document object (Internet Explorer)

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Represents the HTML document in a specific window.

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification, Section 1.6.5

DOM Information

Inheritance Hierarchy

Node

document

Members

The document object has these types of members:

Events
Methods
Properties

Events

The document object has these events.

Event	Description
abort	Fires when the user aborts the download.
activate	Fires when the object is set as the active element.
beforeactivate	Fires immediately before the object is set as the active element.
beforeeditfocus	Fires before an object contained in an editable element enters a UI Activation state or when an editable container object is control selection.
blur	Fires when the object loses the input focus.
canplay	Occurs when playback is possible, but would require further buffering.
canplaythrough	Occurs when playback to end is possible without requiring a stop for further buffering.
cellchange	Fires when data changes in the data provider.
change	Fires when the contents of the object or selection have changed.
click	Fires when the user clicks the left mouse button on the object.
contextmenu	Fires when the user clicks the right mouse button in the client area, opening the context menu.
controlselect	Fires when the user is about to make a control selection of the object.
dataavailable	Fires periodically as data arrives from data source objects that asynchronously transmit their data.
datasetchanged	Fires when the data set exposed by a data source object changes.
dblclick	Fires when the user double-clicks the object.
deactivate	Fires when the activeElement is changed from the current object to another object in the parent document.
DOMContentLoaded	Fires when a webpage has been parsed, but before all resources have been fully downloaded.
drag	Fires on the source object continuously during a drag operation.
dragend	Fires on the source object when the user releases the mouse at the close of a drag operation.
dragenter	Fires on the target element when the user drags the object to a valid drop target.
dragleave	Fires on the target object when the user moves the mouse out of a valid drop target during a drag operation.
dragover	Fires on the target element continuously while the user drags the object over a valid drop target.
dragstart	Fires on the source object when the user starts to drag a text selection or selected object.
drop	Fires on the target object when the mouse button is released during a drag-and-drop operation.
durationchange	Occurs when the duration attribute is updated.
emptied	Occurs when the media element is reset to its initial state.
ended	Occurs when the end of playback is reached.
error	Fires when an error occurs during object loading.
errorupdate	Fires on a databound object when an error occurs while updating the associated data in the data source object.
focus	Fires when the object receives focus.
focusin	Fires for an element just prior to setting focus on that element.
focusout	Fires for the current element with focus immediately after moving focus to another element.
help	Fires when the user presses the F1 key while the client is the active window.
input	Occurs when the text content of an element is changed through the user interface.
keydown	Fires when the user presses a key.
keypress	Fires when the user presses an alphanumeric key.
load	Fires immediately after the client loads the object.
loadeddata	Occurs when media data is loaded at the current playback position.
loadedmetadata	Occurs when the duration and dimensions of the media have been determined.
loadstart	Occurs when Internet Explorer begins looking for media data.
mousedown	Fires when the user clicks the object with either mouse button.
mousemove	Fires when the user moves the mouse over the object.
mouseout	Fires when the user moves the mouse pointer outside the boundaries of the object.
mouseover	Fires when the user moves the mouse pointer into the object.
mouseup	Fires when the user releases a mouse button while the mouse is over the object.
mousewheel	Fires when the wheel button is rotated.
MSPointerCancel	Fires when the system cancels a pointer event.
onbeforedeactivate	Fires immediately before the activeElement is changed from the current object to another object in the parent document.
ondatasetcomplete	Fires to indicate that all data is available from the data source object.
onkeyup	Fires when the user releases a key.
onmssitemodejumplistitemremoved	Occurs when msSiteModeShowJumpList is called, and an item has been removed from a Jump List by the user.
onmsthumbnailclick	Occurs when a user clicks a button in a Thumbnail Toolbar.
onselect	Fires when the current selection changes.
pause	Occurs when playback is paused.
play	Occurs when the play method is requested.
playing	Occurs when the audio or video has started playing.
progress	Occurs to indicate progress while downloading media data.
propertychange	Fires when a property changes on the object.
ratechange	Occurs when the playback rate is increased or decreased.
readystatechange	Fires when the state of the object has changed.
reset	Fires when the user resets a form.
rowenter	Fires to indicate that the current row has changed in the data source and new data values are available on the object.
rowexit	Fires just before the data source control changes the current row in the object.
rowsdelete	Fires when rows are about to be deleted from the recordset.
rowsinserted	Fires just after new rows are inserted in the current recordset.
scroll	Fires when the user repositions the scroll box in the scroll bar on the object.
seeked	Occurs when the seek operation ends.
seeking	Occurs when the current playback position is moved.
selectionchange	Fires when the selection state of a document changes.
stalled	Occurs when the download has stopped.
stop	Fires when the user clicks the Stop button or leaves the document.
storage	Fires when a Web Storage area is updated.
storagecommit	Fires when a local Web Storage area is written to disk.
suspend	Occurs if the load operation has been intentionally halted.
timeupdate	Occurs to indicate the current playback position.
visibilitychange	Triggered when the visibilityState property changes.
volumechange	Occurs when the volume is changed, or playback is muted or unmuted.
waiting	Occurs when playback stops because the next frame of a video resource is not available.

