W3C DOM Level 2 HTML Candidate Recommendation Issues List

This document contains a list of issues regarding the DOM Level 2 HTML specification Candidate Recommendation period. All comments or issues regarding the specification or this document must be reported to www-dom@w3.org (public archives) before July 1, 2002.

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Issue summary

Id: TitleStatus
curt1 : Add HTMLFormControl interface as ancestor to form controlsdeclined
pettit1 : HTMLTableRowElement.rowIndexagreed
pettit2 : usemap referencing external map definitionsdeclined

Issue details

curt1 : Add HTMLFormControl interface as ancestor to form controls

Description:

it would be beneficial to add a HTMLFormControl interface to be used as a common ancestor interface for the form control interfaces. This should have no end-user detectable affect from scripting languages since the existing interfaces share identically named attributes. However, it would allow strongly-typed languages to operate on the common attributes of form controls without resorting to reflection.

For example, in JavaScript you could do:

var controls = form.elements();
for(var i = 0; i < controls.length; i++) {
    controls.item(i).disabled = true;
}

But you could not readily do the equivalent in Java.

The interface could look something like:

interface HTMLFormControl : HTMLElement {
    readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
    attribute DOMString name;
    attribute DOMString value;
   attribute boolean disabled;
    //
    //   these attributes are not currently in all form control interfaces
    //    
   attribute DOMString defaultValue;
   attribute DOMString accessKey;
   attribute long tabIndex;
}
Raised by
Curt Arnold
State (Raised, Accepted, Declined, Decided, etc.)
21 Jun 2002 raised
10 Jul 2002 declined [acknowledgment]

Not enough value added.

Discussion history
25 Jun 2002

pettit1 : HTMLTableRowElement.rowIndex

Description:

Where the specification reads:

"This is in document tree order and not display order. The rowIndex does not take into account sections (THEAD, TFOOT, or TBODY) within the table."

The proposed erratum is:

"This is in logical order and not in document order. The rowIndex does take into account sections (THEAD, TFOOT, or TBODY) within the table, placing THEAD rows first in the index, followed by TBODY rows, followed by TFOOT rows."

The documentation of the rowIndex parameter for HTMLTableElement::deleteRow and HTMLTableElement::insertRow could be clarified by language similar to the proposed erratum. For example, the HTMLTableElement::deleteRow specification currently states "This index starts from 0 and is relative to all the rows contained inside the table, regardless of section parentage." "Regardless of section parentage" could mean order within the table element of the document, or display order.

Raised by
Brad Pettit
State (Raised, Accepted, Declined, Decided, etc.)
21 Aug 2002 raised
20 Sep 2002 agreed [acknowledgment]

The proposed changes were applied.

pettit2 : usemap referencing external map definitions

Description:

The issues relate to usemap referencing an external html file containing the MAP information, and, in part, how those imported elements exist within the DOM environment of the host document. We have encountered multiple implementation issues related to correct DOM support of what is largely a feature of convenience.

Raised by
Brad Pettit
State (Raised, Accepted, Declined, Decided, etc.)
23 Aug 2002 raised
23 Jul 2002 declined [acknowledgment]

There are no (or at least not enough) implementations out there that support external usemap's, and this is still an open issue in the HTML WG. Given that the DOM Level 2 HTML specification references the HTML4 specification, there will be no need to change the DOM Level 2 HTML spec is the issue is resolved by the HTML WG.

Discussion history
20 Sep 2002, 23 Oct 2002, 25 Oct 2002

Maintained by DOM Working Group.

Last update: $Date: 2002/10/25 15:58:23 $