Adding new / globalizing attributes (perhaps through global attributes modules)

Problem statement / use cases

• for the text/html serialization, HTML5 faces a challenge in adding new semantics through the introduction of new elements because new elements will not be parsed correctly by legacy HTML UAs
• authors find that the formerly specialized attributes for particular elements make sense generalized to all elements
• XHTML2 is expanding the use of attributes and it would be helpful for authors to be able to retain this data if they decide to switch to HTML5 / XHTML5

Proposed solutions

Add Attribute Modules like XHTML2

XHTML2 attributes ideal for HTML5

(possible HTML5 additional attributes in bold)

• Edit
  • edit (inserted|deleted|changed|moved)
  • datetime (DateTime)
  • editedby (IRI)
• Embedding
  • src (URI)
  • processas ( _default | ContentType )
  • srctype (ContentTypes)
  • encoding (Encodings)
• Map
  • usemap (URI)
  • ismap (boolean)
  • shape (default|rect|circle|poly)
  • coords (Coordinates)
• Media
  • media (MediaDesc)
• Metainformation
  • about(URI)
  • content(CDATA)
  • datatype(QName)
  • property(QName)
• Role
  • role (QNames)

Newly proposed modules

• Citation and attribution
  • cite(IRI)
  • subcite(string or RURI())
  • attributeto(URI)
  • annotatedby (URL, pointing to a document fragment that represents an annotation of the citation)
• Notes
  • subtext(IRI)
• Clipping
  • clip(NMTokens)
• Pronunciation
  • phonetic (IPA interpreted string)
  • homophone (lang attribute interpreted string)
  • expressedas ( characters | word | phrase )
• Alternate content
  • altfor (NMTokens)
  • alt-declare (boolean)
  • illustratedby (URI)
  • alt-langs (LanguageCodes)
  • contenttype (ContentType)

Mostly covered already

• Core
  • id = ID
  • xml:id = ID
  • title = Text
  • class = NMTokens
  • layout (relevant | irrelevant)
• l18N
  • xml:lang (LanguageCode)
  • lang (LanguageCode)
• Bi-directional
  • dir (ltr | rtl | lro | rlo)
• Style
  • style (CDATA)

Might require complicated implementation

• Hypertext
  • href (URI)
  • hreflang (LanguageCodes)
  • hrefmedia (MediaDesc)
  • hreftype (ContentTypes)
  • target (Href Target)
  • xml:base (URI)
  • download ( default | download | download-dialog )
• Controls
  • nextfocus (IDREF)
  • prevfocus (IDREF)

Others not necessarily needed for HTML5

• Events
  • defaultAction ("cancel|perform")
  • event (CDATA)
  • handler (IDREF)
  • observer (IDREF)
  • phase ( capture|default )
  • propagate ( stop|continue )
  • target (IDREF)
• Forms
  • repeat-model (IDREF)
  • repeat-bind (IDREF)
  • repeat-nodeset (LocationPath)
  • repeat-startindex (Number)
  • repeat-number (Number)

Discussion and evaluation

Email

WG members should post feedback and other discussion to the WG’s list serve (the URI for the links below provides date information). Search on this email subject.

See also