Abstract

This is a strict subset of the HTML5 specification that omits user-agent (UA) implementation details. It is targeted toward Web authors and others who are not UA implementors and who want a view of the HTML specification that focuses more precisely on details relevant to using the HTML language to create Web documents and Web applications. Because this document does not provide implementation conformance criteria, UA implementors should not rely on it, but should instead refer to the full specification.

This specification defines the 5th major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In this version, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.

Status of This document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the most recently formally published revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

If you wish to make comments regarding this document in a manner that is tracked by the W3C, please submit them via using our public bug database. If you do not have an account then you can enter feedback using this form:

Feedback Comments

Please don't use section numbers as these tend to change rapidly and make your feedback harder to understand.

(Note: Your IP address and user agent will be publicly recorded for spam prevention purposes.)

If you cannot do this then you can also e-mail feedback to public-html-comments@w3.org (subscribe, archives), and arrangements will be made to transpose the comments to our public bug database. Alternatively, you can e-mail feedback to whatwg@whatwg.org (subscribe, archives). The editor guarantees that all substantive feedback sent to this list will receive a reply. However, such feedback is not considered formal feedback for the W3C process. All feedback is welcome.

The working groups maintains a list of all bug reports that the editor has not yet tried to address and a list of issues for which the chairs have not yet declared a decision. The editor also maintains a list of all e-mails that he has not yet tried to address. These bugs, issues, and e-mails apply to multiple HTML-related specifications, not just this one.

Implementors should be aware that this specification is not stable. Implementors who are not taking part in the discussions are likely to find the specification changing out from under them in incompatible ways. Vendors interested in implementing this specification before it eventually reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage should join the aforementioned mailing lists and take part in the discussions.

The publication of this document by the W3C as a W3C Working Draft does not imply that all of the participants in the W3C HTML working group endorse the contents of the specification. Indeed, for any section of the specification, one can usually find many members of the working group or of the W3C as a whole who object strongly to the current text, the existence of the section at all, or the idea that the working group should even spend time discussing the concept of that section.

The latest stable version of the editor's draft of this specification is always available on the W3C CVS server and in the WHATWG Subversion repository. The latest editor's working copy (which may contain unfinished text in the process of being prepared) contains the latest draft text of this specification (amongst others). For more details, please see the WHATWG FAQ.

There are various ways to follow the change history for the HTML specifications:

E-mail notifications of changes
HTML-Diffs mailing list (diff-marked HTML versions for each change): http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-diffs/latest
Commit-Watchers mailing list (complete source diffs): http://lists.whatwg.org/listinfo.cgi/commit-watchers-whatwg.org
Browsable version-control record of all changes:
CVSWeb interface with side-by-side diffs: http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/html5/
Annotated summary with unified diffs: http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker
Raw Subversion interface: svn checkout http://svn.whatwg.org/webapps/

The W3C HTML Working Group is the W3C working group responsible for this specification's progress along the W3C Recommendation track. This specification is the 05 April 2011 Working Draft.

Work on this specification is also done at the WHATWG. The W3C HTML working group actively pursues convergence with the WHATWG, as required by the W3C HTML working group charter.

This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

Table of Contents

  1. 1 Introduction
    1. 1.1 Background
    2. 1.2 Audience
    3. 1.3 Scope
    4. 1.4 History
    5. 1.5 Design notes
      1. 1.5.1 Serializability of script execution
      2. 1.5.2 Compliance with other specifications
    6. 1.6 HTML vs XHTML
    7. 1.7 Structure of this specification
      1. 1.7.1 How to read this specification
      2. 1.7.2 Typographic conventions
    8. 1.8 A quick introduction to HTML
    9. 1.9 Conformance requirements for authors
      1. 1.9.1 Presentational markup
      2. 1.9.2 Syntax errors
      3. 1.9.3 Restrictions on content models and on attribute values
    10. 1.10 Recommended reading
  2. 2 Common infrastructure
    1. 2.1 Terminology
      1. 2.1.1 Resources
      2. 2.1.2 XML
      3. 2.1.3 DOM trees
      4. 2.1.4 Scripting
      5. 2.1.5 Plugins
      6. 2.1.6 Character encodings
    2. 2.2 Conformance requirements
      1. 2.2.1 Extensibility
    3. 2.3 Case-sensitivity and string comparison
    4. 2.4 Common microsyntaxes
      1. 2.4.1 Boolean attributes
      2. 2.4.2 Keywords and enumerated attributes
      3. 2.4.3 Numbers
        1. 2.4.3.1 Non-negative integers
        2. 2.4.3.2 Signed integers
        3. 2.4.3.3 Real numbers
        4. 2.4.3.4 Lists of integers
      4. 2.4.4 Dates and times
        1. 2.4.4.1 Months
        2. 2.4.4.2 Dates
        3. 2.4.4.3 Times
        4. 2.4.4.4 Local dates and times
        5. 2.4.4.5 Global dates and times
        6. 2.4.4.6 Weeks
        7. 2.4.4.7 Vaguer moments in time
      5. 2.4.5 Colors
      6. 2.4.6 Space-separated tokens
      7. 2.4.7 Comma-separated tokens
      8. 2.4.8 References
      9. 2.4.9 Media queries
    5. 2.5 URLs
      1. 2.5.1 Terminology
      2. 2.5.2 Interfaces for URL manipulation
    6. 2.6 Common DOM interfaces
      1. 2.6.1 Reflecting content attributes in IDL attributes
      2. 2.6.2 Collections
        1. 2.6.2.1 HTMLCollection
        2. 2.6.2.2 HTMLAllCollection
        3. 2.6.2.3 HTMLFormControlsCollection
        4. 2.6.2.4 HTMLOptionsCollection
      3. 2.6.3 DOMTokenList
      4. 2.6.4 DOMSettableTokenList
      5. 2.6.5 DOMStringMap
      6. 2.6.6 DOM feature strings
      7. 2.6.7 Exceptions
    7. 2.7 Namespaces
  3. 3 Semantics, structure, and APIs of HTML documents
    1. 3.1 Documents
      1. 3.1.1 Documents in the DOM
      2. 3.1.2 Security
      3. 3.1.3 Resource metadata management
      4. 3.1.4 DOM tree accessors
      5. 3.1.5 Creating documents
    2. 3.2 Elements
      1. 3.2.1 Semantics
      2. 3.2.2 Elements in the DOM
      3. 3.2.3 Global attributes
        1. 3.2.3.1 The id attribute
        2. 3.2.3.2 The title attribute
        3. 3.2.3.3 The lang and xml:lang attributes
        4. 3.2.3.4 The xml:base attribute (XML only)
        5. 3.2.3.5 The dir attribute
        6. 3.2.3.6 The class attribute
        7. 3.2.3.7 The style attribute
        8. 3.2.3.8 Embedding custom non-visible data with the data-* attributes
      4. 3.2.4 Element definitions
        1. 3.2.4.1 Attributes
      5. 3.2.5 Content models
        1. 3.2.5.1 Kinds of content
          1. 3.2.5.1.1 Metadata content
          2. 3.2.5.1.2 Flow content
          3. 3.2.5.1.3 Sectioning content
          4. 3.2.5.1.4 Heading content
          5. 3.2.5.1.5 Phrasing content
          6. 3.2.5.1.6 Embedded content
          7. 3.2.5.1.7 Interactive content
        2. 3.2.5.2 Transparent content models
        3. 3.2.5.3 Paragraphs
      6. 3.2.6 Requirements relating to bidirectional-algorithm formatting characters
      7. 3.2.7 Annotations for assistive technology products (ARIA)
    3. 3.3 APIs in HTML documents
    4. 3.4 Dynamic markup insertion
      1. 3.4.1 Opening the input stream
      2. 3.4.2 Closing the input stream
      3. 3.4.3 document.write()
      4. 3.4.4 document.writeln()
      5. 3.4.5 innerHTML
      6. 3.4.6 outerHTML
      7. 3.4.7 insertAdjacentHTML()
  4. 4 The elements of HTML
    1. 4.1 The root element
      1. 4.1.1 The html element
    2. 4.2 Document metadata
      1. 4.2.1 The head element
      2. 4.2.2 The title element
      3. 4.2.3 The base element
      4. 4.2.4 The link element
      5. 4.2.5 The meta element
        1. 4.2.5.1 Standard metadata names
        2. 4.2.5.2 Other metadata names
        3. 4.2.5.3 Pragma directives
        4. 4.2.5.4 Other pragma directives
        5. 4.2.5.5 Specifying the document's character encoding
      6. 4.2.6 The style element
      7. 4.2.7 Styling
    3. 4.3 Scripting
      1. 4.3.1 The script element
        1. 4.3.1.1 Scripting languages
        2. 4.3.1.2 Restrictions for contents of script elements
        3. 4.3.1.3 Inline documentation for external scripts
      2. 4.3.2 The noscript element
    4. 4.4 Sections
      1. 4.4.1 The body element
      2. 4.4.2 The section element
      3. 4.4.3 The nav element
      4. 4.4.4 The article element
      5. 4.4.5 The aside element
      6. 4.4.6 The h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6 elements
      7. 4.4.7 The hgroup element
      8. 4.4.8 The header element
      9. 4.4.9 The footer element
      10. 4.4.10 The address element
      11. 4.4.11 Headings and sections
        1. 4.4.11.1 Creating an outline
    5. 4.5 Grouping content
      1. 4.5.1 The p element
      2. 4.5.2 The hr element
      3. 4.5.3 The pre element
      4. 4.5.4 The blockquote element
      5. 4.5.5 The ol element
      6. 4.5.6 The ul element
      7. 4.5.7 The li element
      8. 4.5.8 The dl element
      9. 4.5.9 The dt element
      10. 4.5.10 The dd element
      11. 4.5.11 The figure element
      12. 4.5.12 The figcaption element
      13. 4.5.13 The div element
    6. 4.6 Text-level semantics
      1. 4.6.1 The a element
      2. 4.6.2 The em element
      3. 4.6.3 The strong element
      4. 4.6.4 The small element
      5. 4.6.5 The s element
      6. 4.6.6 The cite element
      7. 4.6.7 The q element
      8. 4.6.8 The dfn element
      9. 4.6.9 The abbr element
      10. 4.6.10 The time element
      11. 4.6.11 The code element
      12. 4.6.12 The var element
      13. 4.6.13 The samp element
      14. 4.6.14 The kbd element
      15. 4.6.15 The sub and sup elements
      16. 4.6.16 The i element
      17. 4.6.17 The b element
      18. 4.6.18 The mark element
      19. 4.6.19 The ruby element
      20. 4.6.20 The rt element
      21. 4.6.21 The rp element
      22. 4.6.22 The bdi element
      23. 4.6.23 The bdo element
      24. 4.6.24 The span element
      25. 4.6.25 The br element
      26. 4.6.26 The wbr element
      27. 4.6.27 Usage summary
    7. 4.7 Edits
      1. 4.7.1 The ins element
      2. 4.7.2 The del element
      3. 4.7.3 Attributes common to ins and del elements
      4. 4.7.4 Edits and paragraphs
      5. 4.7.5 Edits and lists
    8. 4.8 Embedded content
      1. 4.8.1 The img element
        1. 4.8.1.1 Requirements for providing text to act as an alternative for images
          1. 4.8.1.1.1 General guidelines
          2. 4.8.1.1.2 A link or button containing nothing but the image
          3. 4.8.1.1.3 A phrase or paragraph with an alternative graphical representation: charts, diagrams, graphs, maps, illustrations
          4. 4.8.1.1.4 A short phrase or label with an alternative graphical representation: icons, logos
          5. 4.8.1.1.5 Text that has been rendered to a graphic for typographical effect
          6. 4.8.1.1.6 A graphical representation of some of the surrounding text
          7. 4.8.1.1.7 A purely decorative image that doesn't add any information
          8. 4.8.1.1.8 A group of images that form a single larger picture with no links
          9. 4.8.1.1.9 A group of images that form a single larger picture with links
          10. 4.8.1.1.10 A key part of the content
          11. 4.8.1.1.11 An image not intended for the user
          12. 4.8.1.1.12 An image in an e-mail or private document intended for a specific person who is known to be able to view images
      2. 4.8.2 The iframe element
      3. 4.8.3 The embed element
      4. 4.8.4 The object element
      5. 4.8.5 The param element
      6. 4.8.6 The video element
      7. 4.8.7 The audio element
      8. 4.8.8 The source element
      9. 4.8.9 The track element
      10. 4.8.10 Media elements
        1. 4.8.10.1 Error codes
        2. 4.8.10.2 Location of the media resource
        3. 4.8.10.3 MIME types
        4. 4.8.10.4 Network states
        5. 4.8.10.5 Loading the media resource
        6. 4.8.10.6 Offsets into the media resource
        7. 4.8.10.7 The ready states
        8. 4.8.10.8 Playing the media resource
        9. 4.8.10.9 Seeking
        10. 4.8.10.10 Timed text tracks
          1. 4.8.10.10.1 Text track model
          2. 4.8.10.10.2 Sourcing in-band text tracks
          3. 4.8.10.10.3 Text track API
        11. 4.8.10.11 User interface
        12. 4.8.10.12 Time ranges
        13. 4.8.10.13 Event summary
        14. 4.8.10.14 Best practices for authors using media elements
      11. 4.8.11 The canvas element
      12. 4.8.12 The map element
      13. 4.8.13 The area element
      14. 4.8.14 Image maps
      15. 4.8.15 MathML
      16. 4.8.16 SVG
      17. 4.8.17 Dimension attributes
    9. 4.9 Tabular data
      1. 4.9.1 The table element
      2. 4.9.2 The caption element
      3. 4.9.3 The colgroup element
      4. 4.9.4 The col element
      5. 4.9.5 The tbody element
      6. 4.9.6 The thead element
      7. 4.9.7 The tfoot element
      8. 4.9.8 The tr element
      9. 4.9.9 The td element
      10. 4.9.10 The th element
      11. 4.9.11 Attributes common to td and th elements
      12. 4.9.12 Examples
    10. 4.10 Forms
      1. 4.10.1 Introduction
        1. 4.10.1.1 Writing a form's user interface
        2. 4.10.1.2 Implementing the server-side processing for a form
        3. 4.10.1.3 Configuring a form to communicate with a server
        4. 4.10.1.4 Client-side form validation
      2. 4.10.2 Categories
      3. 4.10.3 The form element
      4. 4.10.4 The fieldset element
      5. 4.10.5 The legend element
      6. 4.10.6 The label element
      7. 4.10.7 The input element
        1. 4.10.7.1 States of the type attribute
          1. 4.10.7.1.1 Hidden state
          2. 4.10.7.1.2 Text state and Search state
          3. 4.10.7.1.3 Telephone state
          4. 4.10.7.1.4 URL state
          5. 4.10.7.1.5 E-mail state
          6. 4.10.7.1.6 Password state
          7. 4.10.7.1.7 Date and Time state
          8. 4.10.7.1.8 Date state
          9. 4.10.7.1.9 Month state
          10. 4.10.7.1.10 Week state
          11. 4.10.7.1.11 Time state
          12. 4.10.7.1.12 Local Date and Time state
          13. 4.10.7.1.13 Number state
          14. 4.10.7.1.14 Range state
          15. 4.10.7.1.15 Color state
          16. 4.10.7.1.16 Checkbox state
          17. 4.10.7.1.17 Radio Button state
          18. 4.10.7.1.18 File Upload state
          19. 4.10.7.1.19 Submit Button state
          20. 4.10.7.1.20 Image Button state
          21. 4.10.7.1.21 Reset Button state
          22. 4.10.7.1.22 Button state
        2. 4.10.7.2 Common input element attributes
          1. 4.10.7.2.1 The autocomplete attribute
          2. 4.10.7.2.2 The dirname attribute
          3. 4.10.7.2.3 The list attribute
          4. 4.10.7.2.4 The readonly attribute
          5. 4.10.7.2.5 The size attribute
          6. 4.10.7.2.6 The required attribute
          7. 4.10.7.2.7 The multiple attribute
          8. 4.10.7.2.8 The maxlength attribute
          9. 4.10.7.2.9 The pattern attribute
          10. 4.10.7.2.10 The min and max attributes
          11. 4.10.7.2.11 The step attribute
          12. 4.10.7.2.12 The placeholder attribute
        3. 4.10.7.3 Common input element APIs
      8. 4.10.8 The button element
      9. 4.10.9 The select element
      10. 4.10.10 The datalist element
      11. 4.10.11 The optgroup element
      12. 4.10.12 The option element
      13. 4.10.13 The textarea element
      14. 4.10.14 The keygen element
      15. 4.10.15 The output element
      16. 4.10.16 The progress element
      17. 4.10.17 The meter element
      18. 4.10.18 Association of controls and forms
      19. 4.10.19 Attributes common to form controls
        1. 4.10.19.1 Naming form controls
        2. 4.10.19.2 Enabling and disabling form controls
        3. 4.10.19.3 Autofocusing a form control
        4. 4.10.19.4 Limiting user input length
        5. 4.10.19.5 Form submission
        6. 4.10.19.6 Submitting element directionality
      20. 4.10.20 APIs for the text field selections
      21. 4.10.21 Constraints
        1. 4.10.21.1 Definitions
        2. 4.10.21.2 The constraint validation API
        3. 4.10.21.3 Security
      22. 4.10.22 Form submission
    11. 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 Context menus
      5. 4.11.5 Commands
    12. 4.12 Links
      1. 4.12.1 Introduction
      2. 4.12.2 Links created by a and area elements
      3. 4.12.3 Link types
        1. 4.12.3.1 Link type "alternate"
        2. 4.12.3.2 Link type "author"
        3. 4.12.3.3 Link type "bookmark"
        4. 4.12.3.4 Link type "external"
        5. 4.12.3.5 Link type "help"
        6. 4.12.3.6 Link type "icon"
        7. 4.12.3.7 Link type "license"
        8. 4.12.3.8 Link type "nofollow"
        9. 4.12.3.9 Link type "noreferrer"
        10. 4.12.3.10 Link type "pingback"
        11. 4.12.3.11 Link type "prefetch"
        12. 4.12.3.12 Link type "search"
        13. 4.12.3.13 Link type "sidebar"
        14. 4.12.3.14 Link type "stylesheet"
        15. 4.12.3.15 Link type "tag"
        16. 4.12.3.16 Sequential link types
          1. 4.12.3.16.1 Link type "next"
          2. 4.12.3.16.2 Link type "prev"
        17. 4.12.3.17 Other link types
    13. 4.13 Common idioms without dedicated elements
      1. 4.13.1 The main part of the content
      2. 4.13.2 Bread crumb navigation
      3. 4.13.3 Tag clouds
      4. 4.13.4 Conversations
      5. 4.13.5 Footnotes
  5. 5 Loading Web pages
    1. 5.1 Browsing contexts
      1. 5.1.1 Nested browsing contexts
        1. 5.1.1.1 Navigating nested browsing contexts in the DOM
      2. 5.1.2 Auxiliary browsing contexts
        1. 5.1.2.1 Navigating auxiliary browsing contexts in the DOM
      3. 5.1.3 Secondary browsing contexts
      4. 5.1.4 Browsing context names
    2. 5.2 The Window object
      1. 5.2.1 APIs for creating and navigating browsing contexts by name
      2. 5.2.2 Accessing other browsing contexts
      3. 5.2.3 Named access on the Window object
      4. 5.2.4 Browser interface elements
    3. 5.3 Origin
      1. 5.3.1 Relaxing the same-origin restriction
    4. 5.4 Session history and navigation
      1. 5.4.1 The session history of browsing contexts
      2. 5.4.2 The History interface
      3. 5.4.3 The Location interface
    5. 5.5 Browsing the Web
      1. 5.5.1 History traversal
      2. 5.5.2 Unloading documents
    6. 5.6 Offline Web applications
      1. 5.6.1 Introduction
        1. 5.6.1.1 Event summary
      2. 5.6.2 The cache manifest syntax
        1. 5.6.2.1 Some sample manifests
        2. 5.6.2.2 Writing cache manifests
      3. 5.6.3 Application cache API
      4. 5.6.4 Browser state
  6. 6 Web application APIs
    1. 6.1 Scripting
      1. 6.1.1 Introduction
      2. 6.1.2 Events
    2. 6.2 Base64 utility methods
    3. 6.3 Timers
    4. 6.4 User prompts
      1. 6.4.1 Simple dialogs
      2. 6.4.2 Printing
      3. 6.4.3 Dialogs implemented using separate documents
    5. 6.5 System state and capabilities: the Navigator object
      1. 6.5.1 Client identification
      2. 6.5.2 Custom scheme and content handlers
      3. 6.5.3 Manually releasing the storage mutex
  7. 7 User interaction
    1. 7.1 The hidden attribute
    2. 7.2 Activation
    3. 7.3 Focus
      1. 7.3.1 Sequential focus navigation and the tabindex attribute
      2. 7.3.2 Document-level focus APIs
      3. 7.3.3 Element-level focus APIs
    4. 7.4 Assigning keyboard shortcuts
      1. 7.4.1 Introduction
      2. 7.4.2 The accesskey attribute
    5. 7.5 The contenteditable attribute
      1. 7.5.1 Making entire documents editable
    6. 7.6 Spelling and grammar checking
    7. 7.7 Drag and drop
      1. 7.7.1 Introduction
      2. 7.7.2 The drag data store
      3. 7.7.3 The DataTransfer interface
        1. 7.7.3.1 The DataTransferItems interface
        2. 7.7.3.2 The DataTransferItem interface
      4. 7.7.4 The DragEvent interface
      5. 7.7.5 Events summary
      6. 7.7.6 The draggable attribute
      7. 7.7.7 The dropzone attribute
    8. 7.8 Editing APIs
  8. 8 The HTML syntax
    1. 8.1 Writing HTML documents
      1. 8.1.1 The DOCTYPE
      2. 8.1.2 Elements
        1. 8.1.2.1 Start tags
        2. 8.1.2.2 End tags
        3. 8.1.2.3 Attributes
        4. 8.1.2.4 Optional tags
        5. 8.1.2.5 Restrictions on content models
        6. 8.1.2.6 Restrictions on the contents of raw text and RCDATA elements
      3. 8.1.3 Text
        1. 8.1.3.1 Newlines
      4. 8.1.4 Character references
      5. 8.1.5 CDATA sections
      6. 8.1.6 Comments
    2. 8.2 Named character references
  9. 9 The XHTML syntax
  10. 10 Obsolete features
    1. 10.1 Obsolete but conforming features
    2. 10.2 Non-conforming features
  11. 11 IANA considerations
    1. 11.1 text/html
    2. 11.2 text/html-sandboxed
    3. 11.3 application/xhtml+xml
    4. 11.4 text/cache-manifest
  12. Index
    1. Elements
    2. Element content categories
    3. Attributes
    4. Interfaces
    5. Events
  13. Index of terms
  14. References
  15. Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

This section is non-normative.

The World Wide Web's markup language has always been HTML. HTML was primarily designed as a language for semantically describing scientific documents, although its general design and adaptations over the years have enabled it to be used to describe a number of other types of documents.

The main area that has not been adequately addressed by HTML is a vague subject referred to as Web Applications. This specification attempts to rectify this, while at the same time updating the HTML specifications to address issues raised in the past few years.

1.2 Audience

This section is non-normative.

This specification is intended for authors of documents and scripts that use the features defined in this specification.

This document is probably not suited to readers who do not already have at least a passing familiarity with Web technologies, as in places it sacrifices clarity for precision, and brevity for completeness. More approachable tutorials and authoring guides can provide a gentler introduction to the topic.

In particular, familiarity with the basics of DOM Core and DOM Events is necessary for a complete understanding of some of the more technical parts of this specification. An understanding of Web IDL, HTTP, XML, Unicode, character encodings, JavaScript, and CSS will also be helpful in places but is not essential.

1.3 Scope

This section is non-normative.

This specification is limited to providing a semantic-level markup language and associated semantic-level scripting APIs for authoring accessible pages on the Web ranging from static documents to dynamic applications.

The scope of this specification does not include providing mechanisms for media-specific customization of presentation (although default rendering rules for Web browsers are included at the end of this specification, and several mechanisms for hooking into CSS are provided as part of the language).

The scope of this specification is not to describe an entire operating system. In particular, hardware configuration software, image manipulation tools, and applications that users would be expected to use with high-end workstations on a daily basis are out of scope. In terms of applications, this specification is targeted specifically at applications that would be expected to be used by users on an occasional basis, or regularly but from disparate locations, with low CPU requirements. For instance online purchasing systems, searching systems, games (especially multiplayer online games), public telephone books or address books, communications software (e-mail clients, instant messaging clients, discussion software), document editing software, etc.

1.4 History

This section is non-normative.

For its first five years (1990-1995), HTML went through a number of revisions and experienced a number of extensions, primarily hosted first at CERN, and then at the IETF.

With the creation of the W3C, HTML's development changed venue again. A first abortive attempt at extending HTML in 1995 known as HTML 3.0 then made way to a more pragmatic approach known as HTML 3.2, which was completed in 1997. HTML4 followed, reaching completion in 1998.

At this time, the W3C membership decided to stop evolving HTML and instead begin work on an XML-based equivalent, called XHTML. This effort started with a reformulation of HTML4 in XML, known as XHTML 1.0, which added no new features except the new serialization, and which was completed in 2000. After XHTML 1.0, the W3C's focus turned to making it easier for other working groups to extend XHTML, under the banner of XHTML Modularization. In parallel with this, the W3C also worked on a new language that was not compatible with the earlier HTML and XHTML languages, calling it XHTML2.

Around the time that HTML's evolution was stopped in 1998, parts of the API for HTML developed by browser vendors were specified and published under the name DOM Level 1 (in 1998) and DOM Level 2 Core and DOM Level 2 HTML (starting in 2000 and culminating in 2003). These efforts then petered out, with some DOM Level 3 specifications published in 2004 but the working group being closed before all the Level 3 drafts were completed.

In 2003, the publication of XForms, a technology which was positioned as the next generation of Web forms, sparked a renewed interest in evolving HTML itself, rather than finding replacements for it. This interest was borne from the realization that XML's deployment as a Web technology was limited to entirely new technologies (like RSS and later Atom), rather than as a replacement for existing deployed technologies (like HTML).

A proof of concept to show that it was possible to extend HTML4's forms to provide many of the features that XForms 1.0 introduced, without requiring browsers to implement rendering engines that were incompatible with existing HTML Web pages, was the first result of this renewed interest. At this early stage, while the draft was already publicly available, and input was already being solicited from all sources, the specification was only under Opera Software's copyright.

The idea that HTML's evolution should be reopened was tested at a W3C workshop in 2004, where some of the principles that underlie the HTML5 work (described below), as well as the aforementioned early draft proposal covering just forms-related features, were presented to the W3C jointly by Mozilla and Opera. The proposal was rejected on the grounds that the proposal conflicted with the previously chosen direction for the Web's evolution; the W3C staff and membership voted to continue developing XML-based replacements instead.

Shortly thereafter, Apple, Mozilla, and Opera jointly announced their intent to continue working on the effort under the umbrella of a new venue called the WHATWG. A public mailing list was created, and the draft was moved to the WHATWG site. The copyright was subsequently amended to be jointly owned by all three vendors, and to allow reuse of the specification.

The WHATWG was based on several core principles, in particular that technologies need to be backwards compatible, that specifications and implementations need to match even if this means changing the specification rather than the implementations, and that specifications need to be detailed enough that implementations can achieve complete interoperability without reverse-engineering each other.

The latter requirement in particular required that the scope of the HTML5 specification include what had previously been specified in three separate documents: HTML4, XHTML1, and DOM2 HTML. It also meant including significantly more detail than had previously been considered the norm.

In 2006, the W3C indicated an interest to participate in the development of HTML5 after all, and in 2007 formed a working group chartered to work with the WHATWG on the development of the HTML5 specification. Apple, Mozilla, and Opera allowed the W3C to publish the specification under the W3C copyright, while keeping a version with the less restrictive license on the WHATWG site.

Since then, both groups have been working together.

The HTML specification published by the WHATWG is not identical to this specification. The main differences are that the WHATWG version includes features not included in this W3C version: some features have been omitted as they are considered part of future revisions of HTML, not HTML5; and other features are omitted because at the W3C they are published as separate specifications. There are also some minor differences. For an exact list of differences, please see the WHATWG specification.

A separate document has been published by the W3C HTML working group to document the differences between this specification and the language described in the HTML4 specification. [HTMLDIFF]

1.5 Design notes

This section is non-normative.

It must be admitted that many aspects of HTML appear at first glance to be nonsensical and inconsistent.

HTML, its supporting DOM APIs, as well as many of its supporting technologies, have been developed over a period of several decades by a wide array of people with different priorities who, in many cases, did not know of each other's existence.

Features have thus arisen from many sources, and have not always been designed in especially consistent ways. Furthermore, because of the unique characteristics of the Web, implementation bugs have often become de-facto, and now de-jure, standards, as content is often unintentionally written in ways that rely on them before they can be fixed.

Despite all this, efforts have been made to adhere to certain design goals. These are described in the next few subsections.

1.5.1 Serializability of script execution

This section is non-normative.

To avoid exposing Web authors to the complexities of multithreading, the HTML and DOM APIs are designed such that no script can ever detect the simultaneous execution of other scripts. Even with workers, the intent is that the behavior of implementations can be thought of as completely serializing the execution of all scripts in all browsing contexts.

The navigator.yieldForStorageUpdates() method, in this model, is equivalent to allowing other scripts to run while the calling script is blocked.

1.5.2 Compliance with other specifications

This section is non-normative.

This specification interacts with and relies on a wide variety of other specifications. In certain circumstances, unfortunately, conflicting needs have led to this specification violating the requirements of these other specifications. Whenever this has occurred, the transgressions have each been noted as a "willful violation", and the reason for the violation has been noted.

1.6 HTML vs XHTML

This section is non-normative.

This specification defines an abstract language for describing documents and applications, and some APIs for interacting with in-memory representations of resources that use this language.

The in-memory representation is known as "DOM HTML", or "the DOM" for short. This specification defines version 5 of DOM HTML, known as "DOM5 HTML".

There are various concrete syntaxes that can be used to transmit resources that use this abstract language, two of which are defined in this specification.

The first such concrete syntax is the HTML syntax. This is the format suggested for most authors. It is compatible with most legacy Web browsers. If a document is transmitted with an HTML MIME type, such as text/html, then it will be processed as an HTML document by Web browsers. This specification defines version 5 of the HTML syntax, known as "HTML5".

The second concrete syntax is the XHTML syntax, which is an application of XML. When a document is transmitted with an XML MIME type, such as application/xhtml+xml, then it is treated as an XML document by Web browsers, to be parsed by an XML processor. Authors are reminded that the processing for XML and HTML differs; in particular, even minor syntax errors will prevent a document labeled as XML from being rendered fully, whereas they would be ignored in the HTML syntax. This specification defines version 5 of the XHTML syntax, known as "XHTML5".

The DOM, the HTML syntax, and XML cannot all represent the same content. For example, namespaces cannot be represented using the HTML syntax, but they are supported in the DOM and in XML. Similarly, documents that use the noscript feature can be represented using the HTML syntax, but cannot be represented with the DOM or in XML. Comments that contain the string "-->" can only be represented in the DOM, not in the HTML and XML syntaxes.

1.7 Structure of this specification

This section is non-normative.

This specification is divided into the following major sections:

Common infrastructure
The conformance classes, algorithms, definitions, and the common underpinnings of the rest of the specification.
Semantics, structure, and APIs of HTML documents
Documents are built from elements. These elements form a tree using the DOM. This section defines the features of this DOM, as well as introducing the features common to all elements, and the concepts used in defining elements.
The elements of HTML
Each element has a predefined meaning, which is explained in this section. Rules for authors on how to use the element are also given.
Loading Web pages
HTML documents do not exist in a vacuum — this section defines many of the features that affect environments that deal with multiple pages.
Web application APIs
This section introduces basic features for scripting of applications in HTML.
User interaction
HTML documents can provide a number of mechanisms for users to interact with and modify content, which are described in this section.
The HTML syntax
The XHTML syntax
All of these features would be for naught if they couldn't be represented in a serialized form and sent to other people, and so these sections define the syntaxes of HTML, along with rules for how to parse content using those syntaxes.

There are also some appendices, defining rendering rules for Web browsers and listing obsolete features and IANA considerations.

1.7.1 How to read this specification

This specification should be read like all other specifications. First, it should be read cover-to-cover, multiple times. Then, it should be read backwards at least once. Then it should be read by picking random sections from the contents list and following all the cross-references.

1.7.2 Typographic conventions

This is a definition, requirement, or explanation.

This is a note.

This is an example.

This is an open issue.

This is a warning.

interface Example {
  // this is an IDL definition
};
variable = object . method( [ optionalArgument ] )

This is a note to authors describing the usage of an interface.

/* this is a CSS fragment */

The defining instance of a term is marked up like this. Uses of that term are marked up like this or like this.

The defining instance of an element, attribute, or API is marked up like this. References to that element, attribute, or API are marked up like this.

Other code fragments are marked up like this.

Variables are marked up like this.

1.8 A quick introduction to HTML

This section is non-normative.

A basic HTML document looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Sample page</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <h1>Sample page</h1>
  <p>This is a <a href="demo.html">simple</a> sample.</p>
  <!-- this is a comment -->
 </body>
</html>

HTML documents consist of a tree of elements and text. Each element is denoted in the source by a start tag, such as "<body>", and an end tag, such as "</body>". (Certain start tags and end tags can in certain cases be omitted and are implied by other tags.)

Tags have to be nested such that elements are all completely within each other, without overlapping:

<p>This is <em>very <strong>wrong</em>!</strong></p>
<p>This <em>is <strong>correct</strong>.</em></p>

This specification defines a set of elements that can be used in HTML, along with rules about the ways in which the elements can be nested.

Elements can have attributes, which control how the elements work. In the example below, there is a hyperlink, formed using the a element and its href attribute:

<a href="demo.html">simple</a>

Attributes are placed inside the start tag, and consist of a name and a value, separated by an "=" character. The attribute value can remain unquoted if it doesn't contain spaces or any of " ' ` = < or >. Otherwise, it has to be quoted using either single or double quotes. The value, along with the "=" character, can be omitted altogether if the value is the empty string.

<!-- empty attributes -->
<input name=address disabled>
<input name=address disabled="">

<!-- attributes with a value -->
<input name=address maxlength=200>
<input name=address maxlength='200'>
<input name=address maxlength="200">

HTML user agents (e.g. Web browsers) then parse this markup, turning it into a DOM (Document Object Model) tree. A DOM tree is an in-memory representation of a document.

DOM trees contain several kinds of nodes, in particular a DOCTYPE node, elements, text nodes, and comment nodes.

The markup snippet at the top of this section would be turned into the following DOM tree:

The root element of this tree is the html element, which is the element always found at the root of HTML documents. It contains two elements, head and body, as well as a text node between them.

There are many more text nodes in the DOM tree than one would initially expect, because the source contains a number of spaces (represented here by "␣") and line breaks ("⏎") that all end up as text nodes in the DOM. However, for historical reasons not all of the spaces and line breaks in the original markup appear in the DOM. In particular, all the whitespace before head start tag ends up being dropped silently, and all the whitespace after the body end tag ends up placed at the end of the body.

The head element contains a title element, which itself contains a text node with the text "Sample page". Similarly, the body element contains an h1 element, a p element, and a comment.


This DOM tree can be manipulated from scripts in the page. Scripts (typically in JavaScript) are small programs that can be embedded using the script element or using event handler content attributes. For example, here is a form with a script that sets the value of the form's output element to say "Hello World":

<form name="main">
 Result: <output name="result"></output>
 <script>
  document.forms.main.elements.result.value = 'Hello World';
 </script>
</form>

Each element in the DOM tree is represented by an object, and these objects have APIs so that they can be manipulated. For instance, a link (e.g. the a element in the tree above) can have its "href" attribute changed in several ways:

var a = document.links[0]; // obtain the first link in the document
a.href = 'sample.html'; // change the destination URL of the link
a.protocol = 'https'; // change just the scheme part of the URL
a.setAttribute('href', 'http://example.com/'); // change the content attribute directly

Since DOM trees are used as the way to represent HTML documents when they are processed and presented by implementations (especially interactive implementations like Web browsers), this specification is mostly phrased in terms of DOM trees, instead of the markup described above.


HTML documents represent a media-independent description of interactive content. HTML documents might be rendered to a screen, or through a speech synthesizer, or on a braille display. To influence exactly how such rendering takes place, authors can use a styling language such as CSS.

In the following example, the page has been made yellow-on-blue using CSS.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Sample styled page</title>
  <style>
   body { background: navy; color: yellow; }
  </style>
 </head>
 <body>
  <h1>Sample styled page</h1>
  <p>This page is just a demo.</p>
 </body>
</html>

For more details on how to use HTML, authors are encouraged to consult tutorials and guides. Some of the examples included in this specification might also be of use, but the novice author is cautioned that this specification, by necessity, defines the language with a level of detail that might be difficult to understand at first.

1.9 Conformance requirements for authors

This section is non-normative.

Unlike previous versions of the HTML specification, this specification defines in some detail the required processing for invalid documents as well as valid documents.

However, even though the processing of invalid content is in most cases well-defined, conformance requirements for documents are still important: in practice, interoperability (the situation in which all implementations process particular content in a reliable and identical or equivalent way) is not the only goal of document conformance requirements. This section details some of the more common reasons for still distinguishing between a conforming document and one with errors.

1.9.1 Presentational markup

This section is non-normative.

The majority of presentational features from previous versions of HTML are no longer allowed. Presentational markup in general has been found to have a number of problems:

The use of presentational elements leads to poorer accessibility

While it is possible to use presentational markup in a way that provides users of assistive technologies (ATs) with an acceptable experience (e.g. using ARIA), doing so is significantly more difficult than doing so when using semantically-appropriate markup. Furthermore, even using such techniques doesn't help make pages accessible for non-AT non-graphical users, such as users of text-mode browsers.

Using media-independent markup, on the other hand, provides an easy way for documents to be authored in such a way that they work for more users (e.g. text browsers).

Higher cost of maintenance

It is significantly easier to maintain a site written in such a way that the markup is style-independent. For example, changing the color of a site that uses <font color=""> throughout requires changes across the entire site, whereas a similar change to a site based on CSS can be done by changing a single file.

Higher document sizes

Presentational markup tends to be much more redundant, and thus results in larger document sizes.

For those reasons, presentational markup has been removed from HTML in this version. This change should not come as a surprise; HTML4 deprecated presentational markup many years ago and provided a mode (HTML4 Transitional) to help authors move away from presentational markup; later, XHTML 1.1 went further and obsoleted those features altogether.

The only remaining presentational markup features in HTML are the style attribute and the style element. Use of the style attribute is somewhat discouraged in production environments, but it can be useful for rapid prototyping (where its rules can be directly moved into a separate style sheet later) and for providing specific styles in unusual cases where a separate style sheet would be inconvenient. Similarly, the style element can be useful in syndication or for page-specific styles, but in general an external style sheet is likely to be more convenient when the styles apply to multiple pages.

It is also worth noting that some elements that were previously presentational have been redefined in this specification to be media-independent: b, i, hr, s, and small.

1.9.2 Syntax errors

This section is non-normative.

The syntax of HTML is constrained to avoid a wide variety of problems.

Unintuitive error-handling behavior

Certain invalid syntax constructs, when parsed, result in DOM trees that are highly unintuitive.

For example, the following markup fragment results in a DOM with an hr element that is an earlier sibling of the corresponding table element:

<table><hr>...
Errors with optional error recovery

To allow user agents to be used in controlled environments without having to implement the more bizarre and convoluted error handling rules, user agents are permitted to fail whenever encountering a parse error.

Errors where the error-handling behavior is not compatible with streaming user agents

Some error-handling behavior, such as the behavior for the <table><hr>... example mentioned above, are incompatible with streaming user agents (user agents that process HTML files in one pass, without storing state). To avoid interoperability problems with such user agents, any syntax resulting in such behavior is considered invalid.

Errors that can result in infoset coercion

When a user agent based on XML is connected to an HTML parser, it is possible that certain invariants that XML enforces, such as comments never containing two consecutive hyphens, will be violated by an HTML file. Handling this can require that the parser coerce the HTML DOM into an XML-compatible infoset. Most syntax constructs that require such handling are considered invalid.

Errors that result in disproportionally poor performance

Certain syntax constructs can result in disproportionally poor performance. To discourage the use of such constructs, they are typically made non-conforming.

For example, the following markup results in poor performance, since all the unclosed i elements have to be reconstructed in each paragraph, resulting in progressively more elements in each paragraph:

<p><i>He dreamt.
<p><i>He dreamt that he ate breakfast.
<p><i>Then lunch.
<p><i>And finally dinner.

