a
elementhref
target
rel
media
hreflang
type
interface HTMLAnchorElement : HTMLElement { stringifier attribute DOMString href; attribute DOMString target; attribute DOMString rel; readonly attribute DOMTokenList relList; attribute DOMString media; attribute DOMString hreflang; attribute DOMString type; attribute DOMString text; // URL decomposition IDL attributes attribute DOMString protocol; attribute DOMString host; attribute DOMString hostname; attribute DOMString port; attribute DOMString pathname; attribute DOMString search; attribute DOMString hash; };
If the a
element has an href
attribute, then it
represents a hyperlink (a hypertext
anchor).
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.
The target
,
rel
, media
, hreflang
, and type
attributes must be omitted
if the href
attribute is
not present.
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>
text
Same as textContent
.
The IDL attributes
href
,
target
, rel
, media
, hreflang
, and type
, must
reflect the respective content attributes of the same
name.
The IDL attribute relList
must
reflect the rel
content attribute.
The a
element also supports the complement of
URL decomposition IDL attributes, protocol
, host
, port
, hostname
, pathname
, search
, and hash
. These must follow the
rules given for URL decomposition IDL attributes, with
the input being the result of
resolving the element's href
attribute relative to the
element, if there is such an attribute and resolving it is
successful, or the empty string otherwise; and the common setter action being the
same as setting the element's href
attribute to the new output
value.
The a
element may be wrapped around entire
paragraphs, lists, tables, and so forth, even entire 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"> <h1>Advertising</h1> <a href="http://ad.example.com/?adid=1929&pubid=1422"> <section> <h1>Mellblomatic 9000!</h1> <p>Turn all your widgets into mellbloms!</p> <p>Only $9.99 plus shipping and handling.</p> </section> </a> <a href="http://ad.example.com/?adid=375&pubid=1422"> <section> <h1>The Mellblom Browser</h1> <p>Web browsing at the speed of light.</p> <p>No other browser goes faster!</p> </section> </a> </aside>