ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

XML.childNodes Property — an array of references to a node’s children

Availability

Flash 5

Synopsis

theNode.childNodes[n]

Access

Read-only

Description

The childNodes property is an array whose elements contain references to the immediate descendants of theNode. It is used to access nodes in an XML hierarchy. For example, if we create an object hierarchy as follows:

myDoc = new XML('<STUDENT><NAME>Tim</NAME><MAJOR>BIOLOGY</MAJOR></STUDENT>');

We can then access the STUDENT node using:

myDoc.childNodes[0];

We can access the NAME and MAJOR nodes (which are descendants of STUDENT) using:

myDoc.childNodes[0].childNodes[0];     // NAME
myDoc.childNodes[0].childNodes[1];     // MAJOR

If the hierarchy below theNode changes, childNodes is automatically updated to reflect the new structure. For example, if we deleted the MAJOR node, myDoc.childNodes[0].childNodes[1] would return undefined.

We often refer to nodes to manipulate information or rearrange a document’s structure. For example, we might change a student’s name or add a new student using:

// Check the name of the student
trace("The student's name is: " 
       + myDoc.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue);

// Change the name of the student
myDoc.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue = "James";

// Copy the STUDENT node
newStudent = myDoc.childNodes[0].cloneNode(true);

// Add a new STUDENT node to the document
myDoc.appendChild(newStudent);

Note that as a convenience, we may also use the firstChild property to refer to childNodes[0] ...