM is a very powerful tool for developers to explore. It allows for the manipulation and live feedback of changes made to code and a deeper dive for debugging. Without the DOM, developing and further dissecting websites would not be nearly as easy a task to complete.