CSS Custom Properties for Cascading Variables Module Level 1

Abstract

This module introduces cascading variables as a new primitive value type that is accepted by all CSS properties, and custom properties for defining them.

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 latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

The (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org (see instructions) is preferred for discussion of this specification. When sending e-mail, please put the text “css-variables” in the subject, preferably like this: “[css-variables] …summary of comment…”

This document was produced by the CSS Working Group (part of the Style Activity).

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.

For changes since the last draft, see the Changes section.

Table of contents

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. Module Interactions
  • 1.2. Values
• 2. Defining Custom Properties: the ‘var-*’ family of properties
• 3. Using Cascading Variables: the ‘var()’ notation
  • 3.1. Invalid Variables
• 4. APIs
  • 4.1. Extensions to the CSSStyleDeclaration Interface
    • 4.1.1. Serializing Custom Properties
  • 4.2. The CSSVariablesDeclaration Interface
• 5. Changes from 10 April 2012 Working Draft
• 6. Acknowledgments
• 7. Conformance
  • 7.1. Document conventions
  • 7.2. Conformance classes
  • 7.3. Partial implementations
  • 7.4. Experimental implementations
  • 7.5. Non-experimental implementations
• References
  • Normative references
  • Other references
• Index
• Property index

1. Introduction

This section is not normative.

Large documents or applications (and even small ones) can contain quite a bit of CSS. Many of the values in the CSS file will be duplicate data; for example, a site may establish a color scheme and reuse three or four colors throughout the site. Altering this data can be difficult and error-prone, since it's scattered throughout the CSS file (and possibly across multiple files), and may not be amenable to Find-and-Replace.

This module introduces a family of custom author-defined properties known collectively as custom properties, which allow an author to assign arbitrary values to a property with an author-chosen name, and variables, which allow an author to then use those values in other properties elsewhere in the document. This makes it easier to read large files, as seemingly-arbitrary values now have informative names, and makes editing such files much easier and less error-prone, as one only has to change the value once, in the custom property, and the change will propagate to all uses of that variable automatically.

1.1. Module Interactions

This module defines a new type of primitive value, the variable, which is accepted by all properties.

1.2. Values

This specification follows the CSS property definition conventions from [CSS21]. Value types not defined in this specification are defined in CSS Level 2 Revision 1 [CSS21]. Other CSS modules may expand the definitions of these value types: for example [CSS3COLOR], when combined with this module, expands the definition of the <color> value type as used in this specification.

2. Defining Custom Properties: the ‘var-*’ family of properties

This specification defines an open-ended set of properties called custom properties, which are used to define variables.

A custom property is any property whose name is composed of "var-" followed by an <ident> [CSS3VAL] Custom properties are solely for use by authors and users; CSS will never give them a meaning beyond what is presented here.

:root {
  main-color: #06c;
  accent-color: #006;
}
/* The rest of the CSS file */
#foo h1 {
  color: var(main-color);
}

Unlike other CSS properties, custom property names are case-sensitive. The "var-" prefix must be written in lower-case.

Custom properties have an extremely permissive value grammar. The <value> in its grammar corresponds to the "value" production in CSS 2.1 Chapter 4.1 [CSS21], while <CDO> and <CDC> correspond to the tokens of the same name from the same chapter (they represent HTML comments showing up in CSS text - "<!--" and "-->"). This is a very technical way of saying that nearly anything can be used in the value of a custom property, save unmatched closing brackets ("]", ")", or "}"), a top-level semicolon (as it will end the property), a "!important" that's not at the end, or invalid tokens (such as BAD_STRING and BAD_URL).

Custom properties can contain a trailing ‘!important’, but this is automatically removed from the property's value by the CSS parser, and makes the custom property "important" in the CSS cascade.

Further, the value of a custom property must retain its original author-given casing, unlike most CSS values which can be safely lower-cased (because most of CSS is case-insensitive in the ASCII range). (This requirement does not apply when a custom property's value is substituted into another property via a variable.)

var-foo: if(x > 5) this.width = 10;

There are an infinity of custom properties, but the initial value of a custom property is an empty invalid value. This means that, until a custom property is explicitly defined otherwise by a style sheet, it defines an invalid variable.

