1. 8.4 Dynamic markup insertion
      1. 8.4.1 Opening the input stream
      2. 8.4.2 Closing the input stream
      3. 8.4.3 document.write()
      4. 8.4.4 document.writeln()

8.4 Dynamic markup insertion

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(type, replace), document.close(), and document.write() when they are invoked by the parser. Initially, the counter must be set to zero.

8.4.1 Opening the input stream

document = document . 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.

The resulting Document has an HTML parser associated with it, which can be given data to parse using document.write(). (The type argument is ignored.)

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.

window = document . 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(type, replace) 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 and replaceInput, are as follows:

  1. If document is an XML document, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException exception.

  2. If document's throw-on-dynamic-markup-insertion counter is greater than 0, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  3. If document is not an active document, then return document.

  4. Let window be document's relevant global object.

  5. 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.

  6. If document has an active parser whose script nesting level is greater than 0, then return document.

    This basically causes document.open(type, replace) 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.

  7. Similarly, if document's ignore-opens-during-unload counter is greater than 0, then return document.

    This basically causes document.open(type, replace) to be ignored when it's called from a beforeunload, pagehide, or unload event handler while the Document is being unloaded.

  8. Let replace be false.

  9. 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, then set replace to true.

  10. Abort document.

  11. For each shadow-including inclusive descendant node of document, erase all event listeners and handlers given node.

  12. Erase all event listeners and handlers given window.

  13. Replace all with null within document, without firing any mutation events.

  14. 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.

  15. Change document's URL to the URL of the responsible document specified by the entry settings object.

  16. If document's iframe load in progress flag is set, then set document's mute iframe load flag.

  17. 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(type, replace) 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.

  18. Set the current document readiness of document to "loading".

  19. 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.

  20. 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.

  21. Remove any earlier entries whose Document object is document.

  22. 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(type, replace) 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.

  23. Finally, set the insertion point to point at just before the end of the input stream (which at this point will be empty).

  24. Return document.

The open(type, replace) method must return the result of running the document open steps with this Document object and replace.

The type argument is ignored. Also, the document.open(type, replace) method does not affect whether a Document is ready for post-load tasks or completely loaded.

The open(url, name, features) method must run these steps:

  1. If this Document object is not an active document, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException exception.

  2. Return the result of running the window open steps with url, name, and features.

8.4.2 Closing the input stream

document . close()

Closes the input stream that was opened by the document.open(type, replace) 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:

  1. If the Document object is an XML document, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  2. If the Document object's throw-on-dynamic-markup-insertion counter is greater than zero, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  3. If there is no script-created parser associated with the document, then return.

  4. Insert an explicit "EOF" character at the end of the parser's input stream.

  5. If there is a pending parsing-blocking script, then return.

  6. 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.

8.4.3 document.write()

document . 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(type, replace) 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(type, replace). Initially, the counter must be set to zero.

The document write steps, given a Document object document and a string input, are as follows:

  1. If document is an XML document, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  2. If document's throw-on-dynamic-markup-insertion counter is greater than 0, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException.

  3. If document is not an active document, then return.

  4. If the insertion point is undefined, then:

    1. 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.

    2. Run the document open steps with document and the empty string. If the user refused to allow the document to be unloaded, then return. Otherwise, the insertion point will point at just before the end of the (empty) input stream.

  5. Insert input into the input stream just before the insertion point.

  6. If document's reload override flag is set, then append input to document's reload override buffer.

  7. 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.

8.4.4 document.writeln()

document . writeln(text...)

Adds the given string(s) to the Document's input stream, followed by a newline character. If necessary, calls the open(type, replace) 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.