HTML 5

Contexts in which this element may be used:

In a head element containing no other base elements.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific 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.

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.

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).

If there are multiple base elements with href attributes, all but the first are ignored.

The target attribute, if specified, must contain a valid browsing context name or keyword. User agents use this name when following hyperlinks.

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

If there are multiple base elements with target attributes, all but the first are ignored.

The href and target DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.2.4 The `link` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where metadata content is expected.

In a noscript element that is a child of a head element.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific 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;
           attribute DOMString sizes;
};

The LinkStyle interface must also be implemented by this element, the styling processing model defines how. [CSSOM]

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

The destination of the link is given by the href attribute, which must be present and must contain a valid URL. If the href attribute is absent, then the element does not define a link.

The type of link indicated (the relationship) is given by the value of the rel attribute, which must be present, and must have a value that is a set of space-separated tokens. The allowed values and their meanings are defined in a later section. If the rel attribute is absent, or if the value used is not allowed according to the definitions in this specification, then the element does not define a link.

Two categories of links can be created using the link element. Links to external resources are links to resources that are to be used to augment the current document, and hyperlink links are links to other documents. The link types section defines whether a particular link type is an external resource or a hyperlink. One 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.

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). For external resources that are represented in the DOM (for example, style sheets), the DOM representation must be made available even if the resource is not applied. (However, user agents may opt to only fetch such resources when they are needed, instead of pro-actively fetching all the external resources that are not applied.)

The semantics of the protocol used (e.g. HTTP) must be followed when fetching external resources. (For example, redirects must be followed and 404 responses must cause the external resource to not be applied.)

Interactive user agents should provide users with a means to follow the hyperlinks created using the link element, somewhere within their user interface. The exact interface is not defined by this specification, but it should include the following information (obtained from the element's attributes, again as defined below), in some form or another (possibly simplified), for each hyperlink created with each link element in the document:

The relationship between this document and the resource (given by the rel attribute)
The title of the resource (given by the title attribute).
The address of the resource (given by the href attribute).
The language of the resource (given by the hreflang attribute).
The optimum media for the resource (given by the media attribute).

User agents may also include other information, such as the type of the resource (as given by the type attribute).

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. [MQ]

If the link is a hyperlink then the media attribute is purely advisory, and describes for which media the document in question was designed.

However, if the link is an external resource link, then the media attribute is prescriptive. The user agent must apply the external resource to views while their state match the listed media and the other relevant conditions apply, and must not apply them otherwise.

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 hyperlink elements.

The type attribute gives the MIME type of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid MIME type, optionally with parameters. [RFC2046]

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. If the attribute is present, then the user agent must assume that the resource is of the given type. If the attribute is omitted, but the external resource link type has a default type defined, then the user agent must assume that the resource is of that type. If the UA does not support the given MIME type for the given link relationship, then the UA should not fetch the resource; if the UA does support the given MIME type for the given link relationship, then the UA should fetch the resource. If the attribute is omitted, and the external resource link type does not have a default type defined, but the user agent would fetch the resource if the type was known and supported, then the user agent should fetch the resource under the assumption that it will be supported.

User agents must not consider the type attribute authoritative — upon fetching the resource, user agents must not use the type attribute to determine its actual type. Only the actual type (as defined in the next paragraph) is used to determine whether to apply the resource, not the aforementioned assumed type.

If the resource is expected to be an image, user agents may apply the image sniffing rules, with the official type being the type determined from the resource's Content-Type metadata, and use the resulting sniffed type of the resource as if it was the actual type. Otherwise, if the resource is not expected to be an image, or if the user agent opts not to apply those rules, then the user agent must use the resource's Content-Type metadata to determine the type of the resource. If there is no type metadata, but the external resource link type has a default type defined, then the user agent must assume that the resource is of that type.

Once the user agent has established the type of the resource, the user agent must apply the resource if it is of a supported type and the other relevant conditions apply, and must ignore the resource otherwise.

If a document contains style sheet links labeled as follows:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="A" type="text/plain">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="B" type="text/css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="C">

...then a compliant UA that supported only CSS style sheets would fetch the B and C files, and skip the A file (since text/plain is not the MIME type for CSS style sheets).

For files B and C, it would then check the actual types returned by the server. For those that are sent as text/css, it would apply the styles, but for those labeled as text/plain, or any other type, it would not.

If one the two files was returned without a Content-Type metadata, or with a syntactically incorrect type like Content-Type: "null", then the default type for stylesheet links would kick in. Since that default type is text/css, the style sheet would nonetheless be applied.

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.

Some versions of HTTP defined a Link: header, to be processed like a series of link elements. If supported, for the purposes of ordering links defined by HTTP headers must be assumed to come before any links in the document, in the order that they were given in the HTTP entity header. (URIs in these headers are to be processed and resolved according to the rules given in HTTP; the rules of this specification don't apply.) [RFC2616] [RFC2068]

The DOM attributes href, rel, media, hreflang, and type, and sizes each must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The DOM attribute relList must reflect the rel content attribute.

The DOM 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.

4.2.5 The `meta` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

If the charset attribute is present, or if the element is in the Encoding declaration state: as the first element in a head element.

If the http-equiv attribute is present, and the element is not in the Encoding declaration state: in a head element.

If the http-equiv attribute is present, and the element is 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.

Element-specific attributes:

name

http-equiv

content

charset (HTML only)

DOM interface:

interface HTMLMetaElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString content;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString httpEquiv;
};

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 called a character encoding declaration.

The charset attribute may be specified in HTML documents only, it must not be used in XML documents. If the charset attribute is specified, the element must be the first element in the head element of the file.

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.

If a meta element has the http-equiv attribute specified, it must be either in a head element or in a noscript element that itself is in a head element. If a meta element does not have the http-equiv attribute specified, it must be in a head element.

The DOM attributes name and content must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. The DOM attribute httpEquiv must reflect the content attribute http-equiv.

4.2.5.1 Standard metadata names

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

application-name: The value must be a short free-form string that 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. User agents may use the application name in UI in preference to the page's title, since the title might include status messages and the like relevant to the status of the page at a particular moment in time instead of just being the name of the application.
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.
generator: The value must be a free-form string that identifies the software used to generate the document. This value must not be used on hand-authored pages.

4.2.5.2 Other metadata names

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

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 description of what the metadata name's meaning is, including the format the value is required to be in.

Link to more details

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.

Status

One of the following:

Proposal: The name has not received wide peer review and approval. Someone has proposed it and is using it.
Accepted: 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.
Unendorsed: The metadata name has received wide peer review and it has been found wanting. Existing pages are using this keyword, but new pages should avoid it. The "brief description" and "link to more details" entries will give details of what authors should use instead, if anything.

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

Conformance checkers must use the information given on the WHATWG Wiki MetaExtensions page to establish if a value not explicitly defined in this specification is allowed or not. When an author uses a new type not defined by either this specification or the Wiki page, conformance checkers should offer to add the value to the Wiki, with the details described above, with the "proposal" status.

This specification does not define how new values will get approved. It is expected that the Wiki will have a community that addresses this.

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	Keywords
Content Language	`Content-Language`
Encoding declaration	`Content-Type`
Default style	`default-style`
Refresh	`refresh`

When a meta element is inserted into the document, if its http-equiv attribute is present and represents one of the above states, then the user agent must run the algorithm appropriate for that state, as described in the following list:

Content language

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

If another meta element in the Content Language state has already been successfully processed (i.e. when it was inserted the user agent processed it and reached the last step of this list of steps), then abort these steps.
If the meta element has no content attribute, or if that attribute's value is the empty string, then abort these steps.
Let input be the value of the element's content attribute.
Let position point at the first character of input.
Skip whitespace.
Collect a sequence of characters that are neither space characters nor a U+002C COMMA character (",").
Let the document-wide default language be the string that resulted from the previous step.

For meta elements in the Content Language state, the content attribute must have a value consisting of a valid RFC 3066 language code. [RFC3066]

This pragma is not exactly equivalent to the HTTP Content-Language header, for instance it only supports one language. [RFC2616]

Encoding declaration state

The Encoding declaration state's user agent requirements are all handled by the parsing section of the specification. The state is just an alternative form of setting the charset attribute: it is a character encoding declaration.

For meta elements 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 in the Encoding declaration state then that element must be the first element in the document's head element, and the document must not contain a meta element with the charset attribute present.

The Encoding declaration state may be used in HTML documents only, elements in that state must not be used in XML documents.

Default style state

Refresh state

If another meta element in the Refresh state has already been successfully processed (i.e. when it was inserted the user agent processed it and reached the last step of this list of steps), then abort these steps.
If the meta element has no content attribute, or if that attribute's value is the empty string, then abort these steps.
Let input be the value of the element's content attribute.
Let position point at the first character of input.
Skip whitespace.
Collect a sequence of characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO to U+0039 DIGIT NINE, and parse the resulting string using the rules for parsing non-negative integers. If the sequence of characters collected is the empty string, then no number will have been parsed; abort these steps. Otherwise, let time be the parsed number.
Collect a sequence of characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO to U+0039 DIGIT NINE and U+002E FULL STOP ("."). Ignore any collected characters.
Skip whitespace.
Let url be the address of the current page.
If the character in input pointed to by position is a U+003B SEMICOLON (";"), then advance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the last step.
Skip whitespace.
If the character in input pointed to by position is one of U+0055 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U or U+0075 LATIN SMALL LETTER U, then advance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the last step.
If the character in input pointed to by position is one of U+0052 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R or U+0072 LATIN SMALL LETTER R, then advance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the last step.
If the character in input pointed to by position is one of U+004C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L or U+006C LATIN SMALL LETTER L, then advance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the last step.
Skip whitespace.
If the character in input pointed to by position is a U+003D EQUALS SIGN ("="), then advance position to the next character. Otherwise, jump to the last step.
Skip whitespace.
Let url be equal to the substring of input from the character at position to the end of the string.
Strip any trailing space characters from the end of url.
Strip any U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), and U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters from url.
Resolve the url value to an absolute URL. (For the purposes of determining the base URL, the url value comes from the value of a content attribute of the meta element.) If this fails, abort these steps.
Perform one or more of the following steps:
- Set a timer so that in time seconds, adjusted to take into account user or user agent preferences, if the user has not canceled the redirect, the user agent navigates the document's browsing context to url, with replacement enabled, and with the document's browsing context as the source browsing context.
- Provide the user with an interface that, when selected, navigates a browsing context to url, with the document's browsing context as the source browsing context.
- Do nothing.
In addition, the user agent may, as with anything, inform the user of any and all aspects of its operation, including the state of any timers, the destinations of any timed redirects, and so forth.

For meta elements in the Refresh state, the content attribute must have a value consisting either of:

just a valid non-negative integer, or
a valid non-negative integer, followed by a U+003B SEMICOLON (;), followed by one or more space characters, followed by either a U+0055 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U or a U+0075 LATIN SMALL LETTER U, a U+0052 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R or a U+0072 LATIN SMALL LETTER R, a U+004C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L or a U+006C LATIN SMALL LETTER L, a U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=), and then a valid URL.

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.

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

4.2.5.4 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:

The character encoding name given must be the name of the character encoding used to serialize the file.
The value must be a valid character encoding name, and must be the preferred name for that encoding. [IANACHARSET]
The character encoding declaration must be serialized without the use of character references or character escapes of any kind.

If the document does not start with a BOM, and if its encoding is not explicitly given by Content-Type metadata, 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 in the Encoding declaration state.

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

Authors should not use JIS_X0212-1990, x-JIS0208, and encodings based on EBCDIC. Authors should not use UTF-32. Authors must not use the CESU-8, UTF-7, BOCU-1 and SCSU encodings. [CESU8] [UTF7] [BOCU1] [SCSU]

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

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

4.2.6 The `style` element

Categories

If the scoped attribute is present: flow content.

Contexts in which this element may 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.

Element-specific 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;
};

The LinkStyle interface must also be implemented by this element, the styling processing model defines how. [CSSOM]

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.

If the type attribute is given, it must contain a valid MIME type, optionally with parameters, that designates a styling language. [RFC2046] If the attribute is absent, the type defaults to text/css. [RFC2138]

When examining types to determine if they support the language, user agents must not ignore unknown MIME parameters — types with unknown parameters must be assumed to be unsupported.

The media attribute says which media the styles apply to. The value must be a valid media query. [MQ] User agents must apply the styles to views while their state match the listed media, and must not apply them otherwise. [DOM3VIEWS]

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 the attribute is present, then the user agent must apply the specified style information only to the style element's parent element (if any), and that element's child nodes. Otherwise, the specified styles must, if applied, be applied to the entire 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.

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.

All descendant elements must be processed, according to their semantics, before the style element itself is evaluated. For styling languages that consist of pure text, user agents must evaluate style elements by passing the concatenation of the contents of all the text nodes that are direct children of the style element (not any other nodes such as comments or elements), in tree order, to the style system. For XML-based styling languages, user agents must pass all the children nodes of the style element to the style system.

This specification does not specify a style system, but CSS is expected to be supported by most Web browsers. [CSS21]

The media, type and scoped DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The DOM disabled attribute behaves as defined for the alternative style sheets DOM.

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]

For style elements, if the user agent does not support the specified styling language, then the sheet attribute of the element's LinkStyle interface must return null. Similarly, link elements that do not represent external resource links that contribute to the styling processing model (i.e. that do not have a stylesheet keyword in their rel attribute), and link elements whose specified resource has not yet been fetched, or is not in a supported styling language, must have their LinkStyle interface's sheet attribute return null.

Otherwise, the LinkStyle interface's sheet attribute must return a StyleSheet object with the attributes implemented as follows: [CSSOM]

The content type (type DOM attribute): The content type must be the same as the style's specified type. For style elements, this is the same as the type content attribute's value, or text/css if that is omitted. For link elements, this is the Content-Type metadata of the specified resource.
The location (href DOM attribute): For link elements, the location must be the result of resolving the URL given by the element's href content attribute, or the empty string if that fails. For style elements, there is no location.
The intended destination media for style information (media DOM attribute): The media must be the same as the value of the element's media content attribute.
The style sheet title (title DOM attribute): The title must be the same as the value of the element's title content attribute. If the attribute is absent, then the style sheet does not have a title. The title is used for defining alternative style sheet sets.

The disabled DOM attribute on link and style elements must return false and do nothing on setting, if the sheet attribute of their LinkStyle interface is null. Otherwise, it must return the value of the StyleSheet interface's disabled attribute on getting, and forward the new value to that same attribute on setting.

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

Contexts in which this element may 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.

If there is a src attribute, the element must be empty.

Element-specific 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.

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. If the type attribute is present, its value must be the type of the script's language.

When used to include data blocks, the data must be embedded inline, the format of the data must be given using the type attribute, and the src attribute must not be specified.

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, optionally with parameters. The charset parameter must not be specified. (The default, which is used if the attribute is absent, is "text/javascript".) [RFC2046]

The src attribute, if specified, gives the address of the external script resource to use. The value of the attribute must be a valid URL 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.

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, and must be the preferred name for that encoding. [IANACHARSET]

The encoding specified must be the encoding used by the script resource. If the charset attribute is omitted, the character encoding of the document will be used. If the script resource uses a different encoding than the document, then the attribute must be specified.

The async and defer attributes are boolean attributes that indicate how the script should be executed.

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 is described below.

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 (namely, when the element is inserted into the document).

script elements have four associated pieces of metadata. The first is a flag indicating whether or not the script block has been "already executed". Initially, script elements must have this flag unset (script blocks, when created, are not "already executed"). When a script element is cloned, the "already executed" flag, if set, must be propagated to the clone when it is created. The second is a flag indicating whether the element was "parser-inserted". This flag is set by the HTML parser and is used to handle document.write() calls. The third and fourth pieces of metadata are the script's type and the script's character encoding. They are determined when the script is run, based on the attributes on the element at that time.

When an XML parser creates a script element, it must be marked as being "parser-inserted". When the element's end tag is parsed, the user agent must run the script element.

Equivalent requirements exist for the HTML parser, but they are detailed in that section instead.

When a script element that is marked as neither having "already executed" nor being "parser-inserted" is inserted into a document, the user agent must run the script element.

Running a script: When a script element is to be run, the user agent must act as follows:

If either:
- the script element has a type attribute and its value is the empty string, or
- the script element has no type attribute but it has a language attribute and that attribute's value is the empty string, or
- the script element has neither a type attribute nor a language attribute, then
...let the script's type for this script element be "text/javascript".

Otherwise, if the script element has a type attribute, let the script's type for this script element be the value of that attribute.

Otherwise, the element has a language attribute; let the script's type for this script element be the concatenation of the string "text/" followed by the value of the language attribute.
If the script element has a charset attribute, then let the script's character encoding for this script element be the encoding given by the charset attribute.

Otherwise, let the script's character encoding for this script element be the same as the encoding of the document itself.
If the script element is without script, or if the script element was created by an XML parser that itself was created as part of the processing of the innerHTML attribute's setter, or if the user agent does not support the scripting language given by the script's type for this script element, then the user agent must abort these steps at this point. The script is not executed.
The user agent must set the element's "already executed" flag.
If the element has a src attribute, then the specified resource must be fetched.

For historical reasons, if the URL is a javascript: URL, then the user agent must not, despite the requirements in the definition of the fetching algorithm, actually execute the given script; instead the user agent must act as if it had received an empty HTTP 400 response.

Once the fetching process has completed, and the script has completed loading, the user agent will have to complete the steps described below. (If the parser is still active at that time, those steps defer to the parser to handle the execution of pending scripts.)

For performance reasons, user agents may start fetching the script as soon as the attribute is set, instead, in the hope that the element will be inserted into the document. Either way, once the element is inserted into the document, the load must have started. If the UA performs such prefetching, but the element is never inserted in the document, or the src attribute is dynamically changed, then the user agent will not execute the script, and the fetching process will have been effectively wasted.
Then, the first of the following options that describes the situation must be followed:

If the document is still being parsed, and the element has a defer attribute, and the element does not have an async attribute

The element must be added to the end of the list of scripts that will execute when the document has finished parsing. This isn't compatible with IE for inline deferred scripts, but then what IE does is pretty hard to pin down exactly. Do we want to keep this like it is? Be more compatible?

If the element has an async attribute and a src attribute

The element must be added to the end of the list of scripts that will execute asynchronously.

If the element has an async attribute but no src attribute, and the list of scripts that will execute asynchronously is not empty

The element must be added to the end of the list of scripts that will execute asynchronously.

If the element has a src attribute and has been flagged as "parser-inserted"

The element is the pending external script. (There can only be one such script at a time.)

If the element has a src attribute

The element must be added to the end of the list of scripts that will execute as soon as possible.

Otherwise

The user agent must immediately execute the script, even if other scripts are already executing.

When a script completes loading: If the script's element was added to one of the lists mentioned above and the document is still being parsed, then the parser handles it. Otherwise, the UA must run the following steps as the task that the networking task source places on the task queue:

If the script's element was added to the list of scripts that will execute when the document has finished parsing:

If the script's element is not the first element in the list, then do nothing yet. Stop going through these steps.
Otherwise, execute the script (that is, the script associated with the first element in the list).
Remove the script's element from the list (i.e. shift out the first entry in the list).
If there are any more entries in the list, and if the script associated with the element that is now the first in the list is already loaded, then jump back to step two to execute it.

If the script's element was added to the list of scripts that will execute asynchronously:

If the script is not the first element in the list, then do nothing yet. Stop going through these steps.
Execute the script (the script associated with the first element in the list).
Remove the script's element from the list (i.e. shift out the first entry in the list).
If there are any more scripts in the list, and the element now at the head of the list had no src attribute when it was added to the list, or had one, but its associated script has finished loading, then jump back to step two to execute the script associated with this element.

If the script's element was added to the list of scripts that will execute as soon as possible:

Execute the script.
Remove the script's element from the list.

Fetching an external script must delay the load event.

Executing a script block: When the steps above require that the script be executed, the user agent must act as follows:

If the load resulted in an error (for example a DNS error, or an HTTP 404 error)

Executing the script must just consist of firing an error event at the element.

If the load was successful

If the script element's Document is the active document in its browsing context, the user agent must execute the script:

If the script is from an external file

That file must be used as the file to execute.

The file must be interpreted using the character encoding given by the script's character encoding, regardless of any metadata given by the file's Content-Type metadata.

This means that a UTF-16 document will always assume external scripts are UTF-16...? This applies, e.g., to document's created using createDocument()... It also means changing document.charSet will affect the character encoding used to interpret scripts, is that really what happens?

If the script is inline

For scripting languages that consist of pure text, user agents must use the value of the DOM text attribute (defined below) as the script to execute, and for XML-based scripting languages, user agents must use all the child nodes of the script element as the script to execute.

In any case, the user agent must execute the script according to the semantics defined by the language associated with the script's type (see the scripting languages section below).

The script execution context of the script must be the Window object of that browsing context.

The script document context of the script must be the Document object that owns the script element.

The element's attributes' values might have changed between when the element was inserted into the document and when the script has finished loading, as may its other attributes; similarly, the element itself might have been taken back out of the DOM, or had other changes made. These changes do not in any way affect the above steps; only the values of the attributes at the time the script element is first inserted into the document matter.
Then, the user agent must fire a load event at the script element.

The DOM attributes src, type, charset, async, and defer, each must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The DOM attribute text must return a concatenation of the contents of all the text nodes that are direct children of the script element (ignoring any other nodes such as comments or elements), in tree order. On setting, it must act the same way as the textContent DOM attribute.

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.

4.3.1.1 Scripting languages

A user agent is said to support the scripting language if the script's type matches the MIME type of a scripting language that the user agent implements.

The following lists some MIME types and the languages to which they refer:

text/javascript
text/javascript1.1
text/javascript1.2
text/javascript1.3: ECMAScript. [ECMA262]
text/javascript;e4x=1: ECMAScript with ECMAScript for XML. [ECMA357]

User agents may support other MIME types and other languages.

When examining types to determine if they support the language, user agents must not ignore unknown MIME parameters — types with unknown parameters must be assumed to be unsupported.

4.3.2 The `noscript` element

Categories: Metadata content.; Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may 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:: Without script, in a head element: in any order, zero or more link elements, zero or more style elements, and zero or more meta elements.; Without script, not in a head element: transparent, but there must be no noscript element descendants.; With script: text that conforms to the requirements given in the prose.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The noscript element does not represent anything. 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.

The noscript element must not be used in XML documents.

The noscript element is only effective in the HTML serialization, it has no effect in the XML serialization.

When used in HTML documents, the allowed content model is as follows:

In a head element, if the noscript element is without script, then the content model of a noscript element must contain only link, style, and meta elements. If the noscript element is with script, then the content model of a noscript element is 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.

