The DOM

Document Object Model

The DOM is the Document Object Model and is essentially a family tree of the HTML elements in your webpage. At the top there will be the document, with a direct child of <HTML>. Then these will have children of their own. This is key to keep in mind when considering how you want JavaScript interactions to occur and whether they need to move up or down this family tree. And example tree is shown below but the MDN Web Docs page on the Document Object Model is very clear.

  • Document
    • <HTML>
      • <head>
        • <title>
          • "My Title"
      • <body>
        • <h1>
          • "A heading"
        • <a>
          • "Link Text"