← 4.10.18 Association of controls and formsTable of contents4.11.5 Commands →
    1. 4.11 Interactive elements
      1. 4.11.1 The details element
      2. 4.11.2 The summary element
      3. 4.11.3 The command element
      4. 4.11.4 The menu element
        1. 4.11.4.1 Introduction
        2. 4.11.4.2 Building menus and toolbars
        3. 4.11.4.3 Context menus
        4. 4.11.4.4 Toolbars

4.11 Interactive elements

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4.11.1 The details element

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Categories
Flow content.
Sectioning root.
Interactive content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
One summary element followed by flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
open
DOM interface:
interface HTMLDetailsElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean open;
};

The details element represents a disclosure widget from which the user can obtain additional information or controls.

The details element is not appropriate for footnotes. Please see the section on footnotes for details on how to mark up footnotes.

The first summary element child of the element, if any, represents the summary or legend of the details. If there is no child summary element, the user agent should provide its own legend (e.g. "Details").

The open content attribute is a boolean attribute. If present, it indicates that the details are to be shown to the user. If the attribute is absent, the details are not to be shown.

If the attribute is removed, then the details should be hidden. If the attribute is added, the details should be shown.

The user agent should allow the user to request that the details be shown or hidden. To honor a request for the details to be shown, the user agent must set the open attribute on the element to the value open. To honor a request for the details to be hidden, the user agent must remove the open attribute from the element.

The open attribute must reflect the open content attribute.

The following example shows the details element being used to hide technical details in a progress report.

<section class="progress window">
 <h1>Copying "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"</h1>
 <details>
  <summary>Copying... <progress max="375505392" value="97543282"></progress> 25%</summary>
  <dl>
   <dt>Transfer rate:</dt> <dd>452KB/s</dd>
   <dt>Local filename:</dt> <dd>/home/rpausch/raycd.m4v</dd>
   <dt>Remote filename:</dt> <dd>/var/www/lectures/raycd.m4v</dd>
   <dt>Duration:</dt> <dd>01:16:27</dd>
   <dt>Color profile:</dt> <dd>SD (6-1-6)</dd>
   <dt>Dimensions:</dt> <dd>320×240</dd>
  </dl>
 </details>
</section>

The following shows how a details element can be used to hide some controls by default:

<details>
 <summary>Name & Extension:</summary>
 <p><input type=text name=fn value="Pillar Magazine.pdf">
 <p><label><input type=checkbox name=ext checked> Hide extension</label>
</details>

One could use this in conjuction 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 summarises what the controls can change, and not the actual values, which is less than ideal.

4.11.2 The summary element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:
As the first child of a details element.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The summary element represents a summary, caption, or legend for the rest of the contents of the summary element's parent details element, if any.

4.11.3 The command element

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Categories
Metadata content.
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:
Where metadata content is expected.
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
type
label
icon
disabled
checked
radiogroup
Also, the title attribute has special semantics on this element.
DOM interface:
interface HTMLCommandElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString label;
           attribute DOMString icon;
           attribute boolean disabled;
           attribute boolean checked;
           attribute DOMString radiogroup;
};

The command element represents a command that the user can invoke.

The type attribute indicates the kind of command: either a normal command with an associated action, or a state or option that can be toggled, or a selection of one item from a list of items.

The attribute is an enumerated attribute with three keywords and states. The "command" keyword maps to the Command state, the "checkbox" keyword maps to the Checkbox state, and the "radio" keyword maps to the Radio state. The missing value default is the Command state.

The Command state

The element represents a normal command with an associated action.

The Checkbox state

The element represents a state or option that can be toggled.

The Radio state

The element represents a selection of one item from a list of items.

The label attribute gives the name of the command, as shown to the user. The label attribute must be specified and must have a value that is not the empty string.

The title attribute gives a hint describing the command, which might be shown to the user to help him.

The icon attribute gives a picture that represents the command. If the attribute is specified, the attribute's value must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. To obtain the absolute URL of the icon when the attribute's value is not the empty string, the attribute's value must be resolved relative to the element. When the attribute is absent, or its value is the empty string, or resolving 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.

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 checked attribute is a boolean attribute that, if present, indicates that the command is selected. The attribute must be omitted unless the type attribute is in either the Checkbox state or the Radio state.