Methods

The document object has these methods.

Method	Description
addEventListener	Registers an event handler for the specified event type.
adoptNode	Tries to move a node from one document to the document that the document object displays.
attachEvent	Binds the specified function to an event, so that the function gets called whenever the event fires on the object.
close	Closes an output stream and forces the sent data to display.
compareDocumentPosition	Compares the position of two nodes in a document.
createAttribute	Creates an attribute object with a specified name.
createAttributeNS	Creates a reference to an attribute object that is associated with an XML namespace.
createCDATASection	Creates a CDATA section that contains the specified text.
createComment	Creates a comment object with the specified data.
createDocumentFragment	Creates a new document.
createElement	Creates an instance of the element for the specified tag.
createElementNS	Creates an element from the specified namespace.
createEvent	Creates a DOM event of the specified type.
createEventObject	Generates an event object to pass event context information when you use the fireEvent method.
createNodeIterator	Creates a NodeIterator object that you can use to traverse filtered lists of nodes or elements in a document.
createProcessingInstruction	Creates a processing instruction for an XML parser.
createRange	Returns an empty range object that has both of its boundary points positioned at the beginning of the document.
createStyleSheet	Creates a style sheet for the document.
createTextNode	Creates a text string from the specified value.
createTreeWalker	Creates a TreeWalker object that you can use to traverse filtered lists of nodes or elements in a document.
detachEvent	Unbinds the specified function from the event, so that the function stops receiving notifications when the event fires.
dispatchEvent	Sends an event to the current element.
elementFromPoint	Returns the element for the specified x coordinate and the specified y coordinate.
execCommand	Executes a command on the current document, current selection, or the given range.
execCommandShowHelp	Displays help information for the given command identifier.
focus	Causes the element to receive the focus and executes the code specified by the onfocus event.
getElementById	Returns a reference to the first object with the specified value of the ID or NAME attribute.
getElementsByName	Gets a collection of objects based on the value of the NAME or ID attribute.
getElementsByTagName	Retrieves a collection of objects based on the specified element name.
getElementsByTagNameNS	Gets a collection of nodes that match an element name from the specified namespace.
getSelection	Returns an object that represents the current selection of the document.
hasFocus	Gets a value indicating whether the object currently has focus.
importNode	Imports a node from another document into the the document that the document object displays.
isDefaultNamespace	Indicates whether or not a namespace is the default namespace for a document.
isEqualNode	Determines if two nodes are equal.
isSameNode	Determines if two node references refer to the same node.
isSupported	Returns a value indicating whether or not the object supports a specific DOM standard.
lookupNamespaceURI	Gets the URI of the namespace associated with a namespace prefix, if any.
lookupPrefix	Gets the namespace prefix associated with a URI, if any.
normalize	Merges adjacent DOM objects to produce a normalized document object model.
open	Opens a document for writing. Note Can also be used to behave like the open method of the window object if the url, name, features, and replace parameters are specified using the following syntax: var retval = document.open(url, name, features, replace); Refer to the window.open reference for usage.
queryCommandEnabled	Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether a specified command can be successfully executed using execCommand, given the current state of the document.
queryCommandIndeterm	Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the specified command is in the indeterminate state.
queryCommandState	Returns a Boolean value that indicates the current state of the command.
queryCommandSupported	Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the current command is supported on the current range.
queryCommandText	Retrieves the string associated with a command.
queryCommandValue	Returns the current value of the document, range, or current selection for the given command.
querySelector	Retrieves the first DOM element node from descendants of the starting element node that match any selector within the supplied selector string.
querySelectorAll	Retrieves all DOM element nodes from descendants of the starting element node that match any selector within the supplied selector strings.
recalc	This element is obsolete and should no longer be used. Recalculates all dynamic properties in the current document.
releaseCapture	Removes mouse capture from the object in the current document.
removeEventListener	Removes an event handler that the addEventListener method registered.
updateSettings	Allows updating the print settings for the page.
write	Writes one or more HTML expressions to a document in the specified window.
writeln	Writes one or more HTML expressions, followed by a carriage return, to a document in the specified window.

Properties

The document object has these properties.

