HTML 5.2-Estandar PDF
HTML 5.2-Estandar PDF
html
HTML 5.2
Editors Draft, 11 September 2017
This version:
https://w3c.github.io/html/
Editors:
Steve Faulkner (The Paciello Group)
Arron Eicholz (Microsoft)
Travis Leithead (Microsoft)
Alex Danilo (Google)
Sangwhan Moon (Invited Expert)
Former Editors:
Erika Doyle Navara (Microsoft)
Theresa O'Connor (Apple Inc.)
Robin Berjon (W3C)
Participate:
File an issue (open issues)
Others:
Single page version
Copyright 2017 W3C (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang). W3C liability, trademark and permissive document license rules apply.
Abstract
This specification defines the 5th major version, second minor revision of the core language of the
World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In this version, new features con-
tinue to be introduced to help Web application authors, new elements continue to be introduced
based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention continues to be given to
defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents
may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this
technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
This document was published by the Web Platform Working Group as a Editors Draft. This docu-
ment is intended to become a W3C Recommendation. Feedback and comments on this specifica-
tion are welcome. Please use Github issues. Historical discussions can be found in the public-
[email protected] archives.
Publication as a Editors Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a
draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is in-
appropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy.
W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of
the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual
knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the
information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Audience
1.3 Scope
1.4 History
1.5 Design notes
1.5.1 Serializability of script execution
1.5.2 Compliance with other specifications
1.5.3 Extensibility
1.6 HTML vs XML Syntax
1.7 Structure of this specification
1.7.1 How to read this specification
1.7.2 Typographic conventions
1.8 Privacy concerns
1.9 A quick introduction to HTML
2 Common infrastructure
2.1 Terminology
2.1.1 Resources
2.1.2 XML compatibility
2.1.3 DOM trees
2.1.4 Scripting
2.1.5 Plugins
2.1.6 Character encodings
2.2 Conformance requirements
2.2.1 Conformance classes
2.2.2 Dependencies
2.2.3 Extensibility
2.2.4 Interactions with XPath and XSLT
2.3 Case-sensitivity and string comparison
2.4 Common microsyntaxes
2.4.1 Common parser idioms
2.4.2 Boolean attributes
2.4.3 Keywords and enumerated attributes
2.4.4 Numbers
2.4.4.1 Signed integers
2.4.4.2 Non-negative integers
2.4.4.3 Floating-point numbers
2.4.4.4 Percentages and lengths
2.4.4.5 Non-zero percentages and lengths
2.4.4.6 Lists of floating-point numbers
2.4.4.7 Lists of dimensions
2.4.5 Dates and times
2.4.5.1 Months
2.4.5.2 Dates
4.3 Sections
4.3.1 The body element
4.3.2 The article element
4.3.3 The section element
4.3.4 The nav element
4.3.5 The aside element
4.3.6 The h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6 elements
4.3.7 The header element
4.3.8 The footer element
4.3.9 Headings and sections
4.3.9.1 Creating an outline
4.3.10 Usage summary
4.3.10.1 Article or section?
4.4 Grouping content
4.4.1 The p element
4.4.2 The address element
4.4.3 The hr element
4.4.4 The pre element
4.4.5 The blockquote element
4.4.6 The ol element
4.4.7 The ul element
4.4.8 The li element
4.4.9 The dl element
4.4.10 The dt element
4.4.11 The dd element
4.4.12 The figure element
4.4.13 The figcaption element
4.4.14 The main element
4.4.15 The div element
4.5 Text-level semantics
4.5.1 The a element
4.5.2 The em element
4.5.3 The strong element
4.5.4 The small element
4.5.5 The s element
4.5.6 The cite element
4.7.5.1.7 Images that enhance the themes or subject matter of the page content
4.7.5.1.11 A group of images that form a single larger picture with no links
4.7.5.1.13 A group of images that form a single larger picture with links
4.7.13.11.4 Guidelines for exposing cues in various formats as text track cues
4.11.6 Commands
4.11.6.1 Facets
4.11.6.2 Using the a element to define a command
4.11.6.3 Using the button element to define a command
4.11.6.4 Using the input element to define a command
4.11.6.5 Using the option element to define a command
5 User interaction
5.1 The hidden attribute
5.2 Inert subtrees
5.3 Activation
5.4 Focus
5.4.1 Introduction
6.3.7.1.2 [[SetPrototypeOf]] ( V )
6.3.7.1.3 [[IsExtensible]] ( )
6.3.7.1.4 [[PreventExtensions]] ( )
6.3.7.1.5 [[GetOwnProperty]] ( P )
6.3.7.1.9 [[Delete]] ( P )
6.3.7.1.10 [[OwnPropertyKeys]] ( )
6.4 Origin
6.4.1 Relaxing the same-origin restriction
6.5 Sandboxing
6.6 Session history and navigation
6.6.1 The session history of browsing contexts
6.6.4.1.2 [[SetPrototypeOf]] ( V )
6.6.4.1.3 [[IsExtensible]] ( )
6.6.4.1.4 [[PreventExtensions]] ( )
6.6.4.1.5 [[GetOwnProperty]] ( P )
6.6.4.1.9 [[Delete]] ( P )
6.6.4.1.10 [[OwnPropertyKeys]] ( )
7.1.3.5.2 Incumbent
7.1.3.5.3 Current
7.1.3.5.4 Relevant
7.4.3 document.write()
7.4.4 document.writeln()
7.5 Timers
7.6 User prompts
7.6.1 Simple dialogs
7.6.2 Printing
7.7 System state and capabilities
7.7.1 The Navigator object
7.7.1.1 Client identification
7.7.1.2 Language preferences
7.7.1.3 Custom scheme and content handlers: the registerProtocolHandler() and
registerContentHandler() methods
7.7.1.4 Cookies
7.8 Images
7.9 Animation Frames
10 Rendering
10.1 Introduction
10.2 The CSS user agent style sheet and presentational hints
10.3 Non-replaced elements
10.3.1 Hidden elements
10.3.2 The page
10.3.3 Flow content
10.3.4 Phrasing content
10.3.5 Bidirectional text
10.3.6 Quotes
10.3.7 Sections and headings
10.3.8 Lists
10.3.9 Tables
10.3.10 Margin collapsing quirks
10.3.11 Form controls
10.3.12 The hr element
10.3.13 The fieldset and legend elements
10.4 Replaced elements
10.4.1 Embedded content
10.4.2 Images
10.4.3 Attributes for embedded content and images
10.4.4 Image maps
10.5 Widgets
10.5.1 Introduction
10.5.2 The button element
10.5.3 The details and summary elements
10.5.4 The input element as a text entry widget.
10.5.5 The input element as domain-specific widgets
10.5.6 The input element as a range control
10.5.7 The input element as a color well
10.5.8 The input element as a checkbox and radio button widgets
10.5.9 The input element as a file upload control
10.5.10 The input element as a button
10.5.11 The marquee element
10.5.12 The meter element
10.5.13 The progress element
10.5.14 The select element
10.5.15 The textarea element
10.6 Frames and framesets
10.7 Interactive media
10.7.1 Links, forms, and navigation
10.7.2 The title attribute
10.7.3 Editing hosts
10.7.4 Text rendered in native user interfaces
10.8 Print media
10.9 Unstyled XML documents
11 Obsolete features
11.1 Obsolete but conforming features
12 IANA considerations
12.1 text/html
12.2 multipart/x-mixed-replace
12.3 application/xhtml+xml
12.4 web+ scheme prefix
Index
Terms defined by this specification
Terms defined by reference
Elements
Element content categories
Attributes
Element Interfaces
Events
Property Index
IDL Index
References
Normative References
Informative References
Changes
Changes between this Working Draft and Working Draft 7
Changes between Working Draft 7 and Working Draft 6
Changes between Working Draft 6 and Working Draft 5
Changes between Working Draft 5 and Working Draft 4
Changes between Working Draft 4 and Working Draft 3
Changes between Working Draft 3 and Working Draft 2
Changes between Working Draft 2 and the First Public Working Draft
Changes since HTML 5.1 - Note that these may change if the HTML 5.1 specification
is updated.
Acknowledgements
People who have contributed to this version of HTML
People who have contributed to previous revisions of HTML 5.x
1. Introduction
1.1. Background
HTML is the World Wide Webs core markup language. Originally, HTML was primarily designed
as a language for semantically describing scientific documents. Its general design, however, has
enabled it to be adapted, over the subsequent years, to describe a number of other types of docu-
ments and even applications.
1.2. Audience
This specification is intended for authors of documents and scripts that use the features defined in
this specification, implementors of tools that operate on pages that use the features defined in this
specification, and individuals wishing to establish the correctness of documents or implementa-
tions with respect to the requirements of this specification.
This document is probably not suited to readers who do not already have at least a passing famil-
iarity with Web technologies, as in places it sacrifices clarity for precision, and brevity for com-
pleteness. More approachable tutorials and authoring guides can provide a gentler introduction to
the topic.
In particular, familiarity with the basics of DOM is necessary for a complete understanding of
some of the more technical parts of this specification. An understanding of Web IDL, HTTP,
XML, Unicode, character encodings, JavaScript, and CSS will also be helpful in places but is not
essential.
1.3. Scope
This specification is limited to providing a semantic-level markup language and associated seman-
tic-level scripting APIs for authoring accessible pages on the Web ranging from static documents
to dynamic applications.
The scope of this specification does not include providing mechanisms for media-specific cus-
tomization of presentation (although default rendering rules for Web browsers are included at the
end of this specification, and several mechanisms for hooking into CSS are provided as part of the
language).
The scope of this specification is not to describe an entire operating system. In particular, hardware
configuration software, image manipulation tools, and applications that users would be expected to
use with high-end workstations on a daily basis are out of scope. In terms of applications, this
specification is targeted specifically at applications that would be expected to be used by users on
an occasional basis, or regularly but from disparate locations, with low CPU requirements. Exam-
ples of such applications include online purchasing systems, searching systems, games (especially
multiplayer online games), public telephone books or address books, communications software (e-
mail clients, instant messaging clients, discussion software), document editing software, etc.
1.4. History
For its first five years (1990-1995), HTML went through a number of revisions and experienced a
number of extensions, primarily hosted first at CERN, and then at the IETF.
With the creation of the W3C, HTMLs development changed venue again. A first abortive attempt
at extending HTML in 1995 known as HTML 3.0 then made way to a more pragmatic approach
known as HTML 3.2, which was completed in 1997. HTML 4.01 quickly followed later that same
year.
The following year, the W3C membership decided to stop evolving HTML and instead begin work
on an XML-based equivalent, called XHTML. This effort started with a reformulation of HTML
4.01 in XML, known as XHTML 1.0, which added no new features except the new serialization,
and which was completed in 2000. After XHTML 1.0, the W3Cs focus turned to making it easier
for other working groups to extend XHTML, under the banner of XHTML Modularization. In par-
allel with this, the W3C also worked on a new language that was not compatible with the earlier
HTML and XHTML languages, calling it XHTML 2.0.
Around the time that HTMLs evolution was stopped in 1998, parts of the API for HTML devel-
oped by browser vendors were specified and published under the name DOM Level 1 (in 1998)
and DOM Level 2 Core and DOM Level 2 HTML (starting in 2000 and culminating in 2003).
These efforts then petered out, with some DOM Level 3 specifications published in 2004 but the
working group being closed before all the Level 3 drafts were completed.
In 2003, the publication of XForms, a technology which was positioned as the next generation of
Web forms, sparked a renewed interest in evolving HTML itself, rather than finding replacements
for it. This interest was borne from the realization that XMLs deployment as a Web technology
was limited to entirely new technologies (like RSS and later Atom), rather than as a replacement
for existing deployed technologies (like HTML).
A proof of concept to show that it was possible to extend HTML 4.01s forms to provide many of
the features that XForms 1.0 introduced, without requiring browsers to implement rendering en-
gines that were incompatible with existing HTML Web pages, was the first result of this renewed
interest. At this early stage, while the draft was already publicly available, and input was already
being solicited from all sources, the specification was only under Opera Softwares copyright.
The idea that HTMLs evolution should be reopened was tested at a W3C workshop in 2004,
where some of the principles that underlie the HTML work (described below), as well as the afore-
mentioned early draft proposal covering just forms-related features, were presented to the W3C
jointly by Mozilla and Opera. The proposal was rejected on the grounds that the proposal con-
flicted with the previously chosen direction for the Webs evolution; the W3C staff and member-
ship voted to continue developing XML-based replacements instead.
Shortly thereafter, Apple, Mozilla, and Opera jointly announced their intent to continue working
on the effort under the umbrella of a new venue called the WHATWG. A public mailing list was
created, and the draft was moved to the WHATWG site. The copyright was subsequently amended
to be jointly owned by all three vendors, and to allow reuse of the specification.
The WHATWG was based on several core principles, in particular that technologies need to be
backwards compatible, that specifications and implementations need to match even if this means
changing the specification rather than the implementations, and that specifications need to be de-
tailed enough that implementations can achieve complete interoperability without reverse-enginee-
ring each other.
The latter requirement in particular required that the scope of the HTML specification include
what had previously been specified in three separate documents: HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, and
DOM Level 2 HTML. It also meant including significantly more detail than had previously been
considered the norm.
In 2006, the W3C indicated an interest to participate in the development of HTML 5.0 after all,
and in 2007 formed a working group chartered to work with the WHATWG on the development of
the HTML specification. Apple, Mozilla, and Opera allowed the W3C to publish the specification
under the W3C copyright, while keeping a version with the less restrictive license on the
WHATWG site.
For a number of years, both groups then worked together under the same editor: Ian Hickson. In
2011, the groups came to the conclusion that they had different goals: the W3C wanted to draw a
line in the sand for features for a HTML 5.0 Recommendation, while the WHATWG wanted to
continue working on a Living Standard for HTML, continuously maintaining the specification and
adding new features. In mid 2012, a new editing team was introduced at the W3C to take care of
creating a HTML 5.0 Recommendation and prepare a Working Draft for the next HTML version.
Since then, the W3C Web Platform WG has been cherry picking patches from the WHATWG that
resolved bugs registered on the W3C HTML specification or more accurately represented imple-
mented reality in user agents. At time of publication of this document, patches from the
WHATWG HTML specification have been merged until January 12, 2016. The W3C HTML edi-
tors have also added patches that resulted from discussions and decisions made by the W3C Web
Platform WG as well a bug fixes from bugs not shared by the WHATWG.
A separate document is published to document the differences between the HTML specified in this
document and the language described in the HTML 4.01 specification. [HTML5-DIFF]
It must be admitted that many aspects of HTML appear at first glance to be nonsensical and incon-
sistent.
HTML, its supporting DOM APIs, as well as many of its supporting technologies, have been de-
veloped over a period of several decades by a wide array of people with different priorities who, in
many cases, did not know of each others existence.
Features have thus arisen from many sources, and have not always been designed in especially
consistent ways. Furthermore, because of the unique characteristics of the Web, implementation
bugs have often become de-facto, and now de-jure, standards, as content is often unintentionally
written in ways that rely on them before they can be fixed.
Despite all this, efforts have been made to adhere to certain design goals. These are described in
the next few subsections.
To avoid exposing Web authors to the complexities of multithreading, the HTML and DOM APIs
are designed such that no script can ever detect the simultaneous execution of other scripts. Even
with workers, the intent is that the behavior of implementations can be thought of as completely
serializing the execution of all scripts in all browsing contexts.
This specification interacts with and relies on a wide variety of other specifications. In certain cir-
cumstances, unfortunately, conflicting needs have led to this specification violating the require-
ments of these other specifications. Whenever this has occurred, the transgressions have each been
noted as a "willful violation", and the reason for the violation has been noted.
1.5.3. Extensibility
HTML has a wide array of extensibility mechanisms that can be used for adding semantics in a
safe manner:
Authors can use the class attribute to extend elements, effectively creating their own ele-
ments, while using the most applicable existing "real" HTML element, so that browsers and
other tools that dont know of the extension can still support it somewhat well. This is the
tack used by microformats, for example.
Authors can include data for inline client-side scripts or server-side site-wide scripts to
process using the data-*="" attributes. These are guaranteed to never be touched by
browsers, and allow scripts to include data on HTML elements that scripts can then look for
and process.
Authors can use the <meta name="" content=""> mechanism to include page-wide metadata
by registering extensions to the predefined set of metadata names.
Authors can use the rel="" mechanism to annotate links with specific meanings by register-
ing extensions to the predefined set of link types. This is also used by microformats.
Authors can embed raw data using the <script type=""> mechanism with a custom type, for
further handling by inline or server-side scripts.
Authors can extend APIs using the JavaScript prototyping mechanism. This is widely used by
script libraries, for instance.
This specification defines an abstract language for describing documents and applications, and
some APIs for interacting with in-memory representations of resources that use this language.
The in-memory representation is known as "DOM HTML", or "the DOM" for short.
There are various concrete syntaxes that can be used to transmit resources that use this abstract
language, two of which are defined in this specification.
The first such concrete syntax is the HTML syntax. This is the format suggested for most authors.
It is compatible with most legacy Web browsers. If a document is transmitted with the text/html
MIME type, then it will be processed as an HTML document by Web browsers. This specification
defines the latest version of the HTML syntax, known simply as "HTML".
The second concrete syntax is the XHTML syntax, which is an application of XML. When a docu-
ment is transmitted with an XML MIME type, such as application/xhtml+xml, then it is treated
as an XML document by Web browsers, to be parsed by an XML processor. Authors are reminded
that the processing for XML and HTML differs; in particular, even minor syntax errors will pre-
vent a document labeled as XML from being rendered fully, whereas they would be ignored in the
HTML syntax. This specification defines the latest version of the XHTML syntax, known simply
as "XHTML".
The DOM, the HTML syntax, and the XHTML syntax cannot all represent the same content. For
example, namespaces cannot be represented using the HTML syntax, but they are supported in the
DOM and in the XHTML syntax. Similarly, documents that use the <noscript> feature can be rep-
resented using the HTML syntax, but cannot be represented with the DOM or in the XHTML syn-
tax. Comments that contain the string "-->" can only be represented in the DOM, not in the
HTML and XHTML syntaxes.
1 Introduction
Non-normative materials providing a context for the HTML specification.
2 Common infrastructure
The conformance classes, algorithms, definitions, and the common underpinnings of the rest
of the specification.
Each element has a predefined meaning, which is explained in this section. Rules for authors
on how to use the element, along with user agent requirements for how to handle each ele-
ment, are also given. This includes large signature features of HTML such as video playback
and subtitles, form controls and form submission, and a 2D graphics API known as the
HTML canvas.
5 User interaction
HTML documents can provide a number of mechanisms for users to interact with and modify
content, which are described in this section, such as how focus works, and drag-and-drop.
10 Rendering
This section defines the default rendering rules for Web browsers.
There are also some appendices, listing 11 Obsolete features and 12 IANA considerations, and
several indices.
This specification should be read like all other specifications. First, it should be read cover-to-
cover, multiple times. Then, it should be read backwards at least once. Then it should be read by
picking random sections from the contents list and following all the cross-references.
As described in the conformance requirements section below, this specification describes confor-
mance criteria for a variety of conformance classes. In particular, there are conformance require-
ments that apply to producers, for example authors and the documents they create, and there are
conformance requirements that apply to consumers, for example Web browsers. They can be dis-
tinguished by what they are requiring: a requirement on a producer states what is allowed, while a
requirement on a consumer states how software is to act.
EXAMPLE 1
For example, "the foo attributes value must be a valid integer" is a requirement on producers,
as it lays out the allowed values; in contrast, the requirement "the foo attributes value must be
parsed using the rules for parsing integers" is a requirement on consumers, as it describes how
to process the content.
EXAMPLE 2
Continuing the above example, a requirement stating that a particular attributes value is con-
strained to being a valid integer emphatically does not imply anything about the requirements
on consumers. It might be that the consumers are in fact required to treat the attribute as an
opaque string, completely unaffected by whether the value conforms to the requirements or
not. It might be (as in the previous example) that the consumers are required to parse the value
using specific rules that define how invalid (non-numeric in this case) values are to be pro-
cessed.
NOTE:
This is a note.
EXAMPLE 3
This is an example.
interface Example {
// this is an IDL definition
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
variable = object . method( [ optionalArgument ] )
This is a note to authors describing the usage of an interface.
The defining instance of a term is marked up like this. Uses of that term are marked up like this or
like this.
The defining instance of an element, attribute, or API is marked up like this. References to that
element, attribute, or API are marked up like <this>.
Byte sequences with bytes in the range 0x00 to 0x7F, inclusive, are marked up like this.
In some cases, requirements are given in the form of lists with conditions and corresponding re-
quirements. In such cases, the requirements that apply to a condition are always the first set of re-
quirements that follow the condition, even in the case of there being multiple sets of conditions for
those requirements. Such cases are presented as follows:
This is a condition
This is another condition
This is the requirement that applies to the conditions above.
Some features of HTML trade user convenience for a measure of user privacy.
In general, due to the Internets architecture, a user can be distinguished from another by the users
IP address. IP addresses do not perfectly match to a user; as a user moves from device to device, or
from network to network, their IP address will change; similarly, NAT routing, proxy servers, and
shared computers enable packets that appear to all come from a single IP address to actually map
to multiple users. Technologies such as onion routing can be used to further anonymize requests so
that requests from a single user at one node on the Internet appear to come from many disparate
parts of the network.
However, the IP address used for a users requests is not the only mechanism by which a users re-
quests could be related to each other. Cookies, for example, are designed specifically to enable
this, and are the basis of most of the Webs session features that enable you to log into a site with
which you have an account.
There are other mechanisms that are more subtle. Certain characteristics of a users system can be
used to distinguish groups of users from each other; by collecting enough such information, an in-
dividual users browsers "digital fingerprint" can be computed, which can be as good, if not bet-
ter, as an IP address in ascertaining which requests are from the same user.
Grouping requests in this manner, especially across multiple sites, can be used for both benign
(and even arguably positive) purposes, as well as for malevolent purposes. An example of a rea-
sonably benign purpose would be determining whether a particular person seems to prefer sites
with dog illustrations as opposed to sites with cat illustrations (based on how often they visit the
sites in question) and then automatically using the preferred illustrations on subsequent visits to
participating sites. Malevolent purposes, however, could include governments combining informa-
tion such as the persons home address (determined from the addresses they use when getting driv-
ing directions on one site) with their apparent political affiliations (determined by examining the
forum sites that they participate in) to determine whether the person should be prevented from vot-
ing in an election.
Since the malevolent purposes can be remarkably evil, user agent implementors are encouraged to
consider how to provide their users with tools to minimize leaking information that could be used
to fingerprint a user.
Unfortunately, as the first paragraph in this section implies, sometimes there is great benefit to be
derived from exposing the very information that can also be used for fingerprinting purposes, so
its not as easy as simply blocking all possible leaks. For instance, the ability to log into a site to
post under a specific identity requires that the users requests be identifiable as all being from the
same user. More subtly, though, information such as how wide text is, which is necessary for many
effects that involve drawing text onto a canvas (e.g., any effect that involves drawing a border
around the text) also leaks information that can be used to group a users requests. (In this case, by
potentially exposing, via a brute force search, which fonts a user has installed, information which
can vary considerably from user to user.)
Features in this specification which can be used to fingerprint the user are marked as this para-
graph is.
Other features in the platform can be used for the same purpose, though, including, though not
limited to:
Features that describe the users environment, like Media Queries and the Screen object.
[MEDIAQ] [CSSOM-VIEW]
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Sample page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Sample page</h1>
<p>This is a <a href="demo.html">simple</a> sample.</p>
<!-- this is a comment -->
</body>
</html>
HTML documents consist of a tree of elements and text. Each element is denoted in the source by
a start tag, such as "<body>", and an end tag, such as "</body>". (Certain start tags and end tags can
in certain cases be omitted and are implied by other tags.)
Tags have to be nested such that elements are all completely within each other, without overlap-
ping:
This specification defines a set of elements that can be used in HTML, along with rules about the
ways in which the elements can be nested.
Elements can have attributes, which control how the elements work. In the example below, there is
a hyperlink, formed using the <a> element and its href attribute:
<a href="demo.html">simple</a>
Attributes are placed inside the start tag, and consist of a name and a value, separated by an "="
character. The attribute value can remain unquoted if it doesnt contain space characters or any of
" ' ` = < or >. Otherwise, it has to be quoted using either single or double quotes. The value, along
with the "=" character, can be omitted altogether if the value is the empty string.
HTML user agents (e.g., Web browsers) then parse this markup, turning it into a DOM (Document
Object Model) tree. A DOM tree is an in-memory representation of a document.
DOM trees contain several kinds of nodes, in particular a DocumentType node, Element nodes,
Text nodes, Comment nodes, and in some cases ProcessingInstruction nodes.
The markup snippet at the top of this section would be turned into the following DOM tree:
DOCTYPE: html
<html>
<head>
#text:
<title>
#text: Sample page
#text:
#text:
<body>
#text:
<h1>
#text: Sample page
#text:
<p>
#text: This is a
<a> href="demo.html"
#text: simple
#text: sample.
#text:
#comment: this is a comment
#text:
The document element of this tree is the <html> element, which is the element always found in
that position in HTML documents. It contains two elements, <head> and <body>, as well as a Text
node between them.
There are many more Text nodes in the DOM tree than one would initially expect, because the
source contains a number of spaces (represented here by "") and line breaks ("") that all end up
as Text nodes in the DOM. However, for historical reasons not all of the spaces and line breaks in
the original markup appear in the DOM. In particular, all the white space before <head> start tag
ends up being dropped silently, and all the white space after the <body> end tag ends up placed at
the end of the <body>.
The <head> element contains a <title> element, which itself contains a Text node with the text
"Sample page". Similarly, the <body> element contains an <h1> element, a <p> element, and a com-
ment.
This DOM tree can be manipulated from scripts in the page. Scripts (typically in JavaScript) are
small programs that can be embedded using the <script> element or using event handler content
attributes. For example, here is a form with a script that sets the value of the forms <output> ele-
ment to say "Hello World"
<form name="main">
Result: <output name="result"></output>
<script>
document.forms.main.elements.result.value = 'Hello World';
</script>
</form>
Each element in the DOM tree is represented by an object, and these objects have APIs so that
they can be manipulated. For instance, a link (e.g., the <a> element in the tree above) can have its
"href" attribute changed in several ways:
Since DOM trees are used as the way to represent HTML documents when they are processed and
presented by implementations (especially interactive implementations like Web browsers), this
specification is mostly phrased in terms of DOM trees, instead of the markup described above.
In the following example, the page has been made yellow-on-blue using CSS.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Sample styled page</title>
<style>
body { background: navy; color: yellow; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Sample styled page</h1>
<p>This page is just a demo.</p>
</body>
</html>
For more details on how to use HTML, authors are encouraged to consult tutorials and guides.
Some of the examples included in this specification might also be of use, but the novice author is
cautioned that this specification, by necessity, defines the language with a level of detail that might
be difficult to understand at first.
When HTML is used to create interactive sites, care needs to be taken to avoid introducing vulner-
abilities through which attackers can compromise the integrity of the site itself or of the sites
users.
A comprehensive study of this matter is beyond the scope of this document, and authors are
strongly encouraged to study the matter in more detail. However, this section attempts to provide a
quick introduction to some common pitfalls in HTML application development.
The security model of the Web is based on the concept of "origins", and correspondingly many of
the potential attacks on the Web involve cross-origin actions. [ORIGIN]
When writing filters to validate user input, it is imperative that filters always be safelist-b-
ased, allowing known-safe constructs and disallowing all other input. Blocklist-based filters
that disallow known-bad inputs and allow everything else are not secure, as not everything
that is bad is yet known (for example, because it might be invented in the future).
EXAMPLE 4
For example, suppose a page looked at its URLs query string to determine what to dis-
play, and the site then redirected the user to that page to display a message, as in:
<ul>
<li><a href="message.cgi?say=Hello">Say Hello</a>
<li><a href="message.cgi?say=Welcome">Say Welcome</a>
<li><a href="message.cgi?say=Kittens">Say Kittens</a>
</ul>
If the message was just displayed to the user without escaping, a hostile attacker could
then craft a URL that contained a script element:
http://example.com/message.cgi?say=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28%27Oh%20no
%21%27%29%3C/script%3E
If the attacker then convinced a victim user to visit this page, a script of the attackers
choosing would run on the page. Such a script could do any number of hostile actions,
limited only by what the site offers: if the site is an e-commerce shop, for instance, such a
script could cause the user to unknowingly make arbitrarily many unwanted purchases.
There are many constructs that can be used to try to trick a site into executing code. Here are
some that authors are encouraged to consider when writing safelist filters:
When allowing harmless-seeming elements like <img>, it is important to safelist any pro-
vided attributes as well. If one allowed all attributes then an attacker could, for instance,
use the onload attribute to run arbitrary script.
When allowing URLs to be provided (e.g., for links), the scheme of each URL also
needs to be explicitly safelisted, as there are many schemes that can be abused. The most
prominent example is "javascript:", but user agents can implement (and indeed, have
historically implemented) others.
Allowing a <base> element to be inserted means any <script> elements in the page with
relative links can be hijacked, and similarly that any form submissions can get redirected
to a hostile site.
This problem exists because HTML forms can be submitted to other origins.
Sites can prevent such attacks by populating forms with user-specific hidden tokens, or by
checking Origin headers on all requests.
Clickjacking
A page that provides users with an interface to perform actions that the user might not wish to
perform needs to be designed so as to avoid the possibility that users can be tricked into acti-
vating the interface.
One way that a user could be so tricked is if a hostile site places the victim site in a small
<iframe> and then convinces the user to click, for instance by having the user play a reaction
game. Once the user is playing the game, the hostile site can quickly position the <iframe>
under the mouse cursor just as the user is about to click, thus tricking the user into clicking
the victim sites interface.
To avoid this, sites that do not expect to be used in frames are encouraged to only enable their
interface if they detect that they are not in a frame (e.g., by comparing the window object to
the value of the top attribute).
Scripts in HTML have "run-to-completion" semantics, meaning that the browser will generally run
the script uninterrupted before doing anything else, such as firing further events or continuing to
parse the document.
On the other hand, parsing of HTML files happens incrementally, meaning that the parser can
pause at any point to let scripts run. This is generally a good thing, but it does mean that authors
need to be careful to avoid hooking event handlers after the events could have possibly fired.
There are two techniques for doing this reliably: use event handler content attributes, or create the
element and add the event handlers in the same script. The latter is safe because, as mentioned ear-
lier, scripts are run to completion before further events can fire.
EXAMPLE 5
One way this could manifest itself is with <img> elements and the load event. The event could
fire as soon as the element has been parsed, especially if the image has already been cached
(which is common).
Here, the author uses the onload handler on an <img> element to catch the load event:
If the element is being added by script, then so long as the event handlers are added in the
same script, the event will still not be missed:
<script>
var img = new Image();
img.src = 'games.png';
img.alt = 'Games';
img.onload = gamesLogoHasLoaded;
// img.addEventListener('load', gamesLogoHasLoaded, false); // would work
also
</script>
However, if the author first created the <img> element and then in a separate script added the
event listeners, theres a chance that the load event would be fired in between, leading it to be
missed:
1.9.3. How to catch mistakes when writing HTML: validators and conformance checkers
Authors are encouraged to make use of conformance checkers (also known as validators) to catch
common mistakes. The W3C provides a number of online validation services, including the Nu
Unlike previous versions of the HTML specification, this specification defines in some detail the
required processing for invalid documents as well as valid documents.
However, even though the processing of invalid content is in most cases well-defined, confor-
mance requirements for documents are still important: in practice, interoperability (the situation in
which all implementations process particular content in a reliable and identical or equivalent way)
is not the only goal of document conformance requirements. This section details some of the more
common reasons for still distinguishing between a conforming document and one with errors.
The majority of presentational features from previous versions of HTML are no longer allowed.
Presentational markup in general has been found to have a number of problems:
Using media-independent markup, on the other hand, provides an easy way for documents to
be authored in such a way that they are "accessible" for more users (e.g., users of text
browsers).
For those reasons, presentational markup has been removed from HTML in this version. This
change should not come as a surprise; HTML 4.0 deprecated presentational markup many years
ago and provided a mode (HTML Transitional) to help authors move away from presentational
markup; later, XHTML 1.1 went further and obsoleted those features altogether.
The only remaining presentational markup features in HTML are the style attribute and the
<style> element. Use of the style attribute is somewhat discouraged in production environments,
but it can be useful for rapid prototyping (where its rules can be directly moved into a separate
style sheet later) and for providing specific styles in unusual cases where a separate style sheet
would be inconvenient. Similarly, the <style> element can be useful in syndication or for page-s-
pecific styles, but in general an external style sheet is likely to be more convenient when the styles
apply to multiple pages.
It is also worth noting that some elements that were previously presentational have been redefined
in this specification to be media-independent: <b>, <i>, <hr>, <s>, <small>, and <u>.
EXAMPLE 6
For example, the following markup fragment results in a DOM with an <hr> element that
is an earlier sibling of the corresponding <table> element:
<table><hr>...
Errors where the error-handling behavior is not compatible with streaming user agents
Some error-handling behavior, such as the behavior for the <table><hr>... example mentioned
above, are incompatible with streaming user agents (user agents that process HTML files in
one pass, without storing state). To avoid interoperability problems with such user agents, any
syntax resulting in such behavior is considered invalid.
EXAMPLE 7
For example, the following markup results in poor performance, since all the unclosed
<i> elements have to be reconstructed in each paragraph, resulting in progressively more
elements in each paragraph:
<p><i>He dreamt.
<p><i>He dreamt that he ate breakfast.
<p><i>Then lunch.
<p><i>And finally dinner.
<p>
<i>
#text: He dreamt.
<p>
<i>
<i>
#text: He dreamt that he ate breakfast.
<p>
<i>
<i>
<i>
#text: Then lunch.
<p>
<i>
<i>
<i>
<i>
#text: And finally dinner.
EXAMPLE 8
For example, the parsing of certain named character references in attributes happens even
with the closing semicolon being omitted. It is safe to include an ampersand followed by
letters that do not form a named character reference, but if the letters are changed to a
string that does form a named character reference, they will be interpreted as that charac-
ter instead.
In this fragment, the attributes value is "?bill&ted":
In the following fragment, however, the attributes value is actually "?art", not the in-
tended "?art©", because even without the final semicolon, "©" is handled the
same as "©" and thus gets interpreted as "":
To avoid this problem, all named character references are required to end with a semi-
colon, and uses of named character references without a semicolon are flagged as errors.
<a href="?bill&ted">Bill and Ted</a> <!-- &ted is ok, since its not
a named character reference -->
EXAMPLE 9
For example, this is why the U+0060 GRAVE ACCENT character (`) is not allowed in
unquoted attributes. In certain legacy user agents, it is sometimes treated as a quote char-
acter.
EXAMPLE 10
Another example of this is the DOCTYPE, which is required to trigger no-quirks mode,
because the behavior of legacy user agents in quirks mode is often largely undocumented.
EXAMPLE 11
For example, the restriction on using UTF-7 exists purely to avoid authors falling prey to
a known cross-site-scripting attack using UTF-7. [RFC2152]
EXAMPLE 12
For example, it is unclear whether the author intended the following to be an <h1> heading
or an <h2> heading:
<h2>Contact details</h1>
EXAMPLE 13
For example, if the author typed <capton> instead of <caption>, this would be flagged as
an error and the author could correct the typo immediately.
EXAMPLE 14
For example, attributes in end tags are ignored currently, but they are invalid, in case a fu-
ture change to the language makes use of that syntax feature without conflicting with al-
ready-deployed (and valid!) content.
Some authors find it helpful to be in the practice of always quoting all attributes and always in-
cluding all optional tags, preferring the consistency derived from such custom over the minor ben-
efits of terseness afforded by making use of the flexibility of the HTML syntax. To aid such au-
thors, conformance checkers can provide modes of operation wherein such conventions are en-
forced.
Beyond the syntax of the language, this specification also places restrictions on how elements and
attributes can be specified. These restrictions are present for similar reasons:
EXAMPLE 15
For example, this specification disallows nesting a <section> element inside a <kbd> ele-
ment, since it is highly unlikely for an author to indicate that an entire section should be
keyed in.
EXAMPLE 16
In the fragments below, for example, the semantics are nonsensical: a separator cannot si-
multaneously be a cell, nor can a radio button be a progress bar.
<hr role="cell">
EXAMPLE 17
Another example is the restrictions on the content models of the <ul> element, which only
allows <li> element children. Lists by definition consist just of zero or more list items, so
if a <ul> element contains something other than an <li> element, its not clear what was
meant.
Certain elements have default styles or behaviors that make certain combinations likely to
lead to confusion. Where these have equivalent alternatives without this problem, the confus-
ing combinations are disallowed.
EXAMPLE 18
For example, <div> elements are rendered as block boxes, and <span> elements as inline
boxes. Putting a block box in an inline box is unnecessarily confusing; since either nest-
ing just <div> elements, or nesting just <span> elements, or nesting <span> elements inside
<div> elements all serve the same purpose as nesting a <div> element in a <span> element,
but only the latter involves a block box in an inline box, the latter combination is disal-
lowed.
EXAMPLE 19
Another example would be the way interactive content cannot be nested. For example, a
<button> element cannot contain a <textarea> element. This is because the default behav-
ior of such nesting interactive elements would be highly confusing to users. Instead of
nesting these elements, they can be placed side by side.
EXAMPLE 20
For example, setting the disabled attribute to the value "false" is disallowed, because
despite the appearance of meaning that the element is enabled, it in fact means that the el-
ement is disabled (what matters for implementations is the presence of the attribute, not
its value).
Errors involving limits that have been imposed merely to simplify the language
Some conformance errors simplify the language that authors need to learn.
EXAMPLE 21
For example, the <area> elements shape attribute, despite accepting both "circ" and
"circle" values in practice as synonyms, disallows the use of the "circ" value, so as to
simplify tutorials and other learning aids. There would be no benefit to allowing both, but
it would cause extra confusion when teaching the language.
EXAMPLE 22
For example, a <form> element isnt allowed inside phrasing content, because when
parsed as HTML, a <form> elements start tag will imply a <p> elements end tag. Thus,
the following markup results in two paragraphs, not one:
EXAMPLE 23
This is why, for instance, it is non-conforming to have two id attributes with the same
value. Duplicate IDs lead to the wrong element being selected, with sometimes disastrous
effects whose cause is hard to determine.
EXAMPLE 24
For example, a <script> elements src attribute causes the elements contents to be ig-
nored. However, this isnt obvious, especially if the elements contents appear to be exe-
cutable script which can lead to authors spending a lot of time trying to debug the in-
line script without realizing that it is not executing. To reduce this problem, this specifica-
tion makes it non-conforming to have executable script in a <script> element when the
src attribute is present. This means that authors who are validating their documents are
less likely to waste time with this kind of mistake.
Errors that involve areas that affect authors migrating to and from XHTML
Some authors like to write files that can be interpreted as both XML and HTML with similar
results. Though this practice is discouraged in general due to the myriad of subtle complica-
tions involved (especially when involving scripting, styling, or any kind of automated serial-
ization), this specification has a few restrictions intended to at least somewhat mitigate the
difficulties. This makes it easier for authors to use this as a transitionary step when migrating
between HTML and XHTML.
EXAMPLE 25
For example, there are somewhat complicated rules surrounding the lang and xml:lang
attributes intended to keep the two synchronized.
EXAMPLE 26
Another example would be the restrictions on the values of xmlns attributes in the HTML
serialization, which are intended to ensure that elements in conforming documents end up
in the same namespaces whether processed as HTML or XML.
EXAMPLE 27
For example, limiting the values of the target attribute that start with an U+005F LOW
LINE character (_) to only specific predefined values allows new predefined values to be
introduced at a future time without conflicting with author-defined values.
EXAMPLE 28
For example, requiring that attributes that take media query lists use only valid media
query lists reinforces the importance of following the conformance rules of that specifica-
tion.
Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0: Fundamentals [CHARMOD]
Because Unicode contains such a large number of characters and incorporates the varied
writing systems of the world, incorrect usage can expose programs or systems to possible
security attacks. This is especially important as more and more products are internation-
alized. This document describes some of the security considerations that programmers,
system analysts, standards developers, and users should take into account, and provides
specific recommendations to reduce the risk of problems.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommenda-
tions for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make con-
tent accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low
vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited
movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following
these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.
This specification provides guidelines for designing Web content authoring tools that are
more accessible for people with disabilities. An authoring tool that conforms to these
guidelines will promote accessibility by providing an accessible user interface to authors
with disabilities as well as by enabling, supporting, and promoting the production of ac-
cessible Web content by all authors.
This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web
accessibility for people with disabilities. User agents include browsers and other types of
software that retrieve and render Web content. A user agent that conforms to these guide-
lines will promote accessibility through its own user interface and through other internal
facilities, including its ability to communicate with other technologies (especially assis-
tive technologies). Furthermore, all users, not just users with disabilities, should find con-
forming user agents to be more usable.
Defines how user agents map HTML 5.1 elements and attributes to platform accessibility
APIs. Documenting these mappings promotes interoperable exposure of roles, states,
properties, and events implemented by accessibility APIs and helps to ensure that this in-
formation appears in a manner consistent with author intent.
2. Common infrastructure
2.1. Terminology
This specification refers to both HTML and XML attributes and IDL attributes, often in the same
context. When it is not clear which is being referred to, they are referred to as content attributes for
HTML and XML attributes, and IDL attributes for those defined on IDL interfaces. Similarly, the
term "properties" is used for both JavaScript object properties and CSS properties. When these are
ambiguous they are qualified as object properties and CSS properties respectively.
Generally, when the specification states that a feature applies to the HTML syntax or the XHTML
syntax, it also includes the other. When a feature specifically only applies to one of the two lan-
guages, it is called out by explicitly stating that it does not apply to the other format, as in "for
HTML, ... (this does not apply to XHTML)".
This specification uses the term document to refer to any use of HTML, ranging from short static
documents to long essays or reports with rich multimedia, as well as to fully-fledged interactive
applications. The term is used to refer both to Document objects and their descendant DOM trees,
and to serialized byte streams using the HTML syntax or XHTML syntax, depending on context.
In the context of the DOM structures, the terms HTML document and XML document are used
as defined in the DOM specification, and refer specifically to two different modes that Document
objects can find themselves in. [DOM] (Such uses are always hyperlinked to their definition.)
In the context of byte streams, the term HTML document refers to resources labeled as
text/html, and the term XML document refers to resources labeled with an XML MIME type.
The term XHTML document is used to refer to both Documents in the XML document mode that
contains element nodes in the HTML namespace, and byte streams labeled with an XML MIME
type that contain elements from the HTML namespace, depending on context.
For simplicity, terms such as shown, displayed, and visible might sometimes be used when refer-
ring to the way a document is rendered to the user. These terms are not meant to imply a visual
medium; they must be considered to apply to other media in equivalent ways.
When an algorithm B says to return to another algorithm A, it implies that A called B. Upon re-
turning to A, the implementation must continue from where it left off in calling B. Some algo-
rithms run in parallel; this means that the algorithms subsequent steps are to be run, one after an-
other, at the same time as other logic in the specification (e.g., at the same time as the event loop).
This specification does not define the precise mechanism by which this is achieved, be it time-
sharing cooperative multitasking, fibers, threads, processes, using different hyperthreads, cores,
CPUs, machines, etc. By contrast, an operation that is to run immediately must interrupt the cur-
rently running task, run itself, and then resume the previously running task.
The term "transparent black" refers to the color with red, green, blue, and alpha channels all set to
zero.
2.1.1. Resources
The specification uses the term supported when referring to whether a user agent has an imple-
mentation capable of decoding the semantics of an external resource. A format or type is said to be
supported if the implementation can process an external resource of that format or type without
critical aspects of the resource being ignored. Whether a specific resource is supported can depend
on what features of the resources format are in use.
EXAMPLE 29
For example, a PNG image would be considered to be in a supported format if its pixel data
could be decoded and rendered, even if, unbeknownst to the implementation, the image also
contained animation data.
EXAMPLE 30
An MPEG-4 video file would not be considered to be in a supported format if the compression
format used was not supported, even if the implementation could determine the dimensions of
the movie from the files metadata.
What some specifications, in particular the HTTP specification, refer to as a representation is re-
ferred to in this specification as a resource. [HTTP]
The term MIME type is used to refer to what is sometimes called an Internet media type in proto-
col literature. The term media type in this specification is used to refer to the type of media in-
tended for presentation, as used by the CSS specifications. [RFC2046] [MEDIAQ]
A string is a valid MIME type if it matches the media-type rule. In particular, a valid MIME
type may include MIME type parameters. [HTTP]
A string is a valid MIME type with no parameters if it matches the media-type rule, but does not
contain any U+003B SEMICOLON characters (;). In other words, if it consists only of a type and
subtype, with no MIME Type parameters. [HTTP]
The term HTML MIME type is used to refer to the MIME type text/html.
A resources critical subresources are those that the resource needs to have available to be cor-
rectly processed. Which resources are considered critical or not is defined by the specification that
defines the resources format.
To ease migration from HTML to XHTML, user agents conforming to this specification will place
elements in HTML in the http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml namespace, at least for the purposes
of the DOM and CSS. The term "HTML elements", when used in this specification, refers to any
element in that namespace, and thus refers to both HTML and XHTML elements.
Except where otherwise stated, all elements defined or mentioned in this specification are in the
HTML namespace ("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"), and all attributes defined or mentioned
in this specification have no namespace.
The term element type is used to refer to the set of elements that have a given local name and
namespace. For example, <button> elements are elements with the element type <button>, mean-
ing they have the local name "<button>" and (implicitly as defined above) the HTML namespace.
Attribute names are said to be XML-compatible if they match the Name production defined in
XML and they contain no U+003A COLON characters (:). [XML]
The term XML MIME type is used to refer to the MIME types text/xml, application/xml, and
any MIME type whose subtype ends with the four characters "+xml". [RFC7303]
When it is stated that some element or attribute is ignored, or treated as some other value, or han-
dled as if it was something else, this refers only to the processing of the node after it is in the
DOM. A user agent must not mutate the DOM in such situations.
A content attribute is said to change value only if its new value is different than its previous value;
setting an attribute to a value it already has does not change it.
The term empty, when used for an attribute value, Text node, or string means that the length of
the text is zero (i.e., not even containing spaces or control characters).
An elements child text content is the concatenation of the data of all the Text nodes that are
children of the element (ignoring any other nodes such as comments or elements), in tree order.
A node A is inserted into a node B when the insertion steps are invoked with A as the argument
and A s new parent is B . Similarly, a node A is removed from a node B when the removing
steps are invoked with A as the removedNode argument and B as the oldParent argument.
A node is inserted into a document when the insertion steps are invoked with it as the argument
and it is now in a document tree. Analogously, a node is removed from a document when the re-
moving steps are invoked with it as the argument and it is now no longer in a document tree.
2.1.4. Scripting
The construction "a Foo object", where Foo is actually an interface, is sometimes used instead of
the more accurate "an object implementing the interface Foo".
An IDL attribute is said to be getting when its value is being retrieved (e.g., by author script), and
is said to be setting when a new value is assigned to it.
If a DOM object is said to be live, then the attributes and methods on that object must operate on
the actual underlying data, not a snapshot of the data.
In the contexts of events, the terms fire and dispatch are used as defined in the DOM specification:
firing an event means to create and dispatch it, and dispatching an event means to follow the
steps that propagate the event through the tree. The term trusted event is used to refer to events
whose isTrusted attribute is initialized to true. [DOM]
2.1.5. Plugins
The term plugin refers to a user-agent defined set of content handlers that can be used by the user
agent. The content handlers can take part in the user agents rendering of a Document object, but
that neither act as child browsing contexts of the Document nor introduce any Node objects to the
Document's DOM.
Typically such content handlers are provided by third parties, though a user agent can also
designate built-in content handlers as plugins.
A user agent must not consider the types text/plain and application/octet-stream as having
a registered plugin.
EXAMPLE 31
One example of a plugin would be a PDF viewer that is instantiated in a browsing context
when the user navigates to a PDF file. This would count as a plugin regardless of whether the
party that implemented the PDF viewer component was the same as that which implemented
the user agent itself. However, a PDF viewer application that launches separate from the user
agent (as opposed to using the same interface) is not a plugin by this definition.
NOTE:
This specification does not define a mechanism for interacting with plugins, as it is expected to
be user-agent- and platform-specific. Some user agents might opt to support a plugin mecha-
nism such as the Netscape Plugin API; others might use remote content converters or have
built-in support for certain types. Indeed, this specification doesnt require user agents to sup-
port plugins at all. [NPAPI]
EXAMPLE 32
For example, a secured plugin would prevent its contents from creating pop-up windows when
the plugin is instantiated inside a sandboxed <iframe>.
Warning! Browsers should take extreme care when interacting with external content
intended for plugins. When third-party software is run with the same privileges as the
user agent itself, vulnerabilities in the third-party software become as dangerous as if
they were vulnerabilities of the user agent itself.
Since different users having different sets of plugins provides a fingerprinting vector that increases
the chances of users being uniquely identified, user agents are encouraged to support the exact
same set of plugins for each user.
A character encoding, or just encoding where that is not ambiguous, is a defined way to convert
between byte streams and Unicode strings, as defined in the WHATWG Encoding specification.
An encoding has an encoding name and one or more encoding labels, referred to as the encod-
ings name and labels in the Encoding specification. [ENCODING]
NOTE:
Since support for encodings that are not defined in the WHATWG Encoding specification is
prohibited, UTF-16 encodings are the only encodings that this specification needs to treat as
not being ASCII-compatible encodings.
The term code unit is used as defined in the Web IDL specification: a 16 bit unsigned integer, the
smallest atomic component of a DOMString. (This is a narrower definition than the one used in
Unicode, and is not the same as a code point.) [WEBIDL]
The term Unicode code point means a Unicode scalar value where possible, and an isolated sur-
rogate code point when not. When a conformance requirement is defined in terms of characters or
Unicode code points, a pair of code units consisting of a high surrogate followed by a low surro-
gate must be treated as the single code point represented by the surrogate pair, but isolated surro-
gates must each be treated as the single code point with the value of the surrogate. [UNICODE]
In this specification, the term character, when not qualified as Unicode character, is synonymous
with the term Unicode code point.
The term Unicode character is used to mean a Unicode scalar value (i.e. any Unicode code point
that is not a surrogate code point). [UNICODE]
The code-unit length of a string is the number of code units in that string.
NOTE:
This complexity results from the historical decision to define the DOM API in terms of 16 bit
(UTF-16) code units, rather than in terms of Unicode characters.
All diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative, as are all sections ex-
plicitly marked non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD",
"SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL"
in the normative parts of this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC2119. The key
word "OPTIONALLY" in the normative parts of this document is to be interpreted with the same
normative meaning as "MAY" and "OPTIONAL". For readability, these words do not appear in all
uppercase letters in this specification. [RFC2119]
Requirements phrased in the imperative as part of algorithms (such as "strip any leading space
characters" or "return false and abort these steps") are to be interpreted with the meaning of the
key word ("must", "should", "may", etc) used in introducing the algorithm.
EXAMPLE 33
For example, were the spec to say:
To eat an orange:
1. The user must peel the orange.
2. The user must separate each slice of the orange.
3. The user must eat the orange slices.
The former (imperative) style is generally preferred in this specification for stylistic reasons.
This specification describes the conformance criteria for user agents (relevant to implementors)
and documents (relevant to authors and authoring tool implementors).
Conforming documents are those that comply with all the conformance criteria for documents.
For readability, some of these conformance requirements are phrased as conformance requirements
on authors; such requirements are implicitly requirements on documents: by definition, all docu-
ments are assumed to have had an author. (In some cases, that author may itself be a user agent
such user agents are subject to additional rules, as explained below.)
EXAMPLE 34
For example, if a requirement states that "authors must not use the foobar element", it would
imply that documents are not allowed to contain elements named foobar.
NOTE:
There is no implied relationship between document conformance requirements and implemen-
tation conformance requirements. User agents are not free to handle non-conformant docu-
ments as they please; the processing model described in this specification applies to implemen-
tations regardless of the conformity of the input documents.
User agents fall into several (overlapping) categories with different conformance requirements.
EXAMPLE 35
A conforming XHTML processor would, upon finding an XHTML <script> element in
an XML document, execute the script contained in that element. However, if the element
is found within a transformation expressed in XSLT (assuming the user agent also sup-
ports XSLT), then the processor would instead treat the <script> element as an opaque el-
ement that forms part of the transform.
Web browsers that support the HTML syntax must process documents labeled with an HTML
MIME type as described in this specification, so that users can interact with them.
User agents that support scripting must also be conforming implementations of the IDL frag-
ments in this specification, as described in the Web IDL specification. [WEBIDL]
NOTE:
Unless explicitly stated, specifications that override the semantics of HTML elements do
not override the requirements on DOM objects representing those elements. For example,
the <script> element in the example above would still implement the
HTMLScriptElement interface.
NOTE:
Typical examples of non-interactive presentation user agents are printers (static user
agents) and overhead displays (dynamic user agents). It is expected that most static non-
interactive presentation user agents will also opt to lack scripting support.
EXAMPLE 36
A non-interactive but dynamic presentation user agent would still execute scripts, allow-
ing forms to be dynamically submitted, and so forth. However, since the concept of "fo-
cus" is irrelevant when the user cannot interact with the document, the user agent would
not need to support any of the focus-related DOM APIs.
This is not required. In particular, even user agents that do implement the suggested default
rendering are encouraged to offer settings that override this default to improve the experience
for the user, e.g., changing the color contrast, using different focus styles, or otherwise mak-
ing the experience more accessible and usable to the user.
User agents that are designated as supporting the suggested default rendering must, while so
designated, implement the rules in 10 Rendering. That section defines the behavior that user
agents are expected to implement.
NOTE:
Scripting can form an integral part of an application. Web browsers that do not support
scripting, or that have scripting disabled, might be unable to fully convey the authors in-
tent.
Conformance checkers
Conformance checkers must verify that a document conforms to the applicable conformance
criteria described in this specification. Automated conformance checkers are exempt from de-
tecting errors that require interpretation of the authors intent (for example, while a document
is non-conforming if the content of a <blockquote> element is not a quote, conformance
checkers running without the input of human judgement do not have to check that
<blockquote> elements only contain quoted material).
Conformance checkers must check that the input document conforms when parsed without a
browsing context (meaning that no scripts are run, and that the parsers scripting flag is dis-
abled), and should also check that the input document conforms when parsed with a browsing
context in which scripts execute, and that the scripts never cause non-conforming states to oc-
cur other than transiently during script execution itself. (This is only a "SHOULD" and not a
"MUST" requirement because it has been proven to be impossible. [COMPUTABLE])
The term "HTML validator" can be used to refer to a conformance checker that itself con-
forms to the applicable requirements of this specification.
NOTE:
XML DTDs cannot express all the conformance requirements of this specification. There-
fore, a validating XML processor and a DTD cannot constitute a conformance checker.
Also, since neither of the two authoring formats defined in this specification are applica-
tions of SGML, a validating SGML system cannot constitute a conformance checker ei-
ther.
To put it another way, there are three types of conformance criteria:
2. Criteria that cannot be expressed by a DTD, but can still be checked by a machine.
A conformance checker must check for the first two. A simple DTD-based validator only
checks for the first class of errors and is therefore not a conforming conformance checker
according to this specification.
EXAMPLE 37
A tool that generates document outlines but increases the nesting level for each paragraph
and does not increase the nesting level for each section would not be conforming.
Authoring tools are exempt from the strict requirements of using elements only for their spec-
ified purpose, but only to the extent that authoring tools are not yet able to determine author
intent. However, authoring tools must not automatically misuse elements or encourage their
users to do so.
EXAMPLE 38
For example, it is not conforming to use an <address> element for arbitrary contact infor-
mation; that element can only be used for marking up contact information for the author
of the document or section. However, since an authoring tool is likely unable to determine
the difference, an authoring tool is exempt from that requirement. This does not mean,
though, that authoring tools can use <address> elements for any block of italics text (for
instance); it just means that the authoring tool doesnt have to verify, if a user inserts con-
tact information for a section or something else.
NOTE:
In terms of conformance checking, an editor has to output documents that conform to the
same extent that a conformance checker will verify.
When an authoring tool is used to edit a non-conforming document, it may preserve the con-
formance errors in sections of the document that were not edited during the editing session
(i.e., an editing tool is allowed to round-trip erroneous content). However, an authoring tool
must not claim that the output is conformant if errors have been so preserved.
Authoring tools are expected to come in two broad varieties: tools that work from structure or
semantic data, and tools that work on a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get media-specific edit-
ing basis (WYSIWYG).
The former is the preferred mechanism for tools that author HTML, since the structure in the
source information can be used to make informed choices regarding which HTML elements
and attributes are most appropriate.
However, WYSIWYG tools are legitimate. WYSIWYG tools should use elements they know
are appropriate, and should not use elements that they do not know to be appropriate. This
might in certain extreme cases mean limiting the use of flow elements to just a few elements,
like <div>, <b>, <i>, and <span> and making liberal use of the style attribute.
All authoring tools, whether WYSIWYG or not, should make a best effort attempt at enabling
users to create well-structured, semantically rich, media-independent content.
User agents may impose implementation-specific limits on otherwise unconstrained inputs, e.g., to
prevent denial of service attacks, to guard against running out of memory, or to work around plat-
form-specific limitations.
For compatibility with existing content and prior specifications, this specification describes two
authoring formats: one based on XML (referred to as the XHTML syntax), and one using a custom
format inspired by SGML (referred to as the HTML syntax). Implementations must support at
2.2.2. Dependencies
NOTE:
This specification introduces terminology based on the terms defined in those specifica-
tions, as described earlier.
The following terms are used as defined in the Encoding specification: [ENCODING]
Getting an encoding
Get an output encoding
The generic decode algorithm which takes a byte stream and an encoding and returns a
character stream
The UTF-8 decode algorithm which takes a byte stream and returns a character stream,
additionally stripping one leading UTF-8 Byte Order Mark (BOM), if any
The UTF-8 decode without BOM algorithm which is identical to UTF-8 decode except
that it does not strip one leading UTF-8 Byte Order Mark (BOM)
The UTF-8 decode without BOM or fail algorithm which is identical to UTF-8 decode
without BOM except that it returns failure upon encountering an error
The encode algorithm which takes a character stream and an encoding and returns a byte
stream
The UTF-8 encode algorithm which takes a character stream and returns a byte stream.
XML and related specifications
Implementations that support the XHTML syntax must support some version of XML, as
well as its corresponding namespaces specification, because that syntax uses an XML serial-
ization with namespaces. [XML] [XML-NAMES]
The attribute with the tag name xml:space in the XML namespace is defined by the XML
specification. [XML]
This specification also non-normatively mentions the XSLTProcessor interface and its
transformToFragment() and transformToDocument() methods. [XSLTP]
URLs
The following terms are defined in the WHATWG URL specification: [URL]
host
domain
URL
Origin of URLs
Absolute URL
Relative URL
Relative schemes
The URL parser and basic URL parser as well as these parser states:
scheme start state
host state
hostname state
port state
path start state
query state
fragment state
URL record, as well as its individual components:
scheme
username
password
host
port
path
query
fragment
A network scheme
The URL serializer
The host parser
The host serializer
Host equals
serialize an integer
Default encode set
Percent encode
UTF-8 percent encode
Percent decode
set the username
set the password
The domain to Unicode algorithm
non-relative flag
Parse errors from the URL parser
Accept header
Accept-Language header
Cache-Control header
Content-Disposition header
Content-Language header
Content-Length header
Last-Modified header
Referer
cookie-string
receives a set-cookie-string
Cookie header
Link header
Fetch
The following terms are defined in the WHATWG Fetch specification: [FETCH]
about:blank
referrer policy
CORS protocol
fetch
ok status
Origin header
process response
set
terminate
type
url
url list
status
header list
body
internal response
CSP list
HTTPS state
url
method
header list
body
client
initiator
type
destination
origin
omit-Origin-header flag
referrer
synchronous flag
mode
credentials mode
use-URL-credentials flag
unsafe-request flag
cache mode
redirect mode
referrer policy
parser metadata
referrer policy
Web IDL
The IDL fragments in this specification must be interpreted as required for conforming IDL
fragments, as described in the Web IDL specification. [WEBIDL]
Platform object
Primary interface
The Web IDL specification also defines the following types that are used in Web IDL frag-
ments in this specification:
ArrayBufferView
boolean
DOMString
USVString
double
Error
Function
long
object
unrestricted double
unsigned long
The term throw in this specification is used as defined in the WebIDL specification. The fol-
lowing exception names are defined by WebIDL and used by this specification:
IndexSizeError
HierarchyRequestError
WrongDocumentError
InvalidCharacterError
NoModificationAllowedError
NotFoundError
NotSupportedError
InvalidStateError
SyntaxError
InvalidModificationError
NamespaceError
InvalidAccessError
SecurityError
NetworkError
AbortError
URLMismatchError
QuotaExceededError
TimeoutError
InvalidNodeTypeError
DataCloneError
When this specification requires a user agent to create a Date object representing a particu-
lar time (which could be the special value Not-a-Number), the milliseconds component of
that time, if any, must be truncated to an integer, and the time value of the newly created
Date object must represent the resulting truncated time.
EXAMPLE 39
For instance, given the time 23045 millionths of a second after 01:00 UTC on January 1st
2000, i.e., the time 2000-01-01T00:00:00.023045Z, then the Date object created repre-
senting that time would represent the same time as that created representing the time
2000-01-01T00:00:00.023Z, 45 millionths earlier. If the given time is NaN, then the result
is a Date object that represents a time value NaN (indicating that the object does not rep-
resent a specific instant of time).
JavaScript
Some parts of the language described by this specification only support JavaScript as the un-
derlying scripting language. [ECMA-262]
NOTE:
The term "JavaScript" is used to refer to ECMA262, rather than the official term EC-
MAScript, since the term JavaScript is more widely known. Similarly, the MIME type
used to refer to JavaScript in this specification is text/javascript, since that is the most
commonly used type, despite it being an officially obsoleted type according to RFC 4329.
[RFC4329]
The following terms are defined in the JavaScript specification and used in this specification
[ECMA-262]:
early error
Directive Prologue
JavaScript realm
@@hasInstance
@@isConcatSpreadable
@@toPrimitive
@@toStringTag
%ArrayBuffer%
%ArrayPrototype%
%ObjProto_toString%
%ObjProto_valueOf%
The Source Text Module Record specification type and its ModuleEvaluation and Mod-
uleDeclarationInstantiation methods
DOM
The Document Object Model (DOM) is a representation a model of a document and its
content. The DOM is not just an API; the conformance criteria of HTML implementations are
defined, in this specification, in terms of operations on the DOM. [DOM]
Implementations must support DOM and the events defined in UI Events, because this speci-
fication is defined in terms of the DOM, and some of the features are defined as extensions to
the DOM interfaces. [DOM] [UIEVENTS]
In particular, the following features are defined in the DOM specification: [DOM]
Attr interface
Comment interface
DOMImplementation interface
Document interface
XMLDocument interface
DocumentFragment interface
DocumentType interface
DOMException interface
ChildNode interface
Element interface
Node interface
NodeList interface
ProcessingInstruction interface
Text interface
HTMLCollection interface
item() method
DOMTokenList interface
createDocument() method
createHTMLDocument() method
createElement() method
createElementNS() method
getElementById() method
getElementsByClassName() method
appendChild() method
cloneNode() method
importNode() method
id attribute
textContent attribute
The pre-insert, insert, append, remove, replace, and adopt algorithms for nodes
Event interface
EventTarget interface
target attribute
currentTarget attribute
isTrusted attribute
initEvent() method
addEventListener() method
The concept of an event listener and the event listeners associated with an EventTarget
The encoding (herein the character encoding) and content type of a Document
The algorithm to clone a Node, and the concept of cloning steps used by that algorithm
The concept of base URL change steps and the definition of what happens when an ele-
ment is affected by a base URL change
The concept of a DOM range, and the terms start, end, and boundary point as applied to
ranges.
EXAMPLE 40
For example, to throw a TimeoutError exception, a user agent would construct a
DOMException object whose type was the string "TimeoutError" (and whose code was
the number 23, for legacy reasons) and actually throw that object as an exception.
click event
dblclick event
mousedown event
mouseenter event
mouseleave event
mousemove event
mouseout event
mouseover event
mouseup event
wheel event
keydown event
keyup event
keypress event
The following features are defined in the Touch Events specification: [TOUCH-EVENTS]
Touch interface
This specification sometimes uses the term name to refer to the events type; as in, "an event
named click" or "if the event name is keypress". The terms "name" and "type" for events
are synonymous.
The following features are defined in the DOM Parsing and Serialization specification:
[DOM-PARSING]
innerHTML
outerHTML
NOTE:
User agents are also encouraged to implement the features described in the HTML Editing
APIs and UndoManager and DOM Transaction specifications. [EDITING] [UNDO]
The following parts of the Fullscreen specification are referenced from this specification, in
part to define the rendering of <dialog> elements, and also to define how the Fullscreen API
interacts with the sandboxing features in HTML: [FULLSCREEN]
requestFullscreen()
The High Resolution Time specification provides the DOMHighResTimeStamp typedef and
the Performance objects now() method. [HR-TIME-2]
File API
This specification uses the following features defined in the File API specification:
[FILEAPI]
FileList interface
MediaSource interface
MediaStream interface
XMLHttpRequest
This specification references the XMLHttpRequest specification to describe how the two
specifications interact and to use its ProgressEvent features. The following features and
terms are defined in the XMLHttpRequest specification: [XHR]
XMLHttpRequest interface
XMLHttpRequest.responseXML attribute
ProgressEvent interface
ProgressEvent.lengthComputable attribute
ProgressEvent.loaded attribute
ProgressEvent.total attribute
Server-Sent Events
This specification references EventSource which is specified in the Server-Sent Events
specification [EVENTSOURCE]
Media Queries
Implementations must support the Media Queries language. [MEDIAQ]
<media-condition>
CSS modules
While support for CSS as a whole is not required of implementations of this specification
(though it is encouraged, at least for Web browsers), some features are defined in terms of
specific CSS requirements.
In particular, some features require that a string be parsed as a CSS <color> value. When
parsing a CSS value, user agents are required by the CSS specifications to apply some error
handling rules. These apply to this specification also. [CSS3COLOR] [CSS-2015]
EXAMPLE 41
For example, user agents are required to close all open constructs upon finding the end of
a style sheet unexpectedly. Thus, when parsing the string "rgb(0,0,0" (with a missing
close-parenthesis) for a color value, the close parenthesis is implied by this error handling
rule, and a value is obtained (the color black). However, the similar construct
"rgb(0,0," (with both a missing parenthesis and a missing "blue" value) cannot be
parsed, as closing the open construct does not result in a viable value.
The following terms and features are defined in the CSS specification: [CSS-2015]
viewport
replaced element
intrinsic dimensions
The term named color is defined in the CSS Color specification. [CSS3COLOR]
The terms intrinsic width and intrinsic height refer to the width dimension and the height
dimension, respectively, of intrinsic dimensions.
The term paint source is used as defined in the CSS Image Values and Replaced Content
specification to define the interaction of certain HTML elements with the CSS 'element()'
function. [CSS3-IMAGES]
The term default object size is also defined in the CSS Image Values and Replaced Content
specification. [CSS3-IMAGES]
Implementations that support scripting must support the CSS Object Model. The following
features and terms are defined in the CSSOM specifications: [CSSOM] [CSSOM-VIEW]
Screen
LinkStyle
CSSStyleDeclaration
StyleSheet
CSS style sheets and their properties: type, location, parent CSS style sheet, owner node,
owner CSS rule, media, title, alternate flag, disabled flag, CSS rules, origin-clean flag
Alternative style sheet sets and the preferred style sheet set
The following features and terms are defined in the CSS Syntax specifications:
[CSS-SYNTAX-3]
component value
environment encoding
<whitespace-token>
type selector
attribute selector
pseudo-class
The feature <length> is defined in the CSS Values and Units specification. [CSS-VALUES]
The term style attribute is defined in the CSS Style Attributes specification.
[CSS-STYLE-ATTR]
The term used value is defined in the CSS Cascading and Inheritance specification.
[CSS-CASCADE-3]
DOMMatrix interface
SVG
The CanvasRenderingContext2D objects use of fonts depends on the features described in
the CSS Fonts and Font Loading specifications, including in particular FontFace objects and
the font source concept. [CSS-FONTS-3] [CSS-FONT-LOADING-3]
SVGMatrix
WebGL
The following interface is defined in the WebGL specification: [WEBGL]
WebGLRenderingContext
WebVTT
Implementations may support WebVTT as a text track format for subtitles, captions, chapter
titles, metadata, etc, for media resources. [WEBVTT]
The following terms, used in this specification, are defined in the WebVTT specification:
WebVTT file
WebVTT parser
extensions in use
subprotocol in use
Sec-WebSocket-Protocol field
ARIA
The role attribute is defined in the ARIA specification, as are the following roles:
[wai-aria-1.1]
alert , alertdialog , application , article , banner , button , cell , checkbox
, columnheader , combobox , complementary , contentinfo , definition , dialog ,
directory , document , feed , figure , form , grid , gridcell , group , heading , img
, link , list , listbox , listitem , log , main , marquee , math , menu , menubar ,
menuitem , menuitemcheckbox , menuitemradio , navigation , none , note , option ,
In addition, the following aria-* content attributes are defined in the ARIA specification:
[wai-aria-1.1]
aria-activedescendant , aria-atomic , aria-autocomplete , aria-busy ,
aria-checked , aria-colcount , aria-colindex , aria-colspan , aria-controls ,
aria-current , aria-describedby , aria-details , aria-dialog , aria-disabled ,
aria-dropeffect , aria-errormessage , aria-expanded , aria-flowto , aria-
grabbed , aria-haspopup , aria-hidden , aria-invalid , aria-keyshortcuts ,
aria-label , aria-labelledby , aria-level , aria-live , aria-multiline , aria-
multiselectable , aria-orientation , aria-owns , aria-placeholder , aria-
posinset , aria-pressed , aria-readonly , aria-relevant , aria-required , aria-
roledescription , aria-rowcount , aria-rowindex , aria-rowspan , aria-
selected , aria-setsize , aria-sort , aria-valuemax , aria-valuemin , aria-
valuenow , aria-valuetext
The Should elements inline behavior be blocked by Content Security Policy? algorithm
The following terms are defined in Content Security Policy: Document Features
Service Workers
The following terms are defined in Service Workers: [SERVICE-WORKERS]
ServiceWorkerContainer
Secure Contexts
The following term is defined in Secure Contexts: [SECURE-CONTEXTS]
PaymentRequest interface
MathML
While support for MathML as a whole is not required by this specification (though it is en-
couraged, at least for Web browsers), certain features depend upon small parts of MathML
being implemented. [MATHML]
MathML mi element
MathML mn element
MathML mo element
MathML ms element
SVG
While support for SVG as a whole is not required by this specification (though it is encour-
aged, at least for Web browsers), certain features depend upon parts of SVG being imple-
mented.
Also, the SVG specifications do not reflect implementation reality. Implementations imple-
ment subsets of SVG 1.1 and SVG Tiny 1.2. Although it is hoped that the in-progress SVG 2
specification is a more realistic target for implementations, until that specification is ready,
user agents that implement SVG must do so with the following willful violations and addi-
tions. [SVG11] [SVGTINY12] [SVG2]
User agents that implement SVG must not implement the following features from SVG 1.1:
The font-defining SVG elements: font, glyph, missing-glyph, hkern, vkern, font-
face, font-face-src, font-face-uri, font-face-format, and font-face-name (use
CSSs @font-face instead)
User agents that implement SVG must implement the following features from SVG Tiny 1.2:
SVGScriptElement interface
Filter Effects
The following feature is defined in the Filter Effects specification:
<filter-function-list>
This specification does not require support of any particular network protocol, style sheet lan-
guage, scripting language, or any of the DOM specifications beyond those required in the list
above. However, the language described by this specification is biased towards CSS as the styling
language, JavaScript as the scripting language, and HTTP as the network protocol, and several fea-
tures assume that those languages and protocols are in use.
A user agent that implements the HTTP protocol must implement the Web Origin Concept specifi-
cation and the HTTP State Management Mechanism specification (Cookies) as well. [HTTP]
[ORIGIN] [COOKIES]
NOTE:
This specification might have certain additional requirements on character encodings, image
formats, audio formats, and video formats in the respective sections.
2.2.3. Extensibility
Vendor-specific proprietary user agent extensions to this specification are strongly discouraged.
Documents must not use such extensions, as doing so reduces interoperability and fragments the
user base, allowing only users of specific user agents to access the content in question.
If such extensions are nonetheless needed, e.g., for experimental purposes, then vendors are
strongly urged to use one of the following extension mechanisms:
For markup-level features that can be limited to the XML serialization and need not be sup-
ported in the HTML serialization, vendors should use the namespace mechanism to define
custom namespaces in which the non-standard elements and attributes are supported.
For markup-level features that are intended for use with the HTML syntax, extensions should
be limited to new attributes of the form "x- vendor - feature ", where vendor is a short
string that identifies the vendor responsible for the extension, and feature is the name of the
feature. New element names should not be created. Using attributes for such extensions ex-
clusively allows extensions from multiple vendors to co-exist on the same element, which
would not be possible with elements. Using the "x- vendor - feature " form allows exten-
sions to be made without risk of conflicting with future additions to the specification.
EXAMPLE 42
For instance, a browser named "FerretBrowser" could use "ferret" as a vendor prefix,
while a browser named "Mellblom Browser" could use "mb". If both of these browsers in-
vented extensions that turned elements into scratch-and-sniff areas, an author experiment-
ing with these features could write:
Attribute names beginning with the two characters "x-" are reserved for user agent use and are
guaranteed to never be formally added to the HTML language. For flexibility, attributes names
containing underscores (the U+005F LOW LINE character) are also reserved for experimental
purposes and are guaranteed to never be formally added to the HTML language.
NOTE:
Pages that use such attributes are by definition non-conforming.
For DOM extensions, e.g., new methods and IDL attributes, the new members should be prefixed
by vendor-specific strings to prevent clashes with future versions of this specification.
For events, experimental event types should be prefixed with vendor-specific strings.
EXAMPLE 43
For example, if a user agent called "Pleasold" were to add an event to indicate when the user is
going up in an elevator, it could use the prefix "pleasold" and thus name the event
"pleasoldgoingup", possibly with an event handler attribute named "onpleasoldgoingup".
All extensions must be defined so that the use of extensions neither contradicts nor causes the non-
conformance of functionality defined in the specification.
EXAMPLE 44
For example, while strongly discouraged from doing so, an implementation "Foo Browser"
could add a new IDL attribute "fooTypeTime" to a controls DOM interface that returned the
time it took the user to select the current value of a control (say). On the other hand, defining a
new control that appears in a forms elements array would be in violation of the above re-
quirement, as it would violate the definition of elements given in this specification.
When adding new reflecting IDL attributes corresponding to content attributes of the form "x-
vendor - feature ", the IDL attribute should be named " vendor Feature " (i.e., the "x" is
dropped from the IDL attributes name).
When vendor-neutral extensions to this specification are needed, either this specification can be
updated accordingly, or an extension specification can be written that overrides the requirements in
this specification. When someone applying this specification to their activities decides that they
will recognize the requirements of such an extension specification, it becomes an applicable speci-
fication for the purposes of conformance requirements in this specification.
NOTE:
Someone could write a specification that defines any arbitrary byte stream as conforming, and
then claim that their random junk is conforming. However, that does not mean that their ran-
dom junk actually is conforming for everyones purposes: if someone else decides that the
specification does not apply to their work, then they can quite legitimately say that the afore-
mentioned random junk is just that, junk, and not conforming at all. As far as conformance
goes, what matters in a particular community is what that community agrees is applicable.
applicable specification.
The conformance terminology for documents depends on the nature of the changes introduced by
such applicable specifications, and on the content and intended interpretation of the document. Ap-
plicable specifications MAY define new document content (e.g., a foobar element), MAY prohibit
certain otherwise conforming content (e.g., prohibit use of <table>s), or MAY change the seman-
tics, DOM mappings, or other processing rules for content defined in this specification. Whether a
document is or is not a conforming HTML document does not depend on the use of applicable
specifications: if the syntax and semantics of a given conforming HTML document is unchanged
by the use of applicable specification(s), then that document remains a conforming HTML docu-
ment. If the semantics or processing of a given (otherwise conforming) document is changed by
use of applicable specification(s), then it is not a conforming HTML document. For such cases, the
applicable specifications SHOULD define conformance terminology.
NOTE:
As a suggested but not required convention, such specifications might define conformance ter-
minology such as: "Conforming HTML+XXX document", where XXX is a short name for the
applicable specification. (Example: "Conforming HTML+AutomotiveExtensions document").
NOTE:
a consequence of the rule given above is that certain syntactically correct HTML documents
may not be conforming HTML documents in the presence of applicable specifications. (Exam-
ple: the applicable specification defines <table> to be a piece of furniture a document writ-
ten to that specification and containing a <table> element is NOT a conforming HTML docu-
ment, even if the element happens to be syntactically correct HTML.)
User agents must treat elements and attributes that they do not understand as semantically neutral;
leaving them in the DOM (for DOM processors), and styling them according to CSS (for CSS pro-
cessors), but not inferring any meaning from them.
When support for a feature is disabled (e.g., as an emergency measure to mitigate a security prob-
lem, or to aid in development, or for performance reasons), user agents must act as if they had no
support for the feature whatsoever, and as if the feature was not mentioned in this specification.
For example, if a particular feature is accessed via an attribute in a Web IDL interface, the attribute
itself would be omitted from the objects that implement that interface leaving the attribute on
the object but making it return null or throw an exception is insufficient.
Implementations of XPath 1.0 that operate on HTML documents parsed or created in the manners
described in this specification (e.g., as part of the document.evaluate() API) must act as if the
following edit was applied to the XPath 1.0 specification.
A QName in the node test is expanded into an expanded-name using the namespace declara-
tions from the expression context. This is the same way expansion is done for element type
names in start and end-tags except that the default namespace declared with xmlns is not
used: if the QName does not have a prefix, then the namespace URI is null (this is the same
way attribute names are expanded). It is an error if the QName has a prefix for which there is
no namespace declaration in the expression context.
A QName in the node test is expanded into an expanded-name using the namespace declara-
tions from the expression context. If the QName has a prefix, then there must be a namespace
declaration for this prefix in the expression context, and the corresponding namespace URI is
the one that is associated with this prefix. It is an error if the QName has a prefix for which
there is no namespace declaration in the expression context.
If the QName has no prefix and the principal node type of the axis is element, then the default
element namespace is used. Otherwise if the QName has no prefix, the namespace URI is null.
The default element namespace is a member of the context for the XPath expression. The value
of the default element namespace when executing an XPath expression through the DOM3
XPath API is determined in the following way:
1. If the context node is from an HTML DOM, the default element namespace is
"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml".
NOTE:
This is equivalent to adding the default element namespace feature of XPath 2.0 to XPath
1.0, and using the HTML namespace as the default element namespace for HTML docu-
ments. It is motivated by the desire to have implementations be compatible with legacy
HTML content while still supporting the changes that this specification introduces to
HTML regarding the namespace used for HTML elements, and by the desire to use XPath
1.0 rather than XPath 2.0.
NOTE:
This change is a willful violation of the XPath 1.0 specification, motivated by desire to have
implementations be compatible with legacy content while still supporting the changes that this
specification introduces to HTML regarding which namespace is used for HTML elements.
[XPATH]
XSLT 1.0 processors outputting to a DOM when the output method is "html" (either explicitly or
via the defaulting rule in XSLT 1.0) are affected as follows:
If the transformation program outputs an element in no namespace, the processor must, prior to
constructing the corresponding DOM element node, change the namespace of the element to the
HTML namespace, ASCII-lowercase the elements local name, and ASCII-lowercase the names of
any non-namespaced attributes on the element.
NOTE:
This requirement is a willful violation of the XSLT 1.0 specification, required because this
specification changes the namespaces and case-sensitivity rules of HTML in a manner that
would otherwise be incompatible with DOM-based XSLT transformations. (Processors that se-
rialize the output are unaffected.) [XSLT]
This specification does not specify precisely how XSLT processing interacts with the HTML
parser infrastructure (for example, whether an XSLT processor acts as if it puts any elements into a
stack of open elements). However, XSLT processors must stop parsing if they successfully com-
plete, and must set the current document readiness first to "interactive" and then to "complete"
if they are aborted.
This specification does not specify how XSLT interacts with the navigation algorithm, how it fits
in with the event loop, nor how error pages are to be handled (e.g., whether XSLT errors are to re-
place an incremental XSLT output, or are rendered inline, etc).
NOTE:
There are also additional non-normative comments regarding the interaction of XSLT and
HTML in the script element section, and of XSLT, XPath, and HTML in the template ele-
ment section.
Comparing two strings in a case-sensitive manner means comparing them exactly, code point for
code point.
Comparing two strings in an ASCII case-insensitive manner means comparing them exactly, code
point for code point, except that the characters in the range U+0041 to U+005A (i.e., LATIN CAP-
ITAL LETTER A to LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z) and the corresponding characters in the range
U+0061 to U+007A (i.e., LATIN SMALL LETTER A to LATIN SMALL LETTER Z) are consid-
ered to also match.
Comparing two strings in a compatibility caseless manner means using the Unicode compatibility
caseless match operation to compare the two strings, with no language-specific tailorings.
[UNICODE]
Except where otherwise stated, string comparisons must be performed in a case-sensitive manner.
Converting a string to ASCII uppercase means replacing all characters in the range U+0061 to
U+007A (i.e., LATIN SMALL LETTER A to LATIN SMALL LETTER Z) with the correspond-
ing characters in the range U+0041 to U+005A (i.e., LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to LATIN
CAPITAL LETTER Z).
Converting a string to ASCII lowercase means replacing all characters in the range U+0041 to
U+005A (i.e., LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z) with the corre-
sponding characters in the range U+0061 to U+007A (i.e., LATIN SMALL LETTER A to LATIN
SMALL LETTER Z).
A string pattern is a prefix match for a string s when pattern is not longer than s and truncat-
ing s to pattern s length leaves the two strings as matches of each other.
There are various places in HTML that accept particular data types, such as dates or numbers. This
section describes what the conformance criteria for content in those formats is, and how to parse
them.
NOTE:
Implementors are strongly urged to carefully examine any third-party libraries they might con-
sider using to implement the parsing of syntaxes described below. For example, date libraries
are likely to implement error handling behavior that differs from what is required in this speci-
fication, since error-handling behavior is often not defined in specifications that describe date
syntaxes similar to those used in this specification, and thus implementations tend to vary
greatly in how they handle errors.
The space characters, for the purposes of this specification, are U+0020 SPACE, U+0009 CHAR-
ACTER TABULATION (tab), U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), and
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR).
The White_Space characters are those that have the Unicode property "White_Space" in the Uni-
code PropList.txt data file. [UNICODE]
NOTE:
This should not be confused with the "White_Space" value (abbreviated "WS") of the
"Bidi_Class" property in the Unicode.txt data file.
The control characters are those whose Unicode "General_Category" property has the value "Cc"
in the Unicode UnicodeData.txt data file. [UNICODE]
The uppercase ASCII letters are the characters in the range U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER
A to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z.
The lowercase ASCII letters are the characters in the range U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A
to U+007A LATIN SMALL LETTER Z.
The ASCII letters are the characters that are either uppercase ASCII letters or lowercase ASCII
letters.
The ASCII digits are the characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT
NINE (9).
The alphanumeric ASCII characters are those that are either uppercase ASCII letters, lowercase
ASCII letters, or ASCII digits.
The ASCII hex digits are the characters in the ranges U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039
DIGIT NINE (9), U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to U+0046 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER
F, and U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A to U+0066 LATIN SMALL LETTER F.
The uppercase ASCII hex digits are the characters in the ranges U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to
U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9) and U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to U+0046 LATIN CAPI-
TAL LETTER F only.
The lowercase ASCII hex digits are the characters in the ranges U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to
U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9) and U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A to U+0066 LATIN SMALL
LETTER F only.
Some of the micro-parsers described below follow the pattern of having an input variable that
holds the string being parsed, and having a position variable pointing at the next character to
parse in input .
For parsers based on this pattern, a step that requires the user agent to collect a sequence of char-
acters means that the following algorithm must be run, with characters being the set of characters
that can be collected:
1. Let input and position be the same variables as those of the same name in the algorithm that
invoked these steps.
3. While position doesnt point past the end of input and the character at position is one of the
characters , append that character to the end of result and advance position to the next char-
acter in input .
4. Return result .
The step skip white space means that the user agent must collect a sequence of characters that are
space characters. The collected characters are not used.
When a user agent is to strip line breaks from a string, the user agent must remove any U+000A
LINE FEED (LF) and U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters from that string.
When a user agent is to strip leading and trailing white space from a string, the user agent must
remove all space characters that are at the start or end of the string.
When a user agent is to strip and collapse white space in a string, it must replace any sequence of
one or more consecutive space characters in that string with a single U+0020 SPACE character,
and then strip leading and trailing white space from that string.
When a user agent has to strictly split a string on a particular delimiter character delimiter , it
must use the following algorithm:
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
5. Return tokens .
NOTE:
For the special cases of splitting a string on spaces and on commas, this algorithm does not ap-
ply (those algorithms also perform white space trimming).
A number of attributes are boolean attributes. The presence of a boolean attribute on an element
represents the true value, and the absence of the attribute represents the false value.
If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-
insensitive match for the attributes canonical name, with no leading or trailing white space.
NOTE:
A boolean attribute without a value assigned to it (e.g. checked) is implicitly equivalent to one
that has the empty string assigned to it (i.e. checked=""). As a consequence, it represents the
true value.
NOTE:
The values "true" and "false" are not allowed on boolean attributes. To represent a false value,
the attribute has to be omitted altogether.
EXAMPLE 45
Here is an example of a checkbox that is checked and disabled. The checked and disabled at-
tributes are the boolean attributes.
Some attributes are defined as taking one of a finite set of keywords. Such attributes are called
enumerated attributes. The keywords are each defined to map to a particular state (several key-
words might map to the same state, in which case some of the keywords are synonyms of each
other; additionally, some of the keywords can be said to be non-conforming, and are only in the
specification for historical reasons). In addition, two default states can be given. The first is the in-
valid value default, the second is the missing value default.
When the attribute is specified, if its value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the given
keywords then that keywords state is the state that the attribute represents. If the attribute value
matches none of the given keywords, but the attribute has an invalid value default, then the at-
tribute represents that state. Otherwise, if the attribute value matches none of the keywords but
there is a missing value default state defined, then that is the state represented by the attribute.
Otherwise, there is no default, and invalid values mean that there is no state represented.
When the attribute is not specified, if there is a missing value default state defined, then that is the
state represented by the (missing) attribute. Otherwise, the absence of the attribute means that
there is no state represented.
NOTE:
The empty string can be a valid keyword.
2.4.4. Numbers
A string is a valid integer if it consists of one or more ASCII digits, optionally prefixed with a
U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-).
A valid integer without a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-) prefix represents the number that is rep-
resented in base ten by that string of digits. A valid integer with a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-)
prefix represents the number represented in base ten by the string of digits that follows the
U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, subtracted from zero.
The rules for parsing integers are as given in the following algorithm. When invoked, the steps
must be followed in the order given, aborting at the first step that returns a value. This algorithm
will return either an integer or an error.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
Otherwise, if the character indicated by position (the first character) is a U+002B PLUS
SIGN character (+):
1. Advance position to the next character. (The "+" is ignored, but it is not conforming.)
7. If the character indicated by position is not an ASCII digit, then return an error.
8. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits, and interpret the resulting sequence as
a base-ten integer. Let value be that integer.
9. If sign is "positive", return value , otherwise return the result of subtracting value from zero.
A valid non-negative integer represents the number that is represented in base ten by that string of
digits.
The rules for parsing non-negative integers are as given in the following algorithm. When in-
voked, the steps must be followed in the order given, aborting at the first step that returns a value.
This algorithm will return either zero, a positive integer, or an error.
2. Let value be the result of parsing input using the rules for parsing integers.
5. Return value .
3. Optionally:
1. Either a U+0065 LATIN SMALL LETTER E character (e) or a U+0045 LATIN CAPI-
TAL LETTER E character (E).
A valid floating-point number represents the number obtained by multiplying the significand by
ten raised to the power of the exponent, where the significand is the first number, interpreted as
base ten (including the decimal point and the number after the decimal point, if any, and interpret-
ing the significand as a negative number if the whole string starts with a U+002D HYPHEN-
MINUS character (-) and the number is not zero), and where the exponent is the number after the
E, if any (interpreted as a negative number if there is a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-)
between the E and the number and the number is not zero, or else ignoring a U+002B PLUS SIGN
character (+) between the E and the number if there is one). If there is no E, then the exponent is
treated as zero.
NOTE:
The Infinity and Not-a-Number (NaN) values are not valid floating-point numbers.
The best representation of the number n as a floating-point number is the string obtained
from running ToString( n ). The abstract operation ToString is not uniquely determined. When
there are multiple possible strings that could be obtained from ToString for a particular value, the
user agent must always return the same string for that value (though it may differ from the value
used by other user agents).
The rules for parsing floating-point number values are as given in the following algorithm. This
algorithm must be aborted at the first step that returns something. This algorithm will return either
a number or an error.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
Otherwise, if the character indicated by position (the first character) is a U+002B PLUS
SIGN character (+):
1. Advance position to the next character. (The "+" is ignored, but it is not conforming.)
9. If the character indicated by position is a U+002E FULL STOP (.), and that is not the last
character in input , and the character after the character indicated by position is an ASCII
digit, then set value to zero and jump to the step labeled fraction.
10. If the character indicated by position is not an ASCII digit, then return an error.
11. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits, and interpret the resulting sequence as
a base-ten integer. Multiply value by that integer.
12. If position is past the end of input , jump to the step labeled conversion.
13. Fraction: If the character indicated by position is a U+002E FULL STOP (.), run these sub-
steps:
2. If position is past the end of input , or if the character indicated by position is not an
ASCII digit, U+0065 LATIN SMALL LETTER E (e), or U+0045 LATIN CAPITAL
LETTER E (E), then jump to the step labeled conversion.
5. Add the value of the character indicated by position , interpreted as a base-ten digit
(0..9) and divided by divisor , to value .
7. If position is past the end of input , then jump to the step labeled conversion.
8. If the character indicated by position is an ASCII digit, jump back to the step labeled
fraction loop in these substeps.
14. If the character indicated by position is a U+0065 LATIN SMALL LETTER E character (e)
or a U+0045 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E character (E), run these substeps:
2. If position is past the end of input , then jump to the step labeled conversion.
3. If position is past the end of input , then jump to the step labeled conversion.
2. If position is past the end of input , then jump to the step labeled conversion.
4. If the character indicated by position is not an ASCII digit, then jump to the step labeled
conversion.
5. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits, and interpret the resulting se-
quence as a base-ten integer. Multiply exponent by that integer.
15. Conversion: Let S be the set of finite IEEE 754 double-precision floating-point values except
-0, but with two special values added: 21024 and -21024.
16. Let rounded-value be the number in S that is closest to value , selecting the number with an
even significand if there are two equally close values. (The two special values 21024 and
-21024 are considered to have even significands for this purpose.)
The rules for parsing dimension values are as given in the following algorithm. When invoked,
the steps must be followed in the order given, aborting at the first step that returns a value. This al-
gorithm will return either a number greater than or equal to 0.0, or an error; if a number is re-
turned, then it is further categorized as either a percentage or a length.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
5. If the character indicated by position is a U+002B PLUS SIGN character (+), advance posi-
tion to the next character.
7. If the character indicated by position is not an ASCII digit, then return an error.
8. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits, and interpret the resulting sequence as
a base-ten integer. Let value be that number.
10. If the character indicated by position is a U+002E FULL STOP character (.):
2. If position is past the end of input , or if the character indicated by position is not an
ASCII digit, then return value as a length.
5. Add the value of the character indicated by position , interpreted as a base-ten digit
(0..9) and divided by divisor , to value .
8. If the character indicated by position is an ASCII digit, return to the step labeled frac-
tion loop in these substeps.
12. If the character indicated by position is a U+0025 PERCENT SIGN character (%), return
value as a percentage.
The rules for parsing non-zero dimension values are as given in the following algorithm. When
invoked, the steps must be followed in the order given, aborting at the first step that returns a
value. This algorithm will return either a number greater than 0.0, or an error; if a number is re-
turned, then it is further categorized as either a percentage or a length.
2. Let value be the result of parsing input using the rules for parsing dimension values.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Let numbers be an initially empty list of floating-point numbers. This list will be the result of
this algorithm.
4. Collect a sequence of characters that are space characters, U+002C COMMA, or U+003B
SEMICOLON characters. This skips past any leading delimiters.
1. Collect a sequence of characters that are not space characters, U+002C COMMA,
U+003B SEMICOLON, ASCII digits, U+002E FULL STOP, or U+002D HYPHEN-
MINUS characters. This skips past leading garbage.
2. Collect a sequence of characters that are not space characters, U+002C COMMA, or
U+003B SEMICOLON characters, and let unparsed number be the result.
3. Let number be the result of parsing unparsed number using the rules for parsing
floating-point number values.
6. Return numbers .
The rules for parsing a list of dimensions are as follows. These rules return a list of zero or more
pairs consisting of a number and a unit, the unit being one of percentage, relative, and absolute.
2. If the last character in raw input is a U+002C COMMA character (,), then remove that char-
acter from raw input .
3. Split the string raw input on commas. Let raw tokens be the resulting list of tokens.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
5. If position is past the end of input, set unit to relative and jump to the last substep.
6. If the character at position is an ASCII digit, collect a sequence of characters that are
ASCII digits, interpret the resulting sequence as an integer in base ten, and increment
value by that integer.
7. If the character at position is a U+002E FULL STOP character (.), run these substeps:
1. Let length be the number of characters in s (after the spaces were removed).
2. Let fraction be the result of interpreting s as a base-ten integer, and then di-
viding that number by 10 length .
9. If the character at position is a U+0025 PERCENT SIGN character (%), then set unit to
percentage.
Otherwise, if the character at position is a U+002A ASTERISK character (*), then set
unit to relative.
10. Add an entry to result consisting of the number given by value and the unit given by
unit .
NOTE:
This specification encodes dates and times according to a common subset of the [ISO8601]
standard for dates.
This means that encoded dates will look like 1582-03-01, 0033-03-27, or 2016-03-01, and
date-times will look like 1929-11-13T19:00Z, 0325-06-03T00:21+10:30. The format is ap-
proximately YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.DDHH:MM, although some parts are optional,
for example to express a month and day as in a birthday, a time without time-zone information,
and the like.
Times are expressed using the 24-hour clock, and it is an error to express leap seconds.
Dates are expressed in the proleptic Gregorian calendar between the proleptic year 0000, and
the year 9999. Other years cannot be encoded.
The proleptic Gregorian calendar is the calendar most common globally since around 1950,
and is likely to be understood by almost everyone for dates between the years 1950 and 9999,
and for many people for dates in the last few decades or centuries.
The Gregorian calendar was adopted officially in different countries at different times, between
the years 1582 when it was proposed by Pope Gregory XIII as a replacement for the Julian cal-
endar, and 1949 when it was adopted by the Peoples republic of China.
For most practical purposes, dealing with the present, recent past, or the next few thousand
years, this will work without problems. For dates before the adoption of the Gregorian Calen-
dar - for example prior to 1917 in Russia or Turkey, prior to 1752 in Britain or the then British
colonies of America, or prior to 1582 in Spain, the Spanish colonies in America, and the rest of
the world, dates will not match those written at the time.
The use of the Gregorian calendar as an underlying encoding is a somewhat arbitrary choice.
Many other calendars were or are in use, and the interested reader should look for information
on the Web.
See also the discussion of date, time, and number formats in forms (for authors), implementa-
tion notes regarding localization of form controls, and the <time> element.
In the algorithms below, the number of days in month month of year year is: 31 if month is 1,
3, 5, 7, 8, 10, or 12; 30 if month is 4, 6, 9, or 11; 29 if month is 2 and year is a number divisible
by 400, or if year is a number divisible by 4 but not by 100; and 28 otherwise. This takes into ac-
count leap years in the Gregorian calendar. [GREGORIAN]
When ASCII digits are used in the date and time syntaxes defined in this section, they express
numbers in base ten.
NOTE:
While the formats described here are intended to be subsets of the corresponding ISO8601 for-
mats, this specification defines parsing rules in much more detail than ISO8601. Implementors
are therefore encouraged to carefully examine any date parsing libraries before using them to
implement the parsing rules described below; ISO8601 libraries might not parse dates and
times in exactly the same manner. [ISO8601]
Where this specification refers to the proleptic Gregorian calendar, it means the modern Grego-
rian calendar, extrapolated backwards to year 1. A date in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, some-
times explicitly referred to as a proleptic-Gregorian date, is one that is described using that cal-
endar even if that calendar was not in use at the time (or place) in question. [GREGORIAN]
2.4.5.1. Months
A string is a valid month string representing a year year and month month if it consists of the
following components in the given order:
3. Two ASCII digits, representing the month month , in the range 1 month 12
EXAMPLE 46
For example, February 2005 is encoded 2005-02, and March of the year 33AD (as a proleptic
gregorian date) is encoded 0033-03. The expression 325-03 does not mean March in the year
325, it is an error, because it does not have 4 digits for the year.
The rules to parse a month string are as follows. This will return either a year and month, or
nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that point
and returns nothing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Parse a month component to obtain year and month . If this returns nothing, then fail.
The rules to parse a month component, given an input string and a position , are as follows.
This will return either a year and a month, or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it
"fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and returns nothing.
1. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not at least
four characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the year .
3. If position is beyond the end of input or if the character at position is not a U+002D
HYPHEN-MINUS character, then fail. Otherwise, move position forwards one character.
4. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not exactly
two characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the month .
2.4.5.2. Dates
A string is a valid date string representing a year year , month month , and day day if it consists
of the following components in the given order:
3. Two ASCII digits, representing day , in the range 1 day maxday where maxday is the
number of days in the month month and year year
EXAMPLE 47
For example, 29 February 2016 is encoded 2016-02-29, and 3 March of the year 33AD (as a
proleptic gregorian date) is encoded 0033-03-03. The expression 325-03-03 does not mean 3
March in the year 325, it is an error, because it does not have 4 digits for the year.
The rules to parse a date string are as follows. This will return either a date, or nothing. If at any
point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and returns noth-
ing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Parse a date component to obtain year , month , and day . If this returns nothing, then fail.
5. Let date be the date with year year , month month , and day day .
6. Return date .
The rules to parse a date component, given an input string and a position , are as follows. This
will return either a year, a month, and a day, or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it
"fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and returns nothing.
1. Parse a month component to obtain year and month . If this returns nothing, then fail.
3. If position is beyond the end of input or if the character at position is not a U+002D
HYPHEN-MINUS character, then fail. Otherwise, move position forwards one character.
4. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not exactly
two characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the day .
A yearless date consists of a Gregorian month and a day within that month, but with no associated
year. [GREGORIAN]
A string is a valid yearless date string representing a month month and a day day if it consists
of the following components in the given order:
2. Two ASCII digits, representing the month month , in the range 1 month 12
4. Two ASCII digits, representing day , in the range 1 day maxday where maxday is the
number of days in the month month and any arbitrary leap year (e.g., 4 or 2000)
NOTE:
In other words, if the month is "02", meaning February, then the day can be 29, as if the year
was a leap year.
EXAMPLE 48
For example, 29 February is encoded 02-29, and 3 March is encoded 03-03.
The rules to parse a yearless date string are as follows. This will return either a month and a day,
or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that
point and returns nothing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Parse a yearless date component to obtain month and day . If this returns nothing, then fail.
The rules to parse a yearless date component, given an input string and a position , are as fol-
lows. This will return either a month and a day, or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it
"fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and returns nothing.
1. Collect a sequence of characters that are U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS characters (-). If the
collected sequence is not exactly zero or two characters long, then fail.
2. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not exactly
two characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the month .
4. Let maxday be the number of days in month month of any arbitrary leap year (e.g., 4 or
2000).
5. If position is beyond the end of input or if the character at position is not a U+002D
HYPHEN-MINUS character, then fail. Otherwise, move position forwards one character.
6. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not exactly
two characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the day .
2.4.5.4. Times
A time consists of a specific time with no time-zone information, consisting of an hour, a minute,
a second, and a fraction of a second.
A string is a valid time string representing an hour hour , a minute minute , and a second second
if it consists of the following components in the given order:
2. Two ASCII digits, representing the integer part of second , in the range 0 s 59
2. One, two, or three ASCII digits, representing the fractional part of second
NOTE:
The second component cannot be 60 or 61; leap seconds cannot be represented.
EXAMPLE 49
Times are encoded using the 24 hour clock, with optional seconds, and optional decimal frac-
tions of seconds. Thus 7.45pm is encoded as 19:45. Note that parsing that time will return
19:45:00, or 7.45pm and zero seconds. 19:45:45.456 is 456 thousandths of a second after
7.45pm and 45 seconds.
The rules to parse a time string are as follows. This will return either a time, or nothing. If at any
point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and returns noth-
ing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Parse a time component to obtain hour , minute , and second . If this returns nothing, then
fail.
5. Let time be the time with hour hour , minute minute , and second second .
6. Return time .
The rules to parse a time component, given an input string and a position , are as follows. This
will return either an hour, a minute, and a second, or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says
that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and returns nothing.
1. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not exactly
two characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the hour .
3. If position is beyond the end of input or if the character at position is not a U+003A
COLON character, then fail. Otherwise, move position forwards one character.
4. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not exactly
two characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the minute .
7. If position is not beyond the end of input and the character at position is a U+003A
COLON, then run these substeps:
2. If position is beyond the end of input , or at the last character in input , or if the next
two characters in input starting at position are not both ASCII digits, then fail.
3. Collect a sequence of characters that are either ASCII digits or U+002E FULL STOP
characters. If the collected sequence is three characters long, or if it is longer than three
characters long and the third character is not a U+002E FULL STOP character, or if it
has more than one U+002E FULL STOP character, then fail. Otherwise, let second be
the collected string.
8. Interpret second as a base-ten number (possibly with a fractional part). Let second be that
number instead of the string version.
9. If second is not a number in the range 0 second < 60, then fail.
A floating date and time consists of a specific proleptic-Gregorian date, consisting of a year, a
month, and a day, and a time, consisting of an hour, a minute, a second, and a fraction of a second,
but expressed without a time zone. [GREGORIAN]
A string is a valid floating date and time string representing a date and time if it consists of the
following components in the given order:
A string is a valid normalized floating date and time string representing a date and time if it
consists of the following components in the given order:
3. A valid time string representing the time, expressed as the shortest possible string for the
given time (e.g., omitting the seconds component entirely if the given time is zero seconds
past the minute)
The rules to parse a floating date and time string are as follows. This will return either a date
and time, or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at
that point and returns nothing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Parse a date component to obtain year , month , and day . If this returns nothing, then fail.
4. If position is beyond the end of input or if the character at position is neither a U+0054
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T character (T) nor a U+0020 SPACE character, then fail. Other-
wise, move position forwards one character.
5. Parse a time component to obtain hour , minute , and second . If this returns nothing, then
fail.
7. Let date be the date with year year , month month , and day day .
8. Let time be the time with hour hour , minute minute , and second second .
A string is a valid time-zone offset string representing a time-zone offset if it consists of either:
A U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z character (Z), allowed only if the time zone is UTC
1. Either a U+002B PLUS SIGN character (+) or, if the time-zone offset is not zero, a
U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-), representing the sign of the time-zone offset
2. Two ASCII digits, representing the hours component hour of the time-zone offset, in
the range 0 hour 23
4. Two ASCII digits, representing the minutes component minute of the time-zone offset,
in the range 0 minute 59
NOTE:
This format allows for time-zone offsets from -23:59 to +23:59. In practice, however, right
now the range of offsets of actual time zones is -12:00 to +14:00, and the minutes component
of offsets of actual time zones is always either 00, 30, or 45. There is no guarantee that this
will remain so forever, however; time zones are changed by countries at will and do not follow
a standard.
NOTE:
See also the usage notes and examples in the global date and time section below for details on
using time-zone offsets with historical times that predate the formation of formal time zones.
The rules to parse a time-zone offset string are as follows. This will return either a time-zone off-
set, or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that
point and returns nothing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Parse a time-zone offset component to obtain timezonehours and timezoneminutes . If this re-
turns nothing, then fail.
5. Return the time-zone offset that is timezonehours hours and timezoneminutes minutes from
UTC.
The rules to parse a time-zone offset component, given an input string and a position , are as
follows. This will return either time-zone hours and time-zone minutes, or nothing. If at any point
the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and returns nothing.
1. If the character at position is a U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z character (Z), then:
1. Let timezonehours be 0.
2. Let timezoneminutes be 0.
Otherwise, if the character at position is either a U+002B PLUS SIGN (+) or a U+002D
HYPHEN-MINUS (-), then:
1. If the character at position is a U+002B PLUS SIGN (+), let sign be "positive". Other-
wise, its a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-); let sign be "negative".
3. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. Let s be the collected sequence.
3. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is
not exactly two characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting se-
quence as a base-ten integer. Let that number be the timezoneminutes .
1. Interpret the first two characters of s as a base-ten integer. Let that number be the
timezonehours .
2. Interpret the last two characters of s as a base-ten integer. Let that number be the
timezoneminutes .
Otherwise, fail.
Otherwise, fail.
A global date and time consists of a specific proleptic-Gregorian date, consisting of a year, a
month, and a day, and a time, consisting of an hour, a minute, a second, and a fraction of a second,
expressed with a time-zone offset, consisting of a signed number of hours and minutes.
[GREGORIAN]
A string is a valid global date and time string representing a date, time, and a time-zone offset if
it consists of the following components in the given order:
Times in dates before the formation of UTC in the mid twentieth century must be expressed and
interpreted in terms of UT1 (contemporary Earth mean solar time at the 0 longitude), not UTC
(the approximation of UT1 that ticks in SI seconds). Time before the formation of time zones must
be expressed and interpreted as UT1 times with explicit time zones that approximate the contem-
porary difference between the appropriate local time and the time observed at the location of
Greenwich, London.
EXAMPLE 50
The following are some examples of dates written as valid global date and time strings.
"0037-12-13 00:00Z"
Midnight in areas using London time on the birthday of Nero (the Roman Emperor). See
below for further discussion on which date this actually corresponds to.
"1979-10-14T12:00:00.001-04:00"
One millisecond after noon on October 14th 1979, in the time zone in use on the east
coast of the USA during daylight saving time.
"8592-01-01T02:09+02:09"
Midnight UTC on the 1st of January, 8592. The time zone associated with that time is two
hours and nine minutes ahead of UTC, which is not currently a real time zone, but is
nonetheless allowed.
Years with fewer than four digits have to be zero-padded. The date "37-12-13" would not
be a valid date.
If the "T" is replaced by a space, it must be a single space character. The string
"2001-12-21 12:00Z" (with two spaces between the components) would not be parsed
successfully.
Dates before the year one cant be represented as a datetime in this version of HTML.
Times of specific events in ancient times are, at best, approximations, since time was not
well coordinated or measured until relatively recent decades.
NOTE:
The zone offset is not a complete time zone specification. When working with real date and
time values, consider using a separate field for time zone, perhaps using IANA time zone IDs.
[TIMEZONE]
A string is a valid normalized global date and time string representing a date, time, and a time-
zone offset if it consists of the following components in the given order:
1. A valid date string representing the date converted to the UTC time zone
3. A valid time string representing the time converted to the UTC time zone and expressed as
the shortest possible string for the given time (e.g., omitting the seconds component entirely
if the given time is zero seconds past the minute)
The rules to parse a global date and time string are as follows. This will return either a time in
UTC, with associated time-zone offset information for round-tripping or display purposes, or noth-
ing. If at any point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and
returns nothing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Parse a date component to obtain year , month , and day . If this returns nothing, then fail.
4. If position is beyond the end of input or if the character at position is neither a U+0054
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T character (T) nor a U+0020 SPACE character, then fail. Other-
wise, move position forwards one character.
5. Parse a time component to obtain hour , minute , and second . If this returns nothing, then
fail.
7. Parse a time-zone offset component to obtain timezonehours and timezoneminutes . If this re-
turns nothing, then fail.
9. Let time be the moment in time at year year , month month , day day , hours hour , minute
minute , second second , subtracting timezonehours hours and timezoneminutes minutes. That
moment in time is a moment in the UTC time zone.
10. Let timezone be timezonehours hours and timezoneminutes minutes from UTC.
2.4.5.8. Weeks
A week consists of a week-year number and a week number representing a seven-day period start-
ing on a Monday. Each week-year in this calendaring system has either 52 or 53 such seven-day
periods, as defined below. The seven-day period starting on the Gregorian date Monday December
29th 1969 (1969-12-29) is defined as week number 1 in week-year 1970. Consecutive weeks are
numbered sequentially. The week before the number 1 week in a week-year is the last week in the
previous week-year, and vice versa. [GREGORIAN]
A week-year with a number year has 53 weeks if it corresponds to either a year year in the pro-
leptic Gregorian calendar that has a Thursday as its first day (January 1st), or a year year in the
proleptic Gregorian calendar that has a Wednesday as its first day (January 1st) and where year is
a number divisible by 400, or a number divisible by 4 but not by 100. All other week-years have
52 weeks.
The week number of the last day of a week-year with 53 weeks is 53; the week number of the
last day of a week-year with 52 weeks is 52.
NOTE:
The week-year number of a particular day can be different than the number of the year that
contains that day in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. The first week in a week-year y is the
week that contains the first Thursday of the Gregorian year y .
NOTE:
For modern purposes, a week as defined here is equivalent to ISO weeks as defined in ISO
8601. [ISO8601]
A string is a valid week string representing a week-year year and week week if it consists of the
following components in the given order:
4. Two ASCII digits, representing the week week , in the range 1 week maxweek , where
maxweek is the week number of the last day of week-year year
The rules to parse a week string are as follows. This will return either a week-year number and
week number, or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is
aborted at that point and returns nothing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
3. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not at least
four characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the year .
5. If position is beyond the end of input or if the character at position is not a U+002D
HYPHEN-MINUS character, then fail. Otherwise, move position forwards one character.
6. If position is beyond the end of input or if the character at position is not a U+0057 LATIN
CAPITAL LETTER W character (W), then fail. Otherwise, move position forwards one
character.
7. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. If the collected sequence is not exactly
two characters long, then fail. Otherwise, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten inte-
ger. Let that number be the week .
8. Let maxweek be the week number of the last day of year year .
11. Return the week-year number year and the week number week .
2.4.5.9. Durations
NOTE:
Since months and seconds are not comparable (a month is not a precise number of seconds, but
is instead a period whose exact length depends on the precise day from which it is measured) a
duration as defined in this specification cannot include months (or years, which are equivalent
to twelve months). Only durations that describe a specific number of seconds can be described.
A string is a valid duration string representing a duration t if it consists of either of the follow-
ing:
A literal U+0050 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P character followed by one or more of the fol-
lowing subcomponents, in the order given, where the number of days, hours, minutes, and
seconds corresponds to the same number of seconds as in t :
1. One or more ASCII digits followed by a U+0044 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D charac-
ter, representing a number of days.
2. A U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T character followed by one or more of the fol-
lowing subcomponents, in the order given:
2. Optionally, a U+002E FULL STOP character (.) followed by one, two, or three
ASCII digits, representing a fraction of a second.
NOTE:
This, as with a number of other date- and time-related microsyntaxes defined in this spec-
ification, is based on one of the formats defined in ISO 8601. [ISO8601]
One or more duration time components, each with a different duration time component scale,
in any order; the sum of the represented seconds being equal to the number of seconds in t .
2. One or more ASCII digits, representing a number of time units, scaled by the duration
time component scale specified (see below) to represent a number of seconds.
3. If the duration time component scale specified is 1 (i.e., the units are seconds), then, op-
tionally, a U+002E FULL STOP character (.) followed by one, two, or three ASCII dig-
its, representing a fraction of a second.
5. One of the following characters, representing the duration time component scale of the
time unit used in the numeric part of the duration time component:
NOTE:
This is not based on any of the formats in ISO 8601. It is intended to be a more human-
readable alternative to the ISO 8601 duration format.
The rules to parse a duration string are as follows. This will return either a duration or nothing.
If at any point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means that it is aborted at that point and re-
turns nothing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
NOTE:
This flags other value is months. It is used to disambiguate the "M" unit in ISO8601 du-
rations, which use the same unit for months and minutes. Months are not allowed, but are
parsed for future compatibility and to avoid misinterpreting ISO8601 durations that would
be valid in other contexts.
8. Run the following substeps in a loop, until a step requiring the loop to be broken or the entire
algorithm to fail is reached:
1. Let units be undefined. It will be assigned one of the following values: years, months,
weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
2. Let next character be undefined. It is used to process characters from the input .
6. If next character is a U+002E FULL STOP character (.), then let N equal zero. (Do not
advance position . That is taken care of below.)
Otherwise, if next character is an ASCII digit, then collect a sequence of characters that
are ASCII digits, interpret the resulting sequence as a base-ten integer, and let N be that
number.
8. Set next character to the character in input pointed to by position , and this time ad-
vance position to the next character. (If next character was a U+002E FULL STOP
character (.) before, it will still be that character this time.)
9. If next character is a U+002E FULL STOP character (.), then run these substeps:
1. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits. Let s be the resulting se-
quence.
4. Let fraction be the result of interpreting s as a base-ten integer, and then dividing
that number by 10 length .
5. Increment N by fraction .
8. Set next character to the character in input pointed to by position , and advance
position to the next character.
1. If next character is a space character, then skip white space, set next character to
the character in input pointed to by position , and advance position to the next
character.
U+0068 LATIN SMALL LETTER H character, set units to hours and set M-
-disambiguator to minutes.
5. Forcibly, units is now seconds. Add the product of N and multiplier to seconds .
A string is a valid date string with optional time if it is also one of the following:
The rules to parse a date or time string are as follows. The algorithm will return either a date, a
time, a global date and time, or nothing. If at any point the algorithm says that it "fails", this means
that it is aborted at that point and returns nothing.
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
5. Parse a date component to obtain year , month , and day . If this fails, then set the date
present flag to false.
6. If date present is true, and position is not beyond the end of input , and the character at po-
sition is either a U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T character (T) or a U+0020 SPACE
character, then advance position to the next character in input .
Otherwise, if date present is true, and either position is beyond the end of input or the char-
acter at position is neither a U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T character (T) nor a
U+0020 SPACE character, then set time present to false.
Otherwise, if date present is false, set position back to the same position as start position .
7. If the time present flag is true, then parse a time component to obtain hour , minute , and
second . If this returns nothing, then fail.
8. If the date present and time present flags are both true, but position is beyond the end of
input , then fail.
9. If the date present and time present flags are both true, parse a time-zone offset component
to obtain timezonehours and timezoneminutes . If this returns nothing, then fail.
11. If the date present flag is true and the time present flag is false, then let date be the date
with year year , month month , and day day , and return date .
Otherwise, if the time present flag is true and the date present flag is false, then let time be
the time with hour hour , minute minute , and second second , and return time .
Otherwise, let time be the moment in time at year year , month month , day day , hours
hour , minute minute , second second , subtracting timezonehours hours and timezoneminutes
minutes, that moment in time being a moment in the UTC time zone; let timezone be time-
zonehours hours and timezoneminutes minutes from UTC; and return time and timezone .
2.4.6. Colors
A simple color consists of three 8-bit numbers in the range 0..255, representing the red, green, and
blue components of the color respectively, in the sRGB color space. [SRGB]
A string is a valid simple color if it is exactly seven characters long, and the first character is a
U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#), and the remaining six characters are all ASCII hex digits,
with the first two digits representing the red component, the middle two digits representing the
green component, and the last two digits representing the blue component, in hexadecimal.
A string is a valid lowercase simple color if it is a valid simple color and doesnt use any charac-
ters in the range U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to U+0046 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F.
The rules for parsing simple color values are as given in the following algorithm. When in-
voked, the steps must be followed in the order given, aborting at the first step that returns a value.
This algorithm will return either a simple color or an error.
3. If the first character in input is not a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#), then return an
error.
4. If the last six characters of input are not all ASCII hex digits, then return an error.
6. Interpret the second and third characters as a hexadecimal number and let the result be the red
component of result .
7. Interpret the fourth and fifth characters as a hexadecimal number and let the result be the
green component of result .
8. Interpret the sixth and seventh characters as a hexadecimal number and let the result be the
blue component of result .
9. Return result .
The rules for serializing simple color values given a simple color are as given in the following
algorithm:
1. Let result be a string consisting of a single U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#).
2. Convert the red, green, and blue components in turn to two-digit hexadecimal numbers using
lowercase ASCII hex digits, zero-padding if necessary, and append these numbers to result ,
in the order red, green, blue.
Some obsolete legacy attributes parse colors in a more complicated manner, using the rules for
parsing a legacy color value, which are given in the following algorithm. When invoked, the
steps must be followed in the order given, aborting at the first step that returns a value. This algo-
rithm will return either a simple color or an error.
4. If input is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "transparent", then return an er-
ror.
5. If input is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the named colors, then return the sim-
ple color corresponding to that keyword. [CSS3COLOR]
NOTE:
CSS2 System Colors are not recognized.
6. If input is four characters long, and the first character in input is a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN
character (#), and the last three characters of input are all ASCII hex digits, then run these
substeps:
2. Interpret the second character of input as a hexadecimal digit; let the red component of
result be the resulting number multiplied by 17.
3. Interpret the third character of input as a hexadecimal digit; let the green component of
result be the resulting number multiplied by 17.
4. Interpret the fourth character of input as a hexadecimal digit; let the blue component of
5. Return result .
7. Replace any characters in input that have a Unicode code point greater than U+FFFF (i.e.,
any characters that are not in the basic multilingual plane) with the two-character string "00".
8. If input is longer than 128 characters, truncate input , leaving only the first 128 characters.
9. If the first character in input is a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#), remove it.
10. Replace any character in input that is not an ASCII hex digit with the character U+0030
DIGIT ZERO (0).
11. While input s length is zero or not a multiple of three, append a U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0)
character to input .
12. Split input into three strings of equal length, to obtain three components. Let length be the
length of those components (one third the length of input ).
13. If length is greater than 8, then remove the leading length -8 characters in each component,
and let length be 8.
14. While length is greater than two and the first character in each component is a U+0030
DIGIT ZERO (0) character, remove that character and reduce length by one.
15. If length is still greater than two, truncate each component, leaving only the first two charac-
ters in each.
17. Interpret the first component as a hexadecimal number; let the red component of result be the
resulting number.
18. Interpret the second component as a hexadecimal number; let the green component of result
be the resulting number.
19. Interpret the third component as a hexadecimal number; let the blue component of result be
the resulting number.
A set of space-separated tokens is a string containing zero or more words (known as tokens) sep-
arated by one or more space characters, where words consist of any string of one or more charac-
A string containing a set of space-separated tokens may have leading or trailing space characters.
An ordered set of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none
of the tokens are duplicated but where the order of the tokens is meaningful.
Sets of space-separated tokens sometimes have a defined set of allowed values. When a set of al-
lowed values is defined, the tokens must all be from that list of allowed values; other values are
non-conforming. If no such set of allowed values is provided, then all values are conforming.
NOTE:
How tokens in a set of space-separated tokens are to be compared (e.g., case-sensitively or not)
is defined on a per-set basis.
When a user agent has to split a string on spaces, it must use the following algorithm:
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
6. Return tokens .
A set of comma-separated tokens is a string containing zero or more tokens each separated from
the next by a single U+002C COMMA character (,), where tokens consist of any string of zero or
more characters, neither beginning nor ending with space characters, nor containing any U+002C
COMMA characters (,), and optionally surrounded by space characters.
EXAMPLE 51
For instance, the string " a ,b, ,d d " consists of four tokens: "a", "b", the empty string, and
"d d". Leading and trailing white space around each token doesnt count as part of the token,
and the empty string can be a token.
Sets of comma-separated tokens sometimes have further restrictions on what consists a valid to-
ken. When such restrictions are defined, the tokens must all fit within those restrictions; other val-
ues are non-conforming. If no such restrictions are specified, then all values are conforming.
When a user agent has to split a string on commas, it must use the following algorithm:
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
4. Token: If position is past the end of input , jump to the last step.
5. Collect a sequence of characters that are not U+002C COMMA characters (,). Let s be the
resulting sequence (which might be the empty string).
7. Append s to tokens .
8. If position is not past the end of input , then the character at position is a U+002C COMMA
character (,); advance position past that character.
2.4.9. References
The rules for parsing a hash-name reference to an element of type type , given a context node
scope , are as follows:
1. If the string being parsed does not contain a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character, or if the first
such character in the string is the last character in the string, then return null and abort these
steps.
2. Let s be the string from the character immediately after the first U+0023 NUMBER SIGN
character in the string being parsed up to the end of that string.
3. Return the first element of type type in tree order in the subtree rooted at scope that has an
id attribute whose value is a case-sensitive match for s or a name attribute whose value is a
compatibility caseless match for s .
A string is a valid media query list if it matches the <media-query-list> production of the Me-
dia Queries specification. [MEDIAQ]
A string matches the environment of the user if it is the empty string, a string consisting of only
space characters, or is a media query list that matches the users environment according to the defi-
nitions given in the Media Queries specification. [MEDIAQ]
2.5. URLs
2.5.1. Terminology
A string is a valid non-empty URL if it is a valid URL but it is not the empty string.
A string is a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces if, after stripping leading and trailing
white space from it, it is a valid URL.
A string is a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces if, after stripping leading
and trailing white space from it, it is a valid non-empty URL.
This specification defines the URL about:html-kind as a reserved, though unresolvable, about:
URL, that is used as an identifier for kinds of media tracks. [RFC6694]
This specification defines the URL about:srcdoc as a reserved, though unresolvable, about:
URL, that is used as the documents URL of iframe srcdoc documents. [RFC6694]
The fallback base URL of a Document object is the absolute URL obtained by running these sub-
steps:
1. If document is an iframe srcdoc document, then return the document base URL of the
Document s browsing contexts browsing context containers node document.
2. If document s URL is about:blank, and the Document s browsing context has a creator
browsing context, then return the creator base URL.
The document base URL of a Document object is the absolute URL obtained by running these
substeps:
1. If there is no <base> element that has an href attribute in the Document, then the document
base URL is the Document's fallback base URL; abort these steps.
2. Otherwise, the document base URL is the frozen base URL of the first <base> element in the
Document that has an href attribute, in tree order.
Parsing a URL is the process of taking a URL string and obtaining the URL record that it implies.
While this process is defined in the WHATWG URL specification, this specification defines a
wrapper for convenience. [URL]
NOTE:
This wrapper is only useful when the character encoding for the URL parser has to match that
of the document or environment settings object for legacy reasons. When that is not the case
the URL parser can be used directly.
To parse a URL url , relative to either a document or environment settings object , the user agent
must use the following steps. Parsing a URL either results in failure or a resulting URL string and
resulting URL record.
1. Let encoding be document s character encoding, if document was given, and environment
settings object s API URL character encoding otherwise.
2. Let baseURL be document s base URL, if document was given, and environment settings
object s API base URL otherwise.
3. Let urlRecord be the result of applying the URL parser to url , with baseURL and encod-
ing .
6. Return urlString as the resulting URL string and urlRecord as the resulting URL record.
When a documents document base URL changes, all elements in that document are affected by a
base URL change.
The following are base URL change steps, which run when an element is affected by a base URL
change (as defined by the DOM specification):
EXAMPLE 52
For example, the CSS :link/:visited pseudo-classes might have been affected.
If the element is a <q>, <blockquote>, <ins>, or <del> element with a cite attribute
If the URL identified by the cite attribute is being shown to the user, or if any data de-
rived from that URL is affecting the display, then the URL should be reparsed relative to
the elements node document and the UI updated appropriately.
Otherwise
The element is not directly affected.
EXAMPLE 53
For instance, changing the base URL doesnt affect the image displayed by img ele-
ments, although subsequent accesses of the src IDL attribute from script will return
a new absolute URL that might no longer correspond to the image being shown.
2.6.1. Terminology
User agents can implement a variety of transfer protocols, but this specification mostly defines
behavior in terms of HTTP. [HTTP]
The HTTP GET method is equivalent to the default retrieval action of the protocol. For example,
RETR in FTP. Such actions are idempotent and safe, in HTTP terms.
The HTTP response codes are equivalent to statuses in other protocols that have the same basic
meanings. For example, a "file not found" error is equivalent to a 404 code, a server error is equiv-
alent to a 5xx code, and so on.
The HTTP headers are equivalent to fields in other protocols that have the same basic meaning.
For example, the HTTP authentication headers are equivalent to the authentication aspects of the
FTP protocol.
2. If same-origin fallback flag is set and mode is "no-cors", set mode to "same-origin".
5. Let request be a new request whose URL is url , destination is "subresource", mode is
mode , credentials mode is credentialsMode , and whose use-URL-credentials flag is set.
When a user agent is to fetch a resource or URL, optionally from an origin origin, optionally us-
ing a specific referrer source as an override referrer source, and optionally with any of a synchro-
nous flag, a manual redirect flag, a force same-origin flag, and a block cookies flag, the following
steps must be run. (When a URL is to be fetched, the URL identifies a resource to be obtained.)
1. If there is a specific override referrer source, and it is a URL, then let referrer be the over-
ride referrer source, and jump to the step labeled clean referrer.
When navigating
The active document of the source browsing context.
4. If the origin of Document is not a scheme/host/port tuple, then set referrer to the empty
string and jump to the step labeled Clean referrer .
6. Clean referrer : Apply the URL parser to referrer and let parsed referrer be the resulting
URL record.
7. Let referrer be the result of applying the URL serializer to parsed referrer , with the exclude
fragment flag set.
8. If referrer is not the empty string, is not a data: URL, and is not the URL "about:blank",
then generate the address of the resource from which Request-URIs are obtained as required
by HTTP for the Referer (sic) header from referrer . [HTTP]
Otherwise, the Referer (sic) header must be omitted, regardless of its value.
9. If the algorithm was not invoked with the synchronous flag, perform the remaining steps in
parallel.
10. If the Document with which any tasks queued by this algorithm would be associated doesnt
have an associated browsing context, then abort these steps.
If the resource is identified by an absolute URL, and the resource is to be obtained using an
idempotent action (such as an HTTP GET or equivalent), and it is already being downloaded
for other reasons (e.g., another invocation of this algorithm), and this request would be identi-
cal to the previous one (e.g., same Accept and Origin headers), and the user agent is config-
ured such that it is to reuse the data from the existing download instead of initiating a new
one, then use the results of the existing download instead of starting a new one.
Otherwise, if the resource is identified by an absolute URL with a scheme that does not de-
fine a mechanism to obtain the resource (e.g., it is a mailto: URL) or that the user agent does
not support, then act as if the resource was an HTTP 204 No Content response with no other
metadata.
Otherwise, if the resource is identified by the URL about:blank, then the resource is imme-
diately available and consists of the empty string, with no metadata.
Otherwise, at a time convenient to the user and the user agent, download (or otherwise ob-
tain) the resource, applying the semantics of the relevant specifications (e.g., performing an
HTTP GET or POST operation, or reading the file from disk, or expanding data: URLs, etc).
For the purposes of the Referer (sic) header, use the address of the resource from which
Request-URIs are obtained generated in the earlier step.
For the purposes of the Origin header, if the fetching algorithm was explicitly initiated from
an origin, then the origin that initiated the HTTP request is origin. Otherwise, this is a re-
quest from a "privacy-sensitive" context. [ORIGIN]
12. If the algorithm was not invoked with the block cookies flag, and there are cookies to be set,
update the cookies. [COOKIES]
If the force same-origin flag is set and the URL of the target of the redirect does not
have the same origin as the URL for which the fetch algorithm was invoked
Abort these steps and return failure from this algorithm, as if the remote host could
not be contacted.
Otherwise
First, apply any relevant requirements for redirects (such as showing any appropri-
ate prompts). Then, redo main step, but using the target of the redirect as the re-
source to fetch, rather than the original resource. For HTTP requests, the new re-
quest must include the same headers as the original request, except for headers for
which other requirements are specified (such as the Host header). [HTTP]
NOTE:
The HTTP specification requires that 301, 302, and 307 redirects, when applied
to methods other than the safe methods, not be followed without user confirma-
tion. That would be an appropriate prompt for the purposes of the requirement
in the paragraph above. [HTTP]
14. If the algorithm was not invoked with the synchronous flag: When the resource is available,
or if there is an error of some description, queue a task that uses the resource as appropriate.
If the resource can be processed incrementally, as, for instance, with a progressively inter-
laced JPEG or an HTML file, additional tasks may be queued to process the data as it is
downloaded. The task source for these tasks is the networking task source.
If the user agent can determine the actual length of the resource being fetched for an instance of
this algorithm, and if that length is finite, then that length is the files size. Otherwise, the subject
of the algorithm (that is, the resource being fetched) has no known size. (For example, the HTTP
Content-Length header might provide this information.)
The user agent must also keep track of the number of bytes downloaded for each instance of this
algorithm. This number must exclude any out-of-band metadata, such as HTTP headers.
NOTE:
The navigation processing model handles redirects itself, overriding the redirection handling
that would be done by the fetching algorithm.
NOTE:
Whether the type sniffing rules apply to the fetched resource depends on the algorithm that in-
vokes the rules they are not always applicable.
Anything in this specification that refers to HTTP also applies to HTTP-over-TLS, as represented
by URLs representing the https scheme. [HTTP]
Warning! User agents should report certificate errors to the user and must either
refuse to download resources sent with erroneous certificates or must act as if such re-
sources were in fact served with no encryption.
User agents should warn the user that there is a potential problem whenever the user visits a page
that the user has previously visited, if the page uses less secure encryption on the second visit.
EXAMPLE 54
If a user connects to a server with a self-signed certificate, the user agent could allow the con-
nection but just act as if there had been no encryption. If the user agent instead allowed the
user to override the problem and then displayed the page as if it was fully and safely encrypted,
the user could be easily tricked into accepting man-in-the-middle connections.
If a user connects to a server with full encryption, but the page then refers to an external re-
source that has an expired certificate, then the user agent will act as if the resource was un-
available, possibly also reporting the problem to the user. If the user agent instead allowed the
resource to be used, then an attacker could just look for "secure" sites that used resources from
a different host and only apply man-in-the-middle attacks to that host, for example taking over
scripts in the page.
If a user bookmarks a site that uses a CA-signed certificate, and then later revisits that site di-
rectly but the site has started using a self-signed certificate, the user agent could warn the user
that a man-in-the-middle attack is likely underway, instead of simply acting as if the page was
not encrypted.
The Content-Type metadata of a resource must be obtained and interpreted in a manner consis-
tent with the requirements of the MIME Sniffing specification. [MIMESNIFF]
The computed type of a resource must be found in a manner consistent with the requirements
given in the MIME Sniffing specification for finding the computed media type of the relevant se-
quence of octets. [MIMESNIFF]
The rules for sniffing images specifically and the rules for distinguishing if a resource is text
or binary are also defined in the MIME Sniffing specification. Both sets of rules return a MIME
type as their result. [MIMESNIFF]
Warning! It is imperative that the rules in the MIME Sniffing specification be fol-
lowed exactly. When a user agent uses different heuristics for content type detection
than the server expects, security problems can occur. For more details, see the MIME
Sniffing specification. [MIMESNIFF]
The algorithm for extracting a character encoding from a <meta> element, given a string s , is
1. Let position be a pointer into s , initially pointing at the start of the string.
2. Loop: Find the first seven characters in s after position that are an ASCII case-insensitive
match for the word "charset". If no such match is found, return nothing and abort these
steps.
3. Skip any space characters that immediately follow the word "charset" (there might not be
any).
4. If the next character is not a U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=), then move position to point just
before that next character, and jump back to the step labeled loop.
5. Skip any space characters that immediately follow the equals sign (there might not be any).
Otherwise
Return the result of getting an encoding from the substring that consists of this
character up to but not including the first space character or U+003B SEMICOLON
character (;), or the end of s , whichever comes first.
NOTE:
This algorithm is distinct from those in the HTTP specification (for example, HTTP doesnt al-
low the use of single quotes and requires supporting a backslash-escape mechanism that is not
supported by this algorithm). While the algorithm is used in contexts that, historically, were re-
lated to HTTP, the syntax as supported by implementations diverged some time ago. [HTTP]
A CORS settings attribute is an enumerated attribute. The following table lists the keywords and
states for the attribute the keywords in the left column map to the states in the cell in the second
column on the same row as the keyword.
anonymous Anonymous Requests for the element will have their mode set to "cors"
and their credentials mode set to "same-origin".
use- Use Requests for the element will have their mode set to "cors"
credentials Credentials and their credentials mode set to "include".
The empty string is also a valid keyword, and maps to the Anonymous state. The attributes invalid
value default is the Anonymous state. For the purposes of reflection, the canonical case for the
Anonymous state is the anonymous keyword. The missing value default, used when the attribute
is omitted, is the No CORS state.
A referrer policy attribute is an enumerated attribute. Each referrer policy, including the empty
string, is a keyword for this attribute, mapping to a state of the same name.
The attributes invalid value default and missing value default are both the empty string state.
The impact of these states on the processing model of various fetches is defined in more detail
throughout this specification, in the WHATWG Fetch standard, and in Referrer Policy. [FETCH]
[REFERRERPOLICY]
NOTE:
Several signals can contribute to which processing model is used for a given fetch; a referrer
policy attribute is only one of them. In general, the order in which these signals are processed
are:
3. Then, the presence of any <meta> element with name attribute set to referrer.
Some IDL attributes are defined to reflect a particular content attribute. This means that on get-
ting, the IDL attribute returns the current value of the content attribute, and on setting, the IDL at-
tribute changes the value of the content attribute to the given value.
In general, on getting, if the content attribute is not present, the IDL attribute must act as if the
content attributes value is the empty string; and on setting, if the content attribute is not present, it
must first be added.
If a reflecting IDL attribute is a USVString attribute whose content attribute is defined to contain
a URLs, then on getting, if the content attribute is absent, the IDL attribute must return the empty
string. Otherwise, the IDL attribute must parse the value of the content attribute relative to the ele-
ments node document and if that is successful, return the resulting URL string. If parsing fails,
then the value of the content attribute must be returned instead, converted to a USVString. On
setting, the content attribute must be set to the specified new value.
If a reflecting IDL attribute is a DOMString attribute whose content attribute is an enumerated at-
tribute, and the IDL attribute is limited to only known values, then, on getting, the IDL attribute
must return the conforming value associated with the state the attribute is in (in its canonical case),
if any, or the empty string if the attribute is in a state that has no associated keyword value or if the
attribute is not in a defined state (e.g., the attribute is missing and there is no missing value de-
fault); and on setting, the content attribute must be set to the specified new value.
If a reflecting IDL attribute is a nullable DOMString attribute whose content attribute is an enumer-
ated attribute, then, on getting, if the corresponding content attribute is in its missing value default
then the IDL attribute must return null, otherwise, the IDL attribute must return the conforming
value associated with the state the attribute is in (in its canonical case); and on setting, if the new
value is null, the content attribute must be removed, and otherwise, the content attribute must be
set to the specified new value.
If a reflecting IDL attribute is a DOMString or USVString attribute but doesnt fall into any of the
above categories, then the getting and setting must be done in a transparent, case-preserving man-
ner.
If a reflecting IDL attribute is a boolean attribute, then on getting the IDL attribute must return
true if the content attribute is set, and false if it is absent. On setting, the content attribute must be
removed if the IDL attribute is set to false, and must be set to the empty string if the IDL attribute
is set to true. (This corresponds to the rules for boolean content attributes.)
If a reflecting IDL attribute has a signed integer type (long) then, on getting, the content attribute
must be parsed according to the rules for parsing signed integers, and if that is successful, and the
value is in the range of the IDL attributes type, the resulting value must be returned. If, on the
other hand, it fails or returns an out of range value, or if the attribute is absent, then the default
value must be returned instead, or 0 if there is no default value. On setting, the given value must be
converted to the shortest possible string representing the number as a valid integer and then that
If a reflecting IDL attribute has a signed integer type (long) that is limited to only non-negative
numbers then, on getting, the content attribute must be parsed according to the rules for parsing
non-negative integers, and if that is successful, and the value is in the range of the IDL attributes
type, the resulting value must be returned. If, on the other hand, it fails or returns an out of range
value, or if the attribute is absent, the default value must be returned instead, or -1 if there is no de-
fault value. On setting, if the value is negative, the user agent must throw an IndexSizeError
exception. Otherwise, the given value must be converted to the shortest possible string represent-
ing the number as a valid non-negative integer and then that string must be used as the new content
attribute value.
If a reflecting IDL attribute has an unsigned integer type (unsigned long) then, on getting, the
content attribute must be parsed according to the rules for parsing non-negative integers, and if
that is successful, and the value is in the range 0 to 2147483647 inclusive, the resulting value must
be returned. If, on the other hand, it fails or returns an out of range value, or if the attribute is ab-
sent, the default value must be returned instead, or 0 if there is no default value. On setting, first, if
the new value is in the range 0 to 2147483647, then let n be the new value, otherwise let n be the
default value, or 0 if there is no default value; then, n must be converted to the shortest possible
string representing the number as a valid non-negative integer and that string must be used as the
new content attribute value.
If a reflecting IDL attribute has an unsigned integer type (unsigned long) that is limited to only
non-negative numbers greater than zero, then the behavior is similar to the previous case, but
zero is not allowed. On getting, the content attribute must first be parsed according to the rules for
parsing non-negative integers, and if that is successful, and the value is in the range 1 to
2147483647 inclusive, the resulting value must be returned. If, on the other hand, it fails or returns
an out of range value, or if the attribute is absent, the default value must be returned instead, or 1 if
there is no default value. On setting, if the value is zero, the user agent must throw an
IndexSizeError exception. Otherwise, first, if the new value is in the range 1 to 2147483647,
then let n be the new value, otherwise let n be the default value, or 1 if there is no default value;
then, n must be converted to the shortest possible string representing the number as a valid non-
negative integer and that string must be used as the new content attribute value.
If a reflecting IDL attribute has a floating-point number type (double or unrestricted double),
then, on getting, the content attribute must be parsed according to the rules for parsing floating-
point number values, and if that is successful, the resulting value must be returned. If, on the other
hand, it fails, or if the attribute is absent, the default value must be returned instead, or 0.0 if there
is no default value. On setting, the given value must be converted to the best representation of the
number as a floating-point number and then that string must be used as the new content attribute
value.
If a reflecting IDL attribute has a floating-point number type (double or unrestricted double)
that is limited to numbers greater than zero, then the behavior is similar to the previous case,
but zero and negative values are not allowed. On getting, the content attribute must be parsed ac-
cording to the rules for parsing floating-point number values, and if that is successful and the value
is greater than 0.0, the resulting value must be returned. If, on the other hand, it fails or returns an
out of range value, or if the attribute is absent, the default value must be returned instead, or 0.0 if
there is no default value. On setting, if the value is less than or equal to zero, then the value must
be ignored. Otherwise, the given value must be converted to the best representation of the number
as a floating-point number and then that string must be used as the new content attribute value.
NOTE:
The values Infinity and Not-a-Number (NaN) values throw an exception on setting, as defined
in the Web IDL specification. [WEBIDL]
If a reflecting IDL attribute has the type DOMTokenList, then on getting it must return a
DOMTokenList object whose associated element is the element in question and whose associated
attributes local name is the name of the attribute in question.
If a reflecting IDL attribute has the type HTMLElement, or an interface that descends from
HTMLElement, then, on getting, it must run the following algorithm (stopping at the first point
where a value is returned):
1. If the corresponding content attribute is absent, then the IDL attribute must return null.
2. Let candidate be the element that the document.getElementById() method would find
when called on the content attributes elements node document if it were passed as its argu-
ment the current value of the corresponding content attribute.
3. If candidate is null, or if it is not type-compatible with the IDL attribute, then the IDL at-
tribute must return null.
On setting, if the given element has an id attribute, and has the same tree as the element of the at-
tribute being set, and the given element is the first element in that tree whose ID is the value of
that id attribute, then the content attribute must be set to the value of that id attribute. Otherwise,
the content attribute must be set to the empty string.
2.7.2. Collections
The HTMLAllCollection interface is used for the legacy document.all attribute. It operates simi-
larly to HTMLCollection; it also supports a variety of other legacy features required for web com-
patibility such as the ability to be invoked like a function (legacycaller).
NOTE:
All HTMLAllCollection objects are rooted at a Document and have a filter that matches all
elements, so the elements represented by the collection of an HTMLAllCollection object
consist of all the descendant elements of the root Document.
[LegacyUnenumerableNamedProperties]
interface HTMLAllCollection {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter Element? (unsigned long index);
getter (HTMLCollection or Element)? namedItem(DOMString name);
legacycaller (HTMLCollection or Element)? item(optional DOMString
nameOrItem);
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
collection . length
Returns the number of elements in the collection.
If there are multiple matching items, then an HTMLCollection object containing all
those elements is returned.
The name attributes value provides a name for <button>, <input>, <select>, and
<textarea>. Similarly, <iframe>'s name, <object>'s name, <meta>'s name, <map>'s name,
and <form>'s name attributes value provides a name for their respective elements. Only
the elements mentioned have a name for the purpose of this method.
The objects supported property indices are as defined for HTMLCollection objects.
The supported property names consist of the non-empty values of all the id and name attributes of
all the elements represented by the collection, in tree order, ignoring later duplicates, with the id
of an element preceding its name if it contributes both, they differ from each other, and neither is
the duplicate of an earlier entry.
On getting, the length attribute must return the number of nodes represented by the collection.
The indexed property getter must return the result of getting the "all"-indexed element from this
HTMLAllCollection given the passed index.
The namedItem( name ) method must return the result of getting the "all"-named element or ele-
ments from this HTMLAllCollection given name .
The item( nameOrIndex ) method (and the legacycaller behavior) must act according to the fol-
lowing algorithm:
2. If nameOrIndex , converted to a JavaScript string value, is an array index property name, re-
turn the result of getting the "all"-indexed element from this HTMLAllCollection given the
number represented by nameOrIndex .
3. Return the result of getting the "all"-named element or elements from this
HTMLAllCollection given nameOrIndex .
The following elements are considered "all"-named elements: <a>, <applet>, <button>, <embed>,
<form>, <frame>, <frameset>, <iframe>, <img>, <input>, <map>, <meta>, <object>, <select>, and
<textarea>.
To get the "all"-indexed element from an HTMLAllCollection collection given an index in-
dex , return the element with index index in collection , or null if there is no such element at in-
dex .
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
collection . length
Returns the number of elements in the collection.
If there are multiple matching items, then a RadioNodeList object containing all those
elements is returned.
Can be set, to check the first radio button with the given value represented by the object.
The objects supported property indices are as defined for HTMLCollection objects.
The supported property names consist of the non-empty values of all the id and name attributes of
all the elements represented by the collection, in tree order, ignoring later duplicates, with the id
of an element preceding its name if it contributes both, they differ from each other, and neither is
the duplicate of an earlier entry.
The namedItem( name ) method must act according to the following algorithm:
1. If name is the empty string, return null and stop the algorithm.
2. If, at the time the method is called, there is exactly one node in the collection that has either
an id attribute or a name attribute equal to name , then return that node and stop the algo-
rithm.
3. Otherwise, if there are no nodes in the collection that have either an id attribute or a name at-
tribute equal to name , then return null and stop the algorithm.
Members of the RadioNodeList interface inherited from the NodeList interface must behave as
they would on a NodeList object.
The value IDL attribute on the RadioNodeList object, on getting, must return the value returned
by running the following steps:
1. Let element be the first element in tree order represented by the RadioNodeList object that
is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Radio Button state and whose checked-
On setting, the value IDL attribute must run the following steps:
1. If the new value is the string "on": let element be the first element in tree order represented
by the RadioNodeList object that is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Radio
Button state and whose value content attribute is either absent, or present and equal to the
new value, if any. If no such element exists, then instead let element be null.
Otherwise: let element be the first element in tree order represented by the RadioNodeList
object that is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Radio Button state and
whose value content attribute is present and equal to the new value, if any. If no such ele-
ment exists, then instead let element be null.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
collection . length [ = value ]
Returns the number of elements in the collection.
When set to a smaller number, truncates the number of <option> elements in the corre-
sponding container.
When set to a greater number, adds new blank <option> elements to that container.
When set to null, removes the item at index index from the collection.
When set to an <option> element, adds or replaces it at index index from the collection.
If before is omitted, null, or a number out of range, then element will be added at the
end of the list.
The objects supported property indices are as defined for HTMLCollection objects.
On getting, the length attribute must return the number of nodes represented by the collection.
On setting, the behavior depends on whether the new value is equal to, greater than, or less than
the number of nodes represented by the collection at that time. If the number is the same, then set-
ting the attribute must do nothing. If the new value is greater, then n new <option> elements with
no attributes and no child nodes must be appended to the <select> element on which the
HTMLOptionsCollection is rooted, where n is the difference between the two numbers (new
value minus old value). Mutation events must be fired as if a DocumentFragment containing the
new option elements had been inserted. If the new value is lower, then the last n nodes in the col-
lection must be removed from their parent nodes, where n is the difference between the two num-
bers (old value minus new value).
NOTE:
Setting length never removes or adds any <optgroup> elements, and never adds new children
to existing <optgroup> elements (though it can remove children from them).
The supported property names consist of the non-empty values of all the id and name attributes of
all the elements represented by the collection, in tree order, ignoring later duplicates, with the id
of an element preceding its name if it contributes both, they differ from each other, and neither is
the duplicate of an earlier entry.
When the user agent is to set the value of a new indexed property or set the value of an exist-
ing indexed property for a given property index index to a new value value , it must run the fol-
lowing algorithm:
1. If value is null, invoke the steps for the remove method with index as the argument, and
abort these steps.
5. If n is greater than or equal to zero, append value to the <select> element. Otherwise, re-
place the index th element in the collection by value .
The add( element , before ) method must act according to the following algorithm:
2. If before is an element, but that element isnt a descendant of the <select> element on which
the HTMLOptionsCollection is rooted, then throw a NotFoundError exception and abort
these steps.
3. If element and before are the same element, then return and abort these steps.
4. If before is a node, then let reference be that node. Otherwise, if before is an integer, and
there is a before th node in the collection, let reference be that node. Otherwise, let refer-
ence be null.
5. If reference is not null, let parent be the parent node of reference . Otherwise, let parent be
the <select> element on which the HTMLOptionsCollection is rooted.
The remove( index ) method must act according to the following algorithm:
1. If the number of nodes represented by the collection is zero, abort these steps.
2. If index is not a number greater than or equal to 0 and less than the number of nodes repre-
sented by the collection, abort these steps.
The selectedIndex IDL attribute must act like the identically named attribute on the <select> el-
ement on which the HTMLOptionsCollection is rooted
interface DOMStringList {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter DOMString? item(unsigned long index);
boolean contains(DOMString string);
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
strings . length
Returns the number of strings in strings .
strings [ index ]
strings . item()( index )
Returns the string with index index from strings .
The supported property indices for a DOMStringList object are the numbers zero to the associ-
ated lists size minus one. If its associated list is empty, it has no supported property indices.
The length attributes getter must this DOMStringList objects associated lists size.
The item(index) method, when invoked, must return the index th item in this DOMStringList
objects associated list, or null if index plus one is less than this DOMStringList objects associ-
ated lists size.
The contains(string) method, when invoked, must return true if this DOMStringList objects
associated list contains string , and false otherwise.
There is an implied strong reference from any IDL attribute that returns a pre-existing object to
that object.
EXAMPLE 55
For example, the window.document attribute on the Window object means that there is a
strong reference from a Window object to its Document object. Similarly, there is always a
strong reference from a Document to any descendant nodes, and from any node to its owner
node document.
2.8. Namespaces
Data mining tools and other user agents that perform operations on content without running
scripts, evaluating CSS or XPath expressions, or otherwise exposing the resulting DOM to arbi-
trary content, may "support namespaces" by just asserting that their DOM node analogs are in cer-
tain namespaces, without actually exposing the above strings.
NOTE:
In the HTML syntax, namespace prefixes and namespace declarations do not have the same ef-
fect as in XML. For instance, the colon has no special meaning in HTML element names.
This section uses the terminology and typographic conventions from the JavaScript specification.
[ECMA-262]
Serializable objects support being serialized, and later deserialized, in a way that is independent of
any given JavaScript Realm. This allows them to be stored on disk and later restored, or cloned
across Document and Worker boundaries (including across documents of different origins or in
different event loops).
Not all objects are serializable objects, and not all aspects of objects that are serializable objects
are necessarily preserved when they are serialized.
Platform objects can be serializable objects if they implement only interfaces decorated with the
[Serializable] IDL extended attribute. Such interfaces must also define the following algo-
rithms:
serialization steps, taking a platform object value , a Record serialized , and a boolean
forStorage
A set of steps that serializes the data in value into fields of serialized . The resulting data se-
rialized into serialized must be independent of any JavaScript Realm.
These steps may perform a sub-serialization to serialize nested data structures. They should
not call StructuredSerialize directly, as doing so will omit the important memory argument.
The introduction of these steps should omit mention of the forStorage argument if it is not
relevant to the algorithm.
These steps may perform a sub-deserialization to deserialize nested data structures. They
should not call StructuredDeserialize directly, as doing so will omit the important targe-
tRealm and memory arguments.
It is up to the definition of individual platform objects to determine what data is serialized and de-
serialized by these steps. Typically the steps are very symmetric.
The [Serializable] extended attribute must take no arguments, and must not appear on anything
other than an interface. It must appear only once on an interface. It must not be used on a callback
interface. If it appears on a partial interface or an interface that is really a mixin, then it must also
appear on the original or mixed-in-to interface, and any supplied serialization steps and deserial-
ization steps for the partial interface or mixin should be understood as being appended to those of
the original or mixed-in-to interface.
EXAMPLE 56
Lets say we were defining a platform object Person, which had associated with it two pieces
of associated data:
We could then define Person instances to be serializable objects by annotating the Person in-
terface with the [Serializable] extended attribute, and defining the following accompanying
algorithms:
serialization steps
deserialization steps
Objects defined in the JavaScript specification are handled by the StructuredSerialize abstract op-
eration directly.
NOTE:
Originally, this specification defined the concept of "cloneable objects", which could be cloned
from one JavaScript Realm to another. However, to better specify the behavior of certain more
complex situations, the model was updated to make the serialization and deserialization ex-
plicit.
Transferable objects support being transferred across event loops. Transferring is effectively recre-
ating the object while sharing a reference to the underlying data and then detaching the object be-
ing transferred. This is useful to transfer ownership of expensive resources. Not all objects are
transferable objects and not all aspects of objects that are transferable objects are necessarily pre-
served when transferred.
NOTE:
Transferring is an irreversible and non-idempotent operation. Once an object has been trans-
ferred, it cannot be transferred, or indeed used, again.
Platform objects can be transferable objects if they implement only interfaces decorated with the
[Transferable] IDL extended attribute. Such interfaces must also define the following algo-
rithms:
These steps may throw an exception if it is not possible to receive the transfer.
The [Transferable] extended attribute must take no arguments, and must not appear on anything
other than an interface. It must appear only once on an interface. It must not be used on a callback
interface. If it appears on a partial interface or an interface that is really a mixin, then it must also
appear on the original or mixed-in-to interface, and any supplied serialization steps and deserial-
ization steps for the partial interface or mixin should be understood as being appended to those of
the original or mixed-in-to interface.
Platform objects that are transferable objects have a Detached internal slot. This is used to ensure
that once a platform object has been transferred, it cannot be transferred again.
The StructuredSerializeInternal abstract operation takes as input a JavaScript value value and seri-
alizes it to a Realm-independent form, represented here as a Record. This serialized form has all
the information necessary to later deserialize into a new JavaScript value in a different Realm.
This process can throw an exception, for example when trying to serialize un-serializable objects.
NOTE:
The purpose of the memory map is to avoid serializing objects twice. This ends up pre-
serving cycles and the identity of duplicate objects in graphs.
4. If Type( value ) is Undefined, Null, Boolean, String, or Number, then return { [[Type]]: "prim-
itive", [[Value]]: value }.
7. If value has a [[BooleanData]] internal slot, then set serialized to { [[Type]]: "Boolean",
[[BooleanData]]: value .[[BooleanData]] }.
8. Otherwise, if value has a [[NumberData]] internal slot, then set serialized to { [[Type]]:
"Number", [[NumberData]]: value .[[NumberData]] }.
9. Otherwise, if value has a [[StringData]] internal slot, then set serialized to { [[Type]]:
"String", [[StringData]]: value .[[StringData]] }.
10. Otherwise, if value has a [[DateValue]] internal slot, then set serialized to { [[Type]]:
"Date", [[DateValue]]: value .[[DateValue]] }.
11. Otherwise, if value has a [[RegExpMatcher]] internal slot, then set serialized to { [[Type]]:
"RegExp", [[RegExpMatcher]]: value .[[RegExpMatcher]], [[OriginalSource]]: value .[[Orig-
inalSource]], [[OriginalFlags]]: value .[[OriginalFlags]] }.
3. Otherwise:
NOTE:
This can throw a RangeError exception upon allocation failure.
4. If value has a [[DataView]] internal slot, then set serialized to { [[Type]]: "Array-
BufferView", [[Constructor]]: "DataView", [[ArrayBufferSerialized]]: bufferSerialized ,
[[ByteLength]]: value .[[ByteLength]], [[ByteOffset]]: value .[[ByteOffset]] }.
5. Otherwise:
1. If value has a [[Detached]] internal slot whose value is true, then throw a
"DataCloneError" DOMException.
20. Otherwise, if value has any internal slot other than [[Prototype]] or [Extensible], then throw
a "DataCloneError" DOMException.
EXAMPLE 57
For instance, a [[PromiseState]] or [[WeakMapData]] internal slot.
EXAMPLE 58
For instance, a proxy object.
22. Otherwise:
3. Otherwise, if value is a platform object that is a serializable object, then perform the ap-
propriate serialization steps given value , serialized , and forStorage .
4. Otherwise:
NOTE:
The key collection performed above is very similar to the JavaScript specifications Enu-
merableOwnProperties operation, but crucially it uses the deterministic ordering provided
by the [[OwnPropertyKeys]] internal method, instead of reordering the keys in an unspec-
ified manner as EnumerableOwnProperties does. [ECMA-262]
EXAMPLE 59
Its important to realize that the Records produced by StructuredSerializeInternal might contain
"pointers" to other records that create circular references. For example, when we pass the fol-
lowing JavaScript object into StructuredSerializeInternal:
const o = {};o.myself = o;
{ \[[Type]]: "Object",
\[[Properties]]:
{
\[[Key]]: "myself",
\[[Value]]: <a pointer to this whole structure>
}
}
The StructuredDeserialize abstract operation takes as input a Record serialized , which was previ-
ously produced by StructuredSerialize or StructuredSerializeForStorage, and deserializes it into a
new JavaScript value, created in targetRealm .
This process can throw an exception, for example when trying to allocate memory for the new ob-
jects (especially ArrayBuffer objects).
NOTE:
The purpose of the memory map is to avoid deserializing objects twice. This ends up pre-
serving cycles and the identity of duplicate objects in graphs.
NOTE:
In cases where the original memory occupied by [[ArrayBufferData]] is accessible
during the deserialization, this step is unlikely to throw an exception, as no new
memory needs to be allocated: the memory occupied by [[ArrayBufferData]] is in-
stead just getting transferred into the new ArrayBuffer. This could be true, for exam-
ple, when both the source and target Realms are in the same process.
4. Otherwise:
4. Perform the appropriate transfer-receiving steps for the interface identified by in-
terfaceName given serialized and value .
7. Otherwise, if serialized .[[Type]] is "Boolean", then set value to a new Boolean object in
targetRealm whose [[BooleanData]] internal slot value is serialized .[[BooleanData]].
8. Otherwise, if serialized .[[Type]] is "Number", then set value to a new Number object in
targetRealm whose [[NumberData]] internal slot value is serialized .[[NumberData]].
9. Otherwise, if serialized .[[Type]] is "String", then set value to a new String object in targe-
tRealm whose [[StringData]] internal slot value is serialized .[[StringData]].
10. Otherwise, if serialized .[[Type]] is "Date", then set value to a new Date object in targe-
tRealm whose [[DateValue]] internal slot value is serialized .[[DateValue]].
11. Otherwise, if serialized .[[Type]] is "RegExp", then set value to a new RegExp object in tar-
getRealm whose [[RegExpMatcher]] internal slot value is serialized .[[RegExpMatcher]],
whose [[OriginalSource]] internal slot value is serialized .[[OriginalSource]], and whose
[[OriginalFlags]] internal slot value is serialized .[[OriginalFlags]].
13. Otherwise, if serialized .[[Type]] is "ArrayBuffer", then set value to a new ArrayBuffer ob-
ject in targetRealm whose [[ArrayBufferData]] internal slot value is serialized .[[Array-
BufferData]], and whose [[ArrayBufferByteLength]] internal slot value is serialized .[[Array-
BufferByteLength]].
NOTE:
This step might throw an exception if there is not enough memory available to create such
an ArrayBuffer object.
3. Otherwise, set value to a new typed array object in targetRealm , using the constructor
given by serialized .[[Constructor]], whose [[ViewedArrayBuffer]] internal slot value is
deserializedArrayBuffer , whose \[TypedArrayName]] internal slot value is serialized .
[[Constructor]], whose [[ByteLength]] internal slot value is serialized .[[ByteLength]],
whose [[ByteOffset]] internal slot value is serialized .[[ByteOffset]], and whose [[Ar-
rayLength]] internal slot value is serialized .[[ArrayLength]].
1. Set value to a new Map object in targetRealm whose [[MapData]] internal slot value is
a new empty List.
1. Set value to a new Set object in targetRealm whose [[SetData]] internal slot value is a
new empty List.
19. Otherwise:
4. Otherwise:
1. Perform the appropriate deserialization steps for the interface identified by serial-
ized .[[Type]], given serialized and value .
NOTE:
In addition to how it is used normally by StructuredSerializeInternal, in this algorithm
memory is also used to ensure that StructuredSerializeInternal ignores items in trans-
ferList , and let us do our own handling instead.
4. Otherwise:
4. Perform the appropriate transfer steps for the interface identified by interface-
Name , given transferable and dataHolder .
NOTE:
In addition to how it is used normally by StructuredDeserialize, in this algorithm memory
is also used to help us determine the list of transferred values.
Other specifications may use the abstract operations defined here. The following provides some
guidance on when each abstract operation is typically useful, with examples.
StructuredSerializeWithTransfer
StructuredDeserializeWithTransfer
Cloning a value to another JavaScript Realm, with a transfer list, but where the target Realm
is not known ahead of time. In this case the serialization step can be performed immediately,
with the deserialization step delayed until the target Realm becomes known.
EXAMPLE 60
messagePort.postMessage() uses this pair of abstract operations, as the destination
Realm is not known until the MessagePort has been shipped.
StructuredSerialize
StructuredSerializeForStorage
StructuredDeserialize
Creating a JavaScript Realm-independent snapshot of a given value which can be saved for
an indefinite amount of time, and then reified back into a JavaScript value later, possibly mul-
tiple times.
EXAMPLE 61
history.pushState() and history.replaceState() use StructuredSerializeForStor-
age on author-supplied state objects, storing them as serialized state in the appropriate
session history entry. Then, StructuredDeserialize is used so that the history.state
property can return a clone of the originally-supplied state object.
EXAMPLE 62
broadcastChannel.postMessage() uses StructuredSerialize on its input, then uses
StructuredDeserialize multiple times on the result to produce a fresh clone for each desti-
nation being broadcast to. Note that transferring does not make sense in multi-destination
situations.
EXAMPLE 63
Any API for persisting JavaScript values to the filesystem would also use StructuredSeri-
alizeForStorage on its input and StructuredDeserialize on its output.
In general, call sites may pass in Web IDL values instead of JavaScript values; this is to be under-
stood to perform an implicit conversion to the JavaScript value before invoking these algorithms.
NOTE:
This specification used to define a "structured clone" algorithm, and more recently a Struc-
turedClone abstract operation. However, in practice all known uses of it were better served by
separate serialization and deserialization steps, so it was removed.
Call sites that are not invoked as a result of author code synchronously calling into a user agent
method must take care to properly prepare to run script and prepare to run a callback before invok-
ing StructuredSerialize, StructuredSerializeForStorage, or StructuredSerializeWithTransfer ab-
stract operations, if they are being performed on arbitrary objects. This is necessary because the
serialization process can invoke author-defined accessors as part of its final deep-serialization
steps, and these accessors could call into operations that rely on the entry and incumbent concepts
being properly set up.
EXAMPLE 64
window.postMessage() performs StructuredSerializeWithTransfer on its arguments, but is
careful to do so immediately, inside the synchronous portion of its algorithm. Thus it is able to
use the algorithms without needing to prepare to run script and prepare to run a callback.
EXAMPLE 65
In contrast, a hypothetical API that used StructuredSerialize to serialize some author-supplied
object periodically, directly from a task on the event loop, would need to ensure it performs the
appropriate preparations beforehand. As of this time, we know of no such APIs on the plat-
form; usually it is simpler to perform the serialization ahead of time, as a synchronous conse-
quence of author code.
This monkey patch will be moved in due course. See w3c/FileAPI issue 32.
Blob objects are serializable objects. The Blob interface must be annotated with the
[Serializable] extended attribute. Their serialization steps, given value and serialized , are:
File objects are serializable objects. The File interface must be annotated with the
[Serializable] extended attribute. Their serialization steps, given value and serialized , are:
FileList objects are serializable objects. The FileList interface must be annotated with the
[Serializable] extended attribute. Their serialization steps, given value and serialized , are:
2. For each file in value , append the sub-serialization of file to serialized .[[Files]].
1. For each file of serialized .[[Files]], add the sub-deserialization of file to value .
3.1. Documents
Every XML and HTML document in an HTML UA is represented by a Document object. [DOM]
The Document objects URL is defined in the DOM specification. It is initially set when the
Document object is created, but that can change during the lifetime of the Document object; for
example, it changes when the user navigates to a fragment on the page and when the
pushState() method is called with a new URL. [DOM]
Warning! Interactive user agents typically expose the Document objects URL in
their user interface. This is the primary mechanism by which a user can tell if a site is
attempting to impersonate another.
The documents referrer is a string (representing a URL) that can be set when the Document is
created. If it is not explicitly set, then its value is the empty string.
Each Document object has a reload override flag that is originally unset. The flag is set by the
document.open() and document.write() methods in certain situations. When the flag is set,
the Document also has a reload override buffer which is a Unicode string that is used as the
source of the document when it is reloaded.
When the user agent is to perform an overridden reload, given a source browsing context, it must
act as follows:
1. Let source be the value of the browsing context's active document's reload override buffer.
3. Let HTTPS state be the HTTPS state of the browsing context's active document.
4. Let referrer policy be the referrer policy of the browsing context's active document.
5. Let CSP list be the CSP list of the browsing context's active document.
6. Navigate the browsing context to a new response whose body is source , header list is
Referrer-Policy/ referrer policy , CSP list is CSP list and HTTPS state is HTTPS state ,
with the exceptions enabled flag set and replacement enabled. The source browsing context is
that given to the overridden reload algorithm. When the navigate algorithm creates a
Document object for this purpose, set that Document's reload override flag and set its reload
override buffer to source . Rethrow any exceptions.
When it comes time to set the documents address in the navigation algorithm, use address
as the override URL.
The DOM specification defines a Document interface, which this specification extends signifi-
cantly:
[OverrideBuiltins]
partial interface Document {
// resource metadata management
[PutForwards=href, Unforgeable] readonly attribute Location? location;
attribute USVString domain;
readonly attribute USVString referrer;
attribute USVString cookie;
readonly attribute DOMString lastModified;
readonly attribute DocumentReadyState readyState;
// user interaction
readonly attribute WindowProxy? defaultView;
readonly attribute Element? activeElement;
boolean hasFocus();
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString designMode;
[CEReactions] boolean execCommand(DOMString commandId, optional boolean
The Document has an HTTPS state (an HTTPS state value), initially "none", which represents
the security properties of the network channel used to deliver the Document's data.
The Document has a referrer policy (a referrer policy), initially the empty string, which repre-
sents the default referrer policy used by fetches initiated by the Document.
The Document has a CSP list, which is a list of Content Security Policy objects active in this con-
text. The list is empty unless otherwise specified.
The Document has a module map, which is a module map, initially empty.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . cookie [ = value ]
Returns the HTTP cookies that apply to the Document. If there are no cookies or cook-
ies cant be applied to this resource, the empty string will be returned.
Can be set, to add a new cookie to the elements set of HTTP cookies.
If the contents are sandboxed into a unique origin (e.g., in an <iframe> with the sandbox
attribute), a "SecurityError" DOMException will be thrown on getting and setting.
The cookie attribute represents the cookies of the resource identified by the documents URL.
A Document object that falls into one of the following conditions is a cookie-averse Document
object:
On getting, if the document is a cookie-averse Document object, then the user agent must return
the empty string. Otherwise, if the Document's origin is an opaque origin, the user agent must
throw a "SecurityError" DOMException. Otherwise, the user agent must return the cookie-
string for the documents URL for a "non-HTTP" API, decoded using UTF-8 decode without
BOM. [COOKIES]
On setting, if the document is a cookie-averse Document object, then the user agent must do noth-
ing. Otherwise, if the Document's origin is an opaque origin, the user agent must throw a
"SecurityError" DOMException. Otherwise, the user agent must act as it would when receiv-
ing a set-cookie-string for the documents URL via a "non-HTTP" API, consisting of the new
value encoded as UTF-8. [COOKIES] [ENCODING]
NOTE:
Since the cookie attribute is accessible across frames, the path restrictions on cookies are
only a tool to help manage which cookies are sent to which parts of the site, and are not in any
way a security feature.
Warning! The cookie attributes getter and setter synchronously access shared state.
Since there is no locking mechanism, other browsing contexts in a multiprocess user
agent can modify cookies while scripts are running. A site could, for instance, try to
read a cookie, increment its value, then write it back out, using the new value of the
cookie as a unique identifier for the session; if the site does this twice in two different
browser windows at the same time, it might end up using the same "unique" identifier
for both sessions, with potentially disastrous effects.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . lastModified
Returns the date of the last modification to the document, as reported by the server, in
the form "MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss", in the users local time zone.
If the last modification date is not known, the current time is returned instead.
The lastModified attribute, on getting, must return the date and time of the Document's source
files last modification, in the users local time zone, in the following format:
All the numeric components above, other than the year, must be given as two ASCII digits repre-
senting the number in base ten, zero-padded if necessary. The year must be given as the shortest
possible string of four or more ASCII digits representing the number in base ten, zero-padded if
necessary.
The Document's source files last modification date and time must be derived from relevant fea-
tures of the networking protocols used, e.g., from the value of the HTTP Last-Modified header of
the document, or from metadata in the file system for local files. If the last modification date and
time are not known, the attribute must return the current date and time in the above format.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . readyState
Returns "loading" while the Document is loading, "interactive" once it is finished
parsing but still loading sub-resources, and "complete" once it has loaded.
The readystatechange event fires on the Document object when this value changes.
Each document has a current document readiness. When a Document object is created, it must
have its current document readiness set to the string "loading" if the document is associated with
an HTML parser, an XML parser, or an XSLT processor, and to the string "complete" otherwise.
Various algorithms during page loading affect this value. When the value is set, the user agent
must fire an event named readystatechange at the Document object.
A Document is said to have an active parser if it is associated with an HTML parser or an XML
parser that has not yet been stopped or aborted.
The readyState IDL attribute must, on getting, return the current document readiness.
The <html> element of a document is its document element, if its an <html> element, and null oth-
erwise.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . head
Returns the <head> element.
The <head> element of a document is the first <head> element that is a child of the <html> element,
if there is one, or null otherwise.
The head attribute, on getting, must return the <head> element of the document (a <head> element
or null).
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . title [ = value ]
Returns the documents title, as given by the <title> element for HTML and as given by
the SVG <title> element for SVG.
Can be set, to update the documents title. If there is no appropriate element to update,
the new value is ignored.
The <title> element of a document is the first <title> element in the document (in tree order), if
there is one, or null otherwise.
1. If the document element is an SVG <svg> element, then let value be the child text content of
the first SVG <title> element that is a child of the document element. [SVG11]
2. Otherwise, let value be the child text content of the <title> element, or the empty string if
the <title> element is null.
4. Return value .
On setting, the steps corresponding to the first matching condition in the following list must be
run:
1. If there is an SVG <title> element that is a child of the document element, let ele-
ment be the first such element.
2. Otherwise:
1. Let element be the result of creating an element given the document element's
node document, SVG <title>, and the SVG namespace.
3. Act as if the textContent IDL attribute of element was set to the new value be-
ing assigned.
1. If the <title> element is null and the <head> element is null, then abort these steps.
3. Otherwise:
1. Let element be the result of creating an element given the document element's
node document, <title>, and the HTML namespace.
4. Act as if the textContent IDL attribute of element was set to the new value be-
ing assigned.
Otherwise
Do nothing.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . body [ = value ]
Returns the <body> element.
Can be set, to replace the <body> element.
If the new value is not a <body> or <frameset> element, this will throw a
"HierarchyRequestError" DOMException.
The <body> element of a document is the first child of the <html> element that is either a <body> el-
ement or a <frameset> element. If there is no such element, it is null.
The body attribute, on getting, must return the <body> element of the document (either a <body> el-
ement, a <frameset> element, or null). On setting, the following algorithm must be run:
2. Otherwise, if the new value is the same as the <body> element, do nothing. Abort these steps.
3. Otherwise, if the <body> element is not null, then replace the <body> element with the new
value within the <body> elements parent and abort these steps.
5. Otherwise, the <body> element is null, but theres a document element. Append the new value
to the document element.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . images
Returns an HTMLCollection of the <img> elements in the Document.
document . embeds
document . plugins
Return an HTMLCollection of the <embed> elements in the Document.
document . links
Returns an HTMLCollection of the <a> and <area> elements in the Document that
have href attributes.
document . forms
Return an HTMLCollection of the <form> elements in the Document.
document . scripts
Return an HTMLCollection of the <script> elements in the Document.
The images attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter
matches only <img> elements.
The embeds attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter
matches only <embed> elements.
The plugins attribute must return the same object as that returned by the embeds attribute.
The links attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter
matches only <a> elements with href attributes and <area> elements with href attributes.
The forms attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter
matches only <form> elements.
The scripts attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose fil-
ter matches only <script> elements.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
collection = document . getElementsByName( name )
Returns a NodeList of elements in the Document that have a name attribute with the
value name .
The getElementsByName( name ) method takes a string name , and must return a live NodeList
containing all the HTML elements in that document that have a name attribute whose value is
equal to the name argument (in a case-sensitive manner), in tree order. When the method is in-
voked on a Document object again with the same argument, the user agent may return the same as
the object returned by the earlier call. In other cases, a new NodeList object must be returned.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . currentScript
Returns the <script> element, or the SVG <script> element, that is currently executing,
as long as the element represents a classic script. In the case of reentrant script execu-
tion, returns the one that most recently started executing amongst those that have not yet
finished executing.
Returns null if the Document is not currently executing a <script> element or SVG
<script> element (e.g., because the running script is an event handler, or a timeout), or
if the currently executing <script> or SVG <script> element represents a module script.
The currentScript attribute, on getting, must return the value to which it was most recently ini-
tialized. When the Document is created, the currentScript must be initialized to null.
NOTE:
This API has fallen out of favor in the implementor and standards community, as it globally
exposes <script> or SVG <script> elements. As such, it is not available in newer contexts,
such as when running module scripts or when running scripts in a shadow tree.
The Document interface supports named properties. The supported property names of a
Document object document at any moment consist of the following, in tree order according to the
element that contributed them, ignoring later duplicates, and with values from id attributes coming
before values from name attributes when the same element contributes both:
the value of the name content attribute for all <applet>, exposed <embed>, <form>, <iframe>,
<img>, and exposed <object> elements that have a non-empty name content attribute and are
in a document tree with document as their root;
the value of the id content attribute for all <applet> and exposed <object> elements that have
a non-empty id content attribute and are in a document tree with document as their root;
the value of the id content attribute for all <img> elements that have both a non-empty id con-
tent attribute and a non-empty name content attribute, and are in a document tree with docu-
ment as their root.
To determine the value of a named property name for a Document, the user agent must return the
value obtained using the following steps:
1. Let elements be the list of named elements with the name name that are in a document tree
with the Document as their root.
NOTE:
There will be at least one such element, by definition.
2. If elements has only one element, and that element is an <iframe> element, and that <iframe>
elements nested browsing context is not null, then return the WindowProxy object of the el-
ements nested browsing context.
4. Otherwise return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter matches
only named elements with the name name .
Named elements with the name name , for the purposes of the above algorithm, are those that are
either:
<applet>,exposed <embed>, <form>, <iframe>, <img>, or exposed <object> elements that have
a name content attribute whose value is name , or
<applet> or exposed <object> elements that have an id content attribute whose value is
name , or
<img>elements that have an id content attribute whose value is name , and that have a non-
empty name content attribute present also.
An <embed> or <object> element is said to be exposed if it has no exposed <object> ancestor, and,
for <object> elements, is additionally either not showing its fallback content or has no <object> or
<embed> descendants.
NOTE:
The dir attribute on the Document interface is defined along with the dir content attribute.
3.2. Elements
3.2.1. Semantics
Elements, attributes, and attribute values in HTML are defined (by this specification) to have
certain meanings (semantics). For example, the <ol> element represents an ordered list, and the
lang attribute represents the language of the content.
These definitions allow HTML processors, like web browsers and search engines, to present docu-
ments and applications consistently in different contexts.
EXAMPLE 66
In this example the HTML headings may be presented as large text in a desktop browser, or
standard size text in bold in a mobile browser. In both cases the semantic information remains
the same - that the <h1> and <h2> elements represent headings.
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Favorite books</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<img src="logo.png" alt="Favorite books logo">
</header>
<main>
<h1>Favorite books</h1>
<p>These are a few of my favorite books.</p>
<h2>The Belgariad</h2>
<p>Five books by David and Leigh Eddings.</p>
<h2>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy</h2>
<p>A trilogy of five books by Douglas Adams.</p>
</main>
</body>
</html>
This semantic information is critical to assistive technologies. For example, a screen reader will
query the browser for semantic information and use that information to present the document or
application in synthetic speech.
In some cases assistive technologies use semantic information to provide additional functionality.
A speech recognition tool might provide a voice command for moving focus to the start of the
<main> element for example.
When the appropriate HTML element or attribute is not used, it deprives HTML processors of
valuable semantic information.
EXAMPLE 67
In this example styling may be used to create a visual representation of headings and other
components, but because the appropriate HTML elements have not been used there is little se-
mantic information available to web browsers, search engines and assistive technologies.
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Favorite books</title>
</head>
<body>
<div class="header">
<img src="logo.png" alt="Favorite books logo">
</div>
<div class="main">
<span class="largeHeading">Favorite books</span>
<p>These are a few of my favorite books.</p>
<span class="smallHeading">The Belgariad</span>
<p>Five books by David and Leigh Eddings.</p>
<span class="smallHeading">The Hitchhikers Guide to the
Galaxy</span>
<p>A trilogy of five books by Douglas Adams.</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
A document can change dynamically while it is being processed. Scripting and other mechanisms
can be used to change attribute values, text, or the entire document structure. The semantics of a
document are therefore based on the documents state at a particular instance in time, but may also
change in response to external events. User agents must update their presentation of the document
to reflect these changes.
EXAMPLE 68
In this example the <audio> element is used to play a music track. The controls attribute is
used to show the user agent player, and as the music plays the controls are updated to indicate
progress. The available semantic information is updated in response to these changes.
The nodes representing HTML elements in the DOM must implement, and expose to scripts, the
interfaces listed for them in the relevant sections of this specification. This includes HTML ele-
ments in XML documents, even when those documents are in another context (e.g., inside an
XSLT transform).
Elements in the DOM represent things; that is, they have intrinsic meaning, also known as seman-
tics.
EXAMPLE 69
For example, an <ol> element represents an ordered list.
The basic interface, from which all the HTML elements' interfaces inherit, and which must be used
by elements that have no additional requirements, is the HTMLElement interface.
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLElement : Element {
// metadata attributes
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString title;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString lang;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean translate;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString dir;
[SameObject] readonly attribute DOMStringMap dataset;
// user interaction
[CEReactions] attribute boolean hidden;
void click();
[CEReactions] attribute long tabIndex;
void focus();
void blur();
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString accessKey;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean draggable;
[CEReactions] attribute HTMLMenuElement? contextMenu;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean spellcheck;
void forceSpellCheck();
[CEReactions, TreatNullAs=EmptyString] attribute DOMString innerText;
};
HTMLElement implements GlobalEventHandlers;
HTMLElement implements DocumentAndElementEventHandlers;
HTMLElement implements ElementContentEditable;
The HTMLElement interface holds methods and attributes related to a number of disparate fea-
tures, and the members of this interface are therefore described in various different sections of this
specification.
The HTMLUnknownElement interface must be used for HTML elements that are not defined by
this specification (or other applicable specifications).
The element interface for an element with name name in the HTML namespace is determined as
follows:
4. Otherwise, if this specification defines an interface appropriate for the element type corre-
sponding to the local name name , then return that interface.
5. If other applicable specifications define an appropriate interface for name , then return the in-
terface they define.
7. Return HTMLUnknownElement.
NOTE:
The use of HTMLElement instead of HTMLUnknownElement in the case of valid custom ele-
ment names is done to ensure that any potential future upgrades only cause a linear transition
of the elements prototype chain, from HTMLElement to a subclass, instead of a lateral one,
from HTMLUnknownElement to an unrelated subclass.
Each element in this specification has a definition that includes the following information:
Categories
A list of categories to which the element belongs. These are used when defining the content
models for each element.
with the content models of elements that allow this one as a child, and is provided only as a
convenience.
NOTE:
For simplicity, only the most specific expectations are listed. For example, an element that
is both flow content and phrasing content can be used anywhere that either flow content
or phrasing content is expected, but since anywhere that flow content is expected, phras-
ing content is also expected (since all phrasing content is flow content), only "where
phrasing content is expected" will be listed.
Content model
A normative description of what content must be included as children and descendants of the
element.
Content attributes
A normative list of attributes that may be specified on the element (except where otherwise
disallowed), along with non-normative descriptions of those attributes. (The content to the
left of the dash is normative, the content to the right of the dash is not.)
DOM interface
A normative definition of a DOM interface that such elements must implement.
This is then followed by a description of what the element represents, along with any additional
normative conformance criteria that may apply to authors and implementations. Examples are
sometimes also included.
3.2.3.1. Attributes
An attribute value is a string. Except where otherwise specified, attribute values on HTML ele-
ments may be any string value, including the empty string, and there is no restriction on what text
Each element defined in this specification has a content model: a description of the elements ex-
pected contents. An HTML element must have contents that match the requirements described in
the elements content model. The contents of an element are its children in the DOM.
NOTE:
When a <template> element is being parsed, its children are assigned to the template contents
(a separate DocumentFragment assigned to the element when the element is created), rather
than its children.
The space characters are always allowed between elements. User agents represent these characters
between elements in the source markup as Text nodes in the DOM. Empty Text nodes and Text
nodes consisting of just sequences of those characters are considered inter-element white space.
Inter-element white space, comment nodes, and processing instruction nodes must be ignored
when establishing whether an elements contents match the elements content model or not, and
must be ignored when following algorithms that define document and element semantics.
NOTE:
Thus, an element A is said to be preceded or followed by a second element B if A and B
have the same parent node and there are no other element nodes or Text nodes (other than
inter-element white space) between them. Similarly, a node is the only child of an element if
that element contains no other nodes other than inter-element white space, comment nodes, and
processing instruction nodes.
Authors must not use HTML elements anywhere except where they are explicitly allowed, as de-
fined for each element, or as explicitly required by other specifications. For XML compound docu-
ments, these contexts could be inside elements from other namespaces, if those elements are de-
fined as providing the relevant contexts.
EXAMPLE 70
For example, the Atom specification defines a <content> element. When its type attribute has
the value xhtml, the Atom specification requires that it contain a single HTML <div> element.
Thus, a <div> element is allowed in that context, even though this is not explicitly normatively
stated by this specification. [RFC4287]
In addition, HTML elements may be orphan nodes (i.e., without a parent node).
EXAMPLE 71
For example, creating a <td> element and storing it in a global variable in a script is conform-
ing, even though <td> elements are otherwise only supposed to be used inside <tr> elements.
var data = {
name: "Banana",
cell: document.createElement('td'),
};
When an elements content model is nothing, the element must contain no Text nodes (other than
inter-element white space) and no element nodes.
NOTE:
Most HTML elements whose content model is "nothing" are also, for convenience, void ele-
ments (elements that have no end tag in the HTML syntax). However, these are entirely sepa-
rate concepts.
Each element in HTML falls into zero or more categories that group elements with similar charac-
teristics together. The following broad categories are used in this specification:
Metadata content
Flow content
Sectioning content
Heading content
Phrasing content
Embedded content
Interactive content
NOTE:
Some elements also fall into other categories, which are defined in other parts of this specifica-
tion.
Sectioning content, heading content, phrasing content, embedded content, and interactive content
are all types of flow content. Metadata is sometimes flow content. Metadata and interactive con-
tent are sometimes phrasing content. Embedded content is also a type of phrasing content, and
sometimes is interactive content.
Other categories are also used for specific purposes, e.g., form controls are specified using a
number of categories to define common requirements. Some elements have unique requirements
and do not fit into any particular category.
Metadata content is content that sets up the presentation or behavior of the rest of the content, or
that sets up the relationship of the document with other documents, or that conveys other "out of
band" information.
<base> , <link> , <meta> , <noscript> , <script> , <style> , <template> , <title>
Elements from other namespaces whose semantics are primarily metadata-related (e.g., RDF) are
also metadata content.
EXAMPLE 72
Thus, in the XML serialization, one can use RDF, like this:
Most elements that are used in the body of documents and applications are categorized as flow
content.
<a> , <abbr> , <address> , <area> (if it is a descendant of a <map> element) , <article> ,
<aside> , <audio> , <b> , <bdi> , <bdo> , <blockquote> , <br> , <button> , <canvas> , <cite> ,
<code> , <data> , <datalist> , <del> , <details> , <dfn> , <dialog> , <div> , <dl> , <em> ,
<embed> , <fieldset> , <figure> , <footer> , <form> , <h1> , <h2> , <h3> , <h4> , <h5> , <h6> ,
<header> , <hr> , <i> , <iframe> , <img> , <input> , <ins> , <kbd> , <label> , <link> (if it is al-
lowed in the body) , <main> , <map> , <mark> , MathML <math> , <menu> , <meter> , <nav> ,
<noscript> , <object> , <ol> , <output> , <p> , <picture> , <pre> , <progress> , <q> , <ruby> ,
<s> , <samp> , <script> , <section> , <select> , <small> , <span> , <strong> , <style> , <sub>,
<sup> , SVG <svg> , <table> , <template> , <textarea> , <time> , <u> , <ul> , <var> , <video> ,
<wbr> , text
Sectioning content is content that defines the scope of headings and footers.
<article> , <aside> , <nav> , <section>
Each sectioning content element potentially has a heading and an outline. See the section on head-
ings and sections for further details.
NOTE:
There are also certain elements that are sectioning roots. These are distinct from sectioning
content, but they can also have an outline.
Heading content defines the header of a section (whether explicitly marked up using sectioning
content elements, or implied by the heading content itself).
<h1> , <h2> , <h3> , <h4> , <h5> , <h6>
Phrasing content is the text of the document, as well as elements that mark up that text at the
intra-paragraph level. Runs of phrasing content form paragraphs.
<a> , <abbr> , <area> (if it is a descendant of a <map> element) , <audio> , <b> , <bdi> ,
<bdo> , <br> , <button> , <canvas> , <cite> , <code> , <data> , <datalist> , <del> , <dfn> , <em>
, <embed> , <i> , <iframe> , <img> , <input> , <ins> , <kbd> , <label> , <link> (if it is allowed in
the body) , <map> , <mark> , MathML <math> , <meter> , <noscript> , <object> , <output> ,
<picture> , <progress> , <q> , <ruby> , <s> , <samp> , <script> , <select> , <small> , <span> ,
<strong> , <sub> , <sup> , SVG <svg> , <template> , <textarea> , <time> , <u> , <var> , <video>
, <wbr> , text
NOTE:
Most elements that are categorized as phrasing content can only contain elements that are
themselves categorized as phrasing content, not any flow content.
Text, in the context of content models, means either nothing, or Text nodes. Text is sometimes
used as a content model on its own, but is also phrasing content, and can be inter-element white
space (if the Text nodes are empty or contain just space characters).
Text nodes and attribute values must consist of Unicode characters, must not contain U+0000
characters, must not contain permanently undefined Unicode characters (noncharacters), and must
not contain control characters other than space characters. This specification includes extra con-
straints on the exact value of Text nodes and attribute values depending on their precise context.
For elements in HTML, the constraints of the Text content model also depends on the kind of ele-
ment. For instance, an "<" inside a <textarea> element does not need to be escaped in HTML be-
cause <textarea> is an escapable raw text element. (This does not apply to XHTML. In XHTML,
the kind of element doesnt affect the constraints of the Text content model.)
Embedded content is content that imports another resource into the document, or content from
another vocabulary that is inserted into the document.
<audio> , <canvas> , <embed> , <iframe> , <img> , MathML <math> , <object> , <picture> ,
SVG <svg> , <video>
Elements that are from namespaces other than the HTML namespace and that convey content but
not metadata, are embedded content for the purposes of the content models defined in this specifi-
cation. (For example, MathML, or SVG.)
Some embedded content elements can have fallback content: content that is to be used when the
external resource cannot be used (e.g., because it is of an unsupported format). The element defini-
tions state what the fallback is, if any.
The tabindex attribute can also make any element into interactive content.
As a general rule, elements whose content model allows any flow content or phrasing content
should have at least one node in its contents that is palpable content and that does not have the
hidden attribute specified.
NOTE:
Palpable content makes an element non-empty by providing either some descendant non-
empty text, or else something users can hear (<audio> elements) or view (<video> or <img> or
<canvas> elements) or otherwise interact with (for example, interactive form controls).
This requirement is not a hard requirement, however, as there are many cases where an element
can be empty legitimately, for example when it is used as a placeholder which will later be filled in
by a script, or when the element is part of a template and would on most pages be filled in but on
some pages is not relevant.
Conformance checkers are encouraged to provide a mechanism for authors to find elements that
fail to fulfill this requirement, as an authoring aid.
Script-supporting elements are those that do not represent anything themselves (i.e., they are not
rendered), but are used to support scripts, e.g., to provide functionality for the user.
Some elements are described as transparent; they have "transparent" in the description of their
content model. The content model of a transparent element is derived from the content model of its
parent element: the elements required in the part of the content model that is "transparent" are the
same elements as required in the part of the content model of the parent of the transparent element
EXAMPLE 73
For instance, an <ins> element inside a <ruby> element cannot contain an <rt> element, be-
cause the part of the <ruby> elements content model that allows <ins> elements is the part that
allows phrasing content, and the <rt> element is not phrasing content.
NOTE:
In some cases, where transparent elements are nested in each other, the process has to be ap-
plied iteratively.
EXAMPLE 74
Consider the following markup fragment:
<p><object><param><ins><map><a href="/">Apples</a></map></ins>
</object></p>
To check whether "Apples" is allowed inside the <a> element, the content models are exam-
ined. The <a> elements content model is transparent, as is the <map> elements, as is the <ins>
elements, as is the part of the <object> elements in which the <ins> element is found. The
<object> element is found in the <p> element, whose content model is phrasing content. Thus,
"Apples" is allowed, as text is phrasing content.
When a transparent element has no parent, then the part of its content model that is "transparent"
must instead be treated as accepting any flow content.
3.2.4.4. Paragraphs
NOTE:
The term paragraph as defined in this section is used for more than just the definition of the
<p> element. The paragraph concept defined here is used to describe how to interpret docu-
ments. The <p> element is merely one of several ways of marking up a paragraph.
A paragraph is typically a run of phrasing content that forms a block of text with one or more
sentences that discuss a particular topic, as in typography, but can also be used for more general
thematic grouping. For instance, an address is also a paragraph, as is a part of a form, a byline, or a
stanza in a poem.
EXAMPLE 75
In the following example, there are two paragraphs in a section. There is also a heading, which
contains phrasing content that is not a paragraph. Note how the comments and inter-element
white space do not form paragraphs.
<section>
<h2>Example of paragraphs</h2>
This is the <em>first</em> paragraph in this example.
<p>This is the second.</p>
<!-- This is not a paragraph. -->
</section>
Paragraphs in flow content are defined relative to what the document looks like without the <a>,
<ins>, <del>, and <map> elements complicating matters, since those elements, with their hybrid
content models, can straddle paragraph boundaries, as shown in the first two examples below.
NOTE:
Generally, having elements straddle paragraph boundaries is best avoided. Maintaining such
markup can be difficult.
EXAMPLE 76
The following example takes the markup from the earlier example and puts <ins> and <del> el-
ements around some of the markup to show that the text was changed (though in this case, the
changes admittedly dont make much sense). Notice how this example has exactly the same
paragraphs as the previous one, despite the <ins> and <del> elements the <ins> element
straddles the heading and the first paragraph, and the <del> element straddles the boundary be-
tween the two paragraphs.
<section>
<ins><h1>Example of paragraphs</h1>
This is the <em>first</em> paragraph in</ins> this example<del>.
<p>This is the second.</p></del>
<!-- This is not a paragraph. -->
</section>
Let view be a view of the DOM that replaces all <a>, <ins>, <del>, and <map> elements in the doc-
ument with their contents. Then, in view , for each run of sibling phrasing content nodes uninter-
rupted by other types of content, in an element that accepts content other than phrasing content as
well as phrasing content, let first be the first node of the run, and let last be the last node of the
run. For each such run that consists of at least one node that is neither embedded content nor inter-
element white space, a paragraph exists in the original DOM from immediately before first to im-
mediately after last . (Paragraphs can thus span across <a>, <ins>, <del>, and <map> elements.)
Conformance checkers may warn authors of cases where they have paragraphs that overlap each
other (this can happen with <object>, <video>, <audio>, and <canvas> elements, and indirectly
through elements in other namespaces that allow HTML to be further embedded therein, like SVG
<svg> or MathML <math>).
NOTE:
The <p> element can be used to wrap individual paragraphs when there would otherwise not be
any content other than phrasing content to separate the paragraphs from each other.
EXAMPLE 77
In the following example, the link spans half of the first paragraph, all of the heading separat-
ing the two paragraphs, and half of the second paragraph. It straddles the paragraphs and the
heading.
<header>
Welcome!
<a href="about.html">
This is home of...
<h1>The Falcons!</h1>
The Lockheed Martin multirole jet fighter aircraft!
</a>
This page discusses the F-16 Fighting Falcons innermost secrets.
</header>
Here is another way of marking this up, this time showing the paragraphs explicitly, and split-
ting the one link element into three:
<header>
<p>Welcome! <a href="about.html">This is home of...</a></p>
<h1><a href="about.html">The Falcons!</a></h1>
<p><a href="about.html">The Lockheed Martin multirole jet
fighter aircraft!</a> This page discusses the F-16 Fighting
Falcons innermost secrets.</p>
</header>
EXAMPLE 78
It is possible for paragraphs to overlap when using certain elements that define fallback con-
tent. For example, in the following section:
<section>
<h2>My Cats</h2>
You can play with my cat simulator.
<object data="cats.sim">
To see the cat simulator, use one of the following links:
<ul>
<li><a href="cats.sim">Download simulator file</a>
<li><a href="https://sims.example.com/watch?v=LYds5xY4INU">Use
online simulator</a>
</ul>
Alternatively, upgrade to the Mellblom Browser.
</object>
Im quite proud of it.
</section>
1. The paragraph that says "You can play with my cat simulator. object Im quite proud of
it.", where object is the <object> element.
2. The paragraph that says "To see the cat simulator, use one of the following links:".
3. The paragraph that says "Download simulator file".
4. The paragraph that says "Use online simulator".
5. The paragraph that says "Alternatively, upgrade to the Mellblom Browser.".
The first paragraph is overlapped by the other four. A user agent that supports the "cats.sim"
resource will only show the first one, but a user agent that shows the fallback will confusingly
show the first sentence of the first paragraph as if it was in the same paragraph as the second
one, and will show the last paragraph as if it was at the start of the second sentence of the first
paragraph.
To avoid this confusion, explicit <p> elements can be used. For example:
<section>
<h2>My Cats</h2>
<p>You can play with my cat simulator.</p>
<object data="cats.sim">
<p>To see the cat simulator, use one of the following links:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="cats.sim">Download simulator file</a>
<li><a href="https://sims.example.com/watch?v=LYds5xY4INU">Use
online simulator</a>
</ul>
<p>Alternatively, upgrade to the Mellblom Browser.</p>
</object>
<p>Im quite proud of it.</p>
</section>
The following attributes are common to and may be specified on all HTML elements (even those
not defined in this specification):
accesskey
class
contenteditable
contextmenu
dir
draggable
hidden
id
lang
spellcheck
style
tabindex
title
translate
These attributes are only defined by this specification as attributes for HTML elements. When this
specification refers to elements having these attributes, elements from namespaces that are not de-
fined as having these attributes must not be considered as being elements with these attributes.
EXAMPLE 79
For example, in the following XML fragment, the "bogus" element does not have a dir at-
tribute as defined in this specification, despite having an attribute with the literal name "dir".
Thus, the directionality of the inner-most <span> element is 'rtl', inherited from the <div> ele-
ment indirectly through the "bogus" element.
The DOM specification defines additional user agent requirements for the class, id, and slot at-
tributes for any element in any namespace. [DOM]
The class, id, and slot attributes may be specified on all HTML elements.
When specified on HTML elements, the class attribute must have a value that is a set of space-
separated tokens representing the various classes that the element belongs to.
NOTE:
Assigning classes to an element affects class matching in selectors in CSS, the
getElementsByClassName() method in the DOM, and other such features.
There are no additional restrictions on the tokens authors can use in the class attribute, but au-
thors are encouraged to use values that describe the nature of the content, rather than values
that describe the desired presentation of the content.
When specified on HTML elements, the id attribute value must be unique amongst all the IDs in
the elements tree and must contain at least one character. The value must not contain any space
characters.
NOTE:
The id attribute specifies its elements unique identifier (ID).
There are no other restrictions on what form an ID can take; in particular, IDs can consist of
just digits, start with a digit, start with an underscore, consist of just punctuation, etc.
An elements unique identifier can be used for a variety of purposes, most notably as a way to
link to specific parts of a document using fragment, as a way to target an element when script-
ing, and as a way to style a specific element from CSS.
Identifiers are opaque strings. Particular meanings should not be derived from the value of the id
attribute.
There are no conformance requirements for the slot attribute specific to HTML elements.
To enable assistive technology products to expose a more fine-grained interface than is otherwise
possible with HTML elements and attributes, a set of annotations for assistive technology products
can be specified (the ARIA role and aria-* attributes). [wai-aria-1.1]
The following event handler content attributes may be specified on any HTML element:
onabort
onauxclick
onblur*
oncancel
oncanplay
oncanplaythrough
onchange
onclick
onclose
oncontextmenu
oncuechange
ondblclick
ondrag
ondragend
ondragenter
ondragexit
ondragleave
ondragover
ondragstart
ondrop
ondurationchange
onemptied
onended
onerror*
onfocus*
oninput
oninvalid
onkeydown
onkeypress
onkeyup
onload*
onloadeddata
onloadedmetadata
onloadend
onloadstart
onmousedown
onmouseenter
onmouseleave
onmousemove
onmouseout
onmouseover
onmouseup
onwheel
onpause
onplay
onplaying
onprogress
onratechange
onreset
onresize*
onscroll*
onseeked
onseeking
onselect
onshow
onstalled
onsubmit
onsuspend
ontimeupdate
ontoggle
onvolumechange
onwaiting
NOTE:
The attributes marked with an asterisk have a different meaning when specified on <body> ele-
ments as those elements expose event handlers of the Window object with the same names.
