Mozilla/Gecko/Netscape's COM interface for DOM info

Hello,

We have several accessibility interfaces that we support via COM on Windows:
IAccessible, ISimpleDOMNode, ISimpleDOMDocument.


      Overview

They can all be used cross-process, and you can use QueryInterface to 
move between them, to the same place in the tree.

Here are links to the .idl:
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/widget/src/windows/expose/ISimpleDOMNode/ISimpleDOMNode.idl
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/widget/src/windows/expose/ISimpleDOMDocument/ISimpleDOMDocument.idl

More docs here, describing how to use them all:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/ui/accessibility/vendors-win.html


      ISimpleDOMNode

To get to the ISimpleDOMNode interface for an object, you start with an 
IAccessible*, and then you QueryInterface to the ISimpleDOMNode*:

ISimpleDOMNode *pSimpleDOMNode;
hresult = pAccessible->QueryInterface(IID_ISimpleDOMNode, (void**) 
&pSimpleDOMNode);
if (SUCCEEDED( hresult ) && pSimpleDOMNode != NULL) {
/* This is a Mozilla node! Use special ISimpleDOMNode methods described 
in ISimpleDOMNode.idl. */
}

The get_nodeInfo method is used to get basic information about a node 
such as the tag name and namespace ID, node type (see ISimpleDOMNode.idl 
for definitions), node value (text held in the node), a unique ID for 
use in tracking where events occur, and the number of children. The 
namespace ID is meaningless until you get the namespace URI for it, 
through the ISimpleDOMDocument interface (see below).

HRESULT get_nodeInfo(
  /* [out] */ BSTR  *nodeName,    // For elements, this is the tag name
  /* [out] */ short  *nameSpaceID,
  /* [out] */ BSTR  *nodeValue,
  /* [out] */ unsigned int  *numChildren,
  /* [out] */ unsigned int  *uniqueID, // see description of unique ID's 
in above section on events
  /* [out] */ unsigned short  *nodeType);

The get_attributes method returns the set of attribute, value pairs for 
a given node, as well as the namespace ID for each attribute. The return 
value numAttribs specifies the number of attributes for this node, and 
the last 3 parameters return 3 arrays corresponding to attribute name, 
namespace ID, and attribute value.

HRESULT get_attributes(
  /* [in]  */ unsigned short maxAttribs,
  /* [out] */ BSTR  *attribNames,
  /* [out] */ short  *nameSpaceID,
  /* [out] */ BSTR  *attribValues,
  /* [out] */ unsigned short  *numAttribs);

A variation on this method is get_attributesForNames , which lets turns 
the attribNames array into an [in] parameter, letting you specify only 
those attributes you're interested in. This helps minimize the cost of 
marshalling for those times in which you're interested in only a few 
attributes per node.

HRESULT get_attributesForNames(
  /* [in]  */ unsigned short numAttribs,
  /* [in]  */ BSTR __RPC_FAR *attribNames,
  /* [in]  */ short __RPC_FAR *nameSpaceID,
  /* [out] */ BSTR __RPC_FAR *attribValues);

The get_computedStyle method is used to find out the cumulative, 
computed results for all style rules applied to a node. The return value 
numStyleProperties specifies the number of style properties for this 
node, and the last 2 parameters return 2 arrays corresponding to style 
property name and style property value. Another [in] parameter, 
useAlternativeMediaProperties, indicates whether you want style 
information for the default media type (usually screen), or a set of 
alternative media types specified in 
nsISimpleDOMDocument::set_alternateViewMediaType(mediaTypeString) . See 
the W3C's website for a list of official media type name 
<http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/media.html#media-types> . Unfortunately, 
at this time the argument useAlternateView is ignored.

HRESULT get_computedStyle(
  /* [in]  */ unsigned short maxStyleProperties,
  /* [in]  */ boolean useAlternateView,  // If TRUE, returns properites 
for media as set in nsIDOMDocument::set_alternateViewMediaTypes
  /* [out] */ BSTR *styleProperties,
  /* [out] */ BSTR *styleValues,
  /* [out] */ unsigned short *numStyleProperties);

A variation on this method is get_computedStyleForProperties , which 
lets turns the styleProperties array into an [in] parameter, letting you 
specify only those style properties you're interested in. This helps 
minimize the cost of marshalling for those times in which you're 
interested in only a few style properties per node.

HRESULT get_computedStyleForProperties(
  /* [in] */  unsigned short numStyleProperties,
  /* [in] */  boolean useAlternateView,  // If TRUE, returns properites 
for media as set in nsIDOMDocument::set_alternateViewMediaTypes
  /* [in] */  BSTR *styleProperties,
  /* [out] */ BSTR *styleValues);

You can also get to any other node by traversing the ISimpleDOMNode 
structure. The DOM content tree is a superset of the MSAA tree. In other 
words, you can always QueryInterface from an IAccessible to an 
ISimpleDOMNode, but often not the other way around.

HRESULT get_parentNode     (/* [in] */ ISimpleDOMNode *newNodePtr);
HRESULT get_firstChild     (/* [in] */ ISimpleDOMNode *newNodePtr);
HRESULT get_lastChild      (/* [in] */ ISimpleDOMNode *newNodePtr);
HRESULT get_previousSibling(/* [in] */ ISimpleDOMNode *newNodePtr);
HRESULT get_nextSibling    (/* [in] */ ISimpleDOMNode *newNodePtr);

Please look at the ISimpleDOMNode.idl file for parameter types and the 
definitions of the node type constants.


      ISimpleDOMDocument

There is one ISimpleDOMDocument interface for each XML or HTML document 
in Gecko, which you can use to get important information global to the 
document. If a given node's get_nodeType method returns 
NODETYPE_DOCUMENT, then you know you can QueryInterface to an 
ISimpleDOMDocument. The root accessible can also always be 
QueryInterface'd to an ISimpleDOMDocument.

Here are the methods for ISimpleDomDocument:

HRESULT get_URL    (/* [out] */ BSTR *url);      // Location of document
HRESULT get_title  (/* [out] */ BSTR *title);    // From the <TITLE>
HRESULT get_mimeType(/* [out] */ BSTR *mimeType); // For example 
text/html or text/plain
HRESULT get_docType (/* [out] */ BSTR *docType);  // From the <!DOCTYPE ..>
HRESULT get_nameSpaceURIForID(            // Translate namespace ID's 
from ISimpleDOMNode
  /* [in] */ unsigned short nameSpaceID,  //  calls into the actual 
namespace URI's
  /* [out] */ BSTR  *nameSpaceURI);
HRESULT put_alternateViewMediaTypes(/* [in] */ BSTR * 
commaSeparatedMediaTypes);  // For example "aural, braille"

- Aaron