nu.xom

Class Node

Object
  extended bynu.xom.Node
Direct Known Subclasses:
Attribute, Comment, DocType, ParentNode, ProcessingInstruction, Text

public abstract class Node
extends Object

The generic superclass for all the contents of an XML document. There are exactly seven kinds of nodes in XOM:

Every instance of Node is an instance of one of these seven classes (including, possibly, one of their subclasses).

Version:
1.0
Author:
Elliotte Rusty Harold

Method Summary
abstract  Nodecopy()

           Returns a deep copy of this node with no parent, that can be added to the current document or a different one.
 voiddetach()

           Removes this node from its parent so that it can be added to a different parent node or document.
 booleanequals(Object o)

           Tests for node identity.
 StringgetBaseURI()

           Returns the base URI of this node as specified by XML Base, or the empty string if this is not known.
abstract  NodegetChild(int position)

           Returns the child of this node at the specified position.
abstract  intgetChildCount()

           Returns the number of children of this node.
 DocumentgetDocument()

           Returns the document that contains this node, or null if this node is not currently part of a document.
 ParentNodegetParent()

           Returns the node that contains this node, or null if this node does not have a parent.
abstract  StringgetValue()

           Returns the XPath 1.0 string-value of this node.
 inthashCode()

           Returns a unique identifier for this node.
abstract  StringtoXML()

           Returns the actual XML form of this node, such as might be copied and pasted from the original document.
 
Methods inherited from class Object
clone, finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
 

Method Detail

getValue

public abstract String getValue()

Returns the XPath 1.0 string-value of this node.

Returns:
the XPath 1.0 string-value of this node

getDocument

public final Document getDocument()

Returns the document that contains this node, or null if this node is not currently part of a document. Each node belongs to no more than one document at a time. If this node is a Document, then it returns this node.

Returns:
the document this node is a part of

getBaseURI

public String getBaseURI()

Returns the base URI of this node as specified by XML Base, or the empty string if this is not known. In most cases, this is the URL against which relative URLs in this node should be resolved.

The base URI of a non-parent node is the base URI of the element containing the node. The base URI of a document node is the URI from which the document was parsed, or which was set by calling setBaseURI on on the document.

The base URI of an element is determined as follows:

Absolutization takes place as specified by the XML Base specification. However, it is not always possible to absolutize a relative URI, in which case the empty string will be returned.

Returns:
the base URI of this node

getParent

public final ParentNode getParent()

Returns the node that contains this node, or null if this node does not have a parent.

Returns:
the element or document that most immediately contains this node

detach

public void detach()

Removes this node from its parent so that it can be added to a different parent node or document. This method does nothing if the node does not have a parent.

Throws:
XMLException - if the parent refuses to detach this node

getChild

public abstract Node getChild(int position)

Returns the child of this node at the specified position.

Parameters:
position - the index of the child node to return
Returns:
the positionth child node of this node
Throws:
IndexOutOfBoundsException - if this node does not have children

getChildCount

public abstract int getChildCount()

Returns the number of children of this node. This is always non-negative (greater than or equal to zero).

Returns:
the number of children of this node

copy

public abstract Node copy()

Returns a deep copy of this node with no parent, that can be added to the current document or a different one.

Per Bloch, the Cloneable interface is just a mess and should be avoided. However, I do not follow his suggestion of a copy constructor exclusively because it is useful to be able to copy a node without knowing its more specific type. Ken Arnold agrees with this. It's more effective for subclasses that can return an instance of the subclass.

Returns:
a copy of this node without a parent

toXML

public abstract String toXML()

Returns the actual XML form of this node, such as might be copied and pasted from the original document. However, this does not preserve semantically insignificant details such as white space inside tags or the use of empty-element tags vs. start-tag end-tag pairs.

Returns:
an XML representation of this node

equals

public final boolean equals(Object o)

Tests for node identity. That is, two Node objects are equal if and only if they are the same object.

Parameters:
o - the object compared for equality to this node
Returns:
true if o is this node; false otherwise
See Also:
Object.equals(Object)

hashCode

public final int hashCode()

Returns a unique identifier for this node. The value returned is the same as returned by super.hashCode() because nodes use identity semantics.

Returns:
a probably unique identifier for this node
See Also:
Object.hashCode()


Copyright 2002-2005 Elliotte Rusty Harold

elharo@metalab.unc.edu