The radiogroup attribute gives the name of the group of commands that will be toggled when the command itself is toggled, for commands whose type attribute has the value "radio". The scope of the name is the child list of the parent element. The attribute must be omitted unless the type attribute is in the Radio state.

The type, label, icon, disabled, checked, and radiogroup IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The element's activation behavior depends on the value of the type attribute of the element, as follows:

If the type attribute is in the Checkbox state

If the element has a checked attribute, the UA must remove that attribute. Otherwise, the UA must add a checked attribute, with the literal value checked. The UA must then fire a click event at the element.

If the type attribute is in the Radio state

If the element has a parent, then the UA must walk the list of child nodes of that parent element, and for each node that is a command element, if that element has a radiogroup attribute whose value exactly matches the current element's (treating missing radiogroup attributes as if they were the empty string), and has a checked attribute, must remove that attribute.

Then, the element's checked attribute attribute must be set to the literal value checked and the user agent must fire a click event at the element.

Otherwise

The element has no activation behavior.

Firing a synthetic click event at the element does not cause any of the actions described above to happen.

command elements are not rendered unless they form part of a menu.

Here is an example of a toolbar with three buttons that let the user toggle between left, center, and right alignment. One could imagine such a toolbar as part of a text editor. The toolbar also has a separator followed by another button labeled "Publish", though that button is disabled.

<menu type="toolbar">
 <command type="radio" radiogroup="alignment" checked="checked"
          label="Left" icon="icons/alL.png" onclick="setAlign('left')">
 <command type="radio" radiogroup="alignment"
          label="Center" icon="icons/alC.png" onclick="setAlign('center')">
 <command type="radio" radiogroup="alignment"
          label="Right" icon="icons/alR.png" onclick="setAlign('right')">
 <hr>
 <command type="command" disabled
          label="Publish" icon="icons/pub.png" onclick="publish()">
</menu>

Status: Last call for comments

Categories
Flow content.
If the element's type attribute is in the toolbar state: Interactive content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Either: Zero or more li elements.
Or: Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
type
label
DOM interface:
interface HTMLMenuElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString label;
};

The menu element represents a list of commands.

The type attribute is an enumerated attribute indicating the kind of menu being declared. The attribute has three states. The context keyword maps to the context menu state, in which the element is declaring a context menu. The toolbar keyword maps to the toolbar state, in which the element is declaring a toolbar. The attribute may also be omitted. The missing value default is the list state, which indicates that the element is merely a list of commands that is neither declaring a context menu nor defining a toolbar.

If a menu element's type attribute is in the context menu state, then the element represents the commands of a context menu, and the user can only interact with the commands if that context menu is activated.

If a menu element's type attribute is in the toolbar state, then the element represents a list of active commands that the user can immediately interact with.

If a menu element's type attribute is in the list state, then the element either represents an unordered list of items (each represented by an li element), each of which represents a command that the user can perform or activate, or, if the element has no li element children, flow content describing available commands.

The label attribute gives the label of the menu. It is used by user agents to display nested menus in the UI. For example, a context menu containing another menu would use the nested menu's label attribute for the submenu's menu label.

The type and label IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

Status: Last call for comments

This section is non-normative.

The menu element is used to define context menus and toolbars.

For example, the following represents a toolbar with three menu buttons on it, each of which has a dropdown menu with a series of options:

<menu type="toolbar">
 <li>
  <menu label="File">
   <button type="button" onclick="fnew()">New...</button>
   <button type="button" onclick="fopen()">Open...</button>
   <button type="button" onclick="fsave()">Save</button>
   <button type="button" onclick="fsaveas()">Save as...</button>
  </menu>
 </li>
 <li>
  <menu label="Edit">
   <button type="button" onclick="ecopy()">Copy</button>
   <button type="button" onclick="ecut()">Cut</button>
   <button type="button" onclick="epaste()">Paste</button>
  </menu>
 </li>
 <li>
  <menu label="Help">
   <li><a href="help.html">Help</a></li>
   <li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
  </menu>
 </li>
</menu>

In a supporting user agent, this might look like this:

A toolbar with three buttons, labeled 'File', 'Edit', and 'Help'; where if you select the 'Edit' button you get a drop-down menu with three more options, 'Copy', 'Cut', and 'Paste'.

In a legacy user agent, the above would look like a bulleted list with three items, the first of which has four buttons, the second of which has three, and the third of which has two nested bullet points with two items consisting of links.