NOTE:
While these attributes apply to all elements, they are not useful on all elements. For example,
only media elements will ever receive a volumechange event fired by the user agent.
Custom data attributes (e.g., data-foldername or data-msgid) can be specified on any HTML el-
In HTML documents, elements in the HTML namespace may have an xmlns attribute specified, if,
and only if, it has the exact value "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml". This does not apply to
XML documents.
NOTE:
In HTML, the xmlns attribute has absolutely no effect. It is basically a talisman. It is allowed
merely to make migration to and from XML mildly easier. When parsed by an HTML parser,
the attribute ends up in no namespace, not the "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/" names-
pace like namespace declaration attributes in XML do.
NOTE:
In XML, an xmlns attribute is part of the namespace declaration mechanism, and an element
cannot actually have an xmlns attribute in no namespace specified.
The XML specification also allows the use of the xml:space attribute in the XML namespace on
any element in an XML document. This attribute has no effect on HTML elements, as the default
behavior in HTML is to preserve white space. [XML]
NOTE:
There is no way to serialize the xml:space attribute on HTML elements in the text/html syn-
tax.
The title attribute represents advisory information for the element, such as would be appropriate
for a tooltip. On a link, this could be the title or a description of the target resource; on an image, it
could be the image credit or a description of the image; on a paragraph, it could be a footnote or
commentary on the text; on a citation, it could be further information about the source; on interac-
tive content, it could be a label for, or instructions for, use of the element; and so forth. The value
is text.
agents do not expose the attribute in an accessible manner as required by this specifica-
tion (e.g., requiring a pointing device such as a mouse to cause a tooltip to appear,
which excludes keyboard-only users and touch-only users, such as anyone with a mod-
ern phone or tablet).
If this attribute is omitted from an element, then it implies that the title attribute of the nearest
ancestor HTML element with a title attribute set is also relevant to this element. Setting the at-
tribute overrides this, explicitly stating that the advisory information of any ancestors is not rele-
vant to this element. Setting the attribute to the empty string indicates that the element has no advi-
sory information.
If the title attributes value contains U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters, the content is split
into multiple lines. Each U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character represents a line break.
EXAMPLE 80
Caution is advised with respect to the use of newlines in title attributes.
For instance, the following snippet actually defines an abbreviations expansion with a line
break in it:
<p>My logs show that there was some interest in <abbr title="Hypertext
Transport Protocol">HTTP</abbr> today.</p>
Some elements, such as <link>, <abbr>, and <input>, define additional semantics for the title at-
tribute beyond the semantics described above.
The advisory information of an element is the value that the following algorithm returns, with the
algorithm being aborted once a value is returned. When the algorithm returns the empty string,
then there is no advisory information.
1. If the element is a <link>, <style>, <dfn>, <abbr>, or <menuitem> element, then: if the element
has a title attribute, return the value of that attribute, otherwise, return the empty string.
2. Otherwise, if the element has a title attribute, then return its value.
3. Otherwise, if the element has a parent element, then return the parent elements advisory in-
formation.
User agents should inform the user when elements have advisory information, otherwise the infor-
mation would not be discoverable.
The title IDL attribute must reflect the title content attribute.
The lang attribute (in no namespace) specifies the primary language for the elements contents
and for any of the elements attributes that contain text. Its value must be a valid BCP 47 language
tag, or the empty string. Setting the attribute to the empty string indicates that the primary lan-
guage is unknown. [BCP47]
If these attributes are omitted from an element, then the language of this element is the same as the
language of its parent element, if any.
The lang attribute in the XML namespace may be used on HTML elements in XML documents,
as well as elements in other namespaces if the relevant specifications allow it (in particular,
MathML and SVG allow lang attributes in the XML namespace to be specified on their elements).
If both the lang attribute in no namespace and the lang attribute in the XML namespace are speci-
fied on the same element, they must have exactly the same value when compared in an ASCII
case-insensitive manner.
Authors must not use the lang attribute in the XML namespace on HTML elements in HTML
documents. To ease migration to and from XHTML, authors may specify an attribute in no names-
pace with no prefix and with the literal localname "xml:lang" on HTML elements in HTML doc-
uments, but such attributes must only be specified if a lang attribute in no namespace is also spec-
ified, and both attributes must have the same value when compared in an ASCII case-insensitive
manner.
NOTE:
The attribute in no namespace with no prefix and with the literal localname "xml:lang" has no
effect on language processing.
Warning! The language of HTML documents is indicated using a lang attribute (on
the <html> element itself, to indicate the primary language of the document, and on indi-
vidual elements, to indicate a change in language). It provides an explicit indication to
user agents about the language of content in order to enable language specific behavior.
For example, use of an appropriate language dictionary; selection of an appropriate font
or glyphs for characters shared between different languages; or in the case of screen
readers and similar assistive technologies with voice output, pronunciation of content
using the correct voice / language library.
Incorrect or absent lang attributes can produce unexpected results in other circum-
stances, as they are also used to determine quotation marks for <q> elements, styling
such as hyphenation, case conversion, line-breaking, and spell-checking in some edi-
tors, etc.
Setting the lang attribute to a language which does not match the language of the
document or document parts will result in some users being unable to understand
the content.
To determine the language of a node, user agents must look at the nearest ancestor element (in-
cluding the element itself if the node is an element) that has a lang attribute in the XML names-
pace set or is an HTML element and has a lang in no namespace attribute set. That attribute speci-
fies the language of the node (regardless of its value).
If both the lang attribute in no namespace and the lang attribute in the XML namespace are set on
an element, user agents must use the lang attribute in the XML namespace, and the lang attribute
in no namespace must be ignored for the purposes of determining the elements language.
If nodes inclusive ancestors do not have either attribute set, but there is a pragma-set default lan-
guage set, then that is the language of the node. If there is no pragma-set default language set, then
language information from a higher-level protocol (such as HTTP), if any, must be used as the fi-
nal fallback language instead. In the absence of any such language information, and in cases where
the higher-level protocol reports multiple languages, the language of the node is unknown, and the
corresponding language tag is the empty string.
EXAMPLE 81
For example, if a document is delivered over HTTP and the Content-Language HTTP header
is specified with a value "en", then for any element in the document that does not itself have a
lang attribute nor any ancestor of that element, the fallback language for the element will be
English. If the value of the Content-Language header was "de, fr, it" then the language of
the node is unknown. This article provides some additional guidance on the use of HTTP head-
ers, and <meta> elements for providing language information.
If the resulting value is not a recognized language tag, then it must be treated as an unknown
language having the given language tag, distinct from all other languages. For the purposes of
round-tripping or communicating with other services that expect language tags, user agents should
pass unknown language tags through unmodified, and tagged as being BCP 47 language tags, so
that subsequent services do not interpret the data as another type of language description. [BCP47]
EXAMPLE 82
Thus, for instance, an element with lang="xyzzy" would be matched by the selector
:lang(xyzzy) (e.g., in CSS), but it would not be matched by :lang(abcde), even though
both are equally invalid. Similarly, if a Web browser and screen reader working in unison com-
municated about the language of the element, the browser would tell the screen reader that the
language was "xyzzy", even if it knew it was invalid, just in case the screen reader actually
supported a language with that tag after all. Even if the screen reader supported both BCP 47
and another syntax for encoding language names, and in that other syntax the string "xyzzy"
was a way to denote the Belarusian language, it would be incorrect for the screen reader to
then start treating text as Belarusian, because "xyzzy" is not how Belarusian is described in
BCP 47 codes (BCP 47 uses the code "be" for Belarusian).
If the resulting value is the empty string, then it must be interpreted as meaning that the language
of the node is explicitly unknown.
User agents may use the elements language to determine proper processing or rendering (e.g., in
the selection of appropriate fonts or pronunciations, for dictionary selection, or for the user inter-
faces of form controls such as date pickers).
The lang IDL attribute must reflect the lang content attribute in no namespace.
The translate attribute is an enumerated attribute that is used to specify whether an elements at-
tribute values and the values of its Text node children are to be translated when the page is local-
ized, or whether to leave them unchanged.
The attributes keywords are the empty string, yes, and no. The empty string and the yes keyword
map to the yes state. The no keyword maps to the no state. In addition, there is a third state, the in-
herit state, which is the missing value default (and the invalid value default).
Each element (even non-HTML elements) has a translation mode, which is in either the translate-
enabled state or the no-translate state. If an HTML element's translate attribute is in the yes
state, then the elements translation mode is in the translate-enabled state; otherwise, if the ele-
ments translate attribute is in the no state, then the elements translation mode is in the no-
translate state. Otherwise, either the elements translate attribute is in the inherit state, or the ele-
ment is not an HTML element and thus does not have a translate attribute; in either case, the el-
ements translation mode is in the same state as its parent elements, if any, or in the translate-
enabled state, if the element is a document element.
When an element is in the translate-enabled state, the elements translatable attributes and the
values of its Text node children are to be translated when the page is localized.
When an element is in the no-translate state, the elements attribute values and the values of its
Text node children are to be left as-is when the page is localized, e.g., because the element con-
tains a persons name or a name of a computer program.
Other specifications may define other attributes that are also translatable attributes. For example,
ARIA would define the aria-label attribute as translatable.
The translate IDL attribute must, on getting, return true if the elements translation mode is
translate-enabled, and false otherwise. On setting, it must set the content attributes value to "yes"
if the new value is true, and set the content attributes value to "no" otherwise.
EXAMPLE 83
In this example, everything in the document is to be translated when the page is localized, ex-
cept the sample keyboard input and sample program output:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html> <!-- default on the document element is translate=yes -->
<head>
<title>The Bee Game</title> <!-- implied translate=yes inherited from
ancestors -->
</head>
<body>
<p>The Bee Game is a text adventure game in English.</p>
<p>When the game launches, the first thing you should do is type
<kbd translate=no>eat honey</kbd>. The game will respond with:</p>
<pre><samp translate=no>Yum yum! That was some good honey!</samp></pre>
</body>
</html>
The xml:base attribute may be used on HTML elements of XML documents. Authors must not
use the xml:base attribute on HTML elements in HTML documents.
The dir attribute specifies the elements text directionality. The attribute is an enumerated at-
tribute with the following keywords and states:
NOTE:
The heuristic used by this state is very crude (it just looks at the first character with a
strong directionality, in a manner analogous to the Paragraph Level determination in the
bidirectional algorithm). Authors are urged to only use this value as a last resort when the
direction of the text is truly unknown and no better server-side heuristic can be applied.
[BIDI]
NOTE:
For <textarea> and <pre> elements, the heuristic is applied on a per-paragraph level.
The attribute has no invalid value default and no missing value default.
The directionality of an element (any element, not just an HTML element) is either 'ltr' or 'rtl',
and is determined as per the first appropriate set of steps from the following list:
If the element is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Text, Search,
Telephone, URL, or E-mail state, and the dir attribute is in the auto state
If the element is a <textarea> element and the dir attribute is in the auto state
If the elements value contains a character of bidirectional character type AL or R, and
there is no character of bidirectional character type L anywhere before it in the elements
value, then the directionality of the element is 'rtl'. [BIDI]
Otherwise, if the elements value is not the empty string, or if the element is a document
element, the directionality of the element is 'ltr'.
Otherwise, the directionality of the element is the same as the elements parent elements
directionality.
If the element is a <bdi> element and the dir attribute is not in a defined state (i.e., it is
not present or has an invalid value)
Find the first character in tree order that matches the following criteria:
The character is from a Text node that is a descendant of the element whose direc-
tionality is being determined.
The character is not in a Text node that has an ancestor element that is a descen-
dant of the element whose directionality is being determined and that is either:
A <bdi> element.
A <script> element.
A <style> element.
A <textarea> element.
An element with a dir attribute in a defined state.
Otherwise, if the element is a document element, the directionality of the element is 'ltr'.
Otherwise, the directionality of the element the same as the elements parent elements
directionality.
If the element has a parent element and the dir attribute is not in a defined state (i.e., it
is not present or has an invalid value)
The directionality of the element is the same as the elements parent elements direction-
ality.
NOTE:
Since the dir attribute is only defined for HTML elements, it cannot be present on elements
from other namespaces. Thus, elements from other namespaces always just inherit their direc-
tionality from their parent element, or, if they dont have one, default to 'ltr'.
NOTE:
This attribute has rendering requirements involving the bidirectional algorithm.
The directionality of an attribute of an HTML element, which is used when the text of that at-
tribute is to be included in the rendering in some manner, is determined as per the first appropriate
set of steps from the following list:
Otherwise
The directionality of the attribute is the same as the elements directionality.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . dir [ = value ]
Returns the <html> elements dir attributes value, if any.
Can be set, to either 'ltr', 'rtl', or 'auto' to replace the <html> elements dir attributes
value.
If there is no <html> element, returns the empty string and ignores new values.
The dir IDL attribute on an element must reflect the dir content attribute of that element, limited
to only known values.
The dir IDL attribute on Document objects must reflect the dir content attribute of the <html> el-
ement, if any, limited to only known values. If there is no such element, then the attribute must re-
turn the empty string and do nothing on setting.
NOTE:
Authors are strongly encouraged to use the dir attribute to indicate text direction rather than
using CSS, since that way their documents will continue to render correctly even in the ab-
sence of CSS (e.g., as interpreted by search engines).
EXAMPLE 84
This markup fragment is of an IM conversation.
Given a suitable style sheet and the default alignment styles for the <p> element, namely to
align the text to the start edge of the paragraph, the resulting rendering could be as follows:
As noted earlier, the 'auto' value is not a panacea. The final paragraph in this example is misin-
terpreted as being right-to-left text, since it begins with an Arabic character, which causes the
"right?" to be to the left of the Arabic text.
All HTML elements may have the style content attribute set. This is a style attribute as defined
by the CSS Style Attributes specification. [CSS-STYLE-ATTR]
In user agents that support CSS, the attributes value must be parsed when the attribute is added or
has its value changed, according to the rules given for style attributes. [CSS-STYLE-ATTR]
However, if the Should elements inline behavior be blocked by Content Security Policy? algo-
rithm returns "Blocked" when executed upon the attributes element and "style attribute",
and the attributes value, then the style rules defined in the attributes value must not be applied to
the element. [CSP3]
Documents that use style attributes on any of their elements must still be comprehensible and us-
able if those attributes were removed.
NOTE:
In particular, using the style attribute to hide and show content, or to convey meaning that is
otherwise not included in the document, is non-conforming. (To hide and show content, use the
hidden attribute.)
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
element . style
Returns a CSSStyleDeclaration object for the elements style attribute.
The style IDL attribute is defined in the CSS Object Model (CSSOM) specification. [CSSOM]
EXAMPLE 85
In the following example, the words that refer to colors are marked up using the <span> ele-
ment and the style attribute to make those words show up in the relevant colors in visual me-
dia.
A custom data attribute is an attribute in no namespace whose name starts with the string
"data-", has at least one character after the hyphen, is XML-compatible, and contains no upper-
case ASCII letters.
NOTE:
All attribute names on HTML elements in HTML documents get ASCII-lowercased automati-
cally, so the restriction on ASCII uppercase letters doesnt affect such documents.
Custom data attributes are intended to store custom data private to the page or application, for
which there are no more appropriate attributes or elements.
These attributes are not intended for use by software that is not known to the administrators of the
site that uses the attributes. For generic extensions that are to be used by multiple independent
tools, either this specification should be extended to provide the feature explicitly, or a technology
like microdata should be used (with a standardized vocabulary).
EXAMPLE 86
For instance, a site about music could annotate list items representing tracks in an album with
custom data attributes containing the length of each track. This information could then be used
by the site itself to allow the user to sort the list by track length, or to filter the list for tracks of
certain lengths.
<ol>
<li data-length="2m11s">Beyond The Sea</li>
...
</ol>
It would be inappropriate, however, for the user to use generic software not associated with
that music site to search for tracks of a certain length by looking at this data.
This is because these attributes are intended for use by the sites own scripts, and are not a
generic extension mechanism for publicly-usable metadata.
EXAMPLE 87
Similarly, a page author could write markup that provides information for a translation tool
that they are intending to use:
In this example, the "data-mytrans-de" attribute gives specific text for the MyTrans product
to use when translating the phrase "claim" to German. However, the standard translate at-
tribute is used to tell it that in all languages, "HTML" is to remain unchanged. When a standard
attribute is available, there is no need for a custom data attribute to be used.
Every HTML element may have any number of custom data attributes specified, with any value.
Authors should carefully design such extensions so that when the attributes are ignored and any
User agents must not derive any implementation behavior from these attributes or values. Specifi-
cations intended for user agents must not define these attributes to have any meaningful values.
JavaScript libraries may use the custom data attributes, as they are considered to be part of the
page on which they are used. Authors of libraries that are reused by many authors are encouraged
to include their name in the attribute names, to reduce the risk of clashes. Where it makes sense, li-
brary authors are also encouraged to make the exact name used in the attribute names customiza-
ble, so that libraries whose authors unknowingly picked the same name can be used on the same
page, and so that multiple versions of a particular library can be used on the same page even when
those versions are not mutually compatible.
EXAMPLE 88
For example, a library called "DoQuery" could use attribute names like data-doquery-range,
and a library called "jJo" could use attributes names like data-jjo-range. The jJo library
could also provide an API to set which prefix to use (e.g. J.setDataPrefix("j2"), making
the attributes have names like data-j2-range).
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
element . dataset
Returns a DOMStringMap object for the elements data-* attributes.
Hyphenated names are converted to dromedary-case (which is the same as camel-case
except the initial letter is not uppercased). For example, data-foo-bar="" becomes
element.dataset.fooBar.
The dataset IDL attribute provides convenient accessors for all the data-* attributes on an ele-
ment. On getting, the dataset IDL attribute must return a DOMStringMap whose associated ele-
ment is this element.
The DOMStringMap interface is used for the dataset attribute. Each DOMStringMap has an as-
sociated element.
[OverrideBuiltins]
interface DOMStringMap {
getter DOMString (DOMString name);
[CEReactions] setter void (DOMString name, DOMString value);
[CEReactions] deleter void (DOMString name);
};
2. For each content attribute on the DOMStringMap's associated element whose first five char-
acters are the string "data-" and whose remaining characters (if any) do not include any up-
percase ASCII letters, in the order that those attributes are listed in the elements attribute list,
add a name-value pair to list whose name is the attributes name with the first five characters
removed and whose value is the attributes value.
3. For each name in list , for each U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-) in the name that is
followed by a lowercase ASCII letter, remove the U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-)
and replace the character that followed it by the same character in ASCII uppercase.
4. Return list .
The supported property names on a DOMStringMap object at any instant are the names of each
pair returned from getting the DOMStringMaps name-value pairs at that instant, in the order re-
turned.
To determine the value of a named property name for a DOMStringMap, return the value compo-
nent of the name-value pair whose name component is name in the list returned from getting the
DOMStringMaps name-value pairs.
To set the value of a new named property or set the value of an existing named property for a
DOMStringMap, given a property name name and a new value value , run the following steps:
2. For each uppercase ASCII letter in name , insert a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-)
before the character and replace the character with the same character in ASCII lowercase.
4. If name does not match the XML Name production, throw an "InvalidCharacterError"
DOMException and abort these steps.
5. Set an attribute value for the DOMStringMap's associated element using name and value .
To delete an existing named property name for a DOMStringMap, run the following steps:
1. For each uppercase ASCII letter in name , insert a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-)
before the character and replace the character with the same character in ASCII lowercase.
3. Remove an attribute by name given name , and the DOMStringMap's associated element.
NOTE:
This algorithm will only get invoked by the Web IDL specification for names that are given by
the earlier algorithm for getting the DOMStringMaps name-value pairs. [WEBIDL]
EXAMPLE 89
If a Web page wanted an element to represent a space ship, e.g., as part of a game, it would
have to use the class attribute along with data-* attributes:
Notice how the hyphenated attribute name becomes dromedary-cased in the API.
EXAMPLE 90
Given the following fragment and elements with similar constructions:
...one could imagine a function splashDamage() that takes some arguments, the first of which
is the element to process:
Can be set, to replace the elements children with the given value, but with line breaks
converted to <br> elements.
1. If this element is not being rendered, or if the user agent is a non-CSS user agent, then return
the same value as the textContent IDL attribute on this element.
2. Compute a list of items each of which is a string or a positive integer (a required line break
count ), by applying the following recursive procedure to each child node node of this ele-
ment in tree order, and then concatenating the results to a single list of items.
NOTE:
Intuitively, a required line break count item means that a certain number of line breaks
appear at that point, but they can be collapsed with the line breaks induced by adjacent
required line break count items, reminiscent to CSS margin-collapsing.
1. Let items be the result of recursively applying this procedure to each child of node in
tree order, and then concatenating the results to a single list of items.
2. If node s computed value of visibility is not "visible", then let the result of these sub-
steps be items and abort these substeps.
3. If node has no associated CSS box, then let the result of these substeps be items and
abort these substeps. For the purpose of this step, the following elements must act as de-
scribed if the computed value of the display property is not "none":
<select> elements have an associated non-replaced inline CSS box whose child
boxes include only those of <optgroup> and <option> element child nodes;
<optgroup> elements have an associated non-replaced block-level CSS box whose
child boxes include only those of <option> element child nodes; and
<option> element have an associated non-replaced block-level CSS box whose
child boxes are as normal for non-replaced block-level CSS boxes.
NOTE:
items can be non-empty due to "display:contents".
4. If node is a Text node, then for each CSS text box produced by node , in content order,
compute the text of the box after application of the CSS white-space processing rules
and text-transform rules, let the result of these substeps be a list of the resulting strings,
and abort these substeps. The CSS white-space processing rules are slightly modified:
collapsible spaces at the end of lines are always collapsed, but they are only removed if
the line is the last line of the block, or it ends with a <br> element. Soft hyphens should
be preserved. [CSS-TEXT-3]
5. If node is a <br> element, then append a string containing a single U+000A LINE FEED
(LF) character to items .
6. If node s computed value of display is table-cell, and node s CSS box is not the last
table-cell box of its enclosing table-row box, then append a string containing a single
U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) character to items .
7. If node s computed value of display is table-cell, and node s CSS box is not the last
table-cell box of the nearest ancestor table box, then append a string containing a sin-
gle U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character to items .
8. If node is a <p> element, then add 2 (a required line break count ) at the beginning and
end of items .
NOTE:
Floats and absolutely-positioned elements fall into this category.
4. Delete any runs of consecutive required line break count items at the start or end of the list.
5. Replace each remaining run of consecutive required line break count items with a string con-
sisting of as many U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters as the maximum of the values in the
required line break count items.
NOTE:
Note that descendant nodes of most replaced elements (e.g., <textarea>, <input>, and <video>
but not <button>) are not rendered by CSS, strictly speaking, and therefore have no CSS
boxes for the purposes of this algorithm.
4. Let pointer be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
1. Collect a sequence of characters that are not U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D
CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters. Set text to the collected characters.
2. If text is not the empty string, then append a new Text node whose data is text and
node document is document to fragment .
3. While pointer is not past the end of input , and the character at position is either a
U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character:
3. Append the result of creating an element given document , <br>, and the HTML
namespace to fragment .
Text content in HTML elements with Text nodes in their contents, and text in attributes of HTML
elements that allow free-form text, may contain characters in the ranges U+202A to U+202E and
U+2066 to U+2069 (the bidirectional-algorithm formatting characters). [BIDI]
NOTE:
Authors are encouraged to use the dir attribute, the <bdo> element, and the <bdi> element,
rather than maintaining the bidirectional-algorithm formatting characters manually. The bidi-
rectional-algorithm formatting characters interact poorly with CSS.
User agents must implement the Unicode bidirectional algorithm to determine the proper ordering
of characters when rendering documents and parts of documents. [BIDI]
The mapping of HTML to the Unicode bidirectional algorithm must be done in one of three ways.
Either the user agent must implement CSS, including in particular the CSS unicode-bidi,
direction, and content properties, and must have, in its user agent style sheet, the rules using
those properties given in this specifications rendering section, or, alternatively, the user agent
must act as if it implemented just the aforementioned properties and had a user agent style sheet
that included all the aforementioned rules, but without letting style sheets specified in documents
override them, or, alternatively, the user agent must implement another styling language with
equivalent semantics. [CSS-WRITING-MODES-3] [CSS3-CONTENT]
The following elements and attributes have requirements defined by the rendering section that, due
to the requirements in this section, are requirements on all user agents (not just those that support
the suggested default rendering):
dir attribute
<bdi> element
<bdo> element
<br> element
<pre> element
<textarea> element
<wbr> element
Authors may use the ARIA role and aria-* attributes on HTML elements, in accordance with
the requirements described in the ARIA specifications, except where these conflict with the re-
quirements specified in ARIA in HTML [html-aria]. These exceptions are intended to prevent au-
thors from making assistive technology products report nonsensical states that do not represent the
actual state of the document. [wai-aria-1.1]
NOTE:
In the majority of cases setting an ARIA role and/or aria-* attribute that matches the default
implicit ARIA semantics is unnecessary and not recommended as these properties are al-
ready set by the browser.
NOTE:
Authors are encouraged to make use of the following documents for guidance on using ARIA
in HTML beyond that which is provided in this section:
Using ARIA - A practical guide for developers on how to to add accessibility information
to HTML elements using the Accessible Rich Internet Applications specification
[wai-aria-1.1].
Conformance checkers are required to implement document conformance requirements for use of
the ARIA role and aria-* attributes on HTML elements, as defined in ARIA in HTML.
[html-aria]
User agents must implement ARIA semantics on all HTML elements, as defined in the ARIA
specifications [wai-aria-1.1] and [core-aam-1.1].
User agents must implement Accessibility API semantics on all HTML elements, as defined in the
HTML Accessibility API Mappings specification [html-aam-1.0].
The ARIA attributes defined in the ARIA specifications do not have any effect on CSS pseudo-
class matching, user interface modalities that dont use assistive technologies, or the default ac-
tions of user interaction events as described in this specification.
Every HTML element may have an ARIA role attribute specified. This is an ARIA Role attribute
as defined by [wai-aria-1.1].
The attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a set of space-separated tokens; each token
must be a non-abstract role defined in the WAI-ARIA specification [wai-aria-1.1].
The WAI-ARIA role that an HTML element has assigned to it is the first non-abstract role found
in the list of values generated when the role attribute is split on spaces.
Every HTML element may have ARIA state and property attributes specified. These attributes are
defined by [wai-aria-1.1].
A subset of the ARIA State and Property attributes are defined as "Global States and Properties"
in the [wai-aria-1.1] specification.
These attributes, if specified, must have a value that is the ARIA value type in the "Value" field of
the definition for the state or property, mapped to the appropriate HTML value type according to
[wai-aria-1.1].
ARIA State and Property attributes can be used on any element. They are not always meaningful,
however, and in such cases user agents might not perform any processing aside from including
them in the DOM. State and property attributes are processed according to the requirements of the
HTML Accessibility API Mappings specification [html-aam-1.0], as well as [wai-aria-1.1] and, as
defined in the ARIA specifications [WAI-ARIA] and [core-aam-1.1].
NOTE:
The following table provides an informative reference to the ARIA roles, states and properties
permitted for use in HTML. Links to ARIA roles, states and properties in the table reference
the normative definitions in the [wai-aria-1.1] specification.
Authors are encouraged to specify a lang attribute on the root <html> element, giving the docu-
ments language. This aids speech synthesis tools to determine what pronunciations to use, transla-
tion tools to determine what rules to use, and so forth.
The manifest attribute gives the address of the documents application cache manifest, if there is
one. If the attribute is present, the attributes value must be a valid non-empty URL potentially sur-
rounded by spaces.
The manifest-based application cache feature is in the process of being removed from
the Web platform. (This is a long process that takes many years.) Using the application
cache feature at this time is highly discouraged. Use service workers instead.
[SERVICE-WORKERS]
The manifest attribute only has an effect during the early stages of document load. Changing the
attribute dynamically thus has no effect (and thus, no DOM API is provided for this attribute).
NOTE:
For the purposes of application cache selection, later <base> elements cannot affect the parsing
of URLs in manifest attributes, as the attributes are processed before those elements are seen.
NOTE:
The window.applicationCache IDL attribute provides scripted access to the offline applica-
tion cache mechanism.
NOTE:
It is recommended to keep the usage of attributes and their values defined on the <html> ele-
ment to a minimum to allow for proper detection of the character encoding declaration within
the first 1024 bytes.
EXAMPLE 91
The <html> element in the following example declares that the documents language is English.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Swapping Songs</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Swapping Songs</h1>
<p>Tonight I swapped some of the songs I wrote with some friends, who
gave me some of the songs they wrote. I love sharing my music.</p>
</body>
</html>
EXAMPLE 92
The collection of metadata in a <head> element can be large or small. Here is an example of a
very short one:
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>A document with a short head</title>
</head>
<body>
...
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<HTML lang="en">
<HEAD>
<META CHARSET="UTF-8">
<BASE HREF="https://www.example.com/">
<TITLE>An application with a long head</TITLE>
<LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="default.css">
<LINK REL="STYLESHEET ALTERNATE" HREF="big.css" TITLE="Big Text">
<SCRIPT SRC="support.js"></SCRIPT>
<META NAME="APPLICATION-NAME" CONTENT="Long headed application">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
...
NOTE:
The <title> element is a required child in most situations, but when a higher-level protocol
provides title information, e.g., in the Subject line of an e-mail when HTML is used as an
e-mail authoring format, the <title> element can be omitted.
NOTE:
It is recommended to keep the usage of attributes and their values defined on the <head> ele-
ment to a minimum to allow for proper detection of the character encoding declaration within
the first 1024 bytes.
The <title> element represents the documents title or name. Authors should use titles that iden-
tify their documents even when they are used out of context, for example in a users history or
bookmarks, or in search results. The documents title is often different from its first heading, since
the first heading does not have to stand alone when taken out of context.
NOTE:
If its reasonable for the Document to have no title, then the <title> element is probably not
required. See the <head> elements content model for a description of when the element is re-
quired.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
title . text [ = value ]
Returns the child text content of the element.
Can be set, to replace the elements children with the given value.
The IDL attribute text must return the child text content of the <title> element. On setting, it
must act the same way as the textContent IDL attribute.
EXAMPLE 93
Here are some examples of appropriate titles, contrasted with the top-level headings that might
be used on those same pages.
The next page might be a part of the same site. Note how the title describes the subject matter
unambiguously, while the first heading assumes the reader knows what the context is and
therefore wont wonder if the dances are Salsa or Waltz:
The string to use as the documents title is given by the document.title IDL attribute.
User agents should use the documents title when referring to the document in their user interface.
When the contents of a <title> element are used in this way, the directionality of that <title> ele-
ment should be used to set the directionality of the documents title in the user interface.
Metadata content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
In a <head> element containing no other <base> elements.
Content model:
Nothing.
Tag omission in text/html:
No end tag.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
href Document base URL
target Default browsing context for hyperlink navigation and 4.10.21 Form sub-
mission
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
None
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes.
DOM interface:
The <base> element allows authors to specify the document base URL for the purposes of 2.5.2
Parsing URLs, and the name of the default browsing context for the purposes of following hyper-
links. The element does not represent any content beyond this information.
A <base> element must have either an href attribute, a target attribute, or both.
The href content attribute, if specified, must contain a valid URL potentially surrounded by spa-
ces.
A <base> element, if it has an href attribute, must come before any other elements in the tree that
have attributes defined as taking URLs, except the <html> element (its manifest attribute isnt af-
fected by <base> elements).
NOTE:
If there are multiple <base> elements with href attributes, all but the first are ignored.
The target attribute, if specified, must contain a valid browsing context name or keyword, which
specifies which browsing context is to be used as the default when hyperlinks and forms in the
Document cause navigation.
A <base> element, if it has a target attribute, must come before any elements in the tree that rep-
resent hyperlinks.
NOTE:
If there are multiple <base> elements with target attributes, all but the first are ignored.
A <base> element that is the first <base> element with an href content attribute in a document tree
has a frozen base URL. The frozen base URL must be immediately set for an element whenever
any of the following situations occur:
The <base> element becomes the first <base> element in tree order with an href content at-
tribute in its Document.
The <base> element is the first <base> element in tree order with an href content attribute in
its Document, and its href content attribute is changed.
2. Let urlRecord be the result of parsing the value of element s href content attribute with
document s fallback base URL, and document s character encoding. (Thus the <base> ele-
ment isnt affected by itself.)
3. Set elements s frozen base URL to document s fallback base URL, if urlRecord is failure or
running Is base allowed for Document? on the resulting URL record and document returns
"Blocked", and to urlRecord otherwise.
The href IDL attribute, on getting, must return the result of running the following algorithm:
2. Let url be the value of the href attribute of the <base> element, if it has one, and the empty
string otherwise.
3. Let urlRecord be the result of parsing url with document s fallback base url, and docu-
ment s character encoding. (Thus, the <base> element isnt affected by other <base> elements
or itself).
The href IDL attribute, on setting, must set the href content attribute to the given new value.
The target IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
EXAMPLE 94
In this example, a <base> element is used to set the document base URL:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>This is an example for the <base> element</title>
<base href="https://www.example.com/news/index.html">
</head>
<body>
<p>Visit the <a href="archives.html">archives</a>.</p>
</body>
</html>
Global attributes
href Address of the hyperlink
crossorigin How the element handles crossorigin requests
rel Relationship of this document (or subsection/topic) to the destination resource
rev Reverse link relationship of the destination resource to this document (or subsec-
tion/topic)
media Applicable media
nonce Cryptographic nonce used in Content Security Policy checks [CSP3]
hreflang Language of the linked resource
type Hint for the type of the referenced resource
referrerpolicy - Referrer policy for fetches initiated by the element
sizes Sizes of the icons (for rel="icon")
Also, the title attribute has special semantics on this element: Title of the link; alterna-
tive style sheet set name.
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
link (default - do not set).
The <link> element allows authors to link their document to other resources.
The destination of the link(s) is given by the href attribute, which must be present and must con-
tain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. If the href attribute is absent, then
the element does not define a link.
The crossorigin attribute is a CORS settings attribute. It is intended for use with external re-
source links.
The types of link indicated (the relationships) are given by the value of the rel attribute, which, if
present, must have a value that is a set of space-separated tokens. The allowed keywords and their
meanings are defined in a later section. If the rel attribute is absent, has no keywords, or if none
of the keywords used are allowed according to the definitions in this specification, then the ele-
ment does not create any links.
rel's supported tokens are the keywords defined in HTML link types which are allowed on <link>
elements, impact the processing model, and are supported by the user agent. The possible sup-
ported tokens are alternate, dns-prefetch, icon, next, pingback, preconnect, prefetch,
preload, prerender, search, serviceworker, and stylesheet. rel's supported tokens must
only include the tokens from this list that the user agent implements the processing model for.
If a <link> element has a rel attribute that contains only keywords that are body-ok, then the ele-
ment is said to be allowed in the body. This means that the element can be used where phrasing
content is expected.
Two categories of links can be created using the <link> element: Links to external resources and
hyperlinks. The 4.8.6 Link types section defines whether a particular link type is an external re-
source or a hyperlink. One <link> element can create multiple links (of which some might be ex-
ternal resource links and some might be hyperlinks); exactly which and how many links are cre-
ated depends on the keywords given in the rel attribute. User agents must process the links on a
per-link basis, not a per-element basis.
NOTE:
Each link created for a <link> element is handled separately. For instance, if there are two
<link> elements with rel="stylesheet", they each count as a separate external resource, and
each is affected by its own attributes independently. Similarly, if a single <link> element has a
rel attribute with the value next stylesheet, it creates both a hyperlink (for the next key-
word) and an external resource link (for the stylesheet keyword), and they are affected by
other attributes (such as media or title) differently.
EXAMPLE 95
For example, the following <link> element creates two hyperlinks (to the same page):
The two links created by this element are one whose semantic is that the target page has infor-
mation about the current pages author, and one whose semantic is that the target page has in-
formation regarding the license under which the current page is provided.
NOTE:
Hyperlinks created with the <link> element and its rel attribute apply to the whole document.
This contrasts with the rel attribute of <a> and <area> elements, which indicates the type of a
link whose context is given by the links location within the document.
The exact behavior for links to external resources depends on the exact relationship, as defined for
the relevant link type. Some of the attributes control whether or not the external resource is to be
applied (as defined below).
The media attribute says which media the resource applies to. The value must be a valid media
query list.
The nonce attribute represents a cryptographic nonce ("number used once") which can be used by
Content Security Policy to determine whether or not an external resource specified by the link will
be loaded and applied to the document. The value is text. [CSP3]
The hreflang attribute on the <link> element has the same semantics as the hreflang attribute
on the <a> element.
The type attribute gives the MIME type of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value
must be a valid mime type.
For external resource links, the type attribute is used as a hint to user agents so that they can avoid
fetching resources they do not support.
The referrerpolicy attribute is a referrer policy attribute. It is intended for use with external re-
source links, where it helps set the referrer policy used when obtaining the external resource.
[REFERRERPOLICY].
The title attribute gives the title of the link. With one exception, it is purely advisory. The value
is text. The exception is for style sheet links, where the title attribute defines alternative style
sheet sets.
NOTE:
The title attribute on <link> elements differs from the global title attribute of most other
elements in that a link without a title does not inherit the title of the parent element: it merely
has no title.
The sizes attribute gives the sizes of icons for visual media. Its value, if present, is merely advi-
sory. User agents may use the value to decide which icon(s) to use if multiple icons are available.
If specified, the attribute must have a value that is an unordered set of unique space-separated to-
kens which are ASCII case-insensitive. Each value must be either an ASCII case-insensitive match
for the string "any", or a value that consists of two valid non-negative integers that do not have a
leading U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) character and that are separated by a single U+0078 LATIN
SMALL LETTER X or U+0058 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X character. The attribute must not
be specified on <link> elements that do not have a rel attribute that specifies the icon keyword or
the apple-touch-icon keyword.
NOTE:
The apple-touch-icon keyword is a registered extension to the predefined set of link types,
but user agents are not required to support it in any way.
The IDL attributes href, hreflang, media, nonce, rel, rev, sizes, and type each must reflect
the respective content attributes of the same name.
The crossOrigin IDL attribute must reflect the crossorigin content attribute.
The referrerPolicy IDL attribute must reflect the referrerpolicy content attribute, limited to
only known values.
The IDL attribute relList must reflect the rel content attribute.
If the link is a hyperlink then the media attribute is purely advisory, and describes for which media
the document in question was designed.
However, if the link is an external resource link, then the media attribute is prescriptive. The user
agent must apply the external resource when the media attributes value matches the environment
and the other relevant conditions apply, and must not apply it otherwise.
The default, if the media attribute is omitted, is "all", meaning that by default links apply to all
media.
NOTE:
The external resource might have further restrictions defined within that limit its applicability.
For example, a CSS style sheet might have some @media blocks. This specification does not
override such further restrictions or requirements.
If type attribute is present, then the user agent must assume that the resource is of the given type
(even if that is not a valid mime type, e.g., the empty string). If the attribute is omitted, but the ex-
ternal resource link type has a default type defined, then the user agent must assume that the re-
source is of that type. If the user agent does not support the given MIME type for the given link re-
lationship, then the user agent should not obtain the resource; if the user agent does support the
given MIME type for the given link relationship, then the user agent should obtain the resource at
the appropriate time as specified for the external resource links particular type. If the attribute is
omitted, and the external resource link type does not have a default type defined, but the user agent
would obtain the resource if the type was known and supported, then the user agent should obtain
the resource under the assumption that it will be supported.
User agents must not consider the type attribute authoritative upon fetching the resource, user
agents must not use the type attribute to determine its actual type. Only the actual type (as defined
in the next paragraph) is used to determine whether to apply the resource, not the aforementioned
assumed type.
If the external resource link type defines rules for processing the resources Content-Type meta-
data, then those rules apply. Otherwise, if the resource is expected to be an image, user agents may
apply the image sniffing rules, with the official type being the type determined from the resources
Content-Type metadata, and use the resulting computed type of the resource as if it was the actual
type. Otherwise, if neither of these conditions apply or if the user agent opts not to apply the image
sniffing rules, then the user agent must use the resources Content-Type metadata to determine the
type of the resource. If there is no type metadata, but the external resource link type has a default
type defined, then the user agent must assume that the resource is of that type.
NOTE:
The stylesheet link type defines rules for processing the resources Content-Type metadata.
Once the user agent has established the type of the resource, the user agent must apply the resource
if it is of a supported type and the other relevant conditions apply, and must ignore the resource
otherwise.
EXAMPLE 96
If a document contains style sheet links labeled as follows:
...then a compliant user agent that supported only CSS style sheets would fetch the B and C
files, and skip the A file (since text/plain is not the MIME type for CSS style sheets).
For files B and C, it would then check the actual types returned by the server. For those that are
sent as text/css, it would apply the styles, but for those labeled as text/plain, or any other
type, it would not.
If one of the two files was returned without a Content-Type metadata, or with a syntactically
incorrect type like Content-Type: "null", then the default type for stylesheet links would
kick in. Since that default type is text/css, the style sheet would nonetheless be applied.
For external resources that are represented in the DOM (for example, style sheets), the DOM rep-
resentation must be made available (modulo cross-origin restrictions) even if the resource is not
applied. To obtain the resource, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. If the href attributes value is the empty string, then abort these steps.
2. Parse the URL given by the href attribute, relative to the elements node document. If that
fails, then abort these steps. Otherwise, let url be the resulting URL record.
3. Let corsAttributeState be the current state of the elements crossorigin content attribute.
4. Let request be the result of creating a potential-CORS request given url and corsAttributeS-
tate .
5. Set request s client to the <link> elements node documents Window objects environment
settings object.
6. Set request s cryptographic nonce metadata to the current state of the <link> elements
nonce content attribute.
7. Set request s referrer policy to the current state of the <link> elements referrerpolicy
content attribute.
8. Fetch request .
User agents may opt to only try to obtain such resources when they are needed, instead of pro-a-
ctively fetching all the external resources that are not applied.
The semantics of the protocol used (e.g., HTTP) must be followed when fetching external re-
sources. (For example, redirects will be followed and 404 responses will cause the external re-
source to not be applied.)
Once the attempts to obtain the resource and its critical subresources are complete, the user agent
must, if the loads were successful, queue a task to fire a simple event named load at the <link> el-
ement, or, if the resource or one of its critical subresources failed to completely load for any reason
(e.g., DNS error, HTTP 404 response, a connection being prematurely closed, unsupported Con-
tent-Type), queue a task to fire a simple event named error at the <link> element. Non-network
errors in processing the resource or its subresources (e.g., CSS parse errors, PNG decoding errors)
are not failures for the purposes of this paragraph.
The task source for these tasks is the DOM manipulation task source.
The element must delay the load event of the elements node document until all the attempts to ob-
tain the resource and its critical subresources are complete. (Resources that the user agent has not
yet attempted to obtain, e.g., because it is waiting for the resource to be needed, do not delay the
load event.)
HTTP Link: headers, if supported, must be assumed to come before any links in the document, in
the order that they were given in the HTTP message. These headers are distinct from HTML link
types, and thus their semantics can be different from same-named HTML types.
4.2.4.5. Providing users with a means to follow hyperlinks created using the <link> element
Interactive user agents may provide users with a means to follow the hyperlinks created using the
<link> element, somewhere within their user interface. The exact interface is not defined by this
specification, but it could include the following information (obtained from the elements at-
tributes, again as defined below), in some form or another (possibly simplified), for each hyperlink
created with each <link> element in the document:
The relationship between this document and the resource (given by the rel attribute)
The optimum media for the resource (given by the media attribute).
User agents could also include other information, such as the type of the resource (as given by the
type attribute).
The activation behavior of <link> elements that create hyperlinks is to run the following steps:
1. If the <link> elements node document is not fully active, then abort these steps.
EXAMPLE 97
Here, a set of <link> elements provide some style sheets:
EXAMPLE 98
The following example shows how you can specify versions of the page that use alternative
formats, are aimed at other languages, and that are intended for other media:
If the http-equiv attribute is present but not in the encoding declaration state: in a
<noscript> element that is a child of a <head> element.
The <meta> element represents various kinds of metadata that cannot be expressed using the
<title>, <base>, <link>, <style>, and <script> elements.
The <meta> element can represent document-level metadata with the name attribute, pragma direc-
tives with the http-equiv attribute, and the files character encoding declaration when an HTML
document is serialized to string form (e.g., for transmission over the network or for disk storage)
with the charset attribute.
Exactly one of the name, http-equiv, and charset attributes must be specified.
If either name or http-equiv is specified, then the content attribute must also be specified. Oth-
erwise, it must be omitted.
The charset attribute specifies the character encoding used by the document. This is a character
encoding declaration. If the attribute is present in an XML document, its value must be an ASCII
case-insensitive match for the string "utf-8" (and the document is therefore forced to use UTF-8
as its encoding).
NOTE:
The charset attribute on the <meta> element has no effect in XML documents, and is only al-
lowed in order to facilitate migration to and from XHTML.
There must not be more than one <meta> element with a charset attribute per document.
The content attribute gives the value of the document metadata or pragma directive when the ele-
ment is used for those purposes. The allowed values depend on the exact context, as described in
subsequent sections of this specification.
Warning!
<meta name="viewport" content="..."> allows authors to define specific viewport
characteristics (such as the layout viewports width and zoom factor) for their docu-
ments. Among these is the ability to prevent or restrict users from being able to zoom,
using content values such as user-scalable=no or maximum-scale=1.0. Authors
should not suppress or limit the ability of users to resize a document, as this causes ac-
cessibility and usability issues.
EXAMPLE 99
The following examples illustrate code that should be avoided:
There may be specific use cases where preventing users from zooming may be appro-
priate, such as map applications where custom zoom functionality is handled via
scripting. However, in general this practice should be avoided, and HTML conformance
checking tools should display a warning if they encounter these values.
Note that most user agents now allow users to always zoom, regardless of any <meta
name="viewport" content="..."> restrictions either by default, or as a setting/op-
tion (which may however not be immediately apparent to users).
If a <meta> element has a name attribute, it sets document metadata. Document metadata is ex-
pressed in terms of name-value pairs, the name attribute on the <meta> element giving the name,
and the content attribute on the same element giving the value. The name specifies what aspect of
metadata is being set; valid names and the meaning of their values are described in the following
sections. If a <meta> element has no content attribute, then the value part of the metadata name-
value pair is the empty string.
The name and content IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same
name. The IDL attribute httpEquiv must reflect the content attribute http-equiv.
This specification defines a few names for the name attribute of the <meta> element.
application-name
The value must be a short free-form string giving the name of the Web application that the
page represents. If the page is not a Web application, the application-name metadata name
must not be used. Translations of the Web applications name may be given, using the lang
attribute to specify the language of each name.
There must not be more than one <meta> element with a given language and with its name at-
tribute set to the value application-name per document.
User agents may use the application name in UI in preference to the pages <title>, since the
title might include status messages and the like relevant to the status of the page at a particu-
lar moment in time instead of just being the name of the application.
To find the application name to use given an ordered list of languages (e.g., British English,
American English, and English), user agents must run the following steps:
2. Let default language be the language of the Document's document element, if any, and
if that language is not unknown.
3. If there is a default language , and if it is not the same language as any of the languages
in languages , append it to languages .
4. Let winning language be the first language in languages for which there is a <meta> el-
ement in the Document that has its name attribute set to the value application-name
and whose language is the language in question.
If none of the languages have such a <meta> element, then abort these steps; theres no
given application name.
5. Return the value of the content attribute of the first meta element in the Document in
tree order that has its name attribute set to the value application-name and whose lan-
guage is winning language .
NOTE:
This algorithm would be used by a browser when it needs a name for the page, for in-
stance, to label a bookmark. The languages it would provide to the algorithm would be
the users preferred languages.
author
The value must be a free-form string giving the name of one of the pages authors.
description
The value must be a free-form string that describes the page. The value must be appropriate
for use in a directory of pages, e.g., in a search engine. There must not be more than one
<meta> element with its name attribute set to the value description per document.
generator
The value must be a free-form string that identifies one of the software packages used to gen-
erate the document. This value must not be used on pages whose markup is not generated by
software, e.g., pages whose markup was written by a user in a text editor.
EXAMPLE 100
Here is what a tool called "Frontweaver" could include in its output, in the pages <head>
element, to identify itself as the tool used to generate the page:
keywords
The value must be a set of comma-separated tokens, each of which is a keyword relevant to
the page.
EXAMPLE 101
This page about typefaces on British motorways uses a <meta> element to specify some
keywords that users might use to look for the page:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en-GB">
<head>
<title>Typefaces on UK motorways</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="british,type
face,font,fonts,highway,highways">
</head>
<body>
...
NOTE:
Many search engines do not consider such keywords, because this feature has historically
been used unreliably and even misleadingly as a way to spam search engine results in a
way that is not helpful for users.
To obtain the list of keywords that the author has specified as applicable to the page, the user
agent must run the following steps:
2. For each <meta> element with a name attribute and a content attribute and whose name
attributes value is keywords, run the following substeps:
4. Return keywords . This is the list of keywords that the author has specified as applicable
to the page.
User agents should not use this information when there is insufficient confidence in the relia-
bility of the value.
EXAMPLE 102
For instance, it would be reasonable for a content management system to use the keyword
information of pages within the system to populate the index of a site-specific search en-
gine, but a large-scale content aggregator that used this information would likely find that
certain users would try to game its ranking mechanism through the use of inappropriate
keywords.
referrer
The value must be a referrer policy, which defines the default referrer policy for the
Document. [REFERRERPOLICY]
If any meta elements are inserted into the document or removed from the document, or exist-
ing meta elements have their name or content attributes changed, user agents must run the
following algorithm:
1. Let candidate elements be the list of all meta elements that meet the following criteria,
in tree order:
1. Let value be the value of element s content attribute, converted to ASCII lower-
case.
2. If value is one of the values given in the first column of the following table, then
set value to the value given in the second column:
never no-referrer
default no-referrer-when-downgrade
always unsafe-url
origin-when-crossorigin origin-when-cross-origin
3. If value is a referrer policy, then set element s node documents referrer policy to
policy .
NOTE:
The fact that these steps are applied for each element enables deployment of fallback val-
ues for older user agents. [REFERRERPOLICY]
Extensions to the predefined set of metadata names may be registered in the WHATWG Wiki
MetaExtensions page. [WHATWGWIKI]
Anyone is free to edit the WHATWG Wiki MetaExtensions page at any time to add a type. These
new names must be specified with the following information:
Keyword
The actual name being defined. The name should not be confusingly similar to any other de-
fined name (e.g., differing only in case).
Brief description
A short non-normative description of what the metadata names meaning is, including the for-
mat the value is required to be in.
Specification
A link to a more detailed description of the metadata names semantics and requirements. It
could be another page on the Wiki, or a link to an external page.
Synonyms
A list of other names that have exactly the same processing requirements. Authors should not
use the names defined to be synonyms, they are only intended to allow user agents to support
legacy content. Anyone may remove synonyms that are not used in practice; only names that
need to be processed as synonyms for compatibility with legacy content are to be registered
in this way.
Status
Proposed
The name has not received wide peer review and approval. Someone has proposed it and
is, or soon will be, using it.
Ratified
The name has received wide peer review and approval. It has a specification that unam-
biguously defines how to handle pages that use the name, including when they use it in
incorrect ways.
Discontinued
The metadata name has received wide peer review and it has been found wanting. Exist-
ing pages are using this metadata name, but new pages should avoid it. The "brief de-
scription" and "specification" entries will give details of what authors should use instead,
if anything.
If a metadata name is found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and
listed as a synonym for the existing value.
If a metadata name is registered in the "proposed" state for a period of a month or more with-
out being used or specified, then it may be removed from the registry.
If a metadata name is added with the "proposed" status and found to be redundant with exist-
ing values, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value. If a metadata
name is added with the "proposed" status and found to be harmful, then it should be changed
to "discontinued" status.
Anyone can change the status at any time, but should only do so in accordance with the defi-
nitions above.
Conformance checkers may use the information given on the WHATWG Wiki MetaExten-
sions page to establish if a value is allowed or not: values defined in this specification or
marked as "proposed" or "ratified" must be accepted, whereas values marked as "discontin-
ued" or not listed in either this specification or on the aforementioned page must be reported
as invalid. Conformance checkers may cache this information (e.g., for performance reasons
or to avoid the use of unreliable network connectivity).
When an author uses a new metadata name not defined by either this specification or the Wiki
page, conformance checkers should offer to add the value to the Wiki, with the details de-
scribed above, with the "proposed" status.
Metadata names whose values are to be URLs must not be proposed or accepted. Links must be
represented using the <link> element, not the <meta> element.
When the http-equiv attribute is specified on a <meta> element, the element is a pragma direc-
tive.
The http-equiv attribute is an enumerated attribute. The following table lists the keywords de-
fined for this attribute. The states given in the first cell of the rows with keywords give the states to
which those keywords map. Some of the keywords are non-conforming, as noted in the last col-
umn.
Encoding content-type
declaration
Default style default-style
Refresh refresh
When a <meta> element is inserted into the document, if its http-equiv attribute is present and
represents one of the above states, then the user agent must run the algorithm appropriate for that
state, as described in the following list:
NOTE:
This feature is non-conforming. Authors are encouraged to use the lang attribute instead.
This pragma sets the pragma-set default language. Until such a pragma is successfully pro-
cessed, there is no pragma-set default language.
1. If the <meta> element has no content attribute, then abort these steps.
2. If the elements content attribute contains a U+002C COMMA character (,) then abort
these steps.
7. Let candidate be the string that resulted from the previous step.
NOTE:
If the value consists of multiple space-separated tokens, tokens after the first are ig-
nored.
NOTE:
This pragma is not the same as the HTTP Content-Language header of the same name.
HTTP Content-Language values with more than one language tag will be rejected as in-
valid by this pragma. [HTTP]
For <meta> elements with an http-equiv attribute in the encoding declaration state, the
content attribute must have a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for a string that
consists of: the literal string "text/html;", optionally followed by any number of space char-
acters, followed by the literal string "charset=", followed by one of the labels of the charac-
ter encoding of the character encoding declaration.
A document must not contain both a <meta> element with an http-equiv attribute in the en-
coding declaration state and a <meta> element with the charset attribute present.
The encoding declaration state may be used in HTML documents and in XML Documents. If
the encoding declaration state is used in XML Documents, the name of the character encod-
ing must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "UTF-8" (and the document is
therefore forced to use UTF-8 as its encoding).
NOTE:
The encoding declaration state has no effect in XML documents, and is only allowed in
order to facilitate migration to and from XHTML.
1. If the <meta> element has no content attribute, or if that attributes value is the empty
string, then abort these steps.
2. Set the preferred style sheet set to the value of the elements content attribute.
[CSSOM]
1. If another <meta> element with an http-equiv attribute in the Refresh state has already
been successfully processed (i.e., when it was inserted the user agent processed it and
reached the step labeled end), then abort these steps.
2. If the <meta> element has no content attribute, or if that attributes value is the empty
string, then abort these steps.
6. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits, and parse the resulting string us-
ing the rules for parsing non-negative integers. If the sequence of characters collected is
the empty string, then no number will have been parsed; abort these steps. Otherwise, let
time be the parsed number.
7. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits and U+002E FULL STOP charac-
ters (.). Ignore any collected characters.
9. If position is past the end of input , jump to the step labeled end.
10. If the character in input pointed to by position is not a U+003B SEMICOLON charac-
ter (;), a U+002C COMMA character (,), or a space character, then abort these steps.
14. If position is past the end of input , jump to the step labeled end.
15. Let url be equal to the substring of input from the character at position to the end of
the string.
16. If the character in input pointed to by position is a U+0055 LATIN CAPITAL LET-
TER U character (U) or a U+0075 LATIN SMALL LETTER U character (u), then ad-
vance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the step labeled skip quotes.
17. If the character in input pointed to by position is a U+0052 LATIN CAPITAL LET-
TER R character (R) or a U+0072 LATIN SMALL LETTER R character (r), then ad-
vance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the step labeled Parse .
18. If the character in input pointed to by position is s U+004C LATIN CAPITAL LET-
TER L character (L) or a U+006C LATIN SMALL LETTER L character (l), then ad-
vance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the step labeled Parse .
20. If the character in input pointed to by position is a U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=), then
advance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the step step labeled Parse .
22. Skip quotes: If the character in input pointed to by position is either a U+0027 APOS-
TROPHE character (') or U+0022 QUOTATION MARK character ("), then let quote be
that character, and advance position to the next character. Otherwise, let quote be the
empty string.
23. Let url be equal to the substring of input from the character at position to the end of
the string.
24. If quote is not the empty string, and there is a character in url equal to quote , then
truncate url at that character, so that it and all subsequent characters are removed.
25. Parse : Parse url relative to the <meta> elements node document. If that fails, abort
these steps. Otherwise, let urlRecord be the resulting URL record.
After the refresh has come due (as defined below), if the user has not canceled the
redirect and if the <meta> elements node documents active sandboxing flag set
does not have the sandboxed automatic features browsing context flag set, navigate
the Document's browsing context to urlRecord , with replacement enabled, and
with the Document's browsing context as the source browsing context.
For the purposes of the previous paragraph, a refresh is said to have come due as
soon as the later of the following two conditions occurs:
At least time seconds have elapsed since the document has completely loaded,
adjusted to take into account user or user agent preferences.
At least time seconds have elapsed since the <meta> element was inserted into
the document, adjusted to take into account user or user agent preferences.
Provide the user with an interface that, when selected, navigates a browsing context
to urlRecord , with the Document's browsing context as the source browsing con-
text.
Do nothing.
In addition, the user agent may, as with anything, inform the user of any and all aspects
of its operation, including the state of any timers, the destinations of any timed redirects,
and so forth.
For <meta> elements with an http-equiv attribute in the Refresh state, the content attribute
must have a value consisting either of:
In the former case, the integer represents a number of seconds before the page is to be
reloaded; in the latter case the integer represents a number of seconds before the page is to be
replaced by the page at the given URL.
EXAMPLE 103
A news organizations front page could include the following markup in the pages <head>
element, to ensure that the page automatically reloads from the server every five minutes:
EXAMPLE 104
A sequence of pages could be used as an automated slide show by making each page re-
fresh to the next page in the sequence, using markup such as the following:
1. If the <meta> element has no content attribute, or if that attributes value is the
empty string, then abort these steps.
1. If the <meta> element is not a child of a <head> element, abort these steps.
2. If the <meta> element has no content attribute, or if that attributes value is the
empty string, then abort these steps.
3. Let policy be the result of executing Content Security Policys parse a serialized
Content Security Policy algorithm on the <meta> elements content attributes
value.
For <meta> elements with an http-equiv attribute in the Content security policy state,
the content attribute must have a value consisting of a valid Content Security Policy,
but must not contain any report-uri, frame-ancestors, or sandbox directives. The
Content Security Policy given in the content attribute will be enforced upon the current
document. [CSP3]
EXAMPLE 105
A page might choose to mitigate the risk of cross-site scripting attacks by preventing
the execution of inline JavaScript, as well as blocking all plugin content, using a pol-
icy such as the following:
There must not be more than one <meta> element with any particular state in the document at a
time.
Extensions to the predefined set of pragma directives may, under certain conditions, be regis-
tered in the WHATWG Wiki PragmaExtensions page. [WHATWGWIKI]
Such extensions must use a name that is identical to an HTTP header registered in the Permanent
Message Header Field Registry, and must have behavior identical to that described for the HTTP
header. [IANAPERMHEADERS]
Pragma directives corresponding to headers describing metadata, or not requiring specific user
agent processing, must not be registered; instead, use metadata names. Pragma directives corre-
sponding to headers that affect the HTTP processing model (e.g., caching) must not be registered,
as they would result in HTTP-level behavior being different for user agents that implement HTML
than for user agents that do not.
Anyone is free to edit the WHATWG Wiki PragmaExtensions page at any time to add a pragma
directive satisfying these conditions. Such registrations must specify the following information:
Keyword
The actual name being defined. The name must match a previously-registered HTTP name
with the same requirements.
Brief description
A short non-normative description of the purpose of the pragma directive.
Specification
A link to the specification defining the corresponding HTTP header.
Conformance checkers must use the information given on the WHATWG Wiki PragmaExten-
sions page to establish if a value is allowed or not: values defined in this specification or
listed on the aforementioned page must be accepted, whereas values not listed in either this
specification or on the aforementioned page must be rejected as invalid. Conformance check-
ers may cache this information (e.g., for performance reasons or to avoid the use of unreliable
network connectivity).
A character encoding declaration is a mechanism by which the character encoding used to store
or transmit a document is specified.
The character encoding name given must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the
labels of the character encoding used to serialize the file. [ENCODING]
The character encoding declaration must be serialized without the use of character references
The element containing the character encoding declaration must be serialized completely
within the first 1024 bytes of the document.
In addition, due to a number of restrictions on <meta> elements, there can only be one meta-based
character encoding declaration per document.
If an HTML document does not start with a BOM, and its encoding is not explicitly given by
Content-Type metadata, and the document is not an iframe srcdoc document, then the character
encoding used must be an ASCII-compatible encoding, and the encoding must be specified using a
meta element with a charset attribute or a <meta> element with an http-equiv attribute in the en-
coding declaration state.
NOTE:
A character encoding declaration is required (either in the Content-Type metadata or explicitly
in the file) even if the encoding is US-ASCII, because a character encoding is needed to
process non-ASCII characters entered by the user in forms, in URLs generated by scripts, and
so forth.
If the document is an iframe srcdoc document, the document must not have a character encoding
declaration. (In this case, the source is already decoded, since it is part of the document that con-
tained the <iframe>.)
If an HTML document contains a <meta> element with a charset attribute or a <meta> element
with an http-equiv attribute in the encoding declaration state, then the character encoding used
must be an ASCII-compatible encoding.
Authors should use UTF-8. Conformance checkers may advise authors against using legacy en-
codings. [ENCODING]
Authoring tools should default to using UTF-8 for newly-created documents. [ENCODING]
Authors must not use encodings that are not defined in the WHATWG Encoding specification. Ad-
ditionally, authors should not use ISO-2022-JP. [ENCODING]
NOTE:
Some encodings that are not defined in the WHATWG Encoding specification use bytes in the
range 0x20 to 0x7E, inclusive, to encode characters other than the corresponding characters in
the range U+0020 to U+007E, inclusive, and represent a potential security vulnerability: A
user agent might end up interpreting supposedly benign plain text content as HTML tags and
JavaScript.
NOTE:
Using non-UTF-8 encodings can have unexpected results on form submission and URL encod-
ings, which use the documents character encoding by default.
In XHTML, the XML declaration should be used for inline character encoding information, if nec-
essary.
EXAMPLE 106
In HTML, to declare that the character encoding is UTF-8, the author could include the follow-
ing markup near the top of the document (in the <head> element):
<meta charset="utf-8">
In XML, the XML declaration would be used instead, at the very top of the markup:
set name.
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
None
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
DOM interface:
The <style> element allows authors to embed style information in their documents. The <style>
element is one of several inputs to the styling processing model. The element does not represent
content for the user.
The type attribute gives the styling language. If the attribute is present, its value must be a valid
mime type that designates a styling language. The charset parameter must not be specified. The
default value for the type attribute, which is used if the attribute is absent, is "text/css".
[RFC2318]
When examining types to determine if they support the language, user agents must not ignore un-
known MIME parameters types with unknown parameters must be assumed to be unsupported.
The charset parameter must be treated as an unknown parameter for the purpose of comparing
MIME types here.
The media attribute says which media the styles apply to. The value must be a valid media query
list. The user agent must apply the styles when the media attributes value matches the environ-
ment and the other relevant conditions apply, and must not apply them otherwise.
NOTE:
The styles might be further limited in scope, e.g., in CSS with the use of @media blocks. This
specification does not override such further restrictions or requirements.
The default, if the media attribute is omitted, is "all", meaning that by default styles apply to all
media.
NOTE:
A <style> element should preferably be used in the <head> of the document. The use of
<style> in the <body> of the document may cause restyling, trigger layout and/or cause repaint-
ing, and hence, should be used with care.
The nonce attribute represents a cryptographic nonce ("number used once") which can be used by
Content Security Policy to determine whether or not the style specified by an element will be ap-
plied to the document. The value is text. [CSP3]
The title attribute on <style> elements defines alternative style sheet sets. If the <style> element
has no title attribute, then it has no title; the title attribute of ancestors does not apply to the
<style> element. [CSSOM]
NOTE:
The title attribute on <style> elements, like the title attribute on <link> elements, differs
from the global title attribute in that a <style> block without a title does not inherit the title
of the parent element: it merely has no title.
The textContent of a <style> element must match the style production in the following
ABNF, the character set for which is Unicode. [ABNF]
The user agent must run the update a style block algorithm that applies for the style sheet lan-
guage specified by the <style> elements type attribute, passing it the elements style data, when-
ever one of the following conditions occur:
the element is popped off the stack of open elements of an HTML parser or XML parser,
the element is not on the stack of open elements of an HTML parser or XML parser, and it is
inserted into a document or removed from a document,
the element is not on the stack of open elements of an HTML parser or XML parser, and one
of its child nodes is modified by a script,
For styling languages that consist of pure text (as opposed to XML), a <style> elements style data
is the child text content of the <style> element (not any other nodes such as comments or ele-
ments), in tree order. For XML-based styling languages, the style data consists of all the child
nodes of the <style> element.
2. If element has an associated CSS style sheet, remove the CSS style sheet in question.
4. If the Should elements inline behavior be blocked by Content Security Policy? algorithm re-
turns "Blocked" when executed upon the <style> element, "style", and the <style> ele-
ments style data, then abort these steps. [CSP3]
type
text/css
owner node
element
media
The media attribute of element .
NOTE:
This is a reference to the (possibly absent at this time) attribute, rather than a copy of
the attributes current value. The CSSOM specification defines what happens when
the attribute is dynamically set, changed, or removed.
title
The title attribute of element .
NOTE:
Again, this is a reference to the attribute.
alternate flag
Unset.
origin-clean flag
Set.
disabled flag
Left at its default value.
CSS rules
Left uninitialized.
This specification does not define any other styling languages update a style block algorithm.
Once the attempts to obtain the style sheets critical subresources, if any, are complete, or, if the
style sheet has no critical subresources, once the style sheet has been parsed and processed, the
user agent must, if the loads were successful or there were none, queue a task to fire a simple
event named load at the <style> element, or, if one of the style sheets critical subresources failed
to completely load for any reason (e.g., DNS error, HTTP 404 response, a connection being pre-
maturely closed, unsupported Content-Type), queue a task to fire a simple event named error at
the <style> element. Non-network errors in processing the style sheet or its subresources (e.g.,
CSS parse errors, PNG decoding errors) are not failures for the purposes of this paragraph.
The task source for these tasks is the DOM manipulation task source.
The element must delay the load event of the elements node document until all the attempts to ob-
tain the style sheets critical subresources, if any, are complete.
NOTE:
This specification does not specify a style system, but CSS is expected to be supported by most
Web browsers. [CSS-2015]
The media, nonce, and type IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the
same name.
EXAMPLE 107
The following document has its stress emphasis styled as bright red text rather than italics text,
while leaving titles of works and Latin words in their default italics. It shows how using appro-
priate elements enables easier restyling of documents.
<!DOCTYPE html><html>
<head>
<title>My favorite book</title>
<style>
body { color: black; background: white; }
em { font-style: normal; color: red; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>My <em>favorite</em> book of all time has <em>got</em> to be
<cite>A Cats Life</cite>. It is a book by P. Rahmel that talks
about the <i lang="la">Felis Catus</i> in modern human society.</p>
</body>
</html>
Style sheets, whether added by a <link> element, a <style> element, an <?xml-stylesheet?> PI,
an HTTP Link header, or some other mechanism, have a style sheet ready flag, which is initially
unset.
When a style sheet is ready to be applied, its style sheet ready flag must be set. If the style sheet
referenced no other resources (e.g., it was an internal style sheet given by a <style> element with
no @import rules), then the style rules must be immediately made available to script; otherwise,
the style rules must only be made available to script once the event loop reaches its update the ren-
dering step.
A style sheet in the context of the Document of an HTML parser or XML parser is said to be a
style sheet that is blocking scripts if the element was created by that Document's parser, and the
element is either a <style> element or a <link> element that was an external resource link when
the element was created by the parser, and the elements style sheet was enabled when the element
was created by the parser, and the elements style sheet ready flag is not yet set, and, the last time
the event loop reached step 1, the element was in that Document, and the user agent hasnt given
up on that particular style sheet yet. A user agent may give up on a style sheet at any time.
NOTE:
Giving up on a style sheet before the style sheet loads, if the style sheet eventually does still
load, means that the script might end up operating with incorrect information. For example, if a
style sheet sets the color of an element to green, but a script that inspects the resulting style is
executed before the sheet is loaded, the script will find that the element is black (or whatever
the default color is), and might thus make poor choices (e.g., deciding to use black as the color
elsewhere on the page, instead of green). Implementors have to balance the likelihood of a
script using incorrect information with the performance impact of doing nothing while waiting
for a slow network request to finish.
A Document has a style sheet that is blocking scripts if there is either a style sheet that is block-
ing scripts in the context of that Document, or if that Document is in a browsing context that has
a parent browsing context, and the active document of that parent browsing context itself has a
style sheet that is blocking scripts.
A Document has no style sheet that is blocking scripts if it does not have a style sheet that is
blocking scripts as defined in the previous paragraph.
4.3. Sections
onhashchange
onlanguagechange
onmessage
onoffline
ononline
onpagehide
onpageshow
onpopstate
onrejectionhandled
onstorage
onunhandledrejection
onunload
In conforming documents, there is only one <body> element. The document.body IDL attribute
provides scripts with easy access to a documents <body> element.
NOTE:
Some DOM operations (for example, parts of the drag and drop model) are defined in terms of
"the body element". This refers to a particular element in the DOM, as per the definition of the
term, and not any arbitrary <body> element.
The <body> element exposes as event handler content attributes a number of the event handlers of
the Window object. It also mirrors their event handler IDL attributes.
The onblur, onerror, onfocus, onload, onresize, and onscroll event handlers of the Window
object, exposed on the <body> element, replace the generic event handlers with the same names
normally supported by HTML elements.
EXAMPLE 108
Thus, for example, a bubbling error event dispatched on a child of the body element of a
Document would first trigger the onerror event handler content attributes of that element,
then that of the root <html> element, and only then would it trigger the onerror event handler
content attribute on the <body> element. This is because the event would bubble from the tar-
get, to the <body>, to the <html>, to the Document, to the Window, and the event handler on the
<body> is watching the Window not the <body>. A regular event listener attached to the <body>
using addEventListener(), however, would be run when the event bubbled through the body
and not when it reaches the Window object.
EXAMPLE 109
This page updates an indicator to show whether or not the user is online:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Online or offline?</title>
<script>
function update(online) {
document.getElementById('status').textContent =
online ? 'Online' : 'Offline';
}
</script>
</head>
<body ononline="update(true)"
onoffline="update(false)"
onload="update(navigator.onLine)">
<p>You are: <span id="status">(Unknown)</span></p>
</body>
</html>
A general rule is that the <article> element is appropriate only if the elements contents would be
listed explicitly in the documents outline. Each <article> should be identified, typically by in-
cluding a heading(<h1>-<h6> element) as a child of the <article> element.
Assistive Technology may convey the semantics of the <article> to users. This information can
provide a hint to users as to the type of content. For example the role of the element, which in this
case matches the element name "article", can be announced by screen reader software when a user
navigates to an <article> element. User Agents may also provide methods to navigate to
<article> elements.
When <article> elements are nested, the inner <article> elements represent articles that are in
principle related to the contents of the outer article. For instance, a blog entry on a site could con-
sist of summaries of other blog entries in <article> elements nested within the <article> element
for the blog entry.
EXAMPLE 110
The following is an example of a blog post extract, marked up using the <article> element:
<article>
<header>
<h2><a href="https://herbert.io">Short note on wearing shorts</a></h2>
<p>Posted on Wednesday, 10 February 2016 by Patrick Lauke.
<a href="https://herbert.io/short-note/#comments">6 comments</a></p>
</header>
<p>A fellow traveller posed an interesting question: Why do you wear
shorts rather than
longs? The person was wearing culottes as the time, so I considered the
question equivocal in nature,
but I attempted to provide an honest answer despite the dubiousness of
the questioners dress.</p>
<p>The short answer is that I enjoy wearing shorts, the long answer
is...</p>
<p><a href="https://herbert.io/short-note/">Continue reading: Short note
on
wearing shorts</a></p>
</article>
NOTE:
The schema.org vocabulary can be used to provide more granular information about the type of
article, using the CreativeWork - Article subtypes, other information such as the publication
date for the article can also be provided.
EXAMPLE 111
This example shows a blog post using the <article> element, with some schema.org annota-
tions:
Here is that same blog post, but showing some of the comments:
<article>
<header>
<h2>The Very First Rule of Life</h2>
<p><time datetime="2009-10-09">3 days ago</time></p>
</header>
<p>If theres a microphone anywhere near you, assume its hot and
sending whatever youre saying to the world. Seriously.</p>
<p>...</p>
<section>
<h3>Comments</h3>
<ol>
<li id="c1">
<p>Posted by: <span>
<span>George Washington</span>
</span></p>
<p><time datetime="2009-10-10">15 minutes ago</time></p>
<p>Yeah! Especially when talking about your lobbyist friends!</p>
<li id="c2">
<p>Posted by: <span>
<span>George Hammond</span>
</span></p>
<p><time datetime="2009-10-10">5 minutes ago</time></p>
<p>Hey, you have the same first name as me.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</section>
</article>
Notice the use of an ordered list ol to organize the comments. Also note the comments are a
subsection of the article, identified using a section element.
EXAMPLE 112
Examples of sections would be chapters, the various tabbed pages in a tabbed dialog box, or
the numbered sections of a thesis. A Web sites home page could be split into sections for an
introduction, news items, and contact information.
NOTE:
Authors are encouraged to use the <article> element instead of the <section> element when
the content is complete, or self-contained, composition.
NOTE:
The <section> element is not a generic container element. When an element is needed only for
styling purposes or as a convenience for scripting, authors are encouraged to use the <div> ele-
ment instead. A general rule is that the <section> element is appropriate only if the elements
contents would be listed explicitly in the documents outline.
Assistive Technology may convey the semantics of the <section> to users when the element has an
explicit label. This information can provide a hint to users as to the type of content. For example
the role of the element, which in this case is "region", can be announced by screen reader soft-
ware when a user navigates to an <section> element. User Agents may also provide methods to
navigate to <section> elements.
EXAMPLE 113
In the following example, we see an article (part of a larger Web page) about apples, contain-
ing two short sections.
NOTE:
The <section> has an aria-label attribute providing a brief description of the contents.
Assistive technology may convey the region role along with the aria-label value as a
hint to users.
<article>
<header>
<h2>Apples</h2>
<p>Tasty, delicious fruit!</p>
</header>
<p>The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree.</p>
<section aria-label="Red apples.">
<h3>Red Delicious</h3>
<p>These bright red apples are the most common found in many
supermarkets.</p>
</section>
<section aria-label="Green apples.">
<h3>Granny Smith</h3>
<p>These juicy, green apples make a great filling for
apple pies.</p>
</section>
</article>
EXAMPLE 114
Here is a graduation program with two sections, one for the list of people graduating, and one
for the description of the ceremony. (The markup in this example features an uncommon style
sometimes used to minimize the amount of inter-element white space.)
<!DOCTYPE Html>
<html
><head
><title
>Graduation Ceremony Summer 2022</title
></head
><body
><h1
>Graduation</h1
><section
><h2
>Ceremony</h2
><p
>Opening Procession</p
><p
>Speech by Validactorian</p
><p
>Speech by Class President</p
><p
>Presentation of Diplomas</p
><p
>Closing Speech by Headmaster</p
></section
><section
><h2
>Graduates</h2
><ul
><li
>Molly Carpenter</li
><li
>Anastasia Luccio</li
><li
>Ebenezar McCoy</li
><li
>Karrin Murphy</li
><li
>Thomas Raith</li
><li
>Susan Rodriguez</li
></ul
></section
></body
></html>
EXAMPLE 115
In this example, a book author has marked up some sections as chapters and some as appen-
dices, and uses CSS to style the headers in these two classes of section differently. The whole
book is wrapped in an <article> element as part of an even larger document containing other
books.
<style>
section { border: double medium; margin: 2em; }
section.chapter h3 { font: 2em Roboto, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif; }
section.appendix h3 { font: small-caps 2em Roboto, Helvetica Neue,
sans-serif; }
</style>
...
<article class="book">
<header>
<h2>My Book</h2>
<p>A sample with not much content</p>
<p><small>Published by Dummy Publicorp Ltd.</small></p>
</header>
<section class="chapter">
<h3>My First Chapter</h3>
<p>This is the first of my chapters. It doesnt say much.</p>
<p>But it has two paragraphs!</p>
</section>
<section class="chapter">
<h3>It Continues: The Second Chapter</h3>
<p>Bla dee bla, dee bla dee bla. Boom.</p>
</section>
<section class="chapter">
<h3>Chapter Three: A Further Example</h3>
<p>Its not like a battle between brightness and earthtones would go
unnoticed.</p>
<p>But it might ruin my story.</p>
</section>
<section class="appendix">
<h3>Appendix A: Overview of Examples</h3>
<p>These are demonstrations.</p>
</section>
<section class="appendix">
<h3>Appendix B: Some Closing Remarks</h3>
<p>Hopefully this long example shows that you <em>can</em> style
sections, so long as they are used to indicate actual sections.</p>
</section>
</article>
The <nav> element represents a section of a page that links to other pages or to parts within the
page: a section with navigation links.
Assistive Technology may convey the semantics of the <nav> to users. This information can pro-
vide a hint to users as to the type of content. For example the role of the element, which in this
case is "navigation", can be announced by screen reader software when a user navigates to an
<nav> element. User Agents may also provide methods to navigate to <nav> elements.
NOTE:
In cases where the content of a <nav> element represents a list of items, use list markup to aid
understanding and navigation.
NOTE:
Not all groups of links on a page need to be in a <nav> element the element is primarily in-
tended for sections that consist of major navigation blocks. In particular, it is common for foot-
ers to have a short list of links to various pages of a site, such as the terms of service, the home
page, and a copyright page. The <footer> element alone is sufficient for such cases; while a
<nav> element can be used in such cases, it is usually unnecessary.
NOTE:
User agents (such as screen readers) that are targeted at users who can benefit from navigation
information being omitted in the initial rendering, or who can benefit from navigation informa-
tion being immediately available, can use this element as a way to determine what content on
the page to initially skip or provide on request (or both).
EXAMPLE 116
In the following example, there are two <nav> elements, one for primary navigation around the
site, and one for secondary navigation around the page itself.
<body>
<h1>The Wiki Center Of Exampland</h1>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="/events">Current Events</a></li>
...more...
</ul>
</nav>
<article>
<header>
<h2>Demos in Exampland</h2>
<p>Written by A. N. Other.</p>
</header>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="#public">Public demonstrations</a></li>
<li><a href="#destroy">Demolitions</a></li>
...more...
</ul>
</nav>
<div>
<section id="public">
<h2>Public demonstrations</h2>
<p>...more...</p>
</section>
<section id="destroy">
<h2>Demolitions</h2>
<p>...more...</p>
</section>
...more...
</div>
<footer>
<p><a href="?edit">Edit</a> | <a href="?delete">Delete</a> | <a
href="?Rename">Rename</a></p>
</footer>
</article>
<footer>
<p><small> copyright 1998 Exampland Emperor</small></p>
</footer>
</body>
EXAMPLE 117
In the following example, the page has several places where links are present, but only one of
those places is considered a navigation section.
<body typeof="schema:Blog">
<header>
<h1>Wake up sheeple!</h1>
<p><a href="news.html">News</a> -
<a href="blog.html">Blog</a> -
<a href="forums.html">Forums</a></p>
<p>Last Modified: <span
property="schema:dateModified">2009-04-01</span></p>
<nav>
<h2>Navigation</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="articles.html">Index of all articles</a></li>
<li><a href="today.html">Things sheeple need to wake up for
today</a></li>
<li><a href="successes.html">Sheeple we have managed to wake</a>
</li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<main>
<article property="schema:blogPosts" typeof="schema:BlogPosting">
<header>
<h2 property="schema:headline">My Day at the Beach</h2>
</header>
<section property="schema:articleBody">
<p>Today I went to the beach and had a lot of fun.</p>
...more content...
</section>
<footer>
<p>Posted <time property="schema:datePublished"
datetime="2009-10-10">Thursday</time>.</p>
</footer>
</article>
...more blog posts...
</main>
<footer>
<p>Copyright
<span property="schema:copyrightYear">2010</span>
<span property="schema:copyrightHolder">The Example Company</span>
</p>
<p><a href="about.html">About</a> -
<a href="policy.html">Privacy Policy</a> -
<a href="contact.html">Contact Us</a></p>
</footer>
</body>
Notice the <main> element being used to wrap the main content of the page. In this case, all
content other than the page header and footer.
You can also see microdata annotations in the above example that use the schema.org vocabu-
lary to provide the publication date and other metadata about the blog post.
EXAMPLE 118
A <nav> element doesnt have to contain a list, it can contain other kinds of content as well. In
this navigation block, links are provided in prose:
<nav>
<h2>Navigation</h2>
<p>You are on my home page. To the north lies <a href="/blog">my
blog</a>, from whence the sounds of battle can be heard. To the east
you can see a large mountain, upon which many <a
href="/school">school papers</a> are littered. Far up thus mountain
you can spy a little figure who appears to be me, desperately
scribbling a <a href="/school/thesis">thesis</a>.</p>
<p>To the west are several exits. One fun-looking exit is labeled <a
href="https://games.example.com/">"games"</a>. Another more
boring-looking exit is labeled <a
href="https://isp.example.net/">ISP</a>.</p>
<p>To the south lies a dark and dank <a href="/about">contacts
page</a>. Cobwebs cover its disused entrance, and at one point you
see a rat run quickly out of the page.</p>
</nav>
EXAMPLE 119
In this example, <nav> is used in an e-mail application, to let the user switch folders:
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.
The <aside> element represents a section of a page that consists of content that is tangentially re-
lated to the content of the parenting sectioning content, and which could be considered separate
from that content. Such sections are often represented as sidebars in printed typography.
The element can be used for typographical effects like pull quotes or sidebars, for advertising, for
groups of <nav> elements, and for other content that is considered separate from the main content
of the nearest ancestor sectioning content.
Assistive Technology may convey the semantics of the <aside> to users. This information can pro-
vide a hint to users as to the type of content. For example the role of the element, which in this
case is "complementary", can be announced by screen reader software when a user navigates to an
<aside> element. User Agents may also provide methods to navigate to <aside> elements.
NOTE:
Its not appropriate to use the <aside> element just for parentheticals, since those are part of the
main flow of the document.
EXAMPLE 120
The following example shows how an aside is used to mark up background material on
Switzerland in a much longer news story on Europe.
<aside>
<h2>Switzerland</h2>
<p>Switzerland, a land-locked country in the middle of geographic
Europe, has not joined the geopolitical European Union, though it is
a signatory to a number of European treaties.</p>
</aside>
EXAMPLE 121
The following example shows how an aside is used to mark up a pull quote in a longer article.
...
<aside>
<q> People ask me what I do for fun when Im not at work. But Im
paid to do my hobby, so I never know what to answer. </q>
</aside>
<p>Of course his work or should that be hobby? isnt his only
passion. He also enjoys other pleasures.</p>
...
EXAMPLE 122
The following extract shows how <aside> can be used for blogrolls and other side content on a
blog:
<body>
<header>
<h1>My wonderful blog</h1>
<p>My tagline</p>
</header>
<aside>
<!-- this aside contains two sections that are tangentially related
to the page, namely, links to other blogs, and links to blog posts
from this blog -->
<nav>
<h2>My blogroll</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://blog.example.com/">Example Blog</a>
</ul>
</nav>
<nav>
<h2>Archives</h2>
<ol reversed>
<li><a href="/last-post">My last post</a>
<li><a href="/first-post">My first post</a>
</ol>
</nav>
</aside>
<aside>
<!-- this aside is tangentially related to the page also, it
contains twitter messages from the blog author -->
<h2>Twitter Feed</h2>
<blockquote cite="https://twitter.example.net/t31351234">
Im on vacation, writing my blog.
</blockquote>
<blockquote cite="https://twitter.example.net/t31219752">
Im going to go on vacation soon.
</blockquote>
</aside>
<article>
<!-- this is a blog post -->
<h2>My last post</h2>
<p>This is my last post.</p>
<footer>
<p><a href="/last-post" rel=bookmark>Permalink</a>
</footer>
</article>
<article>
<!-- this is also a blog post -->
<h2>My first post</h2>
These elements have a rank given by the number in their name. The h1 element has the highest
rank, the h6 element has the lowest rank, and two elements with the same name have equal rank.
EXAMPLE 123
The following code shows how to mark up a document outline with six levels of headings.
<body>
<h1>top level heading</h1>
<section><h2>2nd level heading</h2>
<section><h3>3nd level heading</h3>
<section><h4>4th level heading</h4>
<section><h5>5th level heading</h5>
<section><h6>6th level heading</h6>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</body>
NOTE:
The document outline would be the same if the <section> elements were not used.
h1h6 elements must not be used to markup subheadings, subtitles, alternative titles and taglines
unless intended to be the heading for a new section or subsection. Instead use the markup patterns
in the 4.13 Common idioms without dedicated elements section of the specification.
Assistive technology often announces the presence and level of a heading to users, as a hint to un-
derstand the structure of a document and construct a 'mental model' of its outline. For example the
role of the element, which in this case is "heading" and the heading level "1" to "6", can be an-
nounced by screen reader software when a user navigates to an h1h6 element. User Agents may
also provide methods to navigate to h1h6 elements.
EXAMPLE 124
As far as their respective document outlines (their heading and section structures) are con-
cerned, these two snippets are semantically equivalent:
<body>
<h1>Lets call it a draw(ing surface)</h1>
<h2>Diving in</h2>
<h2>Simple shapes</h2>
<h2>Canvas coordinates</h2>
<h3>Canvas coordinates diagram</h3>
<h2>Paths</h2>
</body>
<body>
<h1>Lets call it a draw(ing surface)</h1>
<section>
<h2>Diving in</h2>
</section>
<section>
<h2>Simple shapes</h2>
</section>
<section>
<h2>Canvas coordinates</h2>
<section>
<h3>Canvas coordinates diagram</h3>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<h2>Paths</h2>
</section>
</body>
Authors might prefer the former style for its terseness, or the latter style for its convenience in
the face of heavy editing; which is best is purely an issue of preferred authoring style.
The two styles can be combined, for compatibility with legacy tools while still future-proofing
for when that compatibility is no longer needed.
NOTE:
The semantics and meaning of the h1h6 elements are further detailed in the section on 4.3.9
Headings and sections.
The <header> element represents introductory content for its nearest ancestor <main> element or
sectioning content or sectioning root element. A <header> typically contains a group of introduc-
tory or navigational aids.
When a <header> elements nearest ancestor sectioning root element is the <body> element, and it
is not a descendant of the <main> element or a sectioning content element, then that <header> is
scoped to the <body> element and represents introductory content for the page as a whole.
Assistive Technology may convey to users the semantics of the <header> element when it applies
to the whole page. This information can provide a hint as to the type of content. For example, the
role of the element, which in this case is "banner", can be announced by screen reader software
when a user navigates to a <header> element that is scoped to the <body> element. User Agents
may also provide methods to navigate to a <header> element scoped to the <body> element.
NOTE:
A <header> element is intended to usually contain the sections heading (an h1h6 element),
but this is not required. The <header> element can also be used to wrap a sections table of con-
tents, a search form, or any relevant logos.
EXAMPLE 125
Here are some sample headers. This first one is for a game:
<header>
<p>Welcome to...</p>
<h1>Voidwars!</h1>
</header>
The following snippet shows how the element can be used to mark up a specifications header:
<header>
<h1>Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2</h1>
<p>W3C Working Draft 27 October 2004</p>
<dl>
<dt>This version:</dt>
<dd><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20041027/">https:
//www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20041027/</a></dd>
<dt>Previous version:</dt>
<dd><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20040510/">https:
//www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20040510/</a></dd>
<dt>Latest version of SVG 1.2:</dt>
<dd><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG12/">https://www.w3.org
/TR/SVG12/</a></dd>
<dt>Latest SVG Recommendation:</dt>
<dd><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/">https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG
/</a></dd>
<dt>Editor:</dt>
<dd>Dean Jackson, W3C, <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>
</dd>
<dt>Authors:</dt>
<dd>See <a href="#authors">Author List</a></dd>
</dl>
<p class="copyright"><a href="https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-
notic ...
</header>
NOTE:
The <header> element is not sectioning content; it doesnt introduce a new section.
EXAMPLE 126
In this example, the page has a page heading given by the h1 element, and two subsections
whose headings are given by h2 elements. The content after the <header> element is still part
of the last subsection started in the <header> element, because the <header> element doesnt
take part in the outline algorithm.
<body>
<header>
<h1>Little Green Guys With Guns</h1>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="/games">Games</a>
<li><a href="/forum">Forum</a>
<li><a href="/download">Download</a>
</ul>
</nav>
<h2>Important News</h2> <!-- this starts a second subsection -->
<!-- this is part of the subsection entitled "Important News" -->
<p>To play todays games you will need to update your client.</p>
<h2>Games</h2> <!-- this starts a third subsection -->
</header>
<p>You have three active games:</p>
<!-- this is still part of the subsection entitled "Games" -->
...
NOTE:
For cases where an developer wants to nest a header or footer within another header: The
<header> element can only contain a <header> or <footer> if they are themselves contained
within sectioning content.
EXAMPLE 127
In this example, the <article> has a <header> which contains an aside which itself contains a
<header>. This is conforming as the descendant header is contained within the <aside> ele-
ment.
<article>
<header>
<h1>Flexbox: The definitive guide</h1>
<aside>
<header>
<h2>About the author: Wes McSilly</h2>
<p><a href="./wes-mcsilly/">Contact him! (Why would you?)</a></p>
</header>
<p>Expert in nothing but Flexbox. Talented circus sideshow.</p>
</aside>
</header>
<p><ins>The guide about Flexbox was supposed to be here, but it
turned out Wes wasnt a Flexbox expert either.</ins></p>
</article>
The <footer> element represents a footer for its nearest ancestor <main> element or sectioning con-
tent or sectioning root element. A footer typically contains information about its section, such as
who wrote it, links to related documents, copyright data, and the like.
A <footer> element can also contain entire sections representing appendices, indexes, long
colophons, verbose license agreements, and other such content.
When a <footer> elements nearest ancestor sectioning root element is the <body> element, and it
is not a descendant of the <main> element or a sectioning content element, then that <footer> is
scoped to the <body> element and represents a footer for the page as a whole.
Assistive Technology may convey to users the semantics of the <footer> element when it applies
to the whole page. This information can provide a hint as to the type of content. For example, the
role of the element, which in this case is "content information", can be announced by screen
reader software when a user navigates to a <footer> element that is scoped to the <body> element.
User Agents may also provide methods to navigate to a <footer> element scoped to the <body> ele-
ment.
NOTE:
Contact information for the author or editor of a section belongs in an <address> element, pos-
sibly itself inside a <footer>. Bylines and other information that could be suitable for both a
<header> or a <footer> can be placed in either (or neither).
Footers dont necessarily have to appear at the end of a section, though they usually do.
NOTE:
The <footer> element is not sectioning content; it doesnt introduce a new section.
EXAMPLE 128
Here is a page with two footers, one at the top and one at the bottom, with the same content:
<body>
<footer><a href="../">Back to index...</a></footer>
<div>
<h1>Lorem ipsum</h1>
<p>The ipsum of all lorems</p>
</div>
<p>A dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim
veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex
ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in
voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla
pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
<footer><a href="../">Back to index...</a></footer>
</body>
EXAMPLE 129
Here is an example which shows the <footer> element being used both for a site-wide footer
and for a section footer.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>The Ramblings of a Scientist</TITLE>
<BODY>
<h1>The Ramblings of a Scientist</h1>
<MAIN>
<ARTICLE>
<H2>Episode 15</H2>
<VIDEO SRC="/fm/015.ogv" CONTROLS PRELOAD>
<P><A HREF="/fm/015.ogv">Download video</A>.</P>
</VIDEO>
<FOOTER> <!-- footer for article -->
<P>Published <TIME DATETIME="2009-10-21T18:26-07:00">on 2009/10/21 at
6:26pm</TIME></P>
</FOOTER>
</ARTICLE>
<ARTICLE>
<H2>My Favorite Trains</H2>
<P>I love my trains. My favorite train of all time is a Kf.</P>
<P>It is fun to see them pull some coal cars because they look so
dwarfed in comparison.</P>
<FOOTER> <!-- footer for article -->
<P>Published <TIME DATETIME="2009-09-15T14:54-07:00">on 2009/09/15 at
2:54pm</TIME></P>
</FOOTER>
</ARTICLE>
</MAIN>
<FOOTER> <!-- site wide footer -->
<NAV>
<P><A HREF="/credits.html">Credits</A> <A HREF="/tos.html">Terms
of Service</A> <A HREF="/index.html">Blog Index</A></P>
</NAV>
<P>Copyright 2009 Gordon Freeman</P>
</FOOTER>
</BODY>
</HTML>
EXAMPLE 130
Some site designs have what is sometimes referred to as "fat footers" footers that contain a
lot of material, including images, links to other articles, links to pages for sending feedback,
special offers... in some ways, a whole "front page" in the footer.
This fragment shows the bottom of a page on a site with a "fat footer":
...
<footer>
<nav>
<section>
<h2>Articles</h2>
<p><img src="images/somersaults.jpeg" alt=""> Go to the gym with
our somersaults class! Our teacher Jim takes you through the
paces
in this two-part article. <a href="articles/somersaults/1">Part
1</a> <a href="articles/somersaults/2">Part 2</a></p>
<p><img src="images/kindplus.jpeg"> Tired of walking on the edge
of
a clif<!-- sic -->? Our guest writer Lara shows you how to bumble
your way through the bars. <a href="articles/kindplus/1">Read
more...</a></p>
<p><img src="images/crisps.jpeg"> The chips are down, now all
thats left is a potato. What can you do with it? <a
href="articles/crisps/1">Read more...</a></p>
</section>
<ul>
<li> <a href="/about">About us...</a>
<li> <a href="/feedback">Send feedback!</a>
<li> <a href="/sitemap">Sitemap</a>
</ul>
</nav>
<p><small>Copyright 2015 The Snacker <a href="/tos">Terms of
Service</a></small></p>
</footer>
</body>
The first element of heading content in an element of sectioning content represents the heading for
that explicit section. Subsequent headings of equal or higher rank start new implied subsections
that are part of the previous sections parent section. Subsequent headings of lower rank start new
implied subsections that are part of the previous one. In both cases, the element represents the
heading of the implied section.
h1h6 elements must not be used to markup subheadings, subtitles, alternative titles and taglines
unless intended to be the heading for a new section or subsection. Instead use the markup patterns
in the 4.13 Common idioms without dedicated elements section of the specification.
Certain elements are said to be sectioning roots, including blockquote and <td> elements. These
elements can have their own outlines, but the sections and headings inside these elements do not
contribute to the outlines of their ancestors.
<blockquote> , <body> , <details> , <dialog> , <fieldset> , <figure> , <td>
Sectioning content elements are always considered subsections of their nearest ancestor sectioning
root or their nearest ancestor element of sectioning content, whichever is nearest, regardless of
what implied sections other headings may have created.
EXAMPLE 131
For the following fragment:
<body>
<h1>Foo</h1>
<h2>Bar</h2>
<blockquote>
<h3>Bla</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>Baz</p>
<h2>Quux</h2>
<section>
<h3>Thud</h3>
</section>
<p>Grunt</p>
</body>
1. Bar (heading starting implied section, containing a block quote and the "Baz" para-
graph)
2. Quux (heading starting implied section with no content other than the heading itself)
Notice how the section ends the earlier implicit section so that a later paragraph ("Grunt") is
back at the top level.
Sections may contain headings of a rank equal to their section nesting level. Authors should use
headings of the appropriate rank for the sections nesting level.
Authors are also encouraged to explicitly wrap sections in elements of sectioning content, instead
of relying on the implicit sections generated by having multiple headings in one element of sec-
tioning content.
EXAMPLE 132
For example, the following is correct:
<body>
<h1>Apples</h1>
<p>Apples are fruit.</p>
<section>
<h2>Taste</h2>
<p>They taste lovely.</p>
<h3>Sweet</h3>
<p>Red apples are sweeter than green ones.</p>
<h3>Color</h3>
<p>Apples come in various colors.</p>
</section>
</body>
<body>
<h1>Apples</h1>
<p>Apples are fruit.</p>
<section>
<h2>Taste</h2>
<p>They taste lovely.</p>
<section>
<h3>Sweet</h3>
<p>Red apples are sweeter than green ones.</p>
</section>
<section>
<h3>Color</h3>
<p>Apples come in various colors.</p>
</section>
</section>
</body>
Both of the documents above are semantically identical and would produce the same outline in
compliant user agents.
Warning! There are currently no known native implementations of the outline algo-
rithm in graphical browsers or assistive technology user agents, although the algorithm
is implemented in other software such as conformance checkers and browser exten-
sions. Therefore the outline algorithm cannot be relied upon to convey document struc-
ture to users. Authors should use heading rank (h1-h6) to convey document structure.
This section defines an algorithm for creating an outline for a sectioning content element or a sec-
tioning root element. It is defined in terms of a walk over the nodes of a DOM tree, in tree order,
with each node being visited when it is entered and when it is exited during the walk. Each time a
node is visited, it can be seen as triggering an enter or exit event.
EXAMPLE 133
The following pseudocode fragment:
visitNode(node)
onEnter(node)
child = node.firstChild
while(child != null)
visitNode(child)
child = child.nextSibling
onExit(node)
...exemplifies how to recursively traverse the node tree and when to trigger the enter and exit
events. See the JavaScript example for a possible, non-recursive JavaScript implementation.
The outline for a sectioning content element or a sectioning root element consists of a list of one
or more potentially nested sections. The element for which an outline is created is said to be the
outlines owner.
A section is a container that corresponds to some nodes in the original DOM tree. Each section
can have one heading associated with it, and can contain any number of further nested subsections.
The algorithm for the outline also associates each node in the DOM tree with a particular section
and potentially a heading. (The sections in the outline arent <section> elements, though some
may correspond to such elements they are merely conceptual sections.)
EXAMPLE 134
The following markup fragment:
<body>
<h1>A</h1>
<p>B</p>
<h2>C</h2>
<p>D</p>
<h2>E</h2>
<p>F</p>
</body>
...results in the following outline being created for the body node (and thus the entire docu-
ment):
1. Section created for body node. Associated with heading "A". Also associated with para-
graph "B". Nested sections:
1. Section implied for first h2 element. Associated with heading "C". Also associated
with paragraph "D". No nested sections.
2. Section implied for second h2 element. Associated with heading "E". Also associated
with paragraph "F". No nested sections.
The algorithm that must be followed during a walk of a DOM subtree rooted at a sectioning con-
tent element or a sectioning root element to determine that elements outline is as follows:
1. Let current outline owner be null. (It holds the element whose outline is being created.)
2. Let current section be null. (It holds a pointer to a section, so that elements in the DOM can
all be associated with a section.)
3. Create a stack to hold elements, which is used to handle nesting. Initialize this stack to empty.
4. Walk over the DOM in tree order, starting with the sectioning content element or sectioning
root element at the root of the subtree for which an outline is to be created, and trigger the
first relevant step below for each element as the walk enters and exits it.
When exiting an element, if that element is the element at the top of the stack
NOTE:
The element being exited is a heading content element or an element with a
hidden attribute.
If the top of the stack is a heading content element or an element with a hidden
attribute
Do nothing.
1. If the current section has no heading, create an implied heading and let
that be the heading for the current section .
3. Let current section be a newly created section for the current outline owner
element.
5. Let there be a new outline for the new current outline owner , initialized with
just the new current section as the only section in the outline.
1. If the current section has no heading, create an implied heading and let that be
the heading for the current section .
2. Pop the top element from the stack, and let the current outline owner be that
element.
3. Let current section be the last section in the outline of the current outline
owner element.
4. Append the outline of the sectioning content element being exited to the cur-
rent section . (This does not change which section is the last section in the out-
line.)
1. If current outline owner is not null, push current outline owner onto the
stack.
4. Let current section be a newly created section for the current outline owner
element.
5. Let there be a new outline for the new current outline owner , initialized with
just the new current section as the only section in the outline.
1. If the current section has no heading, create an implied heading and let that be
the heading for the current section .
3. Pop the top element from the stack, and let the current outline owner be that
element.
When exiting a sectioning content element or a sectioning root element (when the
stack is empty)
NOTE:
The current outline owner is the element being exited, and it is the sectioning
content element or a sectioning root element at the root of the subtree for which
an outline is being generated.
If the current section has no heading, create an implied heading and let that be the
heading for the current section .
Skip to the next step in the overall set of steps. (The walk is over.)
owner element, so that this new section is the new last section of that outline. Let
current section be that new section. Let the element being entered be the new
heading for the current section .
2. Heading loop: If the element being entered has a rank lower than the rank of
the heading of the candidate section , then create a new section, and append it
to candidate section . (This does not change which section is the last section in
the outline.) Let current section be this new section. Let the element being en-
tered be the new heading for the current section . Abort these substeps.
3. Let new candidate section be the section that contains candidate section in
the outline of current outline owner .
Push the element being entered onto the stack. (This causes the algorithm to skip
any descendants of the element.)
NOTE:
Recall that h1 has the highest rank, and h6 has the lowest rank.
Otherwise
Do nothing.
In addition, whenever the walk exits a node, after doing the steps above, if the node is not as-
sociated with a section yet, associate the node with the section current section .
5. Associate all non-element nodes that are in the subtree for which an outline is being created
with the section with which their parent element is associated.
6. Associate all nodes in the subtree with the heading of the section with which they are associ-
ated, if any.
The tree of sections created by the algorithm above, or a proper subset thereof, must be used when
generating document outlines, for example when generating tables of contents.
The outline created for the body element of a Document is the outline of the entire document.
When creating an interactive table of contents, entries should jump the user to the relevant section-
ing content element, if the section was created for a real element in the original document, or to the
relevant heading content element, if the section in the tree was generated for a heading in the
above process.
NOTE:
Selecting the first section of the document therefore always takes the user to the top of the doc-
ument, regardless of where the first heading in the body is to be found.
The outline depth of a heading content element associated with a section section is the number of
sections that are ancestors of section in the outermost outline that section finds itself in when the
outlines of its Document's elements are created, plus 1. The outline depth of a heading content el-
ement not associated with a section is 1.
User agents should provide default headings for sections that do not have explicit section head-
ings.
EXAMPLE 135
Consider the following snippet:
<body>
<nav>
<p><a href="/">Home</a></p>
</nav>
<p>Hello world.</p>
<aside>
<p>My cat is cute.</p>
</aside>
</body>
Although it contains no headings, this snippet has three sections: a document (the <body>) with
two subsections (a <nav> and an <aside>). A user agent could present the outline as follows:
1. Untitled document
1. Navigation
2. Sidebar
These default headings ("Untitled document", "Navigation", "Sidebar") are not specified by
this specification, and might vary with the users language, the pages language, the users
preferences, the user agent implementors preferences, etc.
EXAMPLE 136
The following JavaScript function shows how the tree walk could be implemented. The root
argument is the root of the tree to walk (either a sectioning content element or a sectioning root
element), and the enter and exit arguments are callbacks that are called with the nodes as they
are entered and exited. [ECMA-262]
Element Purpose
Example
<body>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head> <title>Steve Hills Home Page</title> </head>
<body> <p>Hard Trance is My Life.</p> </body>
</html>
Element Purpose
Example
<article>
<article>
<h2>Masif tee</h2>
<img src="/tumblr_masqy2s5yn1rzfqbpo1_500.jpg" alt="Yellow
smiley face with the caption 'masif'">
<p>My fave Masif tee so far!</p>
<footer>Posted 2 days ago</footer>
</article>
<article>
<h2>Masifs birthday</h2>
<img src="/tumblr_m9tf6wSr6W1rzfqbpo1_500.jpg" alt="">
<p>Happy 2nd birthday Masif Saturdays!!!</p>
<footer>Posted 3 weeks ago</footer>
</article>
<section>
<h1>Biography</h1>
<section>
<h2>The facts</h2>
<p>1500+ shows, 14+ countries</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2>2010/2011 figures per year</h2>
<p>100+ shows, 8+ countries</p>
</section>
<nav>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="/">Home</a>
<li><a href="/biog.html">Bio</a>
<li><a href="/discog.html">Discog</a>
</ul>
</nav>
<aside>
Element Purpose
Example
<h1>Music</h1>
<p>As any burner can tell you, the event has a lot of trance.</p>
<aside>You can buy the music we played at our <a
href="buy.html">playlist page</a>.</aside>
<p>This year we played a kind of trance that originated in
Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the mid 90s.</p>
<header>
<article>
<header>
<h2>Hard Trance is My Life</h2>
<p>By DJ Steve Hill and Technikal</p>
</header>
<p>The album with the amusing punctuation has red artwork.</p>
</article>
<footer>
<article>
<h2>Hard Trance is My Life</h2>
<p>The album with the amusing punctuation has red artwork.</p>
<footer>
<p>Artists: DJ Steve Hill and Technikal</p>
</footer>
</article>
A <section> forms part of something else. An <article> is its own thing. But how does one know
which is which? Mostly the real answer is "it depends on author intent".
For example, one could imagine a book with a "Granny Smith" chapter that just said "These juicy,
green apples make a great filling for apple pies."; that would be a <section> because thered be
lots of other chapters on (maybe) other kinds of apples.
On the other hand, one could imagine a tweet or tumblr post or newspaper classified ad that just
said "Granny Smith. These juicy, green apples make a great filling for apple pies."; it would then
be <article>s because that was the whole thing.
Comments on an article are not part of the <article> on which they are commenting, but are re-
lated, therefore may be contained in their own nested <article>.
NOTE:
While paragraphs are usually represented in visual media by blocks of text that are physically
separated from adjacent blocks through blank lines, a style sheet or user agent would be
equally justified in presenting paragraph breaks in a different manner, for instance using inline
pilcrows ().
EXAMPLE 137
The following examples are conforming HTML fragments:
<fieldset>
<legend>Personal information</legend>
<p>
<label>Name: <input name="n"></label>
<label><input name="anon" type="checkbox"> Hide from other
users</label>
</p>
<p><label>Address: <textarea name="a"></textarea></label></p>
</fieldset>
The <p> element should not be used when a more specific element is more appropriate.
EXAMPLE 138
The following example is technically correct:
<section>
<!-- ... -->
<p>Last modified: 2001-04-23</p>
<p>Author: [email protected]</p>
</section>
<section>
<!-- ... -->
<footer>Last modified: 2001-04-23</footer>
<address>Author: [email protected]</address>
</section>
Or:
<section>
<!-- ... -->
<footer>
<p>Last modified: 2001-04-23</p>
<address>Author: [email protected]</address>
</footer>
</section>
NOTE:
List elements (in particular, ol and <ul> elements) cannot be children of <p> elements. When a
sentence contains a bulleted list, therefore, one might wonder how it should be marked up.
EXAMPLE 139
For instance, this fantastic sentence has bullets relating to
wizards,
telepathy,
The solution is to realize that a paragraph, in HTML terms, is not a logical concept, but a struc-
tural one. In the fantastic example above, there are actually five paragraphs as defined by this
specification: one before the list, one for each bullet, and one after the list.
EXAMPLE 140
The markup for the above example could therefore be:
Authors wishing to conveniently style such "logical" paragraphs consisting of multiple "struc-
tural" paragraphs can use the <div> element instead of the p element.
EXAMPLE 141
Thus for instance the above example could become the following:
This example still has five structural paragraphs, but now the author can style just the div
instead of having to consider each part of the example separately.
In general, elements that cannot be children of <p> elements include any elements that are in-
line blocks, inline tables, as well as floated and positioned block-level elements.
Uses HTMLElement.
The <address> element represents contact information for a person, people or organization. It
should include physical and/or digital location/contact information and a means of identifying a
person(s) or organization the information pertains to.
EXAMPLE 142
For example, the W3C twitter account:
<address>
<p>W3C on Twitter:
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/w3c">@w3c</a>
</address>
<address>
UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE<br>
1701 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722<br>
Tel: (512) 471-5883 | Fax: (512) 471-5908
</address>
...
<label for="name">Name:</label> <input type="text" id="name">
<label for="hn">House number:</label> <input type="text" id="hn">
<label for="street">Street:</label> <input type="text" id="street">
...
<address>
<p>Name: Hament Dhanji
<p>House number: 1976
<p>Street: Meadowband Road
...
</address>
Location of a cat
The meaning and usage contexts of the address element is broad. If developers wish to provide
more granular and specific semantics for the address element use of any of the various semantic
web metadata schemas is suggested.
EXAMPLE 143
For example, the postal address of a local business annotated using RDFa
The <hr> element represents a paragraph-level thematic break, e.g., a scene change in a story, or a
transition to another topic within a section of a reference book.
EXAMPLE 144
The following fictional extract from a project manual shows two sections that use the <hr> ele-
ment to separate topics within the section.
<section>
<h1>Communication</h1>
<p>There are various methods of communication. This section
covers a few of the important ones used by the project.</p>
<hr>
<p>Communication stones seem to come in pairs and have mysterious
properties:</p>
<ul>
<li>They can transfer thoughts in two directions once activated
if used alone.</li>
<li>If used with another device, they can transfer ones
consciousness to another body.</li>
<li>If both stones are used with another device, the
consciousnesses switch bodies.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>Radios use the electromagnetic spectrum in the meter range and
longer.</p>
<hr>
<p>Signal flares use the electromagnetic spectrum in the
nanometer range.</p>
</section>
<section>
<h1>Food</h1>
<p>All food at the project is rationed:</p>
<dl>
<dt>Potatoes</dt>
<dd>Two per day</dd>
<dt>Soup</dt>
<dd>One bowl per day</dd>
</dl>
<hr>
<p>Cooking is done by the chefs on a set rotation.</p>
</section>
There is no need for an <hr> element between the sections themselves, since the <section> ele-
ments and the h1 elements imply thematic changes themselves.
EXAMPLE 145
The following extract from Pandoras Star by Peter F. Hamilton shows two paragraphs that
precede a scene change and the paragraph that follows it. The scene change, represented in the
printed book by a gap containing a solitary centered star between the second and third para-
graphs, is here represented using the <hr> element.
NOTE:
The <hr> element does not affect the documents outline.
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the default or allowed roles.
DOM interface:
The <pre> element represents a block of preformatted text, in which structure is represented by ty-
pographic conventions rather than by elements.
NOTE:
In the HTML syntax, a leading newline character immediately following the <pre> element
start tag is stripped.
Including an e-mail, with paragraphs indicated by blank lines, lists indicated by lines prefixed
with a bullet, and so on.
Including fragments of computer code, with structure indicated according to the conventions
of that language.
NOTE:
Authors are encouraged to consider how preformatted text will be experienced when the for-
matting is lost, as will be the case for users of speech synthesizers, braille displays, and the
like. For cases like ASCII art, it is likely that an alternative presentation, such as a textual de-
scription, would be more universally accessible to the readers of the document.
To represent a block of computer code, the <pre> element can be used with a <code> element; to
represent a block of computer output the <pre> element can be used with a <samp> element. Simi-
larly, the <kbd> element can be used within a <pre> element to indicate text that the user is to enter.
NOTE:
This element has rendering requirements involving the bidirectional algorithm.
EXAMPLE 146
In the following snippet, a sample of computer code is presented.
EXAMPLE 147
In the following snippet, samp and <kbd> elements are mixed in the contents of a <pre> element
to show a session of Zork I.
></samp></pre>
EXAMPLE 148
The following shows a contemporary poem that uses the <pre> element to preserve its unusual
formatting, which forms an intrinsic part of the poem itself.
<pre> maxling
it is with a heart
heavy
~cdr 11dec07</pre>
NOTE:
The HTMLQuoteElement interface is also used by the <q> element.
The <blockquote> element represents content that is quoted from another source, optionally with a
citation which must be within a footer or cite element, and optionally with in-line changes such
as annotations and abbreviations.
Content inside a blockquote other than citations and in-line changes must be quoted from another
source, whose address, if it has one, may be cited in the cite attribute.
NOTE:
In cases where a page contains contributions from multiple people, such as comments on a
blog post, 'another source' can include text from the same page, written by another person.
If the cite attribute is present, it must be a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces. To obtain
the corresponding citation link, the value of the attribute must be parsed relative to the elements
node document. User agents may allow users to follow such citation links, but they are primarily
intended for private use (e.g., by server-side scripts collecting statistics about a sites use of quota-
tions), not for readers.
The cite IDL attribute must reflect the elements cite content attribute.
The content of a <blockquote> may be abbreviated, may have context added or may have annota-
tions. Any such additions or changes to quoted text must be indicated in the text (at the text level).
This may mean the use of notational conventions or explicit remarks, such as "emphasis mine".
EXAMPLE 149
For example, in English, abbreviations are traditionally identified using square brackets. Con-
sider a page with the sentence "Fred ate the cracker. He then said he liked apples and fish."; it
could be quoted as follows:
<blockquote>
<p>[Fred] then said he liked [...] fish.</p>
</blockquote>
Quotation marks may be used to delineate between quoted text and annotations within a
<blockquote>.
EXAMPLE 150
For example, an in-line note provided by the author:
<figure>
<blockquote>
"That monster custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habits devil," <abbr title="et cetera">&c.</abbr> not in Folio
NOTE:
In the example above, the citation is contained within the <footer> of a <figure> element,
this groups and associates the information, about the quote, with the quote. The
<figcaption> element was not used, in this case, as a container for the citation as it is not a
caption.
Attribution for the quotation, may be be placed inside the <blockquote> element, but must be
within a <cite> element for in-text attributions or within a <footer> element.
EXAMPLE 151
For example, here the attribution is given in a footer after the quoted text, to clearly relate the
quote to its attribution:
<blockquote>
<p>I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer
god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other
possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.</p>
<footer> <cite>Stephen Roberts</cite></footer>
</blockquote>
EXAMPLE 152
Here the attribution is given in a <cite> element on the last line of the quoted text. Note that a
link to the author is also included.
<blockquote>
The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their
soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen
equipment.
<cite><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse">Herbert
Marcuse</a></cite>
</blockquote>
EXAMPLE 153
Here the attribution is given in a footer after the quoted text, and metadata about the reference
has been added using the RDFA Lite syntax. [rdfa-lite]
<blockquote>
<p>... she said she would not sign any deposition containing the word
"amorous"
instead of "advances". For her the difference was of crucial
significance,
and one of the reasons she had separated from her husband was that he
had never been
amorous but had consistently made advances.</p>
<footer typeof="schema:Book">
<span property="schema:author">Heinrich Bll</span>,
<span property="schema:name">The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum</span>,
<span property="schema:datePublished">January 1, 1974</span>
</footer>
</blockquote>
NOTE:
There is no formal method for indicating the markup in a blockquote is from a quoted source.
It is suggested that if the footer or <cite> elements are included and these elements are also
being used within a blockquote to identify citations, the elements from the quoted source
could be annotated with metadata to identify their origin, for example by using the class at-
tribute (a defined extensibility mechanism).
EXAMPLE 154
In this example the source of a quote includes a <cite> element, which is annotated using the
class attribute:
<blockquote>
<p>My favorite book is <cite class="from-source">At Swim-Two-
Birds</cite></p>
<footer>- <cite>Mike[tm]Smith</cite></footer>
</blockquote>
EXAMPLE 155
Here a <blockquote> element is used in conjunction with a <figure> element and its
figcaption:
<figure>
<blockquote>
<p>The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with.
It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held
prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to
be true. But our preferences do not determine whats true. We have a
method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only
asymptotic approaches to the truth never there, just closer
and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered
possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.</p>
</blockquote>
<figcaption><cite>Carl Sagan</cite>, in "<cite>Wonder and
Skepticism</cite>", from
the <cite>Skeptical Inquirer</cite> Volume 19, Issue 1 (January-
February
1995)</figcaption>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 156
This next example shows the use of cite alongside blockquote:
EXAMPLE 157
This example shows how a forum post could use blockquote to show what post a user is re-
plying to. The <article> element is used for each post, to mark up the threading.
<article>
<h1><a href="https://bacon.example.com/?blog=109431">Bacon on a
crowbar</a></h1>
<article>
<header><strong>t3yw</strong> 12 points 1 hour ago</header>
<p>I bet a narwhal would love that.</p>
<footer><a href="?pid=29578">permalink</a></footer>
<article>
<header><strong>greg</strong> 8 points 1 hour ago</header>
<blockquote><p>I bet a narwhal would love that.</p></blockquote>
<p>Dude narwhals dont eat bacon.</p>
<footer><a href="?pid=29579">permalink</a></footer>
<article>
<header><strong>t3yw</strong> 15 points 1 hour ago</header>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><p>I bet a narwhal would love that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dude narwhals dont eat bacon.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Next thing youll be saying they dont get capes and wizard
hats either!</p>
<footer><a href="?pid=29580">permalink</a></footer>
<article>
<header><strong>boing</strong> -5 points 1 hour ago</header>
<p>narwhals are worse than ceiling cat</p>
<footer><a href="?pid=29581">permalink</a></footer>
</article>
</article>
</article>
<article>
<header><strong>fred</strong> 1 points 23 minutes ago</header>
<blockquote><p>I bet a narwhal would love that.</p></blockquote>
<p>I bet theyd love to peel a banana too.</p>
<footer><a href="?pid=29582">permalink</a></footer>
</article>
</article>
</article>
EXAMPLE 158
This example shows the use of a blockquote for short snippets, demonstrating that one does
not have to use <p> elements inside <blockquote> elements:
NOTE:
Examples of how to represent a conversation are shown in a later section; it is not appropriate
to use the cite and <blockquote> elements for this purpose.
The <ol> element represents a list of items, where the items have been intentionally ordered, such
that changing the order would change the meaning of the document.
The items of the list are the <li> element child nodes of the <ol> element, in tree order.
The reversed attribute is a boolean attribute. If present, it indicates that the list is a descending list
(..., 3, 2, 1). If the attribute is omitted, the list is an ascending list (1, 2, 3, ...).
The start attribute, if present, must be a valid integer giving the ordinal value of the first list item.
If the start attribute is present, user agents must parse it as an integer, in order to determine the
attributes value. The default value, used if the attribute is missing or if the value cannot be con-
verted to a number according to the referenced algorithm, is 1 if the element has no reversed at-
tribute, and is the number of child li elements otherwise.
The first item in the list has the ordinal value given by the <ol> elements start attribute, unless
that <li> element has a value attribute with a value that can be successfully parsed, in which case
it has the ordinal value given by that value attribute.
Each subsequent item in the list has the ordinal value given by its value attribute, if it has one, or,
if it doesnt, the ordinal value of the previous item, plus one if the reversed is absent, or minus
one if it is present.
The type attribute can be used to specify the kind of marker to use in the list, in the cases where
that matters (e.g., because items are to be referenced by their number/letter). The attribute, if speci-
fied, must have a value that is a case-sensitive match for one of the characters given in the first cell
of one of the rows of the following table. The type attribute represents the state given in the cell in
the second column of the row whose first cell matches the attributes value; if none of the cells
match, or if the attribute is omitted, then the attribute represents the decimal state.
User agents should render the items of the list in a manner consistent with the state of the type at-
tribute of the <ol> element. Numbers less than or equal to zero should always use the decimal sys-
tem regardless of the type attribute.
NOTE:
For CSS user agents, a mapping for this attribute to the list-style-type CSS property is given
in the 10 Rendering section (the mapping is straightforward: the states above have the same
names as their corresponding CSS values).
NOTE:
It is possible to redefine the default CSS list styles used to implement this attribute in CSS user
agents; doing so will affect how list items are rendered.
The reversed, start, and type IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the
same name. The start IDL attribute has the same default as its content attribute.
EXAMPLE 159
The following markup shows a list where the order matters, and where the ol element is there-
fore appropriate. Compare this list to the equivalent list in the ul section to see an example of
the same items using the <ul> element.
<p>I have lived in the following countries (given in the order of when
I first lived there):</p>
<ol>
<li>Switzerland
<li>United Kingdom
<li>United States
<li>Norway
</ol>
Note how changing the order of the list changes the meaning of the document. In the following
example, changing the relative order of the first two items has changed the birthplace of the
author:
<p>I have lived in the following countries (given in the order of when
I first lived there):</p>
<ol>
<li>United Kingdom
<li>Switzerland
<li>United States
<li>Norway
</ol>
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
list role (default - do not set), directory, group, listbox, menu, menubar,
presentation, radiogroup, tablist, toolbar or tree.
The <ul> element represents a list of items, where the order of the items is not important that is,
where changing the order would not materially change the meaning of the document.
The items of the list are the <li> element child nodes of the <ul> element.
EXAMPLE 160
The following markup shows a list where the order does not matter, and where the ul element
is therefore appropriate. Compare this list to the equivalent list in the ol section to see an ex-
ample of the same items using the <ol> element.
Note that changing the order of the list does not change the meaning of the document. The
items in the snippet above are given in alphabetical order, but in the snippet below they are
given in order of the size of their current account balance in 2007, without changing the mean-
ing of the document whatsoever:
Global attributes
If the element is not a child of an <ul> or <menu> element: value
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
listitem role (default - do not set), menuitem, menuitemcheckbox, menuitemradio,
option, presentation, radio, separator, tab or treeitem.
The <li> element represents a list item. If its parent element is an <ol>, <ul>, or <menu> element,
then the element is an item of the parent elements list, as defined for those elements. Otherwise,
the list item has no defined list-related relationship to any other <li> element.
If the parent element is an <ol> element, then the <li> element has an ordinal value.
The value attribute, if present, must be a valid integer giving the ordinal value of the list item.
If the value attribute is present, user agents must parse it as an integer, in order to determine the
attributes value. If the attributes value cannot be converted to a number, the attribute must be
treated as if it was absent. The attribute has no default value.
The value attribute is processed relative to the elements parent ol element (q.v.), if there is one.
If there is not, the attribute has no effect.
The value IDL attribute must reflect the value of the value content attribute.
EXAMPLE 161
The following example, the top ten movies are listed (in reverse order). Note the way the list is
given a title by using a <figure> element and its <figcaption> element.
<figure>
<figcaption>The top 10 movies of all time</figcaption>
<ol>
<li value="10"><cite>Josie and the Pussycats</cite>, 2001</li>
<li value="9"><cite lang="sh"> , </cite>,
1998</li>
<li value="8"><cite>A Bugs Life</cite>, 1998</li>
<li value="7"><cite>Toy Story</cite>, 1995</li>
<li value="6"><cite>Monsters, Inc</cite>, 2001</li>
<li value="5"><cite>Cars</cite>, 2006</li>
<li value="4"><cite>Toy Story 2</cite>, 1999</li>
<li value="3"><cite>Finding Nemo</cite>, 2003</li>
<li value="2"><cite>The Incredibles</cite>, 2004</li>
<li value="1"><cite>Ratatouille</cite>, 2007</li>
</ol>
</figure>
The markup could also be written as follows, using the reversed attribute on the <ol> ele-
ment:
<figure>
<figcaption>The top 10 movies of all time</figcaption>
<ol reversed>
<li><cite>Josie and the Pussycats</cite>, 2001</li>
<li><cite lang="sh"> , </cite>, 1998</li>
<li><cite>A Bugs Life</cite>, 1998</li>
<li><cite>Toy Story</cite>, 1995</li>
<li><cite>Monsters, Inc</cite>, 2001</li>
<li><cite>Cars</cite>, 2006</li>
<li><cite>Toy Story 2</cite>, 1999</li>
<li><cite>Finding Nemo</cite>, 2003</li>
<li><cite>The Incredibles</cite>, 2004</li>
<li><cite>Ratatouille</cite>, 2007</li>
</ol>
</figure>
NOTE:
While it is conforming to include heading elements (e.g., h2) and Sectioning content inside li
elements, it likely does not convey the semantics that the author intended. A heading starts a
new section, so a heading in a list implicitly splits the list into spanning multiple sections. Sec-
tioning content explicitly creates a new section and so splits the list into spanning multiple sec-
tions.
The <dl> element represents a description list of zero or more term-description groups. Each
term-description group consists of one or more terms (represented by <dt> elements) possibly as
children of a <div> element child, and one or more descriptions (represented by <dd> elements pos-
sibly as children of a <div> element child), ignoring any nodes other than <dt> and <dd> element
children, and dt and dd elements that are children of <div> element children within a single <dl>
element.
Term-description groups may be names and definitions, questions and answers, categories and top-
ics, or any other groups of term-description pairs.
EXAMPLE 162
In this example a <dl> is used to represent a simple list of names and descriptions:
<dl>
<dt>Blanco tequila</dt>
<dd>The purest form of the blue agave spirit...</dd>
<dt>Reposado tequila</dt>
<dd>Typically aged in wooden barrels for between two and eleven
months...</dd>
</dl>
Each term within a term-description group must be represented by a single <dt> element. The de-
scriptions within a term-description group are alternatives. Each description must be represented
by a single <dd> element.
EXAMPLE 163
In this example a <dl> element represents a set of terms, each of which has multiple descrip-
tions:
The order of term-description groups within a <dl> element, and the order of terms and descrip-
EXAMPLE 164
In this example a <dl> is used to show a set of instructions, where the order of the instructions
is important:
<p>Determine the victory points as follows (use the first matching case):
</p>
<dl>
<dt> If you have exactly five gold coins </dt>
<dd> You get five victory points </dd>
<dt> If you have one or more gold coins, and you have one or more
silver coins </dt>
<dd> You get two victory points </dd>
<dt> If you have one or more silver coins </dt>
<dd> You get one victory point </dd>
<dt> Otherwise </dt>
<dd> You get no victory points </dd>
</dl>
If a <dl> element contains no <dt> or <dd> child elements, it contains no term-description groups.
If a <dl> element has one or more non-white space text node children, or has children that are nei-
ther <dt> or <dd> elements, then all such text nodes and elements as well as their descendants (in-
cluding any <dt> and <dd> elements) do not form part of any term-description group within the
<dl>.
If a <dl> element has one or more <dt> element children, but no <dd> element children, then it con-
sists of one group with terms but no descriptions.
If a <dl> element has one or more <dd> element children, but no <dt> element children, it consists
of one group with descriptions but no terms.
If a <dd> element is the first child of a <dl> element (excepting a script-supporting element), the
first group has no associated term.
If a <dt> element is the last child of a <dl> element (excepting a script-supporting element), the last
group has no associated descriptions.
NOTE:
Note: when a <dl> element does not match its content model, it is often because a <dd> element
has been used instead of a <dt> element, or vice versa.
The <dt> element represents a term, part of a term-description group in a description list (<dl> ele-
ment).
EXAMPLE 165
In this example the <dt> elements represent questions and the <dd> elements the answers:
<dl>
<dt>What is my favorite drink?</dt>
<dd>Tea</dd>
<dt>What is my favorite food?</dt>
<dd>Sushi</dd>
<dt>What is my favourite film?</dt>
<dd>What a Wonderful Life</dd>
</dl>
NOTE:
When used within a <dl> element, the <dt> element does not necessarily represent a term being
defined. The <dfn> element should be used to represent a term being defined.
EXAMPLE 166
In this example the <dfn> element indicates that the <dt> element contains a defined term, the
definition for which is represented by the <dd> element:
<dl>
<dt lang="en-us"><dfn>Color</dfn></dt>
<dt lang="en-gb"><dfn>Colour</dfn></dt>
<dd>A sensation which (in humans) derives from the ability of the fine
structure of the eye to distinguish three differently filtered analyses
of a view.</dd>
</dl>
Uses HTMLElement.
The <dd> element represents a description, part of a term-description group in a description list
(<dl> element).
EXAMPLE 167
In this example the <dd> elements represent the keys that invoke the keycodes indicated in the
<dt> elements:
<dl>
<dt>37</dt>
<dd>Left</dd>
<dt>38</dt>
<dd>Right</dd>
<dt>39</dt>
<dd>Up</dd>
<dt>40</dt>
<dd>Down</dd>
</dl>
The <figure> element represents some flow content, optionally with a caption, that is self-con-
tained (like a complete sentence) and is typically referenced as a single unit from the main flow of
the document.
NOTE:
"Self-contained" in this context does not necessarily mean independent. For example, each
sentence in a paragraph is self-contained; an image that is part of a sentence would be inappro-
priate for <figure>, but an entire sentence made of images would be fitting.
The element can thus be used to annotate illustrations, diagrams, photos, code listings, etc.
NOTE:
When a figure is referred to from the main content of the document by identifying it by its
caption (e.g., by figure number), it enables such content to be easily moved away from that pri-
mary content, e.g., to the side of the page, to dedicated pages, or to an appendix, without af-
fecting the flow of the document.
If a <figure> element is referenced by its relative position, e.g., "in the photograph above" or
"as the next figure shows", then moving the figure would disrupt the pages meaning. Authors
are encouraged to consider using labels to refer to figures, rather than using such relative refer-
ences, so that the page can easily be restyled without affecting the pages meaning.
The <figcaption> descendant of <figure>, if any, represents the caption of the <figure> elements
contents. If there is no child <figcaption> element, then there is no caption.
A <figure> elements contents are part of the surrounding flow. If the purpose of the page is to dis-
play the figure, for example a photograph on an image sharing site, the figure and <figcaption>
elements can be used to explicitly provide a caption for that figure. For content that is only tangen-
tially related, or that serves a separate purpose than the surrounding flow, the <aside> element
should be used (and can itself wrap a <figure>). For example, a pull quote that repeats content
from an <article> would be more appropriate in an <aside> than in a <figure>, because it isnt
part of the content, its a repetition of the content for the purposes of enticing readers or highlight-
ing key topics.
EXAMPLE 168
This example shows the <figure> element to mark up a code listing.
EXAMPLE 169
Here we see a <figure> element to mark up a photo that is the main content of the page (as in a
gallery).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<title>Bubbles at work My Gallery</title>
<figure>
<img src="bubbles-work.jpeg"
alt="Bubbles, sitting in his office chair, works on his
latest project intently.">
<figcaption>Bubbles at work</figcaption>
</figure>
<nav><a href="19414.html">Prev</a> <a href="19416.html">Next</a></nav>
EXAMPLE 170
In this example, we see an image that is not a figure, as well as an image and a video that are.
The first image is literally part of the examples second sentence, so its not a self-contained
unit, and thus figure would be inappropriate.
<h2>Malinkos comics</h2>
<blockquote>
<img src="promblem-packed-action.png" alt="ROUGH COPY! Promblem-Packed
Action!">
</blockquote>
<figure>
<img src="ex-a.png" alt="Two squiggles on a dirty piece of paper.">
<figcaption>Exhibit A. The alleged <cite>rough copy</cite> comic.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<video src="ex-b.mov"></video>
<figcaption>Exhibit B. The <cite>Rough Copy</cite> trailer.
</figcaption>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 171
Here, a part of a poem is marked up using <figure>.
<figure>
<p>'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves<br>
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;<br>
All mimsy were the borogoves,<br>
And the mome raths outgrabe.</p>
<figcaption><cite>Jabberwocky</cite> (first verse). Lewis Carroll,
1832-98</figcaption>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 172
In this example, which could be part of a much larger work discussing a castle, nested
<figure> elements are used to provide both a group caption and individual captions for each
figure in the group:
<figure>
<figcaption>The castle through the ages: 1423, 1858, and 1999
respectively.</figcaption>
<figure>
<figcaption>Etching. Anonymous, ca. 1423.</figcaption>
<img src="castle1423.jpeg" alt="The castle has one tower, and a tall
wall around it.">
</figure>
<figure>
<figcaption>Oil-based paint on canvas. Maria Towle,
1858.</figcaption>
<img src="castle1858.jpeg" alt="The castle now has two towers and two
walls.">
</figure>
<figure>
<figcaption>Film photograph. Peter Jankle, 1999.</figcaption>
<img src="castle1999.jpeg" alt="The castle lies in ruins, the
original tower all that remains in one piece.">
</figure>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 173
The figure is sometimes referenced only implicitly from the content:
<article>
<h1>Fiscal negotiations stumble in Congress as deadline nears</h1>
<figure>
<img src="obama-reid.jpeg" alt="Obama and Reid sit together smiling
in the Oval Office.">
<figcaption>Barack Obama and Harry Reid. White House press
photograph.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Negotiations in Congress to end the fiscal impasse sputtered on
Tuesday, leaving both chambers
grasping for a way to reopen the government and raise the countrys
borrowing authority with a
Thursday deadline drawing near.</p>
...
</article>
Categories:
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As a descendant of a <figure> element.
Content model:
Flow content.
Tag omission in text/html:
Neither tag is omissible
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
group or presentation.
The <figcaption> element represents a caption or legend for the rest of the contents of the
<figcaption> elements parent <figure> element, if any.
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
main role (default - do not set) or presentation.
The <main> element represents the main content of the <body> of a document or application.
NOTE:
The <main> element is not sectioning content and has no effect on the document outline.
The main content area of a document includes content that is unique to that document and ex-
cludes content that is repeated across a set of documents such as site navigation links, copyright
information, site logos and banners and search forms (unless the document or applications main
function is that of a search form).
There must not be more than one visible <main> element in a document. If more than one <main>
element is present in a document, all other instances must be hidden using 5.1 The hidden at-
tribute.
EXAMPLE 174
Authors must not include the <main> element as a descendant of an <article>, <aside>, <footer>,
<header> or <nav> element.
NOTE:
The <main> element is not suitable for use to identify the main content areas of sub sections of
a document or application. The simplest solution is to not mark up the main content of a sub
section at all, and just leave it as implicit, but an author could use a 4.4 Grouping content or
sectioning content element as appropriate.
In the following example, we see 2 articles about skateboards (the main topic of a Web page) the
main topic content is identified by the use of the <main> element.
EXAMPLE 175
<main>
<h1>Skateboards</h1>
<p>The skateboard is the way cool kids get around</p>
<article>
<h2>Longboards</h2>
<p>Longboards are a type of skateboard with a longer
wheelbase and larger, softer wheels.</p>
<p>... </p>
<p>... </p>
</article>
<article>
<h2>Electric Skateboards</h2>
<p>These no longer require the propelling of the skateboard
by means of the feet; rather an electric motor propels the board,
fed by an electric battery.</p>
<p>... </p>
<p>... </p>
</article>
</main>
Here is a graduation programme, in which the main content section is defined by the use of the
<main> element. Note in this example the <main> element contains a <nav> element consisting of
links to sub sections of the main content.
EXAMPLE 176
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Graduation Ceremony Summer 2022</title>
</head>
<body>
<main>
<h1>Graduation</h1>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="#ceremony">Ceremony</a></li>
<li><a href="#graduates">Graduates</a></li>
<li><a href="#awards">Awards</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<h2 id="ceremony">Ceremony</h2>
<p>Opening Procession</p>
<p>Speech by Valedictorian</p>
<p>Speech by Class President</p>
<p>Presentation of Diplomas</p>
<p>Closing Speech by Headmaster</p>
<h2 id="graduates">Graduates</h2>
<ul>
<li>Eileen Williams</li>
<li>Andy Maseyk</li>
<li>Blanca Sainz Garcia</li>
<li>Clara Faulkner</li>
<li>Gez Lemon</li>
<li>Eloisa Faulkner</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="awards">Awards</h2>
<ul>
<li>Clara Faulkner</li>
<li>Eloisa Faulkner</li>
<li>Blanca Sainz Garcia</li>
</ul>
</main>
</body>
</html>
In the next example, both the <header> and the <footer> are outside the <main> element because
they are generic to the website and not specific to <main>'s content.
EXAMPLE 177
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Great Dogs for Families</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>The Border Terrier</h1>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
<li><a href="health.html">Health</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<main>
<h2>Welcome!</h2>
<p>This site is all about the Border Terrier, the best breed of dog
that there is!</p>
</main>
<footer>
<small>Copyright <time datetime="2013">2013</time> by I.
Devlin</small>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
Here, the same generic <header> and <footer> elements remain outside <main>, but there is an ad-
ditional <header> element within the <main> element as its content is relevant to the content within
<main> because it contains a relevant heading and in-page navigation. The in-page navigation is re-
peated within a <footer> which is again within the <main> element.
EXAMPLE 178
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Great Dogs for Families</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>The Border Terrier</h1>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
<li><a href="health.html">Health</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<main>
<section>
<header>
<h2>About</h2>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="#basic">Basic</a></li>
<li><a href="#app">Appearance</a></li>
<li><a href="#temp">Temperament</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<section id="basic">
<h3>Basic Information</h3>
<p>The Border Terrier is a small, rough-coated breed of
dog of the terrier group, originally bred as fox and vermin
hunters. [...]</p>
</section>
<section id="app">
<h3>Appearance</h3>
<p>Identifiable by their otter-shaped heads, Border Terriers
have a broad skull and short (although many be fairly long),
strong muzzle with a scissors bite. [...]</p>
</section>
<section id="temp">
<h3>Temperament</h3>
<p>Though sometimes stubborn and strong willed, border terriers
are, on the whole very even tempered, and are friendly and
rarely
aggressive. [...] </p>
</section>
<footer>
<a href="#basic">Basic</a> -
<a href="#app">Appearance</a> -
<a href="#temp">Temperament</a>
</footer>
</section>
</main>
<footer>
<small>Copyright <time datetime="2013">2013</time> by I.
Devlin</small>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
This example is largely the same as the previous one except that it includes an <aside>. The con-
tent of the <aside> is considered to be relevant to the content within the <main> element, which is
all about the Border Terrier, so the <aside> is placed within the <main> element.
EXAMPLE 179
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Great Dogs for Families</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>The Border Terrier</h1>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
<li><a href="health.html">Health</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<main>
<section>
<header>
<h2>About</h2>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="#basic">Basic</a></li>
<li><a href="#app">Appearance</a></li>
<li><a href="#temp">Temperament</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<section id="basic">
<h3>Basic Information</h3>
<p>The Border Terrier is a small, rough-coated breed of
dog of the terrier group, originally bred as fox and vermin
hunters. [...]</p>
</section>
<section id="app">
<h3>Appearance</h3>
<p>Identifiable by their otter-shaped heads, Border Terriers
have a broad skull and short (although many be fairly long),
strong muzzle with a scissors bite. [...]</p>
</section>
<section id="temp">
<h3>Temperament</h3>
<p>Though sometimes stubborn and strong willed, border terriers
are, on the whole very even tempered, and are friendly and
rarely
aggressive. [...] </p>
</section>
<aside>
<h3>History</h3>
<p>The Border Terrier originates in, and takes its name from
the
Scottish borders. [...] </p>
</aside>
<footer>
<a href="#basic">Basic</a> -
<a href="#app">Appearance</a> -
<a href="#temp">Temperament</a>
</footer>
</section>
</main>
<footer>
<small>Copyright <time datetime="2013">2013</time> by I.
Devlin</small>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
In the following example, two <aside> elements containg adverts have been placed outside the
<main> element as their content is not specific to the content within <main>. These <aside>s could
be on any page, as they are as generic as the <header> and <footer> shown.
EXAMPLE 180
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Great Dogs for Families</title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<h1>The Border Terrier</h1>
<nav>
<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
<li><a href="health.html">Health</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<main>
<h2>Welcome!</h2>
<p>This site is all about the Border Terrier, the best breed of dog
that there is!</p>
</main>
<aside class="advert">
<h2>Border Farm Breeders</h2>
<p>We are a certified breeder of Border Terriers, contact us
at...</p>
</aside>
<aside class="advert">
<h2>Grumpys Pet Shop</h2>
<p>Get all your pets needs at our shop!</p>
</aside>
<footer>
<small>Copyright <time datetime="2013">2013</time> by I.
Devlin</small>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
Categories:
Flow content.
Palpable content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
As a child of a <dl> element.
Content model:
If the element is a child of a dl element: one or more <dt> elements followed by one or
more <dd> elements, optionally intermixed with script-supporting elements.
If the element is not a child of a dl element: Flow content.
Tag omission in text/html:
Neither tag is omissible
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the default or allowed roles.
DOM interface:
The <div> element has no special meaning at all. It represents its children. It can be used with the
class, lang, and title attributes to mark up semantics common to a group of consecutive ele-
ments.
NOTE:
Authors are strongly encouraged to view the <div> element as an element of last resort, for
when no other element is suitable. Use of more appropriate elements instead of the <div> ele-
ment leads to better accessibility for readers and easier maintainability for authors.
EXAMPLE 181
For example, a blog post would be marked up using <article>, a chapter using <section>, a
pages navigation aids using <nav>, and a group of form controls using <fieldset>.
On the other hand, <div> elements can be useful for stylistic purposes or to wrap multiple para-
graphs within a section that are all to be annotated in a similar way. In the following example,
we see <div> elements used as a way to set the language of two paragraphs at once, instead of
setting the language on the two paragraph elements separately:
<article lang="en-US">
<h2>My use of language and my cats</h2>
<p>My cats behavior hasnt changed much since her absence, except
that she plays her new physique to the neighbors regularly, in an
attempt to get pets.</p>
<div lang="en-GB">
<p>My other cat, colored black and white, is a sweetie. He followed
us to the pool today, walking down the pavement with us. Yesterday
he apparently visited our neighbours. I wonder if he recognizes that
their flat is a mirror image of ours.</p>
<p>Hm, I just noticed that in the last paragraph I used British
English. But Im supposed to write in American English. So I
shouldnt say "pavement" or "flat" or "color"...</p>
</div>
<p>I should say "sidewalk" and "apartment" and "color"!</p>
</article>
If the <a> element has an href attribute, then it represents a hyperlink (a hypertext anchor) labeled
by its contents.
If the <a> element has no href attribute, then the element represents a placeholder for where a link
might otherwise have been placed, if it had been relevant, consisting of just the elements contents.
The target, download, rel, rev, hreflang, type, and referrerpolicy attributes must be omit-
ted if the href attribute is not present.
EXAMPLE 182
If a site uses a consistent navigation toolbar on every page, then the link that would normally
link to the page itself could be marked up using an <a> element:
<nav>
<ul>
<li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li>
<li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li>
<li> <a>Examples</a> </li>
<li> <a href="/legal">Legal</a> </li>
</ul>
</nav>
The href, target, download, and referrerpolicy attributes affect what happens when users fol-
low hyperlinks or download hyperlinks created using the <a> element. The rel, rev, hreflang,
and type attributes may be used to indicate to the user the likely nature of the target resource be-
fore the user follows the link.
The activation behavior of <a> elements that create hyperlinks is to run the following steps:
1. If the <a> elements Document is not fully active, then abort these steps.
2. If either the <a> element has a download attribute and the algorithm is not allowed to show a
popup, or the elements target attribute is present and applying the rules for choosing a
browsing context given a browsing context name, using the value of the target attribute as
the browsing context name, would result in there not being a chosen browsing context, then
run these substeps:
3. If the target of the click event is an <img> element with an ismap attribute specified, then
server-side image map processing must be performed, as follows:
1. If the click event was a real pointing-device-triggered click event on the <img> ele-
ment, then let x be the distance in CSS pixels from the left edge of the image to the lo-
cation of the click, and let y be the distance in CSS pixels from the top edge of the im-
age to the location of the click. Otherwise, let x and y be zero.
2. Let hyperlink suffix be a U+003F QUESTION MARK character, the value of x ex-
pressed as a base-ten integer using ASCII digits, a U+002C COMMA character (,), and
the value of y expressed as a base-ten integer using ASCII digits.
4. Finally, the user agent must follow the hyperlink or download the hyperlink created by the
<a> element, as determined by the download attribute and any expressed user preference,
passing hyperlink suffix , if the steps above defined it.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
a . text
Same as textContent.
The IDL attributes download, target, rel, hreflang, and type, must reflect the respective con-
tent attributes of the same name.
The IDL attribute relList must reflect the rel content attribute.
The IDL attribute referrerPolicy must reflect the referrerpolicy content attribute, limited to
only known values.
The text IDL attribute, on getting, must return the same value as the textContent IDL attribute
on the element, and on setting, must act as if the textContent IDL attribute on the element had
been set to the new value.
When the element is created, and whenever the elements href content attribute is set, changed, or
removed, the user agent must invoke the elements HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils interfaces set
the input algorithm with the value of the href content attribute, if any, or the empty string other-
wise, as the given value.
The elements HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils interfaces get the base algorithm must simply return
the document base URL.
When the elements HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils interface invokes its update steps with a string
value , the user agent must set the elements href content attribute to the string value .
EXAMPLE 183
The <a> element may be wrapped around entire paragraphs, lists, tables, and so forth, even en-
tire sections, so long as there is no interactive content within (e.g., buttons or other links). This
example shows how this can be used to make an entire advertising block into a link:
<aside class="advertising">
<h2>Advertising</h2>
<a href="https://ad.example.com/?adid=1929&pubid=1422">
<section>
<h3>Mellblomatic 9000!</h3>
<p>Turn all your widgets into mellbloms!</p>
<p>Only $9.99 plus shipping and handling.</p>
</section>
</a>
<a href="https://ad.example.com/?adid=375&pubid=1422">
<section>
<h3>The Mellblom Browser</h3>
<p>Web browsing at the speed of light.</p>
<p>No other browser goes faster!</p>
</section>
</a>
</aside>
The level of stress that a particular piece of content has is given by its number of ancestor <em> ele-
ments.
The placement of stress emphasis changes the meaning of the sentence. The element thus forms an
integral part of the content. The precise way in which stress is used in this way depends on the lan-
guage.
EXAMPLE 184
These examples show how changing the stress emphasis changes the meaning. First, a general
statement of fact, with no stress:
By emphasizing the first word, the statement implies that the kind of animal under discussion
is in question (maybe someone is asserting that dogs are cute):
Moving the stress to the verb, one highlights that the truth of the entire sentence is in question
(maybe someone is saying cats are not cute):
By moving it to the adjective, the exact nature of the cats is reasserted (maybe someone sug-
gested cats were mean animals):
Similarly, if someone asserted that cats were vegetables, someone correcting this might empha-
size the last word:
By emphasizing the entire sentence, it becomes clear that the speaker is fighting hard to get the
point across. This kind of stress emphasis also typically affects the punctuation, hence the ex-
clamation mark here.
Anger mixed with emphasizing the cuteness could lead to markup such as:
NOTE:
The <em> element isnt a generic "italics" element. Sometimes, text is intended to stand out
from the rest of the paragraph, as if it was in a different mood or voice. For this, the <i> ele-
ment is more appropriate.
The <em> element also isnt intended to convey importance; for that purpose, the <strong> ele-
ment is more appropriate.
The <strong> element represents strong importance, seriousness, or urgency for its contents.
Importance: The <strong> element can be used in a heading, caption, or paragraph to distinguish
the part that really matters from other parts that might be more detailed, more jovial, or merely
boilerplate.
EXAMPLE 185
For example, the first word of the previous paragraph is marked up with strong to distinguish
it from the more detailed text in the rest of the paragraph.
Seriousness: The <strong> element can be used to mark up a warning or caution notice.
Urgency: The <strong> element can be used to denote contents that the user needs to see sooner
than other parts of the document.
The relative level of importance of a piece of content is given by its number of ancestor <strong>
elements; each <strong> element increases the importance of its contents.
Changing the importance of a piece of text with the <strong> element does not change the meaning
of the sentence.
EXAMPLE 186
Here, the word "chapter" and the actual chapter number are mere boilerplate, and the actual
name of the chapter is marked up with strong:
In the following example, the name of the diagram in the caption is marked up with <strong>,
to distinguish it from boilerplate text (before) and the description (after):
In this example, the heading is really "Flowers, Bees, and Honey", but the author has added a
light-hearted addition to the heading. The <strong> element is thus used to mark up the first
part to distinguish it from the latter part.
EXAMPLE 187
Here is an example of a warning notice in a game, with the various parts marked up according
to how important they are:
EXAMPLE 188
In this example, the <strong> element is used to denote the part of the text that the user is in-
tended to read first.
NOTE:
Small print typically features disclaimers, caveats, legal restrictions, or copyrights. Small print
is also sometimes used for attribution, or for satisfying licensing requirements.
NOTE:
The <small> element does not "de-emphasize" or lower the importance of text emphasized by
the <em> element or marked as important with the strong element. To mark text as not empha-
sized or important, simply do not mark it up with the em or <strong> elements respectively.
The <small> element should not be used for extended spans of text, such as multiple paragraphs,
lists, or sections of text. It is only intended for short runs of text. The text of a page listing terms of
use, for instance, would not be a suitable candidate for the <small> element: in such a case, the text
is not a side comment, it is the main content of the page.
EXAMPLE 189
In this example, the <small> element is used to indicate that value-added tax is not included in
a price of a hotel room:
<dl>
<dt>Single room
<dd>199 <small>breakfast included, VAT not included</small>
<dt>Double room
<dd>239 <small>breakfast included, VAT not included</small>
</dl>
EXAMPLE 190
In this second example, the <small> element is used for a side comment in an article.
This is distinct from a sidebar, which might be multiple paragraphs long and is removed from
the main flow of text. In the following example, we see a sidebar from the same article. This
sidebar also has small print, indicating the source of the information in the sidebar.
<aside>
<h1>Example Corp</h1>
<p>This company mostly creates small software and Web
sites.</p>
<p>The Example Corp company mission is "To provide entertainment
and news on a sample basis".</p>
<p><small>Information obtained from <a
href="https://example.com/about.html">example.com</a> home
page.</small></p>
</aside>
In this last example, the <small> element is marked as being important small print.
The <s> element represents contents that are no longer accurate or no longer relevant.
NOTE:
The <s> element is not appropriate when indicating document edits; to mark a span of text as
having been removed from a document, use the <del> element.
EXAMPLE 191
In this example a recommended retail price has been marked as no longer relevant as the prod-
uct in question has a new sale price.
The <cite> element represents a reference to a creative work. It must include the title of the work
or the name of the author (person, people or organization) or an URL reference, or a reference in
abbreviated form as per the conventions used for the addition of citation metadata.
NOTE:
Creative works include a book, a paper, an essay, a poem, a score, a song, a script, a film, a TV
show, a game, a sculpture, a painting, a theatre production, a play, an opera, a musical, an exhi-
bition, a legal case report, a computer program, , a web site, a web page, a blog post or com-
ment, a forum post or comment, a tweet, a written or oral statement, etc.
EXAMPLE 192
Here is an example of the author of a quote referenced using the <cite> element:
EXAMPLE 193
This second example identifies the author of a tweet by referencing the authors name using the
<cite> element:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p> Bukowski in <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23HTML5&
src=hash">#HTML5</a> spec examples
<a href="https://t.co/0FIEiYN1pC">https://t.co/0FIEiYN1pC</a></p><cite>
karl dubost (@karlpro)
<a href="https://twitter.com/karlpro/statuses/370905307293442048">August
23, 2013</a></cite>
</blockquote>
EXAMPLE 194
In this example the <cite> element is used to reference the title of a work in a bibliography:
EXAMPLE 195
In this example the <cite> element is used to reference the title of a television show:
EXAMPLE 196
A very common use for the <cite> element is to identify the author of a comment in a blog
post or forum, as in this example:
<article id="comment-1">
Comment by <cite><a href="https://oli.jp">Oli Studholme</a></cite>
<time datetime="2013-08-19T16:01">August 19th, 2013 at 4:01 pm</time>
<p>Unfortunately I dont think adding names back into the definition of
<code>cite</code>
solves the problem: of the 12 blockquote examples in
<a href="https://oli.jp/example/blockquote-metadata/">Examples of block
quote metadata</a>,
theres not even one thats <em>just</em> a persons name.</p>
<p>A subset of the problem, maybe</p>
</article>
EXAMPLE 197
Another common use for the <cite> element is to reference the URL of a search result, as in this
example:
EXAMPLE 198
Where the <cite> element is used to identify an abbreviated reference such as Ibid. it is sug-
gested that this reference be linked to the base reference:
<article>
<h2>Book notes</h2>
...
...
<blockquote>"Money is the real cause of poverty,"
<footer>
<cite id="baseref">The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, page
89.</cite>
</footer>
</blockquote>
...
...
<blockquote>"Money is the cause of poverty because it is the device by
which those who
are too lazy to work are enabled to rob the workers of the fruits of
their labour."
<a href="#baseref"><cite>Ibid.</cite></a>
</blockquote>
...
</article>
NOTE:
A citation is not a quote (for which the <q> element is appropriate).
EXAMPLE 199
This is incorrect usage, because <cite> is not for quotes:
The <q> element represents some phrasing content quoted from another source.
Quotation punctuation (such as quotation marks) that is quoting the contents of the element must
not appear immediately before, after, or inside <q> elements; they will be inserted into the render-
ing by the user agent.
Content inside a <q> element must be quoted from another source, whose address, if it has one,
may be cited in the cite attribute. The source may be fictional, as when quoting characters in a
novel or screenplay.
If the cite attribute is present, it must be a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces. To obtain
the corresponding citation link, the value of the attribute must be parsed relative to the elements
node document. User agents may allow users to follow such citation links, but they are primarily
intended for private use (e.g., by server-side scripts collecting statistics about a sites use of quota-
tions), not for readers.
The <q> element must not be used in place of quotation marks that do not represent quotes; for ex-
ample, it is inappropriate to use the <q> element for marking up sarcastic statements.
The use of <q> elements to mark up quotations is entirely optional; using explicit quotation punctu-
ation without <q> elements is just as correct.
EXAMPLE 200
Here is a simple example of the use of the <q> element:
EXAMPLE 201
Here is an example with both an explicit citation link in the <q> element, and an explicit cita-
tion outside:
EXAMPLE 202
In the following example, the quotation itself contains a quotation:
EXAMPLE 203
In the following example, quotation marks are used instead of the <q> element:
EXAMPLE 204
In the following example, there is no quote the quotation marks are used to name a word.
Use of the <q> element in this case would be inappropriate.
<p>The word "ineffable" could have been used to describe the disaster
resulting from the campaigns mismanagement.</p>
The <dfn> element represents the defining instance of a term. The term-description group , <p>,
<li> or <section> element that is the nearest ancestor of the <dfn> element must also contain the
definition(s) for the term given by the <dfn> element.
Defining term: If the <dfn> element has a title attribute, then the exact value of that attribute is
the term being defined. Otherwise, if it contains exactly one element child node and no child Text
nodes, and that child element is an <abbr> element with a title attribute, then the exact value of
that attribute is the term being defined. Otherwise, it is the exact textContent of the <dfn> ele-
ment that gives the term being defined.
If the title attribute of the <dfn> element is present, then it must contain only the term being de-
fined.
NOTE:
The title attribute of ancestor elements does not affect <dfn> elements.
An <a> element that links to a <dfn> element represents an instance of the term defined by the
<dfn> element.
EXAMPLE 205
In the following fragment, the term "Garage Door Opener" is first defined in the first para-
graph, then used in the second. In both cases, its abbreviation is what is actually displayed.
With the addition of an <a> element, the reference can be made explicit:
The <abbr> element represents an abbreviation or acronym, optionally with its expansion. The
title attribute may be used to provide an expansion of the abbreviation. The attribute, if speci-
fied, must contain an expansion of the abbreviation, and nothing else.
EXAMPLE 206
The paragraph below contains an abbreviation marked up with the <abbr> element. This para-
graph defines the term "Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group".
EXAMPLE 207
This paragraph has two abbreviations. Notice how only one is defined; the other, with no ex-
pansion associated with it, does not use the <abbr> element.
<p>The
<abbr title="Web Hypertext Application Technology Working
Group">WHATWG</abbr>
started working on HTML in 2004.</p>
EXAMPLE 208
This paragraph links an abbreviation to its definition.
EXAMPLE 209
This paragraph marks up an abbreviation without giving an expansion, possibly as a hook to
apply styles for abbreviations (e.g., smallcaps).
EXAMPLE 210
Here the plural is outside the element, so the expansion is in the singular:
Here the plural is inside the element, so the expansion is in the plural:
Abbreviations do not have to be marked up using this element. It is expected to be useful in the
following cases:
Abbreviations for which the author wants to give expansions, where using the <abbr> element
with a title attribute is an alternative to including the expansion inline (e.g., in parentheses).
Abbreviations that are likely to be unfamiliar to the documents readers, for which authors are
encouraged to either mark up the abbreviation using an <abbr> element with a title attribute
or include the expansion inline in the text the first time the abbreviation is used.
Abbreviations whose presence needs to be semantically annotated, e.g., so that they can be
identified from a style sheet and given specific styles, for which the <abbr> element can be
used without a title attribute.
Providing an expansion in a title attribute once will not necessarily cause other <abbr> elements
in the same document with the same contents but without a title attribute to behave as if they
had the same expansion. Every <abbr> element is independent.
The <ruby> element allows one or more spans of phrasing content to be marked with ruby annota-
tions. Ruby annotations are short runs of text presented alongside base text, primarily used in East
Asian typography as a guide for pronunciation or to include other annotations. In Japanese, this
form of typography is also known as furigana. Ruby text can appear on either side, and sometimes
both sides, of the base text, and it is possible to control its position using CSS. A more complete
introduction to ruby can be found in the Use Cases & Exploratory Approaches for Ruby Markup
The content model of <ruby> elements consists of one or more of the following sequences:
2. One or more rt or <rtc> elements, each of which either immediately preceded or followed by
an <rp> elements.
The <ruby>, <rb>, <rtc>, and <rt> elements can be used for a variety of kinds of annotations, in-
cluding in particular (though by no means limited to) those described below. For more details on
Japanese Ruby in particular, and how to render Ruby for Japanese, see Requirements for Japanese
Text Layout. [JLREQ] The rp element can be used as fallback content when ruby rendering is not
supported.
EXAMPLE 211
<ruby>base<rt>annotation</ruby>
When no <rb> element is used, the base is implied, as above. But you can also make it ex-
plicit. This can be useful notably for styling, or when consecutive bases are to be treated as a
group, as in the jukugo ruby example further down.
EXAMPLE 212
<ruby><rb>base<rt>annotation</ruby>
In the following example, notice how each annotation corresponds to a single base character.
EXAMPLE 213
<ruby><rt></rt></ruby><ruby><rt></rt></ruby>
<ruby><rt></rt></ruby><ruby><rt></rt></ruby>
<ruby><rt></rt></ruby><ruby><rt></rt></ruby>
Ruby text interspersed in regular text provides structure akin to the following image:
This example can also be written as follows, using one <ruby> element with two segments of
base text and two annotations (one for each) rather than two back-to-back <ruby> elements
each with one base text segment and annotation (as in the markup above):
EXAMPLE 214
<ruby><rt></rt><rt></rt><rt></rt></ruby>
<ruby><rt></rt></ruby>
<ruby><rt></rt><rt></rt></ruby>
Group ruby
Group ruby is often used where phonetic annotations dont map to discreet base charac-
ters, or for semantic glosses that span the whole base text. For example, the word "to-
day" is written with the characters , literally "this day". But its pronounced
(kyou), which cant be broken down into a "this" part and a "day" part. In typical render-
ing, you cant split text that is annotated with group ruby; it has to wrap as a single unit
onto the next line. When a ruby text annotation maps to a base that is comprised of more
than one character, then that base is grouped.
EXAMPLE 215
<ruby><rt></ruby>
Jukugo ruby
Jukugo refers to a Japanese compound noun, i.e., a word made up of more than one kanji
character. Jukugo ruby is a term that is used not to describe ruby annotations over jukugo
text, but rather to describe ruby with a behavior slightly different from mono or group
ruby. Jukugo ruby is similar to mono ruby, in that there is a strong association between
ruby text and individual base characters, but the ruby text is typically rendered as
grouped together over multiple ideographs when they are on the same line.
EXAMPLE 216
<ruby><rb><rb><rt><rt><rt></ruby>
In this example, each <rt> element is paired with its respective rb element, the differ-
ence with an interleaved rb/rt approach being that the sequences of both base text and
ruby annotations are implicitly placed in common containers so that the grouping infor-
mation is captured.
NOTE:
For more details on Jukugo Ruby rendering, see Appendix F in the Requirements for
Japanese Text Layout and Use Case C: Jukugo ruby in the Use Cases & Exploratory
Approaches for Ruby Markup. [JLREQ] [RUBY-UC]
Inline ruby
In some contexts, for instance when the font size or line height are too small for ruby to
be readable, it is desirable to inline the ruby annotation such that it appears in parenthe-
ses after the text it annotates. This also provides a convenient fallback strategy for user
agents that do not support rendering ruby annotations.
Inlining takes grouping into account. For example, Tokyo is written with two kanji char-
acters, , which is pronounced , and , which is pronounced . Each base
character should be annotated individually, but the fallback should be ()
not ()(). This can be marked up as follows:
EXAMPLE 217
<ruby><rb><rt><rt></ruby>
Note that the above markup will enable the usage of parentheses when inlining for
browsers that support ruby layout, but for those that dont it will fail to provide paren-
thetical fallback. This is where the <rp> element is useful. It can be inserted into the
above example to provide the appropriate fallback when ruby layout is not supported:
EXAMPLE 218
<ruby><rb><rp>(<rt><rt><rp>)</ruby>
In the following example, the Chinese word for San Francisco (, i.e., "old gold
mountain") is annotated both using pinyin to give the pronunciation, and with the origi-
nal English.
EXAMPLE 219
<ruby><rb><rb><rb><rt>ji<rt>jn<rt>shn<rtc>San
Francisco</ruby>
In this example, a single base run of three base characters is annotated with three pinyin
ruby text segments in a first (implicit) container, and an <rtc> element is introduced in
order to provide a second single ruby text annotation being the citys English name.
We can also revisit our jukugo example above with ("skill") to show how it can be
annotation in both kana and romaji phonetics while at the same time maintaining the
pairing to bases and annotation grouping information.
EXAMPLE 220
<ruby><rb><rb><rt><rt><rtc><rt>jou<rt>zu</ruby>
Text that is a direct child of the <rtc> element implicitly produces a ruby text segment as
if it were contained in an <rt> element. In this contrived example, this is shown with
some symbols that are given names in English and French with annotations intended to
appear on either side of the base symbol.
EXAMPLE 221
<ruby>
<rt>Heart<rtc lang=fr>Cur</rtc>
<rt>Shamrock<rtc lang=fr>Trfle</rtc>
<rt>Star<rtc lang=fr>toile
</ruby>
Similarly, text directly inside a <ruby> element implicitly produces a ruby base as if it
were contained in an <rb> element, and rt children of ruby are implicitly contained in
an rtc container. In effect, the above example is equivalent (in meaning, though not in
the DOM it produces) to the following:
EXAMPLE 222
<ruby>
<rb></rb><rtc><rt>Heart</rt></rtc><rtc lang=fr><rt>Cur</rt>
</rtc>
<rb></rb><rtc><rt>Shamrock</rt></rtc><rtc lang=fr>
<rt>Trfle</rt></rtc>
<rb></rb><rtc><rt>Star</rt></rtc><rtc lang=fr><rt>toile</rt>
</rtc>
</ruby>
Within a ruby element, content is parcelled into a series of ruby segments. Each ruby segment is
described by:
Zero or more ruby bases, each of which is a DOM range that may contain phrasing content
or an <rb> element.
A base range, that is a DOM range including all the bases. This is the ruby base container.
Zero or more ruby text containers which may correspond to explicit rtc elements, or to se-
quences of <rt> elements implicitly recognized as contained in an anonymous ruby text con-
tainer.
Each ruby text container is described by zero or more ruby text annotations each of which is a
DOM range that may contain phrasing content or an <rt> element, and an annotations range that is
a range including all the annotations for that container. A ruby text container is also known (pri-
marily in a CSS context) as a ruby annotation container.
Furthermore, a ruby element contains ignored ruby content. Ignored ruby content does not form
part of the documents semantics. It consists of some inter-element white space and <rp> elements,
the latter of which are used for legacy user agents that do not support ruby at all.
The process of annotation pairing associates ruby annotations with ruby bases. Within each ruby
segment, each ruby base in the ruby base container is paired with one ruby text annotation from
the ruby text container, in order. If there are not enough ruby text annotations in a ruby annotation
container, the last one is associated with any excess ruby bases. (If there are not any in the ruby
annotation container, an anonymous empty one is assumed to exist.) If there are not enough ruby
bases, any remaining ruby text annotations are assumed to be associated with empty, anonymous
bases inserted at the end of the ruby base container.
Note that the terms ruby segment, ruby base, ruby text annotation, ruby text container, ruby base
container, and ruby annotation container have their equivalents in CSS Ruby Module Level 3.
[CSS3-RUBY]
Informally, the segmentation and categorization algorithm below performs a simple set of tasks.
First it processes adjacent <rb> elements, text nodes, and non-ruby elements into a list of bases.
Then it processes any number of <rtc> elements or sequences of <rt> elements that are considered
to automatically map to an anonymous ruby text container. Put together these data items form a
ruby segment as detailed in the data model above. It will continue to produce such segments until
it reaches the end of the content of a given <ruby> element. The complexity of the algorithm below
compared to this informal description stems from the need to support an author-friendly syntax
and being mindful of inter-element white space.
At any particular time, the segmentation and categorization of content of a ruby element is the
result that would be obtained from running the following algorithm:
1. Let root be the <ruby> element for which the algorithm is being run.
2. Let index be 0.
11. Let current automatic base nodes be an empty list of DOM Nodes.
13. Process a ruby child: If index is equal to or greater than the number of child nodes in root ,
then run the steps to commit a ruby segment, return ruby segments , and abort these steps.
15. If current child is not a Text node and is not an Element node, then increment index by one
and jump to the step labelled process a ruby child.
16. If current child is an <rp> element, then increment index by one and jump to the step la-
belled process a ruby child. (Note that this has the effect of including this element in any
range that we are currently processing. This is done intentionally so that misplaced rp can be
processed correctly; semantically they are ignored all the same.)
3. If current annotations is empty, set current annotations range start to the value of in-
dex .
4. Create a new DOM range whose start is the boundary point ( root , index ) and whose
end is the boundary point ( root , index plus one), and append it at the end of current
annotations .
5. Increment index by one and jump to the step labelled process a ruby child.
4. Create a new ruby annotation container. It is described by the list of annotations returned
by running the steps to process an rtc element and a DOM range whose start is the
boundary point ( root , index ) and whose end is the boundary point ( root , index plus
one). Append this new ruby annotation container at the end of current annotation con-
tainers .
5. Increment index by one and jump to the step labelled process a ruby child.
19. If current child is a Text node and is inter-element white space, then run these substeps:
1. If current annotations is not empty, increment index by one and jump to the step la-
belled process a ruby child.
3. If lookahead index is equal to or greater than the number of child nodes in root ,
then abort these substeps.
5. If peek child is a Text node and is inter-element white space, then jump to the step
labelled peek ahead.
6. If peek child is an <rt> element, an <rtc> element, or an <rp> element, then set in-
dex to the value of lookahead index and jump to the step labelled process a ruby
child.
20. If current annotations is not empty or if current annotation containers is not empty, then
run the steps to commit a ruby segment.
2. If current bases is empty, then set current bases range start to the value of index .
3. Create a new DOM range whose start is the boundary point ( root , index ) and whose
end is the boundary point ( root , index plus one), and append it at the end of current
bases .
4. Increment index by one and jump to the step labelled process a ruby child.
22. If current automatic base nodes is empty, set current automatic base range start to the
value of index .
23. Append current child at the end of current automatic base nodes .
24. Increment index by one and jump to the step labelled process a ruby child.
When the steps above say to commit a ruby segment, it means to run the following steps at that
point in the algorithm:
2. If current bases , current annotations , and current annotation containers are all empty,
abort these steps.
5. Create a new ruby segment. It is described by a list of bases set to current bases , a base
DOM range set to current bases range , and a list of ruby annotation containers that are the
current annotation containers list. Append this new ruby segment at the end of ruby seg-
ments .
When the steps above say to commit the base range, it means to run the following steps at that
point in the algorithm:
3. Let current bases range be a DOM range whose start is the boundary point ( root , current
bases range start ) and whose end is the boundary point ( root , index ).
When the steps above say to commit current annotations, it means to run the following steps at
that point in the algorithm:
1. If current annotations is not empty and current annotations range is null let current anno-
tations range be a DOM range whose start is the boundary point ( root , current annotations
range start ) and whose end is the boundary point ( root , index ).
2. If current annotations is not empty, create a new ruby annotation container. It is described by
an annotations list set to current annotations and a range set to current annotations range .
Append this new ruby annotation container at the end of current annotation containers .
When the steps above say to commit an automatic base, it means to run the following steps at
that point in the algorithm:
2. If current automatic base nodes contains nodes that are not Text nodes, or Text nodes that
are not inter-element white space, then run these substeps:
1. It current bases is empty, set current bases range start to the value of current auto-
matic base range start .
2. Create a new DOM range whose start is the boundary point ( root , current automatic
base range start ) and whose end is the boundary point ( root , index ), and append it at
the end of current bases .
The <rb> element marks the base text component of a ruby annotation. When it is the child of a
<ruby> element, it doesnt represent anything itself, but its parent ruby element uses it as part of
determining what it represents.
An <rb> element that is not a child of a <ruby> element represents the same thing as its children.
The <rt> element marks the ruby text component of a ruby annotation. When it is the child of a
<ruby> element or of an <rtc> element that is itself the child of a <ruby> element, it doesnt repre-
sent anything itself, but its ancestor ruby element uses it as part of determining what it represents.
An <rt> element that is not a child of a <ruby> element or of an <rtc> element that is itself the
The <rtc> element marks a ruby text container for ruby text components in a ruby annotation.
When it is the child of a <ruby> element it doesnt represent anything itself, but its parent <ruby>
element uses it as part of determining what it represents.
An <rtc> element that is not a child of a <ruby> element represents the same thing as its children.
When an <rtc> element is processed as part of the segmentation and categorization of content for a
<ruby> element, the following algorithm defines how to process an <rtc> element:
1. Let root be the <rtc> element for which the algorithm is being run.
2. Let index be 0.
6. Process an rtc child: If index is equal to or greater than the number of child nodes in root ,
then run the steps to commit an automatic annotation, return annotations , and abort these
steps.
2. Create a new DOM range whose start is the boundary point ( root , index ) and whose
end is the boundary point ( root , index plus one), and append it at the end of annota-
tions .
3. Increment index by one and jump to the step labelled process an rtc child.
9. If current automatic annotation nodes is empty, set current automatic annotation range
start to the value of index .
10. Append current child at the end of current automatic annotation nodes .
11. Increment index by one and jump to the step labelled process an rtc child.
When the steps above say to commit an automatic annotation, it means to run the following
steps at that point in the algorithm:
2. If current automatic annotation nodes contains nodes that are not Text nodes, or Text
nodes that are not inter-element white space, then create a new DOM range whose start is the
boundary point ( root , current automatic annotation range start ) and whose end is the
boundary point ( root , index ), and append it at the end of annotations .
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Tag omission in text/html:
An <rp> elements end tag may be omitted if the <rp> element is immediately followed
by an <rb>, <rt>, rtc or <rp> element, or if there is no more content in the parent ele-
ment.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.
The <rp> element is used to provide fallback text to be shown by user agents that dont support
ruby annotations. One widespread convention is to provide parentheses around the ruby text com-
ponent of a ruby annotation.
The contents of the <rp> elements are typically not displayed by user agents which do support ruby
annotations
An <rp> element that is a child of a <ruby> element represents nothing. An rp element whose par-
ent element is not a <ruby> element represents its children.
The example shown previously, in which each ideograph in the text is annotated with its pho-
netic reading, could be expanded to use rp so that in legacy user agents the readings are in paren-
theses (please note that white space has been introduced into this example in order to make it more
readable):
EXAMPLE 223
...
<ruby>
<rb></rb>
<rp> (</rp>
<rt></rt>
<rt></rt>
<rp>) </rp>
</ruby>
...
In conforming user agents the rendering would be as above, but in user agents that do not support
ruby, the rendering would be:
EXAMPLE 224
... () ...
When there are multiple annotations for a segment, <rp> elements can also be placed between the
annotations. Here is another copy of an earlier contrived example showing some symbols with
names given in English and French using double-sided annotations, but this time with <rp> ele-
ments as well:
EXAMPLE 225
<ruby>
<rp>: </rp><rt>Heart</rt><rp>, </rp><rtc><rt lang=fr>Cur</rt></rtc>
<rp>.</rp>
<rp>: </rp><rt>Shamrock</rt><rp>, </rp><rtc><rt lang=fr>Trfle</rt>
</rtc><rp>.</rp>
<rp>: </rp><rt>Star</rt><rp>, </rp><rtc><rt lang=fr>toile</rt></rtc>
<rp>.</rp>
</ruby>
This would make the example render as follows in non-ruby-capable user agents:
EXAMPLE 226
: Heart, Cur.
: Shamrock, Trfle.
: Star, toile.
The <data> element represents its contents, along with a machine-readable form of those contents
in the value attribute.
The value attribute must be present. Its value must be a representation of the elements contents in
a machine-readable format.
NOTE:
When the value is date- or time-related, the more specific time element can be used instead.
When combined with microformats or microdata, the element serves to provide both a machine-r-
eadable value for the purposes of data processors, and a human-readable value for the purposes of
rendering in a Web browser. In this case, the format to be used in the value attribute is determined
by the microformats or microdata vocabulary in use.
The element can also, however, be used in conjunction with scripts in the page, for when a script
has a literal value to store alongside a human-readable value. In such cases, the format to be used
depends only on the needs of the script. (The data-* attributes can also be useful in such situa-
tions.)
The value IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The <time> element represents its contents, along with a machine-readable form of those contents
in the datetime attribute. The kind of content is limited to various kinds of dates, times, time-zone
offsets, and durations, as described below.
The datetime attribute may be present. If present, its value must be a representation of the ele-
ments contents in a machine-readable format.
A <time> element that does not have a datetime content attribute must not have any element de-
scendants.
The datetime value of a <time> element is the value of the elements datetime content attribute,
if it has one, otherwise the child text content of the <time> element.
The datetime value of a <time> element must match one of the following syntaxes.
EXAMPLE 227
<time>2011-11</time>
EXAMPLE 228
<time>2011-11-18</time>
EXAMPLE 229
<time>11-18</time>
EXAMPLE 230
<time>09:54</time>
EXAMPLE 231
<time>09:54:39</time>
EXAMPLE 232
<time>09:54:39.929</time>
EXAMPLE 233
<time>2011-11-18T14:54</time>
EXAMPLE 234
<time>2011-11-18T14:54:39</time>
EXAMPLE 235
<time>2011-11-18T14:54:39.929</time>
EXAMPLE 236
<time>2011-11-18 14:54</time>
EXAMPLE 237
<time>2011-11-18 14:54:39</time>
EXAMPLE 238
<time>2011-11-18 14:54:39.929</time>
NOTE:
Times with dates but without a time zone offset are useful for specifying events that are
observed at the same specific time in each time zone, throughout a day. For example, the
2020 new year is celebrated at 2020-01-01 00:00 in each time zone, not at the same pre-
cise moment across all time zones. For events that occur at the same time across all time
zones, for example a videoconference meeting, a valid global date and time string is likely
more useful.
EXAMPLE 239
<time>Z</time>
EXAMPLE 240
<time>+0000</time>
EXAMPLE 241
<time>+00:00</time>
EXAMPLE 242
<time>-0800</time>
EXAMPLE 243
<time>-08:00</time>
NOTE:
For times without dates (or times referring to events that recur on multiple dates), specify-
ing the geographic location that controls the time is usually more useful than specifying a
time zone offset, because geographic locations change time zone offsets with daylight
savings time. In some cases, geographic locations even change time zone, e.g., when the
boundaries of those time zones are redrawn, as happened with Samoa at the end of 2011.
There exists a time zone database that describes the boundaries of time zones and what
rules apply within each such zone, known as the time zone database. [TZDATABASE]
EXAMPLE 244
<time>2011-11-18T14:54Z</time>
EXAMPLE 245
<time>2011-11-18T14:54:39Z</time>
EXAMPLE 246
<time>2011-11-18T14:54:39.929Z</time>
EXAMPLE 247
<time>2011-11-18T14:54+0000</time>
EXAMPLE 248
<time>2011-11-18T14:54:39+0000</time>
EXAMPLE 249
<time>2011-11-18T14:54:39.929+0000</time>
EXAMPLE 250
<time>2011-11-18T14:54+00:00</time>
EXAMPLE 251
<time>2011-11-18T14:54:39+00:00</time>
EXAMPLE 252
<time>2011-11-18T14:54:39.929+00:00</time>
EXAMPLE 253
<time>2011-11-18T06:54-0800</time>
EXAMPLE 254
<time>2011-11-18T06:54:39-0800</time>
EXAMPLE 255
<time>2011-11-18T06:54:39.929-0800</time>
EXAMPLE 256
<time>2011-11-18T06:54-08:00</time>
EXAMPLE 257
<time>2011-11-18T06:54:39-08:00</time>
EXAMPLE 258
<time>2011-11-18T06:54:39.929-08:00</time>
EXAMPLE 259
<time>2011-11-18 14:54Z</time>
EXAMPLE 260
<time>2011-11-18 14:54:39Z</time>
EXAMPLE 261
<time>2011-11-18 14:54:39.929Z</time>
EXAMPLE 262
<time>2011-11-18 14:54+0000</time>
EXAMPLE 263
<time>2011-11-18 14:54:39+0000</time>
EXAMPLE 264
<time>2011-11-18 14:54:39.929+0000</time>
EXAMPLE 265
<time>2011-11-18 14:54+00:00</time>
EXAMPLE 266
<time>2011-11-18 14:54:39+00:00</time>
EXAMPLE 267
<time>2011-11-18 14:54:39.929+00:00</time>
EXAMPLE 268
<time>2011-11-18 06:54-0800</time>
EXAMPLE 269
<time>2011-11-18 06:54:39-0800</time>
EXAMPLE 270
<time>2011-11-18 06:54:39.929-0800</time>
EXAMPLE 271
<time>2011-11-18 06:54-08:00</time>
EXAMPLE 272
<time>2011-11-18 06:54:39-08:00</time>
EXAMPLE 273
<time>2011-11-18 06:54:39.929-08:00</time>
NOTE:
Times with dates and a time zone offset are useful for specifying specific events, or recur-
ring virtual events where the time is not anchored to a specific geographic location. For
example, the precise time of an asteroid impact, or a particular meeting in a series of
meetings held at 1400 UTC every day, regardless of whether any particular part of the
world is observing daylight savings time or not. For events where the precise time varies
by the local time zone offset of a specific geographic location, a valid floating date and
time string combined with that geographic location is likely more useful.
EXAMPLE 274
<time>2011-W47</time>
Four or more ASCII digits, at least one of which is not U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0)
EXAMPLE 275
<time>2011</time>
EXAMPLE 276
<time>0001</time>
EXAMPLE 277
<time>PT4H18M3S</time>
EXAMPLE 278
<time>4h 18m 3s</time>
NOTE:
Many of the preceding valid syntaxes describe "floating" date and/or time values (they do not
include a time-zone offset). Care is needed when converting floating time values to or from
global ("incremental") time values (e.g., JavaScripts Date object). In many cases, an implicit
time-of-day and time zone are used in the conversion and may result in unexpected changes to
the value of the date itself. [TIMEZONE]
The machine-readable equivalent of the elements contents must be obtained from the ele-
ments datetime value by using the following algorithm:
1. If parsing a month string from the elements datetime value returns a month, that is the
machine-readable equivalent; abort these steps.
2. If parsing a date string from the elements datetime value returns a date, that is the machine-
readable equivalent; abort these steps.
3. If parsing a yearless date string from the elements datetime value returns a yearless date, that
is the machine-readable equivalent; abort these steps.
4. If parsing a time string from the elements datetime value returns a time, that is the machine-
readable equivalent; abort these steps.
5. If parsing a floating date and time string from the elements datetime value returns a floating
date and time, that is the machine-readable equivalent; abort these steps.
6. If parsing a time-zone offset string from the elements datetime value returns a time-zone off-
set, that is the machine-readable equivalent; abort these steps.
7. If parsing a floating date and time string from the elements datetime value returns a global
date and time, that is the machine-readable equivalent; abort these steps.
8. If parsing a week string from the elements datetime value returns a week, that is the
machine-readable equivalent; abort these steps.
9. If the elements datetime value consists of only ASCII digits, at least one of which is not
U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0), then the machine-readable equivalent is the base-ten interpretation
of those digits, representing a year; abort these steps.
10. If parsing a duration string from the elements datetime value returns a duration, that is the
machine-readable equivalent; abort these steps.
NOTE:
The algorithms referenced above are intended to be designed such that for any arbitrary string
s , only one of the algorithms returns a value. A more efficient approach might be to create a
single algorithm that parses all these data types in one pass; developing such an algorithm is
left as an exercise to the reader.
The dateTime IDL attribute must reflect the elements datetime content attribute.
EXAMPLE 279
The <time> element can be used to encode dates, for example in microformats. The following
shows a hypothetical way of encoding an event using a variant on hCalendar that uses the
<time> element:
<div class="vevent">
<a class="url" href="https://www.web2con.com/">https://www.web2con.com
/</a>
<span class="summary">Web 2.0 Conference</span>:
<time class="dtstart" datetime="2005-10-05">October 5</time> -
<time class="dtend" datetime="2005-10-07">7</time>,
at the <span class="location">Argent Hotel, San Francisco, CA</span>
</div>
EXAMPLE 280
Here, a fictional RDFa vocabulary based on the Atom vocabulary is used with the <time> ele-
ment to mark up a blog posts publication date [html-rdfa].
EXAMPLE 281
In this example, another articles publication date is marked up using <time>, this time using
the schema.org vocabulary:
<article typeof="schema:BlogPosting">
<h1 property="schema:headline">Small tasks</h1>
<footer>Published <time property="schema:datePublished"
datetime="2009-08-30">yesterday</time>.</footer>
<p property="schema:articleBody">I put a bike bell on his bike.</p>
</article>
EXAMPLE 282
In the following snippet, the <time> element is used to encode a date in the ISO8601 format,
for later processing by a script:
A script loaded by the page (and thus privy to the pages internal convention of marking up
dates and times using the <time> element) could scan through the page and look at all the
<time> elements therein to create an index of dates and times.
EXAMPLE 283
For example, this element conveys the string "Friday" with the additional semantic that the
18th of November 2011 is the meaning that corresponds to "Friday":
EXAMPLE 284
In this example, a specific time in the Pacific Standard Time timezone is specified:
Phrasing content.
Tag omission in text/html:
Neither tag is omissible
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.
The <code> element represents a fragment of computer code. This could be an XML element
name, a file name, a computer program, or any other string that a computer would recognize.
There is no formal way to indicate the language of computer code being marked up. Authors who
wish to mark <code> elements with the language used, e.g., so that syntax highlighting scripts can
use the right rules, can use the class attribute, e.g., by adding a class prefixed with "language-"
to the element.
EXAMPLE 285
The following example shows how the element can be used in a paragraph to mark up element
names and computer code, including punctuation.
EXAMPLE 286
The following example shows how a block of code could be marked up using the pre and
<code> elements.
NOTE:
See the <pre> element for more details.
The <var> element represents a variable. This could be an actual variable in a mathematical ex-
pression or programming context, an identifier representing a constant, a symbol identifying a
physical quantity, a function parameter, or just be a term used as a placeholder in prose.
EXAMPLE 287
In the paragraph below, the letter "n" is being used as a variable in prose:
For mathematics, in particular for anything beyond the simplest of expressions, MathML is more
appropriate. However, the <var> element can still be used to refer to specific variables that are then
mentioned in MathML expressions.
EXAMPLE 288
In this example, an equation is shown, with a legend that references the variables in the equa-
tion. The expression itself is marked up with MathML, but the variables are mentioned in the
figures legend using <var>.
<figure>
<math>
<mi>a</mi>
<mo>=</mo>
<msqrt>
<msup><mi>b</mi><mn>2</mn></msup>
<mi>+</mi>
<msup><mi>c</mi><mn>2</mn></msup>
</msqrt>
</math>
<figcaption>
Using Pythagoras' theorem to solve for the hypotenuse <var>a</var> of
a triangle with sides <var>b</var> and <var>c</var>
</figcaption>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 289
Here, the equation describing mass-energy equivalence is used in a sentence, and the <var> ele-
ment is used to mark the variables and constants in that equation:
<p>Then he turned to the blackboard and picked up the chalk. After a few
moments
thought, he wrote <var>E</var> = <var>m</var> <var>c</var><sup>2</sup>.
The teacher
looked pleased.</p>
The <samp> element represents sample or quoted output from another program or computing sys-
tem.
NOTE:
See the pre and <kbd> elements for more details.
NOTE:
This element can be contrasted with the <output> element, which can be used to provide imme-
diate output in a Web application.
EXAMPLE 290
This example shows the <samp> element being used inline:
EXAMPLE 291
This second example shows a block of sample output. Nested samp and <kbd> elements allow
for the styling of specific elements of the sample output using a style sheet. Theres also a few
parts of the samp that are annotated with even more detailed markup, to enable very precise
styling. To achieve this, <span> elements are used.
The <kbd> element represents user input (typically keyboard input, although it may also be used to
represent other input, such as voice commands).
When the <kbd> element is nested inside a <samp> element, it represents the input as it was echoed
by the system.
When the <kbd> element contains a <samp> element, it represents input based on system output, for
example invoking a menu item.
When the <kbd> element is nested inside another <kbd> element, it represents an actual key or other
single unit of input as appropriate for the input mechanism.
EXAMPLE 292
Here the <kbd> element is used to indicate keys to press:
In this second example, the user is told to pick a particular menu item. The outer <kbd> element
marks up a block of input, with the inner <kbd> elements representing each individual step of
the input, and the <samp> elements inside them indicating that the steps are input based on
something being displayed by the system, in this case menu labels:
The <sub> element represents a subscript, and the <sup> element represents a superscript.
These elements must be used only to mark up typographical conventions with specific meanings,
not for typographical presentation for presentations sake. For example, it would be inappropriate
for the <sub> and <sup> elements to be used in the name of the LaTeX document preparation sys-
tem. In general, authors should use these elements only if the absence of those elements would
change the meaning of the content.
In certain languages, superscripts are part of the typographical conventions for some abbreviations.
EXAMPLE 293
The <sub> element can be used inside a <var> element, for variables that have subscripts.
EXAMPLE 294
Here, the <sub> element is used to represent the subscript that identifies the variable in a family
of variables:
Mathematical expressions often use subscripts and superscripts. Authors are encouraged to use
MathML for marking up mathematics, but authors may opt to use <sub> and <sup> if detailed
mathematical markup is not desired. [MATHML]
EXAMPLE 295
<var>E</var>=<var>m</var><var>c</var><sup>2</sup>
The <i> element represents a span of text in an alternate voice or mood, or otherwise offset from
the normal prose in a manner indicating a different quality of text, such as a taxonomic designa-
tion, a technical term, an idiomatic phrase from another language, transliteration, a thought, or a
ship name in Western texts.
Terms in languages different from the main text should be annotated with lang attributes (or, in
XML, lang attributes in the XML namespace).
EXAMPLE 296
The examples below show uses of the <i> element:
Authors are encouraged to consider whether other elements might be more applicable than the <i>
element, for instance the <em> element for marking up stress emphasis, or the <dfn> element to
mark up the defining instance of a term.
NOTE:
Style sheets can be used to format <i> elements, just like any other element can be restyled.
Thus, it is not the case that content in <i> elements will necessarily be italicized.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.
The <b> element represents a span of text to which attention is being drawn for utilitarian purposes
without conveying any extra importance and with no implication of an alternate voice or mood,
such as key words in a document abstract, product names in a review, actionable words in int-
eractive text-driven software, or an article lede.
EXAMPLE 297
The following example shows a use of the <b> element to highlight key words without marking
them up as important:
EXAMPLE 298
In the following example, objects in a text adventure are highlighted as being special by use of
the <b> element.
EXAMPLE 299
Another case where the <b> element is appropriate is in marking up the lede (or lead) sentence
or paragraph. The following example shows how a BBC article about kittens adopting a rabbit
as their own could be marked up:
<article>
<h2>Kittens 'adopted' by pet rabbit</h2>
<p><b class="lede">Six abandoned kittens have found an
unexpected new mother figure a pet rabbit.</b></p>
<p>Veterinary nurse Melanie Humble took the three-week-old
kittens to her Aberdeen home.</p>
[...]
As with the <i> element, authors can use the class attribute on the <b> element to identify why the
element is being used, so that if the style of a particular use is to be changed at a later date, the au-
thor doesnt have to go through annotating each use.
The <b> element should be used as a last resort when no other element is more appropriate. In par-
ticular, headings should use the h1 to h6 elements, stress emphasis should use the <em> element,
importance should be denoted with the <strong> element, and text marked or highlighted should
use the mark element.
EXAMPLE 300
The following would be incorrect usage:
In the previous example, the correct element to use would have been <strong>, not <b>.
NOTE:
Style sheets can be used to format <b> elements, just like any other element can be restyled.
Thus, it is not the case that content in <b> elements will necessarily be boldened.
The <u> element represents a span of text with an unarticulated, though explicitly rendered, non-
textual annotation, such as labeling the text as being a proper name in Chinese text (a Chinese
proper name mark), or labeling the text as being misspelt.
In most cases, another element is likely to be more appropriate: for marking stress emphasis, the
<em> element should be used; for marking key words or phrases either the <b> element or the
<mark> element should be used, depending on the context; for marking book titles, the <cite> ele-
ment should be used; for labeling text with explicit textual annotations, the <ruby> element should
be used; for technical terms, taxonomic designation, transliteration, a thought, or for labeling ship
names in Western texts, the <i> element should be used.
NOTE:
The default rendering of the <u> element in visual presentations clashes with the conventional
rendering of hyperlinks (underlining). Authors are encouraged to avoid using the <u> element
where it could be confused for a hyperlink.
The <mark> element represents a run of text in one document marked or highlighted for reference
purposes, due to its relevance in another context. When used in a quotation or other block of text
referred to from the prose, it indicates a highlight that was not originally present but which has
been added to bring the readers attention to a part of the text that might not have been considered
important by the original author when the block was originally written, but which is now under
previously unexpected scrutiny. When used in the main prose of a document, it indicates a part of
the document that has been highlighted due to its likely relevance to the users current activity.
EXAMPLE 301
This example shows how the <mark> element can be used to bring attention to a particular part
of a quotation:
(If the goal was to mark the element as misspelt, however, the <u> element, possibly with a
class, would be more appropriate.)
EXAMPLE 302
Another example of the <mark> element is highlighting parts of a document that are matching
some search string. If someone looked at a document, and the server knew that the user was
searching for the word "kitten", then the server might return the document with one paragraph
modified as follows:
EXAMPLE 303
In the following snippet, a paragraph of text refers to a specific part of a code fragment.
This is separate from syntax highlighting, for which span is more appropriate. Combining
both, one would get:
EXAMPLE 304
This is another example showing the use of mark to highlight a part of quoted text that was
originally not emphasized. In this example, common typographic conventions have led the au-
thor to explicitly style <mark> elements in quotes to render in italics.
<head>
<style>
blockquote mark, q mark {
font: inherit; font-style: italic;
text-decoration: none;
background: transparent; color: inherit;
}
.bubble em {
font: inherit; font-size: larger;
text-decoration: underline;
}
</style>
</head>
<article>
<h1>She knew</h1>
<p>Did you notice the subtle joke in the joke on panel 4?</p>
<blockquote>
<p class="bubble">I didnt <em>want</em> to believe. <mark>Of course
on some level I realized it was a known-plaintext attack.</mark> But I
couldnt admit it until I saw for myself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Emphasis mine.) I thought that was great. Its so pedantic, yet it
explains everything neatly.</p>
</article>
NOTE:
Note, incidentally, the distinction between the <em> element in this example, which is part
of the original text being quoted, and the <mark> element, which is highlighting a part for
comment.
EXAMPLE 305
The following example shows the difference between denoting the importance of a span of text
(strong) as opposed to denoting the relevance of a span of text (mark). It is an extract from a
textbook, where the extract has had the parts relevant to the exam highlighted. The safety
warnings, important though they may be, are apparently not relevant to the exam.
Global attributes
Also, the dir global attribute has special semantics on this element.
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.
The <bdi> element represents a span of text that is to be isolated from its surroundings for the pur-
poses of bidirectional text formatting. [BIDI]
NOTE:
The dir global attribute defaults to auto on this element (it never inherits from the parent ele-
ment like with other elements).
NOTE:
This element has rendering requirements involving the bidirectional algorithm.
EXAMPLE 306
This element is especially useful when embedding user-generated content with an unknown di-
rectionality.
In this example, usernames are shown along with the number of posts that the user has submit-
ted. If the <bdi> element were not used, the username of the Arabic user would end up confus-
ing the text (the bidirectional algorithm would put the colon and the number "3" next to the
word "User" rather than next to the word "posts").
<ul>
<li>User <bdi>jcranmer</bdi>: 12 posts.
<li>User <bdi>hober</bdi>: 5 posts.
<li>User <bdi></bdi>: 3 posts.
</ul>
Figure 1 When using the <bdi> element, the username acts as expected.
Figure 2 If the <bdi> element were to be replaced by a <b> element, the username would confuse the bidi-
rectional algorithm and the third bullet would end up saying "User 3 :", followed by the Arabic name
(right-to-left), followed by "posts" and a period.
Phrasing content.
Tag omission in text/html:
Neither tag is omissible
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Also, the dir global attribute has special semantics on this element.
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.
The <bdo> element represents explicit text directionality formatting control for its children. It al-
lows authors to override the Unicode bidirectional algorithm by explicitly specifying a direction
override. [BIDI]
Authors must specify the dir attribute on this element, with the value ltr to specify a left-to-right
override and with the value rtl to specify a right-to-left override. The auto value must not be
specified.
NOTE:
This element has rendering requirements involving the bidirectional algorithm.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
The <span> element doesnt mean anything on its own, but can be useful when used together with
the Global attributes, e.g., class, lang, or dir. It represents its children.
EXAMPLE 307
In this example, a code fragment is marked up using <span> elements and class attributes so
that its keywords and identifiers can be color-coded from CSS:
Content model:
Nothing.
Tag omission in text/html:
No end tag
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
NOTE:
While line breaks are usually represented in visual media by physically moving subsequent
text to a new line, a style sheet or user agent would be equally justified in causing line breaks
to be rendered in a different manner, for instance as green dots, or as extra spacing.
<br> elements must be used only for line breaks that are actually part of the content, as in poems or
addresses.
EXAMPLE 308
The following example is correct usage of the <br> element:
<p>P. Sherman<br>
42 Wallaby Way<br>
Sydney</p>
<br> elements must not be used for separating thematic groups in a paragraph.
EXAMPLE 309
The following examples are non-conforming, as they abuse the <br> element:
If a paragraph consists of nothing but a single <br> element, it represents a placeholder blank line
(e.g., as in a template). Such blank lines must not be used for presentation purposes.
Any content inside <br> elements must not be considered part of the surrounding text.
NOTE:
This element has rendering requirements involving the bidirectional algorithm.
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.
EXAMPLE 310
In the following example, someone is quoted as saying something which, for effect, is written
as one long word. However, to ensure that the text can be wrapped in a readable fashion, the
individual words in the quote are separated using a <wbr> element.
EXAMPLE 311
Here, especially long lines of code in a program listing have suggested wrapping points given
using <wbr> elements.
<pre>...
Heading heading = Helm.HeadingFactory(HeadingCoordinates[1],
<wbr>HeadingCoordinates[2], <wbr>HeadingCoordinates[3],
<wbr>HeadingCoordinates[4]);
Course course = Helm.CourseFactory(Heading,
<wbr>Maps.MapFactoryFromHeading(heading),
<wbr>Speeds.GetMaximumSpeed().ConvertToWarp());
...</pre>
Any content inside <wbr> elements must not be considered part of the surrounding text.
