firstChild (XMLNode.firstChild property) -- Flash CS3

Evaluates the specified XML object and references the first child in the parent node's child list. This property is null if the node does not have children. This property is undefined if the node is a text node. This is a read-only property and cannot be used to manipulate child nodes; use the appendChild(), insertBefore(), and removeNode() methods to manipulate child nodes.

Example

The following example shows how to use XML.firstChild to loop through a node's child nodes:

// create a new XML document
var doc:XML = new XML();

// create a root node
var rootNode:XMLNode = doc.createElement("rootNode");

// create three child nodes
var oldest:XMLNode = doc.createElement("oldest");
var middle:XMLNode = doc.createElement("middle");
var youngest:XMLNode = doc.createElement("youngest");

// add the rootNode as the root of the XML document tree
doc.appendChild(rootNode);

// add each of the child nodes as children of rootNode
rootNode.appendChild(oldest);
rootNode.appendChild(middle);
rootNode.appendChild(youngest);

// use firstChild to iterate through the child nodes of rootNode
for (var aNode:XMLNode = rootNode.firstChild; aNode != null; aNode = aNode.nextSibling) {
    trace(aNode);
}

// output:
// <oldest />
// <middle />
// <youngest />

The following example is from the XML_languagePicker FLA file in the Examples directory and can be found in the languageXML.onLoad event handler function definition:

// loop through the strings in each language node
// adding each string as a new element in the language array
for (var stringNode:XMLNode = childNode.firstChild; stringNode != null; stringNode = stringNode.nextSibling, j++) {
    masterArray[i][j] = stringNode.firstChild.nodeValue;
}

To view the entire script, see the Flash Samples page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples. Download and decompress the Samples zip file and go to the ActionScript2.0\XML_LanguagePicker folder to access the XML_languagePicker.fla file.

firstChild (XMLNode.firstChild property)

Example

See also