The primary purpose of custom properties is to define cascading variables. In CSS, a cascading variable is a value that can be substituted into other properties, allowing authors to "abstract" parts of their page's CSS out and reuse it in several places. Every custom property defines a corresponding variable with the same name, minus the "var-" prefix. For example, the custom property ‘var-foo’ defines a variable named ‘foo’. See the next chapter for details on how to use variables.

Note: Custom properties can be put to several other uses, of course. For example, they can be used to conveniently attach values to elements so that JavaScript can later use those values. Another example is providing "custom CSS" by treating "var-" as a kind of "author prefix" (similar to a vendor prefix) that allows an author to write custom CSS properties without having them thrown away as invalid by the CSS parser, and then having JavaScript come along afterward to actually implement the functionality.

:root {
  var-header-color: #06c;
}

h1 { background-color: var(header-color); }

Custom properties are ordinary properties, so they can be declared on any element, are resolved with the normal inheritance and cascade rules, can be made conditional with ‘@media’ and other conditional rules, can be used in HTML's style attribute, can be read or set using the CSSOM, etc..

:root { var-color: blue; }
div { var-color: green; }
#alert { var-color: red; }
* { color: var(color); }

<p>I inherited blue from the root element!</p>
<div>I got green set directly on me!</div>
<div id='alert'>
  While I got red set directly on me!
  <p>I'm red too, because of inheritance!</p>
</div>

Custom properties may use variables in their own values to build up composite variables. This can create cyclic dependencies where two or more custom properties each attempt to use the variable that the other defines; doing so makes all the custom properties involved in the cycle compute to their initial value (which is a guaranteed-invalid value).

:root {
  var-main-color: #c06;
  var-accent-background: linear-gradient(to top, var(main-color), white);
}

:root {
  var-one: calc(var(two) + 20px);
  var-two: calc(var(one) - 20px);
}

It is important to note that custom properties resolve any variables in their values at computed-value time, which occurs before the value is inherited. In general, cyclic dependencies occur only when multiple custom properties on the same element refer to each other; custom properties defined on elements higher in the element tree can never cause a cyclic reference with properties defined on elements lower in the element tree.

<one><two><three /></two></one>
one   { var-foo: 10px; }
two   { var-bar: calc(var(foo) + 10px); }
three { var-foo: calc(var(bar) + 10px); }

3. Using Cascading Variables: the ‘var()’ notation

Every custom property automatically defines a corresponding cascading variable, which can then be substituted into another property with the ‘var()’ function. The syntax of ‘var()’ is:

<variable> = var( variable-name [, <fallback> ]? )

A variable can be used in place of any part of a value in any property on an element. Variables can not be used as property names, selectors, or anything else besides property values. (Doing so usually produces invalid syntax, or else a value whose meaning has no connection to the variable.)

The <fallback> value is identical to the syntax of a custom property value.

If the variable named by the first argument is valid, the variable's value is substituted as normal. If the variable is invalid, and a <fallback> was provided, the <fallback> is substituted instead. Otherwise, the result of evaluating the ‘var()’ function will mean that the containing declaration is invalid at computed-value time.

/* In the component's style: */
.component .header { 
  color: var(header-color, blue); 
}
.component .text { 
  color: var(text-color, black); 
}

/* In the larger application's style: */
.component {
  var-text-color: #080;
  /* header-color isn't set, 
     and so remains blue, 
     the fallback value */
}

.foo {
  var-side: margin-top;
  var(side): 20px;
}

.foo {
  var-gap: 20;
  margin-top: var(gap)px;
}

.foo {
  var-gap: 20;
  margin-top: calc(var(gap) * 1px);
}

A variable is substituted for its value in the property value at computed-value time. If a declaration, once all variables are substituted in, is invalid, the declaration is invalid at computed-value time.

:root { var-looks-valid: 20px; }
p { background-color: var(looks-valid); }

In some cases, it can be useful to provide a "default" value for a variable in case the variable isn't defined or is invalid.

For example, if a site uses variables to provide "hooks" for customization, expecting the variables to be defined in a separate custom stylesheet, the main stylesheet can use default values for its variable so that the theming stylesheet can just override the variables it cares about, rather than being forced to provide values for all of them.