The resulting DOM for this fragment would be:

  • p
    • i
      • #text: He dreamt.
  • p
    • i
      • i
        • #text: He dreamt that he ate breakfast.
  • p
    • i
      • i
        • i
          • #text: Then lunch.
  • p
    • i
      • i
        • i
          • i
            • #text: And finally dinner.
Errors involving fragile syntax constructs

There are syntax constructs that, for historical reasons, are relatively fragile. To help reduce the number of users who accidentally run into such problems, they are made non-conforming.

For example, the parsing of certain named character references in attributes happens even with the closing semicolon being omitted. It is safe to include an ampersand followed by letters that do not form a named character reference, but if the letters are changed to a string that does form a named character reference, they will be interpreted as that character instead.

In this fragment, the attribute's value is "?bill&ted":

<a href="?bill&ted">Bill and Ted</a>

In the following fragment, however, the attribute's value is actually "?art©", not the intended "?art&copy":

<a href="?art&copy">Art and Copy</a>

To avoid this problem, all named character references are required to end with a semicolon, and uses of named character references without a semicolon are flagged as errors.

Thus, the correct way to express the above cases is as follows:

<a href="?bill&ted">Bill and Ted</a> <!-- &ted is ok, since it's not a named character reference -->
<a href="?art&amp;copy">Art and Copy</a> <!-- the & has to be escaped, since &copy is a named character reference -->
Errors involving known interoperability problems in legacy user agents

Certain syntax constructs are known to cause especially subtle or serious problems in legacy user agents, and are therefore marked as non-conforming to help authors avoid them.

For example, this is why the U+0060 GRAVE ACCENT character (`) is not allowed in unquoted attributes. In certain legacy user agents, it is sometimes treated as a quote character.

Another example of this is the DOCTYPE, which is required to trigger no-quirks mode, because the behavior of legacy user agents in quirks mode is often largely undocumented.

Errors that risk exposing authors to security attacks

Certain restrictions exist purely to avoid known security problems.

For example, the restriction on using UTF-7 exists purely to avoid authors falling prey to a known cross-site-scripting attack using UTF-7.

Cases where the author's intent is unclear

Markup where the author's intent is very unclear is often made non-conforming. Correcting these errors early makes later maintenance easier.

For example, it is unclear whether the author intended the following to be an h1 heading or an h2 heading:

<h1>Contact details</h2>
Cases that are likely to be typos

When a user makes a simple typo, it is helpful if the error can be caught early, as this can save the author a lot of debugging time. This specification therefore usually considers it an error to use element names, attribute names, and so forth, that do not match the names defined in this specification.

For example, if the author typed <capton> instead of <caption>, this would be flagged as an error and the author could correct the typo immediately.

Errors that could interfere with new syntax in the future

In order to allow the language syntax to be extended in the future, certain otherwise harmless features are disallowed.

For example, "attributes" in end tags are ignored currently, but they are invalid, in case a future change to the language makes use of that syntax feature without conflicting with already-deployed (and valid!) content.

Some authors find it helpful to be in the practice of always quoting all attributes and always including all optional tags, preferring the consistency derived from such custom over the minor benefits of terseness afforded by making use of the flexibility of the HTML syntax. To aid such authors, conformance checkers can provide modes of operation wherein such conventions are enforced.

1.9.3 Restrictions on content models and on attribute values

This section is non-normative.

Beyond the syntax of the language, this specification also places restrictions on how elements and attributes can be specified. These restrictions are present for similar reasons:

Errors involving content with dubious semantics

To avoid misuse of elements with defined meanings, content models are defined that restrict how elements can be nested when such nestings would be of dubious value.

For example, this specification disallows nesting a section element inside a kbd element, since it is highly unlikely for an author to indicate that an entire section should be keyed in.

Errors that involve a conflict in expressed semantics

Similarly, to draw the author's attention to mistakes in the use of elements, clear contradictions in the semantics expressed are also considered conformance errors.

In the fragments below, for example, the semantics are nonsensical: a row cannot simultaneously be a cell, nor can a radio button be a progress bar.

<tr role="cell">
<input type=radio role=progressbar>

Another example is the restrictions on the content models of the ul element, which only allows li element children. Lists by definition consist just of zero or more list items, so if a ul element contains something other than an li element, it's not clear what was meant.

Cases where the default styles are likely to lead to confusion

Certain elements have default styles or behaviors that make certain combinations likely to lead to confusion. Where these have equivalent alternatives without this problem, the confusing combinations are disallowed.

For example, div elements are rendered as block boxes, and span elements as inline boxes. Putting a block box in an inline box is unnecessarily confusing; since either nesting just div elements, or nesting just span elements, or nesting span elements inside div elements all serve the same purpose as nesting a div element in a span element, but only the latter involves a block box in an inline box, the latter combination is disallowed.

Another example would be the way interactive content cannot be nested. For example, a button element cannot contain a textarea element. This is because the default behavior of such nesting interactive elements would be highly confusing to users. Instead of nesting these elements, they can be placed side by side.

Errors that indicate a likely misunderstanding of the specification

Sometimes, something is disallowed because allowing it would likely cause author confusion.

For example, setting the disabled attribute to the value "false" is disallowed, because despite the appearance of meaning that the element is enabled, it in fact means that the element is disabled (what matters for implementations is the presence of the attribute, not its value).

Errors involving limits that have been imposed merely to simplify the language

Some conformance errors simplify the language that authors need to learn.

For example, the area element's shape attribute, despite accepting both circ and circle values in practice as synonyms, disallows the use of the circ value, so as to simplify tutorials and other learning aids. There would be no benefit to allowing both, but it would cause extra confusion when teaching the language.

Errors that involve peculiarities of the parser

Certain elements are parsed in somewhat eccentric ways (typically for historical reasons), and their content model restrictions are intended to avoid exposing the author to these issues.

For example, a form element isn't allowed inside phrasing content, because when parsed as HTML, a form element's start tag will imply a p element's end tag. Thus, the following markup results in two paragraphs, not one:

<p>Welcome. <form><label>Name:</label> <input></form>

It is parsed exactly like the following:

<p>Welcome. </p><form><label>Name:</label> <input></form>
Errors that would likely result in scripts failing in hard-to-debug ways

Some errors are intended to help prevent script problems that would be hard to debug.

This is why, for instance, it is non-conforming to have two id attributes with the same value. Duplicate IDs lead to the wrong element being selected, with sometimes disastrous effects whose cause is hard to determine.

Errors that waste authoring time

Some constructs are disallowed because historically they have been the cause of a lot of wasted authoring time, and by encouraging authors to avoid making them, authors can save time in future efforts.

For example, a script element's src attribute causes the element's contents to be ignored. However, this isn't obvious, especially if the element's contents appear to be executable script — which can lead to authors spending a lot of time trying to debug the inline script without realizing that it is not executing. To reduce this problem, this specification makes it non-conforming to have executable script in a script element when the src attribute is present. This means that authors who are validating their documents are less likely to waste time with this kind of mistake.

Errors that involve areas that affect authors migrating to and from XHTML

Some authors like to write files that can be interpreted as both XML and HTML with similar results. Though this practice is discouraged in general due to the myriad of subtle complications involved (especially when involving scripting, styling, or any kind of automated serialization), this specification has a few restrictions intended to at least somewhat mitigate the difficulties. This makes it easier for authors to use this as a transitionary step when migrating between HTML and XHTML.

For example, there are somewhat complicated rules surrounding the lang and xml:lang attributes intended to keep the two synchronized.

Another example would be the restrictions on the values of xmlns attributes in the HTML serialization, which are intended to ensure that elements in conforming documents end up in the same namespaces whether processed as HTML or XML.

Errors that involve areas reserved for future expansion

As with the restrictions on the syntax intended to allow for new syntax in future revisions of the language, some restrictions on the content models of elements and values of attributes are intended to allow for future expansion of the HTML vocabulary.

For example, limiting the values of the target attribute that start with an U+005F LOW LINE character (_) to only specific predefined values allows new predefined values to be introduced at a future time without conflicting with author-defined values.

Errors that indicate a mis-use of other specifications

Certain restrictions are intended to support the restrictions made by other specifications.

For example, requiring that attributes that take media queries use only valid media queries reinforces the importance of following the conformance rules of that specification.

This section is non-normative.

The following documents might be of interest to readers of this specification.

Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0: Fundamentals [CHARMOD]

This Architectural Specification provides authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers with a common reference for interoperable text manipulation on the World Wide Web, building on the Universal Character Set, defined jointly by the Unicode Standard and ISO/IEC 10646. Topics addressed include use of the terms 'character', 'encoding' and 'string', a reference processing model, choice and identification of character encodings, character escaping, and string indexing.

Unicode Security Considerations [UTR36]

Because Unicode contains such a large number of characters and incorporates the varied writing systems of the world, incorrect usage can expose programs or systems to possible security attacks. This is especially important as more and more products are internationalized. This document describes some of the security considerations that programmers, system analysts, standards developers, and users should take into account, and provides specific recommendations to reduce the risk of problems.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 [WCAG]

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.

Polyglot Markup: HTML-Compatible XHTML Documents [POLYGLOT]

A document that uses polyglot markup is a document that is a stream of bytes that parses into identical document trees (with the exception of the xmlns attribute on the root element) when processed as HTML and when processed as XML. Polyglot markup that meets a well defined set of constraints is interpreted as compatible, regardless of whether they are processed as HTML or as XHTML, per the HTML5 specification. Polyglot markup uses a specific DOCTYPE, namespace declarations, and a specific case — normally lower case but occasionally camel case — for element and attribute names. Polyglot markup uses lower case for certain attribute values. Further constraints include those on empty elements, named entity references, and the use of scripts and style.

2 Common infrastructure

2.1 Terminology

This specification refers to both HTML and XML attributes and IDL attributes, often in the same context. When it is not clear which is being referred to, they are referred to as content attributes for HTML and XML attributes, and IDL attributes for those defined on IDL interfaces. Similarly, the term "properties" is used for both JavaScript object properties and CSS properties. When these are ambiguous they are qualified as object properties and CSS properties respectively.

Generally, when the specification states that a feature applies to the HTML syntax or the XHTML syntax, it also includes the other. When a feature specifically only applies to one of the two languages, it is called out by explicitly stating that it does not apply to the other format, as in "for HTML, ... (this does not apply to XHTML)".

This specification uses the term document to refer to any use of HTML, ranging from short static documents to long essays or reports with rich multimedia, as well as to fully-fledged interactive applications.

For simplicity, terms such as shown, displayed, and visible might sometimes be used when referring to the way a document is rendered to the user. These terms are not meant to imply a visual medium; they must be considered to apply to other media in equivalent ways.

The term "transparent black" refers to the color with red, green, blue, and alpha channels all set to zero.

2.1.1 Resources

The specification uses the term supported when referring to whether a user agent has an implementation capable of decoding the semantics of an external resource. A format or type is said to be supported if the implementation can process an external resource of that format or type without critical aspects of the resource being ignored. Whether a specific resource is supported can depend on what features of the resource's format are in use.

For example, a PNG image would be considered to be in a supported format if its pixel data could be decoded and rendered, even if, unbeknownst to the implementation, the image also contained animation data.

A MPEG4 video file would not be considered to be in a supported format if the compression format used was not supported, even if the implementation could determine the dimensions of the movie from the file's metadata.

What some specifications, in particular the HTTP and URI specifications, refer to as a representation is referred to in this specification as a resource. [HTTP] [RFC3986]

The term MIME type is used to refer to what is sometimes called an Internet media type in protocol literature. The term media type in this specification is used to refer to the type of media intended for presentation, as used by the CSS specifications. [RFC2046] [MQ]

A string is a valid MIME type if it matches the media-type rule defined in section 3.7 "Media Types" of RFC 2616. In particular, a valid MIME type may include MIME type parameters. [HTTP]

A string is a valid MIME type with no parameters if it matches the media-type rule defined in section 3.7 "Media Types" of RFC 2616, but does not contain any U+003B SEMICOLON characters (;). In other words, if it consists only of a type and subtype, with no MIME Type parameters. [HTTP]

The term HTML MIME type is used to refer to the MIME types text/html and text/html-sandboxed.

A resource's critical subresources are those that the resource needs to have available to be correctly processed. Which resources are considered critical or not is defined by the specification that defines the resource's format. For CSS resources, only @import rules introduce critical subresources; other resources, e.g. fonts or backgrounds, are not.

The term data: URL refers to URLs that use the data: scheme. [RFC2397]

2.1.2 XML

To ease migration from HTML to XHTML, UAs conforming to this specification will place elements in HTML in the http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml namespace, at least for the purposes of the DOM and CSS. The term "HTML elements", when used in this specification, refers to any element in that namespace, and thus refers to both HTML and XHTML elements.

Except where otherwise stated, all elements defined or mentioned in this specification are in the http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml namespace, and all attributes defined or mentioned in this specification have no namespace.

Attribute names are said to be XML-compatible if they match the Name production defined in XML, they contain no U+003A COLON characters (:), and their first three characters are not an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "xml". [XML]

The term XML MIME type is used to refer to the MIME types text/xml, application/xml, and any MIME type whose subtype ends with the four characters "+xml". [RFC3023]

2.1.3 DOM trees

The root element of a Document object is that Document's first element child, if any. If it does not have one then the Document has no root element.

The term root element, when not referring to a Document object's root element, means the furthest ancestor element node of whatever node is being discussed, or the node itself if it has no ancestors. When the node is a part of the document, then the node's root element is indeed the document's root element; however, if the node is not currently part of the document tree, the root element will be an orphaned node.

When an element's root element is the root element of a Document object, it is said to be in a Document. An element is said to have been inserted into a document when its root element changes and is now the document's root element. Analogously, an element is said to have been removed from a document when its root element changes from being the document's root element to being another element.

A node's home subtree is the subtree rooted at that node's root element. When a node is in a Document, its home subtree is that Document's tree.

The Document of a Node (such as an element) is the Document that the Node's ownerDocument IDL attribute returns. When a Node is in a Document then that Document is always the Node's Document, and the Node's ownerDocument IDL attribute thus always returns that Document.

The term tree order means a pre-order, depth-first traversal of DOM nodes involved (through the parentNode/childNodes relationship).

When it is stated that some element or attribute is ignored, or treated as some other value, or handled as if it was something else, this refers only to the processing of the node after it is in the DOM.

The term text node refers to any Text node, including CDATASection nodes; specifically, any Node with node type TEXT_NODE (3) or CDATA_SECTION_NODE (4). [DOMCORE]

A content attribute is said to change value only if its new value is different than its previous value; setting an attribute to a value it already has does not change it.

The term empty, when used of an attribute value, text node, or string, means that the length of the text is zero (i.e. not even containing spaces or control characters).

Nodes can be cloned, as described in the DOM Core specification. For example, the cloneNode() and importNode() methods of the Node interface both clone nodes, as do a number of algorithms in this specification. Certain HTML elements (in particular, input and script) apply additional requirements on how they are cloned. [DOMCORE]

2.1.4 Scripting

The construction "a Foo object", where Foo is actually an interface, is sometimes used instead of the more accurate "an object implementing the interface Foo".

An IDL attribute is said to be getting when its value is being retrieved (e.g. by author script), and is said to be setting when a new value is assigned to it.

If a DOM object is said to be live, then the attributes and methods on that object operate on the actual underlying data, not a snapshot of the data.

The terms fire and dispatch are used interchangeably in the context of events, as in the DOM Events specifications. The term trusted event is used as defined by the DOM Events specification. [DOMEVENTS]

2.1.5 Plugins

The term plugin refers to a user-agent defined set of content handlers used by the user agent that can take part in the user agent's rendering of a Document object, but that neither act as child browsing contexts of the Document nor introduce any Node objects to the Document's DOM.

Typically such content handlers are provided by third parties, though a user agent can also designate built-in content handlers as plugins.

One example of a plugin would be a PDF viewer that is instantiated in a browsing context when the user navigates to a PDF file. This would count as a plugin regardless of whether the party that implemented the PDF viewer component was the same as that which implemented the user agent itself. However, a PDF viewer application that launches separate from the user agent (as opposed to using the same interface) is not a plugin by this definition.

This specification does not define a mechanism for interacting with plugins, as it is expected to be user-agent- and platform-specific. Some UAs might opt to support a plugin mechanism such as the Netscape Plugin API; others might use remote content converters or have built-in support for certain types. Indeed, this specification doesn't require user agents to support plugins at all. [NPAPI]

2.1.6 Character encodings

The preferred MIME name of a character encoding is the name or alias labeled as "preferred MIME name" in the IANA Character Sets registry, if there is one, or the encoding's name, if none of the aliases are so labeled. [IANACHARSET]

An ASCII-compatible character encoding is a single-byte or variable-length encoding in which the bytes 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0C, 0x0D, 0x20 - 0x22, 0x26, 0x27, 0x2C - 0x3F, 0x41 - 0x5A, and 0x61 - 0x7A, ignoring bytes that are the second and later bytes of multibyte sequences, all correspond to single-byte sequences that map to the same Unicode characters as those bytes in ANSI_X3.4-1968 (US-ASCII). [RFC1345]

This includes such encodings as Shift_JIS, HZ-GB-2312, and variants of ISO-2022, even though it is possible in these encodings for bytes like 0x70 to be part of longer sequences that are unrelated to their interpretation as ASCII. It excludes such encodings as UTF-7, UTF-16, GSM03.38, and EBCDIC variants.

The term Unicode character is used to mean a Unicode scalar value (i.e. any Unicode code point that is not a surrogate code point). [UNICODE]

2.2 Conformance requirements

All diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative, as are all sections explicitly marked non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in the normative parts of this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC2119. For readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification. [RFC2119]

2.2.1 Extensibility

HTML has a wide number of extensibility mechanisms that can be used for adding semantics in a safe manner:

2.3 Case-sensitivity and string comparison

Comparing two strings in a case-sensitive manner means comparing them exactly, code point for code point.

Comparing two strings in an ASCII case-insensitive manner means comparing them exactly, code point for code point, except that the characters in the range U+0041 to U+005A (i.e. LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z) and the corresponding characters in the range U+0061 to U+007A (i.e. LATIN SMALL LETTER A to LATIN SMALL LETTER Z) are considered to also match.

Comparing two strings in a compatibility caseless manner means using the Unicode compatibility caseless match operation to compare the two strings. [UNICODE]

Except where otherwise stated, string comparisons must be performed in a case-sensitive manner.

A string pattern is a prefix match for a string s when pattern is not longer than s and truncating s to pattern's length leaves the two strings as matches of each other.

2.4 Common microsyntaxes

There are various places in HTML that accept particular data types, such as dates or numbers. This section describes what the conformance criteria for content in those formats is, and how to parse them.

2.4.1 Boolean attributes

A number of attributes are boolean attributes. The presence of a boolean attribute on an element represents the true value, and the absence of the attribute represents the false value.

If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace.

The values "true" and "false" are not allowed on boolean attributes. To represent a false value, the attribute has to be omitted altogether.

Here is an example of a checkbox that is checked and disabled. The checked and disabled attributes are the boolean attributes.

<label><input type=checkbox checked name=cheese disabled> Cheese</label>

This could be equivalently written as this:

<label><input type=checkbox checked=checked name=cheese disabled=disabled> Cheese</label>

You can also mix styles; the following is still equivalent:

<label><input type='checkbox' checked name=cheese disabled=""> Cheese</label>

2.4.2 Keywords and enumerated attributes

Some attributes are defined as taking one of a finite set of keywords. Such attributes are called enumerated attributes. The keywords are each defined to map to a particular state (several keywords might map to the same state, in which case some of the keywords are synonyms of each other; additionally, some of the keywords can be said to be non-conforming, and are only in the specification for historical reasons). In addition, two default states can be given. The first is the invalid value default, the second is the missing value default.

If an enumerated attribute is specified, the attribute's value must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the given keywords that are not said to be non-conforming, with no leading or trailing whitespace.

When the attribute is specified, if its value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the given keywords then that keyword's state is the state that the attribute represents. If the attribute value matches none of the given keywords, but the attribute has an invalid value default, then the attribute represents that state. Otherwise, if the attribute value matches none of the keywords but there is a missing value default state defined, then that is the state represented by the attribute. Otherwise, there is no default, and invalid values must be ignored.

When the attribute is not specified, if there is a missing value default state defined, then that is the state represented by the (missing) attribute. Otherwise, the absence of the attribute means that there is no state represented.

The empty string can be a valid keyword.

2.4.3 Numbers

2.4.3.1 Non-negative integers

A string is a valid non-negative integer if it consists of one or more characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9).

A valid non-negative integer represents the number that is represented in base ten by that string of digits.

2.4.3.2 Signed integers

A string is a valid integer if it consists of one or more characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9), optionally prefixed with a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-).

A valid integer without a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-) prefix represents the number that is represented in base ten by that string of digits. A valid integer with a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-) prefix represents the number represented in base ten by the string of digits that follows the U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, subtracted from zero.

2.4.3.3 Real numbers

A string is a valid floating point number if it consists of:

  1. Optionally, a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-).
  2. A series of one or more characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9).
  3. Optionally:
    1. A single U+002E FULL STOP character (.).
    2. A series of one or more characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9).
  4. Optionally:
    1. Either a U+0065 LATIN SMALL LETTER E character (e) or a U+0045 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E character (E).
    2. Optionally, a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-) or U+002B PLUS SIGN character (+).
    3. A series of one or more characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9).

A valid floating point number represents the number obtained by multiplying the significand by ten raised to the power of the exponent, where the significand is the first number, interpreted as base ten (including the decimal point and the number after the decimal point, if any, and interpreting the significand as a negative number if the whole string starts with a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-) and the number is not zero), and where the exponent is the number after the E, if any (interpreted as a negative number if there is a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-) between the E and the number and the number is not zero, or else ignoring a U+002B PLUS SIGN character (+) between the E and the number if there is one). If there is no E, then the exponent is treated as zero.

The Infinity and Not-a-Number (NaN) values are not valid floating point numbers.

2.4.3.4 Lists of integers

A valid list of integers is a number of valid integers separated by U+002C COMMA characters, with no other characters (e.g. no space characters). In addition, there might be restrictions on the number of integers that can be given, or on the range of values allowed.

2.4.4 Dates and times

In the algorithms below, the number of days in month month of year year is: 31 if month is 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, or 12; 30 if month is 4, 6, 9, or 11; 29 if month is 2 and year is a number divisible by 400, or if year is a number divisible by 4 but not by 100; and 28 otherwise. This takes into account leap years in the Gregorian calendar. [GREGORIAN]

The digits in the date and time syntaxes defined in this section must be characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9), used to express numbers in base ten.

2.4.4.1 Months

A month consists of a specific proleptic Gregorian date with no time-zone information and no date information beyond a year and a month. [GREGORIAN]

A string is a valid month string representing a year year and month month if it consists of the following components in the given order:

  1. Four or more digits, representing year, where year > 0
  2. A U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-)
  3. Two digits, representing the month month, in the range 1 ≤ month ≤ 12
2.4.4.2 Dates

A date consists of a specific proleptic Gregorian date with no time-zone information, consisting of a year, a month, and a day. [GREGORIAN]

A string is a valid date string representing a year year, month month, and day day if it consists of the following components in the given order:

  1. A valid month string, representing year and month
  2. A U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-)
  3. Two digits, representing day, in the range 1 ≤ day ≤ maxday where maxday is the number of days in the month month and year year
2.4.4.3 Times

A time consists of a specific time with no time-zone information, consisting of an hour, a minute, a second, and a fraction of a second.

A string is a valid time string representing an hour hour, a minute minute, and a second second if it consists of the following components in the given order:

  1. Two digits, representing hour, in the range 0 ≤ hour ≤ 23
  2. A U+003A COLON character (:)
  3. Two digits, representing minute, in the range 0 ≤ minute ≤ 59
  4. Optionally (required if second is non-zero):
    1. A U+003A COLON character (:)
    2. Two digits, representing the integer part of second, in the range 0 ≤ s ≤ 59
    3. Optionally (required if second is not an integer):
      1. A 002E FULL STOP character (.)
      2. One or more digits, representing the fractional part of second

The second component cannot be 60 or 61; leap seconds cannot be represented.

2.4.4.4 Local dates and times

A local date and time consists of a specific proleptic Gregorian date, consisting of a year, a month, and a day, and a time, consisting of an hour, a minute, a second, and a fraction of a second, but expressed without a time zone. [GREGORIAN]

A string is a valid local date and time string representing a date and time if it consists of the following components in the given order:

  1. A valid date string representing the date.
  2. A U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T character (T).
  3. A valid time string representing the time.
2.4.4.5 Global dates and times

A global date and time consists of a specific proleptic Gregorian date, consisting of a year, a month, and a day, and a time, consisting of an hour, a minute, a second, and a fraction of a second, expressed with a time-zone offset, consisting of a signed number of hours and minutes. [GREGORIAN]

A string is a valid global date and time string representing a date, time, and a time-zone offset if it consists of the following components in the given order:

  1. A valid date string representing the date
  2. A U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T character (T)
  3. A valid time string representing the time
  4. Either:

This format allows for time-zone offsets from -23:59 to +23:59. In practice, however, the range of offsets of actual time zones is -12:00 to +14:00, and the minutes component of offsets of actual time zones is always either 00, 30, or 45.

Times in dates before the formation of UTC in the mid twentieth century must be expressed and interpreted in terms of UT1 (contemporary Earth solar time at the 0° longitude), not UTC (the approximation of UT1 that ticks in SI seconds). Time before the formation of time zones must be expressed and interpeted as UT1 times with explicit time zones that approximate the contemporary difference between the appropriate local time and the time observed at the location of Greenwich, London.

The following are some examples of dates written as valid global date and time strings.

"0037-12-13T00:00Z"
Midnight in areas using London time on the birthday of Nero (the Roman Emperor). See below for further discussion on which date this actually corresponds to.
"1979-10-14T12:00:00.001-04:00"
One millisecond after noon on October 14th 1979, in the time zone in use on the east coast of the USA during daylight saving time.
"8592-01-01T02:09+02:09"
Midnight UTC on the 1st of January, 8592. The time zone associated with that time is two hours and nine minutes ahead of UTC, which is not currently a real time zone, but is nonetheless allowed.

Several things are notable about these dates:

2.4.4.6 Weeks

A week consists of a week-year number and a week number representing a seven-day period starting on a Monday. Each week-year in this calendaring system has either 52 or 53 such seven-day periods, as defined below. The seven-day period starting on the Gregorian date Monday December 29th 1969 (1969-12-29) is defined as week number 1 in week-year 1970. Consecutive weeks are numbered sequentially. The week before the number 1 week in a week-year is the last week in the previous week-year, and vice versa. [GREGORIAN]

A week-year with a number year has 53 weeks if it corresponds to either a year year in the proleptic Gregorian calendar that has a Thursday as its first day (January 1st), or a year year in the proleptic Gregorian calendar that has a Wednesday as its first day (January 1st) and where year is a number divisible by 400, or a number divisible by 4 but not by 100. All other week-years have 52 weeks.

The week number of the last day of a week-year with 53 weeks is 53; the week number of the last day of a week-year with 52 weeks is 52.

The week-year number of a particular day can be different than the number of the year that contains that day in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. The first week in a week-year y is the week that contains the first Thursday of the Gregorian year y.

A string is a valid week string representing a week-year year and week week if it consists of the following components in the given order:

  1. Four or more digits, representing year, where year > 0
  2. A U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-)
  3. A U+0057 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W character (W)
  4. Two digits, representing the week week, in the range 1 ≤ week ≤ maxweek, where maxweek is the week number of the last day of week-year year
2.4.4.7 Vaguer moments in time

A string is a valid date or time string if it is also one of the following:

A string is a valid date or time string in content if it consists of zero or more White_Space characters, followed by a valid date or time string, followed by zero or more further White_Space characters.


A string is a valid date string with optional time if it is also one of the following:

A string is a valid date string in content with optional time if it consists of zero or more White_Space characters, followed by a valid date string with optional time, followed by zero or more further White_Space characters.

2.4.5 Colors

A simple color consists of three 8-bit numbers in the range 0..255, representing the red, green, and blue components of the color respectively, in the sRGB color space. [SRGB]

A string is a valid simple color if it is exactly seven characters long, and the first character is a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#), and the remaining six characters are all in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9), U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to U+0046 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F, U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A to U+0066 LATIN SMALL LETTER F, with the first two digits representing the red component, the middle two digits representing the green component, and the last two digits representing the blue component, in hexadecimal.

A string is a valid lowercase simple color if it is a valid simple color and doesn't use any characters in the range U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to U+0046 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F.


2.4.6 Space-separated tokens

A set of space-separated tokens is a string containing zero or more words (known as tokens) separated by one or more space characters, where words consist of any string of one or more characters, none of which are space characters.

A string containing a set of space-separated tokens may have leading or trailing space characters.

An unordered set of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none of the tokens are duplicated.

An ordered set of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none of the tokens are duplicated but where the order of the tokens is meaningful.

Sets of space-separated tokens sometimes have a defined set of allowed values. When a set of allowed values is defined, the tokens must all be from that list of allowed values; other values are non-conforming. If no such set of allowed values is provided, then all values are conforming.

How tokens in a set of space-separated tokens are to be compared (e.g. case-sensitively or not) is defined on a per-set basis.

2.4.7 Comma-separated tokens

A set of comma-separated tokens is a string containing zero or more tokens each separated from the next by a single U+002C COMMA character (,), where tokens consist of any string of zero or more characters, neither beginning nor ending with space characters, nor containing any U+002C COMMA characters (,), and optionally surrounded by space characters.

For instance, the string " a ,b,,d d " consists of four tokens: "a", "b", the empty string, and "d d". Leading and trailing whitespace around each token doesn't count as part of the token, and the empty string can be a token.

Sets of comma-separated tokens sometimes have further restrictions on what consists a valid token. When such restrictions are defined, the tokens must all fit within those restrictions; other values are non-conforming. If no such restrictions are specified, then all values are conforming.

2.4.8 References

A valid hash-name reference to an element of type type is a string consisting of a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#) followed by a string which exactly matches the value of the name attribute of an element with type type in the document.

2.4.9 Media queries

A string is a valid media query if it matches the media_query_list production of the Media Queries specification. [MQ]

A string matches the environment of the user if it is the empty string, a string consisting of only space characters, or is a media query that matches the user's environment according to the definitions given in the Media Queries specification. [MQ]

2.5 URLs

ISSUE-56 (urls-webarch) blocks progress to Last Call

2.5.1 Terminology

A URL is a string used to identify a resource.

A URL is a valid URL if at least one of the following conditions holds:

A string is a valid non-empty URL if it is a valid URL but it is not the empty string.

A string is a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces if, after stripping leading and trailing whitespace from it, it is a valid URL.

A string is a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces if, after stripping leading and trailing whitespace from it, it is a valid non-empty URL.

A URL is an absolute URL if resolving it results in the same output regardless of what it is resolved relative to, and that output is not a failure.

An absolute URL is a hierarchical URL if, when resolved and then parsed, there is a character immediately after the <scheme> component and it is a U+002F SOLIDUS character (/).

An absolute URL is an authority-based URL if, when resolved and then parsed, there are two characters immediately after the <scheme> component and they are both U+002F SOLIDUS characters (//).


This specification defines the URL about:legacy-compat as a reserved, though unresolvable, about: URI, for use in DOCTYPEs in HTML documents when needed for compatibility with XML tools. [ABOUT]

This specification defines the URL about:srcdoc as a reserved, though unresolvable, about: URI, that is used as the document's address of iframe srcdoc documents. [ABOUT]

The term "URL" in this specification is used in a manner distinct from the precise technical meaning it is given in RFC 3986. Readers familiar with that RFC will find it easier to read this specification if they pretend the term "URL" as used herein is really called something else altogether. This is a willful violation of RFC 3986. [RFC3986]

2.5.2 Interfaces for URL manipulation

An interface that has a complement of URL decomposition IDL attributes has seven attributes with the following definitions:

           attribute DOMString protocol;
           attribute DOMString host;
           attribute DOMString hostname;
           attribute DOMString port;
           attribute DOMString pathname;
           attribute DOMString search;
           attribute DOMString hash;
o . protocol [ = value ]

Returns the current scheme of the underlying URL.

Can be set, to change the underlying URL's scheme.

o . host [ = value ]

Returns the current host and port (if it's not the default port) in the underlying URL.

Can be set, to change the underlying URL's host and port.

The host and the port are separated by a colon. The port part, if omitted, will be assumed to be the current scheme's default port.

o . hostname [ = value ]

Returns the current host in the underlying URL.

Can be set, to change the underlying URL's host.

o . port [ = value ]

Returns the current port in the underlying URL.

Can be set, to change the underlying URL's port.

o . pathname [ = value ]

Returns the current path in the underlying URL.

Can be set, to change the underlying URL's path.

o . search [ = value ]

Returns the current query component in the underlying URL.

Can be set, to change the underlying URL's query component.

o . hash [ = value ]

Returns the current fragment identifier in the underlying URL.

Can be set, to change the underlying URL's fragment identifier.

The table below demonstrates how the getter for search results in different results depending on the exact original syntax of the URL:

Input URL search value Explanation
http://example.com/ empty string No <query> component in input URL.
http://example.com/? ? There is a <query> component, but it is empty.
http://example.com/?test ?test The <query> component has the value "test".
http://example.com/?test# ?test The (empty) <fragment> component is not part of the <query> component.

The following table is similar; it provides a list of what each of the URL decomposition IDL attributes returns for a given input URL.

Input protocol host hostname port pathname search hash
http://example.com/carrot#question%3f http: example.com example.com (empty string) /carrot (empty string) #question%3f
https://www.example.com:4443? https: www.example.com:4443 www.example.com 4443 / ? (empty string)

2.6 Common DOM interfaces

2.6.1 Reflecting content attributes in IDL attributes

Some IDL attributes are defined to reflect a particular content attribute. This means that on getting, the IDL attribute returns the current value of the content attribute, and on setting, the IDL attribute changes the value of the content attribute to the given value.

2.6.2 Collections

The HTMLCollection, HTMLAllCollection, HTMLFormControlsCollection, HTMLOptionsCollection, interfaces represent various lists of DOM nodes. Collectively, objects implementing these interfaces are called collections.

When a collection is created, a filter and a root are associated with the collection.

For example, when the HTMLCollection object for the document.images attribute is created, it is associated with a filter that selects only img elements, and rooted at the root of the document.

The collection then represents a live view of the subtree rooted at the collection's root, containing only nodes that match the given filter. The view is linear.

2.6.2.1 HTMLCollection

The HTMLCollection interface represents a generic collection of elements.

interface HTMLCollection {
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  caller getter Element item(in unsigned long index);
  caller getter object namedItem(in DOMString name); // only returns Element
};
collection . length

Returns the number of elements in the collection.

element = collection . item(index)
collection[index]
collection(index)

Returns the item with index index from the collection. The items are sorted in tree order.

Returns null if index is out of range.

element = collection . namedItem(name)
collection[name]
collection(name)

Returns the first item with ID or name name from the collection.

Returns null if no element with that ID or name could be found.

Only a, applet, area, embed, form, frame, frameset, iframe, img, and object elements can have a name for the purpose of this method; their name is given by the value of their name attribute.

2.6.2.2 HTMLAllCollection

The HTMLAllCollection interface represents a generic collection of elements just like HTMLCollection, with the exception that its namedItem() method returns an HTMLAllCollection object when there are multiple matching elements.

interface HTMLAllCollection : HTMLCollection {
  // inherits length and item()
  caller getter object namedItem(in DOMString name); // overrides inherited namedItem()
  HTMLAllCollection tags(in DOMString tagName);
};
collection . length

Returns the number of elements in the collection.

element = collection . item(index)
collection[index]
collection(index)

Returns the item with index index from the collection. The items are sorted in tree order.

Returns null if index is out of range.

element = collection . namedItem(name)
collection = collection . namedItem(name)
collection[name]
collection(name)

Returns the item with ID or name name from the collection.

If there are multiple matching items, then an HTMLAllCollection object containing all those elements is returned.

Returns null if no element with that ID or name could be found.

Only a, applet, area, embed, form, frame, frameset, iframe, img, and object elements can have a name for the purpose of this method; their name is given by the value of their name attribute.

collection = collection . tags(tagName)

Returns a collection that is a filtered view of the current collection, containing only elements with the given tag name.

2.6.2.3 HTMLFormControlsCollection

The HTMLFormControlsCollection interface represents a collection of listed elements in form and fieldset elements.

interface HTMLFormControlsCollection : HTMLCollection {
  // inherits length and item()
  caller getter object namedItem(in DOMString name); // overrides inherited namedItem()
};

interface RadioNodeList : NodeList {
          attribute DOMString value;
};
collection . length

Returns the number of elements in the collection.

element = collection . item(index)
collection[index]
collection(index)

Returns the item with index index from the collection. The items are sorted in tree order.

Returns null if index is out of range.

element = collection . namedItem(name)
radioNodeList = collection . namedItem(name)
collection[name]
collection(name)

Returns the item with ID or name name from the collection.

If there are multiple matching items, then a RadioNodeList object containing all those elements is returned.

Returns null if no element with that ID or name could be found.

radioNodeList . value [ = value ]

Returns the value of the first checked radio button represented by the object.

Can be set, to check the first radio button with the given value represented by the object.

2.6.2.4 HTMLOptionsCollection

The HTMLOptionsCollection interface represents a list of option elements. It is always rooted on a select element and has attributes and methods that manipulate that element's descendants.

interface HTMLOptionsCollection : HTMLCollection {
  // inherits item()
           attribute unsigned long length; // overrides inherited length
  caller getter object namedItem(in DOMString name); // overrides inherited namedItem()
  void add(in HTMLElement element, in optional HTMLElement before);
  void add(in HTMLElement element, in long before);
  void remove(in long index);
           attribute long selectedIndex;
};
collection . length [ = value ]

Returns the number of elements in the collection.

When set to a smaller number, truncates the number of option elements in the corresponding container.

When set to a greater number, adds new blank option elements to that container.

element = collection . item(index)
collection[index]
collection(index)

Returns the item with index index from the collection. The items are sorted in tree order.

Returns null if index is out of range.

element = collection . namedItem(name)
nodeList = collection . namedItem(name)
collection[name]
collection(name)

Returns the item with ID or name name from the collection.

If there are multiple matching items, then a NodeList object containing all those elements is returned.

Returns null if no element with that ID could be found.

collection . add(element [, before ] )

Inserts element before the node given by before.

The before argument can be a number, in which case element is inserted before the item with that number, or an element from the collection, in which case element is inserted before that element.

If before is omitted, null, or a number out of range, then element will be added at the end of the list.

This method will throw a HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR exception if element is an ancestor of the element into which it is to be inserted. If element is not an option or optgroup element, then the method does nothing.

collection . selectedIndex [ = value ]

Returns the index of the first selected item, if any, or −1 if there is no selected item.

Can be set, to change the selection.

2.6.3 DOMTokenList

The DOMTokenList interface represents an interface to an underlying string that consists of a set of space-separated tokens.

DOMTokenList objects are always case-sensitive, even when the underlying string might ordinarily be treated in a case-insensitive manner.

interface DOMTokenList {
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  getter DOMString item(in unsigned long index);
  boolean contains(in DOMString token);
  void add(in DOMString token);
  void remove(in DOMString token);
  boolean toggle(in DOMString token);
  stringifier DOMString ();
};
tokenlist . length

Returns the number of tokens in the string.

element = tokenlist . item(index)
tokenlist[index]

Returns the token with index index. The tokens are returned in the order they are found in the underlying string.

Returns null if index is out of range.

hastoken = tokenlist . contains(token)

Returns true if the token is present; false otherwise.

Throws a SYNTAX_ERR exception if token is empty.

Throws an INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR exception if token contains any spaces.

tokenlist . add(token)

Adds token, unless it is already present.

Throws a SYNTAX_ERR exception if token is empty.

Throws an INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR exception if token contains any spaces.

tokenlist . remove(token)

Removes token if it is present.

Throws a SYNTAX_ERR exception if token is empty.

Throws an INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR exception if token contains any spaces.

hastoken = tokenlist . toggle(token)

Adds token if it is not present, or removes it if it is. Returns true if token is now present (it was added); returns false if it is not (it was removed).

Throws a SYNTAX_ERR exception if token is empty.

Throws an INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR exception if token contains any spaces.

2.6.4 DOMSettableTokenList

The DOMSettableTokenList interface is the same as the DOMTokenList interface, except that it allows the underlying string to be directly changed.

interface DOMSettableTokenList : DOMTokenList {
            attribute DOMString value;
};
tokenlist . value

Returns the underlying string.

