Tree tables

Problem statement / use cases

• Authors have a need to structure tree data for presentation to users

Proposed solutions

• Change the content model of the TR element to include an optional TBODY element after all of the rows TD and TH elements
• The inclusion of a TBODY inside a TR indicates the TBODY is a branch in the tree data structure
• Only the root table has a THEAD, TFOOT, COL, and COLGROUP elements
• The number of columns in the table is determined the same as before, though now the sub-tbody elements also a specified number of columns (rows of cells with a span of one or more, where the number of columns is equal to the row with the greatest sum of spans for the child cells)

Benefits:

• Degrades gracefully in existing browsers
  • all data is displayed as if all sub tables had been disclosed
  • after the two initial tbody elements, the remaining tbody elements are all anonymous tbody elements
• Tree tables provides the most flexible solution for authors interested in displaying tree data since authors may display tree data structured into both columns and rows

Discussion and evaluation

Email

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See also