EXAMPLE 312
var wbr = document.createElement("wbr");
wbr.textContent = "This is wrong";
document.body.appendChild(wbr);
NOTE:
This element has rendering requirements involving the bidirectional algorithm.
<a> Hyperlinks
EXAMPLE 313
Visit my <a href="drinks.html">drinks</a> page.
<strong> Importance
EXAMPLE 315
This tea is <strong>very hot</strong>.
<q> Quotations
EXAMPLE 319
The judge said <q>You can drink water from the
fish tank</q> but advised against it.
<abbr> Abbreviations
EXAMPLE 321
Organic food in Ireland is certified by the
<abbr title="Irish Organic Farmers and Growers
Association">IOFGA</abbr>.
<data> Machine-readable
EXAMPLE 323
equivalent
Available starting today! <data
value="UPC:022014640201">North Coast Organic
Apple Cider</data>
<time> Machine-readable
EXAMPLE 324
equivalent of date-
Available starting on <time
or time-related data datetime="2011-11-18">November 18th</time>!
<var> Variables
EXAMPLE 326
If there are <var>n</var> fruit in the bowl, at
least <var>n</var>2 will be ripe.
<sub> Subscripts
EXAMPLE 329
Water is H<sub>2</sub>O.
<sup> Superscripts
EXAMPLE 330
The Hydrogen in heavy water is usually
<sup>2</sup>H.
<b> Keywords
EXAMPLE 332
Take a <b>lemon</b> and squeeze it with a
<b>juicer</b>.
<u> Annotations
EXAMPLE 333
The mixture of apple juice and <u
class="spelling">eldeflower</u> juice is very
pleasant.
<mark> Highlight
EXAMPLE 334
Elderflower cordial, with one <mark>part</mark>
cordial to ten <mark>part</mark>s water, stands
a<mark>part</mark> from the rest.
<span> Other
EXAMPLE 337
In French we call it <span lang="fr">sirop de
sureau</span>.
4.6. Edits
EXAMPLE 340
The following represents the addition of a single paragraph:
<aside>
<ins>
<p> I like fruit. </p>
</ins>
</aside>
As does the following, because everything in the <aside> element here counts as phrasing con-
tent and therefore there is just one paragraph:
<aside>
<ins>
Apples are <em>tasty</em>.
</ins>
<ins>
So are pears.
</ins>
</aside>
EXAMPLE 341
The following example represents the addition of two paragraphs, the second of which was in-
serted in two parts. The first <ins> element in this example thus crosses a paragraph boundary,
which is considered poor form.
Here is a better way of marking this up. It uses more elements, but none of the elements cross
implied paragraph boundaries.
<aside>
<ins datetime="2005-03-16 00:00Z">
<p> I like fruit. </p>
</ins>
<ins datetime="2005-03-16 00:00Z">
Apples are <em>tasty</em>.
</ins>
<ins datetime="2007-12-19 00:00Z">
So are pears.
</ins>
</aside>
EXAMPLE 342
The following shows a "to do" list where items that have been done are crossed-off with the
date and time of their completion.
<h1>To Do</h1>
<ul>
<li>Empty the dishwasher</li>
<li><del datetime="2009-10-11T01:25-07:00">Watch Walter Lewins
lectures</del></li>
<li><del datetime="2009-10-10T23:38-07:00">Download more tracks</del>
</li>
<li>Buy a printer</li>
</ul>
The cite attribute may be used to specify the address of a document that explains the change.
When that document is long, for instance the minutes of a meeting, authors are encouraged to in-
clude a fragment pointing to the specific part of that document that discusses the change.
If the cite attribute is present, it must be a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces that ex-
plains the change. To obtain the corresponding citation link, the value of the attribute must be
parsed relative to the elements node document. User agents may allow users to follow such cita-
tion links, but they are primarily intended for private use (e.g., by server-side scripts collecting sta-
tistics about a sites use of quotations), not for readers.
The datetime attribute may be used to specify the time and date of the change.
If present, the datetime attributes value must be a valid date string with optional time.
User agents must parse the datetime attribute according to the parse a date or time string algo-
rithm. If that doesnt return a date or a global date and time, then the modification has no associ-
ated timestamp (the value is non-conforming; it is not a valid date string with optional time). Oth-
erwise, the modification is marked as having been made at the given date or global date and time.
If the given value is a global date and time then user agents should use the associated time-zone
offset information to determine which time zone to present the given datetime in.
This value may be shown to the user, but it is primarily intended for private use.
The <ins> and <del> elements must implement the HTMLModElement interface:
The cite IDL attribute must reflect the elements cite content attribute. The dateTime IDL at-
tribute must reflect the elements datetime content attribute.
Since the ins and <del> elements do not affect paragraphing, it is possible, in some cases where
paragraphs are implied (without explicit <p> elements), for an ins or <del> element to span both
an entire paragraph or other non-phrasing content elements and part of another paragraph. For ex-
ample:
<section>
<ins>
<p>
This is a paragraph that was inserted.
</p>
This is another paragraph whose first sentence was inserted
at the same time as the paragraph above.
</ins>
This is a second sentence, which was there all along.
</section>
By only wrapping some paragraphs in <p> elements, one can even get the end of one paragraph, a
whole second paragraph, and the start of a third paragraph to be covered by the same ins or <del>
element (though this is very confusing, and not considered good practice):
However, due to the way implied paragraphs are defined, it is not possible to mark up the end of
one paragraph and the start of the very next one using the same ins or <del> element. You instead
have to use one (or two) p element(s) and two ins or <del> elements, as for example:
<section>
<p>This is the first paragraph. <del>This sentence was
deleted.</del></p>
<p><del>This sentence was deleted too.</del> That
sentence needed a separate <del> element.</p>
</section>
Partly because of the confusion described above, authors are strongly encouraged to always mark
up all paragraphs with the <p> element, instead of having ins or <del> elements that cross implied
paragraphs boundaries.
The content models of the ol and <ul> elements do not allow ins and <del> elements as children.
Lists always represent all their items, including items that would otherwise have been marked as
deleted.
To indicate that an item is inserted or deleted, an ins or del element can be wrapped around the
contents of the <li> element. To indicate that an item has been replaced by another, a single <li>
element can have one or more <del> elements followed by one or more <ins> elements.
EXAMPLE 343
In the following example, a list that started empty had items added and removed from it over
time. The bits in the example that have been emphasized show the parts that are the "current"
state of the list. The list item numbers dont take into account the edits, though.
<h1>Stop-ship bugs</h1>
<ol>
<li><ins datetime="2008-02-12T15:20Z">Bug 225:
Rain detector doesnt work in snow</ins></li>
<li><del datetime="2008-03-01T20:22Z"><ins
datetime="2008-02-14T12:02Z">Bug 228:
Water buffer overflows in April</ins></del></li>
<li><ins datetime="2008-02-16T13:50Z">Bug 230:
Water heater doesnt use renewable fuels</ins></li>
<li><del datetime="2008-02-20T21:15Z"><ins
datetime="2008-02-16T14:25Z">Bug 232:
Carbon dioxide emissions detected after startup</ins></del></li>
</ol>
EXAMPLE 344
In the following example, a list that started with just fruit was replaced by a list with just col-
ors.
<h1>List of <del>fruits</del><ins>colors</ins></h1>
<ul>
<li><del>Lime</del><ins>Green</ins></li>
<li><del>Apple</del></li>
<li>Orange</li>
<li><del>Pear</del></li>
<li><ins>Teal</ins></li>
<li><del>Lemon</del><ins>Yellow</ins></li>
<li>Olive</li>
<li><ins>Purple</ins></li>
</ul>
The elements that form part of the table model have complicated content model requirements that
do not allow for the ins and <del> elements, so indicating edits to a table can be difficult.
To indicate that an entire row or an entire column has been added or removed, the entire contents
of each cell in that row or column can be wrapped in ins or del elements (respectively).
EXAMPLE 345
Here, a tables row has been added:
<table>
<thead>
<tr> <th> Game name <th> Game publisher <th> Verdict
<tbody>
<tr> <td> Diablo 2 <td> Blizzard <td> 8/10
<tr> <td> Portal <td> Valve <td> 10/10
<tr> <td> <ins>Portal 2</ins> <td> <ins>Valve</ins> <td>
<ins>10/10</ins>
</table>
Here, a column has been removed (the time at which it was removed is given also, as is a link
to the page explaining why):
<table>
<thead>
<tr> <th> Game name <th> Game publisher <th> <del
cite="/edits/r192" datetime="2011-05-02 14:23Z">Verdict</del>
<tbody>
<tr> <td> Diablo 2 <td> Blizzard <td> <del
cite="/edits/r192" datetime="2011-05-02 14:23Z">8/10</del>
<tr> <td> Portal <td> Valve <td> <del
cite="/edits/r192" datetime="2011-05-02 14:23Z">10/10</del>
<tr> <td> Portal 2 <td> Valve <td> <del
cite="/edits/r192" datetime="2011-05-02 14:23Z">10/10</del>
</table>
Generally speaking, there is no good way to indicate more complicated edits (e.g., that a cell was
removed, moving all subsequent cells up or to the left).
4.7.1. Introduction
To embed an image in HTML, when there is only a single image resource, use the <img> element
and with its src and alt attributes.
EXAMPLE 346
However, there are a number of situations for which the author might wish to use multiple image
resources that the user agent can choose from:
The users' physical screen size might be different from one another.
EXAMPLE 347
A mobile phones screen might be 4 inches diagonally, while a laptops screen might
be 14 inches diagonally.
"
14
4"
NOTE:
This is only relevant when an images rendered size depends on the viewport size.
The users' screen pixel density might be different from one another.
EXAMPLE 348
A mobile phones screen might have three times as many physical pixels per inch
compared to another mobile phones screen, regardless of their physical screen size.
1x 3x
The users' zoom level might be different from one another, or might change for a single
user over time.
EXAMPLE 349
A user might zoom in to a particular image to be able to get a more detailed look.
The zoom level and the screen pixel density (the previous point) can both affect the
number of physical screen pixels per CSS pixel. This ratio is usually referred to as
device-pixel-ratio.
The users' screen orientation might be different from one another, or might change for a
single user over time.
EXAMPLE 350
A tablet can be held upright or rotated 90 degrees, so that the screen is either "por-
trait" or "landscape".
Portrait
Landscape
The users' network speed, network latency and bandwidth cost might be different from
one another, or might change for a single user over time.
EXAMPLE 351
A user might be on a fast, low-latency and constant-cost connection while at work,
on a slow, low-latency and constant-cost connection while at home, and on a vari-
able-speed, high-latency and variable-cost connection anywhere else.
Authors might want to show the same image content but with different rendered size depend-
ing on, usually, the width of the viewport. This is usually referred to as viewport-based se-
lection.
EXAMPLE 352
A Web page might have a banner at the top that always spans the entire viewport width.
In this case, the rendered size of the image depends on the physical size of the screen (as-
suming a maximised browser window).
EXAMPLE 353
Another Web page might have images in columns, with a single column for screens with a
small physical size, two columns for screens with medium physical size, and three col-
umns for screens with big physical size, with the images varying in rendered size in each
case to fill up the viewport. In this case, the rendered size of an image might be bigger in
the one-column layout compared to the two-column layout, despite the screen being
smaller.
Medium, 2 columns
Narrow, 1 column
Wide, 3 columns
Authors might want to show different image content depending on the rendered size of the
EXAMPLE 354
When a Web page is viewed on a screen with a large physical size (assuming a maximised
browser window), the author might wish to include some less relevant parts surrounding
the critical part of the image. When the same Web page is viewed on a screen with a small
physical size, the author might wish to show only the critical part of the image.
Authors might want to show the same image content but using different image formats, de-
pending on which image formats the user agent supports. This is usually referred to as image
format-based selection.
EXAMPLE 355
A Web page might have some images in the JPEG, WebP and JPEG XR image formats,
with the latter two having better compression abilities compared to JPEG. Since different
user agents can support different image formats, with some formats offering better com-
pression ratios, the author would like to serve the better formats to user agents that sup-
port them, while providing JPEG fallback for user agents that dont.
The above situations are not mutually exclusive. For example, it is reasonable to combine different
resources for different device-pixel-ratio with different resources for art direction.
While it is possible to solve these problems using scripting, doing so introduces some other prob-
lems:
Some user agents aggressively download images specified in the HTML markup, before
scripts have had a chance to run, so that Web pages complete loading sooner. If a script
changes which image to download, the user agent will potentially start two separate down-
loads, which can instead cause worse page loading performance.
If the author avoids specifying any image in the HTML markup and instead instantiates a sin-
gle download from script, that avoids the double download problem above but instead it
makes no image be downloaded at all for users with scripting disabled and it disables the
agressive image downloading optimization.
With this in mind, this specification introduces a number of features to address the above problems
in a declarative manner.
NOTE:
The x descriptor is not appropriate when the rendered size of the image depends on the
viewport width (viewport-based selection), but can be used together with art direction.
EXAMPLE 356
The user agent can choose any of the given resources depending on the users screens
pixel density, zoom level, and possibly other factors such as the users network condi-
tions.
For backwards compatibility with older user agents that dont yet understand the srcset
attribute, one of the URLs is specified in the <img> elements src attribute. This will re-
sult in something useful (though perhaps lower-resolution than the user would like) being
displayed even in older user agents. For new user agents, the src attribute participates in
the resource selection, as if it was specified in srcset with a 1x descriptor.
The images rendered size is given in the width and height attributes, which allows the
user agent to allocate space for the image before it is downloaded.
Viewport-based selection
The srcset and sizes attributes can be used, using the w descriptor, to provide multiple im-
ages that only vary in their size (the smaller image is a scaled-down version of the bigger im-
age).
EXAMPLE 357
In this example, a banner image takes up the entire viewport width (using appropriate
CSS).
The user agent will calculate the effective pixel density of each image from the specified
w descriptors and the specified rendered size in the sizes attribute. It can then choose any
of the given resources depending on the users screens pixel density, zoom level, and
possibly other factors such as the users network conditions.
If the users screen is 320 CSS pixels wide, this is equivalent to specifying wolf-400.jpg
1.25x, wolf-800.jpg 2.5x, wolf-1600.jpg 5x. On the other hand, if the users
screen is 1200 CSS pixels wide, this is equivalent to specifying wolf-400.jpg 0.33x,
wolf-800.jpg 0.67x, wolf-1600.jpg 1.33x. By using the w descriptors and the sizes
attribute, the user agent can choose the correct image source to download regardless of
how large the users device is.
For backwards compatibility, one of the URLs is specified in the <img> elements src at-
tribute. In new user agents, the src attribute is ignored when the srcset attribute uses w
descriptors.
In this example, the sizes attribute could be omitted because the default value is 100vw.
EXAMPLE 358
In this example, the Web page has three layouts depending on the width of the viewport.
The narrow layout has one column of images (the width of each image is about 100%),
the middle layout has two columns of images (the width of each image is about 50%), and
the widest layout has three columns of images, and some page margin (the width of each
image is about 33%). It breaks between these layouts when the viewport is 30em wide and
50em wide, respectively.
The sizes attribute sets up the layout breakpoints at 30em and 50em, and declares the im-
age sizes between these breakpoints to be 100vw, 50vw, or calc(33vw - 100px). These
sizes do not necessarily have to match up exactly with the actual image width as specified
in the CSS.
The user agent will pick a width from the sizes attribute, using the first item with a
<media-condition> (the part in parentheses) that evaluates to true, or using the last item
(calc(33vw - 100px)) if they all evaluate to false.
For example, if the viewport width is 29em, then (max-width: 30em) evaluates to true
and 100vw is used, so the image size, for the purpose of resource selection, is 29em. If the
viewport width is instead 32em, then (max-width: 30em) evaluates to false, but (max-
width: 50em) evaluates to true and 50vw is used, so the image size, for the purpose of re-
source selection, is 16em (half the viewport width). Notice that the slightly wider viewport
results in a smaller image because of the different layout.
The user agent can then calculate the effective pixel density and choose an appropriate re-
source similarly to the previous example.
EXAMPLE 359
<picture>
<source media="(min-width: 45em)" srcset="large.jpg">
<source media="(min-width: 32em)" srcset="med.jpg">
<img src="small.jpg" alt="The wolf runs through the snow.">
</picture>
The user agent will choose the first <source> element for which the media query in the
media attribute matches, and then choose an appropriate URL from its srcset attribute.
The rendered size of the image varies depending on which resource is chosen. To specify
dimensions that the user agent can use before having downloaded the image, CSS can be
used.
EXAMPLE 360
This example combines art direction- and device-pixel-ratio-based selection. A banner
that takes half the viewport is provided in two versions, one for wide screens and one for
narrow screens.
<h1>
<picture>
<source media="(max-width: 500px)" srcset="banner-phone.jpeg,
banner-phone-HD.jpeg 2x">
<img src="banner.jpeg" srcset="banner-HD.jpeg 2x" alt="The
Breakfast Combo">
</picture>
</h1>
EXAMPLE 361
In this example, the user agent will choose the first <source> that has a type attribute with
a supported MIME type. If the user agent supports WebP images, the first <source> ele-
ment will be chosen. If not, but the user agent does support JPEG XR images, the second
<source> element will be chosen. If neither of those formats are supported, the <img> ele-
ment will be chosen.
4.7.2. Dependencies
<whitespace-token>
Content model:
Zero or more <source> elements, followed by one <img> element, optionally intermixed
with script-supporting elements.
Tag omission in text/html:
Neither tag is omissible
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
None
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
None
DOM interface:
The <picture> element is a container which provides multiples sources to its contained <img> ele-
ment to allow authors to declaratively control or give hints to the user agent about which image re-
source to use, based on the screen pixel density, viewport size, image format, and other factors. It
represents its children.
NOTE:
The <picture> element is somewhat different from the similar-looking video and <audio> ele-
ments. While all of them contain <source> elements, the <source> elements src attribute has
no meaning when the element is nested within a <picture> element, and the resource selection
algorithm is different. As well, the <picture> element itself does not display anything; it
merely provides a context for its contained <img> element that enables it to choose from multi-
ple URLs.
The <source> element allows authors to specify multiple alternative source sets for <img> elements
or multiple alternative media resources for media elements. It does not represent anything on its
own.
The type attribute may be present. If present, the value must be a valid MIME type.
The remainder of the requirements depend on whether the parent is a <picture> element or a me-
dia element:
sizes content attribute must also be present, and the value must be a valid source size
list.
The media content attribute may also be present. If present, the value must contain a
valid media query list.
The type gives the type of the images in the source set, to allow the user agent to skip to
the next <source> element if it does not support the given type.
NOTE:
If the type attribute is not specified, the user agent will not select a different
<source> element if it finds that it does not support the image format after fetching it.
When a <source> element has a following sibling <source> element or <img> element
with a srcset attribute specified, it must have at least one of the following:
A media attribute specified with a value that, after stripping leading and trailing
white space, is not the empty string and is not an ASCII case-insensitive match for
the string "all".
NOTE:
Dynamically modifying a <source> element and its attribute when the element is al-
ready inserted in a video or <audio> element will have no effect. To change what is
playing, just use the src attribute on the media element directly, possibly making use
of the canPlayType() method to pick from amongst available resources. Generally,
manipulating <source> elements manually after the document has been parsed is an
unnecessarily complicated approach.
The type content attribute gives the type of the media resource, to help the user agent
determine if it can play this media resource before fetching it. If specified, its value must
be a valid MIME type. The codecs parameter, which certain MIME types define, might
be necessary to specify exactly how the resource is encoded. [RFC6381]
EXAMPLE 362
The following list shows some examples of how to use the codecs= MIME parame-
ter in the type attribute.
H.264 Constrained baseline profile video (main and extended video compatible)
level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container
If a <source> element is inserted as a child of a media element that has no src attribute and whose
networkState has the value NETWORK_EMPTY, the user agent must invoke the media elements re-
source selection algorithm.
The IDL attributes src, type, srcset, sizes and media must reflect the respective content at-
tributes of the same name.
EXAMPLE 363
If the author isnt sure if user agents will all be able to render the media resources provided, the
author can listen to the error event on the last <source> element and trigger fallback behavior:
<script>
function fallback(video) {
// replace <video> with its contents
while (video.hasChildNodes()) {
if (video.firstChild instanceof HTMLSourceElement)
video.removeChild(video.firstChild);
else
video.parentNode.insertBefore(video.firstChild, video);
}
video.parentNode.removeChild(video);
}
</script>
<video controls autoplay>
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E,
mp4a.40.2"'>
<source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"'
onerror="fallback(parentNode)">
...
</video>
Content attributes:
Global attributes
alt - Replacement text for use when images are not available
src - Address of the resource
srcset - Images to use in different situations (e.g., high-resolution displays, small mon-
itors, etc)
sizes - Image sizes between breakpoints
crossorigin - How the element handles crossorigin requests
usemap - Name of image map to use
ismap - Whether the image is a server-side image map
width - Horizontal dimension
height - Vertical dimension
referrerpolicy - Referrer policy for fetches initiated by the element
longdesc - A url that provides a link to an expanded description of the image, defined
in [html-longdesc]
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
presentation or none role only, for an <img> element whose alt attributes value is
empty (alt=""), otherwise Any role value.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
The image given by the src and srcset attributes, and any previous sibling <source> elements'
srcset attributes if the parent is a <picture> element, is the embedded content; the value of the
alt attribute and the content referred to by the longdesc attribute are the <img> elements fallback
content, and provide equivalent content for users and user agents who cannot process images or
have image loading disabled.
Requirements for alternative representations of the image are described in the next section.
The src attribute must be present, and must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially sur-
rounded by spaces referencing a non-interactive, optionally animated, image resource that is nei-
ther paged nor scripted.
The srcset attribute may also be present. If present, its value must consist of one or more image
candidate strings, each separated from the next by a U+002C COMMA character (,). If an image
candidate string contains no descriptors and no space characters after the URL, the following im-
age candidate string, if there is one, must begin with one or more space characters.
An image candidate string consists of the following components, in order, with the further re-
strictions described below this list:
2. A valid non-empty URL that does not start or end with a U+002C COMMA character (,),
referencing a non-interactive, optionally animated, image resource that is neither paged nor
scripted.
A width descriptor, consisting of: a space character, a valid non-negative integer giving
a number greater than zero representing the width descriptor value, and a U+0077
LATIN SMALL LETTER W character.
A pixel density descriptor, consisting of: a space character, a valid floating-point number
giving a number greater than zero representing the pixel density descriptor value, and a
U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X character.
There must not be an image candidate string for an element that has the same width descriptor
value as another image candidate strings width descriptor value for the same element.
There must not be an image candidate string for an element that has the same pixel density de-
scriptor value as another image candidate strings pixel density descriptor value for the same ele-
ment. For the purpose of this requirement, an image candidate string with no descriptors is equiva-
lent to an image candidate string with a 1x descriptor.
If a <source> element has a sizes attribute present or an <img> element has a sizes attribute
present, all image candidate strings for that element must have the width descriptor specified.
If an image candidate string for a <source> or <img> element has the width descriptor specified, all
other image candidate strings for that element must also have the width descriptor specified.
The specified width in an image candidate strings width descriptor must match the intrinsic width
in the resource given by the image candidate strings URL, if it has an intrinsic width.
NOTE:
The requirements above imply that images can be static bitmaps (e.g., PNGs, GIFs, JPEGs),
single-page vector documents (single-page PDFs, XML files with an SVG document element),
animated bitmaps (APNGs, animated GIFs), animated vector graphics (XML files with an
SVG document element that use declarative SMIL animation), and so forth. However, these
definitions preclude SVG files with script, multipage PDF files, interactive MNG files, HTML
documents, plain text documents, and so forth. [PNG] [GIF] [JPEG] [PDF] [XML] [APNG]
[SVG11] [MNG]
If the srcset attribute is present, the sizes attribute may also be present. If present, its value must
A valid source size list is a string that matches the following grammar: [CSS-VALUES]
[MEDIAQ]
NOTE:
Percentages are not allowed in a <source-size-value>, to avoid confusion about what it
would be relative to. The vw unit can be used for sizes relative to the viewport width.
The <img> element must not be used as a layout tool. In particular, img elements should not be used
to display transparent images, as such images rarely convey meaning and rarely add anything use-
ful to the document.
The crossorigin attribute is a CORS settings attribute. Its purpose is to allow images from third-
party sites that allow cross-origin access to be used with <canvas>.
The referrerpolicy attribute is a referrer policy attribute. Its purpose is to set the referrer policy
used when fetching the image. [REFERRERPOLICY]
An <img> element has a current request and a pending request. The current request is initially set
to a new image request. The pending request is initially set to null. The current request is usually
referred to as the <img> element itself.
Unavailable
The user agent hasnt obtained any image data, or has obtained some or all of the image data
but hasnt yet decoded enough of the image to get the image dimensions.
Partially available
The user agent has obtained some of the image data and at least the image dimensions are
available.
Completely available
The user agent has obtained all of the image data and at least the image dimensions are avail-
able.
Broken
The user agent has obtained all of the image data that it can, but it cannot even decode the im-
age enough to get the image dimensions (e.g., the image is corrupted, or the format is not sup-
ported, or no data could be obtained).
When an image request is either in the partially available state or in the completely available state,
it is said to be available.
When an <img> element is available, it provides a paint source whose width is the images density-
corrected intrinsic width (if any), whose height is the images density-corrected intrinsic height (if
any), and whose appearance is the intrinsic appearance of the image.
In a browsing context where scripting is disabled, user agents may obtain images immediately or
on demand. In a browsing context where scripting is enabled, user agents must obtain images im-
mediately.
A user agent that obtains images immediately must immediately update the image data of an <img>
element, with the restart animation flag set if so stated, whenever that element is created or has ex-
perienced relevant mutations.
A user agent that obtains images on demand must update the image data of an <img> element
whenever it needs the image data (i.e., on demand), but only if the <img> element is in the unavail-
able state. When an <img> element has experienced relevant mutations, if the user agent only ob-
tains images on demand, the <img> element must return to the unavailable state.
The elements src, srcset, width, or sizes attributes are set, changed, or removed.
The elements src attribute is set to the same value as the previous value. This must set the
restart animation flag for the update the image data algorithm.
The elements parent is a <picture> element and a <source> element is inserted as a previous
sibling.
The elements parent is a <picture> element and a <source> element that was a previous sib-
ling is removed.
The elements parent is a <picture> element and a <source> element that is a previous sibling
has its srcset, sizes, media or type attributes set, changed, or removed.
Each <img> element has a last selected source, which must initially be null.
Each image request has a current pixel density, which must initially be undefined.
When an <img> element has a current pixel density that is not 1.0, the elements image data must
be treated as if its resolution, in device pixels per CSS pixels, was the current pixel density. The
images density-corrected intrinsic width and height are the intrinsic width and height after tak-
ing into account the current pixel density.
EXAMPLE 364
For example, given a screen with 96 CSS pixels per CSS inch, if the current pixel density is
3.125, that means that there are 96 3.125 = 300 device pixels per CSS inch, and thus if the
image data is 300x600, it has intrinsic dimensions of 300 3.125 = 96 CSS pixels by 600
3.125 = 192 CSS pixels. With a current pixel density of 2.0 (192 device pixels per CSS inch)
and the same image data (300x600), the intrinsic dimensions would be 150x300.
Each Document object must have a list of available images. Each image in this list is identified
by a tuple consisting of an absolute URL, a CORS settings attribute mode, and, if the mode is not
No CORS, an origin. Each image furthermore has an ignore higher-layer caching flag. User
agents may copy entries from one Document objects list of available images to another at any
time (e.g., when the Document is created, user agents can add to it all the images that are loaded
in other Documents), but must not change the keys of entries copied in this way when doing so,
and must unset the ignore higher-layer caching flag for the copied entry. User agents may also re-
move images from such lists at any time (e.g., to save memory). User agents must remove entries
in the list of available images as appropriate given higher-layer caching semantics for the resource
(e.g., the HTTP Cache-Control response header) when the ignore higher-layer caching flag is un-
set.
NOTE:
The list of available images is intended to enable synchronous switching when changing the
src attribute to a URL that has previously been loaded, and to avoid re-downloading images in
the same document even when they dont allow caching per HTTP. It is not used to avoid re-
downloading the same image while the previous image is still loading.
EXAMPLE 365
For example, if a resource has the HTTP response header Cache-Control: must-
revalidate, the user agent would remove it from the list of available images but could keep
the image data separately, and use that if the server responds with a 204 No Content status.
When the user agent is to update the image data of an <img> element, optionally with the restart
animations flag set, it must run the following steps:
1. If the elements node document is not the active document, then run these substeps:
3. If another instance of this algorithm for this <img> element was started after this instance
(even if it aborted and is no longer running), then abort these steps.
2. If the user agent cannot support images, or its support for images has been disabled, then
abort the image request for the current request and the pending request, set current request to
the unavailable state, let pending request be null, and abort these steps.
3. If the element does not use srcset or picture and it does not have a parent or it has a parent
but it is not a <picture> element, and it has a src attribute specified and its value is not the
empty string, let selected source be the value of the elements src attribute, and selected
pixel density be 1.0. Otherwise, let selected source be null and selected pixel density be un-
defined.
1. Parse selected source , relative to the elements node document. If that is not successful,
then abort these inner set of steps. Otherwise, let urlString be the resulting URL string.
2. Let key be a tuple consisting of urlString , the <img> elements crossorigin attributes
mode, and, if that mode is not No CORS, the node documents origin.
3. If the list of available images contains an entry for key , run these subsubsteps:
2. Abort the image request for the current request and the pending request.
4. Let current request be a new image request whose image data is that of the entry
and whose state is set to the completely available state.
6. Let the current requests current pixel density be selected pixel density .
7. Queue a task to restart the animation if restart animation is set, change current re-
quests current URL to urlString , and then fire a simple event named load at the
<img> element.
6. in parallel await a stable state, allowing the task that invoked this algorithm to continue. The
synchronous section consists of all the remaining steps of this algorithm until the algorithm
says the synchronous section has ended. (Steps in synchronous sections are marked with .)
7. If another instance of this algorithm for this <img> element was started after this instance
(even if it aborted and is no longer running), then abort these steps.
NOTE:
Only the last instance takes effect, to avoid multiple requests when, for example, the src,
srcset, and crossorigin attributes are all set in succession.
8. Let selected source and selected pixel density be the URL and pixel density that results
from selecting an image source, respectively.
1. Set the current request to the broken state, abort the image request for the current re-
quest and the pending request, and let pending request be null.
2. Queue a task to change the current requests current URL to the empty string, and
then, if the element has a src attribute or it uses srcset or picture, fire a simple event
named error at the <img> element.
10. Queue a task to fire a progress event named loadstart at the <img> element.
Parse selected source , relative to the elements node document, and let urlString be the re-
sulting URL string. If that is not successful, run these substeps:
1. Abort the image request for the current request and the pending request.
4. Queue a task to change the current requests current URL to selected source , fire a
simple event named error at the <img> element and then fire a simple event named
loadend at the <img> element.
11. If the pending request is not null, and urlString is the same as the pending requests current
URL, then abort these steps.
If urlString is the same as the current requests current URL, and current request is in the
partially available state, then abort the image request for the pending request, queue a task to
restart the animation if restart animation is set, and abort these steps.
If the pending request is not null, abort the image request for the pending request.
Let image request be a new image request whose current URL is urlString .
If current request is in the unavailable state or the broken state, let the current request be
image request . Otherwise, let the pending request be image request .
Let request be the result of creating a potential-CORS request given urlString and the cur-
rent state of the elements crossorigin content attribute.
Set request s client to the elements node documents Window objects environment settings
object and type to "image".
Set request s referrer policy to the current state of the elements referrerpolicy attribute.
Fetch request . Let this instance of the fetching algorithm be associated with image re-
quest .
The resource obtained in this fashion, if any, is image request s image data. It can be either
CORS-same-origin or CORS-cross-origin; this affects the origin of the image itself (e.g.,
when used on a canvas).
Fetching the image must delay the load event of the elements node document until the task
that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched (defined be-
low) has been run.
If the resource is CORS-same-origin, each task that is queued by the networking task source
while the image is being fetched, if image request is the current request, must fire a progress
event named progress at the <img> element.
12. End the synchronous section, continuing the remaining steps in parallel, but without missing
any data from fetching.
13. As soon as possible, jump to the first applicable entry from the following list:
1. If image request is the pending request and at least one body part has been
completely decoded, abort the image request for the current request, upgrade
the pending request to the current request.
2. Otherwise, if image request is the pending request and the user agent is able
to determine that image request s image is corrupted in some fatal way such
that the image dimensions cannot be obtained, abort the image request for the
current request, upgrade the pending request to the current request and set the
current requests state to broken.
Each task that is queued by the networking task source while the image is being
fetched must update the presentation of the image, but as each new body part comes
in, it must replace the previous image. Once one body part has been completely de-
coded, the user agent must set the <img> element to the completely available state
and queue a task to fire a simple event named load at the <img> element.
NOTE:
The progress and loadend events are not fired for multipart/x-mixed-
replace image streams.
1. If the user agent is able to determine image request s images width and
height, and image request is pending request, set image request s state to par-
tially available.
3. Otherwise, if the user agent is able to determine that image request s image is
corrupted in some fatal way such that the image dimensions cannot be ob-
tained, and image request is pending request, abort the image request for the
current request and the pending request, upgrade the pending request to the
current request, set current request to the broken state, fire a simple event
named error at the <img> element, fire a simple event named loadend at the
<img> element, and abort these steps.
4. Otherwise, if the user agent is able to determine that image request s image is
corrupted in some fatal way such that the image dimensions cannot be ob-
tained, and image request is current request, abort the image request for im-
age request , fire a simple event named error at the <img> element, fire a sim-
ple event named loadend at the <img> element, and abort these steps.
That task, and each subsequent task, that is queued by the networking task source
while the image is being fetched, if image request is the current request, must up-
date the presentation of the image appropriately (e.g., if the image is a progressive
JPEG, each packet can improve the resolution of the image).
Furthermore, the last task that is queued by the networking task source once the re-
1. If image request is the pending request, abort the image request for the cur-
rent request, upgrade the pending request to the current request and update the
<img> elements presentation appropriately.
3. Add the image to the list of available images using the key key , with the ig-
nore higher-layer caching flag set.
4. Fire a progress event or simple event named load at the <img> element, de-
pending on the resource in image request .
5. Fire a progress event or simple event named loadend at the <img> element, de-
pending on the resource in image request .
Otherwise
The image data is not in a supported file format; the user agent must set image re-
quest to the broken state, abort the image request for the current request and the
pending request, upgrade the pending request to the current request if image re-
quest is the pending request, and then queue a task to first fire a simple event
named error at the <img> element and then fire a simple event named loadend at
the img element.
To abort the image request for an image request image request means to run the following steps:
2. Abort any instance of the fetching algorithm for image request , discarding any pending tasks
generated by that algorithm.
To upgrade the pending request to the current request for an <img> element means to run the
following steps:
To fire a progress event or simple event named type at an element e , depending on resource r ,
means to fire a progress event named type at e if r is CORS-same-origin, and otherwise fire a
simple event named type at e .
While a user agent is running the above algorithm for an element x , there must be a strong refer-
ence from the elements node document to the element x , even if that element is not in its
Document.
An img element is said to use srcset or picture if it has a srcset attribute specified or if it has a
parent that is a picture element.
When an <img> element is in the completely available state and the user agent can decode the me-
dia data without errors, then the <img> element is said to be fully decodable.
Whether the image is fetched successfully or not (e.g., whether the response status was an ok sta-
tus) must be ignored when determining the images type and whether it is a valid image.
NOTE:
This allows servers to return images with error responses, and have them displayed.
The user agent should apply the image sniffing rules to determine the type of the image, with the
images associated Content-Type headers giving the official type . If these rules are not applied,
then the type of the image must be the type given by the images associated Content-Type headers.
User agents must not support non-image resources with the <img> element (e.g., XML files whose
document element is an HTML element). User agents must not run executable code (e.g., scripts)
embedded in the image resource. User agents must only display the first page of a multipage re-
source (e.g., a PDF file). User agents must not allow the resource to act in an interactive fashion,
but should honor any animation in the resource.
This specification does not specify which image types are to be supported.
A source set is an ordered set of zero or more image sources and a source size.
An image source is a URL, and optionally either a density descriptor, or a width descriptor.
A source size is a <source-size-value>. When a source size has a unit relative to the viewport,
it must be interpreted relative to the <img> elements documents viewport. Other units must be in-
terpreted the same as in Media Queries. [MEDIAQ]
When asked to select an image source for a given <img> element el , user agents must do the fol-
lowing:
2. If el s source set is empty, return null as the URL and undefined as the pixel density and
abort these steps.
4. If an entry b in source set has the same associated density descriptor as an earlier entry a in
source set , then remove entry b . Repeat this step until none of the entries in source set have
the same associated density descriptor as an earlier entry.
5. In a user agent-specific manner, choose one image source from source set . Let this be se-
lected source .
When asked to update the source set for a given <img> element el , user agents must do the fol-
lowing:
2. If el has a parent node and that is a <picture> element, let elements be an array containing
el s parent nodes child elements, retaining relative order. Otherwise, let elements be array
containing only el .
3. If el has a width attribute, and parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing di-
mension values doesnt generate an error or a percentage value, then let width be the re-
turned integer value. Otherwise, let width be null.
4. Iterate through elements , doing the following for each item child :
1. If child is el :
1. If child has a srcset attribute, parse child s srcset attribute and let the returned
source set be source set . Otherwise, let source set be an empty source set.
2. Parse child s sizes attribute with the fallback width width , and let source set s
source size be the returned value.
3. If child has a src attribute whose value is not the empty string and source set does
not contain an image source with a density descriptor value of 1, and no image
source with a width descriptor, append child s src attribute value to source set .
2. If child is not a <source> element, continue to the next child. Otherwise, child is a
<source> element.
3. If child does not have a srcset attribute, continue to the next child.
4. Parse child s srcset attribute and let the returned source set be source set .
5. If source set has zero image sources, continue to the next child.
6. If child has a media attribute, and its value does not match the environment, continue to
the next child.
7. Parse child s sizes attribute with the fallback width width , and let source set s source
size be the returned value.
8. If child has a type attribute, and its value is an unknown or unsupported MIME type,
continue to the next child.
NOTE:
Each <img> element independently considers its previous sibling <source> elements plus the
<img> element itself for selecting an image source, ignoring any other (invalid) elements, in-
cluding other <img> elements in the same <picture> element, or <source> elements that are fol-
lowing siblings of the relevant <img> element.
When asked to parse a srcset attribute from an element, parse the value of the elements srcset
attribute as follows:
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
4. Splitting loop: Collect a sequence of characters that are space characters or U+002C
COMMA characters. If any U+002C COMMA characters were collected, that is a parse error.
5. If position is past the end of input , return candidates and abort these steps.
6. Collect a sequence of characters that are not space characters, and let that be url .
8. If url ends with a U+002C COMMA character (,), follow these substeps:
1. Remove all trailing U+002C COMMA characters from url . If this removed more than
one character, that is a parse error.
4. Let c be the character at position . Do the following depending on the value of state .
For the purpose of this step, "EOF" is a special character representing that position is
past the end of input .
In descriptor
Do the following, depending on the value of c :
Space character
If current descriptor is not empty, append current descriptor to
descriptors and let current descriptor be the empty string. Set
state to after descriptor.
EOF
If current descriptor is not empty, append current descriptor to
descriptors . Jump to the step labeled descriptor parser.
Anything else
Append c to current descriptor .
In parens
Do the following, depending on the value of c :
EOF
Append current descriptor to descriptors . Jump to the step labeled
descriptor parser.
Anything else
Append c to current descriptor .
After descriptor
Do the following, depending on the value of c :
Space character
Stay in this state.
EOF
Jump to the step labeled descriptor parser.
Anything else
Set state to in descriptor. Set position to the previous character in
input .
NOTE:
In order to be compatible with future additions, this algorithm supports multiple de-
scriptors and descriptors with parens.
13. For each descriptor in descriptors , run the appropriate set of steps from the following list:
1. If the user agent does not support the sizes attribute, let error be yes.
NOTE:
A conforming user agent will support the sizes attribute. However, user
agents typically implement and ship features in an incremental manner in
practice.
2. If width and density are not both absent, then let error be yes.
3. Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to the descriptor. If the result
is zero, let error be yes. Otherwise, let width be the result.
1. If width , density and future-compat-h are not all absent, then let error be
yes.
2. Apply the rules for parsing floating-point number values to the descriptor. If
the result is less than zero, let error be yes. Otherwise, let density be the re-
sult.
NOTE:
If density is zero, the intrinsic dimensions will be infinite. User agents are
expected to have limits in how big images can be rendered, which is al-
lowed by the hardware limitations clause.
1. If future-compat-h and density are not both absent, then let error be yes.
2. Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to the descriptor. If the result
is zero, let error be yes. Otherwise, let future-compat-h be the result.
Anything else
Let error be yes.
14. If future-compat-h is not absent and width is absent, let error be yes.
15. If error is still no, then append a new image source to candidates whose URL is url , asso-
ciated with a width width if not absent and a pixel density density if not absent. Otherwise,
there is a parse error.
When asked to parse a sizes attribute from an element, parse a comma-separated list of compo-
nent values from the value of the elements sizes attribute (or the empty string, if the attribute is
absent), and let unparsed sizes list be the result. [CSS-SYNTAX-3]
1. Remove all consecutive <whitespace-token>s from the end of unparsed size . If unparsed
size is now empty, that is a parse error; continue to the next iteration of this algorithm.
3. Remove all consecutive <whitespace-token>s from the end of unparsed size . If unparsed
size is now empty, return size and exit this algorithm. If this was not the last item in un-
parsed sizes list , that is a parse error.
If the above algorithm exhausts unparsed sizes list without returning a size value, follow these
steps:
1. If width is not null, return a <length> with the value width and the unit px.
2. Return 100vw.
A parse error for the algorithms above indicates a non-fatal mismatch between input and require-
ments. User agents are encouraged to expose parse errors somehow.
NOTE:
While a valid source size list only contains a bare <source-size-value> (without an accom-
panying <media-condition>) as the last entry in the <source-size-list>, the parsing algo-
rithm technically allows such at any point in the list, and will accept it immediately as the size
if the preceding entries in the list werent used. This is to enable future extensions, and protect
against simple author errors such as a final trailing comma.
An image source can have a density descriptor, a width descriptor, or no descriptor at all accompa-
nying its URL. Normalizing a source set gives every image source a density descriptor.
When asked to normalize the source densities of a source set source set , the user agent must do
the following:
1. If the image source has a density descriptor, continue to the next image source.
2. Otherwise, if the image source has a width descriptor, replace the width descriptor with a
density descriptor with a value of the width descriptor divided by the source size and a
unit of x.
NOTE:
If the source size is zero, the density would be infinity, which results in the intrinsic
dimensions being zero by zero.
The user agent may at any time run the following algorithm to update an img elements image in
order to react to changes in the environment. (User agents are not required to ever run this algo-
rithm; for example, if the user is not looking at the page any more, the user agent might want to
wait until the user has returned to the page before determining which image to use, in case the en-
vironment changes again in the meantime.)
NOTE:
User agents are encouraged to run this algorithm in particular when the user changes the view-
ports size (e.g., by resizing the window or changing the page zoom), and when an <img> ele-
ment is inserted into a document, so that the density-corrected intrinsic width and height match
the new viewport, and so that the correct image is chosen when art direction is involved.
1. in parallel await a stable state. The synchronous section consists of all the remaining steps of
this algorithm until the algorithm says the synchronous section has ended. (Steps in synchro-
nous sections are marked with .)
2. If the <img> element does not use srcset or picture, its node document is not the active
document, has image data whose resource type is multipart/x-mixed-replace, or the
pending request is not null, then abort this algorithm.
3. Let selected source and selected pixel density be the URL and pixel density that results
from selecting an image source, respectively.
5. If selected source and selected pixel density are the same as the elements last selected
source and current pixel density, then abort these steps.
6. Parse selected source , relative to the elements node document, and let urlString be the re-
sulting URL string. If that is not successful, abort these steps.
9. Let client be the <img> elements node documents Window objects environment settings
object.
11. Let image request be a new image request whose current URL is urlString
13. End the synchronous section, continuing the remaining steps in parallel.
14. If the list of available images contains an entry for key , then set image request s image data
to that of the entry. Continue to the next step.
1. Let request be the result of creating a potential-CORS request given urlString and cor-
sAttributeState .
2. Set request s client to client , type to "image", and set request s synchronous flag.
3. Set request s referrer policy to the current state of the elements referrerpolicy at-
tribute.
6. Otherwise, response s unsafe response is image request s image data. It can be either
CORS-same-origin or CORS-cross-origin; this affects the origin of the image itself (e.g.,
when used on a canvas).
1. If the <img> element has experienced relevant mutations since this algorithm started, then
let pending request be null and abort these steps.
2. Let the <img> elements last selected source be selected source and the <img> elements
current pixel density be selected pixel density .
4. Add the image to the list of available images using the key key , with the ignore higher-
layer caching flag set.
The task source for the tasks queued by algorithms in this section is the DOM manipulation task
source.
What an <img> element represents depends on the src attribute and the alt attribute.
If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to the empty string
The image is either decorative or supplemental to the rest of the content, redundant with
some other information in the document.
If the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then the
element represents the elements image data.
Otherwise, the element represents nothing, and may be omitted completely from the ren-
dering. User agents may provide the user with a notification that an image is present but
has been omitted from the rendering.
If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to a value that isnt empty
The image is a key part of the content; the alt attribute gives a textual equivalent or re-
placement for the image.
If the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then the
element represents the elements image data.
Otherwise, the element represents the text given by the alt attribute. User agents may
provide the user with a notification that an image is present but has been omitted from
the rendering.
If the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then the
element represents the elements image data.
Otherwise, the user agent should display some sort of indicator that there is an image
that is not being rendered, and may, if requested by the user, or if so configured, or when
required to provide contextual information in response to navigation, provide caption in-
formation for the image, derived as follows:
1. If the image is a descendant of a <figure> element that has a child <figcaption> el-
ement, and, ignoring the <figcaption> element and its descendants, the <figure> el-
ement has no Text node descendants other than inter-element white space, and no
embedded content descendant other than the <img> element, then the contents of the
first such <figcaption> element are the caption information; abort these steps.
If the src attribute is not set and either the alt attribute is set to the empty string or the
alt attribute is not set at all
Otherwise
The element represents the text given by the alt attribute.
The alt attribute does not represent advisory information. User agents must not present the con-
tents of the alt attribute in the same way as content of the title attribute.
User agents may always provide the user with the option to display any image, or to prevent any
image from being displayed. User agents may also apply heuristics to help the user make use of
the image when the user is unable to see it, e.g., due to a visual disability or because they are using
a text terminal with no graphics capabilities. Such heuristics could include, for instance, optical
character recognition (OCR) of text found within the image.
In the case where an <img> without an alt attribute is the child of a <figure> element with a non-
empty <figcaption> element, the images presence should be minimally conveyed to a user by As-
sistive Technology, typically by identifying the image role.
Warning! While user agents are encouraged to repair cases of missing alt attributes,
authors must not rely on such behavior. Requirements for providing text to act as an al-
ternative for images are described in detail below.
The contents of <img> elements, if any, are ignored for the purposes of rendering.
The usemap attribute, if present, can indicate that the image has an associated image map.
The ismap attribute, when used on an element that is a descendant of an <a> element with an href
attribute, indicates by its presence that the element provides access to a server-side image map.
This affects how events are handled on the corresponding <a> element.
The ismap attribute is a boolean attribute. The attribute must not be specified on an element that
does not have an ancestor <a> element with an href attribute.
NOTE:
The usemap and ismap attributes can result in confusing behavior when used together with
<source> elements with the media attribute specified in a <picture> element.
The alt, src, srcset and sizes IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the
same name.
The crossOrigin IDL attribute must reflect the crossorigin content attribute.
The useMap IDL attribute must reflect the usemap content attribute.
The isMap IDL attribute must reflect the ismap content attribute.
The referrerPolicy IDL attribute must reflect the referrerpolicy content attribute, limited to
only known values.
The longDesc IDL attribute is defined in [html-longdesc]. The IDL attribute must reflect the
longdesc content attribute.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
image . width [ = value ]
image . height [ = value ]
These attributes return the actual rendered dimensions of the image, or zero if the di-
mensions are not known.
image . naturalWidth
image . naturalHeight
These attributes return the intrinsic dimensions of the image, or zero if the dimensions
are not known.
image . complete
Returns true if the image has been completely downloaded or if no image is specified;
otherwise, returns false.
image . currentSrc
The IDL attributes width and height must return the rendered width and height of the image, in
CSS pixels, if the image is being rendered, and is being rendered to a visual medium; or else the
density-corrected intrinsic width and height of the image, in CSS pixels, if the image has intrinsic
dimensions and is available but not being rendered to a visual medium; or else 0, if the image is
not available or does not have intrinsic dimensions. [CSS-2015]
On setting, they must act as if they reflected the respective content attributes of the same name.
The IDL attributes naturalWidth and naturalHeight must return the density-corrected intrinsic
width and height of the image, in CSS pixels, if the image has intrinsic dimensions and is avail-
able, or else 0. [CSS-2015]
The IDL attribute complete must return true if any of the following conditions is true:
Both the src attribute and the srcset attribute are omitted.
The srcset attribute is omitted and the src attributes value is the empty string.
The final task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been
fetched has been queued.
The <img> element is completely available.
The <img> element is broken.
NOTE:
The value of complete can thus change while a script is executing.
The currentSrc IDL attribute must return the <img> elements current requests current URL.
A constructor is provided for creating HTMLImageElement objects (in addition to the factory meth-
ods from DOM such as createElement()): Image( width , height ). When invoked as a con-
structor, this must return a new HTMLImageElement object (a new <img> element). If the width ar-
gument is present, the new objects width content attribute must be set to width . If the height ar-
gument is also present, the new objects height content attribute must be set to height . The ele-
ments node document must be the active document of the browsing context of the Window object
on which the interface object of the invoked constructor is found.
Text alternatives, [WCAG20] are a primary way of making visual information accessible, because
they can be rendered through many sensory modalities (for example, visual, auditory or tactile) to
match the needs of the user. Providing text alternatives allows the information to be rendered in a
variety of ways by a variety of user agents. For example, a person who cannot see a picture can
hear the text alternative read aloud using synthesized speech.
NOTE:
The alt attribute on images is a very important accessibility attribute. Authoring useful alt at-
tribute content requires the author to carefully consider the context in which the image appears
and the function that image may have in that context.
The longdesc attribute on images is likely to be read far less often by users and is necessary
for far fewer images. Nevertheless it provides an important way for users who cannot see an
image or cannot see it clearly, and user agents that cannot automatically process images, to un-
derstand what it shows. The longdesc attributes use cases are more fully described in
[html-longdesc]
The guidance included here addresses the most common ways authors use images. Additional
guidance and techniques are available in Resources on Alternative Text for Images.
4.7.5.1.1. EXAMPLES OF SCENARIOS WHERE USERS BENEFIT FROM TEXT ALTERNATIVES FOR
IMAGES
They have a very slow connection and are browsing with images disabled.
They have a vision impairment and use text to speech software.
They are listening to the page being read out by a voice Web browser.
Except where otherwise specified, the alt attribute must be specified and its value must not be
empty; the value must be an appropriate functional replacement for the image. The specific re-
quirements for the alt attribute content depend on the images function in the page, as described
in the following sections.
To determine an appropriate text alternative it is important to think about why an image is being
included in a page. What is its purpose? Thinking like this will help you to understand what is im-
portant about the image for the intended audience. Every image has a reason for being on a page,
because it provides useful information, performs a function, labels an interactive element, en-
hances aesthetics or is purely decorative. Therefore, knowing what the image is for, makes writing
an appropriate text alternative easier.
When an <a> element that is a hyperlink, or a <button> element, has no text content but contains
one or more images, include text in the alt attribute(s) that together convey the purpose of the link
or button.
EXAMPLE 366
In this example, a portion of an editor interface is displayed. Each button has an icon represent-
ing an action a user can take on content they are editing. For users who cannot view the im-
ages, the action names are included within the alt attributes of the images:
<ul>
<li><button><img src="b.png" alt="Bold"></button></li>
<li><button><img src="i.png" alt="Italics"></button></li>
<li><button><img src="strike.png" alt="Strike through"></button></li>
<li><button><img src="blist.png" alt="Bulleted list"></button></li>
<li><button><img src="nlist.png" alt="Numbered list"></button></li>
</ul>
EXAMPLE 367
In this example, a link contains a logo. The link points to the W3C web site from an external
site. The text alternative is a brief description of the link target.
<a href="https://w3.org">
<img src="images/w3c_home.png" width="72" height="48" alt="W3C web site">
</a>
EXAMPLE 368
This example is the same as the previous example, except that the link is on the W3C web
site. The text alternative is a brief description of the link target.
<a href="https://w3.org">
<img src="images/w3c_home.png" width="72" height="48" alt="W3C home">
</a>
NOTE:
Depending on the context in which an image of a logo is used it could be appropriate to
provide an indication, as part of the text alternative, that the image is a logo. Refer to sec-
tion 4.7.5.1.19 Logos, insignia, flags, or emblems.
EXAMPLE 369
In this example, a link contains a print preview icon. The link points to a version of the page
with a print stylesheet applied. The text alternative is a brief description of the link target.
<a href="preview.html">
<img src="images/preview.png" width="32" height="30" alt="Print
preview.">
</a>
EXAMPLE 370
In this example, a button contains a search icon. The button submits a search form. The text al-
ternative is a brief description of what the button does.
<button>
<img src="images/search.png" width="74" height="29" alt="Search">
</button>
EXAMPLE 371
In this example, a company logo for the PIP Corporation has been split into the following two
images, the first containing the word PIP and the second with the abbreviated word CO. The
images are the sole content of a link to the PIPCO home page. In this case a brief description
of the link target is provided. As the images are presented to the user as a single entity the text
alternative PIP CO home is in the alt attribute of the first image.
<a href="pipco-home.html">
<img src="pip.gif" alt="PIP CO home"><img src="co.gif" alt="">
</a>
Users can benefit when content is presented in graphical form, for example as a flowchart, a dia-
gram, a graph, or a map showing directions. Users who are unable to view the image also benefit
when content presented in a graphical form is provided in a text-based format. Software agents
that process text content, but cannot automatically process images (e.g. translation services, many
search engines), also benefit from a text-based description.
EXAMPLE 372
In the following example we have an image of a pie chart, with text in the alt attribute repre-
senting the data shown in the pie chart:
EXAMPLE 373
In the case where an image repeats the previous paragraph in graphical form. The alt attribute
content labels the image and the longdesc attribute identifies it as a description.
It can be seen that when the image is not available, for example because the src attribute value
is incorrect, the text alternative provides the user with a brief description of the image content:
NOTE:
In cases where the text alternative is lengthy, more than a sentence or two, or would benefit
from the use of structured markup, provide a brief description or label using the alt attribute,
and an associated text alternative.
EXAMPLE 374
Heres an example of a flowchart image, with a short text alternative included in the alt at-
tribute, in this case the text alternative is a description of the link target as the image is the sole
content of a link. The link points to a description, within the same document, of the process
represented in the flowchart.
...
...
<div id="desc">
<h2>Dealing with a broken lamp</h2>
<ol>
<li>Check if its plugged in, if not, plug it in.</li>
<li>If it still doesnt work; check if the bulb is burned out. If it is,
replace the bulb.</li>
<li>If it still doesnt work; buy a new lamp.</li>
</ol>
</div>
EXAMPLE 375
In this example, there is an image of a chart. It would be inappropriate to provide the informa-
tion depicted in the chart as a plain text alternative in an alt attribute as the information is a
data set. Instead a structured text alternative is provided below the image in the form of a data
table using the data that is represented in the chart image.
NOTE:
Indications of the highest and lowest rainfall for each season have been included in the ta-
ble, so trends easily identified in the chart are also available in the data table.
<figure>
<figcaption>Rainfall Data</figcaption>
<img src="rainchart.gif" alt="Bar chart: average rainfall by Country and
Season.
Full description in Table below." longdesc="table-4">
<table id="table-4">
<caption>Rainfall in millimetres by Country and Season.</caption>
<tr><td><th scope="col">UK <th scope="col">Japan<th
scope="col">Australia</tr>
<tr><th scope="row">Spring <td>5.5 (highest)<td>2.4 <td>2 (lowest)</tr>
<tr><th scope="row">Summer <td>4.5 (highest)<td>3.4<td>2 (lowest)</tr>
<tr><th scope="row">Autumn <td>3.5 (highest) <td>1.8 <td>1.5 (lowest)
</tr>
<tr><th scope="row">Winter <td>1.5 (highest) <td>1.2 <td>1 lowest</tr>
</table>
</figure>
NOTE:
The <figure> element is used to group the Bar Chart image and data table. The
<figcaption> element provides a caption for the grouped content.
NOTE:
For any of the examples in this section the details and summary elements could be used so
that the text descriptions for the images are only displayed on demand:
EXAMPLE 376
<figure>
<img src="flowchart.gif" alt="Flowchart: Dealing with a broken lamp.">
<details>
<summary>Dealing with a broken lamp</summary>
<ol>
<li>Check if its plugged in, if not, plug it in.</li>
<li>If it still doesnt work; check if the bulb is burned out. If it is,
replace the bulb.</li>
<li>If it still doesnt work; buy a new lamp.</li>
</ol>
</details>
</figure>
NOTE:
The <details> and <summary> elements are not currently well supported by browsers, until
such times they are supported, if used, you will need to use scripting to provide the func-
tionality. There are a number of scripted Polyfills and scripted custom controls available, in
popular JavaScript UI widget libraries, which provide similar functionality.
Sometimes, an image only contains text, and the purpose of the image is to display text using vis-
ual effects and /or fonts. It is strongly recommended that text styled using CSS be used, but if this
is not possible, provide the same text in the alt attribute as is in the image.
EXAMPLE 377
This example shows an image of the text "Get Happy!" written in a fancy multi colored free-
hand style. The image makes up the content of a heading. In this case the text alternative for
the image is "Get Happy!".
EXAMPLE 378
In this example we have an advertising image consisting of text, the phrase "The BIG sale" is
repeated 3 times, each time the text gets smaller and fainter, the last line reads "...ends Friday"
In the context of use, as an advertisement, it is recommended that the images text alternative
only include the text "The BIG sale" once as the repetition is for visual effect and the repetition
of the text for users who cannot view the image is unnecessary and could be confusing.
NOTE:
In situations where there is also a photo or other graphic along with the image of text, en-
sure that the words in the image text are included in the text alternative, along with any
other description of the image that conveys meaning to users who can view the image, so
the information is also available to users who cannot view the image.
When an image is used to represent a character that cannot otherwise be represented in Unicode,
for example gaiji, itaiji, or new characters such as novel currency symbols, the alternative text
should be a more conventional way of writing the same thing, e.g., using the phonetic hiragana or
EXAMPLE 379
In this example from 1997, a new-fangled currency symbol that looks like a curly E with two
bars in the middle instead of one is represented using an image. The alternative text gives the
characters pronunciation.
Only 5.99!
An image should not be used if Unicode characters would serve an identical purpose. Only when
the text cannot be directly represented using Unicode, e.g., because of decorations or because the
character is not in the Unicode character set (as in the case of gaiji), would an image be appropri-
ate.
NOTE:
If an author is tempted to use an image because their default system font does not support a
given character, then Web Fonts are a better solution than images.
EXAMPLE 380
An illuminated manuscript might use graphics for some of its letters. The text alternative in
such a situation is just the character that the image represents. nce upon a time and a long
long time ago...
EXAMPLE 381
Where the design of the illuminated letter is important, the primary text alternative in is the
character that the image represents, and longdesc can provide a link to a more detailed de-
Sometimes, an image consists of a graphics such as a chart and associated text. In this case it is
recommended that the text in the image is included in the text alternative.
EXAMPLE 382
Consider an image containing a pie chart and associated text. It is recommended wherever pos-
sible to provide any associated text as text, not an image of text. If this is not possible include
the text in the text alternative along with the pertinent information conveyed in the image.
EXAMPLE 383
Heres another example of the same pie chart image, showing a short text alternative included
in the alt attribute and a longer text alternative in text. The figure and figcaption elements
are used to associate the longer text alternative with the image. The alt attribute is used to la-
bel the image.
<figure>
<img src="figure1.gif" alt="Figure 1">
<figcaption><strong>Figure 1.</strong> Distribution of Articles by
Journal Category.
Pie chart: Language=68%, Education=14% and Science=18%.</figcaption>
</figure>
NOTE:
The advantage of this method over the previous example is that the text alternative is avail-
able to all users at all times. It also allows structured mark up to be used in the text alterna-
tive, where as a text alternative provided using the alt attribute does not.
4.7.5.1.7. IMAGES THAT ENHANCE THE THEMES OR SUBJECT MATTER OF THE PAGE CONTENT
An image that isnt discussed directly by the surrounding text but still has some relevance can be
included in a page using the <img> element. Such images are more than mere decoration, they may
augment the themes or subject matter of the page content and so still form part of the content. In
these cases, it is recommeneded that a text alternative be provided.
EXAMPLE 384
Here is an example of an image closely related to the subject matter of the page content but not
directly discussed. An image of a painting inspired by a poem, on a page reciting that poem.
The following snippet shows an example. The image is a painting titled the "Lady of Shallot",
it is inspired by the poem and its subject matter is derived from the poem. Therefore it is
strongly recommended that a text alternative is provided. There is a short description of the
content of the image in the alt attribute and a link below the image to a longer description lo-
cated at the bottom of the document. At the end of the longer description there is also a link to
further information about the painting.
<header>
<h1>The Lady of Shalott</h1>
<p>A poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson</p>
</header>
...
...
...
<p id="des">The woman in the painting is wearing a flowing white dress. A
large piece of intricately
patterned fabric is draped over the side. In her right hand she holds the
chain mooring the boat. Her expression
is mournful. She stares at a crucifix lying in front of her. Beside it
are three candles. Two have blown out.
<a href="https://bit.ly/5HJvVZ">Further information about the
painting</a>.</p>
EXAMPLE 385
This example illustrates the provision of a text alternative identifying an image as a photo of
the main subject of a page.
EXAMPLE 386
It is not always easy to write a useful text alternative for an image, another option is to provide
a link to a description or further information about the image when one is available. In this ex-
ample of the same image, there is a short text alternative included in the alt attribute, and
there is a link after the image. The link points to a page containing information about the paint-
ing.
In many cases, the image is actually just supplementary, and its presence merely reinforces the
surrounding text. In these cases, the alt attribute must be present but its value must be the empty
string.
In general, an image falls into this category if removing the image doesnt make the page any less
useful, but including the image makes it a lot easier for users of visual browsers to understand the
concept.
EXAMPLE 387
This example includes a screenshot of part of a text editor with the file described in the instruc-
tion, displayed:
In the text file, add SleepMode=1 under [options], then save and close.
Purely decorative images are visual enhancements, decorations or embellishments that provide no
function or information beyond aesthetics to users who can view the images.
Mark up purely decorative images so they can be ignored by assistive technology by using an
empty alt attribute (alt=""). While it is not unacceptable to include decorative images inline, it is
recommended if they are purely decorative to include the image using CSS.
EXAMPLE 388
Heres an example of an image being used as a decorative banner for a persons blog, the im-
age offers no information and so an empty alt attribute is used.
<header>
<div><img src="border.gif" alt="" width="400" height="30"></div>
<h1>Claras Blog</h1>
</header>
<p>Welcome to my blog...</p>
When images are used inline as part of the flow of text in a sentence, provide a word or phrase as a
text alternative which makes sense in the context of the sentence it is apart of.
EXAMPLE 389
I you.
My breaks.
4.7.5.1.11. A GROUP OF IMAGES THAT FORM A SINGLE LARGER PICTURE WITH NO LINKS
When a picture has been sliced into smaller image files that are then displayed together to form the
complete picture again, include a text alternative for one of the images using the alt attribute as
per the relevant relevant guidance for the picture as a whole, and then include an empty alt at-
tribute on the other images.
EXAMPLE 390
In this example, a picture representing a company logo for the PIP Corporation has been split
into two pieces, the first containing the letters "PIP" and the second with the word "CO". The
text alternatve PIP CO is in the alt attribute of the first image.
EXAMPLE 391
In the following example, a rating is shown as three filled stars and two empty stars. While the
text alternative could have been "", the author has instead decided to more helpfully
give the rating in the form "3 out of 5". That is the text alternative of the first image, and the
<p>Rating:
<img src="1" alt="3 out of 5">
<img src="1" alt=""><img src="1" alt="">
<img src="0" alt=""><img src="0" alt="">
</p>
If an <img> element has a usemap attribute which references a <map> element containing <area> ele-
ments that have href attributes, the img is considered to be interactive content. In such cases, al-
ways provide a text alternative for the image using the alt attribute.
EXAMPLE 392
Consider the following image which is a map of Katoomba, it has 2 interactive regions corre-
sponding to the areas of North and South Katoomba:
The text alternative is a brief description of the image. The alt attribute on each of the <area>
elements provides text describing the content of the target page of each linked region:
<map name="Map">
<area shape="poly"
coords="78,124,124,10,189,29,173,93,168,132,136,151,110,130"
href="north.html" alt="Houses in North Katoomba">
<area shape="poly"
coords="66,63,80,135,106,138,137,154,167,137,175,133,144,240,49,223,17,13
7,17,61"
alt="Houses in South Katoomba" href="south.html">
</map>
4.7.5.1.13. A GROUP OF IMAGES THAT FORM A SINGLE LARGER PICTURE WITH LINKS
Sometimes, when you create a composite picture from multiple images, you may wish to link one
or more of the images. Provide an alt attribute for each linked image to describe the purpose of
the link.
EXAMPLE 393
In the following example, a composite picture is used to represent a "crocoduck"; a fictional
creature which defies evolutionary principles by being part crocodile and part duck. You are
asked to interact with the crocoduck, but you need to exercise caution...
<h1>The crocoduck</h1>
<p>You encounter a strange creature called a "crocoduck".
The creature seems angry! Perhaps some friendly stroking will help to
calm
it, but be careful not to stroke any crocodile parts. This would just
enrage
the beast further.</p>
<a href="?stroke=head"><img src="crocoduck1.png" alt="Stroke crocodiles
angry, chomping head"></a>
<a href="?stroke=body"><img src="crocoduck2.png" alt="Stroke ducks soft,
feathery body"></a>
Images of pictures or graphics include visual representations of objects, people, scenes, abstrac-
tions, etc. This non-text content, [WCAG20] can convey a significant amount of information vis-
ually or provide a specific sensory experience, [WCAG20] to a sighted person. Examples include
photographs, paintings, drawings and artwork.
An appropriate text alternative for a picture is a brief description, or name [WCAG20]. As in all
text alternative authoring decisions, writing suitable text alternatives for pictures requires human
judgment. The text value is subjective to the context where the image is used and the page authors
writing style. Therefore, there is no single "right" or "correct" piece of alt text for any particular
image. In addition to providing a short text alternative that gives a brief description of the non-text
content, also providing supplemental content through another means when appropriate may be
useful.
EXAMPLE 394
This first example shows an image uploaded to a photo-sharing site. The photo is of a cat, sit-
ting in the bath. The image has a text alternative provided using the <img> elements alt at-
tribute. It also has a caption provided by including the <img> element in a <figure> element and
using a <figcaption> element to identify the caption text.
<figure>
<img src="664aef.jpg" alt="Lola the cat sitting under an umbrella in the
bath tub.">
<figcaption>Lola prefers a bath to a shower.</figcaption>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 395
This example is of an image that defies a complete description, as the subject of the image is
open to interpretation. The image has a text alternative in the alt attribute which gives users
who cannot view the image a sense of what the image is. It also has a caption provided by in-
cluding the <img> element in a figure element and using a <figcaption> element to identify
the caption text.
<figure>
<img src="Rorschach1.jpg" alt="An abstract, freeform, vertically
symmetrical, black inkblot on a light background.">
<figcaption>The first of the ten cards in the Rorschach
test.</figcaption>
</figure>
Webcam images are static images that are automatically updated periodically. Typically the images
are from a fixed viewpoint, the images may update on the page automatically as each new image is
uploaded from the camera or the user may be required to refresh the page to view an updated im-
age. Examples include traffic and weather cameras.
EXAMPLE 396
This example is fairly typical; the title and a time stamp are included in the image, automati-
cally generated by the webcam software. It would be better if the text information was not in-
cluded in the image, but as it is part of the image, include it as part of the text alternative. A
caption is also provided using the <figure> and <figcaption> elements. As the image is pro-
vided to give a visual indication of the current weather near a building, a link to a local
weather forecast is provided, as with automatically generated and uploaded webcam images it
may be impractical to provide such information as a text alternative.
The text of the alt attribute includes a prose version of the timestamp, designed to make the
text more understandable when announced by text to speech software. The text alternative also
includes a description of some aspects of what can be seen in the image which are unchanging,
although weather conditions and time of day change.
View from the top of Sopwith house, looking towards North Kingston. This image is updated
every hour.
<figure>
<img src="webcam1.jpg" alt="Sopwith house weather cam. Taken on the
21/04/10 at 11:51 and 34 seconds.
In the foreground are the safety rails on the flat part of the roof.
Nearby there are low rize industrial buildings,
beyond are blocks of flats. In the distance theres a church steeple.">
<figcaption>View from Sopwith house, looking towards north Kingston.
This image is updated every hour.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>View the <a href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast
/4296?area=Kingston">latest weather details</a> for Kingston upon
Thames.</p>
In some cases an image is included in a published document, but the author is unable to provide an
appropriate text alternative. In such cases the minimum requirement is to provide a caption for the
image using the figure and figcaption elements under the following conditions:
The <figcaption> element contains content other than inter-element white space
Ignoring the <figcaption> element and its descendants, the figure element has no Text
node descendants other than inter-element white space, and no embedded content descendant
other than the <img> element.
NOTE:
In other words, the only content of the figure is an <img> element and a figcaption element,
and the <figcaption> element must include (caption) content.
NOTE:
Such cases are to be kept to an absolute minimum. If there is even the slightest possibility of
the author having the ability to provide real alternative text, then it would not be acceptable to
omit the alt attribute.
EXAMPLE 397
In this example, a person uploads a photo, as part of a bulk upload of many images, to a photo
sharing site. The user has not provided a text alternative or a caption for the image. The sites
authoring tool inserts a caption automatically using whatever useful information it has for the
image. In this case its the file name and date the photo was taken.
Warning! The caption text in the example below is not a suitable text alternative
and is not conforming to the Web Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. [WCAG20]
<figure>
<img src="clara.jpg">
<figcaption>clara.jpg, taken on 12/11/2010.</figcaption>
</figure>
Notice that even in this example, as much useful information as possible is still included in the
<figcaption> element.
EXAMPLE 398
In this second example, a person uploads a photo to a photo sharing site. She has provided a
caption for the image but not a text alternative. This may be because the site does not provide
users with the ability to add a text alternative in the alt attribute.
<figure>
<img src="elo.jpg">
<figcaption>Eloisa with Princess Belle</figcaption>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 399
Sometimes the entire point of the image is that a textual description is not available, and the
user is to provide the description. For example, software that displays images and asks for al-
ternative text precisely for the purpose of then writing a page with correct alternative text.
Such a page could have a table of images, like this:
<table>
<tr><tr> <th> Image <th> Description<tr>
<td>
<figure>
<img src="2421.png">
<figcaption>Image 640 by 100, filename 'banner.gif'</figcaption>
</figure>
<td> <input name="alt2421">
<tr>
<td> <figure>
<img src="2422.png">
<figcaption>Image 200 by 480, filename 'ad3.gif'</figcaption>
</figure>
<td> <input name="alt2422">
</table>
NOTE:
Since some users cannot use images at all (e.g., because they are blind) the alt attribute is
only allowed to be omitted when no text alternative is available and none can be made avail-
able, as in the above examples.
Generally authors should avoid using <img> elements for purposes other than showing images.
If an <img> element is being used for purposes other than showing an image, e.g., as part of a ser-
vice to count page views, use an empty alt attribute.
EXAMPLE 400
An example of an <img> element used to collect web page statistics. The alt attribute is empty
as the image has no meaning.
NOTE:
It is recommended for the example use above the width and height attributes be set to zero.
EXAMPLE 401
Another example use is when an image such as a spacer.gif is used to aid positioning of con-
tent. The alt attribute is empty as the image has no meaning.
NOTE:
It is recommended that CSS be used to position content instead of <img> elements.
An icon is usually a simple picture representing a program, action, data file or a concept. Icons are
intended to help users of visual browsers to recognize features at a glance.
Use an empty alt attribute when an icon is supplemental to text conveying the same meaning.
EXAMPLE 402
In this example, we have a link pointing to a sites home page, the link contains a house icon
image and the text "home". The image has an empty alt text.
Where images are used in this way, it would also be appropriate to add the image using CSS.
#home:before
{
content: url(home.png);
}
EXAMPLE 403
In this example, there is a warning message, with a warning icon. The word "Warning!" is in
emphasized text next to the icon. As the information conveyed by the icon is redundant the
<img> element is given an empty alt attribute.
When an icon conveys additional information not available in text, provide a text alternative.
EXAMPLE 404
In this example, there is a warning message, with a warning icon. The icon emphasizes the im-
portance of the message and identifies it as a particular type of content.
Many pages include logos, insignia, flags, or emblems, which stand for a company, organization,
project, band, software package, country, or other entity. What can be considered as an appropriate
text alternative depends upon, like all images, the context in which the image is being used and
what function it serves in the given context.
If a logo is the sole content of a link, provide a brief description of the link target in the alt at-
tribute.
EXAMPLE 405
This example illustrates the use of the HTML5 logo as the sole content of a link to the HTML
specification.
<a href="https://w3c.github.io/html/">
<img src="HTML5_Logo.png" alt="HTML 5.1 specification"></a>
If a logo is being used to represent the entity, e.g., as a page heading, provide the name of the en-
tity being represented by the logo as the text alternative.
EXAMPLE 406
This example illustrates the use of the WebPlatform.org logo being used to represent itself.
NOTE:
The text alternative in the example above could also include the word "logo" to describe
the type of image content. If so, it is suggested that square brackets be used to delineate
this information: alt="[logo] WebPlatform.org".
If a logo is being used next to the name of the what that it represents, then the logo is supplemen-
tal. Include an empty alt attribute as the text alternative is already provided.
EXAMPLE 407
This example illustrates the use of a logo next to the name of the organization it represents.
WebPlatform.org
If the logo is used alongside text discussing the subject or entity the logo represents, then provide a
text alternative which describes the logo.
EXAMPLE 408
This example illustrates the use of a logo next to text discussing the subject the logo repre-
sents.
CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans
Apart". CAPTCHA images are used for security purposes to confirm that content is being accessed
by a person rather than a computer. This authentication is done through visual verification of an
image. CAPTCHA typically presents an image with characters or words in it that the user is to re-
type. The image is usually distorted and has some noise applied to it to make the characters diffi-
cult to read.
To improve the accessibility of CAPTCHA provide text alternatives that identify and describe the
purpose of the image, and provide alternative forms of the CAPTCHA using output modes for dif-
ferent types of sensory perception. For instance provide an audio alternative along with the visual
image. Place the audio option right next to the visual one. This helps but is still problematic for
people without sound cards, the deaf-blind, and some people with limited hearing. Another method
is to include a form that asks a question along with the visual image. This helps but can be prob-
lematic for people with cognitive impairments.
NOTE:
It is strongly recommended that alternatives to CAPTCHA be used, as all forms of CAPTCHA
introduce unacceptable barriers to entry for users with disabilities. Further information is avail-
able in Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA.
EXAMPLE 409
This example shows a CAPTCHA test which uses a distorted image of text. The text alterna-
tive in the alt attribute provides instructions for a user in the case where she cannot access the
image content.
Example code:
The <picture> element and any <source> elements it contains have no semantics for users, only
the <img> element or its text alternative is displayed to users. Provide a text alternative for an <img>
element without regard to it being within a <picture> element. Refer to Requirements for provid-
ing text to act as an alternative for images for more information on how to provide useful alt text
for images.
NOTE:
Art directed images that rely on picture need to depict the same content (irrespective of size,
pixel density, or any other discriminating factor). Therefore the appropriate text alternative for
an image will always be the same irrespective of which source file ends up being chosen by the
browser.
EXAMPLE 410
<h2>Is it a ghost?</h2>
<picture>
<source media="(min-width: 32em)" srcset="large.jpg">
<img src="small.jpg" alt="Reflection of a girls face in a train
window.">
</picture>
The large and small versions (both versions are displayed for demonstration purposes) of the
image portray the same scene: Reflection of a girls face in a train window, while the small ver-
sion (displayed on smaller screens) is cropped, this does not effect the subject matter or the ap-
propriateness of the alt text.
Markup generators (such as WYSIWYG authoring tools) should, wherever possible, obtain alter-
native text from their users. However, it is recognized that in many cases, this will not be possible.
For images that are the sole contents of links, markup generators should examine the link target to
determine the title of the target, or the URL of the target, and use information obtained in this
manner as the alternative text.
For images that have captions, markup generators should use the <figure> and <figcaption> ele-
ments to provide the images caption.
As a last resort, implementors should either set the alt attribute to the empty string, under the as-
sumption that the image is a purely decorative image that doesnt add any information but is still
specific to the surrounding content, or omit the alt attribute altogether, under the assumption that
the image is a key part of the content.
NOTE:
This is intended to avoid markup generators from being pressured into replacing the error of
omitting the alt attribute with the even more egregious error of providing phony text alterna-
tives, because state-of-the-art automated conformance checkers cannot distinguish phony text
alternatives from correct text alternatives.
Markup generators should generally avoid using the images own file name as the text alternative.
Similarly, markup generators should avoid generating text alternatives from any content that will
be equally available to presentation user agents (e.g., Web browsers).
NOTE:
This is because once a page is generated, it will typically not be updated, whereas the browsers
that later read the page can be updated by the user, therefore the browser is likely to have more
up-to-date and finely-tuned heuristics than the markup generator did when generating the page.
A conformance checker must report the lack of an alt attribute as an error unless one of the condi-
tions listed below applies:
The <img> element is in a <figure> element that satisfies the conditions described above.
The src attribute gives the address of a page that the nested browsing context is to contain. The at-
tribute, if present, must be a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
The srcdoc attribute gives the content of the page that the nested browsing context is to contain.
The value of the attribute is the source of an iframe srcdoc document.
The srcdoc attribute, if present, must have a value using the HTML syntax that consists of the fol-
lowing syntactic components, in the given order:
2. Optionally, a DOCTYPE.
For <iframe> elements in XML documents, the srcdoc attribute, if present, must have a value that
matches the production labeled document in the XML specification. [XML]
EXAMPLE 411
Here a blog uses the srcdoc attribute in conjunction with the sandbox attributes described be-
low to provide users of user agents that support this feature with an extra layer of protection
from script injection in the blog post comments:
<article>
<h1>I got my own magazine!</h1>
<p>After much effort, Ive finally found a publisher, and so now I
have my own magazine! Isnt that awesome?! The first issue will come
out in September, and we have articles about getting food, and about
getting in boxes, its going to be great!</p>
<footer>
<p>Written by <a href="/users/cap">cap</a>, 1 hour ago.
</footer>
<article>
<footer> Thirteen minutes ago, <a href="/users/ch">ch</a> wrote:
</footer>
<iframe sandbox srcdoc="<p>did you get a cover picture yet?"></iframe>
</article>
<article>
<footer> Nine minutes ago, <a href="/users/cap">cap</a> wrote:
</footer>
<iframe sandbox srcdoc="<p>Yeah, you can see it <a href=&
quot;/gallery?mode=cover&amp;page=1">in my gallery</a>.">
</iframe>
</article>
<article>
<footer> Five minutes ago, <a href="/users/ch">ch</a> wrote: </footer>
<iframe sandbox srcdoc="<p>hey thats earls table.
<p>you should get earl&amp;me on the next cover."></iframe>
</article>
Notice the way that quotes have to be escaped (otherwise the srcdoc attribute would end pre-
maturely), and the way raw ampersands (e.g., in URLs or in prose) mentioned in the sand-
boxed content have to be doubly escaped once so that the ampersand is preserved when
originally parsing the srcdoc attribute, and once more to prevent the ampersand from being
misinterpreted when parsing the sandboxed content.
Furthermore, notice that since the DOCTYPE is optional in iframe srcdoc documents, and
the <html>, <head>, and <body> elements have optional start and end tags, and the <title> ele-
ment is also optional in iframe srcdoc documents, the markup in a srcdoc attribute can be
relatively succinct despite representing an entire document, since only the contents of the
<body> element need appear literally in the syntax. The other elements are still present, but
only by implication.
NOTE:
In the HTML syntax, authors need only remember to use U+0022 QUOTATION MARK char-
acters (") to wrap the attribute contents and then to escape all U+0026 AMPERSAND (&) and
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (") characters, and to specify the sandbox attribute, to ensure
safe embedding of content.
NOTE:
Due to restrictions of the XHTML syntax, in XML the U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character
(<) needs to be escaped as well. In order to prevent attribute-value normalization, some of
XMLs white space characters specifically U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab),
U+000A LINE FEED (LF), and U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) also need to be es-
caped. [XML]
NOTE:
If the src attribute and the srcdoc attribute are both specified together, the srcdoc attribute
takes priority. This allows authors to provide a fallback URL for legacy user agents that do not
support the srcdoc attribute.
When an <iframe> element is inserted into a document that has a browsing context, the user agent
must create a nested browsing context, and then process the iframe attributes for the "first time".
When an <iframe> element is removed from a document, the user agent must discard the nested
browsing context, if any.
NOTE:
This happens without any unload events firing (the nested browsing context and its
Document are discarded, not unloaded).
Whenever an <iframe> element with a nested browsing context has its srcdoc attribute set,
changed, or removed, the user agent must process the iframe attributes.
Similarly, whenever an <iframe> element with a nested browsing context but with no srcdoc at-
tribute specified has its src attribute set, changed, or removed, the user agent must process the
iframe attributes.
When the user agent is to process the iframe attributes, it must run the first appropriate steps
from the following list:
Navigate the elements child browsing context to a new response whose url list consists
of about:srcdoc, header list consists of Content-Type/text/html, body is the value of
the attribute, CSP list is the CSP list of the <iframe> elements node document, and
HTTPS state is the HTTPS state of the <iframe> elements node document.
Otherwise, if the element has no src attribute specified, and the user agent is processing
the iframes attributes for the "first time"
Queue a task to run the iframe load event steps.
The task source for this task is the DOM manipulation task source.
Otherwise
Run the otherwise steps for iframe or frame elements.
1: If the element has no src attribute specified, or its value is the empty string, let url be the URL
"about:blank".
Otherwise, parse the value of the src attribute, relative to the elements node document.
If that is not successful, then let url be the URL "about:blank". Otherwise, let url be the result-
ing URL record.
2. If there exists an ancestor browsing context whose active documents URL, ignoring frag-
ments, is equal to url , then abort these steps.
3. Let resource be a new request whose url is URL and whose referrer policy is the current
state of the elements referrerpolicy content attribute.
Furthermore, if the active document of the elements child browsing context before such a naviga-
tion was not completely loaded at the time of the new navigation, then the navigation must be
completed with replacement enabled.
Similarly, if the child browsing contexts session history contained only one Document when the
process the iframe attributes algorithm was invoked, and that was the about:blank Document
created when the child browsing context was created, then any navigation required of the user
agent in that algorithm must be completed with replacement enabled.
When a Document in an iframe is marked as completely loaded, the user agent must run the
iframe load event steps in parallel.
NOTE:
A load event is also fired at the <iframe> element when it is created if no other data is loaded
in it.
Each Document has an iframe load in progress flag and a mute iframe load flag. When a
Document is created, these flags must be unset for that Document.
1. Let child document be the active document of the <iframe> elements nested browsing con-
text.
2. If child document has its mute iframe load flag set, abort these steps.
Warning! This, in conjunction with scripting, can be used to probe the URL space of
the local networks HTTP servers. User agents may implement cross-origin access con-
trol policies that are stricter than those described above to mitigate this attack, but un-
fortunately such policies are typically not compatible with existing Web content.
When the iframes browsing contexts active document is not ready for post-load tasks, and when
anything in the iframe is delaying the load event of the iframes browsing contexts active docu-
ment, and when the iframes browsing context is in the delaying load events mode, the iframe
must delay the load event of its document.
NOTE:
If, during the handling of the load event, the browsing context in the iframe is again navi-
gated, that will further delay the load event.
NOTE:
If, when the element is created, the srcdoc attribute is not set, and the src attribute is either
also not set or set but its value cannot be parsed, the browsing context will remain at the initial
about:blank page.
NOTE:
If the user navigates away from this page, the iframes corresponding WindowProxy object
will proxy new Window objects for new Document objects, but the src attribute will not
change.
The name attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name. The given value is used to
name the nested browsing context. When the browsing context is created, if the attribute is present,
the browsing context name must be set to the value of this attribute; otherwise, the browsing con-
text name must be set to the empty string.
Whenever the name attribute is set, the nested browsing contexts name must be changed to the
new value. If the attribute is removed, the browsing context name must be set to the empty string.
The sandbox attribute, when specified, enables a set of extra restrictions on any content hosted by
the <iframe>. Its value must be an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are ASCII
case-insensitive. The allowed values are allow-forms, allow-pointer-lock, allow-popups,
allow-presentation, allow-same-origin, allow-scripts, and allow-top-navigation.
When the attribute is set, the content is treated as being from a unique origin, forms, scripts, and
various potentially annoying APIs are disabled, links are prevented from targeting other browsing
contexts, and plugins are secured. The allow-same-origin keyword causes the content to be
treated as being from its real origin instead of forcing it into a unique origin; the allow-top-
navigation keyword allows the content to navigate its top-level browsing context; and the
allow-forms, allow-pointer-lock, allow-popups, allow-presentation and allow-scripts
keywords re-enable forms, the pointer lock API, popups, the presentation API, and scripts respec-
tively. [POINTERLOCK] [PRESENTATION-API]
Warning! These flags only take effect when the nested browsing context of the
iframe is navigated. Removing them, or removing the entire sandbox attribute, has no
Warning! Potentially hostile files should not be served from the same server as the
file containing the <iframe> element. Sandboxing hostile content is of minimal help if
an attacker can convince the user to just visit the hostile content directly, rather than in
the <iframe>. To limit the damage that can be caused by hostile HTML content, it
should be served from a separate dedicated domain. Using a different domain ensures
that scripts in the files are unable to attack the site, even if the user is tricked into visit-
ing those pages directly, without the protection of the sandbox attribute.
When an <iframe> element with a sandbox attribute has its nested browsing context created (be-
fore the initial about:blank Document is created), and when an iframe elements sandbox at-
tribute is set or changed while it has a nested browsing context, the user agent must parse the sand-
boxing directive using the attributes value as the input , the <iframe> elements nested browsing
contexts <iframe> sandboxing flag set as the output, and, if the iframe has an allowfullscreen
attribute, the allow fullscreen flag .
When an <iframe> elements sandbox attribute is removed while it has a nested browsing context,
the user agent must empty the <iframe> elements nested browsing contexts <iframe> sandboxing
flag set as the output.
EXAMPLE 412
In this example, some completely-unknown, potentially hostile, user-provided HTML content
is embedded in a page. Because it is served from a separate domain, it is affected by all the
normal cross-site restrictions. In addition, the embedded page has scripting disabled, plugins
disabled, forms disabled, and it cannot navigate any frames or windows other than itself (or
any frames or windows it itself embeds).
EXAMPLE 413
In this example, a gadget from another site is embedded. The gadget has scripting and forms
enabled, and the origin sandbox restrictions are lifted, allowing the gadget to communicate
with its originating server. The sandbox is still useful, however, as it disables plugins and pop-
ups, thus reducing the risk of the user being exposed to malware and other annoyances.
EXAMPLE 414
Suppose a file A contained the following fragment:
<a href=D>Link</a>
For this example, suppose all the files were served as text/html.
Page C in this scenario has all the sandboxing flags set. Scripts are disabled, because the
iframe in A has scripts disabled, and this overrides the allow-scripts keyword set on the
iframe in B. Forms are also disabled, because the inner iframe (in B) does not have the
allow-forms keyword set.
Suppose now that a script in A removes all the sandbox attributes in A and B. This would
change nothing immediately. If the user clicked the link in C, loading page D into the iframe
in B, page D would now act as if the iframe in B had the allow-same-origin and allow-
forms keywords set, because that was the state of the nested browsing context in the iframe in
A when page B was loaded.
The allowfullscreen attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified, it indicates that Document
objects in the <iframe> elements browsing context are to be allowed to use
requestFullscreen() (if its not blocked for other reasons, e.g., there is another ancestor iframe
without this attribute set).
EXAMPLE 415
Here, an iframe is used to embed a player from a video site. The allowfullscreen attribute
is needed to enable the player to show its video fullscreen.
<article>
<header>
<p><img src="/usericons/1627591962735"> <b>Fred Flintstone</b></p>
<p><a href="/posts/3095182851" rel=bookmark>12:44</a> <a href="#acl-
3095182851">Private Post</a></p>
</header>
<main>
<p>Check out my new ride!</p>
<iframe title="Video" src="https://video.example.com/embed?id=92469812"
allowfullscreen></iframe>
</main>
</article>
To determine whether a Document object document is allowed to use the feature indicated by at-
tribute name allowattribute , run these steps:
3. If document s browsing context has a browsing context container that is an <iframe> element
with an allowattribute attribute specified, and whose node document is allowed to use the
feature indicated by allowattribute , then return true.
4. Return false.
The <iframe> element supports dimension attributes for cases where the embedded content has
specific dimensions (e.g., ad units have well-defined dimensions).
An <iframe> element never has fallback content, as it will always create a nested browsing con-
text, regardless of whether the specified initial contents are successfully used.
The referrerpolicy attribute is a referrer policy attribute. Its purpose is to set the referrer policy
used when processing the iframe attributes. [REFERRERPOLICY]
Descendants of <iframe> elements represent nothing. (In legacy user agents that do not support
<iframe> elements, the contents would be parsed as markup that could act as fallback content.)
When used in HTML documents, the allowed content model of <iframe> elements is text, except
that invoking the HTML fragment parsing algorithm with the <iframe> element as the context ele-
ment and the text contents as the input must result in a list of nodes that are all phrasing content,
with no parse errors having occurred, with no script elements being anywhere in the list or as de-
scendants of elements in the list, and with all the elements in the list (including their descendants)
being themselves conforming.
NOTE:
The HTML parser treats markup inside <iframe> elements as text.
The IDL attributes src, srcdoc, name, and sandbox must reflect the respective content attributes
of the same name.
The supported tokens for sandbox's DOMTokenList are the allowed values defined in the
sandbox attribute and supported by the user agent.
The allowFullscreen IDL attribute must reflect the allowfullscreen content attribute.
The allowPaymentRequest IDL attribute must reflect the allowpaymentrequest content at-
tribute.
The referrerPolicy IDL attribute must reflect the referrerpolicy content attribute, limited to
The contentDocument IDL attribute must return the Document object of the active document of
the <iframe> elements nested browsing context, if any and if its origin is the same origin-domain
as the origin specified by the incumbent settings object, or null otherwise.
The contentWindow IDL attribute must return the WindowProxy object of the <iframe> elements
nested browsing context, if any, or null otherwise.
EXAMPLE 416
Here is an example of a page using an iframe to include advertising from an advertising bro-
ker:
Depending on the type of content instantiated by the <embed> element, the node may also
support other interfaces.
The <embed> element provides an integration point for an external (typically non-HTML) applica-
tion or interactive content.
The src attribute gives the address of the resource being embedded. The attribute, if present, must
contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
The type attribute, if present, gives the MIME type by which the plugin to instantiate is selected.
The value must be a valid mime type. If both the type attribute and the src attribute are present,
then the type attribute must specify the same type as the explicit Content-Type metadata of the re-
source given by the src attribute.
While any of the following conditions are occurring, any plugin instantiated for the element must
be removed, and the <embed> element represents nothing:
An <embed> element is said to be potentially active when the following conditions are all met si-
multaneously:
The element is in a Document or was in a Document the last time the event loop reached step
1.
The elements node document is fully active.
The element has either a src attribute set or a type attribute set (or both).
The elements src attribute is either absent or its value is not the empty string.
The element is not a descendant of a media element.
The element is not a descendant of an <object> element that is not showing its fallback con-
tent.
The element is being rendered, or was being rendered the last time the event loop reached
step 1.
Whenever an <embed> element that was not potentially active becomes potentially active, and
whenever a potentially active <embed> element that is remaining potentially active and has its src
attribute set, changed, or removed or its type attribute set, changed, or removed, the user agent
must queue a task using the embed task source to run the embed element setup steps.
1. If another task has since been queued to run the embed element setup steps for this element,
then abort these steps.
1. Let request be a new request whose URL is the resulting URL string, client is
the elements node documents Window objects environment settings object,
destination is "unknown", omit-Origin-header flag is set if the element doesnt
have a browsing context scope origin, credentials mode is "include", and
whose use-URL-credentials flag is set.
2. Fetch request .
The task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been
fetched must run the following steps:
1. If another task has since been queued to run the embed element setup steps for
this element, then abort these steps.
1. If the element has a type attribute, and that attributes value is a type that
a plugin supports, then the value of the type attribute is the contents
type.
2. Otherwise, if applying the URL parser algorithm to the URL of the speci-
fied resource (after any redirects) results in a URL record whose path
component matches a pattern that a plugin supports, then the contents
type is the type that the plugin can handle.
EXAMPLE 417
For example, a plugin might say that it can handle resources with path
components that end with the four character string ".swf".
4. Otherwise, the content has no type and there can be no appropriate plugin
for it.
3. If the previous step determined that the contents type is image/svg+xml, then
run the following substeps:
2. Navigate the nested browsing context to the fetched resource, with re-
placement enabled, and with the <embed> elements node documents
browsing context as the source browsing context. (The src attribute of
the <embed> element doesnt get updated if the browsing context gets fur-
ther navigated to other locations.)
3. The <embed> element now represents its associated nested browsing con-
text.
5. Once the resource or plugin has completely loaded, queue a task to fire a sim-
ple event named load at the element.
Whether the resource is fetched successfully or not (e.g., whether the response sta-
tus was an ok status) must be ignored when determining the contents type and
when handing the resource to the plugin.
NOTE:
This allows servers to return data for plugins even with error responses (e.g.,
HTTP 500 Internal Server Error codes can still contain plugin data).
Fetching the resource must delay the load event of the elements node document.
Once the plugin is completely loaded, queue a task to fire a simple event named
load at the element.
The <embed> element has no fallback content. If the user agent cant find a suitable plugin when at-
tempting to find and instantiate one for the algorithm above, then the user agent must use a default
plugin. This default could be as simple as saying "Unsupported Format".
Whenever an <embed> element that was potentially active stops being potentially active, any plugin
that had been instantiated for that element must be unloaded.
When a plugin is to be instantiated but it cannot be secured and the sandboxed plugins browsing
context flag is set on the <embed> elements node documents active sandboxing flag set, then the
user agent must not instantiate the plugin, and must instead render the <embed> element in a man-
ner that conveys that the plugin was disabled. The user agent may offer the user the option to over-
ride the sandbox and instantiate the plugin anyway; if the user invokes such an option, the user
agent must act as if the conditions above did not apply for the purposes of this element.
Warning! Plugins that cannot be secured are disabled in sandboxed browsing con-
texts because they might not honor the restrictions imposed by the sandbox (e.g., they
might allow scripting even when scripting in the sandbox is disabled). User agents
should convey the danger of overriding the sandbox to the user if an option to do so is
provided.
When an <embed> element represents a nested browsing context: if the <embed> elements nested
browsing contexts active document is not ready for post-load tasks, and when anything is delay-
ing the load event of the <embed> elements browsing contexts active document, and when the
<embed> elements browsing context is in the delaying load events mode, the embed must delay the
load event of its document.
The task source for the tasks mentioned in this section is the DOM manipulation task source.
Any namespace-less attribute other than name, align, hspace, and vspace may be specified on the
<embed> element, so long as its name is XML-compatible and contains no uppercase ASCII letters.
These attributes are then passed as parameters to the plugin.
NOTE:
All attributes in HTML documents get lowercased automatically, so the restriction on upper-
case letters doesnt affect such documents.
NOTE:
The four exceptions are to exclude legacy attributes that have side-effects beyond just sending
parameters to the plugin.
The user agent should pass the names and values of all the attributes of the embed element that
have no namespace to the plugin used, when one is instantiated.
The HTMLEmbedElement object representing the element must expose the scriptable interface of the
plugin instantiated for the <embed> element, if any. At a minimum, this interface must implement
the legacy caller operation. (It is suggested that the default behavior of this legacy caller opera-
tion, e.g., the behavior of the default plugins legacy caller operation, be to throw a
NotSupportedError exception.)
The IDL attributes src and type each must reflect the respective content attributes of the same
name.
EXAMPLE 418
Heres a way to embed a resource that requires a proprietary plugin, like Flash:
<embed src="catgame.swf">
If the user does not have the plugin (for example if the plugin vendor doesnt support the users
platform), then the user will be unable to use the resource.
To pass the plugin a parameter "quality" with the value "high", an attribute can be specified:
This would be equivalent to the following, when using an <object> element instead:
<object data="catgame.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
</object>
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
listed, submittable, and reassociateable form-associated element.
Palpable content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
Zero or more <param> elements, then, transparent.
Tag omission in text/html:
Neither tag is omissible.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
data - Address of the resource
type - Type of embedded resource
typemustmatch - Whether the type attribute and the Content-Type value need to match
for the resource to be used
name - Name of nested browsing context
form - Associates the control with a <form> element
width - Horizontal dimension
height - Vertical dimension
Depending on the type of content instantiated by the <object> element, the node also
supports other interfaces.
The <object> element can represent an external resource, which, depending on the type of the re-
source, will either be treated as an image, as a nested browsing context, or as an external resource
to be processed by a plugin.
The data attribute, if present, specifies the address of the resource. If present, the attribute must be
a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
Warning! Authors who reference resources from other origins that they do not trust
are urged to use the typemustmatch attribute defined below. Without that attribute, it is
possible in certain cases for an attacker on the remote host to use the plugin mechanism
to run arbitrary scripts, even if the author has used features such as the Flash "al-
lowScriptAccess" parameter.
The type attribute, if present, specifies the type of the resource. If present, the attribute must be a
valid mime type.
At least one of either the data attribute or the type attribute must be present.
The typemustmatch attribute is a boolean attribute whose presence indicates that the resource
specified by the data attribute is only to be used if the value of the type attribute and the Content-
Type of the aforementioned resource match.
The typemustmatch attribute must not be specified unless both the data attribute and the type at-
tribute are present.
The name attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name. The given value is used to
name the nested browsing context, if applicable.
the element is popped off the stack of open elements of an HTML parser or XML parser,
the element is not on the stack of open elements of an HTML parser or XML parser, and it is
either inserted into a document or removed from a document,
one of the elements ancestor <object> elements changes to or from showing its fallback con-
tent,
the elements classid attribute is not present, and its data attribute is set, changed, or re-
moved,
neither the elements classid attribute nor its data attribute are present, and its type at-
tribute is set, changed, or removed,
the element changes from being rendered to not being rendered, or vice versa,
...the user agent must queue a task to run the following steps to (re)determine what the <object> el-
ement represents. This task being queued or actively running must delay the load event of the ele-
ments node document.
1. If the user has indicated a preference that this <object> elements fallback content be shown
instead of the elements usual behavior, then jump to the step below labeled fallback.
NOTE:
For example, a user could ask for the elements fallback content to be shown because that
content uses a format that the user finds more accessible.
2. If the element has an ancestor media element, or has an ancestor <object> element that is not
showing its fallback content, or if the element is not in a Document with a browsing context,
or if the elements node document is not fully active, or if the element is still in the stack of
open elements of an HTML parser or XML parser, or if the element is not being rendered, or
if the Should element be blocked a priori by Content Security Policy? algorithm returns
"Blocked" when executed on the element, then jump to the step below labeled fallback.
[CSP3].
3. If the classid attribute is present, and has a value that isnt the empty string, then: if the user
agent can find a plugin suitable according to the value of the classid attribute, and either
plugins arent being sandboxed or that plugin can be secured, then that plugin should be used,
and the value of the data attribute, if any, should be passed to the plugin. If no suitable plugin
can be found, or if the plugin reports an error, jump to the step below labeled fallback.
4. If the data attribute is present and its value is not the empty string, then:
1. If the type attribute is present and its value is not a type that the user agent supports, and
is not a type that the user agent can find a plugin for, then the user agent may jump to the
step below labeled fallback without fetching the content to examine its real type.
2. Parse the URL specified by the data attribute, relative to the element.
3. If that failed, fire a simple event named error at the element, then jump to the step be-
low labeled fallback.
4. Let request be a new request whose URL is the resulting URL string, client is the ele-
ments node documents Window objects environment settings object, destination is
"unknown", omit-Origin-header flag is set if the element doesnt have a browsing con-
text scope origin, credentials mode is "include", and whose use-URL-credentials flag is
set.
5. Fetch request .
Fetching the resource must delay the load event of the elements node document until the
task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched
(defined next) has been run.
6. If the resource is not yet available (e.g., because the resource was not available in the
cache, so that loading the resource required making a request over the network), then
jump to the step below labeled fallback. The task that is queued by the networking task
source once the resource is available must restart this algorithm from this step. Re-
sources can load incrementally; user agents may opt to consider a resource "available"
whenever enough data has been obtained to begin processing the resource.
7. If the load failed (e.g., there was an HTTP 404 error, there was a DNS error), fire a sim-
ple event named error at the element, then jump to the step below labeled fallback.
8. Determine the resource type , as follows:
2. If the <object> element has a type attribute and a typemustmatch attribute, and the
resource has associated Content-Type metadata, and the type specified in the re-
sources Content-Type metadata is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the value of
the elements type attribute, then let resource type be that type and jump to the
step below labeled handler.
3. If the <object> element has a typemustmatch attribute, jump to the step below la-
beled handler.
4. If the user agent is configured to strictly obey Content-Type headers for this re-
source, and the resource has associated Content-Type metadata, then let the re-
source type be the type specified in the resources Content-Type metadata, and
jump to the step below labeled handler.
5. If there is a type attribute present on the <object> element, and that attributes
value is not a type that the user agent supports, but it is a type that a plugin sup-
ports, then let the resource type be the type specified in that type attribute, and
jump to the step below labeled handler.
4. If binary is false, then let the resource type be the type specified in
the resources Content-Type metadata, and jump to the step below
labeled handler.
steps:
7. If applying the URL parser algorithm to the URL of the specified resource (after
any redirects) results in a URL record whose path component matches a pattern that
a plugin supports, then let resource type be the type that the plugin can handle.
EXAMPLE 419
For example, a plugin might say that it can handle resources with path compo-
nents that end with the four character string ".swf".
NOTE:
It is possible for this step to finish, or for one of the substeps above to jump straight
to the next step, with resource type still being unknown. In both cases, the next step
will trigger fallback.
9. Handler: Handle the content as given by the first of the following cases that matches:
If the resource type is not a type that the user agent supports, but it is a type
that a plugin supports
If plugins are being sandboxed and the plugin that supports resource type can-
not be secured, jump to the step below labeled fallback.
Otherwise, the user agent should use the plugin that supports resource type
and pass the content of the resource to that plugin. If the plugin reports an er-
ror, then jump to the step below labeled fallback.
If the resource type is an XML MIME type, or if the resource type does not
start with "image/"
The <object> element must be associated with a newly created nested brows-
ing context, if it does not already have one.
If the URL of the given resource is not about:blank, the elements nested
browsing context must then be navigated to that resource, with replacement
enabled, and with the <object> elements node documents browsing context
as the source browsing context. (The data attribute of the <object> element
doesnt get updated if the browsing context gets further navigated to other lo-
cations.)
If the URL of the given resource is about:blank, then, instead, the user agent
must queue a task to fire a simple event named load at the <object> element.
No load event is fired at the about:blank document itself.
If the name attribute is present, the browsing context name must be set to the
value of this attribute; otherwise, the browsing context name must be set to the
empty string.
If the resource type starts with "image/", and support for images has not been
disabled
Apply the image sniffing rules to determine the type of the image.
The <object> element represents the specified image. The image is not a
nested browsing context.
Otherwise
The given resource type is not supported. Jump to the step below labeled fall-
back.
NOTE:
If the previous step ended with the resource type being unknown, this is
the case that is triggered.
10. The elements contents are not part of what the <object> element represents.
11. Abort these steps. Once the resource is completely loaded, queue a task to fire a simple
event named load at the element.
5. If the data attribute is absent but the type attribute is present, and the user agent can find a
plugin suitable according to the value of the type attribute, and either plugins arent being
sandboxed or the plugin can be secured, then that plugin should be used. If these conditions
cannot be met, or if the plugin reports an error, jump to the step below labeled fallback. Oth-
erwise abort these steps; once the plugin is completely loaded, queue a task to fire a simple
event named load at the element.
6. Fallback: The <object> element represents the elements children, ignoring any leading
<param> element children. This is the elements fallback content. If the element has an instan-
tiated plugin, then unload it.
When the algorithm above instantiates a plugin, the user agent should pass to the plugin used the
names and values of all the attributes on the element, in the order they were added to the element,
with the attributes added by the parser being ordered in source order, followed by a parameter
named "PARAM" whose value is null, followed by all the names and values of parameters given
by <param> elements that are children of the <object> element, in tree order. If the plugin supports
a scriptable interface, the HTMLObjectElement object representing the element should expose that
interface. The <object> element represents the plugin. The plugin is not a nested browsing context.
Plugins are considered sandboxed for the purpose of an <object> element if the sandboxed plugins
browsing context flag is set on the <object> elements node documents active sandboxing flag set.
Due to the algorithm above, the contents of <object> elements act as fallback content, used only
when referenced resources cant be shown (e.g., because it returned a 404 error). This allows mul-
tiple <object> elements to be nested inside each other, targeting multiple user agents with different
capabilities, with the user agent picking the first one it supports.
When an <object> element represents a nested browsing context: if the <object> elements nested
browsing contexts active document is not ready for post-load tasks, and when anything is delay-
ing the load event of the <object> elements browsing contexts active document, and when the
<object> elements browsing context is in the delaying load events mode, the object must delay
the load event of its document.
The task source for the tasks mentioned in this section is the DOM manipulation task source.
Whenever the name attribute is set, if the <object> element has a nested browsing context, its name
must be changed to the new value. If the attribute is removed, if the <object> element has a brows-
ing context, the browsing context name must be set to the empty string.
The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the <object> element with its form owner.
Constraint validation: <object> elements are always barred from constraint validation.
The IDL attributes data, type and name each must reflect the respective content attributes of the
same name. The typeMustMatch IDL attribute must reflect the typemustmatch content attribute.
The contentDocument IDL attribute must return the Document object of the active document of
the <object> elements nested browsing context, if any and if its origin is the same origin-domain
as the origin specified by the incumbent settings object, or null otherwise.
The contentWindow IDL attribute must return the WindowProxy object of the <object> elements
nested browsing context, if it has one; otherwise, it must return null.
All <object> elements have a legacy caller operation. If the <object> element has an instantiated
plugin that supports a scriptable interface that defines a legacy caller operation, then that must be
the behavior of the objects legacy caller operation. Otherwise, the objects legacy caller operation
must be to throw a NotSupportedError exception.
EXAMPLE 420
In the following example, a Java applet is embedded in a page using the object element.
(Generally speaking, it is better to avoid using applets like these and instead use native
JavaScript and HTML to provide the functionality, since that way the application will work on
all Web browsers without requiring a third-party plugin. Many devices, especially embedded
devices, do not support third-party technologies like Java.)
<figure>
<object type="application/x-java-applet">
<param name="code" value="MyJavaClass">
<p>You do not have Java available, or it is disabled.</p>
</object>
<figcaption>My Java Clock</figcaption>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 421
In this example, an HTML page is embedded in another using the object element.
<figure>
<object data="clock.html"></object>
<figcaption>My HTML Clock</figcaption>
</figure>
EXAMPLE 422
The following example shows how a plugin can be used in HTML (in this case the Flash
plugin, to show a video file). Fallback is provided for users who do not have Flash enabled, in
this case using the <video> element to show the video for those using user agents that support
<video>,and finally providing a link to the video for those who have neither Flash nor a
video-capable browser.
<p>Look at my video:
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
<param name=movie value="https://video.example.com/library/watch.swf">
<param name=allowfullscreen value=true>
<param name=flashvars value="https://video.example.com/vids/315981">
<video controls src="https://video.example.com/vids/315981">
<a href="https://video.example.com/vids/315981">View video</a>.
</video>
</object>
</p>
The <param> element defines parameters for plugins invoked by object elements. It does not rep-
resent anything on its own.
If both attributes are present, and if the parent element of the param is an <object> element, then
the element defines a parameter with the given name-value pair.
If either the name or value of a parameter defined by a <param> element that is the child of an
<object> element that represents an instantiated plugin changes, and if that plugin is communicat-
ing with the user agent using an API that features the ability to update the plugin when the name or
value of a parameter so changes, then the user agent must appropriately exercise that ability to no-
tify the plugin of the change.
The IDL attributes name and value must both reflect the respective content attributes of the same
name.
EXAMPLE 423
The following example shows how the <param> element can be used to pass a parameter to a
plugin, in this case the O3D plugin.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>O3D Utah Teapot</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>
<object type="application/vnd.o3d.auto">
<param name="o3d_features" value="FloatingPointTextures">
<img src="o3d-teapot.png"
title="3D Utah Teapot illustration rendered using O3D."
alt="When O3D renders the Utah Teapot, it appears as a squat
teapot with a shiny metallic finish on which the
surroundings are reflected, with a faint shadow caused by
the lighting.">
<p>To see the teapot actually rendered by O3D on your
computer, please download and install the <a
href="https://code.google.com/apis/o3d
/docs/gettingstarted.html#install">O3D plugin</a>.</p>
</object>
<script src="o3d-teapot.js"></script>
</p>
</body>
</html>
If the element has a src attribute: zero or more <track> elements, then transparent, but
with no media element descendants.
If the element does not have a src attribute: zero or more <source> elements, then zero
or more <track> elements, then transparent, but with no media element descendants.
Tag omission in text/html:
Neither tag is omissible
Content attributes:
Global attributes
src - Address of the resource
crossorigin - How the element handles crossorigin requests
poster - Poster frame to show prior to video playback
preload - Hints how much buffering the media resource will likely need
autoplay - Hint that the media resource can be started automatically when the page is
loaded
loop - Whether to loop the media resource
muted - Whether to mute the media resource by default
controls - Show user agent controls
width - Horizontal dimension
height - Vertical dimension
A <video> element is used for playing videos or movies, and audio files with captions.
Content may be provided inside the <video> element. User agents should not show this content to
the user; it is intended for older Web browsers which do not support <video>, so that legacy video
plugins can be tried, or to show text to the users of these older browsers informing them of how to
access the video contents.
NOTE:
In particular, this content is not intended to address accessibility concerns. To make video con-
tent accessible to people with disabilities, a variety of features are available. Captions and sign
language tracks can be embedded in the video stream, or as external files using the <track> el-
ement. Audio descriptions can be provided, either as a separate track embedded in the video
stream, or by referencing a WebVTT file with the <track> element that the user agent can
present as synthesized speech. WebVTT can also be used to provide chapter titles. For users
who would rather not use a media element at all, transcripts or other textual alternatives can be
provided by simply linking to them in the prose near the <video> element. [WEBVTT]
The <video> element is a media element whose media data is ostensibly video data, possibly with
associated audio data.
The src, preload, autoplay, loop, muted, and controls attributes are the attributes common to
all media elements.
The poster content attribute gives the address of an image file that the user agent can show while
no video data is available. The attribute, if present, must contain a valid non-empty URL poten-
tially surrounded by spaces.
If the specified resource is to be used, then, when the element is created or when the poster at-
tribute is set, changed, or removed, the user agent must run the following steps to determine the el-
ements poster frame (regardless of the value of the elements show poster flag):
1. If there is an existing instance of this algorithm running for this video element, abort that in-
stance of this algorithm without changing the poster frame.
2. If the poster attributes value is the empty string or if the attribute is absent, then there is no
poster frame; abort these steps.
3. Parse the poster attributes value relative to the element. If this fails, then there is no poster
frame; abort these steps.
4. Let request be a new request whose URL is the resulting URL string, client is the elements
node documents Window objects environment settings object, type is "image", destination is
"subresource", credentials mode is "include", and whose use-URL-credentials flag is set.
5. Fetch request . This must delay the load event of the elements node document.
6. If an image is thus obtained, the poster frame is that image. Otherwise, there is no poster
frame.
NOTE:
The image given by the poster attribute, the poster frame, is intended to be a representative
frame of the video (typically one of the first non-blank frames) that gives the user an idea of
what the video is like.
A <video> element represents what is given for the first matching condition in the list below:
When the <video> element is paused, the current playback position is the first frame of
video, and the elements show poster flag is set
The <video> element represents its poster frame, if any, or else the first frame of the
video.
When the <video> element is paused, and the frame of video corresponding to the
current playback position is not available (e.g., because the video is seeking or
buffering)
When the <video> element is neither potentially playing nor paused (e.g., when seeking
or stalled)
The <video> element represents the last frame of the video to have been rendered.
Otherwise (the <video> element has a video channel and is potentially playing)
The <video> element represents the frame of video at the continuously increasing "cur-
rent" position. When the current playback position changes such that the last frame ren-
dered is no longer the frame corresponding to the current playback position in the video,
the new frame must be rendered.
Frames of video must be obtained from the video track that was selected when the event loop last
reached step 1.
NOTE:
Which frame in a video stream corresponds to a particular playback position is defined by the
video streams format.
The <video> element also represents any text track cues whose text track cue active flag is set and
whose text track is in the showing mode, and any audio from the media resource, at the current
playback position.
Any audio associated with the media resource must, if played, be played synchronized with the
current playback position, at the elements effective media volume. The user agent must play the
audio from audio tracks that were enabled when the event loop last reached step 1.
In addition to the above, the user agent may provide messages to the user (such as "buffering", "no
video loaded", "error", or more detailed information) by overlaying text or icons on the video or
other areas of the elements playback area, or in another appropriate manner.
User agents that cannot render the video may instead make the element represent a link to an ex-
ternal video playback utility or to the video data itself.
When a <video> elements media resource has a video channel, the element provides a paint source
whose width is the media resources intrinsic width, whose height is the media resources intrinsic
height, and whose appearance is the frame of video corresponding to the current playback position,
if that is available, or else (e.g., when the video is seeking or buffering) its previous appearance, if
any, or else (e.g., because the video is still loading the first frame) blackness.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
video . videoWidth
video . videoHeight
These attributes return the intrinsic dimensions of the video, or zero if the dimensions
are not known.
The intrinsic width and intrinsic height of the media resource are the dimensions of the resource
in CSS pixels after taking into account the resources dimensions, aspect ratio, clean aperture, res-
olution, and so forth, as defined for the format used by the resource. If an anamorphic format does
not define how to apply the aspect ratio to the video datas dimensions to obtain the "correct" di-
mensions, then the user agent must apply the ratio by increasing one dimension and leaving the
other unchanged.
The videoWidth IDL attribute must return the intrinsic width of the video in CSS pixels. The
videoHeight IDL attribute must return the intrinsic height of the video in CSS pixels. If the ele-
ments readyState attribute is HAVE_NOTHING, then the attributes must return 0.
Whenever the intrinsic width or intrinsic height of the video changes (including, for example, be-
cause the selected video track was changed), if the elements readyState attribute is not
HAVE_NOTHING, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named resize at the media
element.
In the absence of style rules to the contrary, video content should be rendered inside the elements
playback area such that the video content is shown centered in the playback area at the largest pos-
sible size that fits completely within it, with the video contents aspect ratio being preserved. Thus,
if the aspect ratio of the playback area does not match the aspect ratio of the video, the video will
be shown letterboxed or pillarboxed. Areas of the elements playback area that do not contain the
video represent nothing.
NOTE:
In user agents that implement CSS, the above requirement can be implemented by using the
style rule suggested in 10 Rendering.
The intrinsic width of a <video> elements playback area is the intrinsic width of the poster frame,
if that is available and the element currently represents its poster frame; otherwise, it is the intrin-
sic width of the video resource, if that is available; otherwise the intrinsic width is missing.
The intrinsic height of a <video> elements playback area is the intrinsic height of the poster frame,
if that is available and the element currently represents its poster frame; otherwise it is the intrinsic
height of the video resource, if that is available; otherwise the intrinsic height is missing.
The default object size is a width of 300 CSS pixels and a height of 150 CSS pixels.
[CSS3-IMAGES]
User agents should provide controls to enable or disable the display of closed captions, audio
description tracks, and other additional data associated with the video stream, though such features
should, again, not interfere with the pages normal rendering.
User agents may allow users to view the video content in manners more suitable to the user (e.g.,
fullscreen or in an independent resizable window). Captions, subtitles or other additional visual
tracks should remain available and visible when enabled. As for the other user interface features,
controls to enable this should not interfere with the pages normal rendering unless the user agent
is exposing a user interface. As for the other user interface features, controls to enable this should
not interfere with the pages normal rendering unless the user agent is exposing a user interface. In
such an independent context, however, user agents may make full user interfaces visible e.g., play,
pause, seeking, and volume controls even if the controls attribute is absent.
User agents may allow video playback to affect system features that could interfere with the users
experience; for example, user agents could disable screensavers while video playback is in
progress.
The poster IDL attribute must reflect the poster content attribute.
EXAMPLE 424
This example shows how to detect when a video has failed to play correctly:
<script>
function failed(e) {
// video playback failed - show a message saying why
switch (e.target.error.code) {
case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED:
alert('You aborted the video playback.');
break;
case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK:
alert('A network error caused the video download to fail part-
way.');
break;
case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_DECODE:
alert('The video playback was aborted due to a corruption problem
or because the video used features your browser did not support.');
break;
case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED:
alert('The video could not be loaded, either because the server
or network failed or because the format is not supported.');
break;
default:
alert('An unknown error occurred.');
break;
}
}
</script>
<p><video src="tgif.vid" autoplay controls onerror="failed(event)">
</video></p>
<p><a href="tgif.vid">Download the video file</a>.</p>
Content may be provided inside the <audio> element. User agents should not show this content to
the user; it is intended for older Web browsers which do not support <audio>, so that legacy audio
plugins can be tried, or to show text to the users of these older browsers informing them of how to
access the audio contents.
NOTE:
In particular, this content is not intended to address accessibility concerns. To make audio con-
tent accessible to the deaf or to those with other physical or cognitive disabilities, a variety of
features are available. If captions or a sign language video are available, the <video> element
can be used instead of the <audio> element to play the audio, allowing users to enable the vis-
ual alternatives. Chapter titles can be provided to aid navigation, using the <track> element and
a WebVTT file. And, naturally, transcripts or other textual alternatives can be provided by sim-
ply linking to them in the prose near the <audio> element. [WEBVTT]
The <audio> element is a media element whose media data is ostensibly audio data.
The src, preload, autoplay, loop, muted, and controls attributes are the attributes common to
all media elements.
When an <audio> element is potentially playing, it must have its audio data played synchronized
with the current playback position, at the elements effective media volume. The user agent must
play the audio from audio tracks that were enabled when the event loop last reached step 1.
When an <audio> element is not potentially playing, audio must not play for the element.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
audio = new Audio( [ url ] )
Returns a new <audio> element, with the src attribute set to the value passed in the ar-
gument, if applicable.
A constructor is provided for creating HTMLAudioElement objects (in addition to the factory meth-
ods from DOM such as createElement()): Audio( src ). When invoked as a constructor, it must
return a new HTMLAudioElement object (a new audio element). The element must be created with
its preload attribute set to the literal value "auto". If the src argument is present, the object cre-
ated must be created with its src content attribute set to the provided value (this will cause the
user agent to invoke the objects resource selection algorithm before returning). The elements
node document must be the active document of the browsing context of the Window object on
which the interface object of the invoked constructor is found.
Nothing.
Tag omission in text/html:
No end tag
Content attributes:
Global attributes
kind - The type of text track
src - Address of the resource
srclang - Language of the text track
label - User-visible label
default - Enable the track if no other text track is more suitable
The <track> element allows authors to specify explicit external text resources for media elements.
It does not represent anything on its own.
The kind attribute is an enumerated attribute. The following table lists the keywords defined for
this attribute. The keyword given in the first cell of each row maps to the state given in the second
cell.
The attribute may be omitted. The missing value default is the subtitles state. The invalid value de-
fault is the metadata state.
The src attribute gives the address of the text track data. The value must be a valid non-empty
URL potentially surrounded by spaces. This attribute must be present.
If the element has a src attribute whose value is not the empty string and whose value, when the
attribute was set, could be successfully parsed relative to the elements node document, then the el-
ements track URL is the resulting URL string. Otherwise, the elements track URL is the empty
string.
NOTE:
If the elements track URL identifies a WebVTT resource, and the elements kind attribute is
not in the Metadata state, then the WebVTT file must be a WebVTT file using cue text.
[WEBVTT]
Furthermore, if the elements track URL identifies a WebVTT resource, and the elements
kind attribute is in the chapters state, then the WebVTT file must be both a WebVTT file using
chapter title text and a WebVTT file using only nested cues. [WEBVTT]
The srclang attribute gives the language of the text track data. The value must be a valid BCP 47
language tag. This attribute must be present if the elements kind attribute is in the subtitles state.
[BCP47]
If the element has a srclang attribute whose value is not the empty string, then the elements
track language is the value of the attribute. Otherwise, the element has no track language.
The label attribute gives a user-readable title for the track. This title is used by user agents when
listing subtitle, caption, and audio description tracks in their user interface.
The value of the label attribute, if the attribute is present, must not be the empty string. Further-
more, there must not be two track element children of the same media element whose kind at-
tributes are in the same state, whose srclang attributes are both missing or have values that repre-
sent the same language, and whose label attributes are again both missing or both have the same
value.
If the element has a label attribute whose value is not the empty string, then the elements track
label is the value of the attribute. Otherwise, the elements track label is an empty string.
The default attribute is a boolean attribute, which, if specified, indicates that the track is to be en-
abled if the users preferences do not indicate that another track would be more appropriate.
Each media element must have no more than one <track> element child whose kind attribute is in
the Subtitles or Captions state and whose default attribute is specified.
Each media element must have no more than one <track> element child whose kind attribute is in
the Descriptions state and whose default attribute is specified.
Each media element must have no more than one <track> element child whose kind attribute is in
the Chapters state and whose default attribute is specified.
NOTE:
There is no limit on the number of <track> elements whose kind attribute is in the Metadata
state and whose default attribute is specified.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
track . readyState
Returns the text track readiness state, represented by a number from the following list:
track . NONE (0)
The text track not loaded state.
track . track
Returns the TextTrack object corresponding to the text track of the <track> element.
The readyState attribute must return the numeric value corresponding to the text track readiness
state of the <track> elements text track, as defined by the following list:
The track IDL attribute must, on getting, return the <track> elements text tracks corresponding
TextTrack object.
The src, srclang, label, and default IDL attributes must reflect the respective content at-
tributes of the same name. The kind IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same
name, limited to only known values.
EXAMPLE 425
This video has subtitles in several languages:
<video src="brave.webm">
<track kind=subtitles src=brave.en.vtt srclang=en label="English">
<track kind=captions src=brave.en.hoh.vtt srclang=en label="English for
the Hard of Hearing">
<track kind=subtitles src=brave.fr.vtt srclang=fr lang=fr
label="Franais">
<track kind=subtitles src=brave.de.vtt srclang=de lang=de
label="Deutsch">
</video>
(The lang attributes on the last two describe the language of the label attribute, not the lan-
guage of the subtitles themselves. The language of the subtitles is given by the srclang at-
tribute.)
HTMLMediaElement objects (<audio> and <video>, in this specification) are simply known as
media elements.
// error state
readonly attribute MediaError? error;
// network state
attribute DOMString src;
attribute MediaProvider? srcObject;
readonly attribute DOMString currentSrc;
attribute DOMString? crossOrigin;
const unsigned short NETWORK_EMPTY = 0;
const unsigned short NETWORK_IDLE = 1;
const unsigned short NETWORK_LOADING = 2;
const unsigned short NETWORK_NO_SOURCE = 3;
readonly attribute unsigned short networkState;
attribute DOMString preload;
readonly attribute TimeRanges buffered;
void load();
CanPlayTypeResult canPlayType(DOMString type);
// ready state
const unsigned short HAVE_NOTHING = 0;
const unsigned short HAVE_METADATA = 1;
const unsigned short HAVE_CURRENT_DATA = 2;
const unsigned short HAVE_FUTURE_DATA = 3;
const unsigned short HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA = 4;
readonly attribute unsigned short readyState;
readonly attribute boolean seeking;
// playback state
attribute double currentTime;
void fastSeek(double time);
readonly attribute unrestricted double duration;
object getStartDate();
readonly attribute boolean paused;
attribute double defaultPlaybackRate;
attribute double playbackRate;
readonly attribute TimeRanges played;
readonly attribute TimeRanges seekable;
readonly attribute boolean ended;
attribute boolean autoplay;
attribute boolean loop;
void play();
void pause();
// controls
attribute boolean controls;
attribute double volume;
attribute boolean muted;
attribute boolean defaultMuted;
// tracks
[SameObject] readonly attribute AudioTrackList audioTracks;
[SameObject] readonly attribute VideoTrackList videoTracks;
[SameObject] readonly attribute TextTrackList textTracks;
TextTrack addTextTrack(TextTrackKind kind, optional DOMString label = "",
optional DOMString language = "");
};
The media element attributes, src, crossorigin, preload, autoplay, loop, muted, and
controls, apply to all media elements. They are defined in this section.
Media elements are used to present audio data, or video and audio data, to the user. This is referred
to as media data in this section, since this section applies equally to media elements for audio or
for video.
The term media resource is used to refer to the complete set of media data, e.g., the complete
video file, or complete audio file.
A media resource can have multiple audio and video tracks. For the purposes of a media element,
the video data of the media resource is only that of the currently selected track (if any) as given by
the elements videoTracks attribute when the event loop last reached step 1, and the audio data of
the media resource is the result of mixing all the currently enabled tracks (if any) given by the ele-
ments audioTracks attribute when the event loop last reached step 1.
NOTE:
Both audio and <video> elements can be used for both audio and video. The main difference
between the two is simply that the <audio> element has no playback area for visual content
(such as video or captions), whereas the video element does.
Except where otherwise explicitly specified, the task source for all the tasks queued in this section
and its subsections is the media element event task source of the media element in question.
All media elements have an associated error status, which records the last error the element en-
countered since its resource selection algorithm was last invoked. The error attribute, on getting,
must return the MediaError object created for this last error, or null if there has not been an error.
interface MediaError {
const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED = 1;
const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK = 2;
const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_DECODE = 3;
const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED = 4;
readonly attribute unsigned short code;
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . error . code
Returns the current errors error code, from the list below.
The code attribute of a MediaError object must return the code for the error, which must be one of
the following:
The src content attribute on media elements gives the address of the media resource (video, audio)
to show. The attribute, if present, must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by
spaces.
If a media element is created with a src attribute, the user agent must immediately invoke the me-
dia elements resource selection algorithm.
If a src attribute of a media element is set or changed, the user agent must invoke the media ele-
ments media element load algorithm. (Removing the src attribute does not do this, even if there
are <source> elements present.)
The src IDL attribute on media elements must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The crossOrigin IDL attribute must reflect the crossorigin content attribute.
A media provider object is an object that can represent a media resource, separate from a URL.
MediaStream objects, MediaSource objects, Blob objects, and File objects are all media provider
objects.
Each media element can have an assigned media provider object, which is a media provider ob-
ject. When a media element is created, it has no assigned media provider object.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . srcObject [ = source ]
Allows the media element to be assigned a media provider object.
media . currentSrc
Returns the URL of the current media resource, if any.
Returns the empty string when there is no media resource, or it doesnt have a URL.
The currentSrc IDL attribute is initially the empty string. Its value is changed by the resource se-
lection algorithm defined below.
The srcObject IDL attribute, on getting, must return the elements assigned media provider ob-
ject, if any, or null otherwise. On setting, it must set the elements assigned media provider object
to the new value, and then invoke the elements media element load algorithm.
NOTE:
There are three ways to specify a media resource, the srcObject IDL attribute, the src con-
tent attribute, and <source> elements. The IDL attribute takes priority, followed by the content
attribute, followed by the elements.
A media resource can be described in terms of its type, specifically a MIME type, in some cases
with a codecs parameter. (Whether the codecs parameter is allowed or not depends on the MIME
type.) [RFC6381]
Types are usually somewhat incomplete descriptions; for example "video/mpeg" doesnt say any-
thing except what the container type is, and even a type like "video/mp4;
codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"" doesnt include information like the actual bitrate (only the
maximum bitrate). Thus, given a type, a user agent can often only know whether it might be able
to play media of that type (with varying levels of confidence), or whether it definitely cannot play
media of that type.
A type that the user agent knows it cannot render is one that describes a resource that the user
agent definitely does not support, for example because it doesnt recognize the container type, or it
doesnt support the listed codecs.
The MIME type "application/octet-stream" with no parameters is never a type that the user
agent knows it cannot render. User agents must treat that type as equivalent to the lack of any ex-
plicit Content-Type metadata when it is used to label a potential media resource.
NOTE:
Only the MIME type "application/octet-stream" with no parameters is special-cased here;
if any parameter appears with it, it will be treated just like any other MIME type. This is a de-
viation from the rule that unknown MIME type parameters should be ignored.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . canPlayType( type )
Returns the empty string (a negative response), "maybe", or "probably" based on how
confident the user agent is that it can play media resources of the given type.
The canPlayType( type ) method must return the empty string if type is a type that the user
agent knows it cannot render or is the type "application/octet-stream"; it must return
"probably" if the user agent is confident that the type represents a media resource that it can ren-
der if used in with this audio or <video> element; and it must return "maybe" otherwise. Imple-
mentors are encouraged to return "maybe" unless the type can be confidently established as being
supported or not. Generally, a user agent should never return "probably" for a type that allows the
codecs parameter if that parameter is not present.
EXAMPLE 426
This script tests to see if the user agent supports a (fictional) new format to dynamically decide
whether to use a <video> element or a plugin:
<section id="video">
<p><a href="playing-cats.nfv">Download video</a></p>
</section>
<script>
var videoSection = document.getElementById('video');
var videoElement = document.createElement('video');
var support = videoElement.canPlayType('video/x-new-fictional-
format;codecs="kittens,bunnies"');
if (support == "") {
// not confident of browser support
// but we might have a plugin
// so try plugin instead
videoElement = document.createElement("embed");
}
if (videoElement) {
while (videoSection.hasChildNodes())
videoSection.removeChild(videoSection.firstChild);
videoElement.setAttribute("src", "playing-cats.nfv");
videoSection.appendChild(videoElement);
}
</script>
NOTE:
The type attribute of the <source> element allows the user agent to avoid downloading re-
sources that use formats it cannot render.
As media elements interact with the network, their current network activity is represented by the
networkState attribute. On getting, it must return the current network state of the element, which
must be one of the following values:
The resource selection algorithm defined below describes exactly when the networkState at-
tribute changes value and what events fire to indicate changes in this state.
All media elements have an autoplaying flag, which must begin in the true state, and a delaying-
the-load-event flag, which must begin in the false state. While the delaying-the-load-event flag is
true, the element must delay the load event of its document.
When the load() method on a media element is invoked, the user agent must run the media ele-
ment load algorithm.
1. Abort any already-running instance of the resource selection algorithm for this element.
2. If there are any tasks from the media elements media element event task source in one of the
task queues, then remove those tasks.
NOTE:
Basically, pending events and callbacks for the media element are discarded when the me-
dia element starts loading a new resource.
4. If the media elements networkState is not set to NETWORK_EMPTY, then run these substeps:
1. Queue a task to fire a simple event named emptied at the media element.
2. If a fetching process is in progress for the media element, the user agent should stop it.
3. If the media elements assigned media provider object is a MediaSource object, then de-
tach it.
If this changed the official playback position, then queue a task to fire a simple event
named timeupdate at the media element.
NOTE:
The user agent will not fire a durationchange event for this particular change of the
duration.
6. Set the error attribute to null and the autoplaying flag to true.
8. NOTE:
Playback of any previously playing media resource for this element stops.
The resource selection algorithm for a media element is as follows. This algorithm is always in-
voked as part of a task, but one of the first steps in the algorithm is to return and continue running
the remaining steps in parallel. In addition, this algorithm interacts closely with the event loop
mechanism; in particular, it has synchronous sections (which are triggered as part of the event loop
algorithm). Steps in such sections are marked with .
3. Set the media elements delaying-the-load-event flag to true (this delays the load event).
4. in parallel await a stable state, allowing the task that invoked this algorithm to continue. The
synchronous section consists of all the remaining steps of this algorithm until the algorithm
says the synchronous section has ended. (Steps in synchronous sections are marked with .)
5. If the media elements blocked-on-parser flag is false, then populate the list of pending text
tracks.
6. If the media element has an assigned media provider object, then let mode be object.
Otherwise, if the media element has no assigned media provider object but has a src at-
tribute, then let mode be attribute.
Otherwise, if the media element does not have an assigned media provider object and does
not have a src attribute, but does have a <source> element child, then let mode be children
and let candidate be the first such <source> element child in tree order.
Otherwise the media element has no assigned media provider object and has neither a src
attribute nor a <source> element child: set the networkState to NETWORK_EMPTY, and abort
these steps; the synchronous section ends.
8. Queue a task to fire a simple event named loadstart at the media element.
If mode is object
3. Run the resource fetch algorithm with the assigned media provider object. If
that algorithm returns without aborting this one, then the load failed.
4. Failed with media provider: Reaching this step indicates that the media re-
source failed to load. Queue a task to run the dedicated media source failure
steps.
5. Wait for the task queued by the previous step to have executed.
6. Abort these steps. The element wont attempt to load another resource until
this algorithm is triggered again.
If mode is attribute
1. If the src attributes value is the empty string, then end the synchronous sec-
tion, and jump down to the failed with attribute step below.
2. Let urlString and urlRecord be the resulting URL string and the resulting
URL record, respectively, that would have resulted from parsing the URL
specified by the src attributes value relative to the media element's node doc-
ument when the src attribute was last changed.
5. If urlRecord was obtained successfully, run the resource fetch algorithm with
urlRecord . If that algorithm returns without aborting this one, then the load
failed.
6. Failed with attribute: Reaching this step indicates that the media resource
failed to load or that the given URL could not be parsed. Queue a task to run
the dedicated media source failure steps.
7. Wait for the task queued by the previous step to have executed.
8. Abort these steps. The element wont attempt to load another resource until
this algorithm is triggered again.
1. Let pointer be a position defined by two adjacent nodes in the media ele-
ments child list, treating the start of the list (before the first child in the list, if
any) and end of the list (after the last child in the list, if any) as nodes in their
own right. One node is the node before pointer , and the other node is the node
after pointer . Initially, let pointer be the position between the candidate
node and the next node, if there are any, or the end of the list, if it is the last
node.
As nodes are inserted and removed into the media element, pointer must be
updated as follows:
If a new node is inserted between the two nodes that define pointer
Let pointer be the point between the node before pointer and the new
node. In other words, insertions at pointer go after pointer .
If the node before pointer is removed
Let pointer be the point between the node after pointer and the node be-
fore the node after pointer . In other words, pointer doesnt move rela-
tive to the remaining nodes.
If the node after pointer is removed
Let pointer be the point between the node before pointer and the node
after the node before pointer . Just as with the previous case, pointer
doesnt move relative to the remaining nodes.
2. Process candidate: If candidate does not have a src attribute, or if its src
attributes value is the empty string, then end the synchronous section, and
jump down to the failed with elements step below.
3. Let urlString and urlRecord be the resulting URL string and the resulting
URL record, respectively, that would have resulted from parsing the URL
specified by candidate s src attributes value relative to the candidate s node
document when the src attribute was last changed.
4. If urlString was not obtained successfully, then end the synchronous sec-
tion, and jump down to the Failed with elements step below.
5. If candidate has a type attribute whose value, when parsed as a MIME type
(including any codecs described by the codecs parameter, for types that define
that parameter), represents a type that the user agent knows it cannot render,
then end the synchronous section, and jump down to the failed with elements
step below.
8. Run the resource fetch algorithm with urlRecord . If that algorithm returns
without aborting this one, then the load failed.
9. Failed with elements : Queue a task to fire a simple event named error at the
candidate element.
10. Await a stable state. The synchronous section consists of all the remaining
steps of this algorithm until the algorithm says the synchronous section has
ended. (Steps in synchronous sections are marked with .)
13. Search loop: If the node after pointer is the end of the list, then jump to the
waiting step below.
14. If the node after pointer is a <source> element, let candidate be that ele-
ment.
15. Advance pointer so that the node before pointer is now the node that was
after pointer , and the node after pointer is the node after the node that used to
be after pointer , if any.
16. If candidate is null, jump back to the search loop step. Otherwise, jump
back to the process candidate step.
19. Queue a task to set the elements delaying-the-load-event flag to false. This
stops delaying the load event.
20. End the synchronous section, continuing the remaining steps in parallel.
21. Wait until the node after pointer is a node other than the end of the list. (This
step might wait forever.)
22. Await a stable state. The synchronous section consists of all the remaining
steps of this algorithm until the algorithm says the synchronous section has
ended. (Steps in synchronous sections are marked with .)
23. Set the elements delaying-the-load-event flag back to true (this delays the
load event again, in case it hasnt been fired yet).
The dedicated media source failure steps are the following steps:
1. Set the error attribute to a new MediaError object whose code attribute is set to
MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED.
6. Set the elements delaying-the-load-event flag to false. This stops delaying the load
event.
The resource fetch algorithm for a media element and a given URL record or media provider ob-
ject is as follows:
1. If the algorithm was invoked with media provider object or a URL record whose object is a
media provider object, then let mode be local. Otherwise let mode be remote.
2. If mode is remote, then let the current media resource be the resource given by the URL
record passed to this algorithm; otherwise, let the current media resource be the resource
given by the media provider object. Either way, the current media resource is now the ele-
ments media resource.
3. Remove all media-resource-specific text tracks from the media elements list of pending text
tracks, if any.
If mode is remote
1. Optionally, run the following substeps. This is the expected behavior if the
user agent intends to not attempt to fetch the resource until the user requests it
explicitly (e.g., as a way to implement the preload attributes none keyword).
Set request s client to the media elements node documents Window objects
environment settings object and type to "audio" if the media element is an
audio element and to "video" otherwise.
Fetch request .
The response s unsafe response obtained in this fashion, if any, contains the
media data. It can be CORS-same-origin or CORS-cross-origin; this affects
whether subtitles referenced in the media data are exposed in the API and, for
<video> elements, whether a canvas gets tainted when the video is drawn on
it.
User agents may allow users to selectively block or slow media data down-
loads. When a media elements download has been blocked altogether, the user
agent must act as if it was stalled (as opposed to acting as if the connection
was closed). The rate of the download may also be throttled automatically by
the user agent, e.g., to balance the download with other connections sharing
the same bandwidth.
User agents may decide to not download more content at any time, e.g., after
buffering five minutes of a one hour media resource, while waiting for the user
to decide whether to play the resource or not, while waiting for user input in an
interactive resource, or when the user navigates away from the page. When a
media elements download has been suspended, the user agent must queue a
task, to set the networkState to NETWORK_IDLE and fire a simple event named
suspend at the element. If and when downloading of the resource resumes, the
user agent must queue a task to set the networkState to NETWORK_LOADING.
Between the queuing of these tasks, the load is suspended (so progress events
dont fire, as described above).
NOTE:
The preload attribute provides a hint regarding how much buffering the
author thinks is advisable, even in the absence of the autoplay attribute.
The user agent may use whatever means necessary to fetch the resource
(within the constraints put forward by this and other specifications); for exam-
ple, reconnecting to the server in the face of network errors, using HTTP range
retrieval requests, or switching to a streaming protocol. The user agent must
consider a resource erroneous only if it has given up trying to fetch it.
To determine the format of the media resource, the user agent must use the
rules for sniffing audio and video specifically.
While the load is not suspended (see below), every 350ms (200ms) or for ev-
ery byte received, whichever is least frequent, queue a task to fire a simple
event named progress at the element.
The networking task source tasks to process the data as it is being fetched must
each immediately queue a task to run the first appropriate steps from the me-
dia data processing steps list below. (A new task is used for this so that the
work described below occurs relative to the media element event task source
rather than the networking task source.)
When the networking task source has queued the last task as part of fetching
the media resource (i.e., once the download has completed), if the fetching
process completes without errors, including decoding the media data, and if all
of the data is available to the user agent without network access, then, the user
agent must move on to the final step below. This might never happen, e.g.,
when streaming an infinite resource such as Web radio, or if the resource is
longer than the user agents ability to cache data.
While the user agent might still need network access to obtain parts of the me-
dia resource, the user agent must remain on this step.
EXAMPLE 427
For example, if the user agent has discarded the first half of a video, the
user agent will remain at this step even once the playback has ended, be-
cause there is always the chance the user will seek back to the start. In fact,
in this situation, once playback has ended, the user agent will end up firing
a suspend event, as described earlier.
The resource described by the current media resource , if any, contains the media
data. It is CORS-same-origin.
If the current media resource is a raw data stream (e.g., from a File object), then
to determine the format of the media resource, the user agent must use the rules for
sniffing audio and video specifically. Otherwise, if the data stream is pre-decoded,
then the format is the format given by the relevant specification.
Set the elements delaying-the-load-event flag to false. This stops delaying the load
event when the resource is local.
Whenever new data for the current media resource becomes available, queue a
task to run the first appropriate steps from the media data processing steps list be-
low.
When the current media resource is permanently exhausted (e.g., all the bytes of a
Blob have been processed), if there were no decoding errors, then the user agent
must move on to the final step below. This might never happen, e.g., if the current
media resource is a MediaStream.
If the media data cannot be fetched at all, due to network errors, causing the user
agent to give up trying to fetch the resource
If the media data can be fetched but is found by inspection to be in an unsupported
format, or can otherwise not be rendered at all
DNS errors, HTTP 4xx and 5xx errors (and equivalents in other protocols), and
other fatal network errors that occur before the user agent has established whether
the current media resource is usable, as well as the file using an unsupported con-
tainer format, or using unsupported codecs for all the data, must cause the user
agent to execute the following steps:
4. If either the media resource or the address of the current media resource indi-
cate a particular set of audio tracks to enable, or if the user agent has informa-
tion that would facilitate the selection of specific audio tracks to improve the
users experience, then: if this audio track is one of the ones to enable, then set
enable to true, otherwise, set enable to false.
EXAMPLE 428
This could be triggered by Media Fragments URI fragment identifier syn-
tax, but it could also be triggered e.g., by the user agent selecting a 5.1 sur-
round sound audio track over a stereo audio track. [MEDIA-FRAGS]
5. If enable is still unknown, then, if the media element does not yet have an en-
abled audio track, then set enable to true, otherwise, set enable to false.
6. If enable is true, then enable this audio track, otherwise, do not enable this
audio track.
7. Fire a trusted event with the name addtrack, that does not bubble and is not
cancelable, and that uses the TrackEvent interface, with the track attribute
initialized to the new AudioTrack object, at this AudioTrackList object.
4. If either the media resource or the address of the current media resource indi-
cate a particular set of video tracks to enable, or if the user agent has informa-
tion that would facilitate the selection of specific video tracks to improve the
users experience, then: if this video track is the first such video track, then set
enable to true, otherwise, set enable to false.
EXAMPLE 429
This could again be triggered by media fragments syntax.
5. If enable is still unknown, then, if the media element does not yet have a se-
lected video track, then set enable to true, otherwise, set enable to false.
6. If enable is true, then select this track and unselect any previously selected
video tracks, otherwise, do not select this video track. If other tracks are unse-
lected, then a change event will be fired.
7. Fire a trusted event with the name addtrack, that does not bubble and is not
cancelable, and that uses the TrackEvent interface, with the track attribute
initialized to the new VideoTrack object, at this VideoTrackList object.
Once enough of the media data has been fetched to determine the duration of the
media resource, its dimensions, and other metadata
This indicates that the resource is usable. The user agent must follow these sub-
steps:
1. Establish the media timeline for the purposes of the current playback position
and the earliest possible position, based on the media data.
2. Update the timeline offset to the date and time that corresponds to the zero
time in the media timeline established in the previous step, if any. If no explicit
time and date is given by the media resource, the timeline offset must be set to
Not-a-Number (NaN).
3. Set the current playback position and the official playback position to the ear-
liest possible position.
4. Update the duration attribute with the time of the last frame of the resource,
if known, on the media timeline established above. If it is not known (e.g., a
stream that is in principle infinite), update the duration attribute to the value
positive Infinity.
NOTE:
The user agent will queue a task to fire a simple event named
durationchange at the element at this point.
5. For <video> elements, set the videoWidth and videoHeight attributes, and
queue a task to fire a simple event named resize at the media element.
NOTE:
Further resize events will be fired if the dimensions subsequently change.
NOTE:
A loadedmetadata DOM event will be fired as part of setting the
readyState attribute to a new value.
8. If the media elements default playback start position is greater than zero, then
11. If either the media resource or the address of the current media resource indi-
cate a particular start time, then set the initial playback position to that time
and, if jumped is still false, seek to that time and let jumped be true.
EXAMPLE 430
For example, with media formats that support the media fragment syntax
the fragment, can be used to indicate a start position. [MEDIA-FRAGS]
12. If there is no enabled audio track, then enable an audio track. This will cause a
change event to be fired.
13. If there is no selected video track, then select a video track. This will cause a
change event to be fired.
NOTE:
A user agent that is attempting to reduce network usage while still fetching the
metadata for each media resource would also stop buffering at this point, fol-
lowing the rules described previously, which involve the networkState at-
tribute switching to the NETWORK_IDLE value and a suspend event firing.
NOTE:
The user agent is required to determine the duration of the media resource and
go through this step before playing.
Once the entire media resource has been fetched (but potentially before any of it
has been decoded)
Fire a simple event named progress at the media element.
Set the networkState to NETWORK_IDLE and fire a simple event named suspend at
the media element.
If the user agent ever discards any media data and then needs to resume the network
activity to obtain it again, then it must queue a task to set the networkState to
NETWORK_LOADING.
NOTE:
If the user agent can keep the media resource loaded, then the algorithm will
continue to its final step below, which aborts the algorithm.
If the connection is interrupted after some media data has been received, causing
the user agent to give up trying to fetch the resource
Fatal network errors that occur after the user agent has established whether the
current media resource is usable (i.e., once the media elements readyState at-
tribute is no longer HAVE_NOTHING) must cause the user agent to execute the follow-
ing steps:
2. Set the error attribute to a new MediaError object whose code attribute is set
to MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK.
4. Set the elements delaying-the-load-event flag to false. This stops delaying the
load event.
2. Set the error attribute to a new MediaError object whose code attribute is set
to MEDIA_ERR_DECODE.
4. Set the elements delaying-the-load-event flag to false. This stops delaying the
load event.
The fetching process is aborted by the user, e.g., because the user pressed a "stop"
button, the user agent must execute the following steps. These steps are not fol-
lowed if the load() method itself is invoked while these steps are running, as the
steps above handle that particular kind of abort.
2. Set the error attribute to a new MediaError object whose code attribute is set
to MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED.
5. Set the elements delaying-the-load-event flag to false. This stops delaying the
load event.
If the media data can be fetched but has non-fatal errors or uses, in part, codecs
that are unsupported, preventing the user agent from rendering the content
completely correctly but not preventing playback altogether
The server returning data that is partially usable but cannot be optimally rendered
must cause the user agent to render just the bits it can handle, and ignore the rest.
NOTE:
Cross-origin videos do not expose their subtitles, since that would allow attacks
such as hostile sites reading subtitles from confidential videos on a users in-
tranet.
5. Final step: If the user agent ever reaches this step (which can only happen if the entire re-
source gets loaded and kept available): abort the overall resource selection algorithm.
When a media element is to forget the media elements media-resource-specific tracks, the user
agent must remove from the media elements list of text tracks all the media-resource-specific text
tracks, then empty the media elements audioTracks attributes AudioTrackList object, then
empty the media elements videoTracks attributes VideoTrackList object. No events (in par-
ticular, no removetrack events) are fired as part of this; the error and emptied events, fired by the
algorithms that invoke this one, can be used instead.
The preload attribute is an enumerated attribute. The following table lists the keywords and states
for the attribute the keywords in the left column map to the states in the cell in the second col-
umn on the same row as the keyword. The attribute can be changed even once the media resource
is being buffered or played; the descriptions in the table below are to be interpreted with that in
mind.
none None Hints to the user agent that either the author does not expect the user to
need the media resource, or that the server wants to minimize
unnecessary traffic. This state does not provide a hint regarding how
aggressively to actually download the media resource if buffering starts
anyway (e.g., once the user hits "play").
metadata Metadata Hints to the user agent that the author does not expect the user to need
the media resource, but that fetching the resource metadata (dimensions,
track list, duration, etc), and maybe even the first few frames, is
reasonable. If the user agent precisely fetches no more than the
metadata, then the media element will end up with its readyState
attribute set to HAVE_METADATA; typically though, some frames will be
obtained as well and it will probably be HAVE_CURRENT_DATA or
HAVE_FUTURE_DATA. When the media resource is playing, hints to the
user agent that bandwidth is to be considered scarce, e.g., suggesting
throttling the download so that the media data is obtained at the slowest
possible rate that still maintains consistent playback.
auto Automatic Hints to the user agent that the user agent can put the users needs first
without risk to the server, up to and including optimistically
downloading the entire resource.
The empty string is also a valid keyword, and maps to the Automatic state. The attributes missing
value default is user-agent defined, though the Metadata state is suggested as a compromise be-
tween reducing server load and providing an optimal user experience.
NOTE:
Authors might switch the attribute from "none" or "metadata" to "auto" dynamically once the
user begins playback. For example, on a page with many videos this might be used to indicate
that the many videos are not to be downloaded unless requested, but that once one is requested
it is to be downloaded aggressively.
The preload attribute is intended to provide a hint to the user agent about what the author thinks
will lead to the best user experience. The attribute may be ignored altogether, for example based
on explicit user preferences or based on the available connectivity.
The preload IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to only
known values.
NOTE:
The autoplay attribute can override the preload attribute (since if the media plays, it natu-
rally has to buffer first, regardless of the hint given by the preload attribute). Including both is
not an error, however.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . buffered
Returns a TimeRanges object that represents the ranges of the media resource that the
user agent has buffered.
The buffered attribute must return a new static normalized TimeRanges object that represents the
ranges of the media resource, if any, that the user agent has buffered, at the time the attribute is
evaluated. Users agents must accurately determine the ranges available, even for media streams
where this can only be determined by tedious inspection.
NOTE:
Typically this will be a single range anchored at the zero point, but if, e.g., the user agent uses
HTTP range requests in response to seeking, then there could be multiple ranges.
NOTE:
Thus, a time position included within a range of the objects return by the buffered attribute at
one time can end up being not included in the range(s) of objects returned by the same attribute
at later times.
A media resource has a media timeline that maps times (in seconds) to positions in the media re-
source. The origin of a timeline is its earliest defined position. The duration of a timeline is its last
defined position.
Establishing the media timeline: If the media resource somehow specifies an explicit timeline
whose origin is not negative (i.e., gives each frame a specific time offset and gives the first frame a
zero or positive offset), then the media timeline should be that timeline. (Whether the media re-
source can specify a timeline or not depends on the media resources format.) If the media re-
source specifies an explicit start time and date, then that time and date should be considered the
zero point in the media timeline; the timeline offset will be the time and date, exposed using the
getStartDate() method.
If the media resource has a discontinuous timeline, the user agent must extend the timeline used at
the start of the resource across the entire resource, so that the media timeline of the media resource
increases linearly starting from the earliest possible position (as defined below), even if the under-
lying media data has out-of-order or even overlapping time codes.
EXAMPLE 431
For example, if two clips have been concatenated into one video file, but the video format ex-
poses the original times for the two clips, the video data might expose a timeline that goes, say,
00:15..00:29 and then 00:05..00:38. However, the user agent would not expose those times; it
would instead expose the times as 00:15..00:29 and 00:29..01:02, as a single video.
In the rare case of a media resource that does not have an explicit timeline, the zero time on the
media timeline should correspond to the first frame of the media resource. In the even rarer case of
a media resource with no explicit timings of any kind, not even frame durations, the user agent
must itself determine the time for each frame in a user-agent-defined manner.
NOTE:
An example of a file format with no explicit timeline but with explicit frame durations is the
Animated GIF format. An example of a file format with no explicit timings at all is the JPEG-
push format (multipart/x-mixed-replace with JPEG frames, often used as the format for
MJPEG streams).
If, in the case of a resource with no timing information, the user agent will nonetheless be able to
seek to an earlier point than the first frame originally provided by the server, then the zero time
should correspond to the earliest seekable time of the media resource; otherwise, it should corre-
spond to the first frame received from the server (the point in the media resource at which the user
agent began receiving the stream).
NOTE:
At the time of writing, there is no known format that lacks explicit frame time offsets yet still
supports seeking to a frame before the first frame sent by the server.
EXAMPLE 432
Consider a stream from a TV broadcaster, which begins streaming on a sunny Friday afternoon
in October, and always sends connecting user agents the media data on the same media time-
line, with its zero time set to the start of this stream. Months later, user agents connecting to
this stream will find that the first frame they receive has a time with millions of seconds. The
getStartDate() method would always return the date that the broadcast started; this would
allow controllers to display real times in their scrubber (e.g., "2:30pm") rather than a time rela-
tive to when the broadcast began ("8 months, 4 hours, 12 minutes, and 23 seconds").
Consider a stream that carries a video with several concatenated fragments, broadcast by a
server that does not allow user agents to request specific times but instead just streams the
video data in a predetermined order, with the first frame delivered always being identified as
the frame with time zero. If a user agent connects to this stream and receives fragments defined
as covering timestamps 2010-03-20 23:15:00 UTC to 2010-03-21 00:05:00 UTC and
2010-02-12 14:25:00 UTC to 2010-02-12 14:35:00 UTC, it would expose this with a media
timeline starting at 0s and extending to 3,600s (one hour). Assuming the streaming server dis-
connected at the end of the second clip, the duration attribute would then return 3,600. The
getStartDate() method would return a Date object with a time corresponding to 2010-03-20
23:15:00 UTC. However, if a different user agent connected five minutes later, it would (pre-
sumably) receive fragments covering timestamps 2010-03-20 23:20:00 UTC to 2010-03-21
00:05:00 UTC and 2010-02-12 14:25:00 UTC to 2010-02-12 14:35:00 UTC, and would ex-
pose this with a media timeline starting at 0s and extending to 3,300s (fifty five minutes). In
this case, the getStartDate() method would return a Date object with a time corresponding
to 2010-03-20 23:20:00 UTC.
In both of these examples, the seekable attribute would give the ranges that the controller
would want to actually display in its UI; typically, if the servers dont support seeking to arbi-
trary times, this would be the range of time from the moment the user agent connected to the
stream up to the latest frame that the user agent has obtained; however, if the user agent starts
discarding earlier information, the actual range might be shorter.
In any case, the user agent must ensure that the earliest possible position (as defined below) using
the established media timeline, is greater than or equal to zero.
The media timeline also has an associated clock. Which clock is used is user-agent defined, and
may be media resource-dependent, but it should approximate the users wall clock.
Media elements have a current playback position, which must initially (i.e., in the absence of
media data) be zero seconds. The current playback position is a time on the media timeline.
Media elements also have an official playback position, which must initially be set to zero sec-
onds. The official playback position is an approximation of the current playback position that is
Media elements also have a default playback start position, which must initially be set to zero
seconds. This time is used to allow the element to be seeked even before the media is loaded.
Each media element has a show poster flag. When a media element is created, this flag must be
set to true. This flag is used to control when the user agent is to show a poster frame for a <video>
element instead of showing the video contents.
The currentTime attribute must, on getting, return the media elements default playback start po-
sition, unless that is zero, in which case it must return the elements official playback position. The
returned value must be expressed in seconds. On setting, if the media elements readyState is
HAVE_NOTHING, then it must set the media elements default playback start position to the new
value; otherwise, it must set the official playback position to the new value and then seek to the
new value. The new value must be interpreted as being in seconds.
Media elements have an initial playback position, which must initially (i.e., in the absence of me-
dia data) be zero seconds. The initial playback position is updated when a media resource is
loaded. The initial playback position is a time on the media timeline.
If the media resource is a streaming resource, then the user agent might be unable to obtain certain
parts of the resource after it has expired from its buffer. Similarly, some media resources might
have a media timeline that doesnt start at zero. The earliest possible position is the earliest posi-
tion in the stream or resource that the user agent can ever obtain again. It is also a time on the me-
dia timeline.
NOTE:
The earliest possible position is not explicitly exposed in the API; it corresponds to the start
time of the first range in the seekable attributes TimeRanges object, if any, or the current
playback position otherwise.
When the earliest possible position changes, then: if the current playback position is before the
earliest possible position, the user agent must seek to the earliest possible position; otherwise, if
the user agent has not fired a timeupdate event at the element in the past 15 to 250ms and is not
still running event handlers for such an event, then the user agent must queue a task to fire a sim-
ple event named timeupdate at the element.
NOTE:
Because of the above requirement and the requirement in the resource fetch algorithm that
kicks in when the metadata of the clip becomes known, the current playback position can never
be less than the earliest possible position.
If at any time the user agent learns that an audio or video track has ended and all media data relat-
ing to that track corresponds to parts of the media timeline that are before the earliest possible po-
sition, the user agent may queue a task to first remove the track from the audioTracks attributes
AudioTrackList object or the videoTracks attributes VideoTrackList object as appropriate
and then fire a trusted event with the name removetrack, that does not bubble and is not cance-
lable, and that uses the TrackEvent interface, with the track attribute initialized to the
AudioTrack or VideoTrack object representing the track, at the media elements aforementioned
AudioTrackList or VideoTrackList object.
The duration attribute must return the time of the end of the media resource, in seconds, on the
media timeline. If no media data is available, then the attributes must return the Not-a-Number
(NaN) value. If the media resource is not known to be bounded (e.g., streaming radio, or a live
event with no announced end time), then the attribute must return the positive Infinity value.
The user agent must determine the duration of the media resource before playing any part of the
media data and before setting readyState to a value equal to or greater than HAVE_METADATA,
even if doing so requires fetching multiple parts of the resource.
When the length of the media resource changes to a known value (e.g., from being unknown to
known, or from a previously established length to a new length) the user agent must queue a task
to fire a simple event named durationchange at the media element. (The event is not fired when the
duration is reset as part of loading a new media resource.) If the duration is changed such that the
current playback position ends up being greater than the time of the end of the media resource,
then the user agent must also seek to the time of the end of the media resource.
EXAMPLE 433
If an "infinite" stream ends for some reason, then the duration would change from positive In-
finity to the time of the last frame or sample in the stream, and the durationchange event
would be fired. Similarly, if the user agent initially estimated the media resources duration in-
stead of determining it precisely, and later revises the estimate based on new information, then
the duration would change and the durationchange event would be fired.
Some video files also have an explicit date and time corresponding to the zero time in the media
timeline, known as the timeline offset. Initially, the timeline offset must be set to Not-a-Number
(NaN).
The getStartDate() method must return a new Date object representing the current timeline off-
set.
The loop attribute is a boolean attribute that, if specified, indicates that the media element is to
seek back to the start of the media resource upon reaching the end.
The loop IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
Media elements have a ready state, which describes to what degree they are ready to be rendered
at the current playback position. The possible values are as follows; the ready state of a media ele-
ment at any particular time is the greatest value describing the state of the element:
The user agent estimates that data is being fetched at a rate where the current playback
position, if it were to advance at the effective playback rate, would not overtake the
available data before playback reaches the end of the media resource.
The user agent has entered a state where waiting longer will not result in further data be-
ing obtained, and therefore nothing would be gained by delaying playback any further.
(For example, the buffer might be full.)
NOTE:
In practice, the difference between HAVE_METADATA and HAVE_CURRENT_DATA is negligible. Re-
ally the only time the difference is relevant is when painting a <video> element onto a
<canvas>, where it distinguishes the case where something will be drawn (HAVE_CURRENT_DATA
or greater) from the case where nothing is drawn (HAVE_METADATA or less). Similarly, the dif-
ference between HAVE_CURRENT_DATA (only the current frame) and HAVE_FUTURE_DATA (at
least this frame and the next) can be negligible (in the extreme, only one frame). The only time
that distinction really matters is when a page provides an interface for "frame-by-frame" navi-
gation.
When the ready state of a media element whose networkState is not NETWORK_EMPTY changes, the
user agent must follow the steps given below:
1. Apply the first applicable set of substeps from the following list:
If the previous ready state was HAVE_NOTHING, and the new ready state is
HAVE_METADATA
NOTE:
Before this task is run, as part of the event loop mechanism, the rendering will
have been updated to resize the <video> element if appropriate.
If the previous ready state was HAVE_METADATA and the new ready state is
HAVE_CURRENT_DATA or greater
If this is the first time this occurs for this media element since the load() algorithm
was last invoked, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named
loadeddata at the element.
If the previous ready state was HAVE_FUTURE_DATA or more, and the new ready state
is HAVE_CURRENT_DATA or less
If the media element was potentially playing before its readyState attribute
changed to a value lower than HAVE_FUTURE_DATA, and the element has not ended
playback, and playback has not stopped due to errors, paused for user interaction, or
paused for in-band content, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event
named timeupdate at the element, and queue a task to fire a simple event named
waiting at the element.
If the previous ready state was HAVE_CURRENT_DATA or less, and the new ready state
is HAVE_FUTURE_DATA
The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named canplay at the ele-
ment.
If the elements paused attribute is false, the user agent must queue a task to fire a
simple event named playing at the element.
If the autoplaying flag is true, and the paused attribute is true, and the media ele-
ment has an autoplay attribute specified, and the media elements node documents
active sandboxing flag set does not have the sandboxed automatic features brows-
ing context flag set, then the user agent may also run the following substeps:
2. If the elements show poster flag is true, set it to false and run the time
marches on steps.
NOTE:
User agents do not need to support autoplay, and it is suggested that user agents
honor user preferences on the matter. Authors are urged to use the autoplay at-
tribute rather than using script to force the video to play, so as to allow the user
to override the behavior if so desired.
In any case, the user agent must finally queue a task to fire a simple event named
canplaythrough at the element.
NOTE:
It is possible for the ready state of a media element to jump between these states discontinu-
ously. For example, the state of a media element can jump straight from HAVE_METADATA to
HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA without passing through the HAVE_CURRENT_DATA and HAVE_FUTURE_DATA
states.
The readyState IDL attribute must, on getting, return the value described above that describes the
current ready state of the media element.
The autoplay attribute is a boolean attribute. When present, the user agent (as described in the al-
gorithm described herein) will automatically begin playback of the media resource as soon as it
can do so without stopping.
NOTE:
Authors are urged to use the autoplay attribute rather than using script to trigger automatic
playback, as this allows the user to override the automatic playback when it is not desired, e.g.,
when using a screen reader. Authors are also encouraged to consider not using the automatic
playback behavior at all, and instead to let the user agent wait for the user to start playback ex-
plicitly.
The autoplay IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
media . ended
Returns true if playback has reached the end of the media resource.
The default rate has no direct effect on playback, but if the user switches to a fast-
forward mode, when they return to the normal playback mode, it is expected that the rate
of playback will be returned to the default rate of playback.
media . played
Returns a TimeRanges object that represents the ranges of the media resource that the
user agent has played.
media . play()
Sets the paused attribute to false, loading the media resource and beginning playback if
necessary. If the playback had ended, will restart it from the start.
media . pause()
Sets the paused attribute to true, loading the media resource if necessary.
The paused attribute represents whether the media element is paused or not. The attribute must
initially be true.
A media element is a blocked media element if its readyState attribute is in the HAVE_NOTHING
state, the HAVE_METADATA state, or the HAVE_CURRENT_DATA state, or if the element has paused for
user interaction or paused for in-band content.
A media element is said to be potentially playing when its paused attribute is false, the element
has not ended playback, playback has not stopped due to errors, and the element is not a blocked
media element.
NOTE:
A waiting DOM event can be fired as a result of an element that is potentially playing stop-
ping playback due to its readyState attribute changing to a value lower than
HAVE_FUTURE_DATA.
Either:
The current playback position is the end of the media resource, and
Or:
The ended attribute must return true if, the last time the event loop reached step 1, the media ele-
ment had ended playback and the direction of playback was forwards, and false otherwise.
A media element is said to have stopped due to errors when the elements readyState attribute
is HAVE_METADATA or greater, and the user agent encounters a non-fatal error during the processing
of the media data, and due to that error, is not able to play the content at the current playback posi-
tion.
A media element is said to have paused for user interaction when its paused attribute is false,
the readyState attribute is either HAVE_FUTURE_DATA or HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA and the user agent
has reached a point in the media resource where the user has to make a selection for the resource
to continue.
It is possible for a media element to have both ended playback and paused for user interaction at
the same time.
When a media element that is potentially playing stops playing because it has paused for user in-
teraction, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named timeupdate at the ele-
ment.
A media element is said to have paused for in-band content when its paused attribute is false,
the readyState attribute is either HAVE_FUTURE_DATA or HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA and the user agent
has suspended playback of the media resource in order to play content that is temporally anchored
to the media resource and has a non-zero length, or to play content that is temporally anchored to a
segment of the media resource but has a length longer than that segment.
EXAMPLE 434
One example of when a media element would be paused for in-band content is when the user
agent is playing audio descriptions from an external WebVTT file, and the synthesized speech
generated for a cue is longer than the time between the text track cue start time and the text
track cue end time.
When the current playback position reaches the end of the media resource when the direction of
playback is forwards, then the user agent must follow these steps:
1. If the media element has a loop attribute specified, then seek to the earliest possible position
of the media resource and abort these steps.
2. As defined above, the ended IDL attribute starts returning true once the event loop returns to
step 1.
3. Queue a task to fire a simple event named timeupdate at the media element.
4. Queue a task that, if the media element has still ended playback, and the direction of playback
is still forwards, and paused is false, changes paused to true and fires a simple event named
pause at the media element.
5. Queue a task to fire a simple event named ended at the media element.
When the current playback position reaches the earliest possible position of the media resource
when the direction of playback is backwards, then the user agent must only queue a task to fire a
simple event named timeupdate at the element.
NOTE:
The word "reaches" here does not imply that the current playback position needs to have
changed during normal playback; it could be via seeking, for instance.
The defaultPlaybackRate attribute gives the desired speed at which the media resource is to
play, as a multiple of its intrinsic speed. The attribute is mutable: on getting it must return the last
value it was set to, or 1.0 if it hasnt yet been set; on setting the attribute must be set to the new
value.
NOTE:
The defaultPlaybackRate is used by the user agent when it exposes a user interface to the
user.
The playbackRate attribute gives the effective playback rate which is the speed at which the me-
dia resource plays, as a multiple of its intrinsic speed. If it is not equal to the
defaultPlaybackRate, then the implication is that the user is using a feature such as fast for-
ward or slow motion playback. The attribute is mutable: on getting it must return the last value it
was set to, or 1.0 if it hasnt yet been set; on setting the attribute must be set to the new value, and
the playback will change speed (if the element is potentially playing).
The played attribute must return a new static normalized TimeRanges object that represents the
ranges of points on the media timeline of the media resource reached through the usual monotonic
increase of the current playback position during normal playback, if any, at the time the attribute is
evaluated.
When the play() method on a media element is invoked, the user agent must run the following
steps.
1. If the media elements networkState attribute has the value NETWORK_EMPTY, invoke the
media elements resource selection algorithm.
2. If the playback has ended and the direction of playback is forwards, seek to the earliest possi-
ble position of the media resource.
NOTE:
This will cause the user agent to queue a task to fire a simple event named timeupdate at
the media element.
3. If the media elements paused attribute is true, run the following substeps:
2. If the show poster flag is true, set the elements show poster flag to false and run the time
marches on steps.
Otherwise, the media elements readyState attribute has the value HAVE_FUTURE_DATA
or HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA: queue a task to fire a simple event named playing at the ele-
ment.
When the pause() method is invoked, and when the user agent is required to pause the media ele-
ment, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. If the media elements networkState attribute has the value NETWORK_EMPTY, invoke the me-
dia elements resource selection algorithm.
2. If the media elements paused attribute is false, run the following steps:
1. Change the value of paused to true.
If the effective playback rate is positive or zero, then the direction of playback is forwards. Oth-
erwise, it is backwards.
When a media element is potentially playing and its Document is a fully active Document, its
current playback position must increase monotonically at effective playback rate units of media
time per unit time of the media timelines clock. (This specification always refers to this as an in-
crease, but that increase could actually be a decrease if the effective playback rate is negative.)
NOTE:
The effective playback rate can be 0.0, in which case the current playback position doesnt
move, despite playback not being paused (paused doesnt become true, and the pause event
doesnt fire).
NOTE:
This specification doesnt define how the user agent achieves the appropriate playback rate
depending on the protocol and media available, it is plausible that the user agent could negoti-
ate with the server to have the server provide the media data at the appropriate rate, so that (ex-
cept for the period between when the rate is changed and when the server updates the streams
playback rate) the client doesnt actually have to drop or interpolate any frames.
Any time the user agent provides a stable state, the official playback position must be set to the
current playback position.
While the direction of playback is backwards, any corresponding audio must be muted. While the
effective playback rate is so low or so high that the user agent cannot play audio usefully, the cor-
responding audio must also be muted. If the effective playback rate is not 1.0, the user agent may
apply pitch adjustments to the audio as necessary to render it faithfully.
Media elements that are potentially playing while not in a Document must not play any video, but
should play any audio component. Media elements must not stop playing just because all refer-
ences to them have been removed; only once a media element is in a state where no further audio
could ever be played by that element may the element be garbage collected.
NOTE:
It is possible for an element to which no explicit references exist to play audio, even if such an
element is not still actively playing: for instance, a media element whose media resource has
no audio tracks could eventually play audio again if it had an event listener that changes the
media resource.
Each media element has a list of newly introduced cues, which must be initially empty. When-
ever a text track cue is added to the list of cues of a text track that is in the list of text tracks for a
media element, that cue must be added to the media elements list of newly introduced cues.
Whenever a text track is added to the list of text tracks for a media element, all of the cues in that
text tracks list of cues must be added to the media elements list of newly introduced cues. When
a media elements list of newly introduced cues has new cues added while the media elements
show poster flag is not set, then the user agent must run the time marches on steps.
When a text track cue is removed from the list of cues of a text track that is in the list of text tracks
for a media element, and whenever a text track is removed from the list of text tracks of a media
element, if the media elements show poster flag is not set, then the user agent must run the time
marches on steps.
When the current playback position of a media element changes (e.g., due to playback or seeking),
the user agent must run the time marches on steps. If the current playback position changes while
the steps are running, then the user agent must wait for the steps to complete, and then must imme-
diately rerun the steps. (These steps are thus run as often as possible or needed if one iteration
takes a long time, this can cause certain cues to be skipped over as the user agent rushes ahead to
"catch up".)
1. Let current cues be a list of cues, initialized to contain all the cues of all the hidden or show-
ing text tracks of the media element (not the disabled ones) whose start times are less than or
equal to the current playback position and whose end times are greater than the current play-
back position.
2. Let other cues be a list of cues, initialized to contain all the cues of hidden and showing text
tracks of the media element that are not present in current cues .
3. Let last time be the current playback position at the time this algorithm was last run for this
media element, if this is not the first time it has run.
4. If the current playback position has, since the last time this algorithm was run, only changed
through its usual monotonic increase during normal playback, then let missed cues be the list
of cues in other cues whose start times are greater than or equal to last time and whose end
times are less than or equal to the current playback position. Otherwise, let missed cues be an
empty list.
5. Remove all the cues in missed cues that are also in the media elements list of newly intro-
duced cues, and then empty the elements list of newly introduced cues.
6. If the time was reached through the usual monotonic increase of the current playback position
during normal playback, and if the user agent has not fired a timeupdate event at the element
in the past 15 to 250ms and is not still running event handlers for such an event, then the user
agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named timeupdate at the element. (In the other
cases, such as explicit seeks, relevant events get fired as part of the overall process of chang-
ing the current playback position.)
NOTE:
The event thus is not to be fired faster than about 66Hz or slower than 4Hz (assuming the
event handlers dont take longer than 250ms to run). User agents are encouraged to vary
the frequency of the event based on the system load and the average cost of processing the
event each time, so that the UI updates are not any more frequent than the user agent can
comfortably handle while decoding the video.
7. If all of the cues in current cues have their text track cue active flag set, none of the cues in
other cues have their text track cue active flag set, and missed cues is empty, then abort
these steps.
8. If the time was reached through the usual monotonic increase of the current playback position
during normal playback, and there are cues in other cues that have their text track cue pause-
on-exit flag set and that either have their text track cue active flag set or are also in missed
cues , then immediately pause the media element.
NOTE:
In the other cases, such as explicit seeks, playback is not paused by going past the end
time of a cue, even if that cue has its text track cue pause-on-exit flag set.
9. Let events be a list of tasks, initially empty. Each task in this list will be associated with a
text track, a text track cue, and a time, which are used to sort the list before the tasks are
queued.
When the steps below say to prepare an event named event for a text track cue target with
a time time , the user agent must run these substeps:
1. Let track be the text track with which the text track cue target is associated.
3. Add the newly created task to events , associated with the time time , the text track
track , and the text track cue target .
10. For each text track cue in missed cues , prepare an event named enter for the TextTrackCue
object with the text track cue start time.
11. For each text track cue in other cues that either has its text track cue active flag set or is in
missed cues , prepare an event named exit for the TextTrackCue object with the later of the
text track cue end time and the text track cue start time.
12. For each text track cue in current cues that does not have its text track cue active flag set,
prepare an event named enter for the TextTrackCue object with the text track cue start time.
13. Sort the tasks in events in ascending time order (tasks with earlier times first).
Further sort tasks in events that have the same time by the relative text track cue order of the
text track cues associated with these tasks.
Finally, sort tasks in events that have the same time and same text track cue order by placing
tasks that fire enter events before those that fire exit events.
15. Sort affected tracks in the same order as the text tracks appear in the media elements list of
text tracks, and remove duplicates.
16. For each text track in affected tracks , in the list order, queue a task to fire a simple event
named cuechange at the TextTrack object, and, if the text track has a corresponding
<track> element, to then fire a simple event named cuechange at the <track> element as well.
17. Set the text track cue active flag of all the cues in the current cues , and unset the text track
cue active flag of all the cues in the other cues .
18. Run the rules for updating the text track rendering of each of the text tracks in affected tracks
that are showing, providing the text tracks text track language as the fallback language if it is
not the empty string. For example, for text tracks based on WebVTT, the rules for updating
the display of WebVTT text tracks. [WEBVTT]
For the purposes of the algorithm above, a text track cue is considered to be part of a text track
only if it is listed in the text track list of cues, not merely if it is associated with the text track.
NOTE:
If the media elements node document stops being a fully active document, then the playback
will stop until the document is active again.
When a media element is removed from a Document, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Await a stable state, allowing the task that removed the media element from the Document to
continue. The synchronous section consists of all the remaining steps of this algorithm. (Steps
in the synchronous section are marked with .)
4.7.13.9. Seeking
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . seeking
Returns true if the user agent is currently seeking.
media . seekable
Returns a TimeRanges object that represents the ranges of the media resource to which it
is possible for the user agent to seek.
This does nothing if the media resource has not been loaded.
The fastSeek() method must seek to the time given by the methods argument, with the
approximate-for-speed flag set.
When the user agent is required to seek to a particular new playback position in the media re-
source, optionally with the approximate-for-speed flag set, it means that the user agent must run
the following steps. This algorithm interacts closely with the event loop mechanism; in particular,
it has a synchronous section (which is triggered as part of the event loop algorithm). Steps in that
section are marked with .
3. If the elements seeking IDL attribute is true, then another instance of this algorithm is al-
ready running. Abort that other instance of the algorithm without waiting for the step that it is
running to complete.
5. If the seek was in response to a DOM method call or setting of an IDL attribute, then con-
tinue the script. The remainder of these steps must be run in parallel. With the exception of
the steps marked with , they could be aborted at any time by another instance of this algo-
rithm being invoked.
6. If the new playback position is later than the end of the media resource, then let it be the end
of the media resource instead.
7. If the new playback position is less than the earliest possible position, let it be that position
instead.
8. If the (possibly now changed) new playback position is not in one of the ranges given in the
seekable attribute, then let it be the position in one of the ranges given in the seekable at-
tribute that is the nearest to the new playback position . If two positions both satisfy that con-
straint (i.e., the new playback position is exactly in the middle between two ranges in the
seekable attribute) then use the position that is closest to the current playback position. If
there are no ranges given in the seekable attribute then set the seeking IDL attribute to false
and abort these steps.
9. If the approximate-for-speed flag is set, adjust the new playback position to a value that will
allow for playback to resume promptly. If new playback position before this step is before
current playback position, then the adjusted new playback position must also be before the
current playback position. Similarly, if the new playback position before this step is after
current playback position, then the adjusted new playback position must also be after the
EXAMPLE 435
For example, the user agent could snap to a nearby key frame, so that it doesnt have to
spend time decoding then discarding intermediate frames before resuming playback.
10. Queue a task to fire a simple event named seeking at the element.
11. Set the current playback position to the new playback position .
NOTE:
If the media element was potentially playing immediately before it started seeking, but
seeking caused its readyState attribute to change to a value lower than
HAVE_FUTURE_DATA, then a waiting event will be fired at the element.
NOTE:
This step sets the current playback position, and thus can immediately trigger other condi-
tions, such as the rules regarding when playback "reaches the end of the media resource"
(part of the logic that handles looping), even before the user agent is actually able to ren-
der the media data for that position (as determined in the next step).
NOTE:
The currentTime attribute returns the official playback position, not the current playback
position, and therefore gets updated before script execution, separate from this algorithm.
12. Wait until the user agent has established whether or not the media data for the new playback
position is available, and, if it is, until it has decoded enough data to play back that position.
13. Await a stable state. The synchronous section consists of all the remaining steps of this algo-
rithm. (Steps in the synchronous section are marked with .)
16. Queue a task to fire a simple event named timeupdate at the element.
17. Queue a task to fire a simple event named seeked at the element.
The seekable attribute must return a new static normalized TimeRanges object that represents the
ranges of the media resource, if any, that the user agent is able to seek to, at the time the attribute is
evaluated.
NOTE:
If the user agent can seek to anywhere in the media resource, e.g., because it is a simple movie
file and the user agent and the server support HTTP Range requests, then the attribute would
return an object with one range, whose start is the time of the first frame (the earliest possible
position, typically zero), and whose end is the time of the last frame.
NOTE:
The range might be continuously changing, e.g., if the user agent is buffering a sliding window
on an infinite stream. This is the behavior seen with DVRs viewing live TV, for instance.
User agents should adopt a very liberal and optimistic view of what is seekable. User agents
should also buffer recent content where possible to enable seeking to be fast.
EXAMPLE 436
For instance, consider a large video file served on an HTTP server without support for HTTP
Range requests. A browser could implement this by only buffering the current frame and data
obtained for subsequent frames, never allow seeking, except for seeking to the very start by
restarting the playback. However, this would be a poor implementation. A high quality imple-
mentation would buffer the last few minutes of content (or more, if sufficient storage space is
available), allowing the user to jump back and rewatch something surprizing without any la-
tency, and would in addition allow arbitrary seeking by reloading the file from the start if nec-
essary, which would be slower but still more convenient than having to literally restart the
video and watch it all the way through just to get to an earlier unbuffered spot.
Media resources might be internally scripted or interactive. Thus, a media element could play in a
non-linear fashion. If this happens, the user agent must act as if the algorithm for seeking was used
whenever the current playback position changes in a discontinuous fashion (so that the relevant
events fire).
A media resource can have multiple embedded audio and video tracks. For example, in addition to
the primary video and audio tracks, a media resource could have foreign-language dubbed dialogs,
directors commentaries, audio descriptions, alternative angles, or sign-language overlays.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . audioTracks
Returns an AudioTrackList object representing the audio tracks available in the media
resource.
media . videoTracks
Returns a VideoTrackList object representing the video tracks available in the media
resource.
The audioTracks attribute of a media element must return a live AudioTrackList object repre-
senting the audio tracks available in the media elements media resource.
The videoTracks attribute of a media element must return a live VideoTrackList object repre-
senting the video tracks available in the media elements media resource.
NOTE:
There are only ever one AudioTrackList object and one VideoTrackList object per media
element, even if another media resource is loaded into the element: the objects are reused. (The
AudioTrack and VideoTrack objects are not, though.)
EXAMPLE 437
In this example, a script defines a function that takes a URL to a video and a reference to an el-
ement where the video is to be placed. That function then tries to load the video, and, once it is
loaded, checks to see if there is a sign-language track available. If there is, it also displays that
track. Both tracks are just placed in the given container; its assumed that styles have been ap-
plied to make this work in a pretty way!
<script>
function loadVideo(url, container) {
var video = document.createElement('video');
video.src = url;
video.autoplay = true;
video.controls = true;
container.appendChild(video);
video.videoTracks.onaddtrack = function (event) {
if (event.track.kind == 'sign') {
var sign = document.createElement('video');
sign.src = url + '#track=' + event.track.id;
sign.autoplay = true;
container.appendChild(sign);
return;
}
};
}
</script>
The AudioTrackList and VideoTrackList interfaces are used by attributes defined in the previ-
ous section.
interface AudioTrack {
readonly attribute DOMString id;
readonly attribute DOMString kind;
readonly attribute DOMString label;
readonly attribute DOMString language;
attribute boolean enabled;
};
interface VideoTrack {
readonly attribute DOMString id;
readonly attribute DOMString kind;
readonly attribute DOMString label;
readonly attribute DOMString language;
attribute boolean selected;
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . audioTracks . length
audioTrack . id
videoTrack . id
Returns the ID of the given track. This is the ID that can be used with a fragment if the
format supports the media fragments syntax, and that can be used with the
getTrackById() method. [MEDIA-FRAGS]
audioTrack . kind
videoTrack . kind
Returns the category the given track falls into. The possible track categories are given
below.
audioTrack . label
videoTrack . label
Returns the label of the given track, if known, or the empty string otherwise.
audioTrack . language
videoTrack . language
Returns the language of the given track, if known, or the empty string otherwise.
Can be set, to change whether the track is selected or not. Either zero or one video track
is selected; selecting a new track while a previous one is selected will unselect the previ-
ous one.
An AudioTrackList object represents a dynamic list of zero or more audio tracks, of which zero
or more can be enabled at a time. Each audio track is represented by an AudioTrack object.
A VideoTrackList object represents a dynamic list of zero or more video tracks, of which zero
or one can be selected at a time. Each video track is represented by a VideoTrack object.
NOTE:
Each track in one of these objects thus has an index; the first has the index 0, and each subse-
quent track is numbered one higher than the previous one. If a media resource dynamically
adds or removes audio or video tracks, then the indices of the tracks will change dynamically.
If the media resource changes entirely, then all the previous tracks will be removed and re-
placed with new tracks.
The supported property indices of AudioTrackList and VideoTrackList objects at any instant
are the numbers from zero to the number of tracks represented by the respective object minus one,
if any tracks are represented. If an AudioTrackList or VideoTrackList object represents no
tracks, it has no supported property indices.
To determine the value of an indexed property for a given index index in an AudioTrackList or
VideoTrackList object list , the user agent must return the AudioTrack or VideoTrack object
that represents the index th track in list .
The AudioTrack and VideoTrack objects represent specific tracks of a media resource. Each track
can have an identifier, category, label, and language. These aspects of a track are permanent for the
lifetime of the track; even if a track is removed from a media resources AudioTrackList or
VideoTrackList objects, those aspects do not change.
In addition, AudioTrack objects can each be enabled or disabled; this is the audio tracks enabled
state. When an AudioTrack is created, its enabled state must be set to false (disabled). The re-
source fetch algorithm can override this.
Similarly, a single VideoTrack object per VideoTrackList object can be selected, this is the
video tracks selection state. When a VideoTrack is created, its selection state must be set to false
(not selected). The resource fetch algorithm can override this.
The AudioTrack.id and VideoTrack.id attributes must return the identifier of the track, if it has
one, or the empty string otherwise. If the media resource is in a format that supports the Media
Fragments URI fragment identifier syntax, the identifier returned for a particular track must be the
same identifier that would enable the track if used as the name of a track in the track dimension of
such a fragment identifier. [MEDIA-FRAGS] [INBANDTRACKS]
EXAMPLE 438
For example, in Ogg files, this would be the Name header field of the track.
[OGGSKELETON]
The AudioTrack.kind and VideoTrack.kind attributes must return the category of the track, if it
has one, or the empty string otherwise.
The category of a track is the string given in the first column of the table below that is the most ap-
propriate for the track based on the definitions in the tables second and third columns, as deter-
mined by the metadata included in the track in the media resource. The cell in the third column of
a row says what the category given in the cell in the first column of that row applies to; a category
is only appropriate for an audio track if it applies to audio tracks, and a category is only appropri-
ate for video tracks if it applies to video tracks. Categories must only be returned for AudioTrack
objects if they are appropriate for audio, and must only be returned for VideoTrack objects if they
are appropriate for video.
"alternative" A possible alternative to the main track, e.g., a different take of a Audio and
song (audio), or a different angle (video). video.
"captions" A version of the main video track with captions burnt in. (For Video only.
legacy content; new content would use text tracks.)
"descriptions" An audio description of a video track. Audio only.
"main" The primary audio or video track. Audio and
video.
"main-desc" The primary audio track, mixed with audio descriptions. Audio only.
"sign" A sign-language interpretation of an audio track. Video only.
The AudioTrack.label and VideoTrack.label attributes must return the label of the track, if it
has one, or the empty string otherwise. [INBANDTRACKS]
The AudioTrack.language and VideoTrack.language attributes must return the BCP 47 lan-
guage tag of the language of the track, if it has one, or the empty string otherwise. If the user agent
is not able to express that language as a BCP 47 language tag (for example because the language
information in the media resources format is a free-form string without a defined interpretation),
then the method must return the empty string, as if the track had no language.
Source attribute values for id, kind, label and language of multitrack audio and video tracks as de-
scribed for the relevant media resource format. [INBANDTRACKS]
The AudioTrack.enabled attribute, on getting, must return true if the track is currently enabled,
and false otherwise. On setting, it must enable the track if the new value is true, and disable it oth-
erwise. (If the track is no longer in an AudioTrackList object, then the track being enabled or
disabled has no effect beyond changing the value of the attribute on the AudioTrack object.)
Whenever an audio track in an AudioTrackList that was disabled is enabled, and whenever one
that was enabled is disabled, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named change
at the AudioTrackList object.
An audio track that has no data for a particular position on the media timeline, or that does not ex-
ist at that position, must be interpreted as being silent at that point on the timeline.
The VideoTrackList.selectedIndex attribute must return the index of the currently selected
track, if any. If the VideoTrackList object does not currently represent any tracks, or if none of
the tracks are selected, it must instead return -1.
The VideoTrack.selected attribute, on getting, must return true if the track is currently selected,
and false otherwise. On setting, it must select the track if the new value is true, and unselect it oth-
erwise. If the track is in a VideoTrackList, then all the other VideoTrack objects in that list
must be unselected. (If the track is no longer in a VideoTrackList object, then the track being
selected or unselected has no effect beyond changing the value of the attribute on the
VideoTrack object.)
Whenever a track in a VideoTrackList that was previously not selected is selected, and whenever
the selected track in a VideoTrackList is unselected without a new track being selected in its
stead, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named change at the
VideoTrackList object. This task must be queued before the task that fires the resize event, if
any.
A video track that has no data for a particular position on the media timeline must be interpreted as
being fully transparent black at that point on the timeline, with the same dimensions as the last
frame before that position, or, if the position is before all the data for that track, the same dimen-
sions as the first frame for that track. A track that does not exist at all at the current position must
be treated as if it existed but had no data.
EXAMPLE 439
For instance, if a video has a track that is only introduced after one hour of playback, and the
user selects that track then goes back to the start, then the user agent will act as if that track
started at the start of the media resource but was simply transparent until one hour in.
The following are the event handlers (and their corresponding event handler event types) that must
be supported, as event handler IDL attributes, by all objects implementing the AudioTrackList
and VideoTrackList interfaces:
onchange change
onaddtrack addtrack
onremovetrack removetrack
The audioTracks and videoTracks attributes allow scripts to select which track should play, but
it is also possible to select specific tracks declaratively, by specifying particular tracks in the frag-
ment of the URL of the media resource. The format of the fragment depends on the MIME type of
the media resource. [RFC2046] [URL]
EXAMPLE 440
In this example, a video that uses a format that supports the media fragments syntax is embed-
ded in such a way that the alternative angles labeled "Alternative" are enabled instead of the
default video track. [MEDIA-FRAGS]
<video src="myvideo#track=Alternative"></video>
A media element can have a group of associated text tracks, known as the media elements list of
text tracks. The text tracks are sorted as follows:
1. The text tracks corresponding to <track> element children of the media element, in tree order.
2. Any text tracks added using the addTextTrack() method, in the order they were added, old-
est first.
3. Any media-resource-specific text tracks (text tracks corresponding to data in the media re-
source), in the order defined by the media resources format specification.
subtitles
captions
descriptions
chapters
metadata
The kind of track can change dynamically, in the case of a text track corresponding to a
<track> element.
A label
This is a human-readable string intended to identify the track for the user.
The label of a track can change dynamically, in the case of a text track corresponding to a
<track> element.
When a text track label is the empty string, the user agent should automatically generate an
appropriate label from the text tracks other properties (e.g., the kind of text track and the text
tracks language) for use in its user interface. This automatically-generated label is not ex-
posed in the API.
EXAMPLE 441
For example, a traditional TV station broadcast streamed on the Web and augmented with
Web-specific interactive features could include text tracks with metadata for ad targeting,
trivia game data during game shows, player states during sports games, recipe information
during food programs, and so forth. As each program starts and ends, new tracks might be
added or removed from the stream, and as each one is added, the user agent could bind
them to dedicated script modules using the value of this attribute.
Other than for in-band metadata text tracks, the in-band metadata track dispatch type is the
empty string. How this value is populated for different media formats is described in steps to
expose a media-resource-specific text track.
A language
This is a string (a BCP 47 language tag) representing the language of the text tracks cues.
[BCP47]
The language of a text track can change dynamically, in the case of a text track corresponding
to a <track> element.
A readiness state
One of the following:
Not loaded
Indicates that the text tracks cues have not been obtained.
Loading
Indicates that the text track is loading and there have been no fatal errors encountered so
far. Further cues might still be added to the track by the parser.
Loaded
Indicates that the text track has been loaded with no fatal errors.
Failed to load
Indicates that the text track was enabled, but when the user agent attempted to obtain it,
this failed in some way (e.g., URL could not be parsed, network error, unknown text
track format). Some or all of the cues are likely missing and will not be obtained.
The readiness state of a text track changes dynamically as the track is obtained.
A mode
One of the following:
Disabled
Indicates that the text track is not active. Other than for the purposes of exposing the
track in the DOM, the user agent is ignoring the text track. No cues are active, no events
are fired, and the user agent will not attempt to obtain the tracks cues.
Hidden
Indicates that the text track is active, but that the user agent is not actively displaying the
cues. If no attempt has yet been made to obtain the tracks cues, the user agent will per-
form such an attempt momentarily. The user agent is maintaining a list of which cues are
active, and events are being fired accordingly.
Showing
Indicates that the text track is active. If no attempt has yet been made to obtain the
tracks cues, the user agent will perform such an attempt momentarily. The user agent is
maintaining a list of which cues are active, and events are being fired accordingly. In ad-
dition, for text tracks whose kind is subtitles or captions, the cues are being overlaid
on the video as appropriate; for text tracks whose kind is descriptions, the user agent
is making the cues available to the user in a non-visual fashion; and for text tracks whose
kind is chapters, the user agent is making available to the user a mechanism by which
the user can navigate to any point in the media resource by selecting a cue.
The list of cues of a text track can change dynamically, either because the text track has not
yet been loaded or is still loading, or due to DOM manipulation.
Each media element has a list of pending text tracks, which must initially be empty, a blocked-
on-parser flag, which must initially be false, and a did-perform-automatic-track-selection flag,
which must also initially be false.
When the user agent is required to populate the list of pending text tracks of a media element,
the user agent must add to the elements list of pending text tracks each text track in the elements
list of text tracks whose text track mode is not disabled and whose text track readiness state is
loading.
Whenever a <track> elements parent node changes, the user agent must remove the corresponding
text track from any list of pending text tracks that it is in.
Whenever a text tracks text track readiness state changes to either loaded or failed to load, the
user agent must remove it from any list of pending text tracks that it is in.
When a media element is created by an HTML parser or XML parser, the user agent must set the
elements blocked-on-parser flag to true. When a media element is popped off the stack of open el-
ements of an HTML parser or XML parser, the user agent must honor user preferences for auto-
matic text track selection, populate the list of pending text tracks, and set the elements blocked-
on-parser flag to false.
The text tracks of a media element are ready when both the elements list of pending text tracks is
empty and the elements blocked-on-parser flag is false.
Each media element has a pending text track change notification flag, which must initially be
unset.
Whenever a text track that is in a media elements list of text tracks has its text track mode change
value, the user agent must run the following steps for the media element:
1. If the media elements pending text track change notification flag is set, abort these steps.
2. Set the media elements pending text track change notification flag.
1. Unset the media elements pending text track change notification flag.
2. Fire a simple event named change at the media elements textTracks attributes
TextTrackList object.
4. If the media elements show poster flag is not set, run the time marches on steps.
The task source for the tasks listed in this section is the DOM manipulation task source.
A text track cue is the unit of time-sensitive data in a text track, corresponding for instance for
subtitles and captions to the text that appears at a particular time and disappears at another time.
An identifier
An arbitrary string.
A start time
The time, in seconds and fractions of a second, that describes the beginning of the range of
the media data to which the cue applies.
An end time
The time, in seconds and fractions of a second, that describes the end of the range of the me-
dia data to which the cue applies.
A pause-on-exit flag
A boolean indicating whether playback of the media resource is to pause when the end of the
range to which the cue applies is reached.
NOTE:
The text track cue start time and text track cue end time can be negative. (The current playback
position can never be negative, though, so cues entirely before time zero cannot be active.)
Each text track cue has a corresponding TextTrackCue object (or more specifically, an object that
inherits from TextTrackCue for example, WebVTT cues use the VTTCue interface). A text track
cues in-memory representation can be dynamically changed through this TextTrackCue API.
[WEBVTT]
A text track cue is associated with rules for updating the text track rendering, as defined by the
specification for the specific kind of text track cue. These rules are used specifically when the ob-
ject representing the cue is added to a TextTrack object using the addCue() method.
In addition, each text track cue has two pieces of dynamic information:
The user agent must immediately unset this flag whenever the text track cue is removed from
its text tracks text track list of cues; whenever the text track itself is removed from its media
elements list of text tracks or has its text track mode changed to disabled; and whenever the
media elements readyState is changed back to HAVE_NOTHING. When the flag is unset in
this way for one or more cues in text tracks that were showing prior to the relevant incident,
the user agent must, after having unset the flag for all the affected cues, apply the rules for
updating the text track rendering of those text tracks. For example, for text tracks based on
WebVTT, the rules for updating the display of WebVTT text tracks. [WEBVTT]
The text track cues of a media elements text tracks are ordered relative to each other in the text
track cue order, which is determined as follows: first group the cues by their text track, with the
groups being sorted in the same order as their text tracks appear in the media elements list of text
tracks; then, within each group, cues must be sorted by their start time, earliest first; then, any cues
with the same start time must be sorted by their end time, latest first; and finally, any cues with
identical end times must be sorted in the order they were last added to their respective text track
list of cues, oldest first (so e.g., for cues from a WebVTT file, that would initially be the order in
which the cues were listed in the file). [WEBVTT]
A media-resource-specific text track is a text track that corresponds to data found in the media
resource.