Can be set, to change the underlying string.

2.6.5 DOMStringMap

The DOMStringMap interface represents a set of name-value pairs. It exposes these using the scripting language's native mechanisms for property access.

The dataset attribute on elements exposes the data-* attributes on the element.

Given the following fragment and elements with similar constructions:

<img class="tower" id="tower5" data-x="12" data-y="5"
     data-ai="robotarget" data-hp="46" data-ability="flames"
     src="towers/rocket.png alt="Rocket Tower">

...one could imagine a function splashDamage() that takes some arguments, the first of which is the element to process:

function splashDamage(node, x, y, damage) {
  if (node.classList.contains('tower') && // checking the 'class' attribute
      node.dataset.x == x && // reading the 'data-x' attribute
      node.dataset.y == y) { // reading the 'data-y' attribute
    var hp = parseInt(node.dataset.hp); // reading the 'data-hp' attribute
    hp = hp - damage;
    if (hp < 0) {
      hp = 0;
      node.dataset.ai = 'dead'; // setting the 'data-ai' attribute
      delete node.dataset.ability; // removing the 'data-ability' attribute
    }
    node.dataset.hp = hp; // setting the 'data-hp' attribute
  }
}

2.6.6 DOM feature strings

DOM3 Core defines mechanisms for checking for interface support, and for obtaining implementations of interfaces, using feature strings. [DOMCORE]

Authors are strongly discouraged from using these, as they are notoriously unreliable and imprecise. Authors are encouraged to rely on explicit feature testing or the graceful degradation behavior intrinsic to some of the features in this specification.

2.6.7 Exceptions

The following are DOMException codes. [DOMCORE]

  1. INDEX_SIZE_ERR
  2. DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR
  3. HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR
  4. WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR
  5. INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR
  6. NO_DATA_ALLOWED_ERR
  7. NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR
  8. NOT_FOUND_ERR
  9. NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR
  10. INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR
  11. INVALID_STATE_ERR
  12. SYNTAX_ERR
  13. INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR
  14. NAMESPACE_ERR
  15. INVALID_ACCESS_ERR
  16. VALIDATION_ERR
  17. TYPE_MISMATCH_ERR
  18. SECURITY_ERR
  19. NETWORK_ERR
  20. ABORT_ERR
  21. URL_MISMATCH_ERR
  22. QUOTA_EXCEEDED_ERR
  23. TIMEOUT_ERR
  24. DATA_CLONE_ERR

2.7 Namespaces

The HTML namespace is: http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml

The MathML namespace is: http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML

The SVG namespace is: http://www.w3.org/2000/svg

The XLink namespace is: http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink

The XML namespace is: http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace

The XMLNS namespace is: http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/


Data mining tools and other user agents that perform operations on content without running scripts, evaluating CSS or XPath expressions, or otherwise exposing the resulting DOM to arbitrary content, may "support namespaces" by just asserting that their DOM node analogues are in certain namespaces, without actually exposing the above strings.


In the HTML syntax, namespace prefixes and namespace declarations do not have the same effect as in XML. For instance, the colon has no special meaning in HTML element names.

3 Semantics, structure, and APIs of HTML documents

3.1 Documents

Every XML and HTML document in an HTML UA is represented by a Document object. [DOMCORE]

The document's address is an absolute URL that is set when the Document is created. The document's current address is an absolute URL that can change during the lifetime of the Document, for example when the user navigates to a fragment identifier on the page or when the pushState() method is called with a new URL.

Interactive user agents typically expose the document's current address in their user interface.

When a Document is created by a script using the createDocument() or createHTMLDocument() APIs, the document's address is the same as the document's address of the script's document.

Document objects are assumed to be XML documents unless they are flagged as being HTML documents when they are created. Whether a document is an HTML document or an XML document affects the behavior of certain APIs and the case-sensitivity of some selectors.

Each Document object has a reload override flag that is originally unset. The flag is set by the document.open() and document.write() methods in certain situations. When the flag is set, the Document also has a reload override buffer which is a Unicode string that is used as the source of the document when it is reloaded.

When the user agent is to perform an overridden reload, it must act as follows:

  1. Let source be the value of the browsing context's active document's reload override buffer.

  2. Navigate the browsing context to a resource whose source is source. When the navigate algorithm creates a Document object for this purpose, set that Document's reload override flag and set its reload override buffer to source.

3.1.1 Documents in the DOM

All Document objects (in user agents implementing this specification) also implement the HTMLDocument interface, available using binding-specific methods. (This is the case whether or not the document in question is an HTML document or indeed whether it contains any HTML elements at all.) Document objects also implement the document-level interface of any other namespaces that the UA supports.

For example, if an HTML implementation also supports SVG, then the Document object implements both HTMLDocument and SVGDocument.

Because the HTMLDocument interface is now obtained using binding-specific casting methods instead of simply being the primary interface of the document object, it is no longer defined as inheriting from Document.

[OverrideBuiltins]
interface HTMLDocument {
  // resource metadata management
  [PutForwards=href] readonly attribute Location location;
  readonly attribute DOMString URL;
           attribute DOMString domain;
  readonly attribute DOMString referrer;
           attribute DOMString cookie;
  readonly attribute DOMString lastModified;
  readonly attribute DOMString compatMode;
           attribute DOMString charset;
  readonly attribute DOMString characterSet;
  readonly attribute DOMString defaultCharset;
  readonly attribute DOMString readyState;

  // DOM tree accessors
  getter any (in DOMString name);
           attribute DOMString title;
           attribute DOMString dir;
           attribute HTMLElement body;
  readonly attribute HTMLHeadElement head;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection images;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection embeds;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection plugins;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection links;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection forms;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection scripts;
  NodeList getElementsByName(in DOMString elementName);
  NodeList getElementsByClassName(in DOMString classNames);

  // dynamic markup insertion
           attribute DOMString innerHTML;
  HTMLDocument open(in optional DOMString type, in optional DOMString replace);
  WindowProxy open(in DOMString url, in DOMString name, in DOMString features, in optional boolean replace);
  void close();
  void write(in DOMString... text);
  void writeln(in DOMString... text);

  // user interaction
  readonly attribute WindowProxy defaultView;
  readonly attribute Element activeElement;
  boolean hasFocus();
           attribute DOMString designMode;
  boolean execCommand(in DOMString commandId);
  boolean execCommand(in DOMString commandId, in boolean showUI);
  boolean execCommand(in DOMString commandId, in boolean showUI, in DOMString value);
  boolean queryCommandEnabled(in DOMString commandId);
  boolean queryCommandIndeterm(in DOMString commandId);
  boolean queryCommandState(in DOMString commandId);
  boolean queryCommandSupported(in DOMString commandId);
  DOMString queryCommandValue(in DOMString commandId);
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection commands;

  // event handler IDL attributes
           attribute Function onabort;
           attribute Function onblur;
           attribute Function oncanplay;
           attribute Function oncanplaythrough;
           attribute Function onchange;
           attribute Function onclick;
           attribute Function oncontextmenu;

           attribute Function oncuechange;

           attribute Function ondblclick;
           attribute Function ondrag;
           attribute Function ondragend;
           attribute Function ondragenter;
           attribute Function ondragleave;
           attribute Function ondragover;
           attribute Function ondragstart;
           attribute Function ondrop;
           attribute Function ondurationchange;
           attribute Function onemptied;
           attribute Function onended;
           attribute Function onerror;
           attribute Function onfocus;
           attribute Function oninput;
           attribute Function oninvalid;
           attribute Function onkeydown;
           attribute Function onkeypress;
           attribute Function onkeyup;
           attribute Function onload;
           attribute Function onloadeddata;
           attribute Function onloadedmetadata;
           attribute Function onloadstart;
           attribute Function onmousedown;
           attribute Function onmousemove;
           attribute Function onmouseout;
           attribute Function onmouseover;
           attribute Function onmouseup;
           attribute Function onmousewheel;
           attribute Function onpause;
           attribute Function onplay;
           attribute Function onplaying;
           attribute Function onprogress;
           attribute Function onratechange;
           attribute Function onreadystatechange;
           attribute Function onreset;
           attribute Function onscroll;
           attribute Function onseeked;
           attribute Function onseeking;
           attribute Function onselect;
           attribute Function onshow;
           attribute Function onstalled;
           attribute Function onsubmit;
           attribute Function onsuspend;
           attribute Function ontimeupdate;
           attribute Function onvolumechange;
           attribute Function onwaiting;
};
Document implements HTMLDocument;

Since the HTMLDocument interface holds methods and attributes related to a number of disparate features, the members of this interface are described in various different sections.

3.1.2 Security

User agents raise a SECURITY_ERR exception whenever any of the members of an HTMLDocument object are accessed by scripts whose effective script origin is not the same as the Document's effective script origin.

3.1.3 Resource metadata management

document . URL

Returns the document's address.

document . referrer

Returns the address of the Document from which the user navigated to this one, unless it was blocked or there was no such document, in which case it returns the empty string.

The noreferrer link type can be used to block the referrer.

In the case of HTTP, the referrer IDL attribute will match the Referer (sic) header that was sent when fetching the current page.

Typically user agents are configured to not report referrers in the case where the referrer uses an encrypted protocol and the current page does not (e.g. when navigating from an https: page to an http: page).


document . cookie [ = value ]

Returns the HTTP cookies that apply to the Document. If there are no cookies or cookies can't be applied to this resource, the empty string will be returned.

Can be set, to add a new cookie to the element's set of HTTP cookies.

If the contents are sandboxed into a unique origin (in an iframe with the sandbox attribute) or the resource was labeled as text/html-sandboxed, a SECURITY_ERR exception will be thrown on getting and setting.

document . lastModified

Returns the date of the last modification to the document, as reported by the server, in the form "MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss", in the user's local time zone.

If the last modification date is not known, the current time is returned instead.

document . compatMode

In a conforming document, returns the string "CSS1Compat". (In quirks mode documents, returns the string "BackCompat", but a conforming document can never trigger quirks mode.)

document . charset [ = value ]

Returns the document's character encoding.

Can be set, to dynamically change the document's character encoding.

New values that are not IANA-registered aliases supported by the user agent are ignored.

document . characterSet

Returns the document's character encoding.

document . defaultCharset

Returns what might be the user agent's default character encoding. (The user agent might return another character encoding altogether, e.g. to protect the user's privacy, or if the user agent doesn't use a single default encoding.)

document . readyState

Returns "loading" while the Document is loading, "interactive" once it is finished parsing but still loading sub-resources, and "complete" once it has loaded.

The readystatechange event fires on the Document object when this value changes.

3.1.4 DOM tree accessors

The html element of a document is the document's root element, if there is one and it's an html element, or null otherwise.


document . head

Returns the head element.

The head element of a document is the first head element that is a child of the html element, if there is one, or null otherwise.


document . title [ = value ]

Returns the document's title, as given by the title element.

Can be set, to update the document's title. If there is no head element, the new value is ignored.

In SVG documents, the SVGDocument interface's title attribute takes precedence.

The title element of a document is the first title element in the document (in tree order), if there is one, or null otherwise.


document . body [ = value ]

Returns the body element.

Can be set, to replace the body element.

If the new value is not a body or frameset element, this will throw a HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR exception.

The body element of a document is the first child of the html element that is either a body element or a frameset element. If there is no such element, it is null.


document . images

Returns an HTMLCollection of the img elements in the Document.

document . embeds
document . plugins

Return an HTMLCollection of the embed elements in the Document.

document . links

Returns an HTMLCollection of the a and area elements in the Document that have href attributes.

document . forms

Return an HTMLCollection of the form elements in the Document.

document . scripts

Return an HTMLCollection of the script elements in the Document.

collection = document . getElementsByName(name)

Returns a NodeList of elements in the Document that have a name attribute with the value name.

collection = document . getElementsByClassName(classes)
collection = element . getElementsByClassName(classes)

Returns a NodeList of the elements in the object on which the method was invoked (a Document or an Element) that have all the classes given by classes.

The classes argument is interpreted as a space-separated list of classes.

HTML, SVG, and MathML elements define which classes they are in by having an attribute with no namespace with the name class containing a space-separated list of classes to which the element belongs. Other specifications may also allow elements in their namespaces to be labeled as being in specific classes.

Given the following XHTML fragment:

<div id="example">
 <p id="p1" class="aaa bbb"/>
 <p id="p2" class="aaa ccc"/>
 <p id="p3" class="bbb ccc"/>
</div>

A call to document.getElementById('example').getElementsByClassName('aaa') would return a NodeList with the two paragraphs p1 and p2 in it.

A call to getElementsByClassName('ccc bbb') would only return one node, however, namely p3. A call to document.getElementById('example').getElementsByClassName('bbb  ccc ') would return the same thing.

A call to getElementsByClassName('aaa,bbb') would return no nodes; none of the elements above are in the "aaa,bbb" class.


The dir attribute on the HTMLDocument interface is defined along with the dir content attribute.

3.1.5 Creating documents

XML documents can be created from script using the createDocument() method on the DOMImplementation interface.

HTML documents can be created using the createHTMLDocument() method:

[Supplemental, NoInterfaceObject]
interface DOMHTMLImplementation {
  Document createHTMLDocument(in DOMString title);
};
DOMImplementation implements DOMHTMLImplementation;
document = document . implementation . createHTMLDocument( title )

Returns a new Document, with a basic DOM already constructed with an appropriate title element.

3.2 Elements

3.2.1 Semantics

Elements, attributes, and attribute values in HTML are defined (by this specification) to have certain meanings (semantics). For example, the ol element represents an ordered list, and the lang attribute represents the language of the content.

Authors must not use elements, attributes, or attribute values for purposes other than their appropriate intended semantic purpose. Authors must not use elements, attributes, or attribute values that are not permitted by this specification or other applicable specifications.

For example, the following document is non-conforming, despite being syntactically correct:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en-GB">
 <head> <title> Demonstration </title> </head>
 <body>
  <table>
   <tr> <td> My favourite animal is the cat. </td> </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     —<a href="http://example.org/~ernest/"><cite>Ernest</cite></a>,
     in an essay from 1992
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>
 </body>
</html>

...because the data placed in the cells is clearly not tabular data (and the cite element mis-used). A corrected version of this document might be:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en-GB">
 <head> <title> Demonstration </title> </head>
 <body>
  <blockquote>
   <p> My favourite animal is the cat. </p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>
   —<a href="http://example.org/~ernest/">Ernest</a>,
   in an essay from 1992
  </p>
 </body>
</html>

This next document fragment, intended to represent the heading of a corporate site, is similarly non-conforming because the second line is not intended to be a heading of a subsection, but merely a subheading or subtitle (a subordinate heading for the same section).

<body>
 <h1>ABC Company</h1>
 <h2>Leading the way in widget design since 1432</h2>
 ...

The hgroup element is intended for these kinds of situations:

<body>
 <hgroup>
  <h1>ABC Company</h1>
  <h2>Leading the way in widget design since 1432</h2>
 </hgroup>
 ...

In the next example, there is a non-conforming attribute value ("carpet") and a non-conforming attribute ("texture"), which is not permitted by this specification:

<label>Carpet: <input type="carpet" name="c" texture="deep pile"></label>

Here would be an alternative and correct way to mark this up:

<label>Carpet: <input type="text" class="carpet" name="c" data-texture="deep pile"></label>

Through scripting and using other mechanisms, the values of attributes, text, and indeed the entire structure of the document may change dynamically while a user agent is processing it. The semantics of a document at an instant in time are those represented by the state of the document at that instant in time, and the semantics of a document can therefore change over time. User agents update their presentation of the document as this occurs.

HTML has a progress element that describes a progress bar. If its "value" attribute is dynamically updated by a script, the UA would update the rendering to show the progress changing.

3.2.2 Elements in the DOM

The nodes representing HTML elements in the DOM implement, and expose to scripts, the interfaces listed for them in the relevant sections of this specification. This includes HTML elements in XML documents, even when those documents are in another context (e.g. inside an XSLT transform).

Elements in the DOM represent things; that is, they have intrinsic meaning, also known as semantics.

For example, an ol element represents an ordered list.

The basic interface, from which all the HTML elements' interfaces inherit, is the HTMLElement interface.

interface HTMLElement : Element {
  // DOM tree accessors
  NodeList getElementsByClassName(in DOMString classNames);

  // dynamic markup insertion
           attribute DOMString innerHTML;
           attribute DOMString outerHTML;
  void insertAdjacentHTML(in DOMString position, in DOMString text);

  // metadata attributes
           attribute DOMString id;
           attribute DOMString title;
           attribute DOMString lang;
           attribute DOMString dir;
           attribute DOMString className;
  readonly attribute DOMTokenList classList;
  readonly attribute DOMStringMap dataset;

  // user interaction
           attribute boolean hidden;
  void click();
           attribute long tabIndex;
  void focus();
  void blur();
           attribute DOMString accessKey;
  readonly attribute DOMString accessKeyLabel;
           attribute boolean draggable;
  [PutForwards=value] attribute DOMSettableTokenList dropzone;
           attribute DOMString contentEditable;
  readonly attribute boolean isContentEditable;
           attribute HTMLMenuElement contextMenu;
           attribute boolean spellcheck;

  // command API
  readonly attribute DOMString commandType;
  readonly attribute DOMString label;
  readonly attribute DOMString icon;
  readonly attribute boolean disabled;
  readonly attribute boolean checked;

  // styling
  readonly attribute CSSStyleDeclaration style;

  // event handler IDL attributes
           attribute Function onabort;
           attribute Function onblur;
           attribute Function oncanplay;
           attribute Function oncanplaythrough;
           attribute Function onchange;
           attribute Function onclick;
           attribute Function oncontextmenu;

           attribute Function oncuechange;

           attribute Function ondblclick;
           attribute Function ondrag;
           attribute Function ondragend;
           attribute Function ondragenter;
           attribute Function ondragleave;
           attribute Function ondragover;
           attribute Function ondragstart;
           attribute Function ondrop;
           attribute Function ondurationchange;
           attribute Function onemptied;
           attribute Function onended;
           attribute Function onerror;
           attribute Function onfocus;
           attribute Function oninput;
           attribute Function oninvalid;
           attribute Function onkeydown;
           attribute Function onkeypress;
           attribute Function onkeyup;
           attribute Function onload;
           attribute Function onloadeddata;
           attribute Function onloadedmetadata;
           attribute Function onloadstart;
           attribute Function onmousedown;
           attribute Function onmousemove;
           attribute Function onmouseout;
           attribute Function onmouseover;
           attribute Function onmouseup;
           attribute Function onmousewheel;
           attribute Function onpause;
           attribute Function onplay;
           attribute Function onplaying;
           attribute Function onprogress;
           attribute Function onratechange;
           attribute Function onreadystatechange;
           attribute Function onreset;
           attribute Function onscroll;
           attribute Function onseeked;
           attribute Function onseeking;
           attribute Function onselect;
           attribute Function onshow;
           attribute Function onstalled;
           attribute Function onsubmit;
           attribute Function onsuspend;
           attribute Function ontimeupdate;
           attribute Function onvolumechange;
           attribute Function onwaiting;
};

interface HTMLUnknownElement : HTMLElement { };

The HTMLElement interface holds methods and attributes related to a number of disparate features, and the members of this interface are therefore described in various different sections of this specification.

3.2.3 Global attributes

The following attributes are common to and may be specified on all HTML elements:


The following event handler content attributes may be specified on any HTML element:

The attributes marked with an asterisk have a different meaning when specified on body elements as those elements expose event handlers of the Window object with the same names.

While these attributes apply to all elements, they are not useful on all elements. For example, only media elements will ever receive a volumechange event fired by the user agent.


Custom data attributes (e.g. data-foldername or data-msgid) can be specified on any HTML element, to store custom data specific to the page.


In HTML documents, elements in the HTML namespace may have an xmlns attribute specified, if, and only if, it has the exact value "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml". This does not apply to XML documents.

In HTML, the xmlns attribute has absolutely no effect. It is basically a talisman. It is allowed merely to make migration to and from XHTML mildly easier. When parsed by an HTML parser, the attribute ends up in no namespace, not the "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/" namespace like namespace declaration attributes in XML do.

In XML, an xmlns attribute is part of the namespace declaration mechanism, and an element cannot actually have an xmlns attribute in no namespace specified.


The XML specification also allows the use of the xml:space attribute in the XML namespace on any element in an XML document. This attribute has no effect on HTML elements, as the default behavior in HTML is to preserve whitespace. [XML]

There is no way to serialize the xml:space attribute on HTML elements in the text/html syntax.


To enable assistive technology products to expose a more fine-grained interface than is otherwise possible with HTML elements and attributes, a set of annotations for assistive technology products can be specified (the ARIA role and aria-* attributes).

3.2.3.1 The id attribute

The id attribute specifies its element's unique identifier (ID). The value must be unique amongst all the IDs in the element's home subtree and must contain at least one character. The value must not contain any space characters.

An element's unique identifier can be used for a variety of purposes, most notably as a way to link to specific parts of a document using fragment identifiers, as a way to target an element when scripting, and as a way to style a specific element from CSS.

3.2.3.2 The title attribute

The title attribute represents advisory information for the element, such as would be appropriate for a tooltip. On a link, this could be the title or a description of the target resource; on an image, it could be the image credit or a description of the image; on a paragraph, it could be a footnote or commentary on the text; on a citation, it could be further information about the source; and so forth. The value is text.

If this attribute is omitted from an element, then it implies that the title attribute of the nearest ancestor HTML element with a title attribute set is also relevant to this element. Setting the attribute overrides this, explicitly stating that the advisory information of any ancestors is not relevant to this element. Setting the attribute to the empty string indicates that the element has no advisory information.

If the title attribute's value contains U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters, the content is split into multiple lines. Each U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character represents a line break.

Caution is advised with respect to the use of newlines in title attributes.

For instance, the following snippet actually defines an abbreviation's expansion with a line break in it:

<p>My logs show that there was some interest in <abbr title="Hypertext
Transport Protocol">HTTP</abbr> today.</p>

Some elements, such as link, abbr, and input, define additional semantics for the title attribute beyond the semantics described above.

3.2.3.3 The lang and xml:lang attributes

The lang attribute (in no namespace) specifies the primary language for the element's contents and for any of the element's attributes that contain text. Its value must be a valid BCP 47 language tag, or the empty string. Setting the attribute to the empty string indicates that the primary language is unknown. [BCP47]

The lang attribute in the XML namespace is defined in XML. [XML]

If these attributes are omitted from an element, then the language of this element is the same as the language of its parent element, if any.

The lang attribute in no namespace may be used on any HTML element.

The lang attribute in the XML namespace may be used on HTML elements in XML documents, as well as elements in other namespaces if the relevant specifications allow it (in particular, MathML and SVG allow lang attributes in the XML namespace to be specified on their elements). If both the lang attribute in no namespace and the lang attribute in the XML namespace are specified on the same element, they must have exactly the same value when compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner.

Authors must not use the lang attribute in the XML namespace on HTML elements in HTML documents. To ease migration to and from XHTML, authors may specify an attribute in no namespace with no prefix and with the literal localname "xml:lang" on HTML elements in HTML documents, but such attributes must only be specified if a lang attribute in no namespace is also specified, and both attributes must have the same value when compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner.

The attribute in no namespace with no prefix and with the literal localname "xml:lang" has no effect on language processing.

3.2.3.4 The xml:base attribute (XML only)

The xml:base attribute is defined in XML Base. [XMLBASE]

The xml:base attribute may be used on elements of XML documents. Authors must not use the xml:base attribute in HTML documents.

3.2.3.5 The dir attribute

The dir attribute specifies the element's text directionality. The attribute is an enumerated attribute with the following keywords and states:

The ltr keyword, which maps to the ltr state

Indicates that the contents of the element are explicitly directionally embedded left-to-right text.

The rtl keyword, which maps to the rtl state

Indicates that the contents of the element are explicitly directionally embedded right-to-left text.

The auto keyword, which maps to the auto state

Indicates that the contents of the element are explicitly embedded text, but that the direction is to be determined programmatically using the contents of the element (as described below).

The heuristic used by this state is very crude (it just looks at the first character with a strong directionality, in a manner analogous to the Paragraph Level determination in the bidirectional algorithm). Authors are urged to only use this value as a last resort when the direction of the text is truly unknown and no better server-side heuristic can be applied.

For textarea and pre elements, the heuristic is applied on a per-paragraph level.

The attribute has no invalid value default and no missing value default.

The directionality of an element is either 'ltr' or 'rtl', and is determined as per the first appropriate set of steps from the following list:

If the element's dir attribute is in the ltr state

The directionality of the element is 'ltr'.

If the element's dir attribute is in the rtl state

The directionality of the element is 'rtl'.

If the element's dir attribute is in the auto state
If the element is a bdi element and the dir attribute is not in a defined state (i.e. it is not present or has an invalid value)

Find the first character in tree order that matches the following criteria:

If such a character is found and it is of bidirectional character type AL or R, the directionality of the element is 'rtl'.

Otherwise, the directionality of the element is 'ltr'.

If the element is a root element and the dir attribute is not in a defined state (i.e. it is not present or has an invalid value)

The directionality of the element is 'ltr'.

If the element has a parent element and the dir attribute is not in a defined state (i.e. it is not present or has an invalid value)

The directionality of the element is the same as the element's parent element's directionality.

The effect of this attribute is primarily on the presentation layer. For example, the rendering section in this specification defines a mapping from this attribute to the CSS 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi' properties, and CSS defines rendering in terms of those properties.


document . dir [ = value ]

Returns the html element's dir attribute's value, if any.

Can be set, to either "ltr", "rtl", or "auto" to replace the html element's dir attribute's value.

If there is no html element, returns the empty string and ignores new values.

Authors are strongly encouraged to use the dir attribute to indicate text direction rather than using CSS, since that way their documents will continue to render correctly even in the absence of CSS (e.g. as interpreted by search engines).

This markup fragment is of an IM conversation.

<p dir=auto class="u1"><b><bdi>Student</bdi>:</b> How do you write "What's your name?" in Arabic?</p>
<p dir=auto class="u2"><b><bdi>Teacher</bdi>:</b> ما اسمك؟</p>
<p dir=auto class="u1"><b><bdi>Student</bdi>:</b> Thanks.</p>
<p dir=auto class="u2"><b><bdi>Teacher</bdi>:</b> That's written "شكرًا".</p>
<p dir=auto class="u2"><b><bdi>Teacher</bdi>:</b> Do you know how to write "Please"?</p>
<p dir=auto class="u1"><b><bdi>Student</bdi>:</b> "من فضلك", right?</p>

Given a suitable style sheet and the default alignment styles for the p element, namely to align the text to the start edge of the paragraph, the resulting rendering could be as follows:

Each paragraph rendered as a separate block, with the paragraphs left-aligned except the second paragraph and the last one, which would  be right aligned, with the usernames ('Student' and 'Teacher' in this example) flush right, with a colon to their left, and the text first to the left of that.

As noted earlier, the auto value is not a panacea. The final paragraph in this example is misinterpreted as being right-to-left text, since it begins with an Arabic character, which causes the "right?" to be to the left of the Arabic text.

3.2.3.6 The class attribute

Every HTML element may have a class attribute specified.

The attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a set of space-separated tokens representing the various classes that the element belongs to.

Assigning classes to an element affects class matching in selectors in CSS, the getElementsByClassName() method in the DOM, and other such features.

There are no additional restrictions on the tokens authors can use in the class attribute, but authors are encouraged to use values that describe the nature of the content, rather than values that describe the desired presentation of the content.

3.2.3.7 The style attribute

All HTML elements may have the style content attribute set. This is a CSS styling attribute as defined by the CSS Styling Attribute Syntax specification. [CSSATTR]

Documents that use style attributes on any of their elements must still be comprehensible and usable if those attributes were removed.

In particular, using the style attribute to hide and show content, or to convey meaning that is otherwise not included in the document, is non-conforming. (To hide and show content, use the hidden attribute.)


element . style

Returns a CSSStyleDeclaration object for the element's style attribute.

In the following example, the words that refer to colors are marked up using the span element and the style attribute to make those words show up in the relevant colors in visual media.

<p>My sweat suit is <span style="color: green; background:
transparent">green</span> and my eyes are <span style="color: blue;
background: transparent">blue</span>.</p>
3.2.3.8 Embedding custom non-visible data with the data-* attributes

A custom data attribute is an attribute in no namespace whose name starts with the string "data-", has at least one character after the hyphen, is XML-compatible, and contains no characters in the range U+0041 to U+005A (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z).

All attributes on HTML elements in HTML documents get ASCII-lowercased automatically, so the restriction on ASCII uppercase letters doesn't affect such documents.

Custom data attributes are intended to store custom data private to the page or application, for which there are no more appropriate attributes or elements.

These attributes are not intended for use by software that is independent of the site that uses the attributes.

For instance, a site about music could annotate list items representing tracks in an album with custom data attributes containing the length of each track. This information could then be used by the site itself to allow the user to sort the list by track length, or to filter the list for tracks of certain lengths.

<ol>
 <li data-length="2m11s">Beyond The Sea</li>
 ...
</ol>

It would be inappropriate, however, for the user to use generic software not associated with that music site to search for tracks of a certain length by looking at this data.

This is because these attributes are intended for use by the site's own scripts, and are not a generic extension mechanism for publicly-usable metadata.

Every HTML element may have any number of custom data attributes specified, with any value.


element . dataset

Returns a DOMStringMap object for the element's data-* attributes.

Hyphenated names become camel-cased. For example, data-foo-bar="" becomes element.dataset.fooBar.

If a Web page wanted an element to represent a space ship, e.g. as part of a game, it would have to use the class attribute along with data-* attributes:

<div class="spaceship" data-ship-id="92432"
     data-weapons="laser 2" data-shields="50%"
     data-x="30" data-y="10" data-z="90">
 <button class="fire"
         onclick="spaceships[this.parentNode.dataset.shipId].fire()">
  Fire
 </button>
</div>

Notice how the hyphenated attribute name becomes camel-cased in the API.

Authors should carefully design such extensions so that when the attributes are ignored and any associated CSS dropped, the page is still usable.

JavaScript libraries may use the custom data attributes, as they are considered to be part of the page on which they are used. Authors of libraries that are reused by many authors are encouraged to include their name in the attribute names, to reduce the risk of clashes. Where it makes sense, library authors are also encouraged to make the exact name used in the attribute names customizable, so that libraries whose authors unknowingly picked the same name can be used on the same page, and so that multiple versions of a particular library can be used on the same page even when those versions are not mutually compatible.

For example, a library called "DoQuery" could use attribute names like data-doquery-range, and a library called "jJo" could use attributes names like data-jjo-range. The jJo library could also provide an API to set which prefix to use (e.g. J.setDataPrefix('j2'), making the attributes have names like data-j2-range).

3.2.4 Element definitions

Each element in this specification has a definition that includes the following information:

Categories

A list of categories to which the element belongs. These are used when defining the content models for each element.

Contexts in which this element can be used

A non-normative description of where the element can be used. This information is redundant with the content models of elements that allow this one as a child, and is provided only as a convenience.

For simplicity, only the most specific expectations are listed. For example, an element that is both flow content and phrasing content can be used anywhere that either flow content or phrasing content is expected, but since anywhere that flow content is expected, phrasing content is also expected (since all phrasing content is flow content), only "where phrasing content is expected" will be listed.

Content model

A normative description of what content must be included as children and descendants of the element.

Content attributes

A normative list of attributes that may be specified on the element (except where otherwise disallowed).

DOM interface

A normative definition of a DOM interface that such elements must implement.

This is then followed by a description of what the element represents, along with any additional normative conformance criteria that may apply to authors. Examples are sometimes also included.

3.2.4.1 Attributes

Except where otherwise specified, attributes on HTML elements may have any string value, including the empty string. Except where explicitly stated, there is no restriction on what text can be specified in such attributes.

3.2.5 Content models

Each element defined in this specification has a content model: a description of the element's expected contents. An HTML element must have contents that match the requirements described in the element's content model.

As noted in the conformance and terminology sections, for the purposes of determining if an element matches its content model or not, CDATASection nodes in the DOM are treated as equivalent to Text nodes, and entity reference nodes are treated as if they were expanded in place.

The space characters are always allowed between elements. User agents represent these characters between elements in the source markup as text nodes in the DOM. Empty text nodes and text nodes consisting of just sequences of those characters are considered inter-element whitespace.

Inter-element whitespace, comment nodes, and processing instruction nodes must be ignored when establishing whether an element's contents match the element's content model or not, and must be ignored when following algorithms that define document and element semantics.

Thus, an element A is said to be preceded or followed by a second element B if A and B have the same parent node and there are no other element nodes or text nodes (other than inter-element whitespace) between them. Similarly, a node is the only child of an element if that element contains no other nodes other than inter-element whitespace, comment nodes, and processing instruction nodes.

Authors must not use HTML elements anywhere except where they are explicitly allowed, as defined for each element, or as explicitly required by other specifications. For XML compound documents, these contexts could be inside elements from other namespaces, if those elements are defined as providing the relevant contexts.

For example, the Atom specification defines a content element. When its type attribute has the value xhtml, the Atom specification requires that it contain a single HTML div element. Thus, a div element is allowed in that context, even though this is not explicitly normatively stated by this specification. [ATOM]

In addition, HTML elements may be orphan nodes (i.e. without a parent node).

For example, creating a td element and storing it in a global variable in a script is conforming, even though td elements are otherwise only supposed to be used inside tr elements.

var data = {
  name: "Banana",
  cell: document.createElement('td'),
};
3.2.5.1 Kinds of content

Each element in HTML falls into zero or more categories that group elements with similar characteristics together. The following broad categories are used in this specification:

Some elements also fall into other categories, which are defined in other parts of this specification.

These categories are related as follows:

Sectioning content, heading content, phrasing content, and
  embedded content are all types of flow content. Embedded content is
  also a type of phrasing content.

In addition, certain elements are categorized as form-associated elements and further subcategorized to define their role in various form-related processing models.

Some elements have unique requirements and do not fit into any particular category.

3.2.5.1.1 Metadata content

Metadata content is content that sets up the presentation or behavior of the rest of the content, or that sets up the relationship of the document with other documents, or that conveys other "out of band" information.

Elements from other namespaces whose semantics are primarily metadata-related (e.g. RDF) are also metadata content.

Thus, in the XML serialization, one can use RDF, like this:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:r="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
 <head>
  <title>Hedral's Home Page</title>
  <r:RDF>
   <Person xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/pim/contact#"
           r:about="http://hedral.example.com/#">
    <fullName>Cat Hedral</fullName>
    <mailbox r:resource="mailto:hedral@damowmow.com"/>
    <personalTitle>Sir</personalTitle>
   </Person>
  </r:RDF>
 </head>
 <body>
  <h1>My home page</h1>
  <p>I like playing with string, I guess. Sister says squirrels are fun
  too so sometimes I follow her to play with them.</p>
 </body>
</html>

This isn't possible in the HTML serialization, however.

3.2.5.1.2 Flow content

Most elements that are used in the body of documents and applications are categorized as flow content.

As a general rule, elements whose content model allows any flow content should have either at least one descendant text node that is not inter-element whitespace, or at least one descendant element node that is embedded content. For the purposes of this requirement, del elements and their descendants must not be counted as contributing to the ancestors of the del element.

This requirement is not a hard requirement, however, as there are many cases where an element can be empty legitimately, for example when it is used as a placeholder which will later be filled in by a script, or when the element is part of a template and would on most pages be filled in but on some pages is not relevant.

3.2.5.1.3 Sectioning content

Sectioning content is content that defines the scope of headings and footers.

Each sectioning content element potentially has a heading and an outline. See the section on headings and sections for further details.

There are also certain elements that are sectioning roots. These are distinct from sectioning content, but they can also have an outline.

3.2.5.1.4 Heading content

Heading content defines the header of a section (whether explicitly marked up using sectioning content elements, or implied by the heading content itself).

3.2.5.1.5 Phrasing content

Phrasing content is the text of the document, as well as elements that mark up that text at the intra-paragraph level. Runs of phrasing content form paragraphs.

As a general rule, elements whose content model allows any phrasing content should have either at least one descendant text node that is not inter-element whitespace, or at least one descendant element node that is embedded content. For the purposes of this requirement, nodes that are descendants of del elements must not be counted as contributing to the ancestors of the del element.

Most elements that are categorized as phrasing content can only contain elements that are themselves categorized as phrasing content, not any flow content.

Text, in the context of content models, means text nodes. Text is sometimes used as a content model on its own, but is also phrasing content, and can be inter-element whitespace (if the text nodes are empty or contain just space characters).

3.2.5.1.6 Embedded content

ISSUE-80 (title-alternative) blocks progress to Last Call

Embedded content is content that imports another resource into the document, or content from another vocabulary that is inserted into the document.

Elements that are from namespaces other than the HTML namespace and that convey content but not metadata, are embedded content for the purposes of the content models defined in this specification. (For example, MathML, or SVG.)

Some embedded content elements can have fallback content: content that is to be used when the external resource cannot be used (e.g. because it is of an unsupported format). The element definitions state what the fallback is, if any.

3.2.5.1.7 Interactive content

Interactive content is content that is specifically intended for user interaction.

Certain elements in HTML have an activation behavior, which means that the user can activate them. This triggers a sequence of events dependent on the activation mechanism, and normally culminating in a click event.

3.2.5.2 Transparent content models

Some elements are described as transparent; they have "transparent" in the description of their content model. The content model of a transparent element is derived from the content model of its parent element: the elements required in the part of the content model that is "transparent" are the same elements as required in the part of the content model of the parent of the transparent element in which the transparent element finds itself.

For instance, an ins element inside a ruby element cannot contain an rt element, because the part of the ruby element's content model that allows ins elements is the part that allows phrasing content, and the rt element is not phrasing content.

In some cases, where transparent elements are nested in each other, the process has to be applied iteratively.

Consider the following markup fragment:

<p><object><param><ins><map><a href="/">Apples</a></map></ins></object></p>

To check whether "Apples" is allowed inside the a element, the content models are examined. The a element's content model is transparent, as is the map element's, as is the ins element's, as is the part of the object element's in which the ins element is found. The object element is found in the p element, whose content model is phrasing content. Thus, "Apples" is allowed, as text is phrasing content.

When a transparent element has no parent, then the part of its content model that is "transparent" must instead be treated as accepting any flow content.

3.2.5.3 Paragraphs

The term paragraph as defined in this section is distinct from (though related to) the p element defined later. The paragraph concept defined here is used to describe how to interpret documents.

A paragraph is typically a run of phrasing content that forms a block of text with one or more sentences that discuss a particular topic, as in typography, but can also be used for more general thematic grouping. For instance, an address is also a paragraph, as is a part of a form, a byline, or a stanza in a poem.

In the following example, there are two paragraphs in a section. There is also a heading, which contains phrasing content that is not a paragraph. Note how the comments and inter-element whitespace do not form paragraphs.

<section>
  <h1>Example of paragraphs</h1>
  This is the <em>first</em> paragraph in this example.
  <p>This is the second.</p>
  <!-- This is not a paragraph. -->
</section>

Paragraphs in flow content are defined relative to what the document looks like without the a, ins, del, and map elements complicating matters, since those elements, with their hybrid content models, can straddle paragraph boundaries, as shown in the first two examples below.

Generally, having elements straddle paragraph boundaries is best avoided. Maintaining such markup can be difficult.

The following example takes the markup from the earlier example and puts ins and del elements around some of the markup to show that the text was changed (though in this case, the changes admittedly don't make much sense). Notice how this example has exactly the same paragraphs as the previous one, despite the ins and del elements — the ins element straddles the heading and the first paragraph, and the del element straddles the boundary between the two paragraphs.

<section>
  <ins><h1>Example of paragraphs</h1>
  This is the <em>first</em> paragraph in</ins> this example<del>.
  <p>This is the second.</p></del>
  <!-- This is not a paragraph. -->
</section>

A paragraph is also formed explicitly by p elements.

The p element can be used to wrap individual paragraphs when there would otherwise not be any content other than phrasing content to separate the paragraphs from each other.

In the following example, the link spans half of the first paragraph, all of the heading separating the two paragraphs, and half of the second paragraph. It straddles the paragraphs and the heading.

