HTML
Living Standard — Last Updated 1 October 2025
Living Standard — Last Updated 1 October 2025
select element inner content elementsoptgroup element inner content elementsoption element inner content elementsinnerText and outerText propertiesEvery XML and HTML document in an HTML UA is represented by a Document object.
[DOM]
The Document object's URL is defined in
DOM. It is initially set when the Document object is created, but can
change during the lifetime of the Document object; for example, it changes when the
user navigates to a fragment
on the page and when the pushState() method is called
with a new URL. [DOM]
Interactive user agents typically expose the Document object's
URL in their user interface. This is the primary
mechanism by which a user can tell if a site is attempting to impersonate another.
The Document object's origin is defined in
DOM. It is initially set when the Document object is created, and can
change during the lifetime of the Document only upon setting document.domain. A Document's origin can differ from the origin of its URL;
for example when a child navigable is created, its active document's origin is inherited from its parent's active document's origin, even though its active document's URL is
about:blank. [DOM]
When a Document is created by a script using
the createDocument() or createHTMLDocument() methods, the
Document is ready for post-load tasks immediately.
The document's referrer is a string (representing a URL) that
can be set when the Document is created. If it is not explicitly set, then its value
is the empty string.
Document objectSupport in all current engines.
DOM defines a Document interface, which
this specification extends significantly.
enum DocumentReadyState { "loading", "interactive", "complete" };
enum DocumentVisibilityState { "visible", "hidden" };
typedef (HTMLScriptElement or SVGScriptElement) HTMLOrSVGScriptElement;
[LegacyOverrideBuiltIns]
partial interface Document {
static Document parseHTMLUnsafe((TrustedHTML or DOMString) html);
// resource metadata management
[PutForwards=href, LegacyUnforgeable] readonly attribute Location? location;
attribute USVString domain;
readonly attribute USVString referrer;
attribute USVString cookie;
readonly attribute DOMString lastModified;
readonly attribute DocumentReadyState readyState;
// DOM tree accessors
getter object (DOMString name);
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString title;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString dir;
[CEReactions] attribute HTMLElement? body;
readonly attribute HTMLHeadElement? head;
[SameObject] readonly attribute HTMLCollection images;
[SameObject] readonly attribute HTMLCollection embeds;
[SameObject] readonly attribute HTMLCollection plugins;
[SameObject] readonly attribute HTMLCollection links;
[SameObject] readonly attribute HTMLCollection forms;
[SameObject] readonly attribute HTMLCollection scripts;
NodeList getElementsByName(DOMString elementName);
readonly attribute HTMLOrSVGScriptElement? currentScript; // classic scripts in a document tree only
// dynamic markup insertion
[CEReactions] Document open(optional DOMString unused1, optional DOMString unused2); // both arguments are ignored
WindowProxy? open(USVString url, DOMString name, DOMString features);
[CEReactions] undefined close();
[CEReactions] undefined write((TrustedHTML or DOMString)... text);
[CEReactions] undefined writeln((TrustedHTML or DOMString)... text);
// user interaction
readonly attribute WindowProxy? defaultView;
boolean hasFocus();
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString designMode;
[CEReactions] boolean execCommand(DOMString commandId, optional boolean showUI = false, optional DOMString value = "");
boolean queryCommandEnabled(DOMString commandId);
boolean queryCommandIndeterm(DOMString commandId);
boolean queryCommandState(DOMString commandId);
boolean queryCommandSupported(DOMString commandId);
DOMString queryCommandValue(DOMString commandId);
readonly attribute boolean hidden;
readonly attribute DocumentVisibilityState visibilityState;
// special event handler IDL attributes that only apply to Document objects
[LegacyLenientThis] attribute EventHandler onreadystatechange;
attribute EventHandler onvisibilitychange;
// also has obsolete members
};
Document includes GlobalEventHandlers;Each Document has a policy container (a policy container), initially a new policy
container, which contains policies which apply to the Document.
Each Document has a permissions policy, which
is a permissions policy, which is initially
empty.
