ATTR(1) 						User Contributed Perl Documentation						   ATTR(1)

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 docu-
       ment 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 con-
       sider 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 com-
       mon 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 val-
	   ues.

       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.

perl v5.8.0							    2000-01-31								   ATTR(1)