<aside>
 Welcome!
 <a href="about.html">
  This is home of...
  <h1>The Falcons!</h1>
  The Lockheed Martin multirole jet fighter aircraft!
 </a>
 This page discusses the F-16 Fighting Falcon's innermost secrets.
</aside>

Here is another way of marking this up, this time showing the paragraphs explicitly, and splitting the one link element into three:

<aside>
 <p>Welcome! <a href="about.html">This is home of...</a></p>
 <h1><a href="about.html">The Falcons!</a></h1>
 <p><a href="about.html">The Lockheed Martin multirole jet
 fighter aircraft!</a> This page discusses the F-16 Fighting
 Falcon's innermost secrets.</p>
</aside>

It is possible for paragraphs to overlap when using certain elements that define fallback content. For example, in the following section:

<section>
 <h1>My Cats</h1>
 You can play with my cat simulator.
 <object data="cats.sim">
  To see the cat simulator, use one of the following links:
  <ul>
   <li><a href="cats.sim">Download simulator file</a>
   <li><a href="http://sims.example.com/watch?v=LYds5xY4INU">Use online simulator</a>
  </ul>
  Alternatively, upgrade to the Mellblom Browser.
 </object>
 I'm quite proud of it.
</section>

There are five paragraphs:

  1. The paragraph that says "You can play with my cat simulator. object I'm quite proud of it.", where object is the object element.
  2. The paragraph that says "To see the cat simulator, use one of the following links:".
  3. The paragraph that says "Download simulator file".
  4. The paragraph that says "Use online simulator".
  5. The paragraph that says "Alternatively, upgrade to the Mellblom Browser.".

The first paragraph is overlapped by the other four. A user agent that supports the "cats.sim" resource will only show the first one, but a user agent that shows the fallback will confusingly show the first sentence of the first paragraph as if it was in the same paragraph as the second one, and will show the last paragraph as if it was at the start of the second sentence of the first paragraph.

To avoid this confusion, explicit p elements can be used.

3.2.6 Requirements relating to bidirectional-algorithm formatting characters

Text content in HTML elements with child text nodes, and text in attributes of HTML elements that allow free-form text, may contain characters in the range U+202A to U+202E (the bidirectional-algorithm formatting characters). However, the use of these characters is restricted so that any embedding or overrides generated by these characters do not start and end with different parent elements, and so that all such embeddings and overrides are explicitly terminated by a U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING character. This helps reduce incidences of text being reused in a manner that has unforeseen effects on the bidirectional algorithm.

The aforementioned restrictions are defined by specifying that certain parts of documents form bidirectional-algorithm formatting character ranges, and then imposing a requirement on such ranges.

The string resulting from the concatenation of the data of all of an HTML element's text nodes, if any, is a bidirectional-algorithm formatting character range.

The value of a namespace-less attribute of an HTML element is a bidirectional-algorithm formatting character range.

Any strings that, as described above, are bidirectional-algorithm formatting character ranges must match the string production in the following ABNF, the character set for which is Unicode. [ABNF]

string        = *( plaintext ( embedding / override ) ) plaintext
embedding     = ( lre / rle ) string pdf
override      = ( lro / rlo ) string pdf
lre           = %x202A ; U+202A LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING
rle           = %x202B ; U+202B RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING
lro           = %x202D ; U+202D LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE
rlo           = %x202E ; U+202E RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE
pdf           = %x202C ; U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING
plaintext     = *( %x0000-2029 / %x202F-10FFFF )
                ; any string with no bidirectional-algorithm formatting characters

For convenience, where possible authors will likely prefer to use the dir attribute, the bdo element, and the bdi element, rather than maintaining the bidirectional-algorithm formatting characters manually.

3.2.7 Annotations for assistive technology products (ARIA)

ISSUE-109 (aria-section-title) and ISSUE-129 (aria-mapping) block progress to Last Call

Authors may use the ARIA role and aria-* attributes on HTML elements, in accordance with the requirements described in the ARIA specifications, except where these conflict with the strong native semantics described below. These exceptions are intended to prevent authors from making assistive technology products report nonsensical states that do not represent the actual state of the document. [ARIA]

The following table defines the strong native semantics that apply to HTML elements. Each language feature (element or attribute) in a cell in the first column implies the ARIA semantics (role, states, and/or properties) given in the cell in the second column of the same row. Authors must not set the ARIA role and aria-* attributes in a manner that conflicts with the semantics described in the following table, except that the presentation role may always be used.

Language feature Strong native semantics
a element that creates a hyperlink link role
area element that creates a hyperlink link role
base element No role
button element button role
datalist element listbox role, with the aria-multiselectable property set to "false"
details element aria-expanded state set to "true" if the element's open attribute is present, and set to "false" otherwise
h1 element that does not have an hgroup ancestor heading role, with the aria-level property set to the element's outline depth
h2 element that does not have an hgroup ancestor heading role, with the aria-level property set to the element's outline depth
h3 element that does not have an hgroup ancestor heading role, with the aria-level property set to the element's outline depth
h4 element that does not have an hgroup ancestor heading role, with the aria-level property set to the element's outline depth
h5 element that does not have an hgroup ancestor heading role, with the aria-level property set to the element's outline depth
h6 element that does not have an hgroup ancestor heading role, with the aria-level property set to the element's outline depth
head element No role
hgroup element heading role, with the aria-level property set to the element's outline depth
hr element separator role
html element No role
img element whose alt attribute's value is empty presentation role
input element with a type attribute in the Button state button role
input element with a type attribute in the Checkbox state aria-checked state set to "mixed" if the element's indeterminate IDL attribute is true, or "true" if the element's checkedness is true, or "false" otherwise
input element with a type attribute in the Color state No role
input element with a type attribute in the Date state No role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Date and Time state No role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Local Date and Time state No role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the E-mail state with no suggestions source element textbox role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the File Upload state No role
input element with a type attribute in the Hidden state No role
input element with a type attribute in the Image Button state button role
input element with a type attribute in the Month state No role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Number state spinbutton role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute, the aria-valuemax property set to the element's maximum, the aria-valuemin property set to the element's minimum, and, if the result of applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to the element's value is a number, with the aria-valuenow property set to that number
input element with a type attribute in the Password state textbox role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Radio Button state aria-checked state set to "true" if the element's checkedness is true, or "false" otherwise
input element with a type attribute in the Range state slider role, with the aria-valuemax property set to the element's maximum, the aria-valuemin property set to the element's minimum, and the aria-valuenow property set to the result of applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to the element's value, if that results in a number, or the default value otherwise
input element with a type attribute in the Reset Button state button role
input element with a type attribute in the Search state with no suggestions source element textbox role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Submit Button state button role
input element with a type attribute in the Telephone state with no suggestions source element textbox role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Text state with no suggestions source element textbox role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Text, Search, Telephone, URL, or E-mail states with a suggestions source element combobox role, with the aria-owns property set to the same value as the list attribute, and the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Time state No role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the URL state with no suggestions source element textbox role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element with a type attribute in the Week state No role, with the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
input element that is required The aria-required state set to "true"
keygen element No role
label element No role
link element that creates a hyperlink link role
menu element with a type attribute in the context menu state No role
menu element with a type attribute in the list state menu role
menu element with a type attribute in the toolbar state toolbar role
meta element No role
meter element No role
nav element navigation role
noscript element No role
optgroup element No role
option element that is in a list of options or that represents a suggestion in a datalist element option role, with the aria-selected state set to "true" if the element's selectedness is true, or "false" otherwise.
param element No role
progress element progressbar role, with, if the progress bar is determinate, the aria-valuemax property set to the maximum value of the progress bar, the aria-valuemin property set to zero, and the aria-valuenow property set to the current value of the progress bar
script element No role
select element with a multiple attribute listbox role, with the aria-multiselectable property set to "true"
select element with no multiple attribute listbox role, with the aria-multiselectable property set to "false"
select element with a required attribute The aria-required state set to "true"
source element No role
style element No role
summary element heading role
textarea element textbox role, with the aria-multiline property set to "true", and the aria-readonly state set to "true" if the element has a readonly attribute
textarea element with a required attribute The aria-required state set to "true"
title element No role
An element that defines a command, whose Type facet is "checkbox", and that is a descendant of a menu element whose type attribute in the list state menuitemcheckbox role, with the aria-checked state set to "true" if the command's Checked State facet is true, and "false" otherwise
An element that defines a command, whose Type facet is "command", and that is a descendant of a menu element whose type attribute in the list state menuitem role
An element that defines a command, whose Type facet is "radio", and that is a descendant of a menu element whose type attribute in the list state menuitemradio role, with the aria-checked state set to "true" if the command's Checked State facet is true, and "false" otherwise
Element that is disabled The aria-disabled state set to "true"
Element with a hidden attribute The aria-hidden state set to "true"
Element that is a candidate for constraint validation but that does not satisfy its constraints The aria-invalid state set to "true"

Some HTML elements have native semantics that can be overridden. The following table lists these elements, along with the restrictions that apply to those elements. Each language feature (element or attribute) in a cell in the first column implies, unless otherwise overridden, the ARIA semantic (role, state, or property) given in the cell in the second column of the same row, but this semantic may be overridden under the conditions listed in the cell in the third column of that row. In addition, any element may be given the presentation role, regardless of the restrictions below.

Language feature Default implied ARIA semantic Restrictions
address element No role If specified, role must be contentinfo
article element article role Role must be either article, document, application, or main
aside element note role Role must be either note, complementary, or search
audio element No role If specified, role must be application
details element group role Role must be a role that supports aria-expanded
embed element No role If specified, role must be either application, document, or img
footer element No role If specified, role must be contentinfo
header element No role If specified, role must be banner
iframe element No role If specified, role must be either application, document, or img
img element whose alt attribute's value is absent img role No restrictions
input element with a type attribute in the Checkbox state checkbox role Role must be either checkbox or menuitemcheckbox
input element with a type attribute in the Radio Button state radio role Role must be either radio or menuitemradio
li element whose parent is an ol or ul element listitem role Role must be either listitem, menuitemcheckbox, menuitemradio, option, tab, or treeitem
object element No role If specified, role must be either application, document, or img
ol element list role Role must be either directory, list, listbox, menu, menubar, tablist, toolbar, tree
output element status role No restrictions
section element region role Role must be either alert, alertdialog, application, contentinfo, dialog, document, log, main, marquee, region, search, or status
ul element list role Role must be either directory, list, listbox, menu, menubar, tablist, toolbar, tree
video element No role If specified, role must be application
The body element document role Role must be either document or application

These features can be used to make accessibility tools render content to their users in more useful ways. For example, ASCII art, which is really an image, appears to be text, and in the absence of appropriate annotations would end up being rendered by screen readers as a very painful reading of lots of punctuation. Using the features described in this section, one can instead make the ATs skip the ASCII art and just read the caption:

<figure role="img" aria-labelledby="fish-caption"> 
 <pre>
 o           .'`/
     '      /  (
   O    .-'` ` `'-._      .')
      _/ (o)        '.  .' /
      )       )))     ><  <
      `\  |_\      _.'  '. \
        '-._  _ .-'       '.)
    jgs     `\__\
 </pre>
 <figcaption id="fish-caption">
  Joan G. Stark, "<cite>fish</cite>".
  October 1997. ASCII on electrons. 28×8.
 </figcaption> 
</figure> 
   

3.3 APIs in HTML documents

For HTML documents, and for HTML elements in HTML documents, certain APIs defined in DOM Core become case-insensitive or case-changing, as sometimes defined in DOM Core, and as summarized below. [DOMCORE]

This does not apply to XML documents or to elements that are not in the HTML namespace despite being in HTML documents.

Element.tagName and Node.nodeName

These attributes return element names converted to ASCII uppercase, regardless of the case with which they were created.

Document.createElement()

The canonical form of HTML markup is all-lowercase; thus, this method will lowercase the argument before creating the requisite element. .

This doesn't apply to Document.createElementNS(). Thus, it is possible, by passing this last method a tag name in the wrong case, to create an element that appears to have the same tag name as that of an element defined in this specification when its tagName attribute is examined, but that doesn't support the corresponding interfaces. The "real" element name (unaffected by case conversions) can be obtained from the localName attribute.

Element.setAttribute()
Element.setAttributeNode()

Attribute names are converted to ASCII lowercase.

This doesn't apply to Element.setAttributeNS() and Element.setAttributeNodeNS().

Element.getAttribute()
Element.getAttributeNode()

Attribute names are converted to ASCII lowercase.

This doesn't apply to Element.getAttributeNS() and Element.getAttributeNodeNS().

Document.getElementsByTagName()
Element.getElementsByTagName()

HTML elements match by lower-casing the argument before comparison, elements from other namespaces are treated as in XML (case-sensitively).

Thus, in an HTML document with nodes in multiple namespaces, these methods will effectively be both case-sensitive and case-insensitive at the same time.

3.4 Dynamic markup insertion

APIs for dynamically inserting markup into the document interact with the parser, and thus their behavior varies depending on whether they are used with HTML documents (and the HTML parser) or XHTML in XML documents (and the XML parser).

3.4.1 Opening the input stream

The open() method comes in several variants with different numbers of arguments.

document = document . open( [ type [, replace ] ] )

Causes the Document to be replaced in-place, as if it was a new Document object, but reusing the previous object, which is then returned.

If the type argument is omitted or has the value "text/html", then the resulting Document has an HTML parser associated with it, which can be given data to parse using document.write(). Otherwise, all content passed to document.write() will be parsed as plain text.

If the replace argument is present and has the value "replace", the existing entries in the session history for the Document object are removed.

The method has no effect if the Document is still being parsed.

Throws an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception if the Document is an XML document.

window = document . open( url, name, features [, replace ] )

Works like the window.open() method.

3.4.2 Closing the input stream

document . close()

Closes the input stream that was opened by the document.open() method.

Throws an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception if the Document is an XML document.

3.4.3 document.write()

document . write(text...)

In general, adds the given string(s) to the Document's input stream.

This method has very idiosyncratic behavior. In some cases, this method can affect the state of the HTML parser while the parser is running, resulting in a DOM that does not correspond to the source of the document. In other cases, the call can clear the current page first, as if document.open() had been called. In yet more cases, the method is simply ignored, or throws an exception. To make matters worse, the exact behavior of this method can in some cases be dependent on network latency, which can lead to failures that are very hard to debug. For all these reasons, use of this method is strongly discouraged.

This method throws an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception when invoked on XML documents.

3.4.4 document.writeln()

document . writeln(text...)

Adds the given string(s) to the Document's input stream, followed by a newline character. If necessary, calls the open() method implicitly first.

This method throws an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception when invoked on XML documents.

3.4.5 innerHTML

The innerHTML IDL attribute represents the markup of the node's contents.

document . innerHTML [ = value ]

Returns a fragment of HTML or XML that represents the Document.

Can be set, to replace the Document's contents with the result of parsing the given string.

In the case of XML documents, will throw an INVALID_STATE_ERR if the Document cannot be serialized to XML, and a SYNTAX_ERR if the given string is not well-formed.

element . innerHTML [ = value ]

Returns a fragment of HTML or XML that represents the element's contents.

Can be set, to replace the contents of the element with nodes parsed from the given string.

In the case of XML documents, will throw an INVALID_STATE_ERR if the element cannot be serialized to XML, and a SYNTAX_ERR if the given string is not well-formed.

3.4.6 outerHTML

The outerHTML IDL attribute represents the markup of the element and its contents.

element . outerHTML [ = value ]

Returns a fragment of HTML or XML that represents the element and its contents.

Can be set, to replace the element with nodes parsed from the given string.

In the case of XML documents, will throw an INVALID_STATE_ERR if the element cannot be serialized to XML, and a SYNTAX_ERR if the given string is not well-formed.

Throws a NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR exception if the parent of the element is the Document node.

3.4.7 insertAdjacentHTML()

element . insertAdjacentHTML(position, text)

Parses the given string text as HTML or XML and inserts the resulting nodes into the tree in the position given by the position argument, as follows:

"beforebegin"
Before the element itself.
"afterbegin"
Just inside the element, before its first child.
"beforeend"
Just inside the element, after its last child.
"afterend"
After the element itself.

Throws a SYNTAX_ERR exception if the arguments have invalid values (e.g., in the case of XML documents, if the given string is not well-formed).

Throws a NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR exception if the given position isn't possible (e.g. inserting elements after the root element of a Document).

4 The elements of HTML

4.1 The root element

4.1.1 The html element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As the root element of a document.
Wherever a subdocument fragment is allowed in a compound document.
Content model:
A head element followed by a body element.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
manifest
DOM interface:
interface HTMLHtmlElement : HTMLElement {};

The html element represents the root of an HTML document.

The manifest attribute gives the address of the document's application cache manifest, if there is one. If the attribute is present, the attribute's value must be a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

The manifest attribute only has an effect during the early stages of document load. Changing the attribute dynamically thus has no effect (and thus, no DOM API is provided for this attribute).

For the purposes of application cache selection, later base elements cannot affect the resolving of relative URLs in manifest attributes, as the attributes are processed before those elements are seen.

The window.applicationCache IDL attribute provides scripted access to the offline application cache mechanism.

The html element in the following example declares that the document's language is English.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Swapping Songs</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Swapping Songs</h1>
<p>Tonight I swapped some of the songs I wrote with some friends, who
gave me some of the songs they wrote. I love sharing my music.</p>
</body>
</html>

4.2 Document metadata

4.2.1 The head element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As the first element in an html element.
Content model:
If the document is an iframe srcdoc document or if title information is available from a higher-level protocol: Zero or more elements of metadata content.
Otherwise: One or more elements of metadata content, of which exactly one is a title element.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLHeadElement : HTMLElement {};

The head element represents a collection of metadata for the Document.

The collection of metadata in a head element can be large or small. Here is an example of a very short one:

<!doctype html>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>A document with a short head</title>
 </head>
 <body>
 ...

Here is an example of a longer one:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<HTML>
 <HEAD>
  <META CHARSET="UTF-8">
  <BASE HREF="http://www.example.com/">
  <TITLE>An application with a long head</TITLE>
  <LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="default.css">
  <LINK REL="STYLESHEET ALTERNATE" HREF="big.css" TITLE="Big Text">
  <SCRIPT SRC="support.js"></SCRIPT>
  <META NAME="APPLICATION-NAME" CONTENT="Long headed application">
 </HEAD>
 <BODY>
 ...

The title element is a required child in most situations, but when a higher-level protocol provides title information, e.g. in the Subject line of an e-mail when HTML is used as an e-mail authoring format, the title element can be omitted.

4.2.2 The title element

Categories
Metadata content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
In a head element containing no other title elements.
Content model:
Text.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLTitleElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString text;
};

The title element represents the document's title or name. Authors should use titles that identify their documents even when they are used out of context, for example in a user's history or bookmarks, or in search results. The document's title is often different from its first heading, since the first heading does not have to stand alone when taken out of context.

There must be no more than one title element per document.

title . text [ = value ]

Returns the contents of the element, ignoring child nodes that aren't text nodes.

Can be set, to replace the element's children with the given value.

Here are some examples of appropriate titles, contrasted with the top-level headings that might be used on those same pages.

  <title>Introduction to The Mating Rituals of Bees</title>
    ...
  <h1>Introduction</h1>
  <p>This companion guide to the highly successful
  <cite>Introduction to Medieval Bee-Keeping</cite> book is...

The next page might be a part of the same site. Note how the title describes the subject matter unambiguously, while the first heading assumes the reader knows what the context is and therefore won't wonder if the dances are Salsa or Waltz:

  <title>Dances used during bee mating rituals</title>
    ...
  <h1>The Dances</h1>

The string to use as the document's title is given by the document.title IDL attribute.

4.2.3 The base element

Categories
Metadata content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
In a head element containing no other base elements.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
href
target
DOM interface:
interface HTMLBaseElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString href;
           attribute DOMString target;
};

The base element allows authors to specify the document base URL for the purposes of resolving relative URLs, and the name of the default browsing context for the purposes of following hyperlinks. The element does not represent any content beyond this information.

There must be no more than one base element per document.

A base element must have either an href attribute, a target attribute, or both.

The href content attribute, if specified, must contain a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

A base element, if it has an href attribute, must come before any other elements in the tree that have attributes defined as taking URLs, except the html element (its manifest attribute isn't affected by base elements).

The target attribute, if specified, must contain a valid browsing context name or keyword, which specifies which browsing context is to be used as the default when hyperlinks and forms in the Document cause navigation.

A base element, if it has a target attribute, must come before any elements in the tree that represent hyperlinks.

In this example, a base element is used to set the document base URL:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>This is an example for the &lt;base&gt; element</title>
        <base href="http://www.example.com/news/index.html">
    </head>
    <body>
        <p>Visit the <a href="archives.html">archives</a>.</p>
    </body>
</html>

The link in the above example would be a link to "http://www.example.com/news/archives.html".

Categories
Metadata content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where metadata content is expected.
In a noscript element that is a child of a head element.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
href
rel
media
hreflang
type
sizes
Also, the title attribute has special semantics on this element.
DOM interface:
interface HTMLLinkElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean disabled;
           attribute DOMString href;
           attribute DOMString rel;
  readonly attribute DOMTokenList relList;
           attribute DOMString media;
           attribute DOMString hreflang;
           attribute DOMString type;
  [PutForwards=value] readonly attribute DOMSettableTokenList sizes;
};
HTMLLinkElement implements LinkStyle;

The link element allows authors to link their document to other resources.

The destination of the link(s) is given by the href attribute, which must be present and must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

A link element must have rel attribute.

The types of link indicated (the relationships) are given by the value of the rel attribute, which, if present, must have a value that is a set of space-separated tokens. The allowed keywords and their meanings are defined in a later section.

Two categories of links can be created using the link element: Links to external resources and hyperlinks. The link types section defines whether a particular link type is an external resource or a hyperlink. One link element can create multiple links (of which some might be external resource links and some might be hyperlinks); exactly which and how many links are created depends on the keywords given in the rel attribute. User agents must process the links on a per-link basis, not a per-element basis.

Each link created for a link element is handled separately. For instance, if there are two link elements with rel="stylesheet", they each count as a separate external resource, and each is affected by its own attributes independently. Similarly, if a single link element has a rel attribute with the value next stylesheet, it creates both a hyperlink (for the keyword) and an external resource link (for the stylesheet keyword), and they are affected by other attributes (such as media or title) differently.

The exact behavior for links to external resources depends on the exact relationship, as defined for the relevant link type. Some of the attributes control whether or not the external resource is to be applied (as defined below).

Hyperlinks created with the link element and its rel attribute apply to the whole page. This contrasts with the rel attribute of a and area elements, which indicates the type of a link whose context is given by the link's location within the document.

The media attribute says which media the resource applies to. The value must be a valid media query.

The default, if the media attribute is omitted, is "all", meaning that by default links apply to all media.

The hreflang attribute on the link element has the same semantics as the hreflang attribute on a and area elements.

The type attribute gives the MIME type of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid MIME type.

For external resource links, the type attribute is used as a hint to user agents so that they can avoid fetching resources they do not support.

The title attribute gives the title of the link. With one exception, it is purely advisory. The value is text. The exception is for style sheet links, where the title attribute defines alternative style sheet sets.

The title attribute on link elements differs from the global title attribute of most other elements in that a link without a title does not inherit the title of the parent element: it merely has no title.

The sizes attribute is used with the icon link type. The attribute must not be specified on link elements that do not have a rel attribute that specifies the icon keyword.

The IDL attribute disabled only applies to style sheet links. When the link element defines a style sheet link, then the disabled attribute behaves as defined for the alternative style sheets DOM. For all other link elements it always return false and does nothing on setting.

The LinkStyle interface is also implemented by this element; the styling processing model defines how. [CSSOM]

Here, a set of link elements provide some style sheets:

<!-- a persistent style sheet -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css">

<!-- the preferred alternate style sheet -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="green.css" title="Green styles">

<!-- some alternate style sheets -->
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="contrast.css" title="High contrast">
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="big.css" title="Big fonts">
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="wide.css" title="Wide screen">

The following example shows how you can specify versions of the page that use alternative formats, are aimed at other languages, and that are intended for other media:

<link rel=alternate href="/en/html" hreflang=en type=text/html title="English HTML">
<link rel=alternate href="/fr/html" hreflang=fr type=text/html title="French HTML">
<link rel=alternate href="/en/html/print" hreflang=en type=text/html media=print title="English HTML (for printing)">
<link rel=alternate href="/fr/html/print" hreflang=fr type=text/html media=print title="French HTML (for printing)">
<link rel=alternate href="/en/pdf" hreflang=en type=application/pdf title="English PDF">
<link rel=alternate href="/fr/pdf" hreflang=fr type=application/pdf title="French PDF">

4.2.5 The meta element

Categories
Metadata content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
If the charset attribute is present, or if the element's http-equiv attribute is in the Encoding declaration state: in a head element.
If the http-equiv attribute is present but not in the Encoding declaration state: in a head element.
If the http-equiv attribute is present but not in the Encoding declaration state: in a noscript element that is a child of a head element.
If the name attribute is present: where metadata content is expected.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
name
http-equiv
content
charset
DOM interface:
interface HTMLMetaElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString httpEquiv;
           attribute DOMString content;
};

The meta element represents various kinds of metadata that cannot be expressed using the title, base, link, style, and script elements.

The meta element can represent document-level metadata with the name attribute, pragma directives with the http-equiv attribute, and the file's character encoding declaration when an HTML document is serialized to string form (e.g. for transmission over the network or for disk storage) with the charset attribute.

Exactly one of the name, http-equiv, and charset attributes must be specified.

If either name or http-equiv is specified, then the content attribute must also be specified. Otherwise, it must be omitted.

The charset attribute specifies the character encoding used by the document. This is a character encoding declaration. If the attribute is present in an XML document, its value must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "UTF-8" (and the document is therefore forced to use UTF-8 as its encoding).

The charset attribute on the meta element has no effect in XML documents, and is only allowed in order to facilitate migration to and from XHTML.

There must not be more than one meta element with a charset attribute per document.

The content attribute gives the value of the document metadata or pragma directive when the element is used for those purposes. The allowed values depend on the exact context, as described in subsequent sections of this specification.

If a meta element has a name attribute, it sets document metadata. Document metadata is expressed in terms of name/value pairs, the name attribute on the meta element giving the name, and the content attribute on the same element giving the value. The name specifies what aspect of metadata is being set; valid names and the meaning of their values are described in the following sections. If a meta element has no content attribute, then the value part of the metadata name/value pair is the empty string.

4.2.5.1 Standard metadata names

This specification defines a few names for the name attribute of the meta element.

Names are case-insensitive.

application-name

The value must be a short free-form string giving the name of the Web application that the page represents. If the page is not a Web application, the application-name metadata name must not be used. There must not be more than one meta element with its name attribute set to the value application-name per document.

author

The value must be a free-form string giving the name of one of the page's authors.

description

The value must be a free-form string that describes the page. The value must be appropriate for use in a directory of pages, e.g. in a search engine. There must not be more than one meta element with its name attribute set to the value description per document.

generator

The value must be a free-form string that identifies one of the software packages used to generate the document. This value must not be used on hand-authored pages.

Here is what a tool called "Frontweaver" could include in its output, in the page's head element, to identify itself as the tool used to generate the page:

<meta name=generator content="Frontweaver 8.2">
keywords

The value must be a set of comma-separated tokens, each of which is a keyword relevant to the page.

This page about typefaces on British motorways uses a meta element to specify some keywords that users might use to look for the page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Typefaces on UK motorways</title>
  <meta name="keywords" content="british,type face,font,fonts,highway,highways">
 </head>
 <body>
  ...

Many search engines do not consider such keywords, because this feature has historically been used unreliably and even misleadingly as a way to spam search engine results in a way that is not helpful for users.

4.2.5.2 Other metadata names

ISSUE-27 (rel-ownership) blocks progress to Last Call

Extensions to the predefined set of metadata names may be registered in the WHATWG Wiki MetaExtensions page. [WHATWGWIKI]

Anyone is free to edit the WHATWG Wiki MetaExtensions page at any time to add a type. These new names must be specified with the following information:

Keyword

The actual name being defined. The name should not be confusingly similar to any other defined name (e.g. differing only in case).

Brief description

A short non-normative description of what the metadata name's meaning is, including the format the value is required to be in.

Specification
A link to a more detailed description of the metadata name's semantics and requirements. It could be another page on the Wiki, or a link to an external page.
Synonyms

A list of other names that have exactly the same processing requirements. Authors should not use the names defined to be synonyms, they are only intended to allow user agents to support legacy content. Anyone may remove synonyms that are not used in practice; only names that need to be processed as synonyms for compatibility with legacy content are to be registered in this way.

Status

One of the following:

Proposed
The name has not received wide peer review and approval. Someone has proposed it and is, or soon will be, using it.
Ratified
The name has received wide peer review and approval. It has a specification that unambiguously defines how to handle pages that use the name, including when they use it in incorrect ways.
Discontinued
The metadata name has received wide peer review and it has been found wanting. Existing pages are using this metadata name, but new pages should avoid it. The "brief description" and "specification" entries will give details of what authors should use instead, if anything.

If a metadata name is found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value.

If a metadata name is registered in the "proposed" state for a period of a month or more without being used or specified, then it may be removed from the registry.

If a metadata name is added with the "proposed" status and found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value. If a metadata name is added with the "proposed" status and found to be harmful, then it should be changed to "discontinued" status.

Anyone can change the status at any time, but should only do so in accordance with the definitions above.

Metadata names whose values are to be URLs must not be proposed or accepted. Links must be represented using the link element, not the meta element.

4.2.5.3 Pragma directives

When the http-equiv attribute is specified on a meta element, the element is a pragma directive.

The http-equiv attribute is an enumerated attribute. The following table lists the keywords defined for this attribute. The states given in the first cell of the rows with keywords give the states to which those keywords map.

State Keyword Notes
Content Language content-language Conformance checkers will include a warning
Encoding declaration content-type
Default style default-style
Refresh refresh
Content language state (http-equiv="content-language")

This pragma sets the pragma-set default language. Until the pragma is successfully processed, there is no pragma-set default language.

Conformance checkers will include a warning if this pragma is used. Authors are encouraged to use the lang attribute instead.

For meta elements with an http-equiv attribute in the Content Language state, the content attribute must have a value consisting of a valid BCP 47 language tag. [BCP47]

This pragma is not exactly equivalent to the HTTP Content-Language header, for instance it only supports one language. [HTTP]

Encoding declaration state (http-equiv="content-type")

The Encoding declaration state is just an alternative form of setting the charset attribute: it is a character encoding declaration.

For meta elements with an http-equiv attribute in the Encoding declaration state, the content attribute must have a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for a string that consists of: the literal string "text/html;", optionally followed by any number of space characters, followed by the literal string "charset=", followed by the character encoding name of the character encoding declaration.

If the document contains a meta element with an http-equiv attribute in the Encoding declaration state, then the document must not contain a meta element with the charset attribute present.

The Encoding declaration state may be used in HTML documents, but elements with an http-equiv attribute in that state must not be used in XML documents.

Default style state (http-equiv="default-style")

This pragma sets the name of the default alternative style sheet set.

Refresh state (http-equiv="refresh")

This pragma acts as timed redirect.

For meta elements with an http-equiv attribute in the Refresh state, the content attribute must have a value consisting either of:

In the former case, the integer represents a number of seconds before the page is to be reloaded; in the latter case the integer represents a number of seconds before the page is to be replaced by the page at the given URL.

A news organization's front page could include the following markup in the page's head element, to ensure that the page automatically reloads from the server every five minutes:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="300">

A sequence of pages could be used as an automated slide show by making each page refresh to the next page in the sequence, using markup such as the following:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="20; URL=page4.html">

There must not be more than one meta element with any particular state in the document at a time.

4.2.5.4 Other pragma directives

Extensions to the predefined set of pragma directives may, under certain conditions, be registered in the WHATWG Wiki PragmaExtensions page. [WHATWGWIKI]

Such extensions must use a name that is identical to an HTTP header registered in the Permanent Message Header Field Registry, and must have behavior identical to that described for the HTTP header. [IANAPERMHEADERS]

Pragma directives corresponding to headers describing metadata, or not requiring specific user agent processing, must not be registered; instead, use metadata names. Pragma directives corresponding to headers that affect the HTTP processing model (e.g. caching) must not be registered, as they would result in HTTP-level behavior being different for user agents that implement HTML than for user agents that do not.

Anyone is free to edit the WHATWG Wiki PragmaExtensions page at any time to add a pragma directive satisfying these conditions. Such registrations must specify the following information:

Keyword

The actual name being defined. The name must match a previously-registered HTTP name with the same requirements.

Brief description

A short non-normative description of the purpose of the pragma directive.

Specification
A link to the specification defining the corresponding HTTP header.
4.2.5.5 Specifying the document's character encoding

A character encoding declaration is a mechanism by which the character encoding used to store or transmit a document is specified.

The following restrictions apply to character encoding declarations:

If an HTML document does not start with a BOM, and if its encoding is not explicitly given by Content-Type metadata, and the document is not an iframe srcdoc document, then the character encoding used must be an ASCII-compatible character encoding, and, in addition, if that encoding isn't US-ASCII itself, then the encoding must be specified using a meta element with a charset attribute or a meta element with an http-equiv attribute in the Encoding declaration state.

If the document is an iframe srcdoc document, the document must not have a character encoding declaration. (In this case, the source is already decoded, since it is part of the document that contained the iframe.)

If an HTML document contains a meta element with a charset attribute or a meta element with an http-equiv attribute in the Encoding declaration state, then the character encoding used must be an ASCII-compatible character encoding.

Authors are encouraged to use UTF-8. Conformance checkers may advise authors against using legacy encodings. [RFC3629]

Encodings in which a series of bytes in the range 0x20 to 0x7E can encode characters other than the corresponding characters in the range U+0020 to U+007E represent a potential security vulnerability: a user agent that does not support the encoding (or does not support the label used to declare the encoding, or does not use the same mechanism to detect the encoding of unlabelled content as another user agent) might end up interpreting technically benign plain text content as HTML tags and JavaScript. For example, this applies to encodings in which the bytes corresponding to "<script>" in ASCII can encode a different string. Authors should not use such encodings, which are known to include JIS_C6226-1983, JIS_X0212-1990, HZ-GB-2312, JOHAB (Windows code page 1361), encodings based on ISO-2022, and encodings based on EBCDIC. Furthermore, authors must not use the CESU-8, UTF-7, BOCU-1 and SCSU encodings, which also fall into this category, because these encodings were never intended for use for Web content. [RFC1345] [RFC1842] [RFC1468] [RFC2237] [RFC1554] [RFC1922] [RFC1557] [CESU8] [UTF7] [BOCU1] [SCSU]

Authors should not use UTF-32, as the encoding detection algorithms described in this specification intentionally do not distinguish it from UTF-16. [UNICODE]

Using non-UTF-8 encodings can have unexpected results on form submission and URL encodings, which use the document's character encoding by default.

In XHTML, the XML declaration should be used for inline character encoding information, if necessary.

In HTML, to declare that the character encoding is UTF-8, the author could include the following markup near the top of the document (in the head element):

<meta charset="utf-8">

In XML, the XML declaration would be used instead, at the very top of the markup:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

4.2.6 The style element

Categories
Metadata content.
If the scoped attribute is present: flow content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
If the scoped attribute is absent: where metadata content is expected.
If the scoped attribute is absent: in a noscript element that is a child of a head element.
If the scoped attribute is present: where flow content is expected, but before any other flow content other than other style elements and inter-element whitespace.
Content model:
Depends on the value of the type attribute, but must match requirements described in prose below.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
media
type
scoped
Also, the title attribute has special semantics on this element.
DOM interface:
interface HTMLStyleElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean disabled;
           attribute DOMString media;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute boolean scoped;
};
HTMLStyleElement implements LinkStyle;

The style element allows authors to embed style information in their documents. The style element is one of several inputs to the styling processing model. The element does not represent content for the user.

The type attribute gives the styling language. If the attribute is present, its value must be a valid MIME type that designates a styling language. The charset parameter must not be specified. The default value for the type attribute, which is used if the attribute is absent, is "text/css". [RFC2318]

The media attribute says which media the styles apply to. The value must be a valid media query.

The default, if the media attribute is omitted, is "all", meaning that by default styles apply to all media.

The scoped attribute is a boolean attribute. If set, it indicates that the styles are intended just for the subtree rooted at the style element's parent element, as opposed to the whole Document.

The title attribute on style elements defines alternative style sheet sets. If the style element has no title attribute, then it has no title; the title attribute of ancestors does not apply to the style element. [CSSOM]

The title attribute on style elements, like the title attribute on link elements, differs from the global title attribute in that a style block without a title does not inherit the title of the parent element: it merely has no title.

The textContent of a style element must match the style production in the following ABNF, the character set for which is Unicode. [ABNF]

style         = no-c-start *( c-start no-c-end c-end no-c-start )
no-c-start    = <any string that doesn't contain a substring that matches c-start >
c-start       = "<!--"
no-c-end      = <any string that doesn't contain a substring that matches c-end >
c-end         = "-->"

This specification does not specify a style system, but CSS is expected to be supported by most Web browsers. [CSS]

The disabled IDL attribute behaves as defined for the alternative style sheets DOM.

The LinkStyle interface is also implemented by this element; the styling processing model defines how. [CSSOM]

The following document has its emphasis styled as bright red text rather than italics text, while leaving titles of works and Latin words in their default italics. It shows how using appropriate elements enables easier restyling of documents.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
 <head>
  <title>My favorite book</title>
  <style>
   body { color: black; background: white; }
   em { font-style: normal; color: red; }
  </style>
 </head>
 <body>
  <p>My <em>favorite</em> book of all time has <em>got</em> to be
  <cite>A Cat's Life</cite>. It is a book by P. Rahmel that talks
  about the <i lang="la">Felis Catus</i> in modern human society.</p>
 </body>
</html>

4.2.7 Styling

The link and style elements can provide styling information for the user agent to use when rendering the document. The DOM Styling specification specifies what styling information is to be used by the user agent and how it is to be used. [CSSOM]

The style and link elements implement the LinkStyle interface. [CSSOM]

4.3 Scripting

Scripts allow authors to add interactivity to their documents.

Authors are encouraged to use declarative alternatives to scripting where possible, as declarative mechanisms are often more maintainable, and many users disable scripting.

For example, instead of using script to show or hide a section to show more details, the details element could be used.

Authors are also encouraged to make their applications degrade gracefully in the absence of scripting support.

For example, if an author provides a link in a table header to dynamically resort the table, the link could also be made to function without scripts by requesting the sorted table from the server.

4.3.1 The script element

Categories
Metadata content.
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where metadata content is expected.
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
If there is no src attribute, depends on the value of the type attribute, but must match script content restrictions.
If there is a src attribute, the element must be either empty or contain only script documentation that also matches script content restrictions.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
src
async
defer
type
charset
DOM interface:
interface HTMLScriptElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute boolean async;
           attribute boolean defer;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString charset;
           attribute DOMString text;
};

The script element allows authors to include dynamic script and data blocks in their documents. The element does not represent content for the user.

When used to include dynamic scripts, the scripts may either be embedded inline or may be imported from an external file using the src attribute. If the language is not that described by "text/javascript", then the type attribute must be present, as described below. Whatever language is used, the contents of the script element must conform with the requirements of that language's specification.

When used to include data blocks (as opposed to scripts), the data must be embedded inline, the format of the data must be given using the type attribute, the src attribute must not be specified, and the contents of the script element must conform to the requirements defined for the format used.

The type attribute gives the language of the script or format of the data. If the attribute is present, its value must be a valid MIME type. The charset parameter must not be specified. The default, which is used if the attribute is absent, is "text/javascript".

The src attribute, if specified, gives the address of the external script resource to use. The value of the attribute must be a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces identifying a script resource of the type given by the type attribute, if the attribute is present, or of the type "text/javascript", if the attribute is absent. A resource is a script resource of a given type if that type identifies a scripting language and the resource conforms with the requirements of that language's specification.

The charset attribute gives the character encoding of the external script resource. The attribute must not be specified if the src attribute is not present. If the attribute is set, its value must be a valid character encoding name, must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for the preferred MIME name for that encoding, and must match the encoding given in the charset parameter of the Content-Type metadata of the external file, if any. [IANACHARSET]

The async and defer attributes are boolean attributes that indicate how the script should be executed. The defer and async attributes must not be specified if the src attribute is not present.

There are three possible modes that can be selected using these attributes. If the async attribute is present, then the script will be executed asynchronously, as soon as it is available. If the async attribute is not present but the defer attribute is present, then the script is executed when the page has finished parsing. If neither attribute is present, then the script is fetched and executed immediately, before the user agent continues parsing the page.

The exact processing details for these attributes are, for mostly historical reasons, somewhat non-trivial, involving a number of aspects of HTML. The implementation requirements are therefore by necessity scattered throughout the specification. The algorithms below (in this section) describe the core of this processing, but these algorithms reference and are referenced by the parsing rules for script start and end tags in HTML, in foreign content, and in XML, the rules for the document.write() method, the handling of scripting, etc.

