ISSUE-303: Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links

<a> link element

Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links

State:
CLOSED
Product:
TTML2
Raised by:
Nigel Megitt
Opened on:
2014-03-21
Description:
Permit <a> elements with href and target attributes only, around content elements or text.

This appears to be the minimal useful set of attributes around a link that may appear in a timed context.

The purpose of the target is to permit the linked content to be loaded into an alternate context: one possible use case for this is to allow the linked content to be loaded into a different window or iframe without interrupting the flow of captions displayed against a video that's being watched.

More concretely, this could be used for example for 'go here for more information' links or 'go here to vote for candidate X' links. A third example could be 'go here for these subtitles in language [xyz]'.

Note that I haven't proposed any styling changes associated with the <a> element. Two options exist here I think: firstly, don't allow any styling to be associated, and require that if special styling is used then the <a> is placed inside a <span> with appropriate styling; secondly, treat <a> as a special kind of <span> and allow all the same attributes on an <a> as on a <span>. I guess there's a third option which is simply to add the href and target attributes to the existing <span>, <p>, <div> and <body> elements, but this would seem to be inelegant.

Nested <a>s (at any depth) would not be permitted.

I don't know if this has been raised before, but it seems so obvious that I'm surprised I couldn't find an issue for it - happy to be told where to look for it if this is a duplicate. Apologies if I'm opening a can of worms that everybody would rather stay closed...
Related Actions Items:
No related actions
Related emails:
  1. {minutes} TTWG Meeting 2015-01-22 (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2015-01-22)
  2. {agenda} TTWG Meeting 2015-01-22 (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2015-01-21)
  3. {minutes} TTWG Meeting 2015-01-15 (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2015-01-15)
  4. ACTION-367: Review change proposal 27 in the light of closure of issue-303. (from sysbot+tracker@w3.org on 2015-01-15)
  5. {agenda} TTWG Meeting 2015-01-15 (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2015-01-14)
  6. {minutes} TTWG Meeting 21/8/2014 (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2014-08-21)
  7. {agenda} TTWG Meeting 21/8/2014 (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2014-08-20)
  8. Re: FYI - Media Accessibility User Requirements WD (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2014-08-19)
  9. {minutes} TTWG Meeting 27/3/2014 (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2014-03-27)
  10. Re: {agenda} TTWG Meeting 27/3/2014 (from glenn@skynav.com on 2014-03-27)
  11. Re: {agenda} TTWG Meeting 27/3/2014 (from tmichel@w3.org on 2014-03-27)
  12. {agenda} TTWG Meeting 27/3/2014 (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2014-03-26)
  13. Re: ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from glenn@skynav.com on 2014-03-25)
  14. Re: ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2014-03-25)
  15. Re: ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from glenn@skynav.com on 2014-03-25)
  16. Re: ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2014-03-25)
  17. Re: ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from glenn@skynav.com on 2014-03-25)
  18. Re: ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk on 2014-03-25)
  19. Re: ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from tai@irt.de on 2014-03-24)
  20. Re: ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from glenn@skynav.com on 2014-03-21)
  21. ISSUE-303 (<a> link element): Permit HTML-style <a> elements to contain href links [TTML2] (from sysbot+tracker@w3.org on 2014-03-21)

Related notes:

This issue now represented as change proposal 27 at https://www.w3.org/wiki/TTML/changeProposal027

Nigel Megitt, 27 Mar 2014, 17:57:30

add xlink* attributes to span and image element types in https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/ttml/rev/df7ee5d3203c

Glenn Adams, 9 Jan 2015, 03:03:11

Display change log ATOM feed

David Singer <singer@apple.com>, Nigel Megitt <nigel.megitt@bbc.co.uk>, Chairs, Thierry Michel <tmichel@w3.org>, Philippe Le Hégaret <plh@w3.org>, Atsushi Shimono <atsushi@w3.org>, Staff Contacts
Tracker: documentation, (configuration for this group), originally developed by Dean Jackson, is developed and maintained by the Systems Team <w3t-sys@w3.org>.
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