XML - DOM

DOM, the so-called Document Object Model, is another name, in this context, for how XML can be read into memory as a tree/list and manipulated by a script or program. It's using a program, like Visual BASIC, to build or modify an XML document. The XML document can be cut and spliced, and parts of the list/tree can be located and changed with built-in routines. This is the kind of thing that would have been useful with HTML, and which might have been available at one point. But now you can take an XML document and read it into memory according to this 'Document Object Model'.

http://www.scenic-route.com/program/xml/dom.htm