APIs for dynamically inserting markup into the document interact with the parser, and thus their behavior varies depending on whether they are used with HTML documents (and the HTML parser) or XML documents (and the XML parser).
Document objects have a throw-on-dynamic-markup-insertion counter,
which is used in conjunction with the create an element for the token algorithm to
prevent custom element constructors from being
able to use document.open(), document.close(), and document.write() when they are invoked by the parser.
Initially, the counter must be set to zero.
The open() method comes in several variants
with different numbers of arguments.
open( [ type [, replace ] ] )Causes the Document to be replaced in-place, as if it was a new
Document object, but reusing the previous object, which is then returned.
If the type argument is omitted or has the value
"text/html", then the resulting Document has an HTML parser associated
with it, which can be given data to parse using document.write(). Otherwise, all content passed to document.write() will be parsed as plain text.
If the replace argument is present and has the value "replace", the existing entries in the session history for the
Document object are removed.
The method has no effect if the Document is still being parsed.
Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException if the
Document is an XML document.
Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException if the
parser is currently executing a custom element constructor.
open( url, name, features )Works like the window.open() method.
Document objects have an ignore-opens-during-unload counter, which is
used to prevent scripts from invoking the document.open()
method (directly or indirectly) while the document is being
unloaded. Initially, the counter must be set to zero.
The document open steps, given a document, type, and replaceInput, are as follows:
If document is an XML document, then throw
an "InvalidStateError" DOMException exception.
If document's throw-on-dynamic-markup-insertion counter is greater
than 0, then throw an "InvalidStateError"
DOMException.
If document is not an active document, then return document.
If document's origin is not same origin to the
origin of the responsible document specified by the entry
settings object, then throw a "SecurityError"
DOMException.
If document has an active parser whose script nesting level is greater than 0, then return document.
This basically causes document.open() to
be ignored when it's called in an inline script found during parsing, while still letting it
have an effect when called from a non-parser task such as a timer callback or event handler.
Similarly, if document's ignore-opens-during-unload counter is greater than 0, then return document.
This basically causes document.open() to
be ignored when it's called from a beforeunload, pagehide, or unload event
handler while the Document is being unloaded.
Let replace be false.
If replaceInput is an ASCII case-insensitive match for "replace", then set replace to true.
Otherwise, if document's browsing context's session
history contains only one Document object, and that was the
about:blank Document created when document's browsing
context was created, and that
Document object has never had the unload a document algorithm invoked
on it (e.g., by a previous call to document.open()),
then set replace to true.
Set document's salvageable state to false.
Prompt to unload document. If the user refused to allow the document to be unloaded, then return document.
Unload document, with the recycle parameter set to true.
Abort document.
Unregister all event listeners registered on document and its descendants.
Remove any tasks associated with document in any task source.
Remove all child nodes of document, without firing any mutation events.
Call the JavaScript InitializeHostDefinedRealm() abstract operation with the following customizations:
For the global object, create a new Window object
window.
For the global this value, use document's browsing
context's associated WindowProxy.
Let realm execution context be the created JavaScript execution context.
This is not universally implemented and can perhaps be removed; see issue #1698.
Set up a window environment settings object with realm execution context.
Set the active document of document's browsing context to document with window.
Replace document's singleton objects with new instances of those objects,
created in window's Realm. (This
includes in particular the History, ApplicationCache, and
Navigator, objects, the various BarProp objects, the two
Storage objects, the various HTMLCollection objects, and objects
defined by other specifications, like Selection. It also includes all the Web IDL
prototypes in the JavaScript binding, including document's prototype.)
Change document's character encoding to UTF-8.
If document is ready for post-load tasks, then set document's reload override flag and set document's reload override buffer to the empty string.
Set document's salvageable state back to true.
Change document's URL to the URL of the responsible document specified by the entry settings object.
If document's iframe load in progress flag is set, then set document's mute iframe load flag.
Create a new HTML parser and associate it with document. This is a
script-created parser (meaning that it can be closed by the document.open() and document.close() methods, and that the tokenizer will wait for
an explicit call to document.close() before emitting an
end-of-file token). The encoding confidence is
irrelevant.
Set the current document readiness of document to "loading".
If type is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string
"replace", then, for historical reasons, set it to the string "text/html".
Otherwise:
If the type string contains a U+003B SEMICOLON character (;), remove the first such character and all characters from it up to the end of the string.
Strip leading and trailing ASCII whitespace from type.
If type is not now an ASCII case-insensitive match
for the string "text/html", then act as if the tokenizer had emitted a start tag
token with the tag name "pre" followed by a single U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character, then switch the
HTML parser's tokenizer to the PLAINTEXT state.
Remove any tasks queued by the history traversal
task source that are associated with any Document objects in the
top-level browsing context's document family.