The defer attribute may be specified even if the async attribute is specified, to cause legacy Web browsers that only support defer (and not async) to fall back to the defer behavior instead of the synchronous blocking behavior that is the default.

Changing the src, type, charset, async, and defer attributes dynamically has no direct effect; these attribute are only used at specific times described below.

script . text [ = value ]

Returns the contents of the element, ignoring child nodes that aren't text nodes.

Can be set, to replace the element's children with the given value.

When inserted using the document.write() method, script elements execute (typically synchronously), but when inserted using innerHTML and outerHTML attributes, they do not execute at all.

In this example, two script elements are used. One embeds an external script, and the other includes some data.

<script src="game-engine.js"></script>
<script type="text/x-game-map">
........U.........e
o............A....e
.....A.....AAA....e
.A..AAA...AAAAA...e
</script>

The data in this case might be used by the script to generate the map of a video game. The data doesn't have to be used that way, though; maybe the map data is actually embedded in other parts of the page's markup, and the data block here is just used by the site's search engine to help users who are looking for particular features in their game maps.

The following sample shows how a script element can be used to define a function that is then used by other parts of the document. It also shows how a script element can be used to invoke script while the document is being parsed, in this case to initialize the form's output.

<script>
 function calculate(form) {
   var price = 52000;
   if (form.elements.brakes.checked)
     price += 1000;
   if (form.elements.radio.checked)
     price += 2500;
   if (form.elements.turbo.checked)
     price += 5000;
   if (form.elements.sticker.checked)
     price += 250;
   form.elements.result.value = price;
 }
</script>
<form name="pricecalc" onsubmit="return false">
 <fieldset>
  <legend>Work out the price of your car</legend>
  <p>Base cost: £52000.</p>
  <p>Select additional options:</p>
  <ul onchange="calculate(form)">
   <li><label><input type=checkbox name=brakes> Ceramic brakes (£1000)</label></li>
   <li><label><input type=checkbox name=radio> Satellite radio (£2500)</label></li>
   <li><label><input type=checkbox name=turbo> Turbo charger (£5000)</label></li>
   <li><label><input type=checkbox name=sticker> "XZ" sticker (£250)</label></li>
  </ul>
  <p>Total: £<output name=result></output></p>
 </fieldset>
 <script>
  calculate(document.forms.pricecalc);
 </script>
</form>
4.3.1.1 Scripting languages

The following lists some MIME type strings and the languages to which they refer:

"application/ecmascript"
"application/javascript"
"application/x-ecmascript"
"application/x-javascript"
"text/ecmascript"
"text/javascript"
"text/javascript1.0"
"text/javascript1.1"
"text/javascript1.2"
"text/javascript1.3"
"text/javascript1.4"
"text/javascript1.5"
"text/jscript"
"text/livescript"
"text/x-ecmascript"
"text/x-javascript"
JavaScript. [ECMA262]
"text/javascript;e4x=1"
JavaScript with ECMAScript for XML. [ECMA357]
4.3.1.2 Restrictions for contents of script elements

The textContent of a script element must match the script production in the following ABNF, the character set for which is Unicode. [ABNF]

script        = data1 *( escape [ script-start data3 ] "-->" data1 ) [ escape ]
escape        = "<!--" data2 *( script-start data3 script-end data2 )

data1         = <any string that doesn't contain a substring that matches not-data1>
not-data1     = "<!--"             

data2         = <any string that doesn't contain a substring that matches not-data2>
not-data2     = script-start / "-->"  

data3         = <any string that doesn't contain a substring that matches not-data3>
not-data3     = script-end / "-->"

script-start  = lt       s c r i p t tag-end
script-end    = lt slash s c r i p t tag-end

lt            =  %x003C ; U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character (<)
slash         =  %x002F ; U+002F SOLIDUS character (/)

s             =  %x0053 ; U+0053 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S
s             =/ %x0073 ; U+0073 LATIN SMALL LETTER S
c             =  %x0043 ; U+0043 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C
c             =/ %x0063 ; U+0063 LATIN SMALL LETTER C
r             =  %x0052 ; U+0052 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R
r             =/ %x0072 ; U+0072 LATIN SMALL LETTER R
i             =  %x0049 ; U+0049 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I
i             =/ %x0069 ; U+0069 LATIN SMALL LETTER I
p             =  %x0050 ; U+0050 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P
p             =/ %x0070 ; U+0070 LATIN SMALL LETTER P
t             =  %x0054 ; U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T
t             =/ %x0074 ; U+0074 LATIN SMALL LETTER T

tag-end       =  %x0009 ; U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
tag-end       =/ %x000A ; U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
tag-end       =/ %x000C ; U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
tag-end       =/ %x0020 ; U+0020 SPACE
tag-end       =/ %x002F ; U+002F SOLIDUS (/)
tag-end       =/ %x003E ; U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>)

When a script element contains script documentation, there are further restrictions on the contents of the element, as described in the section below.

4.3.1.3 Inline documentation for external scripts

If a script element's src attribute is specified, then the contents of the script element, if any, must be such that the value of the text IDL attribute, which is derived from the element's contents, matches the documentation production in the following ABNF, the character set for which is Unicode. [ABNF]

documentation = *( *( space / tab / comment ) [ line-comment ] newline )
comment       = slash star *( not-star / star not-slash ) 1*star slash
line-comment  = slash slash *not-newline

; characters
tab           = %x0009 ; U+0009 TAB
newline       = %x000A ; U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
space         = %x0020 ; U+0020 SPACE
star          = %x002A ; U+002A ASTERISK (*)
slash         = %x002F ; U+002F SOLIDUS (/)
not-newline   = %x0000-0009 / %x000B-10FFFF
                ; a Unicode character other than U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
not-star      = %x0000-0029 / %x002B-10FFFF
                ; a Unicode character other than U+002A ASTERISK (*)
not-slash     = %x0000-002E / %x0030-10FFFF
                ; a Unicode character other than U+002F SOLIDUS (/)

This corresponds to putting the contents of the element in JavaScript comments.

This requirement is in addition to the earlier restrictions on the syntax of contents of script elements.

This allows authors to include documentation, such as license information or API information, inside their documents while still referring to external script files. The syntax is constrained so that authors don't accidentally include what looks like valid script while also providing a src attribute.

<script src="cool-effects.js">
 // create new instances using:
 //    var e = new Effect();
 // start the effect using .play, stop using .stop:
 //    e.play();
 //    e.stop();
</script>

4.3.2 The noscript element

Categories
Metadata content.
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
In a head element of an HTML document, if there are no ancestor noscript elements.
Where phrasing content is expected in HTML documents, if there are no ancestor noscript elements.
Content model:
When scripting is disabled, in a head element: in any order, zero or more link elements, zero or more style elements, and zero or more meta elements.
When scripting is disabled, not in a head element: transparent, but there must be no noscript element descendants.
Otherwise: text that conforms to the requirements given in the prose.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The noscript element represents nothing if scripting is enabled, and represents its children if scripting is disabled. It is used to present different markup to user agents that support scripting and those that don't support scripting, by affecting how the document is parsed.

When used in HTML documents, the allowed content model is as follows:

In a head element, if scripting is disabled for the noscript element

The noscript element must contain only link, style, and meta elements.

In a head element, if scripting is enabled for the noscript element

The noscript element must contain only text, except that invoking the HTML fragment parsing algorithm with the noscript element as the context element and the text contents as the input must result in a list of nodes that consists only of link, style, and meta elements that would be conforming if they were children of the noscript element, and no parse errors.

Outside of head elements, if scripting is disabled for the noscript element

The noscript element's content model is transparent, with the additional restriction that a noscript element must not have a noscript element as an ancestor (that is, noscript can't be nested).

Outside of head elements, if scripting is enabled for the noscript element

The noscript element must contain only text, except that the text must be such that running the following algorithm results in a conforming document with no noscript elements and no script elements, and such that no step in the algorithm causes an HTML parser to flag a parse error:

  1. Remove every script element from the document.
  2. Make a list of every noscript element in the document. For every noscript element in that list, perform the following steps:
    1. Let the parent element be the parent element of the noscript element.
    2. Take all the children of the parent element that come before the noscript element, and call these elements the before children.
    3. Take all the children of the parent element that come after the noscript element, and call these elements the after children.
    4. Let s be the concatenation of all the text node children of the noscript element.
    5. Set the innerHTML attribute of the parent element to the value of s. (This, as a side-effect, causes the noscript element to be removed from the document.)
    6. Insert the before children at the start of the parent element, preserving their original relative order.
    7. Insert the after children at the end of the parent element, preserving their original relative order.

All these contortions are required because, for historical reasons, the noscript element is handled differently by the HTML parser based on whether scripting was enabled or not when the parser was invoked.

The noscript element must not be used in XML documents.

The noscript element is only effective in the HTML syntax, it has no effect in the XHTML syntax.

In the following example, a noscript element is used to provide fallback for a script.

<form action="calcSquare.php">
 <p>
  <label for=x>Number</label>:
  <input id="x" name="x" type="number">
 </p>
 <script>
  var x = document.getElementById('x');
  var output = document.createElement('p');
  output.textContent = 'Type a number; it will be squared right then!';
  x.form.appendChild(output);
  x.form.onsubmit = function () { return false; }
  x.oninput = function () {
    var v = x.valueAsNumber;
    output.textContent = v + ' squared is ' + v * v;
  };
 </script>
 <noscript>
  <input type=submit value="Calculate Square">
 </noscript>
</form>

When script is disabled, a button appears to do the calculation on the server side. When script is enabled, the value is computed on-the-fly instead.

The noscript element is a blunt instrument. Sometimes, scripts might be enabled, but for some reason the page's script might fail. For this reason, it's generally better to avoid using noscript, and to instead design the script to change the page from being a scriptless page to a scripted page on the fly, as in the next example:

<form action="calcSquare.php">
 <p>
  <label for=x>Number</label>:
  <input id="x" name="x" type="number">
 </p>
 <input id="submit" type=submit value="Calculate Square">
 <script>
  var x = document.getElementById('x');
  var output = document.createElement('p');
  output.textContent = 'Type a number; it will be squared right then!';
  x.form.appendChild(output);
  x.form.onsubmit = function () { return false; }
  x.oninput = function () {
    var v = x.valueAsNumber;
    output.textContent = v + ' squared is ' + v * v;
  };
  var submit = document.getElementById('submit');
  submit.parentNode.removeChild(submit);
 </script>
</form>

The above technique is also useful in XHTML, since noscript is not supported in the XHTML syntax.

4.4 Sections

4.4.1 The body element

Categories
Sectioning root.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As the second element in an html element.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
onafterprint
onbeforeprint
onbeforeunload
onblur
onerror
onfocus
onhashchange
onload
onmessage
onoffline
ononline
onpagehide
onpageshow
onpopstate
onredo
onresize
onscroll
onstorage
onundo
onunload
DOM interface:
interface HTMLBodyElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute Function onafterprint;
           attribute Function onbeforeprint;
           attribute Function onbeforeunload;
           attribute Function onblur;
           attribute Function onerror;
           attribute Function onfocus;
           attribute Function onhashchange;
           attribute Function onload;
           attribute Function onmessage;
           attribute Function onoffline;
           attribute Function ononline;
           attribute Function onpopstate;
           attribute Function onpagehide;
           attribute Function onpageshow;
           attribute Function onredo;
           attribute Function onresize;
           attribute Function onscroll;
           attribute Function onstorage;
           attribute Function onundo;
           attribute Function onunload;
};

The body element represents the main content of the document.

In conforming documents, there is only one body element. The document.body IDL attribute provides scripts with easy access to a document's body element.

The body element exposes as event handler content attributes a number of the event handlers of the Window object. It also mirrors their event handler IDL attributes.

The onblur, onerror, onfocus, onload, and onscroll event handlers of the Window object, exposed on the body element, shadow the generic event handlers with the same names normally supported by HTML elements.

Thus, for example, a bubbling error event fired on a child of the body element of a Document would first trigger the onerror event handler content attributes of that element, then that of the root html element, and only then would it trigger the onerror event handler content attribute on the body element. This is because the event would bubble from the target, to the body, to the html, to the Document, to the Window, and the event handler on the body is watching the Window not the body. A regular event listener attached to the body using addEventListener(), however, would fire when the event bubbled through the body and not when it reaches the Window object.

This page updates an indicator to show whether or not the user is online:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Online or offline?</title>
  <script>
   function update(online) {
     document.getElementById('status').textContent =
       online ? 'Online' : 'Offline';
   }
  </script>
 </head>
 <body ononline="update(true)"
       onoffline="update(false)"
       onload="update(navigator.onLine)">
  <p>You are: <span id="status">(Unknown)</span></p>
 </body>
</html>

4.4.2 The section element

Categories
Flow content.
Sectioning content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The section element represents a generic section of a document or application. A section, in this context, is a thematic grouping of content, typically with a heading.

Examples of sections would be chapters, the various tabbed pages in a tabbed dialog box, or the numbered sections of a thesis. A Web site's home page could be split into sections for an introduction, news items, and contact information.

Authors are encouraged to use the article element instead of the section element when it would make sense to syndicate the contents of the element.

The section element is not a generic container element. When an element is needed for styling purposes or as a convenience for scripting, authors are encouraged to use the div element instead. A general rule is that the section element is appropriate only if the element's contents would be listed explicitly in the document's outline.

In the following example, we see an article (part of a larger Web page) about apples, containing two short sections.

<article>
 <hgroup>
  <h1>Apples</h1>
  <h2>Tasty, delicious fruit!</h2>
 </hgroup>
 <p>The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree.</p>
 <section>
  <h1>Red Delicious</h1>
  <p>These bright red apples are the most common found in many
  supermarkets.</p>
 </section>
 <section>
  <h1>Granny Smith</h1>
  <p>These juicy, green apples make a great filling for
  apple pies.</p>
 </section>
</article>

Notice how the use of section means that the author can use h1 elements throughout, without having to worry about whether a particular section is at the top level, the second level, the third level, and so on.

Here is a graduation programme with two sections, one for the list of people graduating, and one for the description of the ceremony.

<!DOCTYPE Html>
<Html
 ><Head
   ><Title
     >Graduation Ceremony Summer 2022</Title
   ></Head
 ><Body
   ><H1
     >Graduation</H1
   ><Section
     ><H1
       >Ceremony</H1
     ><P
       >Opening Procession</P
     ><P
       >Speech by Validactorian</P
     ><P
       >Speech by Class President</P
     ><P
       >Presentation of Diplomas</P
     ><P
       >Closing Speech by Headmaster</P
   ></Section
   ><Section
     ><H1
       >Graduates</H1
     ><Ul
       ><Li
         >Molly Carpenter</Li
       ><Li
         >Anastasia Luccio</Li
       ><Li
         >Ebenezar McCoy</Li
       ><Li
         >Karrin Murphy</Li
       ><Li
         >Thomas Raith</Li
       ><Li
         >Susan Rodriguez</Li
     ></Ul
   ></Section
 ></Body
></Html>

4.4.3 The nav element

Categories
Flow content.
Sectioning content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The nav element represents a section of a page that links to other pages or to parts within the page: a section with navigation links.

Not all groups of links on a page need to be in a nav element — only sections that consist of major navigation blocks are appropriate for the nav element. In particular, it is common for footers to have a short list of links to various pages of a site, such as the terms of service, the home page, and a copyright page. The footer element alone is sufficient for such cases, without a nav element.

User agents (such as screen readers) that are targeted at users who can benefit from navigation information being omitted in the initial rendering, or who can benefit from navigation information being immediately available, can use this element as a way to determine what content on the page to initially skip and/or provide on request.

In the following example, the page has several places where links are present, but only one of those places is considered a navigation section.

<body>
 <header>
  <h1>Wake up sheeple!</h1>
  <p><a href="news.html">News</a> -
     <a href="blog.html">Blog</a> -
     <a href="forums.html">Forums</a></p>
  <p>Last Modified: <time>2009-04-01</time></p>
  <nav>
   <h1>Navigation</h1>
   <ul>
    <li><a href="articles.html">Index of all articles</a></li>
    <li><a href="today.html">Things sheeple need to wake up for today</a></li>
    <li><a href="successes.html">Sheeple we have managed to wake</a></li>
   </ul>
  </nav>
 </header>
 <div>
  <article>
   <header>
    <h1>My Day at the Beach</h1>
   </header>
   <div>
    <p>Today I went to the beach and had a lot of fun.</p>
    ...more content...
   </div>
   <footer>
    <p>Posted <time pubdate="" datetime="2009-10-10T14:36-08:00">Thursday</time>.</p>
   </footer>
  </article>
  ...more blog posts...
 </div>
 <footer>
  <p>Copyright © 2006 The Example Company</p>
  <p><a href="about.html">About</a> -
     <a href="policy.html">Privacy Policy</a> -
     <a href="contact.html">Contact Us</a></p>
 </footer>
</body>

Notice the div elements being used to wrap all the contents of the page other than the header and footer, and all the contents of the blog entry other than its header and footer.

In the following example, there are two nav elements, one for primary navigation around the site, and one for secondary navigation around the page itself.

<body>
 <h1>The Wiki Center Of Exampland</h1>
 <nav>
  <ul>
   <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
   <li><a href="/events">Current Events</a></li>
   ...more...
  </ul>
 </nav>
 <article>
  <header>
   <h1>Demos in Exampland</h1>
   <p>Written by A. N. Other.</p>
  </header>
  <nav>
   <ul>
    <li><a href="#public">Public demonstrations</a></li>
    <li><a href="#destroy">Demolitions</a></li>
    ...more...
   </ul>
  </nav>
  <div>
   <section id="public">
    <h1>Public demonstrations</h1>
    <p>...more...</p>
   </section>
   <section id="destroy">
    <h1>Demolitions</h1>
    <p>...more...</p>
   </section>
   ...more...
  </div>
  <footer>
   <p><a href="?edit">Edit</a> | <a href="?delete">Delete</a> | <a href="?Rename">Rename</a></p>
  </footer>
 </article>
 <footer>
  <p><small>© copyright 1998 Exampland Emperor</small></p>
 </footer>
</body>

A nav element doesn't have to contain a list, it can contain other kinds of content as well. In this navigation block, links are provided in prose:

<nav>
 <h1>Navigation</h1>
 <p>You are on my home page. To the north lies <a href="/blog">my
 blog</a>, from whence the sounds of battle can be heard. To the east
 you can see a large mountain, upon which many <a
 href="/school">school papers</a> are littered. Far up thus mountain
 you can spy a little figure who appears to be me, desperately
 scribbling a <a href="/school/thesis">thesis</a>.</p>
 <p>To the west are several exits. One fun-looking exit is labeled <a
 href="http://games.example.com/">"games"</a>. Another more
 boring-looking exit is labeled <a
 href="http://isp.example.net/">ISP™</a>.</p>
 <p>To the south lies a dark and dank <a href="/about">contacts
 page</a>. Cobwebs cover its disused entrance, and at one point you
 see a rat run quickly out of the page.</p>
</nav>

4.4.4 The article element

Categories
Flow content.
Sectioning content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The article element represents a self-contained composition in a document, page, application, or site and that is, in principle, independently distributable or reusable, e.g. in syndication. This could be a forum post, a magazine or newspaper article, a blog entry, a user-submitted comment, an interactive widget or gadget, or any other independent item of content.

When article elements are nested, the inner article elements represent articles that are in principle related to the contents of the outer article. For instance, a blog entry on a site that accepts user-submitted comments could represent the comments as article elements nested within the article element for the blog entry.

Author information associated with an article element (q.v. the address element) does not apply to nested article elements.

When used specifically with content to be redistributed in syndication, the article element is similar in purpose to the entry element in Atom. [ATOM]

The time element's pubdate attribute can be used to provide the publication date for an article element.

This example shows a blog post using the article element:

<article>
 <header>
  <h1>The Very First Rule of Life</h1>
  <p><time pubdate datetime="2009-10-09T14:28-08:00"></time></p>
 </header>
 <p>If there's a microphone anywhere near you, assume it's hot and
 sending whatever you're saying to the world. Seriously.</p>
 <p>...</p>
 <footer>
  <a href="?comments=1">Show comments...</a>
 </footer>
</article>

Here is that same blog post, but showing some of the comments:

<article>
 <header>
  <h1>The Very First Rule of Life</h1>
  <p><time pubdate datetime="2009-10-09T14:28-08:00"></time></p>
 </header>
 <p>If there's a microphone anywhere near you, assume it's hot and
 sending whatever you're saying to the world. Seriously.</p>
 <p>...</p>
 <section>
  <h1>Comments</h1>
  <article>
   <footer>
    <p>Posted by: George Washington</p>
    <p><time pubdate datetime="2009-10-10T19:10-08:00"></time></p>
   </footer>
   <p>Yeah! Especially when talking about your lobbyist friends!</p>
  </article>
  <article>
   <footer>
    <p>Posted by: George Hammond</p>
    <p><time pubdate datetime="2009-10-10T19:15-08:00"></time></p>
   </footer>
   <p>Hey, you have the same first name as me.</p>
  </article>
 </section>
</article>

Notice the use of footer to give the information for each comment (such as who wrote it and when): the footer element can appear at the start of its section when appropriate, such as in this case. (Using header in this case wouldn't be wrong either; it's mostly a matter of authoring preference.)

4.4.5 The aside element

Categories
Flow content.
Sectioning content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The aside element represents a section of a page that consists of content that is tangentially related to the content around the aside element, and which could be considered separate from that content. Such sections are often represented as sidebars in printed typography.

The element can be used for typographical effects like pull quotes or sidebars, for advertising, for groups of nav elements, and for other content that is considered separate from the main content of the page.

It's not appropriate to use the aside element just for parentheticals, since those are part of the main flow of the document.

The following example shows how an aside is used to mark up background material on Switzerland in a much longer news story on Europe.

<aside>
 <h1>Switzerland</h1>
 <p>Switzerland, a land-locked country in the middle of geographic
 Europe, has not joined the geopolitical European Union, though it is
 a signatory to a number of European treaties.</p>
</aside>

The following example shows how an aside is used to mark up a pull quote in a longer article.

...

<p>He later joined a large company, continuing on the same work.
<q>I love my job. People ask me what I do for fun when I'm not at
work. But I'm paid to do my hobby, so I never know what to
answer. Some people wonder what they would do if they didn't have to
work... but I know what I would do, because I was unemployed for a
year, and I filled that time doing exactly what I do now.</q></p>

<aside>
 <q> People ask me what I do for fun when I'm not at work. But I'm
 paid to do my hobby, so I never know what to answer. </q>
</aside>

<p>Of course his work — or should that be hobby? —
isn't his only passion. He also enjoys other pleasures.</p>

...

The following extract shows how aside can be used for blogrolls and other side content on a blog:

<body>
 <header>
  <h1>My wonderful blog</h1>
  <p>My tagline</p>
 </header>
 <aside>
  <!-- this aside contains two sections that are tangentially related
  to the page, namely, links to other blogs, and links to blog posts
  from this blog -->
  <nav>
   <h1>My blogroll</h1>
   <ul>
    <li><a href="http://blog.example.com/">Example Blog</a>
   </ul>
  </nav>
  <nav>
   <h1>Archives</h1>
   <ol reversed>
    <li><a href="/last-post">My last post</a>
    <li><a href="/first-post">My first post</a>
   </ol>
  </nav>
 </aside>
 <aside>
  <!-- this aside is tangentially related to the page also, it
  contains twitter messages from the blog author -->
  <h1>Twitter Feed</h1>
  <blockquote cite="http://twitter.example.net/t31351234">
   I'm on vacation, writing my blog.
  </blockquote>
  <blockquote cite="http://twitter.example.net/t31219752">
   I'm going to go on vacation soon.
  </blockquote>
 </aside>
 <article>
  <!-- this is a blog post -->
  <h1>My last post</h1>
  <p>This is my last post.</p>
  <footer>
   <p><a href="/last-post" rel=bookmark>Permalink</a>
  </footer>
 </article>
 <article>
  <!-- this is also a blog post -->
  <h1>My first post</h1>
  <p>This is my first post.</p>
  <aside>
   <!-- this aside is about the blog post, since it's inside the
   <article> element; it would be wrong, for instance, to put the
   blogroll here, since the blogroll isn't really related to this post
   specifically, only to the page as a whole -->
   <h1>Posting</h1>
   <p>While I'm thinking about it, I wanted to say something about
   posting. Posting is fun!</p>
  </aside>
  <footer>
   <p><a href="/first-post" rel=bookmark>Permalink</a>
  </footer>
 </article>
 <footer>
  <nav>
   <a href="/archives">Archives</a> —
   <a href="/about">About me</a> —
   <a href="/copyright">Copyright</a>
  </nav>
 </footer>
</body>

4.4.6 The h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6 elements

Categories
Flow content.
Heading content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As a child of an hgroup element.
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLHeadingElement : HTMLElement {};

These elements represent headings for their sections.

The semantics and meaning of these elements are defined in the section on headings and sections.

These elements have a rank given by the number in their name. The h1 element is said to have the highest rank, the h6 element has the lowest rank, and two elements with the same name have equal rank.

These two snippets are equivalent:

<body>
<h1>Let's call it a draw(ing surface)</h1>
<h2>Diving in</h2>
<h2>Simple shapes</h2>
<h2>Canvas coordinates</h2>
<h3>Canvas coordinates diagram</h3>
<h2>Paths</h2>
</body>
<body>
 <h1>Let's call it a draw(ing surface)</h1>
 <section>
  <h1>Diving in</h1>
 </section>
 <section>
  <h1>Simple shapes</h1>
 </section>
 <section>
  <h1>Canvas coordinates</h1>
  <section>
   <h1>Canvas coordinates diagram</h1>
  </section>
 </section>
 <section>
  <h1>Paths</h1>
 </section>
</body>

4.4.7 The hgroup element

Categories
Flow content.
Heading content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
One or more h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and/or h6 elements.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The hgroup element represents the heading of a section. The element is used to group a set of h1h6 elements when the heading has multiple levels, such as subheadings, alternative titles, or taglines.

For the purposes of document summaries, outlines, and the like, the text of hgroup elements is defined to be the text of the highest ranked h1h6 element descendant of the hgroup element, if there are any such elements, and the first such element if there are multiple elements with that rank. If there are no such elements, then the text of the hgroup element is the empty string.

Other elements of heading content in the hgroup element indicate subheadings or subtitles.

The rank of an hgroup element is the rank of the highest-ranked h1h6 element descendant of the hgroup element, if there are any such elements, or otherwise the same as for an h1 element (the highest rank).

The section on headings and sections defines how hgroup elements are assigned to individual sections.

Here are some examples of valid headings. In each case, the emphasized text represents the text that would be used as the heading in an application extracting heading data and ignoring subheadings.

<hgroup>
 <h1>The reality dysfunction</h1>
 <h2>Space is not the only void</h2>
</hgroup>
<hgroup>
 <h1>Dr. Strangelove</h1>
 <h2>Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb</h2>
</hgroup>

The point of using hgroup in these examples is to mask the h2 element (which acts as a secondary title) from the outline algorithm.

4.4.8 The header element

Categories
Flow content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content, but with no header or footer element descendants.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The header element represents a group of introductory or navigational aids.

A header element is intended to usually contain the section's heading (an h1h6 element or an hgroup element), but this is not required. The header element can also be used to wrap a section's table of contents, a search form, or any relevant logos.

Here are some sample headers. This first one is for a game:

<header>
 <p>Welcome to...</p>
 <h1>Voidwars!</h1>
</header>

The following snippet shows how the element can be used to mark up a specification's header:

<header>
 <hgroup>
  <h1>Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2</h1>
  <h2>W3C Working Draft 27 October 2004</h2>
 </hgroup>
 <dl>
  <dt>This version:</dt>
  <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20041027/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20041027/</a></dd>
  <dt>Previous version:</dt>
  <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20040510/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-SVG12-20040510/</a></dd>
  <dt>Latest version of SVG 1.2:</dt>
  <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG12/">http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG12/</a></dd>
  <dt>Latest SVG Recommendation:</dt>
  <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/">http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/</a></dd>
  <dt>Editor:</dt>
  <dd>Dean Jackson, W3C, <a href="mailto:dean@w3.org">dean@w3.org</a></dd>
  <dt>Authors:</dt>
  <dd>See <a href="#authors">Author List</a></dd>
 </dl>
 <p class="copyright"><a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notic ...
</header>

The header element is not sectioning content; it doesn't introduce a new section.

In this example, the page has a page heading given by the h1 element, and two subsections whose headings are given by h2 elements. The content after the header element is still part of the last subsection started in the header element, because the header element doesn't take part in the outline algorithm.

<body>
 <header>
  <h1>Little Green Guys With Guns</h1>
  <nav>
   <ul>
    <li><a href="/games">Games</a>
    <li><a href="/forum">Forum</a>
    <li><a href="/download">Download</a>
   </ul>
  </nav>
  <h2>Important News</h2> <!-- this starts a second subsection -->
  <!-- this is part of the subsection entitled "Important News" -->
  <p>To play today's games you will need to update your client.</p>
  <h2>Games</h2> <!-- this starts a third subsection -->
 </header>
 <p>You have three active games:</p>
 <!-- this is still part of the subsection entitled "Games" -->
 ...
Categories
Flow content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content, but with no header or footer element descendants.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The footer element represents a footer for its nearest ancestor sectioning content or sectioning root element. A footer typically contains information about its section such as who wrote it, links to related documents, copyright data, and the like.

Contact information for the author or editor of a section belongs in an address element, possibly itself inside a footer.

Footers don't necessarily have to appear at the end of a section, though they usually do.

When the footer element contains entire sections, they represent appendices, indexes, long colophons, verbose license agreements, and other such content.

The footer element is not sectioning content; it doesn't introduce a new section.

When the nearest ancestor sectioning content or sectioning root element is the body element, then it applies to the whole page.

Here is a page with two footers, one at the top and one at the bottom, with the same content:

<body>
 <footer><a href="../">Back to index...</a></footer>
 <hgroup>
  <h1>Lorem ipsum</h1>
  <h2>The ipsum of all lorems</h2>
 </hgroup>
 <p>A dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod
 tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim
 veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex
 ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in
 voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla
 pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
 culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
 <footer><a href="../">Back to index...</a></footer>
</body>

Here is an example which shows the footer element being used both for a site-wide footer and for a section footer.

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>The Ramblings of a Scientist</TITLE>
<BODY>
<H1>The Ramblings of a Scientist</H1>
<ARTICLE>
 <H1>Episode 15</H1>
 <VIDEO SRC="/fm/015.ogv" CONTROLS PRELOAD>
  <P><A HREF="/fm/015.ogv">Download video</A>.</P>
 </VIDEO>
 <FOOTER> <!-- footer for article -->
  <P>Published <TIME PUBDATE DATETIME="2009-10-21T18:26-07:00"></TIME></P>
 </FOOTER>
</ARTICLE>
<ARTICLE>
 <H1>My Favorite Trains</H1>
 <P>I love my trains. My favorite train of all time is a Köf.</P>
 <P>It is fun to see them pull some coal cars because they look so
 dwarfed in comparison.</P>
 <FOOTER> <!-- footer for article -->
  <P>Published <TIME PUBDATE DATETIME="2009-09-15T14:54-07:00"></TIME></P>
 </FOOTER>
</ARTICLE>
<FOOTER> <!-- site wide footer -->
 <NAV>
  <P><A HREF="/credits.html">Credits</A> —
     <A HREF="/tos.html">Terms of Service</A> —
     <A HREF="/index.html">Blog Index</A></P>
 </NAV>
 <P>Copyright © 2009 Gordon Freeman</P>
</FOOTER>
</BODY>
</HTML>

4.4.10 The address element

Categories
Flow content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content, but with no heading content descendants, no sectioning content descendants, and no header, footer, or address element descendants.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The address element represents the contact information for its nearest article or body element ancestor. If that is the body element, then the contact information applies to the document as a whole.

For example, a page at the W3C Web site related to HTML might include the following contact information:

<ADDRESS>
 <A href="../People/Raggett/">Dave Raggett</A>,
 <A href="../People/Arnaud/">Arnaud Le Hors</A>,
 contact persons for the <A href="Activity">W3C HTML Activity</A>
</ADDRESS>

The address element must not be used to represent arbitrary addresses (e.g. postal addresses), unless those addresses are in fact the relevant contact information. (The p element is the appropriate element for marking up postal addresses in general.)

The address element must not contain information other than contact information.

For example, the following is non-conforming use of the address element:

<ADDRESS>Last Modified: 1999/12/24 23:37:50</ADDRESS>

Typically, the address element would be included along with other information in a footer element.

In this example the footer contains contact information and a copyright notice.

<footer>
 <address>
  For more details, contact
  <a href="mailto:js@example.com">John Smith</a>.
 </address>
 <p><small>© copyright 2038 Example Corp.</small></p>
</footer>

4.4.11 Headings and sections

The h1h6 elements and the hgroup element are headings.

The first element of heading content in an element of sectioning content represents the heading for that section. Subsequent headings of equal or higher rank start new (implied) sections, headings of lower rank start implied subsections that are part of the previous one. In both cases, the element represents the heading of the implied section.

Certain elements are said to be sectioning roots, including blockquote and td elements. These elements can have their own outlines, but the sections and headings inside these elements do not contribute to the outlines of their ancestors.

Sectioning content elements are always considered subsections of their nearest ancestor sectioning root or their nearest ancestor element of sectioning content, whichever is nearest, regardless of what implied sections other headings may have created.

For the following fragment:

<body>
 <h1>Foo</h1>
 <h2>Bar</h2>
 <blockquote>
  <h3>Bla</h3>
 </blockquote>
 <p>Baz</p>
 <h2>Quux</h2>
 <section>
  <h3>Thud</h3>
 </section>
 <p>Grunt</p>
</body>

...the structure would be:

  1. Foo (heading of explicit body section, containing the "Grunt" paragraph)
    1. Bar (heading starting implied section, containing a block quote and the "Baz" paragraph)
    2. Quux (heading starting implied section with no content other than the heading itself)
    3. Thud (heading of explicit section section)

Notice how the section ends the earlier implicit section so that a later paragraph ("Grunt") is back at the top level.

Sections may contain headings of any rank, but authors are strongly encouraged to either use only h1 elements, or to use elements of the appropriate rank for the section's nesting level.

Authors are also encouraged to explicitly wrap sections in elements of sectioning content, instead of relying on the implicit sections generated by having multiple headings in one element of sectioning content.

For example, the following is correct:

<body>
 <h4>Apples</h4>
 <p>Apples are fruit.</p>
 <section>
  <h2>Taste</h2>
  <p>They taste lovely.</p>
  <h6>Sweet</h6>
  <p>Red apples are sweeter than green ones.</p>
  <h1>Color</h1>
  <p>Apples come in various colors.</p>
 </section>
</body>

However, the same document would be more clearly expressed as:

<body>
 <h1>Apples</h1>
 <p>Apples are fruit.</p>
 <section>
  <h2>Taste</h2>
  <p>They taste lovely.</p>
  <section>
   <h3>Sweet</h3>
   <p>Red apples are sweeter than green ones.</p>
  </section>
 </section>
 <section>
  <h2>Color</h2>
  <p>Apples come in various colors.</p>
 </section>
</body>

Both of the documents above are semantically identical and would produce the same outline in compliant user agents.

This third example is also semantically identical, and might be easier to maintain (e.g. if sections are often moved around in editing):

<body>
 <h1>Apples</h1>
 <p>Apples are fruit.</p>
 <section>
  <h1>Taste</h1>
  <p>They taste lovely.</p>
  <section>
   <h1>Sweet</h1>
   <p>Red apples are sweeter than green ones.</p>
  </section>
 </section>
 <section>
  <h1>Color</h1>
  <p>Apples come in various colors.</p>
 </section>
</body>
4.4.11.1 Creating an outline

The outline for a sectioning content element or a sectioning root element consists of a list of one or more potentially nested sections. A section is a container that corresponds to some nodes in the original DOM tree. Each section can have one heading associated with it, and can contain any number of further nested sections. (The sections in the outline aren't section elements, though some may correspond to such elements — they are merely conceptual sections.)

The following markup fragment:

<body>
 <h1>A</h1>
 <p>B</p>
 <h2>C</h2>
 <p>D</p>
 <h2>E</h2>
 <p>F</p>
</body>

...results in the following outline being created for the body node (and thus the entire document):

  1. Section created for body node.

    Associated with heading "A".

    Also associated with paragraph "B".

    Nested sections:

    1. Section implied for first h2 element.

      Associated with heading "C".

      Also associated with paragraph "D".

      No nested sections.

    2. Section implied for second h2 element.

      Associated with heading "E".

      Also associated with paragraph "F".

      No nested sections.

4.5 Grouping content

4.5.1 The p element

Categories
Flow content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLParagraphElement : HTMLElement {};

The p element represents a paragraph.

While paragraphs are usually represented in visual media by blocks of text that are physically separated from adjacent blocks through blank lines, a style sheet or user agent would be equally justified in presenting paragraph breaks in a different manner, for instance using inline pilcrows (¶).

The following examples are conforming HTML fragments:

<p>The little kitten gently seated himself on a piece of
carpet. Later in his life, this would be referred to as the time the
cat sat on the mat.</p>
<fieldset>
 <legend>Personal information</legend>
 <p>
   <label>Name: <input name="n"></label>
   <label><input name="anon" type="checkbox"> Hide from other users</label>
 </p>
 <p><label>Address: <textarea name="a"></textarea></label></p>
</fieldset>
<p>There was once an example from Femley,<br>
Whose markup was of dubious quality.<br>
The validator complained,<br>
So the author was pained,<br>
To move the error from the markup to the rhyming.</p>

The p element should not be used when a more specific element is more appropriate.

The following example is technically correct:

<section>
 <!-- ... -->
 <p>Last modified: 2001-04-23</p>
 <p>Author: fred@example.com</p>
</section>

However, it would be better marked-up as:

<section>
 <!-- ... -->
 <footer>Last modified: 2001-04-23</footer>
 <address>Author: fred@example.com</address>
</section>

Or:

<section>
 <!-- ... -->
 <footer>
  <p>Last modified: 2001-04-23</p>
  <address>Author: fred@example.com</address>
 </footer>
</section>

4.5.2 The hr element

Categories
Flow content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLHRElement : HTMLElement {};

The hr element represents a paragraph-level thematic break, e.g. a scene change in a story, or a transition to another topic within a section of a reference book.

The following fictional extract from a project manual shows two sections that use the hr element to separate topics within the section.

<section>
 <h1>Communication</h1>
 <p>There are various methods of communication. This section
 covers a few of the important ones used by the project.</p>
 <hr>
 <p>Communication stones seem to come in pairs and have mysterious
 properties:</p>
 <ul>
  <li>They can transfer thoughts in two directions once activated
  if used alone.</li>
  <li>If used with another device, they can transfer one's
  consciousness to another body.</li>
  <li>If both stones are used with another device, the
  consciousnesses switch bodies.</li>
 </ul>
 <hr>
 <p>Radios use the electromagnetic spectrum in the meter range and
 longer.</p>
 <hr>
 <p>Signal flares use the electromagnetic spectrum in the
 nanometer range.</p>
</section>
<section>
 <h1>Food</h1>
 <p>All food at the project is rationed:</p>
 <dl>
  <dt>Potatoes</dt>
  <dd>Two per day</dd>
  <dt>Soup</dt>
  <dd>One bowl per day</dd>
 </dl>
 <hr>
 <p>Cooking is done by the chefs on a set rotation.</p>
</section>

There is no need for an hr element between the sections themselves, since the section elements and the h1 elements imply thematic changes themselves.

The following extract from Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton shows two paragraphs that precede a scene change and the paragraph that follows it. The scene change, represented in the printed book by a gap containing a solitary centered star between the second and third paragraphs, is here represented using the hr element.

<p>Dudley was ninety-two, in his second life, and fast approaching
time for another rejuvenation. Despite his body having the physical
age of a standard fifty-year-old, the prospect of a long degrading
campaign within academia was one he regarded with dread. For a
supposedly advanced civilization, the Intersolar Commonwearth could be
appallingly backward at times, not to mention cruel.</p>
<p><i>Maybe it won't be that bad</i>, he told himself. The lie was
comforting enough to get him through the rest of the night's
shift.</p>
<hr>
<p>The Carlton AllLander drove Dudley home just after dawn. Like the
astronomer, the vehicle was old and worn, but perfectly capable of
doing its job. It had a cheap diesel engine, common enough on a
semi-frontier world like Gralmond, although its drive array was a
thoroughly modern photoneural processor. With its high suspension and
deep-tread tyres it could plough along the dirt track to the
observatory in all weather and seasons, including the metre-deep snow
of Gralmond's winters.</p>

The hr element does not affect the document's outline.