Outside of head elements, if the noscript element is without script, then the content model of a noscript element 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 the noscript element is with script, then the content model of a noscript element is 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:

Remove every script element from the document.
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.

The noscript element has no other requirements. In particular, children of the noscript element are not exempt from form submission, scripting, and so forth, even when the element is with script.

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 element is not allowed in XML, because in XML the parser is not affected by such state, and thus the element would not have the desired effect.

The noscript element interacts poorly with the designMode feature. Authors are encouraged to not use noscript elements on pages that will have designMode enabled.

4.3.3 The `eventsource` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where metadata content is expected.

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific attributes:

src

DOM interface:

interface HTMLEventSourceElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString src;
};

The eventsource element represents a target for events generated by a remote server.

The src attribute, if specified, must give a valid URL identifying a resource that uses the text/event-stream format.

When an eventsource element with a src attribute specified is inserted into the document, and when an eventsource element that is already in the document has a src attribute added, the user agent must run the add declared event source algorithm.

While an eventsource element is in a document, if its src attribute is mutated, the user agent must must run the remove declared event source algorithm followed by the add declared event source algorithm.

When an eventsource element with a src attribute specified is removed from a document, and when an eventsource element that is in a document with a src attribute specified has its src attribute removed, the user agent must run the remove declared event source algorithm.

When it is created, an eventsource element must have its current declared event source set to "undefined".

The add declared event source algorithm is as follows:

Resolve the URL specified by the eventsource element's src attribute.
If that fails, then set the element's current declared event source to "undefined" and abort these steps.
Otherwise, act as if the addEventSource() method on the eventsource element had been invoked with the resulting absolute URL.
Let the element's current declared event source be that absolute URL.

The remove declared event source algorithm is as follows:

If the element's current declared event source is "undefined", abort these steps.
Otherwise, act as if the removeEventSource() method on the eventsource element had been invoked with the element's current declared event source.
Let the element's current declared event source be "undefined".

There can be more than one eventsource element per document, but authors should take care to avoid opening multiple connections to the same server as HTTP recommends a limit to the number of simultaneous connections that a user agent can open per server.

The src DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

4.4 Sections

Some elements, for example address elements, are scoped to their nearest ancestor sectioning content. For such elements x, the elements that apply to a sectioning content element e are all the x elements whose nearest sectioning content ancestor is e.

4.4.1 The `body` element

Categories

Sectioning content.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As the second element in an html element.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

None.

DOM interface:

interface HTMLBodyElement : HTMLElement {};

The body element represents the main content of the document.

In conforming documents, there is only one body element. The document.body DOM attribute provides scripts with easy access to a document's body element.

Some DOM operations (for example, parts of the drag and drop model) are defined in terms of "the body element". This refers to a particular element in the DOM, as per the definition of the term, and not any arbitrary body element.

4.4.2 The `section` element

Categories: Flow content.; Sectioning content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Flow content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The section element represents a generic document or application section. A section, in this context, is a thematic grouping of content, typically with a header, possibly with a footer.

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, contact information.

4.4.3 The `nav` element

Categories: Flow content.; Sectioning content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Flow content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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 primary navigation blocks are appropriate for the nav element. In particular, it is common for footers to have a list of links to various key parts of a site, but the footer element is more appropriate in such cases.

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>
 </header>
 <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>
 <article>
  <p>...page content would be here...</p>
 </article>
 <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>

4.4.4 The `article` element

Categories: Flow content.; Sectioning content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Flow content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The article element represents a section of a page that consists of a composition that forms an independent part of a document, page, or site. This could be a forum post, a magazine or newspaper article, a Web log entry, a user-submitted comment, or any other independent item of content.

An article element is "independent" in that its contents could stand alone, for example in syndication. However, the element is still associated with its ancestors; for instance, contact information that applies to a parent body element still covers the article as well.

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 Web log entry on a site that accepts user-submitted comments could represent the comments as article elements nested within the article element for the Web log entry.

Author information associated with an article element (q.v. the address element) does not apply to nested article elements.

4.4.5 The `aside` element

Categories: Flow content.; Sectioning content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Flow content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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 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>

...

4.4.6 The `h1`, `h2`, `h3`, `h4`, `h5`, and `h6` elements

Categories: Flow content.; Heading content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

These elements define headers 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.

4.4.7 The `header` element

Categories: Flow content.; Heading content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Flow content, including at least one descendant that is heading content, but no sectioning content descendants, no header element descendants, and no footer element descendants.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The header element represents the header of a section. The element is typically used to group a set of h1–h6 elements to mark up a page's title with its subtitle or tagline. However, header elements may contain more than just the section's headings and subheadings — for example it would be reasonable for the header to include version history information.

For the purposes of document summaries, outlines, and the like, the text of header elements is defined to be the text of the highest ranked h1–h6 element descendant of the header 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 header element is the empty string.

Other heading elements in the header element indicate subheadings or subtitles.

The rank of a header element is the same as for an h1 element (the highest rank).

The section on headings and sections defines how header elements are assigned to individual sections.

Here are some examples of valid headers. In each case, the emphasised text represents the text that would be used as the header in an application extracting header data and ignoring subheadings.

<header>
 <h1>The reality dysfunction</h1>
 <h2>Space is not the only void</h2>
</header>

<header>
 <h1>Dr. Strangelove</h1>
 <h2>Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb</h2>
</header>

<header>
 <p>Welcome to...</p>
 <h1>Voidwars!</h1>
</header>

<header>
 <h1>Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2</h1>
 <h2>W3C Working Draft 27 October 2004</h2>
 <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>

Categories: Flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Flow content, but with no heading content descendants, no sectioning content descendants, and no footer element descendants.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The footer element represents the footer for the section it applies to. 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 section given in a footer should be marked up using the address element.

Footers don't necessarily have to appear at the end of a section, though they usually do.

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>
 <h1>Lorem ipsum</h1>
 <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>

4.4.9 The `address` element

Categories: Flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Flow content, but with no heading content descendants, no sectioning content descendants, no footer element descendants, and no address element descendants.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The address element represents the contact information for the section it applies to. If it applies to the body element, then it instead 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 contact information for the section. (The p element is the appropriate element for marking up such addresses.)

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 with other information in a footer element.

To determine the contact information for a sectioning content element (such as a document's body element, which would give the contact information for the page), UAs must collect all the address elements that apply to that sectioning content element and its ancestor sectioning content elements. The contact information is the collection of all the information given by those elements.

Contact information for one sectioning content element, e.g. an aside element, does not apply to its ancestor elements, e.g. the page's body.

4.4.10 Headings and sections

The h1–h6 elements and the header element are headings.

The first element of heading content in an element of sectioning content gives the header for that section. Subsequent headers of equal or higher rank start new (implied) sections, headers of lower rank start subsections that are part of the previous one.

Sectioning content elements are always considered subsections of their nearest ancestor element of sectioning content, regardless of what implied sections other headings may have created.

Certain elements are said to be sectioning roots, including blockquote and td elements. These elements can have their own outlines, but the sections and headers inside these elements do not contribute to the outlines of their ancestors.

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:

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)
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 headers 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 heading 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.

4.4.10.1 Creating an outline

This section defines an algorithm for creating an outline for a sectioning content element or a sectioning root element. It is defined in terms of a walk over the nodes of a DOM tree, in tree order, with each node being visited when it is entered and when it is exited during the walk.

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 algorithm for the outline also associates each node in the DOM tree with a particular section and potentially a heading. (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):

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.

The algorithm that must be followed during a walk of a DOM subtree rooted at a sectioning content element or a sectioning root element to determine that element's outline is as follows:

Let current outlinee be null. (It holds the element whose outline is being created.)
Let current section be null. (It holds a pointer to a section, so that elements in the DOM can all be associated with a section.)
Create a stack to hold elements, which is used to handle nesting. Initialize this stack to empty.
As you walk over the DOM in tree order, trigger the first relevant step below for each element as you enter and exit it.
If the top of the stack is an element, and you are exiting that element

The element being exited is a heading content element.

Pop that element from the stack.

If the top of the stack is a heading content element

Do nothing.

When entering a sectioning content element or a sectioning root element

If current outlinee is not null, push current outlinee onto the stack.

Let current outlinee be the element that is being entered.

Let current section be a newly created section for the current outlinee element.

Let there be a new outline for the new current outlinee, initialized with just the new current section as the only section in the outline.

When exiting a sectioning content element, if the stack is not empty

Pop the top element from the stack, and let the current outlinee be that element.

Let current section be the last section in the outline of the current outlinee element.

Append the outline of the sectioning content element being exited to the current section. (This does not change which section is the last section in the outline.)

When exiting a sectioning root element, if the stack is not empty
Run these steps:
1. Pop the top element from the stack, and let the current outlinee be that element.
2. Let current section be the last section in the outline of the current outlinee element.
3. Finding the deepest child: If current section has no child sections, stop these steps.
4. Let current section be the last child section of the current current section.
5. Go back to the substep labeled finding the deepest child.
When exiting a sectioning content element or a sectioning root element

The current outlinee is the element being exited.

Let current section be the first section in the outline of the current outlinee element.

Skip to the next step in the overall set of steps. (The walk is over.)

If the current outlinee is null.

Do nothing.

When entering a heading content element
If the current section has no heading, let the element being entered be the heading for the current section.

Otherwise, if the element being entered has a rank equal to or greater than the heading of the last section of the outline of the current outlinee, then create a new section and append it to the outline of the current outlinee element, so that this new section is the new last section of that outline. Let current section be that new section. Let the element being entered be the new heading for the current section.

Otherwise, run these substeps:
1. Let candidate section be current section.
2. If the element being entered has a rank lower than the rank of the heading of the candidate section, then create a new section, and append it to candidate section. (This does not change which section is the last section in the outline.) Let current section be this new section. Let the element being entered be the new heading for the current section. Abort these substeps.
3. Let new candidate section be the section that contains candidate section in the outline of current outlinee.
4. Let candidate section be new candidate section.
5. Return to step 2.
Push the element being entered onto the stack. (This causes the algorithm to skip any descendants of the element.)

Recall that h1 has the highest rank, and h6 has the lowest rank.
Otherwise

Do nothing.
In addition, whenever you exit a node, after doing the steps above, if current section is not null, associate the node with the section current section.
If the current outlinee is null, then there was no sectioning content element or sectioning root element in the DOM. There is no outline. Abort these steps.
Associate any nodes that were not associated with a section in the steps above with current outlinee as their section.
Associate all nodes with the heading of the section with which they are associated, if any.
If current outlinee is the body element, then the outline created for that element is the outline of the entire document.

The tree of sections created by the algorithm above, or a proper subset thereof, must be used when generating document outlines, for example when generating tables of contents.

When creating an interactive table of contents, entries should jump the user to the relevant sectioning content element, if the section was created for a real element in the original document, or to the relevant heading content element, if the section in the tree was generated for a heading in the above process.

Selecting the first section of the document therefore always takes the user to the top of the document, regardless of where the first header in the body is to be found.

The following JavaScript function shows how the tree walk could be implemented. The root argument is the root of the tree to walk, and the enter and exit arguments are callbacks that are called with the nodes as they are entered and exited. [ECMA262]

function (root, enter, exit) {
  var node = root;
  start: while (node) {
    enter(node);
    if (node.firstChild) {
      node = node.firstChild;
      continue start;
    }
    while (node) {
      exit(node);
      if (node.nextSibling) {
        node = node.nextSibling;
        continue start;
      }
      if (node == root)
        node = null;
      else
        node = node.parentNode;
    }
  }
}

4.4.10.2 Distinguishing site-wide headings from page headings

Given the outline of a document, but ignoring any sections created for nav and aside elements, and any of their descendants, if the only root of the tree is the body element's section, and it has only a single subsection which is created by an article element, then the heading of the body element should be assumed to be a site-wide heading, and the heading of the article element should be assumed to be the page's heading.

If a page starts with a heading that is common to the whole site, the document must be authored such that, in the document's outline, ignoring any sections created for nav and aside elements and any of their descendants, the tree has only one root section, the body element's section, its heading is the site-wide heading, the body element has just one subsection, that subsection is created by an article element, and that article's heading is the page heading.

If a page does not contain a site-wide heading, then the page must be authored such that, in the document's outline, ignoring any sections created for nav and aside elements and any of their descendants, either the body element has no subsections, or it has more than one subsection, or it has a single subsection but that subsection is not created by an article element, or there is more than one section at the root of the outline.

Conceptually, a site is thus a document with many articles — when those articles are split into many pages, the heading of the original single page becomes the heading of the site, repeated on every page.

4.5 Grouping content

4.5.1 The `p` element

Categories: Flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The p element represents a paragraph.

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 may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Empty.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses 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.

4.5.3 The `br` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Empty.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The br element represents a line break.

br elements must be empty. Any content inside br elements must not be considered part of the surrounding text.

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>Name: <input name="name"><br>
Address: <input name="address"></p>

Here are alternatives to the above, which are correct:

<p><a ...>34 comments.</a></p>
<p><a ...>Add a comment.<a></p>

<p>Name: <input name="name"></p>
<p>Address: <input name="address"></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.

4.5.4 The `pre` element

Categories: Flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses 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 serialization, a leading newline character immediately following the pre element start tag is stripped.

Some examples of cases where the pre element could be used:

Including an e-mail, with paragraphs indicated by blank lines, lists indicated by lines prefixed with a bullet, and so on.
Including fragments of computer code, with structure indicated according to the conventions of that language.
Displaying ASCII art.

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>

4.5.5 The `dialog` element

Categories: Flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Zero or more pairs of one dt element followed by one dd element.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The dialog element represents a conversation.

Each part of the conversation must have an explicit talker (or speaker) given by a dt element, and a discourse (or quote) given by a dd element.

This example demonstrates this using an extract from Abbot and Costello's famous sketch, Who's on first:

<dialog>
 <dt> Costello
 <dd> Look, you gotta first baseman?
 <dt> Abbott
 <dd> Certainly.
 <dt> Costello
 <dd> Who's playing first?
 <dt> Abbott
 <dd> That's right.
 <dt> Costello
 <dd> When you pay off the first baseman every month, who gets the money?
 <dt> Abbott
 <dd> Every dollar of it. 
</dialog>

Text in a dt element in a dialog element is implicitly the source of the text given in the following dd element, and the contents of the dd element are implicitly a quote from that speaker. There is thus no need to include cite, q, or blockquote elements in this markup. Indeed, a q element inside a dd element in a conversation would actually imply the people talking were themselves quoting another work. See the cite, q, and blockquote elements for other ways to cite or quote.

4.5.6 The `blockquote` element

Categories

Sectioning root.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

Content model:

Element-specific 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, should be cited in the cite attribute.

If the cite attribute is present, it must be a valid URL. User agents should allow users to follow such citation links.

If a blockquote element is preceded or followed by a single paragraph that contains a single cite element and that is itself not preceded or followed by another blockquote element and does not itself have a q element descendant, then, the title of the work given by that cite element gives the source of the quotation contained in the blockquote element.

The cite DOM attribute must reflect the element's cite content attribute.

The best way to represent a conversation is not with the cite and blockquote elements, but with the dialog element.

4.5.7 The `ol` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

Content model:

Zero or more li elements.

Element-specific attributes:

reversed

start

DOM interface:

interface HTMLOListElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean reversed;
           attribute long start;
};

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.

If the start attribute is present, user agents must parse it as an integer, in order to determine the attribute's value. The default value, used if the attribute is missing or if the value cannot be converted to a number according to the referenced algorithm, is 1 if the element has no reversed attribute, and is the number of child li elements otherwise.

The first item in the list has the ordinal value given by the ol element's start attribute, unless that li element has a value attribute with a value that can be successfully parsed, in which case it has the ordinal value given by that value attribute.

Each subsequent item in the list has the ordinal value given by its value attribute, if it has one, or, if it doesn't, the ordinal value of the previous item, plus one if the reversed is absent, or minus one if it is present.

The reversed DOM attribute must reflect the value of the reversed content attribute.

The start DOM attribute must reflect the value of the start content attribute.

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>

4.5.8 The `ul` element

Categories: Flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Zero or more li elements.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses 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>

4.5.9 The `li` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Inside ol elements.

Inside ul elements.

Inside menu elements.

Content model:

When the element is a child of a menu element: phrasing content.

Otherwise: flow content.

Element-specific attributes:

If the element is a child of an ol element: value

If the element is not the child of an ol element: None.

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.

The value attribute, if present, must be a valid integer giving the ordinal value of the list item.

If the value attribute is present, user agents must parse it as an integer, in order to determine the attribute's value. If the attribute's value cannot be converted to a number, the attribute must be treated as if it was absent. The attribute has no default value.

The value attribute is processed relative to the element's parent ol element (q.v.), if there is one. If there is not, the attribute has no effect.

The value DOM attribute must reflect the value of the value content attribute.

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 legend.

<figure>
 <legend>The top 10 movies of all time</legend>
 <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>
 <legend>The top 10 movies of all time</legend>
 <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 must match the :enabled and :disabled pseudo-classes in the same way as the first such child element does.

4.5.10 The `dl` element

Categories: Flow content.
Contexts in which this element may 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.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The dl element introduces 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).

Name-value groups may be terms and definitions, metadata topics and values, 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.

If a dl element is empty, it contains no groups.

If a dl element contains non-whitespace text nodes, or elements other than dt and dd, then those elements or text nodes do not form part of any groups in that dl.

If a dl element contains only dt elements, then it consists of one group with names but no values.

If a dl element contains only dd elements, then it consists of one group with values but no names.

If a dl element starts with one or more dd elements, then the first group has no associated name.

If a dl element ends with one or more dt elements, then the last group has no associated value.

When a dl element doesn't match its content model, it is often due to accidentally using dd elements in the place of dt elements and vice versa. Conformance checkers can spot such mistakes and might be able to advise authors how to correctly use the markup.

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, since dialogue is ordered (each speaker/line pair comes after the next). For an example of how to mark up dialogue, see the dialog element.

4.5.11 The `dt` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Before dd or dt elements inside dl elements.; Before a dd element inside a dialog element.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The dt element represents the term, or name, part of a term-description group in a description list (dl element), and the talker, or speaker, part of a talker-discourse pair in a conversation (dialog 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.

If the dt element is the child of a dialog element, and it further contains a time element, then that time element represents a timestamp for when the associated discourse (dd element) was said, and is not part of the name of the talker.

The following extract shows how an IM conversation log could be marked up.

<dialog>
 <dt> <time>14:22</time> egof
 <dd> I'm not that nerdy, I've only seen 30% of the star trek episodes
 <dt> <time>14:23</time> kaj
 <dd> if you know what percentage of the star trek episodes you have seen, you are inarguably nerdy
 <dt> <time>14:23</time> egof
 <dd> it's unarguably
 <dt> <time>14:24</time> kaj
 <dd> you are not helping your case
</dialog>

4.5.12 The `dd` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: After dt or dd elements inside dl elements.; After a dt element inside a dialog element.
Content model:: Flow content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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), and the discourse, or quote, part in a conversation (dialog element).

4.6 Text-level semantics

4.6.1 The `a` element

Categories

When the element only contains phrasing content: phrasing content.

Otherwise: flow content.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Transparent, but there must be no interactive content descendant.

Element-specific attributes:

href

target

ping

rel

media

hreflang

type

DOM interface:

[Stringifies=href] interface HTMLAnchorElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString href;
           attribute DOMString target;
           attribute DOMString ping;
           attribute DOMString rel;
  readonly attribute DOMTokenList relList;
           attribute DOMString media;
           attribute DOMString hreflang;
           attribute DOMString type;
};

The Command interface must also be implemented by this element.

If the a element has an href attribute, then it represents a hyperlink.

If the a element has no href attribute, then the element is a placeholder for where a link might otherwise have been placed, if it had been relevant.

The target, ping, 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>

Interactive user agents should allow users to follow hyperlinks created using the a element. The href, target and ping attributes decide how the link is followed. The rel, media, hreflang, and type attributes may be used to indicate to the user the likely nature of the target resource before the user follows the link.

The activation behavior of a elements that represent hyperlinks is to run the following steps:

If the DOMActivate event in question is not trusted (i.e. a click() method call was the reason for the event being dispatched), and the a element's target attribute is ... then raise an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception and abort these steps.
If the target of the click event is an img element with an ismap attribute specified, then server-side image map processing must be performed, as follows:
1. If the DOMActivate event was dispatched as the result of a real pointing-device-triggered click event on the img element, then let x be the distance in CSS pixels from the left edge of the image to the location of the click, and let y be the distance in CSS pixels from the top edge of the image to the location of the click. Otherwise, let x and y be zero.
2. Let the hyperlink suffix be a U+003F QUESTION MARK character, the value of x expressed as a base-ten integer using ASCII digits (U+0030 DIGIT ZERO to U+0039 DIGIT NINE), a U+002C COMMA character, and the value of y expressed as a base-ten integer using ASCII digits.
Finally, the user agent must follow the hyperlink defined by the a element. If the steps above defined a hyperlink suffix, then take that into account when following the hyperlink.

The DOM attributes href, ping, target, rel, media, hreflang, and type, must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The DOM attribute relList must reflect the rel content attribute.

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 `q` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: cite
DOM interface:: The q element uses the HTMLQuoteElement interface.

The q element represents some phrasing content quoted from another source.

Quotation punctuation (such as quotation marks), if any, must be placed inside the q element.

Content inside a q element must be quoted from another source, whose address, if it has one, should be cited in the cite attribute.

If the cite attribute is present, it must be a valid URL. User agents should allow users to follow such citation links.

If a q element is contained (directly or indirectly) in a paragraph that contains a single cite element and has no other q element descendants, then, the title of the work given by that cite element gives the source of the quotation contained in the q element.

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, there are no quotation marks:

<p>His best argument: <q>I disagree!</q></p>

4.6.3 The `cite` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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, 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.)

A ship is similarly not a work, and the element must not be used to mark up ship names (the i element can be used for that purpose).

This next example shows a typical use of the cite element:

<p>My favourite book is <cite>The Reality Dysfunction</cite> by
Peter F. Hamilton. My favourite comic is <cite>Pearls Before
Swine</cite> by Stephan Pastis. My favourite 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>

The cite element can apply to blockquote and q elements in certain cases described in the definitions of those elements.

This next example shows the use of cite alongside blockquote:

<p>His next piece was the aptly named <cite>Sonnet 130</cite>:</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun,<br>
  Coral is far more red, than her lips red,
  ...