Remove all the entries in the browsing context's session history after the current entry. If the current entry is the last entry in the session history, then no entries are removed.
This doesn't necessarily have to affect the user agent's user interface.
Remove any earlier entries whose Document object is
document.
If replace is false, then add a new entry, just before the last entry,
and associate with the new entry the text that was parsed by the previous parser associated with
document, as well as the state of document at the start of these steps.
This allows the user to step backwards in the session history to see the page before it was blown
away by the document.open() call. This new entry does not
have a Document object, so a new one will be created if the session history is
traversed to that entry.
Set document's fired unload flag to false. (It could have been set to true during the unload step above.)
Finally, set the insertion point to point at just before the end of the input stream (which at this point will be empty).
Return document.
When invoked with two arguments or fewer, the document.open(type, replace) method must
return the result of running the document open steps with this Document
object, type, and replace.
The document.open() method does not affect
whether a Document is ready for post-load tasks or completely
loaded.
When invoked with three arguments, the open(url,
name, features) method must run these steps:
If this Document object is not an active document, then throw an
"InvalidStateError" DOMException exception.
Return the result of running the window open steps with url, name, and features.
close()Closes the input stream that was opened by the document.open() method.
Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException if the
Document is an XML document.
Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException if the
parser is currently executing a custom element constructor.
The close() method must run the following
steps:
If the Document object is an XML
document, then throw an "InvalidStateError"
DOMException and abort these steps.
If the Document object's throw-on-dynamic-markup-insertion
counter is greater than zero, then throw an "InvalidStateError"
DOMException and abort these steps.
If there is no script-created parser associated with the document, then abort these steps.
Insert an explicit "EOF" character at the end of the parser's input stream.
If there is a pending parsing-blocking script, then abort these steps.
Run the tokenizer, processing resulting tokens as they are emitted, and stopping when the tokenizer reaches the explicit "EOF" character or spins the event loop.
document.write()write(text...)In general, adds the given string(s) to the Document's input stream.
This method has very idiosyncratic behavior. In some cases, this method can
affect the state of the HTML parser while the parser is running, resulting in a DOM
that does not correspond to the source of the document (e.g. if the string written is the string
"<plaintext>" or "<!--"). In other cases,
the call can clear the current page first, as if document.open() had been called. In yet more cases, the method
is simply ignored, or throws an exception. Users agents are explicitly allowed to avoid executing
script elements inserted via this method. And to make matters even worse, the
exact behavior of this method can in some cases be dependent on network latency, which can lead to failures that are very hard to debug. For all these reasons, use
of this method is strongly discouraged.
Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException when
invoked on XML documents.
Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException if the
parser is currently executing a custom element constructor.
Document objects have an ignore-destructive-writes counter, which is
used in conjunction with the processing of script elements to prevent external
scripts from being able to use document.write() to blow
away the document by implicitly calling document.open().
Initially, the counter must be set to zero.
The document write steps, given a Document object document
and a string input, are as follows:
If document is an XML document, then throw
an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.
If document's throw-on-dynamic-markup-insertion counter is greater
than 0, then throw an "InvalidStateError"
DOMException.
If document is not an active document, then return.
If the insertion point is undefined, then:
If document's ignore-opens-during-unload counter is greater than 0 or document's ignore-destructive-writes counter is greater than 0, then return.
Run the document open steps with document, "text/html", and the empty string. If the user refused to allow the
document to be unloaded, then abort these steps. Otherwise, the insertion
point will point at just before the end of the (empty) input
stream.
Insert input into the input stream just before the insertion point.
If document's reload override flag is set, then append input to document's reload override buffer.
If there is no pending parsing-blocking script, have the HTML
parser process input, one code point at a time, processing resulting tokens as
they are emitted, and stopping when the tokenizer reaches the insertion point or when the
processing of the tokenizer is aborted by the tree construction stage (this can happen if a
script end tag token is emitted by the tokenizer).
If the document.write() method was
called from script executing inline (i.e. executing because the parser parsed a set of
script tags), then this is a reentrant invocation of the
parser. If the parser pause flag is set, the tokenizer will abort immediately
and no HTML will be parsed, per the tokenizer's parser pause
flag check.
The document.write(...) method, when
invoked, must run the document write steps with this Document object and
a string that is the concatanation of all arguments passed.
document.writeln()writeln(text...)Adds the given string(s) to the Document's input stream, followed by a newline
character. If necessary, calls the open() method
implicitly first.
Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException when
invoked on XML documents.
Throws an "InvalidStateError" DOMException if the
parser is currently executing a custom element constructor.
The document.writeln(...) method, when
invoked, must run the document write steps with this Document object and
a string that is the concatanation of all arguments passed and U+000A LINE FEED.