documentElement Property

Article
12/13/2016

Contains the root element of the document.

Script Syntax

var objXMLDOMElement = oXMLDOMDocument.documentElement;  
objXMLDOMDocument.documentElement = objXMLDOMElement;

Example

The following script example creates an IXMLDOMElement object and sets it to the root element of the document with the documentElement property. It then walks the document tree.

var xmlDoc = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument.3.0");
var root;
xmlDoc.async = false;
xmlDoc.load("books.xml");
if (xmlDoc.parseError.errorCode != 0) {
   var myErr = xmlDoc.parseError;
   WScript.Echo("You have error " + myErr.reason);
} else {
   root = xmlDoc.documentElement;
   for (var i=0; i<root.childNodes.length; i++) {
      WScript.Echo(root.childNodes.item(i).childNodes.item(0).text);
   }
}

Visual Basic Syntax

Set objXMLDOMElement = oXMLDOMDocument.documentElement  
Set objXMLDOMDocument.documentElement = objXMLDOMElement

C/C++ Syntax

HRESULT get_documentElement(  
    IXMLDOMElement** DOMElement);  
HRESULT putref_documentElement(  
    IXMLDOMElement* DOMElement);

Parameters

DOMElement[out, retval][in]
The IXMLDOMElement object that represents the single element representing the root of the XML document tree. Returns Null if no root exists.

C/C++ Return Values

S_OK
The value returned if successful.

S_FALSE (for get_documentElementonly)
The value returned if there is no document element.

E_INVALIDARG (for get_documentElementonly)
The value returned if the DOMElement parameter is Null.

Remarks

The property is read/write. It returns an IXMLDOMElement that represents the single element that represents the root of the XML document tree. It returns Null if no root exists.

When setting the documentElement property, the specified element node is inserted into the child list of the document after any document type node. To precisely place the node within the children of the document, call the insertBefore method of theIXMLDOMNode.

The parentNode property is reset to the document node as a result of this operation.

Versioning

Implemented in:

MSXML 3.0, MSXML 6.0

Applies to

IXMLDOMDocument-DOMDocument