3.1. Invalid Variables

When a custom property has its initial value, the variable it defines represents an invalid variable. Using an invalid variable in a property value (including other custom properties) makes the declaration invalid at computed-value time.

A declaration can be invalid at computed-value time if it uses an invalid variable, as explained above, or if it uses a valid variable, but the property value, after substituting its variables, is invalid. When this happens, the computed value of the property is either the property's inherited value or its initial value depending on whether the property is inherited or not, respectively.

:root { var-not-a-color: 20px; }
p { background-color: red; }
p { background-color: var(not-a-color); }

Note: The invalid at computed-value time concept exists because variables can't "fail early" like other syntax errors can, so by the time the user agent realizes a property value is invalid, it's already thrown away the other cascaded values.

4. APIs

4.1. Extensions to the CSSStyleDeclaration Interface

The CSSStyleDeclaration interface is amended as follows:

partial interface CSSStyleDeclaration {
  attribute CSSVariablesDeclaration var;
}

While the CSSStyleDeclaration interface normally contains attributes that are camel-cased name variants of all CSS properties (and sometimes also attributes for their canonical names), it must not contain any such attributes for custom properties. The camel-case trick does not work, as custom property names are case-sensitive, and there are potentially an infinity of custom properties, which is incompatible with the normal behavior of exposing every property whether it was set in the corresponding declaration block or not.

4.1.1. Serializing Custom Properties

Custom property names must be serialized with the casing as provided by the author.

Ordinarily, property names are restricted to the ASCII range and are case-insensitive, so implementations typically serialize the name lowercased.

4.2. The CSSVariablesDeclaration Interface

The CSSVariablesDeclaration interface exposes the custom properties declared in the parent declaration block that have a non-initial value.

interface CSSVariablesDeclaration {
  getter DOMString (DOMString varName);
  setter creator void (DOMString varName, DOMString varValue);
  deleter void (DOMString varName);
}

The supported property names on a CSSStyleDeclaration object are the property names of all the custom properties in the CSS declaration block declarations with a non-initial value, with the "var-" prefix removed.

Before running any of the algorithms in this section, prepend "var-" to varName's value.

When asked to get the value of a variable, if varName is in the CSS declaration block declarations, invoke getPropertyValue() by passing varName as its argument, and return the returned value. Otherwise, return the empty string.

When asked to set or create the value of a variable, invoke setProperty() by passing varName as the property argument and varValue as the value argument.

Note that using setProperty() to set a property to the empty string instead deletes the property.

When asked to delete the value of a variable, if varName matches the grammar of a custom property name, invoke removeProperty() by passing varName as its argument, and return the returned value. Otherwise, do nothing and return the empty string.

div {
  var-foo: 16px;
  var-Bar: red;
  var-foo-bar: 50%;
}

el = document.querySelector("div");
print(el.style.var.foo);        /* Prints the value of "var-foo" */
print(el.style.var.Bar);        /* Prints the value of "var-Bar" */
print(el.style.var["foo-bar"]); /* Prints the value of "var-foo-bar" */

print(el.style.varFoo); 
/* Custom properties don't exist directly on "style" */

print(el.style.varfoo); 
/* Not even if the casing matches. */

print(el.style.var.foo-bar); 
/* Retrieves "var-foo" and subtracts a JS variable named "bar",
   rather than retrieving the value of "var-foo-bar" */

var customProps = el.style.var;
for(customPropName in customProps) {
  var customPropValue = customProps[customPropName];
  /* More stuff here. */
}

5. Changes from 10 April 2012 Working Draft

• The value syntax for custom properties has been nailed down more precisely.
• Case-sensitivity of custom property names has been defined.
• The fallback argument was added to the var() function.
• A property that is invalid at computed-value time now either goes inherit or initial, rather than always initial.
• CSSVariableComponentValue interface has been dropped, pending the *ComponentValue interfaces being created at all.
• The CSSVariablesDeclaration interface has been added, which stores all the variables defined by a style rule.

6. Acknowledgments

Many thanks to several people in the CSS Working Group for keeping the dream of variables alive over the years, particularly Daniel Glazman and David Hyatt. Thanks to multiple people on the mailing list for helping contribute to the development of this incarnation of variables, particularly Brian Kardell, David Baron, François Remy, Roland Steiner, and Shane Stephens.