Each Document has a module map,
which is a module map, initially empty.
Each Document has an opener policy,
which is an opener policy, initially a new opener policy.
Each Document has an is initial about:blank, which is a
boolean, initially false.
Each Document has a during-loading
navigation ID for WebDriver BiDi, which is a navigation ID or null, initially
null.
As the name indicates, this is used for interfacing with the WebDriver
BiDi specification, which needs to be informed about certain occurrences during the early
parts of the Document's lifecycle, in a way that ties them to the original
navigation ID used when the navigation that created this Document was
the ongoing navigation. This eventually gets set back to null, after WebDriver
BiDi considers the loading process to be finished. [BIDI]
Each Document has an about base
URL, which is a URL or null, initially null.
This is only populated for "about:"-schemed
Documents.
Each Document has a bfcache blocking details, which is a
set of not restored reason details,
initially empty.
Each Document has an open dialogs list, which is a list of
dialog elements, initially empty.
DocumentOrShadowRoot interfaceDOM defines the DocumentOrShadowRoot mixin, which this specification
extends.
partial interface mixin DocumentOrShadowRoot {
readonly attribute Element? activeElement;
};document.referrerSupport in all current engines.
Returns the URL of the Document from
which the user navigated to this one, unless it was blocked or there was no such document, in
which case it returns the empty string.
The noreferrer link type can be used to block the
referrer.
The referrer
attribute must return the document's referrer.
document.cookie [ = value ]Returns the HTTP cookies that apply to the Document. If there are no cookies or
cookies can't be applied to this resource, the empty string will be returned.
Can be set, to add a new cookie to the element's set of HTTP cookies.
If the contents are sandboxed into an
opaque origin (e.g., in an iframe with the sandbox attribute), a
"SecurityError" DOMException will be thrown on getting
and setting.
Support in all current engines.
The cookie
attribute represents the cookies of the resource identified by the document's URL.
Using the synchronous document.cookie
API can be a source of performance issues. The Cookie Store API can be used instead,
as it provides an asynchronous way to handle cookies to avoid performance issues. See the Cookie Store API introduction for more
information. [COOKIESTORE]
A Document object that falls into one of the following conditions is a
cookie-averse Document object:
Document object whose browsing
context is null.Document whose URL's scheme is not an HTTP(S) scheme.
On getting, if the document is a cookie-averse Document object, then the
user agent must return the empty string. Otherwise, if the Document's origin is an opaque
origin, the user agent must throw a "SecurityError"
DOMException. Otherwise, the user agent must return the cookie-string
for the document's URL for a "non-HTTP" API, decoded
using UTF-8 decode without BOM. [COOKIES]
On setting, if the document is a cookie-averse Document object, then
the user agent must do nothing. Otherwise, if the Document's origin is an opaque
origin, the user agent must throw a "SecurityError"
DOMException. Otherwise, the user agent must act as it would when receiving a set-cookie-string for the document's
URL via a "non-HTTP" API, consisting of the new value
encoded as UTF-8. [COOKIES] [ENCODING]
Since the cookie attribute is accessible
across frames, the path restrictions on cookies are only a tool to help manage which cookies are
sent to which parts of the site, and are not in any way a security feature.
The cookie attribute's getter and
setter synchronously access shared state. Since there is no locking mechanism, other browsing
contexts in a multiprocess user agent can modify cookies while scripts are running. A site could,
for instance, try to read a cookie, increment its value, then write it back out, using the new
value of the cookie as a unique identifier for the session; if the site does this twice in two
different browser windows at the same time, it might end up using the same "unique" identifier for
both sessions, with potentially disastrous effects.
document.lastModifiedSupport in all current engines.
Returns the date of the last modification to the document, as reported by the server, in the
form "MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss", in the user's local time zone.
If the last modification date is not known, the current time is returned instead.
The lastModified attribute, on getting, must return
the date and time of the Document's source file's last modification, in the user's
local time zone, in the following format:
The month component of the date.
