This interface represents an entity, either parsed or unparsed, in an XML
document. Note that this models the entity itself not the entity
declaration.
Entity
declaration modeling has been left for a
later Level of the DOM specification.
The
nodeName
attribute that is inherited from
Node
contains the name of the entity.
An XML processor may choose to completely expand entities before the
structure model is passed to the DOM; in this case there will be no
EntityReference
nodes in the document tree.
XML does not mandate that a non-validating XML processor read and
process entity declarations made in the external subset or declared in
external parameter entities. This means that parsed entities declared in
the external subset need not be expanded by some classes of applications,
and that the replacement value of the entity may not be available. When
the replacement value is available, the corresponding
Entity
node's child list represents the structure of that replacement text.
Otherwise, the child list is empty.
The DOM Level 2 does not support editing
Entity
nodes; if a
user wants to make changes to the contents of an
Entity
,
every related
EntityReference
node has to be replaced in the
structure model by a clone of the
Entity
's contents, and
then the desired changes must be made to each of those clones instead.
Entity
nodes and all their descendants are readonly.
An
Entity
node does not have any parent.If the entity
contains an unbound namespace prefix, the
namespaceURI
of
the corresponding node in the
Entity
node subtree is
null
. The same is true for
EntityReference
nodes that refer to this entity, when they are created using the
createEntityReference
method of the
Document
interface. The DOM Level 2 does not support any mechanism to resolve
namespace prefixes.
See also the
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification.
For unparsed entities, the name of the notation for the entity. For
parsed entities, this is null
.
The public identifier associated with the entity, if specified. If the
public identifier was not specified, this is null
.
The system identifier associated with the entity, if specified. If the
system identifier was not specified, this is null
.
Entity
declaration modeling has been left for a later Level of the DOM specification. ThenodeName
attribute that is inherited fromNode
contains the name of the entity. An XML processor may choose to completely expand entities before the structure model is passed to the DOM; in this case there will be noEntityReference
nodes in the document tree. XML does not mandate that a non-validating XML processor read and process entity declarations made in the external subset or declared in external parameter entities. This means that parsed entities declared in the external subset need not be expanded by some classes of applications, and that the replacement value of the entity may not be available. When the replacement value is available, the correspondingEntity
node's child list represents the structure of that replacement text. Otherwise, the child list is empty. The DOM Level 2 does not support editingEntity
nodes; if a user wants to make changes to the contents of anEntity
, every relatedEntityReference
node has to be replaced in the structure model by a clone of theEntity
's contents, and then the desired changes must be made to each of those clones instead.Entity
nodes and all their descendants are readonly. AnEntity
node does not have any parent.If the entity contains an unbound namespace prefix, thenamespaceURI
of the corresponding node in theEntity
node subtree isnull
. The same is true forEntityReference
nodes that refer to this entity, when they are created using thecreateEntityReference
method of theDocument
interface. The DOM Level 2 does not support any mechanism to resolve namespace prefixes. See also the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification.