Document

Baseline Widely available *

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

TheDocument interface represents any web page loaded in the browser and serves as an entry point into the web page's content, which is theDOM tree.

The DOM tree includes elements such as<body> and<table>, amongmany others. It provides functionality globally to the document, like how to obtain the page's URL and create new elements in the document.

TheDocument interface describes the common properties and methods for any kind of document. Depending on the document's type (e.g.,HTML,XML, SVG, …), a larger API is available: HTML documents, served with the"text/html" content type, also implement theHTMLDocument interface, whereas XML and SVG documents implement theXMLDocument interface.

Constructor

Document(): Creates a newDocument object.

Instance properties

This interface also inherits from theNode andEventTarget interfaces.

Document.activeElementRead only: Returns theElement that currently has focus.
Document.activeViewTransitionRead onlyExperimental: Returns a ViewTransition instance representing theview transition currently active on the document, ornull if there is no active view transition.
Document.adoptedStyleSheets: Add an array of constructed stylesheets to be used by the document.These stylesheets may also be shared with shadow DOM subtrees of the same document.
Document.body: Returns the<body> or<frameset> node of the current document.
Document.characterSetRead only: Returns the character set being used by the document.
Document.childElementCountRead only: Returns the number of child elements of the current document.
Document.childrenRead only: Returns the child elements of the current document.
Document.compatModeRead only: Indicates whether the document is rendered inquirks orstrict mode.
Document.contentTypeRead only: Returns the Content-Type from the MIME Header of the current document.
Document.currentScriptRead only: Returns the<script> element whose script is currently being processed andisn't a JavaScript module.
Document.doctypeRead only: Returns the Document Type Definition (DTD) of the current document.
Document.documentElementRead only: Returns theElement that is a direct child of the document. For HTML documents, this is normally theHTMLHtmlElement object representing the document's<html> element.
Document.documentURIRead only: Returns the document location as a string.
Document.embedsRead only: Returns anHTMLCollection of the embedded<embed> elements in the document.
Document.featurePolicyExperimentalRead only: Returns the FeaturePolicy interface with the feature policies applied to the document.
Document.firstElementChildRead only: Returns the first child element of the current document.
Document.fonts: Returns theFontFaceSet interface of the current document.
Document.formsRead only: Returns anHTMLCollection of the<form> elements in the document.
Document.fragmentDirectiveRead only: Returns theFragmentDirective for the current document.
Document.fullscreenElementRead only: The element that's currently in full screen mode for this document.
Document.headRead only: Returns the<head> element of the current document.
Document.hiddenRead only: Returns a Boolean value indicating if the page is considered hidden or not.
Document.imagesRead only: Returns anHTMLCollection of the images in the document.
Document.implementationRead only: Returns the DOM implementation associated with the current document.
Document.lastElementChildRead only: Returns the last child element of the current document.
Document.linksRead only: Returns anHTMLCollection of the hyperlinks in the document.
Document.pictureInPictureElementRead only: Returns theElement currently being presented in picture-in-picture mode in this document.
Document.pictureInPictureEnabledRead only: Returns true if the picture-in-picture feature is enabled.
Document.pluginsRead only: Returns anHTMLCollection of the available plugins.
Document.pointerLockElementRead only: Returns the element set as the target for mouse events while the pointer is locked.null if lock is pending, pointer is unlocked, or if the target is in another document.
Document.prerenderingRead onlyExperimental: Returns a boolean that indicates whether the document is currently in the process of prerendering, as initiated via the Speculation Rules API.
Document.scriptsRead only: Returns anHTMLCollection of the<script> elements in the document.
Document.scrollingElementRead only: Returns a reference to theElement that scrolls the document.
Document.styleSheetsRead only: Returns aStyleSheetList ofCSSStyleSheet objects for stylesheets explicitly linked into, or embedded in a document.
Document.timelineRead only: Returns timeline as a special instance ofDocumentTimeline that is automatically created on page load.
Document.visibilityStateRead only: Returns astring denoting the visibility state of the document. Possible values arevisible,hidden, andunloaded.

Extensions for HTMLDocument

TheDocument interface for HTML documents inherits from theHTMLDocument interface or is extended for such documents.

Document.cookie

Returns a semicolon-separated list of the cookies for that document or sets a single cookie.

Document.defaultViewRead only

Returns a reference to the window object.

Document.designMode

Gets/sets the ability to edit the whole document.

Document.dir

Gets/sets directionality (rtl/ltr) of the document.

Document.fullscreenEnabledRead only

Indicates whether fullscreen mode is available.

Document.lastModifiedRead only

Returns the date on which the document was last modified.

Document.locationRead only

Returns the URI of the current document.

Document.readyStateRead only

Returns loading status of the document.

Document.referrerRead only

Returns the URI of the page that linked to this page.

Document.title

Sets or gets the title of the current document.

Document.URLRead only

Returns the document location as a string.

Named properties

Some elements in the document are also exposed as properties:

For each<embed>,<form>,<iframe>,<img>, and<object> element, itsname (if non-empty) is exposed.For example, if the document contains<form name="my_form">, thendocument["my_form"] (and its equivalentdocument.my_form) returns a reference to that element.
For each<object> element, itsid (if non-empty) is exposed.
For each<img> element with non-emptyname, itsid (if non-empty) is exposed.

If a property corresponds to a single element, that element is directly returned. If that single element is an iframe, then itscontentWindow is returned instead. If the property corresponds to multiple elements, then anHTMLCollection is returned containing all of them.

Deprecated properties

Document.alinkColorDeprecated: Returns or sets the color of active links in the document body.
Document.allDeprecated: Provides access to all elements in the document — it returns an HTMLAllCollection rooted at the document node. This is a legacy, non-standard property and should not be used.
Document.anchorsDeprecatedRead only: Returns a list of all of the anchors in the document.
Document.appletsDeprecatedRead only: Returns an empty HTMLCollection. Legacy property that used to return the list of applets within a document.
Document.bgColorDeprecated: Gets/sets the background color of the current document.
Document.charsetDeprecatedRead only: Alias of Document.characterSet. Use this property instead.
Document.domainDeprecated: Gets/sets the domain of the current document.
Document.fgColorDeprecated: Gets/sets the foreground color, or text color, of the current document.
Document.fullscreenDeprecated: Returnstrue when the document is in fullscreen mode.
Document.inputEncodingDeprecatedRead only: Alias of Document.characterSet. Use this property instead.
Document.lastStyleSheetSetDeprecatedRead only Non-standard: Returns the name of the style sheet set that was last enabled. Has the valuenull until the style sheet is changed by setting the value of selectedStyleSheetSet.
Document.linkColorDeprecated: Gets/sets the color of hyperlinks in the document.
Document.preferredStyleSheetSetDeprecatedRead only Non-standard: Returns the preferred style sheet set as specified by the page author.
Document.rootElementDeprecated: Like Document.documentElement, but only for<svg> root elements. Use this property instead.
Document.selectedStyleSheetSetDeprecated Non-standard: Returns which style sheet set is currently in use.
Document.styleSheetSetsDeprecatedRead only Non-standard: Returns a list of the style sheet sets available on the document.
Document.vlinkColorDeprecated: Gets/sets the color of visited hyperlinks.
Document.xmlEncodingDeprecated: Returns the encoding as determined by the XML declaration.
Document.xmlStandaloneDeprecated: Returnstrue if the XML declaration specifies the document to be standalone (e.g., An external part of the DTD affects the document's content), elsefalse.
Document.xmlVersionDeprecated: Returns the version number as specified in the XML declaration or"1.0" if the declaration is absent.

Instance methods

This interface also inherits from theNode andEventTarget interfaces.

Document.adoptNode(): Adopt node from an external document.
Document.append(): Inserts a set ofNode objects or strings after the last child of the document.
Document.ariaNotify()Experimental Non-standard: Specifies that a given string of text should be announced by a screen reader.
Document.browsingTopics()Experimental Non-standard: Returns a promise that fulfills with an array of objects representing the top topics for the user, one from each of the last three epochs. By default, the method also causes the browser to record the current page visit as observed by the caller, so the page's hostname can later be used in topics calculation. See the Topics API for more details.
Document.captureEvents()Deprecated: SeeWindow.captureEvents.
Document.caretPositionFromPoint(): Returns aCaretPosition object containing the DOM node containing the caret, and caret's character offset within that node.
Document.caretRangeFromPoint()Non-standard: Gets a Range object for the document fragment under the specified coordinates.
Document.createAttribute(): Creates a newAttr object and returns it.
Document.createAttributeNS(): Creates a new attribute node in a given namespace and returns it.
Document.createCDATASection(): Creates a new CDATA node and returns it.
Document.createComment(): Creates a new comment node and returns it.
Document.createDocumentFragment(): Creates a new document fragment.
Document.createElement(): Creates a new element with the given tag name.
Document.createElementNS(): Creates a new element with the given tag name and namespace URI.
Document.createEvent()Deprecated: Creates an event object.
Document.createNodeIterator(): Creates aNodeIterator object.
Document.createProcessingInstruction(): Creates a newProcessingInstruction object.
Document.createRange(): Creates aRange object.
Document.createTextNode(): Creates a text node.
Document.createTouch()Deprecated Non-standard: Creates a Touch object.
Document.createTouchList()Deprecated Non-standard: Creates a TouchList object.
Document.createTreeWalker(): Creates aTreeWalker object.
Document.elementFromPoint(): Returns the topmost element at the specified coordinates.
Document.elementsFromPoint(): Returns an array of all elements at the specified coordinates.
Document.enableStyleSheetsForSet()Deprecated Non-standard: Enables the style sheets for the specified style sheet set.
Document.exitFullscreen(): Stops document's fullscreen element from being displayed fullscreen.
Document.exitPictureInPicture(): Remove the video from the floating picture-in-picture window back to its original container.
Document.exitPointerLock(): Release the pointer lock.
Document.getAnimations(): Returns an array of allAnimation objects currently in effect, whose target elements are descendants of thedocument.
Document.getBoxQuads()Experimental: Returns a list ofDOMQuad objects representing the CSS fragments of the node.
Document.getElementById(): Returns an object reference to the identified element.
Document.getElementsByClassName(): Returns a list of elements with the given class name.
Document.getElementsByTagName(): Returns a list of elements with the given tag name.
Document.getElementsByTagNameNS(): Returns a list of elements with the given tag name and namespace.
Document.getSelection(): Returns aSelection object representing the range of text selected by the user, or the current position of the caret.
Document.hasStorageAccess(): Returns aPromise that resolves with a boolean value indicating whether the document has access to unpartitioned cookies.
Document.hasUnpartitionedCookieAccess(): New name forDocument.hasStorageAccess().
Document.importNode(): Returns a clone of a node from an external document.
Document.moveBefore(): Moves a givenNode inside theDocument DOM node as a direct child, before a given reference node, without removing and then inserting the node.
Document.mozSetImageElement()Non-standard: Allows you to change the element being used as the background image for a specified element ID.
Document.prepend(): Inserts a set ofNode objects or strings before the first child of the document.
Document.querySelector(): Returns the first Element node within the document, in document order, that matches the specified selectors.
Document.querySelectorAll(): Returns a list of all the Element nodes within the document that match the specified selectors.
Document.releaseCapture()Non-standard: Releases the current mouse capture if it's on an element in this document.
Document.releaseEvents()Deprecated: SeeWindow.releaseEvents().
Document.replaceChildren(): Replaces the existing children of a document with a specified new set of children.
Document.requestStorageAccess(): Allows a document loaded in a third-party context (i.e., embedded in an<iframe>) to request access to unpartitioned cookies, in cases where user agents by default block access to unpartitioned cookies by sites loaded in a third-party context to improve privacy.
Document.requestStorageAccessFor()Experimental: Allows top-level sites to request third-party cookie access on behalf of embedded content originating from another site in the same related website set.
Document.startViewTransition(): Starts a newview transition and returns aViewTransition object to represent it.

TheDocument interface is extended with theXPathEvaluator interface:

Document.createExpression(): Compiles anXPathExpression which can then be used for (repeated) evaluations.
Document.createNSResolver()Deprecated: Returns the input node as-is.
Document.evaluate(): Evaluates an XPath expression.

Extension for HTML documents

TheDocument interface for HTML documents inherit from theHTMLDocument interface or is extended for such documents:

Document.clear()Deprecated: This method does nothing.
Document.close(): Closes a document stream for writing.
Document.execCommand()Deprecated: On an editable document, executes a formatting command.
Document.getElementsByName(): Returns a list of elements with the given name.
Document.hasFocus(): Returnstrue if the focus is currently located anywhere inside the specified document.
Document.open(): Opens a document stream for writing.
Document.queryCommandEnabled()Deprecated Non-standard: Returns true if the formatting command can be executed on the current range.
Document.queryCommandIndeterm()Deprecated: Returns true if the formatting command is in an indeterminate state on the current range.
Document.queryCommandState()Deprecated Non-standard: Returns true if the formatting command has been executed on the current range.
Document.queryCommandSupported()Deprecated Non-standard: Returns true if the formatting command is supported on the current range.
Document.queryCommandValue()Deprecated: Returns the current value of the current range for a formatting command.
Document.write()Deprecated: Writes text in a document.
Document.writeln()Deprecated: Writes a line of text in a document.

Static methods

This interface also inherits from theNode andEventTarget interfaces.

Document.parseHTML()Experimental: Creates a newDocument object from a string of HTML in an XSS-safe manner with sanitization.
Document.parseHTMLUnsafe(): Creates a newDocument object from a string of HTML without performing sanitization.The string may contain declarative shadow roots.

Events

Listen to these events usingaddEventListener() or by assigning an event listener to theoneventname property of this interface. In addition to the events listed below, many events can bubble fromnodes contained in the document tree.

afterscriptexecuteNon-standard Deprecated: Fired when a static <script> element finishes executing its script
beforescriptexecuteNon-standard Deprecated: Fired when a static <script> is about to start executing.
prerenderingchangeExperimental: Fired on a prerendered document when it is activated (i.e., the user views the page).
securitypolicyviolation: Fired when a content security policy is violated.
visibilitychange: Fired when the content of a tab has become visible or has been hidden.

Fullscreen events

fullscreenchange: Fired when theDocument transitions into or out offullscreen mode.
fullscreenerror: Fired if an error occurs while attempting to switch into or out offullscreen mode.

Load & unload events

DOMContentLoaded: Fired when the document has been completely loaded and parsed, without waiting for stylesheets, images, and subframes to finish loading.
readystatechange: Fired when thereadyState attribute of a document has changed.

Pointer lock events

pointerlockchange: Fired when the pointer is locked/unlocked.
pointerlockerror: Fired when locking the pointer failed.

Scroll events

scroll: Fired when the document view or an element has been scrolled.
scrollend: Fired when the document view or an element has completed scrolling.
scrollsnapchangeExperimental: Fired on the scroll container at the end of a scrolling operation when a new scroll snap target has been selected.
scrollsnapchangingExperimental: Fired on the scroll container when the browser determines a new scroll snap target is pending, i.e., it will be selected when the current scroll gesture ends.

Selection events

selectionchange: Fired when the current text selection on a document is changed.

Bubbled events

Not all events that bubble can reach theDocument object. Only the following do and can be listened for on theDocument object:

Specifications

Specification
DOM # interface-document
HTML # the-document-object
CSSOM View Module # extensions-to-the-document-interface
Pointer Lock 2.0 # extensions-to-the-document-interface
Selection API # extensions-to-document-interface

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