4.6.4 The `em` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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>

4.6.5 The `strong` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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>

4.6.6 The `small` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The small element represents small print (part of a document often describing legal restrictions, such as copyrights or other disadvantages), or other side comments.

The small element does not "de-emphasize" or lower the importance of text emphasised by the em element or marked as important with the strong element.

In this example the footer contains contact information and a copyright.

<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>

In this second example, the small element is used for a side comment.

<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>

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>

4.6.7 The `mark` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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.

The rendering section will eventually suggest that user agents provide a way to let users jump between mark elements. Suggested rendering is a neon yellow background highlight, though UAs maybe should allow this to be toggled.

This example shows how the mark example 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 another example showing the use of mark to highlight a part of quoted text that was originally not emphasised. In this example, common typographic conventions have led the author to explicitly style mark elements in quotes to render in italics.

<article>
 <style>
  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>

4.6.8 The `dfn` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content, but there must be no descendant dfn elements.
Element-specific attributes:: None, but 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: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None, but 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>

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>

4.6.10 The `time` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

datetime

DOM interface:

interface HTMLTimeElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString dateTime;
  readonly attribute DOMTimeStamp date;
  readonly attribute DOMTimeStamp time;
  readonly attribute DOMTimeStamp timezone;
};

The time element represents a date and/or a time.

The datetime attribute, if present, must contain a date or time string that identifies the date or time being specified.

If the datetime attribute is not present, then the date or time must be specified in the content of the element, such that parsing the element's textContent according to the rules for parsing date or time strings in content successfully extracts a date or time.

The dateTime DOM attribute must reflect the datetime content attribute.

User agents, to obtain the date, time, and timezone represented by a time element, must follow these steps:

If the datetime attribute is present, then parse it according to the rules for parsing date or time strings in attributes, and let the result be result.
Otherwise, parse the element's textContent according to the rules for parsing date or time strings in content, and let the result be result.
If result is empty (because the parsing failed), then the date is unknown, the time is unknown, and the timezone is unknown.
Otherwise: if result contains a date, then that is the date; if result contains a time, then that is the time; and if result contains a timezone, then the timezone is the element's timezone. (A timezone can only be present if both a date and a time are also present.)

The date DOM attribute must return null if the date is unknown, and otherwise must return the time corresponding to midnight UTC (i.e. the first second) of the given date.

The time DOM attribute must return null if the time is unknown, and otherwise must return the time corresponding to the given time of 1970-01-01, with the timezone UTC.

The timezone DOM attribute must return null if the timezone is unknown, and otherwise must return the time corresponding to 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC in the given timezone, with the timezone set to UTC (i.e. the time corresponding to 1970-01-01 at 00:00 UTC plus the offset corresponding to the timezone).

In the following snippet:

<p>Our first date was <time datetime="2006-09-23">a Saturday</time>.</p>

...the time element's date attribute would have the value 1,158,969,600,000ms, and the time and timezone attributes would return null.

In the following snippet:

<p>We stopped talking at <time datetime="2006-09-24 05:00 -7">5am the next morning</time>.</p>

...the time element's date attribute would have the value 1,159,056,000,000ms, the time attribute would have the value 18,000,000ms, and the timezone attribute would return −25,200,000ms. To obtain the actual time, the three attributes can be added together, obtaining 1,159,048,800,000, which is the specified date and time in UTC.

Finally, in the following snippet:

<p>Many people get up at <time>08:00</time>.</p>

...the time element's date attribute would have the value null, the time attribute would have the value 28,800,000ms, and the timezone attribute would return null.

These APIs may be suboptimal. Comments on making them more useful to JS authors are welcome. The primary use cases for these elements are for marking up publication dates e.g. in blog entries, and for marking event dates in hCalendar markup. Thus the DOM APIs are likely to be used as ways to generate interactive calendar widgets or some such.

4.6.11 The `progress` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

value

max

DOM interface:

interface HTMLProgressElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute float value;
           attribute float max;
  readonly attribute float position;
};

The progress element represents the completion progress of a task. The progress is either indeterminate, indicating that progress is being made but that it is not clear how much more work remains to be done before the task is complete (e.g. because the task is waiting for a remote host to respond), or the progress is a number in the range zero to a maximum, giving the fraction of work that has so far been completed.

There are two attributes that determine the current task completion represented by the element.

The value attribute specifies how much of the task has been completed, and the max attribute specifies how much work the task requires in total. The units are arbitrary and not specified.

Instead of using the attributes, authors are recommended to include the current value and the maximum value inline as text inside the element.

Here is a snippet of a Web application that shows the progress of some automated task:

<section>
 <h2>Task Progress</h2>
 <p>Progress: <progress><span id="p">0</span>%</progress></p>
 <script>
  var progressBar = document.getElementById('p');
  function updateProgress(newValue) {
    progressBar.textContent = newValue;
  }
 </script>
</section>

(The updateProgress() method in this example would be called by some other code on the page to update the actual progress bar as the task progressed.)

Author requirements: The max and value attributes, when present, must have values that are valid floating point numbers. The max attribute, if present, must have a value greater than zero. The value attribute, if present, must have a value equal to or greater than zero, and less than or equal to the value of the max attribute, if present.

The progress element is the wrong element to use for something that is just a gauge, as opposed to task progress. For instance, indicating disk space usage using progress would be inappropriate. Instead, the meter element is available for such use cases.

User agent requirements: User agents must parse the max and value attributes' values according to the rules for parsing floating point number values.

If the value attribute is omitted, then user agents must also parse the textContent of the progress element in question using the steps for finding one or two numbers of a ratio in a string. These steps will return nothing, one number, one number with a denominator punctuation character, or two numbers.

Using the results of this processing, user agents must determine whether the progress bar is an indeterminate progress bar, or whether it is a determinate progress bar, and in the latter case, what its current and maximum values are, all as follows:

If the max attribute is omitted, and the value is omitted, and the results of parsing the textContent was nothing, then the progress bar is an indeterminate progress bar. Abort these steps.
Otherwise, it is a determinate progress bar.
If the max attribute is included, then, if a value could be parsed out of it, then the maximum value is that value.
Otherwise, if the max attribute is absent but the value attribute is present, or, if the max attribute is present but no value could be parsed from it, then the maximum is 1.
Otherwise, if neither attribute is included, then, if the textContent contained one number with an associated denominator punctuation character, then the maximum value is the value associated with that denominator punctuation character; otherwise, if the textContent contained two numbers, the maximum value is the higher of the two values; otherwise, the maximum value is 1.
If the value attribute is present on the element and a value could be parsed out of it, that value is the current value of the progress bar. Otherwise, if the attribute is present but no value could be parsed from it, the current value is zero.
Otherwise if the value attribute is absent and the max attribute is present, then, if the textContent was parsed and found to contain just one number, with no associated denominator punctuation character, then the current value is that number. Otherwise, if the value attribute is absent and the max attribute is present then the current value is zero.
Otherwise, if neither attribute is present, then the current value is the lower of the one or two numbers that were found in the textContent of the element.
If the maximum value is less than or equal to zero, then it is reset to 1.
If the current value is less than zero, then it is reset to zero.
Finally, if the current value is greater than the maximum value, then the current value is reset to the maximum value.

UA requirements for showing the progress bar: When representing a progress element to the user, the UA should indicate whether it is a determinate or indeterminate progress bar, and in the former case, should indicate the relative position of the current value relative to the maximum value.

The max and value DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. When the relevant content attributes are absent, the DOM attributes must return zero. The value parsed from the textContent never affects the DOM values.

Would be cool to have the value DOM attribute update the textContent in-line...

If the progress bar is an indeterminate progress bar, then the position DOM attribute must return −1. Otherwise, it must return the result of dividing the current value by the maximum value.

4.6.12 The `meter` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

value

min

low

high

max

optimum

DOM interface:

interface HTMLMeterElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute float value;
           attribute float min;
           attribute float max;
           attribute float low;
           attribute float high;
           attribute float optimum;
};

The meter element represents a scalar measurement within a known range, or a fractional value; for example disk usage, the relevance of a query result, or the fraction of a voting population to have selected a particular candidate.

This is also known as a gauge.

The meter element should not be used to indicate progress (as in a progress bar). For that role, HTML provides a separate progress element.

The meter element also does not represent a scalar value of arbitrary range — for example, it would be wrong to use this to report a weight, or height, unless there is a known maximum value.

There are six attributes that determine the semantics of the gauge represented by the element.

The min attribute specifies the lower bound of the range, and the max attribute specifies the upper bound. The value attribute specifies the value to have the gauge indicate as the "measured" value.

The other three attributes can be used to segment the gauge's range into "low", "medium", and "high" parts, and to indicate which part of the gauge is the "optimum" part. The low attribute specifies the range that is considered to be the "low" part, and the high attribute specifies the range that is considered to be the "high" part. The optimum attribute gives the position that is "optimum"; if that is higher than the "high" value then this indicates that the higher the value, the better; if it's lower than the "low" mark then it indicates that lower values are better, and naturally if it is in between then it indicates that neither high nor low values are good.

Authoring requirements: The recommended way of giving the value is to include it as contents of the element, either as two numbers (the higher number represents the maximum, the other number the current value, and the minimum is assumed to be zero), or as a percentage or similar (using one of the characters such as "%"), or as a fraction.

The value, min, low, high, max, and optimum attributes are all optional. When present, they must have values that are valid floating point numbers, and their values must satisfy the following inequalities:

min ≤ value ≤ max
min ≤ low ≤ high ≤ max
min ≤ optimum ≤ max

All meter elements must have a value specified somehow, either using the value attribute or by including a number in the contents of the element.

If no minimum or maximum is specified, then the range is assumed to be 0..1, and the value thus has to be within that range.

The following examples all represent a measurement of three quarters (of the maximum of whatever is being measured):

<meter>75%</meter>
<meter>750‰</meter>
<meter>3/4</meter>
<meter>6 blocks used (out of 8 total)</meter>
<meter>max: 100; current: 75</meter>
<meter><object data="graph75.png">0.75</object></meter>
<meter min="0" max="100" value="75"></meter>

The following example is incorrect use of the element, because it doesn't give a range (and since the default maximum is 1, both of the gauges would end up looking maxed out):

<p>The grapefruit pie had a radius of <meter>12cm</meter>
and a height of <meter>2cm</meter>.</p> <!-- BAD! -->

Instead, one would either not include the meter element, or use the meter element with a defined range to give the dimensions in context compared to other pies:

<p>The grapefruit pie had a radius of 12cm and a height of
2cm.</p>
<dl>
 <dt>Radius: <dd> <meter min=0 max=20 value=12>12cm</meter>
 <dt>Height: <dd> <meter min=0 max=10 value=2>2cm</meter>
</dl>

There is no explicit way to specify units in the meter element, but the units may be specified in the title attribute in free-form text.

The example above could be extended to mention the units:

<dl>
 <dt>Radius: <dd> <meter min=0 max=20 value=12 title="centimeters">12cm</meter>
 <dt>Height: <dd> <meter min=0 max=10 value=2 title="centimeters">2cm</meter>
</dl>

User agent requirements: User agents must parse the min, max, value, low, high, and optimum attributes using the rules for parsing floating point number values.

If the value attribute has been omitted, the user agent must also process the textContent of the element according to the steps for finding one or two numbers of a ratio in a string. These steps will return nothing, one number, one number with a denominator punctuation character, or two numbers.

User agents must then use all these numbers to obtain values for six points on the gauge, as follows. (The order in which these are evaluated is important, as some of the values refer to earlier ones.)

The minimum value

If the min attribute is specified and a value could be parsed out of it, then the minimum value is that value. Otherwise, the minimum value is zero.

The maximum value

If the max attribute is specified and a value could be parsed out of it, the maximum value is that value.

Otherwise, if the max attribute is specified but no value could be parsed out of it, or if it was not specified, but either or both of the min or value attributes were specified, then the maximum value is 1.

Otherwise, none of the max, min, and value attributes were specified. If the result of processing the textContent of the element was either nothing or just one number with no denominator punctuation character, then the maximum value is 1; if the result was one number but it had an associated denominator punctuation character, then the maximum value is the value associated with that denominator punctuation character; and finally, if there were two numbers parsed out of the textContent, then the maximum is the higher of those two numbers.

If the above machinations result in a maximum value less than the minimum value, then the maximum value is actually the same as the minimum value.

The actual value

If the value attribute is specified and a value could be parsed out of it, then that value is the actual value.

If the value attribute is not specified but the max attribute is specified and the result of processing the textContent of the element was one number with no associated denominator punctuation character, then that number is the actual value.

If neither of the value and max attributes are specified, then, if the result of processing the textContent of the element was one number (with or without an associated denominator punctuation character), then that is the actual value, and if the result of processing the textContent of the element was two numbers, then the actual value is the lower of the two numbers found.

Otherwise, if none of the above apply, the actual value is zero.

If the above procedure results in an actual value less than the minimum value, then the actual value is actually the same as the minimum value.

If, on the other hand, the result is an actual value greater than the maximum value, then the actual value is the maximum value.

The low boundary

If the low attribute is specified and a value could be parsed out of it, then the low boundary is that value. Otherwise, the low boundary is the same as the minimum value.

If the above results in a low boundary that is less than the minimum value, the low boundary is the minimum value.

The high boundary

If the high attribute is specified and a value could be parsed out of it, then the high boundary is that value. Otherwise, the high boundary is the same as the maximum value.

If the above results in a high boundary that is higher than the maximum value, the high boundary is the maximum value.

The optimum point

If the optimum attribute is specified and a value could be parsed out of it, then the optimum point is that value. Otherwise, the optimum point is the midpoint between the minimum value and the maximum value.

If the optimum point is then less than the minimum value, then the optimum point is actually the same as the minimum value. Similarly, if the optimum point is greater than the maximum value, then it is actually the maximum value instead.

All of which should result in the following inequalities all being true:

minimum value ≤ actual value ≤ maximum value
minimum value ≤ low boundary ≤ high boundary ≤ maximum value
minimum value ≤ optimum point ≤ maximum value

UA requirements for regions of the gauge: If the optimum point is equal to the low boundary or the high boundary, or anywhere in between them, then the region between the low and high boundaries of the gauge must be treated as the optimum region, and the low and high parts, if any, must be treated as suboptimal. Otherwise, if the optimum point is less than the low boundary, then the region between the minimum value and the low boundary must be treated as the optimum region, the region between the low boundary and the high boundary must be treated as a suboptimal region, and the region between the high boundary and the maximum value must be treated as an even less good region. Finally, if the optimum point is higher than the high boundary, then the situation is reversed; the region between the high boundary and the maximum value must be treated as the optimum region, the region between the high boundary and the low boundary must be treated as a suboptimal region, and the remaining region between the low boundary and the minimum value must be treated as an even less good region.

UA requirements for showing the gauge: When representing a meter element to the user, the UA should indicate the relative position of the actual value to the minimum and maximum values, and the relationship between the actual value and the three regions of the gauge.

The following markup:

<h3>Suggested groups</h3>
<menu type="toolbar">
 <a href="?cmd=hsg" onclick="hideSuggestedGroups()">Hide suggested groups</a>
</menu>
<ul>
 <li>
  <p><a href="/group/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets/view">comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets</a> -
     <a href="/group/comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets/subscribe">join</a></p>
  <p>Group description: <strong>Layout/presentation on the WWW.</strong></p>
  <p><meter value="0.5">Moderate activity,</meter> Usenet, 618 subscribers</p>
 </li>
 <li>
  <p><a href="/group/netscape.public.mozilla.xpinstall/view">netscape.public.mozilla.xpinstall</a> -
     <a href="/group/netscape.public.mozilla.xpinstall/subscribe">join</a></p>
  <p>Group description: <strong>Mozilla XPInstall discussion.</strong></p>
  <p><meter value="0.25">Low activity,</meter> Usenet, 22 subscribers</p>
 </li>
 <li>
  <p><a href="/group/mozilla.dev.general/view">mozilla.dev.general</a> -
     <a href="/group/mozilla.dev.general/subscribe">join</a></p>
  <p><meter value="0.25">Low activity,</meter> Usenet, 66 subscribers</p>
 </li>
</ul>

Might be rendered as follows:

With the <meter> elements rendered as inline green bars of varying lengths.

User agents may combine the value of the title attribute and the other attributes to provide context-sensitive help or inline text detailing the actual values.

For example, the following snippet:

<meter min=0 max=60 value=23.2 title=seconds></meter>

...might cause the user agent to display a gauge with a tooltip saying "Value: 23.2 out of 60." on one line and "seconds" on a second line.

The min, max, value, low, high, and optimum DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. When the relevant content attributes are absent, the DOM attributes must return zero. The value parsed from the textContent never affects the DOM values.

Would be cool to have the value DOM attribute update the textContent in-line...

4.6.13 The `code` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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.

4.6.14 The `var` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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>
flavours of ice cream to be available for purchase!</p>

4.6.15 The `samp` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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><samp class="prompt">jdoe@mowmow:~$</samp> <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

<samp class="prompt">jdoe@demo:~$</samp> <samp class="cursor">_</samp></samp></pre>

4.6.16 The `kbd` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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>

4.6.17 The `sub` and `sup` elements

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which these elements may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses 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.

When the sub element is used inside a var element, it 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>

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>

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>

4.6.18 The `span` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The span element doesn't mean anything on its own, but can be useful when used together with other attributes, e.g. class, lang, or dir.

4.6.19 The `i` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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 (xml:lang in XML).

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>

The i element should be used as a last resort when no other element is more appropriate. In particular, citations should use the cite element, defining instances of terms should use the dfn element, stress emphasis should use the em element, importance should be denoted with the strong element, quotes should be marked up with the q element, and small print should use the small element.

Authors are encouraged to 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.

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.

4.6.20 The `b` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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 using HTML5 elements:

<article>
 <h2>Kittens 'adopted' by pet rabbit</h2>
 <p><b>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>
[...]

The b element should be used as a last resort when no other element is more appropriate. In particular, headers 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.

4.6.21 The `bdo` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None, but the dir global attribute has special requirements on this element.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The bdo element allows authors to override the Unicode bidi 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.

If the element has the dir attribute set to the exact value ltr, then for the purposes of the bidi algorithm, the user agent must act as if there was a U+202D LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE character at the start of the element, and a U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING at the end of the element.

If the element has the dir attribute set to the exact value rtl, then for the purposes of the bidi algorithm, the user agent must act as if there was a U+202E RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE character at the start of the element, and a U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING at the end of the element.

The requirements on handling the bdo element for the bidi algorithm may be implemented indirectly through the style layer. For example, an HTML+CSS user agent should implement these requirements by implementing the CSS unicode-bidi property. [CSS21]

4.6.22 The `ruby` element

Categories: Phrasing content.
Contexts in which this element may 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.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The ruby element allows one or more spans of phrasing content to be marked with ruby annotations.

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 text 斎藤信男 is annotated with its reading.

... <ruby>
 斎 <rt> さい </rt>
 藤 <rt> とう </rt>
 信 <rt> のぶ </rt>
 男 <rt> お         </rt>
</ruby> ...

This might be rendered as:

The four main ideographs, each with its reading annotation rendered in a smaller font above it.

4.6.23 The `rt` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: As a child of a ruby element.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The rt element marks the ruby text component of a ruby annotation.

An rt element that is a child of a ruby 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.

An rt element that is not a child of a ruby element represents the same thing as its children.

4.6.24 The `rp` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: As a child of a ruby element, either immediately before or immediately after an rt element.
Content model:: If the rp element is immediately after an rt element that is immediately preceded by another rp element: a single character from Unicode character class Pe.; Otherwise: a single character from Unicode character class Ps.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
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 that is a child of a ruby element represents nothing and it and its contents must be ignored. An rp element whose parent element is not a ruby element represents the same thing as its children.

The example above, in which each ideograph in the text 斎藤信男 is annotated with its reading, could be expanded to use rp so that in legacy user agentthe readings are in parentheses:

... <ruby>
 斎 <rp>(</rp><rt>さい</rt><rp>)</rp>
 藤 <rp>(</rp><rt>とう</rt><rp>)</rp>
 信 <rp>(</rp><rt>のぶ</rt><rp>)</rp>
 男 <rp>(</rp><rt>お</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:

... 斎 (さい) 藤 (とう) 信 (のぶ) 男 (お) ...

4.6.25 Usage summary

We need to summarize the various elements, in particular to distinguish b/i/em/strong/var/q/mark/cite.

4.6.26 Footnotes

HTML does not have a dedicated mechanism for marking up footnotes. Here are the recommended alternatives.

For short inline annotations, the title attribute should be used.

In this example, two parts of a dialog are annotated.

<dialog>
 <dt>Customer
 <dd>Hello! I wish to register a complaint. Hello. Miss?
 <dt>Shopkeeper
 <dd><span title="Colloquial pronunciation of 'What do you'"
 >Watcha</span> mean, miss?
 <dt>Customer
 <dd>Uh, I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint.
 <dt>Shopkeeper
 <dd>Sorry, <span title="This is, of course, a lie.">we're
 closing for lunch</span>.
</dialog>

For longer annotations, the a element should be used, pointing to an element later in the document. The convention is that the contents of the link be a number in square brackets.

In this example, a footnote in the dialog links to a paragraph below the dialog. The paragraph then reciprocally links back to the dialog, allowing the user to return to the location of the footnote.

<dialog>
 <dt>Announcer
 <dd>Number 16: The <i>hand</i>.
 <dt>Interviewer
 <dd>Good evening. I have with me in the studio tonight Mr
 Norman St John Polevaulter, who for the past few years has
 been contradicting people. Mr Polevaulter, why <em>do</em>
 you contradict people?
 <dt>Norman
 <dd>I don't. <a href="#fn1" id="r1">[1]</a>
 <dt>Interviewer
 <dd>You told me you did!
</dialog>
<section>
 <p id="fn1"><a href="#r1">[1]</a> This is, naturally, a lie,
 but paradoxically if it were true he could not say so without
 contradicting the interviewer and thus making it false.</p>
</section>

For side notes, longer annotations that apply to entire sections of the text rather than just specific words or sentences, the aside element should be used.

In this example, a sidebar is given after a dialog, giving some context to the dialog.

<dialog>
 <dt>Customer
 <dd>I will not buy this record, it is scratched.
 <dt>Shopkeeper
 <dd>I'm sorry?
 <dt>Customer
 <dd>I will not buy this record, it is scratched.
 <dt>Shopkeeper
 <dd>No no no, this's'a tobacconist's.
</dialog>
<aside>
 <p>In 1970, the British Empire lay in ruins, and foreign
 nationalists frequented the streets — many of them Hungarians
 (not the streets — the foreign nationals). Sadly, Alexander
 Yalt has been publishing incompetently-written phrase books.
</aside>

4.7 Edits

The ins and del elements represent edits to the document.