4.5.3 The pre element

Categories
Flow content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLPreElement : HTMLElement {};

The pre element represents a block of preformatted text, in which structure is represented by typographic conventions rather than by elements.

In the HTML syntax, a leading newline character immediately following the pre element start tag is stripped.

Some examples of cases where the pre element could be used:

Authors are encouraged to consider how preformatted text will be experienced when the formatting is lost, as will be the case for users of speech synthesizers, braille displays, and the like. For cases like ASCII art, it is likely that an alternative presentation, such as a textual description, would be more universally accessible to the readers of the document.

To represent a block of computer code, the pre element can be used with a code element; to represent a block of computer output the pre element can be used with a samp element. Similarly, the kbd element can be used within a pre element to indicate text that the user is to enter.

In the following snippet, a sample of computer code is presented.

<p>This is the <code>Panel</code> constructor:</p>
<pre><code>function Panel(element, canClose, closeHandler) {
  this.element = element;
  this.canClose = canClose;
  this.closeHandler = function () { if (closeHandler) closeHandler() };
}</code></pre>

In the following snippet, samp and kbd elements are mixed in the contents of a pre element to show a session of Zork I.

<pre><samp>You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded
front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

></samp> <kbd>open mailbox</kbd>

<samp>Opening the mailbox reveals:
A leaflet.

></samp></pre>

The following shows a contemporary poem that uses the pre element to preserve its unusual formatting, which forms an intrinsic part of the poem itself.

<pre>                maxling

it is with a          heart
               heavy

that i admit loss of a feline
        so           loved

a friend lost to the
        unknown
                                (night)

~cdr 11dec07</pre>

4.5.4 The blockquote element

Categories
Flow content.
Sectioning root.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
cite
DOM interface:
interface HTMLQuoteElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString cite;
};

The HTMLQuoteElement interface is also used by the q element.

The blockquote element represents a section that is quoted from another source.

Content inside a blockquote must be quoted from another source, whose address, if it has one, may be cited in the cite attribute.

If the cite attribute is present, it must be a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

This next example shows the use of cite alongside blockquote:

<p>His next piece was the aptly named <cite>Sonnet 130</cite>:</p>
<blockquote cite="http://quotes.example.org/s/sonnet130.html">
  <p>My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun,<br>
  Coral is far more red, than her lips red,<br>
  ...

This example shows how a forum post could use blockquote to show what post a user is replying to. The article element is used for each post, to mark up the threading.

<article>
 <h1><a href="http://bacon.example.com/?blog=109431">Bacon on a crowbar</a></h1>
 <article>
  <header><strong>t3yw</strong> 12 points 1 hour ago</header>
  <p>I bet a narwhal would love that.</p>
  <footer><a href="?pid=29578">permalink</a></footer>
  <article>
   <header><strong>greg</strong> 8 points 1 hour ago</header>
   <blockquote><p>I bet a narwhal would love that.</p></blockquote>
   <p>Dude narwhals don't eat bacon.</p>
   <footer><a href="?pid=29579">permalink</a></footer>
   <article>
    <header><strong>t3yw</strong> 15 points 1 hour ago</header>
    <blockquote>
     <blockquote><p>I bet a narwhal would love that.</p></blockquote>
     <p>Dude narwhals don't eat bacon.</p>
    </blockquote>
    <p>Next thing you'll be saying they don't get capes and wizard
    hats either!</p>
    <footer><a href="?pid=29580">permalink</a></footer>
    <article>
     <article>
      <header><strong>boing</strong> -5 points 1 hour ago</header>
      <p>narwhals are worse than ceiling cat</p>
      <footer><a href="?pid=29581">permalink</a></footer>
     </article>
    </article>
   </article>
  </article>
  <article>
   <header><strong>fred</strong> 1 points 23 minutes ago</header>
   <blockquote><p>I bet a narwhal would love that.</p></blockquote>
   <p>I bet they'd love to peel a banana too.</p>
   <footer><a href="?pid=29582">permalink</a></footer>
  </article>
 </article>
</article>

This example shows the use of a blockquote for short snippets, demonstrating that one does not have to use p elements inside blockquote elements:

<p>He began his list of "lessons" with the following:</p>
<blockquote>One should never assume that his side of 
the issue will be recognized, let alone that it will 
be conceded to have merits.</blockquote>
<p>He continued with a number of similar points, ending with:</p>
<blockquote>Finally, one should be prepared for the threat 
of breakdown in negotiations at any given moment and not 
be cowed by the possiblity.</blockquote>
<p>We shall now discuss these points...

Examples of how to represent a conversation are shown in a later section; it is not appropriate to use the cite and blockquote elements for this purpose.

4.5.5 The ol element

Categories
Flow content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Zero or more li elements.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
reversed
start
type
DOM interface:
interface HTMLOListElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean reversed;
           attribute long start;
           attribute DOMString type;
};

The ol element represents a list of items, where the items have been intentionally ordered, such that changing the order would change the meaning of the document.

The items of the list are the li element child nodes of the ol element, in tree order.

The reversed attribute is a boolean attribute. If present, it indicates that the list is a descending list (..., 3, 2, 1). If the attribute is omitted, the list is an ascending list (1, 2, 3, ...).

The start attribute, if present, must be a valid integer giving the ordinal value of the first list item.

The type attribute can be used to specify the kind of marker to use in the list, in the cases where that matters (e.g. because items are to be referenced by their number/letter). The attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a case-sensitive match for one of the characters given in the first cell of one of the rows of the following table.

Keyword State Description Examples for values 1-3 and 3999-4001
1 (U+0031) decimal Decimal numbers 1. 2. 3. ... 3999. 4000. 4001. ...
a (U+0061) lower-alpha Lowercase latin alphabet a. b. c. ... ewu. ewv. eww. ...
A (U+0041) upper-alpha Uppercase latin alphabet A. B. C. ... EWU. EWV. EWW. ...
i (U+0069) lower-roman Lowercase roman numerals i. ii. iii. ... mmmcmxcix. i̅v̅. i̅v̅i. ...
I (U+0049) upper-roman Uppercase roman numerals I. II. III. ... MMMCMXCIX. I̅V̅. I̅V̅I. ...

The following markup shows a list where the order matters, and where the ol element is therefore appropriate. Compare this list to the equivalent list in the ul section to see an example of the same items using the ul element.

<p>I have lived in the following countries (given in the order of when
I first lived there):</p>
<ol>
 <li>Switzerland
 <li>United Kingdom
 <li>United States
 <li>Norway
</ol>

Note how changing the order of the list changes the meaning of the document. In the following example, changing the relative order of the first two items has changed the birthplace of the author:

<p>I have lived in the following countries (given in the order of when
I first lived there):</p>
<ol>
 <li>United Kingdom
 <li>Switzerland
 <li>United States
 <li>Norway
</ol>

4.5.6 The ul element

Categories
Flow content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Zero or more li elements.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLUListElement : HTMLElement {};

The ul element represents a list of items, where the order of the items is not important — that is, where changing the order would not materially change the meaning of the document.

The items of the list are the li element child nodes of the ul element.

The following markup shows a list where the order does not matter, and where the ul element is therefore appropriate. Compare this list to the equivalent list in the ol section to see an example of the same items using the ol element.

<p>I have lived in the following countries:</p>
<ul>
 <li>Norway
 <li>Switzerland
 <li>United Kingdom
 <li>United States
</ul>

Note that changing the order of the list does not change the meaning of the document. The items in the snippet above are given in alphabetical order, but in the snippet below they are given in order of the size of their current account balance in 2007, without changing the meaning of the document whatsoever:

<p>I have lived in the following countries:</p>
<ul>
 <li>Switzerland
 <li>Norway
 <li>United Kingdom
 <li>United States
</ul>

4.5.7 The li element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Inside ol elements.
Inside ul elements.
Inside menu elements.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
If the element is a child of an ol element: value
DOM interface:
interface HTMLLIElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute long value;
};

The li element represents a list item. If its parent element is an ol, ul, or menu element, then the element is an item of the parent element's list, as defined for those elements. Otherwise, the list item has no defined list-related relationship to any other li element.

If the parent element is an ol element, then the li element has an ordinal value.

The value attribute, if present, must be a valid integer giving the ordinal value of the list item.

The following example, the top ten movies are listed (in reverse order). Note the way the list is given a title by using a figure element and its figcaption element.

<figure>
 <figcaption>The top 10 movies of all time</figcaption>
 <ol>
  <li value="10"><cite>Josie and the Pussycats</cite>, 2001</li>
  <li value="9"><cite lang="sh">Црна мачка, бели мачор</cite>, 1998</li>
  <li value="8"><cite>A Bug's Life</cite>, 1998</li>
  <li value="7"><cite>Toy Story</cite>, 1995</li>
  <li value="6"><cite>Monsters, Inc</cite>, 2001</li>
  <li value="5"><cite>Cars</cite>, 2006</li>
  <li value="4"><cite>Toy Story 2</cite>, 1999</li>
  <li value="3"><cite>Finding Nemo</cite>, 2003</li>
  <li value="2"><cite>The Incredibles</cite>, 2004</li>
  <li value="1"><cite>Ratatouille</cite>, 2007</li>
 </ol>
</figure>

The markup could also be written as follows, using the reversed attribute on the ol element:

<figure>
 <figcaption>The top 10 movies of all time</figcaption>
 <ol reversed>
  <li><cite>Josie and the Pussycats</cite>, 2001</li>
  <li><cite lang="sh">Црна мачка, бели мачор</cite>, 1998</li>
  <li><cite>A Bug's Life</cite>, 1998</li>
  <li><cite>Toy Story</cite>, 1995</li>
  <li><cite>Monsters, Inc</cite>, 2001</li>
  <li><cite>Cars</cite>, 2006</li>
  <li><cite>Toy Story 2</cite>, 1999</li>
  <li><cite>Finding Nemo</cite>, 2003</li>
  <li><cite>The Incredibles</cite>, 2004</li>
  <li><cite>Ratatouille</cite>, 2007</li>
 </ol>
</figure>

If the li element is the child of a menu element and itself has a child that defines a command, then the li element will match the :enabled and :disabled pseudo-classes in the same way as the first such child element does.

4.5.8 The dl element

Categories
Flow content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Zero or more groups each consisting of one or more dt elements followed by one or more dd elements.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLDListElement : HTMLElement {};

The dl element represents an association list consisting of zero or more name-value groups (a description list). Each group must consist of one or more names (dt elements) followed by one or more values (dd elements). Within a single dl element, there should not be more than one dt element for each name.

Name-value groups may be terms and definitions, metadata topics and values, questions and answers, or any other groups of name-value data.

The values within a group are alternatives; multiple paragraphs forming part of the same value must all be given within the same dd element.

The order of the list of groups, and of the names and values within each group, may be significant.

In the following example, one entry ("Authors") is linked to two values ("John" and "Luke").

<dl>
 <dt> Authors
 <dd> John
 <dd> Luke
 <dt> Editor
 <dd> Frank
</dl>

In the following example, one definition is linked to two terms.

<dl>
 <dt lang="en-US"> <dfn>color</dfn> </dt>
 <dt lang="en-GB"> <dfn>colour</dfn> </dt>
 <dd> A sensation which (in humans) derives from the ability of
 the fine structure of the eye to distinguish three differently
 filtered analyses of a view. </dd>
</dl>

The following example illustrates the use of the dl element to mark up metadata of sorts. At the end of the example, one group has two metadata labels ("Authors" and "Editors") and two values ("Robert Rothman" and "Daniel Jackson").

<dl>
 <dt> Last modified time </dt>
 <dd> 2004-12-23T23:33Z </dd>
 <dt> Recommended update interval </dt>
 <dd> 60s </dd>
 <dt> Authors </dt>
 <dt> Editors </dt>
 <dd> Robert Rothman </dd>
 <dd> Daniel Jackson </dd>
</dl>

The following example shows the dl element used to give a set of instructions. The order of the instructions here is important (in the other examples, the order of the blocks was not important).

<p>Determine the victory points as follows (use the
first matching case):</p>
<dl>
 <dt> If you have exactly five gold coins </dt>
 <dd> You get five victory points </dd>
 <dt> If you have one or more gold coins, and you have one or more silver coins </dt>
 <dd> You get two victory points </dd>
 <dt> If you have one or more silver coins </dt>
 <dd> You get one victory point </dd>
 <dt> Otherwise </dt>
 <dd> You get no victory points </dd>
</dl>

The following snippet shows a dl element being used as a glossary. Note the use of dfn to indicate the word being defined.

<dl>
 <dt><dfn>Apartment</dfn>, n.</dt>
 <dd>An execution context grouping one or more threads with one or
 more COM objects.</dd>
 <dt><dfn>Flat</dfn>, n.</dt>
 <dd>A deflated tire.</dd>
 <dt><dfn>Home</dfn>, n.</dt>
 <dd>The user's login directory.</dd>
</dl>

The dl element is inappropriate for marking up dialogue. Examples of how to mark up dialogue are shown below.

4.5.9 The dt element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Before dd or dt elements inside dl elements.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The dt element represents the term, or name, part of a term-description group in a description list (dl element).

The dt element itself, when used in a dl element, does not indicate that its contents are a term being defined, but this can be indicated using the dfn element.

This example shows a list of frequently asked questions (a FAQ) marked up using the dt element for questions and the dd element for answers.

<article>
 <h1>FAQ</h1>
 <dl>
  <dt>What do we want?</dt>
  <dd>Our data.</dd>
  <dt>When do we want it?</dt>
  <dd>Now.</dd>
  <dt>Where is it?</dt>
  <dd>We are not sure.</dd>
 </dl>
</article>

4.5.10 The dd element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
After dt or dd elements inside dl elements.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The dd element represents the description, definition, or value, part of a term-description group in a description list (dl element).

A dl can be used to define a vocabulary list, like in a dictionary. In the following example, each entry, given by a dt with a dfn, has several dds, showing the various parts of the definition.

<dl>
 <dt><dfn>happiness</dfn></dt>
 <dd class="pronunciation">/'hæ p. nes/</dd>
 <dd class="part-of-speech"><i><abbr>n.</abbr></i></dd>
 <dd>The state of being happy.</dd>
 <dd>Good fortune; success. <q>Oh <b>happiness</b>! It worked!</q></dd>
 <dt><dfn>rejoice</dfn></dt>
 <dd class="pronunciation">/ri jois'/</dd>
 <dd><i class="part-of-speech"><abbr>v.intr.</abbr></i> To be delighted oneself.</dd>
 <dd><i class="part-of-speech"><abbr>v.tr.</abbr></i> To cause one to be delighted.</dd>
</dl>

4.5.11 The figure element

Categories
Flow content.
Sectioning root.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Either: One figcaption element followed by flow content.
Or: Flow content followed by one figcaption element.
Or: Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The figure element represents some flow content, optionally with a caption, that is self-contained and is typically referenced as a single unit from the main flow of the document.

The element can thus be used to annotate illustrations, diagrams, photos, code listings, etc, that are referred to from the main content of the document, but that could, without affecting the flow of the document, be moved away from that primary content, e.g. to the side of the page, to dedicated pages, or to an appendix.

The figcaption element child of the element, if any, represents the caption of the figure element's contents. If there is no child figcaption element, then there is no caption.

This example shows the figure element to mark up a code listing.

<p>In <a href="#l4">listing 4</a> we see the primary core interface
API declaration.</p>
<figure id="l4">
 <figcaption>Listing 4. The primary core interface API declaration.</figcaption>
 <pre><code>interface PrimaryCore {
 boolean verifyDataLine();
 void sendData(in sequence&lt;byte> data);
 void initSelfDestruct();
}</code></pre>
</figure>
<p>The API is designed to use UTF-8.</p>

Here we see a figure element to mark up a photo.

<figure>
 <img src="bubbles-work.jpeg"
      alt="Bubbles, sitting in his office chair, works on his
           latest project intently.">
 <figcaption>Bubbles at work</figcaption>
</figure>

In this example, we see an image that is not a figure, as well as an image and a video that are.

<h2>Malinko's comics</h2>

<p>This case centered on some sort of "intellectual property"
infringement related to a comic (see Exhibit A). The suit started
after a trailer ending with these words:

<blockquote>
 <img src="promblem-packed-action.png" alt="ROUGH COPY! Promblem-Packed Action!">
</blockquote>

<p>...was aired. A lawyer, armed with a Bigger Notebook, launched a
preemptive strike using snowballs. A complete copy of the trailer is
included with Exhibit B.

<figure>
 <img src="ex-a.png" alt="Two squiggles on a dirty piece of paper.">
 <figcaption>Exhibit A. The alleged <cite>rough copy</cite> comic.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
 <video src="ex-b.mov"></video>
 <figcaption>Exhibit B. The <cite>Rough Copy</cite> trailer.</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>The case was resolved out of court.

Here, a part of a poem is marked up using figure.

<figure>
 <p>'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves<br>
 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;<br>
 All mimsy were the borogoves,<br>
 And the mome raths outgrabe.</p>
 <figcaption><cite>Jabberwocky</cite> (first verse). Lewis Carroll, 1832-98</figcaption>
</figure>

In this example, which could be part of a much larger work discussing a castle, the figure has three images in it.

<figure>
 <img src="castle1423.jpeg" title="Etching. Anonymous, ca. 1423."
      alt="The castle has one tower, and a tall wall around it.">
 <img src="castle1858.jpeg" title="Oil-based paint on canvas. Maria Towle, 1858."
      alt="The castle now has two towers and two walls.">
 <img src="castle1999.jpeg" title="Film photograph. Peter Jankle, 1999."
      alt="The castle lies in ruins, the original tower all that remains in one piece.">
 <figcaption>The castle through the ages: 1423, 1858, and 1999 respectively.</figcaption>
</figure>

4.5.12 The figcaption element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As the first or last child of a figure element.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The figcaption element represents a caption or legend for the rest of the contents of the figcaption element's parent figure element.

4.5.13 The div element

Categories
Flow content.
formatBlock candidate.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Flow content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLDivElement : HTMLElement {};

The div element has no special meaning at all. It represents its children. It can be used with the class, lang, and title attributes to mark up semantics common to a group of consecutive elements.

Authors are strongly encouraged to view the div element as an element of last resort, for when no other element is suitable. Use of the div element instead of more appropriate elements leads to poor accessibility for readers and poor maintainability for authors.

For example, a blog post would be marked up using article, a chapter using section, a page's navigation aids using nav, and a group of form controls using fieldset.

On the other hand, div elements can be useful for stylistic purposes or to wrap multiple paragraphs within a section that are all to be annotated in a similar way. In the following example, we see div elements used as a way to set the language of two paragraphs at once, instead of setting the language on the two paragraph elements separately:

<article lang="en-US">
 <h1>My use of language and my cats</h1>
 <p>My cat's behavior hasn't changed much since her absence, except
 that she plays her new physique to the neighbors regularly, in an
 attempt to get pets.</p>
 <div lang="en-GB">
  <p>My other cat, coloured black and white, is a sweetie. He followed
  us to the pool today, walking down the pavement with us. Yesterday
  he apparently visited our neighbours. I wonder if he recognises that
  their flat is a mirror image of ours.</p>
  <p>Hm, I just noticed that in the last paragraph I used British
  English. But I'm supposed to write in American English. So I
  shouldn't say "pavement" or "flat" or "colour"...</p>
 </div>
 <p>I should say "sidewalk" and "apartment" and "color"!</p>
</article>

4.6 Text-level semantics

4.6.1 The a element

Categories
Flow content.
When the element only contains phrasing content: phrasing content.
Interactive content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
When the element only contains phrasing content: where phrasing content is expected.
Otherwise: where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Transparent, but there must be no interactive content descendant.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
href
target
rel
media
hreflang
type
DOM interface:
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>
a . text

Same as textContent.

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&amp;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&amp;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>

4.6.2 The em element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The em element represents stress emphasis of its contents.

The level of emphasis that a particular piece of content has is given by its number of ancestor em elements.

The placement of emphasis changes the meaning of the sentence. The element thus forms an integral part of the content. The precise way in which emphasis is used in this way depends on the language.

These examples show how changing the emphasis changes the meaning. First, a general statement of fact, with no emphasis:

<p>Cats are cute animals.</p>

By emphasizing the first word, the statement implies that the kind of animal under discussion is in question (maybe someone is asserting that dogs are cute):

<p><em>Cats</em> are cute animals.</p>

Moving the emphasis to the verb, one highlights that the truth of the entire sentence is in question (maybe someone is saying cats are not cute):

<p>Cats <em>are</em> cute animals.</p>

By moving it to the adjective, the exact nature of the cats is reasserted (maybe someone suggested cats were mean animals):

<p>Cats are <em>cute</em> animals.</p>

Similarly, if someone asserted that cats were vegetables, someone correcting this might emphasize the last word:

<p>Cats are cute <em>animals</em>.</p>

By emphasizing the entire sentence, it becomes clear that the speaker is fighting hard to get the point across. This kind of emphasis also typically affects the punctuation, hence the exclamation mark here.

<p><em>Cats are cute animals!</em></p>

Anger mixed with emphasizing the cuteness could lead to markup such as:

<p><em>Cats are <em>cute</em> animals!</em></p>

The em element isn't a generic "italics" element. Sometimes, text is intended to stand out from the rest of the paragraph, as if it was in a different mood or voice. For this, the i element is more appropriate.

The em element also isn't intended to convey importance; for that purpose, the strong element is more appropriate.

4.6.3 The strong element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The strong element represents strong importance for its contents.

The relative level of importance of a piece of content is given by its number of ancestor strong elements; each strong element increases the importance of its contents.

Changing the importance of a piece of text with the strong element does not change the meaning of the sentence.

Here is an example of a warning notice in a game, with the various parts marked up according to how important they are:

<p><strong>Warning.</strong> This dungeon is dangerous.
<strong>Avoid the ducks.</strong> Take any gold you find.
<strong><strong>Do not take any of the diamonds</strong>,
they are explosive and <strong>will destroy anything within
ten meters.</strong></strong> You have been warned.</p>

4.6.4 The small element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The small element represents side comments such as small print.

Small print typically features disclaimers, caveats, legal restrictions, or copyrights. Small print is also sometimes used for attribution, or for satisfying licensing requirements.

The small element does not "de-emphasize" or lower the importance of text emphasized by the em element or marked as important with the strong element. To mark text as not emphasized or important, simply do not mark it up with the em or strong elements respectively.

The small element should not be used for extended spans of text, such as multiple paragraphs, lists, or sections of text. It is only intended for short runs of text. The text of a page listing terms of use, for instance, would not be a suitable candidate for the small element: in such a case, the text is not a side comment, it is the main content of the page.

In this example, the small element is used to indicate that value-added tax is not included in a price of a hotel room:

<dl>
 <dt>Single room
 <dd>199 € <small>breakfast included, VAT not included</small>
 <dt>Double room
 <dd>239 € <small>breakfast included, VAT not included</small>
</dl>

In this second example, the small element is used for a side comment in an article.

<p>Example Corp today announced record profits for the
second quarter <small>(Full Disclosure: Foo News is a subsidiary of
Example Corp)</small>, leading to speculation about a third quarter
merger with Demo Group.</p>

This is distinct from a sidebar, which might be multiple paragraphs long and is removed from the main flow of text. In the following example, we see a sidebar from the same article. This sidebar also has small print, indicating the source of the information in the sidebar.

<aside>
 <h1>Example Corp</h1>
 <p>This company mostly creates small software and Web
 sites.</p>
 <p>The Example Corp company mission is "To provide entertainment
 and news on a sample basis".</p>
 <p><small>Information obtained from <a
 href="http://example.com/about.html">example.com</a> home
 page.</small></p>
</aside>

In this last example, the small element is marked as being important small print.

<p><strong><small>Continued use of this service will result in a kiss.</small></strong></p>

4.6.5 The s element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The s element represents contents that are no longer accurate or no longer relevant.

The s element is not appropriate when indicating document edits; to mark a span of text as having been removed from a document, use the del element.

In this example a recommended retail price has been marked as no longer relevant as the product in question has a new sale price.

<p>Buy our Iced Tea and Lemonade!</p>
<p><s>Recommended retail price: $3.99 per bottle</s></p>
<p><strong>Now selling for just $2.99 a bottle!</strong></p>

4.6.6 The cite element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The cite element represents the title of a work (e.g. a book, a paper, an essay, a poem, a score, a song, a script, a film, a TV show, a game, a sculpture, a painting, a theatre production, a play, an opera, a musical, an exhibition, a legal case report, etc). This can be a work that is being quoted or referenced in detail (i.e. a citation), or it can just be a work that is mentioned in passing.

A person's name is not the title of a work — even if people call that person a piece of work — and the element must therefore not be used to mark up people's names. (In some cases, the b element might be appropriate for names; e.g. in a gossip article where the names of famous people are keywords rendered with a different style to draw attention to them. In other cases, if an element is really needed, the span element can be used.)

This next example shows a typical use of the cite element:

<p>My favorite book is <cite>The Reality Dysfunction</cite> by
Peter F. Hamilton. My favorite comic is <cite>Pearls Before
Swine</cite> by Stephan Pastis. My favorite track is <cite>Jive
Samba</cite> by the Cannonball Adderley Sextet.</p>

This is correct usage:

<p>According to the Wikipedia article <cite>HTML</cite>, as it
stood in mid-February 2008, leaving attribute values unquoted is
unsafe. This is obviously an over-simplification.</p>

The following, however, is incorrect usage, as the cite element here is containing far more than the title of the work:

<!-- do not copy this example, it is an example of bad usage! -->
<p>According to <cite>the Wikipedia article on HTML</cite>, as it
stood in mid-February 2008, leaving attribute values unquoted is
unsafe. This is obviously an over-simplification.</p>

The cite element is obviously a key part of any citation in a bibliography, but it is only used to mark the title:

<p><cite>Universal Declaration of Human Rights</cite>, United Nations,
December 1948. Adopted by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III).</p>

A citation is not a quote (for which the q element is appropriate).

This is incorrect usage, because cite is not for quotes:

<p><cite>This is wrong!</cite>, said Ian.</p>

This is also incorrect usage, because a person is not a work:

<p><q>This is still wrong!</q>, said <cite>Ian</cite>.</p>

The correct usage does not use a cite element:

<p><q>This is correct</q>, said Ian.</p>

As mentioned above, the b element might be relevant for marking names as being keywords in certain kinds of documents:

<p>And then <b>Ian</b> said <q>this might be right, in a
gossip column, maybe!</q>.</p>

4.6.7 The q element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
cite
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLQuoteElement.

The q element represents some phrasing content quoted from another source.

Quotation punctuation (such as quotation marks) that is quoting the contents of the element must not appear immediately before, after, or inside q elements; they will be inserted into the rendering by the user agent.

Content inside a q element must be quoted from another source, whose address, if it has one, may be cited in the cite attribute. The source may be fictional, as when quoting characters in a novel or screenplay.

If the cite attribute is present, it must be a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

The q element must not be used in place of quotation marks that do not represent quotes; for example, it is inappropriate to use the q element for marking up sarcastic statements.

The use of q elements to mark up quotations is entirely optional; using explicit quotation punctuation without q elements is just as correct.

Here is a simple example of the use of the q element:

<p>The man said <q>Things that are impossible just take
longer</q>. I disagreed with him.</p>

Here is an example with both an explicit citation link in the q element, and an explicit citation outside:

<p>The W3C page <cite>About W3C</cite> says the W3C's
mission is <q cite="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/">To lead the
World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and
guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web</q>. I
disagree with this mission.</p>

In the following example, the quotation itself contains a quotation:

<p>In <cite>Example One</cite>, he writes <q>The man
said <q>Things that are impossible just take longer</q>. I
disagreed with him</q>. Well, I disagree even more!</p>

In the following example, quotation marks are used instead of the q element:

<p>His best argument was ❝I disagree❞, which
I thought was laughable.</p>

In the following example, there is no quote — the quotation marks are used to name a word. Use of the q element in this case would be inappropriate.

<p>The word "ineffable" could have been used to describe the disaster
resulting from the campaign's mismanagement.</p>

4.6.8 The dfn element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content, but there must be no dfn element descendants.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Also, the title attribute has special semantics on this element.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The dfn element represents the defining instance of a term. The paragraph, description list group, or section that is the nearest ancestor of the dfn element must also contain the definition(s) for the term given by the dfn element.

Defining term: If the dfn element has a title attribute, then the exact value of that attribute is the term being defined. Otherwise, if it contains exactly one element child node and no child text nodes, and that child element is an abbr element with a title attribute, then the exact value of that attribute is the term being defined. Otherwise, it is the exact textContent of the dfn element that gives the term being defined.

If the title attribute of the dfn element is present, then it must contain only the term being defined.

The title attribute of ancestor elements does not affect dfn elements.

An a element that links to a dfn element represents an instance of the term defined by the dfn element.

In the following fragment, the term "GDO" is first defined in the first paragraph, then used in the second.

<p>The <dfn><abbr title="Garage Door Opener">GDO</abbr></dfn>
is a device that allows off-world teams to open the iris.</p>
<!-- ... later in the document: -->
<p>Teal'c activated his <abbr title="Garage Door Opener">GDO</abbr>
and so Hammond ordered the iris to be opened.</p>

With the addition of an a element, the reference can be made explicit:

<p>The <dfn id=gdo><abbr title="Garage Door Opener">GDO</abbr></dfn>
is a device that allows off-world teams to open the iris.</p>
<!-- ... later in the document: -->
<p>Teal'c activated his <a href=#gdo><abbr title="Garage Door Opener">GDO</abbr></a>
and so Hammond ordered the iris to be opened.</p>

4.6.9 The abbr element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Also, the title attribute has special semantics on this element.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The abbr element represents an abbreviation or acronym, optionally with its expansion. The title attribute may be used to provide an expansion of the abbreviation. The attribute, if specified, must contain an expansion of the abbreviation, and nothing else.

The paragraph below contains an abbreviation marked up with the abbr element. This paragraph defines the term "Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group".

<p>The <dfn id=whatwg><abbr
title="Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group">WHATWG</abbr></dfn>
is a loose unofficial collaboration of Web browser manufacturers and
interested parties who wish to develop new technologies designed to
allow authors to write and deploy Applications over the World Wide
Web.</p>

An alternative way to write this would be:

<p>The <dfn id=whatwg>Web Hypertext Application Technology
Working Group</dfn> (<abbr
title="Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group">WHATWG</abbr>)
is a loose unofficial collaboration of Web browser manufacturers and
interested parties who wish to develop new technologies designed to
allow authors to write and deploy Applications over the World Wide
Web.</p>

This paragraph has two abbreviations. Notice how only one is defined; the other, with no expansion associated with it, does not use the abbr element.

<p>The
<abbr title="Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group">WHATWG</abbr>
started working on HTML5 in 2004.</p>

This paragraph links an abbreviation to its definition.

<p>The <a href="#whatwg"><abbr
title="Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group">WHATWG</abbr></a>
community does not have much representation from Asia.</p>

This paragraph marks up an abbreviation without giving an expansion, possibly as a hook to apply styles for abbreviations (e.g. smallcaps).

<p>Philip` and Dashiva both denied that they were going to
get the issue counts from past revisions of the specification to
backfill the <abbr>WHATWG</abbr> issue graph.</p>

If an abbreviation is pluralized, the expansion's grammatical number (plural vs singular) must match the grammatical number of the contents of the element.

Here the plural is outside the element, so the expansion is in the singular:

<p>Two <abbr title="Working Group">WG</abbr>s worked on
this specification: the <abbr>WHATWG</abbr> and the
<abbr>HTMLWG</abbr>.</p>

Here the plural is inside the element, so the expansion is in the plural:

<p>Two <abbr title="Working Groups">WGs</abbr> worked on
this specification: the <abbr>WHATWG</abbr> and the
<abbr>HTMLWG</abbr>.</p>

Abbreviations do not have to be marked up using this element. It is expected to be useful in the following cases:

Providing an expansion in a title attribute once will not necessarily cause other abbr elements in the same document with the same contents but without a title attribute to behave as if they had the same expansion. Every abbr element is independent.

4.6.10 The time element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content, but there must be no time element descendants.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
datetime
pubdate
DOM interface:
interface HTMLTimeElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString dateTime;
           attribute boolean pubDate;
  readonly attribute Date valueAsDate;
};

The time element represents either a time on a 24 hour clock, or a precise date in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, optionally with a time and a time-zone offset. [GREGORIAN]

This element is intended as a way to encode modern dates and times in a machine-readable way so that, for example, user agents can offer to add birthday reminders or scheduled events to the user's calendar.

The time element is not intended for encoding times for which a precise date or time cannot be established. For example, it would be inappropriate for encoding times like "one millisecond after the big bang", "the early part of the Jurassic period", or "a winter around 250 BCE".

For dates before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, authors are encouraged to not use the time element, or else to be very careful about converting dates and times from the period to the Gregorian calendar. This is complicated by the manner in which the Gregorian calendar was phased in, which occurred at different times in different countries, ranging from partway through the 16th century all the way to early in the 20th.

The pubdate attribute is a boolean attribute. If specified, it indicates that the date and time given by the element is the publication date and time of the nearest ancestor article element, or, if the element has no ancestor article element, of the document as a whole. If the element has a pubdate attribute specified, then the element needs a date. For each article element, there must be no more than one time element with a pubdate attribute whose nearest ancestor is that article element. Furthermore, for each Document, there must be no more than one time element with a pubdate attribute that does not have an ancestor article element.

The datetime attribute, if present, gives the date or time being specified. Otherwise, the date or time is given by the element's contents.

If the element needs a date, and the datetime attribute is present, then the attribute's value must be a valid date string with optional time.

If the element needs a date, but the datetime attribute is not present, then the element's textContent must be a valid date string in content with optional time.

If the element does not need a date, and the datetime attribute is present, then the attribute's value must be a valid date or time string.

If the element does not need a date, but the datetime attribute is not present, then the element's textContent must be a valid date or time string in content.

The date, if any, must be expressed using the Gregorian calendar.

The time element can be used to encode dates, for example in Microformats. The following shows a hypothetical way of encoding an event using a variant on hCalendar that uses the time element:

<div class="vevent">
 <a class="url" href="http://www.web2con.com/">http://www.web2con.com/</a>
  <span class="summary">Web 2.0 Conference</span>:
  <time class="dtstart" datetime="2007-10-05">October 5</time> -
  <time class="dtend" datetime="2007-10-20">19</time>,
  at the <span class="location">Argent Hotel, San Francisco, CA</span>
 </div>

(The end date is encoded as one day after the last date of the event because in the iCalendar format, end dates are exclusive, not inclusive.)

The time element is not necessary for encoding dates or times. In the following snippet, the time is encoded using time, so that it can be restyled (e.g. using XBL2) to match local conventions, while the year is not marked up at all, since marking it up would not be particularly useful, and doing so is thus not allowed.

<p>I usually have a snack at <time>16:00</time>.</p>
<p>I've liked model trains since at least 1983.</p>

Using a styling technology that supports restyling times, the first paragraph from the above snippet could be rendered as follows:

I usually have a snack at 4pm.

Or it could be rendered as follows:

I usually have a snack at 16h00.

time . valueAsDate

Returns a Date object representing the specified date and time.

In the following snippet:

<p>Our first date was <time datetime="2006-09-23">a Saturday</time>.</p>

...the time element's valueAsDate attribute would have the value 1,158,969,600,000ms.

In the following snippet:

<p>Many people get up at <time>08:00</time>.</p>

...the time element's valueAsDate attribute would have the value 28,800,000ms.

In this example, an article's publication date is marked up using time:

<article>
 <h1>Small tasks</h1>
 <footer>Published <time pubdate>2009-08-30</time>.</footer>
 <p>I put a bike bell on his bike.</p>
</article>

Here is another way that could be marked up. In this example, legacy user agents would say "today", while newer user agents would render the time in a locale-specific manner based on the value of the attribute.

<article>
 <h1>Small tasks</h1>
 <footer>Published <time pubdate datetime="2009-08-30">today</time>.</footer>
 <p>I put a bike bell on his bike.</p>
</article>

Here is the same thing but with the time included only. Because the element is empty, legacy user agents will not show anything useful; user agents that implement this specification, on the other hand, would show the date and time in a locale-specific manner.

<article>
 <h1>Small tasks</h1>
 <footer>Published <time pubdate datetime="2009-08-30T07:13Z"></time>.</footer>
 <p>I put a bike bell on his bike.</p>
</article>

4.6.11 The code element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The code element represents a fragment of computer code. This could be an XML element name, a filename, a computer program, or any other string that a computer would recognize.

Although there is no formal way to indicate the language of computer code being marked up, authors who wish to mark code elements with the language used, e.g. so that syntax highlighting scripts can use the right rules, may do so by adding a class prefixed with "language-" to the element.

The following example shows how the element can be used in a paragraph to mark up element names and computer code, including punctuation.

<p>The <code>code</code> element represents a fragment of computer
code.</p>

<p>When you call the <code>activate()</code> method on the
<code>robotSnowman</code> object, the eyes glow.</p>

<p>The example below uses the <code>begin</code> keyword to indicate
the start of a statement block. It is paired with an <code>end</code>
keyword, which is followed by the <code>.</code> punctuation character
(full stop) to indicate the end of the program.</p>

The following example shows how a block of code could be marked up using the pre and code elements.

<pre><code class="language-pascal">var i: Integer;
begin
   i := 1;
end.</code></pre>

A class is used in that example to indicate the language used.

See the pre element for more details.

4.6.12 The var element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The var element represents a variable. This could be an actual variable in a mathematical expression or programming context, or it could just be a term used as a placeholder in prose.

In the paragraph below, the letter "n" is being used as a variable in prose:

<p>If there are <var>n</var> pipes leading to the ice
cream factory then I expect at <em>least</em> <var>n</var>
flavors of ice cream to be available for purchase!</p>

For mathematics, in particular for anything beyond the simplest of expressions, MathML is more appropriate. However, the var element can still be used to refer to specific variables that are then mentioned in MathML expressions.

In this example, an equation is shown, with a legend that references the variables in the equation. The expression itself is marked up with MathML, but the variables are mentioned in the figure's legend using var.

<figure>
 <math>
  <mi>a</mi>
  <mo>=</mo>
  <msqrt>
   <msup><mi>b</mi><mn>2</mn></msup>
   <mi>+</mi>
   <msup><mi>c</mi><mn>2</mn></msup>
  </msqrt>
 </math>
 <figcaption>
  Using Pythagoras' theorem to solve for the hypotenuse <var>a</var> of
  a triangle with sides <var>b</var> and <var>c</var>
 </figcaption>
</figure>

4.6.13 The samp element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The samp element represents (sample) output from a program or computing system.

See the pre and kbd elements for more details.

This example shows the samp element being used inline:

<p>The computer said <samp>Too much cheese in tray
two</samp> but I didn't know what that meant.</p>

This second example shows a block of sample output. Nested samp and kbd elements allow for the styling of specific elements of the sample output using a style sheet.

<pre><samp><span class="prompt">jdoe@mowmow:~$</span> <kbd>ssh demo.example.com</kbd>
Last login: Tue Apr 12 09:10:17 2005 from mowmow.example.com on pts/1
Linux demo 2.6.10-grsec+gg3+e+fhs6b+nfs+gr0501+++p3+c4a+gr2b-reslog-v6.189 #1 SMP Tue Feb 1 11:22:36 PST 2005 i686 unknown

<span class="prompt">jdoe@demo:~$</span> <span class="cursor">_</span></samp></pre>

4.6.14 The kbd element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The kbd element represents user input (typically keyboard input, although it may also be used to represent other input, such as voice commands).

When the kbd element is nested inside a samp element, it represents the input as it was echoed by the system.

When the kbd element contains a samp element, it represents input based on system output, for example invoking a menu item.

When the kbd element is nested inside another kbd element, it represents an actual key or other single unit of input as appropriate for the input mechanism.

Here the kbd element is used to indicate keys to press:

<p>To make George eat an apple, press <kbd><kbd>Shift</kbd>+<kbd>F3</kbd></kbd></p>

In this second example, the user is told to pick a particular menu item. The outer kbd element marks up a block of input, with the inner kbd elements representing each individual step of the input, and the samp elements inside them indicating that the steps are input based on something being displayed by the system, in this case menu labels:

<p>To make George eat an apple, select
    <kbd><kbd><samp>File</samp></kbd>|<kbd><samp>Eat Apple...</samp></kbd></kbd>
</p>

Such precision isn't necessary; the following is equally fine:

<p>To make George eat an apple, select <kbd>File | Eat Apple...</kbd></p>

4.6.15 The sub and sup elements

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Use HTMLElement.

The sup element represents a superscript and the sub element represents a subscript.

These elements must be used only to mark up typographical conventions with specific meanings, not for typographical presentation for presentation's sake. For example, it would be inappropriate for the sub and sup elements to be used in the name of the LaTeX document preparation system. In general, authors should use these elements only if the absence of those elements would change the meaning of the content.

