1 =head1 NAME

     2 

     3 XML::DOM::EntityReference - An XML ENTITY reference in XML::DOM

     4 

     5 =head1 DESCRIPTION

     6 

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

     8 

     9 EntityReference objects may be inserted into the structure model when

    10 an entity reference is in the source document, or when the user wishes

    11 to insert an entity reference. Note that character references and

    12 references to predefined entities are considered to be expanded by the

    13 HTML or XML processor so that characters are represented by their

    14 Unicode equivalent rather than by an entity reference. Moreover, the

    15 XML processor may completely expand references to entities while

    16 building the structure model, instead of providing EntityReference

    17 objects. If it does provide such objects, then for a given

    18 EntityReference node, it may be that there is no Entity node

    19 representing the referenced entity; but if such an Entity exists, then

    20 the child list of the EntityReference node is the same as that of the

    21 Entity node. As with the Entity node, all descendants of the

    22 EntityReference are readonly.

    23 

    24 The resolution of the children of the EntityReference (the replacement

    25 value of the referenced Entity) may be lazily evaluated; actions by the

    26 user (such as calling the childNodes method on the EntityReference

    27 node) are assumed to trigger the evaluation.