Rules for processing and rendering such data are defined by the relevant specifications, e.g., the
specification of the video format if the media resource is a video. Details for some legacy formats
can be found in the Sourcing In-band Media Resource Tracks from Media Containers into HTML
specification. [INBANDTRACKS]
When a media resource contains data that the user agent recognizes and supports as being equiva-
lent to a text track, the user agent runs the steps to expose a media-resource-specific text track
with the relevant data, as follows.
1. Associate the relevant data with a new text track and its corresponding new TextTrack ob-
ject. The text track is a media-resource-specific text track.
2. Set the new text tracks kind, label, and language based on the semantics of the relevant data,
as defined for the relevant format [INBANDTRACKS]. If there is no label in that data, then
the label must be set to the empty string.
3. Associate the text track list of cues with the rules for updating the text track rendering appro-
priate for the format in question.
4. If the new text tracks kind is metadata, then set the text track in-band metadata track dis-
patch type as follows, based on the type of the media resource:
Otherwise, if the stsd box has a mett box then the text track in-band metadata track
dispatch type must be set to the concatenation of the string "mett", a U+0020
SPACE character, and the value of the first mime_format field of the first mett box
of the stsd box, or the empty string if that field is absent in that box.
Otherwise, if the stsd box has no mett box but has a metx box then the text track in-
band metadata track dispatch type must be set to the concatenation of the string
"metx", a U+0020 SPACE character, and the value of the first namespace field of
the first metx box of the stsd box, or the empty string if that field is absent in that
box.
[MPEG4]
5. Populate the new text tracks list of cues with the cues parsed so far, following the guidelines
for exposing cues, and begin updating it dynamically as necessary.
7. Set the new text tracks mode to the mode consistent with the users preferences and the re-
quirements of the relevant specification for the data.
NOTE:
For instance, if there are no other active subtitles, and this is a forced subtitle track (a sub-
title track giving subtitles in the audio tracks primary language, but only for audio that is
actually in another language), then those subtitles might be activated here.
8. Add the new text track to the media elements list of text tracks.
9. Fire a trusted event with the name addtrack, that does not bubble and is not cancelable, and
that uses the TrackEvent interface, with the track attribute initialized to the text tracks
TextTrack object, at the media elements textTracks attributes TextTrackList object.
When a <track> element is created, it must be associated with a new text track (with its value set
as defined below) and its corresponding new TextTrack object.
The text track kind is determined from the state of the elements kind attribute according to the
following table; for a state given in a cell of the first column, the kind is the string given in the sec-
ond column:
State String
Subtitles subtitles
Captions captions
Descriptions descriptions
Chapters chapters
Metadata metadata
The text track language is the elements track language, if any, or the empty string otherwise.
As the kind, label, and srclang attributes are set, changed, or removed, the text track must up-
date accordingly, as per the definitions above.
NOTE:
Changes to the track URL are handled in the algorithm below.
The text track readiness state is initially not loaded, and the text track mode is initially disabled.
The text track list of cues is initially empty. It is dynamically modified when the referenced file is
parsed. Associated with the list are the rules for updating the text track rendering appropriate for
the format in question; for WebVTT, this is the rules for updating the display of WebVTT text
tracks. [WEBVTT]
When a <track> elements parent element changes and the new parent is a media element, then the
user agent must add the <track> elements corresponding text track to the media elements list of
text tracks, and then queue a task to fire a trusted event with the name addtrack, that does not
bubble and is not cancelable, and that uses the TrackEvent interface, with the track attribute ini-
tialized to the text tracks TextTrack object, at the media elements textTracks attributes
TextTrackList object.
When a <track> elements parent element changes and the old parent was a media element, then
the user agent must remove the <track> elements corresponding text track from the media ele-
ments list of text tracks, and then queue a task to fire a trusted event with the name removetrack,
that does not bubble and is not cancelable, and that uses the TrackEvent interface, with the
track attribute initialized to the text tracks TextTrack object, at the media elements
textTracks attributes TextTrackList object.
When a text track corresponding to a <track> element is added to a media elements list of text
tracks, the user agent must queue a task to run the following steps for the media element:
3. Honor user preferences for automatic text track selection for this element.
When the user agent is required to honor user preferences for automatic text track selection for
a media element, the user agent must run the following steps:
4. If there are any text tracks in the media elements list of text tracks whose text track kind is
metadata that correspond to track elements with a default attribute set whose text track
mode is set to disabled, then set the text track mode of all such tracks to hidden
When the steps above say to perform automatic text track selection for one or more text track
kinds, it means to run the following steps:
1. Let candidates be a list consisting of the text tracks in the media elements list of text tracks
whose text track kind is one of the kinds that were passed to the algorithm, if any, in the order
given in the list of text tracks.
3. If any of the text tracks in candidates have a text track mode set to showing, abort these
steps.
4. If the user has expressed an interest in having a track from candidates enabled based on its
text track kind, text track language, and text track label, then set its text track mode to show-
ing.
NOTE:
For example, the user could have set a browser preference to the effect of "I want French
captions whenever possible", or "If there is a subtitle track with "Commentary" in the ti-
tle, enable it", or "If there are audio description tracks available, enable one, ideally in
Swiss German, but failing that in Standard Swiss German or Standard German".
Otherwise, if there are any text tracks in candidates that correspond to <track> elements with
a default attribute set whose text track mode is set to disabled, then set the text track mode
of the first such track to showing.
When a text track corresponding to a <track> element experiences any of the following circum-
stances, the user agent must start the track processing model for that text track and its <track> el-
ement:
The <track> elements parent element changes and the new parent is a media element.
When a user agent is to start the track processing model for a text track and its <track> element,
it must run the following algorithm. This algorithm interacts closely with the event loop mecha-
nism; in particular, it has a synchronous section (which is triggered as part of the event loop algo-
rithm). The steps in that section are marked with .
1. If another occurrence of this algorithm is already running for this text track and its <track> el-
ement, abort these steps, letting that other algorithm take care of this element.
2. If the text tracks text track mode is not set to one of hidden or showing, abort these steps.
3. If the text tracks <track> element does not have a media element as a parent, abort these
steps.
4. Run the remainder of these steps in parallel, allowing whatever caused these steps to run to
continue.
5. Top: Await a stable state. The synchronous section consists of the following steps. (The steps
in the synchronous section are marked with .)
8. If the <track> elements parent is a media element then let corsAttributeState be the state
of the parent media elements crossorigin content attribute. Otherwise, let corsAttributeS-
tate be No CORS.
1. Let request be the result of creating a potential-CORS request given URL , corsAt-
tributeState , and with the same-origin fallback flag set.
2. Set request s client to the <track> elements node documents Window objects environ-
ment settings object and type to "track".
3. Fetch request .
The tasks queued by the fetching algorithm on the networking task source to process the data
as it is being fetched must determine the type of the resource. If the type of the resource is not
a supported text track format, the load will fail, as described below. Otherwise, the resources
data must be passed to the appropriate parser (e.g., the WebVTT parser) as it is received, with
the text track list of cues being used for that parsers output. [WEBVTT]
NOTE:
The appropriate parser will incrementally update the text track list of cues during these
networking task source tasks, as each such task is run with whatever data has been re-
ceived from the network).
This specification does not currently say whether or how to check the MIME types
of text tracks, or whether or how to perform file type sniffing using the actual file
data. Implementors differ in their intentions on this matter and it is therefore un-
clear what the right solution is. In the absence of any requirement here, the HTTP
specifications strict requirement to follow the Content-Type header prevails
("Content-Type specifies the media type of the underlying data." ... "If and only if
the media type is not given by a Content-Type field, the recipient MAY attempt to
guess the media type via inspection of its content and/or the name extension(s) of
the URI used to identify the resource.").
If the fetching algorithm fails for any reason (network error, the server returns an error code, a
cross-origin check fails, etc), or if URL is the empty string, then queue a task to first change
the text track readiness state to failed to load and then fire a simple event named error at the
<track> element. This task must use the DOM manipulation task source.
If the fetching algorithm does not fail, but the type of the resource is not a supported text
track format, or the file was not successfully processed (e.g., the format in question is an
XML format and the file contained a well-formedness error that the XML specification re-
quires be detected and reported to the application), then the task that is queued by the net-
working task source in which the aforementioned problem is found must change the text track
readiness state to failed to load and fire a simple event named error at the <track> element.
If the fetching algorithm does not fail, and the file was successfully processed, then the final
task that is queued by the networking task source, after it has finished parsing the data, must
change the text track readiness state to loaded, and fire a simple event named load at the
<track> element.
the track URL changes so that it is no longer equal to URL , while the text track mode is
set to hidden or showing; or
the text track mode changes to hidden or showing, while the track URL is not equal to
URL
...then the user agent must abort fetching, discarding any pending tasks generated by that al-
gorithm (and in particular, not adding any cues to the text track list of cues after the moment
the URL changed), and then queue a task that first changes the text track readiness state to
failed to load and then fires a simple event named error at the <track> element. This task
must use the DOM manipulation task source.
11. Wait until the text track readiness state is no longer set to loading.
12. Wait until the track URL is no longer equal to URL , at the same time as the text track mode
is set to hidden or showing.
Whenever a <track> element has its src attribute set, changed, or removed, the user agent must
immediately empty the elements text tracks text track list of cues. (This also causes the algorithm
above to stop adding cues from the resource being obtained using the previously given URL, if
any.)
4.7.13.11.4. GUIDELINES FOR EXPOSING CUES IN VARIOUS FORMATS AS TEXT TRACK CUES
How a specific formats text track cues are to be interpreted for the purposes of processing by an
HTML user agent is defined by that format [INBANDTRACKS]. In the absence of such a specifi-
cation, this section provides some constraints within which implementations can attempt to consis-
tently expose such formats.
To support the text track model of HTML, each unit of timed data is converted to a text track cue.
Where the mapping of the formats features to the aspects of a text track cue as defined in this
specification are not defined, implementations must ensure that the mapping is consistent with the
definitions of the aspects of a text track cue as defined above, as well as with the following con-
straints:
For media-resource-specific text tracks of kind metadata, text track cues are exposed using the
DataCue object unless there is a more appropriate TextTrackCue interface available. For example,
if the media-resource-specific text track format is WebVTT, then VTTCue is more appropriate.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . textTracks . length
Returns the number of text tracks associated with the media element (e.g., from <track>
elements). This is the number of text tracks in the media elements list of text tracks.
media . textTracks[ n ]
Returns the TextTrack object representing the n th text track in the media elements
list of text tracks.
A TextTrackList object represents a dynamically updating list of text tracks in a given order.
The textTracks attribute of media elements must return a TextTrackList object representing
the TextTrack objects of the text tracks in the media elements list of text tracks, in the same or-
der as in the list of text tracks.
The length attribute of a TextTrackList object must return the number of text tracks in the list
represented by the TextTrackList object.
The supported property indices of a TextTrackList object at any instant are the numbers from
zero to the number of text tracks in the list represented by the TextTrackList object minus one,
if any. If there are no text tracks in the list, there are no supported property indices.
To determine the value of an indexed property of a TextTrackList object for a given index in-
dex , the user agent must return the index th text track in the list represented by the
TextTrackList object.
The getTrackById( id ) method must return the first TextTrack in the TextTrackList object
whose id IDL attribute would return a value equal to the value of the id argument. When no tracks
match the given argument, the method must return null.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
textTrack = media . addTextTrack( kind [, label [, language ] ] )
Creates and returns a new TextTrack object, which is also added to the media ele-
ments list of text tracks.
textTrack . kind
Returns the text track kind string.
textTrack . label
Returns the text track label, if there is one, or the empty string otherwise (indicating that
a custom label probably needs to be generated from the other attributes of the object if
the object is exposed to the user).
textTrack . language
Returns the text track language string.
textTrack . id
Returns the ID of the given track.
For in-band tracks, this is the ID that can be used with a fragment if the format supports
the media fragments syntax/cite>, and that can be used with the getTrackById()
method. [MEDIA-FRAGS]
For TextTrack objects corresponding to <track> elements, this is the ID of the <track>
element.
textTrack . inBandMetadataTrackDispatchType
Returns the text track in-band metadata track dispatch type string.
"hidden"
The text track hidden mode.
"showing"
The text track showing mode.
textTrack . cues
Returns the text track list of cues, as a TextTrackCueList object.
textTrack . activeCues
Returns the text track cues from the text track list of cues that are currently active (i.e.,
that start before the current playback position and end after it), as a TextTrackCueList
object.
The addTextTrack( kind , label , language ) method of media elements, when invoked, must
run the following steps:
2. Create a new text track corresponding to the new object, and set its text track kind to kind , its
text track label to label , its text track language to language , its text track readiness state to
the text track loaded state, its text track mode to the text track hidden mode, and its text track
Initially, the text track list of cues is not associated with any rules for updating the text track
rendering. When a text track cue is added to it, the text track list of cues has its rules perma-
nently set accordingly.
3. Add the new text track to the media elements list of text tracks.
4. Queue a task to fire a trusted event with the name addtrack, that does not bubble and is not
cancelable, and that uses the TrackEvent interface, with the track attribute initialized to the
new text tracks TextTrack object, at the media elements textTracks attributes
TextTrackList object.
The kind attribute must return the text track kind of the text track that the TextTrack object rep-
resents.
The label attribute must return the text track label of the text track that the TextTrack object
represents.
The language attribute must return the text track language of the text track that the TextTrack
object represents.
The id attribute returns the tracks identifier, if it has one, or the empty string otherwise. For tracks
that correspond to <track> elements, the tracks identifier is the value of the elements id attribute,
if any. For in-band tracks, the tracks identifier is specified by the media resource. If the media re-
source is in a format that supports the media fragments syntax, the identifier returned for a particu-
lar track must be the same identifier that would enable the track if used as the name of a track in
the track dimension of such a fragment. [MEDIA-FRAGS]
The inBandMetadataTrackDispatchType attribute must return the text track in-band metadata
track dispatch type of the text track that the TextTrack object represents.
The mode attribute, on getting, must return the string corresponding to the text track mode of the
text track that the TextTrack object represents, as defined by the following list:
"disabled"
The text track disabled mode.
"hidden"
The text track hidden mode.
"showing"
The text track showing mode.
On setting, if the new value isnt equal to what the attribute would currently return, the new value
must be processed as follows:
If the text track mode of the text track that the TextTrack object represents is not the text track
disabled mode, then the cues attribute must return a live TextTrackCueList object that represents
the subset of the text track list of cues of the text track that the TextTrack object represents
whose end times occur at or after the earliest possible position when the script started, in text track
cue order. Otherwise, it must return null. For each TextTrack object, when an object is returned,
the same TextTrackCueList object must be returned each time.
The earliest possible position when the script started is whatever the earliest possible position
was the last time the event loop reached step 1.
If the text track mode of the text track that the TextTrack object represents is not the text track
disabled mode, then the activeCues attribute must return a live TextTrackCueList object that
represents the subset of the text track list of cues of the text track that the TextTrack object rep-
resents whose active flag was set when the script started, in text track cue order. Otherwise, it must
return null. For each TextTrack object, when an object is returned, the same TextTrackCueList
object must be returned each time.
A text track cues active flag was set when the script started if its text track cue active flag was
set the last time the event loop reached step 1.
The addCue( cue ) method of TextTrack objects, when invoked, must run the following steps:
1. If the text track list of cues does not yet have any associated rules for updating the text track
rendering, then associate the text track list of cues with the rules for updating the text track
rendering appropriate to cue .
2. If text track list of cues' associated rules for updating the text track rendering are not the same
rules for updating the text track rendering as appropriate for cue , then throw an
InvalidStateError exception and abort these steps.
3. If the given cue is in a text track list of cues, then remove cue from that text track list of
cues.
4. Add cue to the methods TextTrack objects text tracks text track list of cues.
The removeCue( cue ) method of TextTrack objects, when invoked, must run the following
steps:
1. If the given cue is not currently listed in the methods TextTrack objects text tracks text
track list of cues, then throw a NotFoundError exception and abort these steps.
2. Remove cue from the methods TextTrack objects text tracks text track list of cues.
EXAMPLE 442
In this example, an <audio> element is used to play a specific sound-effect from a sound file
containing many sound effects. A cue is used to pause the audio, so that it ends exactly at the
end of the clip, even if the browser is busy running some script. If the page had relied on script
to pause the audio, then the start of the next clip might be heard if the browser was not able to
run the script at the exact time specified.
function playSound(id) {
sfx.currentTime = sounds.getCueById(id).startTime;
sfx.play();
}
interface TextTrackCueList {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter TextTrackCue (unsigned long index);
TextTrackCue? getCueById(DOMString id);
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
cuelist . length
Returns the number of cues in the list.
cuelist [ index ]
Returns the text track cue with index index in the list. The cues are sorted in text track
cue order.
cuelist . getCueById( id )
Returns the first text track cue (in text track cue order) with text track cue identifier id .
Returns null if none of the cues have the given identifier or if the argument is the empty
string.
A TextTrackCueList object represents a dynamically updating list of text track cues in a given
order.
The length attribute must return the number of cues in the list represented by the
TextTrackCueList object.
The supported property indices of a TextTrackCueList object at any instant are the numbers from
zero to the number of cues in the list represented by the TextTrackCueList object minus one, if
any. If there are no cues in the list, there are no supported property indices.
To determine the value of an indexed property for a given index index , the user agent must return
the index th text track cue in the list represented by the TextTrackCueList object.
The getCueById( id ) method, when called with an argument other than the empty string, must
return the first text track cue in the list represented by the TextTrackCueList object whose text
track cue identifier is id , if any, or null otherwise. If the argument is the empty string, then the
method must return null.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
cue . track
Returns the TextTrack object to which this text track cue belongs, if any, or null other-
wise.
cue . id [ = value ]
Returns the text track cue identifier. Can be set.
The track attribute, on getting, must return the TextTrack object of the text track in whose list
of cues the text track cue that the TextTrackCue object represents finds itself, if any; or null other-
wise.
The id attribute, on getting, must return the text track cue identifier of the text track cue that the
TextTrackCue object represents. On setting, the text track cue identifier must be set to the new
value.
The startTime attribute, on getting, must return the text track cue start time of the text track cue
that the TextTrackCue object represents, in seconds. On setting, the text track cue start time must
be set to the new value, interpreted in seconds; then, if the TextTrackCue objects text track cue is
in a text tracks list of cues, and that text track is in a media elements list of text tracks, and the
media elements show poster flag is not set, then run the time marches on steps for that media ele-
ment.
The endTime attribute, on getting, must return the text track cue end time of the text track cue that
the TextTrackCue object represents, in seconds. On setting, the text track cue end time must be set
to the new value, interpreted in seconds; then, if the TextTrackCue objects text track cue is in a
text tracks list of cues, and that text track is in a media elements list of text tracks, and the media
elements show poster flag is not set, then run the time marches on steps for that media element.
The pauseOnExit attribute, on getting, must return true if the text track cue pause-on-exit flag of
the text track cue that the TextTrackCue object represents is set; or false otherwise. On setting, the
text track cue pause-on-exit flag must be set if the new value is true, and must be unset otherwise.
Media resources often contain one or more media-resource-specific text tracks containing data that
browsers dont render, but want to expose to script to allow being dealt with.
If the browser is unable to identify a TextTrackCue interface that is more appropriate to expose
the data in the cues of a media-resource-specific text track, the DataCue object is used.
[INBANDTRACKS]
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
cue = new DataCue( [ startTime , endTime , data ] )
Returns a new DataCue object, for use with the addCue() method. The startTime argu-
ment sets the text track cue start time. The endTime argument sets the text track cue end
time. The data argument is copied as the text track cue data.
The data attribute, on getting, must return the raw text track cue data of the text track cue that the
TextTrackCue object represents. On setting, the text track cue data must be set to the new value.
The user agent will use DataCue to expose only text track cue objects that belong to a text track
that has a text track kind of metadata.
NOTE:
DataCue has a constructor to allow script to create DataCue objects in cases where generic
metadata needs to be managed for a text track.
The rules for updating the text track rendering for a DataCue simply state that there is no render-
ing, even when the cues are in showing mode and the text track kind is one of subtitles or captions
or descriptions or chapters.
Chapters are segments of a media resource with a given title. Chapters can be nested, in the same
way that sections in a document outline can have subsections.
Each text track cue in a text track being used for describing chapters has three key features: the
text track cue start time, giving the start time of the chapter, the text track cue end time, giving the
end time of the chapter, and the text track rules for extracting the chapter title.
The rules for constructing the chapter tree from a text track are as follows. They produce a po-
tentially nested list of chapters, each of which have a start time, end time, title, and a list of nested
chapters. This algorithm discards cues that do not correctly nest within each other, or that are out
of order.
1. Let list be a copy of the list of cues of the text track being processed.
2. Remove from list any text track cue whose text track cue end time is before its text track cue
start time.
3. Let output be an empty list of chapters, where a chapter is a record consisting of a start time,
an end time, a title, and a (potentially empty) list of nested chapters. For the purpose of this
algorithm, each chapter also has a parent chapter.
4. Let current chapter be a stand-in chapter whose start time is negative infinity, whose end
time is positive infinity, and whose list of nested chapters is output . (This is just used to
make the algorithm easier to describe.)
6. Let current cue be the first cue in list , and then remove it from list .
7. If current cue s text track cue start time is less than the start time of current chapter , then re-
turn to the step labeled loop.
8. While current cue s text track cue start time is greater than or equal to current chapter s end
time, let current chapter be current chapter s parent chapter.
9. If current cue s text track cue end time is greater than the end time of current chapter , then
return to the step labeled loop.
10. Create a new chapter new chapter , whose start time is current cue s text track cue start time,
whose end time is current cue s text track cue end time, whose title is current cue s text
track cue data interpreted according to its rules for rendering the cue in isolation, and whose
list of nested chapters is empty.
11. Append new chapter to current chapter s list of nested chapters, and let current chapter be
new chapter s parent.
EXAMPLE 443
The following snippet of a WebVTT file shows how nested chapters can be marked up. The
file describes three 50-minute chapters, "Astrophysics", "Computational Physics", and "Gen-
eral Relativity". The first has three subchapters, the second has four, and the third has two.
[WEBVTT]
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:50:00.000
Astrophysics
The following are the event handlers that (and their corresponding event handler event types) must
be supported, as event handler IDL attributes, by all objects implementing the TextTrackList in-
terface:
onchange change
onaddtrack addtrack
onremovetrack removetrack
The following are the event handlers that (and their corresponding event handler event types) must
be supported, as event handler IDL attributes, by all objects implementing the TextTrack inter-
face:
oncuechange cuechange
The following are the event handlers that (and their corresponding event handler event types) must
be supported, as event handler IDL attributes, by all objects implementing the TextTrackCue in-
terface:
onenter enter
onexit exit
Text tracks can be used for storing data relating to the media data, for interactive or augmented
views.
For example, a page showing a sports broadcast could include information about the current score.
Suppose a robotics competition was being streamed live. The image could be overlayed with the
scores, as follows:
In order to make the score display render correctly whenever the user seeks to an arbitrary point in
the video, the metadata text track cues need to be as long as is appropriate for the score. For exam-
ple, in the frame above, there would be maybe one cue that lasts the length of the match that gives
the match number, one cue that lasts until the blue alliances score changes, and one cue that lasts
until the red alliances score changes. If the video is just a stream of the live event, the time in the
bottom right would presumably be automatically derived from the current video time, rather than
based on a cue. However, if the video was just the highlights, then that might be given in cues also.
The following shows what fragments of this could look like in a WebVTT file:
WEBVTT
...
...
...
The key here is to notice that the information is given in cues that span the length of time to which
the relevant event applies. If, instead, the scores were given as zero-length (or very brief, nearly
zero-length) cues when the score changes, for example saying "red+2" at 05:11:17.198, "red+3" at
05:11:25.912, etc, problems arise: primarily, seeking is much harder to implement, as the script has
to walk the entire list of cues to make sure that no notifications have been missed; but also, if the
cues are short its possible the script will never see that they are active unless it listens to them
specifically.
When using cues in this manner, authors are encouraged to use the cuechange event to update the
current annotations. (In particular, using the timeupdate event would be less appropriate as it
would require doing work even when the cues havent changed, and, more importantly, would in-
troduce a higher latency between when the metadata cues become active and when the display is
updated, since timeupdate events are rate-limited.)
Other specifications or formats that need a URL to identify the return values of the
AudioTrack.kind or VideoTrack.kind IDL attributes, or identify the kind of text track, must use
the about:html-kind URL.
The controls attribute is a boolean attribute. If present, it indicates that the author has not pro-
vided a scripted controller and would like the user agent to provide its own set of controls.
If the attribute is present, or if scripting is disabled for the media element, then the user agent
should expose a user interface to the user. This user interface should include features to begin
playback, pause playback, seek to an arbitrary position in the content (if the content supports arbi-
trary seeking), change the volume, change the display of closed captions or embedded sign-
language tracks, select different audio tracks or turn on audio descriptions, and show the media
content in manners more suitable to the user (e.g., fullscreen video or in an independent resizable
window). Other controls may also be made available.
Even when the attribute is absent, however, user agents may provide controls to affect playback of
the media resource (e.g., play, pause, seeking, track selection, and volume controls), but such fea-
tures should not interfere with the pages normal rendering. For example, such features could be
exposed in the media elements context menu, platform media keys, or a remote control. The user
agent may implement this simply by exposing a user interface to the user as described above (as if
the controls attribute was present).
If the user agent exposes a user interface to the user by displaying controls over the media element,
then the user agent should suppress any user interaction events while the user agent is interacting
with this interface. (For example, if the user clicks on a videos playback control, mousedown
events and so forth would not simultaneously be fired at elements on the page.)
Where possible (specifically, for starting, stopping, pausing, and unpausing playback, for seeking,
for changing the rate of playback, for fast-forwarding or rewinding, for listing, enabling, and dis-
abling text tracks, and for muting or changing the volume of the audio), user interface features ex-
posed by the user agent must be implemented in terms of the DOM API described above, so that,
e.g., all the same events fire.
For the purposes of listing chapters in the media resource, only text tracks in the media elements
list of text tracks that are showing and whose text track kind is chapters should be used. Such
tracks must be interpreted according to the rules for constructing the chapter tree from a text track.
When seeking in response to a user manipulating a chapter selection interface, user agents should
not use the approximate-for-speed flag.
The controls IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . volume [ = value ]
Returns the current playback volume, as a number in the range 0.0 to 1.0, where 0.0 is
the quietest and 1.0 the loudest.
Throws an IndexSizeError exception if the new value is not in the range 0.0 .. 1.0.
A media element has a playback volume, which is a fraction in the range 0.0 (silent) to 1.0 (loud-
est). Initially, the volume should be 1.0, but user agents may remember the last set value across
sessions, on a per-site basis or otherwise, so the volume may start at other values.
The volume IDL attribute must return the playback volume of any audio portions of the media ele-
ment. On setting, if the new value is in the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclusive, the media elements play-
back volume must be set to the new value. If the new value is outside the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclu-
sive, then, on setting, an IndexSizeError exception must be thrown instead.
A media element can also be muted. If anything is muting the element, then it is muted. (For ex-
ample, when the direction of playback is backwards, the element is muted.)
The muted IDL attribute must return the value to which it was last set. When a media element is
created, if the element has a muted content attribute specified, then the muted IDL attribute should
be set to true; otherwise, the user agents may set the value to the users preferred value (e.g., re-
membering the last set value across sessions, on a per-site basis or otherwise). While the muted
IDL attribute is set to true, the media element must be muted.
Whenever either of the values that would be returned by the volume and muted IDL attributes
change, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named volumechange at the media
element.
1. If the user has indicated that the user agent is to override the volume of the element, then the
elements effective media volume is the volume desired by the user. Abort these steps.
2. If the elements audio output is muted, the elements effective media volume is zero. Abort
these steps.
3. Let volume be the playback volume of the audio portions of the media element, in range 0.0
(silent) to 1.0 (loudest).
4. The elements effective media volume is volume , interpreted relative to the range 0.0 to 1.0,
with 0.0 being silent, and 1.0 being the loudest setting, values in between increasing in loud-
ness. The range need not be linear. The loudest setting may be lower than the systems loudest
possible setting; for example the user could have set a maximum volume.
The muted content attribute on media elements is a boolean attribute that controls the default state
of the audio output of the media resource, potentially overriding user preferences.
The defaultMuted IDL attribute must reflect the muted content attribute.
NOTE:
This attribute has no dynamic effect (it only controls the default state of the element).
EXAMPLE 444
This video (an advertisement) autoplays, but to avoid annoying users, it does so without sound,
and allows the user to turn the sound on.
Objects implementing the TimeRanges interface represent a list of ranges (periods) of time.
interface TimeRanges {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
double start(unsigned long index);
double end(unsigned long index);
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
media . length
Returns the number of ranges in the object.
The length IDL attribute must return the number of ranges represented by the object.
The start( index ) method must return the position of the start of the index th range represented
by the object, in seconds measured from the start of the timeline that the object covers.
The end( index ) method must return the position of the end of the index th range represented by
the object, in seconds measured from the start of the timeline that the object covers.
These methods must throw IndexSizeError exceptions if called with an index argument
greater than or equal to the number of ranges represented by the object.
When a TimeRanges object is said to be a normalized TimeRanges object, the ranges it represents
must obey the following criteria:
The start of a range must be greater than the end of all earlier ranges.
The start of a range must be less than or equal to the end of that same range.
In other words, the ranges in such an object are ordered, dont overlap, and dont touch (adjacent
ranges are folded into one bigger range). A range can be empty (referencing just a single moment
in time), e.g., to indicate that only one frame is currently buffered in the case that the user agent
has discarded the entire media resource except for the current frame, when a media element is
paused.
EXAMPLE 445
Thus, the end of a range would be equal to the start of a following adjacent (touching but not
overlapping) range. Similarly, a range covering a whole timeline anchored at zero would have
a start equal to zero and an end equal to the duration of the timeline.
The timelines used by the objects returned by the buffered, seekable and played IDL attributes
of media elements must be that elements media timeline.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
event . track
Returns the track object (TextTrack, AudioTrack, or VideoTrack) to which the
event relates.
The track attribute must return the value it was initialized to. When the object is created, this at-
tribute must be initialized to null. It represents the context information for the event.
The following events fire on media elements as part of the processing model described above:
loadedmetadata Event The user agent has just readyState is newly equal to
determined the duration and HAVE_METADATA or greater for the
dimensions of the media first time.
resource and the text tracks
are ready.
loadeddata Event The user agent can render the readyState newly increased to
media data at the current HAVE_CURRENT_DATA or greater for
playback position for the first the first time.
time.
canplay Event The user agent can resume readyState newly increased to
playback of the media data, HAVE_FUTURE_DATA or greater.
but estimates that if playback
were to be started now, the
media resource could not be
rendered at the current
playback rate up to its end
without having to stop for
further buffering of content.
error Event An error occurs while fetching the media data or the type of the resource
is not supported media format.
change Event One or more tracks in the track list have been enabled or disabled.
addtrack TrackEvent A track has been added to the track list.
removetrack TrackEvent A track has been removed from the track list.
cuechange Event One or more cues in the track have become active or stopped being
active.
error Event An error occurs while fetching the track data or the type of the resource is
not supported text track format.
load Event A track data has been fetched and successfully processed.
The main security and privacy implications of the video and audio elements come from the abil-
ity to embed media cross-origin. There are two directions that threats can flow: from hostile con-
tent to a victim page, and from a hostile page to victim content.
If a victim page embeds hostile content, the threat is that the content might contain scripted code
that attempts to interact with the Document that embeds the content. To avoid this, user agents
must ensure that there is no access from the content to the embedding page. In the case of media
content that uses DOM concepts, the embedded content must be treated as if it was in its own un-
related top-level browsing context.
EXAMPLE 446
For instance, if an SVG animation was embedded in a <video> element, the user agent would
not give it access to the DOM of the outer page. From the perspective of scripts in the SVG re-
source, the SVG file would appear to be in a lone top-level browsing context with no parent.
If a hostile page embeds victim content, the threat is that the embedding page could obtain infor-
mation from the content that it would not otherwise have access to. The API does expose some in-
formation: the existence of the media, its type, its duration, its size, and the performance character-
istics of its host. Such information is already potentially problematic, but in practice the same in-
formation can be obtained using the <img> element, and so it has been deemed acceptable.
However, significantly more sensitive information could be obtained if the user agent further ex-
poses metadata within the content such as subtitles or chapter titles. Such information is therefore
only exposed if the video resource passes a CORS resource sharing check. The crossorigin at-
tribute allows authors to control how this check is performed. [FETCH]
EXAMPLE 447
Without this restriction, an attacker could trick a user running within a corporate network into
visiting a site that attempts to load a video from a previously leaked location on the corpora-
tions intranet. If such a video included confidential plans for a new product, then being able to
read the subtitles would present a serious confidentiality breach.
Playing audio and video resources on small devices such as set-top boxes or mobile phones is of-
ten constrained by limited hardware resources in the device. For example, a device might only
support three simultaneous videos. For this reason, it is a good practice to release resources held
by media elements when they are done playing, either by being very careful about removing all
references to the element and allowing it to be garbage collected, or, even better, by removing the
elements src attribute and any <source> element descendants, and invoking the elements load()
method.
Similarly, when the playback rate is not exactly 1.0, hardware, software, or format limitations can
cause video frames to be dropped and audio to be choppy or muted.
How accurately various aspects of the media element API are implemented is considered a quality-
of-implementation issue.
For example, when implementing the buffered attribute, how precise an implementation reports
the ranges that have been buffered depends on how carefully the user agent inspects the data. Since
the API reports ranges as times, but the data is obtained in byte streams, a user agent receiving a
variable-bit-rate stream might only be able to determine precise times by actually decoding all of
the data. User agents arent required to do this, however; they can instead return estimates (e.g.,
based on the average bitrate seen so far) which get revised as more information becomes available.
As a general rule, user agents are urged to be conservative rather than optimistic. For example, it
would be bad to report that everything had been buffered when it had not.
Another quality-of-implementation issue would be playing a video backwards when the codec is
designed only for forward playback (e.g., there arent many key frames, and they are far apart, and
the intervening frames only have deltas from the previous frame). User agents could do a poor job,
e.g., only showing key frames; however, better implementations would do more work and thus do
a better job, e.g., actually decoding parts of the video forwards, storing the complete frames, and
then playing the frames backwards.
Similarly, while implementations are allowed to drop buffered data at any time (there is no re-
quirement that a user agent keep all the media data obtained for the lifetime of the media element),
it is again a quality of implementation issue: user agents with sufficient resources to keep all the
data around are encouraged to do so, as this allows for a better user experience. For example, if the
user is watching a live stream, a user agent could allow the user only to view the live video; how-
ever, a better user agent would buffer everything and allow the user to seek through the earlier ma-
terial, pause it, play it forwards and backwards, etc.
When a media element that is paused is removed from a document and not reinserted before the
next time the event loop reaches step 1, implementations that are resource constrained are encour-
aged to take that opportunity to release all hardware resources (like video planes, networking re-
sources, and data buffers) used by the media element. (User agents still have to keep track of the
playback position and so forth, though, in case playback is later restarted.)
The <map> element, in conjunction with an <img> element and any <area> element descendants, de-
fines an image map. The element represents its children.
The name attribute gives the map a name so that it can be referenced. The attribute must be present
and must have a non-empty value with no space characters. The value of the name attribute must
not be a compatibility caseless match for the value of the name attribute of another <map> element
in the same document. If the id attribute is also specified, both attributes must have the same
value.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
map . areas
Returns an HTMLCollection of the <area> elements in the <map>.
map . images
Returns an HTMLCollection of the img and object elements that use the <map>.
The areas attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the <map> element, whose filter
matches only <area> elements.
The images attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter
matches only img and <object> elements that are associated with this map element according to the
image map processing model.
The IDL attribute name must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
EXAMPLE 448
Image maps can be defined in conjunction with other content on the page, to ease maintenance.
This example is of a page with an image map at the top of the page and a corresponding set of
text links at the bottom.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<TITLE>Babies: Toys</TITLE>
<HEADER>
<h1>Toys</h1>
<IMG SRC="/images/menu.gif"
ALT="Babies navigation menu. Select a department to go to its
page."
USEMAP="#NAV">
</HEADER>
...
<FOOTER>
<MAP NAME="NAV">
<P>
<A HREF="/clothes/">Clothes</A>
<AREA ALT="Clothes" COORDS="0,0,100,50" HREF="/clothes/"> |
<A HREF="/toys/">Toys</A>
<AREA ALT="Toys" COORDS="100,0,200,50" HREF="/toys/"> |
<A HREF="/food/">Food</A>
<AREA ALT="Food" COORDS="200,0,300,50" HREF="/food/"> |
<A HREF="/books/">Books</A>
<AREA ALT="Books" COORDS="300,0,400,50" HREF="/books/">
</P>
</MAP>
</FOOTER>
Content model:
Nothing.
Tag omission in text/html:
No end tag
Content attributes:
Global attributes
alt - Replacement text for use when images are not available
coords - Coordinates for the shape to be created in an image map
download - Whether to download the resource instead of navigating to it, and its file
name if so
href - Address of the hyperlink
hreflang - Language of the linked resource
rel - Relationship of this document (or subsection/topic) to the destination resource
shape - The kind of shape to be created in an image map
target - browsing context for hyperlink navigation
type - Hint for the type of the referenced resource
referrerpolicy - Referrer policy for fetches initiated by the element
The <area> element represents either a hyperlink with some text and a corresponding area on an
image map, or a dead area on an image map.
An <area> element with a parent node must have a <map> element ancestor or a <template> element
ancestor.
If the <area> element has an href attribute, then the <area> element represents a hyperlink. In this
case, the alt attribute must be present. It specifies the text of the hyperlink. Its value must be text
that informs the user about the destination of the link.
If the <area> element has no href attribute, then the area represented by the element cannot be se-
lected, and the alt attribute must be omitted.
In both cases, the shape and coords attributes specify the area.
The shape attribute is an enumerated attribute. The following table lists the keywords defined for
this attribute. The states given in the first cell of the rows with keywords give the states to which
those keywords map. Some of the keywords are non-conforming, as noted in the last column.
circ Non-conforming
Default state default
polygon Non-conforming
Rectangle rect
state rectangle Non-conforming
The attribute may be omitted. The missing value default is the rectangle state.
The coords attribute must, if specified, contain a valid list of floating-point numbers. This at-
tribute gives the coordinates for the shape described by the shape attribute. The processing for this
attribute is described as part of the image map processing model.
In the circle state, <area> elements must have a coords attribute present, with three integers, the
last of which must be non-negative. The first integer must be the distance in CSS pixels from the
left edge of the image to the center of the circle, the second integer must be the distance in CSS
pixels from the top edge of the image to the center of the circle, and the third integer must be the
radius of the circle, again in CSS pixels.
In the default state state, <area> elements must not have a coords attribute. (The area is the whole
image.)
In the polygon state, <area> elements must have a coords attribute with at least six integers, and
the number of integers must be even. Each pair of integers must represent a coordinate given as the
distances from the left and the top of the image in CSS pixels respectively, and all the coordinates
together must represent the points of the polygon, in order.
In the rectangle state, <area> elements must have a coords attribute with exactly four integers,
the first of which must be less than the third, and the second of which must be less than the fourth.
The four points must represent, respectively, the distance from the left edge of the image to the left
side of the rectangle, the distance from the top edge to the top side, the distance from the left edge
to the right side, and the distance from the top edge to the bottom side, all in CSS pixels.
When user agents allow users to follow hyperlinks or download hyperlinks created using the
<area> element, as described in the next section, the href, target, and download attributes decide
how the link is followed. The rel, and hreflang attributes may be used to indicate to the user the
likely nature of the target resource before the user follows the link.
The target, download, rel, hreflang, type, and referrerpolicy attributes must be omitted if
the href attribute is not present.
1. If the <area> elements node document is not fully active, then abort these steps.
2. If the <area> element has a download attribute and the algorithm is not allowed to show a
popup; or, if the user has not indicated a specific browsing context for following the link, and
the elements target attribute is present, and applying the rules for choosing a browsing con-
text given a browsing context name, using the value of the target attribute as the browsing
context name, would result in there not being a chosen browsing context, then run these sub-
steps:
3. Otherwise, the user agent must follow the hyperlink or download the hyperlink created by the
<area> element, if any, and as determined by the download attribute and any expressed user
preference.
The IDL attributes alt, coords, target, download, rel, and hreflang, each must reflect the re-
spective content attributes of the same name.
The IDL attribute shape must reflect the shape content attribute.
The IDL attribute relList must reflect the rel content attribute.
The IDL attribute referrerPolicy must reflect the referrerpolicy content attribute, limited to
only known values.
When the element is created, and whenever the elements href content attribute is set, changed, or
removed, the user agent must invoke the elements HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils interfaces set
the input algorithm with the value of the href content attribute, if any, or the empty string other-
wise, as the given value.
The elements HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils interfaces get the base algorithm must simply return
the document base URL.
When the elements HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils interface invokes its update steps with a string
value , the user agent must set the elements href content attribute to the string value .
4.7.16.1. Authoring
An image, in the form of an <img> element, may be associated with an image map (in the form of a
map element) by specifying a usemap attribute on the <img> element. The usemap attribute, if speci-
fied, must be a valid hash-name reference to a <map> element.
EXAMPLE 449
Consider an image that looks as follows:
<p>
Please select a shape:
<img src="shapes.png" usemap="#shapes"
alt="Four shapes are available: a red hollow box, a green circle, a
blue triangle, and a yellow four-pointed star.">
<map name="shapes">
<area shape=rect coords="50,50,100,100"> <!-- the hole in the red box
-->
<area shape=rect coords="25,25,125,125" href="red.html" alt="Red box.">
<area shape=circle coords="200,75,50" href="green.html" alt="Green
circle.">
<area shape=poly coords="325,25,262,125,388,125" href="blue.html"
alt="Blue triangle.">
<area shape=poly
coords="450,25,435,60,400,75,435,90,450,125,465,90,500,75,465,60"
href="yellow.html" alt="Yellow star.">
</map>
</p>
If an <img> element has a usemap attribute specified, user agents must process it as follows:
1. Parse the attributes value using the rules for parsing a hash-name reference to a <map> ele-
ment, with the elements node document as the context node. This will return either an ele-
ment (the map ) or null.
2. If that returned null, then abort these steps. The image is not associated with an image map
after all.
3. Otherwise, the user agent must collect all the <area> elements that are descendants of the
map . Let those be the areas .
Having obtained the list of <area> elements that form the image map (the areas ), interactive user
agents must process the list in one of two ways.
If the user agent intends to show the text that the <img> element represents, then it must use the fol-
lowing steps.
NOTE:
In user agents that do not support images, or that have images disabled, <object> elements can-
not represent images, and thus this section never applies (the fallback content is shown in-
stead). The following steps therefore only apply to <img> elements.
1. Remove all the <area> elements in areas that have no href attribute.
2. Remove all the <area> elements in areas that have no alt attribute, or whose alt attributes
value is the empty string, if there is another <area> element in areas with the same value in
the href attribute and with a non-empty alt attribute.
3. Each remaining <area> element in areas represents a hyperlink. Those hyperlinks should all
be made available to the user in a manner associated with the text of the <img>.
In this context, user agents may represent area and <img> elements with no specified alt at-
tributes, or whose alt attributes are the empty string or some other non-visible text, in a user-
agent-defined fashion intended to indicate the lack of suitable author-provided text.
If the user agent intends to show the image and allow interaction with the image to select hyper-
links, then the image must be associated with a set of layered shapes, taken from the <area> ele-
ments in areas , in reverse tree order (so the last specified <area> element in the map is the
bottom-most shape, and the first element in the map , in tree order, is the top-most shape).
Each <area> element in areas must be processed as follows to obtain a shape to layer onto the im-
age:
2. Use the rules for parsing a list of floating-point numbers to parse the elements coords at-
tribute, if it is present, and let the result be the coords list. If the attribute is absent, let the
coords list be the empty list.
3. If the number of items in the coords list is less than the minimum number given for the
<area> elements current state, as per the following table, then the shape is empty; abort these
steps.
Circle state 3
Default state 0
Polygon state 6
Rectangle 4
state
4. Check for excess items in the coords list as per the entry in the following list corresponding
to the shape attributes state:
Circle state
Drop any items in the list beyond the third.
Default state
Drop all items in the list.
Polygon state
Drop the last item if theres an odd number of items.
Rectangle state
Drop any items in the list beyond the fourth.
5. If the shape attribute represents the rectangle state, and the first number in the list is numeri-
cally greater than the third number in the list, then swap those two numbers around.
6. If the shape attribute represents the rectangle state, and the second number in the list is nu-
merically greater than the fourth number in the list, then swap those two numbers around.
7. If the shape attribute represents the circle state, and the third number in the list is less than or
equal to zero, then the shape is empty; abort these steps.
8. Now, the shape represented by the element is the one described for the entry in the list below
corresponding to the state of the shape attribute:
Circle state
Let x be the first number in coords , y be the second number, and r be the third
number.
The shape is a circle whose center is x CSS pixels from the left edge of the image
and y CSS pixels from the top edge of the image, and whose radius is r CSS pix-
els.
Default state
Polygon state
Let x i be the (2 i )th entry in coords , and y i be the (2 i +1)th entry in coords (the
first entry in coords being the one with index 0).
Let the coordinates be ( x i , y i ), interpreted in CSS pixels measured from the top
left of the image, for all integer values of i from 0 to ( N /2)-1, where N is the
number of items in coords .
The shape is a polygon whose vertices are given by the coordinates , and whose in-
terior is established using the even-odd rule. [GRAPHICS]
Rectangle state
Let x1 be the first number in coords , y1 be the second number, x2 be the third
number, and y2 be the fourth number.
For historical reasons, the coordinates must be interpreted relative to the displayed image af-
ter any stretching caused by the CSS width and height properties (or, for non-CSS
browsers, the image elements width and height attributes CSS browsers map those at-
tributes to the aforementioned CSS properties).
NOTE:
Browser zoom features and transforms applied using CSS or SVG do not affect the coor-
dinates.
Pointing device interaction with an image associated with a set of layered shapes per the above al-
gorithm must result in the relevant user interaction events being first fired to the top-most shape
covering the point that the pointing device indicated, if any, or to the image element
itself, if there is no shape covering that point. User agents should make <area> elements represent-
ing hyperlinks focusable, to ensure that they can be selected and activated by all users.
NOTE:
Because a <map> element (and its <area> elements) can be associated with multiple <img> and
<object> elements, it is possible for an <area> element to correspond to multiple focusable ar-
eas of the document.
Image maps are live; if the DOM is mutated, then the user agent must act as if it had rerun the al-
gorithms for image maps.
4.7.17. MathML
The MathML <math> element falls into the embedded content, phrasing content, flow content, and
palpable content categories for the purposes of the content models in this specification.
When the MathML annotation-xml element contains elements from the HTML namespace, such
elements must all be flow content.
When the MathML token elements (MathML mi, MathML mo, MathML mn, MathML ms, and
MathML mtext) are descendants of HTML elements, they may contain phrasing content elements
from the HTML namespace. [MATHML]
User agents must handle text other than inter-element white space found in MathML elements
whose content models do not allow straight text by pretending for the purposes of MathML con-
tent models, layout, and rendering that the text is actually wrapped in an MathML mtext element
in the MathML namespace. (Such text is not, however, conforming.)
User agents must act as if any MathML element whose contents does not match the elements con-
tent model was replaced, for the purposes of MathML layout and rendering, by an MathML
merror element containing some appropriate error message.
To enable authors to use MathML tools that only accept MathML in its XML form, interactive
HTML user agents are encouraged to provide a way to export any MathML fragment as an XML
namespace-well-formed XML fragment.
The semantics of MathML elements are defined by the MathML specification and other applicable
specifications. [MATHML]
EXAMPLE 450
Here is an example of the use of MathML in an HTML document:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>The quadratic formula</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>The quadratic formula</h1>
<p>
<math>
<mi>x</mi>
<mo>=</mo>
<mfrac>
<mrow>
<mo form="prefix">-</mo> <mi>b</mi>
<mo></mo>
<msqrt>
<msup> <mi>b</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msup>
<mo>-</mo>
<mn>4</mn> <mo></mo> <mi>a</mi> <mo></mo> <mi>c</mi>
</msqrt>
</mrow>
<mrow>
<mn>2</mn> <mo></mo> <mi>a</mi>
</mrow>
</mfrac>
</math>
</p>
</body>
</html>
4.7.18. SVG
The SVG <svg> element falls into the embedded content, phrasing content, flow content, and pal-
pable content categories for the purposes of the content models in this specification.
To enable authors to use SVG tools that only accept SVG in its XML form, interactive HTML user
agents are encouraged to provide a way to export any SVG fragment as an XML namespace-well-
formed XML fragment.
When the SVG <foreignObject> element contains elements from the HTML namespace, such ele-
The content model for SVG <title> elements inside HTML documents is phrasing content. (This
further constrains the requirements given in the SVG specification.)
The semantics of SVG elements are defined by the SVG specification and other applicable specifi-
cations. [SVG11]
Author requirements: The width and height attributes on <img>, <iframe>, <embed>, <object>,
<video>, and, when their type attribute is in the Image Button state, <input> elements may be
specified to give the dimensions of the visual content of the element (the width and height respec-
tively, relative to the nominal direction of the output medium), in CSS pixels. The attributes, if
specified, must have values that are valid non-negative integers.
The specified dimensions given may differ from the dimensions specified in the resource itself,
since the resource may have a resolution that differs from the CSS pixel resolution. (On screens,
CSS pixels have a resolution of 96ppi, but in general the CSS pixel resolution depends on the read-
ing distance.) If both attributes are specified, then one of the following statements must be true:
specified width - 0.5 specified height * target ratio specified width + 0.5
specified height - 0.5 specified width / target ratio specified height + 0.5
The target ratio is the ratio of the intrinsic width to the intrinsic height in the resource. The spec-
ified width and specified height are the values of the width and height attributes respectively.
The two attributes must be omitted if the resource in question does not have both an intrinsic
width and an intrinsic height.
If the two attributes are both zero, it indicates that the element is not intended for the user (e.g., it
might be a part of a service to count page views).
NOTE:
The dimension attributes are not intended to be used to stretch the image.
User agent requirements: User agents are expected to use these attributes as hints for the render-
ing.
The width and height IDL attributes on the <iframe>, <embed>, <object>, and <video> elements
must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.
NOTE:
For <iframe>, <embed>, and <object> the IDL attributes are DOMString; for <video> the IDL at-
tributes are unsigned long.
NOTE:
The corresponding IDL attributes for <img> and <input> elements are defined in those respec-
tive elements' sections, as they are slightly more specific to those elements' other behaviors.
4.8. Links
4.8.1. Introduction
Links are a conceptual construct, created by <a>, <area>, and <link> elements, that represent a con-
nection between two resources, one of which is the current Document. There are two kinds of
links in HTML:
Hyperlinks
These are links to other resources that are generally exposed to the user by the user agent so
that the user can cause the user agent to navigate to those resources, e.g., to visit them in a
browser or download them.
For <link> elements with an href attribute and a rel attribute, links must be created for the key-
words of the rel attribute, as defined for those keywords in the link types section.
Similarly, for <a> and <area> elements with an href attribute and a rel attribute, links must be
created for the keywords of the rel attribute as defined for those keywords in the link types sec-
tion. Unlike <link> elements, however, <a> and <area> elements with an href attribute that either
do not have a rel attribute, or whose rel attribute has no keywords that are defined as specifying
hyperlinks, must also create a hyperlink. This implied hyperlink has no special meaning (it has no
link type) beyond linking the elements node document to the resource given by the elements
href attribute.
A hyperlink can have one or more hyperlink annotations that modify the processing semantics of
that hyperlink.
The href attribute on <a> and <area> elements must have a value that is a valid URL potentially
surrounded by spaces.
NOTE:
The href attribute on <a> and <area> elements is not required; when those elements do not
have href attributes they do not create hyperlinks.
The target attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name or keyword. It gives the
name of the browsing context that will be used. User agents use this name when following hyper-
links.
When an <a> or <area> elements activation behavior is invoked, the user agent may allow the user
to indicate a preference regarding whether the hyperlink is to be used for navigation or whether the
resource it specifies is to be downloaded.
In the absence of a user preference, the default should be navigation if the element has no
download attribute, and should be to download the specified resource if it does.
Whether determined by the users preferences or via the presence or absence of the attribute, if the
decision is to use the hyperlink for navigation then the user agent must follow the hyperlink, and if
the decision is to use the hyperlink to download a resource, the user agent must download the hy-
perlink. These terms are defined in subsequent sections below.
The download attribute, if present, indicates that the author intends the hyperlink to be used for
downloading a resource. The attribute may have a value; the value, if any, specifies the default file
name that the author recommends for use in labeling the resource in a local file system. There are
no restrictions on allowed values, but authors are cautioned that most file systems have limitations
with regard to what punctuation is supported in file names, and user agents are likely to adjust file
names accordingly.
The rel attribute on <a> and <area> elements controls what kinds of links the elements create. The
attributes value must be a set of space-separated tokens. The allowed keywords and their mean-
ings are defined below.
rel's supported tokens are the keywords defined in HTML link types which are allowed on <a>
and <area> elements, impact the processing model, and are supported by the user agent. The possi-
ble supported tokens are noreferrer, and noopener. rel's supported tokens must only include the
tokens from this list that the user agent implements the processing model for.
Other specifications may add HTML link types as defined in Other link types, with the following
additional requirements:
Such specifications may require that their link types be included in rel's supported tokens.
Such specifications may specify that their link types are body-ok.
The rel attribute has no default value. If the attribute is omitted or if none of the values in the at-
tribute are recognized by the user agent, then the document has no particular relationship with the
destination resource other than there being a hyperlink between the two.
<link> and <a> elements may also have a rev attribute, which is used to describe a reverse link re-
lationship from the resource specified by the href to the current document. If present, the value of
this attribute must be a set of space-separated tokens. Like the rel attribute, 4.8.6 Link types de-
scribes the allowed keywords and their meanings for the rev attribute. Both the rel and rev at-
tributes may be present on the same element.
Reverse links are a way to express the reverse directional relationship of a link. In contrast to the
rel attribute, whose value conveys a forward directional relationship ("how is the link related to
me"), the rev attribute allows for similiar relationships to be expressed in the reverse direction
("how am I related to this link"). These values can enable user agents to build a more comprehen-
sive map of linked documents.
EXAMPLE 451
Given two documents, each containing a chapter of a book, the links between them could be
described with the rel and rev attributes as follows:
From chapter1.html, the link to chapter2.html is the "next" chapter in the series in the forward
direction, and the "previous" chapter in the reverse diretion (from chapter2.html to chap-
ter1.html).
EXAMPLE 452
The links in a table of contents document might be described using rel and rev as follows:
<ol>
<li><a href="chapter1.html" rev="toc" rel="next">chapter 1</a></li>
<li><a href="chapter2.html" rev="toc"></a>chapter 2</li>
<li><a href="chapter3.html" rev="toc"></a>chapter 3</li>
</ol>
From the table of contents, the "next" logical path is to the first chapter, expressed using rel.
Each chapter link has a "toc" rev value which indicates that the current document is the table
of contents document for every chapter.
The hreflang attribute on <a> elements that create hyperlinks, if present, gives the language of the
linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid BCP 47 language tag. [BCP47]
User agents must not consider this attribute authoritative upon fetching the resource, user
agents must use only language information associated with the resource to determine its language,
not metadata included in the link to the resource.
The type attribute, if present, gives the MIME type of the linked resource. It is purely advisory.
The value must be a valid mime type. User agents must not consider the type attribute authorita-
tive upon fetching the resource, user agents must not use metadata included in the link to the re-
source to determine its type.
The referrerpolicy attribute is a referrer policy attribute. Its purpose is to set the referrer policy
used when following hyperlinks. [REFERRERPOLICY]
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils {
stringifier attribute USVString href;
readonly attribute USVString origin;
attribute USVString protocol;
attribute USVString username;
attribute USVString password;
attribute USVString host;
attribute USVString hostname;
attribute USVString port;
attribute USVString pathname;
attribute USVString search;
attribute USVString hash;
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
hyperlink . toString()
hyperlink . href
Returns the hyperlinks URL.
hyperlink . origin
Returns the hyperlinks URLs origin.
hyperlink . protocol
Returns the hyperlinks URLs scheme.
Can be set, to change the URLs scheme.
hyperlink . username
Returns the hyperlinks URLs username.
hyperlink . password
Returns the hyperlinks URLs password.
hyperlink . host
Returns the hyperlinks URLs host and port (if different from the default port for the
scheme).
hyperlink . hostname
hyperlink . port
Returns the hyperlinks URLs port.
hyperlink . pathname
Returns the hyperlinks URLs path.
hyperlink . search
Returns the hyperlinks URLs query (includes leading "?" if non-empty).
hyperlink . hash
Returns the hyperlinks URLs fragment (includes leading "#" if non-empty).
An element implementing the HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils mixin has an associated set the url
algorithm, which sets this elements URL to the resulting URL string of parsing this elements
href content attribute value relative to this element. If parsing was aborted with an error, set this
elements URL to null.
When elements implementing the HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils mixin are created, and whenever
those elements have their href content attribute set, changed, or removed, the user agent must set
the url.
NOTE:
This is only observable for blob: URLs as parsing them involves the StructuredSerialize ab-
stract operation.
1. If elements URL is non-null, its scheme is "blob", and its non-relative flag is set, terminate
these steps.
To update href, set the elements href content attributes value to the elements URL, serialized.
1. Reinitialise url.
3. If url is null and this element has no href content attribute, return the empty string.
4. Otherwise, if url is null, return this elements href content attributes value.
The href attributes setter must set this elements href content attributes value to the given value.
1. Reinitialise url.
NOTE:
It returns the Unicode rather than the ASCII serialization for compatibility with
MessageEvent.
1. Reinitialise url.
1. Reinitialise url.
3. Basic URL parse the given value, followed by :", with this elements URL as url and
4. Update href.
1. Reinitialise url.
1. Reinitialise url.
3. If url or url s host is null, or url s non-relative flag is set, terminate these steps.
5. Update href.
1. Reinitialise url.
1. Reinitialise url.
3. If url or url s host is null, or url s non-relative flag is set, terminate these steps.
5. Update href.
1. Reinitialise url.
5. Return url s host, serialized, followed by ":" and url s port, serialized.
1. Reinitialise url.
4. Basic URL parse the given value, with url as url and host state as state override .
5. Update href.
1. Reinitialise url.
1. Reinitialise url.
4. Basic URL parse the given value, with url as url and hostname state as state override .
5. Update href.
1. Reinitialise url.
1. Reinitialise url.
3. If url or url s host is null, url s non-relative flag is set, or url s scheme is "file", terminate
these steps.
4. Basic URL parse the given value, with url as url and port state as state override .
5. Update href.
1. Reinitialise url.
4. If url s non-relative flag is set, return the first string in url s path.
5. Return "/", followed by the strings in url s path (including empty strings), separated from
each other by "/".
1. Reinitialise url.
5. Basic URL parse the given value, with url as url and path start state as state override .
6. Update href.
1. Reinitialise url.
3. If url is null, or url s query is either null or the empty string, return the empty string.
1. Reinitialise url.
4. If the given value is the empty string, set url s query to null.
1. Let input be the given value with a single leading "?" removed, if any.
3. Basic URL parse input , with url as url and query state as state override , and this ele-
ments node documents documents character encoding as encoding override .
6. Update href.
1. Reinitialise url.
3. If url is null, or url s fragment is either null or the empty string, return the empty string.
1. Reinitialise url.
4. If the given value is the empty string, set url s fragment to null.
1. Let input be the given value with a single leading "#" removed, if any.
3. Basic URL parse input , with url as url and fragment state as state override .
6. Update href.
When a user follows a hyperlink created by an element subject , optionally with a hyperlink suf-
fix , the user agent must run the following steps:
2. Let source be the browsing context that contains the Document object with which subject
in question is associated.
3. If the user indicated a specific browsing context when following the hyperlink, or if the user
agent is configured to follow hyperlinks by navigating a particular browsing context, then let
target be that browsing context. If this is a new top-level browsing context (e.g., when the
user followed the hyperlink using "Open in New Tab"), then source must be set as the new
browsing contexts one permitted sandboxed navigator.
Otherwise, if subject is an <a> or <area> element that has a target attribute, then let target
be the browsing context that is chosen by applying the rules for choosing a browsing context
given a browsing context name, using the value of the target attribute as the browsing con-
text name. If these rules result in the creation of a new browsing context, set replace to true.
Otherwise, if target is an <a> or <area> element with no target attribute, but the Document
contains a <base> element with a target attribute, then let target be the browsing context
that is chosen by applying the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context
name, using the value of the target attribute of the first such <base> element as the browsing
context name. If these rules result in the creation of a new browsing context, set replace to
true.
Otherwise, let target be the browsing context that subject itself is in.
4. If subject s link types include the noreferrer or noopener keyword, and replace is true,
then disown targets opener.
5. Parse the URL given by subject s href attribute, relative to subject s node document.
Otherwise, if parsing the URL failed, the user agent may report the error to the user in a user-
agent-specific manner, may queue a task to navigate the target browsing context to an error
page to report the error, or may ignore the error and do nothing. In any case, the user agent
must then abort these steps.
8. Let resource be a new request whose url is URL and whose referrer policy is the current
state of subject s referrerpolicy content attribute.
9. Queue a task to navigate the target browsing context to resource . If replace is true, the nav-
igation must be performed with replacement enabled. The source browsing context must be
source .
The task source for the tasks mentioned above is the DOM manipulation task source.
In some cases, resources are intended for later use rather than immediate viewing. To indicate that
a resource is intended to be downloaded for use later, rather than immediately used, the download
attribute can be specified on the <a> or <area> element that creates the hyperlink to that resource.
The attribute can furthermore be given a value, to specify the file name that user agents are to use
when storing the resource in a file system. This value can be overridden by the Content-
Disposition HTTP headers filename parameters. [RFC6266]
In cross-origin situations, the download attribute has to be combined with the Content-
Disposition HTTP header, specifically with the attachment disposition type, to avoid the user
being warned of possibly nefarious activity. (This is to protect users from being made to download
sensitive personal or confidential information without their full understanding.)
When a user downloads a hyperlink created by an element subject , optionally with a hyperlink
suffix , the user agent must run the following steps:
2. If parsing the URL fails, the user agent may report the error to the user in a user-agent-
specific manner, may navigate to an error page to report the error, or may ignore the error and
do nothing. In either case, the user agent must abort these steps.
5. Return to whatever algorithm invoked these steps and continue these steps in parallel.
When a user agent is to handle a resource obtained from a fetch as a download, it should provide
the user with a way to save the resource for later use, if a resource is successfully obtained; or oth-
erwise should report any problems downloading the file to the user.
If the user agent needs a file name for a resource being handled as a download, it should select one
using the following algorithm.
2. If the resource has a Content-Disposition header, that header specifies the attachment dis-
position type, and the header includes file name information, then let filename have the value
specified by the header, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [RFC6266]
3. Let interface origin be the origin of the Document in which the download or navigate action
resulting in the download was initiated, if any.
4. Let resource origin be the origin of the URL of the resource being downloaded, unless that
URLs scheme component is data, in which case let resource origin be the same as the in-
terface origin , if any.
5. If there is no interface origin , then let trusted operation be true. Otherwise, let trusted op-
eration be true if resource origin is the same origin as interface origin , and false otherwise.
6. If trusted operation is true and the resource has a Content-Disposition header and that
header includes file name information, then let filename have the value specified by the
header, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [RFC6266]
7. If the download was not initiated from a hyperlink created by an <a> or <area> element, or if
the element of the hyperlink from which it was initiated did not have a download attribute
when the download was initiated, or if there was such an attribute but its value when the
download was initiated was the empty string, then jump to the step labeled no proposed file
name.
8. Let proposed filename have the value of the download attribute of the element of the hyper-
link that initiated the download at the time the download was initiated.
9. If trusted operation is true, let filename have the value of proposed filename , and jump to
the step labeled sanitize below.
10. If the resource has a Content-Disposition header and that header specifies the attachment
disposition type, let filename have the value of proposed filename , and jump to the step la-
11. No proposed file name: If trusted operation is true, or if the user indicated a preference for
having the resource in question downloaded, let filename have a value derived from the URL
of the resource in a user-agent-defined manner, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below.
12. Act in a user-agent-defined manner to safeguard the user from a potentially hostile cross-
origin download. If the download is not to be aborted, then let filename be set to the users
preferred file name or to a file name selected by the user agent, and jump to the step labeled
sanitize below.
Warning!
If the algorithm reaches this step, then a download was begun from a different ori-
gin than the resource being downloaded, and the origin did not mark the file as
suitable for downloading, and the download was not initiated by the user. This
could be because a download attribute was used to trigger the download, or be-
cause the resource in question is not of a type that the user agent supports.
This could be dangerous, because, for instance, a hostile server could be trying to
get a user to unknowingly download private information and then re-upload it to
the hostile server, by tricking the user into thinking the data is from the hostile
server.
Thus, it is in the users interests that the user be somehow notified that the resource
in question comes from quite a different source, and to prevent confusion, any sug-
gested file name from the potentially hostile interface origin should be ignored.
13. Sanitize: Optionally, allow the user to influence filename . For example, a user agent could
prompt the user for a file name, potentially providing the value of filename as determined
above as a default value.
EXAMPLE 453
For example, this could involve removing characters that are not legal in file names, or
trimming leading and trailing white space.
15. If the platform conventions do not in any way use extensions to determine the types of file on
the file system, then return filename as the file name and abort these steps.
16. Let claimed type be the type given by the resources Content-Type metadata, if any is known.
Let named type be the type given by filename s extension, if any is known. For the purposes
of this step, a type is a mapping of a MIME type to an extension.
17. If named type is consistent with the users preferences (e.g., because the value of filename
was determined by prompting the user), then return filename as the file name and abort these
steps.
18. If claimed type and named type are the same type (i.e., the type given by the resources
Content-Type metadata is consistent with the type given by filename s extension), then return
filename as the file name and abort these steps.
19. If the claimed type is known, then alter filename to add an extension corresponding to
claimed type .
Otherwise, if named type is known to be potentially dangerous (e.g., it will be treated by the
platform conventions as a native executable, shell script, HTML application, or executable-
macro-capable document) then optionally alter filename to add a known-safe extension (e.g.,
".txt").
NOTE:
This last step would make it impossible to download executables, which might not be de-
sirable. As always, implementors are forced to balance security and usability in this mat-
ter.
For the purposes of this algorithm, a file extension consists of any part of the file name that plat-
form conventions dictate will be used for identifying the type of the file. For example, many oper-
ating systems use the part of the file name following the last dot (".") in the file name to determine
the type of the file, and from that the manner in which the file is to be opened or executed.
User agents should ignore any directory or path information provided by the resource itself, its
URL, and any download attribute, in deciding where to store the resulting file in the users file
system.
The following table summarizes the link types that are defined by this specification, by their core-
sponding keywords. This table is non-normative; the actual definitions for the link types are given
in the next few sections.
In this section, the term referenced document refers to the resource identified by the element repre-
senting the link, and the term current document refers to the resource within which the element
representing the link finds itself.
To determine which link types apply to a <link>, <a>, or <area> element, the elements rel at-
tribute must be split on spaces. The resulting tokens are the keywords for the link types that apply
to that element.
Except where otherwise specified, a keyword must not be specified more than once per rel at-
tribute.
Some of the sections that follow the table below list synonyms for certain keywords. The indicated
synonyms are to be handled as specified by user agents, but must not be used in documents (for
example, the keyword "copyright").
EXAMPLE 454
Thus, rel="next" is the same as rel="NEXT".
Keywords that are body-ok affect whether <link> elements are allowed in the body. The body-ok
keywords defined by this specification are prefetch, and stylesheet. Other specifications can
also define body-ok keywords.
nofollow not allowed Annotation Indicates that the current documents original
author or publisher does not endorse the
referenced document.
noopener not allowed Annotation Requires that any browsing context created by
following the hyperlink to disown its opener.
noreferrer not allowed Annotation Requires that the user agent not send an HTTP
Referer (sic) header if the user follows the
hyperlink.
prefetch External External Yes Specifies that the target resource should be
Resource Resource preemptively cached.
prev hyperlink hyperlink Indicates that the current document is a part of
a series, and that the previous document in the
series is the referenced document.
search hyperlink hyperlink Gives a link to a resource that can be used to
search through the current document and its
related pages.
stylesheet External not allowed Imports a stylesheet.
Resource
tag not allowed hyperlink Gives a tag (identified by the given address)
that applies to the current document.
The alternate keyword may be used with <link>, <a>, and <area> elements.
The meaning of this keyword depends on the values of the other attributes.
If the element is a <link> element and the rel attribute also contains the keyword
stylesheet
The alternate keyword modifies the meaning of the stylesheet keyword in the way
described for that keyword. The alternate keyword does not create a link of its own.
EXAMPLE 455
Here, a set of <link> elements provide some style sheets:
If the alternate keyword is used with the type attribute set to the value
application/rss+xml or the value application/atom+xml
The keyword creates a hyperlink referencing a syndication feed (though not necessarily
syndicating exactly the same content as the current page).
The first <link> or <a> element in the document (in tree order) with the alternate key-
word used with the type attribute set to the value application/rss+xml or the value
application/atom+xml must be treated as the default syndication feed for the purposes
of feed autodiscovery.
EXAMPLE 456
The following <link> element gives the syndication feed for the current page:
Otherwise
The keyword creates a hyperlink referencing an alternate representation of the current
document.
The nature of the referenced document is given by the hreflang, and type attributes.
If the alternate keyword is used with the hreflang attribute, and that attributes value
differs from the document elements language, it indicates that the referenced document
is a translation.
If the alternate keyword is used with the type attribute, it indicates that the referenced
document is a reformulation of the current document in the specified format.
The hreflang and type attributes can be combined when specified with the alternate
keyword.
EXAMPLE 457
The following example shows how you can specify versions of the page that use al-
ternative formats, are aimed at other languages, and that are intended for other me-
dia:
This relationship is transitive that is, if a document links to two other documents with
the link type "alternate", then, in addition to implying that those documents are alter-
native representations of the first document, it is also implying that those two documents
are alternative representations of each other.
The author keyword may be used with <link>, <a>, and <area> elements. This keyword creates a
hyperlink.
For <a> and <area> elements, the author keyword indicates that the referenced document provides
further information about the author of the nearest <article> element ancestor of the element
defining the hyperlink, if there is one, or of the page as a whole, otherwise.
For <link> elements, the author keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further
information about the author for the page as a whole.
NOTE:
The "referenced document" can be, and often is, a mailto: URL giving the e-mail address of
the author. [RFC6068]
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat <link>, <a>, and <area> elements
that have a rev attribute with the value "made" as having the author keyword specified as a link
relationship.
The bookmark keyword may be used with <a> and <area> elements. This keyword creates a hyper-
link.
The bookmark keyword gives a permalink for the nearest ancestor <article> element of the link-
ing element in question, or of the section the linking element is most closely associated with, if
there are no ancestor <article> elements.
EXAMPLE 458
The following snippet has three permalinks. A user agent could determine which permalink ap-
plies to which part of the spec by looking at where the permalinks are given.
...
<body>
<h1>Example of permalinks</h1>
<div id="a">
<h2>First example</h2>
<p><a href="a.html" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to
only the content from the first H2 to the second H2</a>. The DIV isnt
exactly that section, but it roughly corresponds to it.</p>
</div>
<h2>Second example</h2>
<article id="b">
<p><a href="b.html" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to
the outer ARTICLE element</a> (which could be, e.g., a blog post).</p>
<article id="c">
<p><a href="c.html" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to
the inner ARTICLE element</a> (which could be, e.g., a blog
comment).</p>
</article>
</article>
</body>
...
The help keyword may be used with <link>, <a>, and <area> elements. This keyword creates a hy-
perlink.
For <a> and <area> elements, the help keyword indicates that the referenced document provides
further help information for the parent of the element defining the hyperlink, and its children.
EXAMPLE 459
In the following example, the form control has associated context-sensitive help. The user
agent could use this information, for example, displaying the referenced document if the user
presses the "Help" or "F1" key.
For <link> elements, the help keyword indicates that the referenced document provides help for
the page as a whole.
For <a> and <area> elements, on some browsers, the help keyword causes the link to use a differ-
ent cursor.
The icon keyword may be used with <link> elements. This keyword creates an external resource
link.
The specified resource is an icon representing the page or site, and should be used by the user
agent when representing the page in the user interface.
Icons could be auditory icons, visual icons, or other kinds of icons. If multiple icons are provided,
the user agent must select the most appropriate icon according to the type, media, and sizes at-
tributes. If there are multiple equally appropriate icons, user agents must use the last one declared
in tree order at the time that the user agent collected the list of icons. If the user agent tries to use
an icon but that icon is determined, upon closer examination, to in fact be inappropriate (e.g., be-
cause it uses an unsupported format), then the user agent must try the next-most-appropriate icon
as determined by the attributes.
NOTE:
User agents are not required to update icons when the list of icons changes, but are encouraged
to do so.
There is no default type for resources given by the icon keyword. However, for the purposes of
determining the type of the resource, user agents must expect the resource to be an image.
The sizes keyword represent icon sizes in raw pixels (as opposed to CSS pixels).
NOTE:
An icon that is 50 CSS pixels wide intended for displays with a device pixel density of two de-
vice pixels per CSS pixel (2x, 192dpi) would have a width of 100 raw pixels. This feature does
not support indicating that a different resource is to be used for small high-resolution icons vs
large low-resolution icons (e.g., 5050 2x vs 100100 1x).
To parse and process the attributes value, the user agent must first split the attributes value on
spaces, and must then parse each resulting keyword to determine what it represents.
The any keyword represents that the resource contains a scalable icon, e.g., as provided by an
SVG image.
Other keywords must be further parsed as follows to determine what they represent:
If the keyword doesnt contain exactly one U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X or U+0058
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X character, then this keyword doesnt represent anything. Abort
these steps for that keyword.
If either width string or height string start with a U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) character or
contain any characters other than ASCII digits, then this keyword doesnt represent anything.
Abort these steps for that keyword.
Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to width string to obtain width .
Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to height string to obtain height .
The keyword represents that the resource contains a bitmap icon with a width of width de-
vice pixels and a height of height device pixels.
The keywords specified on the sizes attribute must not represent icon sizes that are not actually
available in the linked resource.
In the absence of a link with the icon keyword, for Document objects obtained over HTTP or
HTTPS, user agents may instead run these steps in parallel:
1. Let request be a new request whose URL is the absolute URL obtained by resolving the
URL "/favicon.ico" against the documents URL, client is the Document objects Window
objects environment settings object, type is "image", destination is "subresource", synchro-
nous flag is set, credentials mode is "include", and whose use-URL-credentials flag is set.
3. Use response s unsafe response as an icon as if it had been declared using the icon keyword.
EXAMPLE 460
The following snippet shows the top part of an application with several icons.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>lsForums Inbox</title>
<link rel=icon href=favicon.png sizes="16x16" type="image/png">
<link rel=icon href=windows.ico sizes="32x32 48x48"
type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon">
<link rel=icon href=mac.icns sizes="128x128 512x512 8192x8192
32768x32768">
<link rel=icon href=iphone.png sizes="57x57" type="image/png">
<link rel=icon href=gnome.svg sizes="any" type="image/svg+xml">
<link rel=stylesheet href=lsforums.css>
<script src=lsforums.js></script>
<meta name=application-name content="lsForums">
</head>
<body>
...
For historical reasons, the icon keyword may be preceded by the keyword "shortcut". If the
"shortcut" keyword is present, the rel attributes entire value must be an ASCII case-insensitive
match for the string "shortcut icon" (with a single U+0020 SPACE character between the to-
kens and no other space characters).
The license keyword may be used with <link>, <a>, and <area> elements. This keyword creates a
hyperlink.
The license keyword indicates that the referenced document provides the copyright license terms
under which the main content of the current document is provided.
This specification defines the main content of a document and content that is not deemed to be part
of that main content via the <main> element. The distinction should be made clear to the user.
EXAMPLE 461
Consider a photo sharing site. A page on that site might describe and show a photograph, and
the page might be marked up as follows:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Exampl Pictures: Kissat</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style/default">
</head>
<body>
<h1>Kissat</h1>
<nav>
<a href="../">Return to photo index</a>
</nav>
<main>
<figure>
<img src="/pix/39627052_fd8dcd98b5.jpg">
<figcaption>Kissat</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of them has six toes!</p>
<p><small>This photograph is <a rel="license"
href="https://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php">MIT
Licensed</a></small></p>
</main>
<footer>
<a href="/">Home</a> | <a href="../">Photo index</a>
<p><small> copyright 2009 Exampl Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
</small></p>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
In this case the license applies to just the photo (the main content of the document), not the
whole document. In particular not the design of the page itself, which is covered by the copy-
right given at the bottom of the document. This should be made clear in the text referencing the
licensing link and could also be made clearer in the styling (e.g., making the license link
prominently positioned near the photograph, while having the page copyright in small text at
the foot of the page, or adding a border to the <main> element.)
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "copyright" like the
license keyword.
The nofollow keyword may be used with <a> and <area> elements. This keyword does not create
a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no
other keywords create one).
The nofollow keyword indicates that the link is not endorsed by the original author or publisher of
the page, or that the link to the referenced document was included primarily because of a commer-
cial relationship between people affiliated with the two pages.
The noopener keyword may be used with <a> and <area> elements. This keyword does not create
a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no
other keywords create one).
The keyword indicates that any newly created browsing context which results from following the
hyperlink will have disowned its opener, which means that its window.opener property will be
null.
The noreferrer keyword may be used with <a> and <area> elements. This keyword does not cre-
ate a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink,
if no other keywords create one).
If a user agent follows a link defined by an <a> or <area> element that has the noreferrer key-
word, the user agent must set their requests referrer to "no-referrer".
NOTE:
For historical reasons, the noreferrer keyword implies the behavior associated with the
noopener keyword when present on a hyperlink that creates a new browsing context. That is,
<a href="..." rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"> has the same behavior as <a
href="..." rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"> .
The search keyword may be used with <link>, <a>, and <area> elements. This keyword creates a
hyperlink.
The search keyword indicates that the referenced document provides an interface specifically for
searching the document and its related resources.
NOTE:
OpenSearch description documents can be used with <link> elements and the search link type
to enable user agents to autodiscover search interfaces. [OPENSEARCH]
The stylesheet keyword may be used with <link> elements. This keyword creates an external re-
source link that contributes to the styling processing model. This keyword is body-ok.
The specified resource is a resource that describes how to present the document. Exactly how the
resource is to be processed depends on the actual type of the resource.
If the alternate keyword is also specified on the <link> element, then the link is an alternative
stylesheet; in this case, the title attribute must be specified on the <link> element, with a non-
empty value.
The default type for resources given by the stylesheet keyword is text/css.
When the external resource link is created on a <link> element that is already in a Document.
When the external resource links <link> element is inserted into a document.
When the href attribute of the <link> element of an external resource link that is already in a
Document is changed.
When the crossorigin attribute of the <link> element of an external resource link that is al-
ready in a Document is set, changed, or removed.
When the type attribute of the <link> element of an external resource link that is already in a
Document is set or changed to a value that does not or no longer matches the Content-Type
metadata of the previous obtained external resource, if any.
When the type attribute of the <link> element of an external resource link that is already in a
Document but was previously not obtained due to the type attribute specifying an unsup-
ported type is set, removed, or changed.
When the external resource link changes from being an alternative stylesheet to not being
one, or vice versa.
Quirk: If the document has been set to quirks mode, has the same origin as the URL of the exter-
nal resource, and the Content-Type metadata of the external resource is not a supported style sheet
type, the user agent must instead assume it to be text/css.
Once a resource has been obtained, if its Content-Type metadata is text/css, the user agent must
run these steps:
1. Let element be the <link> element that created the external resource link.
2. If element has an associated CSS style sheet, remove the CSS style sheet in question.
3. If element no longer creates an external resource link that contributes to the styling process-
ing model, or if, since the resource in question was obtained, it has become appropriate to ob-
tain it again (meaning this algorithm is about to be invoked again for a newly obtained re-
source), then abort these steps.
type
text/css
location
The resulting URL string determined during the obtain algorithm.
NOTE:
This is before any redirects get applied.
owner node
element
media
The media attribute of element .
NOTE:
This is a reference to the (possibly absent at this time) attribute, rather than a copy of
the attributes current value. The CSSOM specification defines what happens when
the attribute is dynamically set, changed, or removed.
title
The title attribute of element .
NOTE:
This is similarly a reference to the attribute, rather than a copy of the attributes cur-
rent value.
alternate flag
origin-clean flag
Set if the resource is CORS-same-origin; unset otherwise.
disabled flag
Left at its default value.
CSS rules
Left uninitialized.
The CSS environment encoding is the result of running the following steps:
[CSS-SYNTAX-3]
1. If the element has a charset attribute, get an encoding from that attributes value. If that
succeeds, return the resulting encoding and abort these steps. [ENCODING]
The tag keyword may be used with <a> and <area> elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The tag keyword indicates that the tag that the referenced document represents applies to the cur-
rent document.
NOTE:
Since it indicates that the tag applies to the current document, it would be inappropriate to use
this keyword in the markup of a tag cloud, which lists the popular tags across a set of pages.
EXAMPLE 462
This document is about some gems, and so it is tagged with "https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Gemstone" to unambiguously categorize it as applying to the "jewel" kind of gems, and
not to, say, the towns in the US, the Ruby package format, or the Swiss locomotive class:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Precious</title>
</head>
<body>
<header><h1>My precious</h1> <p>Summer 2012</p></header>
<p>Recently I managed to dispose of a red gem that had been
bothering me. I now have a much nicer blue sapphire.</p>
<p>The red gem had been found in a bauxite stone while I was digging
out the office level, but nobody was willing to haul it away. The
same red gem stayed there for literally years.</p>
<footer>
Tags: <a rel=tag href="https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Gemstone">Gemstone</a>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
EXAMPLE 463
In this document, there are two articles. The "tag" link, however, applies to the whole page
(and would do so wherever it was placed, including if it was within the <article> elements).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Gem 4/4</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<h1>801: Steinbock</h1>
<p>The number 801 Gem 4/4 electro-diesel has an ibex and was rebuilt
in 2002.</p>
</article>
<article>
<h1>802: Murmeltier</h1>
<figure>
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons
/b/b0/Trains_de_la_Bernina_en_hiver_2.jpg"
alt="The 802 was red with pantographs and tall vents on the
side.">
<figcaption>The 802 in the 1980s, above Lago Bianco.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The number 802 Gem 4/4 electro-diesel has a marmot and was rebuilt
in 2003.</p>
</article>
<p class="topic"><a rel=tag href="https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Rhaetian_Railway_Gem_4/4">Gem 4/4</a></p>
</body>
</html>
A sequence of documents is one where each document can have a previous sibling and a next sib-
ling. A document with no previous sibling is the start of its sequence, a document with no next sib-
ling is the end of its sequence.
The next keyword may be used with <link>, <a>, and <area> elements. This keyword creates a hy-
perlink.
The next keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to
the document that is the next logical document in the sequence.
The prev keyword may be used with <link>, <a>, and <area> elements. This keyword creates a hy-
perlink.
The prev keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to
the document that is the previous logical document in the sequence.
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "previous" like the
prev keyword.
Extensions to the predefined set of link types may be registered in the HTML link extensions
section of the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page [MFREL], or filed as an issue on this
specification.
Keyword
The actual value being defined. The value should not be confusingly similar to any other de-
fined value (e.g., differing only in case).
If the value contains a U+003A COLON character (:), it must also be an absolute URL.
Not allowed
The keyword must not be specified on <link> elements.
Hyperlink
The keyword may be specified on a <link> element; it creates a hyperlink.
External Resource
The keyword may be specified on a <link> element; it creates an external resource link.
Not allowed
The keyword must not be specified on <a> and <area> elements.
Hyperlink
The keyword may be specified on <a> and <area> elements; it creates a hyperlink.
External Resource
The keyword may be specified on <a> and <area> elements; it creates an external re-
source link.
Hyperlink Annotation
The keyword may be specified on <a> and <area> elements; it annotates other hyperlinks
created by the element.
Brief description
A short non-normative description of what the keywords meaning is.
Specification
A link to a more detailed description of the keywords semantics and requirements. It could
be another page on the Wiki, or a link to an external page.
Synonyms
A list of other keyword values that have exactly the same processing requirements. Authors
should not use the values defined to be synonyms, they are only intended to allow user agents
to support legacy content. Anyone may remove synonyms that are not used in practice; only
names that need to be processed as synonyms for compatibility with legacy content are to be
registered in this way.
Status
One of the following:
Proposed
The keyword has not received wide peer review and approval. Someone has proposed it
and is, or soon will be, using it.
Ratified
The keyword has received wide peer review and approval. It has a specification that un-
ambiguously defines how to handle pages that use the keyword, including when they use
it in incorrect ways.
Discontinued
The keyword has received wide peer review and it has been found wanting. Existing
pages are using this keyword, but new pages should avoid it. The "brief description" and
"specification" entries will give details of what authors should use instead, if anything.
If a keyword is found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and listed as
a synonym for the existing value.
If a keyword is registered in the "proposed" state for a period of a month or more without be-
ing used or specified, then it may be removed from the registry.
If a keyword is added with the "proposed" status and found to be redundant with existing val-
ues, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value. If a keyword is
added with the "proposed" status and found to be harmful, then it should be changed to "dis-
continued" status.
Anyone can change the status at any time, but should only do so in accordance with the defi-
nitions above.
Conformance checkers may use the information given on the microformats wiki existing-rel-
values page to establish if a value is allowed or not: values defined in this specification or marked
as "proposed" or "ratified" must be accepted when used on the elements for which they apply as
described in the "Effect on..." field, whereas values marked as "discontinued" or values not con-
taining a U+003A COLON character but not listed in either this specification or on the aforemen-
tioned page must be reported as invalid. The remaining values must be accepted as valid if they are
absolute URLs containing US-ASCII characters only and rejected otherwise. Conformance check-
ers may cache this information (e.g., for performance reasons or to avoid the use of unreliable net-
work connectivity).
NOTE:
Note: Even URL-valued link types are compared ASCII-case-insensitively. Validators might
choose to warn about characters U+0041 (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A) through U+005A
(LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z) (inclusive) in the pre-case-folded form of link types that con-
tain a colon.
When an author uses a new type not defined by either this specification or the Wiki page, confor-
mance checkers should offer to add the value to the Wiki, with the details described above, with
the "proposed" status.
Types defined as extensions in the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page with the status "pro-
posed" or "ratified" may be used with the rel attribute on <link>, <a>, and <area> elements in ac-
cordance to the "Effect on..." field. [MFREL]
The <table> element represents data with more than one dimension, in the form of a table.
The <table> element takes part in the table model. Tables have rows, columns, and cells given by
their descendants. The rows and columns form a grid; a tables cells must completely cover that
NOTE:
Precise rules for determining whether this conformance requirement is met are described in the
description of the table model.
Authors are encouraged to provide information describing how to interpret complex tables. Guid-
ance on how to provide such information is given below.
Historically, many Web authors have tables in HTML as a way to control their page layout making
it difficult to extract tabular data from such documents.
In particular, users of accessibility tools, like screen readers, are likely to find it very difficult to
navigate pages with tables used for layout.
If a table is to be used for layout it must be marked with the attribute role="presentation" for a
user agent to properly represent the table to an assistive technology and to properly convey the in-
tent of the author to tools that wish to extract tabular data from the document.
NOTE:
There are a variety of alternatives to using HTML tables for layout, primarily using CSS posi-
tioning and the CSS table model. [CSS-2015]
The border content attribute may be specified on a <table> element to explicitly indicate that the
<table> element is not being used for layout purposes. If specified, the attributes value must either
be the empty string or the value "1". The attribute is used by certain user agents as an indication
that borders should be drawn around cells of the table.
Tables can be complicated to understand and navigate. To help users with this, user agents should
clearly delineate cells in a table from each other, unless the user agent has classified the table as a
layout table.
NOTE:
Authors and implementors are encouraged to consider using some of the table design tech-
niques described below to make tables easier to navigate for users.
User agents, especially those that do table analysis on arbitrary content, are encouraged to find
heuristics to determine which tables actually contain data and which are merely being used for lay-
out. This specification does not define a precise heuristic, but the following are suggested as possi-
ble indicators:
Feature Indication
The use of the role attribute with the value Probably a layout table
presentation
The use of the border attribute with the non- Probably a layout table
conforming value 0
The use of the non-conforming cellspacing Probably a layout table
and cellpadding attributes with the value 0
The use of the non-conforming summary Not a good indicator (both layout and non-
attribute layout tables have historically been given this
attribute)
NOTE:
It is quite possible that the above suggestions are wrong. Implementors are urged to provide
feedback elaborating on their experiences with trying to create a layout table detection heuris-
tic.
If a <table> element has a (non-conforming) summary attribute, and the user agent has not classi-
fied the table as a layout table, the user agent may report the contents of that attribute to the user.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
table . caption [ = value ]
Returns the tables <caption> element.
table . deleteCaption()
Ensures the table does not have a <caption> element.
Can be set, to replace the <thead> element. If the new value is not a <thead> element,
throws a HierarchyRequestError exception.
table . deleteTHead()
Ensures the table does not have a <thead> element.
Can be set, to replace the <tfoot> element. If the new value is not a <tfoot> element,
throws a HierarchyRequestError exception.
table . deleteTFoot()
Ensures the table does not have a <tfoot> element.
table . tBodies
Returns an HTMLCollection of the <tbody> elements of the table.
table . rows
Returns an HTMLCollection of the <tr> elements of the table.
The position is relative to the rows in the table. The index -1, which is the default if the
argument is omitted, is equivalent to inserting at the end of the table.
If the given position is less than -1 or greater than the number of rows, throws an
IndexSizeError exception.
Removes the <tr> element with the given position in the table.
The position is relative to the rows in the table. The index -1 is equivalent to deleting the
last row of the table.
If the given position is less than -1 or greater than the index of the last row, or if there
are no rows, throws an IndexSizeError exception.
The caption IDL attribute must return, on getting, the first <caption> element child of the <table>
element, if any, or null otherwise. On setting, the first <caption> element child of the <table> ele-
ment, if any, must be removed, and the new value, if not null, must be inserted as the first node of
the <table> element.
The createCaption() method must return the first <caption> element child of the <table> ele-
ment, if any; otherwise a new <caption> element must be created, inserted as the first node of the
<table> element, and then returned.
The deleteCaption() method must remove the first <caption> element child of the <table> ele-
ment, if any.
The tHead IDL attribute must return, on getting, the first <thead> element child of the <table> ele-
ment, if any, or null otherwise. On setting, if the new value is null or a <thead> element, the first
<thead> element child of the <table> element, if any, must be removed, and the new value, if not
null, must be inserted immediately before the first element in the <table> element that is neither a
<caption> element nor a <colgroup> element, if any, or at the end of the table if there are no such
elements. If the new value is neither null nor a <thead> element, then a
HierarchyRequestError DOM exception must be thrown instead.
The createTHead() method must return the first <thead> element child of the <table> element, if
any; otherwise a new <thead> element must be created and inserted immediately before the first el-
ement in the <table> element that is neither a <caption> element nor a <colgroup> element, if any,
or at the end of the table if there are no such elements, and then that new element must be returned.
The deleteTHead() method must remove the first <thead> element child of the <table> element,
if any.
The tFoot IDL attribute must return, on getting, the first <tfoot> element child of the <table> ele-
ment, if any, or null otherwise. On setting, if the new value is null or a <tfoot> element, the first
<tfoot> element child of the <table> element, if any, must be removed, and the new value, if not
null, must be inserted at the end of the table. If the new value is neither null nor a <tfoot> element,
then a HierarchyRequestError DOM exception must be thrown instead.
The createTFoot() method must return the first <tfoot> element child of the <table> element, if
any; otherwise a new <tfoot> element must be created and inserted at the end of the table, and
The deleteTFoot() method must remove the first <tfoot> element child of the <table> element,
if any.
The tBodies attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the table node, whose filter
matches only <tbody> elements that are children of the <table> element.
The createTBody() method must create a new <tbody> element, insert it immediately after the
last <tbody> element child in the <table> element, if any, or at the end of the <table> element if the
<table> element has no <tbody> element children, and then must return the new <tbody> element.
The rows attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the table node, whose filter matches
only <tr> elements that are either children of the <table> element, or children of <thead>, <tbody>,
or <tfoot> elements that are themselves children of the <table> element. The elements in the col-
lection must be ordered such that those elements whose parent is a thead are included first, in tree
order, followed by those elements whose parent is either a table or tbody element, again in tree
order, followed finally by those elements whose parent is a <tfoot> element, still in tree order.
The behavior of the insertRow( index ) method depends on the state of the table. When it is
called, the method must act as required by the first item in the following list of conditions that de-
scribes the state of the table and the index argument:
If index is less than -1 or greater than the number of elements in rows collection:
The method must throw an IndexSizeError exception.
If the rows collection has zero elements in it, and the table has no <tbody> elements in it:
The method must create a <tbody> element, then create a <tr> element, then append the
<tr> element to the <tbody> element, then append the <tbody> element to the <table> el-
ement, and finally return the <tr> element.
Otherwise:
The method must create a <tr> element, insert it immediately before the index th <tr>
element in the rows collection, in the same parent, and finally must return the newly cre-
ated tr element.
When the deleteRow( index ) method is called, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. If index is equal to -1, then index must be set to the number of items in the rows collection,
minus one.
2. Now, if index is less than zero, or greater than or equal to the number of elements in the rows
collection, the method must instead throw an IndexSizeError exception, and these steps
must be aborted.
3. Otherwise, the method must remove the index th element in the rows collection from its par-
ent.
EXAMPLE 464
Here is an example of a table being used to mark up a Sudoku puzzle. Observe the lack of
headers, which are not necessary in such a table.
<section>
<h1>Todays Sudoku</h1>
<table>
<colgroup><col><col><col>
<colgroup><col><col><col>
<colgroup><col><col><col>
<tbody>
<tr> <td> 1 <td> <td> 3 <td> 6 <td> <td> 4 <td> 7 <td> <td> 9
<tr> <td> <td> 2 <td> <td> <td> 9 <td> <td> <td> 1 <td>
<tr> <td> 7 <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> 6
<tbody>
<tr> <td> 2 <td> <td> 4 <td> <td> 3 <td> <td> 9 <td> <td> 8
<tr> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td>
<tr> <td> 5 <td> <td> <td> 9 <td> <td> 7 <td> <td> <td> 1
<tbody>
<tr> <td> 6 <td> <td> <td> <td> 5 <td> <td> <td> <td> 2
<tr> <td> <td> <td> <td> <td> 7 <td> <td> <td> <td>
<tr> <td> 9 <td> <td> <td> 8 <td> <td> 2 <td> <td> <td> 5
</table>
</section>
For tables that consist of more than just a grid of cells with headers in the first row and headers in
the first column, and for any table in general where the reader might have difficulty understanding
the content, authors should include explanatory information introducing the table. This informa-
tion is useful for all users, but is especially useful for users who cannot see the table, e.g., users of
screen readers.
Such explanatory information should introduce the purpose of the table, outline its basic cell struc-
ture, highlight any trends or patterns, and generally teach the user how to use the table.
...could benefit from a description explaining the way the table is laid out, something like "Charac-
teristics are given in the second column, with the negative side in the left column and the positive
side in the right column".
EXAMPLE 465
NOTE:
In the example above the aria-describedby attribute is used to explicitly associate the
information with the table for assistive technology users.
EXAMPLE 466
<figure aria-labelledby="caption">
<p>Characteristics are given in the second column, with the
negative side in the left column and the positive side in the right
column.</p>
<table>
<caption id="caption">Characteristics with positive and negative
sides</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th id="n"> Negative
<th> Characteristic
<th> Positive
<tbody>
<tr>
<td headers="n r1"> Sad
<th id="r1"> Mood
<td> Happy
<tr>
<td headers="n r2"> Failing
<th id="r2"> Grade
<td> Passing
</table>
</figure>
NOTE:
The <figure> in this example has been labeled by the table <caption> using aria-
labelledby.
Authors may also use other techniques, or combinations of the above techniques, as appropriate.
NOTE:
Regardless of the method used to provide additional descriptive information for a table, if a
<table> needs a caption, authors should use a <caption> element as it is the most robust
method for providing an accessible caption for a table.
The best option, of course, rather than writing a description explaining the way the table is laid
out, is to adjust the table such that no explanation is needed.
EXAMPLE 467
In the case of the table used in the examples above, a simple rearrangement of the table so that
the headers are on the top and left sides removes the need for an explanation as well as remov-
ing the need for the use of headers attributes:
<table>
<caption>Characteristics with positive and negative sides</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th> Characteristic
<th> Negative
<th> Positive
<tbody>
<tr>
<th> Mood
<td> Sad
<td> Happy
<tr>
<th> Grade
<td> Failing
<td> Passing
</table>
Good table design is key to making tables more readable and usable.
In visual media, providing column and row borders and alternating row backgrounds can be very
effective to make complicated tables more readable.
For tables with large volumes of numeric content, using monospaced fonts can help users see pat-
terns, especially in situations where a user agent does not render the borders. (Unfortunately, for
historical reasons, not rendering borders on tables is a common default.)
In speech media, table cells can be distinguished by reporting the corresponding headers before
reading the cells contents, and by allowing users to navigate the table in a grid fashion, rather than
serializing the entire contents of the table in source order.
User agents are encouraged to render tables using these techniques whenever the page does not use
CSS and the table is not classified as a layout table.
The <caption> element represents the title of the table that is its parent, if it has a parent and that
is a <table> element.
When a <table> element is the only content in a <figure> element other than the <figcaption>, the
<caption> element should be omitted in favor of the <figcaption>.
A caption can introduce context for a table, making it significantly easier to understand.
EXAMPLE 468
Consider, for instance, the following table:
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
In the abstract, this table is not clear. However, with a caption giving the tables number (for
reference in the main prose) and explaining its use, it makes more sense:
<caption>
<p>Table 1.
<p>This table shows the total score obtained from rolling two
six-sided dice. The first row represents the value of the first die,
the first column the value of the second die. The total is given in
the cell that corresponds to the values of the two dice.
</caption>
Table 1. This table shows the total score obtained from rolling two six-
sided dice. The first row represents the value of the first die, the first
column the value of the second die. The total is given in the cell that
corresponds to the values of the two dice.
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
As a child of a <table> element, after any <caption> elements and before any <thead>,
<tbody>, <tfoot>, and tr elements.
Content model:
If the span attribute is present: Nothing.
If the span attribute is absent: Zero or more col and <template> elements.
Tag omission in text/html:
A <colgroup> elements start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the <colgroup>
element is a <col> element, and if the element is not immediately preceded by another
<colgroup> element whose end tag has been omitted. (It cant be omitted if the element
is empty.)
Content attributes:
Global attributes
span - Number of columns spanned by the element
The <colgroup> element represents a group of one or more columns in the table that is its parent,
if it has a parent and that is a <table> element.
If the <colgroup> element contains no <col> elements, then the element may have a span content
attribute specified, whose value must be a valid non-negative integer greater than zero.
The <colgroup> element and its span attribute take part in the table model.
The span IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name. The value must be lim-
ited to only non-negative numbers greater than zero.
If a <col> element has a parent and that is a <colgroup> element that itself has a parent that is a
<table> element, then the <col> element represents one or more columns in the column group rep-
resented by that <colgroup>.
The element may have a span content attribute specified, whose value must be a valid non-
negative integer greater than zero.
The <col> element and its span attribute take part in the table model.
The span IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name. The value must be
limited to only non-negative numbers greater than zero.
A <tbody> elements start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the <tbody> element
is a <tr> element, and if the element is not immediately preceded by a <tbody>, <thead>,
or <tfoot> element whose end tag has been omitted. (It cant be omitted if the element is
empty.). A <tbody> elements end tag may be omitted if the <tbody> element is immedi-
ately followed by a tbody or <tfoot> element, or if there is no more content in the par-
ent element.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
rowgroup role (default - do not set), Any other role value.
The HTMLTableSectionElement interface is also used for <thead> and <tfoot> ele-
ments.
The <tbody> element represents a block of rows that consist of a body of data for the parent
<table> element, if the <tbody> element has a parent and it is a <table>.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
tbody . rows
Returns an HTMLCollection of the <tr> elements of the table section.
The position is relative to the rows in the table section. The index -1, which is the de-
fault if the argument is omitted, is equivalent to inserting at the end of the table section.
If the given position is less than -1 or greater than the number of rows, throws an
IndexSizeError exception.
Removes the <tr> element with the given position in the table section.
The position is relative to the rows in the table section. The index -1 is equivalent to
deleting the last row of the table section.
If the given position is less than -1 or greater than the index of the last row, or if there
are no rows, throws an IndexSizeError exception.
The rows attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the element, whose filter matches
only tr elements that are children of the element.
The insertRow( index ) method must, when invoked on an element table section , act as follows:
If index is less than -1 or greater than the number of elements in the rows collection, the method
must throw an IndexSizeError exception.
If index is -1 or equal to the number of items in the rows collection, the method must create a
<tr> element, append it to the element table section , and return the newly created <tr> element.
Otherwise, the method must create a <tr> element, insert it as a child of the table section element,
immediately before the index th <tr> element in the rows collection, and finally must return the
newly created <tr> element.
If index is less than -1 or greater than the number of elements in the rows collection, the method
must throw an IndexSizeError exception.
If index is -1, remove the last element in the rows collection from its parent.
Otherwise, remove the index th element in the rows collection from its parent.
A <thead> elements end tag may be omitted if the <thead> element is immediately fol-
lowed by a tbody or <tfoot> element.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
rowgroup role (default - do not set), Any other role value.
The <thead> element represents the block of rows that consist of the column labels (headers) for
the parent <table> element, if the thead element has a parent and it is a <table>.
EXAMPLE 469
This example shows a <thead> element being used. Notice the use of the th element to provide
headers in the <thead> element:
<table border="1">
<caption> School auction sign-up sheet </caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><label for=e1>Sellers Name</label>
<th><label for=e2>Product for sale</label>
<th><label for=e3>Picture of product</label>
<th><label for=e4>Reserve Price</label>
</tr>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Ms Danus
<td>Doughnuts
<td><img src="https://example.com/mydoughnuts.png" title="Doughnuts
from Ms Danus">
<td>$45
<tr>
<td><input id=e1 type=text name=who required form=f>
<td><input id=e2 type=text name=what required form=f>
<td><input id=e3 type=url name=pic form=f>
<td><input id=e4 type=number step=0.01 min=0 value=0 required form=f>
</table>
<form id=f action="/auction.cgi">
<input type=button name=add value="Submit">
</form>
Content model:
Zero or more tr and script-supporting elements.
Tag omission in text/html:
A <tfoot> elements end tag may be omitted if the <tfoot> element is immediately fol-
lowed by a <tbody> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
rowgroup role (default - do not set), Any other role value.
The <tfoot> element represents the block of rows that consist of the column summaries (footers)
for the parent <table> element, if the <tfoot> element has a parent and it is a <table>.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
tr . rowIndex
Returns the position of the row in the tables rows list.
tr . sectionRowIndex
Returns the position of the row in the table sections rows list.
tr . cells
Returns an HTMLCollection of the td and <th> elements of the row.
If the given position is less than -1 or greater than the number of cells, throws an
IndexSizeError exception.
tr . deleteCell( index )
Removes the td or <th> element with the given position in the row.
The position is relative to the cells in the row. The index -1 is equivalent to deleting the
last cell of the row.
If the given position is less than -1 or greater than the index of the last cell, or if there
are no cells, throws an IndexSizeError exception.
The rowIndex attribute must, if the element has a parent <table> element, or a parent <tbody>,
<thead>, or <tfoot> element and a grandparent <table> element, return the index of the <tr> ele-
ment in that <table> elements rows collection. If there is no such <table> element, then the at-
tribute must return -1.
The sectionRowIndex attribute must, if the element has a parent <table>, <tbody>, <thead>, or
<tfoot> element, return the index of the <tr> element in the parent elements rows collection (for
tables, thats the HTMLTableElement.rows collection; for table sections, thats the
HTMLTableRowElement.rows collection). If there is no such parent element, then the attribute
must return -1.
The cells attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the <tr> element, whose filter
matches only td and <th> elements that are children of the <tr> element.
If index is less than -1 or greater than the number of elements in the cells collection, the method
must throw an IndexSizeError exception.
If index is equal to -1 or equal to the number of items in cells collection, the method must create
a <td> element, append it to the <tr> element, and return the newly created td element.
Otherwise, the method must create a <td> element, insert it as a child of the <tr> element, immedi-
ately before the index th td or <th> element in the cells collection, and finally must return the
newly created <td> element.
If index is less than -1 or greater than the number of elements in the cells collection, the method
must throw an IndexSizeError exception.
If index is -1, remove the last element in the cells collection from its parent.
Otherwise, remove the index th element in the cells collection from its parent.
The <td> element and its colspan, rowspan, and headers attributes take part in the table model.
User agents, especially in non-visual environments or where displaying the table as a 2D grid is
impractical, may give the user context for the cell when rendering the contents of a cell; for in-
stance, giving its position in the table model, or listing the cells header cells (as determined by the
algorithm for assigning header cells). When a cells header cells are being listed, user agents may
use the value of abbr attributes on those header cells, if any, instead of the contents of the header
cells themselves.
The <th> element may have a scope content attribute specified. The scope attribute is an enumer-
ated attribute with five states, four of which have explicit keywords:
The <th> element may have an abbr content attribute specified. Its value must be an alternative la-
bel for the header cell, to be used when referencing the cell in other contexts (e.g., when describ-
ing the header cells that apply to a data cell). It is typically an abbreviated form of the full header
cell, but can also be an expansion, or merely a different phrasing.
The <th> element and its colspan, rowspan, headers, and scope attributes take part in the table
model.
The scope IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to only
known values.
The abbr IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
EXAMPLE 470
The following example shows how the scope attributes rowgroup value affects which data
cells a header cell applies to.
NOTE:
The <tbody> elements in this example identify the range of the row groups.
<table>
<caption>Measurement of legs and tails in Cats and English
speakers</caption>
<thead>
<tr> <th> ID <th> Measurement <th> Average <th> Maximum
<tbody>
<tr> <td> <th scope=rowgroup> Cats <td> <td>
<tr> <td> 93 <th scope=row> Legs <td> 3.5 <td> 4
<tr> <td> 10 <th scope=row> Tails <td> 1 <td> 1
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr> <td> <th scope=rowgroup> English speakers <td> <td>
<tr> <td> 32 <th scope=row> Legs <td> 2.67 <td> 4
<tr> <td> 35 <th scope=row> Tails <td> 0.33 <td> 1
</tbody>
</table>
Cats
93 Legs 3.5 4
10 Tails 1 1
English speakers
32 Legs 2.67 4
35 Tails 0.33 1
The header cells in row 1 ("ID", "Measurement", "Average" and "Maximum") each apply only
to the cells in their column.
The header cells with a scope=rowgroup ("Cats" and 'English speakers') apply to all the cells
in their row group other than the cells (to their left) in column 1:
The header "Cats" (row 2, column 2) applies to the headers "Legs" (row 3, column 2) and
"Tails" (row 4, column 2) and to the data cells in rows 2, 3 and 4 of the "Average" and "Maxi-
mum" columns.
The header 'English speakers' (row 5, column 2) applies to the headers "Legs" (row 6, column
2) and "Tails" (row 7, column 2) and to the data cells in rows 5, 6 and 7 of the "Average" and
"Maximum" columns.
Each of the "Legs" and "Tails" header cells has a scope=row and therefore apply to the data
cells (to the right) in their row, from the "Average" and "Maximum" columns.
The <td> and <th> elements may have a colspan content attribute specified, whose value must be
a valid non-negative integer greater than zero.
The <td> and <th> elements may also have a rowspan content attribute specified, whose value
must be a valid non-negative integer. For this attribute, the value zero means that the cell is to span
all the remaining rows in the row group.
These attributes give the number of columns and rows respectively that the cell is to span. These
attributes must not be used to overlap cells, as described in the table model.
The <td> and <th> element may have a headers content attribute specified. The headers attribute,
if specified, must contain a string consisting of an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens
that are case-sensitive, each of which must have the value of an id of a <th> element taking part in
the same table as the <td> or <th> element (as defined by the table model).
A <th> element with id id is said to be directly targeted by all td and <th> elements in the same
table that have headers attributes whose values include as one of their tokens the ID id . A <th>
element A is said to be targeted by a th or <td> element B if either A is directly targeted by B or
if there exists an element C that is itself targeted by the element B and A is directly targeted by
C.
The colspan, rowspan, and headers attributes take part in the table model.
The td and <th> elements implement interfaces that inherit from the HTMLTableCellElement in-
terface:
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
cell . cellIndex
Returns the position of the cell in the rows cells list. This does not necessarily corre-
spond to the x -position of the cell in the table, since earlier cells might cover multiple
rows or columns.
The colSpan IDL attribute must reflect the colspan content attribute. Its default value is 1.
The rowSpan IDL attribute must reflect the rowspan content attribute. Its default value is 1.
The headers IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The cellIndex IDL attribute must, if the element has a parent <tr> element, return the index of
the cells element in the parent elements cells collection. If there is no such parent element, then
the attribute must return -1.
The various table elements and their content attributes together define the table model.
A table consists of cells aligned on a two-dimensional grid of slots with coordinates ( x , y ). The
grid is finite, and is either empty or has one or more slots. If the grid has one or more slots, then
the x coordinates are always in the range 0 x < xwidth , and the y coordinates are always in the
range 0 y < yheight . If one or both of xwidth and yheight are zero, then the table is empty (has no
slots). Tables correspond to <table> elements.
A cell is a set of slots anchored at a slot ( cellx , celly ), and with a particular width and height
such that the cell covers all the slots with coordinates ( x , y ) where cellx x < cellx + width and
celly y < celly + height . Cells can either be data cells or header cells. Data cells correspond to
<td> elements, and header cells correspond to <th> elements. Cells of both types can have zero or
more associated header cells.
It is possible, in certain error cases, for two cells to occupy the same slot.
A row is a complete set of slots from x =0 to x = xwidth -1, for a particular value of y . Rows usu-
ally correspond to <tr> elements, though a row group can have some implied rows at the end in
some cases involving cells spanning multiple rows.
A column is a complete set of slots from y =0 to y = yheight -1, for a particular value of x . Col-
umns can correspond to <col> elements. In the absence of <col> elements, columns are implied.
A row group is a set of rows anchored at a slot (0, groupy ) with a particular height such that the
row group covers all the slots with coordinates ( x , y ) where 0 x < xwidth and
groupy y < groupy + height . Row groups correspond to <tbody>, <thead>, and <tfoot> ele-
ments. Not every row is necessarily in a row group.
A column group is a set of columns anchored at a slot ( groupx , 0) with a particular width such
that the column group covers all the slots with coordinates ( x , y ) where
groupx x < groupx + width and 0 y < yheight . Column groups correspond to <colgroup> ele-
ments. Not every column is necessarily in a column group.
Row groups cannot overlap each other. Similarly, column groups cannot overlap each other.
A cell cannot cover slots that are from two or more row groups. It is, however, possible for a cell
to be in multiple column groups. All the slots that form part of one cell are part of zero or one row
groups and zero or more column groups.
In addition to cells, columns, rows, row groups, and column groups, tables can have a <caption>
element associated with them. This gives the table a heading, or legend.
A table model error is an error with the data represented by table elements and their descen-
dants. Documents must not have table model errors.
which elements correspond to which slots in a table associated with a <table> element,
NOTE:
The algorithm selects the first <caption> encountered and assigns it as the caption for the
table, and selects the first <thead> and processes it. Until there is a <thead>, <tfoot>,
<tbody> or <tr> element, it processes any <colgroup> elements encountered, and any
<col> children, to create column groups. Finally, from the first <thead>, <tfoot>, <tbody>
or <tr> element encountered as a child of the <table> it processes those elements, moving
the first <tfoot> encountered to the end of the table respectively.
5. Let the table be the table represented by the <table> element. The xwidth and yheight
variables give the table s dimensions. The table is initially empty.
6. If the <table> element has no children elements, then return the table (which will be
empty), and abort these steps.
7. Associate the first <caption> element child of the <table> element with the table . If
there are no such children, then it has no associated <caption> element.
8. Let the current element be the first element child of the <table> element.
If a step in this algorithm ever requires the current element to be advanced to the next
child of the table when there is no such next child, then the user agent must jump to the
step labeled end, near the end of this algorithm.
9. While the current element is not one of the following elements, advance the current el-
ement to the next child of the table:
<colgroup>
<thead>
<tbody>
<tfoot>
<tr>
1. Column groups: Process the current element according to the appropriate case be-
low:
2. Let the current column be the first <col> element child of the
<colgroup> element.
If the result of parsing the value is not an error or zero, then let span
be that value.
5. Let the last span columns in the table correspond to the current
column <col> element.
7. Let all the last columns in the table from x= xstart to x= xwidth -1
form a new column group, anchored at the slot ( xstart , 0), with
width xwidth - xstart , corresponding to the <colgroup> element.
1. If the <colgroup> element has a span attribute, then parse its value
using the rules for parsing non-negative integers.
If the result of parsing the value is not an error or zero, then let span
be that value.
3. Let the last span columns in the table form a new column group,
anchored at the slot ( xwidth - span , 0), with width span , correspond-
ing to the <colgroup> element.
3. While the current element is not one of the following elements, advance the cur-
rent element to the next child of the table:
<colgroup>
<thead>
<tbody>
<tfoot>
<tr>
4. If the current element is a <colgroup> element, jump to the step labeled column
groups above.
13. Rows: While the current element is not one of the following elements, advance the cur-
rent element to the next child of the <table>:
<thead>
<tbody>
<tfoot>
<tr>
Run the algorithm for processing row groups for the first <thead> child of the <table>.
14. If the current element is a <tfoot> and the value of table footer is null, then run the fol-
lowing substeps:
2. advance the current element to the next child of the <table>, and
15. If the current element is a <thead> and the value of table header is null, then run the
following substeps:
2. advance the current element to the next child of the <table>, and
16. If the current element is a <tr> then run the algorithm for processing rows, advance the
current element to the next child of the <table>, and return to the step labeled rows.
19. Advance the current element to the next child of the <table>.
21. End: run the algorithm for processing row groups to process table footer .
22. If there exists a row or column in the table containing only slots that do not have a cell
anchored to them, then this is a table model error.
The algorithm for processing row groups, which is invoked by the set of steps above for
processing <thead>, <tbody>, and <tfoot> elements, is:
2. For each <tr> element that is a child of the element being processed, in tree order, run
the algorithm for processing rows.
3. If yheight > ystart , then let all the last rows in the table from y= ystart to y= yheight -1
form a new row group, anchored at the slot with coordinate (0, ystart ), with height
yheight - ystart , corresponding to the element being processed.
The algorithm for ending a row group, which is invoked by the set of steps above when
starting and ending a block of rows, is:
2. Increase ycurrent by 1.
The algorithm for processing rows, which is invoked by the set of steps above for process-
ing <tr> elements, is:
2. Let xcurrent be 0.
4. If the <tr> element being processed has no td or th element children, then increase
ycurrent by 1, abort this set of steps, and return to the algorithm above.
5. Let current cell be the first td or <th> element child in the <tr> element being pro-
cessed.
6. Cells: While xcurrent is less than xwidth and the slot with coordinate ( xcurrent , ycurrent )
already has a cell assigned to it, increase xcurrent by 1.
8. If the current cell has a colspan attribute, then parse that attributes value, and let
colspan be the result.
If parsing that value failed, or returned zero, or if the attribute is absent, then let colspan
be 1, instead.
9. If the current cell has a rowspan attribute, then parse that attributes value, and let
rowspan be the result.
If parsing that value failed or if the attribute is absent, then let rowspan be 1, instead.
10. If rowspan is zero and the <table> elements node document is not set to quirks mode,
then let cell grows downward be true, and set rowspan to 1. Otherwise, let cell grows
downward be false.
11. If xwidth < xcurrent + colspan , then let xwidth be xcurrent + colspan .
12. If yheight < ycurrent + rowspan , then let yheight be ycurrent + rowspan .
13. Let the slots with coordinates ( x , y ) such that xcurrent x < xcurrent + colspan and
ycurrent y < ycurrent + rowspan be covered by a new cell c , anchored at ( xcurrent ,
ycurrent ), which has width colspan and height rowspan , corresponding to the current
cell element.
If the current cell element is a <th> element, let this new cell c be a header cell; other-
wise, let it be a data cell.
To establish which header cells apply to the current cell element, use the algorithm for
assigning header cells described in the next section.
If any of the slots involved already had a cell covering them, then this is a table model
error. Those slots now have two cells overlapping.
14. If cell grows downward is true, then add the tuple { c , xcurrent , colspan } to the list of
downward-growing cells .
16. If current cell is the last td or <th> element child in the <tr> element being processed,
then increase ycurrent by 1, abort this set of steps, and return to the algorithm above.
17. Let current cell be the next td or <th> element child in the <tr> element being pro-
cessed.
When the algorithms above require the user agent to run the algorithm for growing
downward-growing cells, the user agent must, for each { cell , cellx , width } tuple in the
list of downward-growing cells , if any, extend the cell cell so that it also covers the slots
with coordinates ( x , ycurrent ), where cellx x < cellx + width .
Each cell can be assigned zero or more header cells. The algorithm for assigning header
cells to a cell principal cell is as follows.
2. Let ( principalx , principaly ) be the coordinate of the slot to which the principal cell is
anchored.
1. Take the value of the principal cell s headers attribute and split it on
spaces, letting id list be the list of tokens obtained.
2. For each token in the id list , if the first element in the Document with an
ID equal to the token is a cell in the same table, and that cell is not the
5. If the principal cell is anchored in a row group, then add all header cells
that are row group headers and are anchored in the same row group with
an x -coordinate less than or equal to principalx + principalwidth -1 and a
y -coordinate less than or equal to principaly + principalheight -1 to
header list .
6. If the principal cell is anchored in a column group, then add all header
cells that are column group headers and are anchored in the same column
group with an x -coordinate less than or equal to principalx + principal-
width -1 and a y -coordinate less than or equal to principaly + principal-
height -1 to header list .
The internal algorithm for scanning and assigning header cells, given a principal cell , a
header list , an initial coordinate ( initialx , initialy ), and x and y increments, is as fol-
lows:
Otherwise
Let in header block be false and let headers from current header block be an
empty list of cells.
NOTE:
For each invocation of this algorithm, one of x and y will be -1, and the other
will be 0.
7. If there is no cell covering slot ( x , y ), or if there is more than one cell covering slot ( x ,
y ), return to the substep labeled loop.
4. If x is 0
If there are any cells in the opaque headers list anchored with
the same x -coordinate as the current cell , and with the same
width as current cell , then let blocked be true.
If y is 0
If there are any cells in the opaque headers list anchored with
the same y -coordinate as the current cell , and with the same
height as current cell , then let blocked be true.
If the current cell is not a row header, then let blocked be true.
5. If blocked is false, then add the current cell to the headers list .
Set in header block to false. Add all the cells in headers from current header
block to the opaque headers list, and empty the headers from current header
block list.
A header cell anchored at the slot with coordinate ( x , y ) with width width and height
height is said to be a column header if any of the following conditions are true:
The cells scope attribute is in the auto state, and there are no data cells in any of the
cells covering slots with x -coordinates x .. x + width -1.
A header cell anchored at the slot with coordinate ( x , y ) with width width and height
height is said to be a row header if any of the following conditions are true:
The cells scope attribute is in the auto state, the cell is not a column header, and there
are no data cells in any of the cells covering slots with y -coordinates y .. y + height -1.
A header cell is said to be a column group header if its scope attribute is in the column
group state.
A header cell is said to be a row group header if its scope attribute is in the row group state.
A cell is said to be an empty cell if it contains no elements and its text content, if any, con-
sists only of White_Space characters.
4.9.13. Examples
The following shows how might one mark up the bottom part of table 45 of the Smithsonian
physical tables, Volume 71:
<table>
<caption>Specification values: <b>Steel</b>, <b>Castings</b>,
Ann. A.S.T.M. A27-16, Class B;* P max. 0.06; S max. 0.05.</caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th rowspan=2>Grade.</th>
<th rowspan=2>Yield Point.</th>
<th colspan=2>Ultimate tensile strength</th>
<th rowspan=2>Per cent elong. 50.8mm or 2 in.</th>
<th rowspan=2>Per cent reduct. area.</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>kg/mm<sup>2</sup></th>
<th>lb/in<sup>2</sup></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Hard</td>
<td>0.45 ultimate</td>
<td>56.2</td>
<td>80,000</td>
<td>15</td>
<td>20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Medium</td>
<td>0.45 ultimate</td>
<td>49.2</td>
<td>70,000</td>
<td>18</td>
<td>25</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Soft</td>
<td>0.45 ultimate</td>
<td>42.2</td>
<td>60,000</td>
<td>22</td>
<td>30</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Specification values: Steel, Castings, Ann. A.S.T.M. A27-16, Class B;* P max. 0.06; S max. 0.05.
Grade. Yield Ultimate tensile Per cent elong. 50.8 mm Per cent reduct.
Point. strength or 2 in. area.
kg/mm2 lb/in2
The following shows how one might mark up the gross margin table on page 46 of Apple,
Incs 10-K filing for fiscal year 2008:
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>
<th>2008
<th>2007
<th>2006
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Net sales
<td>$ 32,479
<td>$ 24,006
<td>$ 19,315
<tr>
<th>Cost of sales
<td> 21,334
<td> 15,852
<td> 13,717
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Gross margin
<td>$ 11,145
<td>$ 8,154
<td>$ 5,598
<tfoot>
<tr>
<th>Gross margin percentage
<td>34.3%
<td>34.0%
<td>29.0%
</table>
The following shows how one might mark up the operating expenses table from lower on the
same page of that document:
<table>
<colgroup> <col>
<colgroup> <col> <col> <col>
<thead>
<tr> <th> <th>2008 <th>2007 <th>2006
<tbody>
<tr> <th scope=rowgroup> Research and development
<td> $ 1,109 <td> $ 782 <td> $ 712
<tr> <th scope=row> Percentage of net sales
<td> 3.4% <td> 3.3% <td> 3.7%
<tbody>
<tr> <th scope=rowgroup> Selling, general, and administrative
<td> $ 3,761 <td> $ 2,963 <td> $ 2,433
<tr> <th scope=row> Percentage of net sales
<td> 11.6% <td> 12.3% <td> 12.6%
</table>
4.10. Forms
4.10.1. Introduction
A form is a component of a Web page that has form controls, such as text fields, buttons, check-
boxes, range controls, or color pickers. A user can interact with such a form, providing data that
can then be sent to the server for further processing (e.g., returning the results of a search or calcu-
lation). No client-side scripting is needed in many cases, though an API is available so that scripts
can augment the user experience or use forms for purposes other than submitting data to a server.
Writing a form consists of several steps, which can be performed in any order: writing the user
interface, implementing the server-side processing, and configuring the user interface to communi-
cate with the server.
For the purposes of this brief introduction, we will create a pizza ordering form.
Any form starts with a <form> element, inside which are placed the controls. Most controls are rep-
resented by the <input> element, which by default provides a one-line text field. To label a control,
the <label> element is used; the label text and the control itself go inside the <label> element.
Each area within a form is typically represented using a <div> element. Putting this together, here
is how one might ask for the customers name:
<form>
<div><label>Customer name: <input></label></div>
</form>
To let the user select the size of the pizza, we can use a set of radio buttons. Radio buttons also use
the <input> element, this time with a type attribute with the value radio. To make the radio but-
tons work as a group, they are given a common name using the name attribute. To group a batch of
controls together, such as, in this case, the radio buttons, one can use the <fieldset> element. The
title of such a group of controls is given by the first element in the <fieldset>, which has to be a
<legend> element.
<form>
<div><label>Customer name: <input></label></div>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Small </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Medium </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Large </label></div>
</fieldset>
</form>
NOTE:
Changes from the previous step are highlighted.
To pick toppings, we can use checkboxes. These use the <input> element with a type attribute
with the value checkbox:
<form>
<div><label>Customer name: <input></label></div>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Small </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Medium </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Large </label></div>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Bacon </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Extra Cheese </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Onion </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Mushroom </label></div>
</fieldset>
</form>
The pizzeria for which this form is being written is always making mistakes, so it needs a way to
contact the customer. For this purpose, we can use form controls specifically for telephone num-
bers (<input> elements with their type attribute set to tel) and e-mail addresses (<input> elements
with their type attribute set to email):
<form>
<div><label>Customer name: <input></label></div>
<div><label>Telephone: <input type=tel></label></div>
<div><label>E-mail address: <input type=email></label></div>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Small </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Medium </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Large </label></div>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Bacon </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Extra Cheese </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Onion </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Mushroom </label></div>
</fieldset>
</form>
We can use an <input> element with its type attribute set to time to ask for a delivery time. Many
of these form controls have attributes to control exactly what values can be specified; in this case,
three attributes of particular interest are min, max, and step. These set the minimum time, the max-
imum time, and the interval between allowed values (in seconds). This pizzeria only delivers be-
tween 11am and 9pm, and doesnt promise anything better than 15 minute increments, which we
can mark up as follows:
<form>
<div><label>Customer name: <input></label></div>
<div><label>Telephone: <input type=tel></label></div>
<div><label>E-mail address: <input type=email></label></div>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Small </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Medium </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Large </label></div>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Bacon </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Extra Cheese </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Onion </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Mushroom </label></div>
</fieldset>
<div><label>Preferred delivery time: <input type=time min="11:00"
max="21:00" step="900"></label></div>
</form>
The <textarea> element can be used to provide a free-form text field. In this instance, we are go-
ing to use it to provide a space for the customer to give delivery instructions:
<form>
<div><label>Customer name: <input></label></div>
<div><label>Telephone: <input type=tel></label></div>
<div><label>E-mail address: <input type=email></label></div>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Small </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Medium </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Large </label></div>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Bacon </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Extra Cheese </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Onion </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Mushroom </label></div>
</fieldset>
<div><label>Preferred delivery time: <input type=time min="11:00"
max="21:00" step="900"></label></div>
<div><label>Delivery instructions: <textarea></textarea></label></div>
</form>
<form>
<div><label>Customer name: <input></label></div>
<div><label>Telephone: <input type=tel></label></div>
<div><label>E-mail address: <input type=email></label></div>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Small </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Medium </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size> Large </label></div>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Bacon </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Extra Cheese </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Onion </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox> Mushroom </label></div>
</fieldset>
<div><label>Preferred delivery time: <input type=time min="11:00"
max="21:00" step="900"></label></div>
<div><label>Delivery instructions: <textarea></textarea></label></div>
<div><button>Submit order</button></div>
</form>
The exact details for writing a server-side processor are out of scope for this specification. For the
purposes of this introduction, we will assume that the script at https://pizza.example.com
/order.cgi is configured to accept submissions using the application/x-www-form-
urlencoded format, expecting the following parameters sent in an HTTP POST body:
custname
Customers name
custtel
custemail
size
topping
A topping, specified once for each selected topping, with the allowed values being bacon,
cheese, onion, and mushroom
delivery
comments
Form submissions are exposed to servers in a variety of ways, most commonly as HTTP GET or
POST requests. To specify the exact method used, the method attribute is specified on the <form>
element. This doesnt specify how the form data is encoded, though; to specify that, you use the
enctype attribute. You also have to specify the URL of the service that will handle the submitted
data, using the action attribute.
For each form control you want submitted, you then have to give a name that will be used to refer
to the data in the submission. We already specified the name for the group of radio buttons; the
same attribute (name) also specifies the submission name. Radio buttons can be distinguished from
each other in the submission by giving them different values, using the value attribute.
Multiple controls can have the same name; for example, here we give all the checkboxes the same
name, and the server distinguishes which checkbox was checked by seeing which values are sub-
mitted with that name like the radio buttons, they are also given unique values with the value
attribute.
<form method="post"
enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
action="https://pizza.example.com/order.cgi">
<p><label>Customer name: <input name="custname"></label></p>
<p><label>Telephone: <input type=tel name="custtel"></label></p>
<p><label>E-mail address: <input type=email name="custemail"></label></p>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size value="small"> Small </label></p>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size value="medium"> Medium </label></p>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size value="large"> Large </label></p>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="bacon"> Bacon
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="cheese"> Extra
Cheese </label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="onion"> Onion
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="mushroom"> Mushroom
</label></p>
</fieldset>
<p><label>Preferred delivery time: <input type=time min="11:00"
max="21:00" step="900" name="delivery"></label></p>
<p><label>Delivery instructions: <textarea name="comments"></textarea>
</label></p>
<p><button>Submit order</button></p>
</form>
NOTE:
There is no particular significance to the way some of the attributes have their values quoted
and others dont. The HTML syntax allows a variety of equally valid ways to specify at-
tributes, as discussed in 8 The HTML syntax.
For example, if the customer entered "Denise Lawrence" as their name, "555-321-8642" as their
telephone number, did not specify an e-mail address, asked for a medium-sized pizza, selected the
Extra Cheese and Mushroom toppings, entered a delivery time of 7pm, and left the delivery in-
structions text field blank, the user agent would submit the following to the online Web service:
custname=Denise+Lawrence&custtel=555-321-8642&custemail=&size=medium&
topping=cheese&topping=mushroom&delivery=19%3A00&comments=
Forms can be annotated in such a way that the user agent will check the users input before the
form is submitted. The server still has to verify the input is valid (since hostile users can easily by-
pass the form validation), but it allows the user to avoid the wait incurred by having the server be
the sole checker of the users input.
The simplest annotation is the required attribute, which can be specified on <input> elements to
indicate that the form is not to be submitted until a value is given. By adding this attribute to the
customer name, pizza size, and delivery time fields, we allow the user agent to notify the user
when the user submits the form without filling in those fields:
<form method="post"
enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
action="https://pizza.example.com/order.cgi">
<p><label>Customer name: <input name="custname" required></label></p>
<p><label>Telephone: <input type=tel name="custtel"></label></p>
<p><label>E-mail address: <input type=email name="custemail"></label></p>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="small"> Small
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="medium"> Medium
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="large"> Large
</label></p>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="bacon"> Bacon
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="cheese"> Extra
Cheese </label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="onion"> Onion
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="mushroom"> Mushroom
</label></p>
</fieldset>
<p><label>Preferred delivery time: <input type=time min="11:00"
max="21:00" step="900" name="delivery" required></label></p>
<p><label>Delivery instructions: <textarea name="comments"></textarea>
</label></p>
<p><button>Submit order</button></p>
</form>
It is also possible to limit the length of the input, using the maxlength attribute. By adding this to
the <textarea> element, we can limit users to 1000 characters, preventing them from writing huge
essays to the busy delivery drivers instead of staying focused and to the point:
<form method="post"
enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
action="https://pizza.example.com/order.cgi">
<p><label>Customer name: <input name="custname" required></label></p>
<p><label>Telephone: <input type=tel name="custtel"></label></p>
<p><label>E-mail address: <input type=email name="custemail"></label></p>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="small"> Small
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="medium"> Medium
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="large"> Large
</label></p>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="bacon"> Bacon
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="cheese"> Extra
Cheese </label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="onion"> Onion
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="mushroom"> Mushroom
</label></p>
</fieldset>
<p><label>Preferred delivery time: <input type=time min="11:00"
max="21:00" step="900" name="delivery" required></label></p>
<p><label>Delivery instructions: <textarea name="comments" maxlength=1000>
</textarea></label></p>
<p><button>Submit order</button></p>
</form>
NOTE:
When a form is submitted, invalid events are fired at each form control that is invalid, and
then at the <form> element itself. This can be useful for displaying a summary of the problems
with the form, since typically the browser itself will only report one problem at a time.
Some browsers attempt to aid the user by automatically filling form controls rather than having the
user reenter their information each time. For example, a field asking for the users telephone num-
ber can be automatically filled with the users phone number.
To help the user agent with this, the autocomplete attribute can be used to describe the fields
purpose. In the case of this form, we have three fields that can be usefully annotated in this way:
the information about who the pizza is to be delivered to. Adding this information looks like this:
<form method="post"
enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
action="https://pizza.example.com/order.cgi">
<p><label>Customer name: <input name="custname" required
autocomplete="shipping name"></label></p>
<p><label>Telephone: <input type=tel name="custtel" autocomplete="shipping
tel"></label></p>
<p><label>E-mail address: <input type=email name="custemail"
autocomplete="shipping email"></label></p>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="small"> Small
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="medium"> Medium
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="large"> Large
</label></p>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="bacon"> Bacon
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="cheese"> Extra
Cheese </label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="onion"> Onion
</label></p>
<p><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="mushroom"> Mushroom
</label></p>
</fieldset>
<p><label>Preferred delivery time: <input type=time min="11:00"
max="21:00" step="900" name="delivery" required></label></p>
<p><label>Delivery instructions: <textarea name="comments" maxlength=1000>
</textarea></label></p>
<p><button>Submit order</button></p>
</form>
Some devices, in particular those with on-screen keyboards and those in locales with languages
with many characters (e.g., Japanese), can provide the user with multiple input modalities. For ex-
ample, when typing in a credit card number the user may wish to only see keys for digits 0-9,
while when typing in their name they may wish to see a form field that by default capitalizes each
word.
<form method="post"
enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
action="https://pizza.example.com/order.cgi">
<div><label>Customer name: <input name="custname" required
autocomplete="shipping name" inputmode="latin-name"></label></div>
<div><label>Telephone: <input type=tel name="custtel"
autocomplete="shipping tel"></label></div>
<div><label>E-mail address: <input type=email name="custemail"
autocomplete="shipping email"></label></div>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Size </legend>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="small"> Small
</label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="medium"> Medium
</label></div>
<div><label> <input type=radio name=size required value="large"> Large
</label></div>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend> Pizza Toppings </legend>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="bacon"> Bacon
</label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="cheese"> Extra
Cheese </label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="onion"> Onion
</label></div>
<div><label> <input type=checkbox name="topping" value="mushroom">
Mushroom </label></divp>
</fieldset>
<div><label>Preferred delivery time: <input type=time min="11:00"
max="21:00" step="900" name="delivery" required></label></divp>
<div><label>Delivery instructions: <textarea name="comments"
maxlength=1000 inputmode="latin-prose"></textarea></label></div>
<div><button>Submit order</button></div>
</form>
4.10.1.7. The difference between the field type, the autofill field name, and the input modality
The type, autocomplete, and inputmode attributes can seem confusingly similar. For instance, in
all three cases, the string "email" is a valid value. This section attempts to illustrate the difference
between the three attributes and provides advice suggesting how to use them.
The type attribute on <input> elements decides what kind of control the user agent will use to ex-
pose the field. Choosing between different values of this attribute is the same choice as choosing
whether to use an <input> element, a <textarea> element, a <select> element, etc.
The autocomplete attribute, in contrast, describes what the value that the user will enter actually
represents. Choosing between different values of this attribute is the same choice as choosing what
the label for the element will be.
First, consider telephone numbers. If a page is asking for a telephone number from the user, the
right form control to use is <input type=tel>. However, which autocomplete value to use de-
pends on which phone number the page is asking for, whether they expect a telephone number in
the international format or just the local format, and so forth.
For example, a page that forms part of a checkout process on an e-commerce site for a customer
buying a gift to be shipped to a friend might need both the buyers telephone number (in case of
payment issues) and the friends telephone number (in case of delivery issues). If the site expects
international phone numbers (with the country code prefix), this could thus look like this:
But if the site only supports British customers and recipients, it might instead look like this (notice
the use of tel-national rather than tel):
Now, consider a persons preferred languages. The right autocomplete value is language. How-
ever, there could be a number of different form controls used for the purpose: a free text field
(<input type=text>), a drop-down list (<select>), radio buttons (<input type=radio>), etc. It
only depends on what kind of interface is desired.
The inputmode decides what kind of input modality (e.g., keyboard) to use, when the control is a
free-form text field.
Consider names. If a page just wants one name from the user, then the relevant control is <input
type=text>. If the page is asking for the users full name, then the relevant autocomplete value
is name. But if the user is Japanese, and the page is asking for the users Japanese name and the
users romanized name, then it would be helpful to the user if the first field defaulted to a Japanese
input modality, while the second defaulted to a Latin input modality (ideally with automatic capi-
talization of each word). This is where the inputmode attribute can help:
In this example, the "section-*" keywords in the autocomplete attributes' values tell the user
agent that the two fields expect different names. Without them, the user agent could automatically
fill the second field with the value given in the first field when the user gave a value to the first
field.
NOTE:
The "-jp" and "-en" parts of the keywords are opaque to the user agent; the user agent cannot
guess, from those, that the two names are expected to be in Japanese and English respectively.
In this pizza delivery example, the times are specified in the format "HH:MM": two digits for the
hour, in 24-hour format, and two digits for the time. (Seconds could also be specified, though they
are not necessary in this example.)
In some locales, however, times are often expressed differently when presented to users. For ex-
ample, in the United States, it is still common to use the 12-hour clock with an am/pm indicator, as
in "2pm". In France, it is common to use the 24-hour clock, and separate the hours from the min-
utes using an "h" character, as in "14h00".
Similar issues exist with dates, with the added complication that even the order of the components
is not always consistent for example, in Cyprus the first of February 2003 would typically be
written "1/2/03", while that same date in Japan would typically be written as "20030201"
and even with numbers, where locales differ, for example, in what punctuation is used as the
decimal separator and the thousands separator.
It is therefore important to distinguish the time, date, and number formats used in HTML and in
form submissions, which are always the formats defined in this specification (and based on the
well-established ISO 8601 standard for computer-readable date and time formats), from the time,
date, and number formats presented to the user by the browser and accepted as input from the user
by the browser.
The format used "on the wire", i.e. in HTML markup and in form submissions, is intended to be
computer-readable and consistent irrespective of the users locale. Dates, for instance, are always
written in the format "YYYY-MM-DD", as in "2003-02-01". Users are not expected to ever see
this format.
The time, date, or number given by the page in the wire format is then translated to the users pre-
ferred presentation (based on user preferences or on the locale of the page itself), before being dis-
played to the user. Similarly, after the user inputs a time, date, or number using their preferred for-
mat, the user agent converts it back to the wire format before putting it in the DOM or submitting
it.
This allows scripts in pages and on servers to process times, dates, and numbers in a consistent
manner without needing to support dozens of different formats, while still supporting the users'
needs.
NOTE:
See also the implementation notes regarding localization of form controls.
Warning! In locales where the clocks change from Standard Time to Daylight Saving
Time, the same time can occur twice in the same day when the clocks are moved back-
wards. An <input> element with a the type of datetime or time cannot differentiate
between two identical instances of time. If the accuracy of entered time is important,
users should therefore be given the option to specify which occurance of the duplicated
time they want to enter.
4.10.2. Categories
Mostly for historical reasons, elements in this section fall into several overlapping (but subtly dif-
ferent) categories in addition to the usual ones like flow content, phrasing content, and interactive
content.
A number of the elements are form-associated elements, which means they can have a form
owner.
<button> , <fieldset> , <input> , <label> , <object> , <output> , <select> , <textarea> ,
<img>
Listed elements
Denotes elements that are listed in the form .elements and fieldset .elements APIs.
<button> , <fieldset> , <input> , <object> , <output> , <select> , <textarea>
Submittable elements
Denotes elements that can be used for constructing the form data set when a <form> element is
submitted.
<button> , <input> , <object> , <select> , <textarea>
Some submittable elements can be, depending on their attributes, buttons. The prose below
defines when an element is a button. Some buttons are specifically submit buttons.
Resettable elements
Denotes elements that can be affected when a <form> element is reset.
<input> , <output> , <select> , <textarea>
Reassociateable elements
Denotes elements that have a form content attribute, and a matching form IDL attribute, that
allow authors to specify an explicit form owner.
<button> , <fieldset> , <input> , <object> , <output> , <select> , <textarea>
Some elements, not all of them form-associated, are categorized as labelable elements. These are
elements that can be associated with a <label> element.
<button> , <input> (if the type attribute is not in the Hidden state) , <meter> , <output> ,
<progress> , <select> , <textarea>
The following table is non-normative and summarizes the above categories of form elements:
can have a listed in the can be used can be have a form can be
form form.elements and for affected attribute associated
owner fieldset.elements constructing when a (allows authors with a
APIs the form form to specify an <label>
autocomplete - Default setting for autofill feature for controls in the form
enctype - Form data set encoding type to use for 4.10.21 Form submission
method - HTTP method to use for 4.10.21 Form submission
name - Name of form to use in the document.forms API
novalidate - Bypass form control validation for 4.10.21 Form submission
target - browsing context for 4.10.21 Form submission
Allowed ARIA role attribute values: dd>form (default - do not set), search or
presentation.
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
Any aria-* attributes applicable to the allowed roles.
DOM interface:
[OverrideBuiltins]
interface HTMLFormElement : HTMLElement {
attribute DOMString acceptCharset;
attribute DOMString action;
attribute DOMString autocomplete;
attribute DOMString enctype;
attribute DOMString encoding;
attribute DOMString method;
attribute DOMString name;
attribute boolean noValidate;
attribute DOMString target;
void submit();
void reset();
boolean checkValidity();
boolean reportValidity();
};
The <form> element represents a collection of form-associated elements, some of which can repre-
sent editable values that can be submitted to a server for processing.
The accept-charset content attribute gives the character encodings that are to be used for the
submission. If specified, the value must be an ordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are
ASCII case-insensitive, and each token must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the la-
bels of an ASCII-compatible encoding. [ENCODING]
The name content attribute represents the <form>'s name within the forms collection. The value
must not be the empty string, and the value must be unique amongst the <form> elements in the
forms collection that it is in, if any.
The autocomplete content attribute is an enumerated attribute. The attribute has two states. The
on keyword maps to the on state, and the off keyword maps to the off state. The attribute may
also be omitted. The missing value default is the on state. The off state indicates that by default,
form controls in the form will have their autofill field name set to "off"; the on state indicates that
by default, form controls in the form will have their autofill field name set to "on".
The action, enctype, method, enctype, novalidate, and target attributes are attributes for
form submission.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
form . elements
Returns an HTMLFormControlsCollection of the form controls in the form (exclud-
ing image buttons for historical reasons).
form . length
Returns the number of form controls in the form (excluding image buttons for historical
reasons).
form [ index ]
Returns the index th element in the form (excluding image buttons for historical rea-
sons).
form [ name ]
Returns the form control (or, if there are several, a RadioNodeList of the form con-
trols) in the form with the given ID or name (excluding image buttons for historical rea-
sons); or, if there are none, returns the <img> element with the given ID.
Once an element has been referenced using a particular name, that name will continue
being available as a way to reference that element in this method, even if the elements
actual ID or name changes, for as long as the element remains in the Document.
If there are multiple matching items, then a RadioNodeList object containing all those
elements is returned.
form . submit()
Submits the form.
form . reset()
form . checkValidity()
Returns true if the forms controls are all valid; otherwise, returns false.
form . reportValidity()
Returns true if the forms controls are all valid; otherwise, returns false and informs the
user.
The autocomplete IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to
only known values.
The name IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The acceptCharset IDL attribute must reflect the accept-charset content attribute.
The length IDL attribute must return the number of nodes represented by the elements collec-
tion.
The supported property indices at any instant are the indices supported by the object returned by
the elements attribute at that instant.
When a <form> element is indexed for indexed property retrieval, the user agent must return the
value returned by the item method on the elements collection, when invoked with the given index
as its argument.
Each <form> element has a mapping of names to elements called the past names map. It is used to
persist names of controls even when they change names.
The supported property names consist of the names obtained from the following algorithm, in the
order obtained from this algorithm:
1. Let sourced names be an initially empty ordered list of tuples consisting of a string, an ele-
ment, a source, where the source is either id, name, or past, and, if the source is past, an age.
2. For each listed element candidate whose form owner is the <form> element, with the excep-
tion of any <input> elements whose type attribute is in the Image Button state, run these
substeps:
1. If candidate has an id attribute, add an entry to sourced names with that id attributes
value as the string, candidate as the element, and id as the source.
2. If candidate has a name attribute, add an entry to sourced names with that name at-
tributes value as the string, candidate as the element, and name as the source.
3. For each <img> element candidate whose form owner is the <form> element, run these sub-
steps:
1. If candidate has an id attribute, add an entry to sourced names with that id attributes
value as the string, candidate as the element, and id as the source.
2. If candidate has a name attribute, add an entry to sourced names with that name at-
tributes value as the string, candidate as the element, and name as the source.
4. For each entry past entry in the past names map add an entry to sourced names with the
past entry s name as the string, past entry s element as the element, past as the source, and
the length of time past entry has been in the past names map as the age.
5. Sort sourced names by tree order of the element entry of each tuple, sorting entries with the
same element by putting entries whose source is id first, then entries whose source is name,
and finally entries whose source is past, and sorting entries with the same element and source
by their age, oldest first.
6. Remove any entries in sourced names that have the empty string as their name.
7. Remove any entries in sourced names that have the same name as an earlier entry in the map.
8. Return the list of names from sourced names , maintaining their relative order.
When a <form> element is indexed for named property retrieval, the user agent must run the fol-
lowing steps:
1. Let candidates be a live RadioNodeList object containing all the listed elements whose
form owner is the <form> element that have either an id attribute or a name attribute equal to
name , with the exception of <input> elements whose type attribute is in the Image Button
state, in tree order.
2. If candidates is empty, let candidates be a live RadioNodeList object containing all the
<img> elements that are descendants of the <form> element and that have either an id attribute
3. If candidates is empty, name is the name of one of the entries in the <form> elements past
names map: return the object associated with name in that map.
4. If candidates contains more than one node, return candidates and abort these steps.
5. Otherwise, candidates contains exactly one node. Add a mapping from name to the node in
candidates in the <form> elements past names map, replacing the previous entry with the
same name, if any.
If an element listed in a <form> elements past names map changes form owner, then its entries
must be removed from that map.
The submit() method, when invoked, must submit the <form> element from the <form> element it-
self, with the submitted from submit() method flag set.
The reset() method, when invoked, must run the following steps:
1. If the <form> element is marked as locked for reset, then abort these steps.
If the checkValidity() method is invoked, the user agent must statically validate the constraints
of the <form> element, and return true if the constraint validation return a positive result, and false
if it returned a negative result.
If the reportValidity() method is invoked, the user agent must interactively validate the con-
straints of the <form> element, and return true if the constraint validation return a positive result,
and false if it returned a negative result.
EXAMPLE 471
This example shows two search forms:
The <label> element represents a caption in a user interface. The caption can be associated with a
specific form control, known as the <label> elements labeled control, either using the for at-
tribute, or by putting the form control inside the <label> element itself.
Except where otherwise specified by the following rules, a <label> element has no labeled control.
The for attribute may be specified to indicate a form control with which the caption is to be asso-
ciated. If the attribute is specified, the attributes value must be the ID of a labelable element in the
same Document as the <label> element. If the attribute is specified and there is an element in the
Document whose ID is equal to the value of the for attribute, and the first such element is a la-
belable element, then that element is the <label> elements labeled control.
EXAMPLE 472
The following example shows the use of a for attribute, to associate <label>s which do not
contain the element they label.
<form>
<table>
<caption>Example, <label>'s for attribute</caption>
<tr>
<th><label for="name">Customer name: </label></th>
<td><input name="name" id="name"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
Note that the id attribute is required to associate the for attribute, while the name attribute is
required so the value of the input will be submitted as part of the form.
If the for attribute is not specified, but the <label> element has a labelable element descendant,
then the first such descendant in tree order is the <label> elements labeled control.
The <label> elements activation behavior should match the platforms label behavior. Similarly,
any additional presentation hints should match the platforms label presentation.
EXAMPLE 473
On many platforms activating a checkbox label checks the checkbox, while activating a text
inputs label focuses the input. Clicking the <label> "Lost" in the following snippet could trig-
ger the user agent to run synthetic click activation steps on the checkbox, as if the element it-
self had been triggered by the user, while clicking the <label> "Where?" would queue a task
that runs the focusing steps for the element to the text input:
If a <label> element has interactive content other than its labeled control, the activation behavior
of the <label> element for events targeted at those interactive content descendants and any descen-
dants of those must be to do nothing.
EXAMPLE 474
In the following example, clicking on the link does not toggle the checkbox, even if the plat-
form normally toggles a checkbox when clicking on a label. Instead, clicking the link triggers
the normal activation behavior of following the link.
<!-- bad example - link inside label reduces checkbox activation area -->
<label><input type=checkbox name=tac>I agree to <a href="tandc.html">the
terms and conditions</a></label>
NOTE:
The ability to click or press a <label> to trigger an event on a control provides usability and ac-
cessibility benefits by increasing the hit area of a control, making it easier for a user to operate.
These benefits may be lost or reduced, if the <label> element contains an element with its own
activation behavior, such as a link:
EXAMPLE 475
<!-- bad example - all label text inside the link reduces activation area
to checkbox only -->
<label><input type=checkbox name=tac><a href="tandc.html">I agree to the
terms and conditions</a></label>
The usability and accessibility benefits can be maintained by placing such elements outside the
<label> element:
<!-- good example - link outside label means checkbox activation area
includes the checkbox and all the label text -->
<label><input type=checkbox name=tac>I agree to the terms and
conditions</label>
(read <a href="tandc.html">Terms and Conditions</a>)
EXAMPLE 476
The following example shows three form controls each with a label, two of which have small
text showing the right format for users to use.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
label . control
Returns the form control that is associated with this element.
The htmlFor IDL attribute must reflect the for content attribute.
The control IDL attribute must return the <label> elements labeled control, if any, or null if
there isnt one.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
control . labels
Returns a NodeList of all the <label> elements that the form control is associated with.
Labelable elements have a NodeList object associated with them that represents the list of <label>
elements, in tree order, whose labeled control is the element in question. The labels IDL attribute
of labelable elements, on getting, must return that NodeList object.
void select();
attribute unsigned long? selectionStart;
attribute unsigned long? selectionEnd;
attribute DOMString? selectionDirection;
void setRangeText(DOMString replacement);
void setRangeText(DOMString replacement, unsigned long start,
unsigned long end, optional SelectionMode selectionMode =
"preserve");
void setSelectionRange(unsigned long start, unsigned long end,
optional DOMString direction);
};
The <input> element represents a typed data field, usually with a form control to allow the user to
edit the data.
The type attribute controls the data type of the element. It is an enumerated attribute. The data
type is used to select the control to use for the <input>. Some data types allow either a text field or
combo box control to be used, based on the absence or presence of a list attribute on the element.
The following table lists the keywords and states for the attribute the keywords in the left col-
umn map to the state, data type and control(s) in the cells on the same row.
file File Upload Zero or more files each with a MIME type and A label and a
optionally a file name button
submit Submit An enumerated value, with the extra semantic A button
Button that it must be the last value selected and
initiates form submission
image Image A coordinate, relative to a particular images Either a clickable
Button size, with the extra semantic that it must be the image, or a button
last value selected and initiates form
submission
The following table is non-normative and summarizes which of those content attributes, IDL at-
tributes, methods, and events apply to each state:
Content attributes
accept
alt
autocomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
checked
dirname Yes
formaction
formenctype
formmethod
formnovalidate
formtarget
height
inputmode Yes Yes
list Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
max Yes Yes Yes
maxlength Yes Yes Yes Yes
min Yes Yes Yes
minlength Yes Yes Yes Yes
multiple Yes
pattern Yes Yes Yes Yes
placeholder Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
readonly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
required Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
size Yes Yes Yes Yes
src
step Yes Yes Yes
width
Events
input event Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
change event Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
If the control has no text field, the select() method results in a no-op, with no "InvalidStateError"
DOMException.
Each <input> element has a value, which is exposed by the value IDL attribute. Some states de-
fine an algorithm to convert a string to a number, an algorithm to convert a number to a
string, an algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, and an algorithm to convert a Date
object to a string, which are used by max, min, step, valueAsDate, valueAsNumber,
stepDown(), and stepUp().
Each <input> element has a boolean dirty value flag. The dirty value flag must be initially set to
false when the element is created, and must be set to true whenever the user interacts with the con-
trol in a way that changes the value. (It is also set to true when the value is programmatically
changed, as described in the definition of the value IDL attribute.)
The value content attribute gives the default value of the <input> element. When the value con-
tent attribute is added, set, or removed, if the controls dirty value flag is false, the user agent must
set the value of the element to the value of the value content attribute, if there is one, or the empty
string otherwise, and then run the current value sanitization algorithm, if one is defined.
Each <input> element has a checkedness, which is exposed by the checked IDL attribute.
Each <input> element has a boolean dirty checkedness flag. When it is true, the element is said to
have a dirty checkedness. The dirty checkedness flag must be initially set to false when the ele-
ment is created, and must be set to true whenever the user interacts with the control in a way that
changes the checkedness.
The checked content attribute is a boolean attribute that gives the default checkedness of the
<input> element. When the checked content attribute is added, if the control does not have dirty
checkedness, the user agent must set the checkedness of the element to true; when the checked
content attribute is removed, if the control does not have dirty checkedness, the user agent must set
the checkedness of the element to false.
The reset algorithm for <input> elements is to set the dirty value flag and dirty checkedness flag
back to false, set the value of the element to the value of the value content attribute, if there is
one, or the empty string otherwise, set the checkedness of the element to true if the element has a
checked content attribute and false if it does not, empty the list of selected files, and then invoke
the value sanitization algorithm, if the type attributes current state defines one.
Each <input> element can be mutable. Except where otherwise specified, an <input> element is al-
ways mutable. Similarly, except where otherwise specified, the user agent should not allow the
user to modify the elements value or checkedness.
NOTE:
The readonly attribute can also in some cases (e.g., for the Date state, but not the Checkbox
state) stop an <input> element from being mutable.
The cloning steps for <input> elements must propagate the value, dirty value flag, checkedness,
and dirty checkedness flag from the node being cloned to the copy.
When an <input> element is first created, the elements rendering and behavior must be set to the
rendering and behavior defined for the type attributes state, and the value sanitization algorithm,
if one is defined for the type attributes state, must be invoked.
When an <input> elements type attribute changes state, the user agent must run the following
steps:
1. If the previous state of the elements type attribute put the value IDL attribute in the value
mode, and the elements value is not the empty string, and the new state of the elements type
attribute puts the value IDL attribute in either the default mode or the default/on mode, then
set the elements value content attribute to the elements value.
2. Otherwise, if the previous state of the elements type attribute put the value IDL attribute in
any mode other than the value mode, and the new state of the elements type attribute puts
the value IDL attribute in the value mode, then set the value of the element to the value of
the value content attribute, if there is one, or the empty string otherwise, and then set the
controls dirty value flag to false.
3. Otherwise, if the previous state of the elements type attribute put the value IDL attribute in
any mode other than the filename mode, and the new state of the elements type attribute puts
the value IDL attribute in the filename mode, then set the value of the element to the empty
string.
5. Signal a type change for the element. (The Radio Button state uses this, in particular.)
6. Invoke the value sanitization algorithm, if one is defined for the type attributes new state.
The name attribute represents the elements name. The dirname attribute controls how the ele-
ments directionality is submitted. The disabled attribute is used to make the control non-
interactive and to prevent its value from being submitted. The form attribute is used to explicitly
associate the <input> element with its form owner. The autofocus attribute controls focus. The
inputmode attribute controls the user interfaces input modality for the control. The
autocomplete attribute controls how the user agent provides autofill behavior.
The indeterminate IDL attribute must initially be set to false. On getting, it must return the last
value it was set to. On setting, it must be set to the new value. It has no effect except for changing
the appearance of checkbox controls.
The accept, alt, max, min, multiple, pattern, placeholder, required, size, src, and step
IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. The dirName IDL
attribute must reflect the dirname content attribute. The readOnly IDL attribute must reflect the
readonly content attribute. The defaultChecked IDL attribute must reflect the checked content
attribute. The defaultValue IDL attribute must reflect the value content attribute.
The type IDL attribute must reflect the respective content attribute of the same name, limited to
only known values. The inputMode IDL attribute must reflect the inputmode content attribute,
limited to only known values. The maxLength IDL attribute must reflect the maxlength content at-
tribute, limited to only non-negative numbers. The minLength IDL attribute must reflect the
minlength content attribute, limited to only non-negative numbers.
The IDL attributes width and height must return the rendered width and height of the image, in
CSS pixels, if an image is being rendered, and is being rendered to a visual medium; or else the in-
trinsic width and height of the image, in CSS pixels, if an image is available but not being ren-
dered to a visual medium; or else 0, if no image is available. When the <input> elements type at-
tribute is not in the Image Button state, then no image is available. [CSS-2015]
On setting, they must act as if they reflected the respective content attributes of the same name.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Hidden state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a value that is not intended to be examined or manipulated by the
user.
Constraint validation: If an <input> elements type attribute is in the Hidden state, it is barred
from constraint validation.
If the name attribute is present and has a value that is a case-sensitive match for the string
"_charset_", then the elements value attribute must be omitted.
Bookkeeping details
The value IDL attribute applies to this element and is in mode default.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt,
autocomplete, checked, dirname, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget,
height, inputmode, list, max, maxlength, min, minlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly,
required, size, src, step, and width.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list,
selectionStart, selectionEnd, selectionDirection, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL at-
tributes; select(), setRangeText(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Text state or the Search state, the rules in this
section apply.
The <input> element represents a one line plain text edit control for the elements value.
NOTE:
The difference between the Text state and the Search state is primarily stylistic: on platforms
where search fields are distinguished from regular text fields, the Search state might result in
an appearance consistent with the platforms search fields rather than appearing like a regular
text field.
If the element is mutable, its value should be editable by the user. User agents must not allow users
to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters into the
elements value.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the writing direction of
the element, setting it either to a left-to-right writing direction or a right-to-left writing direction. If
the user does so, the user agent must then run the following steps:
1. Set the elements dir attribute to "ltr" if the user selected a left-to-right writing direction, and
"rtl" if the user selected a right-to-left writing direction.
2. Queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles named input at the <input> element.
The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that contains no U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, dirname, inputmode, list, maxlength, minlength, pattern, placeholder, readonly,
required, and size content attributes; list, selectionStart, selectionEnd, selectionDirection,
and value IDL attributes; select(), setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange() methods.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, checked,
formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, max, min, multiple, src,
step, and width.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, valueAsDate, and
valueAsNumber IDL attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Telephone state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for editing a telephone number given in the elements
value.
If the element is mutable, its value should be editable by the user. User agents may change the
spacing and, with care, the punctuation of values that the user enters. User agents must not allow
users to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters into
the elements value.
The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that contains no U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value.
NOTE:
Unlike the URL and E-mail types, the Telephone type does not enforce a particular syntax.
This is intentional; in practice, telephone number fields tend to be free-form fields, because
there are a wide variety of valid phone numbers. Systems that need to enforce a particular for-
mat are encouraged to use the pattern attribute or the setCustomValidity() method to
hook into the client-side validation mechanism.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, maxlength, minlength, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, and size content
attributes; list, selectionStart, selectionEnd, selectionDirection, and value IDL attributes;
select(), setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The input and change events apply.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, checked,
dirname, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, inputmode, max,
min, multiple, src, step, and width.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, valueAsDate, and
valueAsNumber IDL attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the URL state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for editing a single absolute URL given in the elements
value.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the URL represented by
its value. User agents may allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid absolute
URL, but may also or instead automatically escape characters entered by the user so that the value
is always a valid absolute URL (even if that isnt the actual value seen and edited by the user in the
interface). User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string. User agents must
not allow users to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) char-
acters into the value.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid URL potentially
surrounded by spaces that is also an absolute URL.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value, then strip lead-
ing and trailing white space from the value.
Constraint validation: While the value of the element is neither the empty string nor a valid abso-
lute URL, the element is suffering from a type mismatch.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, maxlength, minlength, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, and size content
attributes; list, selectionStart, selectionEnd, selectionDirection, and value IDL attributes;
select(), setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, valueAsDate, and
EXAMPLE 477
If a document contained the following markup:
...and the user had typed "www.w3", and the user agent had also found that the user had visited
https://www.w3.org/Consortium/#membership and https://www.w3.org/TR/XForms/ in
the recent past, then the rendering might look like this:
The first four URLs in this sample consist of the four URLs in the author-specified list that
match the text the user has entered, sorted in some user agent-defined manner (maybe by how
frequently the user refers to those URLs). Note how the user agent is using the knowledge that
the values are URLs to allow the user to omit the scheme part and perform intelligent matching
on the domain name.
The last two URLs (and probably many more, given the scrollbars indications of more values
being available) are the matches from the user agents session history data. This data is not
made available to the page DOM. In this particular case, the user agent has no titles to provide
for those values.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the E-mail state, the rules in this section apply.
User agents may transform the values for display and editing.
User agents should convert punycode in the domain labels of the value to Internationalized Do-
main Names in the display, and vice versa.
User agents should allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid e-mail address or
valid e-mail address list.
User agents must not allow users to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE
RETURN (CR) characters into the value.
Some aspects of how the E-mail state operates depend on whether the multiple attribute is
present.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the e-mail ad-
dress represented by its value, including setting the value to the empty string.
The user agent should act in a manner consistent with expecting the user to provide a
single e-mail address.
Constraint validation: While the user interface is representing input that the user agent
cannot convert to punycode, the control is suffering from bad input.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a single valid
e-mail address.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value, then
Constraint validation: While the value of the element is neither the empty string nor a
single valid e-mail address, the element is suffering from a type mismatch.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to add, remove, and edit
the e-mail addresses represented by its values, including removing all addresses and set-
ting the value to the empty string.
User agents may allow the user to set any individual value in the list of values to a string
that is not a valid e-mail address, but must not allow users to set any individual value to
a string containing U+002C COMMA (,) as well as the U+000A LINE FEED (LF), or
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes a situation where an individ-
ual value contains a U+002C COMMA (,) or is representing input that the user agent
cannot convert to punycode, the control is suffering from bad input.
Whenever the user changes the elements values, the user agent must run the following
steps:
2. Strip leading and trailing white space from each value in latest values .
3. Let the elements value be the result of concatenating all the values in latest val-
ues , separating each value from the next by a single U+002C COMMA character
(,), maintaining the lists order.
The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid e-mail address list.
1. Split on commas the elements value, strip leading and trailing white space from
each resulting token, if any, and let the elements values be the (possibly empty) re-
sulting list of (possibly empty) tokens, maintaining the original order.
2. Let the elements value be the result of concatenating the elements values, separat-
ing each value from the next by a single U+002C COMMA character (,), maintain-
ing the lists order.
Constraint validation: While the value of the element is not a valid e-mail address list,
When the multiple attribute is set or removed, the user agent must run the value sanitization al-
gorithm.
A valid e-mail address is a string that matches the email production of the following ABNF, the
character set for which is Unicode. This ABNF implements the extensions described in RFC 1123.
[ABNF] [RFC5322] [RFC1034] [RFC1123]
NOTE:
This requirement is a willful violation of RFC 5322.
This syntax allows e-mail addresses with Internationalised Domain Names using punycode,
such as [email protected]. A user agent should represent that in the user in-
terface as example@.
This syntax does not allow valid internationalised email addresses, such as @..
See also Issue 845.
NOTE:
The following JavaScript- and Perl-compatible regular expression is an implementation of the
above definition.
/^[a-zA-Z0-9.!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]{0,61}[a-
zA-Z0-9])?(?:\.[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]{0,61}[a-zA-Z0-9])?)*$/
A valid e-mail address list is a set of comma-separated tokens, where each token is itself a valid
e-mail address. To obtain the list of tokens from a valid e-mail address list, an implementation
must split the string on commas.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, maxlength, minlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, and
size content attributes; list and value IDL attributes; select() method.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, selectionDirection, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(),
setRangeText(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown() and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Password state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a one line plain text edit control for the elements value. The user
agent should obscure the value so that people other than the user cannot see it.
If the element is mutable, its value should be editable by the user. User agents must not allow users
to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters into the
value.
The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that contains no U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, inputmode, maxlength, minlength, pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, and size
content attributes; selectionStart, selectionEnd, selectionDirection, and value IDL attributes;
select(), setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list, valueAsDate,
and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Date and Time state, the rules in this section
apply.
The <input> element represents a control for setting the elements value to a string representing a
specific global date and time. User agents may display the date and time in whatever time zone is
appropriate for the user.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the global date and time
represented by its value, as obtained by parsing a floating date and time from it. User agents must
not allow the user to set the value to a non-empty string that is not a valid normalized global date
and time string, though user agents may allow the user to set and view the time in another time
zone and silently translate the time to and from the UTC time zone in the value. If the user agent
provides a user interface for selecting a global date and time, then the value must be set to a valid
normalized global date and time string representing the users selection. User agents should allow
the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid normalized global date and time string, the control is suffering from bad input.
NOTE:
See 4.10.1.8 Date, time, and number formats for a discussion of the difference between the
input format and submission format for date, time, and number form controls, and the imple-
mentation notes regarding localization of form controls.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid global date and
time string.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is a valid global date
and time string, then adjust the time so that the value represents the same point in time but ex-
pressed in the UTC time zone as a valid normalized global date and time string, otherwise, set it to
the empty string instead.
The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid global date and time string. The
max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid global date and time string.
The step attribute is expressed in seconds. The step scale factor is 1000 (which converts the sec-
onds to milliseconds, which is the base unit of comparison for the conversion algorithms below).
The default step is 60 seconds.
When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the elements value
to the nearest global date and time for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.
The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input , is as follows: If parsing a
floating date and time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the
number of milliseconds elapsed from midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time rep-
resented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z") to the parsed global date and time, ignoring
leap seconds.
The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input , is as follows: Return a
valid normalized global date and time string that represents the global date and time that is input
milliseconds after midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value
"1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z").
The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input , is as follows: If pars-
ing a floating date and time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a
new Date object representing the parsed global date and time, expressed in UTC.
The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input , is as follows:
Return a valid normalized global date and time string that represents the global date and time that
is represented by input .
NOTE:
The Date and Time state (and other date-related states are not useful for vague values, and are
only useful for dates ranging from recent history through a few thousand years. For example,
"one millisecond after the big bang", "the Ides of March, 44BC", "the early part of the Jurassic
period", or "a winter around 250 BCE", and many other expressions of time cannot be sensibly
expressed in HTML <form> states.
For the input of dates before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, authors are encour-
aged to not use the Date and Time state (and the other date- and time-related states described
in subsequent sections), as user agents are not required to support converting dates and times
from earlier periods to the Gregorian calendar, and asking users to do so manually puts an un-
due burden on users. (This is complicated by the manner in which the Gregorian calendar was
phased in, which occurred at different times in different countries, ranging from partway
through the 16th century all the way to early in the 20th.) Instead, authors are encouraged to
provide fine-grained input controls using the <select> element and <input> elements with the
Number state.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsDate,
and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, and selectionDirection IDL attributes; setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange()
methods.
EXAMPLE 478
The following fragment shows part of a calendar application. A user can specify a date and
time for a meeting (in the local time zone, probably, though the user agent can allow the user to
change that), and since the submitted data includes the time-zone offset, the application can en-
sure that the meeting is shown at the correct time regardless of the time zones used by all the
participants.
<fieldset>
<legend>Add Meeting</legend>
<p><label>Meeting name: <input type=text name="meeting.label"></label>
<p><label>Meeting time: <input type=datetime name="meeting.start">
</label>
</fieldset>
Had the application used the date and/or time types instead, the calendar application would
have also had to explicitly determine which time zone the user intended.
For events where the precise time is to vary as the user travels (e.g., "celebrate the new year!"),
and for recurring events that are to stay at the same time for a specific geographic location
even though that location may go in and out of daylight savings time (e.g., "bring the kid to
school"), the date and/or time types combined with a <select> element (or other similar con-
trol) to pick the specific geographic location to which to anchor the time would be more appro-
priate.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Date state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for setting the elements value to a string representing a
specific date.
NOTE:
date values represent a "floating" time and do not include time zone information. Care is
needed when converting values of this type to or from date data types in JavaScript and other
programming languages. In many cases, an implicit time-of-day and time zone are used to cre-
ate a global ("incremental") time (an integer value that represents the offset from some arbi-
trary epoch time). Processing or conversion of these values, particularly across time zones, can
change the value of the date itself. [TIMEZONE]
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the date represented by its
value, as obtained by parsing a date from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to
a non-empty string that is not a valid date string. If the user agent provides a user interface for se-
lecting a date, then the value must be set to a valid date string representing the users selection.
User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid date string, the control is suffering from bad input.
NOTE:
See 4.10.1.8 Date, time, and number formats for a discussion of the difference between the
input format and submission format for date, time, and number form controls, and the imple-
mentation notes regarding localization of form controls.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid date string.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid date
string, then set it to the empty string instead.
The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid date string. The max attribute, if
specified, must have a value that is a valid date string.
The step attribute is expressed in days. The step scale factor is 86,400,000 (which converts the
days to milliseconds, which is the base unit of comparison for the conversion algorithms below).
The default step is 1 day.
When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the elements value
to the nearest date for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.
The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input , is as follows: If parsing a
date from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of millisec-
onds elapsed from midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value
"1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z") to midnight UTC on the morning of the parsed date, ignoring leap
seconds.
The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input , is as follows: Return a
valid date string that represents the date that, in UTC, is current input milliseconds after midnight
UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value
"1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z").
The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input , is as follows: If pars-
ing a date from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a new Date object
representing midnight UTC on the morning of the parsed date.
The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input , is as follows:
Return a valid date string that represents the date current at the time represented by input in the
UTC time zone.
NOTE:
See the note on historical dates in the Date and Time state section.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsDate,
and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, and selectionDirection IDL attributes; setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange()
methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Month state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for setting the elements value to a string representing a
specific month.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the month represented by
its value, as obtained by parsing a month from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the
value to a non-empty string that is not a valid month string. If the user agent provides a user inter-
face for selecting a month, then the value must be set to a valid month string representing the
users selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid month string, the control is suffering from bad input.
NOTE:
See 4.10.1.8 Date, time, and number formats for a discussion of the difference between the
input format and submission format for date, time, and number form controls, and the imple-
mentation notes regarding localization of form controls.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid month string.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid month
string, then set it to the empty string instead.
The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid month string. The max attribute, if
specified, must have a value that is a valid month string.
The step attribute is expressed in months. The step scale factor is 1 (units of whole months are the
base unit of comparison for the conversion algorithms below). The default step is 1 month.
When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the elements value
to the nearest month for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.
The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input , is as follows: If parsing a
month from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of months
between January 1970 and the parsed month.
The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input , is as follows: Return a
valid month string that represents the month that has input months between it and January 1970.
The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input , is as follows: If pars-
ing a month from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a new Date ob-
ject representing midnight UTC on the morning of the first day of the parsed month.
The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input , is as follows:
Return a valid month string that represents the month current at the time represented by input in
the UTC time zone.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsDate,
and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, checked,
dirname, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, inputmode,
maxlength, minlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, size, src, and width.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, and selectionDirection IDL attributes; setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange()
methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Week state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for setting the elements value to a string representing a
specific week beginning on a Monday, at midnight UTC.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the week represented by
its value, as obtained by parsing a week from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the
value to a non-empty string that is not a valid week string. If the user agent provides a user inter-
face for selecting a week, then the value must be set to a valid week string representing the users
selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid week string, the control is suffering from bad input.
NOTE:
See 4.10.1.8 Date, time, and number formats for a discussion of the difference between the
input format and submission format for date, time, and number form controls, and the imple-
mentation notes regarding localization of form controls.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid week string.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid week
string, then set it to the empty string instead.
The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid week string. The max attribute, if
specified, must have a value that is a valid week string.
The step attribute is expressed in weeks. The step scale factor is 604,800,000 (which converts the
weeks to milliseconds, which is the base unit of comparison for the conversion algorithms below).
The default step is 1 week. The default step base is -259,200,000 (the start of week 1970-W01
which is the Monday 3 days before 1970-01-01).
When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the elements value
to the nearest week for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.
The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input , is as follows: If parsing a
week string from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of
milliseconds elapsed from midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by
the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z") to midnight UTC on the morning of the Monday of the
parsed week, ignoring leap seconds.
The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input , is as follows: Return a
valid week string that represents the week that, in UTC, is current input milliseconds after mid-
night UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value
"1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z").
The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input , is as follows: If pars-
ing a week from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a new Date object
representing midnight UTC on the morning of the Monday of the parsed week.
The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input , is as follows:
Return a valid week string that represents the week current at the time represented by input in the
UTC time zone.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsDate,
and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The input and change events apply.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, checked,
dirname, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, inputmode,
maxlength, minlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, size, src, and width.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, and selectionDirection IDL attributes; setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange()
methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Time state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for setting the elements value to a string representing a
specific time.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the time represented by
its value, as obtained by parsing a time from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value
to a non-empty string that is not a valid time string. If the user agent provides a user interface for
selecting a time, then the value must be set to a valid time string representing the users selection.
User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid time string, the control is suffering from bad input.
NOTE:
See 4.10.1.8 Date, time, and number formats for a discussion of the difference between the
input format and submission format for date, time, and number form controls, and the imple-
mentation notes regarding localization of form controls.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid time string.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid time
string, then set it to the empty string instead.
The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid time string. The max attribute, if
specified, must have a value that is a valid time string.
The step attribute is expressed in seconds. The step scale factor is 1000 (which converts the sec-
onds to milliseconds, which is the base unit of comparison for the conversion algorithms below).
The default step is 60 seconds.
When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the elements value
to the nearest time for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.
The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input , is as follows: If parsing a
time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of millisec-
onds elapsed from midnight to the parsed time on a day with no time changes.
The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input , is as follows: Return a
valid time string that represents the time that is input milliseconds after midnight on a day with no
time changes.
The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input , is as follows: If pars-
ing a time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a new Date object
representing the parsed time in UTC on 1970-01-01.
The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input , is as follows:
Return a valid time string that represents the UTC time component that is represented by input .
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsDate,
and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, and selectionDirection IDL attributes; setRangeText(), and setSelectionRange()
methods.
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Local Date and Time state, the rules in this
section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for setting the elements value to a string representing a
Local Date and Time, with no time-zone offset information.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the Date and Time repre-
sented by its value, as obtained by parsing a date and time from it. User agents must not allow the
user to set the value to a non-empty string that is not a valid normalized global date and time
string. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a Local Date and Time, then the
value must be set to a valid normalized global date and time string representing the users selec-
tion. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid normalized global date and time string, the control is suffering from bad input.
NOTE:
See 4.10.1.8 Date, time, and number formats for a discussion of the difference between the
input format and submission format for date, time, and number form controls, and the imple-
mentation notes regarding localization of form controls.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid floating date and
time string.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is a valid floating date
and time string, then set it to a valid normalized floating date and time string representing the same
date and time; otherwise, set it to the empty string instead.
The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating date and time string. The
max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating date and time string.
The step attribute is expressed in seconds. The step scale factor is 1000 (which converts the sec-
onds to milliseconds, which is the base unit of comparison for the conversion algorithms below).
The default step is 60 seconds.
When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the elements value
to the nearest floating date and time for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.
The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input , is as follows: If parsing a
date and time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of
milliseconds elapsed from midnight on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the
value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0") to the parsed floating date and time, ignoring leap seconds.
The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input , is as follows: Return a
valid normalized floating date and time string that represents the date and time that is input mil-
liseconds after midnight on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value
"1970-01-01T00:00:00.0").
NOTE:
See the note on historical dates in the Date and Time state section.
Warning! Applications need to use care when working with datetime-local values,
since most date time objects (in languages such as JavaScript or server-side languages
such as Java) use incremental time values tied to the UTC time zone. Implicit conver-
sion of a floating time value to an incremental time can cause the actual value used to
be different from user expectations. For more information, refer to: Working with Time
Zones floating
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, and
valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, selectionDirection, and valueAsDate IDL attributes; setRangeText(), and
setSelectionRange() methods.
EXAMPLE 479
The following example shows part of a flight booking application. The application uses an
<input> element with its type attribute set to datetime-local, and it then interprets the given
date and time in the time zone of the selected airport.
<fieldset>
<legend>Destination</legend>
<p><label>Airport: <input type=text name=to list=airports></label></p>
<p><label>Departure time: <input type=datetime-local name=totime
step=3600></label></p>
</fieldset>
<datalist id=airports>
<option value=ATL label="Atlanta">
<option value=MEM label="Memphis">
<option value=LHR label="London Heathrow">
<option value=LAX label="Los Angeles">
<option value=FRA label="Frankfurt">
</datalist>
If the application instead used the datetime type, then the user would have to work out the
time-zone conversions themself, which is clearly not a good user experience!
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Number state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for setting the elements value to a string representing a
number.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the number represented
by its value, as obtained from applying the rules for parsing floating-point number values to it.
User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a non-empty string that is not a valid
floating-point number. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a number, then the
value must be set to the best representation of the number representing the users selection as a
floating-point number. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid floating-point number, the control is suffering from bad input.
NOTE:
This specification does not define what user interface user agents are to use; user agent ven-
dors are encouraged to consider what would best serve their users' needs. For example, when
displaying a page in the Persian or Arabic languages, a form might support Persian and Arabic
style numeric input (converting it to the format required for submission as described above).
Similarly, a user agent showing a page in a French locale might display the value with apostro-
phes between thousands and commas before the decimals, and allow the user to enter a value
in that manner, internally converting it to the submission format described above.
See 4.10.1.8 Date, time, and number formats for a discussion of the difference between the
input format and submission format for date, time, and number form controls, and the imple-
mentation notes regarding localization of form controls.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid floating-point
number.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid floating-
point number, then set it to the empty string instead.
The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating-point number. The max at-
tribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating-point number.
The step scale factor is 1. The default step is 1 (allowing only integers to be selected by the user,
unless the step base has a non-integer value).
When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the elements value
to the nearest number for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch. If there are
two such numbers, user agents are encouraged to pick the one nearest positive infinity.
The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input , is as follows: If applying
the rules for parsing floating-point number values to input results in an error, then return an error;
otherwise, return the resulting number.
The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input , is as follows: Return a
valid floating-point number that represents input .
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, max, min, placeholder, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value,
and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
The value IDL attribute is in mode value.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, selectionDirection, and valueAsDate IDL attributes; setRangeText(), and
setSelectionRange() methods.
EXAMPLE 480
Here is an example of using a numeric input control:
As described above, a user agent might support numeric input in the users local format, con-
verting it to the format required for submission as described above. This might include han-
dling grouping separators (as in "872,000,000,000") and various decimal separators (such as
"3,99" vs "3.99") or using local digits (such as those in Arabic, Devanagari, Persian, and Thai).
NOTE:
The type=number state is not appropriate for input that happens to only consist of numbers but
isnt strictly speaking a number. For example, it would be inappropriate for credit card num-
bers or US postal codes. A simple way of determining whether to use type=number is to con-
sider whether it would make sense for the input control to have a spinbox interface (e.g., with
"up" and "down" arrows). Getting a credit card number wrong by 1 in the last digit isnt a mi-
nor mistake, its as wrong as getting every digit incorrect. So it would not make sense for the
user to select a credit card number using "up" and "down" buttons. When a spinbox interface is
not appropriate, type=text is probably the right choice (possibly with a pattern attribute).
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Range state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a control for setting the elements value to a string representing a
number, but with the caveat that the exact value is not important, letting user agents provide a sim-
pler interface than they do for the Number state.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the number represented
by its value, as obtained from applying the rules for parsing floating-point number values to it.
User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid floating-point
number. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a number, then the value must be
set to a best representation of the number representing the users selection as a floating-point num-
ber. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid floating-point number, the control is suffering from bad input.
The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating-point number.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid floating-
point number, then set it to the best representation, as a floating-point number, of the default value.
The default value is the minimum plus half the difference between the minimum and the maxi-
mum, unless the maximum is less than the minimum, in which case the default value is the mini-
mum.
When the element is suffering from an underflow, the user agent must set the elements value to
the best representation, as a floating-point number, of the minimum.
When the element is suffering from an overflow, if the maximum is not less than the minimum, the
user agent must set the elements value to a valid floating-point number that represents the maxi-
mum.
When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent must round the elements
value to the nearest number for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch, and
which is greater than or equal to the minimum, and, if the maximum is not less than the minimum,
which is less than or equal to the maximum, if there is a number that matches these constraints. If
two numbers match these constraints, then user agents must use the one nearest to positive infinity.
EXAMPLE 481
For example, the markup <input type="range" min=0 max=100 step=20 value=50> re-
sults in a range control whose initial value is 60.
EXAMPLE 482
Here is an example of a range control using an autocomplete list with the list attribute. This
could be useful if there are values along the full range of the control that are especially impor-
tant, such as preconfigured light levels or typical speed limits in a range control used as a
speed control. The following markup fragment:
Note how the user agent determined the orientation of the control from the ratio of the style-
sheet-specified height and width properties. The colors were similarly derived from the style
sheet. The tick marks, however, were derived from the markup. In particular, the step attribute
has not affected the placement of tick marks, the user agent deciding to only use the author-
specified completion values and then adding longer tick marks at the extremes.
Note also how the invalid value ++50 was completely ignored.
EXAMPLE 483
For another example, consider the following markup fragment:
The user agent could pick which one to display based on the dimensions given in the style
sheet. This would allow it to maintain the same resolution for the tick marks, despite the differ-
ences in width.
EXAMPLE 484
Finally, here is an example of a range control with two labeled values:
With styles that make the control draw vertically, it might look as follows:
NOTE:
In this state, the range and step constraints are enforced even during user input, and there is no
way to set the value to the empty string.
The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating-point number. The default
minimum is 0. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating-point num-
ber. The default maximum is 100.
The step scale factor is 1. The default step is 1 (allowing only integers, unless the min attribute has
a non-integer value).
The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input , is as follows: If applying
the rules for parsing floating-point number values to input results in an error, then return an error;
otherwise, return the resulting number.
The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input , is as follows: Return
the best representation, as a floating-point number, of input .
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes, IDL attributes, and methods apply to the element:
autocomplete, list, max, min, multiple, and step content attributes; list, value, and valueAsNumber IDL at-
tributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, selectionDirection, and valueAsDate IDL attributes; select(), setRangeText(),
and setSelectionRange() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Color state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a color well control, for setting the elements value to a string rep-
resenting a simple color.
NOTE:
In this state, there is always a color picked, and there is no way to set the value to the empty
string.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the color represented by
its value, as obtained from applying the rules for parsing simple color values to it. User agents
must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid lowercase simple color. If the
user agent provides a user interface for selecting a color, then the value must be set to the result of
using the rules for serializing simple color values to the users selection. User agents must not al-
low the user to set the value to the empty string.
Constraint validation: While the user interface describes input that the user agent cannot convert
to a valid lowercase simple color, the control is suffering from bad input.
The value attribute, if specified and not empty, must have a value that is a valid simple color.
The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is a valid simple color,
then set it to the value of the element in ASCII lowercase; otherwise, set it to the string "#000000".
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element:
autocomplete and list content attributes; list and value IDL attributes; select() method.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, selectionDirection, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes;
setRangeText(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Checkbox state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a two-state control that represents the elements checkedness state.
If the elements checkedness state is true, the control represents a positive selection, and if it is
false, a negative selection. If the elements indeterminate IDL attribute is set to true, then the
controls selection should be obscured as if the control was in a third, indeterminate, state.
NOTE:
The control is never a true tri-state control, even if the elements indeterminate IDL attribute
is set to true. The indeterminate IDL attribute only gives the appearance of a third state.
If the element is mutable, then: The pre-click activation steps consist of setting the elements
checkedness to its opposite value (i.e., true if it is false, false if it is true), and of setting the ele-
ments indeterminate IDL attribute to false. The canceled activation steps consist of setting the
checkedness and the elements indeterminate IDL attribute back to the values they had before
the pre-click activation steps were run. The activation behavior is to fire a simple event that bub-
bles named input at the element and then fire a simple event that bubbles named change at the el-
ement.
Constraint validation: If the element is required and its checkedness is false, then the element is
suffering from being missing.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
input . indeterminate [ = value ]
When set, overrides the rendering of checkbox controls so that the current value is not
visible.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: checked, and
required content attributes; checked and value IDL attributes.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: files, list, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, selectionDirection, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(),
setRangeText(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Radio Button state, the rules in this section
apply.
The <input> element represents a control that, when used in conjunction with other <input> ele-
ments, forms a radio button group in which only one control can have its checkedness state set to
true. If the elements checkedness state is true, the control represents the selected control in the
group, and if it is false, it indicates a control in the group that is not selected.
The radio button group that contains an <input> element a also contains all the other <input> ele-
ments b that fulfill all of the following conditions:
Either a and b have the same form owner, or they both have no form owner.
They both have a name attribute, their name attributes are not empty, and the value of a s
name attribute is a compatibility caseless match for the value of b s name attribute.
A document must not contain an <input> element whose radio button group contains only that ele-
ment.
When any of the following phenomena occur, if the elements checkedness state is true after the
occurrence, the checkedness state of all the other elements in the same radio button group must be
set to false:
If the element R is mutable, then: The pre-click activation steps for R consist of getting a refer-
ence to the element in R s radio button group that has its checkedness set to true, if any, and then
setting R s checkedness to true. The canceled activation steps for R consist of checking if the ele-
ment to which a reference was obtained in the pre-click activation steps, if any, is still in what is
now R s radio button group, if it still has one, and if so, setting that elements checkedness to true;
or else, if there was no such element, or that element is no longer in R s radio button group, or if
R no longer has a radio button group, setting R s checkedness to false. The activation behavior
for R is to fire a simple event that bubbles named input at R and then fire a simple event that
bubbles named change at R .
Constraint validation: If an element in the radio button group is required, and all of the <input>
elements in the radio button group have a checkedness that is false, then the element is suffering
from being missing.
NOTE:
If none of the radio buttons in a radio button group are checked when they are inserted into the
document, then they will all be initially unchecked in the interface, until such time as one of
them is checked (either by the user or by script).
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: checked and
required content attributes; checked and value IDL attributes.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: files, list, selectionStart,
selectionEnd, selectionDirection, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL attributes; select(),
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the File Upload state, the rules in this section ap-
ply.
The <input> element represents a list of selected files, each file consisting of a file name, a file
type, and a file body (the contents of the file).
File names must not contain path components, even in the case that a user has selected an entire
directory hierarchy or multiple files with the same name from different directories. Path compo-
nents, for the purposes of the File Upload state, are those parts of file names that are separated
by U+005C REVERSE SOLIDUS character (\) characters.
Unless the multiple attribute is set, there must be no more than one file in the list of selected
files.
If the element is mutable, then the elements activation behavior is to run the following steps:
1. If the algorithm is not allowed to show a popup, then abort these steps without doing anything
else.
3. Optionally, wait until any prior execution of this algorithm has terminated.
4. Display a prompt to the user requesting that the user specify some files. If the multiple at-
tribute is not set, there must be no more than one file selected; otherwise, any number may be
selected. Files can be from the filesystem or created on the fly, e.g., a picture taken from a
camera connected to the users device.
6. Queue a task to first update the elements selected files so that it represents the users selec-
tion, then fire a simple event that bubbles named input at the <input> element, and finally
fire a simple event that bubbles named change at the <input> element.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the files on the list in
other ways also, e.g., adding or removing files by drag-and-drop. When the user does so, the user
agent must queue a task to first update the elements selected files so that it represents the users
new selection, then fire a simple event that bubbles named input at the <input> element, and fi-
nally fire a simple event that bubbles named change at the <input> element.
If the element is not mutable, it has no activation behavior and the user agent must not allow the
user to change the elements selection.
Constraint validation: If the element is required and the list of selected files is empty, then the el-
ement is suffering from being missing.
The accept attribute may be specified to provide user agents with a hint of what file types will be
accepted.
If specified, the attribute must consist of a set of comma-separated tokens, each of which must be
an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the following:
The tokens must not be ASCII case-insensitive matches for any of the other tokens (i.e., duplicates
are not allowed). To obtain the list of tokens from the attribute, the user agent must split the at-
tribute value on commas.
User agents may use the value of this attribute to display a more appropriate user interface than a
generic file picker. For instance, given the value image/*, a user agent could offer the user the op-
tion of using a local camera or selecting a photograph from their photo collection; given the value
audio/*, a user agent could offer the user the option of recording a clip using a headset micro-
phone.
User agents should prevent the user from selecting files that are not accepted by one (or more) of
these tokens.
NOTE:
Authors are encouraged to specify both any MIME types and any corresponding extensions
when looking for data in a specific format.
EXAMPLE 485
For example, consider an application that converts Microsoft Word documents to Open Docu-
ment Format files. Since Microsoft Word documents are described with a wide variety of
MIME types and extensions, the site can list several, as follows:
On platforms that only use file extensions to describe file types, the extensions listed here can
be used to filter the allowed documents, while the MIME types can be used with the systems
type registration table (mapping MIME types to extensions used by the system), if any, to de-
termine any other extensions to allow. Similarly, on a system that does not have file names or
extensions but labels documents with MIME types internally, the MIME types can be used to
pick the allowed files, while the extensions can be used if the system has an extension registra-
tion table that maps known extensions to MIME types used by the system.
Warning! Extensions tend to be ambiguous (e.g., there are an untold number of for-
mats that use the ".dat" extension, and users can typically quite easily rename their
files to have a ".doc" extension even if they are not Microsoft Word documents), and
MIME types tend to be unreliable (e.g., many formats have no formally registered
types, and many formats are in practice labeled using a number of different MIME
types). Authors are reminded that, as usual, data received from a client should be
treated with caution, as it may not be in an expected format even if the user is not hos-
tile and the user agent fully obeyed the accept attributes requirements.
EXAMPLE 486
For historical reasons, the value IDL attribute prefixes the file name with the string
"C:\fakepath\". Some legacy user agents actually included the full path (which was a secu-
rity vulnerability). As a result of this, obtaining the file name from the value IDL attribute in
a backwards-compatible way is non-trivial. The following function extracts the file name in a
suitably compatible manner:
function extractFilename(path) {
if (path.substr(0, 12) == "C:\\fakepath\\")
return path.substr(12); // modern browser
var x;
x = path.lastIndexOf('/');
if (x >= 0) // Unix-based path
return path.substr(x+1);
x = path.lastIndexOf('\\');
if (x >= 0) // Windows-based path
return path.substr(x+1);
return path; // just the file name
}
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: accept, multiple, and
required content attributes; files and value IDL attributes; select() method.
width.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Submit Button state, the rules in this section
apply.
The <input> element represents a button that, when activated, submits the form. If the element has
a value attribute, the buttons label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be an im-
plementation-defined string that means "Submit" or some such. The element is a button, specifi-
cally a submit button.
NOTE:
Since the default label is implementation-defined, and the width of the button typically de-
pends on the buttons label, the buttons width can leak a few bits of fingerprintable informa-
tion. These bits are likely to be strongly correlated to the identity of the user agent and the
users locale.
If the element is mutable, then the elements activation behavior is as follows: if the element has a
form owner, and the elements node document is fully active, submit the form owner from the
<input> element; otherwise, do nothing.
The formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, and formtarget attributes are at-
tributes for form submission.
NOTE:
The formnovalidate attribute can be used to make submit buttons that do not trigger the con-
straint validation.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: formaction,
formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, and formtarget content attributes; value IDL attribute.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt,
autocomplete, checked, dirname, height, inputmode, list, max, maxlength, min, minlength, multiple,
pattern, placeholder, readonly, required, size, src, step, and width.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list,
selectionStart, selectionEnd, selectionDirection, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL at-
tributes; select(), setRangeText(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Image Button state, the rules in this section
apply.
The <input> element represents either an image from which a user can select a coordinate and sub-
mit the form, or alternatively a button from which the user can submit the form. The element is a
button, specifically a Submit Button.
NOTE:
The coordinate is sent to the server during form submission by sending two entries for the ele-
ment, derived from the name of the control but with ".x" and ".y" appended to the name with
the x and y components of the coordinate respectively.
The image is given by the src attribute. The src attribute must be present, and must contain a
valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces referencing a non-interactive, optionally
animated, image resource that is neither paged nor scripted.
the <input> elements type attribute is first set to the Image Button state (possibly when the
element is first created), and the src attribute is present
the <input> elements type attribute is changed back to the Image Button state, and the src
attribute is present, and its value has changed since the last time the type attribute was in the
Image Button state
the <input> elements type attribute is in the Image Button state, and the src attribute is set
or changed
then unless the user agent cannot support images, or its support for images has been disabled, or
the user agent only fetches images on demand, or the src attributes value is the empty string, the
user agent must parse the value of the src attribute value, relative to the elements node document,
and if that is successful, run these substeps:
1. Let request be a new request whose URL is the resulting URL string, client is the elements
node documents Window objects environment settings object, type is "image", destination is
"subresource", omit-Origin-header flag is set, credentials mode is "include", and whose
use-URL-credentials flag is set.
2. Fetch request .
Fetching the image must delay the load event of the elements node document until the task that is
queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched (defined below) has been
run.
If the image was successfully obtained, with no network errors, and the images type is a supported
image type, and the image is a valid image of that type, then the image is said to be available. If
this is true before the image is completely downloaded, each task that is queued by the networking
task source while the image is being fetched must update the presentation of the image appropri-
ately.
The user agent should apply the image sniffing rules to determine the type of the image, with the
images associated Content-Type headers giving the official type . If these rules are not applied,
then the type of the image must be the type given by the images associated Content-Type headers.
User agents must not support non-image resources with the <input> element. User agents must not
run executable code embedded in the image resource. User agents must only display the first page
of a multipage resource. User agents must not allow the resource to act in an interactive fashion,
but should honor any animation in the resource.
The task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched, must, if
the download was successful and the image is available, queue a task to fire a simple event named
load at the <input> element; and otherwise, if the fetching process fails without a response from
the remote server, or completes but the image is not a valid or supported image, queue a task to
fire a simple event named error on the <input> element.
The alt attribute provides the textual label for the button for users and user agents who cannot use
the image. The alt attribute must be present, and must contain a non-empty string giving the label
that would be appropriate for an equivalent button if the image was unavailable.
If the src attribute is set, and the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that
image, then: The element represents a control for selecting a coordinate from the image specified
by the src attribute; if the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to select this
coordinate, and the elements activation behavior is as follows: if the element has a form owner,
and the elements node document is fully active, take the users selected coordinate, and submit the
<input> elements form owner from the <input> element. If the user activates the control without
explicitly selecting a coordinate, then the coordinate (0,0) must be assumed.
Otherwise, the element represents a submit button whose label is given by the value of the alt at-
tribute; if the element is mutable, then the elements activation behavior is as follows: if the ele-
ment has a form owner, and the elements node document is fully active, set the selected coordi-
nate to (0,0), and submit the <input> elements form owner from the <input> element.
In either case, if the element is mutable but has no form owner or the elements node document is
not fully active, then its activation behavior must be to do nothing. If the element is not mutable, it
has no activation behavior.
The selected coordinate must consist of an x -component and a y -component. The coordinates
represent the position relative to the edge of the image, with the coordinate space having the posi-
tive x direction to the right, and the positive y direction downwards.
The x -component must be a valid integer representing a number x in the range -( border-
left + paddingleft )
x width + borderright + paddingright , where width is the rendered width of
the image, borderleft is the width of the border on the left of the image, paddingleft is the width of
the padding on the left of the image, borderright is the width of the border on the right of the im-
age, and paddingright is the width of the padding on the right of the image, with all dimensions
given in CSS pixels.
The y -component must be a valid integer representing a number y in the range -( border-
top + paddingtop ) y height + borderbottom + paddingbottom , where height is the rendered
height of the image, bordertop is the width of the border above the image, paddingtop is the width
of the padding above the image, borderbottom is the width of the border below the image, and
paddingbottom is the width of the padding below the image, with all dimensions given in CSS pix-
els.
The formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, and formtarget attributes are at-
tributes for form submission.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
image . width [ = value ]
image . height [ = value ]
These attributes return the actual rendered dimensions of the image, or zero if the di-
mensions are not known.
Bookkeeping details
The following common <input> element content attributes and IDL attributes apply to the element: alt,
formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget, height, src, and width content at-
tributes; value IDL attribute.
The value IDL attribute is in mode default.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, autocomplete,
checked, dirname, inputmode, list, max, maxlength, min, minlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder,
readonly, required, size, and step.