In certain languages, superscripts are part of the typographical conventions for some abbreviations.

<p>The most beautiful women are
<span lang="fr"><abbr>M<sup>lle</sup></abbr> Gwendoline</span> and
<span lang="fr"><abbr>M<sup>me</sup></abbr> Denise</span>.</p>

The sub element can be used inside a var element, for variables that have subscripts.

Here, the sub element is used to represents the subscript that identifies the variable in a family of variables:

<p>The coordinate of the <var>i</var>th point is
(<var>x<sub><var>i</var></sub></var>, <var>y<sub><var>i</var></sub></var>).
For example, the 10th point has coordinate
(<var>x<sub>10</sub></var>, <var>y<sub>10</sub></var>).</p>

Mathematical expressions often use subscripts and superscripts. Authors are encouraged to use MathML for marking up mathematics, but authors may opt to use sub and sup if detailed mathematical markup is not desired. [MATHML]

<var>E</var>=<var>m</var><var>c</var><sup>2</sup>
f(<var>x</var>, <var>n</var>) = log<sub>4</sub><var>x</var><sup><var>n</var></sup>

4.6.16 The i element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The i element represents a span of text in an alternate voice or mood, or otherwise offset from the normal prose, such as a taxonomic designation, a technical term, an idiomatic phrase from another language, a thought, a ship name, or some other prose whose typical typographic presentation is italicized.

Terms in languages different from the main text should be annotated with lang attributes (or, in XML, lang attributes in the XML namespace).

The examples below show uses of the i element:

<p>The <i class="taxonomy">Felis silvestris catus</i> is cute.</p>
<p>The term <i>prose content</i> is defined above.</p>
<p>There is a certain <i lang="fr">je ne sais quoi</i> in the air.</p>

In the following example, a dream sequence is marked up using i elements.

<p>Raymond tried to sleep.</p>
<p><i>The ship sailed away on Thursday</i>, he
dreamt. <i>The ship had many people aboard, including a beautiful
princess called Carey. He watched her, day-in, day-out, hoping she
would notice him, but she never did.</i></p>
<p><i>Finally one night he picked up the courage to speak with
her—</i></p>
<p>Raymond woke with a start as the fire alarm rang out.</p>

Authors can use the class attribute on the i element to identify why the element is being used, so that if the style of a particular use (e.g. dream sequences as opposed to taxonomic terms) is to be changed at a later date, the author doesn't have to go through the entire document (or series of related documents) annotating each use.

Authors are encouraged to consider whether other elements might be more applicable than the i element, for instance the em element for marking up stress emphasis, or the dfn element to mark up the defining instance of a term.

Style sheets can be used to format i elements, just like any other element can be restyled. Thus, it is not the case that content in i elements will necessarily be italicized.

4.6.17 The b element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The b element represents a span of text to be stylistically offset from the normal prose without conveying any extra importance, such as key words in a document abstract, product names in a review, or other spans of text whose typical typographic presentation is boldened.

The following example shows a use of the b element to highlight key words without marking them up as important:

<p>The <b>frobonitor</b> and <b>barbinator</b> components are fried.</p>

In the following example, objects in a text adventure are highlighted as being special by use of the b element.

<p>You enter a small room. Your <b>sword</b> glows
brighter. A <b>rat</b> scurries past the corner wall.</p>

Another case where the b element is appropriate is in marking up the lede (or lead) sentence or paragraph. The following example shows how a BBC article about kittens adopting a rabbit as their own could be marked up:

<article>
 <h2>Kittens 'adopted' by pet rabbit</h2>
 <p><b class="lede">Six abandoned kittens have found an
 unexpected new mother figure — a pet rabbit.</b></p>
 <p>Veterinary nurse Melanie Humble took the three-week-old
 kittens to her Aberdeen home.</p>
[...]

As with the i element, authors can use the class attribute on the b element to identify why the element is being used, so that if the style of a particular use is to be changed at a later date, the author doesn't have to go through annotating each use.

The b element should be used as a last resort when no other element is more appropriate. In particular, headings should use the h1 to h6 elements, stress emphasis should use the em element, importance should be denoted with the strong element, and text marked or highlighted should use the mark element.

The following would be incorrect usage:

<p><b>WARNING!</b> Do not frob the barbinator!</p>

In the previous example, the correct element to use would have been strong, not b.

Style sheets can be used to format b elements, just like any other element can be restyled. Thus, it is not the case that content in b elements will necessarily be boldened.

4.6.18 The mark element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The mark element represents a run of text in one document marked or highlighted for reference purposes, due to its relevance in another context. When used in a quotation or other block of text referred to from the prose, it indicates a highlight that was not originally present but which has been added to bring the reader's attention to a part of the text that might not have been considered important by the original author when the block was originally written, but which is now under previously unexpected scrutiny. When used in the main prose of a document, it indicates a part of the document that has been highlighted due to its likely relevance to the user's current activity.

This example shows how the mark element can be used to bring attention to a particular part of a quotation:

<p lang="en-US">Consider the following quote:</p>
<blockquote lang="en-GB">
 <p>Look around and you will find, no-one's really
 <mark>colour</mark> blind.</p>
</blockquote>
<p lang="en-US">As we can tell from the <em>spelling</em> of the word,
the person writing this quote is clearly not American.</p>

Another example of the mark element is highlighting parts of a document that are matching some search string. If someone looked at a document, and the server knew that the user was searching for the word "kitten", then the server might return the document with one paragraph modified as follows:

<p>I also have some <mark>kitten</mark>s who are visiting me
these days. They're really cute. I think they like my garden! Maybe I
should adopt a <mark>kitten</mark>.</p>

In the following snippet, a paragraph of text refers to a specific part of a code fragment.

<p>The highlighted part below is where the error lies:</p>
<pre><code>var i: Integer;
begin
   i := <mark>1.1</mark>;
end.</code></pre>

This is separate from syntax highlighting, for which span is more appropriate. Combining both, one would get:

<p>The highlighted part below is where the error lies:</p>
<pre><code><span class=keyword>var</span> <span class=ident>i</span>: <span class=type>Integer</span>;
<span class=keyword>begin</span>
   <span class=ident>i</span> := <span class=literal><mark>1.1</mark></span>;
<span class=keyword>end</span>.</code></pre>

This is another example showing the use of mark to highlight a part of quoted text that was originally not emphasized. In this example, common typographic conventions have led the author to explicitly style mark elements in quotes to render in italics.

<article>
 <style scoped>
  blockquote mark, q mark {
    font: inherit; font-style: italic;
    text-decoration: none;
    background: transparent; color: inherit;
  }
  .bubble em {
    font: inherit; font-size: larger;
    text-decoration: underline;
  }
 </style>
 <h1>She knew</h1>
 <p>Did you notice the subtle joke in the joke on panel 4?</p>
 <blockquote>
  <p class="bubble">I didn't <em>want</em> to believe. <mark>Of course
  on some level I realized it was a known-plaintext attack.</mark> But I
  couldn't admit it until I saw for myself.</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>(Emphasis mine.) I thought that was great. It's so pedantic, yet it
 explains everything neatly.</p>
</article>

Note, incidentally, the distinction between the em element in this example, which is part of the original text being quoted, and the mark element, which is highlighting a part for comment.

The following example shows the difference between denoting the importance of a span of text (strong) as opposed to denoting the relevance of a span of text (mark). It is an extract from a textbook, where the extract has had the parts relevant to the exam highlighted. The safety warnings, important though they may be, are apparently not relevant to the exam.

<h3>Wormhole Physics Introduction</h3>

<p><mark>A wormhole in normal conditions can be held open for a
maximum of just under 39 minutes.</mark> Conditions that can increase
the time include a powerful energy source coupled to one or both of
the gates connecting the wormhole, and a large gravity well (such as a
black hole).</p>

<p><mark>Momentum is preserved across the wormhole. Electromagnetic
radiation can travel in both directions through a wormhole,
but matter cannot.</mark></p>

<p>When a wormhole is created, a vortex normally forms.
<strong>Warning: The vortex caused by the wormhole opening will
annihilate anything in its path.</strong> Vortexes can be avoided when
using sufficiently advanced dialing technology.</p>

<p><mark>An obstruction in a gate will prevent it from accepting a
wormhole connection.</mark></p>

4.6.19 The ruby element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
One or more groups of: phrasing content followed either by a single rt element, or an rp element, an rt element, and another rp element.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The ruby element allows one or more spans of phrasing content to be marked with ruby annotations. Ruby annotations are short runs of text presented alongside base text, primarily used in East Asian typography as a guide for pronunciation or to include other annotations. In Japanese, this form of typography is also known as furigana.

A ruby element represents the spans of phrasing content it contains, ignoring all the child rt and rp elements and their descendants. Those spans of phrasing content have associated annotations created using the rt element.

In this example, each ideograph in the Japanese text 漢字 is annotated with its reading in hiragana.

...
<ruby>漢<rt>かん</rt>字<rt>じ </rt></ruby>
...

This might be rendered as:

The two main ideographs, each with its annotation in hiragana rendered in a smaller font above it.

In this example, each ideograph in the traditional Chinese text 漢字 is annotated with its bopomofo reading.

<ruby>漢<rt>ㄏㄢˋ</rt>字<rt>ㄗˋ </rt></ruby>

This might be rendered as:

The two main ideographs, each with its bopomofo annotation rendered in a smaller font next to it.

In this example, each ideograph in the simplified Chinese text 汉字 is annotated with its pinyin reading.

...<ruby>汉<rt>hàn</rt>字<rt>zì </rt></ruby>...

This might be rendered as:

The two main ideographs, each with its pinyin annotation rendered in a smaller font above it.

4.6.20 The rt element

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

The rt element marks the ruby text component of a ruby annotation.

An rt element represents an annotation (given by its children) for the zero or more nodes of phrasing content that immediately precedes it in the ruby element, ignoring rp elements.

4.6.21 The rp element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As a child of a ruby element, either immediately before or immediately after an rt element.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The rp element can be used to provide parentheses around a ruby text component of a ruby annotation, to be shown by user agents that don't support ruby annotations.

An rp element represents nothing.

The example above, in which each ideograph in the text 漢字 is annotated with its phonetic reading, could be expanded to use rp so that in legacy user agents the readings are in parentheses:

...
<ruby>
 漢 <rp>(</rp><rt>かん</rt><rp>)</rp>
 字 <rp>(</rp><rt>じ</rt><rp>)</rp>
</ruby>
...

In conforming user agents the rendering would be as above, but in user agents that do not support ruby, the rendering would be:

... 漢 (かん) 字 (じ) ...

4.6.22 The bdi element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Also, the dir global attribute has special semantics on this element.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The bdi element represents a span of text that is to be isolated from its surroundings for the purposes of bidirectional text formatting. [BIDI]

The dir global attribute defaults to auto on this element (it never inherits from the parent element like with other elements).

This element is especially useful when embedding user-generated content with an unknown directionality.

In this example, usernames are shown along with the number of posts that the user has submitted. If the bdi element were not used, the username of the Arabic user would end up confusing the text (the bidirectional algorithm would put the colon and the number "3" next to the word "User" rather than next to the word "posts").

<ul>
 <li>User <bdi>jcranmer</bdi>: 12 posts.
 <li>User <bdi>hober</bdi>: 5 posts.
 <li>User <bdi>إيان</bdi>: 3 posts.
</ul>

4.6.23 The bdo element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
Also, the dir global attribute has special semantics on this element.
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The bdo element represents explicit text directionality formatting control for its children. It allows authors to override the Unicode bidirectional algorithm by explicitly specifying a direction override. [BIDI]

Authors must specify the dir attribute on this element, with the value ltr to specify a left-to-right override and with the value rtl to specify a right-to-left override.

4.6.24 The span element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Phrasing content.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLSpanElement : HTMLElement {};

The span element doesn't mean anything on its own, but can be useful when used together with the global attributes, e.g. class, lang, or dir. It represents its children.

In this example, a code fragment is marked up using span elements and class attributes so that its keywords and identifiers can be color-coded from CSS:

<pre><code class="lang-c"><span class="keyword">for</span> (<span class="ident">j</span> = 0; <span class="ident">j</span> &lt; 256; <span class="ident">j</span>++) {
  <span class="ident">i_t3</span> = (<span class="ident">i_t3</span> & 0x1ffff) | (<span class="ident">j</span> &lt;&lt; 17);
  <span class="ident">i_t6</span> = (((((((<span class="ident">i_t3</span> >> 3) ^ <span class="ident">i_t3</span>) >> 1) ^ <span class="ident">i_t3</span>) >> 8) ^ <span class="ident">i_t3</span>) >> 5) & 0xff;
  <span class="keyword">if</span> (<span class="ident">i_t6</span> == <span class="ident">i_t1</span>)
    <span class="keyword">break</span>;
}</code></pre>

4.6.25 The br element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
interface HTMLBRElement : HTMLElement {};

The br element represents a line break.

While line breaks are usually represented in visual media by physically moving subsequent text to a new line, a style sheet or user agent would be equally justified in causing line breaks to be rendered in a different manner, for instance as green dots, or as extra spacing.

br elements must be used only for line breaks that are actually part of the content, as in poems or addresses.

The following example is correct usage of the br element:

<p>P. Sherman<br>
42 Wallaby Way<br>
Sydney</p>

br elements must not be used for separating thematic groups in a paragraph.

The following examples are non-conforming, as they abuse the br element:

<p><a ...>34 comments.</a><br>
<a ...>Add a comment.</a></p>
<p><label>Name: <input name="name"></label><br>
<label>Address: <input name="address"></label></p>

Here are alternatives to the above, which are correct:

<p><a ...>34 comments.</a></p>
<p><a ...>Add a comment.</a></p>
<p><label>Name: <input name="name"></label></p>
<p><label>Address: <input name="address"></label></p>

If a paragraph consists of nothing but a single br element, it represents a placeholder blank line (e.g. as in a template). Such blank lines must not be used for presentation purposes.

4.6.26 The wbr element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
DOM interface:
Uses HTMLElement.

The wbr element represents a line break opportunity.

In the following example, someone is quoted as saying something which, for effect, is written as one long word. However, to ensure that the text can be wrapped in a readable fashion, the individual words in the quote are separated using a wbr element.

<p>So then he pointed at the tiger and screamed
"there<wbr>is<wbr>no<wbr>way<wbr>you<wbr>are<wbr>ever<wbr>going<wbr>to<wbr>catch<wbr>me"!</p>

4.6.27 Usage summary

This section is non-normative.

Element Purpose Example
a Hyperlinks
Visit my <a href="drinks.html">drinks</a> page.
em Stress emphasis
I must say I <em>adore</em> lemonade.
strong Importance
This tea is <strong>very hot</strong>.
small Side comments
These grapes are made into wine. <small>Alcohol is addictive.</small>
s Inaccurate text
Price: <s>£4.50</s> £2.00!
cite Titles of works
The case <cite>Hugo v. Danielle</cite> is relevant here.
q Quotations
The judge said <q>You can drink water from the fish tank</q> but advised against it.
dfn Defining instance
The term <dfn>organic food</dfn> refers to food produced without synthetic chemicals.
abbr Abbreviations
Organic food in Ireland is certified by the <abbr title="Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association">IOFGA</abbr>.
time Date and/or time
Published <time>2009-10-21</time>.
code Computer code
The <code>fruitdb</code> program can be used for tracking fruit production.
var Variables
If there are <var>n</var> fruit in the bowl, at least <var>n</var>÷2 will be ripe.
samp Computer output
The computer said <samp>Unknown error -3</samp>.
kbd User input
Hit <kbd>F1</kbd> to continue.
sub Subscripts
Water is H<sub>2</sub>O.
sup Superscripts
The Hydrogen in heavy water is usually <sup>2</sup>H.
i Alternative voice
Lemonade consists primarily of <i>Citrus limon</i>.
b Keywords
Take a <b>lemon</b> and squeeze it with a <b>juicer</b>.
mark Highlight
Elderflower cordial, with one <mark>part</mark> cordial to ten <mark>part</mark>s water, stands a<mark>part</mark> from the rest.
ruby, rt, rp Ruby annotations
<ruby> OJ <rp>(<rt>Orange Juice<rp>)</ruby>
bdi Text directionality isolation
The recommended restaurant is <bdi lang="">My Juice Café (At The Beach)</bdi>.
bdo Text directionality formatting
The proposal is to write English, but in reverse order. "Juice" would become "<bdo dir=rtl>Juice</bdo>"
span Other
In French we call it <span lang="fr">sirop de sureau</span>.
br Line break
Simply Orange Juice Company<br>Apopka, FL 32703<br>U.S.A.
wbr Line breaking opportunity
www.simply<wbr>orange<wbr>juice.com

4.7 Edits

The ins and del elements represent edits to the document.

4.7.1 The ins element

Categories
Flow content.
When the element only contains phrasing content: phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
When the element only contains phrasing content: where phrasing content is expected.
Otherwise: where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Transparent.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
cite
datetime
DOM interface:
Uses the HTMLModElement interface.

The ins element represents an addition to the document.

The following represents the addition of a single paragraph:

<aside>
 <ins>
  <p> I like fruit. </p>
 </ins>
</aside>

As does this, because everything in the aside element here counts as phrasing content and therefore there is just one paragraph:

<aside>
 <ins>
  Apples are <em>tasty</em>.
 </ins>
 <ins>
  So are pears.
 </ins>
</aside>

ins elements should not cross implied paragraph boundaries.

The following example represents the addition of two paragraphs, the second of which was inserted in two parts. The first ins element in this example thus crosses a paragraph boundary, which is considered poor form.

<aside>
 <!-- don't do this -->
 <ins datetime="2005-03-16T00:00Z">
  <p> I like fruit. </p>
  Apples are <em>tasty</em>.
 </ins>
 <ins datetime="2007-12-19T00:00Z">
  So are pears.
 </ins>
</aside>

Here is a better way of marking this up. It uses more elements, but none of the elements cross implied paragraph boundaries.

<aside>
 <ins datetime="2005-03-16T00:00Z">
  <p> I like fruit. </p>
 </ins>
 <ins datetime="2005-03-16T00:00Z">
  Apples are <em>tasty</em>.
 </ins>
 <ins datetime="2007-12-19T00:00Z">
  So are pears.
 </ins>
</aside>

4.7.2 The del element

Categories
Flow content.
When the element only contains phrasing content: phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
When the element only contains phrasing content: where phrasing content is expected.
Otherwise: where flow content is expected.
Content model:
Transparent.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
cite
datetime
DOM interface:
Uses the HTMLModElement interface.

The del element represents a removal from the document.

del elements should not cross implied paragraph boundaries.

The following shows a "to do" list where items that have been done are crossed-off with the date and time of their completion.

<h1>To Do</h1>
<ul>
 <li>Empty the dishwasher</li>
 <li><del datetime="2009-10-11T01:25-07:00">Watch Walter Lewin's lectures</del></li>
 <li><del datetime="2009-10-10T23:38-07:00">Download more tracks</del></li>
 <li>Buy a printer</li>
</ul>

4.7.3 Attributes common to ins and del elements

The cite attribute may be used to specify the address of a document that explains the change. When that document is long, for instance the minutes of a meeting, authors are encouraged to include a fragment identifier pointing to the specific part of that document that discusses the change.

If the cite attribute is present, it must be a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces that explains the change.

The datetime attribute may be used to specify the time and date of the change.

If present, the datetime attribute's value must be a valid date string with optional time.

The ins and del elements implement the HTMLModElement interface:

interface HTMLModElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString cite;
           attribute DOMString dateTime;
};

4.7.4 Edits and paragraphs

This section is non-normative.

Since the ins and del elements do not affect paragraphing, it is possible, in some cases where paragraphs are implied (without explicit p elements), for an ins or del element to span both an entire paragraph or other non-phrasing content elements and part of another paragraph. For example:

<section>
 <ins>
  <p>
   This is a paragraph that was inserted.
  </p>
  This is another paragraph whose first sentence was inserted
  at the same time as the paragraph above.
 </ins>
 This is a second sentence, which was there all along.
</section>

By only wrapping some paragraphs in p elements, one can even get the end of one paragraph, a whole second paragraph, and the start of a third paragraph to be covered by the same ins or del element (though this is very confusing, and not considered good practice):

<section>
 This is the first paragraph. <ins>This sentence was
 inserted.
 <p>This second paragraph was inserted.</p>
 This sentence was inserted too.</ins> This is the
 third paragraph in this example.
 <!-- (don't do this) -->
</section>

However, due to the way implied paragraphs are defined, it is not possible to mark up the end of one paragraph and the start of the very next one using the same ins or del element. You instead have to use one (or two) p element(s) and two ins or del elements, as for example:

<section>
 <p>This is the first paragraph. <del>This sentence was
 deleted.</del></p>
 <p><del>This sentence was deleted too.</del> That
 sentence needed a separate &lt;del&gt; element.</p>
</section>

Partly because of the confusion described above, authors are strongly encouraged to always mark up all paragraphs with the p element, instead of having ins or del elements that cross implied paragraphs boundaries.

4.7.5 Edits and lists

This section is non-normative.

The content models of the ol and ul elements do not allow ins and del elements as children. Lists always represent all their items, including items that would otherwise have been marked as deleted.

To indicate that an item is inserted or deleted, an ins or del element can be wrapped around the contents of the li element. To indicate that an item has been replaced by another, a single li element can have one or more del elements followed by one or more ins elements.

In the following example, a list that started empty had items added and removed from it over time. The bits in the example that have been emphasized show the parts that are the "current" state of the list. The list item numbers don't take into account the edits, though.

<h1>Stop-ship bugs</h1>
<ol>
 <li><ins datetime="2008-02-12T15:20Z">Bug 225:
 Rain detector doesn't work in snow</ins></li>
 <li><del datetime="2008-03-01T20:22Z"><ins datetime="2008-02-14T12:02Z">Bug 228:
 Water buffer overflows in April</ins></del></li>
 <li><ins datetime="2008-02-16T13:50Z">Bug 230:
 Water heater doesn't use renewable fuels</ins></li>
 <li><del datetime="2008-02-20T21:15Z"><ins datetime="2008-02-16T14:25Z">Bug 232:
 Carbon dioxide emissions detected after startup</ins></del></li>
</ol>

In the following example, a list that started with just fruit was replaced by a list with just colors.

<h1>List of <del>fruits</del><ins>colors</ins></h1>
<ul>
 <li><del>Lime</del><ins>Green</ins></li>
 <li><del>Apple</del></li>
 <li>Orange</li>
 <li><del>Pear</del></li>
 <li><ins>Teal</ins></li>
 <li><del>Lemon</del><ins>Yellow</ins></li>
 <li>Olive</li>
 <li><ins>Purple</ins></li>
</ul>

4.8 Embedded content

4.8.1 The img element

ISSUE-30 (longdesc) blocks progress to Last Call

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
If the element has a usemap attribute: Interactive content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
alt
src
usemap
ismap
width
height
DOM interface:
[NamedConstructor=Image(),
 NamedConstructor=Image(in unsigned long width),
 NamedConstructor=Image(in unsigned long width, in unsigned long height)]
interface HTMLImageElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString alt;
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute DOMString useMap;
           attribute boolean isMap;
           attribute unsigned long width;
           attribute unsigned long height;
  readonly attribute unsigned long naturalWidth;
  readonly attribute unsigned long naturalHeight;
  readonly attribute boolean complete;
};

An img element represents an image.

The image given by the src attribute is the embedded content, and the value of the alt attribute is the img element's fallback content.

The src attribute must be present, and must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces referencing a non-interactive, optionally animated, image resource that is neither paged nor scripted.

Images can thus be static bitmaps (e.g. PNGs, GIFs, JPEGs), single-page vector documents (single-page PDFs, XML files with an SVG root element), animated bitmaps (APNGs, animated GIFs), animated vector graphics (XML files with an SVG root element that use declarative SMIL animation), and so forth. However, this also precludes SVG files with script, multipage PDF files, interactive MNG files, HTML documents, plain text documents, and so forth.

The requirements on the alt attribute's value are described in the next section.

The img element must not be used as a layout tool. In particular, img elements should not be used to display transparent images, as they rarely convey meaning and rarely add anything useful to the document.


The usemap attribute, if present, can indicate that the image has an associated image map.

The ismap attribute, when used on an element that is a descendant of an a element with an href attribute, indicates by its presence that the element provides access to a server-side image map. This affects how events are handled on the corresponding a element.

The ismap attribute is a boolean attribute. The attribute must not be specified on an element that does not have an ancestor a element with an href attribute.

The img element supports dimension attributes.

image . width [ = value ]
image . height [ = value ]

These attributes return the actual rendered dimensions of the image, or zero if the dimensions are not known.

They can be set, to change the corresponding content attributes.

image . naturalWidth
image . naturalHeight

These attributes return the intrinsic dimensions of the image, or zero if the dimensions are not known.

image . complete

Returns true if the image has been completely downloaded or if no image is specified; otherwise, returns false.

image = new Image( [ width [, height ] ] )

Returns a new img element, with the width and height attributes set to the values passed in the relevant arguments, if applicable.

A single image can have different appropriate alternative text depending on the context.

In each of the following cases, the same image is used, yet the alt text is different each time. The image is the coat of arms of the Carouge municipality in the canton Geneva in Switzerland.

Here it is used as a supplementary icon:

<p>I lived in <img src="carouge.svg" alt=""> Carouge.</p>

Here it is used as an icon representing the town:

<p>Home town: <img src="carouge.svg" alt="Carouge"></p>

Here it is used as part of a text on the town:

<p>Carouge has a coat of arms.</p>
<p><img src="carouge.svg" alt="The coat of arms depicts a lion, sitting in front of a tree."></p>
<p>It is used as decoration all over the town.</p>

Here it is used as a way to support a similar text where the description is given as well as, instead of as an alternative to, the image:

<p>Carouge has a coat of arms.</p>
<p><img src="carouge.svg" alt=""></p>
<p>The coat of arms depicts a lion, sitting in front of a tree.
It is used as decoration all over the town.</p>

Here it is used as part of a story:

<p>He picked up the folder and a piece of paper fell out.</p>
<p><img src="carouge.svg" alt="Shaped like a shield, the paper had a
red background, a green tree, and a yellow lion with its tongue
hanging out and whose tail was shaped like an S."></p>
<p>He stared at the folder. S! The answer he had been looking for all
this time was simply the letter S! How had he not seen that before? It all
came together now. The phone call where Hector had referred to a lion's tail,
the time Marco had stuck his tongue out...</p>

Here it is not known at the time of publication what the image will be, only that it will be a coat of arms of some kind, and thus no replacement text can be provided, and instead only a brief caption for the image is provided, in the title attribute:

<p>The last user to have uploaded a coat of arms uploaded this one:</p>
<p><img src="last-uploaded-coat-of-arms.cgi" title="User-uploaded coat of arms."></p>

Ideally, the author would find a way to provide real replacement text even in this case, e.g. by asking the previous user. Not providing replacement text makes the document more difficult to use for people who are unable to view images, e.g. blind users, or users or very low-bandwidth connections or who pay by the byte, or users who are forced to use a text-only Web browser.

Here are some more examples showing the same picture used in different contexts, with different appropriate alternate texts each time.

<article>
 <h1>My cats</h1>
 <h2>Fluffy</h2>
 <p>Fluffy is my favorite.</p>
 <img src="fluffy.jpg" alt="She likes playing with a ball of yarn.">
 <p>She's just too cute.</p>
 <h2>Miles</h2>
 <p>My other cat, Miles just eats and sleeps.</p>
</article>
<article>
 <h1>Photography</h1>
 <h2>Shooting moving targets indoors</h2>
 <p>The trick here is to know how to anticipate; to know at what speed and
 what distance the subject will pass by.</p>
 <img src="fluffy.jpg" alt="A cat flying by, chasing a ball of yarn, can be
 photographed quite nicely using this technique.">
 <h2>Nature by night</h2>
 <p>To achieve this, you'll need either an extremely sensitive film, or
 immense flash lights.</p>
</article>
<article>
 <h1>About me</h1>
 <h2>My pets</h2>
 <p>I've got a cat named Fluffy and a dog named Miles.</p>
 <img src="fluffy.jpg" alt="Fluffy, my cat, tends to keep itself busy.">
 <p>My dog Miles and I like go on long walks together.</p>
 <h2>music</h2>
 <p>After our walks, having emptied my mind, I like listening to Bach.</p>
</article>
<article>
 <h1>Fluffy and the Yarn</h1>
 <p>Fluffy was a cat who liked to play with yarn. He also liked to jump.</p>
 <aside><img src="fluffy.jpg" alt="" title="Fluffy"></aside>
 <p>He would play in the morning, he would play in the evening.</p>
</article>
4.8.1.1 Requirements for providing text to act as an alternative for images

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

4.8.1.1.1 General guidelines

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

Except where otherwise specified, the alt attribute must be specified and its value must not be empty; the value must be an appropriate replacement for the image. The specific requirements for the alt attribute depend on what the image is intended to represent, as described in the following sections.

The most general rule to consider when writing alternative text is the following: the intent is that replacing every image with the text of its alt attribute not change the meaning of the page.

So, in general, alternative text can be written by considering what one would have written had one not been able to include the image.

A corollary to this is that the alt attribute's value should never contain text that could be considered the image's caption, title, or legend. It is supposed to contain replacement text that could be used by users instead of the image; it is not meant to supplement the image. The title attribute can be used for supplemental information.

One way to think of alternative text is to think about how you would read the page containing the image to someone over the phone, without mentioning that there is an image present. Whatever you say instead of the image is typically a good start for writing the alternative text.

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

When an a element that creates a hyperlink, or a button element, has no textual content but contains one or more images, the alt attributes must contain text that together convey the purpose of the link or button.

In this example, a user is asked to pick his preferred color from a list of three. Each color is given by an image, but for users who have configured their user agent not to display images, the color names are used instead:

<h1>Pick your color</h1>
<ul>
 <li><a href="green.html"><img src="green.jpeg" alt="Green"></a></li>
 <li><a href="blue.html"><img src="blue.jpeg" alt="Blue"></a></li>
 <li><a href="red.html"><img src="red.jpeg" alt="Red"></a></li>
</ul>

In this example, each button has a set of images to indicate the kind of color output desired by the user. The first image is used in each case to give the alternative text.

<button name="rgb"><img src="red" alt="RGB"><img src="green" alt=""><img src="blue" alt=""></button>
<button name="cmyk"><img src="cyan" alt="CMYK"><img src="magenta" alt=""><img src="yellow" alt=""><img src="black" alt=""></button>

Since each image represents one part of the text, it could also be written like this:

<button name="rgb"><img src="red" alt="R"><img src="green" alt="G"><img src="blue" alt="B"></button>
<button name="cmyk"><img src="cyan" alt="C"><img src="magenta" alt="M"><img src="yellow" alt="Y"><img src="black" alt="K"></button>

However, with other alternative text, this might not work, and putting all the alternative text into one image in each case might make more sense:

<button name="rgb"><img src="red" alt="sRGB profile"><img src="green" alt=""><img src="blue" alt=""></button>
<button name="cmyk"><img src="cyan" alt="CMYK profile"><img src="magenta" alt=""><img src="yellow" alt=""><img src="black" alt=""></button>
4.8.1.1.3 A phrase or paragraph with an alternative graphical representation: charts, diagrams, graphs, maps, illustrations

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

Sometimes something can be more clearly stated in graphical form, for example as a flowchart, a diagram, a graph, or a simple map showing directions. In such cases, an image can be given using the img element, but the lesser textual version must still be given, so that users who are unable to view the image (e.g. because they have a very slow connection, or because they are using a text-only browser, or because they are listening to the page being read out by a hands-free automobile voice Web browser, or simply because they are blind) are still able to understand the message being conveyed.

The text must be given in the alt attribute, and must convey the same message as the image specified in the src attribute.

It is important to realize that the alternative text is a replacement for the image, not a description of the image.

In the following example we have a flowchart in image form, with text in the alt attribute rephrasing the flowchart in prose form:

<p>In the common case, the data handled by the tokenization stage
comes from the network, but it can also come from script.</p>
<p><img src="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/images/parsing-model-overview.png" alt="The network
passes data to the Tokenizer stage, which passes data to the Tree
Construction stage. From there, data goes to both the DOM and to
Script Execution. Script Execution is linked to the DOM, and, using
document.write(), passes data to the Tokenizer."></p>

Here's another example, showing a good solution and a bad solution to the problem of including an image in a description.

First, here's the good solution. This sample shows how the alternative text should just be what you would have put in the prose if the image had never existed.

<!-- This is the correct way to do things. -->
<p>
 You are standing in an open field west of a house.
 <img src="house.jpeg" alt="The house is white, with a boarded front door.">
 There is a small mailbox here.
</p>

Second, here's the bad solution. In this incorrect way of doing things, the alternative text is simply a description of the image, instead of a textual replacement for the image. It's bad because when the image isn't shown, the text doesn't flow as well as in the first example.

<!-- This is the wrong way to do things. -->
<p>
 You are standing in an open field west of a house.
 <img src="house.jpeg" alt="A white house, with a boarded front door.">
 There is a small mailbox here.
</p>

Text such as "Photo of white house with boarded door" would be equally bad alternative text (though it could be suitable for the title attribute or in the figcaption element of a figure with this image).

4.8.1.1.4 A short phrase or label with an alternative graphical representation: icons, logos

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

A document can contain information in iconic form. The icon is intended to help users of visual browsers to recognize features at a glance.

In some cases, the icon is supplemental to a text label conveying the same meaning. In those cases, the alt attribute must be present but must be empty.

Here the icons are next to text that conveys the same meaning, so they have an empty alt attribute:

<nav>
 <p><a href="/help/"><img src="/icons/help.png" alt=""> Help</a></p>
 <p><a href="/configure/"><img src="/icons/configuration.png" alt="">
 Configuration Tools</a></p>
</nav>

In other cases, the icon has no text next to it describing what it means; the icon is supposed to be self-explanatory. In those cases, an equivalent textual label must be given in the alt attribute.

Here, posts on a news site are labeled with an icon indicating their topic.

<body>
 <article>
  <header>
   <h1>Ratatouille wins <i>Best Movie of the Year</i> award</h1>
   <p><img src="movies.png" alt="Movies"></p>
  </header>
  <p>Pixar has won yet another <i>Best Movie of the Year</i> award,
  making this its 8th win in the last 12 years.</p>
 </article>
 <article>
  <header>
   <h1>Latest TWiT episode is online</h1>
   <p><img src="podcasts.png" alt="Podcasts"></p>
  </header>
  <p>The latest TWiT episode has been posted, in which we hear
  several tech news stories as well as learning much more about the
  iPhone. This week, the panelists compare how reflective their
  iPhones' Apple logos are.</p>
 </article>
</body>

Many pages include logos, insignia, flags, or emblems, which stand for a particular entity such as a company, organization, project, band, software package, country, or some such.

If the logo is being used to represent the entity, e.g. as a page heading, the alt attribute must contain the name of the entity being represented by the logo. The alt attribute must not contain text like the word "logo", as it is not the fact that it is a logo that is being conveyed, it's the entity itself.

If the logo is being used next to the name of the entity that it represents, then the logo is supplemental, and its alt attribute must instead be empty.

If the logo is merely used as decorative material (as branding, or, for example, as a side image in an article that mentions the entity to which the logo belongs), then the entry below on purely decorative images applies. If the logo is actually being discussed, then it is being used as a phrase or paragraph (the description of the logo) with an alternative graphical representation (the logo itself), and the first entry above applies.

In the following snippets, all four of the above cases are present. First, we see a logo used to represent a company:

<h1><img src="XYZ.gif" alt="The XYZ company"></h1>

Next, we see a paragraph which uses a logo right next to the company name, and so doesn't have any alternative text:

<article>
 <h2>News</h2>
 <p>We have recently been looking at buying the <img src="alpha.gif"
 alt=""> ΑΒΓ company, a small Greek company
 specializing in our type of product.</p>

In this third snippet, we have a logo being used in an aside, as part of the larger article discussing the acquisition:

 <aside><p><img src="alpha-large.gif" alt=""></p></aside>
 <p>The ΑΒΓ company has had a good quarter, and our
 pie chart studies of their accounts suggest a much bigger blue slice
 than its green and orange slices, which is always a good sign.</p>
</article>

Finally, we have an opinion piece talking about a logo, and the logo is therefore described in detail in the alternative text.

<p>Consider for a moment their logo:</p>

<p><img src="/images/logo" alt="It consists of a green circle with a
green question mark centered inside it."></p>

<p>How unoriginal can you get? I mean, oooooh, a question mark, how
<em>revolutionary</em>, how utterly <em>ground-breaking</em>, I'm
sure everyone will rush to adopt those specifications now! They could
at least have tried for some sort of, I don't know, sequence of
rounded squares with varying shades of green and bold white outlines,
at least that would look good on the cover of a blue book.</p>

This example shows how the alternative text should be written such that if the image isn't available, and the text is used instead, the text flows seamlessly into the surrounding text, as if the image had never been there in the first place.

4.8.1.1.5 Text that has been rendered to a graphic for typographical effect

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

Sometimes, an image just consists of text, and the purpose of the image is not to highlight the actual typographic effects used to render the text, but just to convey the text itself.

In such cases, the alt attribute must be present but must consist of the same text as written in the image itself.

Consider a graphic containing the text "Earth Day", but with the letters all decorated with flowers and plants. If the text is merely being used as a heading, to spice up the page for graphical users, then the correct alternative text is just the same text "Earth Day", and no mention need be made of the decorations:

<h1><img src="earthdayheading.png" alt="Earth Day"></h1>
4.8.1.1.6 A graphical representation of some of the surrounding text

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

In many cases, the image is actually just supplementary, and its presence merely reinforces the surrounding text. In these cases, the alt attribute must be present but its value must be the empty string.

In general, an image falls into this category if removing the image doesn't make the page any less useful, but including the image makes it a lot easier for users of visual browsers to understand the concept.

A flowchart that repeats the previous paragraph in graphical form:

<p>The network passes data to the Tokenizer stage, which
passes data to the Tree Construction stage. From there, data goes
to both the DOM and to Script Execution. Script Execution is
linked to the DOM, and, using document.write(), passes data to
the Tokenizer.</p>
<p><img src="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/images/parsing-model-overview.png" alt=""></p>

In these cases, it would be wrong to include alternative text that consists of just a caption. If a caption is to be included, then either the title attribute can be used, or the figure and figcaption elements can be used. In the latter case, the image would in fact be a phrase or paragraph with an alternative graphical representation, and would thus require alternative text.

<!-- Using the title="" attribute -->
<p>The network passes data to the Tokenizer stage, which
passes data to the Tree Construction stage. From there, data goes
to both the DOM and to Script Execution. Script Execution is
linked to the DOM, and, using document.write(), passes data to
the Tokenizer.</p>
<p><img src="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/images/parsing-model-overview.png" alt=""
        title="Flowchart representation of the parsing model."></p>
<!-- Using <figure> and <figcaption> -->
<p>The network passes data to the Tokenizer stage, which
passes data to the Tree Construction stage. From there, data goes
to both the DOM and to Script Execution. Script Execution is
linked to the DOM, and, using document.write(), passes data to
the Tokenizer.</p>
<figure>
 <img src="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/images/parsing-model-overview.png" alt="The Network leads
 to the Tokenizer, which leads to the Tree Construction. The Tree
 Construction leads to two items. The first is Script Execution, which
 leads via document.write() back to the Tokenizer. The second item
 from which Tree Construction leads is the DOM. The DOM is related to
 the Script Execution.">
 <figcaption>Flowchart representation of the parsing model.</figcaption>
</figure>
<!-- This is WRONG. Do not do this. Instead, do what the above examples do. -->
<p>The network passes data to the Tokenizer stage, which
passes data to the Tree Construction stage. From there, data goes
to both the DOM and to Script Execution. Script Execution is
linked to the DOM, and, using document.write(), passes data to
the Tokenizer.</p>
<p><img src="http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/images/parsing-model-overview.png"
        alt="Flowchart representation of the parsing model."></p>
<!-- Never put the image's caption in the alt="" attribute! -->

A graph that repeats the previous paragraph in graphical form:

<p>According to a study covering several billion pages,
about 62% of documents on the Web in 2007 triggered the Quirks
rendering mode of Web browsers, about 30% triggered the Almost
Standards mode, and about 9% triggered the Standards mode.</p>
<p><img src="rendering-mode-pie-chart.png" alt=""></p>
4.8.1.1.7 A purely decorative image that doesn't add any information

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

In general, if an image is decorative but isn't especially page-specific, for example an image that forms part of a site-wide design scheme, the image should be specified in the site's CSS, not in the markup of the document.