The following implements a similar toolbar, with a single button whose values, when selected, redirect the user to Web sites.

<form action="redirect.cgi">
 <menu type="toolbar">
  <label for="goto">Go to...</label>
  <menu label="Go">
   <select id="goto">
    <option value="" selected="selected"> Select site: </option>
    <option value="http://www.apple.com/"> Apple </option>
    <option value="http://www.mozilla.org/"> Mozilla </option>
    <option value="http://www.opera.com/"> Opera </option>
   </select>
   <span><input type="submit" value="Go"></span>
  </menu>
 </menu>
</form>

The behavior in supporting user agents is similar to the example above, but here the legacy behavior consists of a single select element with a submit button. The submit button doesn't appear in the toolbar, because it is not a direct child of the menu element or of its li children.

4.11.4.2 Building menus and toolbars

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A menu (or toolbar) consists of a list of zero or more of the following components:

The list corresponding to a particular menu element is built by iterating over its child nodes. For each child node in tree order, the required behavior depends on what the node is, as follows:

An element that defines a command
Append the command to the menu, respecting its facets.
An hr element
An option element that has a value attribute set to the empty string, and has a disabled attribute, and whose textContent consists of a string of one or more hyphens (U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS)
Append a separator to the menu.
An li element
A label element
Iterate over the children of the element.
A menu element with no label attribute
A select element
Append a separator to the menu, then iterate over the children of the menu or select element, then append another separator.
A menu element with a label attribute
An optgroup element with a label attribute
Append a submenu to the menu, using the value of the element's label attribute as the label of the menu. The submenu must be constructed by taking the element and creating a new menu for it using the complete process described in this section.
Any other node
Ignore the node.

Once all the nodes have been processed as described above, the user agent must the post-process the menu as follows:

  1. Except for separators, any menu item with no label, or whose label is the empty string, must be removed.
  2. Any sequence of two or more separators in a row must be collapsed to a single separator.
  3. Any separator at the start or end of the menu must be removed.
4.11.4.3 Context menus

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The contextmenu attribute gives the element's context menu. The value must be the ID of a menu element in the DOM. If the node that would be obtained by the invoking the getElementById() method using the attribute's value as the only argument is null or not a menu element, then the element has no assigned context menu. Otherwise, the element's assigned context menu is the element so identified.

When an element's context menu is requested (e.g. by the user right-clicking the element, or pressing a context menu key), the UA must fire a simple event named contextmenu that bubbles and is cancelable at the element for which the menu was requested.

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 UA-dependent, as it will vary based on platform conventions.

The default action of the contextmenu event depends on whether the element or one of its ancestors has a context menu assigned (using the contextmenu attribute) or not. If there is no context menu assigned, the default action must be for the user agent to show its default context menu, if it has one.

If the element or one of its ancestors does have a context menu assigned, then the user agent must fire a simple event named show at the menu element of the context menu of the nearest ancestor (including the element itself) with one assigned.

The default action of this event is that the user agent must show a context menu built from the menu element.

The user agent may also provide access to its default context menu, if any, with the context menu shown. For example, it could merge the menu items from the two menus together, or provide the page's context menu as a submenu of the default menu.

If the user dismisses the menu without making a selection, nothing in particular happens.

If the user selects a menu item that represents a command, then the UA must invoke that command's Action.

Context menus must not, while being shown, reflect changes in the DOM; they are constructed as the default action of the show event and must remain as constructed until dismissed.

User agents may provide means for bypassing the context menu processing model, ensuring that the user can always access the UA's default context menus. For example, the user agent could handle right-clicks that have the Shift key depressed in such a way that it does not fire the contextmenu event and instead always shows the default context menu.

The contextMenu attribute must reflect the contextmenu content attribute.

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>
  <command label="Pick random name" onclick="document.forms.npc.elements.char.value = getRandomName()">
  <command label="Prefill other fields based on name" onclick="prefillFields(document.forms.npc.elements.char.value)">
 </menu>
</form>

This adds to items to the control's 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 example above.

4.11.4.4 Toolbars

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When a menu element has a type attribute in the toolbar state, then the user agent must build the menu for that menu element, and use the result in the rendering.

The user agent must reflect changes made to the menu's DOM, by immediately rebuilding the menu.