1 =head1 NAME

     2 

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

     4 

     5 =head1 DESCRIPTION

     6 

     7 XML::DOM::Attr extends L<XML::DOM::Node>.

     8 

     9 The Attr nodes built by the XML::DOM::Parser always have one child node

    10 which is a Text node containing the expanded string value (i.e. EntityReferences

    11 are always expanded.) EntityReferences may be added when modifying or creating

    12 a new Document.

    13 

    14 The Attr interface represents an attribute in an Element object.

    15 Typically the allowable values for the attribute are defined in a

    16 document type definition.

    17 

    18 Attr objects inherit the Node interface, but since they are not

    19 actually child nodes of the element they describe, the DOM does not

    20 consider them part of the document tree. Thus, the Node attributes

    21 parentNode, previousSibling, and nextSibling have a undef value for Attr

    22 objects. The DOM takes the view that attributes are properties of

    23 elements rather than having a separate identity from the elements they

    24 are associated with; this should make it more efficient to implement

    25 such features as default attributes associated with all elements of a

    26 given type. Furthermore, Attr nodes may not be immediate children of a

    27 DocumentFragment. However, they can be associated with Element nodes

    28 contained within a DocumentFragment. In short, users and implementors

    29 of the DOM need to be aware that Attr nodes have some things in common

    30 with other objects inheriting the Node interface, but they also are

    31 quite distinct.

    32 

    33 The attribute's effective value is determined as follows: if this

    34 attribute has been explicitly assigned any value, that value is the

    35 attribute's effective value; otherwise, if there is a declaration for

    36 this attribute, and that declaration includes a default value, then

    37 that default value is the attribute's effective value; otherwise, the

    38 attribute does not exist on this element in the structure model until

    39 it has been explicitly added. Note that the nodeValue attribute on the

    40 Attr instance can also be used to retrieve the string version of the

    41 attribute's value(s).

    42 

    43 In XML, where the value of an attribute can contain entity references,

    44 the child nodes of the Attr node provide a representation in which

    45 entity references are not expanded. These child nodes may be either

    46 Text or EntityReference nodes. Because the attribute type may be

    47 unknown, there are no tokenized attribute values.

    48 

    49 =head2 METHODS

    50 

    51 =over 4

    52 

    53 =item getValue

    54 

    55 On retrieval, the value of the attribute is returned as a string. 

    56 Character and general entity references are replaced with their values.

    57 

    58 =item setValue (str)

    59 

    60 DOM Spec: On setting, this creates a Text node with the unparsed contents of the 

    61 string.

    62 

    63 =item getName

    64 

    65 Returns the name of this attribute.

    66 

    67 =back