Property	Description
activeElement	Gets the object that has the focus when the parent document has focus.
alinkColor	Sets or gets the color of all active links in the document.
anchors	Retrieves a collection of all a objects that have a name and/or id property. Objects in this collection are in HTML source order.
bgColor	Deprecated. Sets or retrieves a value that indicates the background color behind the object.
characterSet	Gets the name of the character set that is used to encode the document.
charset	Sets or retrieves the character set used to encode the object.
compatible	Retrieves the collection of user agents and versions declared in the `X-UA-Compatible` meta tag.
compatMode	Gets a value that indicates whether standards-compliant mode is switched on for the object.
constructor	Returns a reference to the constructor of an object.
cookie	Sets or gets the string value of a cookie.
defaultCharset	Gets the default character set from the current regional language settings.
defaultView	Gets a reference to the window object for the document.
designMode	Sets or gets a value that indicates whether the document can be edited.
dir	Sets or retrieves a value that indicates the reading order of the object.
doctype	Gets an object that represents the document type declaration that is associated with the current document.
documentElement	Gets a reference to the root node of the document.
documentMode	Retrieves the document compatibility mode of the document.
domain	Sets or gets the security domain of the document.
expando	Sets or retrieves a value indicating whether arbitrary variables can be created within the object.
fgColor	Sets or gets the foreground (text) color of the document.
fileCreatedDate	Retrieves the date the file was created.
fileModifiedDate	Retrieves the date the file was last modified.
fileSize	Retrieves the file size.
head	Gets the head element of the document.
implementation	Gets the implementation object of the current document.
inputEncoding	Gets the character encoding that is used for the text that is loaded into the document object.
lastModified	Gets the date that the document was last modified, if the document supplies one.
linkColor	Sets or gets the color of the document links.
localName	Retrieves the local name of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
namespaceURI	Retrieves the namespace URI of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
parentWindow	Gets a reference to the container object of the window.
prefix	Retrieves the local name of the fully qualified XML declaration for a node.
protocol	Sets or retrieves the protocol portion of a URL.
readyState	Retrieves a value that indicates the current state of the object.
referrer	Gets the URL of the location that referred the user to the current document.
rootElement	Gets the root svg element in the document hierarchy.
textContent	Sets or retrieves the text content of an object and any child objects.
uniqueID	Retrieves an autogenerated, unique identifier for the object.
URL	Sets or gets the URL for the current document.
URLUnencoded	Gets the URL for the document, stripped of any character encoding.
visibilityState	Returns the visibility state of a webpage.
vlinkColor	Sets or gets the color of the links that the user has visited.
xmlEncoding	Gets a value that represents the character encoding that is specified in the declaration of an XML document.
xmlStandalone	Gets or sets the value of the standalone attribute in the declaration of an XML document.
xmlVersion	Gets or sets the version attribute that is specified in the declaration of an XML document.
XSLDocument	Retrieves a reference to the top-level node of the XSL document.

Standards information

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification, Section 1.6.5

Remarks

Use the document object to examine, modify, or add content to an HTML document and to process events within that document. In a script, the document object can be referenced through the document property of the window object or it can be referenced directly.

The ondocumentready event notifies Dynamic HTML (DHTML) behaviors that the document object is available from the primary document containing the behavior. After ondocumentready has fired, a behavior can begin to manipulate the primary document object.

The document object is available at all times in the primary document, but it does not exist for the HTML Component (HTC) files used in lightweight Dynamic HTML (DHTML) behaviors. This is because lightweight behaviors can be defined only if they do not use a document object in the HTC file. As a result, lightweight behaviors run faster and more efficiently than normal behaviors. Lightweight Dynamic HTML (DHTML) behaviors can, however, access the document object of the primary document in the same way as normal Dynamic HTML (DHTML) behaviors.

It is possible for the script in a behavior to reference the document object in the HTC file or the primary document. When coding script in an HTC file, use element.document to refer to the document object in the primary document.

In Windows CE, the document object is not available through scripting for a window object opened using the open method.

Examples

This example uses the document object to check for a document title and displays the title (if not null) in a debugging console window (see F12 Developer Tools for more information).


if (document.title != "") {
    console.log("The title is " + document.title)
}

This example shows an event handler function that displays the current position of the mouse, relative to the upper-left corner of the document, in a console window.


<html>
<head>
  <title>Report mouse moves</title>
  <script>
    function reportMove()
    {
      console.log("X = " + window.event.x + ", Y = " + window.event.y);
    }
  </script>
</head>

<body onmousemove="reportMove()">  
  <h1>Welcome!</h1>
</body>
</html>

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Build date: 11/27/2012

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document object