A unique method, system, and computer-program product for providing selective access to (and selective exclusion from) certain nodes of a DOM tree is disclosed. Each DOM node is provided with a naming mechanism; in a preferred embodiment each node is assigned a permanent name using an XML attribute NAME to identify each node, and each node is also assigned a "context state value" using an XML attribute "CONTEXT". Changes to the operating context of the DOM tree affect the accessibility of each node in the tree. By correlating the "CONTEXT" attribute of a child node (or nodes) to the "CONTEXT" attribute of a parent node, the correlated child node is accessible by the parent.