NAME

       XML::DOM::Attr - An XML attribute in XML::DOM

DESCRIPTION

       XML::DOM::Attr extends XML::DOM::Node.

       The Attr nodes built by the XML::DOM::Parser always have one child node which is a Text
       node containing the expanded string value (i.e. EntityReferences are always expanded.)
       EntityReferences may be added when modifying or creating a new Document.

       The Attr interface represents an attribute in an Element object.  Typically the allowable
       values for the attribute are defined in a document type definition.

       Attr objects inherit the Node interface, but since they are not actually child nodes of
       the element they describe, the DOM does not consider them part of the document tree. Thus,
       the Node attributes parentNode, previousSibling, and nextSibling have a undef value for
       Attr objects. The DOM takes the view that attributes are properties of elements rather
       than having a separate identity from the elements they are associated with; this should
       make it more efficient to implement such features as default attributes associated with
       all elements of a given type. Furthermore, Attr nodes may not be immediate children of a
       DocumentFragment. However, they can be associated with Element nodes contained within a
       DocumentFragment. In short, users and implementors of the DOM need to be aware that Attr
       nodes have some things in common with other objects inheriting the Node interface, but
       they also are quite distinct.

       The attribute's effective value is determined as follows: if this attribute has been
       explicitly assigned any value, that value is the attribute's effective value; otherwise,
       if there is a declaration for this attribute, and that declaration includes a default
       value, then that default value is the attribute's effective value; otherwise, the
       attribute does not exist on this element in the structure model until it has been
       explicitly added. Note that the nodeValue attribute on the Attr instance can also be used
       to retrieve the string version of the attribute's value(s).

       In XML, where the value of an attribute can contain entity references, the child nodes of
       the Attr node provide a representation in which entity references are not expanded. These
       child nodes may be either Text or EntityReference nodes. Because the attribute type may be
       unknown, there are no tokenized attribute values.

   METHODS
       getValue
           On retrieval, the value of the attribute is returned as a string.  Character and
           general entity references are replaced with their values.

       setValue (str)
           DOM Spec: On setting, this creates a Text node with the unparsed contents of the
           string.

       getName
           Returns the name of this attribute.