DHTML introduction

Document Object Model

DOM stands for Document Object Model and is the link between scripting and elements on a page.

I will not say that much about the DOM here cause I have already made a couple of tutorials that sort of cover the subject. Check the DOM tutorial and for info about the 5.x browsers and the new W3C DOM check the 5th generation tutorial.

Here are some other places where you can read more about the DOM:

Scripting

DHTML can be used with VBScript or Javascript. But I will only talk about JavaScript here since that's the most used and most widely supported language.

Javascript is a scripting language (like a simple programming language (Perl, C++ et. cetera))

Javascript is the part of DHTML that actually does something. It's Javascript that makes the document fly around, it's Javascript that changes the font size or any other CSS property on a element.

So JavaScript plays a really big role in DHTML and it's really important to know JavaScript very well!

I could have written thousands of lines about JavaScript but it would just take to long. If you don't know JavaScript and want to learn it browse around the links below.

To make a standard that all browsers could support ECMA have made ECMAScript. The most current version of Javascript is Javascript1.5 and that version is ECMAScript compatible.

Here are some other places where you can read more about JavaScript:

Summing it all up

So to sum it up we can really say that:

You use HTML to get the element into the page, CSS to specify the look of the element, JavaScript to manipulate the element and JavaScript uses the DOM to reach the element to manipulate.

Sounds logic doesn't it?

Well that's it. Now you should (hopefully) understand what DHTML really is.

If you still sounds kind of blurry try this DHTML introduction from WebMonkey.