July 13, 2001 - Supporting the document Object | WebReference

July 13, 2001 - Supporting the document Object

Yehuda Shiran July 13, 2001
Supporting the document Object
Tips: July 2001

Yehuda Shiran, Ph.D.
Doc JavaScript

The document object is the root node of a document's DOM tree. But this node is treated differently in Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 5.5 does not support any DOM properties of the document object. You will get undefined as a response to such queries. Internet Explorer 5.5 supports only the document.documentElement object. Its nodeName is HTML, and its nodeType is 1 (a tag). Internet Explorer 6 (as well as Netscape 6), on the other hand, supports the DOM properties of the document object. If you query document.nodeName, you will get #document. Its nodeType will be 9. In fact, its only child is the HTML tag node. Try printing its nodeName. Internet Explorer 5.5 does not support this direct relationship between the document object and the HTML tag.

The code in this tip can be viewed only by Internet Explorer 6 and up, as well as Netscape 6 and up.

Learn more about the DOM in Columns 40, The DOM, Part I: Analysis, through Column 47, A DOM-Based Snakes Game, Part II.