NOTE:
Many aspects of this states behavior are similar to the behavior of the <img> element. Readers
are encouraged to read that section, where many of the same requirements are described in
more detail.
EXAMPLE 487
Take the following form:
<form action="process.cgi">
<input type=image src=map.png name=where alt="Show location list">
</form>
If the user clicked on the image at coordinate (127,40) then the URL used to submit the form
would be "process.cgi?where.x=127&where.y=40".
(In this example, its assumed that for users who dont see the map, and who instead just see a
button labeled "Show location list", clicking the button will cause the server to show a list of
locations to pick from instead of the map.)
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Reset Button state, the rules in this section
apply.
The <input> element represents a button that, when activated, resets the form. If the element has a
value attribute, the buttons label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be an im-
plementation-defined string that means "Reset" or some such. The element is a button.
NOTE:
Since the default label is implementation-defined, and the width of the button typically de-
pends on the buttons label, the buttons width can leak a few bits of fingerprintable informa-
tion. These bits are likely to be strongly correlated to the identity of the user agent and the
users locale.
If the element is mutable, then the elements activation behavior, if the element has a form owner
and the elements node document is fully active, is to reset the form owner; otherwise, it is to do
nothing.
Bookkeeping details
The value IDL attribute applies to this element and is in mode default.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt,
autocomplete, checked, dirname, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget,
height, inputmode, list, max, maxlength, min, minlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly,
required, size, src, step, and width.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list,
selectionStart, selectionEnd, selectionDirection, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL at-
tributes; select(), setRangeText(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
NOTE:
When an <input> elements type attribute is in the Button state, the rules in this section apply.
The <input> element represents a button with no default behavior. A label for the button must be
provided in the value attribute, though it may be the empty string. If the element has a value at-
tribute, the buttons label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be the empty string.
Bookkeeping details
The value IDL attribute applies to this element and is in mode default.
The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt,
autocomplete, checked, dirname, formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, formtarget,
height, inputmode, list, max, maxlength, min, minlength, multiple, pattern, placeholder, readonly,
required, size, src, step, and width.
The following IDL attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, files, list,
selectionStart, selectionEnd, selectionDirection, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber IDL at-
tributes; select(), setRangeText(), setSelectionRange(), stepDown(), and stepUp() methods.
The formats shown to the user in date, time, and number controls is independent of the format
used for form submission.
Browsers should use user interfaces that present locale-affected formats such as dates, times, and
numbers according to the conventions of either the locale implied by the <input> elements lan-
guage or the users preferred locale. Using the pages locale will ensure consistency with page-p-
rovided data.
EXAMPLE 488
For example, it would be confusing to users if an American English page claimed that a Cirque
De Soleil show was going to be showing on 02/03, but their browser, configured to use the
British English locale, only showed the date 03/02 in the ticket purchase date picker. Using the
pages locale would at least ensure that the date was presented in the same format everywhere.
(Theres still a risk that the user would end up arriving a month late, of course, but theres only
so much that can be done about such cultural differences...)
These attributes only apply to an <input> element if its type attribute is in a state whose definition
declares that the attribute applies. When an attribute doesnt apply to an <input> element, user
agents must ignore the attribute, regardless of the requirements and definitions below.
The maxlength attribute, when it applies, is a form control maxlength attribute controlled by the
<input> elements dirty value flag.
The minlength attribute, when it applies, is a form control minlength attribute controlled by the
<input> elements dirty value flag.
If the <input> element has a maximum allowed value length, then the code-unit length of the value
of the elements value attribute must be equal to or less than the elements maximum allowed
value length.
EXAMPLE 489
The following extract shows how a messaging clients text entry could be arbitrarily restricted
to a fixed number of characters, thus forcing any conversation through this medium to be terse
and discouraging intelligent discourse.
EXAMPLE 490
Here, a password is given a minimum length:
The size attribute gives the number of characters that, in a visual rendering, the user agent is to al-
low the user to see while editing the elements value.
The size attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid non-negative integer greater than
zero.
If the attribute is present, then its value must be parsed using the rules for parsing non-negative in-
tegers, and if the result is a number greater than zero, then the user agent should ensure that at least
that many characters are visible.
The size IDL attribute is limited to only non-negative numbers greater than zero and has a default
value of 20.
The readonly attribute is a boolean attribute that controls whether or not the user can edit the
form control. When specified, the element is not mutable.
Constraint validation: If the readonly attribute is specified on an <input> element, the element is
barred from constraint validation.
NOTE:
The difference between disabled and readonly is that read-only controls are still focusable,
so the user can still select the text and interact with it, whereas disabled controls are entirely
non-interactive. Only text controls can be made read-only.
EXAMPLE 491
In the following example, the existing product identifiers cannot be modified, but they are still
displayed as part of the form, for consistency with the row representing a new product (where
the identifier is not yet filled in).
The required attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified, the element is required.
Constraint validation: If the element is required, and its value IDL attribute applies and is in the
mode value, and the element is mutable, and the elements value is the empty string, then the ele-
ment is suffering from being missing.
EXAMPLE 492
The following form has two required fields, one for an e-mail address and one for a password.
It also has a third field that is only considered valid if the user types the same password in the
password field and this third field.
EXAMPLE 493
For radio buttons, the required attribute is satisfied if any of the radio buttons in the group is
selected. Thus, in the following example, any of the radio buttons can be checked, not just the
one marked as required:
<fieldset>
<legend>Did the movie pass the Bechdel test?</legend>
<p><label><input type="radio" name="bechdel" value="no-characters"> No,
there are not even two female characters in the movie. </label>
<p><label><input type="radio" name="bechdel" value="no-names"> No, the
female characters never talk to each other. </label>
<p><label><input type="radio" name="bechdel" value="no-topic"> No, when
female characters talk to each other its always about a male character.
</label>
<p><label><input type="radio" name="bechdel" value="yes" required> Yes.
</label>
<p><label><input type="radio" name="bechdel" value="unknown"> I dont
know. </label>
</fieldset>
To avoid confusion as to whether a radio button group is required or not, authors are encour-
aged to specify the attribute on all the radio buttons in a group. Indeed, in general, authors are
encouraged to avoid having radio button groups that do not have any initially checked controls
in the first place, as this is a state that the user cannot return to, and is therefore generally con-
sidered a poor user interface.
The multiple attribute is a boolean attribute that indicates whether the user is to be allowed to
specify more than one value.
EXAMPLE 494
The following extract shows how an e-mail clients "Cc" field could accept multiple e-mail ad-
dresses.
If the user had, amongst many friends in their user contacts database, two friends "Arthur
Dent" (with address "[email protected]") and "Adam Josh" (with address "adamjosh@exam-
ple.net"), then, after the user has typed "a", the user agent might suggest these two e-mail ad-
dresses to the user.
The page could also link in the users contacts database from the site:
Suppose the user had entered "[email protected]" into this text field, and then started typing a
second e-mail address starting with "a". The user agent might show both the two friends men-
tioned earlier, as well as the "astrophy" and "astronomy" values given in the <datalist> ele-
ment.
EXAMPLE 495
The following extract shows how an e-mail clients "Attachments" field could accept multiple
files for upload.
The pattern attribute specifies a regular expression against which the controls value, or, when
the multiple attribute applies and is set, the controls values, are to be checked.
If specified, the attributes value must match the JavaScript Pattern production. [ECMA-262]
If an <input> element has a pattern attribute specified, and the attributes value, when compiled
as a JavaScript regular expression with only the "u" flag specified, compiles successfully, then the
resulting regular expression is the elements compiled pattern regular expression. If the element
has no such attribute, or if the value doesnt compile successfully, then the element has no com-
piled pattern regular expression. [ECMA-262]
NOTE:
If the value doesnt compile successfully, user agents are encouraged to log this fact in a devel-
oper console, to aid debugging.
Constraint validation: If the elements value is not the empty string, and either the elements
multiple attribute is not specified or it does not apply to the <input> element given its type at-
tributes current state, and the element has a compiled pattern regular expression but that regular
expression does not match the entirety of the elements value, then the element is suffering from a
pattern mismatch.
Constraint validation: If the elements value is not the empty string, and the elements multiple
attribute is specified and applies to the <input> element, and the element has a compiled pattern
regular expression but that regular expression does not match the entirety of each of the elements
values, then the element is suffering from a pattern mismatch.
The compiled pattern regular expression, when matched against a string, must have its start an-
chored to the start of the string and its end anchored to the end of the string.
NOTE:
This implies that the regular expression language used for this attribute is the same as that used
in JavaScript, except that the pattern attribute is matched against the entire value, not just any
subset (somewhat as if it implied a ^(?: at the start of the pattern and a )$ at the end).
When an <input> element has a pattern attribute specified, authors should provide a description
of the pattern in text near the control. Authors may also include a title attribute to give a descrip-
tion of the pattern. User agents may use the contents of this attribute, if it is present, when inform-
ing the user that the pattern is not matched, or at any other suitable time, such as in a tooltip or
read out by assistive technology when the control gains focus.
Warning! Relying on the title attribute for the visual display of text content is cur-
rently discouraged as many user agents do not expose the attribute in an accessible
manner as required by this specification (e.g., requiring a pointing device such as a
mouse to cause a tooltip to appear, which excludes keyboard-only users and touch-only
users, such as anyone with a modern phone or tablet).
EXAMPLE 496
For example, the following snippet:
When a control has a pattern attribute, the title attribute, if used, must describe the pattern. Ad-
ditional information could also be included, so long as it assists the user in filling in the control.
Otherwise, assistive technology would be impaired.
EXAMPLE 497
For instance, if the title attribute contained the caption of the control, assistive technology
could end up saying something like The text you have entered does not match the
required pattern. Birthday, which is not useful.
user agents may still show the title in non-error situations (for example, as a tooltip when hover-
ing over the control), so authors should be careful not to word titles as if an error has necessarily
occurred.
Some form controls can have explicit constraints applied limiting the allowed range of values that
the user can provide. Normally, such a range would be linear and continuous. A form control can
have a periodic domain, however, in which case the form controls broadest possible range is fi-
nite, and authors can specify explicit ranges within it that span the boundaries.
EXAMPLE 498
Specifically, the broadest range of a type=time control is midnight to midnight (24 hours), and
authors can set both continuous linear ranges (such as 9pm to 11pm) and discontinuous ranges
spanning midnight (such as 11pm to 1am).
The min and max attributes indicate the allowed range of values for the element.
Their syntax is defined by the section that defines the type attributes current state.
If the element has a min attribute, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a
number to the value of the min attribute is a number, then that number is the elements minimum;
otherwise, if the type attributes current state defines a default minimum, then that is the mini-
mum; otherwise, the element has no minimum.
If the element has a max attribute, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a
number to the value of the max attribute is a number, then that number is the elements maximum;
otherwise, if the type attributes current state defines a default maximum, then that is the maxi-
mum; otherwise, the element has no maximum.
If the element does not have a periodic domain, the max attributes value (the maximum) must not
be less than the min attributes value (its minimum).
NOTE:
If an element that does not have a periodic domain has a maximum that is less than its mini-
mum, then so long as the element has a value, it will either be suffering from an underflow or
suffering from an overflow.
An element has a reversed range if it has a periodic domain and its maximum is less than its min-
imum.
How these range limitations apply depends on whether the element has a multiple attribute.
If the element does not have a multiple attribute specified or if the multiple attribute
does not apply
Constraint validation: When the element has a minimum and does not have a reversed
range, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the
string given by the elements value is a number, and the number obtained from that algo-
rithm is less than the minimum, the element is suffering from an underflow.
Constraint validation: When the element has a maximum and does not have a reversed
range, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the
string given by the elements value is a number, and the number obtained from that algo-
rithm is more than the maximum, the element is suffering from an overflow.
Constraint validation: When an element has a reversed range, and the result of apply-
ing the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the string given by the elements
value is a number, and the number obtained from that algorithm is more than the maxi-
mum and less than the minimum, the element is simultaneously suffering from an under-
flow and suffering from an overflow.
If the element does have a multiple attribute specified and the multiple attribute does
apply
Constraint validation: When the element has a minimum, and the result of applying the
algorithm to convert a string to a number to any of the strings in the elements values is a
number that is less than the minimum, the element is suffering from an underflow.
Constraint validation: When the element has a maximum, and the result of applying
the algorithm to convert a string to a number to any of the strings in the elements values
is a number that is more than the maximum, the element is suffering from an overflow.
EXAMPLE 499
The following date control limits input to dates that are before the 1980s:
EXAMPLE 500
The following number control limits input to whole numbers greater than zero:
EXAMPLE 501
The following time control limits input to those minutes that occur between 9pm and 6am, de-
faulting to midnight:
The step attribute indicates the granularity that is expected (and required) of the value or values,
by limiting the allowed values. The section that defines the type attributes current state also de-
fines the default step, the step scale factor, and in some cases the default step base, which are
used in processing the attribute as described below.
The step attribute, if specified, must either have a value that is a valid floating-point number that
parses to a number that is greater than zero, or must have a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive
match for the string "any".
The attribute provides the allowed value step for the element, as follows:
1. If the step attribute is absent, then the allowed value step is the default step multiplied by the
step scale factor.
2. Otherwise, if the attributes value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "any",
then there is no allowed value step.
3. Otherwise, let step value be the result of running the rules for parsing floating-point number
values, when they are applied to the step attributes value.
4. If the previous step returned an error, or step value is zero, or a number less than zero, then
the allowed value step is the default step multiplied by the step scale factor.
5. If the elements type attribute is in the Date and Time, Date, Month, Week, or Time state,
then round step value to the nearest whole number using the "round to nearest + round half
up" technique, unless the value is less-than one, in which case let step value be 1.
6. The allowed value step is step value multiplied by the step scale factor.
1. If the element has a min content attribute, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert
a string to a number to the value of the min content attribute is not an error, then return that
result and abort these steps.
2. If the element has a value content attribute, and the result of applying the algorithm to con-
vert a string to a number to the value of the value content attribute is not an error, then return
that result and abort these steps.
3. If a default step base is defined for this element given its type attributes state, then return it
and abort these steps.
4. Return zero.
How these range limitations apply depends on whether the element has a multiple attribute.
If the element does not have a multiple attribute specified or if the multiple attribute
does not apply
Constraint validation: When the element has an allowed value step, and the result of
applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the string given by the value is
a number, and that number is not step aligned, the element is suffering from a step mis-
match.
If the element does have a multiple attribute specified and the multiple attribute does
apply
Constraint validation: When the element has an allowed value step, and the result of
applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to any of the strings in the values
is a number that is not step aligned, the element is suffering from a step mismatch.
EXAMPLE 502
The following range control only accepts values in the range 0..1, and allows 256 steps in that
range:
EXAMPLE 503
The following control allows any time in the day to be selected, with any accuracy (e.g., thou-
sandth-of-a-second accuracy or more):
The list attribute is used to identify an element that lists predefined options suggested to the user.
If present, its value must be the ID of a <datalist> element in the same document.
The suggestions source element is the first element in the document in tree order to have an ID
equal to the value of the list attribute, if that element is a <datalist> element. If there is no list
attribute, or if there is no element with that ID, or if the first element with that ID is not a
<datalist> element, then there is no suggestions source element.
If there is a suggestions source element, then, when the user agent is allowing the user to edit the
<input> elements value, the user agent should offer the suggestions represented by the sugges-
tions source element to the user in a manner suitable for the type of control used. The user agent
may use the suggestions label to identify the suggestion if appropriate.
User agents are encouraged to filter the suggestions represented by the suggestions source element
when the number of suggestions is large, including only the most relevant ones (e.g., based on the
users input so far). No precise threshold is defined, but capping the list at four to seven values is
reasonable. User agents that perform filtering should implement substring matching on the label
attribute.
Warning! Existing user agents filter on either value or label so the behavior may be
inconsistent.
How user selections of suggestions are handled depends on whether the element is a control ac-
cepting a single value only, or whether it accepts multiple values:
If the element does not have a multiple attribute specified or if the multiple attribute
does not apply
When the user selects a suggestion, the <input> elements value must be set to the se-
lected suggestions value, as if the user had written that value themself.
If the elements type attribute is in the Range state and the element has a multiple
attribute specified
When the user selects a suggestion, the user agent must identify which value in the ele-
ments values the user intended to update, and must then update the elements values so
that the relevant value is changed to the value given by the selected suggestions value,
as if the user had themself set it to that value.
If the elements type attribute is in the E-mail state and the element has a multiple
attribute specified
When the user selects a suggestion, the user agent must either add a new entry to the
<input> elements values, whose value is the selected suggestions value, or change an
existing entry in the <input> elements values to have the value given by the selected
suggestions value, as if the user had themself added an entry with that value, or edited
an existing entry to be that value. Which behavior is to be applied depends on the user
If the list attribute does not apply, there is no suggestions source element.
EXAMPLE 504
This URL field offers some suggestions.
Other URLs from the users history might show also; this is up to the user agent.
EXAMPLE 505
This example demonstrates how to design a form that uses the autocompletion list feature
while still degrading usefully in legacy user agents.
If the autocompletion list is merely an aid, and is not important to the content, then simply us-
ing a <datalist> element with children <option> elements is enough. To prevent the values
from being rendered in legacy user agents, they need to be placed inside the value attribute in-
stead of inline.
<p>
<label>
Enter a breed:
<input type="text" name="breed" list="breeds">
<datalist id="breeds">
<option value="Abyssinian">
<option value="Alpaca">
<!-- ... -->
</datalist>
</label>
</p>
However, if the values need to be shown in legacy user agents, then fallback content can be
placed inside the <datalist> element, as follows:
<p>
<label>
Enter a breed:
<input type="text" name="breed" list="breeds">
</label>
<datalist id="breeds">
<label>
or select one from the list:
<select name="breed">
<option value=""> (none selected)
<option>Abyssinian
<option>Alpaca
<!-- ... -->
</select>
</label>
</datalist>
</p>
The fallback content will only be shown in user agents that dont support <datalist>. The op-
tions, on the other hand, will be detected by all user agents, even though they are not children
of the <datalist> element.
Note that if an <option> element used in a <datalist> is selected, it will be selected by de-
fault by legacy user agents (because it affects the <select>), but it will not have any effect on
the <input> element in user agents that support <datalist>.
The placeholder attribute represents a short hint (a word or short phrase) intended to aid the user
with data entry when the control has no value. A hint could be a sample value or a brief descrip-
tion of the expected format. The attribute, if specified, must have a value that contains no U+000A
LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters.
The placeholder attribute should not be used as a replacement for a <label>. For a longer hint or
other advisory text, place the text next to the control.
Warning! Use of the placeholder attribute as a replacement for a <label> can re-
duce the accessibility and usability of the control for a range of users including older
users and users with cognitive, mobility, fine motor skill or vision impairments. While
the hint given by the controls <label> is shown at all times, the short hint given in the
placeholder attribute is only shown before the user enters a value. Furthermore,
placeholder text may be mistaken for a pre-filled value, and as commonly imple-
mented the default color of the placeholder text provides insufficient contrast and the
lack of a separate visible <label> reduces the size of the hit region available for setting
focus on the control.
User agents should present this hint to the user, after having stripped line breaks from it, when the
elements value is the empty string, especially if the control is not focused.
If a user agent normally doesnt show this hint to the user when the control is focused, then the
user agent should nonetheless show the hint for the control if it was focused as a result of the
autofocus attribute, since in that case the user will not have had an opportunity to examine the
control before focusing it.
EXAMPLE 506
Here is an example of a mail configuration user interface that uses the placeholder attribute:
<fieldset>
<legend>Mail Account</legend>
<p><label>Name: <input type="text" name="fullname" placeholder="John
Ratzenberger"></label></p>
<p><label>Address: <input type="email" name="address"
placeholder="[email protected]"></label></p>
<p><label>Password: <input type="password" name="password"></label></p>
<p><label>Description: <input type="text" name="desc" placeholder="My
Email Account"></label></p>
</fieldset>
EXAMPLE 507
In situations where the controls content has one directionality but the placeholder needs to
have a different directionality, Unicodes bidirectional-algorithm formatting characters can be
used in the attribute value:
For slightly more clarity, heres the same example using numeric character references instead
of inline Arabic:
input . files
Returns a FileList object listing the selected files of the form control.
Can be set, to change the value. Setting this to NaN will set the underlying value to the
empty string.
input . stepUp( [ n ] )
input . stepDown( [ n ] )
Changes the form controls value by the value given in the step attribute, multiplied by
n . The default value for n is 1.
Throws "InvalidStateError" DOMException if the control is neither date- or time-
based nor numeric, or if the step attributes value is "any".
input . list
Returns the <datalist> element indicated by the list attribute.
The value IDL attribute allows scripts to manipulate the value of an <input> element. The at-
tribute is in one of the following modes, which define its behavior:
value
On getting, it must return the current value of the element. On setting, it must set the ele-
ments value to the new value, set the elements dirty value flag to true, invoke the value sani-
tization algorithm, if the elements type attributes current state defines one, and then, if the
element has a text entry cursor position, should move the text entry cursor position to the end
of the text field, unselecting any selected text and resetting the selection direction to none.
default
On getting, if the element has a value attribute, it must return that attributes value; other-
wise, it must return the empty string. On setting, it must set the elements value attribute to
the new value.
default/on
On getting, if the element has a value attribute, it must return that attributes value; other-
wise, it must return the string "on". On setting, it must set the elements value attribute to the
new value.
filename
On getting, it must return the string "C:\fakepath\" followed by the name of the first file in
the list of selected files, if any, or the empty string if the list is empty. On setting, if the new
value is the empty string, it must empty the list of selected files; otherwise, it must throw an
"InvalidStateError" DOMException.
NOTE:
This "fakepath" requirement is a sad accident of history. See the example in the File
Upload state section for more information.
NOTE:
Since path components are not permitted in file names in the list of selected files, the
"\fakepath\" cannot be mistaken for a path component.
The checked IDL attribute allows scripts to manipulate the checkedness of an <input> element.
On getting, it must return the current checkedness of the element; and on setting, it must set the el-
ements checkedness to the new value and set the elements dirty checkedness flag to true.
The files IDL attribute allows scripts to access the elements selected files. On getting, if the IDL
attribute applies, it must return a FileList object that represents the current selected files. The
same object must be returned until the list of selected files changes. If the IDL attribute does not
apply, then it must instead return null. [FILEAPI]
The valueAsDate IDL attribute represents the value of the element, interpreted as a date.
On getting, if the valueAsDate attribute does not apply, as defined for the <input> elements type
attributes current state, then return null. Otherwise, run the algorithm to convert a string to a Date
object defined for that state to the elements value; if the algorithm returned a Date object, then
return it, otherwise, return null.
On setting, if the valueAsDate attribute does not apply, as defined for the <input> elements type
attributes current state, then throw an InvalidStateError exception; otherwise, if the new
value is not null and not a Date object throw a TypeError exception; otherwise if the new value is
null or a Date object representing the NaN time value, then set the value of the element to the
empty string; otherwise, run the algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, as defined for that
state, on the new value, and set the value of the element to the resulting string.
The valueAsNumber IDL attribute represents the value of the element, interpreted as a number.
On getting, if the valueAsNumber attribute does not apply, as defined for the <input> elements
type attributes current state, then return a Not-a-Number (NaN) value. Otherwise, if the
valueAsDate attribute applies, run the algorithm to convert a string to a Date object defined for
that state to the elements value; if the algorithm returned a Date object, then return the time value
of the object (the number of milliseconds from midnight UTC the morning of 1970-01-01 to the
time represented by the Date object), otherwise, return a Not-a-Number (NaN) value. Otherwise,
run the algorithm to convert a string to a number defined for that state to the elements value; if the
algorithm returned a number, then return it, otherwise, return a Not-a-Number (NaN) value.
On setting, if the new value is infinite, then throw a TypeError exception. Otherwise, if the
valueAsNumber attribute does not apply, as defined for the <input> elements type attributes cur-
rent state, then throw an InvalidStateError exception. Otherwise, if the new value is a Not-a-
-Number (NaN) value, then set the value of the element to the empty string. Otherwise, if the
valueAsDate attribute applies, run the algorithm to convert a Date object to a string defined for
that state, passing it a Date object whose time value is the new value, and set the value of the ele-
ment to the resulting string. Otherwise, run the algorithm to convert a number to a string, as de-
fined for that state, on the new value, and set the value of the element to the resulting string.
The stepDown( n ) and stepUp( n ) methods, when invoked, must run the following algorithm:
1. If the stepDown() and stepUp() methods do not apply, as defined for the <input> elements
type attributes current state, then throw an "InvalidStateError" DOMException, and
abort these steps.
3. If the element has a minimum and a maximum and the minimum is greater than the maxi-
mum, then abort these steps.
4. If the element has a minimum and a maximum and there is no step aligned value greater than
or equal to the elements minimum and less than or equal to the elements maximum, then
abort these steps.
5. If applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the string given by the elements
value does not result in an error, then let value be the result of that algorithm. Otherwise, let
value be zero.
1. If the method invoked was the stepDown() method, then step-align value with nega-
tive preference . Otherwise step-align value with positive preference . In either case, let
value be the result.
EXAMPLE 508
This ensures that the value first snaps to a step-aligned value when it doesnt start
step-aligned. For example, starting with the following <input> with value of 3:
Invoking the stepUp() method will snap the value to 3.6; subsequent invocations
will increment the value by 2.6 (e.g., 6.2, then 8.8). Likewise, the following <input>
element in the Week state will also step-align in similar fashion, though in this state,
the step value is rounded to 3, per the derivation of the allowed value step.
Invoking stepUp() will result in a value of "2016-W22" because the nearest step-
aligned value from the step base of "2016-W01" (the min value) with 3 week steps
that is greater than the value of "2016-W20" is "2016-W22" (i.e.: W01, W04, W07,
W10, W13, W16, W19, W22).
8. If the element has a minimum, and value is less than that minimum, then set value to the
step-aligned minimum value with positive preference .
9. If the element has a maximum, and value is greater than that maximum, then set value to the
step-aligned maximum value with negative preference .
10. If either the method invoked was the stepDown() method and value is greater than value-
BeforeStepping , or the method invoked was the stepUp() method and value is less than
valueBeforeStepping , then abort these steps.
EXAMPLE 509
This ensures that invoking the stepUp() method on the <input> element in the following
example does not change the value of that element:
11. Let value as string be the result of running the algorithm to convert a number to a string, as
defined for the <input> elements type attributes current state, on value .
NOTE:
This algorithm checks to see if a value falls along an <input> elements defined step intervals,
with the intervals origin at the step base value. It is used to determine if the elements value is
suffering from a step mismatch and for various checks in the stepUp() and stepDown()
methods.
1. Subtract the step base from v and let the result be relative distance .
2. If dividing the relative distance by the allowed value step results in a value with a remainder
then v is not step aligned. Otherwise it is step aligned.
To step-align a value v with either negative preference or positive preference , do the following:
NOTE:
negative preference selects a step-aligned value that is less than or equal to v , while positive
preference step-aligns with a value greater than or equal to v .
1. Subtract the step base from v and let the result be relative distance .
2. Let step interval count be the result of integer dividing (or divide and throw out any remain-
der) relative distance by the allowed value step.
3. Let candidate be the step interval count multiplied by the allowed value step.
4. If this algorithm was invoked with negative preference and the value of v is less than can-
didate , then decrement candidate by the allowed value step.
Otherwise, if this algorithm was invoked with positive preference and the value of v is
greater than candidate , then increment candidate by the allowed value step.
The list IDL attribute must return the current suggestions source element, if any, or null other-
wise.
When the input and change events apply (which is the case for all <input> controls other than
buttons and those with the type attribute in the Hidden state), the events are fired to indicate that
the user has interacted with the control. The input event fires whenever the user has modified the
data of the control. The change event fires when the value is committed, if that makes sense for
the control, or else when the control loses focus. In all cases, the input event comes before the
corresponding change event (if any).
When an <input> element has a defined activation behavior, the rules for dispatching these events,
if they apply, are given in the section above that defines the type attributes state. (This is the case
for all <input> controls with the type attribute in the Checkbox state, the Radio Button state, or
the File Upload state.)
For <input> elements without a defined activation behavior, but to which these events apply, and
for which the user interface involves both interactive manipulation and an explicit commit action,
then when the user changes the elements value, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple
event that bubbles named input at the <input> element, and any time the user commits the
change, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles named change at the
<input> element.
EXAMPLE 510
An example of a user interface involving both interactive manipulation and a commit action
would be a Range controls that use a slider, when manipulated using a pointing device. While
the user is dragging the controls knob, input events would fire whenever the position
changed, whereas the change event would only fire when the user let go of the knob, commit-
ting to a specific value.
For <input> elements without a defined activation behavior, but to which these events apply, and
for which the user interface involves an explicit commit action but no intermediate manipulation,
then any time the user commits a change to the elements value, the user agent must queue a task
to first fire a simple event that bubbles named input at the <input> element, and then fire a simple
event that bubbles named change at the <input> element.
EXAMPLE 511
An example of a user interface with a commit action would be a Color control that consists of
a single button that brings up a color wheel: if the value only changes when the dialog is
closed, then that would be the explicit commit action. On the other hand, if manipulating the
control changes the color interactively, then there might be no commit action.
EXAMPLE 512
Another example of a user interface with a commit action would be a Date control that allows
both text-based user input and user selection from a drop-down calendar: while text input does
not have an explicit commit step, selecting a date from the drop down calendar and then dis-
missing the drop down would be a commit action.
EXAMPLE 513
The Range control is also an example of a user interface that has a commit action when used
with a pointing device (rather than a keyboard): during the time that the pointing device starts
manipulating the slider until the time that the slider is released, no commit action is taken
(though input events are fired as the value is changed). Only after the slider is release is the
commit action taken.
For <input> elements without a defined activation behavior, but to which these events apply, any
time the user causes the elements value to change without an explicit commit action, the user
agent must queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles named input at the <input> element.
The corresponding change event, if any, will be fired when the control loses focus.
EXAMPLE 514
Examples of a user changing the elements value would include the user typing into a text
field, pasting a new value into the field, or undoing an edit in that field. Some user interactions
do not cause changes to the value, e.g., hitting the "delete" key in an empty text field, or re-
placing some text in the field with text from the clipboard that happens to be exactly the same
text.
EXAMPLE 515
A Range control in the form of a slider that the user has focused and is interacting with using a
keyboard would be another example of the user changing the elements value without a com-
mit step.
In the case of tasks that just fire an input event, user agents may wait for a suitable break in the
users interaction before queuing the tasks; for example, a user agent could wait for the user to
have not hit a key for 100ms, so as to only fire the event when the user pauses, instead of continu-
ously for each keystroke.
When the user agent is to change an <input> elements value on behalf of the user (e.g., as part of
a form prefilling feature), the user agent must queue a task to first update the value accordingly,
then fire a simple event that bubbles named input at the <input> element, then fire a simple event
that bubbles named change at the <input> element.
NOTE:
These events are not fired in response to changes made to the values of form controls by
scripts. (This is to make it easier to update the values of form controls in response to the user
manipulating the controls, without having to then filter out the scripts own changes to avoid
an infinite loop.)
The task source for these tasks is the user interaction task source.
The <button> element represents a control allowing a user to trigger actions, when enabled. It is la-
beled by its content.
The type attribute controls the behavior of the button when it is activated. It is an enumerated at-
tribute. The following table lists the keywords and states for the attribute the keywords in the
left column map to the states in the cell in the second column on the same row as the keyword.
If the type attribute is in the submit button state, the element is specifically a submit button.
Constraint validation: If the type attribute is in the reset button state, the Button state, or the
Menu state, the element is barred from constrain validation.
When a <button> element is not disabled, its activation behavior element is to run the steps defined
in the following list for the current state of the elements type attribute:
submit button
If the element has a form owner and the elements node document is fully active, the element
must submit the form owner from the <button> element.
reset button
If the element has a form owner and the elements node document is fully active, the element
must reset the form owner.
Button
Do nothing.
Menu
The element must follow these steps:
2. If the <button> elements node document is not fully active, abort these steps.
3. Let menu be the elements designated pop-up menu, if any. If there isnt one, then abort
these steps.
4. Fire a trusted event with the name show at menu , using the RelatedEvent interface,
with the relatedTarget attribute initialized to the <button> element. The event must be
cancelable.
5. If the event is not canceled, then build and show the menu for menu , with the <button>
element as the subject.
The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the <button> element with its form owner. The
name attribute represents the elements name. The disabled attribute is used to make the control
non-interactive and to prevent its value from being submitted. The autofocus attribute controls
focus. The formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, and formtarget attributes
are attributes for form submission.
NOTE:
The formnovalidate attribute can be used to make submit buttons that do not trigger the con-
straint validation.
The value attribute gives the elements value for the purposes of form submission. The elements
value is the value of the elements value attribute, if there is one, or the empty string otherwise.
NOTE:
A button (and its value) is only included in the form submission if the button itself was used to
initiate the form submission.
If the elements type attribute is in the Menu state, the menu attribute must be specified to give the
elements menu. The value must be the ID of a <menu> element in the same tree whose type at-
tribute is in the context menu state. The attribute must not be specified if the elements type at-
tribute is not in the Menu state.
A <button> elements designated pop-up menu is the first element in the <button>'s tree whose
ID is that given by the <button> elements menu attribute, if there is such an element and its type
attribute is in the context menu state; otherwise, the element has no designated pop-up menu.
The value and menu IDL attributes must reflect the content attributes of the same name.
The type IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to only known
values.
EXAMPLE 516
The following button is labeled "Show hint" and pops up a dialog box when activated:
<button type=button
onclick="alert('This 15-20 minute piece was composed by George
Gershwin.')">
Show hint
</button>
The <select> element represents a control for selecting amongst a set of options.
The multiple attribute is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, then the <select> element
represents a control for selecting zero or more options from the list of options. If the attribute is
absent, then the <select> element represents a control for selecting a single option from the list of
options.
The size attribute gives the number of options to show to the user. The size attribute, if specified,
must have a value that is a valid non-negative integer greater than zero.
The display size of a <select> element is the result of applying the rules for parsing non-negative
integers to the value of elements size attribute, if it has one and parsing it is successful. If apply-
ing those rules to the attributes value is not successful, or if the size attribute is absent, then the
elements display size is 4 if the elements multiple content attribute is present, and 1 otherwise.
The list of options for a <select> element consists of all the <option> element children of the
<select> element, and all the <option> element children of all the <optgroup> element children of
the <select> element, in tree order.
The required attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified, the user will be required to select a
value before submitting the form.
If a <select> element has a required attribute specified, does not have a multiple attribute speci-
fied, and has a display size of 1; and if the value of the first <option> element in the <select> ele-
ments list of options (if any) is the empty string, and that <option> elements parent node is the
<select>element (and not an <optgroup> element), then that <option> is the <select> elements
placeholder label option.
If a <select> element has a required attribute specified, does not have a multiple attribute speci-
fied, and has a display size of 1, then the <select> element must have a placeholder label option.
NOTE:
In practice, the requirement stated in the paragraph above can only apply when a <select> ele-
ment does not have a sizes attribute with a value greater than 1.
Constraint validation: If the element has its required attribute specified, and either none of the
<option> elements in the <select> elements list of options have their selectedness set to true, or
the only <option> element in the <select> elements list of options with its selectedness set to true
is the placeholder label option, then the element is suffering from being missing.
If the multiple attribute is absent, and the element is not disabled, then the user agent should al-
low the user to pick an <option> element in its list of options that is itself not disabled. Upon this
<option> element being picked (either through a click, or through unfocusing the element after
changing its value, or through a menu command, or through any other mechanism), and before the
relevant user interaction event is queued (e.g., before the click event), the user agent must set the
selectedness of the picked <option> element to true, set its dirtiness to true, and then send select
update notifications.
If the multiple attribute is absent, whenever an <option> element in the <select> elements list of
options has its selectedness set to true, and whenever an <option> element with its selectedness set
to true is added to the <select> elements list of options, the user agent must set the selectedness of
all the other <option> elements in its list of options to false.
If the multiple attribute is absent and the elements display size is greater than 1, then the user
agent should also allow the user to request that the <option> whose selectedness is true, if any, be
unselected. Upon this request being conveyed to the user agent, and before the relevant user inter-
action event is queued (e.g., before the click event), the user agent must set the selectedness of
that <option> element to false, set its dirtiness to true, and then send select update notifications.
If nodes are inserted or nodes are removed causing the list of options to gain or lose one or more
<option> elements, or if an <option> element in the list of options asks for a reset, then, if the
<select> elements multiple attribute is absent, the user agent must run the first applicable set of
steps from the following list:
If the <select> elements display size is 1, and no <option> elements in the <select>
elements list of options have their selectedness set to true
Set the selectedness of the first <option> element in the list of options in tree order that is
not disabled, if any, to true.
If two or more <option> elements in the <select> elements list of options have their
selectedness set to true
Set the selectedness of all but the last <option> element with its selectedness set to true
in the list of options in tree order to false.
If the multiple attribute is present, and the element is not disabled, then the user agent should al-
low the user to toggle the selectedness of the <option> elements in its list of options that are them-
selves not disabled. Upon such an element being toggled (either through a click, or through a
menu command, or any other mechanism), and before the relevant user interaction event is queued
(e.g., before a related click event), the selectedness of the <option> element must be changed
(from true to false or false to true), the dirtiness of the element must be set to true, and the user
agent must send select update notifications.
When the user agent is to send select update notifications, queue a task to first fire a simple
event that bubbles named input at the <select> element, and then fire a simple event that bubbles
named change at the <select> element, using the user interaction task source as the task source. If
the JavaScript execution context stack was not empty when the user agent was to send select up-
date notifications, then the resulting input and change events must not be trusted.
The reset algorithm for <select> elements is to go through all the <option> elements in the ele-
ments list of options, set their selectedness to true if the <option> element has a selected at-
tribute, and false otherwise, set their dirtiness to false, and then have the <option> elements ask for
a reset.
The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the <select> element with its form owner. The
name attribute represents the elements name. The disabled attribute is used to make the control
non-interactive and to prevent its value from being submitted. The autofocus attribute controls
focus. The autocomplete attribute controls how the user agent provides autofill behavior.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
select . type
Returns "select-multiple" if the element has a multiple attribute, and "select-one"
otherwise.
select . options
Returns an HTMLOptionsCollection of the list of options.
When set to a smaller number, truncates the number of <option> elements in the
<select>.
When set to a greater number, adds new blank <option> elements to the <select>.
The before argument can be a number, in which case element is inserted before the
item with that number, or an element from the list of options, in which case element is
inserted before that element.
If before is omitted, null, or a number out of range, then element will be added at the
end of the list.
select . selectedOptions
Returns an HTMLCollection of the list of options that are selected.
The type IDL attribute, on getting, must return the string "select-one" if the multiple attribute
is absent, and the string "select-multiple" if the multiple attribute is present.
The options IDL attribute must return an HTMLOptionsCollection rooted at the select node,
whose filter matches the elements in the list of options.
The options collection is also mirrored on the HTMLSelectElement object. The supported prop-
erty indices at any instant are the indices supported by the object returned by the options attribute
at that instant.
The length IDL attribute must return the number of nodes represented by the options collection.
On setting, it must act like the attribute of the same name on the options collection.
The item( index ) method must return the value returned by the method of the same name on the
options collection, when invoked with the same argument.
The namedItem( name ) method must return the value returned by the method of the same name on
the options collection, when invoked with the same argument.
When the user agent is to set the value of a new indexed property for a given property index in-
dex to a new value value , it must instead set the value of a new indexed property with the given
property index index to the new value value on the options collection.
Similarly, the add() method must act like its namesake method on that same options collection.
The remove() method must act like its namesake method on that same options collection when it
has arguments, and like its namesake method on the ChildNode interface implemented by the
HTMLSelectElement ancestor interface Element when it has no arguments.
The selectedOptions IDL attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the <select> node,
whose filter matches the elements in the list of options that have their selectedness set to true.
The selectedIndex IDL attribute, on getting, must return the index of the first <option> element
in the list of options in tree order that has its selectedness set to true, if any. If there isnt one, then
it must return -1.
On setting, the selectedIndex attribute must set the selectedness of all the <option> elements in
the list of options to false, and then the <option> element in the list of options whose index is the
given new value, if any, must have its selectedness set to true and its dirtiness set to true.
NOTE:
This can result in no element having a selectedness set to true even in the case of the <select>
element having no multiple attribute and a display size of 1.
The value IDL attribute, on getting, must return the value of the first <option> element in the list
of options in tree order that has its selectedness set to true, if any. If there isnt one, then it must re-
turn the empty string.
On setting, the value attribute must set the selectedness of all the <option> elements in the list of
options to false, and then the first <option> element in the list of options, in tree order, whose
value is equal to the given new value, if any, must have its selectedness set to true and its dirtiness
set to true.
NOTE:
This can result in no element having a selectedness set to true even in the case of the <select>
element having no multiple attribute and a display size of 1.
The multiple, required, and size IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of
the same name. The size IDL attribute has a default value of zero.
NOTE:
For historical reasons, the default value of the size IDL attribute does not return the actual
size used, which, in the absence of the size content attribute, is either 1 or 4 depending on the
presence of the multiple attribute.
EXAMPLE 517
The following example shows how a <select> element can be used to offer the user with a set
of options from which the user can select a single option. The default option is preselected.
<div>
<label for="unittype">Select unit type:</label>
<select id="unittype" name="unittype">
<option value="1"> Miner </option>
<option value="2"> Puffer </option>
<option value="3" selected> Snipey </option>
<option value="4"> Max </option>
<option value="5"> Firebot </option>
</select>
</div>
When there is no default option, a value that provides instructions or a hint (placeholder op-
tion) can be used instead:
EXAMPLE 518
Here, the user is offered a set of options from which he can select any number. By default, all
five options are selected.
<div>
<label for="allowedunits">Select unit types to enable on this
map:</label>
<select id="allowedunits" name="allowedunits" multiple>
<option value="1" selected> Miner </option>
<option value="2" selected> Puffer </option>
<option value="3" selected> Snipey </option>
<option value="4" selected> Max </option>
<option value="5" selected> Firebot </option>
</select>
</div>
EXAMPLE 519
Sometimes, a user has to select one or more items. This example shows such an interface.
<p>Select the songs from that you would like on your Act II Mix Tape:</p>
<select multiple required name="act2">
<option value="s1">It Sucks to Be Me (Reprize)
<option value="s2">There is Life Outside Your Apartment
<option value="s3">The More You Ruv Someone
<option value="s4">Schadenfreude
<option value="s5">I Wish I Could Go Back to College
<option value="s6">The Money Song
<option value="s7">School for Monsters
<option value="s8">The Money Song (Reprize)
<option value="s9">Theres a Fine, Fine Line (Reprize)
<option value="s10">What Do You Do With a B.A. in English? (Reprize)
<option value="s11">For Now
</select>
The <datalist> element represents a set of <option> elements that represent predefined options for
other controls. In the rendering, the <datalist> element represents nothing and it, along with its
children, should be hidden.
The <datalist> element can be used in two ways. In the simplest case, the <datalist> element has
just <option> element children.
EXAMPLE 520
<label>
Sex:
<input name=sex list=sexes>
<datalist id=sexes>
<option value="Female">
<option value="Male">
</datalist>
</label>
In the more elaborate case, the <datalist> element can be given contents that are to be displayed
for down-level clients that dont support <datalist>. In this case, the <option> elements are pro-
EXAMPLE 521
<label>
Sex:
<input name=sex list=sexes>
</label>
<datalist id=sexes>
<label>
or select from the list:
<select name=sex>
<option value="">
<option>Female
<option>Male
</select>
</label>
</datalist>
The <datalist> element is hooked up to an <input> element using the list attribute on the
<input> element.
Each <option> element that is a descendant of the <datalist> element, that is not disabled, and
whose value is a string that isnt the empty string, represents a suggestion. Each suggestion has a
value and a label.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
datalist . options
Returns an HTMLCollection of the <option> elements of the <datalist> element.
The options IDL attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the <datalist> node, whose
filter matches <option> elements.
Constraint validation: If an element has a <datalist> element ancestor, it is barred from con-
straint validation.
The <optgroup> element represents a group of <option> elements with a common label.
The elements group of <option> elements consists of the <option> elements that are children of
the <optgroup> element.
When showing <option> elements in <select> elements, user agents should show the <option> ele-
ments of such groups as being related to each other and separate from other <option> elements.
The disabled content attribute is a boolean attribute and can be used to disable a group of
<option> elements together.
The label content attribute must be specified. Its value gives the name of the group, for the pur-
poses of the user interface. User agents should use this attributes value when labeling the group of
<option> elements in a <select> element.
The disabled and label IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same
name.
NOTE:
There is no way to select an <optgroup> element. Only <option> elements can be selected. An
<optgroup> element merely provides a label for a group of <option> elements.
EXAMPLE 522
The following snippet shows how a set of lessons from three courses could be offered in a
<select> drop-down widget:
If the element has no label attribute: and is not a child of a <datalist> element: Text
that is not inter-element white space.
If the element has no label attribute and is a child of a <datalist> element: Text.
Tag omission in text/html:
An <option> elements end tag may be omitted if the <option> element is immediately
followed by another <option> element, or if it is immediately followed by an <optgroup>
element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
disabled - Whether the form control is disabled
label - User-visible label
selected - Whether the option is selected by default
value - Value to be used for 4.10.21 Form submission
The <option> element represents an option in a <select> element or as part of a list of suggestions
in a <datalist> element.
In certain circumstances described in the definition of the <select> element, an <option> element
can be a <select> elements placeholder label option. A placeholder label option does not repre-
sent an actual option, but instead represents a label for the <select> control.
The disabled content attribute is a boolean attribute. An <option> element is disabled if its
disabled attribute is present or if it is a child of an <optgroup> element whose disabled attribute
is present.
An <option> element that is disabled must prevent any click events that are queued on the user
interaction task source from being dispatched on the element.
The label content attribute provides a label for the element. The label of an <option> element is
the value of the label content attribute, if there is one and its value is not the empty string, or, oth-
erwise, the value of the elements text IDL attribute if its value is not the empty string.
The value content attribute provides a value for element. The value of an <option> element is the
value of the value content attribute, if there is one, or, if there is not, the value of the elements
text IDL attribute (which may be the empty string).
The selected content attribute is a boolean attribute. It represents the default selectedness of the
element.
The dirtiness of an <option> element is a boolean state, initially false. It controls whether adding
or removing the selected content attribute has any effect.
The selectedness of an <option> element is a boolean state, initially false. Except where otherwise
specified, when the element is created, its selectedness must be set to true if the element has a
selected attribute. Whenever an <option> elements selected attribute is added, if its dirtiness is
false, its selectedness must be set to true. Whenever an <option> elements selected attribute is
removed, if its dirtiness is false, its selectedness must be set to false.
NOTE:
The Option() constructor, when called with three or fewer arguments, overrides the initial
state of the selectedness state to always be false even if the third argument is true (implying
that a selected attribute is to be set). The fourth argument can be used to explicitly set the ini-
tial selectedness state when using the constructor.
A <select> element whose multiple attribute is not specified must not have more than one de-
scendant <option> element with its selected attribute set.
An <option> elements index is the number of <option> elements that are in the same list of op-
tions but that come before it in tree order. If the <option> element is not in a list of options, then
the <option> elements index is zero.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
option . selected
Returns true if the element is selected, and false otherwise.
option . index
Returns the index of the element in its <select> elements options list.
option . form
Returns the elements <form> element, if any, or null otherwise.
option . text
Same as textContent, except that spaces are collapsed and <script> elements are
skipped.
The selected argument sets whether or not the element is selected. If it is omitted, even
if the defaultSelected argument is true, the element is not selected.
The disabled IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name. The
defaultSelected IDL attribute must reflect the selected content attribute.
The label IDL attribute, on getting, if there is a label content attribute, must return that at-
tributes value; otherwise, it must return the elements label. On setting, the elements label con-
tent attribute must be set to the new value.
The value IDL attribute, on getting, must return the elements value. On setting, the elements
value content attribute must be set to the new value.
The selected IDL attribute, on getting, must return true if the elements selectedness is true, and
false otherwise. On setting, it must set the elements selectedness to the new value, set its dirtiness
to true, and then cause the element to ask for a reset.
The text IDL attribute, on getting, must return the result of stripping and collapsing white space
from the child text content of the <option> element, in tree order, excluding any that are descen-
dants of descendants of the <option> element that are themselves <script> elements in the HTML
On setting, the text attribute must act as if the textContent IDL attribute on the element had
been set to the new value.
The form IDL attributes behavior depends on whether the <option> element is in a <select> ele-
ment or not. If the <option> has a <select> element as its parent, or has an <optgroup> element as
its parent and that <optgroup> element has a <select> element as its parent, then the form IDL at-
tribute must return the same value as the form IDL attribute on that <select> element. Otherwise,
it must return null.
A constructor is provided for creating HTMLOptionElement objects (in addition to the factory
methods from DOM such as createElement()): Option( text , value , defaultSelected ,
selected ). When invoked as a constructor, it must return a new HTMLOptionElement object (a
new <option> element). If the first argument is not the empty string, the new object must have as
its only child a Text node whose data is the value of that argument. Otherwise, it must have no
children. If the value argument is present, the new object must have a value attribute set with the
value of the argument as its value. If the defaultSelected argument is true, the new object must
have a selected attribute set with no value. If the selected argument is true, the new object must
have its selectedness set to true; otherwise the selectedness must be set to false, even if the de-
faultSelected argument is true. The elements node document must be the active document of the
browsing context of the Window object on which the interface object of the invoked constructor is
found.
void select();
attribute unsigned long? selectionStart;
attribute unsigned long? selectionEnd;
attribute DOMString? selectionDirection;
void setRangeText(DOMString replacement);
void setRangeText(DOMString replacement, unsigned long start,
unsigned long end, optional SelectionMode selectionMode =
"preserve");
void setSelectionRange(unsigned long start, unsigned long end,
optional DOMString direction);
};
The <textarea> element represents a multiline plain text edit control for the elements raw value.
The raw value of a <textarea> control must be initially the empty string.
NOTE:
This element has rendering requirements involving the bidirectional algorithm.
The readonly attribute is a boolean attribute used to control whether the text can be edited by the
user or not.
EXAMPLE 523
In this example, a text field is marked read-only because it represents a read-only file:
Filename: <code>/etc/bash.bashrc</code>
<textarea name="buffer" readonly>
# System-wide .bashrc file for interactive bash(1) shells.
...</textarea>
Constraint validation: If the readonly attribute is specified on a <textarea> element, the element
is barred from constraint validation.
A <textarea> element is mutable if it is neither disabled nor has a readonly attribute specified.
When a <textarea> is mutable, its raw value should be editable by the user: the user agent should
allow the user to edit, insert, and remove text, and to insert and remove line breaks in the form of
U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters. Any time the user causes the elements raw value to
change, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles named input at the
<textarea> element. User agents may wait for a suitable break in the users interaction before
queuing the task; for example, a user agent could wait for the user to have not hit a key for 100ms,
so as to only fire the event when the user pauses, instead of continuously for each keystroke.
A <textarea> element has a dirty value flag, which must be initially set to false, and must be set
to true whenever the user interacts with the control in a way that changes the raw value.
When the <textarea> elements textContent IDL attribute changes value, if the elements dirty
value flag is false, then the elements raw value must be set to the value of the elements
The reset algorithm for <textarea> elements is to set the dirty value flag back to false, and set the
elements raw value to the value of the elements textContent IDL attribute.
When a <textarea> element is popped off the stack of open elements of an HTML parser or XML
parser, then the user agent must invoke the elements reset algorithm.
If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the writing direction of
the element, setting it either to a left-to-right writing direction or a right-to-left writing direction. If
the user does so, the user agent must then run the following steps:
1. Set the elements dir attribute to "ltr" if the user selected a left-to-right writing direction,
and "rtl" if the user selected a right-to-left writing direction.
2. Queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles named input at the <textarea> element.
The cols attribute specifies the expected maximum number of characters per line. If the cols at-
tribute is specified, its value must be a valid non-negative integer greater than zero. If applying the
rules for parsing non-negative integers to the attributes value results in a number greater than
zero, then the elements character width is that value; otherwise, it is 20.
The user agent may use the <textarea> elements character width as a hint to the user as to how
many characters the server prefers per line (e.g., for visual user agents by making the width of the
control be that many characters). In visual renderings, the user agent should wrap the users input
in the rendering so that each line is no wider than this number of characters.
The rows attribute specifies the number of lines to show. If the rows attribute is specified, its value
must be a valid non-negative integer greater than zero. If applying the rules for parsing non-
negative integers to the attributes value results in a number greater than zero, then the elements
character height is that value; otherwise, it is 2.
Visual user agents should set the height of the control to the number of lines given by character
height.
The wrap attribute is an enumerated attribute with two keywords and states: the soft keyword
which maps to the Soft state, and the hard keyword which maps to the Hard state. The missing
value default is the Soft state.
The Soft state indicates that the text in the <textarea> is not to be wrapped when it is submitted
(though it can still be wrapped in the rendering).
The Hard state indicates that the text in the <textarea> is to have newlines added by the user
agent so that the text is wrapped when it is submitted.
If the elements wrap attribute is in the Hard state, the cols attribute must be specified.
For historical reasons, the elements value is normalized in three different ways for three different
purposes. The raw value is the value as it was originally set. It is not normalized. The API value is
the value used in the value IDL attribute. It is normalized so that line breaks use U+000A LINE
FEED (LF) characters. Finally, there is the value, as used in form submission and other processing
models in this specification. It is normalized so that line breaks use U+000D CARRIAGE RE-
TURN U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pairs, and in addition, if necessary given the ele-
ments wrap attribute, additional line breaks are inserted to wrap the text at the given width.
The elements API value is defined to be the elements raw value with the following transforma-
tion applied:
1. Replace every U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pair
from the raw value with a single U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character.
2. Replace every remaining U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN character from the raw value with
a single U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character.
The elements value is defined to be the elements raw value with the textarea wrapping transfor-
mation applied. The textarea wrapping transformation is the following algorithm, as applied to
a string:
1. Replace every occurrence of a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character not followed
by a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character, and every occurrence of a U+000A LINE FEED
(LF) character not preceded by a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character, by a two-
character string consisting of a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED
(CRLF) character pair.
2. If the elements wrap attribute is in the Hard state, insert U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN
U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pairs into the string using a user agent-defined algo-
rithm so that each line has no more than character width characters. For the purposes of this
requirement, lines are delimited by the start of the string, the end of the string, and U+000D
CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pairs.
The maxlength attribute is a form control maxlength attribute controlled by the <textarea> ele-
ments dirty value flag.
If the <textarea> element has a maximum allowed value length, then the elements children must
be such that the code-unit length of the value of the elements textContent IDL attribute with
the textarea wrapping transformation applied is equal to or less than the elements maximum al-
lowed value length.
The minlength attribute is a form control minlength attribute controlled by the <textarea> ele-
ments dirty value flag.
The required attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified, the user will be required to enter a
Constraint validation: If the element has its required attribute specified, and the element is mu-
table, and the elements value is the empty string, then the element is suffering from being missing.
The placeholder attribute represents a short hint (a word or short phrase) intended to aid the user
with data entry when the control has no value. A hint could be a sample value or a brief descrip-
tion of the expected format.
The placeholder attribute should not be used as a replacement for a <label>. For a longer hint or
other advisory text, place the text next to the control.
NOTE:
Use of the placeholder attribute as a replacement for a <label> can reduce the accessibility
and usability of the control for a range of users including older users and users with cognitive,
mobility, fine motor skill or vision impairments. While the hint given by the controls <label>
is shown at all times, the short hint given in the placeholder attribute is only shown before
the user enters a value. Furthermore, placeholder text may be mistaken for a pre-filled value,
and as commonly implemented the default color of the placeholder text provides insufficient
contrast and the lack of a separate visible <label> reduces the size of the hit region available
for setting focus on the control.
User agents should present this hint to the user when the elements value is the empty string and
the control is not focused (e.g., by displaying it inside a blank unfocused control). All U+000D
CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED character pairs (CRLF) in the hint, as well as all
other U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) and U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters in the hint,
must be treated as line breaks when rendering the hint.
The name attribute represents the elements name. The dirname attribute controls how the ele-
ments directionality is submitted. The disabled attribute is used to make the control non-
interactive and to prevent its value from being submitted. The form attribute is used to explicitly
associate the <textarea> element with its form owner. The autofocus attribute controls focus. The
inputmode attribute controls the user interfaces input modality for the control. The
autocomplete attribute controls how the user agent provides autofill behavior.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
textarea . type
Returns the string "textarea".
textarea . value
Returns the current value of the element.
The cols, placeholder, required, rows, and wrap attributes must reflect the respective content
attributes of the same name. The cols and rows attributes are limited to only non-negative num-
bers greater than zero. The cols attributes default value is 20. The rows attributes default value is
2. The dirName IDL attribute must reflect the dirname content attribute. The inputMode IDL at-
tribute must reflect the inputmode content attribute, limited to only known values. The maxLength
IDL attribute must reflect the maxlength content attribute, limited to only non-negative numbers.
The minLength IDL attribute must reflect the minlength content attribute, limited to only non-
negative numbers. The readOnly IDL attribute must reflect the readonly content attribute.
The defaultValue IDL attribute must act like the elements textContent IDL attribute.
The value attribute must, on getting, return the elements API value; on setting, it must set the ele-
ments raw value to the new value, set the elements dirty value flag to true, and should then move
the text entry cursor position to the end of the text field, unselecting any selected text and resetting
the selection direction to none.
The textLength IDL attribute must return the code-unit length of the elements API value.
EXAMPLE 524
Here is an example of a <textarea> being used for unrestricted free-form text input in a form:
<p>If you have any comments, please let us know: <textarea cols=80
name=comments></textarea></p>
To specify a maximum length for the comments, one can use the maxlength attribute:
<p>If you have any short comments, please let us know: <textarea cols=80
name=comments maxlength=200></textarea></p>
<p>If you have any comments, please let us know: <textarea cols=80
name=comments>You rock!</textarea></p>
You can also give a minimum length. Here, a letter needs to be filled out by the user; a tem-
plate (which is shorter than the minimum length) is provided, but is insufficient to submit the
form:
...
Yours Sincerely,
...</textarea>
A placeholder can be given as well, to suggest the basic form to the user, without providing an
explicit template:
Love,
Daddy"></textarea>
To have the browser submit the directionality of the element along with the value, the dirname
attribute can be specified:
<p>If you have any comments, please let us know (you may use either
English or Hebrew for your comments):
<textarea cols=80 name=comments dirname=comments.dir></textarea></p>
The <output> element represents the result of a calculation performed by the application, or the re-
sult of a user action.
NOTE:
This element can be contrasted with the <samp> element, which is the appropriate element for
quoting the output of other programs run previously.
The for content attribute allows an explicit relationship to be made between the result of a calcu-
lation and the elements that represent the values that went into the calculation or that otherwise in-
fluenced the calculation. The for attribute, if specified, must contain a string consisting of an un-
ordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are case-sensitive, each of which must have the
value of an ID of an element in the same Document.
The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the <output> element with its form owner. The
name attribute represents the elements name. The <output> element is associated with a form so
that it can be easily referenced from the event handlers of form controls; the elements value itself
is not submitted when the form is submitted.
The element has a value mode flag which is either value or default. Initially, the value mode flag
must be set to default.
The element also has a default value. Initially, the default value must be the empty string.
When the value mode flag is in mode default, the contents of the element represent both the value
of the element and its default value. When the value mode flag is in mode value, the contents of
the element represent the value of the element only, and the default value is only accessible using
the defaultValue IDL attribute.
Whenever the elements descendants are changed in any way, if the value mode flag is in mode de-
fault, the elements default value must be set to the value of the elements textContent IDL at-
tribute.
The reset algorithm for <output> elements is to set the elements value mode flag to default and
then to set the elements textContent IDL attribute to the value of the elements default value
(thus replacing the elements child nodes).
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
output . value [ = value ]
Returns the elements current value.
Can be set, to change the value.
output . type
Returns the string "output".
The value IDL attribute must act like the elements textContent IDL attribute, except that on
setting, in addition, before the child nodes are changed, the elements value mode flag must be set
to value.
The defaultValue IDL attribute, on getting, must return the elements default value. On setting,
the attribute must set the elements default value, and, if the elements value mode flag is in the
mode default, set the elements textContent IDL attribute as well.
The htmlFor IDL attribute must reflect the for content attribute.
EXAMPLE 525
A simple calculator could use <output> for its display of calculated results:
EXAMPLE 526
In this example, an <output> element is used to report the results of a calculation performed by
a remote server, as they come in:
<output id="result"></output>
<script>
var primeSource = new WebSocket('ws://primes.example.net/');
primeSource.onmessage = function (event) {
document.getElementById('result').value = event.data;
}
</script>
The <progress> element represents the completion progress of a task. The progress is either inde-
terminate, indicating that progress is being made but that it is not clear how much more work re-
mains to be done before the task is complete (e.g., because the task is waiting for a remote host to
respond), or the progress is a number in the range zero to a maximum, giving the fraction of work
that has so far been completed.
There are two attributes that determine the current task completion represented by the element.
The value content attribute specifies how much of the task has been completed, and the max con-
tent attribute specifies how much work the task requires in total. The units are arbitrary and not
specified.
NOTE:
To make a determinate progress bar, add a value attribute with the current progress (either a
number from 0.0 to 1.0, or, if the max attribute is specified, a number from 0 to the value of the
max attribute). To make an indeterminate progress bar, remove the value attribute.
Authors are encouraged to also include the current value and the maximum value inline as text in-
side the element, so that the progress is made available to users of legacy user agents.
EXAMPLE 527
Here is a snippet of a Web application that shows the progress of some automated task:
<section>
<h2>Task Progress</h2>
<p>Progress: <progress id="p" max=100><span>0</span>%</progress></p>
<script>
var progressBar = document.getElementById('p');
function updateProgress(newValue) {
progressBar.value = newValue;
progressBar.getElementsByTagName('span')[0].textContent = newValue;
}
</script>
</section>
(The updateProgress() method in this example would be called by some other code on the
page to update the actual progress bar as the task progressed.)
The value and max attributes, when present, must have values that are valid floating-point num-
bers. The value attribute, if present, must have a value equal to or greater than zero, and less than
or equal to the value of the max attribute, if present, or 1.0, otherwise. The max attribute, if present,
must have a value greater than zero.
NOTE:
The <progress> element is the wrong element to use for something that is just a gauge, as op-
posed to task progress. For instance, indicating disk space usage using <progress> would be in-
appropriate. Instead, the <meter> element is available for such use cases.
User agent requirements: If the value attribute is omitted, then the progress bar is an indetermi-
nate progress bar. Otherwise, it is a determinate progress bar.
If the progress bar is a determinate progress bar and the element has a max attribute, the user agent
must parse the max attributes value according to the rules for parsing floating-point number val-
ues. If this does not result in an error, and if the parsed value is greater than zero, then the maxi-
mum value of the progress bar is that value. Otherwise, if the element has no max attribute, or if it
has one but parsing it resulted in an error, or if the parsed value was less than or equal to zero, then
the maximum value of the progress bar is 1.0.
If the progress bar is a determinate progress bar, user agents must parse the value attributes value
according to the rules for parsing floating-point number values. If this does not result in an error,
and if the parsed value is less than the maximum value and greater than zero, then the current
value of the progress bar is that parsed value. Otherwise, if the parsed value was greater than or
equal to the maximum value, then the current value of the progress bar is the maximum value of
the progress bar. Otherwise, if parsing the value attributes value resulted in an error, or a number
less than or equal to zero, then the current value of the progress bar is zero.
user agent requirements for showing the progress bar: When representing a <progress> ele-
ment to the user, the user agent should indicate whether it is a determinate or indeterminate
progress bar, and in the former case, should indicate the relative position of the current value rela-
tive to the maximum value.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
progress . position
For a determinate progress bar (one with known current and maximum values), returns
the result of dividing the current value by the maximum value.
For an indeterminate progress bar, returns -1.
If the progress bar is an indeterminate progress bar, then the position IDL attribute must return
-1. Otherwise, it must return the result of dividing the current value by the maximum value.
If the progress bar is an indeterminate progress bar, then the value IDL attribute, on getting, must
return 0. Otherwise, it must return the current value. On setting, the given value must be converted
to the best representation of the number as a floating-point number and then the value content at-
tribute must be set to that string.
NOTE:
Setting the value IDL attribute to itself when the corresponding content attribute is absent
would change the progress bar from an indeterminate progress bar to a determinate progress
bar with no progress.
The max IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to numbers
greater than zero. The default value for max is 1.0.
The <meter> element represents a scalar measurement within a known range, or a fractional value;
for example disk usage, the relevance of a query result, or the fraction of a voting population to
have selected a particular candidate.
NOTE:
The <meter> element should not be used to indicate progress (as in a progress bar). For that
role, HTML provides a separate <progress> element.
NOTE:
The <meter> element also does not represent a scalar value of arbitrary range for example, it
would be wrong to use this to report a weight, or height, unless there is a known maximum
value.
There are six attributes that determine the semantics of the gauge represented by the element.
The min attribute specifies the lower bound of the range, and the max attribute specifies the upper
bound. The value attribute specifies the value to have the gauge indicate as the "measured" value.
The other three attributes can be used to segment the gauges range into "low", "medium", and
"high" parts, and to indicate which part of the gauge is the "optimum" part. The low attribute spec-
ifies the range that is considered to be the "low" part, and the high attribute specifies the range that
is considered to be the "high" part. The optimum attribute gives the position that is "optimum"; if
that is higher than the "high" value then this indicates that the higher the value, the better; if its
lower than the "low" mark then it indicates that lower values are better, and naturally if it is in be-
tween then it indicates that neither high nor low values are good.
Authoring requirements: The value attribute must be specified. The value, min, low, high, max,
and optimum attributes, when present, must have values that are valid floating-point numbers.
If the min attribute is specified, then let minimum be that attributes value; otherwise, let it be
zero.
If the max attribute is specified, then let maximum be that attributes value; otherwise, let it be 1.0.
NOTE:
If no minimum or maximum is specified, then the range is assumed to be 0..1, and the value
thus has to be within that range.
Authors are encouraged to include a textual representation of the gauges state in the elements
contents, for users of user agents that do not support the <meter> element.
When used with microdata, the <meter> elements value attribute provides the elements machine-
readable value.
EXAMPLE 528
The following examples show three gauges that would all be three-quarters full:
Storage space usage: <meter value=6 max=8>6 blocks used (out of 8 total)
</meter>
Voter turnout: <meter value=0.75><img alt="75%" src="graph75.png">
</meter>
Tickets sold: <meter min="0" max="100" value="75"></meter>
The following example is incorrect use of the element, because it doesnt give a range (and
since the default maximum is 1, both of the gauges would end up looking maxed out):
Instead, one would either not include the meter element, or use the meter element with a de-
fined range to give the dimensions in context compared to other pies:
There is no explicit way to specify units in the <meter> element, but the units may be specified in
the title attribute in free-form text.
EXAMPLE 529
The example above could be extended to mention the units:
<dl>
<dt>Radius: <dd> <meter min=0 max=20 value=12
title="centimeters">12cm</meter>
<dt>Height: <dd> <meter min=0 max=10 value=2
title="centimeters">2cm</meter>
</dl>
User agent requirements: User agents must parse the min, max, value, low, high, and optimum
attributes using the rules for parsing floating-point number values.
User agents must then use all these numbers to obtain values for six points on the gauge, as fol-
lows. (The order in which these are evaluated is important, as some of the values refer to earlier
ones.)
If the candidate maximum value is greater than or equal to the minimum value, then the max-
imum value is the candidate maximum value. Otherwise, the maximum value is the same as
the minimum value.
If the candidate actual value is less than the minimum value, then the actual value is the mini-
mum value.
Otherwise, if the candidate actual value is greater than the maximum value, then the actual
value is the maximum value.
If the candidate low boundary is less than the minimum value, then the low boundary is the
minimum value.
Otherwise, if the candidate low boundary is greater than the maximum value, then the low
boundary is the maximum value.
If the candidate high boundary is less than the low boundary, then the high boundary is the
low boundary.
Otherwise, if the candidate high boundary is greater than the maximum value, then the high
boundary is the maximum value.
If the candidate optimum point is less than the minimum value, then the optimum point is the
minimum value.
Otherwise, if the candidate optimum point is greater than the maximum value, then the opti-
mum point is the maximum value.
All of which will result in the following inequalities all being true:
user agent requirements for regions of the gauge: If the optimum point is equal to the low
boundary or the high boundary, or anywhere in between them, then the region between the low and
high boundaries of the gauge must be treated as the optimum region, and the low and high parts, if
any, must be treated as suboptimal. Otherwise, if the optimum point is less than the low boundary,
then the region between the minimum value and the low boundary must be treated as the optimum
region, the region from the low boundary up to the high boundary must be treated as a suboptimal
region, and the remaining region must be treated as an even less good region. Finally, if the opti-
mum point is higher than the high boundary, then the situation is reversed; the region between the
high boundary and the maximum value must be treated as the optimum region, the region from the
high boundary down to the low boundary must be treated as a suboptimal region, and the remain-
ing region must be treated as an even less good region.
user agent requirements for showing the gauge: When representing a <meter> element to the
user, the user agent should indicate the relative position of the actual value to the minimum and
maximum values, and the relationship between the actual value and the three regions of the gauge.
EXAMPLE 530
The following markup:
<h3>Suggested groups</h3>
<menu type="toolbar">
<a href="?cmd=hsg" onclick="hideSuggestedGroups()">Hide suggested
groups</a>
</menu>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href="/group/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets
/view">comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets</a> -
<a href="/group/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets
/subscribe">join</a></p>
<p>Group description: <strong>Layout/presentation on the
WWW.</strong></p>
<p><meter value="0.5">Moderate activity,</meter> Usenet, 618
subscribers</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="/group/netscape.public.mozilla.xpinstall
/view">netscape.public.mozilla.xpinstall</a> -
<a href="/group/netscape.public.mozilla.xpinstall
/subscribe">join</a></p>
<p>Group description: <strong>Mozilla XPInstall discussion.
</strong></p>
<p><meter value="0.25">Low activity,</meter> Usenet, 22 subscribers</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="/group/mozilla.dev.general/view">mozilla.dev.general</a> -
<a href="/group/mozilla.dev.general/subscribe">join</a></p>
<p><meter value="0.25">Low activity,</meter> Usenet, 66 subscribers</p>
</li>
</ul>
User agents may combine the value of the title attribute and the other attributes to provide
context-sensitive help or inline text detailing the actual values.
EXAMPLE 531
For example, the following snippet:
...might cause the user agent to display a gauge with a tooltip saying "Value: 23.2 out of 60."
on one line and "seconds" on a second line.
The value IDL attribute, on getting, must return the actual value. On setting, the given value must
be converted to the best representation of the number as a floating-point number and then the
value content attribute must be set to that string.
The min IDL attribute, on getting, must return the minimum value. On setting, the given value
must be converted to the best representation of the number as a floating-point number and then the
min content attribute must be set to that string.
The max IDL attribute, on getting, must return the maximum value. On setting, the given value
must be converted to the best representation of the number as a floating-point number and then the
max content attribute must be set to that string.
The low IDL attribute, on getting, must return the low boundary. On setting, the given value must
be converted to the best representation of the number as a floating-point number and then the low
content attribute must be set to that string.
The high IDL attribute, on getting, must return the high boundary. On setting, the given value
must be converted to the best representation of the number as a floating-point number and then the
high content attribute must be set to that string.
The optimum IDL attribute, on getting, must return the optimum value. On setting, the given value
must be converted to the best representation of the number as a floating-point number and then the
optimum content attribute must be set to that string.
EXAMPLE 532
The following example shows how a gauge could fall back to localized or pretty-printed text.
The <fieldset> element represents a set of form controls optionally grouped under a common
name.
The name of the group is given by the first <legend> element that is a child of the <fieldset> ele-
ment, if any. The remainder of the descendants form the group.
The disabled attribute, when specified, causes all the form control descendants of the <fieldset>
element, excluding those that are descendants of the <fieldset> elements first <legend> element
child, if any, to be disabled.
The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the <fieldset> element with its form owner. The
name attribute represents the elements name.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
fieldset . type
Returns the string "fieldset".
fieldset . elements
Returns an HTMLCollection of the form controls in the element.
The disabled IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The elements IDL attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the <fieldset> element,
whose filter matches listed elements.
EXAMPLE 533
This example shows a <fieldset> element being used to group a set of related controls:
<fieldset>
<legend>Display</legend>
<p><label><input type=radio name=c value=0 checked> Black on
White</label>
<p><label><input type=radio name=c value=1> White on Black</label>
<p><label><input type=checkbox name=g> Use grayscale</label>
<p><label>Enhance contrast <input type=range name=e list=contrast min=0
max=100 value=0 step=1></label>
<datalist id=contrast>
<option label=Normal value=0>
<option label=Maximum value=100>
</datalist>
</fieldset>
EXAMPLE 534
The following snippet shows a fieldset with a checkbox in the legend that controls whether or
not the fieldset is enabled. The contents of the fieldset consist of two required text fields and an
optional year/month control.
EXAMPLE 535
You can also nest <fieldset> elements. Here is an example expanding on the previous one that
does so:
In this example, if the outer "Use Club Card" checkbox is not checked, everything inside the
outer <fieldset>, including the two radio buttons in the legends of the two nested <fieldset>s,
will be disabled. However, if the checkbox is checked, then the radio buttons will both be en-
abled and will let you select which of the two inner <fieldset>s is to be enabled.
Content model:
Phrasing content and headings (<h1>-<h6> elements).
Tag omission in text/html:
Neither tag is omissible
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
None
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
Global aria-* attributes
DOM interface:
The <legend> element represents a caption for the rest of the contents of the <legend> elements
parent <fieldset> element, if any.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
legend . form
Returns the elements <form> element, if any, or null otherwise.
The form IDL attributes behavior depends on whether the <legend> element is in a <fieldset> el-
ement or not. If the <legend> has a <fieldset> element as its parent, then the form IDL attribute
must return the same value as the form IDL attribute on that <fieldset> element. Otherwise, it
must return null.
Most form controls have a value and a checkedness. (The latter is only used by <input> elements.)
These are used to describe how the user interacts with the control.
A controls value is its internal state. As such, it might not match the users current input.
EXAMPLE 536
For instance, if a user enters the word "three" into a numeric field that expects digits, the
users input would be the string "three" but the controls value would remain unchanged. Or, if
a user enters the email address " [email protected]" (with leading white space) into an
email field, the users input would be the string " [email protected]" but the
browsers UI for email fields might translate that into a value of "[email protected]"
(without the leading white space).
To define the behavior of constraint validation in the face of the <input> elements multiple at-
tribute, <input> elements can also have separately defined values.
The <select> element does not have a value; the selectedness of its <option> elements is what is
used instead.
4.10.17.2. Mutability
NOTE:
This determines (by means of definitions and requirements in this specification that rely on
whether an element is so designated) whether or not the user can modify the value or checked-
ness of a form control, or whether or not a control can be automatically prefilled.
A form-associated element can have a relationship with a <form> element, which is called the ele-
ments form owner. If a form-associated element is not associated with a <form> element, its form
owner is said to be null.
A form-associated element is, by default, associated with its nearest ancestor <form> element (as
described below), but, if it is reassociateable, may have a form attribute specified to override this.
NOTE:
This feature allows authors to work around the lack of support for nested <form> elements.
If a reassociateable form-associated element has a form attribute specified, then that attributes
value must be the ID of a <form> element in the elements owner Document.
NOTE:
The rules in this section are complicated by the fact that although conforming documents will
never contain nested <form> elements, it is quite possible (e.g., using a script that performs
DOM manipulation) to generate documents that have such nested elements. They are also
complicated by rules in the HTML parser that, for historical reasons, can result in a form-
associated element being associated with a <form> element that is not its ancestor.
When a form-associated element is created, its form owner must be initialized to null (no owner).
When a form-associated element is to be associated with a form, its form owner must be set to
that form.
When a form-associated element or one of its ancestors is inserted into a Document, then the user
agent must reset the form owner of that form-associated element. The HTML parser overrides
this requirement when inserting form controls.
When an element changes its parent node resulting in a form-associated element and its form
owner (if any) no longer being in the same tree, then the user agent must reset the form owner of
that form-associated element.
When a reassociateable form-associated elements form attribute is set, changed, or removed, then
the user agent must reset the form owner of that element.
When a reassociateable form-associated element has a form attribute and the ID of any of the ele-
ments in the Document changes, then the user agent must reset the form owner of that form-
associated element.
When a reassociateable form-associated element has a form attribute and an element with an ID is
inserted into or removed from the Document, then the user agent must reset the form owner of
that form-associated element.
When the user agent is to reset the form owner of a form-associated element, it must run the fol-
lowing steps:
1. If the elements form owner is not null, and either the element is not reassociateable or its
form content attribute is not present, and the elements form owner is its nearest <form> ele-
ment ancestor after the change to the ancestor chain, then do nothing, and abort these steps.
3. If the element is reassociateable, has a form content attribute, and is itself in a Document, then
run these substeps:
1. If the first element in the Document to have an ID that is case-sensitively equal to the el-
ements form content attributes value is a <form> element, then associate the form-
4. Otherwise, if the form-associated element in question has an ancestor <form> element, then
associate the form-associated element with the nearest such ancestor <form> element.
EXAMPLE 537
In the following non-conforming snippet:
The form owner of "d" would be the inner nested form "c", while the form owner of "e" would
be the outer form "a".
This happens as follows: First, the "e" node gets associated with "c" in the HTML parser.
Then, the innerHTML algorithm moves the nodes from the temporary document to the "b" ele-
ment. At this point, the nodes see their ancestor chain change, and thus all the "magic" associa-
tions done by the parser are reset to normal ancestor associations.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
element . form
Returns the elements form owner.
Reassociateable form-associated elements have a form IDL attribute, which, on getting, must re-
turn the elements form owner, or null if there isnt one.
The name content attribute gives the name of the form control, as used in 4.10.21 Form submis-
sion and in the <form> elements elements object. If the attribute is specified, its value must not be
the empty string.
Any non-empty value for name is allowed, but the name "_charset_" is special:
_charset_
This value, if used as the name of a Hidden control with no value attribute, is automatically
given a value during submission consisting of the submission character encoding.
The name IDL attribute must reflect the name content attribute.
The dirname attribute on a form control element enables the submission of the directionality of the
element, and gives the name of the field that contains this value during 4.10.21 Form submission.
If such an attribute is specified, its value must not be the empty string.
EXAMPLE 538
In this example, a form contains a text field and a submission button:
When the user submits the form, the user agent includes three fields, one called "comment",
one called "comment.dir", and one called "mode"; so if the user types "Hello", the submission
body might be something like:
comment=Hello&comment.dir=ltr&mode=add
If the user manually switches to a right-to-left writing direction and enters "", the submis-
sion body might be something like:
comment=%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%AD%D8%A8%D8%A7&comment.dir=rtl&mode=add
A form control maxlength attribute, controlled by a dirty value flag , declares a limit on the
number of characters a user can input.
If an element has its form control maxlength attribute specified, the attributes value must be a
valid non-negative integer. If the attribute is specified and applying the rules for parsing non-n-
egative integers to its value results in a number, then that number is the elements maximum al-
lowed value length. If the attribute is omitted or parsing its value results in an error, then there is
no maximum allowed value length.
Constraint validation: If an element has a maximum allowed value length, its dirty value flag is
true, its value was last changed by a user edit (as opposed to a change made by a script), and the
code-unit length of the elements value is greater than the elements maximum allowed value
length, then the element is suffering from being too long.
User agents may prevent the user from causing the elements value to be set to a value whose
code-unit length is greater than the elements maximum allowed value length.
NOTE:
In the case of <textarea> elements, this is the value, not the raw value, so the textarea wrap-
ping transformation is applied before the maximum allowed value length is checked.
A form control minlength attribute, controlled by a dirty value flag , declares a lower bound on
the number of characters a user can input.
NOTE:
The minlength attribute does not imply the required attribute. If the form control has no
required attribute, then the value can still be omitted; the minlength attribute only kicks in
once the user has entered a value at all. If the empty string is not allowed, then the required
attribute also needs to be set.
If an element has its form control minlength attribute specified, the attributes value must be a
valid non-negative integer. If the attribute is specified and applying the rules for parsing non-n-
egative integers to its value results in a number, then that number is the elements minimum al-
lowed value length. If the attribute is omitted or parsing its value results in an error, then there is
no minimum allowed value length.
If an element has both a maximum allowed value length and a minimum allowed value length, the
minimum allowed value length must be smaller than or equal to the maximum allowed value
length.
Constraint validation: If an element has a minimum allowed value length, its dirty value flag is
true, its value was last changed by a user edit (as opposed to a change made by a script), its value
is not the empty string, and the code-unit length of the elements value is less than the elements
minimum allowed value length, then the element is suffering from being too short.
EXAMPLE 539
In this example, there are four text fields. The first is required, and has to be at least 5 charac-
ters long. The other three are optional, but if the user fills one in, the user has to enter at least
10 characters.
1. The element is a <button>, <input>, <select>, or <textarea> element, and the disabled at-
tribute is specified on this element (regardless of its value).
A form control that is disabled must prevent any click events that are queued on the user interac-
tion task source from being dispatched on the element.
The disabled IDL attribute must reflect the disabled content attribute.
Attributes for form submission can be specified both on <form> elements and on submit buttons
(elements that represent buttons that submit forms, e.g., an <input> element whose type attribute
is in the Submit Button state).
The attributes for form submission that may be specified on <form> elements are action, enctype,
method, novalidate, and target.
The corresponding attributes for form submission that may be specified on submit buttons are
formaction, formenctype, formmethod, formnovalidate, and formtarget. When omitted, they
default to the values given on the corresponding attributes on the <form> element.
The action and formaction content attributes, if specified, must have a value that is a valid non-
empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
The action of an element is the value of the elements formaction attribute, if the element is a
Submit Button and has such an attribute, or the value of its form owners action attribute, if it
has one, or else the empty string.
The method and formmethod content attributes are enumerated attributes with the following key-
words and states:
The keyword get, mapping to the state GET, indicating the HTTP GET method.
The keyword post, mapping to the state POST, indicating the HTTP POST method.
The keyword dialog, mapping to the state dialog, indicating that submitting the <form> is in-
tended to close the dialog box in which the form finds itself, if any, and otherwise not sub-
mit.
The invalid value default for these attributes is the GET state. The missing value default for the
method attribute is also the GET state. (There is no missing value default for the formmethod at-
tribute.)
The method of an element is one of those states. If the element is a Submit Button and has a
formmethod attribute, then the elements method is that attributes state; otherwise, it is the form
owners method attributes state.
EXAMPLE 540
Here the method attribute is used to explicitly specify the default value, "get", so that the
search query is submitted in the URL:
EXAMPLE 541
On the other hand, here the method attribute is used to specify the value "post", so that the
users message is submitted in the HTTP requests body:
EXAMPLE 542
In this example, a <form> is used with a <dialog>. The method attributes "dialog" keyword is
used to have the dialog automatically close when the form is submitted.
The enctype and formenctype content attributes are enumerated attributes with the following
keywords and states:
The invalid value default for these attributes is the application/x-www-form-urlencoded state.
The missing value default for the enctype attribute is also the application/x-www-form-
urlencoded state. (There is no missing value default for the formenctype attribute.)
The enctype of an element is one of those three states. If the element is a Submit Button and has
a formenctype attribute, then the elements enctype is that attributes state; otherwise, it is the
form owners enctype attributes state.
The target and formtarget content attributes, if specified, must have values that are valid
browsing context names or keywords.
The target of an element is the value of the elements formtarget attribute, if the element is a
Submit Button and has such an attribute; or the value of its form owners target attribute, if it
has such an attribute; or, if the Document contains a <base> element with a target attribute, then
the value of the target attribute of the first such <base> element; or, if there is no such element,
the empty string.
The novalidate and formnovalidate content attributes are boolean attributes. If present, they in-
dicate that the form is not to be validated during submission.
The no-validate state of an element is true if the element is a Submit Button and the elements
formnovalidate attribute is present, or if the elements form owners novalidate attribute is
present, and false otherwise.
EXAMPLE 543
This attribute is useful to include "save" buttons on forms that have validation constraints, to
allow users to save their progress even though they havent fully entered the data in the form.
The following example shows a simple form that has two required fields. There are three but-
tons: one to submit the form, which requires both fields to be filled in; one to save the form so
that the user can come back and fill it in later; and one to cancel the form altogether.
The action IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, except that on get-
ting, when the content attribute is missing or its value is the empty string, the documents URL
must be returned instead.
The target IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The method and enctype IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same
name, limited to only known values.
The encoding IDL attribute must reflect the enctype content attribute, limited to only known val-
ues.
The noValidate IDL attribute must reflect the novalidate content attribute.
The formAction IDL attribute must reflect the formaction content attribute, except that on get-
ting, when the content attribute is missing or its value is the empty string, the documents URL
must be returned instead.
The formEnctype IDL attribute must reflect the formenctype content attribute, limited to only
known values.
The formMethod IDL attribute must reflect the formmethod content attribute, limited to only
known values.
The formNoValidate IDL attribute must reflect the formnovalidate content attribute.
The formTarget IDL attribute must reflect the formtarget content attribute.
The autofocus content attribute allows the author to indicate that a control is to be focused as
soon as the page is loaded or as soon as the dialog within which it finds itself is shown, allowing
the user to just start typing without having to manually focus the main control.
Warning!
Use of the autofocus attribute can reduce usability and accessibility for users. Users of
assistive technology can be adversively affected, because its use overrides the default
behaviour of assistive technology to display content at the top of a document in the
viewport, or announce content from the start of the document. Users with cognitive dis-
abilities can also be disorientated by unexpected focus movement upon page load.
User agents should provide a method for users to disable the autofocus attribute be-
haviour.
An elements nearest ancestor autofocus scoping document element is the element itself if the
element is a <dialog> element, or else is the elements nearest ancestor <dialog> element, if any, or
else is the elements document element.
There must not be two elements with the same nearest ancestor autofocus scoping document ele-
ment that both have the autofocus attribute specified.
When an element with the autofocus attribute specified is inserted into a document, user agents
should run the following steps:
3. If target s browsing context has no top-level browsing context (e.g., it is a nested browsing
context with no parent browsing context), abort these steps.
4. If target s active sandboxing flag set has the sandboxed automatic features browsing context
flag, abort these steps.
5. If target s origin is not the same as the origin of the node document of the currently focused
element in target s top-level browsing context, abort these steps.
6. If target s origin is not the same as the origin of the active document of target s top-level
browsing context, abort these steps.
7. If the user agent has already reached the last step of this list of steps in response to an element
being inserted into a Document whose top-level browsing contexts active document is the
same as target s top-level browsing contexts active document, abort these steps.
8. If the user has indicated (for example, by starting to type in a form control) that he does not
wish focus to be changed, then optionally abort these steps.
9. Queue a task that runs the focusing steps for the element. User agents may also change the
scrolling position of the document, or perform some other action that brings the element to
the users attention. The task source for this task is the user interaction task source.
NOTE:
This handles the automatic focusing during document load. The show() and showModal()
methods of <dialog> elements also processes the autofocus attribute.
NOTE:
Focusing the control does not imply that the user agent must focus the browser window if it
has lost focus.
The autofocus IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
EXAMPLE 544
In the following snippet, the text control would be focused when the document was loaded.
The inputmode content attribute is an enumerated attribute that specifies what kind of input mech-
anism would be most helpful for users entering content into the form control.
User agents must recognize all the keywords and corresponding states given below, but need not
support all of the corresponding states. If a keywords state is not supported, the user agent must
act as if the keyword instead mapped to the given states fallback state, as defined below. This fall-
back behavior is transitive.
NOTE:
For example, if a user agent with a QWERTY keyboard layout does not support text prediction
and automatic capitalization, then it could treat the latin-prose keyword in the same way as
the verbatim keyword, following the chain Latin Prose Latin Text Latin Verbatim.
The possible keywords and states for the attributes are listed in the following table. The keywords
are listed in the first column. Each maps to the state given in the cell in the second column of that
keywords row, and that state has the fallback state given in the cell in the third column of that row.
The last three keywords listed above are only provided for completeness, and are rarely neces-
sary, as dedicated input controls exist for their usual use cases (as described in the table above).
User agents must all support the Default input mode state, which corresponds to the user agents
default input modality. This specification does not define how the user agents default modality is
to operate. The missing value default is the Default input mode state.
User agents should use the input modality corresponding to the state of the inputmode attribute
when exposing a user interface for editing the value of a form control to which the attribute ap-
plies. An input modality corresponding to a state is one designed to fit the description of the state
in the table above. This value can change dynamically; user agents should update their interface as
the attribute changes state, unless that would go against the users wishes.
4.10.18.8. Autofill
User agents sometimes have features for helping users fill forms in, for example prefilling the
users address based on earlier user input. The autocomplete content attribute can be used to hint
to the user agent how to, or indeed whether to, provide such a feature.
There are two ways this attribute is used. When wearing the autofill expectation mantle, the
autocomplete attribute describes what input is expected from users. When wearing the autofill
anchor mantle, the autocomplete attribute describes the meaning of the given value.
On an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Hidden state, the autocomplete attribute
wears the autofill anchor mantle. In all other cases, it wears the autofill expectation mantle.
When wearing the autofill expectation mantle, the autocomplete attribute, if specified, must have
a value that is an ordered set of space-separated tokens consisting of either a single token that is an
ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "off", or a single token that is an ASCII case-
insensitive match for the string "on", or autofill detail tokens.
When wearing the autofill anchor mantle, the autocomplete attribute, if specified, must have a
value that is an ordered set of space-separated tokens consisting of just autofill detail tokens (i.e.,
the "on" and "off" keywords are not allowed).
Autofill detail tokens are the following, in the order given below:
1. Optionally, a token whose first eight characters are an ASCII case-insensitive match for the
string "section-", meaning that the field belongs to the named group.
EXAMPLE 545
For example, if there are two shipping addresses in the form, then they could be marked
up as:
<fieldset>
<legend>Ship the blue gift to...</legend>
<div> <label> Address: <input name=ba autocomplete="section-
blue shipping street-address"> </label> </div>
<div> <label> City: <input name=bc autocomplete="section-
blue shipping address-level2"> </label></div>
<div> <label> Postal Code: <input name=bp autocomplete="section-
blue shipping postal-code"> </label></div>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Ship the red gift to...</legend>
<div> <label> Address: <input name=ra autocomplete="section-red
shipping street-address"> </label></div>
<div> <label> City: <input name=rc autocomplete="section-red
shipping address-level2"> </label></div>
<div> <label> Postal Code: <input name=rp autocomplete="section-red
shipping postal-code"> </label></div>
</fieldset>
2. Optionally, a token that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the following strings:
"shipping", meaning the field is part of the shipping address or contact information
"billing", meaning the field is part of the billing address or contact information
A token that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the following autofill field
names, excluding those that are inappropriate for the control:
"name"
"honorific-prefix"
"given-name"
"additional-name"
"family-name"
"honorific-suffix"
"nickname"
"username"
"new-password"
"current-password"
"organization-title"
"organization"
"street-address"
"address-line1"
"address-line2"
"address-line3"
"address-level4"
"address-level3"
"address-level2"
"address-level1"
"country"
"country-name"
"postal-code"
"cc-name"
"cc-given-name"
"cc-additional-name"
"cc-family-name"
"cc-number"
"cc-exp"
"cc-exp-month"
"cc-exp-year"
"cc-csc"
"cc-type"
"transaction-currency"
"transaction-amount"
"language"
"bday"
"bday-day"
"bday-month"
"bday-year"
"sex"
"url"
"photo"
1. Optionally, a token that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the following
strings:
2. A token that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the following autofill
field names, excluding those that are inappropriate for the control:
"tel"
"tel-country-code"
"tel-national"
"tel-area-code"
"tel-local"
"tel-local-prefix"
"tel-local-suffix"
"tel-extension"
"email"
"impp"
As noted earlier, the meaning of the attribute and its keywords depends on the mantle that the at-
tribute is wearing.
The "on" keyword indicates that the user agent is allowed to provide the user with auto-
completion values, but does not provide any further information about what kind of data
the user might be expected to enter. User agents would have to use heuristics to decide
what autocompletion values to suggest.
The autofill field listed above indicate that the user agent is allowed to provide the user
with autocompletion values, and specifies what kind of value is expected. The meaning
of each such keyword is described in the table below.
If the autocomplete attribute is omitted, the default value corresponding to the state of
the elements form owners autocomplete attribute is used instead (either "on" or
"off"). If there is no form owner, then the value "on" is used.
EXAMPLE 546
In this example the page has explicitly specified the currency and amount of the
transaction. The form requests a credit card and other billing details. The user agent
could use this information to suggest a credit card that it knows has sufficient bal-
ance and that supports the relevant currency.
The autofill field keywords relate to each other as described in the table below. Each field name
listed on a row of this table corresponds to the meaning given in the cell for that row in the column
labeled "Meaning". Some fields correspond to subparts of other fields; for example, a credit card
expiry date can be expressed as one field giving both the month and year of expiry ("cc-exp"), or
as two fields, one giving the month ("cc-exp-month") and one the year ("cc-exp-year"). In such
cases, the names of the broader fields cover multiple rows, in which the narrower fields are de-
fined.
NOTE:
Generally, authors are encouraged to use the broader fields rather than the narrower fields, as
the narrower fields tend to expose Western biases. For example, while it is common in some
Western cultures to have a given name and a family name, in that order (and thus often referred
to as a first name and a surname), many cultures put the family name first and the given name
second, and many others simply have one name (a mononym). Having a single field is there-
fore more flexible.
Some fields are only appropriate for certain form controls. An autofill field name is inappropriate
for a control if the control does not belong to the group listed for that autofill field in the fifth col-
umn of the first row describing that autofill field in the table below. What controls fall into each
group is described below the table.
"cc-name" Full name as given on the payment Free-form Tim Berners-Lee Text
instrument text, no
newlines
"cc-given- Given name as given on the Free-form Tim Text
name" payment instrument (in some text, no
Western cultures, also known as newlines
the first name)
"cc- Additional names given on the Free-form Text
additional- payment instrument (in some text, no
name" Western cultures, also known as newlines
middle names, forenames other
than the first name)
"cc-family- Family name given on the payment Free-form Berners-Lee Text
name" instrument (in some Western text, no
cultures, also known as the last newlines
name or surname)
"transaction- The currency that the user would ISO 4217 GBP Text
currency" prefer the transaction to use currency
code
[ISO4217]
"transaction- The amount that the user would Valid 401.00 Numeric
amount" like for the transaction (e.g., when floating-
entering a bid or sale price) point
number
"tel" Full telephone number, including ASCII +1 617 253 5702 Tel
country code digits and
U+0020
SPACE
characters,
prefixed
by a
U+002B
Text
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Hidden state
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
Multiline
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Hidden state
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
Password
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Hidden state
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Text state
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
URL
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Hidden state
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Text state
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
E-mail
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Hidden state
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
Tel
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Hidden state
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
Numeric
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Hidden state
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
Month
<input> elements with a type attribute in the Hidden state
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
Date
<textarea> elements
<select> elements
Address levels: The "address-level1" "address-level4" fields are used to describe the local-
ity of the street address. Different locales have different numbers of levels. For example, the US
uses two levels (state and town), the UK uses one or two depending on the address (the post town,
and in some cases the locality), and China can use three (province, city, district). The "address-
level1" field represents the widest administrative division. Different locales order the fields in
different ways; for example, in the US the town (level 2) precedes the state (level 1); while in
Japan the prefecture (level 1) precedes the city (level 2) which precedes the district (level 3). Au-
thors are encouraged to provide forms that are presented in a way that matches the countrys con-
ventions (hiding, showing, and rearranging fields accordingly as the user changes the country).
Each <input> element to which the autocomplete attribute applies, each <select> element, and
each <textarea> element, has an autofill hint set, an autofill scope, an autofill field name, and an
IDL-exposed autofill value.
The autofill field name specifies the specific kind of data expected in the field, e.g., "street-
address" or "cc-exp".
The autofill hint set identifies what address or contact information type the user agent is to look at,
e.g., "shipping fax" or "billing".
The autofill scope identifies the group of fields that are to be filled with the information from the
same source, and consists of the autofill hint set with, if applicable, the "section-*" prefix, e.g.,
"billing", "section-parent shipping", or "section-child shipping home".
These values are defined as the result of running the following algorithm:
1. If the element has no autocomplete attribute, then jump to the step labeled default.
5. If the index th token in tokens is not an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the tokens
given in the first column of the following table, or if the number of tokens in tokens is
greater than the maximum number given in the cell in the second column of that tokens row,
then jump to the step labeled default. Otherwise, let field be the string given in the cell of the
first column of the matching row, and let category be the value of the cell in the third column
of that same row.
"off" 1 Off
"on" 1 Automatic
"name" 3 Normal
"honorific-prefix" 3 Normal
"given-name" 3 Normal
"additional-name" 3 Normal
"family-name" 3 Normal
"honorific-suffix" 3 Normal
"nickname" 3 Normal
"organization-title" 3 Normal
"username" 3 Normal
"new-password" 3 Normal
"current-password" 3 Normal
"organization" 3 Normal
"street-address" 3 Normal
"address-line1" 3 Normal
"address-line2" 3 Normal
"address-line3" 3 Normal
"address-level4" 3 Normal
"address-level3" 3 Normal
"address-level2" 3 Normal
"address-level1" 3 Normal
"country" 3 Normal
"country-name" 3 Normal
"postal-code" 3 Normal
"tel" 4 Contact
"tel-country-code" 4 Contact
"tel-national" 4 Contact
"tel-area-code" 4 Contact
"tel-local" 4 Contact
"tel-local-prefix" 4 Contact
"tel-local-suffix" 4 Contact
"tel-extension" 4 Contact
"email" 4 Contact
"impp" 4 Contact
6. If category is Off or Automatic but the elements autocomplete attribute is wearing the aut-
ofill anchor mantle, then jump to the step labeled default.
7. If category is Off, let the elements autofill field name be the string "off", let its autofill hint
set be empty, and let its IDL-exposed autofill value be the string "off". Then, abort these
steps.
8. If category is Automatic, let the elements autofill field name be the string "on", let its aut-
ofill hint set be empty, and let its IDL-exposed autofill value be the string "on". Then, abort
these steps.
12. If the index th token in tokens is the first entry, then skip to the step labeled done.
14. If category is Contact and the index th token in tokens is an ASCII case-insensitive match
for one of the strings in the following list, then run the substeps that follow:
"home"
"work"
"mobile"
"fax"
"pager"
4. Let IDL value be the concatenation of contact , a U+0020 SPACE character, and the
previous value of IDL value (which at this point will always be field ).
5. If the index th entry in tokens is the first entry, then skip to the step labeled done.
15. If the index th token in tokens is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the strings in the
following list, then run the substeps that follow:
"shipping"
"billing"
4. Let IDL value be the concatenation of mode , a U+0020 SPACE character, and the pre-
vious value of IDL value (which at this point will either be field or the concatenation of
contact , a space, and field ).
5. If the index th entry in tokens is the first entry, then skip to the step labeled done.
16. If the index th entry in tokens is not the first entry, then jump to the step labeled default.
17. If the first eight characters of the index th token in tokens are not an ASCII case-insensitive
match for the string "section-", then jump to the step labeled default.
20. Let IDL value be the concatenation of section , a U+0020 SPACE character, and the previous
value of IDL value .
21. Done: Let the elements autofill hint set be hint tokens .
26. Default: Let the elements IDL-exposed autofill value be the empty string, and its autofill hint
set and autofill scope be empty.
27. If the elements autocomplete attribute is wearing the autofill anchor mantle, then let the ele-
ments autofill field name be the empty string and abort these steps.
28. Let form be the elements form owner, if any, or null otherwise.
29. If form is not null and form s autocomplete attribute is in the off state, then let the ele-
For the purposes of autofill, a controls data depends on the kind of control:
An <input> element with its type attribute in the E-mail state and with the multiple
attribute specified
The elements values.
How to process the autofill hint set, autofill scope, and autofill field name depends on the mantle
that the autocomplete attribute is wearing.
NOTE:
In addition, when an elements autofill field name is "off", values are reset when
traversing the history.
EXAMPLE 547
Banks frequently do not want user agents to prefill login information:
When an elements autofill field name is not "off", the user agent may store the con-
trols data, and may offer previously stored values to the user.
EXAMPLE 548
For example, suppose a user visits a page with this control:
<select name="country">
<option>Afghanistan
<option>Albania
<option>Algeria
<option>Andorra
<option>Angola
<option>Antigua and Barbuda
<option>Argentina
<option>Armenia
<!-- ... -->
<option>Yemen
<option>Zambia
<option>Zimbabwe
</select>
Suppose that on the first visit to this page, the user selects "Zambia". On the second
visit, the user agent could duplicate the entry for Zambia at the top of the list, so that
the interface instead looks like this:
When the autofill field name is "on", the user agent should attempt to use heuristics to
determine the most appropriate values to offer the user, e.g., based on the elements name
value, the position of the element in the documents DOM, what other fields exist in the
form, and so forth.
When the autofill field name is one of the names of the autofill fields described above,
the user agent should provide suggestions that match the meaning of the field name as
given in the table earlier in this section. The autofill hint set should be used to select
amongst multiple possible suggestions.
EXAMPLE 549
For example, if a user once entered one address into fields that used the "shipping"
keyword, and another address into fields that used the "billing" keyword, then in
subsequent forms only the first address would be suggested for form controls whose
autofill hint set contains the keyword "shipping". Both addresses might be sug-
gested, however, for address-related form controls whose autofill hint set does not
contain either keyword.
When the user agent autofills form controls, elements with the same form owner and the same
autofill scope must use data relating to the same person, address, payment instrument, and contact
details. When a user agent autofills "country" and "country-name" fields with the same form
owner and autofill scope, and the user agent has a value for the country" field(s), then the
"country-name" field(s) must be filled using a human-readable name for the same country. When
a user agent fills in multiple fields at once, all fields with the same autofill field name, form owner
and autofill scope must be filled with the same value.
EXAMPLE 550
Suppose a user agent knows of two phone numbers, +1 555 123 1234 and +1 555 666 7777. It
would not be conforming for the user agent to fill a field with autocomplete="shipping
tel-local-prefix" with the value "123" and another field in the same form with
autocomplete="shipping tel-local-suffix" with the value "7777". The only valid pre-
filled values given the aforementioned information would be "123" and "1234", or "666" and
"7777", respectively.
EXAMPLE 551
Similarly, if a form for some reason contained both a "cc-exp" field and a "cc-exp-month"
field, and the user agent prefilled the form, then the month component of the former would
have to match the latter.
EXAMPLE 552
This requirement interacts with the autofill anchor mantle also. Consider the following markup
snippet:
<form>
<input type=hidden autocomplete="nickname" value="TreePlate">
<input type=text autocomplete="nickname">
</form>
The only value that a conforming user agent could suggest in the text field is "TreePlate", the
value given by the hidden <input> element.
The "section-*" tokens in the autofill scope are opaque; user agents must not attempt to derive
meaning from the precise values of these tokens.
EXAMPLE 553
For example, it would not be conforming if the user agent decided that it should offer the ad-
dress it knows to be the users daughters address for "section-child" and the addresses it
knows to be the users spouses' addresses for "section-spouse".
The autocompletion mechanism must be implemented by the user agent acting as if the user had
modified the controls data, and must be done at a time where the element is mutable (e.g., just af-
ter the element has been inserted into the document, or when the user agent stops parsing). User
agents must only prefill controls using values that the user could have entered.
EXAMPLE 554
For example, if a <select> element only has <option> elements with values "Steve" and "Re-
becca", "Jay", and "Bob", and has an autofill field name "given-name", but the user agents
only idea for what to prefill the field with is "Evan", then the user agent cannot prefill the field.
It would not be conforming to somehow set the <select> element to the value "Evan", since
the user could not have done so themselves.
A user agent prefilling a form controls value must not cause that control to suffer from a type mis-
match, suffer from being too long, suffer from being too short, suffer from an underflow, suffer
from an overflow, suffer from a step mismatch, or suffer from a pattern mismatch. Where possible
given the controls constraints, user agents must use the format given as canonical in the aforemen-
tioned table. Where its not possible for the canonical format to be used, user agents should use
heuristics to attempt to convert values so that they can be used.
EXAMPLE 555
For example, if the user agent knows that the users middle name is "Ines", and attempts to
prefill a form control that looks like this:
...then the user agent could convert "Ines" to "I" and prefill it that way.
EXAMPLE 556
A more elaborate example would be with month values. If the user agent knows that the users
birthday is the 27th of July 2012, then it might try to prefill all of the following controls with
slightly different values, all driven from this information:
2012-07 The day is dropped since the Month state only
<input name=b type=month accepts a month/year combination.
autocomplete="bday">
July The user agent picks the month from the listed
<select name=c options, either by noticing there are twelve
autocomplete="bday"> options and picking the 7th, or by recognizing
<option>Jan
that one of the strings (three characters "Jul"
<option>Feb
followed by a newline and a space) is a close
...
<option>Jul
match for the name of the month (July) in one
<option>Aug of the user agents supported languages, or
... through some other similar mechanism.
</select>
A user agent may allow the user to override an elements autofill field name, e.g., to change it
from "off" to "on" to allow values to be remembered and prefilled despite the page authors objec-
tions, or to always "off", never remembering values.
More specifically, user agents may in particular consider replacing the autofill field name of form
controls that match the description given in the first column of the following table, when their aut-
ofill field name is either "on" or "off", with the value given in the second cell of that row. If this
table is used, the replacements must be done in tree order, since all but the first row references the
autofill field name of earlier elements. When the descriptions below refer to form controls being
preceded or followed by others, they mean in the list of listed elements that share the same form
owner.
an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Text state that is followed "username"
by an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Password state
an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Password state that is "current-
preceded by an <input> element whose autofill field name is "username" password"
an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Password state that is "new-password"
preceded by an <input> element whose autofill field name is "current-
password"
an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Password state that is "new-password"
preceded by an <input> element whose autofill field name is "new-password"
The autocomplete IDL attribute, on getting, must return the elements IDL-exposed autofill
value, and on setting, must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The <input> and <textarea> elements define the following members in their DOM interfaces for
handling their selection: select(), selectionStart, selectionEnd,
selectionDirection, setRangeText(replacement), setSelectionRange(start,
end)
enum SelectionMode {
"select",
"start",
"end",
"preserve" // default
};
These methods and attributes expose and control the selection of <input> and <textarea> text
fields.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
element . select()
Selects everything in the text field.
The final argument determines how the selection should be set after the text has been re-
placed. The possible values are:
"select"
Selects the newly inserted text.
"start"
Moves the selection to just before the inserted text.
"end"
Moves the selection to just after the selected text.
"preserve"
Attempts to preserve the selection. This is the default.
For <input> elements, calling these methods while they dont apply, and getting or setting these at-
tributes while they dont apply, must throw an InvalidStateError exception. Otherwise, they
must act as described below.
For <input> elements, these methods and attributes must operate on the elements value. For
<textarea> elements, these methods and attributes must operate on the elements raw value.
Where possible, user interface features for changing the text selection in <input> and <textarea>
elements must be implemented in terms of the DOM API described in this section, so that, e.g., all
the same events fire.
The selections of <input> and <textarea> elements have a direction, which is either forward, back-
ward, or none. This direction is set when the user manipulates the selection. The exact meaning of
the selection direction depends on the platform.
NOTE:
On Windows, the direction indicates the position of the caret relative to the selection: a for-
ward selection has the caret at the end of the selection and a backward selection has the caret at
the start of the selection. Windows has no none direction. On Mac, the direction indicates
which end of the selection is affected when the user adjusts the size of the selection using the
arrow keys with the Shift modifier: the forward direction means the end of the selection is
modified, and the backwards direction means the start of the selection is modified. The none
direction is the default on Mac, it indicates that no particular direction has yet been selected.
The user sets the direction implicitly when first adjusting the selection, based on which direc-
tional arrow key was used.
The select() method must cause the contents of the text field to be fully selected, with the selec-
tion direction being none, if the platform support selections with the direction none, or otherwise
forward. The user agent must then queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles named select
at the element, using the user interaction task source as the task source.
In the case of <input> elements, if the control has no text field, then the method must do nothing.
EXAMPLE 557
For instance, in a user agent where <input type=color> is rendered as a color well with a
picker, as opposed to a text field accepting a hexadecimal color code, there would be no text
field, and thus nothing to select, and thus calls to the method are ignored.
The selectionStart attribute must, on getting, return the offset (in logical order) to the character
that immediately follows the start of the selection. If there is no selection, then it must return the
offset (in logical order) to the character that immediately follows the text entry cursor.
On setting, it must act as if the setSelectionRange() method had been called, with the new
value as the first argument; the current value of the selectionEnd attribute as the second argu-
ment, unless the current value of the selectionEnd is less than the new value, in which case the
second argument must also be the new value; and the current value of the selectionDirection
as the third argument.
The selectionEnd attribute must, on getting, return the offset (in logical order) to the character
that immediately follows the end of the selection. If there is no selection, then it must return the
offset (in logical order) to the character that immediately follows the text entry cursor.
On setting, it must act as if the setSelectionRange() method had been called, with the current
value of the selectionStart attribute as the first argument, the new value as the second argu-
ment, and the current value of the selectionDirection as the third argument.
The selectionDirection attribute must, on getting, return the string corresponding to the current
selection direction: if the direction is forward, "forward"; if the direction is backward,
"backward"; and otherwise, "none".
On setting, it must act as if the setSelectionRange() method had been called, with the current
value of the selectionStart IDL attribute as the first argument, the current value of the
selectionEnd IDL attribute as the second argument, and the new value as the third argument.
The setSelectionRange( start , end , direction ) method must set the selection of the text
field to the sequence of characters starting with the character at the start th position (in logical or-
der) and ending with the character at the ( end -1)th position. Arguments greater than the length of
the value of the text field must be treated as pointing at the end of the text field. If end is less than
or equal to start then the start of the selection and the end of the selection must both be placed im-
mediately before the character with offset end . In user agents where there is no concept of an
empty selection, this must set the cursor to be just before the character with offset end . The direc-
tion of the selection must be set to backward if direction is a case-sensitive match for the string
"backward", forward if direction is a case-sensitive match for the string "forward" or if the plat-
form does not support selections with the direction none, and none otherwise (including if the ar-
gument is omitted). The user agent must then queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles
named select at the element, using the user interaction task source as the task source.
The setRangeText( replacement , start , end , selectMode ) method must run the follow-
ing steps:
1. If the method has only one argument, then let start and end have the values of the
selectionStart IDL attribute and the selectionEnd IDL attribute respectively.
Otherwise, let start , end have the values of the second and third arguments respectively.
2. If start is greater than end , then throw an IndexSizeError exception and abort these
steps.
3. If start is greater than the length of the value of the text field, then set it to the length of the
value of the text field.
4. If end is greater than the length of the value of the text field, then set it to the length of the
value of the text field.
5. Let selection start be the current value of the selectionStart IDL attribute.
6. Let selection end be the current value of the selectionEnd IDL attribute.
7. If start is less than end , delete the sequence of characters starting with the character at the
start th position (in logical order) and ending with the character at the ( end -1)th position.
8. Insert the value of the first argument into the text of the value of the text field, immediately
before the start th character.
9. Let new length be the length of the value of the first argument.
10. Let new end be the sum of start and new length .
11. Run the appropriate set of substeps from the following list:
3. If selection start is greater than end , then increment it by delta . (If delta is
negative, i.e., the new text is shorter than the old text, then this will decrease
the value of selection start .)
Otherwise: if selection start is greater than start , then set it to start . (This
snaps the start of the selection to the start of the new text if it was in the mid-
dle of the text that it replaced.)
4. If selection end is greater than end , then increment it by delta in the same
way.
Otherwise: if selection end is greater than start , then set it to new end . (This
snaps the end of the selection to the end of the new text if it was in the middle
of the text that it replaced.)
12. Set the selection of the text field to the sequence of characters starting with the character at
the selection start th position (in logical order) and ending with the character at the ( selec-
tion end -1)th position. In user agents where there is no concept of an empty selection, this
must set the cursor to be just before the character with offset end . The direction of the selec-
tion must be set to forward if the platform does not support selections with the direction none,
and none otherwise.
13. Queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles named select at the element, using the user
interaction task source as the task source.
All elements to which this API applies have either a selection or a text entry cursor position at all
times (even for elements that are not being rendered). User agents should follow platform conven-
tions to determine their initial state.
Characters with no visible rendering, such as U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER, still count as
characters. Thus, for instance, the selection can include just an invisible character, and the text in-
sertion cursor can be placed to one side or another of such a character.
EXAMPLE 558
To obtain the currently selected text, the following JavaScript suffices:
EXAMPLE 559
To add some text at the start of a text control, while maintaining the text selection, the three
attributes must be preserved:
4.10.20. Constraints
4.10.20.1. Definitions
A submittable element is a candidate for constraint validation except when a condition has
barred the element from constraint validation. (For example, an element is barred from con-
straint validation if it is an <object> element.)
An element can have a custom validity error message defined. Initially, an element must have its
custom validity error message set to the empty string. When its value is not the empty string, the
element is suffering from a custom error. It can be set using the setCustomValidity() method.
The user agent should use the custom validity error message when alerting the user to the problem
with the control.
An element can be constrained in various ways. The following is the list of validity states that a
form control can be in, making the control invalid for the purposes of constraint validation. (The
definitions below are non-normative; other parts of this specification define more precisely when
each state applies or does not.)
NOTE:
An element can still suffer from these states even when the element is disabled; thus these
states can be represented in the DOM even if validating the form during submission wouldnt
indicate a problem to the user.
An element satisfies its constraints if it is not suffering from any of the above validity states.
When the user agent is required to statically validate the constraints of <form> element form , it
must run the following steps, which return either a positive result (all the controls in the form are
valid) or a negative result (there are invalid controls) along with a (possibly empty) list of elements
that are invalid and for which no script has claimed responsibility:
1. Let controls be a list of all the submittable elements whose form owner is form , in tree or-
der.
3. For each element field in controls , in tree order, run the following substeps:
1. If field is not a candidate for constraint validation, then move on to the next element.
2. Otherwise, if field satisfies its constraints, then move on to the next element.
4. If invalid controls is empty, then return a positive result and abort these steps.
6. For each element field in invalid controls , if any, in tree order, run the following substeps:
2. If the event was not canceled, then add field to unhandled invalid controls .
7. Return a negative result with the list of elements in the unhandled invalid controls list.
If a user agent is to interactively validate the constraints of <form> element form , then the user
agent must run the following steps:
1. Statically validate the constraints of form , and let unhandled invalid controls be the list of
elements returned if the result was negative.
2. If the result was positive, then return that result and abort these steps.
3. Report the problems with the constraints of at least one of the elements given in unhandled
invalid controls to the user. User agents may focus one of those elements in the process, by
running the focusing steps for that element, and may change the scrolling position of the doc-
ument, or perform some other action that brings the element to the users attention. User
agents may report more than one constraint violation. User agents may coalesce related con-
straint violation reports if appropriate (e.g., if multiple radio buttons in a group are marked as
required, only one error need be reported). If one of the controls is not being rendered (e.g., it
has the hidden attribute set) then user agents may report a script error.
element . setCustomValidity()
Sets a custom error, so that the element would fail to validate. The given message is the
message to be shown to the user when reporting the problem to the user.
Returns true if the elements value has no validity problems; false otherwise. Fires an
invalid event at the element in the latter case.
element . validationMessage
Returns the error message that would be shown to the user if the element was to be
checked for validity.
The willValidate IDL attribute must return true if an element is a candidate for constraint vali-
dation, and false otherwise (i.e., false if any conditions are barring it from constraint validation).
The setCustomValidity( message ), when invoked, must set the custom validity error message
to the value of the given message argument.
EXAMPLE 560
In the following example, a script checks the value of a form control each time it is edited, and
whenever it is not a valid value, uses the setCustomValidity() method to set an appropri-
ate message.
The validity IDL attribute must return a ValidityState object that represents the validity
states of the element. This object is live.
interface ValidityState {
readonly attribute boolean valueMissing;
readonly attribute boolean typeMismatch;
readonly attribute boolean patternMismatch;
readonly attribute boolean tooLong;
readonly attribute boolean tooShort;
readonly attribute boolean rangeUnderflow;
readonly attribute boolean rangeOverflow;
readonly attribute boolean stepMismatch;
readonly attribute boolean badInput;
readonly attribute boolean customError;
readonly attribute boolean valid;
};
A ValidityState object has the following attributes. On getting, they must return true if the
corresponding condition given in the following list is true, and false otherwise.
When the checkValidity() method is invoked, if the element is a candidate for constraint valida-
tion and does not satisfy its constraints, the user agent must fire a simple event named invalid
that is cancelable (but in this case has no default action) at the element and return false. Otherwise,
it must only return true without doing anything else.
When the reportValidity() method is invoked, if the element is a candidate for constraint vali-
dation and does not satisfy its constraints, the user agent must: fire a simple event named invalid
that is cancelable at the element, and if that event is not canceled, report the problems with the
constraints of that element to the user; then, return false. Otherwise, it must only return true with-
out doing anything else. When reporting the problem with the constraints to the user, the user
agent may run the focusing steps for that element, and may change the scrolling position of the
document, or perform some other action that brings the element to the users attention. User agents
may report more than one constraint violation, if the element suffers from multiple problems at
once. If the element is not being rendered, then the user agent may, instead of notifying the user,
report a script error.
The validationMessage attribute must return the empty string if the element is not a candidate
for constraint validation or if it is one but it satisfies its constraints; otherwise, it must return a suit-
ably localized message that the user agent would show the user if this were the only form control
with a validity constraint problem. If the user agent would not actually show a textual message in
such a situation (e.g., it would show a graphical cue instead), then the attribute must return a suit-
ably localized message that expresses (one or more of) the validity constraint(s) that the control
does not satisfy. If the element is a candidate for constraint validation and is suffering from a cus-
tom error, then the custom validity error message should be present in the return value.
4.10.20.4. Security
Servers should not rely on client-side validation. Client-side validation can be intentionally by-
passed by hostile users, and unintentionally bypassed by users of older user agents or automated
tools that do not implement these features. The constraint validation features are only intended to
improve the user experience, not to provide any kind of security mechanism.
4.10.21.1. Introduction
When a form is submitted, the data in the form is converted into the structure specified by the enc-
type, and then sent to the destination specified by the action using the given method.
If the user types in "cats" in the first field and "fur" in the second, and then hits the submit button,
then the user agent will load /find.cgi?t=cats&q=fur.
Given the same user input, the result on submission is quite different: the user agent instead does
an HTTP POST to the given URL, with as the entity body something like the following text:
cats
------kYFrd4jNJEgCervE
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="q"
fur
------kYFrd4jNJEgCervE--
A <form> elements default button is the first Submit Button in tree order whose form owner is
that <form> element.
If the user agent supports letting the user submit a form implicitly (for example, on some platforms
hitting the "enter" key while a text field is focused implicitly submits the form), then doing so for a
form whose default button has a defined activation behavior must cause the user agent to run syn-
thetic click activation steps on that default button.
NOTE:
Consequently, if the default button is disabled, the form is not submitted when such an implicit
submission mechanism is used. (A button has no activation behavior when disabled.)
NOTE:
There are pages on the Web that are only usable if there is a way to implicitly submit forms, so
user agents are strongly encouraged to support this.
If the form has no Submit Button, then the implicit submission mechanism must do nothing if the
form has more than one field that blocks implicit submission, and must submit the <form> element
from the <form> element itself otherwise.
For the purpose of the previous paragraph, an element is a field that blocks implicit submission of a
<form> element if it is an <input> element whose form owner is that <form> element and whose
type attribute is in one of the following states: Text, Search, URL, Telephone, E-mail, Password,
Date and Time, Date, Month, Week, Time, Number
When a <form> element form is submitted from an element submitter (typically a button), op-
tionally with a submitted from submit() method flag set, the user agent must run the following
steps:
2. If form document has no associated browsing context or its active sandboxing flag set has its
sandboxed forms browsing context flag set, then abort these steps without doing anything.
4. If the submitted from submit() method flag is not set, and the submitter elements no-
validate state is false, then interactively validate the constraints of form and examine the re-
sult: if the result is negative (the constraint validation concluded that there were invalid fields
and probably informed the user of this) then fire a simple event named invalid at the form
element and then abort these steps.
5. If the submitted from submit() method flag is not set, then fire a simple event that bubbles
and is cancelable named submit, at form . If the events default action is prevented (i.e., if the
event is canceled) then abort these steps. Otherwise, continue (effectively the default action is
to perform the submission).
6. Let form data set be the result of constructing the form data set for form in the context of
submitter .
8. If action is the empty string, let action be the documents URL of the form document .
9. Parse the URL action , relative to the submitter elements node document. If this fails, abort
these steps.
16. If the user indicated a specific browsing context to use when submitting the form, then let
target browsing context be that browsing context. Otherwise, apply the rules for choosing a
browsing context given a browsing context name using target as the name and form brows-
ing context as the context in which the algorithm is executed, and let target browsing context
be the resulting browsing context.
17. If target browsing context was created in the previous step, or, alternatively, if the form doc-
ument has not yet completely loaded and the submitted from submit() method flag is set,
then let replace be true. Otherwise, let it be false.
18. If the value of method is dialog then jump to the submit dialog steps.
Otherwise, select the appropriate row in the table below based on the value of scheme as
given by the first cell of each row. Then, select the appropriate cell on that row based on the
value of method as given in the first cell of each column. Then, jump to the steps named in
that cell and defined below the table.
GET POST
GET POST
mailto Mail with headers Mail as body
If scheme is not one of those listed in this table, then the behavior is not defined by this spec-
ification. User agents should, in the absence of another specification defining this, act in a
manner analogous to that defined in this specification for similar schemes.
Each <form> element has a planned navigation, which is either null or a task; when the
<form> is first created, its planned navigation must be set to null. In the behaviors described
below, when the user agent is required to plan to navigate to a particular resource destina-
tion , it must run the following steps:
1. If the <form> has a non-null planned navigation, remove it from its task queue.
2. Let the <form>'s planned navigation be a new task that consists of running the following
steps:
For the purposes of this task, target browsing context and replace are the variables that
were set up when the overall form submission algorithm was run, with their values as
they stood when this planned navigation was queued.
The task source for this task is the DOM manipulation task source.
Let destination be a new URL formed by applying the URL serializer algorithm to
parsed action .
If enctype is application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Let MIME type be "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".
If enctype is multipart/form-data
Let MIME type be the concatenation of the string "multipart/form-data;", a
U+0020 SPACE character, the string "boundary=", and the multipart/form-data
boundary string generated by the multipart/form-data encoding algorithm.
If enctype is text/plain
Let MIME type be "text/plain".
Otherwise, plan to navigate to a new request whose URL is action , method is method ,
header list consists of Content-Type/ MIME type , and body is entity body .
NOTE:
The form data set is discarded.
Post to data:
Let data be the result of encoding the form data set using the appropriate form encod-
ing algorithm.
If action contains the string "%%%%" (four U+0025 PERCENT SIGN characters), then
percent encode all bytes in data that, if interpreted as US-ASCII, are not characters in
the URL default encode set, and then, treating the result as a US-ASCII string, UTF-8
percent encode all the U+0025 PERCENT SIGN characters in the resulting string and
replace the first occurrence of "%%%%" in action with the resulting doubly-escaped string.
[URL]
Otherwise, if action contains the string "%%" (two U+0025 PERCENT SIGN characters
in a row, but not four), then UTF-8 percent encode all characters in data that, if inter-
preted as US-ASCII, are not characters in the URL default encode set, and then, treating
the result as a US-ASCII string, replace the first occurrence of "%%" in action with the
resulting escaped string. [URL]
Plan to navigate to the potentially modified action (which will be a data: URL).
Replace occurrences of U+002B PLUS SIGN characters (+) in headers with the string
"%20".
Let destination consist of all the characters from the first character in action to the
character immediately before the first U+003F QUESTION MARK character (?), if any,
or the end of the string if there are none.
Mail as body
Let body be the resulting of encoding the form data set using the appropriate form en-
coding algorithm and then percent encoding all the bytes in the resulting byte string that,
when interpreted as US-ASCII, are not characters in the URL default encode set. [URL]
If destination does not contain a U+003F QUESTION MARK character (?), append a
single U+003F QUESTION MARK character (?) to destination . Otherwise, append a
single U+0026 AMPERSAND character (&).
Submit dialog
Let subject be the nearest ancestor <dialog> element of form , if any.
If there isnt one, or if it does not have an open attribute, do nothing. Otherwise, proceed
as follows:
If submitter is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Image Button state,
then let result be the string formed by concatenating the selected coordinates x -
-component, expressed as a base-ten number using ASCII digits, a U+002C COMMA
character (,), and the selected coordinates y -component, expressed in the same way as
the x -component.
Then, close the dialog subject . If there is a result , let that be the return value.
If enctype is application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Use the application/x-www-form-urlencoded encoding algorithm.
If enctype is multipart/form-data
Use the multipart/form-data encoding algorithm.
If enctype is text/plain
Use the text/plain encoding algorithm.
The algorithm to construct the form data set for a form form optionally in the context of a sub-
mitter submitter is as follows. If not specified otherwise, submitter is null.
1. Let controls be a list of all the submittable elements whose form owner is form , in tree or-
der.
2. Let the form data set be a list of name-value-type tuples, initially empty.
3. Loop: For each element field in controls , in tree order, run the following substeps:
1. If any of the following conditions are met, then skip these substeps for this element:
The field element is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Checkbox
state and whose checkedness is false.
The field element is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Radio
Button state and whose checkedness is false.
The field element is not an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Image
Button state, and either the field element does not have a name attribute specified,
or its name attributes value is the empty string.
3. If the field element is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Image Button
state, then run these further nested substeps:
1. If the field element has a name attribute specified and its value is not the empty
string, let name be that value followed by a single U+002E FULL STOP character
(.). Otherwise, let name be the empty string.
2. Let namex be the string consisting of the concatenation of name and a single
U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X character (x).
3. Let namey be the string consisting of the concatenation of name and a single
U+0079 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y character (y).
4. The field element is submitter , and before this algorithm was invoked the user in-
dicated a coordinate. Let x be the x -component of the coordinate selected by the
user, and let y be the y -component of the coordinate selected by the user.
5. Append an entry to the form data set with the name namex , the value x , and the
type type .
6. Append an entry to the form data set with the name namey and the value y , and
the type type .
7. Skip the remaining substeps for this element: if there are any more elements in
controls , return to the top of the loop step, otherwise, jump to the end step below.
5. If the field element is a <select> element, then for each <option> element in the
<select> elements list of options whose selectedness is true and that is not disabled, ap-
pend an entry to the form data set with the name as the name, the value of the <option>
element as the value, and type as the type.
6. Otherwise, if the field element is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the
Checkbox state or the Radio Button state, then run these further nested substeps:
1. If the field element has a value attribute specified, then let value be the value of
that attribute; otherwise, let value be the string "on".
2. Append an entry to the form data set with name as the name, value as the value,
and type as the type.
7. Otherwise, if the field element is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the
File Upload state, then for each file selected in the <input> element, append an entry to
the form data set with the name as the name, the file (consisting of the name, the type,
and the body) as the value, and type as the type. If there are no selected files, then ap-
pend an entry to the form data set with the name as the name, the empty string as the
value, and application/octet-stream as the type.
8. Otherwise, if the field element is an <object> element: try to obtain a form submission
value from the plugin, and if that is successful, append an entry to the form data set
with name as the name, the returned form submission value as the value, and the string
"object" as the type.
9. Otherwise, append an entry to the form data set with name as the name, the value of
the field element as the value, and type as the type.
10. If the element has a dirname attribute, and that attributes value is not the empty string,
then run these substeps:
2. Let dir be the string "ltr" if the directionality of the element is 'ltr', and "rtl" oth-
erwise (i.e., when the directionality of the element is 'rtl').
3. Append an entry to the form data set with dirname as the name, dir as the value,
and the string "direction" as the type.
NOTE:
An element can only have a dirname attribute if it is a <textarea> element or an
<input> element whose type attribute is in either the Text state or the Search state.
4. End: For the name of each entry in the form data set , and for the value of each entry in the
form data set whose type is not "file" or "textarea", replace every occurrence of a
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character not followed by a U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
character, and every occurrence of a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character not preceded by a
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character, by a two-character string consisting of a
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pair.
NOTE:
In the case of the value of <textarea> elements, this newline normalization is already per-
formed during the conversion of the controls raw value into the controls value (which
also performs any necessary line wrapping). In the case of <input> elements type at-
tributes in the File Upload state, the value is not normalized.
If the user agent is to pick an encoding for a form, it must run the following steps:
2. If the form element has an accept-charset attribute, set encoding to the return value of
running these substeps:
4. For each token in candidate encoding labels in turn (in the order in which they were
found in input ), get an encoding for the token and, if this does not result in failure, ap-
pend the encoding to candidate encodings .
2. If the algorithm was invoked with an explicit character encoding, let the selected character
encoding be that encoding. (This algorithm is used by other specifications, which provide an
explicit character encoding to avoid the dependency on the <form> element described in the
next paragraph.)
Otherwise, if the <form> element has an accept-charset attribute, let the selected character
encoding be the result of picking an encoding for the form.
Otherwise, if the <form> element has no accept-charset attribute, but the documents char-
acter encoding is an ASCII-compatible encoding, then that is the selected character encoding.
4. For each entry in the form data set , perform these substeps:
1. If the entrys name is "_charset_" and its type is "hidden", replace its value with
charset .
2. For each character in the entrys name and value that cannot be expressed using the se-
lected character encoding, replace the character by a string consisting of a U+0026 AM-
PERSAND character (&), a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#), one or more ASCII
digits representing the Unicode code point of the character in base ten, and finally a
U+003B SEMICOLON character (;).
5. Encode the (now mutated) form data set using the rules described by RFC 7578, Returning
Values from Forms: multipart/form-data, and return the resulting byte stream. [RFC7578]
Each entry in the form data set is a field, the name of the entry is the field name and the
value of the entry is the field value.
The order of parts must be the same as the order of fields in the form data set . Multiple en-
tries with the same name must be treated as distinct fields.
The parts of the generated multipart/form-data resource that correspond to non-file fields
must not have a Content-Type header specified. Their names and values must be encoded
using the character encoding selected above.
File names included in the generated multipart/form-data resource (as part of file fields)
must use the character encoding selected above, though the precise name may be approxi-
mated if necessary (e.g., newlines could be removed from file names, quotes could be
changed to "%22", and characters not expressible in the selected character encoding could be
replaced by other characters).
The boundary used by the user agent in generating the return value of this algorithm is the
multipart/form-data boundary string. (This value is used to generate the MIME type of
the form submission payload generated by this algorithm.)
For details on how to interpret multipart/form-data payloads, see RFC 7578. [RFC7578]
4. If the entrys name is "_charset_" and its type is "hidden", replace its value with charset .
5. If the entrys type is "file", replace its value with the files name only.
6. For each entry in the form data set , perform these substeps:
4. Append a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character
pair to result .
Payloads using the text/plain format are intended to be human readable. They are not reliably
interpretable by computer, as the format is ambiguous (for example, there is no way to distinguish
a literal newline in a value from the newline at the end of the value).
When a <form> element form is reset, the user agent must fire a simple event named reset, that
bubbles and is cancelable, at form , and then, if that event is not canceled, must invoke the reset al-
gorithm of each resettable element whose form owner is form .
When the reset algorithm is invoked by the reset() method, the reset event fired by the reset al-
gorithm must not be trusted.
Each resettable element defines its own reset algorithm. Changes made to form controls as part of
these algorithms do not count as changes caused by the user (and thus, e.g., do not cause input
events to fire).
The <details> element represents a disclosure widget from which the user can obtain additional
information or controls.
NOTE:
The <details> element is not appropriate for footnotes. Please see 4.13.5 Footnotes for details
on how to mark up footnotes.
If the <details> element has a <summary> child element, then the first summary child element rep-
resents the summary or legend of the details element. If there is no summary child element, a user
agent should provide its own legend (e.g. in English "Details" or Spanish "Detalles").
NOTE:
The legend text should be presented in the language determined from the computed language
of the element, if available, rather than from the locale of the browser/system.
The rest of the elements contents represents the additional information or controls.
The open content attribute is a boolean attribute. If present, it indicates that both the summary and
the additional information is to be shown to the user. If the attribute is absent, only the summary is
to be shown.
When the element is created, if the attribute is absent, the additional information should be hidden;
if the attribute is present, that information should be shown. Subsequently, if the attribute is re-
moved, then the information should be hidden; if the attribute is added, the information should be
shown.
The user agent should allow the user to request that the additional information be shown or hidden.
To honor a request for the details to be shown, the user agent must set the open attribute on the ele-
ment to the empty string. To honor a request for the information to be hidden, the user agent must
remove the open attribute from the element.
NOTE:
This ability to request that additional information be shown or hidden may simply be the acti-
vation behavior of the appropriate summary element, in the case such an element exists. How-
ever, if no such element exists, user agents can still provide this ability through some other
user interface affordance.
Whenever the open attribute is added to or removed from a <details> element, the user agent must
queue a task that runs the following steps, which are known as the details notification task steps,
for this <details> element:
1. If another task has been queued to run the details notification task steps for this <details> ele-
ment, then abort these steps.
NOTE:
When the open attribute is toggled several times in succession, these steps essentially get
coalesced so that only one event is fired.
The task source for this task must be the DOM manipulation task source.
The open IDL attribute must reflect the open content attribute.
EXAMPLE 561
The following example shows the <details> element being used to hide technical details in a
progress report.
EXAMPLE 562
The following shows how a <details> element can be used to hide some controls by default:
<details>
<summary><label for=fn>Name & Extension:</label></summary>
<p><input type=text id=fn name=fn value="Pillar Magazine.pdf">
<p><label><input type=checkbox name=ext checked> Hide extension</label>
</details>
One could use this in conjunction with other <details> in a list to allow the user to collapse a
set of fields down to a small set of headings, with the ability to open each one.
In these examples, the summary really just summarizes what the controls can change, and not
the actual values, which is less than ideal.
EXAMPLE 563
Because the open attribute is added and removed automatically as the user interacts with the
control, it can be used in CSS to style the element differently based on its state. Here, a
stylesheet is used to animate the color of the summary when the element is opened or closed:
<style>
details > summary { transition: color 1s; color: black; }
details[open] > summary { color: red; }
</style>
<details>
<summary>Automated Status: Operational</summary>
<p>Velocity: 12m/s</p>
<p>Direction: North</p>
</details>
The first <summary> child element of a <details> element represents a summary, caption, or legend
for the rest of the contents of the parent <details> element, if any.
1. If this summary element has no parent node, then abort these steps.
4. If the open attribute is present on parent, then remove it. Otherwise, set parents open at-
tribute to the empty string.
NOTE:
This will then run the details notification task steps.
The type attribute is an enumerated attribute indicating the kind of menu being declared. The at-
tribute has one state. The "context" keyword maps to the context menu state, in which the ele-
ment is declaring a context menu. The missing value default is the null.
If a <menu> elements type attribute is in the context menu state, then the element represents com-
mands for a context menu. The user can only examine and interact with the commands if that con-
text menu is activated.
The label attribute gives the label of the menu, to display nested menus in the UI: a context menu
containing another menu would use the nested menus label attribute for the submenus menu la-
bel. The label attribute must only be specified on <menu> elements whose parent element is a
<menu> element.
A menu is a currently relevant <menu> element if it is the child of a currently relevant <menu> ele-
ment, or if it is the designated pop-up menu of a <button> element that is not inert, does not have a
hidden attribute, and is not the descendant of an element with a hidden attribute.
A menu construct consists of an ordered list of zero or more menu item constructs, which can
be any of:
To build and show a menu for a particular <menu> element source and with a particular element
subject as a subject, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Let pop-up menu be the menu construct created by the build a menu construct algorithm
when passed the source element.
2. Display pop-up menu to the user, and let the algorithm that invoked this one continue.
If the user selects a menu item construct that corresponds to an element that still represents a
command when the user selects it, then the user agent must invoke that commands Action. If
the commands Action is defined as firing a click event, either directly or via the run syn-
thetic click activation steps algorithm, then the relatedTarget attribute of that click event
must be initialized to subject .
Pop-up menus must not, while being shown, reflect changes in the DOM. The menu is con-
structed from the DOM before being shown, and is then immutable.
To build a menu construct for an element source , the user agent must run the following steps,
which return a menu construct:
2. Run the menu item generator steps for the <menu> element using generated menu as the out-
put.
The menu item generator steps for a <menu> element using a specific menu construct output
as output are as follows: For each child node of the menu in tree order, run the appropriate
steps from the following list:
Otherwise
Ignore the child node.
3. Remove from output any menu construct whose submenu label is the empty string.
4. Remove from output any menu item construct representing a command whose Label is the
empty string.
5. Collapse all sequences of two or more adjacent separators in output to a single separator.
6. If the first menu item construct in output is a separator, then remove it.
7. If the last menu item construct in output is a separator, then remove it.
8. Return output .
The type IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to only known
values.
The label IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The <menuitem> element represents a command that the user can invoke from a popup menu (either
a context menu or the menu of a menu button).
A <menuitem> element with a label attribute, or with text content defines a new command.
The type attribute is an enumerated attribute with one keyword and state. The "command" keyword
maps to the Command state. The missing value default is the Command state.
The label attribute can be used to give the name of the command, as shown to the user. If the at-
tribute is specified, it must have a value that is not the empty string.
If the label attribute is not present, and there is text content in the element, that provides the name
of the content as shown to the user.
The icon attribute gives a picture that represents the command. If the attribute is specified, the at-
tributes value must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. To obtain
the absolute URL of the icon when the attributes value is not the empty string, the attributes
value must be parsed relative to the elements node document. When the attribute is absent, or its
value is the empty string, or parsing its value fails, there is no icon.
The disabled attribute is a boolean attribute that, if present, indicates that the command is not
available in the current state.
NOTE:
The distinction between disabled and hidden is subtle. A command would be disabled if, in
the same context, it could be enabled if only certain aspects of the situation were changed. A
command would be marked as hidden if, in that situation, the command will never be enabled.
For example, in the context menu for a water faucet, the command "open" might be disabled if
the faucet is already open, but the command "eat" would be marked hidden since the faucet
could never be eaten.
The title attribute gives a hint describing the command, which might be shown to the user to
help him.
The default attribute indicates, if present, that the command is the one that would have been in-
voked if the user had directly activated the menus subject instead of using the menu. The default
attribute is a boolean attribute.
The type IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to only known
values.
The label, icon, disabled, and default IDL attributes must reflect the respective content at-
tributes of the same name.
If the elements Disabled State is false (enabled) then the elements activation behavior is to do
nothing.
NOTE:
Firing a synthetic click event at the element does not cause any of the actions described above
to happen.
If the elements Disabled State is true (disabled) then the element has no activation behavior.
NOTE:
The <menuitem> element is not rendered except as <part of a context menu>.
EXAMPLE 564
Here is an example of a pop-up menu button with three options that let the user toggle between
left, center, and right alignment. One could imagine such a toolbar as part of a text editor. The
menu also has a separator followed by another menu item labeled "Publish", though that menu
item is disabled.
<button contextmenu="editmenu">Commands...</button>
<menu type="context" id="editmenu">
<menuitem label="Left" icon="icons/alL.png" onclick="setAlign('left')">
</menuitem>
<menuitem label="Center" icon="icons/alC.png"
onclick="setAlign('center')">
</menuitem>
<menuitem label="Right" icon="icons/alR.png"
onclick="setAlign('right')">
</menuitem>
<hr>
<menuitem disabled label="Publish" icon="icons/pub.png"
onclick="publish()">
</menuitem>
</menu>
The contextmenu attribute gives the elements context menu. The value must be the ID of a
<menu> element in the same tree whose type attribute is in the context menu state.
NOTE:
When a user right-clicks on an element with a contextmenu attribute, the user agent will first
fire a contextmenu event at the element, and then, if that event is not canceled, a show event at
the <menu> element.
EXAMPLE 565
Here is an example of a context menu for an input control:
<form name="npc">
<label>Character name: <input name=char type=text contextmenu=namemenu
required></label>
<menu type=context id=namemenu>
<menuitem label="Pick random name"
onclick="document.forms.npc.elements.char.value = getRandomName()">
</menuitem>
<menuitem label="Prefill other fields based on name"
onclick="prefillFields(document.forms.npc.elements.char.value)">
</menuitem>
</menu>
</form>
This adds two items to the controls context menu, one called "Pick random name", and one
called "Prefill other fields based on name". They invoke scripts that are not shown in the exam-
ple above.
Each element has an assigned context menu, which can be null. If an element A has a
contextmenu attribute, and there is an element with the ID given by A s contextmenu attributes
value in A s tree, and the first such element in tree order is a <menu> element, then A s assigned
context menu is that element. Otherwise, if A has a parent element, then A s assigned context
menu is the assigned context menu of its parent element. Otherwise, A s assigned context menu is
null.
When an elements context menu is requested (e.g., by the user right-clicking the element, or
pressing a context menu key), the user agent must apply the appropriate rules from the following
list:
Otherwise
The user agent must fire a synthetic mouse event named contextmenu that bubbles and
is cancelable at the element for which the menu was requested.
NOTE:
Typically, therefore, the firing of the contextmenu event will be the default action of a
mouseup or keyup event. The exact sequence of events is user agent-dependent, as it will vary
based on platform conventions.
The default action of the contextmenu event depends on whether or not the element for which the
menu was requested has a non-null assigned context menu when the event dispatch has completed,
as follows.
If the assigned context menu of the element for which the menu was requested is null, the default
action must be for the user agent to show its default context menu, if it has one.
Otherwise, let subject be the element for which the menu was requested, and let menu be the as-
signed context menu of target immediately after the contextmenu events dispatch has com-
pleted. The user agent must fire a trusted event with the name show at menu , using the
RelatedEvent interface, with the relatedTarget attribute initialized to subject . The event must
be cancelable.
If this event (the show event) is not canceled, then the user agent must build and show the menu
for menu with subject as the subject.
When it presents a context menu, the user agent should also provide access to its default context
menu. For example, it could merge the menu items from the two menus together, provide the
pages context menu as a submenu of the default menu, or handle right-clicks that have the Shift
key depressed by showing the default context menu instead of firing the contextmenu event.
EXAMPLE 566
In this example, an image of cats is given a context menu with four possible commands:
When a user of a mouse-operated visual Web browser right-clicks on the image, the browser
might pop up a context menu like this:
When the user clicks the disclosure triangle, such a user agent would expand the context menu
in place, to show the browsers own commands:
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
event . relatedTarget
Returns the other event target involved in this event. For example, when a show event
fires on a <menu> element, the other event target involved in the event would be the ele-
ment for which the menu is being shown.
The relatedTarget attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the other
event target that is related to the event.
4.11.6. Commands
4.11.6.1. Facets
A command is the abstraction behind menu items, buttons, and links. Once a command is defined,
other parts of the interface can refer to the same command, allowing many access points to a single
feature to share facets such as the Disabled State.
Label
The name of the command as seen by the user.
Access Key
A key combination selected by the user agent that triggers the command. A command might
not have an Access Key.
Hidden State
Whether the command is hidden or not (basically, whether it should be shown in menus).
Disabled State
Whether the command is relevant and can be triggered or not.
Action
The actual effect that triggering the command will have. This could be a scripted event han-
dler, a URL to which to navigate, or a form submission.
User agents may expose the commands that match the following criteria:
User agents are encouraged to do this especially for commands that have Access Keys, as a way to
advertise those keys to the user.
EXAMPLE 567
For example, such commands could be listed in the user agents menu bar.
The Label of the command is the string given by the elements textContent IDL attribute.
The Access Key of the command is the elements assigned access key, if any.
The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false
otherwise.
The Disabled State facet of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, and
false otherwise.
The Action of the command, if the element has a defined activation behavior, is to run synthetic
click activation steps on the element. Otherwise, it is just to fire a click event at the element.
The Label, Access Key, Hidden State, and Action facets of the command are determined as for <a>
elements (see the previous section).
The Disabled State of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, or if the
elements disabled state is set, and false otherwise.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in one of the Submit Button, Reset Button, Image
Button, Button, Radio Button, or Checkbox states defines a command.
If the type attribute is in one of the Submit Button, Reset Button, Image Button, or
Button states, then the Label is the string given by the value attribute, if any, and a user
agent-dependent, locale-dependent value that the user agent uses to label the button itself if
the attribute is absent.
Otherwise, if the element is a labeled control, then the Label is the string given by the
textContent of the first <label> element in tree order whose labeled control is the element
in question. (In DOM terms, this is the string given by element .labels[0].textContent.)
Otherwise, if the value attribute is present, then the Label is the value of that attribute.
The Access Key of the command is the elements assigned access key, if any.
The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false
otherwise.
The Disabled State of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, or if the
The Action of the command, if the element has a defined activation behavior, is to run synthetic
click activation steps on the element. Otherwise, it is just to fire a click event at the element.
An <option> element with an ancestor <select> element and either no value attribute or a value
attribute that is not the empty string defines a command.
The Label of the command is the value of the <option> elements label attribute, if there is one,
or else the value of <option> elements textContent IDL attribute, with leading and trailing
white space stripped, and with any sequences of two or more space characters replaced by a single
U+0020 SPACE character.
The Access Key of the command is the elements assigned access key, if any.
The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false
otherwise.
The Disabled State of the command is true if the element is disabled, or if its nearest ancestor
<select> element is disabled, or if it or one of its ancestors is inert, and false otherwise.
If the options nearest ancestor <select> element has a multiple attribute, the Action of the com-
mand is to pick the <option> element. Otherwise, the Action is to toggle the <option> element.
The Label of the command is the value of the elements label attribute, if there is one, or the
empty string if it doesnt.
The Access Key of the command is the elements assigned access key, if any.
The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false
otherwise.
The Disabled State of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, or if the
element has a disabled attribute, and false otherwise.
The Action of the command, if the element has a defined activation behavior, is to run synthetic
click activation steps on the element. Otherwise, it is just to fire a click event at the element.
A <label> element that has an assigned access key and a labeled control and whose labeled control
defines a command, itself defines a command.
The Label of the command is the string given by the elements textContent IDL attribute.
The Access Key of the command is the elements assigned access key.
The Hidden State, Disabled State, and Action facets of the command are the same as the respective
facets of the elements labeled control.
A <legend> element that has an assigned access key and is a child of a <fieldset> element that has
a descendant that is not a descendant of the <legend> element and is neither a <label> element nor
a legend element but that defines a command, itself defines a command.
The Label of the command is the string given by the elements textContent IDL attribute.
The Access Key of the command is the elements assigned access key.
The Hidden State, Disabled State, and Action facets of the command are the same as the respective
facets of the first element in tree order that is a descendant of the parent of the <legend> element
that defines a command but is not a descendant of the <legend> element and is neither a label nor
a <legend> element.
If one of the earlier sections that define elements that define commands define that this element
defines a command, then that section applies to this element, and this section does not. Otherwise,
this section applies to that element.
The Label of the command depends on the element. If the element is a labeled control, the
textContent of the first <label> element in tree order whose labeled control is the element in
question is the Label (in DOM terms, this is the string given by
element .labels[0].textContent). Otherwise, the Label is the textContent of the element it-
self.
The Access Key of the command is the elements assigned access key.
The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false
otherwise.
The Disabled State of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, and false
otherwise.
2. If the element has a defined activation behavior, run synthetic click activation steps on the el-
ement.
3. Otherwise, if the element does not have a defined activation behavior, fire a click event at
the element.
The <dialog> element represents a part of an application that a user interacts with to perform a
task, for example a dialog box, inspector, or window.
The open attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified, it indicates that the <dialog> element is
active and that the user can interact with it.
EXAMPLE 568
The following is an example of a modal <dialog> which provides a form for a user to add coins
to their wallet, as part of an online game.
...
<body>
<div> <!-- body content --> </div>
<dialog>
<h1>Add to Wallet</h1>
<label for="num">How many gold coins do you want to add to your wallet?
</label>
<div><input name=amt id="num" type=number min=0 step=0.01 value=100>
</div>
<p><strong>You add coins at your own risk.</strong></p>
<div><label><input name=round type=checkbox> Only add perfectly round
coins </label>
<div><input type=button onclick="submit()" value="Add Coins"></div>
</dialog>
</body>
...
A <dialog> element without an open attribute specified should not be shown to the user. This re-
quirement may be implemented indirectly through the style layer. For example, user agents that
support the suggested default rendering implement this requirement using the CSS rules described
in 10 Rendering.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
dialog . show( [ anchor ] )
Displays the <dialog> element.
The argument, if provided, provides an anchor point to which the element will be fixed.
The argument, if provided, provides an anchor point to which the element will be fixed.
When the show() method is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. If the element already has an open attribute, then abort these steps.
2. Add an open attribute to the dialog element, whose value is the empty string.
3. If the show() method was invoked with an argument, set up the position of the <dialog> ele-
ment, using that argument as the anchor. Otherwise, set the dialog to the normal alignment
mode.
Each Document has a stack of <dialog> elements known as the pending dialog stack. When a
Document is created, this stack must be initialized to be empty.
When an element is added to the pending dialog stack, it must also be added to the top layer. When
an element is removed from the pending dialog stack, it must be removed from the top layer.
[FULLSCREEN]
When the showModal() method is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Let subject be the <dialog> element on which the method was invoked.
2. If subject already has an open attribute, then throw an InvalidStateError exception and
abort these steps.
5. If the showModal() method was invoked with an argument, set up the position of subject , us-
ing that argument as the anchor. Otherwise, set the dialog to the centered alignment mode.
The dialog focusing steps for a <dialog> element subject are as follows:
1. If for some reason subject is not a control group owner at this point, or if it is inert, abort
these steps.
2. Let control be the first non-inert focusable area in subject s control group whose DOM an-
chor has an autofocus attribute specified.
If there isnt one, then let control be the first non-inert focusable area in subject s control
group.
If at any time a <dialog> element is removed from a Document, then if that dialog is in that
Documents pending dialog stack, the following steps must be run:
1. Let subject be that <dialog> element and document be the Document from which it is being
removed.
3. If document s pending dialog stack is not empty, then let document be blocked by the modal
dialog that is at the top of document s pending dialog stack. Otherwise, let document be no
longer blocked by a modal dialog at all.
When the close() method is invoked, the user agent must close the dialog that the method was in-
voked on. If the method was invoked with an argument, that argument must be used as the return
value; otherwise, there is no return value.
When a <dialog> element subject is to be closed, optionally with a return value result , the user
agent must run the following steps:
1. If subject does not have an open attribute, then abort these steps.
3. If the argument result was provided, then set the returnValue attribute to the value of re-
sult .
4. If subject is in its Documents pending dialog stack, then run these substeps:
2. If that pending dialog stack is not empty, then let subject s node document be blocked
by the modal dialog that is at the top of the pending dialog stack. Otherwise, let docu-
ment be no longer blocked by a modal dialog at all.
The returnValue IDL attribute, on getting, must return the last value to which it was set. On set-
ting, it must be set to the new value. When the element is created, it must be set to the empty
string.
Canceling dialogs: When a Documents pending dialog stack is not empty, user agents may pro-
vide a user interface that, upon activation, queues a task to fire a simple event named cancel that
is cancelable at the top <dialog> element on the Documents pending dialog stack. The default ac-
tion of this event must be to check if that element has an open attribute, and if it does, close the di-
alog with no return value.
NOTE:
An example of such a UI mechanism would be the user pressing the "Escape" key.
All <dialog> elements are always in one of three modes: normal alignment, centered alignment,
and magic alignment. When a <dialog> element is created, it must be placed in the normal align-
ment mode. In this mode, normal CSS requirements apply to the element. The centered alignment
mode is only used for <dialog> elements that are in the top layer. [FULLSCREEN] [CSS-2015]
When an element subject is placed in centered alignment mode, and when it is in that mode and
has new rendering boxes created, the user agent must set up the element such that its top static po-
sition, for the purposes of calculating the used value of the top property, is the value that would
place the elements top margin edge as far from the top of the viewport as the elements bottom
margin edge from the bottom of the viewport, if the elements height is less than the height of the
viewport, and otherwise is the value that would place the elements top margin edge at the top of
the viewport.
If there is a <dialog> element with centered alignment and that is being rendered when its brows-
ing context changes viewport width (as measured in CSS pixels), then the user agent must recreate
the elements boxes, recalculating its top static position as in the previous paragraph.
This top static position of a <dialog> element with centered alignment must remain the elements
top static position until its boxes are recreated. (The elements static position is only used in calcu-
lating the used value of the top property in certain situations; its not used, for instance, to posi-
tion the element if its position property is set to static.)
When a user agent is to set up the position of an element subject using an anchor anchor , it
must run the following steps:
1. If anchor s target element does not have a rendered box, or is in a different document
than subject , then let subject be in the centered alignment mode, and abort the set up
the position steps.
2. Let anchor element be an anonymous element rendered as a box with zero height and
width (so its margin and border boxes both just form a point), positioned so that its
top and left are at the coordinate identified by the event, and whose properties all com-
pute to their initial values.
While an element A has magic alignment, aligned to an element B , the following requirements
apply:
If at any time either A or B cease having rendered boxes, A and B cease being in the same
Document, or B ceases being earlier than A in tree order, then, if subject is in the pending
dialog stack, let subject s mode become centered alignment, otherwise, let subject s mode
become normal alignment.
A s position property must compute to the keyword 'absolute-anchored' rather than what-
ever it would otherwise compute to (i.e., the position propertys specified value is ignored).
NOTE:
The 'absolute-anchored' keywords requirements are described below.
The anchor points for A and B are defined as per the appropriate entry in the following list:
Otherwise, A s anchor point is on one of its margin edges. Consider four hypotheti-
cal half-infinite lines L1, L2, L3, and L4 that each start in the center of B s first
boxs border box, and that extend respectively through the top left corner, top right
corner, bottom right corner, and bottom left corner of B s first boxs border box.
A s anchor point is determined by the location of B s anchor point relative to these
four hypothetical lines, as follows:
If the anchor point of B lies on L1 or L2, or inside the area bounded by L1 and L2
that also contains the points above B s first boxs border box, then let A s anchor
point be the horizontal center of A s bottom margin edge.
Otherwise, if the anchor point of B lies on L3 or L4, or inside the area bounded by
L3 and L4 that also contains the points below B s first boxs border box, then let
A s anchor point be the horizontal center of A s top margin edge.
Otherwise, if the anchor point of B lies inside the area bounded by L4 and L1 that
also contains the points to the left of B s first boxs border box, then let A s anchor
point be the vertical center of A s right margin edge.
Otherwise, the anchor point of B lies inside the area bounded by L2 and L3 that
also contains the points to the right of B s first boxs border box; let A s anchor
point be the vertical center of A s left margin edge.
Otherwise, B s anchor point is on one of its border edges. Consider four hypotheti-
cal half-infinite lines L1, L2, L3, and L4 that each start in the center of A s first
boxs margin box, and that extend respectively through the top left corner, top right
corner, bottom right corner, and bottom left corner of A s first boxs margin box.
B s anchor point is determined by the location of A s anchor point relative to these
four hypothetical lines, as follows:
If the anchor point of A lies on L1 or L2, or inside the area bounded by L1 and L2
that also contains the points above A s first boxs margin box, then let B s anchor
point be the horizontal center of B s bottom border edge.
Otherwise, if the anchor point of A lies on L3 or L4, or inside the area bounded by
L3 and L4 that also contains the points below A s first boxs margin box, then let
B s anchor point be the horizontal center of B s top border edge.
Otherwise, if the anchor point of A lies inside the area bounded by L4 and L1 that
also contains the points to the left of A s first boxs margin box, then let B s an-
chor point be the vertical center of B s right border edge.
Otherwise, the anchor point of A lies inside the area bounded by L2 and L3 that
also contains the points to the right of A s first boxs margin box; let B s anchor
point be the vertical center of B s left border edge.
NOTE:
The rules above generally use A s margin box, but B s border box. This is because while
A always has a margin box, and using the margin box allows for the dialog to be posi-
tioned offset from the box it is annotating, B sometimes does not have a margin box (e.g.,
if it is a table-cell), or has a margin box whose position may be not entirely clear (e.g., in
the face of margin collapsing and clear handling of in-flow blocks).
In cases where B does not have a border box but its border box is used by the algorithm
above, user agents must use its first boxs content area instead. (This is in particular an issue
with boxes in tables that have border-collapse set to collapse.)
static position, its anchor point is exactly aligned over the anchor point of the element to
which it is magically aligned. Elements aligned in this way are absolutely positioned. For the
purposes of determining the containing block of other elements, the 'absolute-anchored' key-
word must be treated like the absolute keyword.
NOTE:
The trivial example of an element that does not have a rendered box is one whose display
property computes to none. However, there are many other cases; e.g., table columns do not
have boxes (their properties merely affect other boxes).
NOTE:
If an element to which another element is anchored changes rendering, the anchored element
will be repositioned accordingly. (In other words, the requirements above are live, they are not
just calculated once per anchored element.)
NOTE:
The 'absolute-anchored' keyword is not a keyword that can be specified in CSS; the position
property can only compute to this value if the <dialog> element is positioned via the APIs de-
scribed above.
User agents in visual interactive media should allow the user to pan the viewport to access all parts
of a <dialog> elements border box, even if the element is larger than the viewport and the view-
port would otherwise not have a scroll mechanism (e.g., because the viewports overflow prop-
erty is set to hidden).
The open IDL attribute must reflect the open content attribute.
This section will eventually be moved to a CSS specification; it is specified here only
on an interim basis until an editor can be found to own this.
Name: anchor-point
Initial: none
Inherited: no
Media: visual
Computed The specified value, but with any lengths replaced by their corresponding
value: absolute length
Animatable: no
The anchor-point property specifies a point to which dialog boxes are to be aligned.
If the value is a <position>, the anchor point is the point given by the value, which must be inter-
preted relative to the elements first rendered boxs margin box. Percentages must be calculated
relative to the elements first rendered boxs margin box (specifically, its width for the horizontal
position and its height for the vertical position). [CSS-VALUES] [CSS-2015]
If the value is the keyword none, then no explicit anchor point is defined. The user agent will
pick an anchor point automatically if necessary (as described in the definition of the open()
method above).
4.12. Scripting
Authors are encouraged to use declarative alternatives to scripting where possible, as declarative
mechanisms are often more maintainable, and many users disable scripting.
EXAMPLE 569
For example, instead of using script to show or hide a section to show more details, the
<details> element could be used.
Authors are also encouraged to make their applications degrade gracefully in the absence of script-
ing support.
EXAMPLE 570
For example, if an author provides a link in a table header to dynamically resort the table, the
link could also be made to function without scripts by requesting the sorted table from the
server.
None
Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
None
DOM interface:
The <script> element allows authors to include dynamic script and data blocks in their documents.
The element does not represent content for the user.
Omitting the attribute, or setting it to a JavaScript MIME type, means that the script is a clas-
sic script, to be interpreted according to the JavaScript Script top-level production. Classic
scripts are affected by the charset, async, and defer attributes. Authors should omit the at-
tribute, instead of redundantly giving a JavaScript MIME type.
Setting the attribute to an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "module" means that
the script is a module script, to be interpreted according to the JavaScript Module top-level
production. Module scripts are not affected by the charset and defer attributes.
Setting the attribute to any other value means that the script is a data block, which is not pro-
cessed. None of the <script> attributes (except type itself) have any effect on data blocks.
Authors must use a valid MIME type that is not a JavaScript MIME type to denote data
blocks.
NOTE:
The requirement that data blocks must be denoted using a valid MIME type is in place to avoid
potential future collisions. If this specification ever adds additional types of script, they will be
triggered by setting the type attribute to something which is not a MIME type, like how the
"module" value denotes module scripts. By using a valid MIME type now, you ensure that
your data block will not ever be reinterpreted as a different script type, even in future user
agents.
Classic scripts and module scripts may either be embedded inline or may be imported from an ex-
ternal file using the src attribute, which if specified gives the URL of the external script resource
to use. If src is specified, it must be a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
The contents of inline <script> elements, or the external script resource, must conform with the
requirements of the JavaScript specifications Script or Module productions, for classic scripts and
module scripts respectively. [ECMA-262]
When used to include data blocks, the data must be embedded inline, the format of the data must
be given using the type attribute, and the contents of the <script> element must conform to the re-
quirements defined for the format used. The src, charset, async, defer, crossorigin, and
nonce attributes must not be specified.
The charset attribute gives the character encoding of the external script resource. The attribute
must not be specified if the src attribute is not present, or if the script is not a classic script. (Mod-
ule scripts are always interpreted as UTF-8.) If the attribute is set, its value must be an ASCII
case-insensitive match for one of the labels of an encoding, and must specify the same encoding as
the charset parameter of the Content-Type metadata of the external file, if any. [ENCODING]
The async and defer attributes are boolean attributes that indicate how the script should be exe-
cuted. Classic scripts may specify defer or async; module scripts may specify async.
There are several possible modes that can be selected using these attributes, and depending on the
scripts type.
For classic scripts, if the async attribute is present, then the classic script will be fetched in paral-
lel to parsing and evaluated as soon as it is available (potentially before parsing completes). If the
async attribute is not present but the defer attribute is present, then the classic script will be
fetched in parallel and evaluated when the page has finished parsing. If neither attribute is present,
then the script is fetched and evaluated immediately, blocking parsing until these are both com-
plete.
For module scripts, if the async attribute is present, then the module script and all its dependencies
will be fetched in parallel to parsing, and the module script will be evaluated as soon as it is avail-
able (potentially before parsing completes). Otherwise, the module script and its dependencies will
be fetched in parallel to parsing and evaluated when the page has finished parsing. (The defer at-
tribute has no effect on module scripts.)
Scripting:
<script>
HT ML Parser:
Scripting:
<script defer>
HT ML Parser:
Scripting:
<script async>
HT ML Parser:
NOTE:
The exact processing details for these attributes are, for mostly historical reasons, somewhat
non-trivial, involving a number of aspects of HTML. The implementation requirements are
therefore by necessity scattered throughout the specification. The algorithms below (in this
section) describe the core of this processing, but these algorithms reference and are referenced
by the parsing rules for <script> start and end tags in HTML, in foreign content, and in XML,
the rules for the document.write() method, the handling of scripting, etc.
The defer attribute may be specified even if the async attribute is specified, to cause legacy Web
browsers that only support defer (and not async) to fall back to the defer behavior instead of the
blocking behavior that is the default.
The crossorigin attribute is a CORS settings attribute. For classic scripts, it controls whether er-
ror information will be exposed, when the script is obtained from other origins. For module scripts,
it controls the credentials mode used for cross-origin requests.
NOTE:
Unlike classic scripts, module scripts require the use of the CORS protocol for cross-origin
fetching.
The nonce attribute represents a cryptographic nonce ("number used once") which can be used by
Content Security Policy to determine whether or not the script specified by an element will be exe-
cuted. The value is text. [CSP3]
Changing the src, type, charset, async, defer, crossorigin, and nonce attributes dynamically
has no direct effect; these attributes are only used at specific times described below.
The IDL attributes src, type, charset, defer, and nonce, must each reflect the respective content
attributes of the same name.
The crossOrigin IDL attribute must reflect the crossorigin content attribute.
The async IDL attribute controls whether the element will execute in parallel or not. If the ele-
ments "non-blocking" flag is set, then, on getting, the async IDL attribute must return true, and
on setting, the "non-blocking" flag must first be unset, and then the content attribute must be re-
moved if the IDL attributes new value is false, and must be set to the empty string if the IDL at-
tributes new value is true. If the elements "non-blocking" flag is not set, the IDL attribute must
reflect the async content attribute.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
script . text [ = value ]
Returns the child text content of the element.
Can be set, to replace the elements children with the given value.
The IDL attribute text must return the child text content of the <script> element. On setting, it
must act the same way as the textContent IDL attribute.
NOTE:
When inserted using the document.write() method, <script> elements execute (typically
blocking further script execution or HTML parsing), but when inserted using innerHTML and
outerHTML attributes, they do not execute at all.
EXAMPLE 571
In this example, two <script> elements are used. One embeds an external classic script, and
the other includes some data as a data block.
<script src="game-engine.js"></script>
<script type="text/x-game-map">
........U.........e
o............A....e
.....A.....AAA....e
.A..AAA...AAAAA...e
</script>
The data in this case might be used by the script to generate the map of a video game. The data
doesnt have to be used that way, though; maybe the map data is actually embedded in other
parts of the pages markup, and the data block here is just used by the sites search engine to
help users who are looking for particular features in their game maps.
EXAMPLE 572
The following sample shows how a <script> element can be used to define a function that is
then used by other parts of the document, as part of a classic script. It also shows how a
<script> element can be used to invoke script while the document is being parsed, in this case
to initialize the forms output.
<script>
function calculate(form) {
var price = 52000;
if (form.elements.brakes.checked)
price += 1000;
if (form.elements.radio.checked)
price += 2500;
if (form.elements.turbo.checked)
price += 5000;
if (form.elements.sticker.checked)
price += 250;
form.elements.result.value = price;
}
</script>
<form name="pricecalc" onsubmit="return false"
onchange="calculate(this)">
<fieldset>
<legend>Work out the price of your car</legend>
<p>Base cost: 52000.</p>
<p>Select additional options:</p>
<ul>
<li><label><input type=checkbox name=brakes> Ceramic brakes (1000)
</label></li>
<li><label><input type=checkbox name=radio> Satellite radio (2500)
</label></li>
<li><label><input type=checkbox name=turbo> Turbo charger (5000)
</label></li>
<li><label><input type=checkbox name=sticker> "XZ" sticker (250)
</label></li>
</ul>
<p>Total: <output name=result></output></p>
</fieldset>
<script>
calculate(document.forms.pricecalc);
</script>
</form>
EXAMPLE 573
The following sample shows how a <script> element can be used to include an external mod-
ule script.
This module, and all its dependencies (expressed through JavaScript import statements in the
source file), will be fetched. Once the entire resulting module tree has been imported, and the
document has finished parsing, the contents of app.js will be evaluated.
EXAMPLE 574
The following sample shows how a <script> element can be used to write an inline module
script that performs a number of substitutions on the documents text, in order to make for a
more interesting reading experience (e.g. on a news site): [XKCD-1288]
<script type="module">
import { walkAllTextNodeDescendants } from "./dom-utils.js";
function substitute(textNode) {
for (const [before, after] of substitutions.entries()) {
textNode.data = textNode.data.replace(new RegExp(
\\b${before}\\b
, "ig"), after);
}
}
walkAllTextNodeDescendants(document.body, substitute);
</script>
Some notable features gained by using a module script include the ability to import functions
from other JavaScript modules, strict mode by default, and how top-level declarations do not
introduce new properties onto the global object. Also note that no matter where this <script>
element appears in the document, it will not be evaluated until both document parsing has
complete and its dependency (dom-utils.js) has been fetched and evaluated.
The first is a flag indicating whether or not the script block has been "already started". Initially,
<script> elements must have this flag unset (script blocks, when created, are not "already
started"). The cloning steps for <script> elements must set the "already started" flag on the copy if
it is set on the element being cloned.
The second is a flag indicating whether the element was "parser-inserted". Initially, <script> ele-
ments must have this flag unset. It is set by the HTML parser and the XML parser on <script> ele-
ments they insert and affects the processing of those elements.
The third is a flag indicating whether the element will "non-blocking". Initially, <script> ele-
ments must have this flag set. It is unset by the HTML parser and the XML parser on <script> ele-
ments they insert. In addition, whenever a <script> element whose "non-blocking" flag is set has
an async content attribute added, the elements "non-blocking" flag must be unset.
The fourth is a flag indicating whether or not the script block is "ready to be parser-executed".
Initially, <script> elements must have this flag unset (script blocks, when created, are not "ready
to be parser-executed"). This flag is used only for elements that are also "parser-inserted", to let the
parser know when to execute the script.
The fifth is the scripts type, which is either "classic" or "module". It is determined when the
script is prepared, based on the type attribute of the element at that time. Initially, <script> ele-
ments must have this flag unset.
The sixth is a flag indicating whether or not the script is from an external file. It is determined
when the script is prepared, based on the src attribute of the element at that time.
Finally, a <script> element has the scripts script, which is a <script> resulting from preparing
the element. This is set asynchronously after the classic script or module tree is fetched. Once it is
set, either to a <script> in the case of success or to null in the case of failure, the fetching algo-
rithms will note that the script is ready, which can trigger other actions. The user agent must de-
lay the load event of the elements node document until the script is ready.
When a <script> element that is not marked as being "parser-inserted" experiences one of the
events listed in the following list, the user agent must immediately prepare the <script> element:
The <script> element gets inserted into a document, at the time the node is inserted according
to the DOM, after any other <script> elements inserted at the same time that are earlier in the
Document in tree order.
The <script> element is in a Document and a node or document fragment is inserted into the
<script> element, after any <script> elements inserted at that time.
The <script> element is in a Document and has a src attribute set where previously the ele-
ment had no such attribute.
1. If the <script> element is marked as having "already started", then the user agent must abort
these steps at this point. The script is not executed.
2. If the element has its "parser-inserted" flag set, then set was-parser-inserted to true and unset
the elements "parser-inserted" flag. Otherwise, set was-parser-inserted to false.
NOTE:
This is done so that if parser-inserted <script> elements fail to run when the parser tries
to run them, e.g., because they are empty or specify an unsupported scripting language,
another script can later mutate them and cause them to run again.
3. If was-parser-inserted is true and the element does not have an async attribute, then set the
elements "non-blocking" flag to true.
NOTE:
This is done so that if a parser-inserted <script> element fails to run when the parser tries
to run it, but it is later executed after a script dynamically updates it, it will execute in a
non-blocking fashion even if the async attribute isnt set.
4. If the element has no src attribute, and its child nodes, if any, consist only of comment nodes
and empty Text nodes, then abort these steps at this point. The script is not executed.
5. If the element is not in a Document, then the user agent must abort these steps at this point.
The script is not executed.
6. If either:
the <script> element has a type attribute and its value is the empty string, or
the <script> element has no type attribute but it has a language attribute and that at-
tributes value is the empty string, or
the <script> element has neither a type attribute nor a language attribute, then
...let the script blocks type string for this <script> element be "text/javascript".
Otherwise, if the <script> element has a type attribute, let the script blocks type string for
this <script> element be the value of that attribute with any leading or trailing sequences of
space characters removed.
Otherwise, the element has a non-empty language attribute; let the script blocks type string
for this <script> element be the child text content of the language attribute.
NOTE:
The language attribute is never conforming, and is always ignored if there is a type at-
tribute present.
If the script blocks type string is an ASCII case-insensitive match for any JavaScript
MIME type, the scripts type is "classic".
If the script blocks type string is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string
"module", the scripts type is "module".
If neither of the above conditions are true, then abort these steps at this point. No script
is executed.
7. If was-parser-inserted is true, then flag the element as "parser-inserted" again, and set the el-
ements "non-blocking" flag to false.
8. The user agent must set the elements "already started" flag.
9. If the element is flagged as "parser-inserted", but the elements node document is not the
Document of the parser that created the element, then abort these steps.
10. If scripting is disabled for the <script> element, then abort these steps at this point. The script
is not executed.
NOTE:
The definition of scripting is disabled means that, amongst others, the following scripts
will not execute: scripts in XMLHttpRequest's responseXML documents, scripts in
DOMParser-created documents, scripts in documents created by XSLTProcessors
transformToDocument feature, and scripts that are first inserted by a script into a
Document that was created using the createDocument() API. [XHR]
[DOM-PARSING] [XSLTP] [DOM]
11. If the <script> element does not have a src content attribute, and the Should elements inline
behavior be blocked by Content Security Policy? algorithm returns "Blocked" when executed
upon the <script> element, "script", and the <script> elements child text content, then
abort these steps. The script is not executed. [CSP3]
12. If the <script> element has an event attribute and a for attribute, and the scripts type is
"classic", then run these substeps:
3. Strip leading and trailing white space from event and for .
4. If for is not an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "window", then the user agent
must abort these steps at this point. The script is not executed.
5. If event is not an ASCII case-insensitive match for either the string "onload" or the
string "onload()", then the user agent must abort these steps at this point. The script is
not executed.
13. If the <script> element has a charset attribute, then let encoding be the result of getting an
encoding from the value of the charset attribute.
If the <script> element does not have a charset attribute, or if getting an encoding failed, let
encoding be the same as the encoding of the document itself.
NOTE:
If the scripts type is "module", this encoding will be ignored.
14. Let CORS setting be the current state of the elements crossorigin content attribute.
15. If the <script> element has a nonce attribute, then let cryptographic nonce be that attributes
value.
16. Let parser state be "parser-inserted" if the <script> element has been flagged as "parser-
inserted", and "not parser-inserted" otherwise.
17. Let settings be the elements node documents Window objects environment settings object.
18. If the element has a src content attribute, run these substeps:
2. If src is the empty string, queue a task to fire a simple event named error at the ele-
ment, and abort these steps.
5. If the previous step failed, queue a task to fire a simple event named error at the ele-
ment, and abort these steps.
"classic"
Fetch a classic script given url , CORS setting , cryptographic nonce , parser
state , settings , and encoding .
"module"
No CORS
"omit"
Anonymous
"same-origin"
Use Credentials
"include"
When the chosen algorithm asynchronously completes, set the scripts script to the re-
sult. At that time, the script is ready.
For performance reasons, user agents may start fetching the classic script or module tree
(as defined above) as the src attribute is set, instead, in the hope that the element will be
inserted into the document (and that the crossorigin attribute wont change value in
the meantime). Either way, once the element is inserted into the document, the load must
have started as described in this step. If the UA performs such prefetching, but the ele-
ment is never inserted in the document, or the src attribute is dynamically changed, or
the crossorigin attribute is dynamically changed, then the user agent will not execute
the script so obtained, and the fetching process will have been effectively wasted.
19. If the element does not have a src content attribute, run these substeps:
"classic"
1. Let script be the result of creating a classic script using source text and
settings .
"module"
2. Let script be the result of creating a module script using source text ,
settings , base URL , and CORS setting .
3. If this returns null, set the scripts script to null and abort these substeps;
the script is ready.
20. Then, follow the first of the following options that describes the situation:
1. If the element is not now the first element in the list of scripts that will execute
in order as soon as possible to which it was added above, then mark the ele-
ment as ready but abort these steps without executing the script yet.
2. Execution : Execute the script block corresponding to the first script element
in this list of scripts that will execute in order as soon as possible.
3. Remove the first element from this list of scripts that will execute in order as
soon as possible.
4. If this list of scripts that will execute in order as soon as possible is still not
empty and the first entry has already been marked as ready, then jump back to
the step labeled Execution .
an XML parser or an
HTML parser whose script
nesting level is not greater
than one created the
<script>
The element is the pending parsing-blocking script of the Document of the parser
that created the element. (There can only be one such script per Document at a
time.)
Set the elements "ready to be parser-executed" flag. The parser will handle execut-
ing the script.
Otherwise
Immediately execute the script block, even if other scripts are already executing.
NOTE:
If a <script> element that blocks a parser gets moved to another Document before it would
normally have stopped blocking that parser, it nonetheless continues blocking that parser until
the condition that causes it to be blocking the parser no longer applies (e.g., if the script is a
pending parsing-blocking script because there was a style sheet that is blocking scripts when it
was parsed, but then the script is moved to another Document before the style sheet loads, the
script still blocks the parser until the style sheets are all loaded, at which time the script exe-
cutes and the parser is unblocked).
When the user agent is required to execute a script block, it must run the following steps:
1. If the element is flagged as "parser-inserted", but the elements node document is not the
Document of the parser that created the element, then abort these steps.
2. If the scripts script is null, fire a simple event named error at the element, and abort these
steps.
3. If the script is from an external file, or the scripts type is "module", then increment the ig-
nore-destructive-writes counter of the <script> elements node document. Let neutralized
doc be that Document.
4. Let old script element be the value to which the <script> elements node documents
currentScript object was most recently set.
"classic"
NOTE:
This does not use the in a document check, as the <script> element could
have been removed from the document prior to execution, and in that sce-
nario currentScript still needs to point to it.
"module"
6. Set the <script> elements node documents currentScript object to old script element .
8. If the scripts type is "classic" and the script is from an external file, fire a simple event
named load at the <script> element.
Otherwise queue a task to fire a simple event named load at the <script> element.
A JavaScript MIME type is a MIME type string that is one of the following and refers to
JavaScript: [ECMA-262]
application/ecmascript
application/javascript
application/x-ecmascript
application/x-javascript
text/ecmascript
text/javascript
text/javascript1.0
text/javascript1.1
text/javascript1.2
text/javascript1.3
text/javascript1.4
text/javascript1.5
text/jscript
text/livescript
text/x-ecmascript
text/x-javascript
User agents may support other MIME types for other languages, but must not support other MIME
types for the languages in the list above. User agents are not required to support JavaScript. The
processing model for languages other than JavaScript is outside the scope of this specification.
The following MIME types (with or without parameters) must not be interpreted as scripting lan-
guages:
text/plain
text/xml
application/octet-stream
application/xml
NOTE:
These types are explicitly listed here because they are poorly-defined types that are nonethe-
less likely to be used as formats for data blocks, and it would be problematic if they were sud-
denly to be interpreted as script by a user agent.
When examining types to determine if they represent supported languages, user agents must not
ignore MIME parameters. Types are to be compared including all parameters.
NOTE:
For example, types that include the charset parameter will not be recognized as referencing
any of the scripting languages listed above.
NOTE:
The easiest and safest way to avoid the rather strange restrictions described in this section is to
always escape "<!--" as "<\!--", "<script" as "<\script", and
"</script" as "<\/script" when these sequences appear in literals in scripts (e.g., in
strings, regular expressions, or comments), and to avoid writing code that uses such constructs
in expressions. Doing so avoids the pitfalls that the restrictions in this section are prone to trig-
gering: namely, that, for historical reasons, parsing of <script> blocks in HTML is a strange
and exotic practice that acts unintuitively in the face of these sequences.
The textContent of a <script> element must match the script production in the following
ABNF, the character set for which is Unicode. [ABNF]
outer = < any string that doesnt contain a substring that matches
not-in-outer >
not-in-outer = comment-open
inner = < any string that doesnt contain a substring that matches
not-in-inner >
not-in-inner = comment-close / script-open
comment-open = "<!--"
comment-close = "-->"
script-open = "<" s c r i p t tag-end
When a <script> element contains script documentation, there are further restrictions on the con-
tents of the element, as described in the section below.
EXAMPLE 575
The following script illustrates this issue. Suppose you have a script that contains a string, as
in:
If one were to put this string directly in a <script> block, it would violate the restrictions
above:
<script>
var example = 'Consider this string: <!-- <script>';
console.log(example);
</script>
The bigger problem, though, and the reason why it would violate those restrictions, is that ac-
tually the script would get parsed weirdly: the script block above is not terminated. That is,
what looks like a "</script>" end tag in this snippet is actually still part of the
<script> block. The script doesnt execute (since its not terminated); if it somehow were to
execute, as it might if the markup looked as follows, it would fail because the script is not valid
JavaScript:
<script>
var example = 'Consider this string: <!-- <script>';
console.log(example);
</script>
<!-- despite appearances, this is actually part of the script still! -->
<script>
... // this is the same script block still...
</script>
What is going on here is that for legacy reasons, "<!--" and "<script" strings in
<script> elements in HTML need to be balanced in order for the parser to consider closing the
block.
By escaping the problematic strings as mentioned at the top of this section, the problem is
avoided entirely:
<script>
var example = 'Consider this string: <\!-- <\script>';
console.log(example);
</script>
<!-- this is just a comment between script blocks -->
<script>
... // this is a new script block
</script>
It is possible for these sequences to naturally occur in script expressions, as in the following
examples:
if (x<!--y) { ... }
if ( player<script ) { ... }
In such cases the characters cannot be escaped, but the expressions can be rewritten so that the
sequences dont occur, as in:
Doing this also avoids a different pitfall as well: for related historical reasons, the string
"<!--" in classic scripts is actually treated as a line comment start, just like "//".
If a <script> elements src attribute is specified, then the contents of the <script> element, if any,
must be such that the value of the text IDL attribute, which is derived from the elements con-
tents, matches the documentation production in the following ABNF, the character set for which
is Unicode. [ABNF]
; characters
tab = %x0009 ; U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab)
newline = %x000A ; U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
space = %x0020 ; U+0020 SPACE
star = %x002A ; U+002A ASTERISK (*)
slash = %x002F ; U+002F SOLIDUS (/)
not-newline = %x0000-0009 / %x000B-10FFFF
; a Unicode character other than U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
not-star = %x0000-0029 / %x002B-10FFFF
; a Unicode character other than U+002A ASTERISK (*)
not-slash = %x0000-002E / %x0030-10FFFF
; a Unicode character other than U+002F SOLIDUS (/)
NOTE:
This corresponds to putting the contents of the element in JavaScript comments.
NOTE:
This requirement is in addition to the earlier restrictions on the syntax of contents of <script>
elements.
EXAMPLE 576
This allows authors to include documentation, such as license information or API information,
inside their documents while still referring to external script files. The syntax is constrained so
that authors dont accidentally include what looks like valid script while also providing a src
attribute.
<script src="cool-effects.js">
// create new instances using:
// var e = new Effect();
// start the effect using .play, stop using .stop:
// e.play();
// e.stop();
</script>
This specification does not define how XSLT interacts with the <script> element. However, in the
absence of another specification actually defining this, here are some guidelines for implementors,
based on existing implementations:
The main distinction between the first two cases and the last case is that the first two operate on
Documents and the last operates on a fragment.
The <noscript> element represents nothing if scripting is enabled, and represents its children if
scripting is disabled. It is used to present different markup to user agents that support scripting and
those that dont support scripting, by affecting how the document is parsed.
2. Make a list of every <noscript> element in the document. For every <noscript> element
in that list, perform the following steps:
2. Set the outerHTML attribute of the <noscript> element to the value of s . (This, as a
side-effect, causes the <noscript> element to be removed from the document.)
[DOM-PARSING]
NOTE:
All these contortions are required because, for historical reasons, the <noscript> element is
handled differently by the HTML parser based on whether scripting was enabled or not when
the parser was invoked.
NOTE:
The <noscript> element is only effective in the HTML syntax, it has no effect in the XHTML
syntax. This is because the way it works is by essentially "turning off" the parser when scripts
are enabled, so that the contents of the element are treated as pure text and not as real elements.
XML does not define a mechanism by which to do this.
The <noscript> element has no other requirements. In particular, children of the <noscript> ele-
ment are not exempt from 4.10.21 Form submission, scripting, and so forth, even when scripting
is enabled for the element.
EXAMPLE 577
In the following example, a <noscript> element is used to provide fallback for a script.
<form action="calcSquare.php">
<p>
<label for=x>Number</label>:
<input id="x" name="x" type="number">
</p>
<script>
var x = document.getElementById('x');
var output = document.createElement('p');
output.textContent = 'Type a number; it will be squared right then!';
x.form.appendChild(output);
x.form.onsubmit = function () { return false; }
x.oninput = function () {
var v = x.valueAsNumber;
output.textContent = v + ' squared is ' + v * v;
};
</script>
<noscript>
<input type=submit value="Calculate Square">
</noscript>
</form>
When script is disabled, a button appears to do the calculation on the server side. When script
is enabled, the value is computed on-the-fly instead.
The <noscript> element is a blunt instrument. Sometimes, scripts might be enabled, but for
some reason the pages script might fail. For this reason, its generally better to avoid using
<noscript>, and to instead design the script to change the page from being a scriptless page to
a scripted page on the fly, as in the next example:
<form action="calcSquare.php">
<p>
<label for=x>Number</label>:
<input id="x" name="x" type="number">
</p>
<input id="submit" type=submit value="Calculate Square">
<script>
var x = document.getElementById('x');
var output = document.createElement('p');
output.textContent = 'Type a number; it will be squared right then!';
x.form.appendChild(output);
x.form.onsubmit = function () { return false; }
x.oninput = function () {
var v = x.valueAsNumber;
output.textContent = v + ' squared is ' + v * v;
};
var submit = document.getElementById('submit');
submit.parentNode.removeChild(submit);
</script>
</form>
The above technique is also useful in XHTML, since <noscript> is not supported in the
XHTML syntax.
The <template> element is used to declare fragments of HTML that can be cloned and inserted in
the document by script.
NOTE:
Templates provide a method for declaring inert DOM subtrees and manipulating them to in-
stantiate document fragments with identical contents.
NOTE:
When web pages dynamically alter the contents of their documents (e.g., in response to user
interaction or new data arriving from the server), it is common that they require fragments of
HTML which may require further modification before use, such as the insertion of values ap-
propriate for the usage context.
NOTE:
The <template> element allows for the declaration of document fragments which are unused by
the document when loaded, but are parsed as HTML and are available at runtime for use by the
web page.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
template . content
Returns the contents of the <template>, which are stored in a DocumentFragment associ-
ated with a different Document so as to avoid the <template> contents interfering with
the main Document. (For example, this avoids form controls from being submitted,
scripts from executing, and so forth.)
Each <template> element has an associated DocumentFragment object that is its template con-
tents. When a <template> element is created, the user agent must run the following steps to estab-
lish the template contents:
1. Let doc be the <template> elements node documents appropriate template contents owner
document.
3. Set the <template> elements template contents to the newly created DocumentFragment ob-
ject.
A Document doc s appropriate template contents owner document is the Document returned by
the following algorithm:
1. If doc does not yet have an associated inert template document then run these sub-
steps:
1. Let new doc be a new Document (that does not have a browsing context). This is "a
Document created by this algorithm" for the purposes of the step above.
NOTE:
Each Document not created by this algorithm thus gets a single Document to act as its
proxy for owning the template contents of all its <template> elements, so that they arent
in a browsing context and thus remain inert (e.g., scripts do not run). Meanwhile,
<template> elements inside Document objects that are created by this algorithm just reuse
the same Document owner for their contents.
2. Return doc .
The adopting steps (with node and oldDocument as parameters) for <template> elements are the
following:
1. Let doc be node s node documents appropriate template contents owner document.
NOTE:
node s node document is the Document object that node was just adopted into.
The content IDL attribute must return the <template> elements template contents.
The cloning steps for a template element node being cloned to a copy copy must run the follow-
ing steps:
1. If the clone children flag is not set in the calling clone algorithm, abort these steps.
2. Let copied contents be the result of cloning all the children of node s template contents,
with document set to copy s template contentss node document, and with the clone chil-
dren flag set.
EXAMPLE 578
In this example, a script populates a table four-column with data from a data structure, using a
template to provide the element structure instead of manually generating the structure from
markup.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<title>Cat data</title>
<script>
// Data is hard-coded here, but could come from the server
var data = [
{ name: 'Pillar', color: 'Ticked Tabby', sex: 'Female (neutered)',
legs: 3 },
{ name: 'Hedral', color: 'Tuxedo', sex: 'Male (neutered)', legs: 4 },
];
</script>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Name <th>Color <th>Sex <th>Legs
<tbody>
<template id="row">
<tr><td><td><td><td>
</template>
</table>
<script>
var template = document.querySelector('#row');
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i += 1) {
var cat = data[i];
var clone = template.content.cloneNode(true);
var cells = clone.querySelectorAll('td');
cells[0].textContent = cat.name;
cells[1].textContent = cat.color;
cells[2].textContent = cat.sex;
cells[3].textContent = cat.legs;
template.parentNode.appendChild(clone);
}
</script>
This example uses cloneNode() on the templates contents; it could equivalently have used
document.importNode(), which does the same thing. The only difference between these two
APIs is when the node document is updated: with cloneNode() it is updated when the nodes
are appended with appendChild(), with document.importNode() it is updated when the
nodes are cloned.
This specification does not define how XSLT and XPath interact with the template element.
However, in the absence of another specification actually defining this, here are some guidelines
for implementors, which are intended to be consistent with other processing described in this spec-
ification:
An XSLT processor based on an XML parser that acts as described in this specification needs
to act as if <template> elements contain as descendants their template contents for the pur-
poses of the transform.
An XSLT processor that outputs a DOM needs to ensure that nodes that would go into a
<template> element are instead placed into the elements template contents.
XPath evaluation using the XPath DOM API when applied to a Document parsed using the
HTML parser or the XML parser described in this specification needs to ignore template con-
tents.
The <canvas> element provides scripts with a resolution-dependent bitmap canvas, which can be
used for rendering graphs, game graphics, art, or other visual images on the fly.
Authors should not use the <canvas> element in a document when a more suitable element is avail-
able. For example, it is inappropriate to use a <canvas> element to render a page heading: if the de-
sired presentation of the heading is graphically intense, it should be marked up using appropriate
elements (typically h1) and then styled using CSS and supporting technologies such as Web Com-
ponents.
When authors use the <canvas> element, they must also provide content that, when presented to the
user, conveys essentially the same function or purpose as the <canvas>'s bitmap. This content may
be placed as content of the <canvas> element. The contents of the <canvas> element, if any, are the
elements fallback content.
In interactive visual media, if scripting is enabled for the <canvas> element, and if support for
<canvas> elements has been enabled, the <canvas> element represents embedded content consisting
of a dynamically created image, the elements bitmap.
In non-interactive, static, visual media, if the <canvas> element has been previously associated
with a rendering context (e.g., if the page was viewed in an interactive visual medium and is now
being printed, or if some script that ran during the page layout process painted on the element),
then the <canvas> element represents embedded content with the elements current bitmap and
size. Otherwise, the element represents its fallback content instead.
In non-visual media, and in visual media if scripting is disabled for the <canvas> element or if sup-
port for <canvas> elements has been disabled, the <canvas> element represents its fallback content
instead.
When a <canvas> element represents embedded content, the user can still focus descendants of the
<canvas> element (in the fallback content). When an element is focused, it is the target of keyboard
interaction events (even though the element itself is not visible). This allows authors to make an
interactive canvas keyboard-accessible: authors should have a one-to-one mapping of interactive
regions to focusable areas in the fallback content. (Focus has no effect on mouse interaction
events.) [UIEVENTS]
An element whose nearest <canvas> element ancestor is being rendered and represents embedded
content is an element that is being used as relevant canvas fallback content.
The <canvas> element has two attributes to control the size of the elements bitmap: width and
height. These attributes, when specified, must have values that are valid non-negative integers.
The rules for parsing non-negative integers must be used to obtain their numeric values. If an at-
tribute is missing, or if parsing its value returns an error, then the default value must be used in-
stead. The width attribute defaults to 300, and the height attribute defaults to 150.
The intrinsic dimensions of the <canvas> element when it represents embedded content are equal to
the dimensions of the elements bitmap.
The user agent must use a square pixel density consisting of one pixel of image data per coordinate
space unit for the bitmaps of a canvas and its rendering contexts.
NOTE:
A <canvas> element can be sized arbitrarily by a style sheet, its bitmap is then subject to the
object-fit CSS property. [CSS3-IMAGES]
The bitmaps of <canvas> elements, the bitmaps of ImageBitmap objects, as well as some of the bit-
maps of rendering contexts, such as those described in the section on the
CanvasRenderingContext2D object below, have an origin-clean flag, which can be set to true or
false. Initially, when the <canvas> element or ImageBitmap object is created, its bitmaps origin-
clean flag must be set to true.
A canvas bitmap can also have a hit region list, as described in the CanvasRenderingContext2D
section below.
A <canvas> element can have a rendering context bound to it. Initially, it does not have a bound
rendering context. To keep track of whether it has a rendering context or not, and what kind of ren-
dering context it is, a canvas also has a canvas context mode, which is initially none but can be
changed to either 2d, webgl by algorithms defined in this specification.
When its canvas context mode is none, a <canvas> element has no rendering context, and its bit-
map must be fully transparent black with an intrinsic width equal to the numeric value of the ele-
ments width attribute and an intrinsic height equal to the numeric value of the elements height
attribute, those values being interpreted in CSS pixels, and being updated as the attributes are set,
changed, or removed.
When a <canvas> element represents embedded content, it provides a paint source whose width is
the elements intrinsic width, whose height is the elements intrinsic height, and whose appearance
is the elements bitmap.
Whenever the width and height content attributes are set, removed, changed, or redundantly set
to the value they already have, if the canvas context mode is 2d, the user agent must set bitmap di-
mensions to the numeric values of the width and height content attributes.
The width and height IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same
name, with the same defaults.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
context = canvas . getContext( contextId [, ... ] )
Returns an object that exposes an API for drawing on the canvas. The first argument
specifies the desired API, either "2d" or "webgl". Subsequent arguments are handled by
that API.
The list of defined contexts is given on the WHATWG Wiki CanvasContexts page.
[WHATWGWIKI]
Example contexts are the "2d" [CANVAS-2D] and the "webgl" context [WEBGL].
Returns null if the given context ID is not supported or if the canvas has already been
initialized with some other (incompatible) context type (e.g., trying to get a "2d" context
This return value is not a guarantee that getContext() will or will not return an object,
as conditions (e.g., availability of system resources) can vary over time.
The getContext( contextId , arguments... ) method of the <canvas> element, when invoked,
must run the steps in the cell of the following table whose column header describes the <canvas>
elements canvas context mode and whose row header describes the methods first argument.
none 2d webgl
"webgl", if the Follow the instructions given in the Return null. Return the
user agent WebGL specifications Context same object
supports the Creation section to obtain either a as was
WebGL WebGLRenderingContext or null; if return the
feature in its the returned value is null, then return last time the
current null and abort these steps, otherwise, method was
configuration set the <canvas> elements context invoked
mode to webgl, set the new with this
WebGLRenderingContext objects same first
context mode to webgl, and return argument.
the WebGLRenderingContext object
[WEBGL]
none 2d webgl
* Vendors may define experimental contexts using the syntax vendorname - context , for example, moz-3d.
For example, the "webgl" value in the case of a user agent having exhausted the graphics hardwares abilities and
having no software fallback implementation.
The second (and subsequent) argument(s) to the method, if any, are ignored in all cases except this one. See the We-
bGL specification for details.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
url = canvas . toDataURL( [ type , ... ] )
Returns a data: URL for the image in the canvas.
The first argument, if provided, controls the type of the image to be returned (e.g., PNG
or JPEG). The default is image/png; that type is also used if the given type isnt sup-
ported. The other arguments are specific to the type, and control the way that the image
is generated, as given in the table below.
When trying to use types other than "image/png", authors can check if the image was
really returned in the requested format by checking to see if the returned string starts
with one of the exact strings "data:image/png," or "data:image/png;". If it does, the
image is PNG, and thus the requested type was not supported. (The one exception to this
is if the canvas has either no height or no width, in which case the result might simply be
"data:,".)
The second argument, if provided, controls the type of the image to be returned (e.g.,
PNG or JPEG). The default is image/png; that type is also used if the given type isnt
supported. The other arguments are specific to the type, and control the way that the im-
age is generated, as given in the table below.
2. If the <canvas> elements bitmap has no pixels (i.e., either its horizontal dimension or its ver-
tical dimension is zero) then return the string "data:," and abort these steps. (This is the
shortest data: URL; it represents the empty string in a text/plain resource.)
3. Let file be a serialization of the canvas elements bitmap as a file, using the methods argu-
ments (if any) as the arguments .
3. Let arguments be the second and subsequent arguments to the method, if any.
4. If the <canvas> elements bitmap has no pixels (i.e., either its horizontal dimension or its ver-
tical dimension is zero) then let result be null.
Otherwise, let result be a Blob object representing a serialization of the canvas elements
bitmap as a file, using arguments . [FILEAPI]
6. Queue a task to invoke the BlobCallback callback with result as its argument. The task
source for this task is the canvas blob serialization task source.
The canvas APIs must perform color correction at only two points: when rendering images with
their own gamma correction and color space information onto a bitmap, to convert the image to
the color space used by the bitmaps (e.g., using the 2D Contexts drawImage() method with an
HTMLImageElement object), and when rendering the actual canvas bitmap to the output device.
NOTE:
Thus, in the 2D context, colors used to draw shapes onto the canvas will exactly match colors
obtained through the getImageData() method.
The toDataURL() method must not include color space information in the resources they return.
Where the output format allows it, the color of pixels in resources created by toDataURL() must
match those returned by the getImageData() method.
In user agents that support CSS, the color space used by a <canvas> element must match the color
space used for processing any colors for that element in CSS.
The gamma correction and color space information of images must be handled in such a way that
an image rendered directly using an <img> element would use the same colors as one painted on a
<canvas> element that is then itself rendered. Furthermore, the rendering of images that have no
color correction information (such as those returned by the toDataURL() method) must be ren-
dered with no color correction.
NOTE:
Thus, in the 2D context, calling the drawImage() method to render the output of the
toDataURL() method to the canvas, given the appropriate dimensions, has no visible effect.
When a user agent is to create a serialization of the bitmap as a file, optionally with some given
arguments , and optionally with a native flag set, it must create an image file in the format given
by the first value of arguments , or, if there are no arguments , in the PNG format. [PNG]
If the native flag is set, or if the bitmap has one pixel per coordinate space unit, then the image
file must have the same pixel data (before compression, if applicable) as the bitmap, and if the file
format used supports encoding resolution metadata, the resolution of that bitmap (device pixels per
coordinate space units being interpreted as image pixels per CSS pixel) must be given as well.
Otherwise, the image files pixel data must be the bitmaps pixel data scaled to one image pixel per
coordinate space unit, and if the file format used supports encoding resolution metadata, the reso-
lution must be given as 96dpi (one image pixel per CSS pixel).
If arguments is not empty, the first value must be interpreted as a MIME type giving the format to
use. If the type has any parameters, it must be treated as not supported.
EXAMPLE 579
For example, the value "image/png" would mean to generate a PNG image, the value
"image/jpeg" would mean to generate a JPEG image, and the value "image/svg+xml" would
mean to generate an SVG image (which would require that the user agent track how the bitmap
was generated, an unlikely, though potentially awesome, feature).
User agents must support PNG ("image/png"). User agents may support other types. If the user
agent does not support the requested type, it must create the file using the PNG format. [PNG]
User agents must convert the provided type to ASCII lowercase before establishing if they support
that type.
For image types that do not support an alpha channel, the serialized image must be the bitmap im-
age composited onto a solid black background using the source-over operator.
If the first argument in arguments gives a type corresponding to one of the types given in the first
column of the following table, and the user agent supports that type, then the subsequent argu-
ments, if any, must be treated as described in the second cell of that row.
image/jpeg The second argument, if it is a number in the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclusive, [JPEG]
must be treated as the desired quality level. If it is not a number or is
outside that range, the user agent must use its default value, as if the
argument had been omitted.
Other arguments must be ignored and must not cause the user agent to throw an exception. A fu-
ture version of this specification will probably define other parameters to be passed to these meth-
ods to allow authors to more carefully control compression settings, image metadata, etc.
Information leakage can occur if scripts from one origin can access information (e.g., read pix-
els) from images from another origin (one that isnt the same).
To mitigate this, bitmaps used with <canvas> elements and ImageBitmap objects are defined to
have a flag indicating whether they are origin-clean. All bitmaps start with their origin-clean set to
true. The flag is set to false when cross-origin images or fonts are used.
The toDataURL(), toBlob(), and getImageData() methods check the flag and will throw a
"SecurityError" DOMException rather than leak cross-origin data.
The value of the origin-clean flag is propagated from a source <canvas> elements bitmap to a new
ImageBitmap object by createImageBitmap(). Conversely, a destination <canvas> elements bit-
map will have its origin-clean flags set to false by drawImage if the source image is an
ImageBitmap object whose bitmap has its origin-clean flag set to false.
The flag can be reset in certain situations; for example, when a CanvasRenderingContext2D is
bound to a new <canvas>, the bitmap is cleared and its flag reset.
HTML does not have a dedicated mechanism for marking up subheadings, alternative titles or
taglines. Here are the suggested alternatives. h1h6 elements must not be used to markup subhead-
ings, subtitles, alternative titles and taglines unless intended to be the heading for a new section or
subsection.
EXAMPLE 580
In the following example the title and subtitles of a web page are grouped using a <header> ele-
ment. As the author does not want the subtitles to be included the table of contents and they are
not intended to signify the start of a new section, they are marked up using <p> elements. A
sample CSS styled rendering of the title and subtitles is provided below the code example.
<header>
<h1>HTML 5.1 Nightly</h1>
<p>A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML</p>
<p>Editors Draft 9 May 2013</p>
</header>
EXAMPLE 581
In the following example the subtitle of a book is on the same line as the title separated by a
colon. A sample CSS styled rendering of the title and subtitle is provided below the code ex-
ample.
EXAMPLE 582
In the following example part of an album title is included in a <span> element, allowing it to
be styled differently from the rest of the title. A <br> element is used to place the album title on
a new line. A sample CSS styled rendering of the heading is provided below the code example.
<h1>Ramones <br>
<span>Hey! Ho! Lets Go</span>
</h1>
EXAMPLE 583
In the following example the title and tagline for a news article are grouped using a <header>
element. The title is marked up using a h2 element and the tagline is in a <p> element. A sam-
ple CSS styled rendering of the title and tagline is provided below the code example.
<header>
<h2>3D films set for popularity slide </h2>
<p>First drop in 3D box office projected for this year despite hotly
tipped summer blockbusters,
according to Fitch Ratings report</p>
</header>
EXAMPLE 584
In this last example the title and taglines for a news magazine are grouped using a <header> el-
ement. The title is marked up using a h1 element and the taglines are each in a <p> element. A
sample CSS styled rendering of the title and taglines is provided below the code example.
<header>
<p>Magazine of the Decade</p>
<h1>THE MONTH</h1>
<p>The Best of UK and Foreign Media</p>
</header>
This specification does not provide a machine-readable way of describing bread-crumb navigation
menus. Authors are encouraged to markup bread-crumb navigation as a list. The <nav> element can
be used to mark the list containing links as being a navigation block.
EXAMPLE 585
In the following example, the current page can be reached via the path indicated. The path is
indicated using the right arrow symbol "". A text label is provided to give the user context.
The links are structured as a list, which provides users with an indication of item number.
<nav>
<h2>You are here:</h2>
<ul id="navlist">
<li><a href="/">Main</a> </li>
<li><a href="/products/">Products</a> </li>
<li><a href="/products/dishwashers/">Dishwashers</a> </li>
<li><a>Second hand</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
The breadcrumb code example could be styled as a horizonatal list using CSS:
NOTE:
The use of the right angle bracket symbol ">" to indicate path direction is discouraged as
its meaning, in the context used, is not clearly conveyed to all users.
This specification does not define any markup specifically for marking up lists of keywords that
apply to a group of pages (also known as tag clouds). In general, authors are encouraged to either
mark up such lists using <ul> elements with explicit inline counts that are then hidden and turned
into a presentational effect using a style sheet, or to use SVG.
EXAMPLE 586
Here, three tags are included in a short tag cloud:
<style>
@media screen, print, handheld, tv {
/* should be ignored by non-visual browsers */
.tag-cloud > li > span { display: none; }
.tag-cloud > li { display: inline; }
.tag-cloud-1 { font-size: 0.7em; }
.tag-cloud-2 { font-size: 0.9em; }
.tag-cloud-3 { font-size: 1.1em; }
.tag-cloud-4 { font-size: 1.3em; }
.tag-cloud-5 { font-size: 1.5em; }
}
</style>
...
<ul class="tag-cloud">
<li class="tag-cloud-4"><a title="28 instances" href="/t
/apple">apple</a> <span>(popular)</span>
<li class="tag-cloud-2"><a title="6 instances" href="/t/kiwi">kiwi</a>
<span>(rare)</span>
<li class="tag-cloud-5"><a title="41 instances" href="/t/pear">pear</a>
<span>(very popular)</span>
</ul>
The actual frequency of each tag is given using the title attribute. A CSS style sheet is pro-
vided to convert the markup into a cloud of differently-sized words, but for user agents that do
not support CSS or are not visual, the markup contains annotations like "(popular)" or "(rare)"
to categorize the various tags by frequency, thus enabling all users to benefit from the informa-
tion.
The <ul> element is used (rather than ol) because the order is not particularly important: while
the list is in fact ordered alphabetically, it would convey the same information if ordered by,
say, the length of the tag.
The tag rel-keyword is not used on these <a> elements because they do not represent tags that
apply to the page itself; they are just part of an index listing the tags themselves.
4.13.4. Conversations
This specification does not define a specific element for marking up conversations, meeting min-
utes, chat transcripts, dialogs in screenplays, instant message logs, and other situations where dif-
Instead, authors are encouraged to mark up conversations using <p> elements and punctuation. Au-
thors who need to mark the speaker for styling purposes are encouraged to use <span> or <b>. Para-
graphs with their text wrapped in the i element can be used for marking up stage directions.
EXAMPLE 587
This example demonstrates this using an extract from Abbot and Costellos famous sketch,
Whos on first:
EXAMPLE 588
The following extract shows how an IM conversation log could be marked up, using the
<data> element to provide Unix timestamps for each line. Note that the timestamps are pro-
vided in a format that the <time> element does not support, so the <data> element is used in-
stead (namely, Unix time_t timestamps). Had the author wished to mark up the data using one
of the date and time formats supported by the <time> element, that element could have been
used instead of data. This could be advantageous as it would allow data analysis tools to de-
tect the timestamps unambiguously, without coordination with the page author.
EXAMPLE 589
HTML does not have a good way to mark up graphs, so descriptions of interactive conversa-
tions from games are more difficult to mark up. This example shows one possible convention
using <dl> elements to list the possible responses at each point in the conversation. Another
option to consider is describing the conversation in the form of a DOT file, and outputting the
result as an SVG image to place in the document. [DOT]
<p> Next, you meet a fisherman. You can say one of several greetings:
<dl>
<dt> "Hello there!"
<dd>
<p> He responds with "Hello, how may I help you?"; you can respond
with:
<dl>
<dt> "I would like to buy a fish."
<dd> <p> He sells you a fish and the conversation finishes.
<dt> "Can I borrow your boat?"
<dd>
<p> He is surprised and asks "What are you offering in return?".
<dl>
<dt> "Five gold." (if you have enough)
<dt> "Ten gold." (if you have enough)
<dt> "Fifteen gold." (if you have enough)
<dd> <p> He lends you the boat. The conversation ends.
<dt> "A fish." (if you have one)
<dt> "A newspaper." (if you have one)
<dt> "A pebble." (if you have one)
<dd> <p> "No thanks", he replies. Your conversation options
at this point are the same as they were after asking to borrow
the boat, minus any options youve suggested before.
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt> "Vote for me in the next election!"
<dd> <p> He turns away. The conversation finishes.
<dt> "Sir, are you aware that your fish are running away?"
<dd>
<p> He looks at you skeptically and says "Fish cannot run, sir".
<dl>
<dt> "You got me!"
<dd> <p> The fisherman sighs and the conversation ends.
<dt> "Only kidding."
<dd> <p> "Good one!" he retorts. Your conversation options at this
point are the same as those following "Hello there!" above.
<dt> "Oh, then what are they doing?"
<dd> <p> He looks at his fish, giving you an opportunity to steal
his boat, which you do. The conversation ends.
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
EXAMPLE 590
In some games, conversations are simpler: each character merely has a fixed set of lines that
they say. In this example, a game FAQ/walkthrough lists some of the known possible re-
sponses for each character:
<section>
<h1>Dialog</h1>
<p><small>Some characters repeat their lines in order each time you
interact
with them, others randomly pick from amongst their lines. Those who
respond in
order have numbered entries in the lists below.</small>
<h2>The Shopkeeper</h2>
<ul>
<li>How may I help you?
<li>Fresh apples!
<li>A loaf of bread for madam?
</ul>
<h2>The pilot</h2>
<p>Before the accident:
<ul>
</li>Im about to fly out, sorry!
</li>Sorry, Im just waiting for flight clearance and then Ill be off!
</ul>
<p>After the accident:
<ol>
<li>Im about to fly out, sorry!
<li>Ok, Im not leaving right now, my plane is being cleaned.
<li>Ok, its not being cleaned, it needs a minor repair first.
<li>Ok, ok, stop bothering me! Truth is, I had a crash.
</ol>
<h2>Clan Leader</h2>
<p>During the first clan meeting:
<ul>
<li>Hey, have you seen my daughter? I bet shes up to something
nefarious again...
<li>Nice weather were having today, eh?
<li>The name is Bailey, Jeff Bailey. How can I help you today?
<li>A glass of water? Fresh from the well!
</ul>
<p>After the earthquake:
<ol>
<li>Everyone is safe in the shelter, we just have to put out the fire!
<li>Ill go and tell the fire brigade, you keep hosing it down!
</ol>
</section>
4.13.5. Footnotes
HTML does not have a dedicated mechanism for marking up footnotes. Here are the suggested al-
ternatives.
EXAMPLE 591
In this example, two parts of a dialog are annotated with footnote-like content using the title
attribute.
Warning! Relying on the title attribute for the visual display of text content is cur-
rently discouraged as many user agents do not expose the attribute in an accessible
manner as required by this specification (e.g., requiring a pointing device such as a
mouse to cause a tooltip to appear, which excludes keyboard-only users and touch-only
users, such as anyone with a modern phone or tablet).
NOTE:
If the title attribute is used, CSS can be used to draw the readers attention to the elements
with the attribute.
EXAMPLE 592
For example, the following CSS places a dashed line below elements that have a title at-
tribute.
For annotations, the <a> element should be used, pointing to an element later in the document. The
convention is that the contents of the link be a number in square brackets.
EXAMPLE 593
In this example, a footnote in the dialog links to a paragraph below the dialog. The paragraph
then reciprocally links back to the dialog, allowing the user to return to the location of the foot-
note.
For side notes, longer annotations that apply to entire sections of the text rather than just specific
words or sentences, the <aside> element should be used.
EXAMPLE 594
In this example, a sidebar is given after a dialog, giving it some context.
NOTE:
In the example above an ARIA role="note", permitted for use on <aside>, has been
added to override the default semantics of the <aside> element, as the use of the element in
this context, more closely matches the note role.
For figures or tables, footnotes can be included in the relevant figcaption or <caption> element,
or in surrounding prose.
EXAMPLE 595
In this example, a table has cells with footnotes that are given in prose. A <figure> element is
used to give a single legend to the combination of the table and its footnotes.
<figure>
<figcaption>Table 1. Alternative activities for knights.</figcaption>
<table>
<tr>
<th> Activity
<th> Location
<th> Cost
<tr>
<td> Dance
<td> Wherever possible
<td> 0<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup>
<tr>
<td> Routines, chorus scenes<sup><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup>
<td> Undisclosed
<td> Undisclosed
<tr>
<td> Dining<sup><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup>
<td> Camelot
<td> Cost of ham, jam, and spam<sup><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup>
</table>
<p id="fn1">1. Assumed.</p>
<p id="fn2">2. Footwork impeccable.</p>
<p id="fn3">3. Quality described as "well".</p>
<p id="fn4">4. A lot.</p>
</figure>
An element is said to be actually disabled if it falls into one of the following categories:
NOTE:
This definition is used to determine what elements can be focused and which elements match
the :disabled pseudo-class.
4.15.1. Case-sensitivity
The Selectors specification leaves the case-sensitivity of element names, attribute names, and at-
tribute values to be defined by the host language. [SELECTORS4]
NOTE:
Selectors defines that ID and class selectors, when matched against elements in documents that
are in quirks mode, will be matched in an ASCII case-insensitive manner.
When comparing a CSS element type selector to the names of HTML elements in HTML docu-
ments, the CSS element type selector must first be converted to ASCII lowercase. The same selec-
tor when compared to other elements must be compared according to its original case. In both
cases, the comparison is case-sensitive.
When comparing the name part of a CSS attribute selector to the names of namespace-less at-
tributes on HTML elements in HTML documents, the name part of the CSS attribute selector must
first be converted to ASCII lowercase. The same selector when compared to other attributes must
be compared according to its original case. In both cases, the comparison is case-sensitive.
Attribute selectors on an HTML element in an HTML document must treat the values of attributes
with the following names as ASCII case-insensitive, with one exception as noted in 10 Render-
ing:
accept
accept-charset
align
alink
axis
bgcolor
charset
checked
clear
codetype
color
compact
declare
defer
dir
direction
disabled
enctype
face
frame
hreflang
http-equiv
lang
language
link
media
method
multiple
nohref
noresize
noshade
nowrap
readonly
rel
rev
rules
scope
scrolling
selected
shape
target
text
type (except as specified in 10 Rendering)
valign
valuetype
vlink
All other attribute values and everything else must be treated as entirely case-sensitive for the pur-
poses of selector matching. This includes:
4.15.2. Pseudo-classes
There are a number of dynamic selectors that can be used with HTML. This section defines when
these selectors match HTML elements. [SELECTORS4] [CSSUI]
:link
:visited
All <a> elements that have an href attribute, all <area> elements that have an href attribute,
and all <link> elements that have an href attribute, must match one of :link and :visited.
Other specifications might apply more specific rules regarding how these elements are to
match these pseudo-classes, to mitigate some privacy concerns that apply with straightfor-
ward implementations of this requirement.
:active
The :active pseudo-class is defined to match an element while an element is being acti-
vated by the user.
To determine whether a particular element is being activated for the purposes of defining the
:active pseudo-class only, an HTML user agent must use the first relevant entry in the fol-
lowing list.
If the element has a descendant that is currently matching the :active pseudo-class
The element is being activated.
If the element is the labeled control of a <label> element that is currently matching
:active
The element is being activated.
If the element is a <button> element
If the element is an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Submit Button, Image
Button, Reset Button, or Button state
The element is being activated if it is in a formal activation state and it is not disabled.
EXAMPLE 596
For example, if the user is using a keyboard to push a <button> element by pressing
the space bar, the element would match this pseudo-class in between the time that the
element received the keydown event and the time the element received the keyup
event.
An element is said to be in a formal activation state between the time the user begins to in-
dicate an intent to trigger the elements activation behavior and either the time the user stops
indicating an intent to trigger the elements activation behavior, or the time the elements acti-
vation behavior has finished running, which ever comes first.
An element is said to be being actively pointed at while the user indicates the element using
a pointing device while that pointing device is in the "down" state (e.g., for a mouse, between
the time the mouse button is pressed and the time it is depressed; for a remote control on a
television, the time during which the remote control is pointing at the element).
:hover
The :hover pseudo-class is defined to match an element while the user designates an ele-
ment with a pointing device. For the purposes of defining the :hover pseudo-class only, an
HTML user agent must consider an element as being one that the user designates if it is:
An element that has a descendant that the user indicates using a pointing device.
An element that is the labeled control of a <label> element that is currently matching
:hover.
EXAMPLE 597
Consider in particular a fragment such as:
<p> <label for=c> <input id=a> </label> <span id=b> <input id=c>
</span> </p>
If the user designates the element with ID "a" with their pointing device, then the <p> ele-
ment (and all its ancestors not shown in the snippet above), the <label> element, the ele-
ment with ID "a", and the element with ID "c" will match the :hover pseudo-class. The
element with ID "a" matches it from condition 1, the <label> and <p> elements match it
because of condition 2 (one of their descendants is designated), and the element with ID
"c" matches it through condition 3 (its <label> element matches :hover). However, the
element with ID "b" does not match :hover: its descendant is not designated, even
though it matches :hover.
:focus
For the purposes of the CSS :focus pseudo-class, an element has the focus when its top-
level browsing context has the system focus, it is not itself a browsing context container, and
it is one of the elements listed in the focus chain of the currently focused area of the top-level
browsing context.
:enabled
The :enabled pseudo-class must match any element that is one of the following:
:disabled
The :disabled pseudo-class must match any element that is actually disabled.
:checked
The :checked pseudo-class must match any element falling into one of the following cate-
gories:
<input> elements whose type attribute is in the Checkbox state and whose checkedness
state is true
<input> elements whose type attribute is in the Radio Button state and whose checked-
ness state is true
:indeterminate
The :indeterminate pseudo-class must match any element falling into one of the following
categories:
<input> elements whose type attribute is in the Radio Button state and whose radio
button group contains no <input> elements whose checkedness state is true.
:default
The :default pseudo-class must match any element falling into one of the following cate-
gories:
<input> elements whose type attribute is in the Submit Button or Image Button state,
and that are their forms default button
<input> elements to which the checked attribute applies and that have a checked at-
tribute
:valid
The :valid pseudo-class must match any element falling into one of the following cate-
gories:
elements that are candidates for constraint validation and that satisfy their constraints
<form> elements that are not the form owner of any elements that themselves are candi-
dates for constraint validation but do not satisfy their constraints
<fieldset> elements that have no descendant elements that themselves are candidates
for constraint validation but do not satisfy their constraints
:invalid
The :invalid pseudo-class must match any element falling into one of the following cate-
gories:
elements that are candidates for constraint validation but that do not satisfy their con-
straints
<form> elements that are the form owner of one or more elements that themselves are
candidates for constraint validation but do not satisfy their constraints
<fieldset> elements that have of one or more descendant elements that themselves are
candidates for constraint validation but do not satisfy their constraints
:in-range
The :in-range pseudo-class must match all elements that are candidates for constraint vali-
dation, have range limitations, and that are neither suffering from an underflow nor suffering
from an overflow.
:out-of-range
The :out-of-range pseudo-class must match all elements that are candidates for constraint
validation, have range limitations, and that are either suffering from an underflow or suffering
from an overflow.
:required
The :required pseudo-class must match any element falling into one of the following cate-
gories:
:optional
The :optional pseudo-class must match any element falling into one of the following cate-
gories:
<input> elements to which the required attribute applies that are not required
:read-only
:read-write
The :read-write pseudo-class must match any element falling into one of the following cate-
gories, which for the purposes of Selectors are thus considered user-alterable:
[SELECTORS4]
<input> elements to which the readonly attribute applies, and that are mutable (i.e., that
do not have the readonly attribute specified and that are not disabled)
<textarea> elements that do not have a readonly attribute, and that are not disabled
elements that are editing hosts or editable and are neither <input> elements nor
<textarea> elements
:dir(ltr)
The :dir(ltr) pseudo-class must match all elements whose directionality is 'ltr'.
:dir(rtl)
The :dir(rtl) pseudo-class must match all elements whose directionality is 'rtl'.
NOTE:
Another section of this specification defines the target element used with the :target pseudo-
class.
NOTE:
This specification does not define when an element matches the :lang() dynamic pseudo-
class, as it is defined in sufficient detail in a language-agnostic fashion in the Selectors specifi-
cation. [SELECTORS4]
5. User interaction
All HTML elements may have the hidden content attribute set. The hidden attribute is a boolean
attribute. When specified on an element, it indicates that the element is not yet, or is no longer, di-
rectly relevant to the pages current state, or that it is being used to declare content to be reused by
other parts of the page as opposed to being directly accessed by the user. User agents should not
render elements that have the hidden attribute specified. This requirement may be implemented
indirectly through the style layer. For example, an HTML+CSS user agent could implement these
requirements using the rules suggested in 10 Rendering.
NOTE:
Because this attribute is typically implemented using CSS, its also possible to override it using
CSS. For instance, a rule that applies 'display: block' to all elements will cancel the effects of
the hidden attribute. Authors therefore have to take care when writing their style sheets to
make sure that the attribute is still styled as expected.
EXAMPLE 598
In the following skeletal example, the attribute is used to hide the Web games main screen un-
til the user logs in:
The hidden attribute must not be used to hide content just from one presentation if something
is marked hidden, it is hidden from all presentations, including, for instance, screen readers.
Elements that are not themselves hidden must not hyperlink to elements that are hidden. The for
attributes of <label> and <output> elements that are not themselves hidden must similarly not re-
fer to elements that are hidden. In both cases, such references would cause user confusion.
Elements and scripts may, however, refer to elements that are hidden in other contexts.
EXAMPLE 599
For example, it would be incorrect to use the href attribute to link to a section marked with the
hidden attribute. If the content is not applicable or relevant, then there is no reason to link to it.
It would be fine, however, to use the ARIA aria-describedby attribute to refer to descrip-
tions that are themselves hidden. While hiding the descriptions implies that they are not useful
alone, they could be written in such a way that they are useful in the specific context of being
referenced from the images that they describe.
Similarly, a <canvas> element with the hidden attribute could be used by a scripted graphics
engine as an off-screen buffer, and a form control could refer to a hidden <form> element using
its form attribute.
Accessibility APIs are encouraged to provide a way to expose structured content while marking it
as hidden in the default view. Such content should not be perceivable to users in the normal docu-
ment flow in any modality, whether using Assistive Technology (AT) or mainstream User Agents.
When such features are available, User Agents may use them to expose the full semantics of
hidden elements to AT when appropriate, if such content is referenced indirectly by an ID refer-
ence or valid hash-name reference. This allows ATs to access the structure of these hidden ele-
ments upon user request, while keeping the content hidden in all presentations of the normal docu-
ment flow. Authors who wish to prevent user-initiated viewing of a hidden element should not ref-
erence the element with such a mechanism.
Because some User Agents have flattened hidden content when exposing such content to AT, au-
thors should not reference hidden content which would lose essential meaning when flattened.
Elements in a section hidden by the hidden attribute are still active, e.g., scripts and form controls
in such sections still execute and submit respectively. Only their presentation to the user changes.
The hidden IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
NOTE:
This section does not define or create any content attribute named "inert". This section merely
defines an abstract concept of inertness.
A node (in particular elements and text nodes) can be marked as inert. When a node is inert, then
the user agent must act as if the node was absent for the purposes of targeting user interaction
events, may ignore the node for the purposes of text search user interfaces (commonly known as
"find in page"), and may prevent the user from selecting text in that node. User agents should al-
low the user to override the restrictions on search and text selection, however.
EXAMPLE 600
For example, consider a page that consists of just a single inert paragraph positioned in the
middle of a <body>. If a user moves their pointing device from the body over to the inert para-
graph and clicks on the paragraph, no mouseover event would be fired, and the mousemove and
click events would be fired on the <body> element rather than the paragraph.
NOTE:
When a node is inert, it generally cannot be focused. Inert nodes that are commands will also
get disabled.
While a browsing context container is marked as inert, its nested browsing contexts active docu-
ment, and all nodes in that Document, must be marked as inert.
An entire Document can be marked as blocked by a modal dialog subject . While a Document is
so marked, every node that is in the Document, with the exception of the subject element and its
descendants, must be marked inert. (The elements excepted by this paragraph can additionally be
marked inert through other means; being part of a modal dialog does not "protect" a node from be-
ing marked inert.)
Only one element at a time can mark a Document as being blocked by a modal dialog. When a new
is made to block a Document, the previous element, if any, stops blocking the
<dialog>
Document.
NOTE:
The <dialog> elements showModal() method makes use of this mechanism.
5.3. Activation
Certain elements in HTML have an activation behavior, which means that the user can activate
them. This triggers a sequence of events dependent on the activation mechanism, and normally
culminating in a click event, as described below.
The user agent should allow the user to manually trigger elements that have an activation behavior,
for instance using keyboard or voice input, or through mouse clicks. When the user triggers an ele-
ment with a defined activation behavior in a manner other than clicking it, the default action of the
interaction event must be to run synthetic click activation steps on the element.
NOTE:
For accessibility, the keyboards Enter and Space keys are often used to trigger an elements
activation behavior. [wai-aria-practices-1.1]
When a user agent is to run synthetic click activation steps on an element, the user agent must
run the following steps:
1. If the elements click in progress flag is set to true, then abort these steps.
4. Fire a click event at the element. If the run synthetic click activation steps algorithm was in-
voked because the click() method was invoked, then the isTrusted attribute must be ini-
tialized to false.
5. If this click event is not canceled, run post-click activation steps on the element.
If the event is canceled, the user agent must run canceled activation steps on the element in-
stead.
When a pointing device is clicked, the user agent must run authentic click activation steps instead
of firing the click event. When a user agent is to run authentic click activation steps for a given
event event , it must follow these steps:
1. Let target be the element designated by the user (the target of event ).
2. If target is a <canvas> element, run the canvas MouseEvent rerouting steps. If this changes
event s target, then let target be the new target.
If there is an element e and the click event is not canceled, run post-click activation steps
on element e .
If there is an element e and the event is canceled, run canceled activation steps on element
e.
NOTE:
The algorithms above dont run for arbitrary synthetic events dispatched by author script. The
click() method can be used to make the run synthetic click activation steps algorithm happen
programmatically.
NOTE:
Click-focusing behavior (e.g., the focusing of a text field when user clicks in one) typically
happens before the click, when the mouse button is first depressed, and is therefore not dis-
cussed here.
Given an element target , the nearest activatable element is the element returned by the follow-
ing algorithm:
1. If target has a defined activation behavior, then return target and abort these steps.
2. If target has a parent element, then set target to that parent element and return to the first
step.
When a user agent is to run pre-click activation steps on an element, it must run the pre-click
activation steps defined for that element, if any.
When a user agent is to run canceled activation steps on an element, it must run the canceled ac-
tivation steps defined for that element, if any.
When a user agent is to run post-click activation steps on an element, it must run the activation
behavior defined for that element, if any. Activation behaviors can refer to the click event that
was fired by the steps above leading up to this point.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
element . click()
Acts as if the element was clicked.
5.4. Focus
5.4.1. Introduction
An HTML user interface typically consists of multiple interactive widgets, such as form controls,
scrollable regions, links, dialog boxes, browser tabs, and so forth. These widgets form a hierarchy,
with some (e.g., browser tabs, dialog boxes) containing others (e.g., links, form controls).
When interacting with an interface using a keyboard, key input is channeled from the system,
through the hierarchy of interactive widgets, to an active widget, which is said to be focused.
EXAMPLE 601
Consider an HTML application running in a browser tab running in a graphical environment.
Suppose this application had a page with some text fields and links, and was currently showing
a modal dialog, which itself had a text field and a button.
The hierarchy of focusable widgets, in this scenario, would include the browser window, which
would have, amongst its children, the browser tab containing the HTML application. The tab
itself would have as its children the various links and text fields, as well as the dialog. The dia-
log itself would have as its children the text field and the button.
If the widget with focus in this example was the text field in the dialog box, then key input
would be channeled from the graphical system to the Web browser, then to the tab, then
to the dialog, and finally to the text field.
The term focusable area is used to refer to regions of the interface that can become the target of
keyboard input. Focusable areas can be elements, parts of elements, or other regions managed by
the user agent.
Each focusable area has a DOM anchor, which is a Node object that represents the position of the
focusable area in the DOM. (When the focusable area is itself a Node, it is its own DOM anchor.)
The DOM anchor is used in some APIs as a substitute for the focusable area when there is no other
DOM object to represent the focusable area.
The following table describes what objects can be focusable areas. The cells in the left column de-
scribe objects that can be focusable areas; the cells in the right column describe the DOM anchors
for those elements. (The cells that span both columns are non-normative examples.)
Elements that have their tabindex focus flag set, that are not The element itself.
actually disabled, that are not expressly inert, and that are
either being rendered or being used as relevant canvas
fallback content.
EXAMPLE 602
The shapes of <area> elements in an image map associated with The <img> element.
an <img> element that is being rendered and is not expressly
inert.
EXAMPLE 603
In the following example, the <area> element creates two shapes, one on each image. The
DOM anchor of the first shape is the first <img> element, and the DOM anchor of the second
shape is the second <img> element.
The user-agent provided subwidgets of elements that are being The element for which the
rendered and are not actually disabled or expressly inert. focusable area is a
subwidget.
EXAMPLE 604
The controls in the user interface that is exposed to the user for a <video> element, the up and
down buttons in a spin-control version of <input type=number>, the part of a <details>
elements rendering that enabled the element to be opened or closed using keyboard input.
The scrollable regions of elements that are being rendered and The element for which the
are not expressly inert. box that the scrollable region
scrolls was created.
EXAMPLE 605
The CSS overflow propertys scroll value typically creates a scrollable region.
The viewport of a Document that is in a browsing context and is The Document for which the
not inert. viewport was created.
EXAMPLE 606
The contents of an <iframe>.
Any other element or part of an element, especially to aid with The element.
accessibility or to better match platform conventions.
EXAMPLE 607
A user agent could make all list item bullets focusable, so that a user can more easily navigate
lists.
EXAMPLE 608
Similarly, a user agent could make all elements with title attributes focusable, so that their
advisory information can be accessed.
NOTE:
A browsing context container (e.g., an <iframe>) is a focusable area, but key events routed to a
browsing context container get immediately routed to the nested browsing contexts active
document. Similarly, in sequential focus navigation a browsing context container essentially
acts merely as a placeholder for its nested browsing contexts active document.
Each focusable area belongs to a control group. Each control group has an owner. Control group
owners are control group owner objects. The following are control group owner objects:
<dialog> elements that have an open attribute specified and that are being rendered.
Each control group owner object owns one control group (though that group might be empty).
If the DOM anchor of a focusable area is a control group owner object, then that focusable area
belongs to that control group owner objects control group. Otherwise, the focusable area belongs
to its DOM anchors nearest ancestor control group owner object.
EXAMPLE 609
Thus, a viewport always belongs to the control group of the Document for which the viewport
was created, an <input> control belongs to the control group of its nearest ancestor <dialog> or
Document, and an image maps shapes belong to the nearest ancestor dialog or Document of
the <img> elements (not the <area> elements this means one <area> element might create
multiple shapes in different control groups).
An element is expressly inert if it is inert but it is not a control group owner object and its nearest
ancestor control group owner object is not inert.
One focusable area in each non-empty control group is designated the focused area of the control
group. Which control is so designated changes over time, based on algorithms in this specifica-
tion. If a control group is empty, it has no focused area.
Each control group owner object can also act as the manager of a dialog group.
Each <dialog> element that has an open attribute specified and that is being rendered (i.e., that is a
control group owner object) and is not expressly inert belongs to the dialog group whose manager
is the <dialog> elements nearest ancestor control group owner object.
A dialog is expressly inert if it is inert but its nearest ancestor control group owner object is not.
If no <dialog> element has a particular control group owner object as its nearest ancestor control
group owner object, then that control group owner object has no dialog group.
Each dialog group can have a dialog designated as the focused dialog of the dialog group.
Which dialog is so designated changes over time, based on algorithms in this specification.
Focusable areas in control groups are ordered relative to the tree order of their DOM anchors. Fo-
cusable areas with the same DOM anchor in a control group are ordered relative to their CSS boxs
relative positions in a pre-order, depth-first traversal of the box tree. [CSS-2015]
The currently focused area of a top-level browsing context at any particular time is the focus-
able area or dialog returned by this algorithm:
2. If candidate has a dialog group with a designated focused dialog of the dialog group, then let
candidate be the designated focused dialog of the dialog group, and redo this step.
Otherwise, if candidate has a non-empty control group, and the designated focused area of
the control group is a browsing context container, then let candidate be the active document
of that browsing context containers nested browsing context, and redo this step.
Otherwise, if candidate has a non-empty control group, let candidate be the designated fo-
cused area of the control group.
3. Return candidate .
An element that is the DOM anchor of a focusable area is said to gain focus when that focusable
area becomes the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context. When an element is the
DOM anchor of a focusable area of the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context, it is
focused.
The focus chain of a focusable area or control group owner object subject is the ordered list con-
structed as follows:
4. If current object is an <area> elements shape, append that <area> element to output .
Otherwise, if current object is a focusable area whose DOM anchor is an element that is not
current object itself, append that DOM anchor element to output .
5. If current object is a dialog object in a dialog group, let current object be that dialog
groups manager, and return to the step labeled loop.
Otherwise, if current object is a focusable area, let current object be that focusable areas
control groups owner, and return to the step labeled loop.
Otherwise, if current object is a Document in a nested browsing context, let current object
be its browsing context container, and return to the step labeled loop.
6. Return output .
NOTE:
The chain starts with subject and (if subject is or can be the currently focused area of a
top-level browsing context) continues up the focus hierarchy up to the Document of the
top-level browsing context.
The tabindex content attribute allows authors to indicate that an element is supposed to be focus-
able, whether it is supposed to be reachable using sequential focus navigation and, optionally, to
suggest where in the sequential focus navigation order the element appears.
Warning!
Using a positive value for tabindex to specify the elements position in the sequential
focus navigation order interacts with the order of all focusable elements. It is error-
prone, and therefore not recommended. Authors should generally leave elements to ap-
pear in their default order.
Elements that do not receive focus by default can be made focusable using
tabindex="0". This value does not specify a particular position in the sequential focus
navigation order. Instead, the elements position in the navigation order will be deter-
mined by the order in which the element appears in the document. However, authors
should only make elements focusable if they act as interactive controls or widgets. In
addition, authors should ensure that these focusable elements have an appropriate ARIA
role attribute.
For non-interactive elements that need to receive focus but that are not meant to be part
of the sequential focus navigation order (for instance, the target of a skip link, or a con-
tainer element that needs to be programmatically focused via JavaScript), authors
should use a negative value of tabindex="-1".
The name "tab index" comes from the common use of the "tab" key to navigate through the focus-
able elements. The term "tabbing" refers to moving between focusable elements using sequential
focus navigation.
When the attribute is omitted, the user agent applies defaults. (There is no way to make an element
that is being rendered be not focusable at all without disabling it or making it inert.)
The tabindex attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid integer. Any valid value indi-
cates that an element should be focusable. Positive number values also affect the relative position
of the elements focusable areas in the sequential focus navigation order, as defined below. Nega-
tive number values indicate that the control should be unreachable by sequential focus navigation.
Each element can have a tabindex focus flag set, as defined below. This flag is a factor that con-
tributes towards determining whether an element is a focusable area, as described in the previous
section.
If the tabindex attribute is specified on an element, it must be parsed using the rules for parsing
integers. The attributes value must be interpreted as follows:
Modulo platform conventions, it is suggested that for the following elements, the tabindex fo-
cus flag be set:
<button> elements
<input> elements whose type attribute are not in the Hidden state
<select> elements
<textarea> elements
<menuitem> elements
Elements with a draggable attribute set, if that would enable the user agent to allow the
user to begin a drag operations for those elements without the use of a pointing device
Editing hosts
NOTE:
One valid reason to ignore the requirement that sequential focus navigation not allow the
author to lead to the element would be if the users only mechanism for moving the focus
is sequential focus navigation. For instance, a keyboard-only user would be unable to
click on a text field with a negative tabindex, so that users user agent would be well jus-
tified in allowing the user to tab to the control regardless.
before any focusable area whose DOM anchor is an element whose tabindex attribute
has been omitted or whose value, when parsed, returns an error,
before any focusable area whose DOM anchor is an element whose tabindex attribute
has a value equal to or less than zero,
after any focusable area whose DOM anchor is an element whose tabindex attribute has
a value greater than zero but less than the value of the tabindex attribute on candidate ,
after any focusable area whose DOM anchor is an element whose tabindex attribute has
a value equal to the value of the tabindex attribute on candidate but that is earlier in
the document in tree order than candidate ,
before any focusable area whose DOM anchor is an element whose tabindex attribute
has a value equal to the value of the tabindex attribute on candidate but that is later in
the document in tree order than candidate , and
before any focusable area whose DOM anchor is an element whose tabindex attribute
has a value greater than the value of the tabindex attribute on candidate .
NOTE:
In current user agent implementations, an element that is only focusable because of its
tabindex attribute will generally not fire a click event in response to a non-mouse activation
(e.g., hitting the "enter" key while the element is focused).
The tabIndex IDL attribute must reflect the value of the tabindex content attribute. Its default
value is 0 for elements that are focusable and are included in the sequential focus navigation order,
and -1 for all other elements.
Warning! Most current browsers instead give the tabIndex IDL attribute a value of
0 for some list of elements that are by default a focusable area, and -1 for other ele-
ments, if there is no tabindex content attribute set. This behaviour is not well-defined
and will hopefully be improved in the future.
The focusing steps for an object new focus target that is either a focusable area, or an element
that is not a focusable area, or a browsing context, are as follows. They can optionally be run with
a fallback target.
1. If new focus target is neither a <dialog> element that has an open attribute specified and that
is being rendered (i.e., that is a control group owner object), nor a focusable area, then run the
first matching set of steps from the following list:
If new focus target is an <area> element with one or more shapes that are focusable
areas
Let new focus target be the shape corresponding to the first <img> element in tree
order that uses the image map to which the area element belongs.
If new focus target is an element with one or more scrollable regions that are
focusable areas
Let new focus target be the elements first scrollable region, according to a pre-
order, depth-first traversal of the box tree. [CSS-2015]
Otherwise
If no fallback target was specified, abort the focusing steps.
2. If new focus target is a control group owner object that is not a focusable area, but does have
a dialog group, and that dialog group has a designated focused dialog, then let new focus tar-
get be the focused dialog of the dialog group, and redo this step.
Otherwise, if new focus target is a control group owner object that is not a focusable area,
and its control group is not empty, then designate new focus target as the focused area of the
control group, and redo this step.
Otherwise, if new focus target is a browsing context container, then let new focus target be
the nested browsing contexts active document, and redo this step.
NOTE:
A <dialog> element can be both a control group owner object and a focusable area, if it
has both an open attribute specified and a tabindex attribute specified and is being ren-
dered.
3. If new focus target is a focusable area and its DOM anchor is inert, then abort these steps.
4. If new focus target is the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context, then abort
these steps.
5. Let old chain be the focus chain of the currently focused area of the top-level browsing con-
text in which new focus target finds itself.
7. Run the focus update steps with old chain , new chain , and new focus target respectively.
User agents must immediately run the focusing steps for a focusable area, <dialog>, or browsing
context candidate whenever the user attempts to move the focus to candidate .
The unfocusing steps for an object old focus target that is either a focusable area or an element
that is not a focusable area are as follows:
2. If old focus target is an <area> element and one of its shapes is the currently focused area of
a top-level browsing context, or, if old focus target is an element with one or more scrollable
regions, and one of them is the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context, then let
old focus target be that currently focused area of a top-level browsing context.
3. Let old chain be the focus chain of the currently focused area of a top-level browsing con-
text.
4. If old focus target is not one of the entries in old chain , then abort these steps.
5. If old focus target is a dialog in a dialog group, and the dialog group manager has a non-
empty control group, then let new focus target be the designated focused area of that focus
group.
Otherwise, if old focus target is a focusable area, then let new focus target be the first focus-
able area of its control group (if the control group owner is a Document, this will always be a
viewport).
6. If new focus target is not null, then run the focusing steps for new focus target .
When the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context is somehow unfocused without
another element being explicitly focused in its stead, the user agent must immediately run the un-
focusing steps for that object.
NOTE:
The unfocusing steps do not always result in the focus changing, even when applied to the cur-
rently focused area of a top-level browsing context. For example, if the currently focused area
of a top-level browsing context is a viewport, then it will usually keep its focus regardless until
another focusable area is explicitly focused with the focusing steps.
When a focusable area is added to an empty control group, it must be designated the focused area
of the control group.
When a dialog group is formed, if the dialog group manager has an empty control group, the first
non-inert dialog in the dialog group, if any, or else the first dialog in the dialog group regardless
of inertness, must be designated the focused dialog of the dialog group.
Focus fixup rule one: When the designated focused area of a control group is removed from that
control group in some way (e.g., it stops being a focusable area, it is removed from the DOM, it
becomes expressly inert, etc), and the control group is still not empty: designate the first non-inert
focused area in that control group to be the new focused area of the control group, if any; if they
are all inert, then designate the first focused area in that control group to be the new focused area
of the control group regardless of inertness. If such a removal instead results in the control group
being empty, then there is simply no longer a focused area of the control group.
EXAMPLE 610
For example, this might happen because an element is removed from its Document, or has a
hidden attribute added. It might also happen to an <input> element when the element gets dis-
abled.
Focus fixup rule two: When a dialog group has no designated focused dialog of the dialog group,
and its dialog group managers control group changes from being non-empty to being empty, the
first non-inert dialog in the dialog group, if any, or else the first dialog in the dialog group re-
gardless of inertness, must be designated the focused dialog of the dialog group.
Focus fixup rule three: When the designated focused dialog of a dialog group is removed from
that dialog group in some way (e.g., it stops being rendered, it loses its open attribute, it becomes
expressly inert, etc), and there is still a dialog group (because the dialog in question was not the
last dialog in that dialog group): if the dialog groups managers control group is non-empty, let
there be no designated focused dialog of the dialog group any more; otherwise (in the case that the
control group is empty), designate the first non-inert dialog in the dialog group to be the focused
dialog of the dialog group, or, if they are all inert, designate the first dialog in the dialog group to
be the focused dialog of the dialog group regardless of inertness.
When the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context was a focusable area but stops be-
ing a focusable area, or when it was a dialog in a dialog group and stops being part of that dialog
group, or when it starts being inert, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Let old focus target be whatever the currently focused area of the top-level browsing context
was immediately before this algorithm became applicable (e.g., before the element was dis-
abled, or the dialog was closed, or whatever caused this algorithm to run).
2. Let old chain be the focus chain of the currently focused area of the top-level browsing con-
text at the same time.
3. Make sure that the changes implied by the focus fixup rules one, two, and three above are ap-
plied.
4. Let new focus target be the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context.
5. If old focus target and new focus target are the same, abort these steps.
7. Run the focus update steps with old chain , new chain , and new focus target respectively.
The focus update steps, given an old chain , a new chain , and a new focus target respectively,
are as follows:
1. If the last entry in old chain and the last entry in new chain are the same, pop the last entry
from old chain and the last entry from new chain and redo this step.
2. For each entry entry in old chain , in order, run these substeps:
1. If entry is an input element, and the change event applies to the element, and the ele-
ment does not have a defined activation behavior, and the user has changed the elements
value or its list of selected files while the control was focused without committing that
change, then fire a simple event that bubbles named change at the element.
If entry is a Document object, let blur event target be that Document objects Window
object.
3. If entry is the last entry in old chain , and entry is an Element, and the last entry in
new chain is also an Element, then let related blur target be the last entry in new
chain . Otherwise, let related blur target be null.
4. If blur event target is not null, fire a focus event named blur at blur event target , with
related blur target as the related target.
NOTE:
In some cases, e.g., if entry is an area elements shape, a scrollable region, or a
viewport, no event is fired.
3. Apply any relevant platform-specific conventions for focusing new focus target . (For exam-
ple, some platforms select the contents of a text field when that field is focused.)
4. For each entry entry in new chain , in reverse order, run these substeps:
1. If entry is a <dialog> element: Let entry be the designated focused dialog of its dialog
group.
2. If entry is a focusable area: Designate entry as the focused area of the control group. If
its control groups owner is also a dialog group manager, then let there be no designated
focused dialog in that dialog group.
NOTE:
It is possible for entry to be both a dialog element and a focusable area, in which
case it is its own control group owner.
If entry is a Document object, let focus event target be that Document objects Window
object.
4. If entry is the last entry in new chain , and entry is an Element, and the last entry in
old chain is also an Element, then let related focus target be the last entry in old
chain . Otherwise, let related focus target be null.
5. If focus event target is not null, fire a focus event named focus at focus event target ,
with related focus target as the related target.
NOTE:
In some cases, e.g., if entry is an area elements shape, a scrollable region, or a
viewport, no event is fired.
When a user agent is required to fire a focus event named e at an element t and with a given re-
lated target r , the user agent must create a trusted FocusEvent object, initialize it to have the
given name e , to not bubble, to not be cancelable, and to have the relatedTarget attribute initial-
ized to r , the view attribute initialized to the Window object of the Document object of t , and the
detail attribute initialized to 0, and must then dispatch the newly created FocusEvent object at
the specified target element t .
When a key event is to be routed in a top-level browsing context, the user agent must run the fol-
lowing steps:
1. Let target area be the currently focused area of the top-level browsing context.
2. If target area is a focusable area, let target node be target area s DOM anchor. Otherwise,
target area is a dialog; let target node be target area .
3. If target node is a Document that has a <body> element, then let target node be the <body> el-
ement of that Document.
Otherwise, if target node is a Document object that has a non-null document element, then
NOTE:
It is possible for the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context to be inert, for
example if a modal dialog is shown, and then that dialog element is made inert. It is
likely to be the result of a logic error in the application, though.
5. If the event was not canceled, then let target area handle the key event. This might include
running synthetic click activation steps for target node .
The has focus steps, given a Document object target , are as follows:
3. If candidate has a dialog group with a designated focused dialog of the dialog group, then let
candidate be the designated focused dialog of the dialog group, and redo this step.
Otherwise, if candidate has a non-empty control group, and the designated focused area of
the control group is a browsing context container, and the active document of that browsing
context containers nested browsing context is target , then return true and abort these steps.
Otherwise, if candidate has a non-empty control group, and the designated focused area of
the control group is a browsing context container, then let candidate be the active document
of that browsing context containers nested browsing context, and redo this step.
Each control group has a sequential focus navigation order, which orders some or all of the fo-
cusable areas in the control group relative to each other. The order in the sequential focus naviga-
tion order does not have to be related to the order in the control group itself. If a focusable area is
omitted from the sequential focus navigation order of its control group, then it is unreachable via
sequential focus navigation.
There can also be a sequential focus navigation starting point. It is initially unset. The user
agent may set it when the user indicates that it should be moved.
EXAMPLE 611
For example, the user agent could set it to the position of the users click if the user clicks on
the document contents.
When the user requests that focus move from the currently focused area of a top-level browsing
context to the next or previous focusable area (e.g., as the default action of pressing the tab key),
or when the user requests that focus sequentially move to a top-level browsing context in the first
place (e.g., from the browsers location bar), the user agent must use the following algorithm:
1. Let starting point be the currently focused area of a top-level browsing context, if the user
requested to move focus sequentially from there, or else the top-level browsing context itself,
if the user instead requested to move focus from outside the top-level browsing context.
2. If there is a sequential focus navigation starting point defined and it is inside starting point ,
then let starting point be the sequential focus navigation starting point instead.
3. Let direction be forward if the user requested the next control, and backward if the user re-
quested the previous control.
NOTE:
Typically, pressing tab requests the next control, and pressing shift+tab requests the
previous control.
4. Loop: Let selection mechanism be sequential if the starting point is a browsing context or if
starting point is in its control groups sequential focus navigation order.
Otherwise, starting point is not in its control groups sequential focus navigation order; let
selection mechanism be DOM.
5. Let candidate be the result of running the sequential navigation search algorithm with start-
ing point , direction , and selection mechanism as the arguments.
6. If candidate is not null, then run the focusing steps for candidate and abort these steps.
8. If starting point is the top-level browsing context, or a focusable area in the top-level brows-
ing context, the user agent should transfer focus to its own controls appropriately (if any),
honouring direction , and then abort these steps.
EXAMPLE 612
For example, if direction is backward, then the last focusable control before the
browsers rendering area would be the control to focus.
If the user agent has no focusable controls a kiosk-mode browser, for instance then the
user agent may instead restart these steps with the starting point being the top-level brows-
ing context itself.
9. Otherwise, starting point is a focusable area in a nested browsing context. Let starting point
be that nested browsing contexts browsing context container, and return to the step labeled
loop.
The sequential navigation search algorithm consists of the following steps. This algorithm takes
three arguments: starting point , direction , and selection mechanism .
1. Pick the appropriate cell from the following table, and follow the instructions in that cell.
The appropriate cell is the one that is from the column whose header describes direction and
from the first row whose header describes starting point and selection mechanism .
starting point Let candidate be the first suitable Let candidate be the last suitable
is a browsing sequentially focusable area in sequentially focusable area in
context starting point s active documents starting point s active documents
primary control group, if any; or primary control group, if any; or
else null else null
selection Let candidate be the first suitable Let candidate be the last suitable
mechanism is sequentially focusable area in the sequentially focusable area in the
DOM home control group following home control group preceding
starting point , if any; or else null starting point , if any; or else null
selection Let candidate be the first suitable Let candidate be the last suitable
mechanism is sequentially focusable area in the sequentially focusable area in the
sequential home sequential focus navigation home sequential focus navigation
order following starting point , if order preceding starting point , if
any; or else null any; or else null
A suitable sequentially focusable area is a focusable area whose DOM anchor is not inert
and that is in its control groups sequential focus navigation order.
The primary control group of a control group owner object X is the control group of X if
X has no dialog group or if its dialog group has no designated focused dialog of the dialog
group, otherwise, it is the primary control group of X s dialog groups designated focused di-
alog of the dialog group.
The home control group is the control group to which starting point belongs.
The home sequential focus navigation order is the sequential focus navigation order to
NOTE:
The home sequential focus navigation order is the home control groups sequential focus
navigation order, but is only used when the starting point is in that sequential focus navi-
gation order (when its not, selection mechanism will be DOM).
2. If candidate is a browsing context container, then let new candidate be the result of running
the sequential navigation search algorithm with candidate s nested browsing context as the
first argument, direction as the second, and sequential as the third.
If new candidate is null, then let starting point be candidate , and return to the top of this al-
gorithm. Otherwise, let candidate be new candidate .
3. Return candidate .
For the purposes of this API, when a child browsing context is focused, its browsing
context container is focused in the parent browsing context. For example, if the user
moves the focus to a text field in an <iframe>, the iframe is the element returned by the
activeElement API in the iframes node document.
document . hasFocus()
Returns true if key events are being routed through or to the document; otherwise, re-
turns false. Roughly speaking, this corresponds to the document, or a document nested
inside this one, being focused.
window . focus()
Moves the focus to the windows browsing context, if any.
element . focus()
Moves the focus to the element.
If the element is a browsing context container, moves the focus to the nested browsing
context instead.
element . blur()
Moves the focus to the viewport. Use of this method is discouraged; if you want to focus
the viewport, call the focus() method on the Documents document element.
Do not use this method to hide the focus ring if you find the focus ring unsightly. In-
stead, use a CSS rule to override the outline property, and provide a different way to
show what element is focused. Be aware that if an alternative focusing style isnt made
available, the page will be significantly less usable for people who primarily navigate
pages using a keyboard, or those with reduced vision who use focus outlines to help
them navigate the page.
EXAMPLE 613
For example, to hide the outline from links and instead use a yellow background to
indicate focus, you could use:
Do not use this method to hide the focus ring. Do not use any other method that hides
the focus ring from keyboard users, in particular do not use a CSS rule to override the
outline property. Removal of the focus ring leads to serious accessibility issues for
users who navigate and interact with interactive content using the keyboard.
The activeElement attribute on Document objects must return the value returned by the following
steps:
2. If candidate has a dialog group with a designated focused dialog of the dialog group, then let
candidate be the designated focused dialog of the dialog group, and redo this step.
3. If candidate has a non-empty control group, let candidate be the designated focused area of
the control group.
5. If candidate is a Document that has a <body> element, then let candidate be the <body> ele-
ment of that Document.
Otherwise, if candidate is a Document with a non-null document element, then let candi-
date be that document element.
6. Return candidate .
The hasFocus() method on the Document object, when invoked, must return the result of running
the has focus steps with the Document object as the argument.
The focus() method on the Window object, when invoked, must run the focusing steps with the
Window objects browsing context. Additionally, if this browsing context is a top-level browsing
context, user agents are encouraged to trigger some sort of notification to indicate to the user that
the page is attempting to gain focus.
The blur() method on the Window object, when invoked, provides a hint to the user agent that the
script believes the user probably is not currently interested in the contents of the browsing context
of the Window object on which the method was invoked, but that the contents might become inter-
esting again in the future.
User agents are encouraged to ignore calls to this blur() method entirely.
NOTE:
Historically, the focus() and blur() methods actually affected the system-level focus of the
system widget (e.g., tab or window) that contained the browsing context, but hostile sites
widely abuse this behavior to the users detriment.
The focus() method on elements, when invoked, must run the following algorithm:
1. If the element is marked as locked for focus, then abort these steps.
The blur() method, when invoked, should run the unfocusing steps for the element on which the
method was called. User agents may selectively or uniformly ignore calls to this method for us-
ability reasons.
EXAMPLE 614
For example, if the blur() method is unwisely being used to remove the focus ring for aes-
thetics reasons, the page would become unusable by keyboard users. Ignoring calls to this
method would thus allow keyboard users to interact with the page.
There are three clipboard actions that affect selection: cut, copy, and paste. Focus may follow se-
lection, and user-agents handle this by default, but when custom clipboard actions are imple-
Cut action:
When a cut action is performed, the selected object should be removed and the collapsed sec-
tion set in place of the cut object.
Copy action:
When a copy action is performed, it does not affect the collapsed section or selection.
Paste action:
When a paste action is performed, the collapsed section should be placed at the end of the
pasted content.
5.5.1. Introduction
Each element that can be activated or focused can be assigned a shortcut key combination to acti-
vate it, using the accesskey attribute.
The exact shortcut is determined by the user agent, potentially using information about the users
preferences, what keyboard shortcuts already exist on the platform, and what other shortcuts have
been specified on the page, as well as the value of the accesskey attribute.
Warning! User agents may not assign any shortcut, or assigned shortcuts may be
overridden by other browser- or system-level shortcuts.
A valid value for the accesskey attribute consists of a single printable character, such as a letter or
digit.
User agents should provide users with a list of the shortcuts available, but authors are encouraged
to do so also.
EXAMPLE 615
In this example, an author has suggested that a button should be available using a shortcut, and
suggested "C" as a memorable and useful shortcut.
All HTML elements may have the accesskey content attribute set. The accesskey attributes
value is used by the user agent as a guide for creating a keyboard shortcut that activates or focuses
the element.
If specified, the value must be a single printable character: typically a string one Unicode code
point in length.
Authors should not use space characters such as " ", nor characters that cannot be gen-
erated by a single keystroke with no modifier keys, as a value of accesskey.
Authors should not use an accesskey attribute with the same value, nor with a value
that differs only by case, especially for ASCII characters, to two or more elements in
the same document, as in some browsers, this causes the attribute to be ignored.
EXAMPLE 616
In the following example, a variety of links are given with access keys so that keyboard users
familiar with the site can more quickly navigate to the relevant pages:
<nav>
<p>
<a title="Consortium Activities" accesskey="A" href="/Consortium
/activities">Activities</a> |
<a title="Technical Reports and Recommendations" accesskey="T"
href="/TR/">Technical Reports</a> |
<a title="Alphabetical Site Index" accesskey="S" href="/Consortium
/siteindex">Site Index</a> |
<a title="About This Site" accesskey="B" href="/Consortium/">About
Consortium</a> |
<a title="Contact Consortium" accesskey="C" href="/Consortium
/contact">Contact</a>
</p>
</nav>
An elements assigned access key is a key combination derived from the elements accesskey
content attribute, or assigned by the user agent, optionally based on a user preference. Initially, an
element must not have an assigned access key.
Whenever an elements accesskey attribute is set, changed, or removed, the user agent must up-
date the elements assigned access key by running the following steps:
1. If the element has no accesskey attribute, then skip to the fallback step below.
2. The user agent may assign a key combination based on stored user preferences as the ele-
ments assigned access key and then abort these steps.
4. The user agent may strip content from value to reduce the length of value to a single uni-
code code point.
5. If value is not a string of exactly one printable character, then the user agent may abort these
steps.
6. The user agent may assign a combination of a mix of zero or more modifier keys and value
as the elements assigned access key and abort these steps.
7. Fallback: Optionally, the user agent may assign a key combination of its choosing as the ele-
ments assigned access key and then abort these steps.
Once a user agent has selected and assigned an access key for an element, the user agent should
not change the elements assigned access key unless the accesskey content attribute is changed or
the element is moved to another Document.
When the user presses the key combination corresponding to the assigned access key for an ele-
ment, if the element defines a command, the commands Hidden State facet is false (visible), the
commands Disabled State facet is also false (enabled), the element is in a Document that has an
associated browsing context, and neither the element nor any of its ancestors has a hidden at-
tribute specified, then the user agent must either focus the element, or trigger the Action of the
command.
NOTE:
User agents might expose elements that have an accesskey attribute in other ways as well,
e.g., in a menu displayed in response to a specific key combination, or with a user gesture.
The accessKey IDL attribute must reflect the accesskey content attribute.
5.6. Editing
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface ElementContentEditable {
attribute DOMString contentEditable;
readonly attribute boolean isContentEditable;
};
The contenteditable content attribute is an enumerated attribute whose keywords are the empty
string, true, and false. The empty string and the true keyword map to the true state. The false
keyword maps to the false state. In addition, there is a third state, the inherit state, which is the
missing value default (and the invalid value default).
The true state indicates that the element is editable. The inherit state indicates that the element is
editable if its parent is. The false state indicates that the element is not editable.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
element . contentEditable [ = value ]
Returns "true", "false", or "inherit", based on the state of the contenteditable at-
tribute.
Throws a "SyntaxError" DOMException if the new value isnt one of those strings.
element . isContentEditable
Returns true if the element is editable; otherwise, returns false.
The contentEditable IDL attribute, on getting, must return the string "true" if the content at-
tribute is set to the true state, "false" if the content attribute is set to the false state, and "inherit"
otherwise. On setting, if the new value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "inherit"
then the content attribute must be removed, if the new value is an ASCII case-insensitive match
for the string "true" then the content attribute must be set to the string "true", if the new value is
an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "false" then the content attribute must be set to the
string "false", and otherwise the attribute setter must throw a "SyntaxError" DOMException.
The isContentEditable IDL attribute, on getting, must return true if the element is either an edit-
ing host or editable, and false otherwise.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . designMode [ = value ]
Returns "on" if the document is editable, and "off" if it isnt.
Can be set, to change the documents current state. This focuses the document and resets
the selection in that document.
The designMode IDL attribute on the Document object takes two values, "on" and "off". On set-
ting, the new value must be compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner to these two values; if
it matches the "on" value, then designMode must be enabled, and if it matches the "off" value,
then designMode must be disabled. Other values must be ignored.
On getting, if designMode is enabled, the IDL attribute must return the value "on"; otherwise it is
disabled, and the attribute must return the value "off".
The last state set must persist until the document is destroyed or the state is changed. Initially, doc-
uments must have their designMode disabled.
When the designMode changes from being disabled to being enabled, the user agent must immedi-
ately reset the documents active ranges start and end boundary points to be at the start of the
Document and then run the focusing steps for the document element of the Document, if non-null.
Authors are encouraged to set the white-space property on editing hosts and on markup that was
originally created through these editing mechanisms to the value pre-wrap. Default HTML white
space handling is not well suited to WYSIWYG editing, and line wrapping will not work correctly
in some corner cases if white-space is left at its default value.
EXAMPLE 617
As an example of problems that occur if the default normal value is used instead, consider
the case of the user typing "yellowball", with two spaces (here represented by "") be-
tween the words. With the editing rules in place for the default value of white-space (nor-
mal), the resulting markup will either consist of "yellow ball" or
"yellow ball"; i.e., there will be a non-breaking space between the two words in addi-
tion to the regular space. This is necessary because the normal value for white-space re-
quires adjacent regular spaces to be collapsed together.
In the former case, "yellow" might wrap to the next line ("" being used here to represent a
non-breaking space) even though "yellow" alone might fit at the end of the line; in the latter
case, "ball", if wrapped to the start of the line, would have visible indentation from the non-
breaking space.
When white-space is set to pre-wrap, however, the editing rules will instead simply put two
regular spaces between the words, and should the two words be split at the end of a line, the
spaces would be neatly removed from the rendering.
The definition of the terms active range, editing host, and editable, the user interface require-
ments of elements that are editing hosts or editable, the execCommand(),
queryCommandEnabled(), queryCommandIndeterm(), queryCommandState(),
queryCommandSupported(), and queryCommandValue() methods, text selections, and the delete
the selection algorithm are defined in the HTML Editing APIs specification. The interaction of
editing and the undo/redo features in user agents is defined by the UndoManager and DOM Trans-
action specification. [EDITING] [UNDO]
User agents can support the checking of spelling and grammar of editable text, either in form con-
trols (such as the value of <textarea> elements), or in elements in an editing host (e.g., using
contenteditable).
For each element, user agents must establish a default behavior, either through defaults or
through preferences expressed by the user. There are three possible default behaviors for each ele-
ment:
true-by-default
The element will be checked for spelling and grammar if its contents are editable and
false-by-default
The element will never be checked for spelling and grammar unless spellchecking is explic-
itly enabled through the spellcheck attribute.
inherit-by-default
The elements default behavior is the same as its parent elements. Elements that have no par-
ent element cannot have this as their default behavior.
The spellcheck attribute is an enumerated attribute whose keywords are the empty string, true
and false. The empty string and the true keyword map to the true state. The false keyword
maps to the false state. In addition, there is a third state, the default state, which is the missing
value default (and the invalid value default).
NOTE:
The true state indicates that the element is to have its spelling and grammar checked. The de-
fault state indicates that the element is to act according to a default behavior, possibly based on
the parent elements own spellcheck state, as defined below. The false state indicates that the
element is not to be checked.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
element . spellcheck [ = value ]
Returns true if the element is to have its spelling and grammar checked; otherwise, re-
turns false.
Can be set, to override the default and set the spellcheck content attribute.
element . forceSpellCheck()
Forces the user agent to report spelling and grammar errors on the element (if checking
is enabled), even if the user has never focused the element. (If the method is not in-
voked, user agents can hide errors in text that wasnt just entered by the user.)
The spellcheck IDL attribute, on getting, must return true if the elements spellcheck content
attribute is in the true state, or if the elements spellcheck content attribute is in the default state
and the elements default behavior is true-by-default, or if the elements spellcheck content at-
tribute is in the default state and the elements default behavior is inherit-by-default and the ele-
ments parent elements spellcheck IDL attribute would return true; otherwise, if none of those
conditions applies, then the attribute must instead return false.
NOTE:
The spellcheck IDL attribute is not affected by user preferences that override the
spellcheck content attribute, and therefore might not reflect the actual spellchecking state.
On setting, if the new value is true, then the elements spellcheck content attribute must be set to
the literal string "true", otherwise it must be set to the literal string "false".
User agents must only consider the following pieces of text as checkable for the purposes of this
feature:
The value of <input> elements whose type attributes are in the Text, Search, URL, or E-mail
states and that are mutable (i.e., that do not have the readonly attribute specified and that are
not disabled).
The value of <textarea> elements that do not have a readonly attribute and that are not dis-
abled.
Text in Text nodes that are children of editing hosts or editable elements.
For text that is part of a Text node, the element with which the text is associated is the element
that is the immediate parent of the first character of the word, sentence, or other piece of text. For
text in attributes, it is the attributes element. For the values of input and <textarea> elements, it
is the element itself.
To determine if a word, sentence, or other piece of text in an applicable element (as defined above)
is to have spelling- and grammar-checking enabled, the user agent must use the following algo-
rithm:
1. If the user has disabled the checking for this text, then the checking is disabled.
2. Otherwise, if the user has forced the checking for this text to always be enabled, then the
checking is enabled.
3. Otherwise, if the element with which the text is associated has a spellcheck content at-
tribute, then: if that attribute is in the true state, then checking is enabled; otherwise, if that at-
tribute is in the false state, then checking is disabled.
4. Otherwise, if there is an ancestor element with a spellcheck content attribute that is not in
the default state, then: if the nearest such ancestors spellcheck content attribute is in the
true state, then checking is enabled; otherwise, checking is disabled.
7. Otherwise, if the elements parent element has its checking enabled, then checking is enabled.
If the checking is enabled for a word/sentence/text, the user agent should indicate spelling and
grammar errors in that text. User agents should take into account the other semantics given in the
document when suggesting spelling and grammar corrections. User agents may use the language
of the element to determine what spelling and grammar rules to use, or may use the users pre-
ferred language settings. user agents should use <input> element attributes such as pattern to en-
sure that the resulting value is valid, where possible.
If checking is disabled, the user agent should not indicate spelling or grammar errors for that text.
Even when checking is enabled, user agents may opt to not report spelling or grammar errors in
text that the user agent deems the user has no interest in having checked (e.g., text that was already
present when the page was loaded, or that the user did not type, or text in controls that the user has
not focused, or in parts of e-mail addresses that the user agent is not confident were misspelt). The
forceSpellCheck() method, when invoked on an element, must override this behavior, forcing
the user agent to consider all spelling and grammar errors in text in that element for which check-
ing is enabled to be of interest to the user.
EXAMPLE 618
The element with ID "a" in the following example would be the one used to determine if the
word "Hello" is checked for spelling errors. In this example, it would not be.
<div contenteditable="true">
<span spellcheck="false">Hell</span><em>o!</em>
</div>
The element with ID "b" in the following example would have checking enabled (the leading
space character in the attributes value on the <input> element causes the attribute to be ig-
nored, so the ancestors value is used instead, regardless of the default).
NOTE:
This specification does not define the user interface for spelling and grammar checkers. A user
agent could offer on-demand checking, could perform continuous checking while the checking
is enabled, or could use other interfaces.
This specification does not define exactly what a drag-and-drop operation actually is.
On a visual medium with a pointing device, a drag operation could be the default action of a
mousedown event that is followed by a series of mousemove events, and the drop could be triggered
by the mouse being released.
When using an input modality other than a pointing device, users would probably have to explic-
itly indicate their intention to perform a drag-and-drop operation, stating what they wish to drag
and where they wish to drop it, respectively.
However it is implemented, drag-and-drop operations must have a starting point (e.g., where the
mouse was clicked, or the start of the selection or element that was selected for the drag), may
have any number of intermediate steps (elements that the mouse moves over during a drag, or ele-
ments that the user picks as possible drop points as he cycles through possibilities), and must ei-
ther have an end point (the element above which the mouse button was released, or the element
that was finally selected), or be canceled. The end point must be the last element selected as a pos-
sible drop point before the drop occurs (so if the operation is not canceled, there must be at least
one element in the middle step).
5.7.1. Introduction
To make an element draggable is simple: give the element a draggable attribute, and set an event
listener for dragstart that stores the data being dragged.
The event handler typically needs to check that its not a text selection that is being dragged, and
then needs to store data into the DataTransfer object and set the allowed effects (copy, move,
link, or some combination).
For example:
To accept a drop, the drop target has to listen to the drop event.
NOTE:
A drop target can handle the dragenter event (to report whether or not the drop target is to ac-
cept the drop) and the dragover event (to specify what feedback is to be shown to the user).
The drop event allows the actual drop to be performed. This event needs to be canceled, so that
the dropEffect attributes value can be used by the source (otherwise its reset).
For example:
To remove the original element (the one that was dragged) from the display, the dragend event can
be used.
For our example here, that means updating the original markup to handle that event:
The data that underlies a drag-and-drop operation, known as the drag data store, consists of the
following information:
A drag data store item list, which is a list of items representing the dragged data, each con-
sisting of the following information:
There is a limit of one Plain Unicode string item per item type string.
The drag data store item list is ordered in the order that the items were added to the list; most
recently added last.
The following information, used to generate the UI feedback during the drag:
User-agent-defined default feedback information, known as the drag data store default
feedback.
Optionally, a bitmap image and the coordinate of a point within that image, known as the
drag data store bitmap and drag data store hot spot coordinate.
Read/write mode
For the dragstart event. New data can be added to the drag data store.
Read-only mode
For the drop event. The list of items representing dragged data can be read, including the
data. No new data can be added.
Protected mode
For all other events. The formats and kinds in the drag data store list of items represent-
ing dragged data can be enumerated, but the data itself is unavailable and no new data
can be added.
When a drag data store is created, it must be initialized such that its drag data store item list is
empty, it has no drag data store default feedback, it has no drag data store bitmap and drag data
store hot spot coordinate, its drag data store mode is protected mode, and its drag data store al-
lowed effects state is the string "uninitialized".
DataTransfer objects are used to expose the drag data store that underlies a drag-and-drop oper-
ation.
interface DataTransfer {
attribute DOMString dropEffect;
attribute DOMString effectAllowed;
/* old interface */
[SameObject] readonly attribute DOMString[] types;
DOMString getData(DOMString format);
void setData(DOMString format, DOMString data);
void clearData(optional DOMString format);
[SameObject] readonly attribute FileList files;
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
dataTransfer . dropEffect [ = value ]
Returns the kind of operation that is currently selected. If the kind of operation isnt one
of those that is allowed by the effectAllowed attribute, then the operation will fail.
Can be set (during the dragstart event), to change the allowed operations.
The possible values are "none", "copy", "copyLink", "copyMove", "link", "linkMove",
"move", "all", and "uninitialized",
dataTransfer . items
Returns a DataTransferItemList object, with the drag data.
dataTransfer . types
Returns an array listing the formats that were set in the dragstart event. In addition, if
any files are being dragged, then one of the types will be the string "Files".
dataTransfer . files
Returns a FileList of the files being dragged, if any.
DataTransfer objects are used during the drag-and-drop events, and are only valid while those
events are being fired.
The dropEffect attribute controls the drag-and-drop feedback that the user is given during a drag-
and-drop operation. When the DataTransfer object is created, the dropEffect attribute is set
to a string value. On getting, it must return its current value. On setting, if the new value is one of
"none", "copy", "link", or "move", then the attributes current value must be set to the new
value. Other values must be ignored.
The effectAllowed attribute is used in the drag-and-drop processing model to initialize the
dropEffect attribute during the dragenter and dragover events. When the DataTransfer ob-
ject is created, the effectAllowed attribute is set to a string value. On getting, it must return its
current value. On setting, if drag data stores mode is the read/write mode and the new value is one
of "none", "copy", "copyLink", "copyMove", "link", "linkMove", "move", "all", or
"uninitialized", then the attributes current value must be set to the new value. Otherwise it
must be left unchanged.
The items attribute must return a DataTransferItemList object associated with the
DataTransfer object.
1. If the DataTransfer object is no longer associated with a drag data store, abort these steps.
Nothing happens.
2. If the drag data stores mode is not the read/write mode, abort these steps. Nothing happens.
3. If the element argument is an <img> element, then set the drag data store bitmap to the ele-
ments image (at its intrinsic size); otherwise, set the drag data store bitmap to an image gen-
erated from the given element (the exact mechanism for doing so is not currently specified).
4. Set the drag data store hot spot coordinate to the given x , y coordinate.
The types attribute must return a live read only array giving the strings that the following steps
would produce.
2. If the DataTransfer object is no longer associated with a drag data store, the array is
empty. Abort these steps; return the empty list L .
3. For each item in the drag data store item list whose kind is Plain Unicode string, add an en-
try to the list L consisting of the items type string.
4. If there are any items in the drag data store item list whose kind is File, then add an entry to
the list L consisting of the string "Files". (This value can be distinguished from the other
values because it is not lowercase.)
1. If the DataTransfer object is no longer associated with a drag data store, return the empty
string and abort these steps.
2. If the drag data stores mode is the protected mode, return the empty string and abort these
steps.
7. If there is no item in the drag data store item list whose kind is Plain Unicode string and
whose type string is equal to format , return the empty string and abort these steps.
8. Let result be the data of the item in the drag data store item list whose kind is Plain Uni-
code string and whose type string is equal to format .
9. If convert-to-URL is true, then parse result as appropriate for text/uri-list data, and then
set result to the first URL from the list, if any, or the empty string otherwise. [RFC2483]
The setData( format , data ) method must run the following steps:
1. If the DataTransfer object is no longer associated with a drag data store, abort these steps.
Nothing happens.
2. If the drag data stores mode is not the read/write mode, abort these steps. Nothing happens.
5. Remove the item in the drag data store item list whose kind is Plain Unicode string and
whose type string is equal to format , if there is one.
6. Add an item to the drag data store item list whose kind is Plain Unicode string, whose type
string is equal to format , and whose data is the string given by the methods second argu-
ment.
1. If the DataTransfer object is no longer associated with a drag data store, abort these steps.
Nothing happens.
2. If the drag data stores mode is not the read/write mode, abort these steps. Nothing happens.
3. If the method was called with no arguments, remove each item in the drag data store item list
whose kind is Plain Unicode string, and abort these steps.
6. Remove the item in the drag data store item list whose kind is Plain Unicode string and
whose type string is equal to format , if there is one.
NOTE:
The clearData() method does not affect whether any files were included in the drag, so the
types attributes list might still not be empty after calling clearData() (it would still con-
tain the "Files" string if any files were included in the drag).
The files attribute must return a live FileList sequence consisting of File objects representing
the files found by the following steps. Furthermore, for a given FileList object and a given un-
derlying file, the same File object must be used each time.
2. If the DataTransfer object is no longer associated with a drag data store, the FileList is
empty. Abort these steps; return the empty list L .
3. If the drag data stores mode is the protected mode, abort these steps; return the empty list L .
4. For each item in the drag data store item list whose kind is File , add the items data (the file,
in particular its name and contents, as well as its type) to the list L .
NOTE:
This version of the API does not expose the types of the files during the drag.
interface DataTransferItemList {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter DataTransferItem (unsigned long index);
DataTransferItem? add(DOMString data, DOMString type);
DataTransferItem? add(File data);
void remove(unsigned long index);
void clear();
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
items . length
Returns the number of items in the drag data store.
items [ index ]
Returns the DataTransferItem object representing the index th entry in the drag data
store.
items . clear()
Removes all the entries in the drag data store.
The length attribute must return zero if the object is in the disabled mode; otherwise it must re-
turn the number of items in the drag data store item list.
When a DataTransferItemList object is not in the disabled mode, its supported property in-
dices are the numbers in the range 0 .. n -1, where n is the number of items in the drag data store
item list.
1. If the DataTransferItemList object is not in the read/write mode, return null and abort
these steps.
Otherwise, add an item to the drag data store item list whose kind is Plain Unicode
string, whose type string is equal to the value of the methods second argument, in
ASCII lowercase, and whose data is the string given by the methods first argument.
3. Determine the value of the indexed property corresponding to the newly added item, and re-
turn that value (a newly created DataTransferItem object).
The remove() method, when invoked with the argument i , must run these steps:
The clear() method, if the DataTransferItemList object is in the read/write mode, must re-
move all the items from the drag data store. Otherwise, it must do nothing.
interface DataTransferItem {
readonly attribute DOMString kind;
readonly attribute DOMString type;
void getAsString(FunctionStringCallback? _callback);
File? getAsFile();
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
item . kind
Returns the drag data item kind, one of: "string", "file".
item . type
Returns the drag data item type string.
While the DataTransferItem objects DataTransfer object is associated with a drag data
store and that drag data stores drag data store item list still contains the item that the
DataTransferItem object represents, the DataTransferItem objects mode is the same as the
drag data store mode. When the DataTransferItem objects DataTransfer object is not asso-
ciated with a drag data store, or if the item that the DataTransferItem object represents has
been removed from the relevant drag data store item list, the DataTransferItem objects mode
is the disabled mode. The drag data store referenced in this section (which is used only when the
DataTransferItem object is not in the disabled mode) is the drag data store with which the
DataTransferItem objects DataTransfer object is associated.
The kind attribute must return the empty string if the DataTransferItem object is in the dis-
abled mode; otherwise it must return the string given in the cell from the second column of the fol-
lowing table from the row whose cell in the first column contains the drag data item kind of the
item represented by the DataTransferItem object:
Kind String
The type attribute must return the empty string if the DataTransferItem object is in the dis-
abled mode; otherwise it must return the drag data item type string of the item represented by the
DataTransferItem object.
2. If the DataTransferItem object is not in the read/write mode or the read-only mode, abort
these steps. The callback is never invoked.
3. If the drag data item kind is not Plain Unicode string, abort these steps. The callback is never
invoked.
4. Otherwise, queue a task to invoke callback , passing the actual data of the item represented
by the DataTransferItem object as the argument.
1. If the DataTransferItem object is not in the read/write mode or the read-only mode, return
null and abort these steps.
2. If the drag data item kind is not File, then return null and abort these steps.
3. Return a new File object representing the actual data of the item represented by the
DataTransferItem object.
The drag-and-drop processing model involves several events. They all use the DragEvent inter-
face.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
event . dataTransfer
Returns the DataTransfer object for the event.
NOTE:
Although, for consistency with other event interfaces, the DragEvent interface has a construc-
tor, it is not particularly useful. In particular, theres no way to create a useful DataTransfer
object from script, as DataTransfer objects have a processing and security model that is co-
ordinated by the browser during drag-and-drops.
The dataTransfer attribute of the DragEvent interface must return the value it was initialized
to. It represents the context information for the event.
When a user agent is required to fire a DND event named e at an element, using a particular drag
data store, and optionally with a specific related target , the user agent must run the following
steps:
2. Let window be the Window object of the Document object of the specified target element.
3. If e is dragstart, set the drag data store mode to the read/write mode.
If e is drop, set the drag data store mode to the read-only mode.
4. Let dataTransfer be a newly created DataTransfer object associated with the given drag
data store.
5. Set the effectAllowed attribute to the drag data stores drag data store allowed effects
state.
effectAllowed dropEffect
"none" "none"
"copy" "copy"
"copyLink" "copy", or, if appropriate, "link"
"copyMove" "copy", or, if appropriate, "move"
"all" "copy", or, if appropriate, either
"link" or "move"
"link" "link"
"linkMove" "link", or, if appropriate, "move"
"move" "move"
"uninitialized" when what is being dragged is a "move", or, if appropriate, either
selection from a text field "copy" or "link"
"uninitialized" when what is being dragged is a "copy", or, if appropriate, either
selection "link" or "move"
"uninitialized" when what is being dragged is an <a> "link", or, if appropriate, either
element with an href attribute "copy" or "move"
Any other case "copy", or, if appropriate, either
"link" or "move"
Where the table above provides possibly appropriate alternatives, user agents may instead
use the listed alternative values if platform conventions dictate that the user has requested
those alternate effects.
EXAMPLE 619
For example, Windows platform conventions are such that dragging while holding the
"alt" key indicates a preference for linking the data, rather than moving or copying it.
Therefore, on a Windows system, if "link" is an option according to the table above
while the "alt" key is depressed, the user agent could select that instead of "copy" or
"move".
7. Create a trusted DragEvent object and initialize it to have the given name e , to bubble, to
be cancelable unless e is dragexit, dragleave, or dragend, and to have the view attribute
initialized to window , the detail attribute initialized to zero, the mouse and key attributes
initialized according to the state of the input devices as they would be for user interaction
events, the relatedTarget attribute initialized to related target , and the dataTransfer at-
tribute initialized to dataTransfer , the DataTransfer object created above.
If there is no relevant pointing device, the object must have its screenX, screenY, clientX,
clientY, and button attributes set to 0.
8. Dispatch the newly created DragEvent object at the specified target element.
9. Set the drag data store allowed effects state to the current value of dataTransfer s
effectAllowed attribute. (It can only have changed value if e is dragstart.)
10. Set the drag data store mode back to the protected mode if it was changed in the first step.
11. Break the association between dataTransfer and the drag data store.
When the user attempts to begin a drag operation, the user agent must run the following steps.
User agents must act as if these steps were run even if the drag actually started in another docu-
ment or application and the user agent was not aware that the drag was occurring until it inter-
sected with a document under the user agents purview.
If the drag operation was invoked on a selection, then it is the selection that is being dragged.
Otherwise, if the drag operation was invoked on a Document, it is the first element, going up
the ancestor chain, starting at the node that the user tried to drag, that has the IDL attribute
draggable set to true. If there is no such element, then nothing is being dragged; abort these
steps, the drag-and-drop operation is never started.
Otherwise, the drag operation was invoked outside the user agents purview. What is being
dragged is defined by the document or application where the drag was started.
NOTE:
<img> elements and <a> elements with an href attribute have their draggable attribute set
to true by default.
2. Create a drag data store. All the DND events fired subsequently by the steps in this section
must use this drag data store.
If it is a selection that is being dragged, then the source node is the Text node that the user
started the drag on (typically the Text node that the user originally clicked). If the user did
not specify a particular node, for example if the user just told the user agent to begin a drag of
"the selection", then the source node is the first Text node containing a part of the selection.
Otherwise, if it is an element that is being dragged, then the source node is the element that is
being dragged.
Otherwise, the source node is part of another document or application. When this specifica-
tion requires that an event be dispatched at the source node in this case, the user agent must
instead follow the platform-specific conventions relevant to that situation.
NOTE:
Multiple events are fired on the source node during the course of the drag-and-drop opera-
tion.
If it is a selection that is being dragged, then the list of dragged nodes contains, in tree order,
every node that is partially or completely included in the selection (including all their ances-
tors).
Otherwise, the list of dragged nodes contains only the source node, if any.
5. If it is a selection that is being dragged, then add an item to the drag data store item list, with
its properties set as follows:
Otherwise, if any files are being dragged, then add one item per file to the drag data store
item list, with their properties set as follows:
NOTE:
Dragging files can currently only happen from outside a browsing context, for example
from a file system manager application.
If the drag initiated outside of the application, the user agent must add items to the drag data
store item list as appropriate for the data being dragged, honoring platform conventions where
appropriate; however, if the platform conventions do not use MIME types to label dragged
data, the user agent must make a best-effort attempt to map the types to MIME types, and, in
any case, all the drag data item type strings must be in ASCII lowercase.
User agents may also add one or more items representing the selection or dragged element(s)
in other forms, e.g., as HTML.
6. If the list of dragged nodes is not empty, then extract the microdata from those nodes into a
JSON form, and add one item to the drag data store item list, with its properties set as fol-
lows:
4. Let url string be the result of concatenating the strings in urls , in the order they were
5. Add one item to the drag data store item list, with its properties set as follows:
8. Update the drag data store default feedback as appropriate for the user agent (if the user is
dragging the selection, then the selection would likely be the basis for this feedback; if the
user is dragging an element, then that elements rendering would be used; if the drag began
outside the user agent, then the platform conventions for determining the drag feedback
should be used).
If the event is canceled, then the drag-and-drop operation should not occur; abort these steps.
NOTE:
Since events with no event listeners registered are, almost by definition, never canceled,
drag-and-drop is always available to the user if the author does not specifically prevent it.
10. Initiate the drag-and-drop operation in a manner consistent with platform conventions, and as
described below.
The drag-and-drop feedback must be generated from the first of the following sources that is
available:
1. The drag data store bitmap, if any. In this case, the drag data store hot spot coordinate
should be used as hints for where to put the cursor relative to the resulting image. The
values are expressed as distances in CSS pixels from the left side and from the top side
of the image respectively. [CSS-2015]
From the moment that the user agent is to initiate the drag-and-drop operation, until the end of
the drag-and-drop operation, device input events (e.g., mouse and keyboard events) must be sup-
pressed.
During the drag operation, the element directly indicated by the user as the drop target is called the
immediate user selection. (Only elements can be selected by the user; other nodes must not be
made available as drop targets.) However, the immediate user selection is not necessarily the cur-
rent target element, which is the element currently selected for the drop part of the drag-and-drop
operation.
The immediate user selection changes as the user selects different elements (either by pointing at
them with a pointing device, or by selecting them in some other way). The current target element
changes when the immediate user selection changes, based on the results of event listeners in the
document, as described below.
Both the current target element and the immediate user selection can be null, which means no tar-
get element is selected. They can also both be elements in other (DOM-based) documents, or other
(non-Web) programs altogether. (For example, a user could drag text to a word-processor.) The
current target element is initially null.
In addition, there is also a current drag operation, which can take on the values "none", "copy
", "link", and "move". Initially, it has the value "none". It is updated by the user agent as de-
scribed in the steps below.
User agents must, as soon as the drag operation is initiated and every 350ms (200ms) thereafter
for as long as the drag operation is ongoing, queue a task to perform the following steps in se-
quence:
1. If the user agent is still performing the previous iteration of the sequence (if any) when the
next iteration becomes due, abort these steps for this iteration (effectively "skipping missed
frames" of the drag-and-drop operation).
2. Fire a DND event named drag at the source node. If this event is canceled, the user agent
must set the current drag operation to "none" (no drag operation).
3. If the drag event was not canceled and the user has not ended the drag-and-drop operation,
check the state of the drag-and-drop operation, as follows:
1. If the user is indicating a different immediate user selection than during the last iteration
(or if this is the first iteration), and if this immediate user selection is not the same as the
current target element, then fire a DND event named dragexit at the current target ele-
ment, and then update the current target element as follows:
Otherwise
If the event is canceled, then set the current target element to the immediate
user selection.
Otherwise
Fire a DND event named dragenter at the body element, if there is
one, or at the Document object, if not. Then, set the current target el-
ement to the body element, regardless of whether that event was can-
celed or not.
2. If the previous step caused the current target element to change, and if the previous tar-
get element was not null or a part of a non-DOM document, then fire a DND event
named dragleave at the previous target element, with the new current target element as
the specific related target .
3. If the current target element is a DOM element, then fire a DND event named dragover
at this current target element.
If the dragover event is not canceled, run the appropriate step from the following list:
Otherwise
Reset the current drag operation to "none".
Otherwise (if the dragover event is canceled), set the current drag operation based on
the values of the effectAllowed and dropEffect attributes of the DragEvent ob-
jects dataTransfer object as they stood after the event dispatch finished, as per the
following table:
4. Otherwise, if the current target element is not a DOM element, use platform-specific
mechanisms to determine what drag operation is being performed (none, copy, link, or
move), and set the current drag operation accordingly.
5. Update the drag feedback (e.g., the mouse cursor) to match the current drag operation, as
follows:
Drag Feedback
operation
4. Otherwise, if the user ended the drag-and-drop operation (e.g., by releasing the mouse button
in a mouse-driven drag-and-drop interface), or if the drag event was canceled, then this will
be the last iteration. Run the following steps, then stop the drag-and-drop operation:
1. If the current drag operation is "none" (no drag operation), or, if the user ended the drag-
and-drop operation by canceling it (e.g., by hitting the Escape key), or if the current tar-
get element is null, then the drag operation failed. Run these substeps:
2. If the current target element is a DOM element, fire a DND event named
dragleave at it; otherwise, if it is not null, use platform-specific conventions for
drag cancelation.
2. If the current target element is a DOM element, fire a DND event named drop at it;
otherwise, use platform-specific conventions for indicating a drop.
3. If the event is canceled, set the current drag operation to the value of the
dropEffect attribute of the DragEvent objects dataTransfer object as it
stood after the event dispatch finished.
Otherwise, the event is not canceled; perform the events default action, which de-
pends on the exact target as follows:
Otherwise
Reset the current drag operation to "none".
3. Run the appropriate steps from the following list as the default action of the dragend
event:
If dropped is true, the current target element is a text field (see below), the
current drag operation is "move", and the source of the drag-and-drop
operation is a selection in the DOM that is entirely contained within an editing
host
Delete the selection.
If dropped is true, the current target element is a text field (see below), the
current drag operation is "move", and the source of the drag-and-drop
operation is a selection in a text field
The user agent should delete the dragged selection from the relevant text field.
Otherwise
The event has no default action.
For the purposes of this step, a text field is a <textarea> element or an <input> element
whose type attribute is in one of the Text, Search, Telephone, URL, E-mail, Password,
or Number states.
NOTE:
User agents are encouraged to consider how to react to drags near the edge of scrollable re-
gions. For example, if a user drags a link to the bottom of the viewport on a long page, it might
make sense to scroll the page so that the user can drop the link lower on the page.
NOTE:
This model is independent of which Document object the nodes involved are from; the events
are fired as described above and the rest of the processing model runs as described above, irre-
spective of how many documents are involved in the operation.
Not shown in the above table: all these events bubble, and the effectAllowed attribute always
has the value it had after the dragstart event, defaulting to "uninitialized" in the dragstart
event.
All HTML elements may have the draggable content attribute set. The draggable attribute is an
enumerated attribute. It has three states. The first state is true and it has the keyword true. The
second state is false and it has the keyword false. The third state is auto; it has no keywords but it
is the missing value default.
The true state means the element is draggable; the false state means that it is not. The auto state
uses the default behavior of the user agent.
An element with a draggable attribute should also have a title attribute that names the element
for the purpose of non-visual interactions.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
element . draggable [ = value ]
Returns true if the element is draggable; otherwise, returns false.
Can be set, to override the default and set the draggable content attribute.
The draggable IDL attribute, whose value depends on the content attributes in the way described
below, controls whether or not the element is draggable. Generally, only text selections are drag-
gable, but elements whose draggable IDL attribute is true become draggable as well.
If an elements draggable content attribute has the state true, the draggable IDL attribute must
return true.
Otherwise, if the elements draggable content attribute has the state false, the draggable IDL at-
tribute must return false.
Otherwise, the elements draggable content attribute has the state auto. If the element is an <img>
element, an <object> element that represents an image, or an <a> element with an href content at-
tribute, the draggable IDL attribute must return true; otherwise, the draggable IDL attribute
must return false.
If the draggable IDL attribute is set to the value false, the draggable content attribute must be
set to the literal value "false". If the draggable IDL attribute is set to the value true, the
draggable content attribute must be set to the literal value "true".
User agents must not make the data added to the DataTransfer object during the dragstart
event available to scripts until the drop event, because otherwise, if a user were to drag sensitive
information from one document to a second document, crossing a hostile third document in the
process, the hostile document could intercept the data.
For the same reason, user agents must consider a drop to be successful only if the user specifically
ended the drag operation if any scripts end the drag operation, it must be considered unsuccess-
ful (canceled) and the drop event must not be fired.
User agents should take care to not start drag-and-drop operations in response to script actions. For
example, in a mouse-and-window environment, if a script moves a window while the user has his
mouse button depressed, the user agent would not consider that to start a drag. This is important
because otherwise user agents could cause data to be dragged from sensitive sources and dropped
into hostile documents without the users consent.
User agents should filter potentially active (scripted) content (e.g., HTML) when it is dragged and
when it is dropped, using a safelist of known-safe features. Similarly, relative URLs should be
turned into absolute URLs to avoid references changing in unexpected ways. This specification
does not specify how this is performed.
EXAMPLE 620
Consider a hostile page providing some content and getting the user to select and drag and
drop (or indeed, copy and paste) that content to a victim pages contenteditable region. If
the browser does not ensure that only safe content is dragged, potentially unsafe content such
as scripts and event handlers in the selection, once dropped (or pasted) into the victim site, get
the privileges of the victim site. This would thus enable a cross-site scripting attack.
This section describes features that apply most directly to Web browsers. Having said that, except
where specified otherwise, the requirements defined in this section do apply to all user agents,
whether they are Web browsers or not.
A browsing context is an environment in which Document objects are presented to the user.
NOTE:
A tab or window in a Web browser typically contains a browsing context, as does an <iframe>
or <frame>s in a <frameset>.
A browsing context has a session history, which lists the Document objects that the browsing con-
text has presented, is presenting, or will present. At any time, one Document in each browsing
context is designated the active document. A Document's browsing context is that browsing con-
text whose session history contains the Document, if any. (A Document created using an API
such as createDocument() has no browsing context.) Each Document in a browsing context is
associated with a Window object.
NOTE:
In general, there is a 1-to-1 mapping from the Window object to the Document object. There
are two exceptions. First, a Window can be reused for the presentation of a second Document
in the same browsing context, such that the mapping is then 1-to-2. This occurs when a brows-
ing context is navigated from the initial about:blank Document to another, with replacement
enabled. Second, a Document can end up being reused for several Window objects when the
document.open() method is used, such that the mapping is then many-to-1.
NOTE:
A Document does not necessarily have a browsing context associated with it. In particular,
data mining tools are likely to never instantiate browsing contexts.
A browsing context can have a creator browsing context, the browsing context that was responsi-
ble for its creation. If a browsing context has a parent browsing context, then that is its creator
browsing context. Otherwise, if the browsing context has an opener browsing context, then that is
its creator browsing context. Otherwise, the browsing context has no creator browsing context.
If a browsing context context has a creator browsing context creator , it also has the following
properties. In what follows, let creator document be creator s active document at the time con-
text is created:
creator origin
creator document s origin
creator URL
creator document s URL
1. Call the JavaScript InitializeHostDefinedRealm() abstract operation with the following cus-
tomizations:
For the global this value, create a new WindowProxy object windowProxy , whose
[[Window]] internal slot value is window .
NOTE:
The internal slot value is updated when navigations occur.
3. Let document be a new Document, whose URL is about:blank, which is marked as being an
HTML document, whose character encoding is UTF-8, and which is both ready for post-load
tasks and completely loaded immediately.
If the new browsing context has a creator browsing context, then the origin of document
is the creator origin.
Otherwise, the origin of document is a unique opaque origin assigned when the new
browsing context is created.
5. If the new browsing context has a creator browsing context, then set document s referrer to
the creator URL.
6. Ensure that document has a single child <html> node, which itself has two empty child nodes:
a <head> element, and a <body> element.
10. Set up a browsing context environment settings object with realm execution context .
Certain elements (for example, <iframe> elements) can instantiate further browsing contexts.
These are called nested browsing contexts. If a browsing context P has a Document D with an
element E that nests another browsing context C inside it, then C is said to be nested through
D , and E is said to be the browsing context container of C . If the browsing context container
element E is in the Document D , then P is said to be the parent browsing context of C and C
is said to be a child browsing context of P . Otherwise, the nested browsing context C has no
parent browsing context.
A browsing context that is not a nested browsing context has no parent browsing context, and is
the top-level browsing context of all the browsing contexts for which it is an ancestor browsing
context.
The transitive closure of parent browsing contexts for a nested browsing context gives the list of
ancestor browsing contexts.
The list of the descendant browsing contexts of a Document d is the (ordered) list returned by
the following algorithm:
2. For each child browsing context of d that is nested through an element that is in the
Document d , in the tree order of the elements nesting those browsing contexts, run these sub-
steps:
2. Append the list of the descendant browsing contexts of the active document of that child
browsing context to the list list .
A Document is said to be fully active when it has a browsing context and it is the active docu-
ment of that browsing context, and either its browsing context is a top-level browsing context, or it
has a parent browsing context and the Document through which it is nested is itself fully active.
Because they are nested through an element, child browsing contexts are always tied to a specific
Document in their parent browsing context. User agents must not allow the user to interact with
child browsing contexts of elements that are in Documents that are not themselves fully active.
A nested browsing context can be put into a delaying load events mode. This is used when it is
navigated, to delay the load event of the browsing context container before the new Document is
created.
The document family of a browsing context consists of the union of all the Document objects in
that browsing contexts session history and the document families of all those Document objects.
The document family of a Document object consists of the union of all the document families of
the browsing contexts that are nested through the Document object.
The content document of a browsing context container container is the result of the following al-
gorithm:
4. If document s origin and the origin specified by the current settings object are not same
origin-domain, then return null.
5. Return document .
window . parent
Returns the WindowProxy for the parent browsing context.
window . frameElement
Returns the Element for the browsing context container.
The top IDL attribute on the Window object of a Document in a browsing context b must return
the WindowProxy object of its top-level browsing context (which would be its own
WindowProxy object if it was a top-level browsing context itself), if it has one, or its own
WindowProxy object otherwise (e.g., if it was a detached nested browsing context).
The parent IDL attribute on the Window object of a Document that has a browsing context b
must return the WindowProxy object of the parent browsing context, if there is one (i.e., if b is a
child browsing context), or the WindowProxy object of the browsing context b itself, otherwise
(i.e., if it is a top-level browsing context or a detached nested browsing context).
The frameElement IDL attribute, on getting, must run the following algorithm:
3. If context is not a nested browsing context, return null and abort these steps.
5. If container s node documents origin is not same origin-domain with the entry settings ob-
jects origin, then return null and abort these steps.
6. Return container .
It is possible to create new browsing contexts that are related to a top-level browsing context with-
out being nested through an element. Such browsing contexts are called auxiliary browsing con-
texts. Auxiliary browsing contexts are always top-level browsing contexts.
An auxiliary browsing context has an opener browsing context, which is the browsing context
from which the auxiliary browsing context was created.
The opener IDL attribute on the Window object, on getting, must return the WindowProxy object
of the browsing context from which the current browsing context was created (its opener browsing
context), if there is one, if it is still available, and if the current browsing context has not disowned
its opener; otherwise, it must return null.
On setting the opener attribute, if the new value is null then the current browsing context must
disown its opener; if the new value is anything else then the user agent must call the [[Define-
OwnProperty]] internal method of the Window object, passing the property name "opener" as the
property key, and the Property Descriptor { [[Value]]: value , [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]:
true, [[Configurable]]: true } as the property descriptor, where value is the new value.
6.1.3. Security
A browsing context A is familiar with a second browsing context B if one of the following con-
ditions is true:
Either the origin of the active document of A is the same as the origin of the active document
of B , or
The browsing context A is a nested browsing context with a top-level browsing context, and
its top-level browsing context is B , or
The browsing context B is an auxiliary browsing context and A is familiar with B s opener
browsing context, or
The browsing context B is not a top-level browsing context, but there exists an ancestor
browsing context of B whose active document has the same origin as the active document of
A (possibly in fact being A itself).
A browsing context A is allowed to navigate a second browsing context B if the following algo-
1. If A is not the same browsing context as B , and A is not one of the ancestor browsing con-
texts of B , and B is not a top-level browsing context, and A s active documents active
sandboxing flag set has its sandboxed navigation browsing context flag set, then abort these
steps negatively.
2. Otherwise, if B is a top-level browsing context, and is one of the ancestor browsing contexts
of A , and A s active documents active sandboxing flag set has its sandboxed top-level navi-
gation browsing context flag set, then abort these steps negatively.
3. Otherwise, if B is a top-level browsing context, and is neither A nor one of the ancestor
browsing contexts of A , and A s Document's active sandboxing flag set has its sandboxed
navigation browsing context flag set, and A is not the one permitted sandboxed navigator of
B , then abort these steps negatively.
An element has a browsing context scope origin if its Document's browsing context is a top-
level browsing context or if all of its Document's ancestor browsing contexts all have active docu-
ments whose origin are the same origin as the elements node documents origin. If an element has
a browsing context scope origin, then its value is the origin of the elements node document.
Each browsing context is defined as having a list of one or more directly reachable browsing
contexts. These are:
All the browsing contexts that have the browsing context as their opener browsing context.
The transitive closure of all the browsing contexts that are directly reachable browsing contexts
forms a unit of related browsing contexts.
Each unit of related browsing contexts is then further divided into the smallest number of groups
such that every member of each group has an active document with an origin that, through appro-
priate manipulation of the document.domain attribute, could be made to be same origin-domain
with other members of the group, but could not be made the same as members of any other group.
Each such group is a unit of related similar-origin browsing contexts.
NOTE:
There is also at most one event loop per unit of related similar-origin browsing contexts
(though several units of related similar-origin browsing contexts can have a shared event loop).
Browsing contexts can have a browsing context name. By default, a browsing context has no
name (its name is not set).
A valid browsing context name is any string with at least one character that does not start with a
U+005F LOW LINE character. (Names starting with an underscore are reserved for special key-
words.)
A valid browsing context name or keyword is any string that is either a valid browsing context
name or that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of: _blank, _self, _parent, or _top.
These values have different meanings based on whether the page is sandboxed or not, as summa-
rized in the following (non-normative) table. In this table, "current" means the browsing context
that the link or script is in, "parent" means the parent browsing context of the one the link or script
is in, "top" means the top-level browsing context of the one the link or script is in, "new" means a
new top-level browsing context or auxiliary browsing context is to be created, subject to various
user preferences and user agent policies, "none" means that nothing will happen, and "maybe new"
means the same as "new" if the "allow-popups" keyword is also specified on the sandbox at-
tribute (or if the user overrode the sandboxing), and the same as "none" otherwise.
Most of the restrictions on sandboxed browsing contexts are applied by other algorithms, e.g., the navigation algo-
rithm, not the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name given below.
The task in which the algorithm is running is currently processing an activation behavior
whose click event was trusted.
The task in which the algorithm is running is currently running the event listener for a trusted
change
click
dblclick
mouseup
reset
submit
The task in which the algorithm is running was queued by an algorithm that was allowed to
show a popup, and the chain of such algorithms started within a user-agent defined time-
frame.
EXAMPLE 621
For example, if a user clicked a button, it might be acceptable for a popup to result from
that after 4 seconds, but it would likely not be acceptable for a popup to result from that
after 4 hours.
The rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name are as follows. The
rules assume that they are being applied in the context of a browsing context, as part of the execu-
tion of a task.
1. If the given browsing context name is the empty string or _self, then the chosen browsing
context must be the current one.
2. If the given browsing context name is _parent, then the chosen browsing context must be the
parent browsing context of the current one, unless there isnt one, in which case the chosen
browsing context must be the current browsing context.
3. If the given browsing context name is _top, then the chosen browsing context must be the
top-level browsing context of the current one, if there is one, or else the current browsing
context.
4. If the given browsing context name is not _blank and there exists a browsing context whose
name is the same as the given browsing context name, and the current browsing context is fa-
miliar with that browsing context, and the user agent determines that the two browsing con-
texts are related enough that it is ok if they reach each other, then that browsing context must
be the chosen one. If there are multiple matching browsing contexts, the user agent should se-
lect one in some arbitrary consistent manner, such as the most recently opened, most recently
focused, or more closely related.
5. Otherwise, a new browsing context is being requested, and what happens depends on the user
agents configuration and abilities it is determined by the rules given for the first applica-
If the algorithm is not allowed to show a popup and the user agent has been
configured to not show popups (i.e., the user agent has a "popup blocker" enabled)
There is no chosen browsing context. The user agent may inform the user that a
popup has been blocked.
If the current browsing contexts active documents active sandboxing flag set has
the sandboxed auxiliary navigation browsing context flag set.
Typically, there is no chosen browsing context.
The user agent may offer to create a new top-level browsing context or reuse an ex-
isting top-level browsing context. If the user picks one of those options, then the
designated browsing context must be the chosen one (the browsing contexts name
isnt set to the given browsing context name). The default behavior (if the user
agent doesnt offer the option to the user, or if the user declines to allow a browsing
context to be used) must be that there must not be a chosen browsing context.
If the user agent has been configured such that in this instance it will create a new
browsing context, and the browsing context is being requested as part of following
a hyperlink whose link types include the noreferrer keyword
A new top-level browsing context must be created. If the given browsing context
name is not _blank, then the new top-level browsing contexts name must be the
given browsing context name (otherwise, it has no name). The chosen browsing
context must be this new browsing context. The creation of such a browsing con-
text is a new start for session storage.
NOTE:
If it is immediately navigated, then the navigation will be done with replace-
ment enabled.
If the user agent has been configured such that in this instance it will create a new
browsing context, and the noreferrer keyword doesnt apply
A new auxiliary browsing context must be created, with the opener browsing con-
text being the current one. If the given browsing context name is not _blank, then
the new auxiliary browsing contexts name must be the given browsing context
name (otherwise, it has no name). The chosen browsing context must be this new
browsing context.
NOTE:
If it is immediately navigated, then the navigation will be done with replace-
ment enabled.
If the user agent has been configured such that in this instance it will reuse the
current browsing context
The chosen browsing context is the current browsing context.
If the user agent has been configured such that in this instance it will not find a
browsing context
There must not be a chosen browsing context.
User agent implementors are encouraged to provide a way for users to configure the user
agent to always reuse the current browsing context.
If the chosen browsing context picked above, if any, is a new browsing context, then:
1. Let flagSet be the current browsing contexts active documents active sandboxing flag
set.
2. If flagSet s sandboxed navigation browsing context flag is set, then the current brows-
ing context must be set as the new browsing contexts one permitted sandboxed naviga-
tor.
3. If flagSet s sandbox propagates to auxiliary browsing contexts flag is set, then all the
flags that are set in flagSet must be set in the new browsing contexts popup sandboxing
flag set.
When the user agent is required to set up a browsing context environment settings object, given
a JavaScript execution context execution context , it must run the following steps:
3. Let url be a copy of the URL of the Document with which window is associated.
4. Let settings object be a new environment settings object whose algorithms are defined as fol-
lows:
The origin
Return the origin of the Document with which window is currently associated.
Although typically objects cannot be accessed across origins, the web platform would not be true
to itself if it did not have some legacy exceptions to that rule that the web depends upon.
When perform a security check is invoked, with a platformObject , realm , identifier , and type ,
run these steps:
1. If type is "method" and e has neither [[NeedsGet]] nor [[NeedsSet]], then re-
turn.
NOTE:
The [[CrossOriginPropertyDescriptorMap]] internal slot contains a map with entries whose
keys are (currentOrigin, objectOrigin, propertyKey)-tuples and values are property descriptors,
as a memoization of what is visible to scripts when currentOrigin inspects a Window or
Location object from objectOrigin. It is filled lazily by CrossOriginGetOwnPropertyHelper,
which consults it on future lookups.
User agents should allow a value held in the map to be garbage collected along with its corre-
sponding key when nothing holds a reference to any part of the value. That is, as long as garbage
collection is not observable.
EXAMPLE 622
For example, with
the value and its corresponding key in the map cannot be garbage collected as that would be
observable.
User agents may have an optimization whereby they remove key-value pairs from the map when
EXAMPLE 623
For example, setting document.domain to "example.com" on www.example.com means user
agents can remove all key-value pairs from the map where part of the key is
www.example.com, as that can never be part of the origin again and therefore the correspond-
ing value could never be retrieved from the map.
6.2.3.1. CrossOriginProperties ( O )
{
[[Property]]: "href",
[[NeedsGet]]: false,
[[NeedsSet]]: true
},
{
[[Property]]: "replace"
}
3. Let crossOriginWindowProperties be
{
[[Property]]: "window",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: false
},
{
[[Property]]: "self",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: false
},
{
[[Property]]: "location",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: true
},
{
[[Property]]: "close"
},
{
[[Property]]: "closed",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: false
},
{
[[Property]]: "focus"
},
{
[[Property]]: "blur"
},
{
[[Property]]: "frames",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: false
},
{
[[Property]]: "length",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: false
},
{
[[Property]]: "top",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: false
},
{
[[Property]]: "opener",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: false
},
{
[[Property]]: "parent",
[[NeedsGet]]: true,
[[NeedsSet]]: false
},
{
[[Property]]: "postMessage"
}
4. Repeat for each e that is an element of the child browsing context name property set:
5. Return crossOriginWindowProperties .
NOTE:
Indexed properties do not need to be safelisted as they are handled directly by the
WindowProxy object.
6.2.3.2. IsPlatformObjectSameOrigin ( O )
1. Return true if the current settings objects origin is same origin-domain with O s relevant set-
tings objects origin, and false otherwise.
6.2.3.3. CrossOriginGetOwnPropertyHelper ( O , P )
NOTE:
If this abstract operation returns undefined and there is no custom behavior, the caller needs to
throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
2. Let crossOriginKey be a tuple consisting of the current settings objects origin's effective do-
main, O s relevant settings objects origin's effective domain, and P .
5. Return crossOriginDesc .
4. Return undefined.
2. Otherwise:
A cross-origin wrapper function is an anonymous built-in function that has a [[Wrapped]] inter-
nal slot.
When a cross-origin wrapper function F is called with a list of arguments argumentsList , the fol-
lowing steps are taken:
NOTE:
Due to this being invoked from a different origin, a cross-origin wrapper function will have a
different value for Function.prototype from the function being wrapped. This follows from
how JavaScript creates anonymous built-in functions.
4. Return true.
4. Return false.
6.2.3.6. CrossOriginOwnPropertyKeys ( O )
3. Return keys .
[PrimaryGlobal, LegacyUnenumerableNamedProperties]
/*sealed*/ interface Window : EventTarget {
// the current browsing context
[Unforgeable] readonly attribute WindowProxy window;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute WindowProxy self;
[Unforgeable] readonly attribute Document document;
attribute DOMString name;
[PutForwards=href, Unforgeable] readonly attribute Location location;
readonly attribute History history;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp locationbar;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp menubar;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp personalbar;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp scrollbars;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp statusbar;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp toolbar;
attribute DOMString status;
void close();
readonly attribute boolean closed;
void stop();
void focus();
void blur();
// user prompts
void alert();
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . window
window . frames
window . self
These attributes all return window .
window . document
Returns the Document associated with window .
document . defaultView
Returns the Window object of the active document.
The window, frames, and self IDL attributes must all return the Window objects browsing con-
texts WindowProxy object.
The document IDL attribute must return the Window objects newest Document object.
NOTE:
The Document object associated with a Window object can change in exactly one case: when
the navigate algorithm initializes a new Document object for the first page loaded in a brows-
ing context. In that specific case, the Window object of the original about:blank page is reused
and gets a new Document object.
The defaultView IDL attribute of the Document interface must return the Document's browsing
contexts WindowProxy object, if there is one, or null otherwise.
For historical reasons, Window objects must also have a writable, configurable, non-enumerable
property named HTMLDocument whose value is the Document interface object.
window . close()
Closes the window.
window . closed
Returns true if the window has been closed, false otherwise.
window . stop()
Cancels the document load.
The open() method on Window objects provides a mechanism for navigating an existing browsing
context or opening and navigating an auxiliary browsing context.
When the method is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Let entry settings be the entry settings object when the method was invoked.
6. Let source browsing context be the responsible browsing context specified by entry settings .
8. If the user has indicated a preference for which browsing context to navigate, follow these
substeps:
1. Let target browsing context be the browsing context indicated by the user.
2. If target browsing context is a new top-level browsing context, let the source browsing
context be set as target browsing context s one permitted sandboxed navigator.
EXAMPLE 624
For example, suppose there is a user agent that supports control-clicking a link to open it
in a new tab. If a user clicks in that user agent on an element whose onclick handler uses
the window.open() API to open a page in an iframe, but, while doing so, holds the con-
trol key down, the user agent could override the selection of the target browsing context
to instead target a new tab.
Otherwise, apply the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name
using target as the name and source browsing context as the context in which the algorithm
is executed. If this results in there not being a chosen browsing context, then throw an
InvalidAccessError exception and abort these steps. Otherwise, let target browsing con-
text be the browsing context so obtained.
9. If target browsing context was just created, either as part of the rules for choosing a brows-
ing context given a browsing context name or due to the user indicating a preference for navi-
gating a new top-level browsing context, then let new be true. Otherwise, let it be false.
11. If url is the empty string, run the appropriate steps from the following list:
If new is false
Jump to the step labeled end.
If new is true
Let resource be the URL "about:blank".
Otherwise, parse url relative to entry settings , and let resource be the resulting URL record,
if any. If the parse a URL algorithm failed, then run one of the following two steps instead:
If new is false, jump to the step labeled end, otherwise, let resource be the URL
"about:blank".
12. If resource is "about:blank" and new is true, queue a task to fire a simple event named
load at target browsing context s Window object, with target override set to target browsing
context s Window objects Document object.
Otherwise, navigate target browsing context to resource , with the exceptions enabled flag
set. If new is true, then replacement must be enabled also. The source browsing context is
source browsing context .
13. End:
1. If the result of splitting features on commas contains the token "noopener", then dis-
own target browsing context s opener and return null.
The name attribute of the Window object must, on getting, return the current name of the browsing
context, if one is set, or the empty string otherwise; and, on setting, set the name of the browsing
context to the new value.
NOTE:
The name gets reset when the browsing context is navigated to another domain.
The close() method on Window objects should, if all the following conditions are met, close the
browsing context A :
The closed attribute on Window objects must return true if the Window objects browsing context
has been discarded, and false otherwise.
The stop() method on Window objects should, if there is an existing attempt to navigate the
browsing context and that attempt is not currently running the unload a document algorithm, can-
cel that navigation; then, it must abort the active document of the browsing context of the Window
window [ index ]
Returns the indicated child browsing context.
The number of child browsing contexts of a Window object W is the number of child browsing
contexts that are nested through elements that are in a Document that is the active document of the
Window objects associated Document objects browsing context.
The length IDL attributes getter must return the number of child browsing contexts of this
Window object.
NOTE:
Indexed access to child browsing contexts is defined through the [[GetOwnProperty]] internal
method of the WindowProxy object.
As a general rule, relying on this will lead to brittle code. Which IDs end up mapping to
this API can vary over time, as new features are added to the Web platform, for exam-
ple. Instead of this, use document.getElementById() or
document.querySelector().
The child browsing context name property set consists of the browsing context names of any
child browsing context of the active document whose name is not the empty string, with duplicates
omitted.
The Window interface supports named properties. The supported property names at any moment
consist of the following, in tree order, ignoring later duplicates:
the value of the name content attribute for all <a>, <applet>, <area>, <embed>, <form>,
<frameset>, <img>, and <object> elements in the active document that have a non-empty name
content attribute, and
the value of the id content attribute of any HTML element in the active document with a non-
empty id content attribute.
To determine the value of a named property name when the Window object is indexed for prop-
erty retrieval, the user agent must return the value obtained using the following steps:
1. Let objects be the list of named objects with the name name in the active document.
NOTE:
There will be at least one such object, by definition.
2. If objects contains a nested browsing context, then return the WindowProxy object of the
nested browsing context corresponding to the first browsing context container in tree order
whose browsing context is in objects , and abort these steps.
3. Otherwise, if objects has only one element, return that element and abort these steps.
4. Otherwise return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter matches
only named objects with the name name . (By definition, these will all be elements.)
Named objects with the name name , for the purposes of the above algorithm, are those that are
either:
<a>, <applet>, <area>, <embed>, <form>, <frameset>, <img>, or <object> elements that have a
name content attribute whose value is name , or
A browsing context has a strong reference to each of its Documents and its WindowProxy object,
and the user agent itself has a strong reference to its top-level browsing contexts.
NOTE:
A Window object has a strong reference to its Document object through its document attribute.
Thus, references from other scripts to either of those objects will keep both alive. Similarly,
both Document and Window objects have implied strong references to the WindowProxy object.
Each script has a strong reference to its settings object, and each environment settings object has
strong references to its global object, responsible browsing context, and responsible document (if
any).
When a browsing context is to discard a Document, the user agent must run the following steps:
2. Run any unloading document cleanup steps for the Document that are defined by this specifi-
cation and other applicable specifications.
4. Remove any tasks associated with the Document in any task source, without running those
tasks.
6. Lose the strong reference from the Document's browsing context to the Document.
NOTE:
Whenever a Document object is discarded, it is also removed from the list of the workers
Documents of each worker whose list contains that Document.
When a browsing context is discarded, the strong reference from the user agent itself to the
browsing context must be severed, and all the Document objects for all the entries in the browsing
contexts session history must be discarded as well.
User agents may discard top-level browsing contexts at any time (typically, in response to user re-
quests, e.g., when a user force-closes a window containing one or more top-level browsing con-
texts). Other browsing contexts must be discarded once their WindowProxy object is eligible for
garbage collection.
When the user agent is required to close a browsing context, it must run the following steps:
2. Prompt to unload the active document of the specified browsing context . If the user refused
to allow the document to be unloaded, then abort these steps.
3. Unload the active document of the specified browsing context with the recycle parameter set
to false.
4. Remove the specified browsing context from the user interface (e.g., close or hide its tab in a
tabbed browser).
User agents should offer users the ability to arbitrarily close any top-level browsing context.
To allow Web pages to integrate with Web browsers, certain Web browser interface elements are
exposed in a limited way to scripts in Web pages.
interface BarProp {
readonly attribute boolean visible;
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . locationbar . visible
Returns true if the location bar is visible; otherwise, returns false.
The visible attribute, on getting, must return either true or a value determined by the user agent to
most accurately represent the visibility state of the user interface element that the object repre-
sents, as described below.
The following BarProp objects exist for each Document object in a browsing context. Some of
the user interface elements represented by these objects might have no equivalent in some user
agents; for those user agents, except when otherwise specified, the object must act as if it was
present and visible (i.e., its visible attribute must return true).
The locationbar attribute must return the location bar BarProp object.
The menubar attribute must return the menu bar BarProp object.
The personalbar attribute must return the personal bar BarProp object.
The statusbar attribute must return the status bar BarProp object.
For historical reasons, the status attribute on the Window object must, on getting, return the last
string it was set to, and on setting, must set itself to the new value. When the Window object is cre-
ated, the attribute must be set to the empty string. It does not do anything else.
A WindowProxy is an exotic object that wraps a Window ordinary object, indirecting most opera-
tions through to the wrapped object. Each browsing context has an associated WindowProxy ob-
ject. When the browsing context is navigated, the Window object wrapped by the browsing con-
texts associated WindowProxy object is changed.
Every WindowProxy object has a [[Window]] internal slot representing the wrapped Window ob-
ject.
NOTE:
Although WindowProxy is named as a "proxy", it does not do polymorphic dispatch on its tar-
gets internal methods as a real proxy would, due to a desire to reuse machinery between
WindowProxy and Location objects. As long as the Window object remains an ordinary ob-
ject this is unobservable and can be implemented either way.
EXAMPLE 625
In the following example, the variable x is set to the WindowProxy object returned by the
window accessor on the global object. All of the expressions following the assignment return
true, because the WindowProxy object passes most operations through to the underlying ordi-
nary Window object.
var x = window;
x instanceof Window; // true
x === this; // true
The WindowProxy object internal methods are described in the subsections below.
6.3.7.1.1. [[GETPROTOTYPEOF]] ( )
3. Return null.
6.3.7.1.2. [[SETPROTOTYPEOF]] ( V )
1. Return false.
6.3.7.1.3. [[ISEXTENSIBLE]] ( )
1. Return true.
6.3.7.1.4. [[PREVENTEXTENSIONS]] ( )
1. Return false.
6.3.7.1.5. [[GETOWNPROPERTY]] ( P )
1. Set value to the WindowProxy object of the index th child browsing context of the
Document that is nested through an element that is in W s Document, sorted in
the order that the elements nesting those browsing contexts were most recently in-
serted into the Document, the WindowProxy object of the most recently inserted
browsing context containers nested browsing context being last.
NOTE:
This violates JavaScripts internal method invariants.
6. If property is undefined and P is in the child browsing context name property set, then:
1. Let value be the WindowProxy object of the named object with the name P .
NOTE:
See above about how this violates JavaScripts internal method invariants.
4. Return false.
6.3.7.1.9. [[DELETE]] ( P )
4. Return false.
6.3.7.1.10. [[OWNPROPERTYKEYS]] ( )
4. Let index be 0.
2. Increment index by 1.
6.4. Origin
Origins are the fundamental currency of the Webs security model. Two actors in the Web platform
that share an origin are assumed to trust each other and to have the same authority. Actors with dif-
fering origins are considered potentially hostile versus each other, and are isolated from each other
to varying degrees.
EXAMPLE 626
For example, if Example Banks Web site, hosted at bank.example.com, tries to examine the
DOM of Example Charitys Web site, hosted at charity.example.org, a "SecurityError"
DOMException will be raised.
An opaque origin
An internal value, with no serialisation, for which the only meaningful operation is testing for
equality.
A tuple origin
A tuple consists of:
A scheme (a scheme).
A host (a host).
A port (a port).
NOTE:
Origins can be shared, e.g., among multiple Document objects. Furthermore, origins are gen-
erally immutable. Only the domain of a tuple origin can be changed, and only through the
document.domain API.
Various specification objects are defined to have an origin. These origins are determined as fol-
lows:
If the Document's active sandboxing flag set has its sandboxed origin browsing
context flag set
If the Document was generated from a data: URL
A unique opaque origin is assigned when the Document is created.
NOTE:
The document.open() method can change the Document's URL to
"about:blank". Therefore the origin is assigned when the Document is cre-
ated.
If the Document was created as part of the processing for javascript: URLs
The origin of the active document of the browsing context being navigated when
the navigate algorithm was invoked.
If the Document was obtained in some other manner (e.g., a Document created
using the createDocument() API, etc)
The default behavior as defined in the DOM specification applies. [DOM].
NOTE:
The origin is a unique opaque origin assigned when the Document is created.
For fonts
For a downloadable Web font it is a copy of the origin of the URL record used to obtain the
font (after any redirects). [CSS-FONTS-3] [CSS-FONT-LOADING-3]
For a locally installed system font it is the origin of the Document in which that font is being
used.
Other specifications can override the above definitions by themselves specifying the origin of a
particular Document object, image, media element, or font.
The Unicode serialization of an origin is the string obtained by applying the following algorithm
to the given origin origin :
3. Let unicodeHost be host if host is not a domain, and the result of applying domain to Uni-
code to host otherwise.
4. Let unicodeOrigin be a new tuple origin consisting origin s scheme, unicodeHost , and ori-
gin s port.
NOTE:
The name ASCII serialization of an origin is misleading, as it merely serialises an origin,
which are all ASCII by default due to the URL parser.
EXAMPLE 627
The Unicode serialization of ("https", "xn--maraa-rta.example", null, null) is
"https://maraa.example".
The ASCII serialization of an origin is the string obtained by applying the following algorithm to
the given origin origin :
5. If origin s port is non-null, append a U+003A COLON character (:), and origin s port, seri-
alized, to result .
6. Return result .
Two origins A and B are said to be same origin if the following algorithm returns true:
2. If A and B are both tuple origins, and their schemes, hosts, and ports are identical, then re-
turn true.
3. Return false.
Two origins A and B are said to be same origin-domain if the following algorithm returns true:
1. If A and B s schemes are identical, and their domains are identical and non-null, then
return true.
2. Otherwise, if A and B are same origin and their domains are identical and null, then re-
turn true.
3. Return false.
EXAMPLE 628
The following table shows how A and B are related:
A B same same origin-
origin domain
Can be set to a value that removes subdomains, to change the origin's domain to allow
pages on other subdomains of the same domain (if they do the same thing) to access
each other. (Cant be set in sandboxed <iframe>s.)
1. If this Document object does not have a browsing context, then return the empty string.
2. If this Document objects active sandboxing flag set has its sandboxed document.domain
browsing context flag set, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
3. If the given value is the empty string, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
NOTE:
This is meant to exclude hosts that are an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address.
2. If host , prefixed by a U+002E FULL STOP (.), does not exactly match the end of effec-
tiveDomain , then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
3. If host matches a suffix in the Public Suffix List, or, if host , prefixed by a U+002E
FULL STOP (.), matches the end of a suffix in the Public Suffix List, then throw a
"SecurityError" DOMException. [PSL]
Suffixes must be compared after applying the host parser algorithm. [URL]
NOTE:
The document.domain attribute is used to enable pages on different hosts of a domain to ac-
cess each others' DOMs.
Warning! Do not use the document.domain attribute when using shared hosting. If
an untrusted third party is able to host an HTTP server at the same IP address but on a
different port, then the same-origin protection that normally protects two different sites
on the same host will fail, as the ports are ignored when comparing origins after the
document.domain attribute has been used.
6.5. Sandboxing
A sandboxing flag set is a set of zero or more of the following flags, which are used to restrict the
abilities that potentially untrusted resources have:
If the sandboxed auxiliary navigation browsing context flag is not set, then in certain cases
the restrictions nonetheless allow popups (new top-level browsing contexts) to be opened.
These browsing contexts always have one permitted sandboxed navigator, set when the
browsing context is created, which allows the browsing context that created them to actually
navigate them. (Otherwise, the sandboxed navigation browsing context flag would prevent
them from being navigated even if they were opened.)
When the sandboxed top-level navigation browsing context flag is not set, content can navi-
gate its top-level browsing context, but other browsing contexts are still protected by the
sandboxed navigation browsing context flag and possibly the sandboxed auxiliary navigation
browsing context flag.
This flag also prevents script from reading from or writing to the document.cookie IDL at-
tribute, and blocks access to localStorage. [WEBSTORAGE]
This flag prevents content from using any of the following features to produce modal dialogs:
window.alert()
window.confirm()
window.print()
window.prompt()
When the user agent is to parse a sandboxing directive, given a string input , a sandboxing flag
set output , and optionally an allow fullscreen flag , it must run the following steps:
The sandboxed auxiliary navigation browsing context flag, unless tokens contains the
allow-popups keyword.
The sandboxed top-level navigation browsing context flag, unless tokens contains the
allow-top-navigation keyword.
The sandboxed origin browsing context flag, unless the tokens contains the allow-
same-origin keyword.
NOTE:
The allow-same-origin keyword is intended for two cases.
First, it can be used to allow content from the same site to be sandboxed to disable
scripting, while still allowing access to the DOM of the sandboxed content.
Second, it can be used to embed content from a third-party site, sandboxed to prevent
that site from opening pop-up windows, etc, without preventing the embedded page
from communicating back to its originating site, using the database APIs to store
data, etc.
The sandboxed forms browsing context flag, unless tokens contains the allow-forms
keyword.
The sandboxed pointer lock browsing context flag, unless tokens contains the allow-
pointer-lock keyword.
The sandboxed scripts browsing context flag, unless tokens contains the allow-
scripts keyword.
The sandboxed automatic features browsing context flag, unless tokens contains the
allow-scripts keyword (defined above).
NOTE:
This flag is relaxed by the same keyword as scripts, because when scripts are en-
abled these features are trivially possible anyway, and it would be unfortunate to
force authors to use script to do them when sandboxed rather than allowing them to
use the declarative features.
The sandboxed fullscreen browsing context flag, unless the allow fullscreen flag was
passed to the parse a sandboxing directive flag.
The sandbox propagates to auxiliary browsing contexts flag, unless tokens contains the
allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox keyword.
The sandboxed modals flag, unless tokens contains the allow-modals keyword.
The sandboxed presentation browsing context flag, unless tokens contains the allow-
presentation keyword.
Every top-level browsing context has a popup sandboxing flag set, which is a sandboxing flag
set. When a browsing context is created, its popup sandboxing flag set must be empty. It is popu-
lated by the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name.
Every nested browsing context has an iframe sandboxing flag set, which is a sandboxing flag set.
Which flags in a nested browsing contexts iframe sandboxing flag set are set at any particular
time is determined by the <iframe> elements sandbox attribute.
Every Document has an active sandboxing flag set, which is a sandboxing flag set. When the
Document is created, its active sandboxing flag set must be empty. It is populated by the naviga-
tion algorithm.
Every resource that is obtained by the navigation algorithm has a forced sandboxing flag set,
which is a sandboxing flag set. A resource by default has no flags set in its forced sandboxing flag
set, but other specifications can define that certain flags are set.
NOTE:
In particular, the forced sandboxing flag set is used by the Content Security Policy specifica-
tion. [CSP3]
When a user agent is to implement the sandboxing for a Document, it must populate
Document's active sandboxing flag set with the union of the flags that are present in the following
sandboxing flag sets at the time the Document object is created:
If the Document's browsing context is a top-level browsing context, then: the flags set on the
browsing contexts popup sandboxing flag set.
If the Document's browsing context is a nested browsing context, then: the flags set on the
browsing contexts iframe sandboxing flag set.
If the Document's browsing context is a nested browsing context, then: the flags set on the
browsing contexts parent browsing contexts active documents active sandboxing flag set.
The flags set on the Document's resources forced sandboxing flag set, if it has one.
The sequence of Documents in a browsing context is its session history. Each browsing context,
including nested browsing contexts, has a distinct session history. A browsing contexts session
history consists of a flat list of session history entries. Each session history entry consists, at a
minimum, of a URL, and each entry may in addition have a serialized state, a title, a Document
object, form data, a scroll restoration mode, a scroll position, and other information associated
with it.
NOTE:
Each entry, when first created, has a Document. However, when a Document is not active, its
possible for it to be discarded to free resources. The URL and other data in a session history
entry is then used to bring a new Document into being to take the place of the original, should
the user agent find itself having to reactivate that Document.
NOTE:
Titles associated with session history entries need not have any relation with the current
<title> of the Document. The title of a session history entry is intended to explain the state of
the document at that point, so that the user can navigate the documents history.
URLs without associated serialized state are added to the session history as the user (or script)
navigates from page to page.
Each Document object in a browsing contexts session history is associated with a unique
History object which must all model the same underlying session history.
The history attribute of the Window interface must return the object implementing the History
interface for that Window objects newest Document.
Pages can add serialized state to the session history. These are then deserialized and returned to the
script when the user (or script) goes back in the history, thus enabling authors to use the "naviga-
tion" metaphor even in one-page applications.
NOTE:
Serialized state is intended to be used for two main purposes: first, storing a preparsed descrip-
tion of the state in the URL so that in the simple case an author doesnt have to do the parsing
(though one would still need the parsing for handling URLs passed around by users, so its
only a minor optimization), and second, so that the author can store state that one wouldnt
store in the URL because it only applies to the current Document instance and it would have
to be reconstructed if a new Document were opened.
An example of the latter would be something like keeping track of the precise coordinate from
which a pop-up div was made to animate, so that if the user goes back, it can be made to ani-
mate to the same location. Or alternatively, it could be used to keep a pointer into a cache of
data that would be fetched from the server based on the information in the URL, so that when
going back and forward, the information doesnt have to be fetched again.
At any point, one of the entries in the session history is the current entry. This is the entry repre-
senting the active document of the browsing context. Which entry is the current entry is changed
by the algorithms defined in this specification, e.g., during session history traversal.
NOTE:
The current entry is usually an entry for the URL of the Document. However, it can also be
one of the entries for serialized state added to the history by that document.
An entry with persisted user state is one that also has user-agent defined state. This specification
does not specify what kind of state can be stored.
EXAMPLE 629
For example, some user agents might want to persist the scroll position, or the values of form
controls.
NOTE:
User agents that persist the value of form controls are encouraged to also persist their direc-
tionality (the value of the elements dir attribute). This prevents values from being displayed
incorrectly after a history traversal when the user had originally entered the values with an ex-
plicit, non-default directionality.
An entrys scroll restoration mode indicates whether the user agent should restore the persisted
scroll position (if any) when traversing to it. The scroll restoration mode may be one of the follow-
ing:
"auto"
The user agent is responsible for restoring the scroll position upon navigation.
"manual"
The page is responsible for restoring the scroll position and the user agent does not attempt to
do so automatically
If unspecified, the scroll restoration mode of a new entry must be set to "auto".
Entries that consist of serialized state share the same Document as the entry for the page that was
active when they were added.
Contiguous entries that differ just by fragment also share the same Document.
NOTE:
All entries that share the same Document (and that are therefore merely different states of one
particular document) are contiguous by definition.
Each Document in a browsing context can also have a latest entry. This is the entry for that
Document to which the browsing contexts session history was most recently traversed. When a
Document is created, it initially has no latest entry.
User agents may discard the Document objects of entries other than the current entry that are not
referenced from any script, reloading the pages afresh when the user or script navigates back to
such pages. This specification does not specify when user agents should discard Document objects
and when they should cache them.
Entries that have had their Document objects discarded must, for the purposes of the algorithms
given below, act as if they had not. When the user or script navigates back or forwards to a page
which has no in-memory DOM objects, any other entries that shared the same Document object
with it must share the new object as well.
interface History {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
attribute ScrollRestoration scrollRestoration;
readonly attribute any state;
void go(optional long delta = 0);
void back();
void forward();
void pushState(any data, DOMString title, optional DOMString? url =
null);
void replaceState(any data, DOMString title, optional DOMString? url =
null);
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . history . length
Returns the number of entries in the joint session history.
Can be set, to change the scroll restoration mode of the current entry in the session his-
tory.
The joint session history of a top-level browsing context is the union of all the session histories of
all browsing contexts of all the fully active Document objects that share that top-level browsing
context, with all the entries that are current entries in their respective session histories removed ex-
cept for the current entry of the joint session history.
The current entry of the joint session history is the entry that most recently became a current
entry in its session history.
Entries in the joint session history are ordered chronologically by the time they were added to their
respective session histories. Each entry has an index; the earliest entry has index 0, and the subse-
quent entries are numbered with consecutively increasing integers (1, 2, 3, etc).
NOTE:
Since each Document in a browsing context might have a different event loop, the actual state
of the joint session history can be somewhat nebulous. For example, two sibling <iframe> ele-
ments could both traverse from one unique origin to another at the same time, so their precise
order might not be well-defined; similarly, since they might only find out about each other
later, they might disagree about the length of the joint session history.
The length attribute of the History interface, on getting, must return the number of entries in the
top-level browsing contexts joint session history. If this History object is associated with a
Document that is not fully active, getting must instead throw a "SecurityError"
DOMException.
The scrollRestoration attribute of the History interface, on getting, must return the scroll
restoration mode of the current entry in the session history. On setting, the scroll restoration mode
of the current entry in the session history must be set to the new value. If this History object is as-
sociated with a Document that is not fully active, both getting and setting must instead throw a
"SecurityError" DOMException.
The state attribute of the History interface, on getting, must return the last value it was set to by
the user agent. If this History object is associated with a Document that is not fully active, get-
ting must instead throw a SecurityError DOMException. Initially, its value must be null.
When the go( delta ) method is invoked, if delta is zero, the user agent must act as if the
location.reload() method was called instead. Otherwise, the user agent must traverse the his-
tory by a delta whose value is delta If this History object is associated with a Document that is
When the back() method is invoked, the user agent must traverse the history by a delta 1. If this
History object is associated with a Document that is not fully active, invoking must instead
throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
When the forward()method is invoked, the user agent must traverse the history by a delta +1. If
this History object is associated with a Document that is not fully active, invoking must instead
throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
Each top-level browsing context has a session history traversal queue, initially empty, to which
tasks can be added.
Each top-level browsing context, when created, must begin running the following algorithm,
known as the session history event loop for that top-level browsing context, in parallel:
1. Wait until this top-level browsing contexts session history traversal queue is not empty.
2. Pull the first task from this top-level browsing contexts session history traversal queue, and
execute it.
The session history event loop helps coordinate cross-browsing-context transitions of the joint ses-
sion history: since each browsing context might, at any particular time, have a different event loop
(this can happen if the user agent has more than one event loop per unit of related browsing con-
texts), transitions would otherwise have to involve cross-event-loop synchronization.
To traverse the history by a delta delta , the user agent must append a task to this top-level
browsing contexts session history traversal queue, the task consisting of running the following
steps:
1. If the index of the current entry of the joint session history plus delta is less than zero or
greater than or equal to the number of items in the joint session history, then abort these steps.
2. Let specified entry be the entry in the joint session history whose index is the sum of delta
and the index of the current entry of the joint session history.
3. Let specified browsing context be the browsing context of the specified entry .
4. If the specified browsing context s active documents unload a document algorithm is cur-
rently running, abort these steps.
5. Queue a task that consists of running the following substeps. The relevant event loop is that
of the specified browsing context s active document. The task source for the queued task is
the history traversal task source.
1. If there is an ongoing attempt to navigate specified browsing context that has not yet
matured (i.e., it has not passed the point of making its Document the active document),
then cancel that attempt to navigate the browsing context.
2. If the specified browsing context s active document is not the same Document as the
Document of the specified entry , then run these substeps:
1. Prompt to unload the active document of the specified browsing context . If the user
refused to allow the document to be unloaded, then abort these steps.
2. Unload the active document of the specified browsing context with the recycle pa-
rameter set to false.
3. Traverse the history of the specified browsing context to the specified entry .
When the user navigates through a browsing context, e.g., using a browsers back and forward but-
tons, the user agent must traverse the history by a delta equivalent to the action specified by the
user.
The replaceState() method updates the state object, title, and optionally the URL of the current
entry in the history.
When either of these methods is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. If this History object is associated with a Document that is not fully active, throw a
"SecurityError" DOMException.
2. Optionally, abort these steps. (For example, the user agent might disallow calls to these meth-
ods that are invoked on a timer, or from event listeners that are not triggered in response to a
clear user action, or that are invoked in rapid succession.)
1. Parse the value of the third argument, relative to the entry settings object.
4. Compare new URL to the documents URL. If any component of these two URL
records differ other than the path, query, and fragment components, then throw a
"SecurityError" DOMException and abort these steps.
5. If the origin of new URL is not the same as the origin of the responsible document spec-
ified by the entry settings object, and either the path or query components of the two
URL records compared in the previous step differ, throw a "SecurityError"
DOMException and abort these steps. (This prevents sandboxed content from spoofing
other pages on the same origin.)
6. If the third argument is null, then let new URL be the URL of the current entry.
1. Remove all the entries in the browsing contexts session history after the current entry. If
the current entry is the last entry in the session history, then no entries are removed.
NOTE:
This doesnt necessarily have to affect the user agents user interface.
2. Remove any tasks queued by the history traversal task source that are associated with
any Document objects in the top-level browsing contexts document family.
3. If appropriate, update the current entry to reflect any state that the user agent wishes to
persist. The entry is then said to be an entry with persisted user state.
4. Add a session history entry entry to the session history, after the current entry, with seri-
alizedData as the serialized state, the given title as the title, new URL as the URL of
the entry, and the scroll restoration mode of the current entry in the session history as the
scroll restoration mode.
1. Update the current entry in the session history so that serializedData is the entrys new
serialized state, the given title is the new title, and new URL is the entrys new URL.
8. If the current entry in the session history represents a non-GET request (e.g., it was the result
of a POST submission) then update it to instead represent a GET request.
NOTE:
Since this is neither a navigation of the browsing context nor a history traversal, it does
not cause a hashchange event to be fired.
10. Let targetRealm be this History objects relevant settings objects Realm.
13. Let the latest entry of the Document of the current entry be the current entry.
NOTE:
The title is purely advisory. User agents might use the title in the user interface.
User agents may limit the number of state objects added to the session history per page. If a page
hits the user agent-defined limit, user agents must remove the entry immediately after the first en-
try for that Document object in the session history after having added the new entry. (Thus the
state history acts as a FIFO buffer for eviction, but as a LIFO buffer for navigation.)
EXAMPLE 630
Consider a game where the user can navigate along a line, such that the user is always at some
coordinate, and such that the user can bookmark the page corresponding to a particular coordi-
nate, to return to it later.
A static page implementing the x=5 position in such a game could look like the following:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<!-- this is https://example.com/line?x=5 -->
<title>Line Game - 5</title>
<p>You are at coordinate 5 on the line.</p>
<p>
<a href="?x=6">Advance to 6</a> or
<a href="?x=4">retreat to 4</a>?
</p>
The problem with such a system is that each time the user clicks, the whole page has to be
reloaded. Here instead is another way of doing it, using script:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<!-- this starts off as https://example.com/line?x=5 -->
<title>Line Game - 5</title>
<p>You are at coordinate <span>5</span> on the line.</p>
<p>
<a href="?x=6" onclick="go(1); return false;">Advance to 6</a> or
<a href="?x=4" onclick="go(-1); return false;">retreat to 4</a>?
</p>
<script>
var currentPage = 5; // prefilled by server
function go(d) {
setupPage(currentPage + d);
history.pushState(currentPage, document.title, '?x=' + currentPage);
}
onpopstate = function(event) {
setupPage(event.state);
}
function setupPage(page) {
currentPage = page;
document.title = 'Line Game - ' + currentPage;
document.getElementById('coord').textContent = currentPage;
document.links[0].href = '?x=' + (currentPage+1);
document.links[0].textContent = 'Advance to ' + (currentPage+1);
document.links[1].href = '?x=' + (currentPage-1);
document.links[1].textContent = 'retreat to ' + (currentPage-1);
}
</script>
In systems without script, this still works like the previous example. However, users that do
have script support can now navigate much faster, since there is no network access for the
same experience. Furthermore, contrary to the experience the user would have with just a nave
script-based approach, bookmarking and navigating the session history still work.
In the example above, the data argument to the pushState() method is the same information
as would be sent to the server, but in a more convenient form, so that the script doesnt have to
parse the URL each time the user navigates.
EXAMPLE 631
Applications might not use the same title for a session history entry as the value of the docu-
ments <title> element at that time. For example, here is a simple page that shows a block in
the <title> element. Clearly, when navigating backwards to a previous state the user does not
go back in time, and therefore it would be inappropriate to put the time in the session history
title.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<TITLE>Line</TITLE>
<SCRIPT>
setInterval(function () { document.title = 'Line - ' + new Date(); },
1000);
var i = 1;
function inc() {
set(i+1);
history.pushState(i, 'Line - ' + i);
}
function set(newI) {
i = newI;
document.forms.F.I.value = newI;
}
</SCRIPT>
<BODY ONPOPSTATE="set(event.state)">
<FORM NAME=F>
State: <OUTPUT NAME=I>1</OUTPUT> <INPUT VALUE="Increment" TYPE=BUTTON
ONCLICK="inc()">
</FORM>
EXAMPLE 632
Most applications want to use the same scroll restoration mode value for all of their history en-
tries. To achieve this they should set the scrollRestoration attribute as soon as possible
(e.g., in the first script element in the documents <head> element) to ensure that any entry
added to the history session gets the desired scroll restoration mode.
<head>
<script>
if ('scrollRestoration' in history)
history.scrollRestoration = 'manual';
</script>
</head>
The History interface is not meant to place restrictions on how implementations represent the
session history to the user.
For example, session history could be implemented in a tree-like manner, with each page having
multiple "forward" pages. This specification doesnt define how the linear list of pages in the
history object are derived from the actual session history as seen from the users perspective.
Similarly, a page containing two <iframe>s has a history object distinct from the <iframe>s'
history objects, despite the fact that typical Web browsers present the user with just one "Back"
button, with a session history that interleaves the navigation of the two inner frames and the outer
page.
Security: It is suggested that to avoid letting a page "hijack" the history navigation facilities of a
UA by abusing pushState(), the UA provide the user with a way to jump back to the previous
page (rather than just going back to the previous state). For example, the back button could have a
drop down showing just the pages in the session history, and not showing any of the states. Simi-
larly, an aural browser could have two "back" commands, one that goes back to the previous state,
and one that jumps straight back to the previous page.
For both pushState() and replaceState(), user agents are encouraged to prevent abuse of
these APIs via too-frequent calls or over-large state objects. As detailed above, the algorithm ex-
plicitly allows user agents to ignore any such calls when appropriate.
Each Window object is associated with a unique instance of a Location object, allocated when
the Window object is created.
6. Set the value of the [[DefaultProperties]] internal slot of location to location .[[OwnProper-
tyKeys]]().
7. Return location .
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . location [ = value ]
window . location [ = value ]
Returns a Location object with the current pages location.
The location attribute of the Document interface must return the Location object for that
Document objects global object, if it has a browsing context, and null otherwise.
The location attribute of the Window interface must return the Location object for that Window
object.
Location objects provide a representation of the URL of the active document of their
Document's browsing context, and allow the current entry of the browsing contexts session his-
tory to be changed, by adding or replacing entries in the history object.
interface Location {
[Unforgeable] stringifier attribute USVString href;
[Unforgeable] readonly attribute USVString origin;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString protocol;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString host;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString hostname;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString port;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString pathname;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString search;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString hash;
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
location . toString()
location . href
Returns the Location objects URL.
location . origin
Returns the Location objects URLs origin.
location . protocol
Returns the Location objects URLs scheme.
location . host
Returns the Location objects URLs host and port (if different from the default port
for the scheme).
Can be set, to navigate to the same URL with a changed host and port.
location . hostname
Returns the Location objects URLs host.
Can be set, to navigate to the same URL with a changed host.
location . port
Returns the Location objects URLs port.
Can be set, to navigate to the same URL with a changed port.
location . pathname
Returns the Location objects URLs path.
Can be set, to navigate to the same URL with a changed path.
location . search
Returns the Location objects URLs query (includes leading "?" if non-empty).
Can be set, to navigate to the same URL with a changed query (ignores leading "?").
location . hash
Returns the Location objects URLs fragment (includes leading "#" if non-empty).
Can be set, to navigate to the same URL with a changed fragment (ignores leading "#").
Removes the current page from the session history and navigates to the given URL.
location . reload()
Reloads the current page.
location . ancestorOrigins
Returns an array whose values are the origins of the ancestor browsing contexts, from
the parent browsing context to the top-level browsing context.
A Location object has an associated relevant Document, which is this Location objects asso-
ciated Document objects browsing contexts active document.
A Location object has an associated url, which is this Location objects relevant Documents
URL.
A Location object has an associated ancestor origins array. When a Location object is cre-
ated, its ancestor origins array must be set to a array created from the list of strings that the follow-
ing steps would produce:
2. Let current be the browsing context of the Document with which the Location object is
associated.
3. Loop : If current has no parent browsing context, jump to the step labeled End .
5. Append the Unicode serialization of current s active documents origin to output as a new
value.
1. If any of the following conditions are met, let replacement flag be unset; otherwise, let it be
set:
In the task in which the algorithm is running, an activation behavior is currently being
processed whose click event was trusted, or
In the task in which the algorithm is running, the event listener for a trusted click event
is being handled.
To Location-object navigate, given a url and replacement flag , run these steps:
1. The source browsing context is the responsible browsing context specified by the incumbent
settings object.
2. Navigate the browsing context to url , with the exceptions enabled flag set. Rethrow any ex-
ceptions.
If the replacement flag is set or the browsing contexts session history contains only one
Document, and that was the about:blank Document created when the browsing context
was created, then the navigation must be done with replacement enabled.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
1. Parse the given value relative to the entry settings object. If that failed, throw a TypeError
exception.
NOTE:
The href attribute setter intentionally has no security check.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
NOTE:
It returns the Unicode rather than the ASCII serialization for compatibility with
MessageEvent.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
3. Let possibleFailure be the result of basic URL parsing the given value, followed by ":", with
copyURL as url and scheme start state as state override .
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
5. Return url s host, serialized, followed by ":" and url s port, serialized.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
4. Basic URL parse the given value, with copyURL as url and host state as state override .
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
2. If this Location objects URL's host is null, return the empty string.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
4. Basic URL parse the given value, with copyURL as url and hostname state as state over-
ride .
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
2. If this Location objects URL's port is null, return the empty string.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
4. Basic URL parse the given value, with copyURL as url and port state as state override .
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
3. If url s non-relative flag is set, return the first string in url s path.
4. Return "/", followed by the strings in url s path (including empty strings), separated from
each other by "/".
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
5. Basic URL parse the given value, with copyURL as url and path start state as state over-
ride .
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
2. If this Location objects URL's query is either null or the empty string, return the empty
string.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
3. If the given value is the empty string, set copyURL s query to null.
1. Let input be the given value with a single leading "?" removed, if any.
3. Basic URL parse input , with copyURL as url and query state as state override , and
the relevant Documents documents character encoding as encoding override .
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
2. If this Location objects URL's fragment is either null or the empty string, return the empty
string.
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
4. Let input be the given value with a single leading "#" removed, if any.
6. Basic URL parse input , with copyURL as url and fragment state as state override .
NOTE:
Unlike the equivalent API for the <a> and <area> elements, the hash attributes setter does not
special case the empty string to remain compatible with deployed scripts.
When the assign( url ) method is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
2. Parse url , relative to the entry settings object. If that failed, throw a "SyntaxError"
DOMException.
When the replace( url ) method is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Parse url , relative to the entry settings object. If that failed, throw a "SyntaxError"
DOMException.
2. Location-object navigate to the resulting URL record with the replacement flag set.
NOTE:
The replace() method intentionally has no security check.
When the reload() method is invoked, the user agent must run the appropriate steps from the fol-
lowing list:
If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin with entry
settings objects origin
Throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
If the currently executing task is the dispatch of a resize event in response to the user
resizing the browsing context
Repaint the browsing context and abort these steps.
If the browsing contexts active document has its reload override flag set
Perform an overridden reload, with the browsing context being navigated as the respon-
sible browsing context.
Otherwise
Navigate the browsing context to the documents URL with the exceptions enabled flag
set and replacement enabled. The source browsing context must be the browsing context
being navigated. This is a reload-triggered navigation. Rethrow any exceptions.
When a user requests that the active document of a browsing context be reloaded through a user
interface element, the user agent should navigate the browsing context to the same resource as that
Document, with replacement enabled. In the case of non-idempotent methods (e.g., HTTP POST),
the user agent should prompt the user to confirm the operation first, since otherwise transactions
(e.g., purchases or database modifications) could be repeated. User agents may allow the user to
explicitly override any caches when reloading. If browsing contexts active documents reload
override flag is set, then the user agent may instead perform an overridden reload rather than the
navigation described in this paragraph (with the browsing context being reloaded as the source
browsing context).
1. If this Location objects relevant Documents origin is not same origin-domain with the en-
try settings objects origin, then throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
The Location object requires additional logic beyond IDL for security purposes. The internal slot
and internal methods Location objects must implement are defined below.
Every Location object has a [[DefaultProperties]] internal slot representing its own properties
at time of its creation.
6.6.4.1.1. [[GETPROTOTYPEOF]] ( )
2. Return null.
6.6.4.1.2. [[SETPROTOTYPEOF]] ( V )
1. Return false.
6.6.4.1.3. [[ISEXTENSIBLE]] ( )
1. Return true.
6.6.4.1.4. [[PREVENTEXTENSIONS]] ( )
1. Return false.
6.6.4.1.5. [[GETOWNPROPERTY]] ( P )
2. If the value of the [[DefaultProperties]] internal slot of this contains P , then set
desc .[[Configurable]] to true.
3. Return desc .
1. If the value of the [[DefaultProperties]] internal slot of this contains P , then return false.
2. Return false.
6.6.4.1.9. [[DELETE]] ( P )
2. Return false.
6.6.4.1.10. [[OWNPROPERTYKEYS]] ( )
2. Return ! CrossOriginOwnPropertyKeys(this).
Certain actions cause the browsing context to navigate to a new resource. A user agent may pro-
vide various ways for the user to explicitly cause a browsing context to navigate, in addition to
those defined in this specification.
EXAMPLE 633
For example, following a hyperlink, 4.10.21 Form submission, and the window.open() and
location.assign() methods can all cause a browsing context to navigate.
NOTE:
A resource has a URL, but that might not be the only information necessary to identify it. For
example, a form submission that uses HTTP POST would also have the HTTP method and
payload. Similarly, an iframe srcdoc document needs to know the data it is to use.
Navigation always involves source browsing context, which is the browsing context which was
responsible for starting the navigation.
When a browsing context is navigated to a new resource, the user agent must run the following
steps:
1. If the source browsing context is not allowed to navigate the browsing context being navi-
gated, then abort these steps.
If these steps are aborted here, the user agent may instead offer to open the new resource in a
new top-level browsing context or in the top-level browsing context of the source browsing
context, at the users option, in which case the user agent must navigate that designated top-
level browsing context to the new resource as if the user had requested it independently.
NOTE:
Doing so, however, can be dangerous, as it means that the user is overriding the authors
explicit request to sandbox the content.
If the navigate algorithm was invoked optionally with an exceptions enabled flag, and it is
aborted on this step, then in addition to aborting this algorithm, the user agent must also
throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
2. If there is a preexisting attempt to navigate the browsing context, and the source browsing
context is the same as the browsing context being navigated, and that attempt is currently run-
ning the unload a document algorithm, and the origin of the URL of the resource being
loaded in that navigation is not the same origin as the origin of the URL of the resource being
loaded in this navigation, then abort these steps without affecting the preexisting attempt to
navigate the browsing context.
3. If a task queued by the traverse the history by a delta algorithm is running the unload a docu-
ment algorithm for the active document of the browsing context being navigated, then abort
these steps without affecting the unload a document algorithm or the aforementioned history
traversal task.
4. If the prompt to unload a document algorithm is being run for the active document of the
browsing context being navigated, then abort these steps without affecting the prompt to un-
load a document algorithm.
NOTE:
The handle redirects step later in this algorithm can in certain cases jump back to the step
labeled Fragments . Since, between those two steps, this algorithm goes from operating
immediately in the context of the calling task to operating in parallel independent of the
event loop, some of the intervening steps need to be able to handle both being run as part
of a task and running in parallel. The gone async flag is thus used to make these steps
aware of which mode they are operating in.
6. Fragments : If this is not a reload-triggered navigation: apply the URL parser algorithm to
the absolute URL of the new resource and the URL of the active document of the browsing
context being navigated; if all the components of the resulting parsed URLs, ignoring any
fragment components, are identical, and the new resource is to be fetched using GET, and the
URL record of the new resource has a fragment component that is not null (even if it is
empty), then navigate to that fragment and abort these steps.
7. If gone async is false, cancel any preexisting but not yet mature attempt to navigate the
browsing context, including canceling any instances of the fetch algorithm started by those at-
tempts. If one of those attempts has already created and initialized a new Document object,
abort that Document also. (Navigation attempts that have matured already have session his-
tory entries, and are therefore handled during the update the session history with the new
page algorithm, later.)
8. If the new resource is to be handled using a mechanism that does not affect the browsing con-
text, e.g., ignoring the navigation request altogether because the specified scheme is not one
of the supported protocols, then abort these steps and proceed with that mechanism instead.
9. If gone async is false, prompt to unload the Document object. If the user refused to allow
the document to be unloaded, then abort these steps.
If this instance of the navigation algorithm gets canceled while this step is running, the
prompt to unload a document algorithm must nonetheless be run to completion.
10. If gone async is false, abort the active document of the browsing context.
11. If the new resource is to be handled by displaying some sort of inline content, e.g., an error
message because the specified scheme is not one of the supported protocols, or an inline
prompt to allow the user to select a registered handler for the given scheme, then display the
inline content and abort these steps.
NOTE:
In the case of a registered handler being used, the algorithm will be reinvoked with a new
URL to handle the request.
12. If the browsing context being navigated is a nested browsing context, then put it in the delay-
ing load events mode.
The user agent must take this nested browsing context out of the delaying load events mode
when this navigation algorithm later matures, or when it terminates (whether due to having
run all the steps, or being canceled, or being aborted), whichever happens first.
13. This is the step that attempts to obtain the resource, if necessary. Jump to the first appropriate
substep:
If the resource has already been obtained (e.g., because it is being used to populate an
<object> elements new child browsing context)
1. If the origin of the source browsing context is not the same origin as the origin of
the active document of the browsing context being navigated, then let result be un-
defined, and jump to the step labeled process results below.
2. Let urlRecord be the result of running the URL parser on the URL of the new re-
source.
5. If urlRecord s query component is not null, then first append a U+003F QUES-
TION MARK character (?) to script source , and then append urlRecord s query
component to script source .
6. If urlRecord s fragment component is not null, then first append a U+0023 NUM-
BER SIGN character (#) to script source , and then append urlRecord s fragment
component to script source .
7. Replace script source with the result of applying the percent decode algorithm to
script source .
8. Replace script source with the result of applying the UTF-8 decode algorithm to
script source .
9. Let address be the URL of the active document of the browsing context being nav-
igated.
10. Let settings be the relevant settings object of the browsing context being navi-
gated.
11. Let script be the result of creating a classic script given script source and set-
tings .
12. Let result be the result of running the classic script script . If evaluation was un-
successful, let result be undefined instead. (The result will also be undefined if
scripting is disabled.)
13. Process results: If Type( result ) is not String, then the result of obtaining the re-
source for the URL is a response whose status is 204.
Otherwise, the result of obtaining the resource for the URL is a response whose
header list consists of Content-Type/text/html and whose body is result , and
whose HTTPS state is settings s HTTPS state.
When it comes time to set the documents address in the navigation algorithm, use
address as the override URL.
The task source for this task is the DOM manipulation task source.
EXAMPLE 634
So for example a javascript: URL in an href attribute of an <a> element would
only be evaluated when the link was followed, while such a URL in the src attribute
of an <iframe> element would be evaluated in the context of the iframes own
nested browsing context when the iframe is being set up; once evaluated, its return
value (if it was not void) would replace that browsing contexts Document, thus also
changing the Window object of that browsing context.
Otherwise
3. Set request s client to the source browsing contexts active documents Window ob-
jects environment settings object, target browsing context to the browsing context
being navigated, destination to "document", mode to "navigate", credentials mode
to "include", use-URL-credentials flag, and redirect mode to "manual".
5. If request s method is not GET, or, if the navigation algorithm was invoked as a re-
sult of the form submission algorithm, then if there is an origin of the active docu-
ment of the source browsing context, unset request s omit-Origin-header flag.
6. Otherwise, if the browsing context being navigated is a child browsing context, and
the browsing context container of the browsing context being navigated has a
browsing context scope origin, set request s origin to that browsing context scope
origin and unset request s omit-Origin-header flag.
7. Fetch request .
14. If gone async is false, return to whatever algorithm invoked the navigation steps and con-
tinue running these steps in parallel.
16. Wait for one or more bytes to be available or for the user agent to establish that the resource
in question is empty. During this time, the user agent may allow the user to cancel this navi-
gation attempt or start other navigation attempts.
17. Handle redirects: If fetching the resource results in a redirect, and either the URL of the target
of the redirect has the same origin as the original resource, or the resource is being obtained
using the POST method or a safe method (in HTTP terms), return to the step labeled Frag-
ments with the new resource, except that if the URL of the target of the redirect does not have
a fragment and the URL of the resource that led to the redirect does, then the fragment of the
resource that led to the redirect must be propagated to the URL of the target of the redirect.
EXAMPLE 635
So for instance, if the original URL was "https://example.com/#!sample" and
"https://example.com/" is found to redirect to "https://example.com/", the URL of
the new resource will be "https://example.com/#!sample".
Otherwise, if fetching the resource results in a redirect but the URL of the target of the redi-
rect does not have the same origin as the original resource and the resource is being obtained
using a method that is neither the POST method nor a safe method (in HTTP terms), then
abort these steps. The user agent may indicate to the user that the navigation has been aborted
for security reasons.
18. Resource handling: If the resources out-of-band metadata (e.g., HTTP headers), not counting
any type information (such as the Content-Type HTTP header), requires some sort of process-
ing that will not affect the browsing context, then perform that processing and abort these
steps.
NOTE:
Such processing might be triggered by, amongst other things, the following:
HTTP 401 responses that do not include a challenge recognized by the user agent must be
processed as if they had no challenge, e.g., rendering the entity body as if the response had
been 200 OK.
User agents may show the entity body of an HTTP 401 response even when the response does
include a recognized challenge, with the option to login being included in a non-modal fash-
ion, to enable the information provided by the server to be used by the user before authenti-
cating. Similarly, user agents should allow the user to authenticate (in a non-modal fashion)
against authentication challenges included in other responses such as HTTP 200 OK re-
sponses, effectively allowing resources to present HTTP login forms without requiring their
use.
20. If the user agent has been configured to process resources of the given type using some
mechanism other than rendering the content in a browsing context, then skip this step. Other-
wise, if the type is one of the following types, jump to the appropriate entry in the following
list, and process the resource as described there:
"multipart/x-mixed-replace"
Follow the steps given in the 12.2 multipart/x-mixed-replace section, and then,
once they have completed, abort this navigate algorithm.
A type that will use an external application to render the content in the browsing
context
Follow the steps given in the plugin section, and then, once they have completed,
abort this navigate algorithm.
An explicitly supported XML type is one for which the user agent is configured to use an
external application to render the content (either a plugin rendering directly in the browsing
context, or a separate application), or one for which the user agent has dedicated processing
rules (e.g., a Web browser with a built-in Atom feed viewer would be said to explicitly sup-
port the application/atom+xml MIME type), or one for which the user agent has a dedi-
cated handler (e.g., one registered using registerContentHandler()).
The term JSON MIME type is used to refer to the MIME types application/json,
text/json, and any MIME type whose subtype ends with the five characters "+json".
An explicitly supported JSON type is one for which the user agent is configured to use an
external application to render the content (either a plugin rendering directly in the browsing
context, or a separate application), or one for which the user agent has dedicated processing
rules, or one for which the user agent has a dedicated handler (e.g., one registered using
registerContentHandler()).
Setting the documents address: If there is no override URL, then any Document created
by these steps must have its URL set to the URL that was originally to be fetched, ignoring
any other data that was used to obtain the resource. However, if there is an override URL,
then any Document created by these steps must have its URL set to that URL instead.
NOTE:
An override URL is set when dereferencing a javascript: URL and when performing
an overridden reload.
Initializing a new Document object: when a Document is created as part of the above steps,
the user agent will be required to additionally run the following algorithm after creating the
new object:
1. If browsingContext s only entry in its session history is the about:blank Document that
was added when browsingContext was created, and navigation is occurring with re-
placement enabled, and that Document has the same origin as the new Document, then
2. Otherwise,
2. Set up a browsing context environment settings object with realm execution con-
text , and let settings object be the result.
4. Set the Document's HTTPS state to the HTTPS state of the resource used to generate the
document.
5. Set the Document's referrer policy to the result of parsing the Referrer-Policy header
of the response used to generate the document. [REFERRERPOLICY]
6. Execute the Initialize a Documents CSP list algorithm on the Document object and the
resource used to generate the document. [CSP3]
7. Set the documents referrer to the address of the resource from which Request-URIs are
obtained as determined when the fetch algorithm obtained the resource, if that algorithm
was used and determined such a value; otherwise, set it to the empty string.
9. If the active sandboxing flag set of the Document's browsing context or any of its ances-
tor browsing contexts (if any) have the sandboxed fullscreen browsing context flag set,
then skip this step.
If the Document's browsing context has a browsing context container and either it is not
an <iframe> element, or it does not have the allowfullscreen attribute specified, or its
Document does not have the fullscreen enabled flag set, then also skip this step.
10. Non-document content: If, given type , the new resource is to be handled by displaying
some sort of inline content, e.g., a native rendering of the content, an error message be-
cause the specified type is not supported, or an inline prompt to allow the user to select a
registered handler for the given type, then display the inline content, and then abort these
steps.
NOTE:
In the case of a registered handler being used, the algorithm will be reinvoked with a
new URL to handle the request.
11. Otherwise, the documents type is such that the resource will not affect the browsing
context, e.g., because the resource is to be handed to an external application or because it
is an unknown type that will be processed as a download. Process the resource appropri-
ately.
When a resource is handled by passing its URL or data to an external software package sepa-
rate from the user agent (e.g., handing a mailto: URL to a mail client, or a Word document to a
word processor), user agents should attempt to mitigate the risk that this is an attempt to exploit
the target software, e.g., by prompting the user to confirm that the source browsing contexts ac-
tive documents origin is to be allowed to invoke the specified software. In particular, if the navi-
gate algorithm, when it was invoked, was not allowed to show a popup, the user agent should not
invoke the external software package without prior user confirmation.
EXAMPLE 636
For example, there could be a vulnerability in the target softwares URL handler which a hos-
tile page would attempt to exploit by tricking a user into clicking a link.
Some of the sections below, to which the above algorithm defers in certain cases, require the user
agent to update the session history with the new page. When a user agent is required to do this,
it must queue a task (associated with the Document object of the current entry, not the new one) to
run the following steps:
1. Unload the Document object of the current entry, with the recycle parameter set to false.
If this instance of the navigation algorithm is canceled while this step is running the unload a
document algorithm, then the unload a document algorithm must be allowed to run to com-
pletion, but this instance of the navigation algorithm must not run beyond this step. (In partic-
ular, for instance, the cancelation of this algorithm does not abort any event dispatch or script
execution occurring as part of unloading the document or its descendants.)
1. Replace the Document of the entry being updated, and any other entries that refer-
enced the same document as that entry, with the new Document.
NOTE:
This can only happen if the entry being updated is not the current entry, and can
never happen with replacement enabled. (It happens when the user tried to traverse
to a session history entry that no longer had a Document object.)
Otherwise
1. Remove all the entries in the browsing contexts session history after the current
entry. If the current entry is the last entry in the session history, then no entries are
removed.
NOTE:
This doesnt necessarily have to affect the user agents user interface.
2. Append a new entry at the end of the History object representing the new resource
and its Document object, related state, and the default scroll restoration mode of
"auto".
3. Traverse the history to the new entry. If the navigation was initiated with replace-
ment enabled, then the traversal must itself be initiated with replacement enabled.
4. fragment loop : Spin the event loop for a user-agent-defined amount of time, as desired by the
user agent implementor. (This is intended to allow the user agent to optimize the user experi-
ence in the face of performance concerns.)
5. If the Document object has no parser, or its parser has stopped parsing, or the user agent has
reason to believe the user is no longer interested in scrolling to the fragment, then abort these
steps.
6. Scroll to the fragment given in the documents URL. If this fails to find an indicated part of
the document, then return to the fragment loop step.
The task source for this task is the networking task source.
When an HTML document is to be loaded in a browsing context, the user agent must queue a task
to create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, set its content type to
"text/html", initialize the Document object, and finally create an HTML parser and associate it
with the Document. Each task that the networking task source places on the task queue while
fetching runs must then fill the parsers input byte stream with the fetched bytes and cause the
HTML parser to perform the appropriate processing of the input stream.
NOTE:
The input byte stream converts bytes into characters for use in the tokenizer. This process re-
lies, in part, on character encoding information found in the real Content-Type metadata of the
resource; the "computed type" is not used for this purpose.
When no more bytes are available, the user agent must queue a task for the parser to process the
implied EOF character, which eventually causes a load event to be fired.
After creating the Document object, but before any script execution, certainly before the parser
stops, the user agent must update the session history with the new page.
The task source for the two tasks mentioned in this section must be the networking task source.
When faced with displaying an XML file inline, user agents must follow the requirements defined
in the XML and Namespaces in XML recommendations, RFC 7303, DOM, and other relevant
specifications to create a Document object and a corresponding XML parser. [XML]
[XML-NAMES] [RFC7303] [DOM]
NOTE:
At the time of writing, the XML specification community had not actually yet specified how
XML and the DOM interact.
After the Document is created, the user agent must initialize the Document object.
The actual HTTP headers and other metadata, not the headers as mutated or implied by the algo-
rithms given in this specification, are the ones that must be used when determining the character
encoding according to the rules given in the above specifications. Once the character encoding is
established, the documents character encoding must be set to that character encoding.
User agents may examine the namespace of the root Element node of this Document object to
perform namespace-based dispatch to alternative processing tools, e.g., determining that the con-
tent is actually a syndication feed and passing it to a feed handler. If such processing is to take
place, abort the steps in this section, and jump to the next step (labeled non-document content) in
the navigate steps above.
Otherwise, then, with the newly created Document, the user agent must update the session history
with the new page. User agents may do this before the complete document has been parsed (thus
achieving incremental rendering), and must do this before any scripts are to be executed.
Error messages from the parse process (e.g., XML namespace well-formedness errors) may be re-
ported inline by mutating the Document.
When a plain text document is to be loaded in a browsing context, the user agent must queue a
task to create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, set its content type to the
computed MIME type of the resource ( type in the navigate algorithm), initialize the Document
object, create an HTML parser, associate it with the Document, act as if the tokenizer had emitted
a start tag token with the tag name "pre" followed by a single U+000A LINE FEED (LF) charac-
ter, and switch the HTML parsers tokenizer to the 8.2.4.5 PLAINTEXT state. Each task that the
networking task source places on the task queue while fetching runs must then fill the parsers in-
put byte stream with the fetched bytes and cause the HTML parser to perform the appropriate pro-
cessing of the input stream.
The rules for how to convert the bytes of the plain text document into actual characters, and the
rules for actually rendering the text to the user, are defined by the specifications for the computed
MIME type of the resource ( type in the navigate algorithm).
The documents character encoding must be set to the character encoding used to decode the docu-
ment.
When no more bytes are available, the user agent must queue a task for the parser to process the
implied EOF character, which eventually causes a load event to be fired.
After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has finished parsing, the user
agent must update the session history with the new page.
User agents may add content to the <head> element of the Document, e.g., to link to a style sheet,
provide a script, give the document a <title>, etc.
NOTE:
In particular, if the user agent supports the Format=Flowed feature of RFC3676 then the user
agent would need to apply extra styling to cause the text to wrap correctly and to handle the
quoting feature. [RFC3676]
The task source for the two tasks mentioned in this section must be the networking task source.
For each body part obtained from the resource, the user agent must run a new instance of the navi-
gate algorithm, starting from the resource handling step, using the new body part as the resource
being navigated, with replacement enabled if a previous body part from the same resource resulted
in a Document object being created and initialized, and otherwise using the same setup as the nav-
igate attempt that caused this section to be invoked in the first place.
For the purposes of algorithms processing these body parts as if they were complete stand-alone
resources, the user agent must act as if there were no more bytes for those resources whenever the
boundary following the body part is reached.
NOTE:
Thus, load events (and for that matter unload events) do fire for each body part loaded.
When an image, video, or audio resource is to be loaded in a browsing context, the user agent
should create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, set its content type to the
computed MIME type of the resource ( type in the navigate algorithm), initialize the Document
object, append an <html> element to the Document, append a <head> element and a <body> element
to the <html> element, append an element host element for the media, as described below, to the
<body> element, and set the appropriate attribute of the element host element , as described below,
The element host element to create for the media is the element given in the table below in the
second cell of the row whose first cell describes the media. The appropriate attribute to set is the
one given by the third cell in that same row.
After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has finished fully loading, the
user agent must update the session history with the new page.
User agents may add content to the <head> element of the Document, or attributes to the element
host element , e.g., to link to a style sheet, provide a script, give the document a <title>, make the
media autoplay, etc.
6.7.7. Page load processing model for content that uses plugins
NOTE:
The term plugin document is used by Content Security Policy as part of the mechanism that en-
sures iframes cant be used to evade plugin-types directives. [CSP3]
After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has finished fully loading, the
user agent must update the session history with the new page.
User agents may add content to the <head> element of the Document, or attributes to the <embed>
element, e.g., to link to a style sheet, to give the document a <title>, etc.
NOTE:
If the Document's active sandboxing flag set has its sandboxed plugins browsing context flag
set, the synthesized <embed> element will fail to render the content if the relevant plugin cannot
be secured.
6.7.8. Page load processing model for inline content that doesnt have a DOM
When the user agent is to display a user agent page inline in a browsing context, the user agent
should create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, set its content type to
"text/html", initialize the Document object, and then either associate that Document with a cus-
tom rendering that is not rendered using the normal Document rendering rules, or mutate that
Document until it represents the content the user agent wants to render.
Once the page has been set up, the user agent must act as if it had stopped parsing.
After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has been completely set up, the
user agent must update the session history with the new page.
When a user agent is supposed to navigate to a fragment, then the user agent must run the follow-
ing steps:
1. Remove all the entries in the browsing contexts session history after the current entry. If the
current entry is the last entry in the session history, then no entries are removed.
NOTE:
This doesnt necessarily have to affect the user agents user interface.
2. Remove any tasks queued by the history traversal task source that are associated with any
Document objects in the top-level browsing contexts document family.
3. Append a new entry at the end of the History object representing the new resource and its
Document object, related state, and current history scroll restoration preference. Its URL
must be set to the address to which the user agent was navigating. The title must be left unset.
4. Traverse the history to the new entry, with the non-blocking events flag set. This will scroll to
the fragment given in what is now the documents URL.
NOTE:
If the scrolling fails because the relevant ID has not yet been parsed, then the original naviga-
tion algorithm will take care of the scrolling instead, as the last few steps of its update the ses-
sion history with the new page algorithm.
When the user agent is required to scroll to the fragment and the indicated part of the document,
if any, is being rendered, the user agent must either change the scrolling position of the document
using the following algorithm, or perform some other action such that the indicated part of the
document is brought to the users attention. If there is no indicated part, or if the indicated part is
not being rendered, then the user agent must do nothing. The aforementioned algorithm is as fol-
lows:
2. If target is the top of the document, then scroll to the beginning of the document for the
Document, and abort these steps. [CSSOM-VIEW]
3. Use the scroll an element into view algorithm to scroll target into view, with the align to top
flag set. [CSSOM-VIEW]
4. Run the focusing steps for that element, with the Document's viewport as the fallback target.
The indicated part of the document is the one that the fragment, if any, identifies. The semantics
of the fragment in terms of mapping it to a specific DOM Node is defined by the specification that
defines the MIME type used by the Document (for example, the processing of fragment for XML
MIME types is the responsibility of RFC7303). [RFC7303]
For HTML documents (and HTML MIME types), the following processing model must be fol-
lowed to determine what the indicated part of the document is.
1. Apply the URL parser algorithm to the URL, and let fragid be the fragment component of
the resulting URL record.
2. If fragid is the empty string, then the indicated part of the document is the top of the docu-
ment; stop the algorithm here.
4. Let decoded fragid be the result of running UTF-8 decode without BOM or fail on fragid
bytes . If decoded fragid is failure, jump to the step labeled no decoded fragid .
5. If there is an element in the DOM that has an ID exactly equal to decoded fragid , then the
first such element in tree order is the indicated part of the document; stop the algorithm here.
6. No decoded fragid: If there is an <a> element in the DOM that has a name attribute whose
value is exactly equal to fragid (not decoded fragid ), then the first such element in tree or-
der is the indicated part of the document; stop the algorithm here.
7. If fragid is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string top, then the indicated part of the
document is the top of the document; stop the algorithm here.
For the purposes of the interaction of HTML with Selectors' :target pseudo-class, the target ele-
ment is the indicated part of the document, if that is an element; otherwise there is no target ele-
ment. [SELECTORS4]
The task source for the task mentioned in this section must be the DOM manipulation task source.
When a user agent is required to traverse the history to a specified entry , optionally with re-
placement enabled, and optionally with the non-blocking events flag set, the user agent must act as
follows.
NOTE:
This algorithm is not just invoked when explicitly going back or forwards in the session his-
tory it is also invoked in other situations, for example when navigating a browsing context,
as part of updating the session history with the new page.
1. If there is no longer a Document object for the entry in question, navigate the browsing con-
text to the resource for that entry to perform an entry update of that entry, and abort these
steps. The "navigate" algorithm reinvokes this "traverse" algorithm to complete the traversal,
at which point there is a Document object and so this step gets skipped. The navigation must
be done using the same source browsing context as was used the first time this entry was cre-
ated. (This can never happen with replacement enabled.)
NOTE:
If the resource was obtained using a non-idempotent action, for example a POST form
submission, or if the resource is no longer available, for example because the computer is
now offline and the page wasnt cached, navigating to it again might not be possible. In
this case, the navigation will result in a different page than previously; for example, it
might be an error message explaining the problem or offering to resubmit the form.
2. If the current entrys title was not set by the pushState() or replaceState() methods, then
set its title to the value returned by the document.title IDL attribute.
3. If appropriate, update the current entry in the browsing contexts Document objects History
object to reflect any state that the user agent wishes to persist. The entry is then said to be an
entry with persisted user state.
4. If the specified entry has a different Document object than the current entry, then run the fol-
lowing substeps:
1. Remove any tasks queued by the history traversal task source that are associated with
any Document objects in the top-level browsing contexts document family.
2. If the origin of the Document of the specified entry is not the same as the origin of the
Document of the current entry, then run the following sub-sub-steps:
1. The current browsing context name must be stored with all the entries in the history
that are associated with Document objects with the same origin as the active docu-
ment and that are contiguous with the current entry.
2. If the browsing context is a top-level browsing context, but not an auxiliary brows-
ing context, then the browsing contexts browsing context name must be unset.
3. Make the specified entry s Document object the active document of the browsing con-
text.
4. If the specified entry has a browsing context name stored with it, then run the following
sub-sub-steps:
1. Set the browsing contexts browsing context name to the name stored with the spec-
ified entry.
2. Clear any browsing context names stored with all entries in the history that are as-
sociated with Document objects with the same origin as the new active document
and that are contiguous with the specified entry.
5. If the specified entry s Document has any form controls whose autofill field name is
"off", invoke the reset algorithm of each of those elements.
1. If the Document's page showing flag is true, then abort this task (i.e., dont fire the
event below).
3. Run any session history document visibility change steps for Document that are
NOTE:
This is specifically intended for use by the Page Visibility specification.
[PAGE-VISIBILITY]
4. Fire a trusted event with the name pageshow at the Window object of that
Document, with target override set to the Document object, using the
PageTransitionEvent interface, with the persisted attribute initialized to true.
This event must not bubble, must not be cancelable, and has no default action.
6. If the specified entry has a URL whose fragment differs from that of the current entrys when
compared in a case-sensitive manner, and the two share the same Document object, then let
hash changed be true, and let old URL be the URL of the current entry and new URL be the
URL of the specified entry . Otherwise, let hash changed be false.
7. If the traversal was initiated with replacement enabled, remove the entry immediately before
the specified entry in the session history.
8. If the specified entry is not an entry with persisted user state, but its URL has a fragment,
scroll to the fragment.
9. If the entry is an entry with persisted user state, the user agent may restore persisted user state
and update aspects of the document and its rendering.
11. If the entry is a serialized state entry, let state be StructuredDeserialize( entry s serialized
state, targetRealm ). If this throws an exception, ignore the exception and let state be null.
13. Let state changed be true if the Document of the specified entry has a latest entry, and that
entry is not the specified entry ; otherwise let it be false.
14. Let the latest entry of the Document of the specified entry be the specified entry .
15. If the non-blocking events flag is not set, then run the following steps immediately. Other-
wise, the non-blocking events flag is set; queue a task to run the following substeps instead.
1. If state changed is true, fire a trusted event with the name popstate at the Window ob-
ject of the Document, using the PopStateEvent interface, with the state attribute ini-
tialized to the value of state . This event must bubble but not be cancelable and has no
default action.
2. If hash changed is true, then fire a trusted event with the name hashchange at the
browsing contexts Window object, using the HashChangeEvent interface, with the
oldURL attribute initialized to old URL and the newURL attribute initialized to new URL .
This event must bubble but not be cancelable and has no default action.
The task source for the tasks mentioned above is the DOM manipulation task source.
When the user agent is to restore persisted user state from a history entry, it must run the follow-
ing steps immediately:
1. If the entry has a scroll restoration mode, let scrollRestoration be that. Otherwise let scroll-
Restoration be "auto"
2. If scrollRestoration is "manual" the user agent should not restore the scroll position for the
document, otherwise, it may do so.
3. Optionally, update other aspects of the document and its rendering, for instance values of
form fields, that the user agent had previously recorded.
NOTE:
This can even include updating the dir attribute of <textarea> elements or <input> elements
whose type attribute is in either the Text state or the Search state, if the persisted state in-
cludes the directionality of user input in such controls.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
event . state
Returns a copy of the information that was provided to pushState() or
replaceState().
The state attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the context information
for the event, or null, if the state represented is the initial state of the Document.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
event . oldURL
Returns the URL of the session history entry that was previously current.
event . newURL
Returns the URL of the session history entry that is now current.
The oldURL attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents context information
for the event, specifically the URL of the session history entry that was traversed from.
The newURL attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents context information
for the event, specifically the URL of the session history entry that was traversed to.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
event . persisted
For the pageshow event, returns false if the page is newly being loaded (and the load
event will fire). Otherwise, returns true.
For the pagehide event, returns false if the page is going away for the last time. Other-
wise, returns true, meaning that (if nothing conspires to make the page unsalvageable)
the page might be reused if the user navigates back to this page.
document.open()
Listening for beforeunload events
Listening for unload events
Having iframes that are not salvageable
Active WebSocket objects
Aborting a Document
The persisted attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the context infor-
mation for the event.
A Document has a salvageable state, which must initially be true, a fired unload flag, which must
initially be false, and a page showing flag, which must initially be false. The page showing flag is
used to ensure that scripts receive pageshow and pagehide events in a consistent manner (e.g., that
they never receive two pagehide events in a row without an intervening pageshow, or vice versa).
Event loops have a termination nesting level counter, which must initially be zero.
When a user agent is to prompt to unload a document, it must run the following steps.
3. Let event be a new trusted BeforeUnloadEvent event object with the name beforeunload,
which does not bubble but is cancelable.
6. If any event listeners were triggered by the earlier dispatch step, then set the Document's sal-
vageable state to false.
7. If the Document's active sandboxing flag set does not have its sandboxed modals flag set,
and the returnValue attribute of the event object is not the empty string, or if the event
was canceled, then the user agent should ask the user to confirm that they wish to unload the
document.
The prompt shown by the user agent may include the string of the returnValue attribute, or
optionally truncated.
The user agent must pause while waiting for the users response.
If the user did not confirm the page navigation, then the user agent refused to allow the doc-
ument to be unloaded.
8. If this algorithm was invoked by another instance of the "prompt to unload a document" algo-
rithm (i.e., through the steps below that invoke this algorithm for all descendant browsing
contexts), then jump to the step labeled end.
9. Let descendants be the list of the descendant browsing contexts of the Document.
10. If descendants is not an empty list, then for each browsing context b in descendants run the
following substeps:
1. Prompt to unload the active document of the browsing context b . If the user refused to
allow the document to be unloaded, then the user implicitly also refused to allow this
document to be unloaded; jump to the step labeled end.
2. If the salvageable state of the active document of the browsing context b is false, then
set the salvageable state of this document to false also.
When a user agent is to unload a document, it must run the following steps. These steps are
passed an argument, recycle , which is either true or false, indicating whether the Document ob-
ject is going to be re-used. (This is set by the document.open() method.)
3. If the Document's page showing flag is false, then jump to the step labeled unload event be-
low (i.e., skip firing the pagehide event and dont rerun the unloading document visibility
change steps).
5. Fire a trusted event with the name pagehide at the Window object of the Document, with tar-
get override set to the Document object, using the PageTransitionEvent interface, with the
persisted attribute initialized to true if the Document objects salvageable state is true,
and false otherwise. This event must not bubble, must not be cancelable, and has no default
action.
6. Run any unloading document visibility change steps for Document that are defined by
other applicable specifications.
NOTE:
This is specifically intended for use by the Page Visibility specification.
[PAGE-VISIBILITY]
7. Unload event: If the Document's fired unload flag is false, fire a simple event named unload
at the Document's Window object, with target override set to the Document object.
9. If any event listeners were triggered by the earlier unload event step, then set the Document
objects salvageable state to false and set the Document's fired unload flag to true.
10. Run any unloading document cleanup steps for Document that are defined by this specifica-
tion and other applicable specifications.
11. If this algorithm was invoked by another instance of the "unload a document" algorithm (i.e.,
by the steps below that invoke this algorithm for all descendant browsing contexts), then
jump to the step labeled end.
12. Let descendants be the list of the descendant browsing contexts of the Document.
13. If descendants is not an empty list, then for each browsing context b in descendants run the
following substeps:
1. Unload the active document of the browsing context b with the recycle parameter set to
false.
2. If the salvageable state of the active document of the browsing context b is false, then
set the salvageable state of this document to false also.
14. If both the Document's salvageable state and recycle are false, then the Document's brows-
ing context must discard the Document.
This specification defines the following unloading document cleanup steps. Other specifications
can define more.
1. Make disappear any WebSocket objects that were created by the WebSocket() constructor
from the Document's Window object.
If this affected any WebSocket objects, then set Document's salvageable state to false.
2. If the Document's salvageable state is false, forcibly close any EventSource objects that
whose constructor was invoked from the Document's Window object.
3. If the Document's salvageable state is false, empty the Document's Windows list of active
timers.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
event . returnValue [ = value ]
Returns the current return value of the event (the message to show the user).
Can be set, to update the message.
NOTE:
There are no BeforeUnloadEvent-specific initialization methods.
The returnValue attribute represents the message to show the user. When the event is created, the
attribute must be set to the empty string. On getting, it must return the last value it was set to. On
setting, the attribute must be set to the new value.
If a Document is aborted, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Abort the active documents of every child browsing context. If this results in any of those
Document objects having their salvageable state set to false, then set this Document's sal-
vageable state to false also.
2. Cancel any instances of the fetch algorithm in the context of this Document, discarding any
tasks queued for them, and discarding any further data received from the network for them. If
this resulted in any instances of the fetch algorithm being canceled or any queued tasks or any
network data getting discarded, then set the Document's salvageable state to false.
3. If the Document has an active parser, then abort that parser and set the Document's salvage-
able state to false.
User agents may allow users to explicitly invoke the abort a document algorithm for a Document.
If the user does so, then, if that Document is an active document, the user agent should queue a
task to fire a simple event named abort at that Document's Window object before invoking the
abort algorithm.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . navigator . onLine
Returns false if the user agent is definitely offline (disconnected from the network). Re-
turns true if the user agent might be online.
The events online and offline are fired when the value of this attribute changes.
The navigator.onLine attribute must return false if the user agent will not contact the network
when the user follows links or when a script requests a remote page (or knows that such an attempt
would fail), and must return true otherwise.
When the value that would be returned by the navigator.onLine attribute of a Window or
WorkerGlobalScope changes from true to false, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple
event named offline at the Window or WorkerGlobalScope object.
On the other hand, when the value that would be returned by the navigator.onLine attribute of a
Window or WorkerGlobalScope changes from false to true, the user agent must queue a task to fire
The task source for these tasks is the networking task source.
NOTE:
This attribute is inherently unreliable. A computer can be connected to a network without hav-
ing Internet access.
EXAMPLE 637
In this example, an indicator is updated as the browser goes online and offline.
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Online status</title>
<script>
function updateIndicator() {
document.getElementById('indicator').textContent =
navigator.onLine ? 'online' : 'offline';
}
</script>
</head>
<body onload="updateIndicator()" ononline="updateIndicator()"
onoffline="updateIndicator()">
<p>The network is: <span>(state unknown)</span>
</body>
</html>
7.1. Scripting
7.1.1. Introduction
Various mechanisms can cause author-provided executable code to run in the context of a docu-
ment. These mechanisms include, but are probably not limited to:
Event handlers, whether registered through the DOM using addEventListener(), by explicit
event handler content attributes, by event handler IDL attributes, or otherwise.
Processing of technologies like SVG that have their own scripting features.
Scripting is enabled in a browsing context when all of the following conditions are true:
The user has not disabled scripting for this browsing context at this time. (User agents may
provide users with the option to disable scripting globally, or in a finer-grained manner, e.g.
on a per-origin basis.)
The browsing contexts active documents active sandboxing flag set does not have its sand-
boxed scripts browsing context flag set.
Scripting is disabled in a browsing context when any of the above conditions are false (i.e., when
scripting is not enabled).
Scripting is enabled for a node if the nodes node document has a browsing context, and script-
ing is enabled in that browsing context.
Scripting is disabled for a node if there is no such browsing context, or if scripting is disabled in
that browsing context.
7.1.3.1. Definitions
A settings object
An environment settings object, containing various settings that are shared with other scripts
in the same context.
A Source text
A string containing a block of executable code to be evaluated as a JavaScript Script.
(used to mute errors for cross-origin scripts, since that can leak private information).
A module record
A Source Text Module Record representing the parsed module, ready to be evaluated.
A base URL
A base URL used for resolving module specifiers when resolving a module specifier. This
will either be the URL from which the script was obtained, for external module scripts, or the
document base URL of the containing document, for inline module scripts.
A credentials mode
A credentials mode used to fetch imported modules.
A cryptographic nonce
A cryptographic nonce used to fetch imported modules.
A parser state
The parser metadata used to fetch imported modules.
A module map
Used when importing JavaScript modules.
EXAMPLE 638
When a script creates and navigates a new top-level browsing context, the opener at-
tribute of the new browsing contexts Window object will be set to the responsible brows-
ing contexts WindowProxy object.
A responsible document
A Document that is assigned responsibility for actions taken by the scripts that use this envi-
ronment settings object.
EXAMPLE 639
For example, the URL of the responsible document is used to set the URL of the
Document after it has been reset using open().
If the responsible event loop is not a browsing context event loop, then the environment set-
tings object has no responsible document.
An origin
An origin used in security checks.
A creation URL
An absolute URL representing the location of the resource with which the environment set-
tings object is associated. Note that this URL might be distinct from the responsible docu-
ments URL, due to mechanisms such as history.pushState().
An HTTPS state
An HTTPS state value representing the security properties of the network channel used to de-
liver the resource with which the environment settings object is associated.
An referrer policy
The default referrer policy for fetches performed using this environment settings object as a
request client. [REFERRERPOLICY]
An environment settings object also has an outstanding rejected promises weak set and an
about-to-be-notified rejected promises list, used to track unhandled promise rejections. The out-
standing rejected promises weak set must not create strong references to any of its members, and
implementations are free to limit its size, e.g., by removing old entries from it when new ones are
added.
The various script-fetching algorithms below have two hooks that may be customized by their call-
ers:
Set up the request, which takes a request which it may modify before the algorithm contin-
ues
Process the response, which takes a response and must either return true or false to indi-
cate success or failure, respectively
NOTE:
Service Workers is an example of a specification that runs these algorithms with its own op-
tions for the hooks. [SERVICE-WORKERS]
To fetch a classic script for a <script> element element , given a url , a CORS setting , a crypto-
graphic nonce , a parser state , a settings object , and a character encoding , run these steps. The
algorithm will asynchronously complete with either null (on failure) or a new classic script (on
success).
1. Let request be the result of creating a potential-CORS request given url and CORS setting .
2. Set request s client to settings object , its type to "script", its destination to "script", its
cryptographic nonce metadata to cryptographic nonce , and its parser metadata to parser
state .
3. If the caller specified custom steps to set up the request, perform them on request .
4. Fetch request .
5. Return from this algorithm, and run the remaining steps as part of the fetchs process re-
sponse for the response response .
NOTE:
response can be either CORS-same-origin or CORS-cross-origin. This only affects how
error reporting happens.
7. If the caller specified custom steps to process the response, perform them on response . If
they return false, complete this algorithm with null, and abort these steps.
8. If response s Content-Type metadata, if any, specifies a character encoding, and the user
agent supports that encoding, then set character encoding to that encoding (ignoring the
passed-in value).
9. Let source text be the result of decoding response s body to Unicode, using character en-
coding as the fallback encoding.
NOTE:
The decode algorithm overrides character encoding if the file contains a BOM.
10. Let script be the result of creating a classic script using source text and settings object .
If response was CORS-cross-origin, then pass the muted errors flag to the create a classic
script algorithm as well.
To fetch a classic worker script given a url , a referrer , a settings object , and a destination , run
these steps. The algorithm will asynchronously complete with either null (on failure) or a new
classic script (on success).
1. Let request be a new request whose URL is url , client is settings object , type is "script",
destination is destination , referrer is referrer , mode is "same-origin", credentials mode is
"same-origin", parser metadata is "not parser-inserted", and whose use-URL-
credentials flag is set.
2. If the caller specified custom steps to set up the request, perform them on request .
3. Fetch request .
4. Return from this algorithm, and run the remaining steps as part of the fetchs process re-
sponse for the response response .
6. If the caller specified custom steps to process the response, perform them on response . If
they return false, complete this algorithm with null, and abort these steps.
8. Let script be the result of creating a classic script using source text and settings object .
To fetch a module script tree given a url , a credentials mode , a cryptographic nonce , a parser
state , a destination , a fetch client settings object , and an optional ancestor list , run these steps.
The algorithm will asynchronously complete with either null (on failure) or a new module script
(on success).
2. If module map settings object is not given, let it be fetch client settings object .
3. Fetch a single module script given url , credentials mode , cryptographic nonce , parser
state , destination , and module map settings object . If the caller of this algorithm specified
custom set up the request or process the response steps, pass those along while fetching a sin-
gle module script.
4. Return from this algorithm and run the following steps when fetching a single module script
asynchronously completes with result :
5. If result is null, asynchronously complete this algorithm with null and abort these steps.
6. Otherwise, result is a module script. Fetch the descendants of result given destination and
an ancestor list obtained by appending url to ancestor list .
7. When fetching the descendants of a module script asynchronously completes with descen-
dants result , asynchronously complete this algorithm with descendants result .
The following algorithms are used when fetching a module script tree, and are not meant to be
used directly by other specifications (or by other parts of this specification).
To fetch the descendants of a module script module script , given a destination and an ances-
tor list , run these steps. The algorithm will asynchronously complete with either null (on failure)
or with module script (on success).
1. Let url be the result of resolving a module specifier given module script and re-
quested .
5. For each url in urls , fetch a module script tree given url , module script s credentials mode,
module script s cryptographic nonce, module script s parser state, destination , module
script s settings object, and ancestor list .
NOTE:
It is intentional that no custom set up the request or process the response steps are passed
along here. Those hooks only apply to the top-level fetch at the root of the module script
tree.
If any of the fetch a module script tree invocations asynchronously complete with null, the
user agent may terminate any or all of the other fetches, and must then asynchronously com-
plete this algorithm with null.
Once all of the fetch a module script tree invocations asynchronously complete with a module
script, asynchronously complete this algorithm with module script .
To fetch a single module script, given a url , a credentials mode , a cryptographic nonce , a
parser state , a destination , and a settings object , run these steps. The algorithm will asyn-
chronously complete with either null (on failure) or a module script (on success).
2. If module map contains an entry with key url whose value is "fetching", wait (in parallel)
until that entrys value changes, then proceed to the next step.
3. If module map contains an entry with key url , asynchronously complete this algorithm with
that entrys value, and abort these steps.
4. Create an entry in module map with key url and value "fetching".
5. Let request be a new request whose url is url , destination is destination , type is "script",
mode is "cors", credentials mode is credentials mode , cryptographic nonce metadata is
cryptographic nonce , parser metadata is parser state and client is settings object .
6. If the caller specified custom steps to set up the request, perform them on request .
7. Fetch request .
8. Return from this algorithm, and run the remaining steps as part of the fetchs process re-
sponse for the response response .
NOTE:
response is always CORS-same-origin.
9. If any of the following conditions are met, set the value of the entry in module map whose
key is url to null, asynchronously complete this algorithm with null, and abort these steps:
The result of extracting a MIME type from response s header list (ignoring parameters)
is not a JavaScript MIME type.
NOTE:
For historical reasons, fetching a classic script does not include MIME type check-
ing. In contrast, module scripts will fail to load if they are not of a correct MIME
type.
The caller specified custom steps to process the response, which when performed on re-
sponse return false.
10. Let source text be the result of UTF-8 decoding response s body.
11. Let module script be the result of creating a module script given source text , settings ob-
ject , response s url, credentials mode , and cryptographic nonce .
12. Set the value of the entry in module map whose key is url to module script , and asyn-
chronously complete this algorithm with module script .
