Element

Element

The Element class represents an element node in the XML tree. Inherits from Node

Constructor

new libxml.Element(doc, name, [content])

Creates a new element object called name with attrs as its attributes. It is recommended that you use the node method of Document or Element instead.

args doc - a document object to provide context for the node name - a string representing the name of the element content - a string representing the content to add to the node

Methods

element.name()

Get the name of the element

returns - a string representing the name of the element

element.name(new_name)

Set the name of the element

args new_name - a string representing the new name of the element

returns - the Element object

element.text()

Get the text content of the element

returns - a string representing the content of the Element including the text() of all child Nodes

element.attr(name)

Get the Attribute called name

args name - a string representing the name of the attribute

returns - an Attribute node or null

element.attr(attrObject)

Create a set of attributes from a hash and add them to the element

args attr - an object of {name: value} pairs

returns - the element object

element.attrs()

Get the list of attributes attached to the element

returns - an array of Attribute objects. may be empty

element.parent()

Get the parent element

returns - an Element node or the Document if this is the root node

element.doc()

Get the document object containing the element

returns - a Document object

element.child(idx)

Get a child node by index

args idx - a zero indexed integer representing the child node to return

returns - a Node object or null

element.childNodes()

Get a list of all the immediate children of the element

returns - an array of Nodes, including text nodes

element.addChild(child)

Add a child node to the node

args child - an Element node to be added as a child

returns - the element node (not the child)

element.nextSibling()

Get the next sibling node

returns - a Node object or null

element.nextElement()

Get the next element sibling

returns - an Element node or null

element.addNextSibling(siblingNode)

Add a Node as a sibling immediately after this element

args siblingNode - a Node to add as a sibling

returns - the sibling object

element.prevSibling()

Get the previous sibling node

returns - a Node object or null

element.prevElement()

Get the previous element sibling

returns - an Element object or null

element.addPrevSibling(siblingNode)

Add a Node as a sibling immediately before this element

args siblingNode - a Node to add as a sibling

returns - the sibling object

element.find(xpath)

Search the element's children by xpath

args xpath - a string representing the xpath to search

returns - an array of Node objects. may be empty

element.find(xpath, ns_uri)

Search the element's children by xpath within the URI namespace

args xpath - a string representing the xpath to search ns_uri - a string representing the namespace URI

returns - an array of Node objects

examples doc.find("xmlns:child-name", "ns:uri") doc.find('//y:child-name', { y: 'http://some.com/for/y'});

element.get(xpath, ns_uri)

Return the first node node that matches the xpath expression This this is syntactic sugar for find(xpath, ns_uri)[0]

args xpath - a string representing the xpath to search ns_uri - a string representing the namespace URI

returns - a Node or null

element.find(xpath, namespaces)

Search the element's children by xpath within any of the URI namespaces

args xpath - a string representing the xpath to search namespaces - a hash representing the namespaces

returns - an array of Node objects

example doc.find("ns-1:child-name", {"ns-1": "ns:uri"}) doc.find("ns-1:child1/ns-2:child2", {"ns-1": "ns:uri1", "ns-2": "ns:uri2"})

element.get(xpath, ns_uri)

Return the first node that matches the xpath This is syntactic sugar for find(xpath, namespaces)[0]

returns - a element object or null

element.defineNamespace(href)

Define a new namespace on the element using href for the URI. This will only define the namespace but wont add it to the node

args href - a string representing the URI of the new namespace

returns - the new Namespace object

element.defineNamespace(prefix, href)

Define a new namespace on the element using href for the URI and prefix as the prefix. This will only define the namespace but wont add it to the node

args prefix - a string representing the prefix for the new namespace href - a string representing the URI for the new namespace

returns - the new Namespace object

element.namespace()

Get the elements's namespace

returns - a Namespace object or null

element.namespace(ns)

Set the element's namespace to ns

args ns - a Namespace object

returns - the element object

element.namespace(href)

Add namespace with href as the URI to the element. This will search up the tree to find a namespace with the given href and, if found will use it. Otherwise it will create a new namespace.

args href - a string representing the namespace URI

returns - the namespace object

element.namespace(prefix, href)

Add namespace with href as the URI and prefix as the prefix to the node. This will search up the tree to find a namespace with the given href and, if found will use it. Otherwise it will create a new namespace.

args prefix - a string representing the namespace prefix href - a string representing the namespace URI

returns - the Namespace object

element.remove()

Remove The element from the context

returns - the Element

element.path()

Get the xpath of the element

returns - a string representing the xpath of the element