DOM

The DOM is a programmable representation of a document or web page. While we see each page as a visual construct, the browser recognises it as a tree structure of elements and properties. In the DOM, every part of the document is a note, which is text, and element, an attribute, etc. The DOM provides methods to reach all these notes and to add, remove, and modify them.

DOM scripting therefore refers to programatically accessing the DOM. In common usage, DOM scripting implies JavaScript.

The advantages/features of the DOM model include:

• progressive enhancement (ie: enhancing the page increasingly with the support of the client, as opposed to graceful degradation)
• separation of presentation and behaviour
• maintainability
• separation of structure and behaviour
• event handling