oracular (3) XML::DOM::Attr.3pm.gz

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.