A U+002F SOLIDUS character (/).
The day component of the date.
A U+002F SOLIDUS character (/).
The year component of the date.
A U+0020 SPACE character.
The hours component of the time.
A U+003A COLON character (:).
The minutes component of the time.
A U+003A COLON character (:).
The seconds component of the time.
All the numeric components above, other than the year, must be given as two ASCII digits representing the number in base ten, zero-padded if necessary. The year must be given as the shortest possible string of four or more ASCII digits representing the number in base ten, zero-padded if necessary.
The Document's source file's last modification date and time must be derived from
relevant features of the networking protocols used, e.g. from the value of the HTTP `Last-Modified` header of the document, or from metadata in the
file system for local files. If the last modification date and time are not known, the attribute
must return the current date and time in the above format.
document.readyStateReturns "loading" while the Document is loading, "interactive" once it is finished parsing but still loading subresources, and
"complete" once it has loaded.
The readystatechange event fires on the
Document object when this value changes.
The DOMContentLoaded event fires after the transition to
"interactive" but before the transition to "complete", at the point where all subresources apart from async script elements have loaded.
Support in all current engines.
Each Document has a current document readiness, a string, initially
"complete".
For Document objects created via the create and initialize a Document object
algorithm, this will be immediately reset to "loading" before any script
can observe the value of document.readyState. This
default applies to other cases such as initial
about:blank Documents or Documents without a
browsing context.
The readyState getter steps are to return
this's current document readiness.
To update the current document readiness for Document
document to readinessValue:
If document's current document readiness equals readinessValue, then return.
Set document's current document readiness to readinessValue.
If document is associated with an HTML parser, then:
Let now be the current high resolution time given document's relevant global object.
If readinessValue is "complete", and
document's load timing info's DOM complete time is 0, then
set document's load timing info's DOM complete time to
now.
Otherwise, if readinessValue is "interactive", and
document's load timing info's DOM interactive time is 0,
then set document's load timing info's DOM interactive
time to now.
Fire an event named readystatechange at document.
A Document is said to have an active parser if it is associated with an
HTML parser or an XML parser that has not yet been stopped or aborted.
A Document has a document load timing info load timing info.
A Document has a document unload timing info previous document unload timing.
A Document has a boolean was created via cross-origin redirects,
initially false.
The document load timing info struct has the following items:
DOMHighResTimeStamp valuesThe document unload timing info struct has the following items:
DOMHighResTimeStamp valuesEach Document has a render-blocking element set, a set of
elements, initially the empty set.
A Document document allows adding render-blocking elements
if document's content type is
"text/html" and the body element of document is null.
A Document document is render-blocked if both of the
following are true:
document's render-blocking element set is non-empty, or document allows adding render-blocking elements.
The current high resolution time given document's relevant global object has not exceeded an implementation-defined timeout value.
An element el is render-blocking if el's node document document is render-blocked, and el is in document's render-blocking element set.
To block rendering on an element el:
Let document be el's node document.
If document allows adding render-blocking elements, then append el to document's render-blocking element set.
To unblock rendering on an element el:
Let document be el's node document.
Remove el from document's render-blocking element set.
Whenever a render-blocking element el becomes browsing-context disconnected, or el's blocking attribute's value is changed so that el is no longer potentially render-blocking, then unblock rendering on el.
The html element of a document is its document element,
if it's an html element, and null otherwise.
document.headSupport in all current engines.
Returns the head element.
The head element of a document is the first head element
that is a child of the html element, if there is one, or null
otherwise.
The head attribute,
on getting, must return the head element of the document (a
head element or null).
document.title [ = value ]Returns the document's title, as given by the title element for
HTML and as given by the SVG title element for SVG.
Can be set, to update the document's title. If there is no appropriate element to update, the new value is ignored.
The title element of a document is the first title element
in the document (in tree order), if there is one, or null otherwise.
Support in all current engines.
The title attribute must, on getting, run the following
algorithm:
If the document element is an SVG svg element, then
let value be the child text content of the first SVG
title element that is a child of the document element.