NOTE:
It is intentional that the module map is keyed by the request URL, whereas the base URL
for the module script is set to the response URL. The former is used to deduplicate
fetches, while the latter is used for URL resolution.
To create a classic script, given some script source, an environment settings object, and an op-
tional muted errors flag:
1. Let script be a new classic script that this algorithm will subsequently initialize.
3. If scripting is disabled for the given environment settings objects responsible browsing con-
text, set script s source text to the empty string. Otherwise, set script s source text to the
supplied script source.
4. If the muted errors flag was set, then set script s muted errors flag.
5. Return script .
To create a module script, given some script source, an environment settings object, a script base
URL, a credentials mode, a cryptographic nonce, and a parser state:
1. Let script be a new module script that this algorithm will subsequently initialise.
4. If scripting is disabled for the given environment settings objects responsible browsing con-
text, then let script source be the empty string. Otherwise, let script source be the provided
script source.
6. If result is a List of errors, report the exception given by the first element of result for
script , return null, and abort these steps.
To run a classic script given a classic script s and an optional rethrow errors flag:
2. Check if we can run script with settings . If this returns "do not run", then return undefined
and abort these steps.
6. If result is a List of errors, set result to the first element of result and go to the step labeled
error .
9. Error : At this point result must be an exception. Perform the following steps:
1. If the rethrow errors flag is set and s s muted errors flag is not set, rethrow result .
2. If the rethrow errors flag is set and s s muted errors flag is set, throw a
NetworkError exception.
3. If the rethrow errors flag is not set, report the exception given by result for the script
s.
2. Check if we can run script with settings . If this returns "do not run" then abort these steps.
NOTE:
This step will recursively instantiate all of the modules dependencies.
NOTE:
This step will recursively evaluate all of the modules dependencies.
The steps to check if we can run script with an environment settings object settings are as fol-
lows. They return either "run" or "do not run".
1. If the global object specified by settings is a Window object whose Document object is not
fully active, then return "do not run" and abort these steps.
2. If scripting is disabled for the responsible browsing context specified by settings , then return
"do not run" and abort these steps.
3. Return "run".
The steps to prepare to run script with an environment settings object settings are as follows:
2. Push settings s realm execution context onto the JavaScript execution context stack; it is now
the running JavaScript execution context.
The steps to clean up after running script with an environment settings object settings are as
follows:
1. Assert: settings s realm execution context is the running JavaScript execution context.
3. Remove settings s realm execution context from the JavaScript execution context stack.
4. If the JavaScript execution context stack is now empty, run the global script clean-up jobs.
(These cannot run scripts.)
5. If the JavaScript execution context stack is now empty, perform a microtask checkpoint. (If
this runs scripts, these algorithms will be invoked reentrantly.)
NOTE:
These algorithms are not invoked by one script directly calling another, but they can be in-
voked reentrantly in an indirect manner, e.g., if a script dispatches an event which has event
listeners registered.
The running script is the script in the [[HostDefined]] field in the ScriptOrModule component of
the running JavaScript execution context.
Each unit of related similar-origin browsing contexts has a global script clean-up jobs list, which
must initially be empty. A global script clean-up job cannot run scripts, and cannot be sensitive to
the order in which other clean-up jobs are executed. The File API uses this to release blob: URLs.
[FILEAPI]
When the user agent is to run the global script clean-up jobs, the user agent must perform each
of the jobs in the global script clean-up jobs list and then empty the list.
A global object is a JavaScript object that is the [[GlobalObject]] field of a JavaScript realm.
NOTE:
In this specification, all JavaScript realms are initialized with global objects that are either
Window or WorkerGlobalScope objects.
There is always a 1:1:1 mapping between JavaScript realms, global objects, and environment set-
tings objects:
A JavaScript realm has a [[HostDefined]] field, which contains the Realms settings object.
A JavaScript realm has a [[GlobalObject]] field, which contains the Realms global object.
Each global object in this specification is created during the initialization of a corresponding
JavaScript realm, known as the global objects Realm.
Each global object in this specification is created alongside a corresponding environment set-
tings object, known as its relevant settings object.
An environment settings objects realm execution contexts Realm component is the environ-
ment settings objects Realm.
An environment settings objects Realm then has a [[GlobalObject]] field, which contains the
environment settings objects global object.
When defining algorithm steps throughout this specification, it is often important to indicate what
JavaScript realm is to be usedor, equivalently, what global object or environment settings object
is to be used. In general, there are at least four possibilities:
Entry
This corresponds to the script that initiated the currently running script action: i.e., the
function or script that the user agent called into when it called into author code.
Incumbent
This corresponds to the most-recently-entered author function or script on the stack.
Current
This corresponds to the currently-running function object, including built-in user-agent func-
tions which might not be implemented as JavaScript. (It is derived from the current
JavaScript realm.)
Relevant
Every platform object has a relevant Realm. When writing algorithms, the most prominent
platform object whose relevant Realm might be important is the this value of the currently-
running function object. In some cases, there can be other important relevant Realms, such as
those of any arguments.
Note how the entry, incumbent, and current concepts are usable without qualification, whereas the
relevant concept must be applied to a particular platform object.
EXAMPLE 640
Consider the following pages, with a.html being loaded in a browser window, b.html being
loaded in an <iframe> as shown, and c.html and d.html omitted (they can simply be empty
documents):
<iframe src="b.html"></iframe>
<button onclick="frames[0].hello()">Hello</button>
<script>
const c = document.querySelector("#c").contentWindow;
const d = document.querySelector("#d").contentWindow;
window.hello = () => {
c.print.call(d);
};
</script>
Each page has its own browsing context, and thus its own JavaScript realm, global object, and
environment settings object.
When the print() method is called in response to pressing the button in a.html, then:
The current Realm is that of c.html (since it is the print() method from c.html whose
code is running).
The relevant Realm of the object on which the print() method is being called is that of
d.html.
Warning! The incumbent and entry concepts should not be used by new specifica-
tions, and we are considering whether we can remove almost all existing uses
NOTE:
Currently, the incumbent concept is used in some security checks, and the entry concept is
sometimes used to obtain, amongst other things, the API base URL to parse a URL, used in
scripts running in that unit of related similar-origin browsing contexts.
In general, the current concept is what should be used by specifications going forward. There is an
important exception, however. If an algorithm is creating an object that is to be persisted and re-
turned multiple times (instead of simply returned to author code right away, and never vended
again), it should use the relevant concept with regard to the object on which the method in ques-
tion is being executed. This prevents cross-realm calls from causing an object to store objects cre-
ated in the "wrong" realm.
EXAMPLE 641
The navigator.getBattery() method creates promises in the relevant Realm for the
Navigator object on which it is invoked. This has the following impact:
[BATTERY-STATUS]
frames[0].hello();
}
</script>
<iframe src="inner.html" onload="doTest()"></iframe>
If the algorithm for the getBattery() method had instead used the current Realm, all the re-
sults would be reversed. That is, after the first call to getBattery() in outer.html, the
Navigator object in inner.html would be permanently storing a Promise object created in
outer.htmls JavaScript realm, and calls like that inside the hello() function would thus re-
turn a promise from the "wrong" realm. Since this is undesirable, the algorithm instead uses the
relevant Realm, giving the sensible results indicated in the comments above.
The rest of this section deals with formally defining the entry, incumbent, current, and relevant
concepts.
7.1.3.5.1. ENTRY
All realm execution contexts must contain, as part of their code evaluation state, an entrance
counter value, which is initially zero. In the process of calling scripts, this value will be incre-
mented and decremented.
With this in hand, we define the entry execution context to be the most recently pushed entry in
the JavaScript execution context stack whose entrance counter value is greater than zero. The en-
try Realm is the entry execution contexts Realm component.
Then, the entry settings object is the environment settings object of the entry Realm.
Similarly, the entry global object is the global object of the entry Realm.
7.1.3.5.2. INCUMBENT
Then, the incumbent Realm is the Realm of the incumbent settings object.
Similarly, the incumbent global object is the global object of the incumbent settings object.
7.1.3.5.3. CURRENT
The JavaScript specification defines the current Realm Record, sometimes abbreviated to the "cur-
rent Realm". [ECMA-262]
Then, the current settings object is the environment settings object of the current Realm Record.
Similarly, the current global object is the global object of the current Realm Record.
7.1.3.5.4. RELEVANT
Otherwise
The relevant settings object for a non-global platform object o is the environment set-
tings object whose global object is the global object of the global environment associ-
ated with o .
NOTE:
The "global environment associated with" concept is from the olden days, before the
modern JavaScript specification and its concept of realms. We expect that as the Web
IDL specification gets updated, every platform object will have a Realm associated
with it, and this definition can be re-cast in those terms. [ECMA-262] [WEBIDL]
Then, the relevant Realm for a platform object is the Realm of its relevant settings object.
Similarly, the relevant global object for a platform object is the global object of its relevant set-
tings object.
Although the JavaScript specification does not account for this possibility, its sometimes
necessary to abort a running script. This causes any ScriptEvaluation or ModuleEvaluation to
cease immediately, emptying the JavaScript execution context stack without triggering any of the
normal mechanisms like finally blocks. [ECMA-262]
User agents may impose resource limitations on scripts, for example CPU quotas, memory limits,
total execution time limits, or bandwidth limitations. When a script exceeds a limit, the user agent
may either throw a QuotaExceededError exception, abort the script without an exception,
prompt the user, or throttle script execution.
EXAMPLE 642
For example, the following script never terminates. A user agent could, after waiting for a few
seconds, prompt the user to either terminate the script or let it continue.
<script>
while (true) { /* loop */ }
</script>
User agents are encouraged to allow users to disable scripting whenever the user is prompted ei-
ther by a script (e.g., using the window.alert() API) or because of a scripts actions (e.g., be-
cause it has exceeded a time limit).
If scripting is disabled while a script is executing, the script should be terminated immediately.
User agents may allow users to specifically disable scripts just for the purposes of closing a brows-
ing context.
EXAMPLE 643
For example, the prompt mentioned in the example above could also offer the user with a
mechanism to just close the page entirely, without running any unload event handlers.
The JavaScript specification defines the JavaScript job and job queue abstractions in order to
specify certain invariants about how promise operations execute with a clean JavaScript execution
context stack and in a certain order. However, as of the time of this writing the definition of En-
queueJob in that specification are not sufficiently flexible to integrate with HTML as a host envi-
ronment. [ECMA-262]
NOTE:
This is not strictly true. It is in fact possible, by taking liberal advantage of the many "imple-
mentation defined" sections of the algorithm, to contort it to our purposes. However, the end
result is a mass of messy indirection and workarounds that essentially bypasses the job queue
infrastructure entirely, albeit in a way that is technically sanctioned within the bounds of im-
plementation-defined behavior. We do not take this path, and instead introduce the following
willful violation.
As such, user agents must instead use the following definition in place of that in the JavaScript
specification. These ensure that the promise jobs enqueued by the JavaScript specification are
properly integrated into the user agents event loops.
When the JavaScript specification says to call the EnqueueJob abstract operation, the following al-
gorithm must be used in place of JavaScripts EnqueueJob:
3. Queue a microtask, on settings s responsible event loop, to perform the following steps:
1. Check if we can run script with settings . If this returns "do not run" then abort these
steps.
3. Let result be the result of performing the abstract operation specified by job , using the
elements of arguments as its arguments.
The JavaScript specification defines a syntax for modules, as well as some host-agnostic parts of
their processing model. This specification defines the rest of their processing model: how the mod-
ule system is bootstrapped, via the <script> element with type attribute set to "module", and how
modules are fetched, resolved, and executed. [ECMA-262]
NOTE:
Although the JavaScript specification speaks in terms of "scripts" versus "modules", in general
this specification speaks in terms of classic scripts versus module scripts, since both of them
use the <script> element.
A module map is a map of absolute URLs to values that are either a module script, null, or a
placeholder value "fetching". Module maps are used to ensure that imported JavaScript modules
are only fetched, parsed, and evaluated once per Document or Worker.
To resolve a module specifier given a module script script and a string specifier , perform the
following steps. It will return either an absolute URL or failure.
1. Apply the URL parser to specifier . If the result is not failure, return the result.
2. If specifier does not start with the character U+002F SOLIDUS (/), the two-character se-
quence U+002E FULL STOP, U+002F SOLIDUS (./), or the three-character sequence
U+002E FULL STOP, U+002E FULL STOP, U+002F SOLIDUS (../), return failure and abort
these steps.
NOTE:
This restriction is in place so that in the future we can allow custom module loaders to
give special meaning to "bare" import specifiers, like import "jquery" or import
"web/crypto". For now any such imports will fail, instead of being treated as relative
URLs.
3. Return the result of applying the URL parser to specifier with script s base URL as the base
URL.
2. Let module map be referencing module script s settings objects module map.
3. Let url be the result of resolving a module specifier given referencing module script and
specifier . If the result is failure, throw a TypeError exception and abort these steps.
4. Let resolved module script be the value of the entry in module map whose key is url . If no
such entry exists, or if the value is null or "fetching", throw a TypeError exception and
abort these steps.
When the user agent is required to report an error for a particular script script with a particular
position line : col , using a particular target target , it must run these steps, after which the error is
either handled or not handled:
1. If target is in error reporting mode, then abort these steps; the error is not handled.
4. Let error object be the object that represents the error: in the case of an uncaught exception,
that would be the object that was thrown; in the case of a JavaScript error that would be an
Error object. If there is no corresponding object, then the null value must be used instead.
5. Let location be an absolute URL that corresponds to the resource from which script was ob-
tained.
NOTE:
The resource containing the script will typically be the file from which the Document
was parsed, e.g., for inline <script> elements or event handler content attributes; or the
JavaScript file that the script was in, for external scripts. Even for dynamically-generated
scripts, user agents are strongly encouraged to attempt to keep track of the original source
of a script. For example, if an external script uses the document.write() API to insert
an inline <script> element during parsing, the URL of the resource containing the script
would ideally be reported as being the external script, and the line number might ideally
be reported as the line with the document.write() call or where the string passed to
that call was first constructed. Naturally, implementing this can be somewhat non-trivial.
NOTE:
User agents are similarly encouraged to keep careful track of the original line numbers,
even in the face of document.write() calls mutating the document as it is parsed, or
event handler content attributes spanning multiple lines.
6. If script has muted errors, then set message to "Script error.", set location to the empty
string, set line and col to 0, and set error object to null.
7. Let event be a new trusted ErrorEvent object that does not bubble but is cancelable, and
which has the event name error.
15. If event was canceled, then the error is handled. Otherwise, the error is not handled.
NOTE:
Returning true cancels event per the event handler processing algorithm.
When the user agent is to report an exception E , the user agent must report the error for the rele-
vant script, with the problematic position (line number and column number) in the resource con-
taining the script, using the global object specified by the scripts settings object as the target. If
the error is still not handled after this, then the error may be reported to a developer console.
The message attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the error message.
The filename attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the absolute URL
of the script in which the error originally occurred.
The lineno attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the line number where
the error occurred in the script.
The colno attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the column number
where the error occurred in the script.
The error attribute must return the value it was initialized to. Where appropriate, it is set to the
object representing the error (e.g., the exception object in the case of an uncaught DOM excep-
tion).
In addition to synchronous runtime script errors, scripts may experience asynchronous promise re-
jections, tracked via the unhandledrejection and rejectionhandled events.
When the user agent is to notify about rejected promises on a given environment settings object
settings object , it must run these steps:
2. Let event be a new trusted PromiseRejectionEvent object that does not bubble
but is cancelable, and which has the event name unhandledrejection.
6. If the event was canceled, then the promise rejection is handled. Otherwise, the
promise rejection is not handled.
This algorithm results in promise rejections being marked as handled or not handled. These con-
cepts parallel handled and not handled script errors. If a rejection is still not handled after this, then
the rejection may be reported to a developer console.
4. If operation is "reject",
5. If operation is "handle",
2. If settings object s outstanding rejected promises weak set does not contain promise ,
abort these steps.
3. Remove promise from settings object s outstanding rejected promises weak set.
1. Let event be a new trusted PromiseRejectionEvent object that does not bubble
and is not cancelable, and which has the event name rejectionhandled.
The promise attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the promise which
The reason attribute must return the value it was initialized to. It represents the rejection reason
for the promise.
7.1.4.1. Definitions
To coordinate events, user interaction, scripts, rendering, networking, and so forth, user agents
must use event loops as described in this section. There are two kinds of event loops: those for
browsing contexts, and those for workers.
There must be at least one browsing context event loop per user agent, and at most one per unit of
related similar-origin browsing contexts.
NOTE:
When there is more than one event loop for a unit of related browsing contexts, complications
arise when a browsing context in that group is navigated such that it switches from one unit of
related similar-origin browsing contexts to another. This specification does not currently de-
scribe how to handle these complications.
A browsing context event loop always has at least one browsing context. If such an event loops
browsing contexts all go away, then the event loop goes away as well. A browsing context always
has an event loop coordinating its activities.
Worker event loops are simpler: each worker has one event loop, and the worker processing model
manages the event loops lifetime.
An event loop has one or more task queues. A task queue is an ordered list of tasks, which are al-
gorithms that are responsible for such work as:
Events
Dispatching an Event object at a particular EventTarget object is often done by a dedi-
cated task.
NOTE:
Not all events are dispatched using the task queue, many are dispatched during other
tasks.
Parsing
The HTML parser tokenizing one or more bytes, and then processing any resulting tokens, is
typically a task.
Callbacks
Calling a callback is often done by a dedicated task.
Using a resource
When an algorithm fetches a resource, if the fetching occurs in a non-blocking fashion then
the processing of the resource once some or all of the resource is available is performed by a
task.
Each task in a browsing context event loop is associated with a Document; if the task was queued
in the context of an element, then it is the elements node document; if the task was queued in the
context of a browsing context, then it is the browsing contexts active document at the time the
task was queued; if the task was queued by or for a script then the document is the responsible
document specified by the scripts settings object.
A task is intended for a specific event loop: the event loop that is handling tasks for the tasks as-
sociated Document or Worker.
When a user agent is to queue a task, it must add the given task to one of the task queues of the
relevant event loop.
Each task is defined as coming from a specific task source. All the tasks from one particular task
source and destined to a particular event loop (e.g., the callbacks generated by timers of a
Document, the events fired for mouse movements over that Document, the tasks queued for the
parser of that Document) must always be added to the same task queue, but tasks from different
task sources may be placed in different task queues.
EXAMPLE 644
For example, a user agent could have one task queue for mouse and key events (the user inter-
action task source), and another for everything else. The user agent could then give keyboard
and mouse events preference over other tasks three quarters of the time, keeping the interface
responsive but not starving other task queues, and never processing events from any one task
source out of order.
Each event loop has a currently running task. Initially, this is null. It is used to handle reentrancy.
Each event loop also has a performing a microtask checkpoint flag, which must initially be
false. It is used to prevent reentrant invocation of the perform a microtask checkpoint algorithm.
An event loop must continually run through the following steps for as long as it exists:
1. Select the oldest task on one of the event loops task queues, if any, ignoring, in the case of a
browsing context event loop, tasks whose associated Documents are not fully active. The
user agent may pick any task queue. If there is no task to select, then jump to the Microtasks
step below.
2. Set the event loops currently running task to the task selected in the previous step.
5. Remove the task that was run in the Run step above from its task queue.
7. Update the rendering: If this event loop is a browsing context event loop (as opposed to a
Worker event loop), then run the following substeps.
1. Let now be the value that would be returned by the Performance objects now()
method. [HR-TIME-2]
2. Let docs be the list of Document objects associated with the event loop in question,
sorted arbitrarily except that the following conditions must be met:
If there are two documents A and B whose browsing contexts are both nested
browsing contexts and their browsing context containers are both elements in the
same Document C , then the order of A and B in the list must match the relative
tree order of their respective browsing context containers in C .
In the steps below that iterate over docs , each Document must be processed in the order
it is found in the list.
3. If there is a top-level browsing context B that the user agent believes would not benefit
from having its rendering updated at this time, then remove from docs all Document
objects whose browsing contexts top-level browsing context is B .
NOTE:
There are many factors that affect the ideal update frequency for the top-level brows-
ing context including performance, power, background operation, quality of user ex-
perience, refresh rate of display(s), etc. When in foreground and not constrained by
resources (i.e. performance, battery versus mains power, other resource limits), the
user agent normally prioritizes for maximum quality of user experience for that set
of Documents by matching update frequency and animation frame callback rate to
the current refresh rate of the current display (usually 60Hz, but refresh rate may be
higher or lower). When accommodating constraints on resources, the update fre-
quency might automatically run at a lower rate. Also, if a top-level browsing context
is in the background, the user agent might decide to drop that page to a much slower
4Hz, or even less.
NOTE:
Another example of why a browser might skip updating the rendering is to ensure
certain tasks are executed immediately after each other, with only microtask check-
points interleaved (and without, e.g., animation frame callbacks interleaved). For ex-
ample, a user agent might wish to coalesce callbacks together, with no intermediate
rendering updates. However, when are no constraints on resources, there must not be
an arbitrary permanent user agent limit on the update rate and animation frame call-
back rate (i.e., high refresh rate displays and/or low latency applications).
4. If there are a nested browsing contexts B that the user agent believes would not benefit
from having their rendering updated at this time, then remove from docs all Document
objects whose browsing context is in B .
NOTE:
As with top-level browsing contexts, a variety of factors can influence whether it is
profitable for a browser to update the rendering of nested browsing contexts. For ex-
ample, a user agent might wish to spend less resources rendering third-party content,
especially if it is not currently visible to the user or if resources are constrained. In
such cases, the browser could decide to update the rendering for such content in-
frequently or never.
5. For each fully active Document in docs , run the resize steps for that Document, pass-
ing in now as the timestamp. [CSSOM-VIEW]
6. For each fully active Document in docs , run the scroll steps for that Document, pass-
ing in now as the timestamp. [CSSOM-VIEW]
7. For each fully active Document in docs , evaluate media queries and report changes for
that Document, passing in now as the timestamp. [CSSOM-VIEW]
8. For each fully active Document in docs , run CSS animations and send events for that
Document, passing in now as the timestamp. [CSS3-ANIMATIONS]
9. For each fully active Document in docs , run the fullscreen rendering steps for that
Document, passing in now as the timestamp. [FULLSCREEN]
10. For each fully active Document in docs , run the animation frame callbacks for that
Document, passing in now as the timestamp.
11. For each fully active Document in docs , update the rendering or user interface of that
Document and its browsing context to reflect the current state.
8. If this is a Worker event loop (i.e., one running for a WorkerGlobalScope), but there are
no tasks in the event loops task queues and the WorkerGlobalScope objects closing flag
is true, then destroy the event loop, aborting these steps, resuming the run a worker steps.
Each event loop has a microtask queue. A microtask is a task that is originally to be queued on
the microtask queue rather than a task queue. There are two kinds of microtasks: solitary callback
microtasks, and compound microtasks.
NOTE:
This specification only has solitary callback microtasks. Specifications that use compound mi-
crotasks have to take extra care to wrap callbacks to handle spinning the event loop.
When an algorithm requires a microtask to be queued, it must be appended to the relevant event
loops microtask queue; the task source of such a microtask is the microtask task source.
NOTE:
It is possible for a microtask to be moved to a regular task queue, if, during its initial execu-
tion, it spins the event loop. In that case, the microtask task source is the task source used. Nor-
mally, the task source of a microtask is irrelevant.
When a user agent is to perform a microtask checkpoint, if the performing a microtask check-
point flag is false, then the user agent must run the following steps:
2. Microtask queue handling : If the event loops microtask queue is empty, jump to the Done
step below.
4. Set the event loops currently running task to the task selected in the previous step.
NOTE:
This might involve invoking scripted callbacks, which eventually calls the clean up after
running script steps, which call this perform a microtask checkpoint algorithm again,
which is why we use the performing a microtask checkpoint flag to avoid reentrancy.
7. Remove the microtask run in the step above from the microtask queue, and return to the Mi-
crotask queue handling step.
8. Done : For each environment settings object whose responsible event loop is this event loop,
notify about rejected promises on that environment settings object.
If, while a compound microtask is running, the user agent is required to execute a compound mi-
crotask subtask to run a series of steps, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Let parent be the event loops currently running task (the currently running compound mi-
crotask).
2. Let subtask be a new task that consists of running the given series of steps. The task source
of such a microtask is the microtask task source. This is a compound microtask subtask.
4. Run subtask .
When an algorithm running in parallel is to await a stable state, the user agent must queue a mi-
crotask that runs the following steps, and must then stop executing (execution of the algorithm re-
sumes when the microtask is run, as described in the following steps):
NOTE:
Steps in synchronous sections are marked with .
When an algorithm says to spin the event loop until a condition goal is met, the user agent must
run the following steps:
NOTE:
This might be a microtask, in which case it is a solitary callback microtask. It could also
be a compound microtask subtask, or a regular task that is not a microtask. It will not be a
compound microtask.
7. Stop task , allowing whatever algorithm that invoked it to resume, but continue these steps in
parallel.
NOTE:
This causes one of the following algorithms to continue: the event loops main set of
steps, the perform a microtask checkpoint algorithm, or the execute a compound micro-
task subtask algorithm to continue.
9. Queue a task to continue running these steps, using the task source task source . Wait until
this new task runs before continuing these steps.
10. Replace the JavaScript execution context stack with the old stack .
Some of the algorithms in this specification, for historical reasons, require the user agent to pause
while running a task until a condition goal is met. This means running the following steps:
1. If necessary, update the rendering or user interface of any Document or browsing context to
reflect the current state.
2. Wait until the condition goal is met. While a user agent has a paused task, the corresponding
event loop must not run further tasks, and any script in the currently running task must block.
User agents should remain responsive to user input while paused, however, albeit in a reduced
capacity since the event loop will not be doing anything.
The following task sources are used by a number of mostly unrelated features in this and other
specifications.
Events sent in response to user input (e.g., click events) must be fired using tasks queued
with the user interaction task source. [UIEVENTS]
7.1.5. Events
Many objects can have event handlers specified. These act as non-capture event listeners for the
object on which they are specified. [DOM]
An event handler has a name, which always starts with "on" and is followed by the name of the
event for which it is intended.
An event handler has a value, which is either null, or is a callback object, or is an internal raw un-
compiled handler. The EventHandler callback function type describes how this is exposed to
scripts. Initially, an event handlers value must be set to null.
The first way, common to all event handlers, is as an event handler IDL attribute.
The second way is as an event handler content attribute. Event handlers on HTML elements and
some of the event handlers on Window objects are exposed in this way.
An event handler IDL attribute is an IDL attribute for a specific event handler. The name of the
IDL attribute is the same as the name of the event handler.
Event handler IDL attributes, on setting, must set the corresponding event handler to their new
value, and on getting, must return the result of getting the current value of the event handler in
question (this can throw an exception, in which case the getting propagates it to the caller, it does
If an event handler IDL attribute exposes an event handler of an object that doesnt exist, it must
always return null on getting and must do nothing on setting.
NOTE:
This can happen in particular for event handler IDL attribute on <body> elements that do not
have corresponding Window objects.
NOTE:
Certain event handler IDL attributes have additional requirements, in particular the onmessage
attribute of MessagePort objects.
An event handler content attribute is a content attribute for a specific event handler. The name
of the content attribute is the same as the name of the event handler.
Event handler content attributes, when specified, must contain valid JavaScript code which, when
parsed, would match the FunctionBody production after automatic semicolon insertion.
[ECMA-262]
When an event handler content attribute is set, execute the following steps:
1. If the Should elements inline behavior be blocked by Content Security Policy? algorithm re-
turns "Blocked" when executed upon the attributes element "script attribute", and the
attributes value, then abort these steps. [CSP3]
2. Set the corresponding event handler to an internal raw uncompiled handler consisting of the
attributes new value and the script location where the attribute was set to this value.
When an event handler content attribute is removed, the user agent must set the corresponding
event handler to null.
NOTE:
The callback is emphatically not the event handler itself. Every event handler ends up register-
ing the same callback the algorithm defined below, which takes care of invoking the right call-
back, and processing the callbacks return value.
NOTE:
This only happens the first time the event handlers value is set. Since listeners are called in the
order they were registered, the order of event listeners for a particular event type will always
be first the event listeners registered with addEventListener() before the first time the event
handler was set to a non-null value, then the callback to which it is currently set, if any, and fi-
nally the event listeners registered with addEventListener() after the first time the event
handler was set to a non-null value.
EXAMPLE 645
This example demonstrates the order in which event listeners are invoked. If the button in this
example is clicked by the user, the page will show four alerts, with the text "ONE", "TWO",
"THREE", and "FOUR" respectively.
<button>Start Demo</button>
<script>
var button = document.getElementById('test');
button.addEventListener('click', function () { alert('ONE') }, false);
button.setAttribute('onclick', "alert('NOT CALLED')"); // event handler
listener is registered here
button.addEventListener('click', function () { alert('THREE') }, false);
button.onclick = function () { alert('TWO'); };
button.addEventListener('click', function () { alert('FOUR') }, false);
</script>
NOTE:
The interfaces implemented by the event object do not influence whether an event handler is
triggered or not.
The event handler processing algorithm for an event handler H and an Event object E is as
follows:
1. Let callback be the result of getting the current value of the event handler H .
Invoke callback with five arguments, the first one having the value of E s
message attribute, the second having the value of E s filename attribute, the
third having the value of E s lineno attribute, the fourth having the value of E s
colno attribute, the fifth having the value of E s error attribute, and with the
callback this value set to E s currentTarget. Let return value be the callbacks
return value. [WEBIDL]
Otherwise
Invoke callback with one argument, the value of which is the Event object E ,
with the callback this value set to E s currentTarget. Let return value be the
callbacks return value. [WEBIDL]
In this step, invoke means to invoke the Web IDL callback function.
If an exception gets thrown by the callback, end these steps and allow the exception to propa-
gate. (It will propagate to the DOM event dispatch logic, which will then report the excep-
tion.)
NOTE:
The event handler IDL attributes type is OnBeforeUnloadEventHandler, and
the return value will therefore have been coerced into either the value null or a
DOMString.
Otherwise
If return value is a Web IDL boolean false value, then cancel the event.
The EventHandler callback function type represents a callback used for event handlers. It is rep-
resented in Web IDL as follows:
[TreatNonObjectAsNull]
callback EventHandlerNonNull = any (Event event);
typedef EventHandlerNonNull? EventHandler;
NOTE:
In JavaScript, any Function object implements this interface.
EXAMPLE 646
For example, the following document fragment:
...leads to an alert saying "[object Window]" when the document is loaded, and an alert say-
ing "[object HTMLBodyElement]" whenever the user clicks something in the page.
NOTE:
The return value of the function affects whether the event is canceled or not: as described
above, if the return value is false, the event is canceled (except for mouseover events, where
the return value has to be true to cancel the event). With beforeunload events, the value is in-
stead used to determine whether or not to prompt about unloading the document.
[TreatNonObjectAsNull]
callback OnErrorEventHandlerNonNull = any ((Event or DOMString) event,
optional DOMString source, optional unsigned long lineno, optional unsigned
long column, optional any error);
typedef OnErrorEventHandlerNonNull? OnErrorEventHandler;
[TreatNonObjectAsNull]
callback OnBeforeUnloadEventHandlerNonNull = DOMString? (Event event);
typedef OnBeforeUnloadEventHandlerNonNull? OnBeforeUnloadEventHandler;
A location where the script body originated, in case an error needs to be reported
When the user agent is to get the current value of the event handler H , it must run these steps:
1. If H is an elements event handler, then let element be the element, and document be
the elements node document.
Otherwise, H is a Window objects event handler: let element be null, and let docu-
ment be the Document most recently associated with that Window object.
2. If document does not have a browsing context, or if scripting is enabled for document s
browsing context, then return null.
3. Let body be the uncompiled script body in the internal raw uncompiled handler.
4. Let location be the location where the script body originated, as given by the internal
raw uncompiled handler.
5. If element is not null and element has a form owner, let form owner be that form
owner. Otherwise, let form owner be null.
6. Let script settings be the environment settings object created for the Window object
with which document is currently associated.
7. If body is not parsable as FunctionBody or if parsing detects an early error, then follow
these substeps:
2. Report the error for the appropriate script and with the appropriate position (line
number and column number) given by location , using the global object specified
by script settings as the target. If the error is still not handled after this, then the er-
ror may be reported to a developer console.
3. Return null.
8. If body begins with a Directive Prologue that contains a Use Strict Directive then let
strict be true, otherwise let strict be false.
kind
Normal
ParameterList
Otherwise
Let the function have a single argument called event.
Body
The result of parsing body above.
Scope
Strict
The value of strict .
2. Return H s value.
The following are the event handlers (and their corresponding event handler event types) that must
be supported by all HTML elements, as both event handler content attributes and event handler
IDL attributes; and that must be supported by all Document and Window objects, as event handler
IDL attributes:
type
onabort abort
onauxclick auxclick
oncancel cancel
oncanplay canplay
oncanplaythrough canplaythrough
onchange change
onclick click
onclose close
oncontextmenu contextmenu
oncuechange cuechange
ondblclick dblclick
ondrag drag
ondragend dragend
ondragenter dragenter
ondragexit dragexit
ondragleave dragleave
ondragover dragover
ondragstart dragstart
ondrop drop
ondurationchange durationchange
onemptied emptied
onended ended
oninput input
oninvalid invalid
onkeydown keydown
onkeypress keypress
onkeyup keyup
onloadeddata loadeddata
onloadedmetadata loadedmetadata
onloadend loadend
onloadstart loadstart
onmousedown mousedown
onmouseenter mouseenter
onmouseleave mouseleave
onmousemove mousemove
onmouseout mouseout
onmouseover mouseover
onmouseup mouseup
onwheel wheel
onpause pause
onplay play
onplaying playing
onprogress progress
onratechange ratechange
onreset reset
onseeked seeked
onseeking seeking
onselect select
onshow show
onstalled stalled
onsubmit submit
onsuspend suspend
ontimeupdate timeupdate
ontoggle toggle
onvolumechange volumechange
onwaiting waiting
The following are the event handlers (and their corresponding event handler event types) that must
be supported by all HTML elements other than <body> and <frameset> elements, as both event
handler content attributes and event handler IDL attributes; that must be supported by all
Document objects, as event handler IDL attributes; and that must be supported by all Window ob-
jects, as event handler IDL attributes on the Window objects themselves, and with corresponding
event handler content attributes and event handler IDL attributes exposed on all <body> and
<frameset> elements that are owned by that Window objects Documents:
onblur blur
onerror error
onfocus focus
onload load
onresize resize
onscroll scroll
The following are the event handlers (and their corresponding event handler event types) that must
be supported by Window objects, as event handler IDL attributes on the Window objects them-
selves, and with corresponding event handler content attributes and event handler IDL attributes
exposed on all <body> and <frameset> elements that are owned by that Window objects
Documents:
onafterprint afterprint
onbeforeprint beforeprint
onbeforeunload beforeunload
onhashchange hashchange
onlanguagechange languagechange
onmessage message
onoffline offline
ononline online
onpagehide pagehide
onpageshow pageshow
onrejectionhandled rejectionhandled
onpopstate popstate
onstorage storage
onunload unload
The following are the event handlers (and their corresponding event handler event types) that must
be supported by all HTML elements, as both event handler content attributes and event handler
IDL attributes and that must be supported by all Document objects, as event handler IDL at-
tributes:
oncut cut
oncopy copy
onpaste paste
The following are the event handlers (and their corresponding event handler event types) that must
be supported on Document objects as event handler IDL attributes:
onreadystatechange readystatechange
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface GlobalEventHandlers {
attribute EventHandler onabort;
attribute EventHandler onblur;
attribute EventHandler oncancel;
attribute EventHandler oncanplay;
attribute EventHandler oncanplaythrough;
attribute EventHandler onchange;
attribute EventHandler onclick;
attribute EventHandler onclose;
attribute EventHandler oncontextmenu;
attribute EventHandler oncuechange;
attribute EventHandler ondblclick;
attribute EventHandler ondrag;
attribute EventHandler ondragend;
attribute EventHandler ondragenter;
attribute EventHandler ondragexit;
attribute EventHandler ondragleave;
attribute EventHandler ondragover;
attribute EventHandler ondragstart;
attribute EventHandler ondrop;
attribute EventHandler ondurationchange;
attribute EventHandler onemptied;
attribute EventHandler onended;
attribute OnErrorEventHandler onerror;
attribute EventHandler onfocus;
attribute EventHandler oninput;
attribute EventHandler oninvalid;
attribute EventHandler onkeydown;
attribute EventHandler onkeypress;
attribute EventHandler onkeyup;
attribute EventHandler onload;
attribute EventHandler onloadeddata;
attribute EventHandler onloadedmetadata;
attribute EventHandler onloadstart;
attribute EventHandler onmousedown;
[LenientThis] attribute EventHandler onmouseenter;
[LenientThis] attribute EventHandler onmouseleave;
attribute EventHandler onmousemove;
attribute EventHandler onmouseout;
attribute EventHandler onmouseover;
attribute EventHandler onmouseup;
attribute EventHandler onwheel;
attribute EventHandler onpause;
attribute EventHandler onplay;
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface WindowEventHandlers {
attribute EventHandler onafterprint;
attribute EventHandler onbeforeprint;
attribute OnBeforeUnloadEventHandler onbeforeunload;
attribute EventHandler onhashchange;
attribute EventHandler onlanguagechange;
attribute EventHandler onmessage;
attribute EventHandler onoffline;
attribute EventHandler ononline;
attribute EventHandler onpagehide;
attribute EventHandler onpageshow;
attribute EventHandler onrejectionhandled;
attribute EventHandler onpopstate;
attribute EventHandler onstorage;
attribute EventHandler onunhandledrejection;
attribute EventHandler onunload;
};
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface DocumentAndElementEventHandlers {
attribute EventHandler oncopy;
attribute EventHandler oncut;
attribute EventHandler onpaste;
};
Certain operations and methods are defined as firing events on elements. For example, the
click() method on the HTMLElement interface is defined as firing a click event on the ele-
ment. [UIEVENTS]
Firing a simple event named e means that a trusted event with the name e , which does not bub-
ble (except where otherwise stated) and is not cancelable (except where otherwise stated), and
which uses the Event interface, must be created and dispatched at the given target.
Firing a synthetic mouse event named e means that an event with the name e , which is trusted
(except where otherwise stated), does not bubble (except where otherwise stated), is not cancelable
(except where otherwise stated), and which uses the MouseEvent interface, must be created and
dispatched at the given target. The event object must have its screenX, screenY, clientX,
clientY, and button attributes initialized to 0, its ctrlKey, shiftKey, altKey, and
metaKey attributes initialized according to the current state of the key input device, if any (false
for any keys that are not available), its detail attribute initialized to 1, its relatedTarget at-
tribute initialized to null (except where otherwise stated), and its view attribute initialized to the
Window object of the Document object of the given target node, if any, or else null. The
getModifierState() method on the object must return values appropriately describing the
state of the key input device at the time the event is created.
Firing a click event means firing a synthetic mouse event named click, which bubbles and is
cancelable.
The default action of these events is to do nothing except where otherwise stated.
When an event is dispatched at a DOM node in a Document in a browsing context, if the event is
not a load event, the user agent must act as if, for the purposes of event dispatching, the Window
object is the parent of the Document object. [DOM]
The WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope mixin is for use of APIs that are to be exposed on Window
and WorkerGlobalScope objects.
NOTE:
Other specifications are encouraged to further extend it using partial interface
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope { }; along with an appropriate reference.
// Timers (WindowTimers)
long setTimeout((Function or DOMString) handler, optional long timeout =
0, any... arguments);
void clearTimeout(optional long handle = 0);
long setInterval((Function or DOMString) handler, optional long timeout =
0, any... arguments);
void clearInterval(optional long handle = 0);
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
origin = self . origin
Returns the global objects origin, serialized as string.
EXAMPLE 647
Developers are strongly encouraged to use self.origin over location.origin.
self.origin returns the origin of the environment, while location.origin returns URL of
the environment.
The origin attributes getter must return this objects relevant setting objects origin, serialized.
The atob() and btoa() methods allow authors to transform content to and from the base64 en-
coding.
NOTE:
In these APIs, for mnemonic purposes, the "b" can be considered to stand for "binary", and the
"a" for "ASCII". In practice, though, for primarily historical reasons, both the input and output
of these functions are Unicode strings.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
result = window . btoa( data )
Takes the input data, in the form of a Unicode string containing only characters in the
range U+0000 to U+00FF, each representing a binary byte with values 0x00 to 0xFF re-
spectively, and converts it to its base64 representation, which it returns.
The btoa() method must throw an InvalidCharacterError exception if the methods first ar-
gument contains any character whose code point is greater than U+00FF. Otherwise, the user agent
must convert that argument to a sequence of octets whose n th octet is the eight-bit representation
of the code point of the n th character of the argument, and then must apply the base64 algorithm
to that sequence of octets, and return the result. [RFC4648]
The atob() method must run the following steps to parse the string passed in the methods first ar-
gument:
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
4. If the length of input divides by 4 leaving no remainder, then: if input ends with one or two
U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=) characters, remove them from input .
6. If input contains a character that is not in the following list of characters and character
ranges, throw an InvalidCharacterError exception and abort these steps:
8. Let buffer be a buffer that can have bits appended to it, initially empty.
9. While position does not point past the end of input , run these substeps:
1. Find the character pointed to by position in the first column of the following table. Let
n be the number given in the second cell of the same row.
Character Number
A 0
B 1
Character Number
C 2
D 3
E 4
F 5
G 6
H 7
I 8
J 9
K 10
L 11
M 12
N 13
O 14
P 15
Q 16
R 17
S 18
T 19
U 20
V 21
W 22
X 23
Y 24
Z 25
a 26
b 27
c 28
d 29
e 30
f 31
g 32
Character Number
h 33
i 34
j 35
k 36
l 37
m 38
n 39
o 40
p 41
q 42
r 43
s 44
t 45
u 46
v 47
w 48
x 49
y 50
z 51
0 52
1 53
2 54
3 55
4 56
5 57
6 58
7 59
8 60
9 61
+ 62
/ 63
2. Append to buffer the six bits corresponding to number , most significant bit first.
3. If buffer has accumulated 24 bits, interpret them as three 8-bit big-endian numbers. Ap-
pend the three characters with code points equal to those numbers to output , in the same
order, and then empty buffer .
10. If buffer is not empty, it contains either 12 or 18 bits. If it contains 12 bits, discard the last
four and interpret the remaining eight as an 8-bit big-endian number. If it contains 18 bits,
discard the last two and interpret the remaining 16 as two 8-bit big-endian numbers. Append
the one or two characters with code points equal to those one or two numbers to output , in
the same order.
NOTE:
The discarded bits mean that, for instance, atob("YQ") and atob("YR") both return
"<a>".
NOTE:
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).
The open() method comes in several variants with different numbers of arguments.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
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.
If the type argument is omitted or has the value "text/html", then the resulting
Document has an HTML parser associated with it, which can be given data to parse us-
ing document.write(). Otherwise, all content passed to document.write() will
be parsed as plain text.
If the replace argument is present and has the value "replace", the existing entries in
the session history for the Document object are removed.
When called with two arguments (or fewer), the document.open() method must act as follows:
2. If the Document object is not an active document, then abort these steps.
3. If the origin of the Document is not equal to the origin of the responsible document specified
by the entry settings object, throw a "SecurityError" DOMException and abort these
steps.
5. If the second argument is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the value "replace", then let
replace be true.
Otherwise, if the browsing contexts session history contains only one Document, and that
was the about:blank Document created when the browsing context was created, and that
Document has never had the unload a document algorithm invoked on it (e.g., by a previous
call to document.open()), then let replace be true.
6. If the Document has an active parser whose script nesting level is greater than zero, then the
method does nothing. Abort these steps and return the Document object on which the method
was invoked.
NOTE:
This basically causes document.open() to be ignored when its 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.
NOTE:
This basically causes document.open() to be ignored when its called from a
beforeunload pagehide, or unload event handler while the Document is being un-
loaded.
9. Prompt to unload the Document object. If the user refused to allow the document to be un-
loaded, then abort these steps and return the Document object on which the method was in-
voked.
10. Unload the Document object, with the recycle parameter set to true.
12. Unregister all event listeners registered on the Document node and its descendants.
13. Remove any tasks associated with the Document in any task source.
14. Remove all child nodes of the document, without firing any mutation events.
15. Call the JavaScript InitializeHostDefinedRealm() abstract operation with the following cus-
tomizations:
For the global this value, use the current browsing contexts associated WindowProxy.
17. Set up a browsing context environment settings object with realm execution context .
18. Replace the Document's singleton objects with new instances of those objects, created in
window s Realm. (This includes in particular the History and Navigator objects, the var-
ious BarProp objects, the two Storage objects, the various HTMLCollection objects, and
objects defined by other specifications, like Selection. It also includes all the Web IDL pro-
totypes in the JavaScript binding, including the Document objects prototype.)
20. If the Document is ready for post-load tasks, then set the Document objects reload override
flag and set the Document's reload override buffer to the empty string.
22. Change the documents URL to the URL of the responsible document specified by the entry
settings object.
23. If the Document's iframe load in progress flag is set, set the Document's mute iframe load
flag.
24. Create a new HTML parser and associate it with the document. This is a script-created
parser (meaning that it can be closed by the document.open() 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.
26. If type is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "replace", then, for historical rea-
sons, set it to the string "text/html".
Otherwise:
If the type string contains a U+003B SEMICOLON character (;), remove the first such char-
acter and all characters from it up to the end of the string.
27. If type is not now an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "text/html", then act as if
the tokenizer had emitted a start tag token with the tag name "pre" followed by a single
U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character, then switch the HTML parsers tokenizer to the
8.2.4.5 PLAINTEXT state.
28. Remove all the entries in the browsing contexts session history after the current entry. If the
current entry is the last entry in the session history, then no entries are removed.
NOTE:
This doesnt necessarily have to affect the user agents user interface.
29. Remove any tasks queued by the history traversal task source that are associated with any
30. Remove any earlier entries that share the same Document.
31. 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 the Document object, as
well as the state of the document at the start of these steps. This allows the user to step back-
wards in the session history to see the page before it was blown away by the
document.open() 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.
32. Set the Document's fired unload flag to false. (It could have been set to true during the un-
load step above.)
33. Finally, set the insertion point to point at just before the end of the input stream (which at this
point will be empty).
NOTE:
The document.open() method does not affect whether a Document is ready for post-load
tasks or completely loaded.
When called with four arguments, the open() method on the Document object must call the
open() method on the Window object of the Document object, with the same arguments as the
original call to the open() method, and return whatever that method returned. If the Document
object has no Window object, then the method must throw an "InvalidAccessError"
DOMException.
2. If there is no script-created parser associated with the document, then abort these steps.
3. Insert an explicit "EOF" character at the end of the parsers input stream.
5. Run the tokenizer, processing resulting tokens as they are emitted, and stopping when the tok-
enizer reaches the explicit "EOF" character or spins the event loop.
7.4.3. document.write()
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . write( text ...)
In general, adds the given string(s) to the Documents input stream.
Warning! This method has very idiosyncratic behavior. In some cases, this
method can affect the state of the HTML parser while the parser is running, result-
ing 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() had been called. In yet more
cases, the method is simply ignored, or throws an exception. To make matters
worse, the exact behavior of this method can in some cases be dependent on net-
work latency, which can lead to failures that are very hard to debug. For all these
reasons, use of this method is strongly discouraged.
2. If the Document object is not an active document, then abort these steps.
4. If the insertion point is undefined, call the open() method on the document object (with no
arguments). If the user refused to allow the document to be unloaded, then abort these steps.
Otherwise, the insertion point will point at just before the end of the (empty) input stream.
5. Insert the string consisting of the concatenation of all the arguments to the method into the in-
put stream just before the insertion point.
6. If the Document objects reload override flag is set, then append the string consisting of the
concatenation of all the arguments to the method to the Documents reload override buffer.
7. If there is no pending parsing-blocking script, have the HTML parser process the characters
that were inserted, one 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).
NOTE:
If the document.write() method was called from script executing inline (i.e., execut-
ing because the parser parsed a set of script tags), then this is a reentrant invocation of
the parser.
7.4.4. document.writeln()
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
document . writeln( text ...)
Adds the given string(s) to the Documents input stream, followed by a newline charac-
ter. If necessary, calls the open() method implicitly first.
This method throws an InvalidStateError exception when invoked on XML docu-
ments.
7.5. Timers
The setTimeout() and setInterval() methods allow authors to schedule timer-based callbacks.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
NOTE:
Timers can be nested; after five such nested timers, however, the interval is forced to be at least
four milliseconds.
NOTE:
This API does not guarantee that timers will run exactly on schedule. Delays due to CPU load,
other tasks, etc, are to be expected.
Objects that implement the WindowTimers interface have a list of active timers. Each entry in this
lists is identified by a number, which must be unique within the list for the lifetime of the object
that implements the WindowTimers interface.
The setTimeout() method must return the value returned by the timer initialization steps, passing
them the methods arguments, the object on which the method for which the algorithm is running
is implemented (a Window or WorkerGlobalScope object) as the method context , and the repeat
flag set to false.
The setInterval() method must return the value returned by the timer initialization steps, pass-
ing them the methods arguments, the object on which the method for which the algorithm is run-
ning is implemented (a Window or WorkerGlobalScope object) as the method context , and the re-
peat flag set to true.
The clearTimeout() and clearInterval() methods must clear the entry identified as handle
from the list of active timers of the WindowTimers object on which the method was invoked, if
any, where handle is the argument passed to the method. (If handle does not identify an entry in
the list of active timers of the WindowTimers object on which the method was invoked, the method
does nothing.)
NOTE:
Because clearTimeout() and clearInterval() clear entries from the same list, either
method can be used to clear timers created by setTimeout() or setInterval().
The timer initialization steps, which are invoked with some method arguments, a method con-
text , a repeat flag which can be true or false, and optionally (and only if the repeat flag is true) a
previous handle , are as follows:
1. Let method context proxy be method context if that is a WorkerGlobalScope object, or else
the WindowProxy that corresponds to method context .
2. If previous handle was provided, let handle be previous handle ; otherwise, let handle be a
user-agent-defined integer that is greater than zero that will identify the timeout to be set by
this call in the list of active timers.
3. If previous handle was not provided, add an entry to the list of active timers for handle .
4. Let callerRealm be the current Realm Record, and calleeRealm be method context s
JavaScript realm.
1. If the entry for handle in the list of active timers has been cleared, then abort this tasks
substeps.
Otherwise
5. Create a script using script source as the script source, the URL where
script source can be found, scripting language as the scripting lan-
guage, and settings object as the environment settings object.
3. If the repeat flag is true, then call timer initialization steps again, passing them the same
method arguments, the same method context , with the repeat flag still set to true, and
with the previous handle set to handler .
7. If the currently running task is a task that was created by this algorithm, then let nesting level
be the tasks timer nesting level. Otherwise, let nesting level be zero.
8. If nesting level is greater than 5, and timeout is less than 4, then increase timeout to 4.
11. Return handle , and then continue running this algorithm in parallel.
12. If method context is a Window object, wait until the Document associated with method con-
text has been fully active for a further timeout milliseconds (not necessarily consecutively).
13. Wait until any invocations of this algorithm that had the same method context , that started
before this one, and whose timeout is equal to or less than this ones, have completed.
NOTE:
Argument conversion as defined by Web IDL (for example, invoking toString() meth-
ods on objects passed as the first argument) happens in the algorithms defined in Web
IDL, before this algorithm is invoked.
EXAMPLE 648
So for example, the following rather silly code will result in the log containing
"ONE TWO ":
NOTE:
This is intended to allow user agents to pad timeouts as needed to optimize the power us-
age of the device. For example, some processors have a low-power mode where the gran-
ularity of timers is reduced; on such platforms, user agents can slow timers down to fit
this schedule instead of requiring the processor to use the more accurate mode with its as-
sociated higher power usage.
NOTE:
Once the task has been processed, if the repeat flag is false, it is safe to remove the entry
for handle from the list of active timers (there is no way for the entrys existence to be
detected past this point, so it does not technically matter one way or the other).
The task source for these tasks is the timer task source.
EXAMPLE 649
To run tasks of several milliseconds back to back without any delay, while still yielding back to
the browser to avoid starving the user interface (and to avoid the browser killing the script for
hogging the CPU), simply queue the next timer before performing work:
function rescheduleWork() {
var handle = setTimeout(rescheduleWork, 0); // preschedule next iteration
if (doExpensiveWork())
clearTimeout(handle); // clear the timeout if we dont need it
}
function scheduleWork() {
setTimeout(rescheduleWork, 0);
}
NOTE:
Logic that depends on tasks or microtasks, such as media elements loading their media data,
are stalled when these methods are invoked.
To optionally truncate a simple dialog string s , return either s itself or some string derived
from s that is shorter. User agents should not provide UI for displaying the elided portion of s , as
this makes it too easy for abusers to create dialogs of the form "Important security alert! Click
'Show More' for full details!".
NOTE:
For example, a user agent might want to only display the first 100 characters of a message. Or,
a user agent might replace the middle of the string with "". These types of modifications can
be useful in limiting the abuse potential of unnaturally large, trustworthy-looking system di-
alogs.
The alert( message ) method, when invoked, must run the following steps:
1. If the event loops termination nesting level is non-zero, optionally abort these steps.
2. If the active sandboxing flag set of the active document of the responsible browsing context
specified by the incumbent settings object has the sandboxed modals flag set, then abort these
steps.
3. Optionally, abort these steps. (For example, the user agent might give the user the option to
ignore all alerts, and would thus abort at this step whenever the method was invoked.)
4. If the method was invoked with no arguments, then let message be the empty string; other-
wise, let message be the methods first argument.
6. Optionally, pause while waiting for the user to acknowledge the message.
The confirm( message ) method, when invoked, must run the following steps:
1. If the event loops termination nesting level is non-zero, optionally abort these steps, return-
ing false.
2. If the active sandboxing flag set of the active document of the responsible browsing context
specified by the incumbent settings object has the sandboxed modals flag set, then return
false and abort these steps.
3. Optionally, return false and abort these steps. (For example, the user agent might give the user
the option to ignore all prompts, and would thus abort at this step whenever the method was
invoked.)
5. Show message to the user, and ask the user to respond with a positive or negative response.
7. If the user responded positively, return true; otherwise, the user responded negatively: return
false.
The prompt( message , default ) method, when invoked, must run the following steps:
1. If the event loops termination nesting level is non-zero, optionally abort these steps, return-
ing null.
2. If the active sandboxing flag set of the active document of the responsible browsing context
specified by the incumbent settings object has the sandboxed modals flag set, then return null
and abort these steps.
3. Optionally, return null and abort these steps. (For example, the user agent might give the user
the option to ignore all prompts, and would thus abort at this step whenever the method was
invoked.)
6. Show message to the user, and ask the user to either respond with a string value or abort. The
response must be defaulted to the value given by default .
8. If the user aborts, then return null; otherwise, return the string that the user responded with.
7.6.2. Printing
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . print()
Prompts the user to print the page.
When the print() method is invoked, if the Document is ready for post-load tasks, then the user
agent must run the printing steps in parallel. Otherwise, the user agent must only set the print
when loaded flag on the Document.
User agents should also run the printing steps whenever the user asks for the opportunity to obtain
a physical form (e.g., printed copy), or the representation of a physical form (e.g., PDF copy), of a
document.
1. The user agent may display a message to the user or abort these steps (or both).
EXAMPLE 650
For instance, a kiosk browser could silently ignore any invocations of the print()
method.
EXAMPLE 651
For instance, a browser on a mobile device could detect that there are no printers in the
vicinity and display a message saying so before continuing to offer a "save to PDF" op-
tion.
2. If the active sandboxing flag set of the active document of the responsible browsing context
specified by the incumbent settings object has the sandboxed modals flag set, then abort these
steps.
NOTE:
If the printing dialog is blocked by a Documents sandbox, then neither the beforeprint
nor afterprint events will be fired.
3. The user agent must fire a simple event named beforeprint at the Window object of the
Document that is being printed, as well as any nested browsing contexts in it.
EXAMPLE 652
The beforeprint event can be used to annotate the printed copy, for instance adding the
time at which the document was printed.
4. The user agent should offer the user the opportunity to obtain a physical form (or the repre-
sentation of a physical form) of the document. The user agent may wait for the user to either
accept or decline before returning; if so, the user agent must pause while the method is wait-
ing. Even if the user agent doesnt wait at this point, the user agent must use the state of the
relevant documents as they are at this point in the algorithm if and when it eventually creates
the alternate form.
5. The user agent must fire a simple event named afterprint at the Window object of the
Document that is being printed, as well as any nested browsing contexts in it.
EXAMPLE 653
The afterprint event can be used to revert annotations added in the earlier event, as
well as showing post-printing UI. For instance, if a page is walking the user through the
steps of applying for a home loan, the script could automatically advance to the next step
after having printed a form or other.
The navigator attribute of the Window interface must return an instance of the Navigator inter-
face, which represents the identity and state of the user agent (the client), and allows Web pages to
register themselves as potential protocol and content handlers:
interface Navigator {
// objects implementing this interface also implement the interfaces
given below
};
Navigator implements NavigatorID;
Navigator implements NavigatorLanguage;
Navigator implements NavigatorOnLine;
Navigator implements NavigatorContentUtils;
Navigator implements NavigatorCookies;
These interfaces are defined separately so that other specifications can re-use parts of the
Navigator interface.
In certain cases, despite the best efforts of the entire industry, Web browsers have bugs and limita-
This section defines a collection of attributes that can be used to determine, from script, the kind of
user agent in use, in order to work around these issues.
Client detection should always be limited to detecting known current versions; future versions and
unknown versions should always be assumed to be fully compliant.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . navigator . appCodeName
Returns the string "Mozilla".
taintEnabled()
Must return false.
Warning! Any information in this API that varies from user to user can be used to
profile the user. In fact, if enough such information is available, a user can actually be
uniquely identified. For this reason, user agent implementors are strongly urged to in-
clude as little information in this API as possible.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . navigator . language
Returns a language tag representing the users preferred language.
NOTE:
A languagechange event is fired at the Window or WorkerGlobalScope object when the user
agents understanding of what the users preferred languages are changes.
Must return a read only array of valid BCP 47 language tags representing either one or more
plausible languages, or the users preferred languages, ordered by preference with the most
preferred language first. The same object must be returned until the user agent needs to return
different values, or values in a different order. [BCP47]
Whenever the user agent needs to make the navigator.languages attribute of a Window or
WorkerGlobalScope object return a new set of language tags, the user agent must queue a
task to fire a simple event named languagechange at the Window or WorkerGlobalScope ob-
ject and wait until that task begins to be executed before actually returning a new value.
The task source for this task is the DOM manipulation task source.
To determine a plausible language, the user agent should bear in mind the following:
Any information in this API that varies from user to user can be used to profile or identify the
user.
If the user is not using a service that obfuscates the users point of origin (e.g., the Tor
anonymity network), then the value that is least likely to distinguish the user from other users
with similar origins (e.g., from the same IP address block) is the language used by the major-
ity of such users. [TOR]
If the user is using an anonymizing service, then the value "en-US" is suggested; if all users
of the service use that same value, that reduces the possibility of distinguishing the users from
each other.
To avoid introducing any more fingerprinting vectors, user agents should use the same list for the
APIs defined in this function as for the HTTP Accept-Language header.
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface NavigatorContentUtils {
// content handler registration
void registerProtocolHandler(DOMString scheme, DOMString url, DOMString
title);
void registerContentHandler(DOMString mimeType, DOMString url, DOMString
title);
DOMString isProtocolHandlerRegistered(DOMString scheme, DOMString url);
DOMString isContentHandlerRegistered(DOMString mimeType, DOMString url);
void unregisterProtocolHandler(DOMString scheme, DOMString url);
void unregisterContentHandler(DOMString mimeType, DOMString url);
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . navigator . registerProtocolHandler( scheme , url , title )
window . navigator . registerContentHandler( mimeType , url , title )
Registers a handler for the given scheme or content type, at the given URL, with the
given title.
The string "%s" in the URL is used as a placeholder for where to put the URL of the con-
tent to be handled.
User agents may, within the constraints described in this section, do whatever they like when the
methods are called. A user agent could, for instance, prompt the user and offer the user the oppor-
tunity to add the site to a shortlist of handlers, or make the handlers his default, or cancel the re-
quest. user agents could provide such a UI through modal UI or through a non-modal transient no-
tification interface. user agents could also simply silently collect the information, providing it only
when relevant to the user.
User agents should keep track of which sites have registered handlers (even if the user has de-
clined such registrations) so that the user is not repeatedly prompted with the same request.
The arguments to the methods have the following meanings and corresponding implementation re-
quirements. The requirements that involve throwing exceptions must be processed in the order
given below, stopping at the first exception thrown. (So the exceptions for the first argument take
precedence over the exceptions for the second argument.)
The scheme value, if it contains a colon (as in "mailto:"), will never match anything, since
schemes dont contain colons.
bitcoin
geo
im
irc
ircs
magnet
mailto
mms
news
nntp
openpgp4fpr
sip
sms
smsto
ssh
tel
urn
webcal
wtai
xmpp
NOTE:
This list can be changed. If there are schemes that should be added, please send feedback.
NOTE:
This list excludes any schemes that could reasonably be expected to be supported inline,
e.g., in an <iframe>, such as http or (more theoretically) gopher. If those were supported,
they could potentially be used in man-in-the-middle attacks, by replacing pages that have
frames with such content with content under the control of the protocol handler. If the
user agent has native support for the schemes, this could further be used for cookie-theft
attacks.
User agents must compare the given values only to the MIME type/subtype parts of content
types, not to the complete type including parameters. Thus, if mimeType values passed to this
method include characters such as commas or white space, or include MIME parameters, then
the handler being registered will never be used.
NOTE:
The type is compared to the MIME type used by the user agent after the sniffing algo-
rithms have been applied.
If the registerContentHandler() method is invoked with a MIME type that is in the type
blocklist or that the user agent has deemed a privileged type, the user agent must throw a
"SecurityError" DOMException.
application/x-www-form-urlencoded
application/xhtml+xml
application/xml
image/gif
image/jpeg
image/png
image/svg+xml
multipart/x-mixed-replace
text/css
text/html
text/ping
text/plain
text/vtt
text/xml
All types that the user agent supports displaying natively in a browsing context during
navigation, except for application/rss+xml and application/atom+xml
NOTE:
This list can be changed. If there are MIME types that should be added, please send feed-
back.
url
A string used to build the URL of the page that will handle the requests.
User agents must throw a "SyntaxError" DOMException if the url argument passed to
one of these methods does not contain the exact literal string "%s".
User agents must throw a "SyntaxError" DOMException if parsing the url argument rela-
tive to the API base URL specified by the entry settings object is not successful.
NOTE:
The resulting URL string would by definition not be a valid URL as it would include the
string "%s" which is not a valid component in a URL.
User agents must throw a "SecurityError" DOMException if the resulting absolute URL
has an origin that differs from the origin specified by the entry settings object.
NOTE:
This is forcibly the case if the %s placeholder is in the scheme, host, or port parts of the
URL.
The resulting URL string is the proto-URL. It identifies the handler for the purposes of the
methods described below.
When the user agent uses this handler, it must replace the first occurrence of the exact literal
string "%s" in the url argument with an escaped version of the absolute URL of the content in
question (as defined below), then parse the resulting URL, relative to the API base URL spec-
ified by the entry settings object at the time the registerContentHandler() or
registerProtocolHandler() methods were invoked, and then navigate an appropriate
browsing context to the resulting URL.
To get the escaped version of the absolute URL of the content in question, the user agent must
replace every character in that absolute URL that is not a character in the URL default encode
set with the result of UTF-8 percent encoding that character.
EXAMPLE 654
If the user had visited a site at https://example.com/ that made the following call:
navigator.registerContentHandler('application/x-soup', 'soup?url=%s',
'SoupWeb')
...then, assuming this chickenkwi.soup file was served with the MIME type
application/x-soup, the user agent might navigate to the following URL:
https://example.com/soup?url=https://www.example.net/chickenk
%C3%AFwi.soup
This site could then fetch the chickenkwi.soup file and do whatever it is that it does
with soup (synthesize it and ship it to the user, or whatever).
title
A descriptive title of the handler, which the user agent might use to remind the user what the
site in question is.
This section does not define how the pages registered by these methods are used, beyond the re-
quirements on how to process the url value (see above). To some extent, the processing model for
navigating across documents defines some cases where these methods are relevant, but in general
user agents may use this information wherever they would otherwise consider handing content to
native plugins or helper applications.
user agents must not use registered content handlers to handle content that was returned as part of
a non-GET transaction (or rather, as part of any non-idempotent transaction), as the remote site
would not be able to fetch the same data.
In addition to the registration methods, there are also methods for determining if particular han-
dlers have been registered, and for unregistering handlers.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
state = window . navigator . isProtocolHandlerRegistered( scheme , url )
state = window . navigator . isContentHandlerRegistered( mimeType , url )
Returns one of the following strings describing the state of the handler given by the ar-
guments:
new
Indicates that no attempt has been made to register the given handler (or that the
handler has been unregistered). It would be appropriate to promote the availability
of the handler or to just automatically register the handler.
registered
Indicates that the given handler has been registered or that the site is blocked from
registering the handler. Trying to register the handler again would have no effect.
declined
Indicates that the given handler has been offered but was rejected. Trying to regis-
ter the handler again may prompt the user again.
The isProtocolHandlerRegistered() method must return the handler state string that most
closely describes the current state of the handler described by the two arguments to the method,
where the first argument gives the scheme and the second gives the string used to build the URL of
the page that will handle the requests.
The first argument must be compared to the schemes for which custom protocol handlers are regis-
tered in an ASCII case-insensitive manner to find the relevant handlers.
The second argument must be preprocessed as described below, and if that is successful, must then
be matched against the proto-URLs of the relevant handlers to find the described handler.
The isContentHandlerRegistered() method must return the handler state string that most
closely describes the current state of the handler described by the two arguments to the method,
where the first argument gives the MIME type and the second gives the string used to build the
URL of the page that will handle the requests.
The first argument must be compared to the MIME types for which custom content handlers are
registered in an ASCII case-insensitive manner to find the relevant handlers.
The second argument must be preprocessed as described below, and if that is successful, must then
be matched against the proto-URLs of the relevant handlers to find the described handler.
The handler state strings are the following strings. Each string describes several situations, as
given by the following list.
new
The described handler has never been registered for the given scheme or type.
The described handler was once registered for the given scheme or type, but the site has since
unregistered it. If the handler were to be reregistered, the user would be notified accordingly.
The described handler was once registered for the given scheme or type, but the site has since
unregistered it, but the user has indicated that the site is to be blocked from registering the
type again, so the user agent would ignore further registration attempts.
registered
An attempt was made to register the described handler for the given scheme or type, but the
user has not yet been notified, and the user agent would ignore further registration attempts.
(Maybe the user agent batches registration requests to display them when the user requests to
be notified about them, and the user has not yet requested that the user agent notify it of the
previous registration attempt.)
The described handler is registered for the given scheme or type (maybe, or maybe not, as the
default handler).
The described handler is permanently blocked from being (re)registered. (Maybe the user
marked the registration attempt as spam, or blocked the site for other reasons.)
declined
An attempt was made to register the described handler for the given scheme or type, but the
user has not yet been notified; however, the user might be notified if another registration at-
tempt were to be made. (Maybe the last registration attempt was made while the page was in
the background and the user closed the page without looking at it, and the user agent requires
confirmation for this registration attempt.)
An attempt was made to register the described handler for the given scheme or type, but the
user has not yet responded.
An attempt was made to register the described handler for the given scheme or type, but the
user declined the offer. The user has not indicated that the handler is to be permanently
blocked, however, so another attempt to register the described handler might result in the user
being prompted again.
The described handler was once registered for the given scheme or type, but the user has
since removed it. The user has not indicated that the handler is to be permanently blocked,
however, so another attempt to register the described handler might result in the user being
prompted again.
The unregisterProtocolHandler() method must unregister the handler described by the two ar-
guments to the method, where the first argument gives the scheme and the second gives the string
used to build the URL of the page that will handle the requests.
The first argument must be compared to the schemes for which custom protocol handlers are regis-
tered in an ASCII case-insensitive manner to find the relevant handlers.
The second argument must be preprocessed as described below, and if that is successful, must then
be matched against the proto-URLs of the relevant handlers to find the described handler.
The unregisterContentHandler() method must unregister the handler described by the two ar-
guments to the method, where the first argument gives the MIME type and the second gives the
string used to build the URL of the page that will handle the requests.
The first argument must be compared to the MIME types for which custom content handlers are
registered in an ASCII case-insensitive manner to find the relevant handlers.
The second argument must be preprocessed as described below, and if that is successful, must then
be matched against the proto-URLs of the relevant handlers to find the described handler.
The second argument of the four methods described above must be preprocessed as follows:
1. If the string does not contain the substring "%s", abort these steps. Theres no matching han-
dler.
2. Parse the string relative to the entry settings object. If this fails, then throw a "SyntaxError"
DOMException.
3. If the resulting URL records origin is not the same origin as the origin specified by the entry
settings object, throw a "SecurityError" DOMException.
4. Return the resulting URL string as the result of preprocessing the argument.
Hijacking all Web usage. User agents should not allow schemes that are key to its normal
operation, such as http or https, to be rerouted through third-party sites. This would allow a
users activities to be trivially tracked, and would allow user information, even in secure con-
nections, to be collected.
Hijacking defaults. User agents are strongly urged to not automatically change any defaults,
as this could lead the user to send data to remote hosts that the user is not expecting. New
handlers registering themselves should never automatically cause those sites to be used.
Registration spamming. User agents should consider the possibility that a site will attempt
to register a large number of handlers, possibly from multiple domains (e.g., by redirecting
through a series of pages each on a different domain, and each registering a handler for
video/mpeg analogous practices abusing other Web browser features have been used by
pornography Web sites for many years). User agents should gracefully handle such hostile at-
tempts, protecting the user.
Misleading titles. User agents should not rely wholly on the title argument to the methods
when presenting the registered handlers to the user, since sites could easily lie. For example, a
site hostile.example.net could claim that it was registering the "Cuddly Bear Happy Con-
tent Handler". User agents should therefore use the handlers domain in any UI along with
any title.
Hostile handler metadata. User agents should protect against typical attacks against strings
embedded in their interface, for example ensuring that markup or escape characters in such
strings are not executed, that null bytes are properly handled, that over-long strings do not
cause crashes or buffer overruns, and so forth.
Leaking Intranet URLs. The mechanism described in this section can result in secret In-
tranet URLs being leaked, in the following manner:
1. The user registers a third-party content handler as the default handler for a content type.
2. The user then browses his corporate Intranet site and accesses a document that uses that
content type.
3. The user agent contacts the third party and hands the third party the URL to the Intranet
content.
No actual confidential file data is leaked in this manner, but the URLs themselves could con-
tain confidential information. For example, the URL could be
https://www.corp.example.com/upcoming-aquisitions/the-sample-company.egf,
which might tell the third party that Example Corporation is intending to merge with The
Sample Company. Implementors might wish to consider allowing administrators to disable
this feature for certain subdomains, content types, or schemes.
Leaking secure URLs. User agents should not send HTTPS URLs to third-party sites regis-
tered as content handlers without the users informed consent, for the same reason that user
agents sometimes avoid sending Referer (sic) HTTP headers from secure sites to third-party
sites.
Leaking credentials. User agents must never send username or password information in the
URLs that are escaped and included sent to the handler sites. User agents may even avoid at-
tempting to pass to Web-based handlers the URLs of resources that are known to require au-
thentication to access, as such sites would be unable to access the resources in question with-
out prompting the user for credentials themselves (a practice that would require the user to
know whether to trust the third-party handler, a decision many users are unable to make or
even understand).
Interface interference. User agents should be prepared to handle intentionally long argu-
ments to the methods. For example, if the user interface exposed consists of an "accept" but-
ton and a "deny" button, with the "accept" binding containing the name of the handler, its im-
portant that a long name not cause the "deny" button to be pushed off the screen.
Fingerprinting users. Since a site can detect if it has attempted to register a particular han-
dler or not, whether or not the user responds, the mechanism can be used to store data. User
agents are therefore strongly urged to treat registrations in the same manner as cookies: clear-
ing cookies for a site should also clear all registrations for that site, and disabling cookies for
a site should also disable registrations.
A simple implementation of this feature for a desktop Web browser might work as follows.
In this dialog box, "Kittens at work" is the title of the page that invoked the method, "https://kit-
tens.example.org/" is the URL of that page, "application/x-meowmeow" is the string that was
passed to the registerContentHandler() method as its first argument ( mimeType ), "https://kit-
tens.example.org/?show=%s" was the second argument ( url ), and "Kittens-at-work displayer" was
the third argument ( title ).
If the user clicks the Cancel button, then nothing further happens. If the user clicks the "Trust" but-
ton, then the handler is remembered.
When the user then attempts to fetch a URL that uses the "application/x-meowmeow" MIME type,
then it might display a dialog as follows:
In this dialog, the third option is the one that was primed by the site registering itself earlier.
If the user does select that option, then the browser, in accordance with the requirements described
in the previous two sections, will redirect the user to "https://kittens.example.org
/?show=data%3Aapplication/x-meowmeow;
base64,S2l0dGVucyBhcmUgdGhlIGN1dGVzdCE%253D".
The registerProtocolHandler() method would work equivalently, but for schemes instead of
unknown content types.
7.7.1.4. Cookies
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface NavigatorCookies {
readonly attribute boolean cookieEnabled;
};
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
window . navigator . cookieEnabled
Returns false if setting a cookie will be ignored, and true otherwise.
The cookieEnabled attribute must return true if the user agent attempts to handle cookies accord-
ing to the cookie specification, and false if it ignores cookie change requests. [COOKIES]
7.8. Images
typedef (HTMLImageElement or
HTMLVideoElement or
HTMLCanvasElement or
Blob or
ImageData or
CanvasRenderingContext2D or
ImageBitmap) ImageBitmapSource;
An ImageBitmap object represents a bitmap image that can be painted to a canvas without undue
latency.
NOTE:
The exact judgement of what is undue latency of this is left up to the implementer, but in gen-
eral if making use of the bitmap requires network I/O, or even local disk I/O, then the latency
is probably undue; whereas if it only requires a blocking read from a GPU or system RAM, the
latency is probably acceptable.
This definition is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this definition.
promise = Window . createImageBitmap( image [, sx , sy , sw , sh ] )
Takes image , which can be an <img> element, <video>, or <canvas> element, a Blob ob-
ject, an ImageData object, a CanvasRenderingContext2D object, or another
ImageBitmap object, and returns a promise that is resolved when a new ImageBitmap is
created.
If no ImageBitmap object can be constructed, for example because the provided image
data is not actually an image, then the promise is rejected instead.
If sx , sy , sw , and sh arguments are provided, the source image is cropped to the given
pixels, with any pixels missing in the original replaced by transparent black. These coor-
dinates are in the source images pixel coordinate space, not in CSS pixels.
Rejects the promise with an InvalidStateError exception if the source image is not
in a valid state (e.g., an <img> element that hasnt finished loading, or a
CanvasRenderingContext2D object whose bitmap data has zero length along one or
both dimensions, or an ImageData object whose data is data attribute has been
neutered). Rejects the promise with a "SyntaxError" DOMException if the script is
not allowed to access the image data of the source image (e.g., a video that is CORS-
cross-origin, or a canvas being drawn on by a script in a worker from another origin).
imageBitmap . width
Returns the intrinsic width of the image, in CSS pixels.
imageBitmap . height
Returns the intrinsic height of the image, in CSS pixels.
An ImageBitmap object always has associated bitmap data, with a width and a height. However, it
is possible for this data to be corrupted. If an ImageBitmap objects media data can be decoded
without errors, it is said to be fully decodable.
An ImageBitmap objects bitmap has an origin-clean flag, which indicates whether the bitmap is
tainted by content from a different origin. The flag is initially set to true and may be changed to
false by the steps of createImageBitmap().
2. Set serialized .[[OriginClean]] to true if value s origin-clean flag is set, and false otherwise.
2. Set dataHolder .[[OriginClean]] to true if value s origin-clean flag is set, and false other-
wise.
An ImageBitmap object can be obtained from a variety of different objects, using the
createImageBitmap() method. When invoked, the method must act as follows:
1. If either the sw or sh arguments are specified but zero, return a promise rejected with
an IndexSizeError exception and abort these steps.
2. If the <img> element is not completely available, then return a promise rejected with an
InvalidStateError exception and abort these steps.
3. If the <img> elements media data is not a bitmap (e.g., its a vector graphic), then return
a promise rejected with an InvalidStateError exception and abort these steps.
5. Let the ImageBitmap objects bitmap data be a copy of the img elements media data,
cropped to the source rectangle. If this is an animated image, the ImageBitmap objects
bitmap data must only be taken from the default image of the animation (the one that the
format defines is to be used when animation is not supported or is disabled), or, if there
is no such image, the first frame of the animation.
6. If the origin of the <img> elements image is not the same origin as the origin specified
by the entry settings object, then set the origin-clean flag of the ImageBitmap objects
bitmap to false.
8. Resolve the promise with the new ImageBitmap object as the value.
1. If either the sw or sh arguments are specified but zero, return a promise rejected with
an IndexSizeError exception and abort these steps.
5. Let the ImageBitmap objects bitmap data be a copy of the frame at the current playback
position, at the media resources intrinsic width and intrinsic height (i.e., after any as-
pect-ratio correction has been applied), cropped to the source rectangle.
6. If the origin of the <video> elements image is not the same origin as the origin specified
by the entry settings object, then set the origin-clean flag of the ImageBitmap objects
bitmap to false.
8. Resolve the promise with the new ImageBitmap object as the value.
1. If either the sw or sh arguments are specified but zero, return a promise rejected with
an IndexSizeError exception and abort these steps.
2. If the <canvas> elements bitmap has either a horizontal dimension or a vertical dimen-
sion equal to zero, then return a promise rejected with an InvalidStateError excep-
tion and abort these steps.
4. Let the ImageBitmap objects bitmap data be a copy of the <canvas> elements bitmap
data, cropped to the source rectangle.
5. Set the origin of the ImageBitmap objects bitmap to the same value as the origin-clean
flag of the <canvas> elements bitmap.
7. Resolve the promise with the new ImageBitmap object as the value.
1. If either the sw or sh arguments are specified but zero, return a promise rejected with
an IndexSizeError exception and abort these steps.
3. Read the Blob objects data. If an error occurs during reading of the object, then reject
the promise with an InvalidStateError exception, and abort these steps.
4. Apply the image sniffing rules to determine the file format of the image data, with
MIME type of the Blob (as given by the Blob objects type attribute) giving the official
type.
5. If the image data is not in a supported file format (e.g., its not actually an image at all),
or if the image data is corrupted in some fatal way such that the image dimensions can-
not be obtained, then reject the promise with null, and abort these steps.
7. Let the ImageBitmap objects bitmap data be the image data read from the Blob object,
cropped to the source rectangle. If this is an animated image, the ImageBitmap objects
bitmap data must only be taken from the default image of the animation (the one that the
format defines is to be used when animation is not supported or is disabled), or, if there
is no such image, the first frame of the animation.
8. Resolve the promise with the new ImageBitmap object as the value.
1. If either the sw or sh arguments are specified but zero, return a promise rejected with
an IndexSizeError exception and abort these steps.
2. If the image objects data attribute has been neutered, return a promise rejected with an
InvalidStateError exception and abort these steps.
4. Let the ImageBitmap objects bitmap data be the image data given by the ImageData ob-
ject, cropped to the source rectangle.
6. Resolve the promise with the new ImageBitmap object as the value.
1. If either the sw or sh arguments are specified but zero, return a promise rejected with
an IndexSizeError exception and abort these steps.
5. Set the origin-clean flag of the ImageBitmap objects bitmap to the same value as the
origin-clean flag of the CanvasRenderingContext2D objects scratch bitmap
7. Resolve the promise with the new ImageBitmap object as the value.
1. If either the sw or sh arguments are specified but zero, return a promise rejected with
an IndexSizeError exception and abort these steps.
3. Let the ImageBitmap objects bitmap data be a copy of the image arguments bitmap
data, cropped to the source rectangle.
4. Set the origin-clean flag of the ImageBitmap objects bitmap to the same value as the
origin-clean flag of the bitmap of the image argument.
6. Resolve the promise with the new ImageBitmap object as the value.
When the steps above require that the user agent crop bitmap data to the source rectangle, the
user agent must run the following steps:
3. Place input on an infinite transparent black grid plane, positioned so that its top left corner is
at the origin of the plane, with the x -coordinate increasing to the right, and the y -coordinate
increasing down, and with each pixel in the input image data occupying a cell on the planes
grid.
4. Let output be the rectangle on the plane denoted by the rectangle whose corners are the four
points ( sx , sy ), ( sx + sw , sy ), ( sx + sw , sy + sh ), ( sx , sy + sh ).
NOTE:
If either sw or sh are negative, then the top-left corner of this rectangle will be to the left
or above the ( sx , sy ) point. If any of the pixels on this rectangle are outside the area
where the input bitmap was placed, then they will be transparent black in output .
5. Return output .
The width attribute must return the ImageBitmap objects width, in CSS pixels.
The height attribute must return the ImageBitmap objects height, in CSS pixels.
EXAMPLE 655
Using this API, a sprite sheet can be precut and prepared:
function runDemo() {
var canvas = document.querySelector('canvas#demo');
var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
context.drawImage(sprites.tree, 30, 10);
context.drawImage(sprites.snake, 70, 10);
}
loadMySprites().then(runDemo);
Each Document associated with a top-level browsing context has a list of animation frame call-
backs, which must be initially empty, and an animation frame callback identifier, which is a
number which must initially be zero.
When the requestAnimationFrame() method is called, the user agent must run the following
steps:
3. Append the methods argument to document s list of animation frame callbacks, associated
with document s animation frame callback identifiers current value
When the cancelAnimationFrame() method is called, the user agent must run the following steps:
2. Find the entry in document s list of animation frame callbacks that is associated with the
value given by the methods argument handle
3. If there is such an entry, remove it from document s list of animation frame callbacks
When the user agent is to run the animation frame callbacks for a Document document with a
timestamp now , it must run the following steps:
1. If the value returned by the document objects hidden attribute is true, abort these steps.
[PAGE-VISIBILITY]
2. Let callbacks be a list of the entries in document s list of animation frame callbacks, in the
order in which they were added to the list.
4. For each entry in callbacks , in order: invoke the Web IDL callback function, passing now as
the only argument, and if an exception is thrown, report the exception. [WEBIDL]
NOTE:
This section only describes the rules for resources labeled with an HTML MIME type. Rules
for XML resources are discussed in the section below entitled "The XML syntax".
This section only applies to documents, authoring tools, and markup generators. In particular, it
does not apply to conformance checkers; conformance checkers must use the requirements given
in the next section ("parsing HTML documents").
3. A DOCTYPE.
The various types of content mentioned above are described in the next few sections.
In addition, there are some restrictions on how character encoding declarations are to be serialized,
as discussed in the section on that topic.
NOTE:
Space characters before the <html> element, and space characters at the start of the <html> ele-
ment and before the <head> element, will be dropped when the document is parsed; space char-
acters after the <html> element will be parsed as if they were at the end of the <body> element.
Thus, space characters around the document element do not round-trip.
It is suggested that newlines be inserted after the DOCTYPE, after any comments that are be-
fore the document element, after the <html> elements start tag (if it is not omitted), and after
any comments that are inside the <html> element but before the <head> element.
Many strings in the HTML syntax (e.g., the names of elements and their attributes) are case-i-
nsensitive, but only for uppercase ASCII letters and lowercase ASCII letters. For convenience, in
this section this is just referred to as "case-insensitive".
NOTE:
DOCTYPEs are required for legacy reasons. When omitted, browsers tend to use a different
rendering mode that is incompatible with some specifications. Including the DOCTYPE in a
document ensures that the browser makes a best-effort attempt at following the relevant speci-
fications.
NOTE:
In other words, <!DOCTYPE html>, case-insensitively.
For the purposes of HTML generators that cannot output HTML markup with the short DOC-
TYPE "<!DOCTYPE html>", a DOCTYPE legacy string may be inserted into the DOCTYPE (in
the position defined above). This string must consist of:
NOTE:
In other words, <!DOCTYPE html SYSTEM "about:legacy-compat"> or <!DOCTYPE html
SYSTEM 'about:legacy-compat'>, case-insensitively except for the part in single or double
quotes.
The DOCTYPE legacy string should not be used unless the document is generated from a system
that cannot output the shorter string.
8.1.2. Elements
There are five different kinds of elements: void elements, raw text elements, escapable raw text
elements, foreign elements, and normal elements.
Void elements
<area>, <base>, <br>, <col>, <embed>, <hr>, <img>, <input>, <link>, <meta>, <param>, <source>,
<track>, <wbr>
Foreign elements
Elements from the MathML namespace and the SVG namespace.
Normal elements
All other allowed HTML elements are normal elements.
Tags are used to delimit the start and end of elements in the markup. Raw text, escapable raw text,
and normal elements have a start tag to indicate where they begin, and an end tag to indicate where
they end. The start and end tags of certain normal elements can be omitted, as described below in
the section on [[#optional tags]]. Those that cannot be omitted must not be omitted. Void elements
only have a start tag; end tags must not be specified for void elements. Foreign elements must ei-
ther have a start tag and an end tag, or a start tag that is marked as self-closing, in which case they
must not have an end tag.
The contents of the element must be placed between just after the start tag (which might be im-
plied, in certain cases) and just before the end tag (which again, might be implied, in certain
cases). The exact allowed contents of each individual element depend on the content model of that
element, as described earlier in this specification. Elements must not contain content that their con-
tent model disallows. In addition to the restrictions placed on the contents by those content mod-
els, however, the five types of elements have additional syntactic requirements.
Void elements cant have any contents (since theres no end tag, no content can be put between the
start tag and the end tag).
Raw text elements can have text, though it has restrictions described below.
Escapable raw text elements can have text and character references, but the text must not contain
an ambiguous ampersand. There are also further restrictions described below.
Foreign elements whose start tag is marked as self-closing cant have any contents (since, again, as
theres no end tag, no content can be put between the start tag and the end tag). Foreign elements
whose start tag is not marked as self-closing can have text, character references, CDATA sections,
other elements, and comments, but the text must not contain the character U+003C LESS-THAN
SIGN (<) or an ambiguous ampersand.
NOTE:
The HTML syntax does not support namespace declarations, even in foreign elements.
<p>
<svg>
<metadata>
<!-- this is invalid -->
<cdr:license xmlns:cdr="https://www.example.com/cdr/metadata"
name="MIT"/>
</metadata>
</svg>
</p>
The innermost element, cdr:license, is actually in the SVG namespace, as the "xmlns:cdr"
attribute has no effect (unlike in XML). In fact, as the comment in the fragment above says, the
fragment is actually non-conforming. This is because the SVG specification does not define
any elements called "cdr:license" in the SVG namespace.
Normal elements can have text, character references, other elements, and comments, but the text
must not contain the character U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN (<) or an ambiguous ampersand.
Some normal elements also have yet more restrictions on what content they are allowed to hold,
beyond the restrictions imposed by the content model and those described in this paragraph. Those
restrictions are described below.
Tags contain a tag name, giving the elements name. HTML elements all have names that only use
alphanumeric ASCII characters. In the HTML syntax, tag names, even those for foreign elements,
may be written with any mix of lower- and uppercase letters that, when converted to all-lowercase,
matches the elements tag name; tag names are case-insensitive.
1. The first character of a start tag must be a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character (<).
2. The next few characters of a start tag must be the elements tag name.
3. If there are to be any attributes in the next step, there must first be one or more space charac-
ters.
4. Then, the start tag may have a number of attributes, the syntax for which is described below.
Attributes must be separated from each other by one or more space characters.
5. After the attributes, or after the tag name if there are no attributes, there may be one or more
space characters. (Some attributes are required to be followed by a space. See 8.1.2.3 At-
tributes below.)
6. Then, if the element is one of the void elements, or if the element is a foreign element, then
there may be a single U+002F SOLIDUS character (/). This character has no effect on void
elements, but on foreign elements it marks the start tag as self-closing.
7. Finally, start tags must be closed by a U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN character (>).
1. The first character of an end tag must be a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character (<).
2. The second character of an end tag must be a U+002F SOLIDUS character (/).
3. The next few characters of an end tag must be the elements tag name.
4. After the tag name, there may be one or more space characters.
5. Finally, end tags must be closed by a U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN character (>).
8.1.2.3. Attributes
Attributes for an element are expressed inside the elements start tag.
Attributes have a name and a value. Attribute names must consist of one or more characters other
than the space characters, U+0000 NULL, U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("), U+0027 APOS-
TROPHE ('), U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>), U+002F SOLIDUS (/), and U+003D
EQUALS SIGN (=) characters, the control characters, and any characters that are not defined by
Unicode. In the HTML syntax, attribute names, even those for foreign elements, may be written
with any mix of lower- and uppercase letters that are an ASCII case-insensitive match for the at-
tributes name.
Attribute values are a mixture of text and character references, except with the additional restric-
tion that the text cannot contain an ambiguous ampersand.
Just the attribute name. The value is implicitly the empty string.
EXAMPLE 656
In the following example, the disabled attribute is given with the empty attribute syntax:
<input disabled>
If an attribute using the empty attribute syntax is to be followed by another attribute, then
there must be a space character separating the two.
EXAMPLE 657
In the following example, the value attribute is given with the unquoted attribute value
syntax:
<input value=yes>
EXAMPLE 658
In the following example, the type attribute is given with the single-quoted attribute
value syntax:
<input type='checkbox'>
EXAMPLE 659
In the following example, the name attribute is given with the double-quoted attribute
value syntax:
There must never be two or more attributes on the same start tag whose names are an ASCII case-
insensitive match for each other.
When a foreign element has one of the namespaced attributes given by the local name and names-
pace of the first and second cells of a row from the following table, it must be written using the
name given by the third cell from the same row.
NOTE:
Whether the attributes in the table above are conforming or not is defined by other specifica-
tions (e.g., the SVG and MathML specifications); this section only describes the syntax rules if
the attributes are serialized using the HTML syntax.
NOTE:
Omitting an elements start tag in the situations described below does not mean the element is
not present; it is implied, but it is still there. For example, an HTML document always has a
root <html> element, even if the string <html> doesnt appear anywhere in the markup.
An <html> elements start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the <html> element is not a
comment.
EXAMPLE 660
For example, in the following case its ok to remove the "<html>" tag:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Welcome to this example.</p>
</body>
</html>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Welcome to this example.</p>
</body>
</html>
This has the exact same DOM. In particular, note that white space around the document ele-
ment is ignored by the parser. The following example would also have the exact same DOM:
<!DOCTYPE HTML><head>
<title>Hello</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Welcome to this example.</p>
</body>
</html>
However, in the following example, removing the start tag moves the comment to before the
<html> element:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<!-- where is this comment in the DOM? -->
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Welcome to this example.</p>
</body>
</html>
With the tag removed, the document actually turns into the same as this:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<!-- where is this comment in the DOM? -->
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Welcome to this example.</p>
</body>
</html>
This is why the tag can only be removed if it is not followed by a comment: removing the tag
when there is a comment there changes the documents resulting parse tree. Of course, if the
position of the comment does not matter, then the tag can be omitted, as if the comment had
been moved to before the start tag in the first place.
An <html> elements end tag may be omitted if the <html> element is not immediately followed by
a comment.
A <head> elements start tag may be omitted if the element is empty, or if the first thing inside the
<head> element is an element.
A <head> elements end tag may be omitted if the <head> element is not immediately followed by a
space character or a comment.
A <body> elements start tag may be omitted if the element is empty, or if the first thing inside the
<body> element is not a space character or a comment, except if the first thing inside the <body> el-
ement is a <meta>, <link>, <script>, <style>, or <template> element.
A <body> elements end tag may be omitted if the <body> element is not immediately followed by a
comment.
EXAMPLE 661
Note that in the example above, the <head> element start and end tags, and the <body> element
start tag, cant be omitted, because they are surrounded by white space:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Welcome to this example.</p>
</body>
</html>
(The <body> and <html> element end tags could be omitted without trouble; any spaces after
those get parsed into the <body> element anyway.)
Usually, however, white space isnt an issue. If we first remove the white space we dont care
about:
<!DOCTYPE HTML><html><head><title>Hello</title></head><body><p>Welcome to
this example.</p></body></html>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<title>Hello</title>
<p>Welcome to this example.</p>
This would be equivalent to this document, with the omitted tags shown in their parser-implied
positions; the only white space text node that results from this is the newline at the end of the
<head> element:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html><head><title>Hello</title>
</head><body><p>Welcome to this example.</p></body></html>
An <li> elements end tag may be omitted if the <li> element is immediately followed by another
<li> element or if there is no more content in the parent element.
A <dt> elements end tag may be omitted if the <dt> element is immediately followed by another
<dt> element or a <dd> element.
A <dd> elements end tag may be omitted if the <dd> element is immediately followed by another
<dd> element or a <dt> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
A <p> elements end tag may be omitted if the <p> element is immediately followed by an
<address>, <article>, <aside>, <blockquote>, <details>, <div>, <dl>, <fieldset>, <figcaption>,
<figure>, <footer>, <form>, <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>, <header>, <hr>, <main>, <menu>,
<nav>, <ol>, <p>, <pre>, <section>, <table>,or <ul> element, or if there is no more content in the
parent element and the parent element is an HTML element that is not an <a>, <audio>, <del>,
<ins>, <map>, <noscript>, or <video> element, or an autonomous custom element.
EXAMPLE 662
We can thus simplify the earlier example further:
An <rt> elements end tag may be omitted if the <rt> element is immediately followed by an <rt>
or <rp> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
An <rp> elements end tag may be omitted if the <rp> element is immediately followed by an <rt>
or <rp> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
An <optgroup> elements end tag may be omitted if the <optgroup> element is immediately fol-
lowed by another <optgroup> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
An <option> elements end tag may be omitted if the <option> element is immediately followed by
another <option> element, or if it is immediately followed by an <optgroup> element, or if there is
no more content in the parent element.
A <menuitem> elements end tag may be omitted if the <menuitem> element is immediately followed
by a <menuitem>, <hr>, or <menu> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
A <colgroup> elements start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the <colgroup> element is
a <col> element, and if the element is not immediately preceded by another <colgroup> element
whose end tag has been omitted. (It cant be omitted if the element is empty.)
A <colgroup> elements end tag may be omitted if the <colgroup> element is not immediately fol-
lowed by a space character or a comment.
A <caption> elements end tag may be omitted if the <caption> element is not immediately fol-
lowed by a space character or a comment.
A <thead> elements end tag may be omitted if the <thead> element is immediately followed by a
<tbody> or <tfoot> element.
A <tbody> elements start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the <tbody> element is a <tr>
element, and if the element is not immediately preceded by a <tbody>, <thead>, or <tfoot> element
whose end tag has been omitted. (It cant be omitted if the element is empty.)
A <tbody> elements end tag may be omitted if the <tbody> element is immediately followed by a
<tbody> or <tfoot> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
A <tfoot> elements end tag may be omitted if there is no more content in the parent element.
A <tr> elements end tag may be omitted if the <tr> element is immediately followed by another
<tr> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
A <td> elements end tag may be omitted if the <td> element is immediately followed by a <td> or
<th> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
A <th> elements end tag may be omitted if the <th> element is immediately followed by a <td> or
<th> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.
EXAMPLE 663
The ability to omit all these table-related tags makes table markup much terser.
<table>
<caption>37547 TEE Electric Powered Rail Car Train Functions
(Abbreviated)</caption>
<colgroup><col><col><col></colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Function</th>
<th>Control Unit</th>
<th>Central Station</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Headlights</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Interior Lights</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Electric locomotive operating sounds</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Engineers cab lighting</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Station Announcements - Swiss</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
The exact same table, modulo some white space differences, could be marked up as follows:
<table>
<caption>37547 TEE Electric Powered Rail Car Train Functions
(Abbreviated)
<colgroup><col><col><col>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Function
<th>Control Unit
<th>Central Station
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Headlights
<td>
<td>
<tr>
<td>Interior Lights
<td>
<td>
<tr>
<td>Electric locomotive operating sounds
<td>
<td>
<tr>
<td>Engineers cab lighting
<td>
<td>
<tr>
<td>Station Announcements - Swiss
<td>
<td>
</table>
Since the cells take up much less room this way, this can be made even terser by having each
row on one line:
<table>
<caption>37547 TEE Electric Powered Rail Car Train Functions
(Abbreviated)
<colgroup><col><col><col>
<thead>
<tr> <th>Function <th>Control Unit
<th>Central Station
<tbody>
<tr> <td>Headlights <td>
<td>
<tr> <td>Interior Lights <td>
<td>
<tr> <td>Electric locomotive operating sounds <td>
<td>
<tr> <td>Engineers cab lighting <td> <td>
<tr> <td>Station Announcements - Swiss <td> <td>
</table>
The only differences between these tables, at the DOM level, is with the precise position of the
(in any case semantically-neutral) white space.
EXAMPLE 664
Returning to the earlier example with all the white space removed and then all the optional tags
removed:
If the <body> element in this example had to have a class attribute and the <html> element had
to have a lang attribute, the markup would have to become:
NOTE:
This section assumes that the document is conforming, in particular, that there are no content
model violations. Omitting tags in the fashion described in this section in a document that does
not conform to the content models described in this specification is likely to result in unex-
pected DOM differences (this is, in part, what the content models are designed to avoid).
For historical reasons, certain elements have extra restrictions beyond even the restrictions given
by their content model.
A <table> element must not contain <tr> elements, even though these elements are technically al-
lowed inside <table> elements according to the content models described in this specification. (If a
<tr> element is put inside a <table> in the markup, it will in fact imply a <tbody> start tag before
it.)
A single newline may be placed immediately after the start tag of <pre> and <textarea> elements.
This does not affect the processing of the element. The otherwise optional newline must be in-
cluded if the elements contents themselves start with a newline (because otherwise the leading
newline in the contents would be treated like the optional newline, and ignored).
EXAMPLE 665
The following two <pre> blocks are equivalent:
<pre>Hello</pre>
<pre>
Hello</pre>
8.1.2.6. Restrictions on the contents of raw text and escapable raw text elements
The text in raw text and escapable raw text elements must not contain any occurrences of the
string "</" (U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN, U+002F SOLIDUS) followed by characters that case-i-
nsensitively match the tag name of the element followed by one of U+0009 CHARACTER TAB-
ULATION (tab), U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), U+000D CARRIAGE
RETURN (CR), U+0020 SPACE, U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>), or U+002F SOLIDUS
(/).
8.1.3. Text
Text is allowed inside elements, attribute values, and comments. Extra constraints are placed on
what is and what is not allowed in text based on where the text is to be put, as described in the
other sections.
8.1.3.1. Newlines
Newlines in HTML may be represented either as U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) charac-
ters, U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters, or pairs of U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR),
U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters in that order.
Where character references are allowed, a character reference of a U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
character (but not a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character) also represents a newline.
In certain cases described in other sections, text may be mixed with character references. These
can be used to escape characters that couldnt otherwise legally be included in text.
Character references must start with a U+0026 AMPERSAND character (&). Following this, there
are three possible kinds of character references:
The numeric character reference forms described above are allowed to reference any Unicode code
point other than U+0000, U+000D, permanently undefined Unicode characters (noncharacters),
surrogates (U+D800U+DFFF), and control characters other than space characters.
2. Optionally, text, with the additional restriction that the text must not contain the string "]]>".
EXAMPLE 666
CDATA sections can only be used in foreign content (MathML or SVG). In this example, a
CDATA section is used to escape the contents of a MathML <ms> element:
<p>You can add a string to a number, but this stringifies the number:</p>
<math>
<ms><![CDATA[x<y]]></ms>
<mo>+</mo>
<mn>3</mn>
<mo>=</mo>
<ms><![CDATA[x<y3]]></ms>
</math>
8.1.6. Comments
2. Optionally, text, with the additional restriction that the text must not start with the string ">",
nor start with the string "->", nor contain the strings "<!--", "-->", or "--!>", nor end with
the string "<!-".
NOTE:
The text is allowed to end with the string "<!", as in <!--My favorite operators are >
and <!-->.
This section only applies to user agents, data mining tools, and conformance checkers.
NOTE:
The rules for parsing XML documents into DOM trees are covered by the next section, entitled
"9 The XML syntax".
User agents must use the parsing rules described in this section to generate the DOM trees from
text/html resources. Together, these rules define what is referred to as the HTML parser.
NOTE:
While the HTML syntax described in this specification bears a close resemblance to SGML
and XML, it is a separate language with its own parsing rules.
Some earlier versions of HTML (in particular from HTML 2.0 to HTML 4.01) were based on
SGML and used SGML parsing rules. However, few (if any) web browsers ever implemented
true SGML parsing for HTML documents; the only user agents to strictly handle HTML as an
SGML application have historically been validators. The resulting confusion with validators
claiming documents to have one representation while widely deployed Web browsers interop-
erably implemented a different representation has wasted decades of productivity. This ver-
sion of HTML thus returns to a non-SGML basis.
Authors interested in using SGML tools in their authoring pipeline are encouraged to use XML
tools and the XML serialization of HTML.
This specification defines the parsing rules for HTML documents, whether they are syntactically
correct or not. Certain points in the parsing algorithm are said to be parse errors. The error han-
dling for parse errors is well-defined (thats the processing rules described throughout this specifi-
cation), but user agents, while parsing an HTML document, may abort the parser at the first parse
error that they encounter for which they do not wish to apply the rules described in this specifica-
tion.
Conformance checkers must report at least one parse error condition to the user if one or more
parse error conditions exist in the document and must not report parse error conditions if none ex-
ist in the document. Conformance checkers may report more than one parse error condition if more
than one parse error condition exists in the document.
NOTE:
Parse errors are only errors with the syntax of HTML. In addition to checking for parse errors,
conformance checkers will also verify that the document obeys all the other conformance re-
quirements described in this specification.
For the purposes of conformance checkers, if a resource is determined to be in the HTML syntax,
then it is an HTML document.
NOTE:
As stated in the terminology section, references to element types that do not explicitly specify
a namespace always refer to elements in the HTML namespace. For example, if the spec talks
about "a <menuitem> element", then that is an element with the local name menuitem, the
namespace "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml", and the interface HTMLMenuItemElement.
Where possible, references to such elements are hyperlinked to their definition.
The input to the HTML parsing process consists of a stream of Unicode code points, which is
passed through a tokenization stage followed by a tree construction stage. The output is a
Document object.
NOTE:
Implementations that do not support scripting do not have to actually create a DOM
Document object, but the DOM tree in such cases is still used as the model for the rest of the
specification.
In the common case, the data handled by the tokenization stage comes from the network, but it can
also come from script running in the user agent, e.g., using the document.write() API.
There is only one set of states for the tokenizer stage and the tree construction stage, but the tree
construction stage is reentrant, meaning that while the tree construction stage is handling one to-
ken, the tokenizer might be resumed, causing further tokens to be emitted and processed before the
first tokens processing is complete.
EXAMPLE 667
In the following example, the tree construction stage will be called upon to handle a "p" start
tag token while handling the "script" end tag token:
...
<script>
document.write('<p>');
</script>
...
To handle these cases, parsers have a script nesting level, which must be initially set to zero, and a
parser pause flag, which must be initially set to false.
The stream of Unicode code points that comprises the input to the tokenization stage will be
initially seen by the user agent as a stream of bytes (typically coming over the network or from the
local file system). The bytes encode the actual characters according to a particular character en-
coding, which the user agent uses to decode the bytes into characters.
NOTE:
For XML documents, the algorithm user agents are required to use to determine the character
encoding is given by the XML specification. This section does not apply to XML documents.
[XML]
Usually, the encoding sniffing algorithm defined below is used to determine the character encod-
ing.
Given a character encoding, the bytes in the input byte stream must be converted to characters for
the tokenizers input stream, by passing the input byte stream and character encoding to decode.
NOTE:
A leading Byte Order Mark (BOM) causes the character encoding argument to be ignored and
will itself be skipped.
NOTE:
Bytes or sequences of bytes in the original byte stream that did not conform to the Encoding
specification (e.g., invalid UTF-8 byte sequences in a UTF-8 input byte stream) are errors that
conformance checkers are expected to report. [ENCODING]
Warning! The decoder algorithms describe how to handle invalid input; for security
reasons, it is imperative that those rules be followed precisely. Differences in how in-
valid byte sequences are handled can result in, amongst other problems, script injection
vulnerabilities ("XSS").
When the HTML parser is decoding an input byte stream, it uses a character encoding and a confi-
dence. The confidence is either tentative, certain, or irrelevant. The encoding used, and whether
the confidence in that encoding is tentative or certain, is used during the parsing to determine
whether to change the encoding. If no encoding is necessary, e.g., because the parser is operating
on a Unicode stream and doesnt have to use a character encoding at all, then the confidence is ir-
relevant.
NOTE:
Some algorithms feed the parser by directly adding characters to the input stream rather than
adding bytes to the input byte stream.
When the HTML parser is to operate on an input byte stream that has a known definite encoding,
then the character encoding is that encoding and the confidence is certain.
In some cases, it might be impractical to unambiguously determine the encoding before parsing
the document. Because of this, this specification provides for a two-pass mechanism with an op-
tional pre-scan. Implementations are allowed, as described below, to apply a simplified parsing al-
gorithm to whatever bytes they have available before beginning to parse the document. Then, the
real parser is started, using a tentative encoding derived from this pre-parse and other out-of-band
metadata. If, while the document is being loaded, the user agent discovers a character encoding
declaration that conflicts with this information, then the parser can get reinvoked to perform a
parse of the document with the real encoding.
User agents must use the following algorithm, called the encoding sniffing algorithm, to deter-
mine the character encoding to use when decoding a document in the first pass. This algorithm
takes as input any out-of-band metadata available to the user agent (e.g., the Content-Type meta-
data of the document) and all the bytes available so far, and returns a character encoding and a
confidence that is either tentative or certain.
1. If the user has explicitly instructed the user agent to override the documents character encod-
ing with a specific encoding, optionally return that encoding with the confidence certain and
abort these steps.
NOTE:
Typically, user agents remember such user requests across sessions, and in some cases ap-
ply them to documents in <iframe>s as well.
2. The user agent may wait for more bytes of the resource to be available, either in this step or at
any later step in this algorithm. For instance, a user agent might wait 500ms or 1024 bytes,
whichever came first. In general preparsing the source to find the encoding improves perfor-
mance, as it reduces the need to throw away the data structures used when parsing upon find-
ing the encoding information. However, if the user agent delays too long to obtain data to de-
termine the encoding, then the cost of the delay could outweigh any performance improve-
ments from the preparse.
NOTE:
The authoring conformance requirements for character encoding declarations limit them
to only appearing in the first 1024 bytes. User agents are therefore encouraged to use the
prescan algorithm below (as invoked by these steps) on the first 1024 bytes, but not to
stall beyond that.
3. If the transport layer specifies a character encoding, and it is supported, return that encoding
with the confidence certain, and abort these steps.
4. Optionally prescan the byte stream to determine its encoding. The end condition is that the
user agent decides that scanning further bytes would not be efficient. User agents are encour-
aged to only prescan the first 1024 bytes. User agents may decide that scanning any bytes is
not efficient, in which case these substeps are entirely skipped.
5. If the HTML parser for which this algorithm is being run is associated with a Document that
is itself in a nested browsing context, run these substeps:
1. Let new document be the Document with which the HTML parser is associated.
2. Let parent document be the Document through which new document is nested (the ac-
tive document of the parent browsing context of new document ).
3. If parent document s origin is not the same origin as new document s origin, then abort
these substeps.
5. Return parent document s character encoding, with the confidence tentative, and abort
the encoding sniffing algorithm's steps.
6. Otherwise, if the user agent has information on the likely encoding for this page, e.g., based
on the encoding of the page when it was last visited, then return that encoding, with the confi-
dence tentative, and abort these steps.
7. The user agent may attempt to autodetect the character encoding from applying frequency
analysis or other algorithms to the data stream. Such algorithms may use information about
the resource other than the resources contents, including the address of the resource. If au-
todetection succeeds in determining a character encoding, and that encoding is a supported
encoding, then return that encoding, with the confidence tentative, and abort these steps.
[UNIVCHARDET]
NOTE:
User agents are generally discouraged from attempting to autodetect encodings for re-
sources obtained over the network, since doing so involves inherently non-interoperable
heuristics. Attempting to detect encodings based on an HTML documents preamble is es-
pecially tricky since HTML markup typically uses only ASCII characters, and HTML
documents tend to begin with a lot of markup rather than with text content.
NOTE:
The UTF-8 encoding has a highly detectable bit pattern. Files from the local file system
that contain bytes with values greater than 0x7F which match the UTF-8 pattern are very
likely to be UTF-8, while documents with byte sequences that do not match it are very
likely not. When a user agent can examine the whole file, rather than just the preamble,
detecting for UTF-8 specifically can be especially effective. [PPUTF8] [UTF8DET]
In other environments, the default encoding is typically dependent on the users locale (an ap-
proximation of the languages, and thus often encodings, of the pages that the user is likely to
frequent). The following table gives suggested defaults based on the users locale, for com-
patibility with legacy content. Locales are identified by BCP 47 language tags. [BCP47]
[ENCODING]
ar Arabic windows-1256
ba Bashkir windows-1251
be Belarusian windows-1251
bg Bulgarian windows-1251
cs Czech windows-1250
el Greek ISO-8859-7
et Estonian windows-1257
fa Persian windows-1256
he Hebrew windows-1255
hr Croatian windows-1250
hu Hungarian ISO-8859-2
ja Japanese Shift_JIS
kk Kazakh windows-1251
ko Korean EUC-KR
ku Kurdish windows-1254
ky Kyrgyz windows-1251
lt Lithuanian windows-1257
lv Latvian windows-1257
mk Macedonian windows-1251
pl Polish ISO-8859-2
ru Russian windows-1251
sah Yakut windows-1251
sk Slovak windows-1250
sl Slovenian ISO-8859-2
sr Serbian windows-1251
tg Tajik windows-1251
The contents of this table are derived from the intersection of Windows, Chrome, and Firefox defaults.
The documents character encoding must immediately be set to the value returned from this algo-
rithm, at the same time as the user agent uses the returned value to select the decoder to use for the
input byte stream.
When an algorithm requires a user agent to prescan a byte stream to determine its encoding,
given some defined end condition , then it must run the following steps. These steps either abort
unsuccessfully or return a character encoding. If at any point during these steps (including during
instances of the get an attribute algorithm invoked by this one) the user agent either runs out of
bytes (meaning the position pointer created in the first step below goes beyond the end of the byte
stream obtained so far) or reaches its end condition , then abort the prescan a byte stream to deter-
mine its encoding algorithm unsuccessfully.
1. Let position be a pointer to a byte in the input byte stream, initially pointing at the first byte.
A sequence of bytes starting with: 0x3C 0x21 0x2D 0x2D (ASCII '<!--')
Advance the position pointer so that it points at the first 0x3E byte which is pre-
ceded by two 0x2D bytes (i.e., at the end of an ASCII '-->' sequence) and comes af-
ter the 0x3C byte that was found. (The two 0x2D bytes can be the same as those in
the '<!--' sequence.)
A sequence of bytes starting with: 0x3C, 0x4D or 0x6D, 0x45 or 0x65, 0x54 or 0x74,
0x41 or 0x61, and one of 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0C, 0x0D, 0x20, 0x2F (case-insensitive
ASCII '<meta' followed by a space or slash)
1. Advance the position pointer so that it points at the next 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0C,
0x0D, 0x20, or 0x2F byte (the one in sequence of characters matched above).
5. Let charset be the null value (which, for the purposes of this algorithm, is dis-
tinct from an unrecognized encoding or the empty string).
6. Attributes : Get an attribute and its value. If no attribute was sniffed, then jump
to the Processing step below.
7. If the attributes name is already in attribute list , then return to the step la-
beled Attributes .
9. Run the appropriate step from the following list, if one applies:
11. Processing : If need pragma is null, then jump to the step below labeled Next
byte .
12. If need pragma is true but got pragma is false, then jump to the step below
labeled Next byte .
13. If charset is failure, then jump to the step below labeled Next byte .
16. Abort the prescan a byte stream to determine its encoding algorithm, returning
the encoding given by charset .
A sequence of bytes starting with a 0x3C byte (ASCII <), optionally a 0x2F byte
(ASCII /), and finally a byte in the range 0x41-0x5A or 0x61-0x7A (an ASCII letter)
1. Advance the position pointer so that it points at the next 0x09 (ASCII TAB),
0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), 0x20 (ASCII space),
or 0x3E (ASCII >) byte.
2. Repeatedly get an attribute until no further attributes can be found, then jump
to the step below labeled Next byte .
3. Next byte : Move position so it points at the next byte in the input byte stream, and return to
the step above labeled Loop .
When the prescan a byte stream to determine its encoding algorithm says to get an attribute, it
means doing this:
1. If the byte at position is one of 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF),
0x0D (ASCII CR), 0x20 (ASCII space), or 0x2F (ASCII /) then advance position to the next
byte and redo this step.
2. If the byte at position is 0x3E (ASCII >), then abort the get an attribute algorithm. There
isnt one.
3. Otherwise, the byte at position is the start of the attribute name. Let attribute name and at-
tribute value be the empty string.
If it is 0x3D (ASCII =), and the attribute name is longer than the empty string
Advance position to the next byte and jump to the step below labeled Value .
If it is 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR),
or 0x20 (ASCII space)
Jump to the step below labeled Spaces .
Anything else
Append the Unicode character with the same code point as the value of the byte at
position to attribute name . (It doesnt actually matter how bytes outside the ASCII
range are handled here, since only ASCII characters can contribute to the detection
of a character encoding.)
5. Advance position to the next byte and return to the previous step.
6. Spaces : If the byte at position is one of 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C
(ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), or 0x20 (ASCII space) then advance position to the next
byte, then, repeat this step.
7. If the byte at position is not 0x3D (ASCII =), abort the get an attribute algorithm. The at-
tributes name is the value of attribute name , its value is the empty string.
9. Value : If the byte at position is one of 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII
FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), or 0x20 (ASCII space) then advance position to the next byte, then,
repeat this step.
3. If the value of the byte at position is the value of b , then advance position to
the next byte and abort the get an attribute algorithm. The attributes name is
the value of attribute name , and its value is the value of attribute value .
4. Otherwise, if the value of the byte at position is in the range 0x41 (ASCII A)
to 0x5A (ASCII Z), then append a Unicode character to attribute value whose
code point is 0x20 more than the value of the byte at position .
Anything else
Append the Unicode character with the same code point as the value of the byte at
position to attribute value . Advance position to the next byte.
If it is 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR),
0x20 (ASCII space), or 0x3E (ASCII >)
Abort the get an attribute algorithm. The attributes name is the value of attribute
name and its value is the value of attribute value .
Anything else
Append the Unicode character with the same code point as the value of the byte at
position to attribute value .
12. Advance position to the next byte and return to the previous step.
For the sake of interoperability, user agents should not use a pre-scan algorithm that returns differ-
ent results than the one described above. (But, if you do, please at least let us know, so that we can
improve this algorithm and benefit everyone...)
User agents must support the encodings defined in the WHATWG Encoding specification, includ-
ing, but not limited to, UTF-8, ISO-8859-2, ISO-8859-8, windows-1250, windows-1251,
windows-1252, windows-1254, windows-1256, windows-1257, gb18030, Big5, ISO-2022-JP,
Shift_JIS, EUC-KR, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, and x-user-defined. User agents must not support
other encodings.
NOTE:
The above prohibits supporting, for example, CESU-8, UTF-7, BOCU-1, SCSU, EBCDIC, and
UTF-32. This specification does not make any attempt to support prohibited encodings in its
algorithms; support and use of prohibited encodings would thus lead to unexpected behavior.
[CESU8] [RFC2152] [BOCU1] [SCSU]
When the parser requires the user agent to change the encoding, it must run the following steps.
This might happen if the encoding sniffing algorithm described above failed to find a character en-
coding, or if it found a character encoding that was not the actual encoding of the file.
1. If the encoding that is already being used to interpret the input stream is a UTF-16 encoding,
then set the confidence to certain and abort these steps. The new encoding is ignored; if it
was anything but the same encoding, then it would be clearly incorrect.
4. If the new encoding is identical or equivalent to the encoding that is already being used to in-
terpret the input stream, then set the confidence to certain and abort these steps. This happens
when the encoding information found in the file matches what the encoding sniffing algo-
rithm determined to be the encoding, and in the second pass through the parser if the first pass
found that the encoding sniffing algorithm described in the earlier section failed to find the
right encoding.
5. If all the bytes up to the last byte converted by the current decoder have the same Unicode in-
terpretations in both the current encoding and the new encoding, and if the user agent sup-
ports changing the converter on the fly, then the user agent may change to the new converter
for the encoding on the fly. Set the documents character encoding and the encoding used to
convert the input stream to the new encoding, set the confidence to certain, and abort these
steps.
6. Otherwise, navigate to the document again, with replacement enabled, and using the same
source browsing context, but this time skip the encoding sniffing algorithm and instead just
set the encoding to the new encoding and the confidence to certain. Whenever possible, this
should be done without actually contacting the network layer (the bytes should be re-parsed
from memory), even if, e.g., the document is marked as not being cacheable. If this is not
possible and contacting the network layer would involve repeating a request that uses a
method other than GET), then instead set the confidence to certain and ignore the new encod-
ing. The resource will be misinterpreted. User agents may notify the user of the situation, to
aid in application development.
NOTE:
This algorithm is only invoked when a new encoding is found declared on a <meta> element.
The input stream consists of the characters pushed into it as the input byte stream is decoded or
from the various APIs that directly manipulate the input stream.
Any occurrences of any characters in the ranges U+0001 to U+0008, U+000E to U+001F, U+007F
to U+009F, U+FDD0 to U+FDEF, and characters U+000B, U+FFFE, U+FFFF, U+1FFFE,
U+1FFFF, U+2FFFE, U+2FFFF, U+3FFFE, U+3FFFF, U+4FFFE, U+4FFFF, U+5FFFE,
U+5FFFF, U+6FFFE, U+6FFFF, U+7FFFE, U+7FFFF, U+8FFFE, U+8FFFF, U+9FFFE,
U+9FFFF, U+AFFFE, U+AFFFF, U+BFFFE, U+BFFFF, U+CFFFE, U+CFFFF, U+DFFFE,
U+DFFFF, U+EFFFE, U+EFFFF, U+FFFFE, U+FFFFF, U+10FFFE, and U+10FFFF are parse er-
rors. These are all control characters or permanently undefined Unicode characters (noncharac-
ters).
Any character that is a not a Unicode character, i.e., any isolated surrogate, is a parse error. (These
can only find their way into the input stream via script APIs such as document.write().)
U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters and U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters are
treated specially. Any LF character that immediately follows a CR character must be ignored, and
all CR characters must then be converted to LF characters. Thus, newlines in HTML DOMs are
represented by LF characters, and there are never any CR characters in the input to the tokeniza-
tion stage.
The next input character is the first character in the input stream that has not yet been consumed
or explicitly ignored by the requirements in this section. Initially, the next input character is the
first character in the input. The current input character is the last character to have been con-
sumed.
The insertion point is the position (just before a character or just before the end of the input
stream) where content inserted using document.write() is actually inserted. The insertion point
is relative to the position of the character immediately after it, it is not an absolute offset into the
input stream. Initially, the insertion point is undefined.
The "EOF" character in the tables below is a conceptual character representing the end of the input
stream. If the parser is a script-created parser, then the end of the input stream is reached when an
explicit "EOF" character (inserted by the document.close() method) is consumed. Other-
wise, the "EOF" character is not a real character in the stream, but rather the lack of any further
characters.
NOTE:
The handling of U+0000 NULL characters varies based on where the characters are found. In
general, they are ignored except where doing so could plausibly introduce an attack vector.
This handling is, by necessity, spread across both the tokenization stage and the tree construc-
tion stage.
The insertion mode is a state variable that controls the primary operation of the tree construction
stage.
Initially, the insertion mode is "initial". It can change to "before html", "before head", "in head",
"in head noscript", "after head", "in body", "text", "in table", "in table text", "in caption", "in col-
umn group", "in table body", "in row", "in cell", "in select", "in select in table", "in template", "af-
ter body", "in frameset", "after frameset", "after after body", and "after after frameset" during the
course of the parsing, as described in the tree construction stage. The insertion mode affects how
tokens are processed and whether CDATA sections are supported.
Several of these modes, namely "in head", "in body", "in table", and "in select", are special, in that
the other modes defer to them at various times. When the algorithm below says that the user agent
is to do something "using the rules for the m insertion mode", where m is one of these modes,
the user agent must use the rules described under the m insertion mode's section, but must leave
the insertion mode unchanged unless the rules in m themselves switch the insertion mode to a new
value.
When the insertion mode is switched to "text" or "in table text", the original insertion mode is
also set. This is the insertion mode to which the tree construction stage will return.
Similarly, to parse nested <template> elements, a stack of template insertion modes is used. It is
initially empty. The current template insertion mode is the insertion mode that was most re-
cently added to the stack of template insertion modes. The algorithms in the sections below will
push insertion modes onto this stack, meaning that the specified insertion mode is to be added to
the stack, and pop insertion modes from the stack, which means that the most recently added inser-
tion mode must be removed from the stack.
When the steps below require the UA to reset the insertion mode appropriately, it means the
3. Loop : If node is the first node in the stack of open elements, then set last to true, and, if the
parser was originally created as part of the HTML fragment parsing algorithm (fragment
case), set node to the context element passed to that algorithm.
3. Loop : If ancestor is the first node in the stack of open elements, jump to the step below
labeled Done .
4. Let ancestor be the node before ancestor in the stack of open elements.
6. If ancestor is a <table> node, switch the insertion mode to "in select in table" and abort
these steps.
8. Done : Switch the insertion mode to "in select" and abort these steps.
5. If node is a <td> or <th> element and last is false, then switch the insertion mode to "in cell"
and abort these steps.
6. If node is a <tr> element, then switch the insertion mode to "in row" and abort these steps.
7. If node is a <tbody>, <thead>, or <tfoot> element, then switch the insertion mode to "in table
body" and abort these steps.
8. If node is a <caption> element, then switch the insertion mode to "in caption" and abort these
steps.
9. If node is a <colgroup> element, then switch the insertion mode to "in column group" and
abort these steps.
10. If node is a <table> element, then switch the insertion mode to "in table" and abort these
steps.
11. If node is a <template> element, then switch the insertion mode to the current template inser-
12. If node is a <head> element and last is false, then switch the insertion mode to "in head" and
abort these steps.
13. If node is a <body> element, then switch the insertion mode to "in body" and abort these
steps.
14. If node is a <frameset> element, then switch the insertion mode to "in frameset" and abort
these steps. (fragment case)
1. If the head element pointer is null, switch the insertion mode to "before head" and abort
these steps. (fragment case)
2. Otherwise, the head element pointer is not null, switch the insertion mode to "after
head" and abort these steps.
16. If last is true, then switch the insertion mode to "in body" and abort these steps. (fragment
case)
17. Let node now be the node before node in the stack of open elements.
Initially, the stack of open elements is empty. The stack grows downwards; the topmost node on
the stack is the first one added to the stack, and the bottommost node of the stack is the most re-
cently added node in the stack (notwithstanding when the stack is manipulated in a random access
fashion as part of the handling for misnested tags).
NOTE:
The "before html" insertion mode creates the <html> document element, which is then added to
the stack.
NOTE:
In the fragment case, the stack of open elements is initialized to contain an <html> element that
is created as part of that algorithm. (The fragment case skips the "before html" insertion mode.)
The <html> node, however it is created, is the topmost node of the stack. It only gets popped off
the stack when the parser finishes.
The current node is the bottommost node in this stack of open elements.
The adjusted current node is the context element if the parser was created by the HTML frag-
ment parsing algorithm and the stack of open elements has only one element in it (fragment case);
otherwise, the adjusted current node is the current node.
Elements in the stack of open elements fall into the following categories:
Special
The following elements have varying levels of special parsing rules: HTMLs <address>,
<applet>, <area>, <article>, <aside>, <base>, <basefont>, <bgsound>, <blockquote>, <body>,
<br>, <button>, <caption>, <center>, <col>, <colgroup>, <dd>, <details>, <dir>, <div>, <dl>,
<dt>, <embed>, <fieldset>, <figcaption>, <figure>, <footer>, <form>, <frame>, <frameset>,
<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>, <head>, <header>, <hr>, <html>, <iframe>, <img>, <input>,
<li>, <link>, <listing>, <main>, <marquee>, <menu>, <meta>, <nav>, <noembed>, <noframes>,
<noscript>, <object>, <ol>, <p>, <param>, <plaintext>, <pre>, <script>, <section>, <select>,
<source>, <style>, <summary>, <table>, <tbody>, <td>, <template>, <textarea>, <tfoot>, <th>,
<thead>, <title>, <tr>, <track>, <ul>, <wbr>, <xmp>; MathML <mi>, MathML <mo>, MathML
<mn>,MathML <ms>, MathML <mtext>, and MathML <annotation-xml>; and SVG
<foreignObject>, SVG <desc>, and SVG <title>.
NOTE:
An image start tag token is handled by the tree builder, but it is not in this list because it is
not an element; it gets turned into an <img> element.
Formatting
The following HTML elements are those that end up in the list of active formatting elements:
<a>, <b>, <big>, <code>, <em>, <font>, <i>, <nobr>, <s>, <small>, <strike>, <strong>, <tt>, and
<u>.
Ordinary
All other elements found while parsing an HTML document.
NOTE:
Typically, the special elements have the start and end tag tokens handled specifically, while or-
dinary elements' tokens fall into "any other start tag" and "any other end tag" clauses, and some
parts of the tree builder check if a particular element in the stack of open elements is in the
special category. However, some elements (e.g., the <option> element) have their start or end
tag tokens handled specifically, but are still not in the special category, so that they get the or-
dinary handling elsewhere.
The stack of open elements is said to have an element target node in a specific scope consisting
of a list of element types list when the following algorithm terminates in a match state:
1. Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
3. Otherwise, if node is one of the element types in list , terminate in a failure state.
4. Otherwise, set node to the previous entry in the stack of open elements and return to step 2.
(This will never fail, since the loop will always terminate in the previous step if the top of the
stack an <html> element is reached.)
The stack of open elements is said to have a particular element in scope when it has that element
in the specific scope consisting of the following element types:
<applet>
<caption>
<html>
<table>
<td>
<th>
<marquee>
<object>
<template>
MathML <mi>
MathML <mo>
MathML <mn>
MathML <ms>
MathML <mtext>
MathML <annotation-xml>
SVG <foreignObject>
SVG <desc>
SVG <title>
The stack of open elements is said to have a particular element in list item scope when it has
that element in the specific scope consisting of the following element types:
All the element types listed above for the has an element in scope algorithm.
<ol> in the HTML namespace
<ul> in the HTML namespace
The stack of open elements is said to have a particular element in button scope when it has that
element in the specific scope consisting of the following element types:
All the element types listed above for the has an element in scope algorithm.
<button> in the HTML namespace
The stack of open elements is said to have a particular element in table scope when it has that
element in the specific scope consisting of the following element types:
The stack of open elements is said to have a particular element in select scope when it has that
element in the specific scope consisting of all element types except the following:
Nothing happens if at any time any of the elements in the stack of open elements are moved to a
new location in, or removed from, the Document tree. In particular, the stack is not changed in
this situation. This can cause, amongst other strange effects, content to be appended to nodes that
are no longer in the DOM.
NOTE:
In some cases (namely, when closing misnested formatting elements), the stack is manipulated
in a random-access fashion.
Initially, the list of active formatting elements is empty. It is used to handle mis-nested format-
ting element tags.
The list contains elements in the formatting category, and markers. The markers are inserted when
entering <applet>, <object>, <marquee>, <template>, <td>, <th>, and <caption> elements, and are
used to prevent formatting from "leaking" into <applet>, <object>, <marquee>, <template>, <td>,
<th>, and <caption> elements.
In addition, each element in the list of active formatting elements is associated with the token for
which it was created, so that further elements can be created for that token if necessary.
When the steps below require the UA to push onto the list of active formatting elements an ele-
ment element , the UA must perform the following steps:
1. If there are already three elements in the list of active formatting elements after the last
marker, if any, or anywhere in the list if there are no markers, that have the same tag name,
namespace, and attributes as element , then remove the earliest such element from the list of
active formatting elements. For these purposes, the attributes must be compared as they were
when the elements were created by the parser; two elements have the same attributes if all
their parsed attributes can be paired such that the two attributes in each pair have identical
names, namespaces, and values (the order of the attributes does not matter).
NOTE:
This is the Noahs Ark clause. But with three per family instead of two.
When the steps below require the UA to reconstruct the active formatting elements, the UA
must perform the following steps:
1. If there are no entries in the list of active formatting elements, then there is nothing to recon-
struct; stop this algorithm.
2. If the last (most recently added) entry in the list of active formatting elements is a marker, or
if it is an element that is in the stack of open elements, then there is nothing to reconstruct;
stop this algorithm.
3. Let entry be the last (most recently added) element in the list of active formatting elements.
4. Rewind : If there are no entries before entry in the list of active formatting elements, then
jump to the step labeled Create .
5. Let entry be the entry one earlier than entry in the list of active formatting elements.
6. If entry is neither a marker nor an element that is also in the stack of open elements, go to the
step labeled Rewind .
7. Advance : Let entry be the element one later than entry in the list of active formatting ele-
ments.
8. Create : Insert an HTML element for the token for which the element entry was created, to
obtain new element .
9. Replace the entry for entry in the list with an entry for new element .
10. If the entry for new element in the list of active formatting elements is not the last entry in
the list, return to the step labeled Advance .
This has the effect of reopening all the formatting elements that were opened in the current body,
cell, or caption (whichever is youngest) that havent been explicitly closed.
NOTE:
The way this specification is written, the list of active formatting elements always consists of
elements in chronological order with the least recently added element first and the most re-
cently added element last (except for while steps 7 to 10 of the above algorithm are being exe-
cuted, of course).
When the steps below require the UA to clear the list of active formatting elements up to the
last marker, the UA must perform the following steps:
1. Let entry be the last (most recently added) entry in the list of active formatting elements.
3. If entry was a marker, then stop the algorithm at this point. The list has been cleared up to
the last marker.
4. Go to step 1.
Initially, the <head> element pointer and the <form> element pointer are both null.
Once a <head> element has been parsed (whether implicitly or explicitly) the head element pointer
gets set to point to this node.
The form element pointer points to the last <form> element that was opened and whose end tag has
not yet been seen. It is used to make form controls associate with forms in the face of dramatically
bad markup, for historical reasons. It is ignored inside <template> elements.
The scripting flag is set to "enabled" if scripting was enabled for the Document with which the
parser is associated when the parser was created, and "disabled" otherwise.
NOTE:
The scripting flag can be enabled even when the parser was originally created for the HTML
fragment parsing algorithm, even though <script> elements dont execute in that case.
The frameset-ok flag is set to "ok" when the parser is created. It is set to "not ok" after certain to-
kens are seen.
8.2.4. Tokenization
Implementations must act as if they used the following state machine to tokenize HTML. The state
machine must start in the data state. Most states consume a single character, which may have vari-
ous side-effects, and either switches the state machine to a new state to reconsume the current in-
put character, or switches it to a new state to consume the next character, or stays in the same state
to consume the next character. Some states have more complicated behavior and can consume sev-
eral characters before switching to another state. In some cases, the tokenizer state is also changed
by the tree construction stage.
When a state says to reconsume a matched character in a specified state, that means to switch to
that state, but when it attempts to consume the next input character, provide it with the current in-
put character instead.
The exact behavior of certain states depends on the insertion mode and the stack of open elements.
Certain states also use a temporary buffer to track progress, and the character reference state
uses a return state to return to the state it was invoked from.
The output of the tokenization step is a series of zero or more of the following tokens: DOCTYPE,
start tag, end tag, comment, character, end-of-file. DOCTYPE tokens have a name, a public identi-
fier, a system identifier, and a force-quirks flag. When a DOCTYPE token is created, its name,
public identifier, and system identifier must be marked as missing (which is a distinct state from
the empty string), and the force-quirks flag must be set to off (its other state is on). Start and end
tag tokens have a tag name, a self-closing flag, and a list of attributes, each of which has a name
and a value. When a start or end tag token is created, its self-closing flag must be unset (its other
state is that it be set), and its attributes list must be empty. Comment and character tokens have
data.
When a token is emitted, it must immediately be handled by the tree construction stage. The tree
construction stage can affect the state of the tokenization stage, and can insert additional characters
into the stream. (For example, the <script> element can result in scripts executing and using the
dynamic markup insertion APIs to insert characters into the stream being tokenized.)
NOTE:
Creating a token and emitting it are distinct actions. It is possible for a token to be created but
implicitly abandoned (never emitted), e.g., if the file ends unexpectedly while processing the
characters that are being parsed into a start tag token.
When a start tag token is emitted with its self-closing flag set, if the flag is not acknowledged
when it is processed by the tree construction stage, that is a parse error.
When an end tag token is emitted with attributes, that is a parse error.
When an end tag token is emitted with its self-closing flag set, that is a parse error.
An appropriate end tag token is an end tag token whose tag name matches the tag name of the
last start tag to have been emitted from this tokenizer, if any. If no start tag has been emitted from
this tokenizer, then no end tag token is appropriate.
Before each step of the tokenizer, the user agent must first check the parser pause flag. If it is true,
then the tokenizer must abort the processing of any nested invocations of the tokenizer, yielding
control back to the caller.
The tokenizer state machine consists of the states defined in the following subsections.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Emit the current input character as a character token.
EOF
Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Emit the current input character as a character token.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Emit the current input character as a character token.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Emit the current input character as a character token.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Emit the current input character as a character token.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Emit the current input character as a character token.
ASCII letter
Create a new start tag token, set its tag name to the empty string. Reconsume in the tag
name state.
Anything else
Parse error. Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token. Reconsume in the data
state.
ASCII letter
Create a new end tag token, set its tag name to the empty string. Reconsume in the tag
name state.
EOF
Parse error. Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token, a U+002F SOLIDUS
character token and an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Create a comment token whose data is the empty string. Reconsume in the
bogus comment state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent tag tokens tag name.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current tag tokens tag name.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token. Reconsume in the RCDATA state.
ASCII letter
Create a new end tag token, set its tag name to the empty string. Reconsume in RC-
DATA end tag name state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token and a U+002F SOLIDUS character
token. Reconsume in the RCDATA state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token, a U+002F SOLIDUS character to-
ken, and a character token for each of the characters in the temporary buffer (in the or-
der they were added to the buffer). Reconsume in the RCDATA state.
Set the temporary buffer to the empty string. Switch to the RAWTEXT end tag open
state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token. Reconsume in the RAWTEXT
state.
ASCII letter
Create a new end tag token, set its tag name to the empty string. Reconsume in the
RAWTEXT end tag name state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token and a U+002F SOLIDUS character
token. Reconsume in the RAWTEXT state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token, a U+002F SOLIDUS character to-
ken, and a character token for each of the characters in the temporary buffer (in the or-
der they were added to the buffer). Reconsume in the RAWTEXT state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token. Reconsume in the script data state.
ASCII letter
Create a new end tag token, set its tag name to the empty string. Reconsume in the script
data end tag name state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token and a U+002F SOLIDUS character
token. Reconsume in the script data state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token, a U+002F SOLIDUS character to-
ken, and a character token for each of the characters in the temporary buffer (in the or-
der they were added to the buffer). Reconsume in the script data state.
Anything else
Reconsume in the script data state.
Anything else
Reconsume in the script data state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Emit the current input character as a character token.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Switch to the script data escaped state. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT
CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Anything else
Switch to the script data escaped state. Emit the current input character as a character to-
ken.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Switch to the script data escaped state. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT
CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Switch to the script data escaped state. Emit the current input character as a character to-
ken.
ASCII letter
Set the temporary buffer to the empty string. Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN char-
acter token. Reconsume in the script data double escape start state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token. Reconsume in the script data es-
caped state.
ASCII letter
Create a new end tag token. Reconsume in the script data escaped end tag name state.
(Dont emit the token yet; further details will be filled in before it is emitted.)
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token and a U+002F SOLIDUS character
token. Reconsume in the script data escaped state.
Anything else
Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token, a U+002F SOLIDUS character to-
ken, and a character token for each of the characters in the temporary buffer (in the or-
der they were added to the buffer). Reconsume in the script data escaped state.
Anything else
Reconsume in the script data escaped state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Emit the current input character as a character token.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Switch to the script data double escaped state. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACE-
MENT CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Switch to the script data double escaped state. Emit the current input character as a char-
acter token.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Switch to the script data double escaped state. Emit a U+FFFD REPLACE-
MENT CHARACTER character token.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Switch to the script data double escaped state. Emit the current input character as a char-
acter token.
Anything else
Reconsume in the script data double escaped state.
Append the lowercase version of the current input character (add 0x0020 to the charac-
ters code point) to the temporary buffer . Emit the current input character as a character
token.
Anything else
Reconsume in the script data double escaped state.
Anything else
Start a new attribute in the current tag token. Set that attributes name and value to the
empty string. Reconsume in the attribute name state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent attributes name.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current attributes name.
When the user agent leaves the attribute name state (and before emitting the tag token, if
appropriate), the complete attributes name must be compared to the other attributes on the same
token; if there is already an attribute on the token with the exact same name, then this is a parse er-
ror and the new attribute must be removed from the token.
NOTE:
If an attribute is so removed from a token, it, and the value that gets associated with it, if any,
are never subsequently used by the parser, and are therefore effectively discarded. Removing
the attribute in this way does not change its status as the "current attribute" for the purposes of
the tokenizer, however.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Start a new attribute in the current tag token. Set that attributes name and value to the
empty string. Reconsume in the attribute name state.
Anything else
Reconsume in the attribute value (unquoted) state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent attributes value.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current attributes value.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent attributes value.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current attributes value.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent attributes value.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current attributes value.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Reconsume in the before attribute name state.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Reconsume in the before attribute name state.
EOF
Emit the comment. Emit an end-of-file token.
U+0000 NULL
Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the comment tokens
data.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the comment tokens data.
If the next two characters are both U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS characters (-), consume those two
characters, create a comment token whose data is the empty string, and switch to the comment
start state.
Otherwise, if the next seven characters are an ASCII case-insensitive match for the word "DOC-
TYPE", then consume those characters and switch to the DOCTYPE state.
Otherwise, if there is an adjusted current node and it is not an element in the HTML namespace
and the next seven characters are a case-sensitive match for the string "[CDATA[" (the five upper-
case letters "CDATA" with a U+005B LEFT SQUARE BRACKET character before and after),
then consume those characters and switch to the CDATA section state.
Otherwise, this is a parse error. Create a comment token whose data is the empty string. Switch to
the bogus comment state (dont consume anything in the current state).
Anything else
Reconsume in the comment state.
EOF
Parse error. Emit the comment token. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-) to the comment tokens data. Recon-
sume in the comment state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the com-
ment tokens data.
EOF
Parse error. Emit the comment token. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the comment tokens data.
Anything else
Reconsume in the comment state.
Anything else
Reconsume in the comment state.
Anything else
Reconsume in the comment end dash state.
Anything else
Parse error. Reconsume in the comment end state.
EOF
Parse error. Emit the comment token. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-) to the comment tokens data. Recon-
sume in the comment state.
EOF
Parse error. Emit the comment token. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append two U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS characters (-) to the comment tokens data. Re-
consume in the comment state.
EOF
Parse error. Emit the comment token. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append two U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS characters (-) and a U+0021 EXCLAMATION
MARK character (!) to the comment tokens data. Reconsume in the comment state.
EOF
Parse error. Create a new DOCTYPE token. Set its force-quirks flag to on. Emit the to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Reconsume in the before DOCTYPE name state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Create a new DOCTYPE token. Set the tokens name to a U+FFFD RE-
PLACEMENT CHARACTER character. Switch to the DOCTYPE name state.
EOF
Parse error. Create a new DOCTYPE token. Set its force-quirks flag to on. Emit the to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Create a new DOCTYPE token. Set the tokens name to the current input character.
Switch to the DOCTYPE name state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent DOCTYPE tokens name.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE tokens name.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
Anything else
If the six characters starting from the current input character are an ASCII case-
insensitive match for the word "PUBLIC", then consume those characters and switch to
the after DOCTYPE public keyword state.
Otherwise, if the six characters starting from the current input character are an ASCII
case-insensitive match for the word "SYSTEM", then consume those characters and
switch to the after DOCTYPE system keyword state.
Otherwise, this is a parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on.
Switch to the bogus DOCTYPE state.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus
DOCTYPE state.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus
DOCTYPE state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent DOCTYPE tokens public identifier.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE tokens public identifier.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent DOCTYPE tokens public identifier.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE tokens public identifier.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus
DOCTYPE state.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus
DOCTYPE state.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus
DOCTYPE state.
U+0020 SPACE
Ignore the character.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus
DOCTYPE state.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent DOCTYPE tokens system identifier.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE tokens system identifier.
U+0000 NULL
Parse error. Append a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character to the cur-
rent DOCTYPE tokens system identifier.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE tokens system identifier.
EOF
Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE tokens force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE to-
ken. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Parse error. Switch to the bogus DOCTYPE state. (This does not set the DOCTYPE to-
kens force-quirks flag to on.)
EOF
Emit the DOCTYPE token. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Ignore the character.
EOF
Parse error. Emit an end-of-file token.
Anything else
Emit the current input character as a character token.
NOTE:
U+0000 NULL characters are handled in the tree construction stage, as part of the in foreign
content insertion mode, which is the only place where CDATA sections can appear.
Anything else
Anything else
Emit two U+005D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET character tokens. Reconsume in the
CDATA section state
Set the temporary buffer to the empty string. Append a U+0026 AMPERSAND (&) character to
the temporary buffer.
Anything else
Consume the maximum number of characters possible, with the consumed characters
matching one of the identifiers in the first column of the 8.5 Named character refer-
ences table (in a case-sensitive manner). Append each character to the temporary buffer
If no match can be made and the temporary buffer consists of a U+0026 AMPERSAND
character (&) followed by a sequence of one or more alphanumeric ASCII characters
and a U+003B SEMICOLON character (;), then this is a parse error.
If the character reference was consumed as part of an attribute (return state is either at-
tribute value (double-quoted) state, attribute value (single-quoted) state or attribute value
(unquoted) state), and the last character matched is not a U+003B SEMICOLON charac-
ter (;), and the next input character is either a U+003D EQUALS SIGN character (=) or
an alphanumeric ASCII character, then, for historical reasons, switch to the character
reference end state.
If the last character matched is not a U+003B SEMICOLON character (;), this is a parse
error.
Set the temporary buffer to the empty string. Append one or two characters correspond-
ing to the character reference name (as given by the second column of the 8.5 Named
character references table) to the temporary buffer.
EXAMPLE 668
If the markup contains (not in an attribute) the string I'm ¬it; I tell you, the
character reference is parsed as "not", as in, I'm it; I tell you (and this is a
parse error). But if the markup was I'm &notin; I tell you, the character
reference would be parsed as "notin;", resulting in I'm I tell you (and no parse
error).
However, if the markup contains the string I'm &notit; I tell you in an at-
tribute, no character reference is parsed and string remains intact (and there is no
parse error).
Append the current input character to the temporary buffer. Switch to the hexadecimal
character reference start state.
Anything else
Reconsume in the decimal character reference start state.
Anything else
Parse error. Reconsume in the character reference end state.
ASCII digit
Reconsume in the decimal character reference state.
Anything else
Parse error. Reconsume in the character reference end state.
ASCII digit
Multiply the character reference code by 16. Add a numeric version of the current input
character (subtract 0x0030 from the characters code point) to the character reference
code.
Anything else
Parse error. Reconsume in the numeric character reference end state.
ASCII digit
Multiply the character reference code by 16. Add a numeric version of the current input
character (subtract 0x0030 from the characters code point) to the character reference
code.
Anything else
Parse error. Reconsume in the numeric character reference end state.
If that number is one of the numbers in the first column of the following table, then this is a parse
error. Find the row with that number in the first column, and set the character reference code to the
number in the second column of that row.
If the number is in the range 0xD800 to 0xDFFF or is greater than 0x10FFFF, then this is a parse
error. Set the character reference code to 0xFFFD.
If the number is in the range 0x0001 to 0x0008, 0x000D to 0x001F, 0x007F to 0x009F, 0xFDD0 to
0xFDEF, or is one of 0x000B, 0xFFFE, 0xFFFF, 0x1FFFE, 0x1FFFF, 0x2FFFE, 0x2FFFF,
0x3FFFE, 0x3FFFF, 0x4FFFE, 0x4FFFF, 0x5FFFE, 0x5FFFF, 0x6FFFE, 0x6FFFF, 0x7FFFE,
0x7FFFF, 0x8FFFE, 0x8FFFF, 0x9FFFE, 0x9FFFF, 0xAFFFE, 0xAFFFF, 0xBFFFE, 0xBFFFF,
0xCFFFE, 0xCFFFF, 0xDFFFE, 0xDFFFF, 0xEFFFE, 0xEFFFF, 0xFFFFE, 0xFFFFF, 0x10FFFE,
or 0x10FFFF, then this is a parse error.
Set the temporary buffer to the empty string. Append the Unicode character with code point equal
to the character reference code to the temporary buffer. Switch to the character reference end state.
Anything else
For each of the characters in the temporary buffer (in the order they were added to the
buffer), emit the character as a character token.
The input to the tree construction stage is a sequence of tokens from the tokenization stage. The
tree construction stage is associated with a DOM Document object when a parser is created. The
"output" of this stage consists of dynamically modifying or extending that documents DOM tree.
This specification does not define when an interactive user agent has to render the Document so
that it is available to the user, or when it has to begin accepting user input.
As each token is emitted from the tokenizer, the user agent must follow the appropriate steps from
the following list, known as the tree construction dispatcher:
Otherwise
Process the token according to the rules given in the section for parsing tokens in foreign
content.
The next token is the token that is about to be processed by the tree construction dispatcher (even
if the token is subsequently just ignored).
A MathML <annotation-xml> element whose start tag token had an attribute with the name
"encoding" whose value was an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "text/html"
A MathML <annotation-xml> element whose start tag token had an attribute with the name
"encoding" whose value was an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string
"application/xhtml+xml"
An SVG <foreignObject> element
An SVG <desc> element
An SVG <title> element
NOTE:
If the node in question is the context element passed to the HTML fragment parsing algorithm,
then the start tag token for that element is the "fake" token created during by that HTML frag-
ment parsing algorithm.
NOTE:
Not all of the tag names mentioned below are conformant tag names in this specification;
many are included to handle legacy content. They still form part of the algorithm that imple-
mentations are required to implement to claim conformance.
NOTE:
The algorithm described below places no limit on the depth of the DOM tree generated, or on
the length of tag names, attribute names, attribute values, Text nodes, etc. While implemen-
tors are encouraged to avoid arbitrary limits, it is recognized that practical concerns will likely
force user agents to impose nesting depth constraints.
While the parser is processing a token, it can enable or disable foster parenting. This affects the
following algorithm.
The appropriate place for inserting a node, optionally using a particular override target , is the
position in an element returned by running the following steps:
1. If there was an override target specified, then let target be the override target .
2. Determine the adjusted insertion location using the first matching steps from the following
list:
NOTE:
Foster parenting happens when content is misnested in tables.
1. Let last template be the last <template> element in the stack of open elements,
if any.
2. Let last table be the last <table> element in the stack of open elements, if any.
3. If there is a last template and either there is no last table , or there is one, but
last template is lower (more recently added) than last table in the stack of
open elements, then: let adjusted insertion location be inside last template s
template contents, after its last child (if any), and abort these substeps.
4. If there is no last table , then let adjusted insertion location be inside the first
element in the stack of open elements (the <html> element), after its last child
(if any), and abort these substeps. (fragment case)
5. If last table has a parent node, then let adjusted insertion location be inside
last table s parent node, immediately before last table , and abort these sub-
steps.
6. Let previous element be the element immediately above last table in the
stack of open elements.
7. Let adjusted insertion location be inside previous element , after its last child
(if any).
NOTE:
These steps are involved in part because its possible for elements, the <table>
element in this case in particular, to have been moved by a script around in the
DOM, or indeed removed from the DOM entirely, after the element was in-
serted by the parser.
Otherwise
Let adjusted insertion location be inside target , after its last child (if any).
3. If the adjusted insertion location is inside a <template> element, let it instead be inside the
<template> elements template contents, after its last child (if any).
When the steps below require the UA to create an element for a token in a particular given
namespace and with a particular intended parent , the UA must run the following steps:
3. Let is be the value of the "is" attribute in the given token, if such an attribute exists, or null
otherwise.
4. Let definition be the result of looking up a custom element definition given document ,
given namespace , local name , and is .
5. If definition is non-null and the parser was not originally created for the HTML fragment
parsing algorithm, then let will execute script be true. Otherwise, let it be false.
2. If the JavaScript execution context stack is empty, then perform a microtask checkpoint.
3. Push a new element queue onto the custom element reactions stack.
7. Let element be the result of creating an element given document , local name , given names-
pace , null, and is . If will execute script is true, set the synchronous custom elements flag;
otherwise, leave it unset.
NOTE:
This will cause custom element constructors to run, if will execute script is true. However,
since we incremented the throw-on-dynamic-markup-insertion counter, this cannot cause
new characters to be inserted into the tokenizer, or the document
to be blown away.
NOTE:
This can enqueue a custom element callback reaction for the
attributeChangedCallback, which might run immediately (in the next step).
NOTE:
Even though the is attribute governs the creation of a customized built-in element, it is
not present during the execution of the relevant custom element constructor; it is ap-
pended in this step, along with all other attributes.
1. Let queue be the result of popping the current element queue from the custom element
reactions stack. (This will be the same element queue as was pushed above.)
10. If element has an xmlns attribute *in the XMLNS namespace* whose value is not exactly the
same as the elements namespace, that is a parse error. Similarly, if element has an
xmlns:xlink attribute in the XMLNS namespace whose value is not the XLink namespace,
that is a parse error.
11. If element is a resettable element, invoke its reset algorithm. (This initializes the elements
value and checkedness based on the elements attributes.)
12. If element is a form-associated element, and the form element pointer is not null, and there is
no <template> element on the stack of open elements, and element is either not listed or
doesnt have a form attribute, and the intended parent is in the same tree as the element
pointed to by the form element pointer, associate element with the <form> element pointed to
by the form element pointer, and suppress the running of the reset the form owner algorithm
when the parser subsequently attempts to insert the element.
When the steps below require the user agent to insert a foreign element for a token in a given
namespace, the user agent must run these steps:
1. Let the adjusted insertion location be the appropriate place for inserting a node.
2. Let element be the result of creating an element for the token in the given namespace, with
the intended parent being the element in which the adjusted insertion location finds itself.
1. Push a new element queue onto the custom element reactions stack.
3. Pop the element queue from the custom element reactions stack, and invoke custom ele-
ment reactions in that queue.
NOTE:
If the adjusted insertion location cannot accept more elements, e.g., because its a
Document that already has an element child, then element is dropped on the floor.
4. Push element onto the stack of open elements so that it is the new current node.
5. Return element .
When the steps below require the user agent to insert an HTML element for a token, the user
agent must insert a foreign element for the token, in the HTML namespace.
When the steps below require the user agent to adjust MathML attributes for a token, then, if the
token has an attribute named definitionurl, change its name to definitionURL (note the case
difference).
When the steps below require the user agent to adjust SVG attributes for a token, then, for each
attribute on the token whose attribute name is one of the ones in the first column of the following
table, change the attributes name to the name given in the corresponding cell in the second col-
umn. (This fixes the case of SVG attributes that are not all lowercase.)
attributename attributeName
attributetype attributeType
basefrequency baseFrequency
baseprofile baseProfile
calcmode calcMode
clippathunits clipPathUnits
diffuseconstant diffuseConstant
edgemode edgeMode
filterunits filterUnits
glyphref glyphRef
gradienttransform gradientTransform
gradientunits gradientUnits
kernelmatrix kernelMatrix
kernelunitlength kernelUnitLength
keypoints keyPoints
keysplines keySplines
keytimes keyTimes
lengthadjust lengthAdjust
limitingconeangle limitingConeAngle
markerheight markerHeight
markerunits markerUnits
markerwidth markerWidth
maskcontentunits maskContentUnits
maskunits maskUnits
numoctaves numOctaves
pathlength pathLength
patterncontentunits patternContentUnits
patterntransform patternTransform
pointsatx pointsAtX
pointsaty pointsAtY
pointsatz pointsAtZ
preservealpha preserveAlpha
preserveaspectratio preserveAspectRatio
primitiveunits primitiveUnits
refx refX
refy refY
repeatcount repeatCount
repeatdur repeatDur
requiredextensions requiredExtensions
requiredfeatures requiredFeatures
specularconstant specularConstant
specularexponent specularExponent
spreadmethod spreadMethod
startoffset startOffset
stddeviation stdDeviation
stitchtiles stitchTiles
surfacescale surfaceScale
systemlanguage systemLanguage
tablevalues tableValues
targetx targetX
targety targetY
textlength textLength
viewbox viewBox
viewtarget viewTarget
xchannelselector xChannelSelector
ychannelselector yChannelSelector
zoomandpan zoomAndPan
When the steps below require the user agent to adjust foreign attributes for a token, then, if any
of the attributes on the token match the strings given in the first column of the following table, let
the attribute be a namespaced attribute, with the prefix being the string given in the corresponding
cell in the second column, the local name being the string given in the corresponding cell in the
third column, and the namespace being the namespace given in the corresponding cell in the fourth
column. (This fixes the use of namespaced attributes, in particular lang attributes in the XML
namespace.)
When the steps below require the user agent to insert a character while processing a token, the
user agent must run the following steps:
1. Let data be the characters passed to the algorithm, or, if no characters were explicitly speci-
fied, the character of the character token being processed.
2. Let the adjusted insertion location be the appropriate place for inserting a node.
3. If the adjusted insertion location is in a Document node, then abort these steps.
NOTE:
The DOM will not let Document nodes have Text node children, so they are dropped on
the floor.
4. If there is a Text node immediately before the adjusted insertion location , then append
data to that Text nodes data.
Otherwise, create a new Text node whose data is data and whose node document is the
same as that of the element in which the adjusted insertion location finds itself, and insert
the newly created node at the adjusted insertion location .
EXAMPLE 669
Here are some sample inputs to the parser and the corresponding number of Text nodes that
they result in, assuming a user agent that executes scripts.
Input Number of Text
nodes
Three Text
A<script> nodes; "A" before
var text = document.createTextNode('B'); the script, the
document.body.appendChild(text);
scripts contents,
</script>C
and "BC" after the
script (the parser
appends to the
Text node
created by the
script).
Two adjacent
A<script> Text nodes in the
var text = document.getElementsByTagName('script') document,
[0].firstChild;
containing "A"
text.data = 'B';
and "BC".
document.body.appendChild(text);
</script>C
When the steps below require the user agent to insert a comment while processing a comment to-
ken, optionally with an explicitly insertion position position , the user agent must run the follow-
ing steps:
1. Let data be the data given in the comment token being processed.
2. If position was specified, then let the adjusted insertion location be position . Otherwise, let
adjusted insertion location be the appropriate place for inserting a node.
3. Create a Comment node whose data attribute is set to data and whose node document is the
same as that of the node in which the adjusted insertion location finds itself.
DOM mutation events must not fire for changes caused by the UA parsing the document. This in-
cludes the parsing of any content inserted using document.write() and
document.writeln() calls. [UIEVENTS]
The generic raw text element parsing algorithm and the generic RCDATA element parsing al-
gorithm consist of the following steps. These algorithms are always invoked in response to a start
tag token.
2. If the algorithm that was invoked is the generic raw text element parsing algorithm, switch
the tokenizer to the RAWTEXT state; otherwise the algorithm invoked was the generic RC-
DATA element parsing algorithm, switch the tokenizer to the RCDATA state.
When the steps below require the UA to generate implied end tags, then, while the current node
is a <dd> element, a <dt> element, an <li> element, a <menuitem> element, an <optgroup> element,
an <option> element, a <p> element, an <rb> element, an <rp> element, an <rt> element, or an
<rtc> element, the UA must pop the current node off the stack of open elements.
If a step requires the UA to generate implied end tags but lists an element to exclude from the
process, then the UA must perform the above steps as if that element was not in the above list.
When the steps below require the UA to generate all implied end tags thoroughly, then, while
the current node is a <caption> element, a <colgroup> element, a <dd> element, a <dt> element, an
<li> element, an <optgroup> element, an <option> element, a <p> element, an <rb> element, an
<rp> element, an <rt> element, an <rtc> element, a <tbody> element, a <td> element, a <tfoot> ele-
ment, a <th> element, a <thead> element, or a <tr> element, the UA must pop the current node off
the stack of open elements.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "initial" insertion mode, the user agent must han-
dle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment as the last child of the Document object.
A DOCTYPE token
If the DOCTYPE tokens name is not a case-sensitive match for the string "html", or the
tokens public identifier is not missing, or the tokens system identifier is neither missing
nor a case-sensitive match for the string "about:legacy-compat", then there is a parse
error.
Append a DocumentType node to the Document node, with the name attribute set to
the name given in the DOCTYPE token, or the empty string if the name was missing;
the publicId attribute set to the public identifier given in the DOCTYPE token, or the
empty string if the public identifier was missing; the systemId attribute set to the sys-
tem identifier given in the DOCTYPE token, or the empty string if the system identifier
was missing; and the other attributes specific to DocumentType objects set to null and
empty lists as appropriate. Associate the DocumentType node with the Document ob-
ject so that it is returned as the value of the doctype attribute of the Document object.
Then, if the document is not an iframe srcdoc document, and the DOCTYPE token
matches one of the conditions in the following list, then set the Document to quirks
mode:
Otherwise, if the document is not an iframe srcdoc document, and the DOCTYPE to-
ken matches one of the conditions in the following list, then set the Document to lim-
ited-quirks mode:
The system identifier and public identifier strings must be compared to the values given
in the lists above in an ASCII case-insensitive manner. A system identifier whose value
is the empty string is not considered missing for the purposes of the conditions above.
Anything else
If the document is not an iframe srcdoc document, then this is a parse error; set the
Document to quirks mode.
In any case, switch the insertion mode to "before html", then reprocess the token.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "before html" insertion mode, the user agent must
handle the token as follows:
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
A comment token
Insert a comment as the last child of the Document object.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "head", "body", "html", "br"
Act as described in the "anything else" entry below.
Anything else
Create an <html> element whose node document is the Document object. Append it to
the Document object. Put this element in the stack of open elements.
Switch the insertion mode to "before head", then reprocess the token.
The document element can end up being removed from the Document object, e.g., by scripts;
nothing in particular happens in such cases, content continues being appended to the nodes as
described in the next section.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "before head" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
Set the head element pointer to the newly created <head> element.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "head", "body", "html", "br"
Act as described in the "anything else" entry below.
Anything else
Insert an HTML element for a "head" start tag token with no attributes.
Set the head element pointer to the newly created <head> element.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in head" insertion mode, the user agent must
handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "base", "basefont", "bgsound", "link"
Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the
If the element has a charset attribute, and getting an encoding from its value re-
sults in an encoding, and the confidence is currently tentative, then change the en-
coding to the resulting encoding.
A start tag whose tag name is "noscript", if the scripting flag is enabled
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "noframes", "style"
Follow the generic raw text element parsing algorithm.
A start tag whose tag name is "noscript", if the scripting flag is disabled
Insert an HTML element for the token.
1. Let the adjusted insertion location be the appropriate place for inserting a
node.
2. Create an element for the token in the HTML namespace, with the intended
parent being the element in which the adjusted insertion location finds itself.
3. Mark the element as being "parser-inserted" and unset the elements "non-
blocking" flag.
NOTE:
This ensures that, if the script is external, any document.write() calls
in the script will execute in-line, instead of blowing the document away, as
would happen in most other cases. It also prevents the script from execut-
ing until the end tag is seen.
4. If the parser was originally created for the HTML fragment parsing algorithm,
then mark the <script> element as "already started". (fragment case)
6. Push the element onto the stack of open elements so that it is the new current
node.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "html", "br"
Act as described in the "anything else" entry below.
Push "in template" onto the stack of template insertion modes so that it is the new
current template insertion mode.
2. If the current node is not a <template> element, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <template> element has
been popped from the stack.
5. Pop the current template insertion mode off the stack of template insertion
modes.
Anything else
Pop the current node (which will be the <head> element) off the stack of open ele-
ments.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in head noscript" insertion mode, the user
agent must handle the token as follows:
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
Anything else
Parse error.
Pop the current node (which will be a <noscript> element) from the stack of open
elements; the new current node will be a <head> element.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "after head" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "base", "basefont", "bgsound", "link",
"meta", "noframes", "script", "style", "template", "title"
Parse error.
Push the node pointed to by the head element pointer onto the stack of open ele-
ments.
Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.
Remove the node pointed to by the head element pointer from the stack of open el-
ements. (It might not be the current node at this point.)
NOTE:
The head element pointer cannot be null at this point.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "html", "br"
Act as described in the "anything else" entry below.
Anything else
Insert an HTML element for a "body" start tag token with no attributes.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in body" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
If there is a <template> element on the stack of open elements, then ignore the to-
ken.
Otherwise, for each attribute on the token, check to see if the attribute is already
present on the top element of the stack of open elements. If it is not, add the at-
tribute and its corresponding value to that element.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "base", "basefont", "bgsound", "link",
"meta", "noframes", "script", "style", "template", "title"
An end tag whose tag name is "template"
Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.
If the second element on the stack of open elements is not a <body> element, if the
stack of open elements has only one node on it, or if there is a <template> element
on the stack of open elements, then ignore the token. (fragment case)
Otherwise, set the frameset-ok flag to "not ok"; then, for each attribute on the token,
check to see if the attribute is already present on the <body> element (the second el-
ement) on the stack of open elements, and if it is not, add the attribute and its corre-
sponding value to that element.
If the stack of open elements has only one node on it, or if the second element on
the stack of open elements is not a <body> element, then ignore the token. (fragment
case)
1. Remove the second element on the stack of open elements from its parent
node, if it has one.
2. Pop all the nodes from the bottom of the stack of open elements, from the cur-
rent node up to, but not including, the root <html> element.
An end-of-file token
If the stack of template insertion modes is not empty, then process the token using
the rules for the "in template" insertion mode.
1. If there is a node in the stack of open elements that is not either a <dd> ele-
ment, a <dt> element, an <li> element, a <menuitem> element, an <optgroup>
element, an <option> element, a <p> element, an <rb> element, an <rp> ele-
ment, an <rt> element, an <rtc> element, a <tbody> element, a <td> element, a
<tfoot> element, a <th> element, a <thead> element, a <tr> element, the
<body> element, or the <html> element, then this is a parse error.
2. Stop parsing.
If the stack of open elements does not have a body element in scope, this is a parse
error; ignore the token.
Otherwise, if there is a node in the stack of open elements that is not either a <dd>
element, a <dt> element, an <li> element, a <menuitem> element, an <optgroup> ele-
ment, an <option> element, a <p> element, an <rb> element, an <rp> element, an
<rt> element, an <rtc> element, a <tbody> element, a <td> element, a <tfoot> ele-
ment, a <th> element, a <thead> element, a <tr> element, the <body> element, or the
<html> element, then this is a parse error.
Otherwise, if there is a node in the stack of open elements that is not either a <dd>
element, a <dt> element, an <li> element, a <menuitem> element, an <optgroup> ele-
ment, an <option> element, a <p> element, an <rb> element, an <rp> element, an
<rt> element, an <rtc> element, a <tbody> element, a <td> element, a <tfoot> ele-
ment, a <th> element, a <thead> element, a <tr> element, the <body> element, or the
<html> element, then this is a parse error.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "address", "article", "aside", "blockquote",
"center", "details", "dialog", "dir", "div", "dl", "fieldset", "figcaption", "figure",
"footer", "header", "main", "nav", "ol", "p", "section", "summary", "ul"
If the stack of open elements has a p element in button scope, then close a p ele-
ment.
If the current node is a <menuitem> element, pop that node from the stack of open
elements.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6"
If the stack of open elements has a p element in button scope, then close a p ele-
ment.
If the current node is an HTML element whose tag name is one of "h1", "h2", "h3",
"h4", "h5", or "h6", then this is a parse error; pop the current node off the stack of
open elements.
If the next token is a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character token, then ignore that
token and move on to the next one. (Newlines at the start of <pre> blocks are ig-
nored as an authoring convenience.)
Otherwise:
If the stack of open elements has a p element in button scope, then close a p ele-
ment.
Insert an HTML element for the token, and, if there is no <template> element on the
stack of open elements, set the form element pointer to point to the element created.
2. Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
2. If the current node is not an <li> element, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an <li> element has
4. If node is in the special category, but is not an <address>, <div>, or <p> ele-
ment, then jump to the step labeled Done below.
5. Otherwise, set node to the previous entry in the stack of open elements and
return to the step labeled Loop .
6. Done : If the stack of open elements has a p element in button scope, then
close a p element.
2. Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
2. If the current node is not a <dd> element, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <dd> element has
been popped from the stack.
2. If the current node is not a <dt> element, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <dt> element has
been popped from the stack.
5. If node is in the special category, but is not an <address>, <div>, or <p> ele-
ment, then jump to the step labeled Done below.
6. Otherwise, set node to the previous entry in the stack of open elements and
7. Done : If the stack of open elements has a p element in button scope, then
close a p element.
NOTE:
Once a start tag with the tag name "plaintext" has been seen, that will be the last
token ever seen other than character tokens (and the end-of-file token), because
there is no way to switch out of the 8.2.4.5 PLAINTEXT state.
1. If the stack of open elements has a button element in scope, then run these
substeps:
1. Parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <button> element
has been popped from the stack.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "address", "article", "aside", "blockquote",
"button", "center", "details", "dialog", "dir", "div", "dl", "fieldset",
"figcaption", "figure", "footer", "header", "listing", "main", "menu", "nav",
"ol", "pre", "section", "summary", "ul"
If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope that is an HTML
element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error; ig-
nore the token.
2. If the current node is not an HTML element with the same tag name as that of
the token, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an HTML element with
the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.
1. Let node be the element that the form element pointer is set to, or null if it is
not set to an element.
3. If node is null or if the stack of open elements does not have node in scope,
then this is a parse error; abort these steps and ignore the token.
If there is a <template> element on the stack of open elements, then run these sub-
steps instead:
1. If the stack of open elements does not have a form element in scope, then this
is a parse error; abort these steps and ignore the token.
3. If the current node is not a <form> element, then this is a parse error.
4. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <form> element has been
popped from the stack.
Close a p element.
2. If the current node is not an <li> element, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an <li> element has been
popped from the stack.
1. Generate implied end tags, except for HTML elements with the same tag name
as the token.
2. If the current node is not an HTML element with the same tag name as that of
the token, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an HTML element with
the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6"
If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope that is an HTML
element and whose tag name is one of "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", or "h6", then
this is a parse error; ignore the token.
2. If the current node is not an HTML element with the same tag name as that of
the token, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an HTML element whose
tag name is one of "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", or "h6" has been popped from
the stack.
If the list of active formatting elements contains an <a> element between the end of
the list and the last marker on the list (or the start of the list if there is no marker on
the list), then this is a parse error; run the adoption agency algorithm for the token,
then remove that element from the list of active formatting elements and the stack
of open elements if the adoption agency algorithm didnt already remove it (it
might not have if the element is not in table scope).
EXAMPLE 670
In the non-conforming stream <a href="a">a<table><
a href="b">b</table>x, the first <a> element would be closed upon
seeing the second one, and the "x" character would be inside a link to "b", not to
"a". This is despite the fact that the outer <a> element is not in table scope
(meaning that a regular </a> end tag at the start of the table wouldnt close
the outer <a> element). The result is that the two <a> elements are indirectly
nested inside each other non-conforming markup will often result in non-
conforming DOMs when parsed.
Insert an HTML element for the token. Push onto the list of active formatting ele-
ments that element.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "b", "big", "code", "em", "font", "i", "s",
"small", "strike", "strong", "tt", "u"
Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.
Insert an HTML element for the token. Push onto the list of active formatting ele-
ments that element.
If the stack of open elements has a nobr element in scope, then this is a parse error;
run the adoption agency algorithm for the token, then once again Reconstruct the
active formatting elements, if any.
Insert an HTML element for the token. Push onto the list of active formatting ele-
ments that element.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "a", "b", "big", "code", "em", "font", "i",
"nobr", "s", "small", "strike", "strong", "tt", "u"
Run the adoption agency algorithm for the token.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "applet", "marquee", "object"
An end tag token whose tag name is one of: "applet", "marquee", "object"
If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope that is an HTML
element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error; ig-
nore the token.
2. If the current node is not an HTML element with the same tag name as that of
the token, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an HTML element with
the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "area", "br", "embed", "img", "wbr"
Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.
Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the
stack of open elements.
Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the
stack of open elements.
If the token does not have an attribute with the name "type", or if it does, but that
attributes value is not an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "hidden",
then: set the frameset-ok flag to "not ok".
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "param", "source", "track"
Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the
stack of open elements.
If the current node is a <menuitem> element, pop that node from the stack of open
elements.
Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the
stack of open elements.
2. If the next token is a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character token, then ignore
that token and move on to the next one. (Newlines at the start of <textarea> el-
ements are ignored as an authoring convenience.)
If the insertion mode is one of "in table", "in caption", "in table body", "in row", or
"in cell", then switch the insertion mode to "in select in table". Otherwise, switch
the insertion mode to "in select".
If the current node is a <menuitem> element, then pop the current node off the stack
of open elements.
Adjust MathML attributes for the token. (This fixes the case of MathML attributes
that are not all lowercase.)
Adjust foreign attributes for the token. (This fixes the use of namespaced attributes,
in particular XLink.)
If the token has its self-closing flag set, pop the current node off the stack of open
elements and acknowledge the tokens *self-closing flag*.
Adjust SVG attributes for the token. (This fixes the case of SVG attributes that are
not all lowercase.)
Adjust foreign attributes for the token. (This fixes the use of namespaced attributes,
in particular XLink in SVG.)
If the token has its self-closing flag set, pop the current node off the stack of open
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "frame",
"head", "tbody", "td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"
Parse error.
NOTE:
This element will be an ordinaryelement.
1. Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
2. Loop : If node is an HTML element with the same tag name as the token,
then:
1. Generate implied end tags, except for HTML elements with the same tag
name as the token.
3. Pop all the nodes from the current node up to node , including node , then
stop these steps.
3. Otherwise, if node is in the special category, then this is a parse error; ignore
the token, and abort these steps.
When the steps above say the UA is to close a <p> element, it means that the UA must run
the following steps:
2. If the current node is not a <p> element, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <p> element has been popped from
the stack.
The adoption agency algorithm, which takes as its only argument a token token for which
the algorithm is being run, consists of the following steps:
2. If the current node is an HTML element whose tag name is subject , and the current
node is not in the list of active formatting elements, then pop the current node off the
stack of open elements, and abort these steps.
4. Outer loop : If outer loop counter is greater than or equal to eight, then abort these
steps.
6. Let formatting element be the last element in the list of active formatting elements that:
is between the end of the list and the last marker in the list, if any, or the start of the
list otherwise, and
If there is no such element, then abort these steps and instead act as described in the "any
other end tag" entry above.
7. If formatting element is not in the stack of open elements, then this is a parse error; re-
move the element from the list, and abort these steps.
8. If formatting element is in the stack of open elements, but the element is not in scope,
then this is a parse error; abort these steps.
9. If formatting element is not the current node, this is a parse error. (But do not abort
these steps.)
10. Let furthest block be the topmost node in the stack of open elements that is lower in the
stack than formatting element , and is an element in the special category. There might
not be one.
11. If there is no furthest block , then the UA must first pop all the nodes from the bottom of
the stack of open elements, from the current node up to and including formatting ele-
ment , then remove formatting element from the list of active formatting elements, and
finally abort these steps.
12. Let common ancestor be the element immediately above formatting element in the
stack of open elements.
13. Let a bookmark note the position of formatting element in the list of active formatting
elements relative to the elements on either side of it in the list.
14. Let node and last node be furthest block . Follow these steps:
3. Let node be the element immediately above node in the stack of open elements, or
if node is no longer in the stack of open elements (e.g., because it got removed by
this algorithm), the element that was immediately above node in the stack of open
elements before node was removed.
4. If node is formatting element , then go to the next step in the overall algorithm.
5. If inner loop counter is greater than three and node is in the list of active format-
ting elements, then remove node from the list of active formatting elements.
6. If node is not in the list of active formatting elements, then remove node from the
stack of open elements and then go back to the step labeled Inner loop .
7. Create an element for the token for which the element node was created, in the
HTML namespace, with common ancestor as the intended parent; replace the entry
for node in the list of active formatting elements with an entry for the new element,
replace the entry for node in the stack of open elements with an entry for the new
element, and let node be the new element.
8. If last node is furthest block , then move the aforementioned bookmark to be im-
mediately after the new node in the list of active formatting elements.
9. Insert last node into node , first removing it from its previous parent node if any.
15. Insert whatever last node ended up being in the previous step at the appropriate place
for inserting a node, but using common ancestor as the override target .
16. Create an element for the token for which formatting element was created, in the
HTML namespace, with furthest block as the intended parent.
17. Take all of the child nodes of furthest block and append them to the element created in
the last step.
19. Remove formatting element from the list of active formatting elements, and insert the
new element into the list of active formatting elements at the position of the aforemen-
tioned bookmark.
20. Remove formatting element from the stack of open elements, and insert the new ele-
ment into the stack of open elements immediately below the position of furthest block
in that stack.
NOTE:
This algorithms name, the "adoption agency algorithm", comes from the way it causes el-
ements to change parents, and is in contrast with other possible algorithms for dealing
with misnested content, which included the "incest algorithm", the "secret affair algo-
rithm", and the "Heisenberg algorithm".
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "text" insertion mode, the user agent must
handle the token as follows:
A character token
Insert the tokens character.
NOTE:
This can never be a U+0000 NULL character; the tokenizer converts those to
U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER characters.
An end-of-file token
Parse error.
If the current node is a <script> element, mark the <script> element as "already
started".
Switch the insertion mode to the original insertion mode and reprocess the token.
Let the old insertion point have the same value as the current insertion point. Let
the insertion point be just before the next input character.
Prepare the script . This might cause some script to execute, which might cause
new characters to be inserted into the tokenizer, and might cause
the tokenizer to output more tokens, resulting in a reentrant invocation of the parser.
Decrement the parsers script nesting level by one. If the parsers script nesting
level is zero, then set the parser pause flag to false.
Let the insertion point have the value of the old insertion point . (In other words,
restore the insertion point to its previous value. This value might be the "undefined"
value.)
NOTE:
The tree construction stage of this particular parser is being called
reentrantly, say from a call to document.write().
Otherwise:
Run these steps:
2. Block the tokenizer for this instance of the HTML parser, such that
the event loop will not run tasks that invoke the tokenizer.
4. If this parser has been aborted in the meantime, abort these steps.
NOTE:
This could happen if, e.g., while the spin the event loop algo-
rithm is running, the browsing context gets closed, or the
document.open() method gets invoked on the Document.
5. Unblock the tokenizer for this instance of the HTML parser, such
that tasks that invoke the tokenizer can again be run.
6. Let the insertion point be just before the next input character.
7. Increment the parsers script nesting level by one (it should be zero
before this step, so this sets it to one).
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in table" insertion mode, the user agent must
handle the token as follows:
A character token, if the current node is <table>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <thead>, or <tr>
element
Let the pending table character tokens be an empty list of tokens.
Switch the insertion mode to "in table text" and reprocess the token.
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in cap-
tion".
Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in col-
umn group".
Insert an HTML element for a "colgroup" start tag token with no attributes, then
switch the insertion mode to "in column group".
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "tbody", "tfoot", "thead"
Clear the stack back to a table context. (See below.)
Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in table
body".
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "td", "th", "tr"
Clear the stack back to a table context. (See below.)
Insert an HTML element for a "tbody" start tag token with no attributes, then switch
the insertion mode to "in table body".
If the stack of open elements does not have a table element in table scope, ignore
the token.
Otherwise:
Pop elements from this stack until a <table> element has been popped from the
stack.
Otherwise:
Pop elements from this stack until a <table> element has been popped from the
stack.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "caption", "col", "colgroup",
"html", "tbody", "td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"
Parse error.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "style", "script", "template"
An end tag whose tag name is "template"
Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.
Otherwise:
Parse error.
If there is a <template> element on the stack of open elements, or if the form ele-
Otherwise:
Insert an HTML element for the token, and set the form element pointer to point to
the element created.
An end-of-file token
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
Anything else
Parse error. Enable foster parenting, process the token using the rules for the "in
body" insertion mode, and then disable foster parenting.
When the steps above require the UA to clear the stack back to a table context, it means
that the UA must, while the current node is not a <table>, <template>, or <html> element, pop
elements from the stack of open elements.
NOTE:
This is the same list of elements as used in the has an element in table scope steps.
NOTE:
The current node being an <html> element after this process is a fragment case.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in table text" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
Anything else
If any of the tokens in the pending table character tokens list are character tokens
that are not space characters, then this is a parse error: reprocess the character to-
kens in the pending table character tokens list using the rules given in the "any-
thing else" entry in the "in table" insertion mode.
Otherwise, insert the characters given by the pending table character tokens list.
Switch the insertion mode to the original insertion mode and reprocess the token.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in caption" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
Otherwise:
Now, if the current node is not a <caption> element, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from this stack until a <caption> element has been popped from the
stack.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "tbody", "td",
"tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"
An end tag whose tag name is "table"
If the stack of open elements does not have a caption element in table scope, this
is a parse error; ignore the token. (fragment case)
Otherwise:
Now, if the current node is not a <caption> element, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from this stack until a <caption> element has been popped from the
stack.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "col", "colgroup", "html", "tbody",
"td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"
Parse error.
Anything else
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in column group" insertion mode, the user
agent must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
Otherwise, pop the current node from the stack of open elements. Switch the inser-
tion mode to "in table".
Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.
An end-of-file token
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
Anything else
If the current node is not a <colgroup> element, then this is a parse error; ignore the
token.
Otherwise, pop the current node from the stack of open elements.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in table body" insertion mode, the user
agent must handle the token as follows:
Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in row".
Insert an HTML element for a "tr" start tag token with no attributes, then switch the
insertion mode to "in row".
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "tbody", "tfoot", "thead"
If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope that is an
HTML element with the same tag name as the token, this is a parse error; ignore the
token.
Otherwise:
Pop the current node from the stack of open elements. Switch the insertion mode to
"in table".
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "tbody",
"tfoot", "thead"
An end tag whose tag name is "table"
If the stack of open elements does not have a tbody, thead, or tfoot element in ta-
ble scope, this is a parse error; ignore the token.
Otherwise:
Pop the current node from the stack of open elements. Switch the insertion mode to
"in table".
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "caption", "col", "colgroup",
"html", "td", "th", "tr"
Parse error.
Anything else
Process the token using the rules for the "in table" insertion mode.
When the steps above require the UA to clear the stack back to a table body context, it
means that the UA must, while the current node is not a <tbody>, <tfoot>, <thead>,
<template>, or <html> element, pop elements from the stack of open elements.
NOTE:
The current node being an <html> element after this process is a fragment case.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in row" insertion mode, the user agent must
handle the token as follows:
Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in cell".
If the stack of open elements does not have a tr element in table scope, this is a
parse error; ignore the token.
Otherwise:
Pop the current node (which will be a <tr> element) from the stack of open ele-
ments. Switch the insertion mode to "in table body".
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "tbody",
"tfoot", "thead", "tr"
An end tag whose tag name is "table"
If the stack of open elements does not have a tr element in table scope, this is a
parse error; ignore the token.
Otherwise:
Pop the current node (which will be a <tr> element) from the stack of open ele-
ments. Switch the insertion mode to "in table body".
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "tbody", "tfoot", "thead"
If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope that is an
HTML element with the same tag name as the token, this is a parse error; ignore the
token.
If the stack of open elements does not have a tr element in table scope, ignore the
token.
Otherwise:
Pop the current node (which will be a <tr> element) from the stack of open ele-
ments. Switch the insertion mode to "in table body".
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "caption", "col", "colgroup",
"html", "td", "th"
Parse error.
Anything else
Process the token using the rules for the "in table" insertion mode.
When the steps above require the UA to clear the stack back to a table row context, it
means that the UA must, while the current node is not a <tr>, <template>, or <html> element,
pop elements from the stack of open elements.
NOTE:
The current node being an <html> element after this process is a fragment case.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in cell" insertion mode, the user agent must
handle the token as follows:
Otherwise:
Now, if the current node is not an HTML element with the same tag name as the to-
ken, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from the stack of open elements stack until an HTML element with
the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "tbody", "td",
"tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"
If the stack of open elements does not have a td or th element in table scope, then
this is a parse error; ignore the token. (fragment case)
Otherwise, close the cell (see below) and reprocess the token.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "caption", "col", "colgroup",
"html"
Parse error.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "table", "tbody", "tfoot", "thead", "tr"
If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope that is an
HTML element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse er-
ror; ignore the token.
Otherwise, close the cell (see below) and reprocess the token.
Anything else
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
Where the steps above say to close the cell, they mean to run the following algorithm:
2. If the current node is not now a <td> element or a <th> element, then this is a parse error.
3. Pop elements from the stack of open elements stack until a <td> element or a <th> ele-
ment has been popped from the stack.
NOTE:
The stack of open elements cannot have both a <td> and a <th> element in table scope at
the same time, nor can it have neither when the close the cell algorithm is invoked.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in select" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
If the current node is an <optgroup> element, pop that node from the stack of open
elements.
If the current node is an <optgroup> element, then pop that node from the stack of
open elements. Otherwise, this is a parse error; ignore the token.
Otherwise:
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <select> element has been
popped from the stack.
If the stack of open elements does not have a select element in select scope, ig-
nore the token. (fragment case)
Otherwise:
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <select> element has been
popped from the stack.
NOTE:
Note: It just gets treated like an end tag.
If the stack of open elements does not have a select element in select scope, ig-
nore the token. (fragment case)
Otherwise:
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <select> element has been
popped from the stack.
An end-of-file token
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
Anything else
Parse error.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in select in table" insertion mode, the user
agent must handle the token as follows:
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "table", "tbody", "tfoot",
"thead", "tr", "td", "th"
Parse error.
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <select> element has been
popped from the stack.
An end tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "table", "tbody", "tfoot",
"thead", "tr", "td", "th"
Parse error.
If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope that is an
HTML element with the same tag name as that of the token, then ignore the token.
Otherwise:
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <select> element has been
popped from the stack.
Anything else
Process the token using the rules for the "in select" insertion mode.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in template" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
A character token
A comment token
A DOCTYPE token
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "base", "basefont", "bgsound", "link",
"meta", "noframes", "script", "style", "template", "title"
An end tag whose tag name is "template"
Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "colgroup", "tbody", "tfoot",
"thead"
Pop the current template insertion mode off the stack of template insertion modes.
Push "in table" onto the stack of template insertion modes so that it is the new cur-
rent template insertion mode.
Switch the insertion mode to "in table", and reprocess the token.
Push "in column group" onto the stack of template insertion modes so that it is the
new current template insertion mode.
Switch the insertion mode to "in column group", and reprocess the token.
Push "in table body" onto the stack of template insertion modes so that it is the new
current template insertion mode.
Switch the insertion mode to "in table body", and reprocess the token.
Push "in row" onto the stack of template insertion modes so that it is the new cur-
rent template insertion mode.
Switch the insertion mode to "in row", and reprocess the token.
Push "in body" onto the stack of template insertion modes so that it is the new cur-
rent template insertion mode.
Switch the insertion mode to "in body", and reprocess the token.
An end-of-file token
If there is no <template> element on the stack of open elements, then stop parsing.
(fragment case)
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a <template> element has been
popped from the stack.
Pop the current template insertion mode off the stack of template insertion modes.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "after body" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment as the last child of the first element in the stack of open elements
(the <html> element).
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
An end-of-file token
Stop parsing.
Anything else
Parse error. Switch the insertion mode to "in body" and reprocess the token.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "in frameset" insertion mode, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
Otherwise, pop the current node from the stack of open elements.
If the parser was not originally created as part of the HTML fragment parsing algo-
rithm (fragment case), and the current node is no longer a <frameset> element, then
switch the insertion mode to "after frameset".
An end-of-file token
If the current node is not the root <html> element, then this is a parse error.
NOTE:
The current node can only be the root <html> element in the fragment case.
Stop parsing.
Anything else
Parse error.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "after frameset" insertion mode, the user
agent must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
An end-of-file token
Stop parsing.
Anything else
Parse error.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "after after body" insertion mode, the user
agent must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment as the last child of the Document object.
A DOCTYPE token
A character token that is one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A
LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN
(CR), or U+0020 SPACE
A start tag whose tag name is "html"
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
An end-of-file token
Stop parsing.
Anything else
Parse error. Switch the insertion mode to "in body" and reprocess the token.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for the "after after frameset" insertion mode, the
user agent must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment as the last child of the Document object.
A DOCTYPE token
A character token that is one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A
LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN
(CR), or U+0020 SPACE
A start tag whose tag name is "html"
Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.
An end-of-file token
Stop parsing.
Anything else
Parse error.
When the user agent is to apply the rules for parsing tokens in foreign content, the user agent
must handle the token as follows:
A comment token
Insert a comment.
A DOCTYPE token
Parse error.
A start tag whose tag name is one of: "b", "big", "blockquote", "body", "br",
"center", "code", "dd", "div", "dl", "dt", "em", "embed", "h1", "h2", "h3",
"h4", "h5", "h6", "head", "hr", "i", "img", "li", "listing", "menu", "meta",
"nobr", "ol", "p", "pre", "ruby", "s", "small", "span", "strong", "strike", "sub",
"sup", "table", "tt", "u", "ul", "var"
A start tag whose tag name is "font", if the token has any attributes named
"color", "face", or "size"
Parse error.
If the parser was originally created for the HTML fragment parsing algorithm, then
act as described in the "any other start tag" entry below. (fragment case)
Otherwise:
Pop an element from the stack of open elements, and then keep popping more ele-
ments from the stack of open elements until the current node is a MathML text inte-
gration point, an HTML integration point, or an element in the HTML namespace.
If the adjusted current node is an element in the SVG namespace, and the tokens
tag name is one of the ones in the first column of the following table, change the tag
name to the name given in the corresponding cell in the second column. (This fixes
altglyph altGlyph
altglyphdef altGlyphDef
altglyphitem altGlyphItem
animatecolor animateColor
animatemotion animateMotion
animatetransform animateTransform
clippath clipPath
feblend feBlend
fecolormatrix feColorMatrix
fecomponenttransfer feComponentTransfer
fecomposite feComposite
feconvolvematrix feConvolveMatrix
fediffuselighting feDiffuseLighting
fedisplacementmap feDisplacementMap
fedistantlight feDistantLight
fedropshadow feDropShadow
feflood feFlood
fefunca feFuncA
fefuncb feFuncB
fefuncg feFuncG
fefuncr feFuncR
fegaussianblur feGaussianBlur
feimage feImage
femerge feMerge
femergenode feMergeNode
femorphology feMorphology
feoffset feOffset
fepointlight fePointLight
fespecularlighting feSpecularLighting
fetile feTile
feturbulence feTurbulence
foreignobject foreignObject
glyphref glyphRef
lineargradient linearGradient
radialgradient radialGradient
textpath textPath
If the adjusted current node is an element in the SVG namespace, adjust SVG at-
tributes for the token. (This fixes the case of SVG attributes that are not all lower-
case.)
Adjust foreign attributes for the token. (This fixes the use of namespaced attributes,
in particular XLink in SVG.)
Insert a foreign element for the token, in the same namespace as the adjusted cur-
rent node.
If the token has its self-closing flag set, then run the appropriate steps from the fol-
lowing list:
If the tokens tag name is "script", and the new current node is in the
SVG namespace
Acknowledge the tokens *self-closing flag*, and then act as described in
the steps for a "script" end tag below.
Otherwise
Pop the current node off the stack of open elements and acknowledge the
tokens *self-closing flag*.
An end tag whose tag name is "script", if the current node is an SVG <script>
element
Pop the current node off the stack of open elements.
Let the old insertion point have the same value as the current insertion point. Let
the insertion point be just before the next input character.
Increment the parsers script nesting level by one. Set the parser pause flag to true.
Process the SVG script element according to the SVG rules, if the user agent sup-
ports SVG. [SVG11]
NOTE:
Even if this causes new characters to be inserted into the
tokenizer, the parser will not be executed reentrantly, since the parser pause
flag is true.
Decrement the parsers script nesting level by one. If the parsers script nesting
level is zero, then set the parser pause flag to false.
Let the insertion point have the value of the old insertion point . (In other words,
restore the insertion point to its previous value. This value might be the "undefined"
value.)
1. Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
2. If node s tag name, converted to ASCII lowercase, is not the same as the tag
name of the token, then this is a parse error.
3. Loop : If node is the topmost element in the stack of open elements, abort
these steps. (fragment case)
4. If node s tag name, converted to ASCII lowercase, is the same as the tag
name of the token, pop elements from the stack of open elements until node
has been popped from the stack, and then abort these steps.
6. If node is not an element in the HTML namespace, return to the step labeled
Loop .
7. Otherwise, process the token according to the rules given in the section corre-
sponding to the current insertion mode in HTML content.
Once the user agent stops parsing the document, the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Set the current document readiness to "interactive" and the insertion point to unde-
fined.
3. If the list of scripts that will execute when the document has finished parsing is not
1. Spin the event loop until the first <script> in the list of scripts that will execute
when the document has finished parsing has its "ready to be parser-executed" flag
set and the parsers Document has no style sheet that is blocking scripts.
2. Execute the first <script> in the list of scripts that will execute when the document
has finished parsing.
3. Remove the first <script> element from the list of scripts that will execute when
the document has finished parsing (i.e., shift out the first entry in the list).
4. If the list of scripts that will execute when the document has finished parsing is still
not empty, repeat these substeps again from substep 1.
1. fire an event named DOMContentLoaded at the Document object, with its bubbles
attribute initialized to true.
5. Spin the event loop until the set of scripts that will execute as soon as possible and the
list of scripts that will execute in order as soon as possible are empty.
6. Spin the event loop until there is nothing that delays the load event in the Document.
2. Load event: If the Document has a browsing context, then fire an event named
load at the Document objects Window object, with legacy target override flag
set.
8. If the Document has a browsing context, then queue a task to run the following sub-
steps:
1. If the Document's page showing flag is true, then abort this task (i.e., dont fire the
event below).
3. Fire an event named pageshow at the Document objects Window object using
PageTransitionEvent, with the persisted attribute initialized to false, and
legacy target override flag set.
9. If the Document's print when loaded flag is set, then run the printing steps.
When the user agent is to abort a parser, it must run the following steps:
1. Throw away any pending content in the input stream, and discard any future content that
would have been added to it.
Except where otherwise specified, the task source for the tasks mentioned in this section is
the DOM manipulation task source.
When an application uses an HTML parser in conjunction with an XML pipeline, it is possi-
ble that the constructed DOM is not compatible with the XML tool chain in certain subtle
ways. For example, an XML toolchain might not be able to represent attributes with the name
xmlns, since they conflict with the Namespaces in XML syntax. There is also some data that
the HTML parser generates that isnt included in the DOM itself. This section specifies some
rules for handling these issues.
If the XML API being used doesnt support DOCTYPEs, the tool may drop DOCTYPEs alto-
gether.
If the XML API doesnt support attributes in no namespace that are named "xmlns", at-
tributes whose names start with "xmlns:", or attributes in the XMLNS namespace, then the
tool may drop such attributes.
The tool may annotate the output with any namespace declarations required for proper opera-
tion.
If the XML API being used restricts the allowable characters in the local names of elements
and attributes, then the tool may map all element and attribute local names that the API
wouldnt support to a set of names that are allowed, by replacing any character that isnt sup-
ported with the uppercase letter U and the six digits of the characters Unicode code point
when expressed in hexadecimal, using digits 0-9 and capital letters A-F as the symbols, in in-
creasing numeric order.
EXAMPLE 671
For example, the element name foo<bar, which can be output by the HTML parser,
though it is neither a legal HTML element name nor a well-formed XML element name,
would be converted into fooU00003Cbar, which is a well-formed XML element name
(though its still not legal in HTML by any means).
EXAMPLE 672
As another example, consider the attribute xlink:href. Used on a MathML element, it
becomes, after being adjusted, an attribute with a prefix "xlink" and a local name "href".
However, used on an HTML element, it becomes an attribute with no prefix and the local
name "xlink:href", which is not a valid NCName, and thus might not be accepted by an
XML API. It could thus get converted, becoming "xlinkU00003Ahref".
NOTE:
The resulting names from this conversion conveniently cant clash with any attribute gen-
erated by the HTML parser, since those are all either lowercase or those listed in the ad-
just foreign attributes algorithms table.
If the XML API restricts comments from having two consecutive U+002D HYPHEN-
MINUS characters (--), the tool may insert a single U+0020 SPACE character between any
such offending characters.
If the XML API restricts comments from ending in a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character
(-), the tool may insert a single U+0020 SPACE character at the end of such comments.
If the XML API restricts allowed characters in character data, attribute values, or comments,
the tool may replace any U+000C FORM FEED (FF) character with a U+0020 SPACE char-
acter, and any other literal non-XML character with a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARAC-
TER.
If the tool has no way to convey out-of-band information, then the tool may drop the follow-
ing information:
Whether the document is set to no-quirks mode, limited-quirks mode, or quirks mode
The association between form controls and forms that arent their nearest <form> element
ancestor (use of the form element pointer in the parser)
NOTE:
The mutations allowed by this section apply after the HTML parser's rules have been ap-
plied. For example, a <a::> start tag will be closed by a </a::> end tag, and never
by a </aU00003AU00003A> end tag, even if the user agent is using the rules above to
then generate an actual element in the DOM with the name aU00003AU00003A for that
start tag.
This section examines some erroneous markup and discusses how the HTML parser handles
these cases.
<p>1<b>2<i>3</b>4</i>5</p>
The parsing of this markup is straightforward up to the "3". At this point, the DOM looks like
this:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<p>
#text: 1
<b>
#text: 2
<i>
#text: 3
Here, the stack of open elements has five elements on it: <html>, <body>, <p>, <b>, and <i>.
The list of active formatting elements just has two: <b> and <i>. The insertion mode is "in
body".
Upon receiving the end tag token with the tag name "b", the "adoption agency algorithm" is
invoked. This is a simple case, in that the formatting element is the <b> element, and there is
no furthest block . Thus, the stack of open elements ends up with just three elements: <html>,
<body>, and <p>, while the list of active formatting elements has just one: <i>. The DOM tree
is unmodified at this point.
The next token is a character ("4"), triggers the reconstruction of the active formatting ele-
ments, in this case just the <i> element. A new <i> element is thus created for the "4" Text
node. After the end tag token for the "i" is also received, and the "5" Text node is inserted,
the DOM looks as follows:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<p>
#text: 1
<b>
#text: 2
<i>
#text: 3
<i>
#text: 4
#text: 5
<b>1<p>2</b>3</p>
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
#text: 1
<p>
#text: 2
The interesting part is when the end tag token with the tag name "b" is parsed.
Before that token is seen, the stack of open elements has four elements on it: <html>, <body>,
<b>, and <p>. The list of active formatting elements just has the one: <b>. The insertion mode
is "in body".
Upon receiving the end tag token with the tag name "b", the "adoption agency algorithm" is
invoked, as in the previous example. However, in this case, there is a furthest block , namely
the <p> element. Thus, this time the adoption agency algorithm isnt skipped over.
The common ancestor is the <body> element. A conceptual "bookmark" marks the position of
the <b> in the list of active formatting elements, but since that list has only one element in it,
the bookmark wont have much effect.
As the algorithm progresses, node ends up set to the formatting element (<b>), and last node
ends up set to the furthest block (<p>).
