10. XHTML Hypertext Module

Contents

This section is normative.

The Hypertext Module provides an element that traditionally has been used in HTML to define hypertext links to other resources. Although all elements may now play the role of a hyperlink (using the href attribute) or hyperlink anchor (using the id attribute), this element remains for explicit markup of links, though is otherwise identical in semantics to the span element.

This module supports the following element:

Element Attributes Minimal Content Model
a Common (PCDATA | Text)*

This module adds the a element to the Text content set of the Text Module.

Implementation: RELAX NG

10.1. The a element

Attributes

The Common collection
A collection of other attribute collections, including: Core, Events, I18N, Bi-directional, Edit, Embedding, Map, Metainformation, and Hypertext

An a element defines an anchor. Since hypertext attributes such as href may be applied to any element, this element is not strictly necessary, being equivalent to a span, but has been retained to allow the expression of explicit links.

<a href="http://www.w3.org/">The W3C Home Page</a>

Note. User agents are required to find anchors created by empty elements.