7. Conformance

7.1. Document conventions

Conformance requirements are expressed with a combination of descriptive assertions and RFC 2119 terminology. The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in the normative parts of this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119. However, for readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification.

All of the text of this specification is normative except sections explicitly marked as non-normative, examples, and notes. [RFC2119]

Examples in this specification are introduced with the words "for example" or are set apart from the normative text with class="example", like this:

Informative notes begin with the word "Note" and are set apart from the normative text with class="note", like this:

Note, this is an informative note.

7.2. Conformance classes

Conformance to this specification is defined for three conformance classes:

style sheet

A CSS style sheet.

renderer

A UA that interprets the semantics of a style sheet and renders documents that use them.

authoring tool

A UA that writes a style sheet.

A style sheet is conformant to this specification if all of its statements that use syntax defined in this module are valid according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature defined in this module.

A renderer is conformant to this specification if, in addition to interpreting the style sheet as defined by the appropriate specifications, it supports all the features defined by this specification by parsing them correctly and rendering the document accordingly. However, the inability of a UA to correctly render a document due to limitations of the device does not make the UA non-conformant. (For example, a UA is not required to render color on a monochrome monitor.)

An authoring tool is conformant to this specification if it writes style sheets that are syntactically correct according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature in this module, and meet all other conformance requirements of style sheets as described in this module.

7.3. Partial implementations

So that authors can exploit the forward-compatible parsing rules to assign fallback values, CSS renderers must treat as invalid (and ignore as appropriate) any at-rules, properties, property values, keywords, and other syntactic constructs for which they have no usable level of support. In particular, user agents must not selectively ignore unsupported component values and honor supported values in a single multi-value property declaration: if any value is considered invalid (as unsupported values must be), CSS requires that the entire declaration be ignored.

7.4. Experimental implementations

To avoid clashes with future CSS features, the CSS2.1 specification reserves a prefixed syntax for proprietary and experimental extensions to CSS.

Prior to a specification reaching the Candidate Recommendation stage in the W3C process, all implementations of a CSS feature are considered experimental. The CSS Working Group recommends that implementations use a vendor-prefixed syntax for such features, including those in W3C Working Drafts. This avoids incompatibilities with future changes in the draft.

7.5. Non-experimental implementations

Once a specification reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage, non-experimental implementations are possible, and implementors should release an unprefixed implementation of any CR-level feature they can demonstrate to be correctly implemented according to spec.

To establish and maintain the interoperability of CSS across implementations, the CSS Working Group requests that non-experimental CSS renderers submit an implementation report (and, if necessary, the testcases used for that implementation report) to the W3C before releasing an unprefixed implementation of any CSS features. Testcases submitted to W3C are subject to review and correction by the CSS Working Group.

Further information on submitting testcases and implementation reports can be found from on the CSS Working Group's website at http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Test/. Questions should be directed to the public-css-testsuite@w3.org mailing list.

References

Normative references

[CSS21]

Bert Bos; et al. Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification. 7 June 2011. W3C Recommendation. URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/REC-CSS2-20110607/

[CSS3VAL]

Håkon Wium Lie; Tab Atkins; Elika J. Etemad. CSS Values and Units Module Level 3. 28 August 2012. W3C Candidate Recommendation. (Work in progress.) URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/CR-css3-values-20120828/

[RFC2119]

S. Bradner. Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. Internet RFC 2119. URL: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt

Other references

[CSS3COLOR]

Tantek Çelik; Chris Lilley; L. David Baron. CSS Color Module Level 3. 7 June 2011. W3C Recommendation. URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/REC-css3-color-20110607

Index

• authoring tool, 7.2.
• cascading variable, 2.
• <CDC>, 2.
• <CDO>, 2.
• creator, 4.2.
• CSS declaration block declarations, 4.2.
• CSSStyleDeclaration, 4.1.
• CSSVariablesDeclaration, 4.2.
• custom properties, 2.
• custom property, 2.
• deleter, 4.2.
• getter, 4.2.
• invalid at computed-value time, 3.1.
• invalid variable, 3.1.
• renderer, 7.2.
• setter, 4.2.
• style sheet
  • as conformance class, 7.2.
• <value>, 2.
• var-*, 2.
• variable, 2.
• <variable>, 3.

Property index