The last node gets appended (moved) to the common ancestor , so that the DOM looks like:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
#text: 1
<p>
#text: 2
A new <b> element is created, and the children of the <p> element are moved to it:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
#text: 1
<p>
<b>
#text: 2
Finally, the new <b> element is appended to the <p> element, so that the DOM looks like:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
#text: 1
<p>
<b>
#text: 2
The <b> element is removed from the list of active formatting elements and the stack of open
elements, so that when the "3" is parsed, it is appended to the <p> element:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
#text: 1
<p>
<b>
#text: 2
#text: 3
Error handling in tables is, for historical reasons, especially strange. For example, consider
the following markup:
<table><b><tr><td>aaa</td></tr>bbb</table>ccc
The highlighted <b> element start tag is not allowed directly inside a table like that, and the
parser handles this case by placing the element before the table. (This is called foster parent-
ing.) This can be seen by examining the DOM tree as it stands just after the <table> elements
start tag has been seen:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<table>
...and then immediately after the <b> element start tag has been seen:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
<table>
At this point, the stack of open elements has on it the elements <html>, <body>, <table>, and
<b> (in that order, despite the resulting DOM tree); the list of active formatting elements just
has the <b> element in it; and the insertion mode is "in table".
The <tr> start tag causes the <b> element to be popped off the stack and a <tbody> start tag to
be implied; the <tbody> and <tr> elements are then handled in a rather straight-forward man-
ner, taking the parser through the "in table body" and "in row" insertion modes, after which
the DOM looks as follows:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
Here, the stack of open elements has on it the elements <html>, <body>, <table>, <tbody>, and
<tr>; the list of active formatting elements still has the <b> element in it; and the insertion
mode is "in row".
The <td> element start tag token, after putting a <td> element on the tree, puts a marker on the
list of active formatting elements (it also switches to the "in cell" insertion mode).
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
The marker means that when the "aaa" character tokens are seen, no <b> element is created to
hold the resulting Text node:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
#text: aaa
The end tags are handled in a straight-forward manner; after handling them, the stack of open
elements has on it the elements <html>, <body>, <table>, and <tbody>; the list of active for-
matting elements still has the <b> element in it (the marker having been removed by the "td"
end tag token); and the insertion mode is "in table body".
Thus it is that the "bbb" character tokens are found. These trigger the "in table text" insertion
mode to be used (with the original insertion mode set to "in table body"). The character to-
kens are collected, and when the next token (the <table> element end tag) is seen, they are
processed as a group. Since they are not all spaces, they are handled as per the "anything else"
rules in the "in table" insertion mode, which defer to the "in body" insertion mode but with
foster parenting.
When the active formatting elements are reconstructed, a <b> element is created and foster
parented, and then the "bbb" Text node is appended to it:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
<b>
#text: bbb
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
#text: aaa
The stack of open elements has on it the elements <html>, <body>, <table>, <tbody>, and the
new <b> (again, note that this doesnt match the resulting tree!); the list of active formatting
elements has the new <b> element in it; and the insertion mode is still "in table body".
Had the character tokens been only space characters instead of "bbb", then those space char-
acters would just be appended to the <tbody> element.
Finally, the <table> is closed by a "table" end tag. This pops all the nodes from the stack of
open elements up to and including the <table> element, but it doesnt affect the list of active
formatting elements, so the "ccc" character tokens after the table result in yet another <b> ele-
ment being created, this time after the table:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<b>
<b>
#text: bbb
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
#text: aaa
<b>
#text: ccc
Consider the following markup, which for this example we will assume is the document with
URL https://example.com/inner, being rendered as the content of an <iframe> in another
document with the URL https://example.com/outer:
<div id=a>
<script>
var div = document.getElementById("a");
parent.document.body.appendChild(div);
</script>
<script>
alert(document.URL);
</script>
</div>
<script>
alert(document.URL);
</script>
Up to the first "script" end tag, before the script is parsed, the result is relatively straightfor-
ward:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<div> id="a"
#text:
<script>
#text: var div = document.getElementById("a"); parent.document.body.ap-
pendChild(div);
After the script is parsed, though, the <div> element and its child <script> element are gone:
<html>
<head>
<body>
They are, at this point, in the Document of the aforementioned outer browsing context. How-
ever, the stack of open elements *still contains the <div> element*.
Thus, when the second <script> element is parsed, it is inserted *into the outer Document
object*.
Those parsed into different Documents than the one the parser was created for do not exe-
cute, so the first alert does not show.
Once the <div> elements end tag is parsed, the <div> element is popped off the stack, and so
the next <script> element is in the inner Document:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<script>
#text: alert(document.URL);
8.2.8.5. The execution of scripts that are moving across multiple documents
Elaborating on the example in the previous section, consider the case where the second
<script> element is an external script (i.e., one with a src attribute). Since the element was
not in the parsers Document when it was created, that external script is not even down-
loaded.
In a case where a <script> element with a src attribute is parsed normally into its parsers
Document, but while the external script is being downloaded, the element is moved to an-
other document, the script continues to download, but does not execute.
NOTE:
In general, moving <script> elements between Documents is considered a bad practice.
The following markup shows how nested formatting elements (such as <b>) get collected and
continue to be applied even as the elements they are contained in are closed, but that exces-
sive duplicates are thrown away.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<p><b class=x><b class=x><b><b class=x><b class=x><b>X
<p>X
<p><b><b class=x><b>X
<p></b></b></b></b></b></b>X
DOCTYPE: html
<html>
<head>
<body>
<p>
<b> class="x"
<b> class="x"
<b>
<b> class="x"
<b> class="x"
<b>
#text: X
<p>
<b> class="x"
<b>
<b> class="x"
<b> class="x"
<b>
#text: X
<p>
<b> class="x"
<b>
<b> class="x"
<b> class="x"
<b>
<b>
<b> class="x"
<b>
#text: X
<p>
#text: X
Note how the second <p> element in the markup has no explicit <b> elements, but in the re-
sulting DOM, up to three of each kind of formatting element (in this case three <b> elements
with the class attribute, and two unadorned <b> elements) get reconstructed before the ele-
ments "X".
Also note how this means that in the final paragraph only six <b> end tags are needed to com-
pletely clear the list of active formatting elements, even though nine <b> start tags have been
seen up to this point.
The following steps form the HTML fragment serialization algorithm. The algorithm takes
as input a DOM Element, Document, or DocumentFragment referred to as the node , and
returns a string.
NOTE:
This algorithm serializes the children of the node being serialized, not the node itself.
2. If the node is a <template> element, then let the node instead be the <template> ele-
ments template contents (a DocumentFragment node).
3. For each child node of the node , in tree order, run the following steps:
NOTE:
For HTML elements created by the HTML parser or
createElement(), tagname will be lowercase.
For each attribute that the element has, append a U+0020 SPACE charac-
ter, the attributes serialized name as described below, a U+003D
EQUALS SIGN character (=), a U+0022 QUOTATION MARK character
("), the attributes value, escaped as described below in attribute mode,
and a second U+0022 QUOTATION MARK character (").
NOTE:
For attributes on HTML elements set by the HTML parser
or by Element.setAttribute(), the local name will be
lowercase.
<track> or <wbr> element, then continue on to the next child node at this
point.
Otherwise, append the value of current node s data IDL attribute, es-
caped as described below.
EXAMPLE 673
For instance, if a <textarea> element to which a Comment node has been appended is se-
rialized and the output is then reparsed, the comment will end up being displayed in the
text field. Similarly, if, as a result of DOM manipulation, an element contains a comment
that contains the literal string "-->", then when the result of serializing the element is
parsed, the comment will be truncated at that point and the rest of the comment will be in-
terpreted as markup. More examples would be making a <script> element contain a Text
node with the text string "</script>", or having a <p> element that contains a <ul> el-
ement (as the <ul> elements start tag would imply the end tag for the <p>).
This can enable cross-site scripting attacks. An example of this would be a page that lets
the user enter some font family names that are then inserted into a CSS <style> block via
the DOM and which then uses the innerHTML IDL attribute to get the HTML serializa-
tion of that <style> element: if the user enters "</style><script>attack<
/script>" as a font family name, innerHTML will return markup that, if parsed in a dif-
ferent context, would contain a <script> node, even though no <script> node existed in
the original DOM.
EXAMPLE 674
For example, consider the following markup:
<html>
<head>
<body>
<form> id="outer"
<div>
<form> id="inner"
<input>
The input element will be associated with the inner form element. Now, if this tree struc-
ture is serialized and reparsed, the <form id="inner"> start tag will be ignored, and so the
input element will be associated with the outer form element instead.
<html>
<head>
<body>
<form> id="outer"
<div>
<input>
EXAMPLE 675
As another example, consider the following markup:
<a><table><a>
<html>
<head>
<body>
<a>
<a>
<table>
That is, the a elements are nested, because the second a element is foster parented. After a
serialize-reparse roundtrip, the a elements and the table element would all be siblings, be-
cause the second <a> start tag implicitly closes the first a element.
<html><head></head><body><a><a></a><table></table></a></body></html>
<html>
<head>
<body>
<a>
<a>
<table>
For historical reasons, this algorithm does not round-trip an initial U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
character in pre, textarea, or listing elements, even though (in the first two cases) the markup
being round-tripped can be conforming. The HTML parser will drop such a character during
parsing, but this algorithm does not serialize an extra U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character.
EXAMPLE 676
For example, consider the following markup:
<pre>
Hello.</pre>
When this document is first parsed, the pre elements child text content starts with a single
newline character. After a serialize-reparse roundtrip, the pre elements child text content
is simply "Hello.".
Escaping a string (for the purposes of the algorithm above) consists of running the following
steps:
2. Replace any occurrences of the U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE character by the string
"&nbsp;".
3. If the algorithm was invoked in the attribute mode, replace any occurrences of the
""" character by the string "&quot;".
4. If the algorithm was not invoked in the attribute mode, replace any occurrences of the
"<" character by the string "&lt;", and any occurrences of the ">" character
by the string "&gt;".
The following steps form the HTML fragment parsing algorithm. The algorithm takes as
input an Element node, referred to as the context element, which gives the context for the
parser, as well as input , a string to parse, and returns a list of zero or more nodes.
NOTE:
Parts marked fragment case in algorithms in the parser section are parts that only occur if
the parser was created for the purposes of this algorithm. The algorithms have been anno-
tated with such markings for informational purposes only; such markings have no norma-
tive weight. If it is possible for a condition described as a fragment case to occur even
when the parser wasnt created for the purposes of handling this algorithm, then that is an
error in the specification.
2. If the node document of the context element is in quirks mode, then let the Document
be in quirks mode. Otherwise, the node document of the context element is in limited-
quirks mode, then let the Document be in limited-quirks mode. Otherwise, leave the
Document in no-quirks mode.
3. Create a new HTML parser, and associate it with the just created Document node.
4. Set the state of the HTML parser's tokenization stage as follows, switching on the con-
text element:
<title>
<textarea>
<style>
<xmp>
<iframe>
<noembed>
<noframes>
Switch the tokenizer to the RAWTEXT state.
<script>
Switch the tokenizer to the script data state.
<noscript>
If the scripting flag is enabled, switch the tokenizer to the RAWTEXT state.
Otherwise, leave the tokenizer in the data state.
<plaintext>
Switch the tokenizer to the 8.2.4.5 PLAINTEXT state.
NOTE:
For performance reasons, an implementation that does not report errors and that uses
the actual state machine described in this specification directly could use the PLAIN-
TEXT state instead of the RAWTEXT and script data states where those are men-
tioned in the list above. Except for rules regarding parse errors, they are equivalent,
since there is no appropriate end tag token in the fragment case, yet they involve far
fewer state transitions.
7. Set up the parsers stack of open elements so that it contains just the single element
root .
8. If the context element is a <template> element, push "in template" onto the stack of
template insertion modes so that it is the new current template insertion mode.
9. Create a start tag token whose name is the local name of context and whose attributes
are the attributes of context .
Let this start tag token be the start tag token of the context node, e.g., for the purposes
NOTE:
The parser will reference the context element as part of that algorithm.
11. Set the parsers form element pointer to the nearest node to the context element that is a
<form> element (going straight up the ancestor chain, and including the element itself, if
it is a <form> element), if any. (If there is no such <form> element, the form element
pointer keeps its initial value, null.)
12. Place the input into the input stream for the HTML parser just created. The encoding
confidence is irrelevant.
13. Start the parser and let it run until it has consumed all the characters just inserted into the
input stream.
This table lists the character reference names that are supported by HTML, and the code
points to which they refer. It is referenced by the previous sections.
Aacute; U+000C1
Aacute U+000C1
aacute; U+000E1
aacute U+000E1
Abreve; U+00102
abreve; U+00103
ac; U+0223E
acd; U+0223F
Acirc; U+000C2
Acirc U+000C2
acirc; U+000E2
acirc U+000E2
acute; U+000B4
acute U+000B4
Acy; U+00410
acy; U+00430
AElig; U+000C6
AElig U+000C6
aelig; U+000E6
aelig U+000E6
af; U+02061
Afr; U+1D504
afr; U+1D51E
Agrave; U+000C0
Agrave U+000C0
agrave; U+000E0
agrave U+000E0
alefsym; U+02135
aleph; U+02135
Alpha; U+00391
alpha; U+003B1
Amacr; U+00100
amacr; U+00101
amalg; U+02A3F
AMP; U+00026
AMP U+00026
amp; U+00026
amp U+00026
And; U+02A53
and; U+02227
andand; U+02A55
andd; U+02A5C
andslope; U+02A58
andv; U+02A5A
ang; U+02220
ange; U+029A4
angle; U+02220
angmsd; U+02221
angmsdaa; U+029A8
angmsdab; U+029A9
angmsdac; U+029AA
The glyphs displayed above are non-normative. Refer to the Unicode specifications for formal
definitions of the characters listed above.
NOTE:
The character reference names originate from the XML Entity Definitions for Characters
specification, though only the above is considered normative. [[XML-ENTITY-NAMES]]
NOTE:
This section only describes the rules for XML resources. Rules for text/html resources are
discussed in the section above entitled "The HTML syntax".
The syntax for using HTML with XML, whether in XHTML documents or embedded in other
XML documents, is defined in the XML and Namespaces in XML specifications. [XML]
[XML-NAMES]
This specification does not define any syntax-level requirements beyond those defined for XML
proper.
XML documents may contain a DOCTYPE if desired, but this is not required to conform to this spec-
ification. This specification does not define a public or system identifier, nor provide a formal
DTD.
NOTE:
According to the XML specification, XML processors are not guaranteed to process the exter-
nal DTD subset referenced in the DOCTYPE. This means, for example, that using entity refer-
ences for characters in XHTML documents is unsafe if they are defined in an external file (ex-
cept for <, >, &, " and ').
This section describes the relationship between XML and the DOM, with a particular emphasis on
how this interacts with HTML.
An XML parser, for the purposes of this specification, is a construct that follows the rules given
in the XML specification to map a string of bytes or characters into a Document object.
NOTE:
At the time of writing, no such rules actually exist.
An XML parser is either associated with a Document object when it is created, or creates one im-
plicitly.
This Document must then be populated with DOM nodes that represent the tree structure of the in-
put passed to the parser, as defined by the XML specification, the Namespaces in XML specifica-
tion, and the DOM specification. DOM mutation events must not fire for the operations that the
XML parser performs on the Documents tree, but the user agent must act as if elements and at-
tributes were individually appended and set respectively so as to trigger rules in this specification
regarding what happens when an element is inserted into a document or has its attributes set, and
the DOM specifications requirements regarding mutation observers mean that mutation observers
are fired (unlike mutation events). [XML] [XML-NAMES] [DOM] [UIEVENTS]
Between the time an elements start tag is parsed and the time either the elements end tag is
parsed or the parser detects a well-formedness error, the user agent must act as if the element was
in a stack of open elements.
NOTE:
This is used, e.g., by the <object> element to avoid instantiating plugins before the <param> el-
ement children have been parsed.
This specification provides the following additional information that user agents should use when
retrieving an external entity: the public identifiers given in the following list all correspond to the
URL given by this link. (This URL is a DTD containing the entity declarations for the names listed
in the 8.5 Named character references section.) [XML]
Furthermore, user agents should attempt to retrieve the above external entitys content when one of
the above public identifiers is used, and should not attempt to retrieve any other external entitys
content.
NOTE:
This is not strictly a violation of the XML specification, but it does contradict the spirit of the
XML specifications requirements. This is motivated by a desire for user agents to all handle
entities in an interoperable fashion without requiring any network access for handling external
subsets. [XML]
XML parsers can be invoked with XML scripting support enabled or disabled. Except where
otherwise specified, XML parsers are invoked with XML scripting support enabled.
When an XML parser with XML scripting support enabled creates a <script> element, it must be
marked as being "parser-inserted" and its "non-blocking" flag must be unset. If the parser was
originally created for the XML fragment parsing algorithm, then the element must be marked as
"already started" also. When the elements end tag is subsequently parsed, the user agent must per-
form a microtask checkpoint, and then prepare the <script> element. If this causes there to be a
pending parsing-blocking script, then the user agent must run the following steps:
1. Block this instance of the XML parser, such that the event loop will not run tasks that invoke
it.
2. Spin the event loop until the parsers Document has no style sheet that is blocking scripts and
the pending parsing-blocking scripts "ready to be parser-executed" flag is set.
3. Unblock this instance of the XML parser, such that tasks that invoke it can again be run.
NOTE:
Since the document.write() API is not available for XML documents, much of the com-
plexity in the HTML parser is not needed in the XML parser.
NOTE:
When the XML parser has XML scripting support disabled, none of this happens.
When an XML parser would append a node to a <template> element, it must instead append it to
the <template> elements template contents (a DocumentFragment node).
NOTE:
This is a willful violation of the XML specification; unfortunately, XML is not formally exten-
sible in the manner that is needed for template processing. [XML]
When an XML parser creates a Node object, its node document must be set to the node document
Certain algorithms in this specification spoon-feed the parser characters one string at a time. In
such cases, the XML parser must act as it would have if faced with a single string consisting of the
concatenation of all those characters.
When an XML parser reaches the end of its input, it must stop parsing, following the same rules as
the HTML parser. An XML parser can also be aborted, which must again be done in the same way
as for an HTML parser.
For the purposes of conformance checkers, if a resource is determined to be in the XHTML syn-
tax, then it is an XML document.
The XML fragment serialization algorithm for a Document or Element node either returns a
fragment of XML that represents that node or throws an exception.
For Documents, the algorithm must return a string in the form of a document entity, if none of the
error cases below apply.
For Elements, the algorithm must return a string in the form of an internal general parsed entity,
if none of the error cases below apply.
In both cases, the string returned must be XML namespace-well-formed and must be an isomor-
phic serialization of all of that nodes relevant child nodes, in tree order. User agents may adjust
prefixes and namespace declarations in the serialization (and indeed might be forced to do so in
some cases to obtain namespace-well-formed XML). User agents may use a combination of regu-
lar text and character references to represent Text nodes in the DOM.
A nodes relevant child nodes are those that apply given the following rules:
For Elements, if any of the elements in the serialization are in no namespace, the default names-
pace in scope for those elements must be explicitly declared as the empty string. (This doesnt ap-
ply in the Document case.) [XML] [XML-NAMES]
For the purposes of this section, an internal general parsed entity is considered XML namespace-
If any of the following error cases are found in the DOM subtree being serialized, then the
algorithm must throw an InvalidStateError exception instead of returning a string:
A DocumentType node that has an external subset public identifier that contains characters
that are not matched by the XML PubidChar production. [XML]
A DocumentType node that has an external subset system identifier that contains both a
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (") and a U+0027 APOSTROPHE (') or that contains charac-
ters that are not matched by the XML Char production. [XML]
A node with a local name that does not match the XML Name production. [XML]
An Attr node with no namespace whose local name is the lowercase string "xmlns".
[XML-NAMES]
An Element node with two or more attributes with the same local name and namespace.
An Attr node, Text node, Comment node, or ProcessingInstruction node whose data con-
tains characters that are not matched by the XML Char production. [XML]
A Comment node whose data contains two adjacent U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS characters (-)
or ends with such a character.
NOTE:
These are the only ways to make a DOM unserialisable. The DOM enforces all the other XML
constraints; for example, trying to append two elements to a Document node will throw a
HierarchyRequestError exception.
The XML fragment parsing algorithm either returns a Document or throws a "SyntaxError"
DOMException. Given a string input and a context element context , the algorithm is as follows:
2. Feed the parser just created the string corresponding to the start tag of the context element,
declaring all the namespace prefixes that are in scope on that element in the DOM, as well as
declaring the default namespace (if any) that is in scope on that element in the DOM.
The default namespace is the namespace for which the DOM isDefaultNamespace()
method on the element would return true.
NOTE:
No DOCTYPE is passed to the parser, and therefore no external subset is referenced, and
therefore no entities will be recognized.
4. Feed the parser just created the string corresponding to the end tag of the context element.
6. If the document element of the resulting Document has any sibling nodes, then throw a
"SyntaxError" DOMException and abort these steps.
7. Return the child nodes of the document element of the resulting Document, in tree order.
10. Rendering
*User agents are not required to present HTML documents in any particular way. However, this
section provides a set of suggestions for rendering HTML documents that, if followed, are likely
to lead to a user experience that closely resembles the experience intended by the documents' au-
thors. So as to avoid confusion regarding the normativity of this section, "must" has not been used.
Instead, the term "expected" is used to indicate behavior that will lead to this experience. For the
purposes of conformance for user agents designated as supporting the suggested default rendering,
the term "expected" in this section has the same conformance implications as "must".*
10.1. Introduction
In general, user agents are expected to support CSS, and many of the suggestions in this section
are expressed in CSS terms. User agents that use other presentation mechanisms can derive their
expected behavior by translating from the CSS rules given in this section.
In the absence of style-layer rules to the contrary (e.g., author style sheets), user agents are ex-
pected to render an element so that it conveys to the user the meaning that the element represents,
as described by this specification.
The suggestions in this section generally assume a visual output medium with a resolution of
96dpi or greater, but HTML is intended to apply to multiple media (it is a media-independent lan-
guage). User agent implementors are encouraged to adapt the suggestions in this section to their
target media.
An element is being rendered if it has any associated CSS layout boxes, SVG layout boxes, or
some equivalent in other styling languages.
NOTE:
NOTE: Just being off-screen does not mean the element is not being rendered. The presence of
the hidden attribute normally means the element is not being rendered, though this might be
overridden by the style sheets.
User agents that do not honor author-level CSS style sheets are nonetheless expected to act as if
they applied the CSS rules given in these sections in a manner consistent with this specification
and the relevant CSS and Unicode specifications. [CSS-2015] [UNICODE] [BIDI]
NOTE:
NOTE: This is especially important for issues relating to the display, unicode-bidi, and
direction properties.
10.2. The CSS user agent style sheet and presentational hints
The CSS rules given in these subsections are, except where otherwise specified, expected to be
used as part of the user-agent level style sheet defaults for all documents that contain HTML ele-
ments.
Some rules are intended for the author-level zero-specificity presentational hints part of the CSS
When the text below says that an attribute attribute on an element element maps to the pixel
length property (or properties) properties , it means that if element has an attribute attribute set,
and parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing non-negative integers doesnt generate
an error, then the user agent is expected to use the parsed value as a pixel length for a presenta-
tional hint for properties .
When the text below says that an attribute attribute on an element element maps to the dimen-
sion property (or properties) properties , it means that if element has an attribute attribute set,
and parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing dimension values doesnt generate an
error, then the user agent is expected to use the parsed dimension as the value for a presentational
hint for properties , with the value given as a pixel length if the dimension was a length, and with
the value given as a percentage if the dimension was a percentage.
When the text below says that an attribute attribute on an element element maps to the dimen-
sion property (ignoring zero) (or properties) properties , it means that if element has an attribute
attribute set, and parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing non-zero dimension val-
ues doesnt generate an error, then the user agent is expected to use the parsed dimension as the
value for a presentational hint for properties , with the value given as a pixel length if the dimen-
sion was a length, and with the value given as a percentage if the dimension was a percentage.
When a user agent is to align descendants of a node, the user agent is expected to align only those
descendants that have both their margin-inline-start and margin-inline-end properties comput-
ing to a value other than auto, that are over-constrained and that have one of those two margins
with a used value forced to a greater value, and that do not themselves have an applicable align
attribute. When multiple elements are to align a particular descendant, the most deeply nested such
element is expected to override the others. Aligned elements are expected to be aligned by having
the used values of their margins on the line-left and line-right sides be set accordingly.
[CSS-LOGICAL-PROPS] [CSS-WRITING-MODES-3]
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@media (scripting) {
noscript { display: none !important; }
}
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
For each property in the table below, given a <body> element, the first attribute that exists maps to
the pixel length property on the <body> element. If none of the attributes for a property are found,
or if the value of the attribute that was found cannot be parsed successfully, then a default value of
8px is expected to be used for that property instead.
Property Source
Property Source
margin-left <body> elements marginwidth attribute
The <body> elements container frame element's marginwidth attribute
<body> elements leftmargin attribute
If the <body> elements node document's browsing context is a nested browsing context, and the
browsing context container of that nested browsing context is a <frame> or <iframe> element, then
the container frame element of the <body> element is that <frame> or <iframe> element. Other-
wise, there is no container frame element.
Warning! The above requirements imply that a page can change the margins of an-
other page (including one from another origin) using, for example, an <iframe>. This is
potentially a security risk, as it might in some cases allow an attack to contrive a situa-
tion in which a page is rendered not as the author intended, possibly for the purposes of
phishing or otherwise misleading the user.
If a Document is in a nested browsing context, it is expected to be positioned and sized to fit in-
side the content box of its browsing context container. If a browsing context's browsing context
container is not being rendered, the browsing context is expected to have a viewport with zero
width and zero height.
If the Document is in a nested browsing context, and the browsing context container of that nested
browsing context is a <frame> or <iframe> element, and that element has a scrolling attribute,
and that attributes value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "off", "noscroll", or
"no", then the user agent is expected to prevent any scroll bars from being shown for the viewport
of the nested browsing context, regardless of the overflow property that applies to that viewport.
When a <body> element has a background attribute set to a non-empty value, the new value is ex-
pected to be parsed relative to the elements node document, and if this is successful, the user
agent is expected to treat the attribute as a presentational hint setting the elements
background-image property to the resulting URL string.
When a <body> element has a bgcolor attribute set, the new value is expected to be parsed using
the rules for parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is ex-
pected to treat the attribute as a presentational hint setting the elements background-color prop-
When a <body> element has a text attribute, its value is expected to be parsed using the rules for
parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is expected to treat
the attribute as a presentational hint setting the elements color property to the resulting color.
When a <body> element has a link attribute, its value is expected to be parsed using the rules for
parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is expected to treat
the attribute as a presentational hint setting the color property of any element in the Document
matching the :link pseudo-class to the resulting color.
When a <body> element has a vlink attribute, its value is expected to be parsed using the rules for
parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is expected to treat
the attribute as a presentational hint setting the color property of any element in the Document
matching the :visited pseudo-class to the resulting color.
When a <body> element has an alink attribute, its value is expected to be parsed using the rules
for parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is expected to
treat the attribute as a presentational hint setting the color property of any element in the
Document matching the :active pseudo-class and either the :link pseudo-class or the :visited
pseudo-class to the resulting color.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
slot {
display: contents;
}
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
The <center> element, and the <div> element when it has an align attribute whose value is an
ASCII case-insensitive match for either the string "center" or the string "middle", are expected to
center text within themselves, as if they had their text-align property set to center in a presenta-
tional hint, and to align descendants to the center.
The <div> element, when it has an align attribute whose value is an ASCII case-insensitive match
for the string "left", is expected to left-align text within itself, as if it had its text-align property
set to left in a presentational hint, and to align descendants to the left.
The <div> element, when it has an align attribute whose value is an ASCII case-insensitive match
for the string "right", is expected to right-align text within itself, as if it had its text-align prop-
erty set to right in a presentational hint, and to align descendants to the right.
The <div> element, when it has an align attribute whose value is an ASCII case-insensitive match
for the string "justify", is expected to full-justify text within itself, as if it had its text-align
property set to justify in a presentational hint, and to align descendants to the left.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
User agents that do not support correct ruby rendering are expected to render parentheses around
the text of <rt> elements in the absence of <rp> elements. [CSS3-RUBY]
User agents are expected to support the clear property on inline elements (in order to render <br>
elements with clear attributes) in the manner described in the non-normative note to this effect in
the CSS specification.
The initial value for the color property is expected to be black. The initial value for the
background-color property is expected to be transparent. The canvas' background is expected to
be white.
When a <font> element has a color attribute, its value is expected to be parsed using the rules for
parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is expected to treat
the attribute as a presentational hint setting the elements color property to the resulting color.
The <font> element is expected to override the color of any text decoration that spans the text of
the element to the used value of the elements color property.
When a <font> element has a face attribute, the user agent is expected to treat the attribute as a
presentational hint setting the elements font-family property to the attributes value.
When a <font> element has a size attribute, the user agent is expected to use the following steps,
known as the rules for parsing a legacy font size, to treat the attribute as a presentational hint set-
ting the elements font-size property:
2. Let position be a pointer into input , initially pointing at the start of the string.
4. If position is past the end of input , there is no presentational hint. Abort these steps.
5. If the character at position is a U+002B PLUS SIGN character (+), then let mode be rela-
tive-plus, and advance position to the next character. Otherwise, if the character at position
is a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-), then let mode be relative-minus, and advance
position to the next character. Otherwise, let mode be absolute.
6. Collect a sequence of characters that are ASCII digits, and let the resulting sequence be dig-
its .
7. If digits is the empty string, there is no presentational hint. Abort these steps.
12. Set font-size to the keyword corresponding to the value of value according to the following
table:
1 x-small
2 small
3 medium
4 large
5 x-large
6 xx-large
7 xxx-large see below
The xxx-large value is a non-CSS value used here to indicate a font size 50% larger than xx-large.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
/* the rules setting the 'content' property on <br> and <wbr> elements also
has bidi implications */
When an <input> elements dir attribute is in the auto state and its type attribute is in the Text
state, then the user agent is expected to act as if it had a user-agent-level style sheet rule setting the
unicode-bidi property to plaintext.
Input fields (i.e., <textarea> elements, and <input> elements when their type attribute is in the
Text, Search, Telephone, URL, or E-mail state) are expected to present an editing user interface
with a directionality that matches the elements direction property.
When the documents character encoding is ISO-8859-8, the following rules are additionally ex-
pected to apply, following those above: [ENCODING]
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
10.3.6. Quotes
This block is automatically generated from the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository.
[CLDR]
User agents are expected to use either the block below (which will be regularly updated) or to au-
tomatically generate their own copy directly from the source material. The language codes are de-
rived from the CLDR file names. The quotes are derived from the delimiter blocks, with fallback
handled as specified in the CLDR documentation.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
:root { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(af), :not(:lang(af)) > :lang(af) { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(agq), :not(:lang(agq)) > :lang(agq) { quotes:
'\201e' '\201d' '\201a' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(ak), :not(:lang(ak)) > :lang(ak) { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(am), :not(:lang(am)) > :lang(am) { quotes:
'\00ab' '\00bb' '\2039' '\203a' } /* */
:root:lang(ar), :not(:lang(ar)) > :lang(ar) { quotes:
'\201d' '\201c' '\2019' '\2018' } /* */
:root:lang(asa), :not(:lang(asa)) > :lang(asa) { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(ast), :not(:lang(ast)) > :lang(ast) { quotes:
'\00ab' '\00bb' '\201c' '\201d' } /* */
:root:lang(az), :not(:lang(az)) > :lang(az) { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(az-Cyrl), :not(:lang(az-Cyrl)) > :lang(az-Cyrl) { quotes:
'\00ab' '\00bb' '\2039' '\203a' } /* */
:root:lang(bas), :not(:lang(bas)) > :lang(bas) { quotes:
'\00ab' '\00bb' '\201e' '\201c' } /* */
:root:lang(be), :not(:lang(be)) > :lang(be) { quotes:
'\00ab' '\00bb' '\00ab' '\00bb' } /* */
:root:lang(bem), :not(:lang(bem)) > :lang(bem) { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(bez), :not(:lang(bez)) > :lang(bez) { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(bg), :not(:lang(bg)) > :lang(bg) { quotes:
'\201e' '\201c' '\201e' '\201c' } /* */
:root:lang(bm), :not(:lang(bm)) > :lang(bm) { quotes:
'\00ab' '\00bb' '\201c' '\201d' } /* */
:root:lang(bn), :not(:lang(bn)) > :lang(bn) { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(br), :not(:lang(br)) > :lang(br) { quotes:
'\00ab' '\00bb' '\201c' '\201d' } /* */
:root:lang(brx), :not(:lang(brx)) > :lang(brx) { quotes:
'\201c' '\201d' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(bs), :not(:lang(bs)) > :lang(bs) { quotes:
'\201e' '\201c' '\2018' '\2019' } /* */
:root:lang(bs-Cyrl), :not(:lang(bs-Cyrl)) > :lang(bs-Cyrl) { quotes:
'\201e' '\201c' '\201a' '\2018' } /* */
:root:lang(ca), :not(:lang(ca)) > :lang(ca) { quotes:
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
article, aside, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hgroup, nav, section {
display: block;
}
In the following CSS block, x is shorthand for the following selector: :matches(article,
aside, nav, section)
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
NOTE:
NOTE: The shorthand is used to keep this block at least mildly readable.
10.3.8. Lists
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
:matches(dir, dl, menu, ol, ul) :matches(dir, dl, menu, ol, ul) {
margin-block-start: 0; margin-block-end: 0;
}
dd { margin-inline-start: 40px; }
dir, menu, ol, ul { padding-inline-start: 40px; }
ol { list-style-type: decimal; }
dir, menu, ul {
list-style-type: disc;
}
:matches(dir, menu, ol, ul) :matches(dir, menu, ul) {
list-style-type: circle;
}
:matches(dir, menu, ol, ul) :matches(dir, menu, ol, ul) :matches(dir, menu,
ul) {
list-style-type: square;
}
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
In the above stylesheet, the attribute selectors for the <ol> and <li> elements are expected to be
treated as case-sensitive.
When rendering <li> elements, non-CSS user agents are expected to use the ordinal value of the
<li> element to render the counter in the list item marker.
This specification does not yet define the CSS-specific rules for rendering <li> ele-
ments, because CSS doesnt yet provide sufficient hooks for this purpose.
10.3.9. Tables
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
table {
box-sizing: border-box;
border-spacing: 2px;
border-collapse: separate;
text-indent: initial;
}
td, th { padding: 1px; }
th { font-weight: bold; }
caption { text-align: center; }
thead, tbody, tfoot, table > tr { vertical-align: middle; }
tr, td, th { vertical-align: inherit; }
table[rules=rows i] > thead > tr > td, table[rules=rows i] > thead > tr >
th,
table[rules=cols i] > thead > tr > td, table[rules=cols i] > thead > tr >
th,
table[rules=all i] > thead > tr > td, table[rules=all i] > thead > tr > th,
table[rules=none i] > tbody > tr > td, table[rules=none i] > tbody > tr >
th,
table[rules=groups i] > tbody > tr > td, table[rules=groups i] > tbody > tr
> th,
table[rules=rows i] > tbody > tr > td, table[rules=rows i] > tbody > tr >
th,
table[rules=cols i] > tbody > tr > td, table[rules=cols i] > tbody > tr >
th,
table[rules=all i] > tbody > tr > td, table[rules=all i] > tbody > tr > th,
table[rules=none i] > tfoot > tr > td, table[rules=none i] > tfoot > tr >
th,
table[rules=groups i] > tfoot > tr > td, table[rules=groups i] > tfoot > tr
> th,
table[rules=rows i] > tfoot > tr > td, table[rules=rows i] > tfoot > tr >
th,
table[rules=cols i] > tfoot > tr > td, table[rules=cols i] > tfoot > tr >
th,
table[rules=all i] > tfoot > tr > td, table[rules=all i] > tfoot > tr > th {
border-color: black;
}
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
table[rules=rows i] > thead > tr > td, table[rules=rows i] > thead > tr >
th,
table[rules=rows i] > tbody > tr > td, table[rules=rows i] > tbody > tr >
th,
table[rules=rows i] > tfoot > tr > td, table[rules=rows i] > tfoot > tr > th
{
border-width: 1px;
border-style: none;
}
table[rules=cols i] > tr > td, table[rules=cols i] > tr > th,
table[rules=cols i] > thead > tr > td, table[rules=cols i] > thead > tr >
th,
table[rules=cols i] > tbody > tr > td, table[rules=cols i] > tbody > tr >
th,
table[rules=cols i] > tfoot > tr > td, table[rules=cols i] > tfoot > tr > th
{
border-width: 1px;
block-start-style: none;
border-inline-end-style: solid;
border-block-end-style: none;
border-inline-start-style: solid;
}
table[rules=all i] > tr > td, table[rules=all i] > tr > th,
table[rules=all i] > thead > tr > td, table[rules=all i] > thead > tr > th,
table[rules=all i] > tbody > tr > td, table[rules=all i] > tbody > tr > th,
table[rules=all i] > tfoot > tr > td, table[rules=all i] > tfoot > tr > th {
border-width: 1px;
border-style: solid;
}
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
table {
font-weight: initial;
font-style: initial;
font-variant: initial;
font-size: initial;
line-height: initial;
white-space: initial;
text-align: initial;
}
For the purposes of the CSS table model, the <col> element is expected to be treated as if it was
present as many times as its span attribute specifies.
For the purposes of the CSS table model, the <colgroup> element, if it contains no <col> element,
is expected to be treated as if it had as many such children as its span attribute specifies.
For the purposes of the CSS table model, the colspan and rowspan attributes on <td> and <th> el-
ements are expected to provide the special knowledge regarding cells spanning rows and columns.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
:matches(table, thead, tbody, tfoot, tr) > form { display: none !important;
}
The <table> elements cellspacing attribute maps to the pixel length property border-spacing
on the element.
The <table> elements cellpadding attribute maps to the pixel length properties padding-top,
padding-right, padding-bottom, and padding-left of any <td> and <th> elements that have cor-
responding cells in the table corresponding to the <table> element.
The <table> elements height attribute maps to the dimension property (ignoring zero) height on
the <table> element.
The <table> elements width attribute maps to the dimension property (ignoring zero) width on
the <table> element.
The <col> elements width attribute maps to the dimension property (ignoring zero) width on the
<col> element.
The <tr> elements height attribute maps to the dimension property (ignoring zero) height on
the <tr> element.
The <td> and <th> elements' height attributes map to the dimension property (ignoring zero)
height on the element.
The <td> and <th> elements' width attributes map to the dimension property (ignoring zero)
width on the element.
The <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <tr>, <td>, and <th> elements when they have an align attribute
whose value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for either the string "center" or the string
"middle", are expected to center text within themselves, as if they had their text-align property
set to text-align: center in a presentational hint, and to align descendants to the center.
The <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <tr>, <td>, and <th> elements, when they have an align attribute
whose value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "left", are expected to left-align
text within themselves, as if they had their text-align property set to text-align: left in a presen-
tational hint, and to align descendants to the left.
The <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <tr>, <td>, and <th> elements, when they have an align attribute
whose value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "right", are expected to right-align
text within themselves, as if they had their text-align property set to text-align: right in a pre-
sentational hint, and to align descendants to the right.
The <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <tr>, <td>, and <th> elements, when they have an align attribute
whose value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "justify", are expected to full-
justify text within themselves, as if they had their text-align property set to text-align: justify in
a presentational hint, and to align descendants to the left.
User agents are expected to have a rule in their user agent stylesheet that matches <th> elements
that have a parent node whose computed value for the text-align property is its initial value,
whose declaration block consists of just a single declaration that sets the text-align property to
the value text-align: center.
When a <table>, <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <tr>, <td>, or <th> element has a background at-
tribute set to a non-empty value, the new value is expected to be parsed relative to the elements
node document, and if this is successful, the user agent is expected to treat the attribute as a pre-
sentational hint setting the elements background-image property to the resulting URL string.
When a <table>, <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot>, <tr>, <td>, or <th> element has a bgcolor attribute
set, the new value is expected to be parsed using the rules for parsing a legacy color value, and if
that does not return an error, the user agent is expected to treat the attribute as a presentational hint
setting the elements background-color property to the resulting color.
When a <table> element has a bordercolor attribute, its value is expected to be parsed using the
rules for parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is ex-
pected to treat the attribute as a presentational hint setting the elements border-top-color,
border-right-color, border-bottom-color, and border-left-color properties to the resulting
color.
The <table> elements border attribute maps to the pixel length properties border-top-width,
border-right-width, border-bottom-width, border-left-width on the element. If the attribute is
present but parsing the attributes value using the rules for parsing non-negative integers generates
an error, a default value of 1px is expected to be used for that property instead.
Rules marked "only if border is not equivalent to zero" in the CSS block above is expected to
only be applied if the border attribute mentioned in the selectors for the rule is not only present
but, when parsed using the rules for parsing non-negative integers, is also found to have a value
other than zero or to generate an error.
In quirks mode, a <td> element or a <th> element that has a nowrap attribute but also has a width
attribute whose value, when parsed using the rules for parsing non-zero dimension values, is found
to be a length (not an error or a number classified as a percentage), is expected to have a presenta-
tional hint setting the elements white-space property to white-space: normal, overriding the
rule in the CSS block above that sets it to white-space: nowrap.
A node is substantial if it is a text node that is not inter-element white space, or if it is an element
node.
The elements with default margins are the following elements: <blockquote>, <dir>, <dl>, <h1>,
<h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>, <listing>, <menu>, <ol>, <p>, <plaintext>, <pre>, <ul>, <xmp>
In quirks mode, any element with default margins that is the child of a <body>, <td>, or <th> ele-
ment and has no substantial previous siblings is expected to have a user-agent level style sheet rule
that sets its margin-block-start property to zero.
In quirks mode, any element with default margins that is the child of a <body>, <td>, or <th> ele-
ment, has no substantial previous siblings, and is blank, is expected to have a user-agent level style
sheet rule that sets its margin-block-end property to zero also.
In quirks mode, any element with default margins that is the child of a <td> or <th> element, has
no substantial following siblings, and is blank, is expected to have a user-agent level style sheet
rule that sets its margin-block-start property to zero.
In quirks mode, any <p> element that is the child of a <td> or <th> element and has no substantial
following siblings, is expected to have a user-agent level style sheet rule that sets its
margin-block-end property to zero.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
Each kind of form control is also described in the Widgets section, which describes the look and
feel of the control.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
hr {
color: gray;
border-style: inset;
border-width: 1px;
margin-block-start: 0.5em;
margin-inline-end: auto;
margin-block-end: 0.5em;
margin-inline-start: auto;
}
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
If an <hr> element has either a color attribute or a noshade attribute, and furthermore also has a
size attribute, and parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing non-negative integers
doesnt generate an error, then the user agent is expected to use the parsed value divided by two as
a pixel length for presentational hints for the properties border-top-width, border-right-width,
border-bottom-width, and border-left-width on the element.
Otherwise, if an <hr> element has neither a color attribute nor a noshade attribute, but does have
a size attribute, and parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing non-negative integers
doesnt generate an error, then: if the parsed value is one, then the user agent is expected to use the
attribute as a presentational hint setting the elements border-bottom-width to 0; otherwise, if the
parsed value is greater than one, then the user agent is expected to use the parsed value minus two
as a pixel length for presentational hints for the height property on the element.
The width attribute on an <hr> element maps to the dimension property width on the element.
When an <hr> element has a color attribute, its value is expected to be parsed using the rules for
parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is expected to treat
the attribute as a presentational hint setting the elements color property to the resulting color.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
fieldset {
display: block;
margin-inline-start: 2px;
margin-inline-end: 2px;
border: groove 2px ThreeDFace;
padding-block-start: 0.35em;
padding-inline-end: 0.625em;
padding-block-end: 0.75em;
padding-inline-start: 0.625em;
min-width: min-content;
}
legend {
padding-inline-start: 2px; padding-inline-end: 2px;
}
If the <fieldset> element has a child that matches the conditions in the list below, then the first
such child is the <fieldset> elements rendered legend:
A <fieldset> elements rendered legend, if any, is expected to be rendered over the block-start
border edge of the <fieldset> element as a block box (overriding any explicit display value). In
the absence of an explicit inline size, the box should shrink-wrap. If the <legend> element in ques-
tion has an align attribute, and its value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the strings
in the first column of the following table, then the <legend> is expected to be rendered aligned in
the inline direction over the border edge in the position given in the corresponding cell on the
same row in the second column. If the attribute is absent or has a value that doesnt match any of
the cases in the table, then the position is expected to be on the right if the direction property on
this element has a computed value of rtl, and on the inline-start side.
[CSS-WRITING-MODES-3]
The <embed>, <iframe>, and <video> elements are expected to be treated as replaced elements.
A <canvas> element that represents embedded content is expected to be treated as a replaced ele-
ment; the contents of such elements are the elements bitmap, if any, or else a transparent black
bitmap with the same intrinsic dimensions as the element. Other <canvas> elements are expected to
be treated as ordinary elements in the rendering model.
An <object> element that represents an image, plugin, or nested browsing context is expected to
be treated as a replaced element. Other <object> elements are expected to be treated as ordinary el-
ements in the rendering model.
An <applet> element that represents a plugin is expected to be treated as a replaced element. Other
<applet> elements are expected to be treated as ordinary elements in the rendering model.
The <audio> element, when it is exposing a user interface, is expected to be treated as a replaced
element about one line high, as wide as is necessary to expose the user agents user interface fea-
tures. When an <audio> element is not exposing a user interface, the user agent is expected to force
its display property to compute to none, irrespective of CSS rules.
Whether a <video> element is exposing a user interface is not expected to affect the size of the ren-
dering; controls are expected to be overlaid above the page content without causing any layout
changes, and are expected to disappear when the user does not need them.
When a <video> element represents a poster frame or frame of video, the poster frame or frame of
video is expected to be rendered at the largest size that maintains the aspect ratio of that poster
frame or frame of video without being taller or wider than the <video> element itself, and is ex-
pected to be centered in the <video> element.
Any subtitles or captions are expected to be overlayed directly on top of their <video> element, as
defined by the relevant rendering rules; for WebVTT, those are the rules for updating the display
of WebVTT text tracks. [WEBVTT]
When the user agent starts exposing a user interface for a <video> element, the user agent should
run the rules for updating the text track rendering of each of the text tracks in the <video> ele-
ments list of text tracks that are showing and whose text track kind is one of subtitles or
captions (e.g., for text tracks based on WebVTT, the rules for updating the display of WebVTT
text tracks). [WEBVTT]
NOTE:
Note: Resizing <video> and <canvas> elements does not interrupt video playback or clear the
canvas.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
10.4.2. Images
User agents are expected to render <img> elements and <input> elements whose type attributes are
in the Image Button state, according to the first applicable rules from the following list:
If the element does not represent an image, but the element already has intrinsic
dimensions (e.g., from the dimension attributes or CSS rules), and either:
the user agent has reason to believe that the image will become available and be
rendered in due course, or
The user agent is expected to treat the element as a replaced element whose content is
the text that the element represents, if any, optionally alongside an icon indicating that
the image is being obtained (if applicable). For <input> elements, the element is ex-
pected to appear button-like to indicate that the element is a button.
If the element is an <img> element that represents some text and the user agent does not
expect this to change
The user agent is expected to treat the element as a non-replaced phrasing element
whose content is the text, optionally with an icon indicating that an image is missing, so
that the user can request the image be displayed or investigate why it is not rendering. In
non-graphical contexts, such an icon should be omitted.
If the element is an <img> element that represents nothing and the user agent does not
expect this to change
The user agent is expected to treat the element as an empty inline element. (In the ab-
sence of further styles, this will cause the element to essentially not be rendered.)
If the element is an <input> element that does not represent an image and the user agent
does not expect this to change
The user agent is expected to treat the element as a replaced element consisting of a but-
ton whose content is the elements alternative text. The intrinsic dimensions of the but-
ton are expected to be about one line in height and whatever width is necessary to render
the text on one line.
The icons mentioned above are expected to be relatively small so as not to disrupt most text but be
easily clickable. In a visual environment, for instance, icons could be 16 pixels by 16 pixels
square, or 1em by 1em if the images are scalable. In an audio environment, the icon could be a
short bleep. The icons are intended to indicate to the user that they can be used to get to whatever
options the user agent provides for images, and, where appropriate, are expected to provide access
to the context menu that would have come up if the user interacted with the actual image.
All animated images with the same absolute URL and the same image data are expected to be ren-
dered synchronized to the same timeline as a group, with the timeline starting at the time of the
least recent addition to the group.
NOTE:
Note: In other words, when a second image with the same absolute URL and animated image
data is inserted into a document, it jumps to the point in the animation cycle that is currently
being displayed by the first image.
When a user agent is to restart the animation for an <img> element showing an animated image,
all animated images with the same absolute URL and the same image data in that <img> elements
node document are expected to restart their animation from the beginning.
The following CSS rules are expected to apply when the Document is in quirks mode:
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
object[align=bottom i] {
vertical-align: bottom;
}
When an <applet>, <embed>, <iframe>, <img>, or <object> element, or an <input> element whose
type attribute is in the Image Button state, has an align attribute whose value is an ASCII case-
insensitive match for the string "center" or the string "middle", the user agent is expected to act
as if the elements vertical-align property was set to a value that aligns the vertical middle of the
element with the parent elements baseline.
The hspace attribute of <applet>, <embed>, <iframe>, <img>, or <object> elements, and <input> el-
ements with a type attribute in the Image Button state, maps to the dimension properties
margin-left and margin-right on the element.
The vspace attribute of <applet>, <embed>, <iframe>, <img>, or <object> elements, and <input> el-
ements with a type attribute in the Image Button state, maps to the dimension properties
margin-top and margin-bottom on the element.
When an <img> element, <object> element, or <input> element with a type attribute in the Image
Button state has a border attribute whose value, when parsed using the rules for parsing non-
negative integers, is found to be a number greater than zero, the user agent is expected to use the
parsed value for eight presentational hints: four setting the parsed value as a pixel length for the el-
ements border-top-width, border-right-width, border-bottom-width, and border-left-width
properties, and four setting the elements border-top-style, border-right-style,
border-bottom-style, and border-left-style properties to the value solid.
The width and height attributes on <applet>, <embed>, <iframe>, <img>, <object> or <video> ele-
ments, and <input> elements with a type attribute in the Image Button state and that either repre-
sents an image or that the user expects will eventually represent an image, map to the dimension
properties width and height on the element respectively.
Shapes on an image map are expected to act, for the purpose of the CSS cascade, as elements inde-
pendent of the original <area> element that happen to match the same style rules but inherit from
the <img> or <object> element.
For the purposes of the rendering, only the cursor property is expected to have any effect on the
shape.
EXAMPLE 677
Thus, for example, if an <area> element has a style attribute that sets the cursor property to
help, then when the user designates that shape, the cursor would change to a Help cursor.
EXAMPLE 678
Similarly, if an <area> element had a CSS rule that set its cursor property to inherit (or if no
rule setting the cursor property matched the element at all), the shapes cursor would be in-
herited from the <img> or <object> element of the image map, not from the parent of the
<area> element.
10.5. Widgets
10.5.1. Introduction
Exactly how user agents render the elements in this section is not specified by this specification.
User agents are encouraged to set the appearance CSS property appropriately to achieve
platform-native appearances for widgets, and are expected to implement any relevant animations,
etc, that are appropriate for the platform. [CSSUI]
The <button> element is expected to render as an inline-block box rendered as a button whose
contents are the contents of the element.
When the <button> elements type attribute is in the Menu state, the user agent is expected to indi-
cate that activating the element will display a menu, e.g., by displaying a down-pointing triangle
after the buttons label.
The <details> element is expected to render as a block box. The elements shadow tree is ex-
pected to take the elements first child <summary> element, if any, and place it in a first block box
container, and then take the elements remaining descendants, if any, and place them in a second
block box container.
The first container is expected to allow the user to request the details be shown or hidden.
The second container is expected to be removed from the rendering when the <details> element
does not have an open attribute.
There are no specific rendering expecations for a <summary> element that is not the first child of its
parent <details> element
The <input> element whose type attribute is in the Text, Search, Telephone, URL, or E-mail
state, the element is expected to render as an inline-block box rendered as a text field. Addition-
ally, the line-height property, if it has a computed value equivalent to a value that is less than 1.0,
must have a used value of 1.0.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Password state, the element is expected to ren-
der as an inline-block box rendered as a text field whose contents are obscured.
If these text fields provide a text selection, then, when the user changes the current selection, the
user agent is expected to queue a task to fire a simple event that bubbles named select at the ele-
ment, using the user interaction task source as the task source.
If an <input> element whose type attribute is in one of the above states has a size attribute, and
parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing non-negative integers doesnt generate an
error, then the user agent is expected to use the attribute as a presentational hint for the width
property on the element, with the value obtained from applying the converting a character width to
pixels algorithm to the value of the attribute.
If an <input> element whose type attribute is in one of the above states does not have a size at-
tribute, then the user agent is expected to act as if it had a user-agent-level style sheet rule setting
the width property on the element to the value obtained from applying the converting a character
width to pixels algorithm to the number 20.
The converting a character width to pixels algorithm returns ( size -1) avg + max , where size
is the character width to convert, avg is the average character width of the primary font for the el-
ement for which the algorithm is being run, in pixels, and max is the maximum character width of
that same font, also in pixels. (The elements letter-spacing property does not affect the result.)
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Date and Time state, the element is expected
to render as an inline-block box depicting a Date and Time control.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Date state, the element is expected to render as
an inline-block box depicting a Date control.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Month state, the element is expected to render as
an inline-block box depicting a Month control.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Week state, the element is expected to render as
an inline-block box depicting a Week control.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Time state, the element is expected to render as
an inline-block box depicting a Time control.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Local Date and Time state, the element is ex-
pected to render as an inline-block box depicting a Local Date and Time control.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Number state, the element is expected to render
as an inline-block box depicting a Number control.
These controls are all expected to be about one line high, and about as wide as necessary to show
the widest possible value.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Range state, the element is expected to render as
an inline-block box depicting a slider control.
When the control is wider than it is tall (or square), the control is expected to be a horizontal slider,
with the lowest value on the right if the direction property on this element has a computed value
of rtl, and on the left otherwise. When the control is taller than it is wide, it is expected to be a
vertical slider, with the lowest value on the bottom.
Predefined suggested values (provided by the list attribute) are expected to be shown as tick
marks on the slider, which the slider can snap to.
User agents are expected to use the used value of the direction property on the element to deter-
mine the direction in which the slider operates. Typically, a left-to-right (ltr) horizontal control
would have the lowest value on the left and the highest value on the right, and vice versa.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Color state, the element is expected to render as
an inline-block box depicting a color well, which, when activated, provides the user with a color
picker (e.g., a color wheel or color palette) from which the color can be changed.
Predefined suggested values (provided by the list attribute) are expected to be shown in the color
picker interface, not on the color well itself.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Checkbox state, the element is expected to ren-
der as an inline-block box containing a single checkbox control, with no label.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Radio Button state, the element is expected to
render as an inline-block box containing a single radio button control, with no label.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the File Upload state, the element is expected to
render as an inline-block box containing a span of text giving the file name(s) of the selected
files, if any, followed by a button that, when activated, provides the user with a file picker from
which the selection can be changed.
An <input> element whose type attribute is in the Submit Button, Reset Button, or Button
state, the element is expected to render as an inline-block box rendered as a button, about one
line high, containing the contents of the elements value attribute, if any, or text derived from the
elements type attribute in a user-agent-defined (and probably locale-specific) fashion, if not.
The <marquee> element, while the element is turned on, the element is expected to render in an ani-
mated fashion according to its attributes as follows:
EXAMPLE 679
For example, if the direction attribute is left (the default), then the contents would
start such that their left edge are off the side of the right edge of the <marquee>'s content
area, and the contents would then slide up to the point where the left edge of the contents
are flush with the left inner edge of the <marquee>'s content area.
Once the animation has ended, the user agent is expected to increment the marquee current
loop index. If the element is still turned on after this, then the user agent is expected to restart
the animation.
EXAMPLE 680
For example, if the direction attribute is left (the default), then the contents would
start such that their left edge are off the side of the right edge of the <marquee>'s content
area, and the contents would then slide up to the point where the right edge of the con-
tents are flush with the left inner edge of the <marquee>'s content area.
Once the animation has ended, the user agent is expected to increment the marquee current
loop index. If the element is still turned on after this, then the user agent is expected to restart
the animation.
When the marquee current loop index is odd, slide the contents of the element in the opposite
direction than that described by the direction attribute as defined below, such that it begins
flush with the end side of the <marquee>, and ends flush with the start side of the <marquee>.
EXAMPLE 681
For example, if the direction attribute is left (the default), then the contents would
with their right edge flush with the right inner edge of the <marquee>'s content area, and
the contents would then slide up to the point where the left edge of the contents are flush
with the left inner edge of the <marquee>'s content area.
Once the animation has ended, the user agent is expected to increment the marquee current
loop index. If the element is still turned on after this, then the user agent is expected to con-
The direction attribute has the meanings described in the following table:
In any case, the animation should proceed such that there is a delay given by the marquee scroll
interval between each frame, and such that the content moves at most the distance given by the
marquee scroll distance with each frame.
When a <marquee> element has a bgcolor attribute set, the value is expected to be parsed using the
rules for parsing a legacy color value, and if that does not return an error, the user agent is ex-
pected to treat the attribute as a presentational hint setting the elements background-color prop-
erty to the resulting color.
The width and height attributes on a <marquee> element map to the dimension properties width
and height on the element respectively.
The intrinsic height of a <marquee> element with its direction attribute in the up or down states is
200 CSS pixels.
The vspace attribute of a <marquee> element maps to the dimension properties margin-top and
margin-bottom on the element. The hspace attribute of a <marquee> element maps to the dimen-
sion properties margin-left and margin-right on the element.
The overflow property on the <marquee> element is expected to be ignored; overflow is expected
to always be hidden.
The <meter> element is expected to render as an inline-block box with a height of "1em" and a
width of "5em", a vertical-align of "-0.2em", and with its contents depicting a gauge.
When the element is wider than it is tall (or square), the depiction is expected to be of a horizontal
gauge, with the minimum value on the right if the direction property on this element has a com-
puted value of rtl, and on the left otherwise. When the element is taller than it is wide, it is ex-
pected to depict a vertical gauge, with the minimum value on the bottom.
User agents are expected to use a presentation consistent with platform conventions for gauges, if
any.
NOTE:
Note: Requirements for what must be depicted in the gauge are included in the definition of the
<meter> element.
The <progress> element is expected to render as an inline-block box with a height of "1em"
and a width of "10em", and a vertical-align of "-0.2em".
When the element is wider than it is tall, the element is expected to be de-
picted as a horizontal progress bar, with the start on the right and the end
on the left if the direction property on this element has a computed value
of rtl, and with the start on the left and the end on the right otherwise.
When the element is taller than it is wide, it is expected to be depicted as a
vertical progress bar, with the lowest value on the bottom. When the element is square, it is ex-
pected to be depicted as a direction-independent progress widget (e.g., a circular progress ring).
User agents are expected to use a presentation consistent with platform conventions for progress
bars. In particular, user agents are expected to use different presentations for determinate and inde-
terminate progress bars. User agents are also expected to vary the presentation based on the dimen-
sions of the element.
EXAMPLE 682
For example, on some platforms for showing indeterminate progress there is a "spinner"
progress indicator with square dimensions, which could be used when the element is square,
and an indeterminate progress bar, which could be used when the element is wide.
NOTE:
Note: Requirements for how to determine if the progress bar is determinate or indeterminate,
and what progress a determinate progress bar is to show, are included in the definition of the
<progress> element.
A <select> element whose multiple attribute is present, the element is expected to render as a
A <select> element whose multiple attribute is absent, and the elements display size is greater
than 1, the element is expected to render as a single-select list box.
When the element renders as a list box, it is expected to render as an inline-block box whose
height is the height necessary to contain as many rows for items as given by the elements dis-
play size, or four rows if the attribute is absent, and whose width is the width of the selects la-
bels plus the width of a scrollbar.
A <select> element whose multiple attribute is absent, and the elements display size is 1, the el-
ement is expected to render as a one-line drop down box whose width is the width of the selects
labels.
In either case (list box or drop-down box), the elements items are expected to be the elements list
of options, with the elements <optgroup> element children providing headers for groups of options
where applicable.
An <option> element is expected to be rendered by displaying the elements label, indented under
its <optgroup> element if it has one.
The width of the selects labels is the wider of the width necessary to render the widest
<optgroup>, and the width necessary to render the widest <option> element in the elements list of
options (including its indent, if any).
If a <select> element contains a placeholder label option, the user agent is expected to render that
<option> in a manner that conveys that it is a label, rather than a valid option of the control. This
can include preventing the placeholder label option from being explicitly selected by the user.
When the placeholder label option's selectedness is true, the control is expected to be displayed in
a fashion that indicates that no valid option is currently selected.
User agents are expected to render the labels in a <select> in such a manner that any alignment re-
mains consistent whether the label is being displayed as part of the page or in a menu control.
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
The <textarea> element is expected to render as an inline-block box rendered as a multiline text
field. If this text field provides a selection, the user agent is expected to queue a task to fire a sim-
ple event that bubbles named select at the element, using the user interaction task source as the
task source.
If the element has a cols attribute, and parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing
non-negative integers doesnt generate an error, then the user agent is expected to use the attribute
as a presentational hint for the width property on the element, with the value being the textarea
effective width (as defined below). Otherwise, the user agent is expected to act as if it had a user-
agent-level style sheet rule setting the width property on the element to the textarea effective
width.
The textarea effective width of a <textarea> element is size avg + sbw , where size is the ele-
ments character width, avg is the average character width of the primary font of the element, in
CSS pixels, and sbw is the width of a scroll bar, in CSS pixels. (The elements letter-spacing
property does not affect the result.)
If the element has a rows attribute, and parsing that attributes value using the rules for parsing
non-negative integers doesnt generate an error, then the user agent is expected to use the attribute
as a presentational hint for the height property on the element, with the value being the textarea
effective height (as defined below). Otherwise, the user agent is expected to act as if it had a user-
agent-level style sheet rule setting the height property on the element to the textarea effective
height.
The textarea effective height of a <textarea> element is the height in CSS pixels of the number
of lines specified the elements character height, plus the height of a scrollbar in CSS pixels.
User agents are expected to apply the white-space CSS property to <textarea> elements. For his-
torical reasons, if the element has a wrap attribute whose value is an ASCII case-insensitive match
for the string "off", then the user agent is expected to treat the attribute as a presentational hint
setting the elements white-space property to pre.
User agent are expected to render <frameset> elements as a box with the height and width of the
viewport, with a surface rendered according to the following layout algorithm:
1. The cols and rows variables are lists of zero or more pairs consisting of a number and a unit,
the unit being one of percentage, relative, and absolute.
Use the rules for parsing a list of dimensions to parse the value of the elements cols at-
tribute, if there is one. Let cols be the result, or an empty list if there is no such attribute.
Use the rules for parsing a list of dimensions to parse the value of the elements rows at-
tribute, if there is one. Let rows be the result, or an empty list if there is no such attribute.
2. For any of the entries in cols or rows that have the number zero and the unit relative, change
the entrys number to one.
3. If cols has no entries, then add a single entry consisting of the value 1 and the unit relative to
cols .
If rows has no entries, then add a single entry consisting of the value 1 and the unit relative
to rows .
4. Invoke the algorithm defined below to convert a list of dimensions to a list of pixel values us-
ing cols as the input list, and the width of the surface that the <frameset> is being rendered
into, in CSS pixels, as the input dimension. Let sized cols be the resulting list.
Invoke the algorithm defined below to convert a list of dimensions to a list of pixel values us-
ing rows as the input list, and the height of the surface that the <frameset> is being rendered
into, in CSS pixels, as the input dimension. Let sized rows be the resulting list.
5. Split the surface into a grid of w h rectangles, where w is the number of entries in sized
cols and h is the number of entries in sized rows .
Size the columns so that each column in the grid is as many CSS pixels wide as the corre-
sponding entry in the sized cols list.
Size the rows so that each row in the grid is as many CSS pixels high as the corresponding
entry in the sized rows list.
6. Let children be the list of <frame> and <frameset> elements that are children of the
<frameset> element for which the algorithm was invoked.
7. For each row of the grid of rectangles created in the previous step, from top to bottom, run
these substeps:
1. For each rectangle in the row, from left to right, run these substeps:
1. If there are any elements left in children , take the first element in the list, and as-
sign it to the rectangle.
If this is a <frameset> element, then recurse the entire <frameset> layout algorithm
for that <frameset> element, with the rectangle as the surface.
2. If there are any elements left in children , remove the first element from children .
8. If the <frameset> element has a border, draw an outer set of borders around the rectangles, us-
For each rectangle, if there is an element assigned to that rectangle, and that element has a
border, draw an inner set of borders around that rectangle, using the elements frame border
color.
For each (visible) border that does not abut a rectangle that is assigned a <frame> element
with a noresize attribute (including rectangles in further nested <frameset> elements), the
user agent is expected to allow the user to move the border, resizing the rectangles within,
keeping the proportions of any nested <frameset> grids.
A <frameset> or <frame> element has a border if the following algorithm returns true:
1. If the element has a frameborder attribute whose value is not the empty string and
whose first character is either a U+0031 DIGIT ONE (1) character, a U+0079 LATIN
SMALL LETTER Y character (y), or a U+0059 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y character
(Y), then return true.
3. Otherwise, if the element has a parent element that is a <frameset> element, then return
true if that element has a border, and false if it does not.
The frame border color of a <frameset> or <frame> element is the color obtained from the
following algorithm:
1. If the element has a bordercolor attribute, and applying the rules for parsing a legacy
color value to that attributes value does not result in an error, then return the color so
obtained.
2. Otherwise, if the element has a parent element that is a <frameset> element, then return
the frame border color of that element.
The algorithm to convert a list of dimensions to a list of pixel values consists of the following
steps:
1. Let input list be the list of numbers and units passed to the algorithm.
Let output list be a list of numbers the same length as input list , all zero.
Entries in output list correspond to the entries in input list that have the same position.
3. Let count percentage be the number of entries in input list whose unit is percentage.
Let total percentage be the sum of all the numbers in input list whose unit is percentage.
Let count relative be the number of entries in input list whose unit is relative.
Let total relative be the sum of all the numbers in input list whose unit is relative.
Let count absolute be the number of entries in input list whose unit is absolute.
Let total absolute be the sum of all the numbers in input list whose unit is absolute.
4. If total absolute is greater than remaining space , then for each entry in input list whose unit
is absolute, set the corresponding value in output list to the number of the entry in input list
multiplied by remaining space and divided by total absolute . Then, set remaining space to
zero.
Otherwise, for each entry in input list whose unit is absolute, set the corresponding value in
output list to the number of the entry in input list . Then, decrement remaining space by to-
tal absolute .
5. If total percentage multiplied by the input dimension and divided by 100 is greater than re-
maining space , then for each entry in input list whose unit is percentage, set the correspond-
ing value in output list to the number of the entry in input list multiplied by remaining
space and divided by total percentage . Then, set remaining space to zero.
Otherwise, for each entry in input list whose unit is percentage, set the corresponding value
in output list to the number of the entry in input list multiplied by the input dimension and
divided by 100. Then, decrement remaining space by total percentage multiplied by the in-
put dimension and divided by 100.
6. For each entry in input list whose unit is relative, set the corresponding value in output list
to the number of the entry in input list multiplied by remaining space and divided by total
relative .
User agents working with integer values for frame widths (as opposed to user agents that can lay
frames out with subpixel accuracy) are expected to distribute the remainder first to the last entry
whose unit is relative, then equally (not proportionally) to each entry whose unit is percentage,
then equally (not proportionally) to each entry whose unit is absolute, and finally, failing all else,
to the last entry.
The contents of a <frame> element that does not have a <frameset> parent are expected to be ren-
dered as transparent black; the user agent is expected to not render the nested browsing context in
this case, and that nested browsing context is expected to have a viewport with zero width and zero
height.
User agents are expected to allow the user to control aspects of hyperlink activation and 4.10.21
Form submission, such as which browsing context is to be used for the subsequent navigation.
User agents are expected to allow users to discover the destination of hyperlinks and of forms be-
fore triggering their navigation.
User agents may allow users to navigate browsing contexts to the URLs indicated by the <cite> at-
tributes on <q>, <blockquote>, <ins>, and <del> elements.
User agents may surface hyperlinks created by <link> elements in their user interface.
NOTE:
Note: While <link> elements that create hyperlinks will match the :link or :visited pseudo-
classes, will react to clicks if visible, and so forth, this does not extend to any browser interface
constructs that expose those same links. Activating a link through the browsers interface,
rather than in the page itself, does not trigger click events and the like.
User agents are expected to expose the advisory information of elements upon user request, and to
make the user aware of the presence of such information.
On interactive graphical systems where the user can use a pointing device, this could take the form
of a tooltip. When the user is unable to use a pointing device, then the user agent is expected to
make the content available in some other fashion, e.g., by making the element a focusable area and
always displaying the advisory information of the currently focused element.
U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters are expected to cause line breaks in the tooltip; U+0009
CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters are expected to render as a non-zero horizontal
shift that lines up the next glyph with the next tab stop, with tab stops occurring at points that are
multiples of 8 times the width of a U+0020 SPACE character.
EXAMPLE 683
For example, a visual user agent could make elements with a title attribute focusable, and
could make any focused element with a title attribute show its tooltip under the element
while the element has focus. This would allow a user to tab around the document to find all the
advisory text.
EXAMPLE 684
As another example, a screen reader could provide an audio cue when reading an element with
a tooltip, with an associated key to read the last tooltip for which a cue was played.
The current text editing caret (i.e., the active range, if it is empty and in an editing host), if any, is
expected to act like an inline replaced element with the vertical dimensions of the caret and with
zero width for the purposes of the CSS rendering model.
NOTE:
Note: This means that even an empty block can have the caret inside it, and that when the caret
is in such an element, it prevents margins from collapsing through the element.
User agents are expected to honor the Unicode semantics of text that is exposed in user interfaces,
for example supporting the bidirectional algorithm in text shown in dialogs, title bars, pop-up
menus, and tooltips. Text from the contents of elements is expected to be rendered in a manner that
honors the directionality of the element from which the text was obtained. Text from attributes is
expected to be rendered in a manner that honours the directionality of the attribute.
EXAMPLE 685
Consider the following markup, which has Hebrew text asking for a programming language,
the languages being text for which a left-to-right direction is important given the punctuation
in some of their names:
If the <select> element was rendered as a drop down box, a correct rendering would ensure
that the punctuation was the same both in the drop down, and in the box showing the current
selection.
EXAMPLE 686
The directionality of attributes depends on the attribute and on the elements dir attribute, as
the following example demonstrates. Consider this markup:
<table>
<tr>
<th abbr="( "dir=ltr>A
<th abbr="( "dir=rtl>A
<th abbr="( "dir=auto>A
</table>
If the abbr attributes are rendered, e.g., in a tooltip or other user interface, the first will have a
left parenthesis (because the direction is ltr), the second will have a right parenthesis (be-
cause the direction is rtl), and the third will have a right parenthesis (because the direction is
determined from the attribute value to be rtl).
However, if instead the attribute was not a directionality-capable attribute, the results would be
different:
<table>
<tr>
<th>A
<th>A
<th>A
</table>
In this case, if the user agent were to expose the data-abbr attribute in the user interface (e.g.,
in a debugging environment), the last case would be rendered with a left parenthesis, because
the direction would be determined from the elements contents.
When necessary, authors can enforce a particular direction for a given paragraph by starting it with
the Unicode U+200E LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK or U+200F RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK characters.
EXAMPLE 687
Thus, the following script:
...would always result in a message reading "! HTML ( "not " HTML )"!, regard-
less of the language of the user agent interface or the direction of the page or any of its ele-
ments.
EXAMPLE 688
For a more complex example, consider the following script:
When the user enters "Kitty", the user agent would alert "Kitty! Ok, Fred, Kitty, and
Wilma will get the car.". However, if the user enters " %", then the bidirectional al-
gorithm will determine that the direction of the paragraph is right-to-left, and so the output will
be the following unintended mess:
".and Wilma will get the car , % ,Ok, Fred ! %"
To force an alert that starts with user-provided text (or other text of unknown directionality) to
render left-to-right, the string can be prefixed with a U+200E LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK char-
acter:
var s;
if (s = prompt('What is your name?')) {
alert('\u200E' + s + '! Ok, Fred, ' + s + ', and Wilma will get the
car.');
}
User agents are expected to allow the user to request the opportunity to obtain a physical form
(or a representation of a physical form) of a Document. For example, selecting the option to print
When the user actually obtains a physical form (or a representation of a physical form) of a
Document, the user agent is expected to create a new rendering of the Document for the print me-
dia.
HTML user agents may, in certain circumstances, find themselves rendering non-HTML docu-
ments that use vocabularies for which they lack any built-in knowledge. This section provides for
a way for user agents to handle such documents in a somewhat useful manner.
While a Document is an unstyled document, the user agent is expected to render an unstyled doc-
ument view.
The Document has no author style sheets (whether referenced by HTTP headers, processing
instructions, elements like <link>, inline elements like <style>, or any other mechanism).
None of the elements in the Document are in any of the following namespaces: HTML
namespace, SVG namespace, MathML namespace
The Document has no focusable area (e.g., from XLink) other than the viewport.
There exists no script whose settings object specifies this Document as the responsible docu-
ment.
None of the elements in the Document have any registered event listeners.
An unstyled document view is one where the DOM is not rendered according to CSS (which
would, since there are no applicable styles in this context, just result in a wall of text), but is in-
stead rendered in a manner that is useful for a developer. This could consist of just showing the
Document objects source, maybe with syntax highlighting, or it could consist of displaying just
the DOM tree, or simply a message saying that the page is not a styled document.
NOTE:
Note: If a Document stops being an unstyled document, then the conditions above stop apply-
ing, and thus a user agent following these requirements will switch to using the regular CSS
rendering.
Authors should not specify a border attribute on an <img> element. If the attribute is present, its
value must be the string "0". CSS should be used instead.
Authors should not specify a language attribute on a <script> element. If the attribute is present,
its value must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "JavaScript" and either the type
attribute must be omitted or its value must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string
"text/javascript". The attribute should be entirely omitted instead (with the value
"JavaScript", it has no effect), or replaced with use of the type attribute.
Authors should not specify the name attribute on <a> elements. If the attribute is present, its value
must not be the empty string and must neither be equal to the value of any of the IDs in the ele-
ments tree other than the elements own ID if any, nor be equal to the value of any of the other
name attributes on <a> elements in the elements tree. If this attribute is present and the element has
an ID, then the attributes value must be equal to the elements ID. In earlier versions of the lan-
guage, this attribute was intended as a way to specify possible targets for fragments in URLs. The
id attribute should be used instead.
Authors should not, but may despite requirements to the contrary elsewhere in this specification,
specify the maxlength and size attributes on <input> elements whose type attributes are in the
Number state. One valid reason for using these attributes regardless is to help legacy user agents
that do not support <input> elements with type="number" to still render the text control with a
useful width.
To ease the transition from HTML Transitional documents to the language defined in this specifi-
cation, and to discourage certain features that are only allowed in very few circumstances, confor-
mance checkers must warn the user when the following features are used in a document. These are
generally old obsolete features that have no effect, and are allowed only to distinguish between
likely mistakes (regular conformance errors) and mere vestigial markup or unusual and discour-
The presence of a border attribute on an <img> element if its value is the string "0".
The presence of a language attribute on a <script> element if its value is an ASCII case-
insensitive match for the string "JavaScript" and if there is no type attribute or there is and
its value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "text/javascript".
The presence of a name attribute on an <a> element, if its value is not the empty string.
The presence of a maxlength attribute on an <input> element whose type attribute is in the
Number state.
The presence of a size attribute on an <input> element whose type attribute is in the Number
state.
Conformance checkers must distinguish between pages that have no conformance errors and have
none of these obsolete features, and pages that have no conformance errors but do have some of
these obsolete features.
EXAMPLE 689
For example, a validator could report some pages as "Valid HTML" and others as "Valid
HTML with warnings".
Elements in the following list are entirely obsolete, and must not be used by authors:
applet
acronym
Use <abbr> instead.
bgsound
Use <audio> instead.
dir
Use <ul> instead.
frame
frameset
noframes
Either use <iframe> and CSS instead, or use server-side includes to generate complete pages
with the various invariant parts merged in.
isindex
Use an explicit <form> and text control combination instead.
listing
Use <pre> and <code> instead.
nextid
Use GUIDs instead.
noembed
Use <object> instead of <embed> when fallback is necessary.
plaintext
Use the "text/plain" MIME type instead.
<rb>
<rtc>
Providing the ruby base directly inside the <ruby> element or using nested <ruby> elements is
sufficient.
strike
Use del instead if the element is marking an edit, otherwise use s instead.
xmp
Use <pre> and <code> instead, and escape "<" and "&" characters as "<" and "&" re-
spectively.
basefont
big
blink
center
font
<marquee>
multicol
nobr
spacer
tt
Use appropriate elements or CSS instead.
Where the <tt> element would have been used for marking up keyboard input, consider the
<kbd> element; for variables, consider the <var> element; for computer code, consider the
<code> element; and for computer output, consider the <samp> element.
Similarly, if the <big> element is being used to denote a heading, consider using the h1 ele-
ment; if it is being used for marking up important passages, consider the <strong> element;
and if it is being used for highlighting text for reference purposes, consider the <mark> ele-
ment.
See also the text-level semantics usage summary for more suggestions with examples.
The following attributes are obsolete (though the elements are still part of the language), and must
not be used by authors:
Use the rel attribute instead, with an opposite term. (For example, instead of rev="made",
use rel="author".)
When used for triggering specific user agent behaviors: use a <link> element instead.
datasrc on <a>, <applet>, <button>, <div>, <frame>, <iframe>, <img>, <input>, <label>, <legend>,
<marquee>, <object>, <option>, <select>, <a>, <table>, and <textarea> elements
datafld on <a>, <applet>, <button>, <div>, <fieldset>, <frame>, <iframe>, <img>, <input>,
<label>, <legend>, <marquee>, <object>, <param>, <select>, <a>, and <textarea> elements
Use script and a mechanism such as XMLHttpRequest to populate the page dynamically.
[XHR]
This feature is in the process of being removed from the Web platform. (This is a long
process that takes many years.) Using the <applet> element at this time is highly dis-
couraged.
The <applet> element is a Java-specific variant of the <embed> element. The <applet> element is
now obsoleted so that all extension frameworks (Java, .NET, Flash, etc) are handled in a consistent
manner.
When the element matches any of the following conditions, it represents its contents:
The element is still in the stack of open elements of an HTML parser or XML parser.
The elements node document's active sandboxing flag set has its sandboxed plugins brows-
ing context flag set.
The element has an ancestor <object> element that is not showing its fallback content.
The Should element be blocked a priori by Content Security Policy? algorithm returns
"Blocked" when executed on the element. [CSP3]
Otherwise, the user agent should instantiate a Java Language runtime plugin, and should pass the
names and values of all the attributes on the element, in the order they were added to the element,
with the attributes added by the parser being ordered in source order, and then a parameter named
"PARAM" whose value is null, and then all the names and values of parameters given by <param>
elements that are children of the <applet> element, in tree order, to the plugin used. If the plugin
supports a scriptable interface, the HTMLAppletElement object representing the element should ex-
pose that interface. The <applet> element represents the plugin.
NOTE:
The <applet> element is unaffected by the CSS display property. The Java Language runtime
is instantiated even if the element is hidden with a 'display:none' CSS style.
The align, alt, archive, code, height, hspace, name, object, vspace, and width IDL attributes
must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. For the purposes of reflection, the
<applet> elements object content attribute is defined as containing a URL.
The codeBase IDL attribute must reflect the codebase content attribute, which for the purposes of
reflection is defined as containing a URL.
The <marquee> element is a presentational element that animates content. CSS transitions and ani-
mations are a more appropriate mechanism. [CSS3-ANIMATIONS] [CSS3-TRANSITIONS]
The task source for tasks mentioned in this section is the DOM manipulation task source.
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLMarqueeElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString behavior;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString bgColor;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString direction;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString height;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long hspace;
[CEReactions] attribute long loop;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long scrollAmount;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long scrollDelay;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean trueSpeed;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long vspace;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString width;
void start();
void stop();
};
A <marquee> element can be turned on or turned off. When it is created, it is turned on.
When the start() method is called, the <marquee> element must be turned on.
When the stop() method is called, the <marquee> element must be turned off.
When a <marquee> element is created, the user agent must queue a task to fire an event named
start at the element.
The behavior content attribute on <marquee> elements is an enumerated attribute with the follow-
ing keywords (all non-conforming):
Keyword State
scroll scroll
slide slide
alternate alternate
The direction content attribute on <marquee> elements is an enumerated attribute with the follow-
ing keywords (all non-conforming):
Keyword State
left left
right right
up up
down down
1. If the element has a scrolldelay attribute, and parsing its value using the rules for parsing
non-negative integers does not return an error, then let delay be the parsed value. Otherwise,
let delay be
85.
2. If the element does not have a truespeed attribute, and the delay value is less than 60, then
let delay be 60 instead.
A <marquee> element has a marquee scroll distance, which, if the element has a scrollamount
attribute, and parsing its value using the rules for parsing non-negative integers does not return an
error, is the parsed value interpreted in CSS pixels, and otherwise is 6 CSS pixels.
A <marquee> element has a marquee loop count, which, if the element has a loop content at-
tribute, and parsing its value using the rules for parsing integers does not return an error or a num-
ber less than 1, is the parsed value, and otherwise is -1.
The loop IDL attribute, on getting, must return the elements marquee loop count; and on setting,
if the new value is different than the elements marquee loop count and either greater than zero or
equal to -1, must set the elements loop content attribute (adding it if necessary) to the valid inte-
ger that represents the new value. (Other values are ignored.)
A <marquee> element also has a marquee current loop index, which is zero when the element is
created.
The rendering layer will occasionally increment the marquee current loop index, which must
cause the following steps to be run:
3. If the marquee current loop index is now equal to or greater than the elements marquee loop
count, turn off the <marquee> element and queue a task to fire an event named finish at the
<marquee> element.
Otherwise, if the behavior attribute is in the alternate state, then queue a task to fire an
event named bounce at the <marquee> element.
Otherwise, queue a task to fire an event named start at the <marquee> element.
The following are the event handlers (and their corresponding event handler event types) that must
be supported, as event handler content attributes and event handler IDL attributes, by <marquee> el-
ements:
onbounce bounce
onfinish finish
onstart start
The behavior, direction, height, hspace, vspace, and width IDL attributes must reflect the re-
spective content attributes of the same name.
The bgColor IDL attribute must reflect the bgcolor content attribute.
The scrollAmount IDL attribute must reflect the scrollamount content attribute. The default
value is 6.
The scrollDelay IDL attribute must reflect the scrolldelay content attribute. The default value
is 85.
The trueSpeed IDL attribute must reflect the truespeed content attribute.
11.3.3. Frames
The frameset element acts as the <body> element in documents that use frames.
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLFrameSetElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString cols;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString rows;
};
HTMLFrameSetElement implements WindowEventHandlers;
The cols and rows content attributes for the <frameset> element.
The cols and rows IDL attributes of the <frameset> element must reflect the respective content at-
tributes of the same name.
The <frameset> element exposes as event handler content attributes a number of the event han-
dlers of the Window object. It also mirrors their event handler IDL attributes.
The onblur, onerror, onfocus, onload, onresize, and onscroll event handlers of the Window
object, exposed on the <frameset> element, replace the generic event handlers with the same
names normally supported by HTML elements.
The frame element defines a nested browsing context similar to the <iframe> element, but ren-
dered within a <frameset> element.
When a <frame> element is created as an active frame element, or becomes an active frame ele-
ment after not having been one, the user agent must create a new browsing context, set the ele-
ments nested browsing context to the newly-created browsing context, and then process the frame
attributes for the first time. If the element has a name attribute, the browsing context name must be
set to the value of this attribute; otherwise, the browsing context name must be set to the empty
string.
When a <frame> element stops being an active frame element, the user agent must discard the ele-
ments nested browsing context, and then set the elements nested browsing context to null..
Whenever a <frame> element with a non-null nested browsing context has its src attribute set,
changed, or removed, the user agent must process the frame attributes.
When the user agent is to process the <frame> attributes, it must run the first appropriate steps
from the following list:
If the element has no src attribute specified, and the user agent is processing the
<frame>'s attributes for the first time
Otherwise
Run the otherwise steps for iframe or frame elements.
Any navigation required of the user agent in the process the frame attributes algorithm must use
the <frame> elements node document's browsing context as the source browsing context.
Furthermore, if the active document of the elements nested browsing context before such a navi-
gation was not completely loaded at the time of the new navigation, then the navigation must be
completed with replacement enabled.
Similarly, if the nested browsing context's session history contained only one Document when the
process the frame attributes algorithm was invoked, and that was the about:blank Document
created when the nested browsing context was created, then any navigation required of the user
agent in that algorithm must be completed with replacement enabled.
When a Document in a <frame> is marked as completely loaded, the user agent must queue a task
to fire an event named load at the <frame> element.
The task source for the tasks above is the DOM manipulation task source.
When a <frame> elements has a non-null nested browsing context, and its nested browsing con-
text's active document is not ready for post-load tasks, and when anything is delaying the load
event of the <frame> elements browsing context's active document, and when the <frame> ele-
ments browsing context is in the delaying load events mode, the <frame> must delay the load
event of its document.
Whenever the <name attribute is set and the <frame> elements nested browsing context is non-null,
the nested browsing context's name must be changed to the new value. If the attribute is removed,
the browsing context name must be set to the empty string.
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLFrameElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString name;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString scrolling;
[CEReactions] attribute USVString src;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString frameBorder;
[CEReactions] attribute USVString longDesc;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean noResize;
readonly attribute Document? contentDocument;
readonly attribute WindowProxy? contentWindow;
The name, scrolling, and src IDL attributes of the <frame> element must reflect the respective
content attributes of the same name. For the purposes of reflection, the <frame> elements src con-
tent attribute is defined as containing a URL.
The frameBorder IDL attribute of the <frame> element must reflect the elements frameborder
content attribute.
The longDesc IDL attribute of the <frame> element must reflect the elements longdesc content
attribute, which for the purposes of reflection is defined as containing a URL.
The noResize IDL attribute of the <frame> element must reflect the elements noresize content
attribute.
The contentDocument IDL attribute, on getting, must return the content document.
The contentWindow IDL attribute must return the WindowProxy object of the <frame> elements
nested browsing context, if the elements nested browsing context is non-null, or return null other-
wise.
The marginHeight IDL attribute of the <frame> element must reflect the elements marginheight
content attribute.
The marginWidth IDL attribute of the <frame> element must reflect the elements marginwidth
content attribute.
User agents must treat <acronym> elements in a manner equivalent to <abbr> elements in terms of
semantics and for purposes of rendering.
The coords, charset, name, and shape IDL attributes of the <th> element must reflect the respec-
tive content attributes of the same name.
The noHref IDL attribute of the <area> element must reflect the elements nohref content at-
tribute.
The text IDL attribute of the <body> element must reflect the elements text content attribute.
The link IDL attribute of the <body> element must reflect the elements link content attribute.
The aLink IDL attribute of the <body> element must reflect the elements alink content attribute.
The vLink IDL attribute of the <body> element must reflect the elements vlink content attribute.
The bgColor IDL attribute of the <body> element must reflect the elements bgcolor content at-
tribute.
The background IDL attribute of the <body> element must reflect the elements background con-
tent attribute. (The background content is not defined to contain a URL, despite rules regarding its
handling in the Rendering section above.)
The clear IDL attribute of the <br> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The align IDL attribute of the <caption> element must reflect the content attribute of the same
name.
The align and width IDL attributes of the <col> element must reflect the respective content at-
tributes of the same name.
The ch IDL attribute of the <col> element must reflect the elements char content attribute.
The chOff IDL attribute of the <col> element must reflect the elements charoff content attribute.
The vAlign IDL attribute of the <col> element must reflect the elements valign content attribute.
User agents must treat <dir> elements in a manner equivalent to ul elements in terms of semantics
and for purposes of rendering.
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLDirectoryElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions] attribute boolean compact;
};
The compact IDL attribute of the <dir> element must reflect the content attribute of the same
name.
The align IDL attribute of the <div> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The compact IDL attribute of the <dl> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The name and align IDL attributes of the <embed> element must reflect the respective content at-
tributes of the same name.
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLFontElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions, TreatNullAs=EmptyString] attribute DOMString color;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString face;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString size;
};
The color, face, and size IDL attributes of the <font> element must reflect the respective con-
tent attributes of the same name.
The align IDL attribute of the <h1><h6> elements must reflect the content attribute of the same
name.
NOTE:
The profile IDL attribute on <head> elements (with the HTMLHeadElement interface) is in-
tentionally omitted. Unless so required by another applicable specification, implementations
would therefore not support this attribute. (It is mentioned here as it was defined in a previous
version of the DOM specifications.)
The align, color, size, and width IDL attributes of the <hr> element must reflect the respective
content attributes of the same name.
The noShade IDL attribute of the <hr> element must reflect the elements noshade content at-
tribute.
The version IDL attribute of the <html> element must reflect the content attribute of the same
name.
The align and scrolling IDL attributes of the <iframe> element must reflect the respective con-
tent attributes of the same name.
The frameBorder IDL attribute of the <iframe> element must reflect the elements frameborder
content attribute.
The longDesc IDL attribute of the <iframe> element must reflect the elements longdesc content
attribute, which for the purposes of reflection is defined as containing a URL.
The marginHeight IDL attribute of the <iframe> element must reflect the elements
marginheight content attribute.
The marginWidth IDL attribute of the <iframe> element must reflect the elements marginwidth
content attribute.
The name, align, border, hspace, and vspace IDL attributes of the <img> element must reflect the
respective content attributes of the same name.
The lowsrc IDL attribute of the <img> element must reflect the elements lowsrc content attribute,
which for the purposes of reflection is defined as containing a URL.
The align IDL attribute of the <input> element must reflect the content attribute of the same
name.
The useMap IDL attribute of the <input> element must reflect the elements usemap content at-
tribute.
The align IDL attribute of the <legend> element must reflect the content attribute of the same
name.
The type IDL attribute of the <li> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The charset and target IDL attributes of the <link> element must reflect the respective content
attributes of the same name.
User agents must treat <listing> elements in a manner equivalent to pre elements in terms of se-
mantics and for purposes of rendering.
The compact IDL attribute of the <menu> element must reflect the content attribute of the same
name.
User agents may treat the scheme content attribute on the <meta> element as an extension of the el-
ements name content attribute when processing a <meta> element with a name attribute whose
value is one that the user agent recognizes as supporting the scheme attribute.
User agents are encouraged to ignore the scheme attribute and instead process the value given to
the metadata name as if it had been specified for each expected value of the scheme attribute.
EXAMPLE 690
For example, if the user agent acts on <meta> elements with name attributes having the value
"eGMS.subject.keyword", and knows that the scheme attribute is used with this metadata
name, then it could take the scheme attribute into account, acting as if it was an extension of
the name attribute. Thus the following two <meta> elements could be treated as two elements
giving values for two different metadata names, one consisting of a combination of
"eGMS.subject.keyword" and "LGCL", and the other consisting of a combination of
"eGMS.subject.keyword" and "ORLY":
The suggested processing of this markup, however, would be equivalent to the following:
The scheme IDL attribute of the <meta> element must reflect the content attribute of the same
name.
The align, archive, border, code, declare, hspace, standby, and vspace IDL attributes of the
<object> element must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.
The codeBase IDL attribute of the <object> element must reflect the elements codebase content
attribute, which for the purposes of reflection is defined as containing a URL.
The codeType IDL attribute of the <object> element must reflect the elements codetype content
attribute.
The compact IDL attribute of the <ol> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The align IDL attribute of the <p> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The type IDL attribute of the <param> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The valueType IDL attribute of the <param> element must reflect the elements valuetype content
attribute.
User agents must treat <plaintext> elements in a manner equivalent to pre elements in terms of
semantics and for purposes of rendering. (The parser has special behavior for this element,
though.)
The width IDL attribute of the <pre> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The event IDL attribute of the <script> element must reflect the elements event content at-
tribute.
The htmlFor IDL attribute of the <script> element must reflect the elements for content at-
tribute.
The align, border, frame, summary, rules, and width, IDL attributes of the <table> element
must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.
The bgColor IDL attribute of the <table> element must reflect the elements bgcolor content at-
tribute.
The cellPadding IDL attribute of the <table> element must reflect the elements cellpadding
content attribute.
The cellSpacing IDL attribute of the <table> element must reflect the elements cellspacing
content attribute.
The align IDL attribute of the <tbody>, <thead>, and <tfoot> elements must reflect the content at-
tribute of the same name.
The ch IDL attribute of the <tbody>, <thead>, and <tfoot> elements must reflect the elements'
char content attributes.
The chOff IDL attribute of the <tbody>, <thead>, and <tfoot> elements must reflect the elements'
charoff content attributes.
The vAlign IDL attribute of the <tbody>, <thead>, and <tfoot> element must reflect the elements'
valign content attributes.
The align, axis, height, and width IDL attributes of the <td> and <th> elements must reflect the
respective content attributes of the same name.
The ch IDL attribute of the <td> and <th> elements must reflect the elements' char content at-
tributes.
The chOff IDL attribute of the <td> and <th> elements must reflect the elements' charoff content
attributes.
The noWrap IDL attribute of the <td> and <th> elements must reflect the elements' nowrap content
attributes.
The vAlign IDL attribute of the <td> and <th> elements must reflect the elements' valign content
attributes.
The bgColor IDL attribute of the <td> and <th> elements must reflect the elements' bgcolor con-
tent attributes.
The align IDL attribute of the <tr> element must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
The ch IDL attribute of the <tr> element must reflect the elements char content attribute.
The chOff IDL attribute of the <tr> element must reflect the elements charoff content attribute.
The vAlign IDL attribute of the <tr> element must reflect the elements valign content attribute.
The bgColor IDL attribute of the <tr> element must reflect the elements bgcolor content at-
tribute.
The compact and type IDL attributes of the <ul> element must reflect the respective content at-
tributes of the same name.
User agents must treat <xmp> elements in a manner equivalent to <pre> elements in terms of seman-
tics and for purposes of rendering. (The parser has special behavior for this element though.)
void clear();
void captureEvents();
void releaseEvents();
The attributes of the Document object listed in the first column of the following table must reflect
the content attribute on the <body> element with the name given in the corresponding cell in the
second column on the same row, if the <body> element is a <body> element (as opposed to a
<frameset> element). When there is no <body> element or if it is a <frameset> element, the at-
tributes must instead return the empty string on getting and do nothing on setting.
fgColor text
linkColor link
vlinkColor vlink
alinkColor alink
bgColor bgcolor
The anchors attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose fil-
ter matches only <a> elements with name attributes.
The applets attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose fil-
ter matches only <applet> elements.
The all attribute must return an HTMLAllCollection rooted at the Document node, whose fil-
ter matches all elements.
The user agent must act as if the ToBoolean abstract operator in JavaScript converts the ob-
ject returned for all to the false value.
The user agent must act as if the Abstract Equality Comparison algorithm, when given the ob-
ject returned for all, returns true when compared to the undefined and null values. (Com-
parisons using the Strict Equality Comparison algorithm, and Abstract Equality comparisons
to other values such as strings or objects, are unaffected.)
The user agent must act such that the typeof operator in JavaScript returns the string
undefined when applied to the object returned for all.
NOTE:
These requirements are a willful violation of the JavaScript specification current at the time of
writing. The JavaScript specification requires that ToBoolean return true for all objects to the
true value, and does not have provisions for objects acting as if they were undefined for the
purposes of certain operators. This violation is motivated by a desire for compatibility with
two classes of legacy content: one that uses the presence of document.all as a way to detect
legacy user agents, and one that only supports those legacy user agents and uses the
document.all object without testing for its presence first. [ECMA-262]
The external attribute of the Window interface must return an instance of the External inter-
face:
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface External {
void AddSearchProvider();
void IsSearchProviderInstalled();
};
11.3.4.1. Plugins
Warning! This feature is in the process of being removed from the Web platform.
(This is a long process that takes many years.) Using the plugins API at this time is
highly discouraged.
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface NavigatorPlugins {
[SameObject] readonly attribute PluginArray plugins;
[SameObject] readonly attribute MimeTypeArray mimeTypes;
boolean javaEnabled();
};
interface PluginArray {
void refresh(optional boolean reload = false);
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter Plugin? item(unsigned long index);
getter Plugin? namedItem(DOMString name);
};
interface MimeTypeArray {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter MimeType? item(unsigned long index);
getter MimeType? namedItem(DOMString name);
};
interface Plugin {
readonly attribute DOMString name;
readonly attribute DOMString description;
readonly attribute DOMString filename;
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter MimeType? item(unsigned long index);
getter MimeType? namedItem(DOMString name);
};
interface MimeType {
readonly attribute DOMString type;
readonly attribute DOMString description;
readonly attribute DOMString suffixes; // comma-separated
readonly attribute Plugin enabledPlugin;
};
A PluginArray object represents none, some, or all of the plugins supported by the user agent,
each of which is represented by a Plugin object. Each of these Plugin objects may be hidden
plugins. A hidden plugin cant be enumerated, but can still be inspected by using its name.
NOTE:
The fewer plugins are represented by the PluginArray object, and of those, the more that are
hidden, the more the users privacy will be protected. Each exposed plugin increases the num-
ber of bits that can be derived for fingerprinting. Hiding a plugin helps, but unless it is an ex-
tremely rare plugin, it is likely that a site attempting to derive the list of plugins can still deter-
mine whether the plugin is supported or not by probing for it by name (the names of popular
plugins are widely known). Therefore not exposing a plugin at all is preferred. Unfortunately,
many legacy sites use this feature to determine, for example, which plugin to use to play video.
Not exposing any plugins at all might therefore not be entirely plausible.
The PluginArray objects created by a user agent must not be live. The set of plugins represented
by the objects must not change once an object is created, except when it is updated by the
refresh() method.
Each plugin represented by a PluginArray can support a number of MIME types. For each such
plugin, the user agent must pick one or more of these MIME types to be those that are explicitly
supported.
NOTE:
The explicitly supported MIME types of a plugin are those that are exposed through the
Plugin and MimeTypeArray interfaces. As with plugins themselves, any variation between
users regarding what is exposed allows sites to fingerprint users. User agents are therefore en-
couraged to expose the same MIME types for all users of a plugin, regardless of the actual
types supported... at least, within the constraints imposed by compatibility with legacy content.
The supported property indices of a PluginArray object are the numbers from zero to the number
of non-hidden plugins represented by the object, if any.
The length attribute must return the number of non-hidden plugins represented by the object.
The item() method of a PluginArray object must return null if the argument is not one of the ob-
jects supported property indices, and otherwise must return the result of running the following
steps, using the methods argument as index :
1. Let list be the Plugin objects representing the non-hidden plugins represented by the
PluginArray object.
NOTE:
It is important for privacy that the order of plugins not leak additional information, e.g., the
order in which plugins were installed.
The supported property names of a PluginArray object are the values of the name attributes of all
the Plugin objects represented by the PluginArray object. The properties exposed in this way
must be unenumerable.
The namedItem() method of a PluginArray object must return null if the argument is not one of
the objects supported property names, and otherwise must return the Plugin object, of those rep-
resented by the PluginArray object, that has a name equal to the methods argument.
The refresh() method of the PluginArray object of a Navigator object, when invoked, must
check to see if any plugins have been installed or reconfigured since the user agent created the
PluginArray object. If so, and the methods argument is true, then the user agent must act as if the
location.reload() method was called instead. Otherwise, the user agent must update the
PluginArray object and MimeTypeArray object created for attributes of that Navigator object,
and the Plugin and MimeType objects created for those PluginArray and MimeTypeArray objects,
using the same Plugin objects for cases where the name is the same, and the same MimeType ob-
jects for cases where the type is the same, and creating new objects for cases where there were no
matching objects immediately prior to the refresh() call. Old Plugin and MimeType objects must
continue to return the same values that they had prior to the update, though naturally now the data
is stale and may appear inconsistent (for example, an old MimeType entry might list as its
enabledPlugin a Plugin object that no longer lists that MimeType as a supported MimeType).
A MimeTypeArray object represents the MIME types explicitly supported by plugins supported by
the user agent, each of which is represented by a MimeType object.
The MimeTypeArray objects created by a user agent must not be live. The set of MIME types rep-
resented by the objects must not change once an object is created, except when it is updated by the
PluginArray objects refresh() method.
The supported property indices of a MimeTypeArray object are the numbers from zero to the num-
ber of MIME types explicitly supported by non-hidden plugins represented by the corresponding
PluginArray object, if any.
The length attribute must return the number of MIME types explicitly supported by non-hidden
plugins represented by the corresponding PluginArray object, if any.
The item() method of a MimeTypeArray object must return null if the argument is not one of the
objects supported property indices, and otherwise must return the result of running the following
1. Let list be the MimeType objects representing the MIME types explicitly supported by non-
hidden plugins represented by the corresponding PluginArray object, if any.
NOTE:
It is important for privacy that the order of MIME types not leak additional information, e.g.,
the order in which plugins were installed.
The supported property names of a MimeTypeArray object are the values of the type attributes of
all the MimeType objects represented by the MimeTypeArray object. The properties exposed in this
way must be unenumerable.
The namedItem() method of a MimeTypeArray object must return null if the argument is not one
of the objects supported property names, and otherwise must return the MimeType object that has a
type equal to the methods argument.
A Plugin object represents a plugin. It has several attributes to provide details about the plugin,
and can be enumerated to obtain the list of MIME types that it explicitly supports.
The Plugin objects created by a user agent must not be live. The set of MIME types represented
by the objects, and the values of the objects' attributes, must not change once an object is created,
except when updated by the PluginArray objects refresh() method.
The reported MIME types for a Plugin object are the MIME types explicitly supported by the
corresponding plugin when this object was last created or updated by PluginArray.refresh(),
whichever happened most recently.
The supported property indices of a Plugin object are the numbers from zero to the number of re-
ported MIME types.
The length attribute must return the number of reported MIME types.
The item() method of a Plugin object must return null if the argument is not one of the objects
supported property indices, and otherwise must return the result of running the following steps, us-
ing the methods argument as index :
1. Let list be the MimeType objects representing the reported MIME types.
NOTE:
It is important for privacy that the order of MIME types not leak additional information, e.g.,
the order in which plugins were installed.
The supported property names of a Plugin object are the values of the type attributes of the
MimeType objects representing the reported MIME types. The properties exposed in this way must
be unenumerable.
The namedItem() method of a Plugin object must return null if the argument is not one of the ob-
jects supported property names, and otherwise must return the MimeType object that has a type
equal to the methods argument.
The description and filename attributes must return user-agent-defined (or, in all likelihood,
plugin-defined) strings. In each case, the same string must be returned each time, except that the
strings returned may change when the PluginArray.refresh() method updates the object.
Warning! If the values returned by the description or filename attributes vary be-
tween versions of a plugin, they can be used both as a fingerprinting vector and, even
more importantly, as a trivial way to determine what security vulnerabilities a plugin
(and thus a browser) may have. It is thus highly recommended that the description at-
tribute just return the same value as the name attribute, and that the filename attribute
return the empty string.
A MimeType object represents a MIME type that is, or was, explicitly supported by a plugin.
The MimeType objects created by a user agent must not be live. The values of the objects' attributes
must not change once an object is created, except when updated by the PluginArray objects
refresh() method.
The type attribute must return the valid MIME type with no parameters describing the MIME
type.
The description and suffixes attributes must return user-agent-defined (or, in all likelihood,
plugin-defined) strings. In each case, the same string must be returned each time, except that the
strings returned may change when the PluginArray.refresh() method updates the object.
Warning! If the values returned by the description or suffixes attributes vary be-
tween versions of a plugin, they can be used both as a fingerprinting vector and, even
more importantly, as a trivial way to determine what security vulnerabilities a plugin
(and thus a browser) may have. It is thus highly recommended that the description at-
tribute just return the same value as the type attribute, and that the suffixes attribute
return the empty string.
NOTE:
Commas in the suffixes attribute are interpreted as separating subsequent filename exten-
sions, as in "htm,html".
The enabledPlugin attribute must return the Plugin object that represents the plugin that explic-
itly supported the MIME type that this MimeType object represents when this object was last cre-
ated or updated by PluginArray.refresh(), whichever happened most recently.
The javaEnabled() attribute must return true if the user agent supports a plugin that supports the
MIME type "application/x-java-vm"; otherwise it must return false.
12.1. text/html
This registration is for community review and will be submitted to the IESG for review, approval,
and registration with IANA.
Type name:
text
Subtype name:
html
Required parameters:
No required parameters
Optional parameters:
charset
The charset parameter may be provided to specify the documents character encoding,
overriding any character encoding declarations in the document other than a Byte Order
Mark (BOM). The parameters value must be one of the labels of the character encoding
used to serialize the file. [ENCODING]
Encoding considerations:
8bit (see the section on character encoding declarations)
Security considerations:
Entire novels have been written about the security considerations that apply to HTML docu-
ments. Many are listed in this document, to which the reader is referred for more details.
Some general concerns bear mentioning here, however:
HTML is scripted language, and has a large number of APIs (some of which are described in
this document). Script can expose the user to potential risks of information leakage, credential
leakage, cross-site scripting attacks, cross-site request forgeries, and a host of other problems.
While the designs in this specification are intended to be safe if implemented correctly, a full
implementation is a massive undertaking and, as with any software, user agents are likely to
have security bugs.
Even without scripting, there are specific features in HTML which, for historical reasons, are
required for broad compatibility with legacy content but that expose the user to unfortunate
security problems. In particular, the <img> element can be used in conjunction with some
other features as a way to effect a port scan from the users location on the Internet. This can
expose local network topologies that the attacker would otherwise not be able to determine.
It is critical, therefore, to ensure that any untrusted content that forms part of a site be hosted
on a different origin than any sensitive content on that site. Untrusted content can easily spoof
any other page on the same origin, read data from that origin, cause scripts in that origin to
execute, submit forms to and from that origin even if they are protected from cross-site re-
quest forgery attacks by unique tokens, and make use of any third-party resources exposed to
or rights granted to that origin.
Interoperability considerations:
Rules for processing both conforming and non-conforming content are defined in this specifi-
cation.
Published specification:
This document is the relevant specification. Labeling a resource with the text/html type as-
serts that the resource is an HTML document using the HTML syntax.
Additional information:
Magic number(s):
No sequence of bytes can uniquely identify an HTML document. More information on
detecting HTML documents is available in the MIME Sniffing specification.
[MIMESNIFF]
File extension(s):
"html" and "htm" are commonly, but certainly not exclusively, used as the extension for
HTML documents.
Macintosh file type code(s):
TEXT
Intended usage:
Common
Restrictions on usage:
No restrictions apply.
Authors:
Alex Danilo <[email protected]>
Change controller:
W3C
Fragments used with text/html resources either refer to the indicated part of the document or
provide state information for in-page scripts.
12.2. multipart/x-mixed-replace
This registration is for community review and will be submitted to the IESG for review, approval,
and registration with IANA.
Type name:
multipart
Subtype name:
x-mixed-replace
Required parameters:
Optional parameters:
No optional parameters.
Encoding considerations:
binary
Security considerations:
Subresources of a multipart/x-mixed-replace resource can be of any type, including types
with non-trivial security implications such as text/html.
Interoperability considerations:
None.
Published specification:
This specification describes processing rules for Web browsers. Conformance requirements
for generating resources with this type are the same as for multipart/mixed. [RFC2046]
Additional information:
Magic number(s):
No sequence of bytes can uniquely identify a multipart/x-mixed-replace resource.
File extension(s):
No specific file extensions are recommended for this type.
Macintosh file type code(s):
No specific Macintosh file type codes are recommended for this type.
Intended usage:
Common
Restrictions on usage:
No restrictions apply.
Author:
Ian Hickson <[email protected]>
Change controller:
W3C
Fragments used with multipart/x-mixed-replace resources apply to each body part as defined
by the type used by that body part.
12.3. application/xhtml+xml
This registration is for community review and will be submitted to the IESG for review, approval,
and registration with IANA.
Type name:
application
Subtype name:
xhtml+xml
Required parameters:
Same as for application/xml [RFC7303]
Optional parameters:
Same as for application/xml [RFC7303]
Encoding considerations:
Same as for application/xml [RFC7303]
Security considerations:
Same as for application/xml [RFC7303]
Interoperability considerations:
Same as for application/xml [RFC7303]
Published specification:
Labeling a resource with the application/xhtml+xml type asserts that the resource is an
XML document that likely has a document element from the HTML namespace. Thus, the
relevant specifications are the XML specification, the Namespaces in XML specification, and
this specification. [XML] [XPTR-XMLNS]
Additional information:
Magic number(s):
Same as for application/xml [RFC7303]
File extension(s):
"xhtml" and "xht" are sometimes used as extensions for XML resources that have a
document element from the HTML namespace.
Macintosh file type code(s):
TEXT
Intended usage:
Common
Restrictions on usage:
No restrictions apply.
Author:
Ian Hickson <[email protected]>
Change controller:
W3C
Fragments used with application/xhtml+xml resources have the same semantics as with any
XML MIME type. [RFC7303]
This section describes a convention for use with the IANA URI scheme registry. It does not itself
register a specific scheme. [RFC7595]
Scheme name:
Schemes starting with the four characters "web+" followed by one or more letters in the range
a-z.
Status:
Permanent
Scheme syntax:
Scheme-specific.
Scheme semantics:
Scheme-specific.
Encoding considerations:
All "web+" schemes should use UTF-8 encodings where relevant.
Interoperability considerations:
The scheme is expected to be used in the context of Web applications.
Security considerations:
Any Web page is able to register a handler for all "web+" schemes. As such, these schemes
must not be used for features intended to be core platform features (e.g., network transfer pro-
tocols like HTTP or FTP). Similarly, such schemes must not store confidential information in
their URLs, such as usernames, passwords, personal information, or confidential project
names.
Contact:
Ian Hickson <[email protected]>
Change controller:
Ian Hickson <[email protected]>
References:
Custom scheme and content handlers, HTML Living Standard: https://html.spec.whatwg.org
/#custom-handlers
Index
abort the parser, in 8.2.6 active flag was set when the script started, in
4.7.13.11.5
abort the script, in 7.1.3.6
active frame element, in 11.3.3
about:, in 2.2.2
active parser, in 3.1.2
about:blank, in 2.2.2
active range, in 5.6.4
about:html-kind, in 2.5.1
active sandboxing flag set, in 6.5
about:legacy-compat, in 2.5.1
actually disabled, in 4.14
about:srcdoc, in 2.5.1
actual value, in 4.10.14
about-to-be-notified rejected promises list, in
7.1.3.1 add()
method for HTMLSelectElement, in 4.10.7
a browsing context is discarded, in 6.3.4
method for DataTransferItemList, in 5.7.3.1
absolute-anchored, in 4.11.7
addCue(cue), in 4.7.13.11.5
accept
attribute for HTMLInputElement, in 4.10.5 add(data), in 5.7.3.1
8.2.4.39 4.10.5
close() colno
method for HTMLDialogElement, in 4.11.7 dict-member for ErrorEventInit, in 7.1.3.9.2
method for Window, in 6.3.1 attribute for ErrorEvent, in 7.1.3.9.2
col command
(element), in 4.9.4 attr-value for menuitem/type, in 4.11.4
create a drag data store, in 5.7.2 crop bitmap data to the source rectangle, in
7.8
create a module script, in 7.1.3.3
cropped to the source rectangle, in 7.8
create an element for the token, in 8.2.5.1
crossorigin
create a new browsing context, in 6.1
element-attr for link, in 4.2.4
create a potential-CORS request, in 2.6.1
element-attr for img, in 4.7.5
create a script, in 7.1.3.3 element-attr for media, in 4.7.13.2
createCaption(), in 4.9.1 element-attr for script, in 4.12.1
createImageBitmap(image) crossOrigin
method for WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope, in attribute for HTMLLinkElement, in 4.2.4
7.2 attribute for HTMLImageElement, in 4.7.5
method for ImageBitmapFactories, in 7.8 attribute for HTMLMediaElement, in 4.7.13.2
createImageBitmap(image, sx, sy, sw, sh) attribute for HTMLScriptElement, in 4.12.1
method for WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope, in
CrossOriginFunctionWrapper, in 6.2.3.3.2
7.2
document referrer policy, in 3.1.1 drag data item type strings, in 5.7.2
does not apply, in 4.10.5 drag data store allowed effects state, in 5.7.2
doesnt necessarily have to affect, in 6.6.3 drag data store default feedback, in 5.7.2
error occurs during reading of the object, in execute a compound microtask subtask, in
2.2.2 7.1.4.2
escapable raw text elements, in 8.1.2 execute the script block, in 4.12.1.1
establish the media timeline, in 4.7.13.6 explicitly going back or forwards in the ses-
sion history, in 6.6.2
EUC-KR, in 8.2.2.3
explicitly supported, in 11.3.4.1
event
element-attr for script, in 11.2
explicitly supported JSON type, in 6.7.1
extensions to the predefined set of link types, fetch the descendants of a module script, in
in 4.8.6.14 7.1.3.2
fire a focus event, in 5.4.4 focused area of that focus group, in 5.4.2
fire a progress event or simple event, in focused dialog of a dialog group, in 5.4.2
4.7.5
focused dialog of its dialog group, in 5.4.2
fire a simple event, in 2.1.4
focused dialog of the dialog group, in 5.4.2
fire a synthetic mouse event named con-
Focus fixup rule one, in 5.4.4
textmenu, in 7.1.5.3
Focus fixup rule three, in 5.4.4
fired, in 2.1.4
Focus fixup rule two, in 5.4.4
fired unload, in 6.7.11
focusing steps, in 5.4.4
fires, in 2.1.4
focus update steps, in 5.4.4
fires a simple event, in 2.1.4
follow hyperlinks, in 4.8.4
firing, in 2.1.4
following a hyperlink, in 4.8.4
firing a click event, in 7.1.5.3
following hyperlinks, in 4.8.4
firing a simple event, in 7.1.5.3
follows a hyperlink, in 4.8.4
firing a simple event named e, in 7.1.5.3
follow the hyperlink, in 4.8.4
firing a synthetic mouse event named click,
in 7.1.5.3 follow the hyperlinks, in 4.8.4
font, in 11.2
Firing a synthetic mouse event named e, in
7.1.5.3 footer, in 4.3.8
4.7.5.1.22 in 7.1.5.1
in 8.2.5.2 getTrackById(id)
get, in 4.10.18.6 method for AudioTrackList, in 4.7.13.10.1
get the current value of the event handler, in dfn for promise, in 7.1.3.10
have a reversed range, in 4.10.5.3.7 element-attr for td, th, tablecells, in 11.2
element-attr for tr, in 11.2
have a select element in select scope, in
8.2.3.2 attribute for HTMLAppletElement, in 11.3.1
in 8.2.4.74 href
element-attr for base, in 4.2.3
Hexadecimal character reference state, in
8.2.4.76 attribute for HTMLBaseElement, in 4.2.3
it can also come from script, in 7.4 attribute for VideoTrack, in 4.7.13.10.1
named for the all collection, in 2.7.2.1 nearest activatable element, in 5.3
number, in 4.10.5 on
attr-value for form/autocomplete, in 4.10.3
Number, in 4.10.5.1.13
state for form/autocomplete, in 4.10.3
number of bytes downloaded, in 2.6.2
attr-value for forms/autocomplete, in
number of child browsing contexts, in 6.3.2 4.10.18.8.1
object onbeforeunload
(element), in 4.7.8 attribute for OnBeforeUnloadEventHandler, in
7.1.5.2
attribute for HTMLAppletElement, in 11.3.1
attribute for WindowEventHandlers, in
_object, in 11.3.1 7.1.5.2.1
object properties, in 2.1 OnBeforeUnloadEventHandler, in 7.1.5.1
object property, in 2.1 OnBeforeUnloadEventHandlerNonNull, in
obtain, in 4.2.4.3 7.1.5.1
rules for parsing floating-point number val- run the classic script, in 7.1.3.4
ues, in 2.4.4.3
run the fullscreen rendering steps, in 7.1.4.2
rules for parsing integer, in 2.4.4.1
run the global script clean-up jobs, in
rules for parsing integers, in 2.4.4.1 7.1.3.4
rules for parsing non-negative integers, in run the module script, in 7.1.3.4
2.4.4.2
Runtime script errors, in 7.1.3.9
rules for parsing non-zero dimension values,
s, in 4.5.5
in 2.4.4.5
safelisted schemes, in 7.7.1.3
rules for parsing signed integers, in 2.4.4.1
salvageable, in 6.7.11
rules for parsing simple color values, in
same origin, in 6.4
2.4.6
same origin-domain, in 6.4
rules for serializing simple color values, in
2.4.6 samp, in 4.5.19
rules for sniffing images specifically, in sandbox
2.6.4 element-attr for iframe, in 4.7.6
rules for updating the display of WebVTT attribute for HTMLIFrameElement, in 4.7.6
run authentic click activation steps, in 5.3 sandboxed document.domain browsing con-
text flag, in 6.5
run canceled activation steps, in 5.3
sandboxed forms browsing context flag, in
run CSS animations and send events, in
6.5
7.1.4.2
sandboxed fullscreen browsing context flag,
running script, in 7.1.3.4
in 6.5
running synthetic click activation steps, in
sandboxed into a unique origin, in 6.5
5.3
sandboxed modals flag, in 6.5
running the classic script, in 7.1.3.4
sandboxed navigation browsing context flag,
run post-click activation steps, in 5.3
in 6.5
run pre-click activation steps, in 5.3
sandboxed origin browsing context flag, in
runs, in 4.7.13.5 6.5
run synthetic click activation steps, in 5.3 sandboxed plugins browsing context flag, in
run the animation frame callbacks, in 7.9 6.5
sandboxed pointer lock browsing context Script data double escaped state, in 8.2.4.27
flag, in 6.5
Script data double escape end state, in
sandboxed presentation browsing context 8.2.4.31
flag, in 6.5
Script data double escape start state, in
sandboxed scripts browsing context flag, in 8.2.4.26
6.5 Script data end tag name state, in 8.2.4.17
sandboxed storage area URLs flag, in 6.5 Script data end tag open state, in 8.2.4.16
sandboxed top-level navigation browsing Script data escaped dash dash state, in
context flag, in 6.5
8.2.4.22
sandboxing flag set, in 6.5
Script data escaped dash state, in 8.2.4.21
sandbox propagates to auxiliary browsing
Script data escaped end tag name state, in
contexts flag, in 6.5
8.2.4.25
satisfies its constraints, in 4.10.20.1
Script data escaped end tag open state, in
satisfy its constraints, in 4.10.20.1 8.2.4.24
satisfy their constraints, in 4.10.20.1 Script data escaped less-than sign state, in
scheme 8.2.4.23
states of the type attribute, in 4.10.5.1 strip and collapse white space, in 2.4.1
statically validate the constraints, in strip leading and trailing white space, in
4.10.20.2 2.4.1
text track cue start time, in 4.7.13.11.1 The drag data item type string, in 5.7.2
text track cue writing direction, in 2.2.2 the elements directionality, in 3.2.5.5
text track failed to load, in 4.7.13.11.1 The embed element setup steps, in 4.7.7
text track in-band metadata track dispatch the empty string, in 4.7.13.3
type, in 4.7.13.11.1
the environment settings objects global ob-
TextTrackKind, in 4.7.13.11.5 ject, in 7.1.3.5
the text tracks are ready, in 4.7.13.11.1 timer nesting level, in 7.5
valid browsing context names or keywords, valid normalized global date and time string,
in 6.1.5 in 2.4.5.7
valid date string with optional time, in valid source size list, in 4.7.5
2.4.5.10
valid time string, in 2.4.5.4
valid duration string, in 2.4.5.9
valid time-zone offset string, in 2.4.5.6
valid e-mail address, in 4.10.5.1.5
valid URL, in 2.5.1
valid e-mail address list, in 4.10.5.1.5
valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces,
valid floating date and time string, in 2.4.5.5 in 2.5.1
valid global date and time string, in 2.4.5.7 valid yearless date string, in 2.4.5.3
aria-expanded
[aria] defines the following terms:
alert aria-flowto
alertdialog aria-grabbed
application aria-haspopup
aria-activedescendant aria-hidden
aria-atomic aria-invalid
aria-autocomplete aria-keyshortcuts
aria-busy aria-label
aria-checked aria-labelledby
aria-colcount aria-level
aria-colindex aria-live
aria-colspan aria-multiline
aria-controls aria-multiselectable
aria-current aria-orientation
aria-describedby aria-owns
aria-details aria-placeholder
aria-dialog aria-posinset
aria-disabled aria-pressed
aria-dropeffect aria-readonly
aria-errormessage aria-relevant
aria-required main
aria-roledescription marquee
aria-rowcount math
aria-rowindex menu
aria-rowspan menubar
aria-selected menuitem
aria-setsize menuitemcheckbox
aria-sort menuitemradio
aria-valuemax navigation
aria-valuemin none
aria-valuenow note
aria-valuetext option
article presentation
banner progressbar
button radio
cell radiogroup
checkbox region
columnheader row
combobox rowgroup
complementary rowheader
contentinfo scrollbar
definition search
dialog searchbox
directory separator
document slider
feed spinbutton
figure status
form switch
grid tab
gridcell table
group tablist
heading tabpanel
img term
link textbox
list timer
listbox toolbar
listitem tooltip
log tree
treegrid border-top-style
treeitem border-top-width
background-image
[CSS-FONT-LOADING-3] defines the fol-
lowing terms:
border-bottom-color
FontFace
border-bottom-style
font source
border-bottom-width
[CSS-FONTS-3] defines the following terms:
border-left-color
font-family
border-left-style
font-size
border-left-width
list-style-type text-align
margin-block-end white-space
margin-block-start [css-transitions-1] defines the following
margin-inline-end terms:
margin-inline-start end time
scroll help
[CSS3-RUBY] defines the following terms: [CSS-VALUES] defines the following terms:
annotation |
collapse [CSS-WRITING-MODES-3] defines the fol-
ruby annotation lowing terms:
[css-sizing-3] defines the following terms: direction
terms: rtl
border-collapse title
border-spacing type
float LinkStyle
height StyleSheet
margin-bottom cssText
margin-right style
padding-right resize
width scroll
terms: cd data
autonomous custom element clone a node
current element queue cloneNode()
custom element constructor cloning steps
custom element reactions stack collection
customized built-in element content type
element queue create an element
enqueue a custom element callback reaction createDocument(namespace, qualifiedName)
invoke custom element reactions createElement(localName)
looking up a custom element definition createElementNS(namespace, qualifiedName)
upgrades createHTMLDocument()
valid custom element name creating an element
Attr data
ChildNode doctype
DocumentType event
name ArrayBuffer
pre-insert Function
publicId RangeError
range RegExp
range bp SyntaxError
remove arraycreate
replace construct
textContent functioncreate
traverse get
type getactivescriptormodule
url hasownproperty
value hostensurecancompilestrings
terms: hostresolveimportedmodule
DOMParser initializehostdefinedrealm
innerHTML isaccessordescriptor
outerHTML iscallable
%arraybuffer% isdatadescriptor
%arrayprototype% isdetachedbuffer
javascript realm
terms: :enabled
hidden :focus
terms: :in-range
ProgressEvent :indeterminate
:out-of-range
[RFC5988] defines the following terms:
link header :read-only
:read-write
[COOKIES] defines the following terms:
:required
cookie header
:target
receives a set-cookie-string
:valid
receiving a set-cookie-string
:visited
[RFC6266] defines the following terms:
content-disposition [SELECTORS4] defines the following terms:
attribute selector
[rfc7230] defines the following terms:
pseudo-class
content-length
type selector
[rfc7231] defines the following terms:
accept
[SERVICE-WORKERS] defines the follow-
ing terms:
accept-language
ServiceWorkerContainer
content-language
service worker client
media-type
[SVG] defines the following terms:
referer
SVGMatrix
[rfc7232] defines the following terms:
[SVG2] defines the following terms:
last-modified
SVGScriptElement
[rfc7234] defines the following terms:
desc
cache-control
foreignobject
[SELECTION-API] defines the following
script
terms:
svg
Selection
title
[selectors-4] defines the following terms:
[SVGTINY12] defines the following terms:
:active
process the svg script element
:checked
:default
[TOUCH-EVENTS] defines the following
terms:
:disabled
Touch fragment
click ipv4
ctrlKey ipv6
getModifierState() object
keydown origin
keyup password
metaKey path
mousemove port
mouseover query
shiftKey scheme
wheel serialization
url record
DOMString DOMString[]
Exposed DataCloneError
LegacyUnenumerableNamedProperties EmptyString
LenientThis HierarchyRequestError
NoInterfaceObject IndexSizeError
OverrideBuiltins InvalidAccessError
PrimaryGlobal InvalidCharacterError
Promise InvalidModificationError
PutForwards InvalidNodeTypeError
Replaceable InvalidStateError
SameObject NamespaceError
TreatNonObjectAsNull NetworkError
TreatNullAs NoModificationAllowedError
USVString NotFoundError
Unforgeable NotSupportedError
boolean SecurityError
double arraybufferview
long converted
object converting
long total
Elements
List of elements
Element Description Categories Parents Children Attributes
<input> Form control flow; phrasing; phrasing empty globals; accept; alt;
interactive*; autocomplete;
listed; autofocus; checked;
labelable; dirname; disabled;
submittable; form; formaction;
resettable; formenctype;
reassociateable; formmethod;
form- formnovalidate;
associated formtarget; height;
inputmode; list;
max; maxlength; min;
minlength;
multiple; name;
pattern;
placeholder;
readonly; required;
size; src; step;
type; value; width
An asterisk (*) in a cell indicates that the actual rules are more complicated than indicated in the table above.
Categories in the "Parents" column refer to parents that list the given categories in their content model, not to ele-
ments that themselves are in those categories. For example, the <a> elements "Parents" column says "phrasing", so
any element whose content model contains the "phrasing" category could be a parent of an <a> element. Since the
"flow" category includes all the "phrasing" elements, that means the <th> element could be a parent to an <a> element.
Flow content <a>; <abbr>; <address>; <article>; <aside>; <area> (if it is a descendant
<audio>; <b>; <bdi>; <bdo>; <blockquote>; <br>; of a <map> element); <link>
<button>; <canvas>; <cite>; <code>; <data>; (if it is allowed in the body);
<datalist>; <del>; <details>; <dfn>; <dialog>;
<div>; <dl>; <em>; <embed>; <fieldset>;
<figure>; <footer>; <form>; <h1>; <h2>; <h3>;
<h4>; <h5>; <h6>; <header>; <hr>; <i>; <iframe>;
<img>; <input>; <ins>; <kbd>; <label>; <main>;
<map>; <mark>; <math>; <menu>; <meter>; <nav>;
<noscript>; <object>; <ol>; <output>; <p>;
<pre>; <progress>; <q>; <ruby>; <s>; <samp>;
<script>; <section>; <select>; <small>; <span>;
<strong>; <sub>; <sup>; <svg>; <table>;
<template>; <textarea>; <time>; <u>; <ul>;
<var>; <video>; <wbr>; Text
Sectioning <article>; <aside>; <nav>; <section>
content
Heading <h1>; <h2>; <h3>; <h4>; <h5>; <h6>;
content
Phrasing <a>; <abbr>; <audio>; <b>; <bdi>; <bdo>; <br>; <area> (if it is a descendant
content <button>; <canvas>; <cite>; <code>; <data>; of a <map> element); <link>
<datalist>; <del>; <dfn>; <em>; <embed>; <i>; (if it is allowed in the body);
<iframe>; <img>; <input>; <ins>; <kbd>; <label>;
<map>; <mark>; <math>; <meter>; <noscript>;
<object>; <output>; <progress>; <q>; <ruby>;
<s>; <samp>; <script>; <select>; <small>;
<span>; <strong>; <sub>; <sup>; <svg>;
<template>; <textarea>; <time>; <u>; <var>;
<video>; <wbr>; Text
Interactive <button>; <details>; <embed>; <iframe>; <a> (if the href attribute is
content* <label>; <select>; <textarea> present); <audio> (if the
controls attribute is
present); <img> (if the
usemap attribute is present);
Palpable <a>; <abbr>; <address>; <article>; <aside>; <b>; (if the controls
<audio>
content <bdi>; <bdo>; <blockquote>; <button>; <canvas>; attribute is present); <dl> (if
<cite>; <code>; <data>; <details>; <dfn>; <div>; the elements children
<em>; <embed>; <fieldset>; <figure>; <footer>; include at least one name-
<form>; <h1>; <h2>; <h3>; <h4>; <h5>; <h6>; value group); <input> (if the
<header>; <i>; <iframe>; <img>; <ins>; <kbd>; type attribute is not in the
<label>; <main>; <map>; <mark>; <math>; <meter>; Hidden state); <ol> (if the
<nav>; <object>; <output>; <p>; <pre>; elements children include at
<progress>; <q>; <ruby>; <s>; <samp>; <section>; least one <li> element); <ul>
<select>; <small>; <span>; <strong>; <sub>; (if the elements children
<sup>; <svg>; <table>; <textarea>; <time>; <u>; include at least one <li>
<var>; <video> element); Text that is not
inter-element white space
Script- <script>; <template>
supporting
elements
* The tabindex attribute can also make any element into interactive content.
Attributes
lang HTML elements Language of the element Valid BCP 47 language tag
or the empty string
list <input> List of autocomplete options ID*
longdesc <img> A link to a fuller description Valid non-empty URL
of the image potentially surrounded by
spaces
loop <audio>; Whether to loop the media Boolean attribute
<video> resource
low <meter> High limit of low range Valid floating-point
number*
manifest <html> Application cache manifest a valid non-empty URL
potentially surrounded by
spaces
max <input> Maximum value Varies*
max <meter>; Upper bound of range Valid floating-point
<progress> number*
maxlength <input>; Maximum length of value Valid non-negative integer
<textarea>
srclang <track> Language of the text track Valid BCP 47 language tag
srcset <img>; <source> Images to use in different Comma-separated list of
situations (e.g., high- image candidate strings
resolution displays, small
monitors, etc)
start <ol> Ordinal value of the first Valid integer
item
step <input> Granularity to be matched by Valid floating-point number
the form controls value greater than zero, or "any"
style HTML elements Presentational and formatting CSS declarations*
instructions
tabindex HTML elements Whether the element is Valid integer
focusable, and the relative
order of the element for the
purposes of sequential focus
navigation
target <a>; <area> Browsing context for Valid browsing context
hyperlink navigation name or keyword
target <base> Default browsing context for Valid browsing context
hyperlink navigation and name or keyword
form submission
target <form> Browsing context for form Valid browsing context
submission name or keyword
title HTML elements Advisory information for the Text
element
An asterisk (*) in a cell indicates that the actual rules are more complicated than indicated in the table above.
Element Interfaces
Element(s) Interface(s)
<div> HTMLDivElement : HTMLElement
<dl> HTMLDListElement : HTMLElement
<dt> HTMLElement
<em> HTMLElement
<embed> HTMLEmbedElement : HTMLElement
<fieldset> HTMLFieldSetElement : HTMLElement
<figcaption> HTMLElement
<figure> HTMLElement
<footer> HTMLElement
<form> HTMLFormElement : HTMLElement
<h1> HTMLHeadingElement : HTMLElement
<h2> HTMLHeadingElement : HTMLElement
<h3> HTMLHeadingElement : HTMLElement
<h4> HTMLHeadingElement : HTMLElement
<h5> HTMLHeadingElement : HTMLElement
<h6> HTMLHeadingElement : HTMLElement
<head> HTMLHeadElement : HTMLElement
<header> HTMLElement
<hr> HTMLHRElement : HTMLElement
<html> HTMLHtmlElement : HTMLElement
<i> HTMLElement
<iframe> HTMLIFrameElement : HTMLElement
<img> HTMLImageElement : HTMLElement
<input> HTMLInputElement : HTMLElement
<ins> HTMLModElement : HTMLElement
<kbd> HTMLElement
<label> HTMLLabelElement : HTMLElement
<legend> HTMLLegendElement : HTMLElement
<li> HTMLLIElement : HTMLElement
<link> HTMLLinkElement : HTMLElement
<main> HTMLElement
Element(s) Interface(s)
<map> HTMLMapElement : HTMLElement
<mark> HTMLElement
<menu> HTMLMenuElement : HTMLElement
<meta> HTMLMetaElement : HTMLElement
<meter> HTMLMeterElement : HTMLElement
<nav> HTMLElement
<noscript> HTMLElement
<object> HTMLObjectElement : HTMLElement
<ol> HTMLOListElement : HTMLElement
<optgroup> HTMLOptGroupElement : HTMLElement
<option> HTMLOptionElement : HTMLElement
<output> HTMLOutputElement : HTMLElement
<p> HTMLParagraphElement : HTMLElement
<param> HTMLParamElement : HTMLElement
<picture> HTMLPictureElement : HTMLElement
<pre> HTMLPreElement : HTMLElement
<progress> HTMLProgressElement : HTMLElement
<q> HTMLQuoteElement : HTMLElement
<rb> HTMLElement
<rp> HTMLElement
<rt> HTMLElement
<rtc> HTMLElement
<ruby> HTMLElement
<s> HTMLElement
<samp> HTMLElement
<script> HTMLScriptElement : HTMLElement
<section> HTMLElement
<select> HTMLSelectElement : HTMLElement
<small> HTMLElement
<source> HTMLSourceElement : HTMLElement
<span> HTMLSpanElement : HTMLElement
Element(s) Interface(s)
<strong> HTMLElement
<style> HTMLStyleElement : HTMLElement
<sub> HTMLElement
<summary> HTMLElement
<sup> HTMLElement
<table> HTMLTableElement : HTMLElement
<tbody> HTMLTableSectionElement : HTMLElement
<td> HTMLTableDataCellElement : HTMLTableCellElement : HTMLElement
<template> HTMLTemplateElement : HTMLElement
<textarea> HTMLTextAreaElement : HTMLElement
<tfoot> HTMLTableSectionElement : HTMLElement
<th> HTMLTableHeaderCellElement : HTMLTableCellElement :
HTMLElement
<thead> HTMLTableSectionElement : HTMLElement
<time> HTMLTimeElement : HTMLElement
<title> HTMLTitleElement : HTMLElement
<tr> HTMLTableRowElement : HTMLElement
<track> HTMLTrackElement : HTMLElement
<u> HTMLElement
<ul> HTMLUListElement : HTMLElement
<var> HTMLElement
<video> HTMLVideoElement : HTMLMediaElement : HTMLElement
<wbr> HTMLElement
Events
List of events
Event Interface Interesting targets Description
Property Index
Name Value Initial Applies Inh. %ages Media Ani- Canonical Computed value
to mat- order
able
anchor- [ none | none all no refer to visual no per The specified value,
point <position> elements width or grammar but with any lengths
] height of replaced by their
box; see corresponding
prose absolute length
IDL Index
[LegacyUnenumerableNamedProperties]
interface HTMLAllCollection {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter Element? (unsigned long index);
getter (HTMLCollection or Element)? namedItem(DOMString name);
legacycaller (HTMLCollection or Element)? item(optional DOMString
nameOrItem);
};
interface DOMStringList {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter DOMString? item(unsigned long index);
boolean contains(DOMString string);
};
[OverrideBuiltins]
partial interface Document {
// resource metadata management
[PutForwards=href, Unforgeable] readonly attribute Location? location;
attribute USVString domain;
readonly attribute USVString referrer;
// user interaction
readonly attribute WindowProxy? defaultView;
readonly attribute Element? activeElement;
boolean hasFocus();
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString designMode;
[CEReactions] boolean execCommand(DOMString commandId, optional boolean
showUI = false, optional DOMString value = "");
boolean queryCommandEnabled(DOMString commandId);
boolean queryCommandIndeterm(DOMString commandId);
boolean queryCommandState(DOMString commandId);
boolean queryCommandSupported(DOMString commandId);
DOMString queryCommandValue(DOMString commandId);
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLElement : Element {
// metadata attributes
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString title;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString lang;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean translate;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString dir;
[SameObject] readonly attribute DOMStringMap dataset;
// user interaction
[CEReactions] attribute boolean hidden;
void click();
[CEReactions] attribute long tabIndex;
void focus();
void blur();
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString accessKey;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean draggable;
[CEReactions] attribute HTMLMenuElement? contextMenu;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean spellcheck;
void forceSpellCheck();
[CEReactions, TreatNullAs=EmptyString] attribute DOMString innerText;
};
HTMLElement implements GlobalEventHandlers;
HTMLElement implements DocumentAndElementEventHandlers;
HTMLElement implements ElementContentEditable;
[OverrideBuiltins]
interface DOMStringMap {
getter DOMString (DOMString name);
[CEReactions] setter void (DOMString name, DOMString value);
[CEReactions] deleter void (DOMString name);
};
// error state
readonly attribute MediaError? error;
// network state
attribute DOMString src;
attribute MediaProvider? srcObject;
readonly attribute DOMString currentSrc;
attribute DOMString? crossOrigin;
const unsigned short NETWORK_EMPTY = 0;
const unsigned short NETWORK_IDLE = 1;
const unsigned short NETWORK_LOADING = 2;
const unsigned short NETWORK_NO_SOURCE = 3;
readonly attribute unsigned short networkState;
attribute DOMString preload;
readonly attribute TimeRanges buffered;
void load();
CanPlayTypeResult canPlayType(DOMString type);
// ready state
const unsigned short HAVE_NOTHING = 0;
const unsigned short HAVE_METADATA = 1;
// playback state
attribute double currentTime;
void fastSeek(double time);
readonly attribute unrestricted double duration;
object getStartDate();
readonly attribute boolean paused;
attribute double defaultPlaybackRate;
attribute double playbackRate;
readonly attribute TimeRanges played;
readonly attribute TimeRanges seekable;
readonly attribute boolean ended;
attribute boolean autoplay;
attribute boolean loop;
void play();
void pause();
// controls
attribute boolean controls;
attribute double volume;
attribute boolean muted;
attribute boolean defaultMuted;
// tracks
[SameObject] readonly attribute AudioTrackList audioTracks;
[SameObject] readonly attribute VideoTrackList videoTracks;
[SameObject] readonly attribute TextTrackList textTracks;
TextTrack addTextTrack(TextTrackKind kind, optional DOMString label = "",
optional DOMString language = "");
};
interface MediaError {
const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED = 1;
const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK = 2;
const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_DECODE = 3;
const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED = 4;
readonly attribute unsigned short code;
};
interface AudioTrack {
readonly attribute DOMString id;
readonly attribute DOMString kind;
readonly attribute DOMString label;
readonly attribute DOMString language;
attribute boolean enabled;
};
interface VideoTrack {
readonly attribute DOMString id;
readonly attribute DOMString kind;
readonly attribute DOMString label;
readonly attribute DOMString language;
attribute boolean selected;
};
interface TextTrackCueList {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter TextTrackCue (unsigned long index);
TextTrackCue? getCueById(DOMString id);
};
interface TimeRanges {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
double start(unsigned long index);
double end(unsigned long index);
};
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface HTMLHyperlinkElementUtils {
stringifier attribute USVString href;
readonly attribute USVString origin;
attribute USVString protocol;
attribute USVString username;
attribute USVString password;
attribute USVString host;
attribute USVString hostname;
attribute USVString port;
attribute USVString pathname;
};
[OverrideBuiltins]
interface HTMLFormElement : HTMLElement {
attribute DOMString acceptCharset;
attribute DOMString action;
attribute DOMString autocomplete;
attribute DOMString enctype;
attribute DOMString encoding;
attribute DOMString method;
attribute DOMString name;
attribute boolean noValidate;
attribute DOMString target;
void submit();
void reset();
boolean checkValidity();
boolean reportValidity();
};
void select();
attribute unsigned long? selectionStart;
void select();
attribute unsigned long? selectionStart;
attribute unsigned long? selectionEnd;
attribute DOMString? selectionDirection;
void setRangeText(DOMString replacement);
void setRangeText(DOMString replacement, unsigned long start, unsigned
long end, optional SelectionMode selectionMode = "preserve");
void setSelectionRange(unsigned long start, unsigned long end, optional
DOMString direction);
};
boolean reportValidity();
void setCustomValidity(DOMString error);
};
enum SelectionMode {
"select",
"start",
"end",
"preserve" // default
};
interface ValidityState {
readonly attribute boolean valueMissing;
readonly attribute boolean typeMismatch;
readonly attribute boolean patternMismatch;
readonly attribute boolean tooLong;
readonly attribute boolean tooShort;
readonly attribute boolean rangeUnderflow;
readonly attribute boolean rangeOverflow;
readonly attribute boolean stepMismatch;
readonly attribute boolean badInput;
readonly attribute boolean customError;
readonly attribute boolean valid;
};
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface ElementContentEditable {
attribute DOMString contentEditable;
readonly attribute boolean isContentEditable;
};
interface DataTransfer {
attribute DOMString dropEffect;
attribute DOMString effectAllowed;
/* old interface */
[SameObject] readonly attribute DOMString[] types;
DOMString getData(DOMString format);
void setData(DOMString format, DOMString data);
void clearData(optional DOMString format);
[SameObject] readonly attribute FileList files;
};
interface DataTransferItemList {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter DataTransferItem (unsigned long index);
DataTransferItem? add(DOMString data, DOMString type);
DataTransferItem? add(File data);
void remove(unsigned long index);
void clear();
};
interface DataTransferItem {
readonly attribute DOMString kind;
readonly attribute DOMString type;
void getAsString(FunctionStringCallback? _callback);
File? getAsFile();
};
};
[PrimaryGlobal, LegacyUnenumerableNamedProperties]
/*sealed*/ interface Window : EventTarget {
// the current browsing context
[Unforgeable] readonly attribute WindowProxy window;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute WindowProxy self;
[Unforgeable] readonly attribute Document document;
attribute DOMString name;
[PutForwards=href, Unforgeable] readonly attribute Location location;
readonly attribute History history;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp locationbar;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp menubar;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp personalbar;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp scrollbars;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp statusbar;
[Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp toolbar;
attribute DOMString status;
void close();
readonly attribute boolean closed;
void stop();
void focus();
void blur();
// user prompts
void alert();
void alert(DOMString message);
boolean confirm(optional DOMString message = "");
DOMString? prompt(optional DOMString message = "", optional DOMString
default = "");
void print();
interface BarProp {
readonly attribute boolean visible;
};
interface History {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
attribute ScrollRestoration scrollRestoration;
readonly attribute any state;
void go(optional long delta = 0);
void back();
void forward();
void pushState(any data, DOMString title, optional DOMString? url =
null);
void replaceState(any data, DOMString title, optional DOMString? url =
null);
};
interface Location {
[Unforgeable] stringifier attribute USVString href;
[Unforgeable] readonly attribute USVString origin;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString protocol;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString host;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString hostname;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString port;
[Unforgeable] attribute USVString pathname;
[TreatNonObjectAsNull]
callback EventHandlerNonNull = any (Event event);
typedef EventHandlerNonNull? EventHandler;
[TreatNonObjectAsNull]
callback OnErrorEventHandlerNonNull = any ((Event or DOMString) event,
optional DOMString source, optional unsigned long lineno, optional unsigned
long column, optional any error);
typedef OnErrorEventHandlerNonNull? OnErrorEventHandler;
[TreatNonObjectAsNull]
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface GlobalEventHandlers {
attribute EventHandler onabort;
attribute EventHandler onblur;
attribute EventHandler oncancel;
attribute EventHandler oncanplay;
attribute EventHandler oncanplaythrough;
attribute EventHandler onchange;
attribute EventHandler onclick;
attribute EventHandler onclose;
attribute EventHandler oncontextmenu;
attribute EventHandler oncuechange;
attribute EventHandler ondblclick;
attribute EventHandler ondrag;
attribute EventHandler ondragend;
attribute EventHandler ondragenter;
attribute EventHandler ondragexit;
attribute EventHandler ondragleave;
attribute EventHandler ondragover;
attribute EventHandler ondragstart;
attribute EventHandler ondrop;
attribute EventHandler ondurationchange;
attribute EventHandler onemptied;
attribute EventHandler onended;
attribute OnErrorEventHandler onerror;
attribute EventHandler onfocus;
attribute EventHandler oninput;
attribute EventHandler oninvalid;
attribute EventHandler onkeydown;
attribute EventHandler onkeypress;
attribute EventHandler onkeyup;
attribute EventHandler onload;
attribute EventHandler onloadeddata;
attribute EventHandler onloadedmetadata;
attribute EventHandler onloadstart;
attribute EventHandler onmousedown;
[LenientThis] attribute EventHandler onmouseenter;
[LenientThis] attribute EventHandler onmouseleave;
attribute EventHandler onmousemove;
attribute EventHandler onmouseout;
attribute EventHandler onmouseover;
attribute EventHandler onmouseup;
attribute EventHandler onwheel;
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface WindowEventHandlers {
attribute EventHandler onafterprint;
attribute EventHandler onbeforeprint;
attribute OnBeforeUnloadEventHandler onbeforeunload;
attribute EventHandler onhashchange;
attribute EventHandler onlanguagechange;
attribute EventHandler onmessage;
attribute EventHandler onoffline;
attribute EventHandler ononline;
attribute EventHandler onpagehide;
attribute EventHandler onpageshow;
attribute EventHandler onrejectionhandled;
attribute EventHandler onpopstate;
attribute EventHandler onstorage;
attribute EventHandler onunhandledrejection;
attribute EventHandler onunload;
};
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface DocumentAndElementEventHandlers {
attribute EventHandler oncopy;
attribute EventHandler oncut;
attribute EventHandler onpaste;
};
// Timers (WindowTimers)
long setTimeout((Function or DOMString) handler, optional long timeout =
0, any... arguments);
void clearTimeout(optional long handle = 0);
long setInterval((Function or DOMString) handler, optional long timeout =
0, any... arguments);
void clearInterval(optional long handle = 0);
interface Navigator {
// objects implementing this interface also implement the interfaces
given below
};
Navigator implements NavigatorID;
Navigator implements NavigatorLanguage;
Navigator implements NavigatorOnLine;
Navigator implements NavigatorContentUtils;
Navigator implements NavigatorCookies;
};
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface NavigatorContentUtils {
// content handler registration
void registerProtocolHandler(DOMString scheme, DOMString url, DOMString
title);
void registerContentHandler(DOMString mimeType, DOMString url, DOMString
title);
DOMString isProtocolHandlerRegistered(DOMString scheme, DOMString url);
DOMString isContentHandlerRegistered(DOMString mimeType, DOMString url);
void unregisterProtocolHandler(DOMString scheme, DOMString url);
void unregisterContentHandler(DOMString mimeType, DOMString url);
};
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface NavigatorCookies {
readonly attribute boolean cookieEnabled;
};
typedef (HTMLImageElement or
HTMLVideoElement or
HTMLCanvasElement or
Blob or
ImageData or
CanvasRenderingContext2D or
ImageBitmap) ImageBitmapSource;
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLMarqueeElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString behavior;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString bgColor;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString direction;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString height;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long hspace;
[CEReactions] attribute long loop;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long scrollAmount;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long scrollDelay;
[CEReactions] attribute boolean trueSpeed;
[CEReactions] attribute unsigned long vspace;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString width;
void start();
void stop();
};
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLFrameSetElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString cols;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString rows;
};
HTMLFrameSetElement implements WindowEventHandlers;
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLFrameElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString name;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString scrolling;
[CEReactions] attribute USVString src;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString frameBorder;
[CEReactions] attribute USVString longDesc;
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLDirectoryElement : HTMLElement {
[HTMLConstructor]
interface HTMLFontElement : HTMLElement {
[CEReactions, TreatNullAs=EmptyString] attribute DOMString color;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString face;
[CEReactions] attribute DOMString size;
};
};
};
void clear();
void captureEvents();
void releaseEvents();
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface External {
void AddSearchProvider();
void IsSearchProviderInstalled();
};
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface NavigatorPlugins {
[SameObject] readonly attribute PluginArray plugins;
[SameObject] readonly attribute MimeTypeArray mimeTypes;
boolean javaEnabled();
};
interface PluginArray {
void refresh(optional boolean reload = false);
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter Plugin? item(unsigned long index);
getter Plugin? namedItem(DOMString name);
};
interface MimeTypeArray {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter MimeType? item(unsigned long index);
getter MimeType? namedItem(DOMString name);
};
interface Plugin {
readonly attribute DOMString name;
readonly attribute DOMString description;
readonly attribute DOMString filename;
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter MimeType? item(unsigned long index);
getter MimeType? namedItem(DOMString name);
};
interface MimeType {
References
Normative References
[ABNF]
D. Crocker, Ed.; P. Overell. Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF. January
2008. Internet Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5234
[BCP47]
A. Phillips; M. Davis. Tags for Identifying Languages. September 2009. IETF Best Current
Practice. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/bcp47
[BIDI]
Mark Davis; Aharon Lanin; Andrew Glass. Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm. 5 June 2014.
Unicode Standard Annex #9. URL: http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/
[CANVAS-2D]
Rik Cabanier; et al. HTML Canvas 2D Context. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/2dcontext/
[CLDR]
Unicode Common Locale Data Repository. URL: http://cldr.unicode.org/
[COOKIES]
A. Barth. HTTP State Management Mechanism. April 2011. Proposed Standard. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6265
[CORE-AAM-1.1]
Joseph Scheuhammer; et al. Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.1. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/core-aam-1.1/
[CSP3]
Mike West. Content Security Policy Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/CSP3/
[CSS-2015]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad; Florian Rivoal. CSS Snapshot 2015. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/css-2015/
[CSS-BACKGROUNDS-3]
CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-
background/
[CSS-CASCADE-3]
Elika Etemad; Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 3. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-cascade-3/
[CSS-CASCADE-4]
Elika Etemad; Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 4. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-cascade-4/
[CSS-COLOR-4]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Chris Lilley. CSS Color Module Level 4. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-
color-4/
[CSS-DISPLAY-3]
Elika Etemad. CSS Display Module Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-display-3/
[CSS-FONT-LOADING-3]
Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Font Loading Module Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-font-
loading-3/
[CSS-FONTS-3]
John Daggett. CSS Fonts Module Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-fonts-3/
[CSS-INLINE-3]
Dave Cramer; Elika Etemad; Steve Zilles. CSS Inline Layout Module Level 3. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-inline-3/
[CSS-LOGICAL-PROPS]
Rossen Atanassov; Elika J. Etemad. CSS Logical Properties Level 1. ED. URL:
https://drafts.csswg.org/css-logical-props/
[CSS-OVERFLOW-4]
CSS Overflow Module Level 4 URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-overflow-4/
[CSS-POSITION-3]
Rossen Atanassov; Arron Eicholz. CSS Positioned Layout Module Level 3. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-position-3/
[CSS-SIZING-3]
Elika Etemad. CSS Intrinsic & Extrinsic Sizing Module Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/css-sizing-3/
[CSS-STYLE-ATTR]
[CSS-SYNTAX-3]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Simon Sapin. CSS Syntax Module Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-
syntax-3/
[CSS-TEXT-3]
Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii. CSS Text Module Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-
text-3/
[CSS-TRANSITIONS-1]
CSS Transitions Module Level 1 URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-transitions/
[CSS-UI-3]
Tantek elik; Florian Rivoal. CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3 (CSS3 UI). URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-ui-3/
[CSS-UI-4]
Florian Rivoal. CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 4. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-
ui-4/
[CSS-VALUES]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad. CSS Values and Units Module Level 3. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-values-3/
[CSS-WRITING-MODES-3]
Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii. CSS Writing Modes Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-
writing-modes-3/
[CSS-WRITING-MODES-4]
CSS Writing Modes Module Level 4 URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-writing-modes-4/
[CSS2]
Bert Bos; et al. Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification. 7 June
2011. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2
[CSS22]
Bert Bos. Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 2 (CSS 2.2) Specification. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS22/
[CSS3-CONTENT]
Elika Etemad; Dave Cramer. CSS Generated Content Module Level 3. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-content-3/
[CSS3-IMAGES]
Elika Etemad; Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3. 17
April 2012. CR. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-images/
[CSS3-RUBY]
Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii. CSS Ruby Layout Module Level 1. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/css-ruby-1/
[CSS3COLOR]
Tantek elik; Chris Lilley; David Baron. CSS Color Module Level 3. 7 June 2011. REC.
URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-color
[CSSOM]
Simon Pieters; Glenn Adams. CSS Object Model (CSSOM). URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/cssom-1/
[CSSOM-VIEW]
Simon Pieters. CSSOM View Module. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/cssom-view-1/
[CSSUI]
Tantek elik. User Interface for CSS3. 2 August 2002. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-
userint
[CUSTOM-ELEMENTS]
Domenic Denicola. Custom Elements. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/custom-elements/
[DOM]
Anne van Kesteren. DOM Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://dom.spec.whatwg.org/
[DOM-PARSING]
Travis Leithead. DOM Parsing and Serialization. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-
Parsing/
[ECMA-262]
ECMAScript Language Specification. URL: https://tc39.github.io/ecma262/
[ENCODING]
Anne van Kesteren. Encoding Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://encod-
ing.spec.whatwg.org/
[EVENTSOURCE]
Ian Hickson. Server-Sent Events. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/eventsource/
[FETCH]
Anne van Kesteren. Fetch Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org/
[FILEAPI]
[FULLSCREEN]
Anne van Kesteren. Fullscreen API Standard. Living Standard. URL:
https://fullscreen.spec.whatwg.org/
[GEOMETRY-1]
Simon Pieters; Dirk Schulze; Rik Cabanier. Geometry Interfaces Module Level 1. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/geometry-1/
[GIF]
Graphics Interchange Format. 31 July 1990. URL: https://www.w3.org/Graphics/GIF/spec-
gif89a.txt
[HR-TIME-2]
Ilya Grigorik; James Simonsen; Jatinder Mann. High Resolution Time Level 2. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/hr-time-2/
[HTML-AAM-1.0]
Steve Faulkner; et al. HTML Accessibility API Mappings 1.0. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/html-aam-1.0/
[HTML-ARIA]
Steve Faulkner. ARIA in HTML. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aria/
[HTML-LONGDESC]
Charles McCathieNevile; Mark Sadecki. HTML5 Image Description Extension (longdesc).
URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/html-longdesc/
[HTTP]
HTTP is the union of a set of RFCs:
[IANAPERMHEADERS]
Permanent Message Header Field Names. IANA.
[INDEXEDDB]
Nikunj Mehta; et al. Indexed Database API. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/IndexedDB/
[INFRA]
Anne van Kesteren; Domenic Denicola. Infra Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://in-
fra.spec.whatwg.org/
[ISO3166]
ISO 3166: Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions.. 2013.
ISO 3166-1:2013. URL: http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=63545
[ISO4217]
Currency codes - ISO 4217. 2015. International Standard. URL: http://www.iso.org/iso/home
/standards/currency_codes.htm
[JLREQ]
Yasuhiro Anan; et al. Requirements for Japanese Text Layout. 3 April 2012. NOTE. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/jlreq/
[JPEG]
Eric Hamilton. JPEG File Interchange Format. September 1992. URL: https://www.w3.org
/Graphics/JPEG/jfif3.pdf
[MATHML]
Patrick D F Ion; Robert R Miner. Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) 1.01 Specifica-
tion. 7 July 1999. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/MathML/
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Raphal Troncy; et al. Media Fragments URI 1.0 (basic). 25 September 2012. REC. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/media-frags/
[MEDIA-SOURCE]
Matthew Wolenetz; et al. Media Source Extensions. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/media-
source/
[MEDIACAPTURE-STREAMS]
Daniel Burnett; et al. Media Capture and Streams. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/mediacapture-streams/
[MEDIAQ]
Florian Rivoal; et al. Media Queries. 19 June 2012. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-
mediaqueries/
[MEDIAQUERIES-4]
Florian Rivoal; Tab Atkins Jr.. Media Queries Level 4. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/mediaqueries-4/
[MFREL]
Microformats Wiki: existing rel values. Microformats.
[MIMESNIFF]
Gordon P. Hemsley. MIME Sniffing Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://mimes-
niff.spec.whatwg.org/
[MNG]
MNG (Multiple-image Network Graphics) Format. G. Randers-Pehrson.
[MPEG2TS]
Information technology -- Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio informa-
tion: Systems ITU-T Rec. H.222.0 / ISO/IEC 13818-1:2013. URL: http://www.itu.int/rec/T-
REC-H.222.0-201206-I
[MPEG4]
ISO/IEC 14496-12: ISO base media file format. ISO/IEC.
[MPEGDASH]
ISO/IEC 23009-1:2014 Information technology -- Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP
(DASH) -- Part 1: Media presentation description and segment formats. URL:
http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/c065274_ISO_IEC_23009-
-1_2014.zip
[OGGSKELETON]
Ogg Skeleton 4 Message Headers. 17 March 2014. URL: http://wiki.xiph.org/SkeletonHead-
ers
[OPENSEARCH]
Autodiscovery in HTML/XHTML. In OpenSearch 1.1 Draft 4, Section 4.6.2. OpenSearch.org.
[ORIGIN]
A. Barth. The Web Origin Concept. December 2011. Proposed Standard. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6454
[PAGE-VISIBILITY]
Jatinder Mann; Arvind Jain. Page Visibility (Second Edition). 29 October 2013. REC. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/page-visibility/
[PAYMENT-REQUEST]
Adrian Bateman; Zach Koch; Roy McElmurry. Payment Request API. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/payment-request/
[PDF]
Document management Portable document format Part 1: PDF. ISO.
[PNG]
Tom Lane. Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification (Second Edition). 10 November
2003. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/PNG
[POINTERLOCK]
Vincent Scheib. Pointer Lock. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/pointerlock/
[PRESENTATION-API]
Mark Foltz; Dominik Rttsches. Presentation API. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/presentation-api/
[PROGRESS-EVENTS]
Anne van Kesteren; Charles McCathie Nevile; Jungkee Song. Progress Events. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/progress-events/
[PSL]
Public Suffix List. Mozilla Foundation.
[REFERRERPOLICY]
Referrer Policy. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/referrer-policy
[RFC1034]
P.V. Mockapetris. Domain names - concepts and facilities. November 1987. Internet Standard.
URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1034
[RFC1123]
R. Braden, Ed.. Requirements for Internet Hosts - Application and Support. October 1989. In-
ternet Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1123
[RFC2046]
N. Freed; N. Borenstein. Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media
Types. November 1996. Draft Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2046
[RFC2119]
S. Bradner. Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. March 1997. Best
Current Practice. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119
[RFC2318]
H. Lie; B. Bos; C. Lilley. The text/css Media Type. March 1998. Informational. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2318
[RFC2397]
L. Masinter. The "data" URL scheme. August 1998. Proposed Standard. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2397
[RFC2483]
M. Mealling; R. Daniel. URI Resolution Services Necessary for URN Resolution. January
1999. Experimental. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2483
[RFC4648]
S. Josefsson. The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings. October 2006. Proposed
Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648
[RFC5322]
P. Resnick, Ed.. Internet Message Format. October 2008. Draft Standard. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5322
[RFC5724]
E. Wilde; A. Vaha-Sipila. URI Scheme for Global System for Mobile Communications
(GSM) Short Message Service (SMS). January 2010. Proposed Standard. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5724
[RFC5988]
M. Nottingham. Web Linking. October 2010. Proposed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org
/html/rfc5988
[RFC6068]
M. Duerst; L. Masinter; J. Zawinski. The 'mailto' URI Scheme. October 2010. Proposed Stan-
dard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6068
[RFC6266]
J. Reschke. Use of the Content-Disposition Header Field in the Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP). June 2011. Proposed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6266
[RFC6350]
S. Perreault. vCard Format Specification. August 2011. Proposed Standard. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6350
[RFC6381]
R. Gellens; D. Singer; P. Frojdh. The 'Codecs' and 'Profiles' Parameters for "Bucket" Media
Types. August 2011. Proposed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6381
[RFC6455]
I. Fette; A. Melnikov. The WebSocket Protocol. December 2011. Proposed Standard. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6455
[RFC6694]
S. Moonesamy, Ed.. The "about" URI Scheme. August 2012. Informational. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6694
[RFC7230]
R. Fielding, Ed.; J. Reschke, Ed.. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Message Syntax
and Routing. June 2014. Proposed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7230
[RFC7231]
R. Fielding, Ed.; J. Reschke, Ed.. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Semantics and
Content. June 2014. Proposed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231
[RFC7232]
R. Fielding, Ed.; J. Reschke, Ed.. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Conditional Re-
quests. June 2014. Proposed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7232
[RFC7234]
R. Fielding, Ed.; M. Nottingham, Ed.; J. Reschke, Ed.. Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP/1.1): Caching. June 2014. Proposed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7234
[RFC7303]
H. Thompson; C. Lilley. XML Media Types. July 2014. Proposed Standard. URL:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7303
[RFC7578]
L. Masinter. Returning Values from Forms: multipart/form-data. July 2015. Proposed Stan-
dard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7578
[RFC7595]
D. Thaler, Ed.; T. Hansen; T. Hardie. Guidelines and Registration Procedures for URI
Schemes. June 2015. Best Current Practice. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7595
[SECURE-CONTEXTS]
Mike West. Secure Contexts. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/secure-contexts/
[SELECTION-API]
Ryosuke Niwa. Selection API. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/selection-api/
[SELECTORS-4]
Selectors Level 4 URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/selectors4/
[SELECTORS4]
Elika Etemad; Tab Atkins Jr.. Selectors Level 4. 2 May 2013. WD. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/selectors4/
[SERVICE-WORKERS]
[SRGB]
Amendment 1 - Multimedia systems and equipment - Colour measurement and management -
Part 2-1: Colour management - Default RGB colour space - sRGB. URL: https://web-
store.iec.ch/publication/6168
[SVG]
Jon Ferraiolo. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Specification. 4 September 2001. REC.
URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/
[SVG11]
Erik Dahlstrm; et al. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition). 16 August 2011.
REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/
[SVG2]
Nikos Andronikos; et al. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/SVG2/
[SVGTINY12]
Ola Andersson; et al. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Specification. 22 December
2008. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/SVGTiny12/
[TOUCH-EVENTS]
Doug Schepers; et al. Touch Events. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/touch-events/
[UIEVENTS]
Gary Kacmarcik; Travis Leithead. UI Events. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/uievents/
[UNICODE]
The Unicode Standard. URL: http://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/
[URL]
Anne van Kesteren. URL Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://url.spec.whatwg.org/
[URN]
R. Moats. URN Syntax. May 1997. Proposed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org
/html/rfc2141
[WAI-ARIA]
James Craig; Michael Cooper; et al. Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0.
20 March 2014. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/
[WAI-ARIA-1.1]
Joanmarie Diggs; et al. Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/
[WEBGL]
Chris Marrin (Apple Inc.). WebGL Specification, Version 1.0. 10 February 2011. URL:
https://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/specs/1.0/
[WEBIDL]
Cameron McCormack; Boris Zbarsky; Tobie Langel. Web IDL. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/WebIDL-1/
[WebIDL-20161215]
Cameron McCormack. WebIDL Level 1. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/REC-WebIDL-
1-20161215/
[WEBM]
WebM Container Guidelines. 26 April 2016. URL: https://www.webmproject.org/docs/con-
tainer/
[WEBSTORAGE]
Ian Hickson. Web Storage (Second Edition). URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/webstorage/
[WHATWGWIKI]
The WHATWG Wiki. WHATWG.
[WORKERS]
Ian Hickson. Web Workers. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/workers/
[XHR]
Anne van Kesteren. XMLHttpRequest Standard. Living Standard. URL:
https://xhr.spec.whatwg.org/
[XLINK]
Steven DeRose; Eve Maler; David Orchard. XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.0. 27
June 2001. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xlink/
[XML]
Tim Bray; et al. Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition). 26 November 2008.
REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xml
[XML-NAMES]
Tim Bray; et al. Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Third Edition). 8 December 2009. REC. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/xml-names
[XML-STYLESHEET]
James Clark; Simon Pieters; Henry Thompson. Associating Style Sheets with XML docu-
ments 1.0 (Second Edition). 28 October 2010. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xml-
stylesheet
[XMLBASE]
Jonathan Marsh. XML Base (Second Edition). 28 January 2009. REC. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/xmlbase/
[XPATH]
James Clark; Steven DeRose. XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0. 16 November 1999.
REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath
[XPTR-XMLNS]
Steven DeRose; et al. XPointer xmlns() Scheme. 25 March 2003. REC. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/xptr-xmlns/
Informative References
[APNG]
S. Parmenter; V. Vukicevic; A. Smith. APNG Specification. URL: https://wiki.mozilla.org
/APNG_Specification
[ATAG20]
Jan Richards; Jeanne F Spellman; Jutta Treviranus. Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
(ATAG) 2.0. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20/
[BATTERY-STATUS]
Anssi Kostiainen; Mounir Lamouri. Battery Status API. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/battery-status/
[BOCU1]
M. Scherer; M. Davis. UTN #6: BOCU-1: MIME-Compatible Unicode Compression. URL:
http://www.unicode.org/notes/tn6/
[CESU8]
T. Phipps. UTR #26: Compatibility Encoding Scheme For UTF-16: 8-BIT (CESU-8). URL:
http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr26/
[CHARMOD]
Martin Drst; et al. Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0: Fundamentals. 15 Febru-
ary 2005. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/charmod/
[COMPUTABLE]
A. Turing. On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem, Pro-
ceedings of the London Mathematical Society, series 2, volume 42,. 1937. URL:
http://www.turingarchive.org/browse.php/B/12
[CSS-IMAGES-3]
CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3 URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/css3-images/
[CSS-LISTS-3]
Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Lists and Counters Module Level 3. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-
lists-3/
[CSS3-ANIMATIONS]
Dean Jackson; et al. CSS Animations. 19 February 2013. WD. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/css3-animations/
[CSS3-TRANSITIONS]
Dean Jackson; et al. CSS Transitions. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-transitions/
[DOT]
The DOT Language. URL: http://www.graphviz.org/content/dot-language
[EDITING]
A. Gregor. HTML Editing APIs. URL: https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/editing/raw-file/tip
/editing.html
[Extensible]
The Extensible Web Manifesto. 10 June 2013. URL: https://extensiblewebmanifesto.org/
[GRAPHICS]
Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C, Second Edition, J. Foley, A. van Dam, S.
Feiner, J. Hughes. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-84840-6.
[GREGORIAN]
Inter Gravissimas, A. Lilius, C. Clavius. Gregory XIII Papal Bull, February 1582.
[HTML-RDFA]
Manu Sporny. HTML+RDFa 1.1 - Second Edition. 17 March 2015. REC. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/html-rdfa/
[HTML5-DIFF]
Simon Pieters. HTML5 Differences from HTML4. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/html5-diff/
[INBANDTRACKS]
Sourcing In-band Media Resource Tracks from Media Containers into HTML (URL:
http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-sourcing-inband-tracks/), S. Pfeiffer, B. Lund. W3C.
[ISO8601]
Representation of dates and times. ISO 8601:2004.. 2004. ISO 8601:2004. URL:
http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=40874
[NPAPI]
[PPUTF8]
The Properties and Promises of UTF-8, M. Drst. University of Zrich. In Proceedings of the
11th International Unicode Conference.
[RDFA-LITE]
Manu Sporny. RDFa Lite 1.1 - Second Edition. 17 March 2015. REC. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-lite/
[RFC2152]
D. Goldsmith; M. Davis. UTF-7 A Mail-Safe Transformation Format of Unicode. May 1997.
Informational. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2152
[RFC3676]
R. Gellens. The Text/Plain Format and DelSp Parameters. February 2004. Proposed Standard.
URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3676
[RFC4287]
M. Nottingham, Ed.; R. Sayre, Ed.. The Atom Syndication Format. December 2005. Pro-
posed Standard. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287
[RFC4329]
B. Hoehrmann. Scripting Media Types. April 2006. Informational. URL: https://tools.ietf.org
/html/rfc4329
[RUBY-UC]
Richard Ishida. Use Cases & Exploratory Approaches for Ruby Markup. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/ruby-use-cases/
[SCSU]
UTR #6: A Standard Compression Scheme For Unicode, M. Wolf, K. Whistler, C. Wicksteed,
M. Davis, A. Freytag, M. Scherer. Unicode Consortium.
[TIMEZONE]
Addison Phillips; et al. Working with Time Zones. 5 July 2011. NOTE. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/timezone
[TOR]
Tor.
[TZDATABASE]
Time Zone Database. IANA.
[UAAG20]
James Allan; et al. User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG20/
[UNDO]
Ryosuke Niwa. UndoManager and DOM Transaction. ED. URL: https://dvcs.w3.org
/hg/undomanager/raw-file/tip/undomanager.html
[UNICODE-SECURITY]
Mark Davis; Michel Suignard. Unicode Security Considerations. URL: http://www.uni-
code.org/reports/tr36/
[UNIVCHARDET]
A composite approach to language/encoding detection, S. Li, K. Momoi. Netscape. In Pro-
ceedings of the 19th International Unicode Conference.
[UTF8DET]
Multilingual form encoding, M. Drst. W3C.
[WAI-ARIA-PRACTICES-1.1]
Matthew King; et al. WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.1. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-
aria-practices-1.1/
[WCAG20]
Ben Caldwell; et al. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. 11 December 2008.
REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
[WEBVTT]
Simon Pieters. WebVTT: The Web Video Text Tracks Format. URL: https://www.w3.org
/TR/webvtt1/
[XKCD-1288]
Randall Munroe. Substitutions. URL: https://xkcd.com/1288/
[XML-ENTITY-NAMES]
David Carlisle; Patrick D F Ion. XML Entity Definitions for Characters (2nd Edition). 10
April 2014. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/xml-entity-names/
[XSLT]
James Clark. XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0. 16 November 1999. REC. URL:
https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt
[XSLTP]
DOM XSLTProcessor. URL: https://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/DOM_XSLTProcessor
Changes
This section summarises substantial substantive changes between Public Working Drafts, as a
guide for general review.
Full details of all changes since 12 January 2016 are available from the commit log of the
w3c/html github repository, including various editorial and linking fixes.
Stop media resrouce requests from non-network sources delaying the load event
Fixed Issue 428
Coordinates for ismap are no longer include the images border in calculation
Fixed Issue 492
Removed showModalDialog
Removes the showModalDialog method, which is being made obsolete in browsers
Added the allowpaymentrequest attribute (used by the Payment Request API to determine
if Document objects in an iframe elements browsing context are to be allowed to make pay-
ment requests) to the iframe element.
Add MathML and SVG to dependencies and cross reference them correctly
Add recursion check to frame elements* Make document.open() and close() check for
XML document
Change data type for HashChageEvent to match reality* Make marker of summary in-
side
This was proposed in issue #724, to enable better semantic markup. It works already in prac-
tice.
Changes between Working Draft 2 and the First Public Working Draft
Changes since HTML 5.1 - Note that these may change if the HTML 5.1
specification is updated.
This was removed from HTML 5.1 for lack of implementation, and may be removed from
HTML 5.2 if not implemented.
<dialog> element
This was removed from HTML 5.1 for lack of implementation, and may be removed from
HTML 5.2 if not implemented.
This was removed from HTML 5.1 for lack of implementation, and may be removed from
HTML 5.2 if not implemented.
As per Working Group decision, since it is likely to be removed soon from at least one of the
two remaining implementations.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Tim Berners-Lee for inventing HTML, without which none of this would exist, Dan
Connolly, the many who worked to standardise HTML over the last couple of decades or so, and
the many more who worked on ideas subsequently incorporated into HTML.
For inestimable work, and the drive to keep HTML up to date, particular thanks are due to Ian
Hickson, and the other editors of the WHATWG: Anne van Kesteren, Domenic Denicola, Philip
Jgenstedt, Simon Pieters.
Thanks to Tab Atkins, who produced the bikeshed tool used to build this spec, and
https://github.com for tools to manage its development.
With apologies to people who have undeservedly not been named, thanks to
NOTE:
to complete
"aaaxx", "Acts7", Adrian Bateman, Adrian Roselli, Addison Philips, Alan Johnson, Alastair
Campbell, Alex Danilo, Alexander Schmitz, Alexandros Spyropoulos, Alexander Surkov, Alice
Wonder, "Alohci", "alrdytaken", Amanda Rush, Amelia Bellamy-Royds, Ana Luiza Bastos,
"andjc", Andr Zanghelini, Andrea Rendine, Andfrew Macpherson, Andrew Romanov, Andy
Carter, Andy Jansson, Anne van Kesteren, Angelo Liao, Anne-Gaelle Colom, Annop Chawwalit-
sitthikun, Anup Kumar Maharjan, "aravindxz", Arron Eicholz, Artemiy SOlopov, Ashley Bischoff,
Avram Eisner, "avrljk", Axel Bocciarelli, (Bang Seongbeom), Bert Verhelst, Ben
Buchanan, Benjamin Strau, "bogdan0083", Boris Zbarsky, Brian Kardell, Carolyn MacLeod,
Chaals McCathie Nevile, "Chaoaretasty", Charles La Pierre, Chris Harvey Christophe Strobbe,
"Comandeer", Cory Simmons, Craig Francis, Cyril Concolato, Dan Connolly, Daniel Dafoe,
Daniel Davis, Daniel Glazman, Daniel Weck, Dave Cramer, David French, David MacDonald,
David Singer, David Storey, "dbol55", Deborah Kaplan, Denis Ah-Kang, Derek Koziol, Diego
Lopes Lima, Dmitry Shuralyov, Dom Talbot, Domenic Denicola, Dominique Hazal-Massieux,
Don Hollander, Doug Brunelle, "duckware", Dylan Barrell, Eli Grey, Emerson Rocha Luiz, Emily
Stark, Eric Eggert, Eric Stamper, Fabrizio Calderan, Florens Verschelde, Florian Rivoal, Franois
Daoust, Fuqiao Xue, "genwilkerhan", George Gooding, Gervase Markham, Greg Schoppe, Guido
Bouman, "gunlinux", Henrik "Henke37" Andersson, Heydon Pickering, Ian Devlin, Ian Pouncey,
Ian Yang, Isadora Coffani dos Santos Siqueira, Ivan Herman, J.C. Jones, J.S. Choi, Jacob Alvarez,
Jake Archibald, James "thx1111", James Cobban, James Craig, Jan Nelson, Janina Saika, Jason
Edelman, Jason Kiss, Jason White, "jdsmith3000", Jeanne Spellman, Jeffrey Yasskin, Ji Seong-
bong, Jihye Hong, Jina Bolton, Job van Achterberg, John Foliot, Jonathan Kingston, Jon Metz,
Jonathan Neal, Joshua Bell, Jourdan. "klensin", Kangxi "kxgio" , Kevin Marks, Kevin
Suttle, Lea Verou, Leif Halvard Silli, Lonie Watson, Liam Quin, Lorenzo Scalfani, Luke Browell,
Mallory van Achterberg, Marat Talanin, Marc G. "mouvedia", Mark Amery, Mark Nottingham,
Mark Rejhon, Mark Rogers, Mark Root-Wiley, Martin Drst, Martin Janecke, Martyn Hoyer,
Matheus Martins, Matteo Belfiore, "Mattok, Mev-Rael, Micha Rosenbaum, Micha Miszczyszyn,
Mijabi, "mirabilos", Mike Smith, Mike West, "Moonchild" Morgan Patch, Mort&Mortis , nami-
tos", Nathan Lorberger, Neil "ww3", Nhan To-Doan, Nick Levinson, Nico Schneider, Nicolas
Hoffmann, Nicolas Hoizey, Nils Solanki, Pankit Gami, Patrick Dark, Patrick Lauke, Paul Cotton,
Phil Smith, Philip Jgenstedt, Philippe Le Hgaret, Prayag Verma, Rachel Comerford, Rebeca
Ruiz, Reinhardt Hierl, Rich Schwerdtfeger, Richard Ishida, "RobBelics", Robin Berjon, Rodney
Rehm, Romain Deltour, Roy Tinker, Ruben Martinez, Russ Weakley, "r-romaniuk", Ryosuke
Niwa, Sangwhan Moon, Sara Soueidan, Sailesh Panchang, Sebastian Zartner, Sendil Kumar N,
"SelenIT", Sergei Shoshin, Sergey Artemov, Shane McCarron, Shwetank Dixit, ime Vidas, Si-
mon Pieters, "spixi", "stasoid", Stefan Judis, Steve Comstock, Steve Faulkner, Steven Atkin,
Steven Lambert, Stuart Robson, Takayoshi Kochi, Taylor Hunt, Terence Eden, "thapliyalshivam",
"TheEskhaton", Theresa OConnor, Thierry Koblentz, Thomas Beduneau, Thomas Higginbotham,
Tim Starling, Timo Huovinen, Tokushige Kobayashi, Tom Bonnike, Tom Byrer, Travis Leithead,
Tyler Deitz, Tzviya Siegman, "Unor", Vadim Makeev, Varun Dua, Vilmar Neto, Vitaly Pinchuk,
Vladimir Grebnev, "WebDevCA", Wes, "Wolonetz", "woowaEcho", Cindy Wu Xiaoqian, "Xav-
iju", Yann Gouffon, Yaroslaw "kciray8", Zach Saucier, "Zambonifofex", "Zelgadis87"
Thanks to the participants of the Responsive Images Community Group and the WHATWG for
helping to develop the <picture> element, the srcset attribute, and the sizes attribute. Special
thanks to Bruce Lawson for originally suggesting, Edward OConnor and Ian Hickson for writing
the original srcset specification, and Adrian Bateman for providing the group with guidance. Con-
tributions also from: David Newton, Ilya Grigorik, John Schoenick, and Leon de Rijke.
Aankhen, Aaron Boodman, Aaron Leventhal, Adam Barth, Adam de Boor, Adam Hepton, Adam
Klein, Adam Roben, Addison Phillips, Adele Peterson, Adrian Bateman, Adrian Roselli, Adrian
Sutton, Agustn Fernndez, Aharon (Vladimir) Lanin, Ajai Tirumali, Akatsuki Kitamura, Alan
Plum, Alastair Campbell, Alejandro G. Castro, Alex Bishop, Alex Nicolaou, Alex Plescan, Alex
Rousskov, Alexander Farkas, Alexander J. Vincent, Alexander Surkov, Alexandre Morgaut,
Alexey Feldgendler, (Alexey Proskuryakov), Alexis Deveria, Alice Box-
hall, Allan Clements, Ami Fischman, Amos Jeffries, Anders Carlsson, Andr E. Veltstra, Andrea
Rendine, Andreas, Andreas Kling, Andrei Popescu, Andres Gomez, Andrew Barfield, Andrew
Clover, Andrew Gove, Andrew Grieve, Andrew Oakley, Andrew Sidwell, Andrew Simons, An-
drew Smith, Andrew W. Hagen, Andrey V. Lukyanov, Andry Rendy, Andy Earnshaw, Andy Hey-
don, Andy Palay, Anjana Vakil, Anna Belle Leiserson, Anthony Boyd, Anthony Bryan, Anthony
Hickson, Anthony Ramine, Anthony Ricaud, Antonio Olmo Titos, Antti Koivisto, Arkadiusz
Michalski, Arne Thomassen, Aron Spohr, Arphen Lin, Arron Eicholz, Arthur Stolyar, Arun Patole,
Aryeh Gregor, Asbjrn Ulsberg, Ashley Gullen, Ashley Sheridan, Atsushi Takayama, Aurelien
Levy, Ave Wrigley, Axel Dahmen, B Lingafelter, Bart Humphries, Ben Boyle, Ben Buchanan, Ben
Godfrey, Ben Lerner, Ben Leslie, Ben Meadowcroft, Ben Millard, Benjamin Carl Wiley Sittler,
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis, Benoit Ren, Bert Bos, Bijan Parsia, Bil Corry, Bill Mason, Bill McCoy,
Billy Wong, Bjartur Thorlacius, Bjrn Hhrmann, Blake Frantz, Bob Lund, Bob Owen, Bobby
Holly, Boris Zbarsky, Brad Fults, Brad Neuberg, Brad Spencer, Brady Eidson, Brendan Eich,
Brenton Simpson, Brett Wilson, Brett Zamir, Brian Blakely, Brian Campbell, Brian Korver, Brian
Kuhn, Brian M. Dube, Brian Ryner, Brian Smith, Brian Wilson, Bryan Sullivan, Bruce Bailey,
Bruce DArcus, Bruce Lawson, Bruce Miller, Bugs Nash, C. Williams, Cameron McCormack,
Cameron Zemek, Cao Yipeng, Carlos Amengual, Carlos Gabriel Cardona, Carlos Perell Marn,
Casey Leask, Ctlin Mari, Chaals McCathie Nevile, Chao Cai, (Channy Yun), Charl van
Niekerk, Charles Iliya Krempeaux, Charu Pandhi, Chris Apers, Chris Cressman, Chris Evans,
Chris Morris, Chris Pearce, Chris Peterson, Chris Weber, Christian Biesinger, Christian Johansen,
Christian Schmidt, Christoph Pper, Christophe Dumez, Christopher Aillon, Christopher Ferris,
Chriswa, Chris Wilson, Clark Buehler, Cole Robison, Colin Fine, Collin Jackson, Corey Farwell,
Corprew Reed, Craig Cockburn, Csaba Gabor, Csaba Marton, Cynthia Shelly, Dan Brickley, Dan
Yoder, Daniel Barclay, Daniel Bratell, Daniel Brooks, Daniel Brumbaugh Keeney, Daniel Cheng,
Daniel Davis, Daniel Glazman, Daniel Peng, Daniel Schattenkirchner, Daniel Spng, Daniel Stein-
berg, Daniel Trebbien, Danny Sullivan, Darin Adler, Darin Fisher, Darxus, Dave Camp, Dave
Hodder, Dave Lampton, Dave Singer, Dave Townsend, David Baron, David Bloom, David Bruant,
David Carlisle, David E. Cleary, David Egan Evans, David Fink, David Flanagan, David Gerard,
David Hsther, David Hyatt, David I. Lehn, David John Burrowes, David Kendal, David Mac-
Donald, David Matja, David Remahl, David Smith, David Storey, David Vest, David Woolley, De-
Witt Clinton, Dean Edridge, Dean Edwards, Debi Orton, Derek Featherstone, Devarshi Pant, Dev-
datta, Dimitri Glazkov, Dimitry Golubovsky, Dirk Pranke, Dirk Schulze, Dirkjan Ochtman, Divya
Manian, Dmitry Titov, dolphinling, Dominic Mazzoni, Dominique Hazal-Massieux, Don Brutz-
man, Doron Rosenberg, Doug Kramer, Doug Simpkinson, Drew Wilson, Dylan Barrell, Edmund
Lai, Eduard Pascual, Eduardo Vela, Edward OConnor, Edward Welbourne, Edward Z. Yang,
Ehsan Akhgari, Eira Monstad, Eitan Adler, Eliot Graff, Elisabeth Robson, Elizabeth Castro, Elliott
Regan, Elliott Sprehn, Elliotte Harold, Eric Carlson, Eric Casler, Eric Lawrence, Eric Rescorla,
Eric Semling, Erik Arvidsson, Erik Rose, Evan Jacobs, Evan Martin, Evan Prodromou, Evan
Stade, Evert, fantasai, Felix Sasaki, Francesco Schwarz, Francis Brosnan Blazquez, Franck "Shift"
Qulain, Franois Remy, Frank Barchard, Frank Liberato, Frank Olivier, Fredrik Sderquist,
(Fumitoshi Ukai), Futomi Hatano, Gavin Carothers, Gavin Kistner, Gareth Rees, Gary Ka-
mark, Garrett Smith, Geoff Richards, Geoffrey Garen, Geoffrey Sneddon, Gez Lemon, George
Lund, George Ornbo, Gianmarco Armellin, Giovanni Campagna, Giuseppe Pascale, Glenn
Adams, Glenn Maynard, Graham Klyne, Greg Botten, Greg Houston, Greg Wilkins, Gregg
Tavares, Gregory J. Rosmaita, Grey, Guilherme Johansson Tramontina, Gytis Jakutonis, Hkon
Wium Lie, Habib Virji, Hallvord Reiar Michaelsen Steen, Hans S. Tmmerhalt, Hans Stimer, Har-
ald Alvestrand, Henri Sivonen, Henrik Lied, Henry Mason, Henry Story, Heydon Pickering, Hugh
Guiney, Hugh Winkler, Ian Bicking, Ian Clelland, Ian Davis, Ian Devlin, Ian Fette, Ian Kilpatrick,
Ido Green, Ignacio Javier, Igor Oliveira, Ingvar Stepanyan, Iurii Kucherov, Ivan Enderlin, Ivo
Emanuel Gonalves, J. King, Jacob Davies, Jacques Distler, Jake Verbaten, Jakub opuszaski,
Jakub Wilk, James Craig, James Graham, James Greene, James Justin Harrell, James Kozianski,
James M Snell, James Perrett, James Robinson, Jamie Lokier, Jan Molnr, Janusz Majnert, Jan-
Klaas Kollhof, Jared Jacobs, Jason Duell, Jason Kersey, Jason Kiss, Jason Lustig, Jason White,
Jasper Bryant-Greene, Jasper St. Pierre, Jatinder Mann, Jdsmith3000, Jed Hartman, Jeff Balogh,
Jeff Cutsinger, Jeff Schiller, Jeff Walden, Jeffrey Yasskin, Jeffrey Zeldman, (Jennifer
Braithwaite), Jens Bannmann, Jens Fendler, Jens Lindstrm, Jens Meiert, Jer Noble, Jeremey
Hustman, Jeremy Keith, Jeremy Orlow, Jerry Smith, Jeroen van der Meer, Jesse Rene Beach, Jian
Li, Jim Jewett, Jim Ley, Jim Meehan, Jim Michaels, Jirka Kosek, Jjgod Jiang, Joo Eiras, Jochen
Eisinger, Joe Clark, Joe Gregorio, Joel Spolsky, Joel Verhagen, Johan Herland, John Boyer, John
Bussjaeger, John Carpenter, John Daggett, John Fallows, John Foliot, John Harding, John Keiser,
John Snyders, John Stockton, John-Mark Bell, Johnny Stenback, Jon Ferraiolo, Jon Gibbins, Jon
Gunderson, Jon Ribbins, Jon Perlow, Jonas Sicking, Jonathan Cook, Jonathan Kingston, Jonathan
Rees, Jonathan Watt, Jonathan Worent, Jonny Axelsson, Jordan Tucker, Jorgen Horstink, Jorunn
Danielsen Newth, Joseph Kesselman, Joseph Mansfield, Joseph Pecoraro, Josh Aas, Josh Hart,
Josh Levenberg, Josh Matthews, Joshua Bell, Joshua Berenhaus, Joshua Randall, Jukka K. Kor-
pela, Jules Clment-Ripoche, Julian Reschke, Julio Lopez, Junkee Song, Jrgen Jeka, Justin Lebar,
Justin Novosad, Justin Rogers, Justin Schuh, Justin Sinclair, Ka-Sing Chou, Kai Hendry,
(KangHao Lu), Karl Dubost, Karl Groves, Kartikaya Gupta, Kathy Walton, Keith Hall, Keith Ye-
ung, Kelly Ford, Kelly Norton, Kevin Benson, Kevin Gadd, Kevin Cole, Kinuko Yasuda Kornl
Pl, Kornel Lesinski, Kris Northfield, Kristof Zelechovski, Krzysztof Maczyski,
(Kurosawa Takeshi), Kyle Barnhart, Kyle Hofmann, Kyle Huey, Lonard Bouchet, Lachlan Hunt,
Larry Masinter, Larry Page, Lars Gunther, Lars Solberg, Laura Carlson, Laura Granka, Laura L.
Carlson, Laura Wisewell, Laurens Holst, Lawrence Forooghian, Lea Verou, Lee Kowalkowski,
Leif Halvard Silli, Leif Kornstaedt, Lenny Domnitser, Leonard Rosenthol, Lonie Watson, Leons
Petrazickis, Lobotom Dysmon, Logan, Loune, ukasz Pilorz, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton,
Maciej Stachowiak, Magnus Kristiansen, Maik Merten, Majid Valipour, Malcolm Rowe, Manu
Sporny, Manuel Strehl, Manish Tripathi, Mallory van Achterberg, Marat Talanin, Marc Hoyois,
Marcus Bointon, Mark Birbeck, Mark Davis, Mark Miller, Mark Nottingham, Mark Pilgrim, Mark
Rogers, Mark Rowe, Mark Schenk, Mark Vickers, Mark Wilton-Jones, Marquish, Martijn Warg-
ers, Martin Atkins, Martin Drst, Martin Honnen, Martin Janecke, Martin Kutschker, Martin Nils-
son, Martin Thomson, Masataka Yakura, Masatoshi Kimura, Matheus Martins, Mathias Bynens,
Mathieu Henri, Matias Larsson, Matt Falkenhagen, Matt Garrish, Matt May, Matt Rakow, Matt
Schmidt, Matt Wright, Matthew Gregan, Matthew Mastracci, Matthew Noorenberghe, Matthew
Raymond, Matthew Thomas, Mattias Waldau, Max Romantschuk, Menachem Salomon, Menno
van Slooten, Mia Lipner, Micah Dubinko, Michael "Ratt" Iannarelli, Michael A. Nachbaur,
Michael A. Puls II, Michael Carter, Michael Daskalov, Michael Day, Michael Dyck, Michael En-
right, Michael Gratton, Michael Nordman, Michael Powers, Michael Rakowski, Michael(tm)
Smith, Michael Walmsley, Michal Zalewski, Michel Fortin, Michelangelo De Simone, Michiel
Bijl, Michiel van der Blonk, Mihai ucan, Mihai Parparita, Mike Brown, Mike Dierken, Mike
Dixon, Mike Hearn, Mike Schinkel, Mike Shaver, Mikko Rantalainen, Mitchell Evan, Mohamed
Zergaoui, Mohammad Al Houssami, Momdo Nakamura, Mounir Lamouri, Mount-root-yy,
Ms2ger, Nadia Heninger, Nhan, NARUSE Yui, Neil Deakin, Neil Rashbrook, Neil Soiffer,
Nicholas Shanks, Nicholas Stimpson, Nicholas Zakas, Nick Levinson, Nickolay Ponomarev, Nico-
las Gallagher, Noah Mendelsohn, Noah Slater, Noel Gordon, Nolan Waite, NoozNooz42, Norbert
Lindenberg, Ojan Vafai, Olaf Hoffmann, Olav Junker Kjr, Oldich Vetenk, Oli Studholme,
Oliver Hunt, Oliver Rigby, Olivier Gendrin, Olli Pettay, oSand, Pablo Flouret, Patrick Garies,
Patrick H. Lauke, Patrik Persson, Paul Adenot, Paul Cotton, Paul Norman, Per-Erik Brodin, Perry
Smith, Peter Beverloo, Peter Karlsson, Peter Kasting, Peter Lemieux, Peter Moulder, Peter Occil,
Peter Stark, Peter Van der Beken, Peter Winnberg, Peter-Paul Koch, Phil Pickering, Philip Taylor,
Philip TAYLOR, Philippe De Ryck, Prateek Rungta, Pravir Gupta, Prayag Verma, (Pujun
Li), Rabab Gomaa, Rachid Finge, Rachel White, Rafael Weinstein, Rafa Miecki, Raj Doshi, Ra-
jas Moonka, Ralf Stoltze, Ralph Giles, Raphael Champeimont, Rebeca Ruiz, Remci Mizkur,
Remco, Remy Sharp, Rene Saarsoo, Rene Stach, Ric Hardacre, Rich Clark, Rich Doughty, Richa
Rupela, Richard Ishida, Richard Schwerdtfeger, Rigo Wenning, Rikkert Koppes, Rimantas Liuber-
tas, Riona Macnamara, Rob Ennals, Rob Jellinghaus, Rob S, Robert Blaut, Robert Collins, Robert
Kieffer, Robert Millan, Robert OCallahan, Robert Sayre, Robin Berjon, Robin Schaufler, Rodger
Combs, Rodney Rehm, Roland Steiner, Roma Matusevich, Roman Ivanov, Roy Fielding, Ruud
Steltenpool, Ryan King, Ryan Rion, Ryosuke Niwa, S. Mike Dierken, Sailesh Panchang, Salvatore
Loreto, Sam Dutton, Sam Kuper, Sam Ruby, Sam Weinig, Samuel Bronson, Samy Kamkar, Sander
van Lambalgen, Sarven Capadisli, (SATO Masayuki), Scott Gonzlez, Scott Hess, Sean
Fraser, Sean Hayes, Sean Hogan, Sean Knapp, Sebastian Markbge, Sebastian Schnitzenbaumer,
Sendil Kumar N, Seth Call, Seth Dillingham, Shannon Moeller, Shanti Rao, Shaun Inman, Shiki
Okasaka, Shubheksha Jalan, Sierk Bornemann, Sigbjrn Finne, Sigbjrn Vik, Silver Ghost, Silvia
Pfeiffer, ime Vidas, Simo Sutela, Simon Montagu, Simon Spiegel, skeww, Smylers, Srirama
Chandra Sekhar Mogali, Stanton McCandlish, Stefan Gtz, Stefan Hkansson, Stefan Haustein,
Stefan Santesson, Stefan Schumacher, Stefan Weiss, Steffen Meschkat, Stephane Corlosquet,
Stephen Cunliffe, Stephen Ma, Stephen White, Steve Comstock, Steve Runyon, Steven Bennett,
Steven Garrity, Steven Tate, Steven Wood, Stewart Brodie, Stuart Ballard, Stuart P Bentley, Stuart
Langridge, Stuart Parmenter, Subramanian Peruvemba, Sunava Dutta, Susan Borgrink, Susan
Lesch, Sylvain Pasche, T. J. Crowder, Tab Atkins-Bittner, Taiju Tsuiki, Takayoshi Kochi, Takeshi
Kurosawa, Takeshi Yoshino, Tantek elik, (TAMURA Kent), Taylor Hunt, Ted Miel-
czarek, Terrence Wood, Thijs van der Vossen, Thomas Broyer, Thomas Koetter, Thomas OCon-
nor, Tim Baxter, Tim Altman, Tim Johansson, TJ VanToll, Toby Inkster, Tobi Reif, Todd Moody,
Tom Baker, Tom Pike, Tommy Thorsen, Tony Ross, Tooru Fujisawa, Travis Leithead, Trevor
Saunders, triple-underscore, Tyler Close, Unor, Victor Carbune, Vipul Snehadeep Chawathe, Vitya
Muhachev, Vladimir Katardjiev, Vladimir Vukievi, voracity, Wakaba, Wayne Carr, Wayne Pol-
lock, Wellington Fernando de Macedo, Wes, Weston Ruter, Wilhelm Joys Andersen, Will Levine,
William Chen, William Swanson, Wladimir Palant, Wojciech Mach, Wolfram Kriesing, Xan
Gregg, xenotheme, Yang Chen, Ye-Kui Wang, Yehuda Katz, Yi-An Huang, Yngve Nysaeter Pet-
tersen, Yoav Weiss, Yonathan Randolph, Yuzo Fujishima, Zhenbin Xu, Zoltan Herczeg, and is-
tein E. Andersen,
for their useful comments, both large and small, that have led to changes to this specification over
the years.
Thanks also to everyone who has ever posted about HTML to their blogs, public mailing lists, or
forums, including all the contributors to the various W3C HTML and Web Platform WG lists and
the various WHATWG lists.
The image of two cute kittens in a basket used in the context menu example is based on a photo by
Alex G. (CC BY 2.0)
The Blue Robot Player sprite used in the canvas demo is based on a work by JohnColburn. (CC
BY-SA 3.0)
The photograph of robot 148 climbing the tower at the FIRST Robotics Competition 2013 Silicon
Valley Regional is based on a work by Lenore Edman. (CC BY 2.0)
The fancy image of the letter O with a child sitting in it reading a book is by Jessie Wilcox Smith
and is in the Public Domain.
Parts of this specification are Copyright 2004-2014 Apple Inc., Mozilla Foundation, and Opera
Software ASA. You are granted a license to use, reproduce and create derivative works of this doc-
ument.