However, a decorative image that isn't discussed by the surrounding text but still has some relevance can be included in a page using the img element. Such images are decorative, but still form part of the content. In these cases, the alt attribute must be present but its value must be the empty string.

Examples where the image is purely decorative despite being relevant would include things like a photo of the Black Rock City landscape in a blog post about an event at Burning Man, or an image of a painting inspired by a poem, on a page reciting that poem. The following snippet shows an example of the latter case (only the first verse is included in this snippet):

<h1>The Lady of Shalott</h1>
<p><img src="shalott.jpeg" alt=""></p>
<p>On either side the river lie<br>
Long fields of barley and of rye,<br>
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;<br>
And through the field the road run by<br>
To many-tower'd Camelot;<br>
And up and down the people go,<br>
Gazing where the lilies blow<br>
Round an island there below,<br>
The island of Shalott.</p>

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

When a picture has been sliced into smaller image files that are then displayed together to form the complete picture again, one of the images must have its alt attribute set as per the relevant rules that would be appropriate for the picture as a whole, and then all the remaining images must have their alt attribute set to the empty string.

In the following example, a picture representing a company logo for XYZ Corp has been split into two pieces, the first containing the letters "XYZ" and the second with the word "Corp". The alternative text ("XYZ Corp") is all in the first image.

<h1><img src="logo1.png" alt="XYZ Corp"><img src="logo2.png" alt=""></h1>

In the following example, a rating is shown as three filled stars and two empty stars. While the alternative text could have been "★★★☆☆", the author has instead decided to more helpfully give the rating in the form "3 out of 5". That is the alternative text of the first image, and the rest have blank alternative text.

<p>Rating: <meter max=5 value=3><img src="1" alt="3 out of 5"
  ><img src="1" alt=""><img src="1" alt=""><img src="0" alt=""
  ><img src="0" alt=""></meter></p>

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

Generally, image maps should be used instead of slicing an image for links.

However, if an image is indeed sliced and any of the components of the sliced picture are the sole contents of links, then one image per link must have alternative text in its alt attribute representing the purpose of the link.

In the following example, a picture representing the flying spaghetti monster emblem, with each of the left noodly appendages and the right noodly appendages in different images, so that the user can pick the left side or the right side in an adventure.

<h1>The Church</h1>
<p>You come across a flying spaghetti monster. Which side of His
Noodliness do you wish to reach out for?</p>
<p><a href="?go=left" ><img src="fsm-left.png"  alt="Left side. "></a
  ><img src="fsm-middle.png" alt=""
  ><a href="?go=right"><img src="fsm-right.png" alt="Right side."></a></p>
4.8.1.1.10 A key part of the content

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

In some cases, the image is a critical part of the content. This could be the case, for instance, on a page that is part of a photo gallery. The image is the whole point of the page containing it.

How to provide alternative text for an image that is a key part of the content depends on the image's provenance.

The general case

When it is possible for detailed alternative text to be provided, for example if the image is part of a series of screenshots in a magazine review, or part of a comic strip, or is a photograph in a blog entry about that photograph, text that can serve as a substitute for the image must be given as the contents of the alt attribute.

A screenshot in a gallery of screenshots for a new OS, with some alternative text:

<figure>
 <img src="KDE%20Light%20desktop.png"
      alt="The desktop is blue, with icons along the left hand side in
           two columns, reading System, Home, K-Mail, etc. A window is
           open showing that menus wrap to a second line if they
           cannot fit in the window. The window has a list of icons
           along the top, with an address bar below it, a list of
           icons for tabs along the left edge, a status bar on the
           bottom, and two panes in the middle. The desktop has a bar
           at the bottom of the screen with a few buttons, a pager, a
           list of open applications, and a clock.">
 <figcaption>Screenshot of a KDE desktop.</figcaption>
</figure>

A graph in a financial report:

<img src="sales.gif"
     title="Sales graph"
     alt="From 1998 to 2005, sales increased by the following percentages
     with each year: 624%, 75%, 138%, 40%, 35%, 9%, 21%">

Note that "sales graph" would be inadequate alternative text for a sales graph. Text that would be a good caption is not generally suitable as replacement text.

Images that defy a complete description

In certain cases, the nature of the image might be such that providing thorough alternative text is impractical. For example, the image could be indistinct, or could be a complex fractal, or could be a detailed topographical map.

In these cases, the alt attribute must contain some suitable alternative text, but it may be somewhat brief.

Sometimes there simply is no text that can do justice to an image. For example, there is little that can be said to usefully describe a Rorschach inkblot test. However, a description, even if brief, is still better than nothing:

<figure>
 <img src="/commons/a/a7/Rorschach1.jpg" alt="A shape with left-right
 symmetry with indistinct edges, with a small gap in the center, two
 larger gaps offset slightly from the center, with two similar gaps
 under them. The outline is wider in the top half than the bottom
 half, with the sides extending upwards higher than the center, and
 the center extending below the sides.">
 <figcaption>A black outline of the first of the ten cards
 in the Rorschach inkblot test.</figcaption>
</figure>

Note that the following would be a very bad use of alternative text:

<!-- This example is wrong. Do not copy it. -->
<figure>
 <img src="/commons/a/a7/Rorschach1.jpg" alt="A black outline
 of the first of the ten cards in the Rorschach inkblot test.">
 <figcaption>A black outline of the first of the ten cards
 in the Rorschach inkblot test.</figcaption>
</figure>

Including the caption in the alternative text like this isn't useful because it effectively duplicates the caption for users who don't have images, taunting them twice yet not helping them any more than if they had only read or heard the caption once.

Another example of an image that defies full description is a fractal, which, by definition, is infinite in detail.

The following example shows one possible way of providing alternative text for the full view of an image of the Mandelbrot set.

<img src="ms1.jpeg" alt="The Mandelbrot set appears as a cardioid with
its cusp on the real axis in the positive direction, with a smaller
bulb aligned along the same center line, touching it in the negative
direction, and with these two shapes being surrounded by smaller bulbs
of various sizes.">
Images whose contents are not known

In some unfortunate cases, there might be no alternative text available at all, either because the image is obtained in some automated fashion without any associated alternative text (e.g. a Webcam), or because the page is being generated by a script using user-provided images where the user did not provide suitable or usable alternative text (e.g. photograph sharing sites), or because the author does not himself know what the images represent (e.g. a blind photographer sharing an image on his blog).

In such cases, the alt attribute may be omitted, but one of the following conditions must be met as well:

Such cases are to be kept to an absolute minimum. If there is even the slightest possibility of the author having the ability to provide real alternative text, then it would not be acceptable to omit the alt attribute.

A photo on a photo-sharing site, if the site received the image with no metadata other than the caption, could be marked up as follows:

<figure>
 <img src="1100670787_6a7c664aef.jpg">
 <figcaption>Bubbles traveled everywhere with us.</figcaption>
</figure>

It would be better, however, if a detailed description of the important parts of the image obtained from the user and included on the page.

A blind user's blog in which a photo taken by the user is shown. Initially, the user might not have any idea what the photo he took shows:

<article>
 <h1>I took a photo</h1>
 <p>I went out today and took a photo!</p>
 <figure>
  <img src="photo2.jpeg">
  <figcaption>A photograph taken blindly from my front porch.</figcaption>
 </figure>
</article>

Eventually though, the user might obtain a description of the image from his friends and could then include alternative text:

<article>
 <h1>I took a photo</h1>
 <p>I went out today and took a photo!</p>
 <figure>
  <img src="photo2.jpeg" alt="The photograph shows my hummingbird
  feeder hanging from the edge of my roof. It is half full, but there
  are no birds around. In the background, out-of-focus trees fill the
  shot. The feeder is made of wood with a metal grate, and it contains
  peanuts. The edge of the roof is wooden too, and is painted white
  with light blue streaks.">
  <figcaption>A photograph taken blindly from my front porch.</figcaption>
 </figure>
</article>

Sometimes the entire point of the image is that a textual description is not available, and the user is to provide the description. For instance, the point of a CAPTCHA image is to see if the user can literally read the graphic. Here is one way to mark up a CAPTCHA (note the title attribute):

<p><label>What does this image say?
<img src="captcha.cgi?id=8934" title="CAPTCHA">
<input type=text name=captcha></label>
(If you cannot see the image, you can use an <a
href="?audio">audio</a> test instead.)</p>

Another example would be software that displays images and asks for alternative text precisely for the purpose of then writing a page with correct alternative text. Such a page could have a table of images, like this:

<table>
 <thead>
  <tr> <th> Image <th> Description
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <td> <img src="2421.png" title="Image 640 by 100, filename 'banner.gif'">
   <td> <input name="alt2421">
  <tr>
   <td> <img src="2422.png" title="Image 200 by 480, filename 'ad3.gif'">
   <td> <input name="alt2422">
</table>

Notice that even in this example, as much useful information as possible is still included in the title attribute.

Since some users cannot use images at all (e.g. because they have a very slow connection, or because they are using a text-only browser, or because they are listening to the page being read out by a hands-free automobile voice Web browser, or simply because they are blind), the alt attribute is only allowed to be omitted rather than being provided with replacement text when no alternative text is available and none can be made available, as in the above examples. Lack of effort from the part of the author is not an acceptable reason for omitting the alt attribute.

4.8.1.1.11 An image not intended for the user

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

Generally authors should avoid using img elements for purposes other than showing images.

If an img element is being used for purposes other than showing an image, e.g. as part of a service to count page views, then the alt attribute must be the empty string.

In such cases, the width and height attributes should both be set to zero.

4.8.1.1.12 An image in an e-mail or private document intended for a specific person who is known to be able to view images

ISSUE-31 (alt-conformance-requirements) blocks progress to Last Call

This section does not apply to documents that are publicly accessible, or whose target audience is not necessarily personally known to the author, such as documents on a Web site, e-mails sent to public mailing lists, or software documentation.

When an image is included in a private communication (such as an HTML e-mail) aimed at a specific person who is known to be able to view images, the alt attribute may be omitted. However, even in such cases it is strongly recommended that alternative text be included (as appropriate according to the kind of image involved, as described in the above entries), so that the e-mail is still usable should the user use a mail client that does not support images, or should the document be forwarded on to other users whose abilities might not include easily seeing images.

4.8.2 The iframe element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
Interactive content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
Text that conforms to the requirements given in the prose.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
src
srcdoc
name
sandbox
seamless
width
height
DOM interface:
interface HTMLIFrameElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute DOMString srcdoc;
           attribute DOMString name;
  [PutForwards=value] readonly attribute DOMSettableTokenList sandbox;
           attribute boolean seamless;
           attribute DOMString width;
           attribute DOMString height;
  readonly attribute Document contentDocument;
  readonly attribute WindowProxy contentWindow;
};

The iframe element represents a nested browsing context.

The src attribute gives the address of a page that the nested browsing context is to contain. The attribute, if present, must be a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

The srcdoc attribute gives the content of the page that the nested browsing context is to contain. The value of the attribute is the source of an iframe srcdoc document.

For iframe elements in HTML documents, the attribute, if present, must have a value using the HTML syntax that consists of the following syntactic components, in the given order:

  1. Any number of comments and space characters.
  2. Optionally, a DOCTYPE.
  3. Any number of comments and space characters.
  4. The root element, in the form of an html element.
  5. Any number of comments and space characters.

For iframe elements in XML documents, the attribute, if present, must have a value that matches the production labeled document in the XML specification. [XML]

If the src attribute and the srcdoc attribute are both specified together, the srcdoc attribute takes priority. This allows authors to provide a fallback URL for legacy user agents that do not support the srcdoc attribute.

If, when the element is created, the srcdoc attribute is not set, and the src attribute is either also not set or set but its value cannot be resolved, the browsing context will remain at the initial about:blank page.

If the user navigates away from this page, the iframe's corresponding WindowProxy object will proxy new Window objects for new Document objects, but the src attribute will not change.

Here a blog uses the srcdoc attribute in conjunction with the sandbox and seamless attributes described below to provide users of user agents that support this feature with an extra layer of protection from script injection in the blog post comments:

<article>
 <h1>I got my own magazine!</h1>
 <p>After much effort, I've finally found a publisher, and so now I
 have my own magazine! Isn't that awesome?! The first issue will come
 out in September, and we have articles about getting food, and about
 getting in boxes, it's going to be great!</p>
 <footer>
  <p>Written by <a href="/users/cap">cap</a>.
  <time pubdate>2009-08-21T23:32Z</time></p>
 </footer>
 <article>
  <footer> At <time pubdate>2009-08-21T23:35Z</time>, <a href="/users/ch">ch</a> writes: </footer>
  <iframe seamless sandbox srcdoc="<p>did you get a cover picture yet?"></iframe>
 </article>
 <article>
  <footer> At <time pubdate>2009-08-21T23:44Z</time>, <a href="/users/cap">cap</a> writes: </footer>
  <iframe seamless sandbox srcdoc="<p>Yeah, you can see it <a href=&quot;/gallery?mode=cover&amp;amp;page=1&quot;>in my gallery</a>."></iframe>
 </article>
 <article>
  <footer> At <time pubdate>2009-08-21T23:58Z</time>, <a href="/users/ch">ch</a> writes: </footer>
  <iframe seamless sandbox srcdoc="<p>hey that's earl's table.
<p>you should get earl&amp;amp;me on the next cover."></iframe>
 </article>

Notice the way that quotes have to be escaped (otherwise the sandbox attribute would end prematurely), and the way raw ampersands (e.g. in URLs or in prose) mentioned in the sandboxed content have to be doubly escaped — once so that the ampersand is preserved when originally parsing the sandbox attribute, and once more to prevent the ampersand from being misinterpreted when parsing the sandboxed content.

In the HTML syntax, authors need only remember to use U+0022 QUOTATION MARK characters (") to wrap the attribute contents and then to escape all U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (") and U+0026 AMPERSAND (&) characters, and to specify the sandbox attribute, to ensure safe embedding of content.

Due to restrictions of the XML syntax, in XML the U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character (<) needs to be escaped as well. In order to prevent attribute-value normalization, some of XML's whitespace characters — specifically U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (HT), U+000A LINE FEED (LF), and U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) — also need to be escaped. [XML]


The name attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name. The given value is used to name the nested browsing context.


The sandbox attribute, when specified, enables a set of extra restrictions on any content hosted by the iframe. Its value must be an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens that are ASCII case-insensitive. The allowed values are allow-same-origin, allow-top-navigation, allow-forms, and allow-scripts. When the attribute is set, the content is treated as being from a unique origin, forms and scripts are disabled, links are prevented from targeting other browsing contexts, and plugins are disabled. The allow-same-origin keyword allows the content to be treated as being from the same origin instead of forcing it into a unique origin, the allow-top-navigation keyword allows the content to navigate its top-level browsing context, and the allow-forms and allow-scripts keywords re-enable forms and scripts respectively (though scripts are still prevented from creating popups).

Setting both the allow-scripts and allow-same-origin keywords together when the embedded page has the same origin as the page containing the iframe allows the embedded page to simply remove the sandbox attribute.

Sandboxing hostile content is of minimal help if an attacker can convince the user to just visit the hostile content directly, rather than in the iframe. To limit the damage that can be caused by hostile HTML content, it should be served using the text/html-sandboxed MIME type.

In this example, some completely-unknown, potentially hostile, user-provided HTML content is embedded in a page. Because it is sandboxed, it is treated by the user agent as being from a unique origin, despite the content being served from the same site. Thus it is affected by all the normal cross-site restrictions. In addition, the embedded page has scripting disabled, plugins disabled, forms disabled, and it cannot navigate any frames or windows other than itself (or any frames or windows it itself embeds).

<p>We're not scared of you! Here is your content, unedited:</p>
<iframe sandbox src="getusercontent.cgi?id=12193"></iframe>

Note that cookies are still sent to the server in the getusercontent.cgi request, though they are not visible in the document.cookie IDL attribute.

It is important that the server serve the user-provided HTML using the text/html-sandboxed MIME type so that if the attacker convinces the user to visit that page directly, the page doesn't run in the context of the site's origin, which would make the user vulnerable to any attack found in the page.

In this example, a gadget from another site is embedded. The gadget has scripting and forms enabled, and the origin sandbox restrictions are lifted, allowing the gadget to communicate with its originating server. The sandbox is still useful, however, as it disables plugins and popups, thus reducing the risk of the user being exposed to malware and other annoyances.

<iframe sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts"
        src="http://maps.example.com/embedded.html"></iframe>

Suppose a file A contained the following fragment:

<iframe sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms" src=B></iframe>

Suppose that file B contained an iframe also:

<iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" src=C></iframe>

Further, suppose that file C contained a link:

<a href=D>Link</a>

For this example, suppose all the files were served as text/html.

Page C in this scenario has all the sandboxing flags set. Scripts are disabled, because the iframe in A has scripts disabled, and this overrides the allow-scripts keyword set on the iframe in B. Forms are also disabled, because the inner iframe (in B) does not have the allow-forms keyword set.

Suppose now that a script in A removes all the sandbox attributes in A and B. This would change nothing immediately. If the user clicked the link in C, loading page D into the iframe in B, page D would now act as if the iframe in B had the allow-same-origin and allow-forms keywords set, because that was the state of the nested browsing context in the iframe in A when page B was loaded.

Generally speaking, dynamically removing or changing the sandbox attribute is ill-advised, because it can make it quite hard to reason about what will be allowed and what will not.

Potentially hostile files can be served from the same server as the file containing the iframe element by labeling them as text/html-sandboxed instead of text/html. This ensures that scripts in the files are unable to attack the site (as if they were actually served from another server), even if the user is tricked into visiting those pages directly, without the protection of the sandbox attribute.

If the allow-scripts keyword is set along with allow-same-origin keyword, and the file is from the same origin as the iframe's Document, then a script in the "sandboxed" iframe could just reach out, remove the sandbox attribute, and then reload itself, effectively breaking out of the sandbox altogether.


The seamless attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified, it indicates that the iframe element's browsing context is to be rendered in a manner that makes it appear to be part of the containing document (seamlessly included in the parent document).

The attribute can be set or removed dynamically, with the rendering updating in tandem.

In this example, the site's navigation is embedded using a client-side include using an iframe. Any links in the iframe will, in new user agents, be automatically opened in the iframe's parent browsing context; for legacy user agents, the site could also include a base element with a target attribute with the value _parent. Similarly, in new user agents the styles of the parent page will be automatically applied to the contents of the frame, but to support legacy user agents authors might wish to include the styles explicitly.

<nav><iframe seamless src="nav.include.html"></iframe></nav>

The iframe element supports dimension attributes for cases where the embedded content has specific dimensions (e.g. ad units have well-defined dimensions).

An iframe element never has fallback content, as it will always create a nested browsing context, regardless of whether the specified initial contents are successfully used.

Descendants of iframe elements represent nothing. (In legacy user agents that do not support iframe elements, the contents would be parsed as markup that could act as fallback content.)

When used in HTML documents, the allowed content model of iframe elements is text, except that invoking the HTML fragment parsing algorithm with the iframe element as the context element and the text contents as the input must result in a list of nodes that are all phrasing content, with no parse errors having occurred, with no script elements being anywhere in the list or as descendants of elements in the list, and with all the elements in the list (including their descendants) being themselves conforming.

The iframe element must be empty in XML documents.

The HTML parser treats markup inside iframe elements as text.

Here is an example of a page using an iframe to include advertising from an advertising broker:

<iframe src="http://ads.example.com/?customerid=923513721&amp;format=banner"
        width="468" height="60"></iframe>

4.8.3 The embed element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
Interactive content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
src
type
width
height
Any other attribute that has no namespace (see prose).
DOM interface:
interface HTMLEmbedElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString width;
           attribute DOMString height;
};

The embed element represents an integration point for an external (typically non-HTML) application or interactive content.

The src attribute gives the address of the resource being embedded. The attribute, if present, must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

The type attribute, if present, gives the MIME type by which the plugin to instantiate is selected. The value must be a valid MIME type. If both the type attribute and the src attribute are present, then the type attribute must specify the same type as the explicit Content-Type metadata of the resource given by the src attribute.

Any namespace-less attribute other than name, align, hspace, and vspace may be specified on the embed element, so long as its name is XML-compatible and contains no characters in the range U+0041 to U+005A (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z). These attributes are then passed as parameters to the plugin.

All attributes in HTML documents get lowercased automatically, so the restriction on uppercase letters doesn't affect such documents.

The four exceptions are to exclude legacy attributes that have side-effects beyond just sending parameters to the plugin.

The embed element supports dimension attributes.

Here's a way to embed a resource that requires a proprietary plug-in, like Flash:

<embed src="catgame.swf">

If the user does not have the plug-in (for example if the plug-in vendor doesn't support the user's platform), then the user will be unable to use the resource.

To pass the plugin a parameter "quality" with the value "high", an attribute can be specified:

<embed src="catgame.swf" quality="high">

This would be equivalent to the following, when using an object element instead:

<object data="catgame.swf">
 <param name="quality" value="high">
</object>

4.8.4 The object element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
If the element has a usemap attribute: Interactive content.
Listed, submittable, form-associated element.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
Zero or more param elements, then, transparent.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
data
type
name
usemap
form
width
height
DOM interface:
interface HTMLObjectElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString data;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString useMap;
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute DOMString width;
           attribute DOMString height;
  readonly attribute Document contentDocument;
  readonly attribute WindowProxy contentWindow;

  readonly attribute boolean willValidate;
  readonly attribute ValidityState validity;
  readonly attribute DOMString validationMessage;
  boolean checkValidity();
  void setCustomValidity(in DOMString error);
};

The object element can represent an external resource, which, depending on the type of the resource, will either be treated as an image, as a nested browsing context, or as an external resource to be processed by a plugin.

The data attribute, if present, specifies the address of the resource. If present, the attribute must be a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

The type attribute, if present, specifies the type of the resource. If present, the attribute must be a valid MIME type.

At least one of either the data attribute or the type attribute must be present.

The name attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name. The given value is used to name the nested browsing context, if applicable.

The usemap attribute, if present while the object element represents an image, can indicate that the object has an associated image map.

The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the object element with its form owner.

The object element supports dimension attributes.

In the following example, a Java applet is embedded in a page using the object element. (Generally speaking, it is better to avoid using applets like these and instead use native JavaScript and HTML to provide the functionality, since that way the application will work on all Web browsers without requiring a third-party plugin. Many devices, especially embedded devices, do not support third-party technologies like Java.)

<figure>
 <object type="application/x-java-applet">
  <param name="code" value="MyJavaClass">
  <p>You do not have Java available, or it is disabled.</p>
 </object>
 <figcaption>My Java Clock</figcaption>
</figure>

In this example, an HTML page is embedded in another using the object element.

<figure>
 <object data="clock.html"></object>
 <figcaption>My HTML Clock</figcaption>
</figure>

The following example shows how a plugin can be used in HTML (in this case the Flash plugin, to show a video file). Fallback is provided for users who do not have Flash enabled, in this case using the video element to show the video for those using user agents that support video, and finally providing a link to the video for those who have neither Flash nor a video-capable browser.

<p>Look at my video:
 <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
  <param name=movie value="http://video.example.com/library/watch.swf">
  <param name=allowfullscreen value=true>
  <param name=flashvars value="http://video.example.com/vids/315981">
  <video controls src="http://video.example.com/vids/315981">
   <a href="http://video.example.com/vids/315981">View video</a>.
  </video>
 </object>
</p>

4.8.5 The param element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As a child of an object element, before any flow content.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
name
value
DOM interface:
interface HTMLParamElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString value;
};

The param element defines parameters for plugins invoked by object elements. It does not represent anything on its own.

The name attribute gives the name of the parameter.

The value attribute gives the value of the parameter.

Both attributes must be present. They may have any value.

The following example shows how the param element can be used to pass a parameter to a plugin, in this case the O3D plugin.

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
   <title>O3D Utah Teapot</title>
  </head>
  <body>
   <p>
    <object type="application/vnd.o3d.auto">
     <param name="o3d_features" value="FloatingPointTextures">
     <img src="o3d-teapot.png"
          title="3D Utah Teapot illustration rendered using O3D."
          alt="When O3D renders the Utah Teapot, it appears as a squat
          teapot with a shiny metallic finish on which the
          surroundings are reflected, with a faint shadow caused by
          the lighting.">
     <p>To see the teapot actually rendered by O3D on your
     computer, please download and install the <a
     href="http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/docs/gettingstarted.html#install">O3D plugin</a>.</p>
    </object>
    <script src="o3d-teapot.js"></script>
   </p>
  </body>
</html>

4.8.6 The video element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
If the element has a controls attribute: Interactive content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
If the element has a src attribute: zero or more track elements, then transparent, but with no media element descendants.
If the element does not have a src attribute: zero or more source elements, then zero or more track elements, then transparent, but with no media element descendants.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
src
poster
preload
autoplay
loop
audio
controls
width
height
DOM interface:
interface HTMLVideoElement : HTMLMediaElement {
           attribute unsigned long width;
           attribute unsigned long height;
  readonly attribute unsigned long videoWidth;
  readonly attribute unsigned long videoHeight;
           attribute DOMString poster;
  [PutForwards=value] attribute DOMSettableTokenList audio; 
};

A video element is used for playing videos or movies.

Content may be provided inside the video element; it is intended for older Web browsers which do not support video, so that legacy video plugins can be tried, or to show text to the users of these older browsers informing them of how to access the video contents.

In particular, this content is not intended to address accessibility concerns. To make video content accessible to the blind, deaf, and those with other physical or cognitive disabilities, authors are expected to provide alternative media streams and/or to embed accessibility aids (such as caption or subtitle tracks, audio description tracks, or sign-language overlays) into their media streams.

The video element is a media element whose media data is ostensibly video data, possibly with associated audio data.

The src, preload, autoplay, loop, and controls attributes are the attributes common to all media elements. The audio attribute controls the audio channel.

The poster attribute gives the address of an image file that the user agent can show while no video data is available. The attribute, if present, must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

The image given by the poster attribute, the poster frame, is intended to be a representative frame of the video (typically one of the first non-blank frames) that gives the user an idea of what the video is like.

video . videoWidth
video . videoHeight

These attributes return the intrinsic dimensions of the video, or zero if the dimensions are not known.

The video element supports dimension attributes.

This example shows how to detect when a video has failed to play correctly:

<script>
 function failed(e) {
   // video playback failed - show a message saying why
   switch (e.target.error.code) {
     case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED:
       alert('You aborted the video playback.');
       break;
     case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK:
       alert('A network error caused the video download to fail part-way.');
       break;
     case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_DECODE:
       alert('The video playback was aborted due to a corruption problem or because the video used features your browser did not support.');
       break;
     case e.target.error.MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED:
       alert('The video could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported.');
       break;
     default:
       alert('An unknown error occurred.');
       break;
   }
 }
</script>
<p><video src="tgif.vid" autoplay controls onerror="failed(event)"></video></p>
<p><a href="tgif.vid">Download the video file</a>.</p>

4.8.7 The audio element

Categories
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
If the element has a controls attribute: Interactive content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
If the element has a src attribute: zero or more track elements, then transparent, but with no media element descendants.
If the element does not have a src attribute: one or more source elements, then zero or more track elements, then transparent, but with no media element descendants.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
src
preload
autoplay
loop
controls
DOM interface:
[NamedConstructor=Audio(),
 NamedConstructor=Audio(in DOMString src)]
interface HTMLAudioElement : HTMLMediaElement {};

An audio element represents a sound or audio stream.

Content may be provided inside the audio element; it is intended for older Web browsers which do not support audio, so that legacy audio plugins can be tried, or to show text to the users of these older browsers informing them of how to access the audio contents.

In particular, this content is not intended to address accessibility concerns. To make audio content accessible to the deaf or to those with other physical or cognitive disabilities, authors are expected to provide alternative media streams and/or to embed accessibility aids (such as transcriptions) into their media streams.

The audio element is a media element whose media data is ostensibly audio data.

The src, preload, autoplay, loop, and controls attributes are the attributes common to all media elements.

audio = new Audio( [ url ] )

Returns a new audio element, with the src attribute set to the value passed in the argument, if applicable.

4.8.8 The source element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As a child of a media element, before any flow content or track elements.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
src
type
media
DOM interface:
interface HTMLSourceElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString media;
};

The source element allows authors to specify multiple alternative media resources for media elements. It does not represent anything on its own.

The src attribute gives the address of the media resource. The value must be a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. This attribute must be present.

Dynamically modifying a source element and its attribute when the element is already inserted in a video or audio element will have no effect. To change what is playing, either just use the src attribute on the media element directly, or call the load() method on the media element after manipulating the source elements.

The type attribute gives the type of the media resource, to help the user agent determine if it can play this media resource before fetching it. If specified, its value must be a valid MIME type. The codecs parameter, which certain MIME types define, might be necessary to specify exactly how the resource is encoded. [RFC4281]

The following list shows some examples of how to use the codecs= MIME parameter in the type attribute.

H.264 Constrained baseline profile video (main and extended video compatible) level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'>
H.264 Extended profile video (baseline-compatible) level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.58A01E, mp4a.40.2"'>
H.264 Main profile video level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.4D401E, mp4a.40.2"'>
H.264 'High' profile video (incompatible with main, baseline, or extended profiles) level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.64001E, mp4a.40.2"'>
MPEG-4 Visual Simple Profile Level 0 video and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="mp4v.20.8, mp4a.40.2"'>
MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile Level 0 video and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container
<source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="mp4v.20.240, mp4a.40.2"'>
MPEG-4 Visual Simple Profile Level 0 video and AMR audio in 3GPP container
<source src='video.3gp' type='video/3gpp; codecs="mp4v.20.8, samr"'>
Theora video and Vorbis audio in Ogg container
<source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"'>
Theora video and Speex audio in Ogg container
<source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, speex"'>
Vorbis audio alone in Ogg container
<source src='audio.ogg' type='audio/ogg; codecs=vorbis'>
Speex audio alone in Ogg container
<source src='audio.spx' type='audio/ogg; codecs=speex'>
FLAC audio alone in Ogg container
<source src='audio.oga' type='audio/ogg; codecs=flac'>
Dirac video and Vorbis audio in Ogg container
<source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="dirac, vorbis"'>
Theora video and Vorbis audio in Matroska container
<source src='video.mkv' type='video/x-matroska; codecs="theora, vorbis"'>

The media attribute gives the intended media type of the media resource, to help the user agent determine if this media resource is useful to the user before fetching it. Its value must be a valid media query.

The default, if the media attribute is omitted, is "all", meaning that by default the media resource is suitable for all media.

If the author isn't sure if the user agents will all be able to render the media resources provided, the author can listen to the error event on the last source element and trigger fallback behavior:

<script>
 function fallback(video) {
   // replace <video> with its contents
   while (video.hasChildNodes()) {
     if (video.firstChild instanceof HTMLSourceElement)
       video.removeChild(video.firstChild);
     else
       video.parentNode.insertBefore(video.firstChild, video);
   }
   video.parentNode.removeChild(video);
 }
</script>
<video controls autoplay>
 <source src='video.mp4' type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"'>
 <source src='video.ogv' type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"'
         onerror="fallback(parentNode)">
 ...
</video>

4.8.9 The track element

Categories
None.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
As a child of a media element, before any flow content.
Content model:
Empty.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
kind
src
srclang
label
default
DOM interface:
interface HTMLTrackElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString kind;
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute DOMString srclang;
           attribute DOMString label;
           attribute boolean default;

  readonly attribute TextTrack track;
};

The track element allows authors to specify explicit external timed text tracks for media elements. It does not represent anything on its own.

The kind attribute is an enumerated attribute. The following table lists the keywords defined for this attribute. The keyword given in the first cell of each row maps to the state given in the second cell.

Keyword State Brief description
subtitles Subtitles Transcription or translation of the dialogue, suitable for when the sound is available but not understood (e.g. because the user does not understand the language of the media resource's soundtrack). Displayed over the video.
captions Captions Transcription or translation of the dialogue, sound effects, relevant musical cues, and other relevant audio information, suitable for when the soundtrack is unavailable (e.g. because it is muted or because the user is deaf). Displayed over the video; labeled as appropriate for the hard-of-hearing.
descriptions Descriptions Textual descriptions of the video component of the media resource, intended for audio synthesis when the visual component is unavailable (e.g. because the user is interacting with the application without a screen while driving, or because the user is blind). Synthesized as separate audio track.
chapters Chapters Chapter titles, intended to be used for navigating the media resource. Displayed as an interactive list in the user agent's interface.
metadata Metadata Tracks intended for use from script. Not displayed by the user agent.

The attribute may be omitted. The missing value default is the subtitles state.

The src attribute gives the address of the text track data. The value must be a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. This attribute must be present.

The srclang attribute gives the language of the text track data. The value must be a valid BCP 47 language tag. This attribute must be present if the element's kind attribute is in the subtitles state. [BCP47]

The label attribute gives a user-readable title for the track. This title is used by user agents when listing subtitle, caption, and audio description tracks in their user interface.

The value of the label attribute, if the attribute is present, must not be the empty string. Furthermore, there must not be two track element children of the same media element whose kind attributes are in the same state, whose srclang attributes are both missing or have values that represent the same language, and whose label attributes are again both missing or both have the same value.

The default attribute, if specified, indicates that the track is to be enabled if the user's preferences do not indicate that another track would be more appropriate. There must not be more than one track element with the same parent node with the default attribute specified.

track . track

Returns the TextTrack object corresponding to the text track of the track element.

This video has subtitles in several languages:

<video src="brave.webm">
 <track kind=subtitles src=brave.en.vtt srclang=en label="English">
 <track kind=captions src=brave.en.vtt srclang=en label="English for the Hard of Hearing">
 <track kind=subtitles src=brave.fr.vtt srclang=fr label="Français">
 <track kind=subtitles src=brave.de.vtt srclang=de label="Deutsch">
</video>

4.8.10 Media elements

Media elements (audio and video, in this specification) implement the following interface:

interface HTMLMediaElement : HTMLElement {

  // error state
  readonly attribute MediaError error;

  // network state
           attribute DOMString src;
  readonly attribute DOMString currentSrc;
  const unsigned short NETWORK_EMPTY = 0;
  const unsigned short NETWORK_IDLE = 1;
  const unsigned short NETWORK_LOADING = 2;
  const unsigned short NETWORK_NO_SOURCE = 3;
  readonly attribute unsigned short networkState;
           attribute DOMString preload;
  readonly attribute TimeRanges buffered;
  void load();
  DOMString canPlayType(in DOMString type);

  // ready state
  const unsigned short HAVE_NOTHING = 0;
  const unsigned short HAVE_METADATA = 1;
  const unsigned short HAVE_CURRENT_DATA = 2;
  const unsigned short HAVE_FUTURE_DATA = 3;
  const unsigned short HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA = 4;
  readonly attribute unsigned short readyState;
  readonly attribute boolean seeking;

  // playback state
           attribute double currentTime;
  readonly attribute double initialTime;
  readonly attribute double duration;
  readonly attribute Date startOffsetTime;
  readonly attribute boolean paused;
           attribute double defaultPlaybackRate;
           attribute double playbackRate;
  readonly attribute TimeRanges played;
  readonly attribute TimeRanges seekable;
  readonly attribute boolean ended;
           attribute boolean autoplay;
           attribute boolean loop;
  void play();
  void pause();

  // controls
           attribute boolean controls;
           attribute double volume;
           attribute boolean muted;

  // tracks
  readonly attribute TextTrack[] textTracks;
  MutableTextTrack addTrack(in DOMString kind, in optional DOMString label, in optional DOMString language);

};

The media element attributes, src, preload, autoplay, loop, and controls, apply to all media elements. They are defined in this section.

Media elements are used to present audio data, or video and audio data, to the user. This is referred to as media data in this section, since this section applies equally to media elements for audio or for video. The term media resource is used to refer to the complete set of media data, e.g. the complete video file, or complete audio file.

4.8.10.1 Error codes
media . error

Returns a MediaError object representing the current error state of the element.

Returns null if there is no error.

interface MediaError {
  const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED = 1;
  const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK = 2;
  const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_DECODE = 3;
  const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED = 4;
  readonly attribute unsigned short code;
};
media . error . code

Returns the current error's error code, from the list below.

MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED (numeric value 1)
The fetching process for the media resource was aborted by the user agent at the user's request.
MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK (numeric value 2)
A network error of some description caused the user agent to stop fetching the media resource, after the resource was established to be usable.
MEDIA_ERR_DECODE (numeric value 3)
An error of some description occurred while decoding the media resource, after the resource was established to be usable.
MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED (numeric value 4)
The media resource indicated by the src attribute was not suitable.
4.8.10.2 Location of the media resource

The src content attribute on media elements gives the address of the media resource (video, audio) to show. The attribute, if present, must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces.

media . currentSrc

Returns the address of the current media resource.

Returns the empty string when there is no media resource.

There are two ways to specify a media resource, the src attribute, or source elements. The attribute overrides the elements.

4.8.10.3 MIME types

ISSUE-145 (codecs-vs-octet) blocks progress to Last Call

A media resource can be described in terms of its type, specifically a MIME type, in some cases with a codecs parameter. (Whether the codecs parameter is allowed or not depends on the MIME type.) [RFC4281]

Types are usually somewhat incomplete descriptions; for example "video/mpeg" doesn't say anything except what the container type is, and even a type like "video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"" doesn't include information like the actual bitrate (only the maximum bitrate). Thus, given a type, a user agent can often only know whether it might be able to play media of that type (with varying levels of confidence), or whether it definitely cannot play media of that type.

A type that the user agent knows it cannot render is one that describes a resource that the user agent definitely does not support, for example because it doesn't recognize the container type, or it doesn't support the listed codecs.

The MIME type "application/octet-stream" with no parameters is never a type that the user agent knows it cannot render. User agents must treat that type as equivalent to the lack of any explicit Content-Type metadata when it is used to label a potential media resource.

In the absence of a specification to the contrary, the MIME type "application/octet-stream" when used with parameters, e.g. "application/octet-stream;codecs=theora", is a type that the user agent knows it cannot render, since that parameter is not defined for that type.

media . canPlayType(type)

Returns the empty string (a negative response), "maybe", or "probably" based on how confident the user agent is that it can play media resources of the given type.

This script tests to see if the user agent supports a (fictional) new format to dynamically decide whether to use a video element or a plugin:

<section id="video">
 <p><a href="playing-cats.nfv">Download video</a></p>
</section>
<script>
 var videoSection = document.getElementById('video');
 var videoElement = document.createElement('video');
 var support = videoElement.canPlayType('video/x-new-fictional-format;codecs="kittens,bunnies"');
 if (support != "probably" && "New Fictional Video Plug-in" in navigator.plugins) {
   // not confident of browser support
   // but we have a plugin
   // so use plugin instead
   videoElement = document.createElement("embed");
 } else if (support == "") {
   // no support from browser and no plugin
   // do nothing
   videoElement = null;
 }
 if (videoElement) {
   while (videoSection.hasChildNodes())
     videoSection.removeChild(videoSection.firstChild);
   videoElement.setAttribute("src", "playing-cats.nfv");
   videoSection.appendChild(videoElement);
 }
</script>

The type attribute of the source element allows the user agent to avoid downloading resources that use formats it cannot render.

4.8.10.4 Network states
media . networkState

Returns the current state of network activity for the element, from the codes in the list below.

NETWORK_EMPTY (numeric value 0)
The element has not yet been initialized. All attributes are in their initial states.
NETWORK_IDLE (numeric value 1)
The element has selected a resource, but it is not actually using the network at this time.
NETWORK_LOADING (numeric value 2)
The user agent is actively trying to download data.
NETWORK_NO_SOURCE (numeric value 3)
The element has not yet found a resource to use.
4.8.10.5 Loading the media resource
media . load()

Causes the element to reset and start selecting and loading a new media resource from scratch.


The preload attribute is an enumerated attribute. The following table lists the keywords and states for the attribute — the keywords in the left column map to the states in the cell in the second column on the same row as the keyword.

Keyword State Brief description
none None Hints to the user agent that either the author does not expect the user to need the media resource, or that the server wants to minimise unnecessary traffic.
metadata Metadata Hints to the user agent that the author does not expect the user to need the media resource, but that fetching the resource metadata (dimensions, first frame, track list, duration, etc) is reasonable.
auto Automatic Hints to the user agent that the user agent can put the user's needs first without risk to the server, up to and including optimistically downloading the entire resource.

The empty string is also a valid keyword, and maps to the Automatic state. The attribute's missing value default is user-agent defined, though the Metadata state is suggested as a compromise between reducing server load and providing an optimal user experience.

The autoplay attribute can override the preload attribute (since if the media plays, it naturally has to buffer first, regardless of the hint given by the preload attribute). Including both is not an error, however.