4.6. Edits
The ins
and del
elements represent edits to the document.
4.6.1. The ins
element
- Categories:
- Flow content.
- Phrasing content.
- Palpable content.
- Contexts in which this element can be used:
- Where phrasing content is expected.
- Content model:
- Transparent.
- Tag omission in text/html:
- Neither tag is omissible
- Content attributes:
- Global attributes
cite
- Link to the source of the quotation or more information about the editdatetime
- Date and (optionally) time of the change- Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
- Any role value.
- Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
- Global aria-* attributes
- Any
aria-*
attributes applicable to the allowed roles. - DOM interface:
- Uses the
HTMLModElement
interface.
The ins
element represents an addition to the document.
<aside> <ins> <p> I like fruit. </p> </ins> </aside>
As does the following, 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.
ins
element in this example thus crosses a
paragraph boundary, which is considered poor form.
<aside> <!-- don’t do this --> <ins datetime="2005-03-16 00:00Z"> <p> I like fruit. </p> Apples are <em>tasty</em>. </ins> <ins datetime="2007-12-19 00:00Z"> 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="2005-03-16 00:00Z"> <p> I like fruit. </p> </ins> <ins datetime="2005-03-16 00:00Z"> Apples are <em>tasty</em>. </ins> <ins datetime="2007-12-19 00:00Z"> So are pears. </ins> </aside>
4.6.2. The del
element
- Categories:
- Flow content.
- Phrasing content.
- Contexts in which this element can be used:
- Where phrasing content is expected.
- Content model:
- Transparent.
- Tag omission in text/html:
- Neither tag is omissible
- Content attributes:
- Global attributes
cite
- Link to the source of the quotation or more information about the editdatetime
- Date and (optionally) time of the change- Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
- Any role value.
- Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
- Global aria-* attributes
- Any
aria-*
attributes applicable to the allowed roles. - DOM interface:
- Uses the
HTMLModElement
interface.
The del
element represents a removal from the document.
del
elements should not cross implied paragraph boundaries.
<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>
4.6.3. 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. To obtain
the corresponding citation link, the value of the attribute must be resolved relative to the element. User agents may allow users to follow such
citation links, but they are primarily intended for private use (e.g., by server-side scripts
collecting statistics about a site’s edits), not for readers.
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.
User agents must parse the datetime
attribute according
to the parse a date or time string algorithm. If that doesn’t return a date or a global date and time,
then the modification has no associated timestamp (the value is non-conforming; it is not a valid date string with optional time). Otherwise, the modification is marked as
having been made at the given date or global date and time. If the given value is a global date and time then user agents should use the associated
time-zone offset information to determine which time zone to present the given datetime in.
This value may be shown to the user, but it is primarily intended for private use.
The ins
and del
elements must implement the HTMLModElement
interface:
interface HTMLModElement : HTMLElement { attribute DOMString cite; attribute DOMString dateTime; };
The cite
IDL attribute must reflect the element’s cite
content attribute. The dateTime
IDL attribute must reflect the
element’s datetime
content attribute.
4.6.4. 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 <del> 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.
4.6.5. 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.
<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>
<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>
4.6.6. Edits and tables
This section is non-normative.
The elements that form part of the table model have complicated content model requirements that
do not allow for the ins
and del
elements, so indicating edits to a
table can be difficult.
To indicate that an entire row or an entire column has been added or removed, the entire
contents of each cell in that row or column can be wrapped in ins
or del
elements (respectively).
<table> <thead> <tr> <th> Game name <th> Game publisher <th> Verdict <tbody> <tr> <td> Diablo 2 <td> Blizzard <td> 8/10 <tr> <td> Portal <td> Valve <td> 10/10 <tr> <td> <ins>Portal 2</ins> <td> <ins>Valve</ins> <td> <ins>10/10</ins> </table>
Here, a column has been removed (the time at which it was removed is given also, as is a link to the page explaining why):
<table> <thead> <tr> <th> Game name <th> Game publisher <th> <del cite="/edits/r192" datetime="2011-05-02 14:23Z">Verdict</del> <tbody> <tr> <td> Diablo 2 <td> Blizzard <td> <del cite="/edits/r192" datetime="2011-05-02 14:23Z">8/10</del> <tr> <td> Portal <td> Valve <td> <del cite="/edits/r192" datetime="2011-05-02 14:23Z">10/10</del> <tr> <td> Portal 2 <td> Valve <td> <del cite="/edits/r192" datetime="2011-05-02 14:23Z">10/10</del> </table>
Generally speaking, there is no good way to indicate more complicated edits (e.g., that a cell was removed, moving all subsequent cells up or to the left).