Otherwise, let value be the child text content of the
title element, or the empty string if the title
element is null.
Strip and collapse ASCII whitespace in value.
Return value.
On setting, the steps corresponding to the first matching condition in the following list must be run:
svg elementIf there is an SVG title element that is a child of the
document element, let element be the first such element.
Otherwise:
Let element be the result of creating an
element given the document element's node document, "title", and the SVG namespace.
Insert element as the first child of the document element.
String replace all with the given value within element.
If the title element is null and the head
element is null, then return.
If the title element is non-null, let element be
the title element.
Otherwise:
Let element be the result of creating an
element given the document element's node document, "title", and the HTML namespace.
Append element to the
head element.
String replace all with the given value within element.
Do nothing.
document.body [ = value ]Support in all current engines.
Returns the body element.
Can be set, to replace the body element.
If the new value is not a body or frameset element, this will throw
a "HierarchyRequestError" DOMException.
The body element of a document is the first of the html
element's children that is either a body element or a frameset
element, or null if there is no such element.
The body attribute,
on getting, must return the body element of the document (either a body
element, a frameset element, or null). On setting, the following algorithm must be
run:
body or frameset element, then throw a
"HierarchyRequestError" DOMException.HierarchyRequestError" DOMException.The value returned by the body getter is
not always the one passed to the setter.
In this example, the setter successfully inserts a body element (though this is
non-conforming since SVG does not allow a body as child of SVG
svg). However the getter will return null because the document element is not
html.
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
<script>
document.body = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml", "body");
console.assert(document.body === null);
</script>
</svg>document.imagesSupport in all current engines.
Returns an HTMLCollection of the img elements in the
Document.
document.embedsSupport in all current engines.
document.pluginsSupport in all current engines.
Returns an HTMLCollection of the embed elements in the
Document.
document.linksSupport in all current engines.
Returns an HTMLCollection of the a and area elements
in the Document that have href
attributes.
document.formsSupport in all current engines.
Returns an HTMLCollection of the form elements in the
Document.
document.scriptsSupport in all current engines.
Returns an HTMLCollection of the script elements in the
Document.
The images
attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node,
whose filter matches only img elements.
The embeds
attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node,
whose filter matches only embed elements.
The plugins
attribute must return the same object as that returned by the embeds attribute.
The links
attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node,
whose filter matches only a elements with href attributes and area elements with href attributes.
The forms
attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node,
whose filter matches only form elements.
The scripts
attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node,
whose filter matches only script elements.
collection = document.getElementsByName(name)Support in all current engines.
Returns a NodeList of elements in the Document that have a name attribute with the value name.
The getElementsByName(elementName) method
steps are to return a live NodeList containing all the HTML
elements in that document that have a name attribute whose value is
identical to the elementName argument, in tree order. When the
method is invoked on a Document object again with the same argument, the user agent
may return the same as the object returned by the earlier call. In other cases, a new
NodeList object must be returned.
document.currentScriptSupport in all current engines.
Returns the script element, or the SVG script element,
that is currently executing, as long as the element represents a classic script. In
the case of reentrant script execution, returns the one that most recently started executing
amongst those that have not yet finished executing.
Returns null if the Document is not currently executing a script or
SVG script element (e.g., because the running script is an event
handler, or a timeout), or if the currently executing script or SVG
script element represents a module script.
The currentScript attribute, on getting, must return
the value to which it was most recently set. When the Document is created, the currentScript must be initialized to null.
This API has fallen out of favor in the implementer and standards community, as
it globally exposes script or SVG script elements. As such,
it is not available in newer contexts, such as when running module
scripts or when running scripts in a shadow tree. We are looking into creating
a new solution for identifying the running script in such contexts, which does not make it
globally available: see issue #1013.
The Document interface supports named properties. The supported property names of a
Document object document at any moment consist of the following, in
tree order according to the element that contributed them, ignoring later duplicates,
and with values from id attributes coming before values from name attributes when the same element contributes both: