Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming, Third Edition

The Technology Behind DHTML

One of the most important components of DHTML technology is the Document Object Model (DOM), designed for Web pages. The DOM is really a description that explains how to access any element on a Web page as an object. These objects, similar to Visual Basic's controls and C++ objects, have properties that you can change on-the-fly simply by changing its properties. All of the following can be objects subject to the Document Object Model:

• Text

• Graphics

• Individual HTML tags

• Hyperlinks

• Menus

• Multimedia controls such as video clips

• Command buttons and other controls that can appear on Web pages

With DHTML comes a new name for scripts—scriptlets. A scriptlet is the same as the scripts you learned about in Chapter 15, “Macro, Batch, ...