Chapter 13
Dynamic Content
The term dynamic contents refers to the ability to access and change a portion of a document's contents without requiring the downloading or construction of an entirely new page. A good example is a ticking clock that is automatically updated in the HTML of the document. Once per second, the clock in the document is updated with a new time-without having to generate a new document.
Dynamic HTML provides direct access to the contents of a document, all the way down to the individual characters. This access enables any portion of the document to be quickly and immediately updated. Once the document is updated, surrounding contents may reflow, depending on the size and position of the new contents. Reflowing the document also often occurs with dynamic styles when the size or display of an element is changed. Dynamic contents extends this model to changing the text and HTML on the page.
Because the most effective route to understanding how to dynamically manipulate the document's contents is to review code, this chapter focuses on code samples to demonstrate the different techniques. The following topics are covered in this chapter:
- Content manipulation
This section briefly introduces three content manipulation techniques supported by Dynamic HTML.
- Dynamic contents properties
The contents of an element are exposed through four properties. These properties provide the easiest and most direct way to access and change the document's contents. This section discusses how to use the properties to change an element's contents, as well as how these properties interact with the document.
- Dynamic contents vs. document.write
The document.write method allows contents to be inserted into a page while the page is being loaded; dynamic contents allows the manipulation of contents after the page has been loaded. This section explores techniques for combining these features to create interactive documents.