4.7.1 The `ins` element

Categories: When the element only contains phrasing content: phrasing content.; Otherwise: flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Transparent.
Element-specific 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>
 <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: When the element only contains phrasing content: phrasing content.; Otherwise: flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where phrasing content is expected.
Content model:: Transparent.
Element-specific 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.

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 that explains the change. User agents should allow users to follow such citation links.

The datetime attribute may be used to specify the time and date of the change.

If present, the datetime attribute must be a valid global date and time string value.

User agents must parse the datetime attribute according to the parse a global date and time string algorithm. If that doesn't return a time, then the modification has no associated timestamp (the value is non-conforming; it is not a valid global date and time string). Otherwise, the modification is marked as having been made at the given datetime. User agents should use the associated timezone information to determine which timezone to present the given datetime in.

The ins and del elements must implement the HTMLModElement interface:

interface HTMLModElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString cite;
           attribute DOMString dateTime;
};

The cite DOM attribute must reflect the element's cite content attribute. The dateTime DOM attribute must reflect the element's datetime content attribute.

4.7.4 Edits and paragraphs

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.
</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:

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 recommended to always mark up all paragraphs with the p element, and to not have any ins or del elements that cross across any implied paragraphs.

4.7.5 Edits and lists

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 emphasised 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="2008-02-12 15:20 Z">Bug 225: Rain detector
 doesn't work in snow</ins></li>
 <li><del datetime="2008-03-01 20:22 Z"><ins datetime="2008-02-14 
 12:02 Z">Bug 228: Water buffer overflows in April</ins></del></li>
 <li><ins datetime="2008-02-16 13:50 Z">Bug 230: Water heater
 doesn't use renewable fuels</ins></li>
 <li><del datetime="2008-02-20 21:15 Z"><ins datetime="2008-02-16
 14:25 Z">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>
</ul>

4.8 Embedded content

4.8.1 The `figure` element

Categories: Flow content.; Sectioning root.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Either: one legend element followed by flow content.; Or: Flow content followed by one legend element.; Or: Flow content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The figure element represents some flow content, optionally with a caption, which can be moved away from the main flow of the document without affecting the document's meaning.

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 first legend element child of the element, if any, represents the caption of the figure element's contents. If there is no child legend element, then there is no caption.

The remainder of the element's contents, if any, represents the content.

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">
 <legend>Listing 4. The primary core interface API declaration.</legend>
 <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.">
 <legend>Bubbles at work</legend>
</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:</p>

<img src="promblem-packed-action.png" alt="ROUGH COPY! Promblem-Packed Action!">

<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.</p>

<figure>
 <img src="ex-a.png" alt="Two squiggles on a dirty piece of paper.">
 <legend>Exhibit A. The alleged <cite>rough copy</cite> comic.</legend>
</figure>

<figure>
 <video src="ex-b.mov"></video>
 <legend>Exhibit A. The alleged <cite>rough copy</cite> comic.</legend>
</figure>

<p>The case was resolved out of court.</p>

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>
 <legend><cite>Jabberwocky</cite> (first verse). Lewis Carroll, 1832-98</legend>
</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.">
 <legend>The castle through the ages: 1423, 1858, and 1999 respectively.</legend>
</figure>

4.8.2 The `img` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific 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 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 URL 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.

There has been some suggestion that the longdesc attribute from HTML4, or some other mechanism that is more powerful than alt="", should be included. This has not yet been considered.

The img must not be used as a layout tool. In particular, img elements should not be used to display fully transparent images, as they rarely convey meaning and rarely add anything useful to the document.

When an img is created with a src attribute, and whenever the src attribute is set subsequently, the user agent must fetch the resource specifed by the src attribute's value, unless the user agent cannot support images, or its support for images has been disabled, or the user agent only fetches elements on demand.

Fetching the image must delay the load event.

This, unfortunately, can be used to perform a rudimentary port scan of the user's local network (especially in conjunction with scripting, though scripting isn't actually necessary to carry out such an attack). User agents may implement cross-origin access control policies that mitigate this attack.

If the image's type is a supported image type, and the image is a valid image of that type, then the image is said to be available (this affects exactly what the element represents, as defined below). This can be true even before the image is completely downloaded, if the user agent supports incremental rendering of images; in such cases, each task that is queued by the networking task source while the image is being fetched must update the presentation of the image appropriately.

Whether the image is fetched successfully or not (e.g. whether the response code was a 2xx code or equivalent) must be ignored when determining the image's type and whether it is a valid image.

This allows servers to return images with error responses, and have them displayed.

The user agents should apply the image sniffing rules to determine the type of the image, with the image's associated Content-Type headers giving the official type. If these rules are not applied, then the type of the image must be the type given by the image's associated Content-Type headers.

User agents must not support non-image resources with the img element (e.g. XML files whose root element is an HTML element). User agents must not run executable code (e.g. scripts) embedded in the image resource. User agents must only display the first page of a multipage resource (e.g. a PDF file). User agents must not allow the resource to act in an interactive fashion, but should honour any animation in the resource.

This specification does not specify which image types are to be supported.

The task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched, must, if the download was successful and the image is available, queue a task to fire a load event on the img element (this happens after complete starts returning true); and otherwise, if the fetching process fails without a response from the remote server, or completes but the image is not a valid or supported image, queue a task to fire an error event on the img element.

What an img element represents depends on the src attribute and the alt attribute.

If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to the empty string

The image is either decorative or supplemental to the rest of the content, redundant with some other information in the document.

If the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then the element represents the image specified by the src attribute.

Otherwise, the element represents nothing, and may be omitted completely from the rendering. User agents may provide the user with a notification that an image is present but has been omitted from the rendering.

If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is set to a value that isn't empty

The image is a key part of the content; the alt attribute gives a textual equivalent or replacement for the image.

If the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then the element represents the image specified by the src attribute.

Otherwise, the element represents the text given by the alt attribute. User agents may provide the user with a notification that an image is present but has been omitted from the rendering.

If the src attribute is set and the alt attribute is not

The image might be a key part of the content, and there is no textual equivalent of the image available.

If the image is available, the element represents the image specified by the src attribute.

If the image is not available or if the user agent is not configured to display the image, then the user agent should display some sort of indicator that there is an image that is not being rendered, and may, if requested by the user, or if so configured, or when required to provide contextual information in response to navigation, provide caption information for the image, derived as follows:

If the image has a title attribute whose value is not the empty string, then the value of that attribute is the caption information; abort these steps.
If the image is the child of a figure element that has a child legend element, then the contents of the first such legend element are the caption information; abort these steps.
Run the algorithm to create the outline for the document.
If the img element did not end up associated with a heading in theoutline, or if there are any other images that are lacking an alt attribute and that are associated with the same heading in the outline as the img element in question, then there is no caption information; abort these steps.
The caption information is the heading with which the image is associated according to the outline.

If the src attribute is not set and either the alt attribute is set to the empty string or the alt attribute is not set at all

The element represents nothing.

Otherwise

The element represents the text given by the alt attribute.

The alt attribute does not represent advisory information. User agents must not present the contents of the alt attribute in the same way as content of the title attribute.

User agents may always provide the user with the option to display any image, or to prevent any image from being displayed. User agents may also apply image analysis heuristics to help the user make sense of the image when the user is unable to make direct use of the image, e.g. due to a visual disability or because they are using a text terminal with no graphics capabilities.

The contents of img elements, if any, are ignored for the purposes of rendering.

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.

The DOM attributes alt, src, useMap, and isMap each must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The DOM attributes width and height must return the rendered width and height of the image, in CSS pixels, if the image is being rendered, and is being rendered to a visual medium; or else the intrinsic with and height of the image, in CSS pixels, if the image is available but not being rendered to a visual medium; or else 0, if the image is not available or its dimensions are not known. [CSS21]

The DOM attribute complete must return true if the user agent has fetched the image specified in the src attribute, and it is a valid image, even if the final task queued by the networking task source for the fetching of the image resource has not yet been processed. Otherwise, the attribute must return false.

The value of complete can thus change while a script is executing.

Three constructors are provided for creating HTMLImageElement objects (in addition to the factory methods from DOM Core such as createElement()): Image(), Image(width), and Image(width, height). When invoked as constructors, these must return a new HTMLImageElement object (a new img element). If the width argument is present, the new object's width content attribute must be set to width. If the height argument is also present, the new object's height content attribute must be set to height.

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 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 favourite.</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>

4.8.2.1 Requirements for providing text to act as an alternative for images

The requirements for the alt attribute depend on what the image is intended to represent, as described in the following sections.

4.8.2.1.1 A link or button containing nothing but the image

When an a element that is 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>

4.8.2.1.2 A phrase or paragraph with an alternative graphical representation: charts, diagrams, graphs, maps, illustrations

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="images/parsing-model-overview.png" alt="The network
passes data to the Tokeniser 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 Tokeniser."></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>

4.8.2.1.3 A short phrase or label with an alternative graphical representation: icons, logos

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 header, 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.

4.8.2.1.4 Text that has been rendered to a graphic for typographical effect

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 header, 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="earthdayheader.png" alt="Earth Day"></h1>

4.8.2.1.5 A graphical representation of some of the surrounding text

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 Tokeniser 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 Tokeniser.</p>
<p><img src="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 legend 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 Tokeniser 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 Tokeniser.</p>
<p><img src="images/parsing-model-overview.png" alt=""
        title="Flowchart representation of the parsing model."></p>

<!-- Using <figure> and <legend> -->
<p>The network passes data to the Tokeniser 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 Tokeniser.</p>
<figure>
 <img src="images/parsing-model-overview.png" alt="The Network leads
 to the Tokeniser, 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 Tokeniser. The second item
 from which Tree Construction leads is the DOM. The DOM is related to
 the Script Execution.">
 <legend>Flowchart representation of the parsing model.</legend>
</figure>

<!-- This is WRONG. Do not do this. Instead, do what the above examples do. -->
<p>The network passes data to the Tokeniser 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 Tokeniser.</p>
<p><img src="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>

4.8.2.1.6 A purely decorative image that doesn't add any information but is still specific to the surrounding content

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 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>

4.8.2.1.7 A group of images that form a single larger picture with no links

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 "3/5". 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="3/5"
  ><img src="1" alt=""><img src="1" alt=""><img src="0" alt=""
  ><img src="0" alt=""></meter></p>

4.8.2.1.8 A group of images that form a single larger picture with links

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>

4.8.2.1.9 A key part of the content

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 conveys 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.">
 <legend>Screenshot of a KDE desktop.</legend>
</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.">
 <legend>A black outline of the first of the ten cards
 in the Rorschach inkblot test.</legend>
</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.">
 <legend>A black outline of the first of the ten cards
 in the Rorschach inkblot test.</legend>
</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 complexity.

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's value may be omitted, but one of the following conditions must be met as well:

The title attribute is present and has a non-empty value.
The img element is in a figure element that contains a legend element that contains content other than inter-element whitespace.
The img element is the only img element without an alt attribute in its section, and its section has an associated heading.

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:

<figure>
 <img src="1100670787_6a7c664aef.jpg">
 <legend>Bubbles traveled everywhere with us.</legend>
</figure>

It could also be marked up like this:

<h1>Bubbles traveled everywhere with us.</h1>
 <img src="1100670787_6a7c664aef.jpg">

In either case, though, it would be better 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">
  <legend>A photograph taken blindly from my front porch.</legend>
 </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.">
  <legend>A photograph taken blindly from my front porch.</legend>
 </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> Images <th> Descriptions
 <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.

4.8.2.1.10 An image not intended for the user

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.

4.8.2.1.11 An image in an e-mail or document intended for a specific person who is known to be able to view images

When an image is included in a communication (such as an HTML e-mail) aimed at someone 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 e-mail be forwarded on to other users whose abilities might not include easily seeing images.

4.8.2.1.12 General guidelines

The most general rule for writing alternative text is that 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 what 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.

4.8.3 The `iframe` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

Text that conforms to the requirements given in the prose.

Element-specific attributes:

src

name

sandbox

seamless

width

height

DOM interface:

interface HTMLIFrameElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString sandbox;
           attribute boolean seamless;
           attribute DOMString width;
           attribute DOMString height;
};

Objects implementing the HTMLIFrameElement interface must also implement the EmbeddingElement interface defined in the Window Object specification. [WINDOW]

The iframe element introduces a new 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 URL. When the browsing context is created, if the attribute is present, the user agent must navigate the element's browsing context to the given URL, with replacement enabled, and with the iframe element's document's browsing context as the source browsing context. If the user navigates away from this page, the iframe's corresponding Window object will reference new Document objects, but the src attribute will not change.

Whenever the src attribute is set, the nested browsing context must be navigated to the URL given by that attribute's value, with the iframe element's document's browsing context as the source browsing context.

If the src attribute is not set when the element is created, the browsing context will remain at the initial about:blank page.

The name attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name. When the browsing context is created, if the attribute is present, the browsing context name must be set to the value of this attribute; otherwise, the browsing context name must be set to the empty string.

Whenever the name attribute is set, the nested browsing context's name must be changed to the new value. If the attribute is removed, the browsing context name must be set to the empty string.

When content loads in an iframe, after any load events are fired within the content itself, the user agent must fire a load event at the iframe element. When content fails to load (e.g. due to a network error), then the user agent must fire an error event at the element instead.

When there is an active parser in the iframe, and when anything in the iframe that is delaying the load event in the iframe's browsing context, the iframe must delay the load event.

If, during the handling of the load event, the browsing context in the iframe is again navigated, that will further delay the load event.

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. The allowed values are allow-same-origin, allow-forms, and allow-scripts.

While the sandbox attribute is specified, the iframe element's nested browsing context, and all the browsing contexts nested within it (either directly or indirectly through other nested browsing contexts) must have the following flags set:

The sandboxed navigation browsing context flag

This flag prevents content from navigating browsing contexts other than the sandboxed browsing context itself (or browsing contexts further nested inside it).

This flag also prevents content from creating new auxiliary browsing contexts, e.g. using the target attribute or the window.open() method.

The sandboxed plugins browsing context flag

This flag prevents content from instantiating plugins, whether using the embed element, the object element, the applet element, or through navigation of a nested browsing context.

The sandboxed annoyances browsing context flag

This flag prevents content from showing notifications outside of the nested browsing context.

The sandboxed origin browsing context flag, unless the sandbox attribute's value, when split on spaces, is found to have the allow-same-origin keyword set

This flag forces content into a unique origin for the purposes of the same-origin policy.

This flag also prevents script from reading the document.cookies DOM attribute.

The allow-same-origin attribute is intended for two cases.

First, it can be used to allow content from the same site to be sandboxed to disable scripting, while still allowing access to the DOM of the sandboxed content.

Second, it can be used to embed content from a third-party site, sandboxed to prevent that site from opening popup windows, etc, without preventing the embedded page from communicating back to its originating site, using the database APIs to store data, etc.

The sandboxed forms browsing context flag, unless the sandbox attribute's value, when split on spaces, is found to have the allow-forms keyword set

This flag blocks form submission.

The sandboxed scripts browsing context flag, unless the sandbox attribute's value, when split on spaces, is found to have the allow-scripts keyword set

This flag blocks script execution.

These flags must not be set unless the conditions listed above define them as being set.

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 send to the server in the getusercontent.cgi request, though they are not visible in the document.cookies DOM attribute.

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>

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). Specifically, when the attribute is set on an element and while the browsing context's active document has the same origin as the iframe element's document, or the browsing context's active document's address has the same origin as the iframe element's document, the following requirements apply:

The user agent must set the seamless browsing context flag to true for that browsing context. This will cause links to open in the parent browsing context.
In a CSS-supporting user agent: the user agent must add all the style sheets that apply to the iframe element to the cascade of the active document of the iframe element's nested browsing context, at the appropriate cascade levels, before any style sheets specified by the document itself.
In a CSS-supporting user agent: the user agent must, for the purpose of CSS property inheritance only, treat the root element of the active document of the iframe element's nested browsing context as being a child of the iframe element. (Thus inherited properties on the root element of the document in the iframe will inherit the computed values of those properties on the iframe element instead of taking their initial values.)
In visual media, in a CSS-supporting user agent: the user agent should set the intrinsic width of the iframe to the width that the element would have if it was a non-replaced block-level element with 'width: auto'.
In visual media, in a CSS-supporting user agent: the user agent should set the intrinsic height of the iframe to the height of the bounding box around the content rendered in the iframe at its current width.
In visual media, in a CSS-supporting user agent: the user agent must force the height of the initial containing block of the active document of the nested browsing context of the iframe to zero.

This is intended to get around the otherwise circular dependency of percentage dimensions that depend on the height of the containing block, thus affecting the height of the document's bounding box, thus affecting the height of the viewport, thus affecting the size of the initial containing block.
In speech media, the user agent should render the nested browsing context without announcing that it is a separate document.
User agents should, in general, act as if the active document of the iframe's nested browsing context was part of the document that the iframe is in.

For example if the user agent supports listing all the links in a document, links in "seamlessly" nested documents would be included in that list without being significantly distinguished from links in the document itself.

Parts of the above might get moved into the rendering section at some point.

If the attribute is not specified, or if the origin conditions listed above are not met, then the user agent should render the nested browsing context in a manner that is clearly distinguishable as a separate browsing context, and the seamless browsing context flag must be set to false for that browsing context.

It is important that user agents recheck the above conditions whenever the active document of the nested browsing context of the iframe changes, such that the seamless browsing context flag gets unset if the nested browsing context is navigated to another origin.

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.)

The content model of iframe elements is text, except that the text must be such that ... anyone have any bright ideas?

The HTML parser treats markup inside iframe elements as text.

The DOM attributes src, name, sandbox, and seamless must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.8.4 The `embed` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific 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;
};

Depending on the type of content instantiated by the embed element, the node may also support other interfaces.

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 URL.

The type attribute, if present, gives the MIME type of the plugin to instantiate. The value must be a valid MIME type, optionally with parameters. 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. [RFC2046]

When the element is created with neither a src attribute nor a type attribute, and when attributes are removed such that neither attribute is present on the element anymore, any plugins instantiated for the element must be removed, and the embed element represents nothing.

When the sandboxed plugins browsing context flag is set on the browsing context for which the embed element's document is the active document, then the user agent must render the embed element in a manner that conveys that the plugin was disabled. The user agent may offer the user the option to override the sandbox and instantiate the plugin anyway; if the user invokes such an option, the user agent must act as if the sandboxed plugins browsing context flag was not set for the purposes of this element.

Plugins are disabled in sandboxed browsing contexts because they might not honor the restrictions imposed by the sandbox (e.g. they might allow scripting even when scripting in the sandbox is disabled). User agents should convey the danger of overriding the sandbox to the user if an option to do so is provided.

When the element is created with a src attribute, and whenever the src attribute is subsequently set, and whenever the type attribute is set or removed while the element has a src attribute, if the element is not in a sandboxed browsing context, user agents should fetch the specified resource, find and instantiate an appropriate plugin based on the content's type, and hand that plugin the content of the resource, replacing any previously instantiated plugin for the element.

Fetching the resource must delay the load event.

The type of the content being embedded is defined as follows:

If the element has a type attribute, then the value of the type attribute is the content's type.
Otherwise, if the <path> component of the URL of the specified resource matches a pattern that a plugin supports, then the content's type is the type that that plugin can handle.

For example, a plugin might say that it can handle resources with <path> components that end with the four character string ".swf".

It would be better if browsers didn't do extension sniffing like this, and only based their decision on the actual contents of the resource. Couldn't we just apply the sniffed type of a resource steps?
Otherwise, if the specified resource has explicit Content-Type metadata, then that is the content's type.
Otherwise, the content has no type and there can be no appropriate plugin for it.

Whether the resource is fetched successfully or not (e.g. whether the response code was a 2xx code or equivalent) must be ignored when determining the resource's type and when handing the resource to the plugin.

This allows servers to return data for plugins even with error responses (e.g. HTTP 500 Internal Server Error codes can still contain plugin data).

When the element is created with a type attribute and no src attribute, and whenever the type attribute is subsequently set, so long as no src attribute is set, and whenever the src attribute is removed when the element has a type attribute, if the element is not in a sandboxed browsing context, user agents should find and instantiate an appropriate plugin based on the value of the type attribute.

Any (namespace-less) attribute may be specified on the embed element, so long as its name is XML-compatible and contains no characters in the range U+0041 .. U+005A (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z).

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

The user agent should pass the names and values of all the attributes of the embed element that have no namespace to the plugin used, when it is instantiated.

If the plugin instantiated for the embed element supports a scriptable interface, the HTMLEmbedElement object representing the element should expose that interface while the element is instantiated.

The embed element has no fallback content. If the user agent can't find a suitable plugin, then the user agent must use a default plugin. (This default could be as simple as saying "Unsupported Format".)

The embed element supports dimension attributes.

The DOM attributes src and type each must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.8.5 The `object` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

Zero or more param elements, then, transparent.

Element-specific attributes:

data

type

name

usemap

width

height

DOM interface:

interface HTMLObjectElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString data;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString useMap;
           attribute DOMString width;
           attribute DOMString height;
};

Objects implementing the HTMLObjectElement interface must also implement the EmbeddingElement interface defined in the Window Object specification. [WINDOW]

Depending on the type of content instantiated by the object element, the node may also support other interfaces.

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 URL.

The type attribute, if present, specifies the type of the resource. If present, the attribute must be a valid MIME type, optionally with parameters. [RFC2046]

One or both of the data and type attributes must be present.

The name attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name.

When the element is created, and subsequently whenever the classid attribute changes or is removed, or, if the classid attribute is not present, whenever the data attribute changes or is removed, or, if neither classid attribute nor the data attribute are present, whenever the type attribute changes or is removed, the user agent must run the following steps to determine what the object element represents:

If the classid attribute is present, and has a value that isn't the empty string, then: if the user agent can find a plugin suitable according to the value of the classid attribute, and plugins aren't being sandboxed, then that plugin should be used, and the value of the data attribute, if any, should be passed to the plugin. If no suitable plugin can be found, or if the plugin reports an error, jump to the last step in the overall set of steps (fallback).
If the data attribute is present, then:
1. If the type attribute is present and its value is not a type that the user agent supports, and is not a type that the user agent can find a plugin for, then the user agent may jump to the last step in the overall set of steps (fallback) without fetching the content to examine its real type.
2. Fetch the resource specified by the data attribute.
  
  The fetching of the resource must delay the load event.
3. If the resource is not yet available (e.g. because the resource was not available in the cache, so that loading the resource required making a request over the network), then jump to the last step in the overall set of steps (fallback). When the resource becomes available, or if the load fails, restart this algorithm from this step. Resources can load incrementally; user agents may opt to consider a resource "available" whenever enough data has been obtained to begin processing the resource.
4. If the load failed (e.g. an HTTP 404 error, a DNS error), fire an error event at the element, then jump to the last step in the overall set of steps (fallback).
5. Determine the resource type, as follows:
  1. Let the resource type be unknown.
  2. If the resource has associated Content-Type metadata, then let the resource type be the type specified in the resource's Content-Type metadata.
  3. If the resource type is unknown or "application/octet-stream" and there is a type attribute present on the object element, then change the resource type to instead be the type specified in that type attribute.
    
    Otherwise, if the resource type is "application/octet-stream" but there is no type attribute on the object element, then change the resource type to be unknown, so that the sniffing rules in the next step are invoked.
  4. If the resource type is still unknown, then change the resource type to instead be the sniffed type of the resource.
6. Handle the content as given by the first of the following cases that matches:
  
  If the resource type can be handled by a plugin and plugins aren't being sandboxed
  
  The user agent should use that plugin and pass the content of the resource to that plugin. If the plugin reports an error, then jump to the last step in the overall set of steps (fallback).
  
  If the resource type is an XML MIME type
  
  If the resource type is HTML
  
  If the resource type does not start with "image/"
  
  The object element must be associated with a nested browsing context, if it does not already have one. The element's nested browsing context must then be navigated to the given resource, with replacement enabled, and with the object element's document's browsing context as the source browsing context. (The data attribute of the object element doesn't get updated if the browsing context gets further navigated to other locations.)
  
  If the name attribute is present, the browsing context name must be set to the value of this attribute; otherwise, the browsing context name must be set to the empty string.
  
  navigation might end up treating it as something else, because it can do sniffing. how should we handle that?
  
  If the resource type starts with "image/", and support for images has not been disabled
  
  Apply the image sniffing rules to determine the type of the image.
  
  The object element represents the specified image. The image is not a nested browsing context.
  
  If the image cannot be rendered, e.g. because it is malformed or in an unsupported format, jump to the last step in the overall set of steps (fallback).
  
  Otherwise
  
  The given resource type is not supported. Jump to the last step in the overall set of steps (fallback).
7. The element's contents are not part of what the object element represents.
8. Once the resource is completely loaded, fire a load event at the element.
If the data attribute is absent but the type attribute is present, plugins aren't being sandboxed, and the user agent can find a plugin suitable according to the value of the type attribute, then that plugin should be used. If no suitable plugin can be found, or if the plugin reports an error, jump to the next step (fallback).
(Fallback.) The object element represents what the element's contents represent, ignoring any leading param element children. This is the element's fallback content.

When the algorithm above instantiates a plugin, the user agent should pass the names and values of all the parameters given by param elements that are children of the object element to the plugin used. If the plugin supports a scriptable interface, the HTMLObjectElement object representing the element should expose that interface. The plugin is not a nested browsing context.

If the sandboxed plugins browsing context flag is set on the browsing context for which the object element's document is the active document, then the steps above must always act as if they had failed to find a plugin, even if one would otherwise have been used.

Due to the algorithm above, the contents of object elements act as fallback content, used only when referenced resources can't be shown (e.g. because it returned a 404 error). This allows multiple object elements to be nested inside each other, targeting multiple user agents with different capabilities, with the user agent picking the first one it supports.

Whenever the name attribute is set, if the object element has a nested browsing context, its name must be changed to the new value. If the attribute is removed, if the object element has a browsing context, the browsing context name must be set to the empty string.

The usemap attribute, if present while the object element represents an image, can indicate that the object has an associated image map. The attribute must be ignored if the object element doesn't represent an image.

The object element supports dimension attributes.

The DOM attributes data, type, name, and useMap each must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

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>
 <legend>My Java Clock</legend>
</figure>

In this example, an HTML page is embedded in another using the object element.

<figure>
 <object data="clock.html"></object>
 <legend>My HTML Clock</legend>
</figure>

4.8.6 The `param` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of an object element, before any flow content.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific 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.

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.

If both attributes are present, and if the parent element of the param is an object element, then the element defines a parameter with the given name/value pair.

The DOM attributes name and value must both reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.8.7 The `video` element

Categories

If the element has a controls attribute: Interactive content.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

If the element has a src attribute: transparent.

If the element does not have a src attribute: one or more source elements, then, transparent.

Element-specific attributes:

src

poster

autoplay

start

loopstart

loopend

end

playcount

controls

width

height

DOM interface:

interface HTMLVideoElement : HTMLMediaElement {
           attribute DOMString width;
           attribute DOMString height;
  readonly attribute unsigned long videoWidth;
  readonly attribute unsigned long videoHeight;
           attribute DOMString poster;
};

A video element represents a video or movie.

Content may be provided inside the video element. User agents should not show this content to the user; 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 browser informing them of how to access the video contents.

In particular, this content is not fallback content 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) 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, autoplay, start, loopstart, loopend, end, playcount, and controls attributes are the attributes common to all media elements.

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 URL. If the specified resource is to be used, it must be fetched when the element is created or when the poster attribute is set. The poster frame is then the image obtained from that resource, if any.

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.

The poster DOM attribute must reflect the poster content attribute.

When no video data is available (the element's readyState attribute is either HAVE_NOTHING or HAVE_METADATA), video elements represent either the poster frame, or nothing.

When a video element is paused and the current playback position is the first frame of video, the element represents either the frame of video corresponding to the current playback position or the poster frame, at the discretion of the user agent.

Notwithstanding the above, the poster frame should be preferred over nothing, but the poster frame should not be shown again after a frame of video has been shown.

When a video element is paused at any other position, the element represents the frame of video corresponding to the current playback position, or, if that is not yet available (e.g. because the video is seeking or buffering), the last frame of the video to have been rendered.

When a video element is potentially playing, it represents the frame of video at the continuously increasing "current" position. When the current playback position changes such that the last frame rendered is no longer the frame corresponding to the current playback position in the video, the new frame must be rendered. Similarly, any audio associated with the video must, if played, be played synchronized with the current playback position, at the specified volume with the specified mute state.

When a video element is neither potentially playing nor paused (e.g. when seeking or stalled), the element represents the last frame of the video to have been rendered.

Which frame in a video stream corresponds to a particular playback position is defined by the video stream's format.

In addition to the above, the user agent may provide messages to the user (such as "buffering", "no video loaded", "error", or more detailed information) by overlaying text or icons on the video or other areas of the element's playback area, or in another appropriate manner.

User agents that cannot render the video may instead make the element represent a link to an external video playback utility or to the video data itself.

The intrinsic width and height of the video are the aspect-ratio corrected dimensions given by the video data itself: the intrinsic width is the number of pixels per line of the video data multiplied by the pixel ratio given by the resource, multiplied by the resolution of the resource; the intrinsic height is the number of pixels per column of the video data multiplied by the resolution of the resource. The resolution of the resource is the physical distance intended for each pixel of video data, and assumes square pixels, with the resource's pixel ratio then adjusting the width of the pixels to the actual aspect-ratio-corrected width. In the absence of resolution information defining the mapping of pixels in the video to physical dimensions, user agents should assume that one pixel in the video corresponds to one CSS pixel. The pixel ratio of the resource is the corrected aspect ratio of the video divided by the ratio of the number of pixels per line to the number of pixels per column. In the absence of pixel ratio information in the resource, user agents should assume a default of 1.0 (square pixels).

The videoWidth DOM attribute must return the intrinsic width of the video in CSS pixels. The videoHeight DOM attribute must return the intrinsic height of the video in CSS pixels. If no video data is available, then the attributes must return 0.

If the video's pixel ratio override's is none, then the video's adjusted width is the same as the video's intrinsic width. If the video has a pixel ratio override other than none, then the adjusted width of the video is the number of pixels per line of the video data multiplied by the video's pixel ratio override, multiplied by the resolution of the resource; the pixel ratio of the resource is thus ignored.

The video's adjusted height is the same as the video's intrinsic height.

The adjusted aspect ratio of a video is the ratio of its adjusted width to its adjusted height.

User agents may adjust the adjusted width and height of the video to ensure that each pixel of video data corresponds to at least one device pixel, so long as this doesn't affect the adjusted aspect ratio (this is especially relevant for pixel ratios that are less than 1.0).

The video element supports dimension attributes.

Video content should be rendered inside the element's playback area such that the video content is shown centered in the playback area at the largest possible size that fits completely within it, with the video content's adjusted aspect ratio being preserved. Thus, if the aspect ratio of the playback area does not match the adjusted aspect ratio of the video, the video will be shown letterboxed. Areas of the element's playback area that do not contain the video represent nothing.

The intrinsic width of a video element's playback area is the adjusted width of the video resource, if that is available; otherwise it is the intrinsic width of the poster frame, if that is available; otherwise it is 300 CSS pixels.

The intrinsic height of a video element's playback area is the intrinsic height of the video resource, if that is available; otherwise it is the intrinsic height of the poster frame, if that is available; otherwise it is 150 CSS pixels.

The poster frame is not affected by the pixel ratio conversions.

User agents should provide controls to enable or disable the display of closed captions associated with the video stream, though such features should, again, not interfere with the page's normal rendering.

User agents may allow users to view the video content in manners more suitable to the user (e.g. full-screen or in an independent resizable window). As for the other user interface features, controls to enable this should not interfere with the page's normal rendering unless the user agent is exposing a user interface. In such an independent context, however, user agents may make full user interfaces visible, with, e.g., play, pause, seeking, and volume controls, even if the controls attribute is absent.

User agents may allow video playback to affect system features that could interfere with the user's experience; for example, user agents could disable screensavers while video playback is in progress.

User agents should not provide a public API to cause videos to be shown full-screen. A script, combined with a carefully crafted video file, could trick the user into thinking a system-modal dialog had been shown, and prompt the user for a password. There is also the danger of "mere" annoyance, with pages launching full-screen videos when links are clicked or pages navigated. Instead, user-agent specific interface features may be provided to easily allow the user to obtain a full-screen playback mode.

The spec does not currently define the interaction of the "controls" attribute with the "height" and "width" attributes. This will likely be defined in the rendering section based on implementation experience. So far, browsers seem to be making the controls overlay-only, thus somewhat sidestepping the issue.

4.8.7.1 Video and audio codecs for `video` elements

User agents may support any video and audio codecs and container formats.

It would be helpful for interoperability if all browsers could support the same codecs. However, there are no known codecs that satisfy all the current players: we need a codec that is known to not require per-unit or per-distributor licensing, that is compatible with the open source development model, that is of sufficient quality as to be usable, and that is not an additional submarine patent risk for large companies. This is an ongoing issue and this section will be updated once more information is available.

Certain user agents might support no codecs at all, e.g. text browsers running over SSH connections.

4.8.8 The `audio` element

Categories

If the element has a controls attribute: Interactive content.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

If the element has a src attribute: transparent.

If the element does not have a src attribute: one or more source elements, then, transparent.

Element-specific attributes:

src

autoplay

start

loopstart

loopend

end

playcount

controls

DOM interface:

[NamedConstructor=Audio(),
 NamedConstructor=Audio(in DOMString src)]
interface HTMLAudioElement : HTMLMediaElement {
  // no members
};

An audio element represents a sound or audio stream.

Content may be provided inside the audio element. User agents should not show this content to the user; 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 browser informing them of how to access the audio contents.

In particular, this content is not fallback content 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, autoplay, start, loopstart, loopend, end, playcount, and controls attributes are the attributes common to all media elements.

When an audio element is potentially playing, it must have its audio data played synchronized with the current playback position, at the specified volume with the specified mute state.

When an audio element is not potentially playing, audio must not play for the element.

Two constructors are provided for creating HTMLAudioElement objects (in addition to the factory methods from DOM Core such as createElement()): Audio() and Audio(src). When invoked as constructors, these must return a new HTMLAudioElement object (a new audio element). If the src argument is present, the object created must have its src content attribute set to the provided value, and the user agent must invoke the load() method on the object before returning.

4.8.8.1 Audio codecs for `audio` elements

User agents may support any audio codecs and container formats.

User agents must support the WAVE container format with audio encoded using the PCM format.

4.8.9 The `source` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of a media element, before any flow content.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific attributes:

src

type

media

pixelratio

DOM interface:

interface HTMLSourceElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString media;
           attribute float pixelRatio;
};

The source element allows authors to specify multiple media resources for media elements.

The src attribute gives the address of the media resource. The value must be a valid URL. This attribute must be present.

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. Its value must be a MIME type. The codecs parameter may be specified and might be necessary to specify exactly how the resource is encoded. [RFC2046] [RFC4281]

The following list shows some examples of how to use the codecs= MIME parameter in the type attribute.

H.264 Simple 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=&quot;avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2&quot;">

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=&quot;avc1.58A01E, mp4a.40.2&quot;">

H.264 Main profile video level 3 and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4; codecs=&quot;avc1.4D401E, mp4a.40.2&quot;">

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=&quot;avc1.64001E, mp4a.40.2&quot;">

MPEG-4 Visual Simple Profile Level 0 video and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4; codecs=&quot;mp4v.20.8, mp4a.40.2&quot;">

MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile Level 0 video and Low-Complexity AAC audio in MP4 container

<source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4; codecs=&quot;mp4v.20.240, mp4a.40.2&quot;">

MPEG-4 Visual Simple Profile Level 0 video and AMR audio in 3GPP container

<source src="video.3gp" type="video/3gpp; codecs=&quot;mp4v.20.8, samr&quot;">

Theora video and Vorbis audio in Ogg container

<source src="video.ogv" type="video/ogg; codecs=&quot;theora, vorbis&quot;">

Theora video and Speex audio in Ogg container

<source src="video.ogv" type="video/ogg; codecs=&quot;theora, speex&quot;">

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=&quot;dirac, vorbis&quot;">

Theora video and Vorbis audio in Matroska container

<source src="video.mkv" type="video/x-matroska; codecs=&quot;theora, vorbis&quot;">

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. [MQ]

Either the type attribute, the media attribute or both, must be specified, unless this is the last source element child of the parent element.

The pixelratio attribute allows the author to specify the pixel ratio of anamorphic media resources that do not self-describe their pixel ratio. The attribute value, if specified, must be a valid floating point number giving the ratio of the correct rendered width of each pixel to the actual height of each pixel in the image. The default value, if the attribute is omitted or cannot be parsed, is 1.0.

The only way this default is used is in deciding what number the pixelRatio DOM attribute will return if the content attribute is omitted or cannot be parsed. If the content attribute is omitted or cannot be parsed, then the user agent doesn't adjust the intrinsic width of the video at all; the intrinsic dimensions and the pixel ratio of the video are honoured.

If a source element is inserted into a media element that is already in a document and whose networkState is in the NETWORK_EMPTY state, the user agent must queue a task that implicitly invokes the load() method on the media element, and ignores any resulting exceptions. The task source for this task is the media element's own media element new resource task source.

The DOM attributes src, type, and media must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The DOM attribute pixelRatio must reflect the pixelratio content attribute.

4.8.10 Media elements

Media elements 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_LOADED = 3;
  readonly attribute unsigned short networkState;
  readonly attribute float bufferingRate;
  readonly attribute boolean bufferingThrottled;
  readonly attribute TimeRanges buffered;
  readonly attribute ByteRanges bufferedBytes;
  readonly attribute unsigned long totalBytes;
  void load();

  // ready state
  const unsigned short HAVE_NOTHING = 0;
  const unsigned short HAVE_METADATA = 1;
  const unsigned short HAVE_SOME_DATA = 2;
  const unsigned short HAVE_CURRENT_DATA = 3;
  const unsigned short HAVE_FUTURE_DATA = 4;
  const unsigned short HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA = 5;
  readonly attribute unsigned short readyState;
  readonly attribute boolean seeking;

  // playback state
           attribute float currentTime;
  readonly attribute float duration;
  readonly attribute boolean paused;
           attribute float defaultPlaybackRate;
           attribute float playbackRate;
  readonly attribute TimeRanges played;
  readonly attribute TimeRanges seekable;
  readonly attribute boolean ended;
           attribute boolean autoplay;
  void play();
  void pause();

  // looping
           attribute float start;
           attribute float end;
           attribute float loopStart;
           attribute float loopEnd;
           attribute unsigned long playCount;
           attribute unsigned long currentLoop;

  // cue ranges
  void addCueRange(in DOMString className, in DOMString id, in float start, in float end, in boolean pauseOnExit, in CueRangeCallback enterCallback, in CueRangeCallback exitCallback);
  void removeCueRanges(in DOMString className);

  // controls
           attribute boolean controls;
           attribute float volume;
           attribute boolean muted;
};

// CueRangeCallback waiting on WebIDL

The media element attributes, src, autoplay, start, loopstart, loopend, end, playcount, 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.

Media elements use two task queues, the media element event task source for asynchronous events and callbacks, and the media element new resource task source for handling implicit loads. Unless otherwise specified, the task source for all the tasks queued in this section and its subsections is the media element event task source.

The canPlayType() method can be used to probe the user agent to determine what types are supported.

4.8.10.1 Error codes

All media elements have an associated error status, which records the last error the element encountered since the load() method was last invoked. The error attribute, on getting, must return the MediaError object created for this last error, or null if there has not been an error.

interface MediaError {
  const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED = 1;
  const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK = 2;
  const unsigned short MEDIA_ERR_DECODE = 3;
  readonly attribute unsigned short code;
};

The code attribute of a MediaError object must return the code for the error, which must be one of the following:

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.
MEDIA_ERR_DECODE (numeric value 3): An error of some description occurred while decoding the media resource.

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 URL.

If the src attribute of a media element that is already in a document and whose networkState is in the NETWORK_EMPTY state is added, changed, or removed, the user agent must queue a task that implicitly invokes the load() method on the media element, and ignores any resulting exceptions. The task source for this task is the media element's own media element new resource task source.

If a src attribute is specified, the resource it specifies is the media resource that will be used. Otherwise, the resource specified by the first suitable source element child of the media element is the one used.

The src DOM attribute on media elements must reflect the respective content attribute of the same name.

To pick a media resource for a media element, a user agent must use the following steps:

Let the chosen resource's pixel ratio override be none.
If the media element has a src attribute, then resolve the URL given in that attribute. If that is successful, then the resulting absolute URL is the address of the media resource; jump to the last step.
Otherwise, let candidate be the first source element child in the media element, or null if there is no such child.
Loop: this is the start of the loop that looks at the source elements.
If candidate is not null and it has a pixelratio attribute, and the result of applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to the value of that attribute is not an error, then let the chosen resource's pixel ratio override be that result; otherwise, reset it back to none.
If either:
- candidate is null, or
- the candidate element has no src attribute, or
- resolving the URL given by the candidate element's src attribute fails, or
- the candidate element has a type attribute and that attribute's value, when parsed as a MIME type, does not represent a type that the user agent can render (including any codecs described by the codec parameter), or [RFC2046] [RFC4281]
- the candidate element has a media attribute and that attribute's value, when processed according to the rules for media queries, does not match the current environment, [MQ]
...then the candidate is not suitable; go to the next step.

Otherwise, the result of resolving the URL given in that candidate element's src attribute is the address of the media resource; jump to the last step.
Let candidate be the next source element child in the media element, or null if there are no more such children.
If candidate is not null, return to the step labeled loop.
There is no media resource. Abort these steps.
Let the address of the chosen media resource be the absolute URL that was found before jumping to this step, and let its pixel ratio override be the value of the chosen resource's pixel ratio override.

The currentSrc DOM attribute must return the empty string if the media element's networkState has the value NETWORK_EMPTY, and the absolute URL that is the address of the chosen media resource otherwise.

4.8.10.3 Network states

As media elements interact with the network, their current network activity is represented by the networkState attribute. On getting, it must return the current network state of the element, which must be one of the following values:

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 a chosen media resource, but the user agent is not using the network to obtain any more of the resource than is already obtained at this time.
NETWORK_LOADING (numeric value 2): The user agent is actively trying to download data for the chosen media resource.
NETWORK_LOADED (numeric value 3): The entire media resource has been obtained and is available to the user agent locally. Network connectivity could be lost without affecting the media playback.

The algorithm for the load() method defined below describes exactly when the networkState attribute changes value and what events fire to indicate changes in this state.

Some resources, e.g. streaming Web radio, can never reach the NETWORK_LOADED state.

4.8.10.4 Loading the media resource

All media elements have a begun flag, which must begin in the false state, and an autoplaying flag, which must begin in the true state.

When the load() method on a media element is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps. Note that this algorithm might get aborted, e.g. if the load() method itself is invoked again.

If there are any tasks from the media element's media element new resource task source or its media element event task source in one of the task queues, then remove those tasks.

Basically, pending events, callbacks, and loads for the media element are discarded when the media element starts loading a new resource.
Any already-running instance of this algorithm for this element must be aborted. If those method calls have not yet returned, they must finish the step they are on, and then immediately return. This is not blocking; this algorithm must not wait for the earlier instances to abort before continuing.
If the element's begun flag is true, then the begun flag must be set to false, the error attribute must be set to a new MediaError object whose code attribute is set to MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED, and the user agent must fire a progress event called abort at the media element.
The error attribute must be set to null and the autoplaying flag must be set to true.
The playbackRate attribute must be set to the value of the defaultPlaybackRate attribute.
If the media element's networkState is not set to NETWORK_EMPTY, then the following substeps must be followed:
1. The networkState attribute must be set to NETWORK_EMPTY.
2. If readyState is not set to HAVE_NOTHING, it must be set to that state.
3. If the paused attribute is false, it must be set to true.
4. If seeking is true, it must be set to false.
5. The current playback position must be set to 0.
6. The currentLoop DOM attribute must be set to 0.
7. The user agent must fire a simple event called emptied at the media element.
The user agent must pick a media resource for the media element. If that fails, the method must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception, and abort these steps.
The networkState attribute must be set to NETWORK_IDLE.

The currentSrc attribute starts returning the new value.
The user agent must then set the begun flag to true and fire a progress event called loadstart at the media element.
The method must return, but these steps must continue.
Playback of any previously playing media resource for this element stops.
If a fetching process is in progress for the media element, the user agent should stop it.
The user agent must then begin to fetch the chosen media resource. The rate of the download may be throttled, however, in response to user preferences (including throttling it to zero until the user indicates that the download can start), or to balance the download with other connections sharing the same bandwidth.
While the fetching process is progressing, the user agent must set the networkState to NETWORK_LOADING and queue a task to fire a progress event called progress at the element every 350ms (±200ms) or for every byte received, whichever is least frequent.

If at any point the user agent has received no data for more than about three seconds, the user agent must queue a task to fire a progress event called stalled at the element.

User agents may allow users to selectively block or slow media data downloads. When a media element's download has been blocked, the user agent must act as if it was stalled (as opposed to acting as if the connection was closed).

User agents may decide to not download more content at any time, e.g. after buffering five minutes of a one hour media resource, while waiting for the user to decide whether to play the resource or not, or while waiting for user input in an interactive resource. When a media element's download has been suspended, the user agent must set the networkState to NETWORK_IDLE and queue a task to fire a progress event called suspend at the element.

The user agent may use whatever means necessary to fetch the resource (within the constraints put forward by this and other specifications); for example, reconnecting to the server in the face of network errors, using HTTP partial range requests, or switching to a streaming protocol. The user agent must consider a resource erroneous only if it has given up trying to fetch it.

The networking task source tasks to process the data as it is being fetched must, when appropriate, include the relevant substeps from the following list:
If the media data cannot be fetched at all, due to network errors, causing the user agent to give up trying to fetch the resource
DNS errors and HTTP 4xx and 5xx errors (and equivalents in other protocols) must cause the user agent to execute the following steps. User agents may also follow these steps in response to other network errors of similar severity.
1. The user agent should cancel the fetching process.
2. The error attribute must be set to a new MediaError object whose code attribute is set to MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK.
3. The begun flag must be set to false and the user agent must queue a task to fire a progress event called error at the media element.
4. The element's networkState attribute must be switched to the NETWORK_EMPTY value and the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called emptied at the element.
5. These steps must be aborted.
If the media data can be fetched but is in an unsupported format, or can otherwise not be rendered at all
The server returning a file of the wrong kind (e.g. one that that turns out to not be pure audio when the media element is an audio element), or the file using unsupported codecs for all the data, must cause the user agent to execute the following steps. User agents may also execute these steps in response to other codec-related fatal errors, such as the file requiring more resources to process than the user agent can provide in real time.
1. The user agent should cancel the fetching process.
2. The error attribute must be set to a new MediaError object whose code attribute is set to MEDIA_ERR_DECODE.
3. The begun flag must be set to false and the user agent must queue a task to fire a progress event called error at the media element.
4. The element's networkState attribute must be switched to the NETWORK_EMPTY value and the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called emptied at the element.
5. These steps must be aborted.
If the media data fetching process is aborted by the user
The fetching process is aborted by the user, e.g. because the user navigated the browsing context to another page, the user agent must execute the following steps. These steps are not followed if the load() method itself is reinvoked, as the steps above handle that particular kind of abort.
1. The user agent should cancel the fetching process.
2. The error attribute must be set to a new MediaError object whose code attribute is set to MEDIA_ERR_ABORT.
3. The begun flag must be set to false and the user agent must queue a task to fire a progress event called abort at the media element.
4. If the media element's readyState attribute has a value equal to HAVE_NOTHING, the element's networkState attribute must be switched to the NETWORK_EMPTY value and the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called emptied at the element. (If the readyState attribute has a value greater than HAVE_NOTHING, then this doesn't happen; the available data, if any, will be playable.)
5. These steps must be aborted.
If the media data can be fetched but has non-fatal errors or uses, in part, codecs that are unsupported, preventing the user agent from rendering the content completely correctly but not preventing playback altogether
The server returning data that is partially usable but cannot be optimally rendered must cause the user agent to execute the following steps.
1. Should we fire a 'warning' event? Set the 'error' flag to 'MEDIA_ERR_SUBOPTIMAL' or something?
Once enough of the media data has been fetched to determine the duration of the media resource, its dimensions, and other metadata
The user agent must follow these substeps:
1. The current playback position must be set to the effective start.
2. The readyState attribute must be set to HAVE_METADATA.
3. A number of attributes, including duration, buffered, and played, become available.
4. The user agent will queue a task to fire a simple event called durationchange at the element at this point.
5. The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called loadedmetadata at the element.
Once enough of the media data has been fetched to enable the user agent to display the frame at the effective start of the media resource
The user agent must follow these substeps:
1. The readyState attribute must change to HAVE_CURRENT_DATA.
2. The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called loadeddata at the element.
When the user agent has completely fetched of the entire media resource, it must move on to the next step. This might never happen, e.g. when streaming an infinite resource such as Web radio.
If the fetching process completes without errors, the begun flag must be set to false, the networkState attribute must be set to NETWORK_LOADED, and the user agent must queue a task to fire a progress event called load at the element.

If a media element whose networkState has the value NETWORK_EMPTY is inserted into a document, the user agent must queue a task that implicitly invokes the load() method on the media element, and ignores any resulting exceptions. The task source for this task is the media element's own media element new resource task source.

The bufferingRate attribute must return the average number of bits received per second for the current download over the past few seconds. If there is no download in progress, the attribute must return 0.

The bufferingThrottled attribute must return true if the user agent is intentionally throttling the bandwidth used by the download (including when throttling to zero to pause the download altogether), and false otherwise.

The buffered attribute must return a static normalized TimeRanges object that represents the ranges of the media resource, if any, that the user agent has buffered, at the time the attribute is evaluated.

Typically this will be a single range anchored at the zero point, but if, e.g. the user agent uses HTTP range requests in response to seeking, then there could be multiple ranges.

The bufferedBytes attribute must return a static normalized ByteRanges object that represents the ranges of the media resource, if any, that the user agent has buffered, at the time the attribute is evaluated.

The totalBytes attribute must return the length of the media resource, in bytes, if it is known and finite. If it is not known, is infinite (e.g. streaming radio), or if no media data is available, the attribute must return 0.

User agents may discard previously buffered data.

Thus, a time or byte position included within a range of the objects return by the buffered or bufferedBytes attributes at one time can end up being not included in the range(s) of objects returned by the same attributes at a later time.

4.8.10.5 Offsets into the media resource

The duration attribute must return the length of the media resource, in seconds. If no media data is available, then the attributes must return 0. If media data is available but the length is not known, the attribute must return the Not-a-Number (NaN) value. If the media resource is known to be unbounded (e.g. a streaming radio), then the attribute must return the positive Infinity value.

When the length of the media resource changes (e.g. from being unknown to known, or from indeterminate to known, or from a previously established length to a new length) the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called durationchange at the media element.

Media elements have a current playback position, which must initially be zero. The current position is a time.

The currentTime attribute must, on getting, return the current playback position, expressed in seconds. On setting, the user agent must seek to the new value (which might raise an exception).

If the media resource is a streaming resource, then the user agent might be unable to obtain certain parts of the resource after it has expired from its buffer. The earliest possible position is the earliest position in the stream that the user agent can ever obtain again.

The start content attribute gives the offset into the media resource at which playback is to begin. The default value is the default start position of the media resource, or 0 if not enough media data has been obtained yet to determine the default start position or if the resource doesn't specify a default start position.

The effective start is the smaller of the start DOM attribute, the earliest possible position, and the end of the media resource.

The loopstart content attribute gives the offset into the media resource at which playback is to begin when looping a clip. The default value of the loopstart content attribute is the value of the start DOM attribute.

The effective loop start is the smaller of the loopStart DOM attribute, the earliest possible position, and the end of the media resource.

The loopend content attribute gives an offset into the media resource at which playback is to jump back to the loopstart, when looping the clip. The default value of the loopend content attribute is the value of the end DOM attribute.

The effective loop end is the greater of the start, loopStart, and loopEnd DOM attributes and the earliest possible position, except if that is greater than the end of the media resource, in which case that's its value.

The end content attribute gives an offset into the media resource at which playback is to end. The default value is infinity.

The effective end is the greater of the start, loopStart, and end DOM attributes and the earliest possible position, except if that is greater than the end of the media resource, in which case that's its value.

The start, loopstart, loopend, and end attributes must, if specified, contain value time offsets. To get the time values they represent, user agents must use the rules for parsing time offsets.

The start, loopStart, loopEnd, and end DOM attributes must reflect the start, loopstart, loopend, and end content attributes on the media element respectively.

The playcount content attribute gives the number of times to play the clip. The default value is 1.

The playCount DOM attribute must reflect the playcount content attribute on the media element. The value must be limited to only positive non-zero numbers.

The currentLoop attribute must initially have the value 0. It gives the index of the current loop. It is changed during playback as described below.

When any of the start, loopStart, loopEnd, end, playCount, and currentLoop DOM attributes change value (either through content attribute mutations reflecting into the DOM attribute, if applicable, or through direct mutations of the DOM attribute), or if the earliest possible position changes, the user agent must apply the following steps:

If the playCount DOM attribute's value is less than or equal to the currentLoop DOM attribute's value, then the currentLoop DOM attribute's value must be set to playCount-1 (which will make the current loop the last loop).
If the media element's readyState is in the HAVE_NOTHING state, then the user agent must at this point abort these steps.
If the currentLoop is zero, and the current playback position is before the effective start, the user agent must seek to the effective start.
If the currentLoop is greater than zero, and the current playback position is before the effective loop start, the user agent must seek to the effective loop start.
If the currentLoop is less than playCount-1, and the current playback position is after the effective loop end, the user agent must seek to the effective loop start, and increase currentLoop by 1.
If the currentLoop is equal to playCount-1, and the current playback position is after the effective end, the user agent must seek to the effective end and then the looping will end.

4.8.10.6 The ready states

Media elements have a ready state, which describes to what degree they are ready to be rendered at the current playback position. The possible values are as follows; the ready state of a media element at any particular time is the greatest value describing the state of the element:

HAVE_NOTHING (numeric value 0): No information regardig the media resource is available. No data for the current playback position is available. Media elements whose networkState attribute is NETWORK_EMPTY are always in the HAVE_NOTHING state.
HAVE_METADATA (numeric value 1): Enough of the resource has been obtained that the metadata attributes are initialized (e.g. the length is known). The API will no longer raise an exception when seeking.
HAVE_SOME_DATA (numeric value 2): Data for the immediate current playback position is not available, but there is at least one playback position for which the ready state would have a value of HAVE_CURRENT_DATA or greater.
HAVE_CURRENT_DATA (numeric value 3): Data for the immediate current playback position is available, but not enough data is available that the user agent could successfully advance the current playback position at all without immediately reverting to the HAVE_SOME_DATA state. For example, in video this corresponds to the user agent having data from the current frame, but not the next frame.
HAVE_FUTURE_DATA (numeric value 4): Data for the immediate current playback position is available, as well as enough data for the user agent to advance the current playback position at least a little without immediately reverting to the HAVE_SOME_DATA state. For example, In video this corresponds to the user agent having data for at least the current frame and the next frame.
HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA (numeric value 5): Data for the immediate current playback position is available, as well as enough data for the user agent to advance the current playback position at least a little without immediately reverting to the HAVE_SOME_DATA state, and, in addition, the user agent estimates that data is being fetched at a rate where the current playback position, if it were to advance at the rate given by the defaultPlaybackRate attribute, would not overtake the available data before playback reaches the effective end of the media resource on the last loop.

When the ready state of a media element whose networkState is not NETWORK_EMPTY changes, the user agent must follow the steps given below:

If the prevous ready state was HAVE_NOTHING, and the new ready state is HAVE_METADATA

A loadedmetadata DOM event will be fired as part of the load() algorithm.

If the prevous ready state was HAVE_METADATA, and the new ready state is HAVE_CURRENT_DATA

A loadeddata DOM event will be fired as part of the load() algorithm.

If the prevous ready state was HAVE_FUTURE_DATA or more, and the new ready state is HAVE_CURRENT_DATA or less

A waiting DOM event can be fired, depending on the current state of playback.

If the prevous ready state was HAVE_CURRENT_DATA or less, and the new ready state is HAVE_FUTURE_DATA

The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called canplay.

If the new ready state is HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA

The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called canplay, and then queue a task to fire a simple event called canplaythrough.

If the autoplaying flag is true, and the paused attribute is true, and the media element has an autoplay attribute specified, then the user agent may also set the paused attribute to false and queue a task to fire a simple event called play.

User agents are not required to autoplay, and it is suggested that user agents honor user preferences on the matter. Authors are urged to use the autoplay attribute rather than using script to force the video to play, so as to allow the user to override the behavior if so desired.

It is possible for the ready state of a media element to jump between these states discontinuously. For example, the state of a media element can jump straight from HAVE_SOME_DATA to HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA without passing through the HAVE_CURRENT_DATA and HAVE_FUTURE_DATA states.

The readyState DOM attribute must, on getting, return the value described above that describes the current ready state of the media element.

The autoplay attribute is a boolean attribute. When present, the algorithm described herein will cause the user agent to automatically begin playback of the media resource as soon as it can do so without stopping.

The autoplay DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

4.8.10.7 Cue ranges

Media elements have a set of cue ranges. Each cue range is made up of the following information:

A class name: A group of related ranges can be given the same class name so that they can all be removed at the same time.
An identifier
: A string can be assigned to each cue range for identification by script. The string need not be unique and can contain any value.
A start time
An end time: The actual time range, using the same timeline as the media resource itself.
A "pause" boolean: A flag indicating whether to pause playback on exit.
An "enter" callback: A callback that is called when the current playback position enters the range.
An "exit" callback: A callback that is called when the current playback position exits the range.
An "active" boolean: A flag indicating whether the range is active or not.

The addCueRange(className, id, start, end, pauseOnExit, enterCallback, exitCallback) method must, when called, add a cue range to the media element, that cue range having the class name className, the identifier id, the start time start (in seconds), the end time end (in seconds), the "pause" boolean with the same value as pauseOnExit, the "enter" callback enterCallback, the "exit" callback exitCallback, and an "active" boolean that is true if the current playback position is equal to or greater than the start time and less than the end time, and false otherwise.

The removeCueRanges(className) method must, when called, remove all the cue ranges of the media element which have the class name className.

4.8.10.8 Playing the media resource

The paused attribute represents whether the media element is paused or not. The attribute must initially be true.

A media element is said to be potentially playing when its paused attribute is false, the readyState attribute is either HAVE_FUTURE_DATA or HAVE_FUTURE_DATA, the element has not ended playback, playback has not stopped due to errors, and the element has not paused for user interaction.

A media element is said to have ended playback when the element's readyState attribute is HAD_METADATA or greater, the current playback position is equal to the effective end of the media resource, and the currentLoop attribute is equal to playCount-1.

The ended attribute must return true if the media element has ended playback, and false otherwise.

A media element is said to have stopped due to errors when the element's readyState attribute is HAVE_METADATA or greater, and the user agent encounters a non-fatal error during the processing of the media data, and due to that error, is not able to play the content at the current playback position.

A media element is said to have paused for user interaction when its paused attribute is false, the readyState attribute is either HAVE_FUTURE_DATA or HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA and the user agent has reached a point in the media resource where the user has to make a selection for the resource to continue.

It is possible for a media element to have both ended playback and paused for user interaction at the same time.

When a media element that is potentially playing stops playing because it has paused for user interaction, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called timeupdate at the element.

When a media element that is potentially playing stops playing because its readyState attribute changes to a value lower than HAVE_FUTURE_DATA, without the element having ended playback, or playback having stopped due to errors, or playback having paused for user interaction, or the seeking algorithm being invoked, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called timeupdate at the element, and queue a task to fire a simple event called waiting at the element.

When currentLoop is less than playCount-1 and the current playback position reaches the effective loop end, then the user agent must increase currentLoop by 1 and seek to the effective loop start.

When currentLoop is equal to the playCount-1 and the current playback position reaches the effective end, then the user agent must follow these steps:

The user agent must stop playback.
The ended attribute becomes true.
The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called timeupdate at the element.
The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called ended at the element.

The defaultPlaybackRate attribute gives the desired speed at which the media resource is to play, as a multiple of its intrinsic speed. The attribute is mutable, but on setting, if the new value is 0.0, a NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR exception must be raised instead of the value being changed. It must initially have the value 1.0.

The playbackRate attribute gives the speed at which the media resource plays, as a multiple of its intrinsic speed. If it is not equal to the defaultPlaybackRate, then the implication is that the user is using a feature such as fast forward or slow motion playback. The attribute is mutable, but on setting, if the new value is 0.0, a NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR exception must be raised instead of the value being changed. Otherwise, the playback must change speed (if the element is potentially playing). It must initially have the value 1.0.

When the defaultPlaybackRate or playbackRate attributes change value (either by being set by script or by being changed directly by the user agent, e.g. in response to user control) the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called ratechange at the media element.

The played attribute must return a static normalized TimeRanges object that represents the ranges of the media resource, if any, that the user agent has so far rendered, at the time the attribute is evaluated.

When the play() method on a media element is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps.

If the media element's networkState attribute has the value NETWORK_EMPTY, then the user agent must invoke the load() method and wait for it to return. If that raises an exception, that exception must be reraised by the play() method.
If the playback has ended, then the user agent must set currentLoop to zero and seek to the effective start.

If this involved a seek, the user agent will queue a task to fire a simple event called timeupdate at the media element.
The playbackRate attribute must be set to the value of the defaultPlaybackRate attribute.

If this caused the playbackRate attribute to change value, the user agent will queue a task to fire a simple event called ratechange at the media element.
If the media element's paused attribute is true, it must be set to false.
The media element's autoplaying flag must be set to false.
The method must then return.
If the fourth step above changed the value of paused, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called play at the element.

When the pause() method is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:

If the media element's networkState attribute has the value NETWORK_EMPTY, then the user agent must invoke the load() method and wait for it to return. If that raises an exception, that exception must be reraised by the pause() method.
If the media element's paused attribute is false, it must be set to true.
The media element's autoplaying flag must be set to false.
The method must then return.
If the second step above changed the value of paused, then the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called timeupdate at the element, and queue a task to fire a simple event called pause at the element.

When a media element is potentially playing and its Document is an active document, its current playback position must increase monotonically at playbackRate units of media time per unit time of wall clock time.

This specification doesn't define how the user agent achieves the appropriate playback rate — depending on the protocol and media available, it is plausible that the user agent could negotiate with the server to have the server provide the media data at the appropriate rate, so that (except for the period between when the rate is changed and when the server updates the stream's playback rate) the client doesn't actually have to drop or interpolate any frames.

When the playbackRate is negative (playback is backwards), any corresponding audio must be muted. When the playbackRate is so low or so high that the user agent cannot play audio usefully, the corresponding audio must also be muted. If the playbackRate is not 1.0, the user agent may apply pitch adjustments to the audio as necessary to render it faithfully.

Media elements that are potentially playing while not in a Document must not play any video, but should play any audio component. Media elements must not stop playing just because all references to them have been removed; only once a media element to which no references exist has reached a point where no further audio remains to be played for that element (e.g. because the element is paused or because the end of the clip has been reached) may the element be garbage collected.

When the current playback position of a media element changes (e.g. due to playback or seeking), the user agent must run the following steps. If the current playback position changes while the steps are running, then the user agent must wait for the steps to complete, and then must immediately rerun the steps. (These steps are thus run as often as possible or needed — if one iteration takes a long time, this can cause certain ranges to be skipped over as the user agent rushes ahead to "catch up".)

Let current ranges be an ordered list of cue ranges, initialized to contain all the cue ranges of the media element whose start times are less than or equal to the current playback position and whose end times are greater than the current playback position, in the order they were added to the element.
Let other ranges be an ordered list of cue ranges, initialized to contain all the cue ranges of the media element that are not present in current ranges, in the order they were added to the element.
If none of the cue ranges in current ranges have their "active" boolean set to "false" (inactive) and none of the cue ranges in other ranges have their "active" boolean set to "true" (active), then abort these steps.
If the time was reached through the usual monotonic increase of the current playback position during normal playback, the user agent must then queue a task to fire a simple event called timeupdate at the element. (In the other cases, such as explicit seeks, relevant events get fired as part of the overall process of changing the current playback position.)
If the time was reached through the usual monotonic increase of the current playback position during normal playback, and there are cue ranges in other ranges that have both their "active" boolean and their "pause" boolean set to "true", then immediately act as if the element's pause() method had been invoked. (In the other cases, such as explicit seeks, playback is not paused by exiting a cue range, even if that cue range has its "pause" boolean set to "true".)
For each non-null "exit" callback of the cue ranges in other ranges that have their "active" boolean set to "true" (active), in list order, queue a task that invokes the callback, passing the cue range's identifier as the callback's only argument.
For each non-null "enter" callback of the cue ranges in current ranges that have their "active" boolean set to "false" (inactive), in list order, queue a task that invokes the callback, passing the cue range's identifier as the callback's only argument.
Set the "active" boolean of all the cue ranges in the current ranges list to "true" (active), and the "active" boolean of all the cue ranges in the other ranges list to "false" (inactive).

When a media element is removed from a Document, if the media element's networkState attribute has a value other than NETWORK_EMPTY then the user agent must act as if the pause() method had been invoked.

If the media element's Document stops being an active document, then the playback will stop until the document is active again.

4.8.10.9 Seeking

The seeking attribute must initially have the value false.

When the user agent is required to seek to a particular new playback position in the media resource, it means that the user agent must run the following steps:

If the media element's readyState is HAVE_NOTHING, then the user agent must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception (if the seek was in response to a DOM method call or setting of a DOM attribute), and abort these steps.
If currentLoop is 0, let min be the effective start. Otherwise, let it be the effective loop start.
If currentLoop is equal to playCount-1, let max be the effective end. Otherwise, let it be the effective loop end.
If the new playback position is more than max, let it be max.
If the new playback position is less than min, let it be min.
If the (possibly now changed) new playback position is not in one of the ranges given in the seekable attribute, then the user agent must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception (if the seek was in response to a DOM method call or setting of a DOM attribute), and abort these steps.
The current playback position must be set to the given new playback position.
The seeking DOM attribute must be set to true.
The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called timeupdate at the element.
If the media element was potentially playing immediately before it started seeking, but seeking caused its readyState attribute to change to a value lower than HAVE_FUTURE_FRAME, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called waiting at the element.
If, when it reaches this step, the user agent has still not established whether or not the media data for the new playback position is available, and, if it is, decoded enough data to play back that position, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called seeking at the element.
If the seek was in response to a DOM method call or setting of a DOM attribute, then continue the script. The remainder of these steps must be run asynchronously.
The user agent must wait until it has established whether or not the media data for the new playback position is available, and, if it is, until it has decoded enough data to play back that position.
The seeking DOM attribute must be set to false.
The user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called seeked at the element.

The seekable attribute must return a static normalized TimeRanges object that represents the ranges of the media resource, if any, that the user agent is able to seek to, at the time the attribute is evaluated, notwithstanding the looping attributes (i.e. the effective start and effective end, etc, don't affect the seekable attribute).

If the user agent can seek to anywhere in the media resource, e.g. because it a simple movie file and the user agent and the server support HTTP Range requests, then the attribute would return an object with one range, whose start is the time of the first frame (typically zero), and whose end is the same as the time of the first frame plus the duration attribute's value (which would equal the time of the last frame).

The range might be continuously changing, e.g. if the user agent is buffering a sliding window on an infinite stream. This is the behavior seen with DVRs viewing live TV, for instance.

Media resources might be internally scripted or interactive. Thus, a media element could play in a non-linear fashion. If this happens, the user agent must act as if the algorithm for seeking was used whenever the current playback position changes in a discontinuous fashion (so that the relevant events fire).

4.8.10.10 User interface

The controls attribute is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, or if the media element is without script, then the user agent should expose a user interface to the user. This user interface should include features to begin playback, pause playback, seek to an arbitrary position in the content (if the content supports arbitrary seeking), change the volume, and show the media content in manners more suitable to the user (e.g. full-screen video or in an independent resizable window). Other controls may also be made available.

If the attribute is absent, then the user agent should avoid making a user interface available that could conflict with an author-provided user interface. User agents may make the following features available, however, even when the attribute is absent:

User agents may provide controls to affect playback of the media resource (e.g. play, pause, seeking, and volume controls), but such features should not interfere with the page's normal rendering. For example, such features could be exposed in the media element's context menu.

Where possible (specifically, for starting, stopping, pausing, and unpausing playback, for muting or changing the volume of the audio, and for seeking), user interface features exposed by the user agent must be implemented in terms of the DOM API described above, so that, e.g., all the same events fire.

The controls DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

The volume attribute must return the playback volume of any audio portions of the media element, in the range 0.0 (silent) to 1.0 (loudest). Initially, the volume must be 1.0, but user agents may remember the last set value across sessions, on a per-site basis or otherwise, so the volume may start at other values. On setting, if the new value is in the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclusive, the attribute must be set to the new value and the playback volume must be correspondingly adjusted as soon as possible after setting the attribute, with 0.0 being silent, and 1.0 being the loudest setting, values in between increasing in loudness. The range need not be linear. The loudest setting may be lower than the system's loudest possible setting; for example the user could have set a maximum volume. If the new value is outside the range 0.0 to 1.0 inclusive, then, on setting, an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception must be raised instead.

The muted attribute must return true if the audio channels are muted and false otherwise. Initially, the audio channels should not be muted (false), but user agents may remember the last set value across sessions, on a per-site basis or otherwise, so the muted state may start as muted (true). On setting, the attribute must be set to the new value; if the new value is true, audio playback for this media resource must then be muted, and if false, audio playback must then be enabled.

Whenever either the muted or volume attributes are changed, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called volumechange at the media element.

4.8.10.11 Time ranges

Objects implementing the TimeRanges interface represent a list of ranges (periods) of time.

interface TimeRanges {
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  float start(in unsigned long index);
  float end(in unsigned long index);
};

The length DOM attribute must return the number of ranges represented by the object.

The start(index) method must return the position of the start of the indexth range represented by the object, in seconds measured from the start of the timeline that the object covers.

The end(index) method must return the position of the end of the indexth range represented by the object, in seconds measured from the start of the timeline that the object covers.

These methods must raise INDEX_SIZE_ERR exceptions if called with an index argument greater than or equal to the number of ranges represented by the object.

When a TimeRanges object is said to be a normalized TimeRanges object, the ranges it represents must obey the following criteria:

The start of a range must be greater than the end of all earlier ranges.
The start of a range must be less than the end of that same range.

In other words, the ranges in such an object are ordered, don't overlap, aren't empty, and don't touch (adjacent ranges are folded into one bigger range).

The timelines used by the objects returned by the buffered, seekable and played DOM attributes of media elements must be the same as that element's media resource's timeline.

4.8.10.12 Byte ranges

Objects implementing the ByteRanges interface represent a list of ranges of bytes.

interface ByteRanges {
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  unsigned long start(in unsigned long index);
  unsigned long end(in unsigned long index);
};

The length DOM attribute must return the number of ranges represented by the object.

The start(index) method must return the position of the first byte of the indexth range represented by the object.

The end(index) method must return the position of the byte immediately after the last byte of the indexth range represented by the object. (The byte position returned by this method is not in the range itself. If the first byte of the range is the byte at position 0, and the entire stream of bytes is in the range, then the value of the position of the byte returned by this method for that range will be the same as the number of bytes in the stream.)

These methods must raise INDEX_SIZE_ERR exceptions if called with an index argument greater than or equal to the number of ranges represented by the object.

When a ByteRanges object is said to be a normalized ByteRanges object, the ranges it represents must obey the following criteria:

The start of a range must be greater than the end of all earlier ranges.
The start of a range must be less than the end of that same range.

In other words, the ranges in such an object are ordered, don't overlap, aren't empty, and don't touch (adjacent ranges are folded into one bigger range).

4.8.10.13 Event summary

The following events fire on media elements as part of the processing model described above:

Event name	Interface	Dispatched when...	Preconditions
`loadstart`	`ProgressEvent` [PROGRESS]	The user agent begins fetching the media data, synchronously during the `load()` method call.	`networkState` equals `NETWORK_LOADING`
`progress`	`ProgressEvent` [PROGRESS]	The user agent is fetching media data.	`networkState` equals `NETWORK_LOADING`
`suspend`	`ProgressEvent` [PROGRESS]	The user agent is intentionally not currently fetching media data, but does not have the entire media resource downloaded.	`networkState` equals `NETWORK_IDLE`
`load`	`ProgressEvent` [PROGRESS]	The user agent finishes fetching the entire media resource.	`networkState` equals `NETWORK_LOADED`
`abort`	`ProgressEvent` [PROGRESS]	The user agent stops fetching the media data before it is completely downloaded. This can be fired synchronously during the `load()` method call.	`error` is an object with the code `MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED`. `networkState` equals either `NETWORK_EMPTY` or `NETWORK_LOADED`, depending on when the download was aborted.
`error`	`ProgressEvent` [PROGRESS]	An error occurs while fetching the media data.	`error` is an object with the code `MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK_ERROR` or higher. `networkState` equals either `NETWORK_EMPTY` or `NETWORK_LOADED`, depending on when the download was aborted.
`emptied`	`Event`	A media element whose `networkState` was previously not in the `NETWORK_EMPTY` state has just switched to that state (either because of a fatal error during load that's about to be reported, or because the `load()` method was reinvoked, in which case it is fired synchronously during the `load()` method call).	`networkState` is `NETWORK_EMPTY`; all the DOM attributes are in their initial states.
`stalled`	`ProgressEvent`	The user agent is trying to fetch media data, but data is unexpectedly not forthcoming.	`networkState` is `NETWORK_LOADING`.
`play`	`Event`	Playback has begun. Fired after the `play` method has returned.	`paused` is newly false.
`pause`	`Event`	Playback has been paused. Fired after the `pause` method has returned.	`paused` is newly true.
`loadedmetadata`	`Event`	The user agent has just received the metadata, such as duration or dimensions, for the media resource.	`readyState` is newly equal to `HAVE_METADATA` or greater for the first time.
`loadeddata`	`Event`	The user agent can render the media data at the current playback position for the first time.	`readyState` newly increased to `HAVE_CURRENT_DATA` or greater for the first time.
`waiting`	`Event`	Playback has stopped because the next frame is not available, but the user agent expects that frame to become available in due course.	`readyState` is newly equal to or less than `HAVE_CURRENT_DATA`, and `paused` is false. Either `seeking` is true, or the current playback position is not contained in any of the ranges in `buffered`. It is possible for playback to stop for two other reasons without `paused` being false, but those two reasons do not fire this event: maybe playback ended, or playback stopped due to errors.
`canplay`	`Event`	The user agent can resume playback of the media data, but estimates that if playback were to be started now, the media resource could not be rendered at the current playback rate up to its end without having to stop for further buffering of content.	`readyState` newly increased to `HAVE_FUTURE_DATA` or greater.
`canplaythrough`	`Event`	The user agent estimates that if playback were to be started now, the media resource could be rendered at the current playback rate all the way to its end without having to stop for further buffering.	`readyState` is newly equal to `HAVE_ENOUGH_DATA`.
`seeking`	`Event`	The `seeking` DOM attribute changed to true and the seek operation is taking long enough that the user agent has time to fire the event.
`seeked`	`Event`	The `seeking` DOM attribute changed to false.
`timeupdate`	`Event`	The current playback position changed as part of normal playback or in an especially interesting way, for example discontinuously.
`ended`	`Event`	Playback has stopped because the end of the media resource was reached.	`currentTime` equals the `effective end`; `ended` is true.
`ratechange`	`Event`	Either the `defaultPlaybackRate` or the `playbackRate` attribute has just been updated.
`durationchange`	`Event`	The `duration` attribute has just been updated.
`volumechange`	`Event`	Either the `volume` attribute or the `muted` attribute has changed. Fired after the relevant attribute's setter has returned.

4.8.10.14 Security and privacy considerations

Talk about making sure interactive media files (e.g. SVG) don't have access to the container DOM (XSS potential); talk about not exposing any sensitive data like metadata from tracks in the media files (intranet snooping risk)

4.8.11 The `canvas` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where embedded content is expected.

Content model:

Transparent.

Element-specific attributes:

width

height

DOM interface:

interface HTMLCanvasElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute unsigned long width;
           attribute unsigned long height;

  DOMString toDataURL();
  DOMString toDataURL(in DOMString type, [Variadic] in any args);

  DOMObject getContext(in DOMString contextId);
};

The canvas element represents a resolution-dependent bitmap canvas, which can be used for rendering graphs, game graphics, or other visual images on the fly.

Authors should not use the canvas element in a document when a more suitable element is available. For example, it is inappropriate to use a canvas element to render a page heading: if the desired presentation of the heading is graphically intense, it should be marked up using appropriate elements (typically h1) and then styled using CSS and supporting technologies such as XBL.

When authors use the canvas element, they should also provide content that, when presented to the user, conveys essentially the same function or purpose as the bitmap canvas. This content may be placed as content of the canvas element. The contents of the canvas element, if any, are the element's fallback content.

In interactive visual media, if the canvas element is with script, the canvas element represents an embedded element with a dynamically created image.

In non-interactive, static, visual media, if the canvas element has been previously painted on (e.g. if the page was viewed in an interactive visual medium and is now being printed, or if some script that ran during the page layout process painted on the element), then the canvas element represents embedded content with the current image and size. Otherwise, the element represents its fallback content instead.

In non-visual media, and in visual media if the canvas element is without script, the canvas element represents its fallback content instead.

The canvas element has two attributes to control the size of the coordinate space: width and height. These attributes, when specified, must have values that are valid non-negative integers. The rules for parsing non-negative integers must be used to obtain their numeric values. If an attribute is missing, or if parsing its value returns an error, then the default value must be used instead. The width attribute defaults to 300, and the height attribute defaults to 150.

The intrinsic dimensions of the canvas element equal the size of the coordinate space, with the numbers interpreted in CSS pixels. However, the element can be sized arbitrarily by a style sheet. During rendering, the image is scaled to fit this layout size.

The size of the coordinate space does not necessarily represent the size of the actual bitmap that the user agent will use internally or during rendering. On high-definition displays, for instance, the user agent may internally use a bitmap with two device pixels per unit in the coordinate space, so that the rendering remains at high quality throughout.

Whenever the width and height attributes are set (whether to a new value or to the previous value), the bitmap and any associated contexts must be cleared back to their initial state and reinitialized with the newly specified coordinate space dimensions.

The width and height DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

Only one square appears to be drawn in the following example:

  // canvas is a reference to a <canvas> element
  var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
  context.fillRect(0,0,50,50);
  canvas.setAttribute('width', '300'); // clears the canvas
  context.fillRect(0,100,50,50);
  canvas.width = canvas.width; // clears the canvas
  context.fillRect(100,0,50,50); // only this square remains

When the canvas is initialized it must be set to fully transparent black.

To draw on the canvas, authors must first obtain a reference to a context using the getContext(contextId) method of the canvas element.

This specification only defines one context, with the name "2d". If getContext() is called with that exact string for its contextId argument, then the UA must return a reference to an object implementing CanvasRenderingContext2D. Other specifications may define their own contexts, which would return different objects.

Vendors may also define experimental contexts using the syntax vendorname-context, for example, moz-3d.

When the UA is passed an empty string or a string specifying a context that it does not support, then it must return null. String comparisons must be case-sensitive.

Arguments other than the contextId must be ignored.

A future version of this specification will probably define a 3d context (probably based on the OpenGL ES API).

The toDataURL() method must, when called with no arguments, return a data: URL containing a representation of the image as a PNG file. [PNG].

If the canvas has no pixels (i.e. either its horizontal dimension or its vertical dimension is zero) then the method must return the string "data:,". (This is the shortest data: URL; it represents the empty string in a text/plain resource.)

The toDataURL(type) method (when called with one or more arguments) must return a data: URL containing a representation of the image in the format given by type. The possible values are MIME types with no parameters, for example image/png, image/jpeg, or even maybe image/svg+xml if the implementation actually keeps enough information to reliably render an SVG image from the canvas.

For image types that do not support an alpha channel, the image must be composited onto a solid black background using the source-over operator, and the resulting image must be the one used to create the data: URL.

Only support for image/png is required. User agents may support other types. If the user agent does not support the requested type, it must return the image using the PNG format.

User agents must convert the provided type to lower case before establishing if they support that type and before creating the data: URL.

When trying to use types other than image/png, authors can check if the image was really returned in the requested format by checking to see if the returned string starts with one the exact strings "data:image/png," or "data:image/png;". If it does, the image is PNG, and thus the requested type was not supported. (The one exception to this is if the canvas has either no height or no width, in which case the result might simply be "data:,".)

If the method is invoked with the first argument giving a type corresponding to one of the types given in the first column of the following table, and the user agent supports that type, then the subsequent arguments, if any, must be treated as described in the second cell of that row.

Type	Other arguments
image/jpeg	The second argument, if it is a number between 0.0 and 1.0, must be treated as the desired quality level. If it is not a number or is outside that range, the user agent must use its default value, as if the argument had been omitted.

Other arguments must be ignored and must not cause the user agent to raise an exception. A future version of this specification will probably define other parameters to be passed to toDataURL() to allow authors to more carefully control compression settings, image metadata, etc.

4.8.11.1 The 2D context

When the getContext() method of a canvas element is invoked with 2d as the argument, a CanvasRenderingContext2D object is returned.

There is only one CanvasRenderingContext2D object per canvas, so calling the getContext() method with the 2d argument a second time must return the same object.

The 2D context represents a flat Cartesian surface whose origin (0,0) is at the top left corner, with the coordinate space having x values increasing when going right, and y values increasing when going down.

interface CanvasRenderingContext2D {

  // back-reference to the canvas
  readonly attribute HTMLCanvasElement canvas;

  // state
  void save(); // push state on state stack
  void restore(); // pop state stack and restore state

  // transformations (default transform is the identity matrix)
  void scale(in float x, in float y);
  void rotate(in float angle);
  void translate(in float x, in float y);
  void transform(in float m11, in float m12, in float m21, in float m22, in float dx, in float dy);
  void setTransform(in float m11, in float m12, in float m21, in float m22, in float dx, in float dy);

  // compositing
           attribute float globalAlpha; // (default 1.0)
           attribute DOMString globalCompositeOperation; // (default source-over)

  // colors and styles
           attribute DOMObject strokeStyle; // (default black)
           attribute DOMObject fillStyle; // (default black)
  CanvasGradient createLinearGradient(in float x0, in float y0, in float x1, in float y1);
  CanvasGradient createRadialGradient(in float x0, in float y0, in float r0, in float x1, in float y1, in float r1);
  CanvasPattern createPattern(in HTMLImageElement image, in DOMString repetition);
  CanvasPattern createPattern(in HTMLCanvasElement image, in DOMString repetition);

  // line caps/joins
           attribute float lineWidth; // (default 1)
           attribute DOMString lineCap; // "butt", "round", "square" (default "butt")
           attribute DOMString lineJoin; // "round", "bevel", "miter" (default "miter")
           attribute float miterLimit; // (default 10)

  // shadows
           attribute float shadowOffsetX; // (default 0)
           attribute float shadowOffsetY; // (default 0)
           attribute float shadowBlur; // (default 0)
           attribute DOMString shadowColor; // (default transparent black)

  // rects
  void clearRect(in float x, in float y, in float w, in float h);
  void fillRect(in float x, in float y, in float w, in float h);
  void strokeRect(in float x, in float y, in float w, in float h);

  // path API
  void beginPath();
  void closePath();
  void moveTo(in float x, in float y);
  void lineTo(in float x, in float y);
  void quadraticCurveTo(in float cpx, in float cpy, in float x, in float y);
  void bezierCurveTo(in float cp1x, in float cp1y, in float cp2x, in float cp2y, in float x, in float y);
  void arcTo(in float x1, in float y1, in float x2, in float y2, in float radius);
  void rect(in float x, in float y, in float w, in float h);
  void arc(in float x, in float y, in float radius, in float startAngle, in float endAngle, in boolean anticlockwise);
  void fill();
  void stroke();
  void clip();
  boolean isPointInPath(in float x, in float y);

  // text
           attribute DOMString font; // (default 10px sans-serif)
           attribute DOMString textAlign; // "start", "end", "left", "right", "center" (default: "start")
           attribute DOMString textBaseline; // "top", "hanging", "middle", "alphabetic", "ideographic", "bottom" (default: "alphabetic")
  void fillText(in DOMString text, in float x, in float y);
  void fillText(in DOMString text, in float x, in float y, in float maxWidth);
  void strokeText(in DOMString text, in float x, in float y);
  void strokeText(in DOMString text, in float x, in float y, in float maxWidth);
  TextMetrics measureText(in DOMString text);

  // drawing images
  void drawImage(in HTMLImageElement image, in float dx, in float dy);
  void drawImage(in HTMLImageElement image, in float dx, in float dy, in float dw, in float dh);
  void drawImage(in HTMLImageElement image, in float sx, in float sy, in float sw, in float sh, in float dx, in float dy, in float dw, in float dh);
  void drawImage(in HTMLCanvasElement image, in float dx, in float dy);
  void drawImage(in HTMLCanvasElement image, in float dx, in float dy, in float dw, in float dh);
  void drawImage(in HTMLCanvasElement image, in float sx, in float sy, in float sw, in float sh, in float dx, in float dy, in float dw, in float dh);

  // pixel manipulation
  ImageData createImageData(in float sw, in float sh);
  ImageData getImageData(in float sx, in float sy, in float sw, in float sh);
  void putImageData(in ImageData imagedata, in float dx, in float dy);
  void putImageData(in ImageData imagedata, in float dx, in float dy, in float dirtyX, in float dirtyY, in float dirtyWidth, in float dirtyHeight);
};

interface CanvasGradient {
  // opaque object
  void addColorStop(in float offset, in DOMString color);
};

interface CanvasPattern {
  // opaque object
};

interface TextMetrics {
  readonly attribute float width;
};

interface ImageData {
  readonly attribute unsigned long width;
  readonly attribute unsigned long height;
  readonly attribute CanvasPixelArray data;
};

interface CanvasPixelArray {
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  [IndexGetter] octet XXX5(in unsigned long index); 
  [IndexSetter] void XXX6(in unsigned long index, in octet value); 
};

The canvas attribute must return the canvas element that the context paints on.

Unless otherwise stated, for the 2D context interface, any method call with a numeric argument whose value is infinite or a NaN value must be ignored.

Whenever the CSS value currentColor is used as a color in this API, the "computed value of the 'color' property" for the purposes of determining the computed value of the currentColor keyword is the computed value of the 'color' property on the element in question at the time that the color is specified (e.g. when the appropriate attribute is set, or when the method is called; not when the color is rendered or otherwise used). If the computed value of the 'color' property is undefined for a particular case (e.g. because the element is not in a document), then the "computed value of the 'color' property" for the purposes of determining the computed value of the currentColor keyword is fully opaque black. [CSS3COLOR]

4.8.11.1.1 The canvas state

Each context maintains a stack of drawing states. Drawing states consist of:

The current transformation matrix.
The current clipping region.
The current values of the following attributes: strokeStyle, fillStyle, globalAlpha, lineWidth, lineCap, lineJoin, miterLimit, shadowOffsetX, shadowOffsetY, shadowBlur, shadowColor, globalCompositeOperation, font, textAlign, textBaseline.

The current path and the current bitmap are not part of the drawing state. The current path is persistent, and can only be reset using the beginPath() method. The current bitmap is a property of the canvas, not the context.

The save() method must push a copy of the current drawing state onto the drawing state stack.

The restore() method must pop the top entry in the drawing state stack, and reset the drawing state it describes. If there is no saved state, the method must do nothing.

4.8.11.1.2 Transformations

The transformation matrix is applied to coordinates when creating shapes and paths.

When the context is created, the transformation matrix must initially be the identity transform. It may then be adjusted using the transformation methods.

The transformations must be performed in reverse order. For instance, if a scale transformation that doubles the width is applied, followed by a rotation transformation that rotates drawing operations by a quarter turn, and a rectangle twice as wide as it is tall is then drawn on the canvas, the actual result will be a square.

The scale(x, y) method must add the scaling transformation described by the arguments to the transformation matrix. The x argument represents the scale factor in the horizontal direction and the y argument represents the scale factor in the vertical direction. The factors are multiples.

The rotate(angle) method must add the rotation transformation described by the argument to the transformation matrix. The angle argument represents a clockwise rotation angle expressed in radians.

The translate(x, y) method must add the translation transformation described by the arguments to the transformation matrix. The x argument represents the translation distance in the horizontal direction and the y argument represents the translation distance in the vertical direction. The arguments are in coordinate space units.

The transform(m11, m12, m21, m22, dx, dy) method must multiply the current transformation matrix with the matrix described by:

`m11`	`m21`	`dx`
`m12`	`m22`	`dy`
0	0	1

The setTransform(m11, m12, m21, m22, dx, dy) method must reset the current transform to the identity matrix, and then invoke the transform(m11, m12, m21, m22, dx, dy) method with the same arguments.

4.8.11.1.3 Compositing

All drawing operations are affected by the global compositing attributes, globalAlpha and globalCompositeOperation.

The globalAlpha attribute gives an alpha value that is applied to shapes and images before they are composited onto the canvas. The value must be in the range from 0.0 (fully transparent) to 1.0 (no additional transparency). If an attempt is made to set the attribute to a value outside this range, the attribute must retain its previous value. When the context is created, the globalAlpha attribute must initially have the value 1.0.

The globalCompositeOperation attribute sets how shapes and images are drawn onto the existing bitmap, once they have had globalAlpha and the current transformation matrix applied. It must be set to a value from the following list. In the descriptions below, the source image, A, is the shape or image being rendered, and the destination image, B, is the current state of the bitmap.

source-atop: A atop B. Display the source image wherever both images are opaque. Display the destination image wherever the destination image is opaque but the source image is transparent. Display transparency elsewhere.
source-in: A in B. Display the source image wherever both the source image and destination image are opaque. Display transparency elsewhere.
source-out: A out B. Display the source image wherever the source image is opaque and the destination image is transparent. Display transparency elsewhere.
source-over (default): A over B. Display the source image wherever the source image is opaque. Display the destination image elsewhere.
destination-atop: B atop A. Same as source-atop but using the destination image instead of the source image and vice versa.
destination-in: B in A. Same as source-in but using the destination image instead of the source image and vice versa.
destination-out: B out A. Same as source-out but using the destination image instead of the source image and vice versa.
destination-over: B over A. Same as source-over but using the destination image instead of the source image and vice versa.
lighter: A plus B. Display the sum of the source image and destination image, with color values approaching 1 as a limit.
copy: A (B is ignored). Display the source image instead of the destination image.
xor: A xor B. Exclusive OR of the source image and destination image.
vendorName-operationName: Vendor-specific extensions to the list of composition operators should use this syntax.

These values are all case-sensitive — they must be used exactly as shown. User agents must not recognize values that are not a case-sensitive match for one of the values given above.

The operators in the above list must be treated as described by the Porter-Duff operator given at the start of their description (e.g. A over B). [PORTERDUFF]

On setting, if the user agent does not recognize the specified value, it must be ignored, leaving the value of globalCompositeOperation unaffected.

When the context is created, the globalCompositeOperation attribute must initially have the value source-over.

4.8.11.1.4 Colors and styles

The strokeStyle attribute represents the color or style to use for the lines around shapes, and the fillStyle attribute represents the color or style to use inside the shapes.

Both attributes can be either strings, CanvasGradients, or CanvasPatterns. On setting, strings must be parsed as CSS <color> values and the color assigned, and CanvasGradient and CanvasPattern objects must be assigned themselves. [CSS3COLOR] If the value is a string but is not a valid color, or is neither a string, a CanvasGradient, nor a CanvasPattern, then it must be ignored, and the attribute must retain its previous value.

On getting, if the value is a color, then the serialization of the color must be returned. Otherwise, if it is not a color but a CanvasGradient or CanvasPattern, then the respective object must be returned. (Such objects are opaque and therefore only useful for assigning to other attributes or for comparison to other gradients or patterns.)

The serialization of a color for a color value is a string, computed as follows: if it has alpha equal to 1.0, then the string is a lowercase six-digit hex value, prefixed with a "#" character (U+0023 NUMBER SIGN), with the first two digits representing the red component, the next two digits representing the green component, and the last two digits representing the blue component, the digits being in the range 0-9 a-f (U+0030 to U+0039 and U+0061 to U+0066). Otherwise, the color value has alpha less than 1.0, and the string is the color value in the CSS rgba() functional-notation format: the literal string rgba (U+0072 U+0067 U+0062 U+0061) followed by a U+0028 LEFT PARENTHESIS, a base-ten integer in the range 0-255 representing the red component (using digits 0-9, U+0030 to U+0039, in the shortest form possible), a literal U+002C COMMA and U+0020 SPACE, an integer for the green component, a comma and a space, an integer for the blue component, another comma and space, a U+0030 DIGIT ZERO, a U+002E FULL STOP (representing the decimal point), one or more digits in the range 0-9 (U+0030 to U+0039) representing the fractional part of the alpha value, and finally a U+0029 RIGHT PARENTHESIS.

When the context is created, the strokeStyle and fillStyle attributes must initially have the string value #000000.

There are two types of gradients, linear gradients and radial gradients, both represented by objects implementing the opaque CanvasGradient interface.

Once a gradient has been created (see below), stops are placed along it to define how the colors are distributed along the gradient. The color of the gradient at each stop is the color specified for that stop. Between each such stop, the colors and the alpha component must be linearly interpolated over the RGBA space without premultiplying the alpha value to find the color to use at that offset. Before the first stop, the color must be the color of the first stop. After the last stop, the color must be the color of the last stop. When there are no stops, the gradient is transparent black.

The addColorStop(offset, color) method on the CanvasGradient interface adds a new stop to a gradient. If the offset is less than 0, greater than 1, infinite, or NaN, then an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception must be raised. If the color cannot be parsed as a CSS color, then a SYNTAX_ERR exception must be raised. Otherwise, the gradient must have a new stop placed, at offset offset relative to the whole gradient, and with the color obtained by parsing color as a CSS <color> value. If multiple stops are added at the same offset on a gradient, they must be placed in the order added, with the first one closest to the start of the gradient, and each subsequent one infinitesimally further along towards the end point (in effect causing all but the first and last stop added at each point to be ignored).

The createLinearGradient(x0, y0, x1, y1) method takes four arguments that represent the start point (x0, y0) and end point (x1, y1) of the gradient. If any of the arguments to createLinearGradient() are infinite or NaN, the method must raise a NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR exception. Otherwise, the method must return a linear CanvasGradient initialized with the specified line.

Linear gradients must be rendered such that all points on a line perpendicular to the line that crosses the start and end points have the color at the point where those two lines cross (with the colors coming from the interpolation and extrapolation described above). The points in the linear gradient must be transformed as described by the current transformation matrix when rendering.

If x₀ = x₁ and y₀ = y₁, then the linear gradient must paint nothing.

The createRadialGradient(x0, y0, r0, x1, y1, r1) method takes six arguments, the first three representing the start circle with origin (x0, y0) and radius r0, and the last three representing the end circle with origin (x1, y1) and radius r1. The values are in coordinate space units. If any of the arguments are infinite or NaN, a NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR exception must be raised. If either of r0 or r1 are negative, an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception must be raised. Otherwise, the method must return a radial CanvasGradient initialized with the two specified circles.

Radial gradients must be rendered by following these steps:

If x₀ = x₁ and y₀ = y₁ and r₀ = r₁, then the radial gradient must paint nothing. Abort these steps.
Let x(ω) = (x₁-x₀)ω + x₀

Let y(ω) = (y₁-y₀)ω + y₀

Let r(ω) = (r₁-r₀)ω + r₀

Let the color at ω be the color at that position on the gradient (with the colors coming from the interpolation and extrapolation described above).
For all values of ω where r(ω) > 0, starting with the value of ω nearest to positive infinity and ending with the value of ω nearest to negative infinity, draw the circumference of the circle with radius r(ω) at position (x(ω), y(ω)), with the color at ω, but only painting on the parts of the canvas that have not yet been painted on by earlier circles in this step for this rendering of the gradient.

This effectively creates a cone, touched by the two circles defined in the creation of the gradient, with the part of the cone before the start circle (0.0) using the color of the first offset, the part of the cone after the end circle (1.0) using the color of the last offset, and areas outside the cone untouched by the gradient (transparent black).

Gradients must be painted only where the relevant stroking or filling effects requires that they be drawn.

The points in the radial gradient must be transformed as described by the current transformation matrix when rendering.

Patterns are represented by objects implementing the opaque CanvasPattern interface.

To create objects of this type, the createPattern(image, repetition) method is used. The first argument gives the image to use as the pattern (either an HTMLImageElement or an HTMLCanvasElement). Modifying this image after calling the createPattern() method must not affect the pattern. The second argument must be a string with one of the following values: repeat, repeat-x, repeat-y, no-repeat. If the empty string or null is specified, repeat must be assumed. If an unrecognized value is given, then the user agent must raise a SYNTAX_ERR exception. User agents must recognize the four values described above exactly (e.g. they must not do case folding). The method must return a CanvasPattern object suitably initialized.

The image argument must be an instance of an HTMLImageElement or HTMLCanvasElement. If the image is of the wrong type or null, the implementation must raise a TYPE_MISMATCH_ERR exception.

If the image argument is an HTMLImageElement object whose complete attribute is false, then the implementation must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception.

If the image argument is an HTMLCanvasElement object with either a horizontal dimension or a vertical dimension equal to zero, then the implementation must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception.

Patterns must be painted so that the top left of the first image is anchored at the origin of the coordinate space, and images are then repeated horizontally to the left and right (if the repeat-x string was specified) or vertically up and down (if the repeat-y string was specified) or in all four directions all over the canvas (if the repeat string was specified). The images are not scaled by this process; one CSS pixel of the image must be painted on one coordinate space unit. Of course, patterns must actually be painted only where the stroking or filling effect requires that they be drawn, and are affected by the current transformation matrix.

When the createPattern() method is passed, as its image argument, an animated image, the poster frame of the animation, or the first frame of the animation if there is no poster frame, must be used.

4.8.11.1.5 Line styles

The lineWidth attribute gives the width of lines, in coordinate space units. On setting, zero, negative, infinite, and NaN values must be ignored, leaving the value unchanged.

When the context is created, the lineWidth attribute must initially have the value 1.0.

The lineCap attribute defines the type of endings that UAs will place on the end of lines. The three valid values are butt, round, and square. The butt value means that the end of each line has a flat edge perpendicular to the direction of the line (and that no additional line cap is added). The round value means that a semi-circle with the diameter equal to the width of the line must then be added on to the end of the line. The square value means that a rectangle with the length of the line width and the width of half the line width, placed flat against the edge perpendicular to the direction of the line, must be added at the end of each line. On setting, any other value than the literal strings butt, round, and square must be ignored, leaving the value unchanged.

When the context is created, the lineCap attribute must initially have the value butt.

The lineJoin attribute defines the type of corners that UAs will place where two lines meet. The three valid values are bevel, round, and miter.

On setting, any other value than the literal strings bevel, round, and miter must be ignored, leaving the value unchanged.

When the context is created, the lineJoin attribute must initially have the value miter.

A join exists at any point in a subpath shared by two consecutive lines. When a subpath is closed, then a join also exists at its first point (equivalent to its last point) connecting the first and last lines in the subpath.

In addition to the point where the join occurs, two additional points are relevant to each join, one for each line: the two corners found half the line width away from the join point, one perpendicular to each line, each on the side furthest from the other line.

A filled triangle connecting these two opposite corners with a straight line, with the third point of the triangle being the join point, must be rendered at all joins. The lineJoin attribute controls whether anything else is rendered. The three aforementioned values have the following meanings:

The bevel value means that this is all that is rendered at joins.

The round value means that a filled arc connecting the two aforementioned corners of the join, abutting (and not overlapping) the aforementioned triangle, with the diameter equal to the line width and the origin at the point of the join, must be rendered at joins.

The miter value means that a second filled triangle must (if it can given the miter length) be rendered at the join, with one line being the line between the two aforementioned corners, abutting the first triangle, and the other two being continuations of the outside edges of the two joining lines, as long as required to intersect without going over the miter length.

The miter length is the distance from the point where the lines touch on the inside of the join to the intersection of the line edges on the outside of the join. The miter limit ratio is the maximum allowed ratio of the miter length to half the line width. If the miter length would cause the miter limit ratio to be exceeded, this second triangle must not be rendered.

The miter limit ratio can be explicitly set using the miterLimit attribute. On setting, zero, negative, infinite, and NaN values must be ignored, leaving the value unchanged.

When the context is created, the miterLimit attribute must initially have the value 10.0.

4.8.11.1.6 Shadows

All drawing operations are affected by the four global shadow attributes.

The shadowColor attribute sets the color of the shadow.

When the context is created, the shadowColor attribute initially must be fully-transparent black.

On getting, the serialization of the color must be returned.

On setting, the new value must be parsed as a CSS <color> value and the color assigned. If the value is not a valid color, then it must be ignored, and the attribute must retain its previous value. [CSS3COLOR]

The shadowOffsetX and shadowOffsetY attributes specify the distance that the shadow will be offset in the positive horizontal and positive vertical distance respectively. Their values are in coordinate space units. They are not affected by the current transformation matrix.

When the context is created, the shadow offset attributes must initially have the value 0.

On getting, they must return their current value. On setting, the attribute being set must be set to the new value, except if the value is infinite or NaN, in which case the new value must be ignored.

The shadowBlur attribute specifies the size of the blurring effect. (The units do not map to coordinate space units, and are not affected by the current transformation matrix.)

When the context is created, the shadowBlur attribute must initially have the value 0.

On getting, the attribute must return its current value. On setting the attribute must be set to the new value, except if the value is negative, infinite or NaN, in which case the new value must be ignored.

When shadows are drawn, they must be rendered as follows:

Let A be the source image for which a shadow is being created.
Let B be an infinite transparent black bitmap, with a coordinate space and an origin identical to A.
Copy the alpha channel of A to B, offset by shadowOffsetX in the positive x direction, and shadowOffsetY in the positive y direction.
If shadowBlur is greater than 0:
1. If shadowBlur is less than 8, let σ be half the value of shadowBlur; otherwise, let σ be the square root of multiplying the value of shadowBlur by 2.
2. Perform a 2D Gaussian Blur on B, using σ as the standard deviation.
User agents may limit values of σ to an implementation-specific maximum value to avoid exceeding hardware limitations during the Gaussian blur operation.
Set the red, green, and blue components of every pixel in B to the red, green, and blue components (respectively) of the color of shadowColor.
Multiply the alpha component of every pixel in B by the alpha component of the color of shadowColor.
The shadow is in the bitmap B, and is rendered as part of the drawing model described below.

4.8.11.1.7 Simple shapes (rectangles)

There are three methods that immediately draw rectangles to the bitmap. They each take four arguments; the first two give the x and y coordinates of the top left of the rectangle, and the second two give the width w and height h of the rectangle, respectively.

The current transformation matrix must be applied to the following four coordinates, which form the path that must then be closed to get the specified rectangle: (x, y), (x+w, y), (x+w, y+h), (x, y+h).

Shapes are painted without affecting the current path, and are subject to the clipping region, and, with the exception of clearRect(), also shadow effects, global alpha, and global composition operators.

The clearRect(x, y, w, h) method must clear the pixels in the specified rectangle that also intersect the current clipping region to a fully transparent black, erasing any previous image. If either height or width are zero, this method has no effect.

The fillRect(x, y, w, h) method must paint the specified rectangular area using the fillStyle. If either height or width are zero, this method has no effect.

The strokeRect(x, y, w, h) method must stroke the specified rectangle's path using the strokeStyle, lineWidth, lineJoin, and (if appropriate) miterLimit attributes. If both height and width are zero, this method has no effect, since there is no path to stroke (it's a point). If only one of the two is zero, then the method will draw a line instead (the path for the outline is just a straight line along the non-zero dimension).

4.8.11.1.8 Complex shapes (paths)

The context always has a current path. There is only one current path, it is not part of the drawing state.

A path has a list of zero or more subpaths. Each subpath consists of a list of one or more points, connected by straight or curved lines, and a flag indicating whether the subpath is closed or not. A closed subpath is one where the last point of the subpath is connected to the first point of the subpath by a straight line. Subpaths with fewer than two points are ignored when painting the path.

Initially, the context's path must have zero subpaths.

The points and lines added to the path by these methods must be transformed according to the current transformation matrix as they are added.

The beginPath() method must empty the list of subpaths so that the context once again has zero subpaths.

The moveTo(x, y) method must create a new subpath with the specified point as its first (and only) point.

The closePath() method must do nothing if the context has no subpaths. Otherwise, it must mark the last subpath as closed, create a new subpath whose first point is the same as the previous subpath's first point, and finally add this new subpath to the path. (If the last subpath had more than one point in its list of points, then this is equivalent to adding a straight line connecting the last point back to the first point, thus "closing" the shape, and then repeating the last moveTo() call.)

New points and the lines connecting them are added to subpaths using the methods described below. In all cases, the methods only modify the last subpath in the context's paths.

The lineTo(x, y) method must do nothing if the context has no subpaths. Otherwise, it must connect the last point in the subpath to the given point (x, y) using a straight line, and must then add the given point (x, y) to the subpath.

The quadraticCurveTo(cpx, cpy, x, y) method must do nothing if the context has no subpaths. Otherwise it must connect the last point in the subpath to the given point (x, y) using a quadratic Bézier curve with control point (cpx, cpy), and must then add the given point (x, y) to the subpath. [BEZIER]

The bezierCurveTo(cp1x, cp1y, cp2x, cp2y, x, y) method must do nothing if the context has no subpaths. Otherwise, it must connect the last point in the subpath to the given point (x, y) using a cubic Bézier curve with control points (cp1x, cp1y) and (cp2x, cp2y). Then, it must add the point (x, y) to the subpath. [BEZIER]

The arcTo(x1, y1, x2, y2, radius) method must do nothing if the context has no subpaths. If the context does have a subpath, then the behavior depends on the arguments and the last point in the subpath.

Negative values for radius must cause the implementation to raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

Let the point (x0, y0) be the last point in the subpath.

If the point (x0, y0) is equal to the point (x1, y1), or if the point (x1, y1) is equal to the point (x2, y2), or if the radius radius is zero, then the method must add the point (x1, y1) to the subpath, and connect that point to the previous point (x0, y0) by a straight line.

Otherwise, if the points (x0, y0), (x1, y1), and (x2, y2) all lie on a single straight line, then: if the direction from (x0, y0) to (x1, y1) is the same as the direction from (x1, y1) to (x2, y2), then the method must add the point (x1, y1) to the subpath, and connect that point to the previous point (x0, y0) by a straight line; otherwise, the direction from (x0, y0) to (x1, y1) is the opposite of the direction from (x1, y1) to (x2, y2), and the method must add a point (x_∞, y_∞) to the subpath, and connect that point to the previous point (x0, y0) by a straight line, where (x_∞, y_∞) is the point that is infinitely far away from (x1, y1), that lies on the same line as (x0, y0), (x1, y1), and (x2, y2), and that is on the same side of (x1, y1) on that line as (x2, y2).

Otherwise, let The Arc be the shortest arc given by circumference of the circle that has radius radius, and that has one point tangent to the half-infinite line that crosses the point (x0, y0) and ends at the point (x1, y1), and that has a different point tangent to the half-infinite line that ends at the point (x1, y1) and crosses the point (x2, y2). The points at which this circle touches these two lines are called the start and end tangent points respectively.

The method must connect the point (x0, y0) to the start tangent point by a straight line, adding the start tangent point to the subpath, and then must connect the start tangent point to the end tangent point by The Arc, adding the end tangent point to the subpath.

The arc(x, y, radius, startAngle, endAngle, anticlockwise) method draws an arc. If the context has any subpaths, then the method must add a straight line from the last point in the subpath to the start point of the arc. In any case, it must draw the arc between the start point of the arc and the end point of the arc, and add the start and end points of the arc to the subpath. The arc and its start and end points are defined as follows:

Consider a circle that has its origin at (x, y) and that has radius radius. The points at startAngle and endAngle along this circle's circumference, measured in radians clockwise from the positive x-axis, are the start and end points respectively.

If the anticlockwise argument is false and endAngle-startAngle is equal to or greater than 2π, or, if the anticlockwise argument is true and startAngle-endAngle is equal to or greater than 2π, then the arc is the whole circumference of this circle.

Otherwise, the arc is the path along the circumference of this circle from the start point to the end point, going anti-clockwise if the anticlockwise argument is true, and clockwise otherwise. Since the points are on the circle, as opposed to being simply angles from zero, the arc can never cover an angle greater than 2π radians. If the two points are the same, or if the radius is zero, then the arc is defined as being of zero length in both directions.

Negative values for radius must cause the implementation to raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

The rect(x, y, w, h) method must create a new subpath containing just the four points (x, y), (x+w, y), (x+w, y+h), (x, y+h), with those four points connected by straight lines, and must then mark the subpath as closed. It must then create a new subpath with the point (x, y) as the only point in the subpath.

The fill() method must fill all the subpaths of the current path, using fillStyle, and using the non-zero winding number rule. Open subpaths must be implicitly closed when being filled (without affecting the actual subpaths).

Thus, if two overlapping but otherwise independent subpaths have opposite windings, they cancel out and result in no fill. If they have the same winding, that area just gets painted once.

The stroke() method must calculate the strokes of all the subpaths of the current path, using the lineWidth, lineCap, lineJoin, and (if appropriate) miterLimit attributes, and then fill the combined stroke area using the strokeStyle attribute.

Since the subpaths are all stroked as one, overlapping parts of the paths in one stroke operation are treated as if their union was what was painted.

Paths, when filled or stroked, must be painted without affecting the current path, and must be subject to shadow effects, global alpha, the clipping region, and global composition operators. (Transformations affect the path when the path is created, not when it is painted, though the stroke style is still affected by the transformation during painting.)

Zero-length line segments must be pruned before stroking a path. Empty subpaths must be ignored.

The clip() method must create a new clipping region by calculating the intersection of the current clipping region and the area described by the current path, using the non-zero winding number rule. Open subpaths must be implicitly closed when computing the clipping region, without affecting the actual subpaths. The new clipping region replaces the current clipping region.

When the context is initialized, the clipping region must be set to the rectangle with the top left corner at (0,0) and the width and height of the coordinate space.

The isPointInPath(x, y) method must return true if the point given by the x and y coordinates passed to the method, when treated as coordinates in the canvas coordinate space unaffected by the current transformation, is inside the current path as determined by the non-zero winding number rule; and must return false otherwise. Points on the path itself are considered to be inside the path. If either of the arguments is infinite or NaN, then the method must return false.

4.8.11.1.9 Text

The font DOM attribute, on setting, must be parsed the same way as the 'font' property of CSS (but without supporting property-independent stylesheet syntax like 'inherit'), and the resulting font must be assigned to the context, with the 'line-height' component forced to 'normal'. If the new value is syntactically incorrect, then it must be ignored, without assigning a new font value. [CSS]

Font names must be interpreted in the context of the canvas element's stylesheets; any fonts embedded using @font-face must therefore be available. [CSSWEBFONTS]

Only vector fonts should be used by the user agent; if a user agent were to use bitmap fonts then transformations would likely make the font look very ugly.

On getting, the font attribute must return the serialized form of the current font of the context. [CSSOM]

When the context is created, the font of the context must be set to 10px sans-serif. When the 'font-size' component is set to lengths using percentages, 'em' or 'ex' units, or the 'larger' or 'smaller' keywords, these must be interpreted relative to the computed value of the 'font-size' property of the corresponding canvas element at the time that the attribute is set. When the 'font-weight' component is set to the relative values 'bolder' and 'lighter', these must be interpreted relative to the computed value of the 'font-weight' property of the corresponding canvas element at the time that the attribute is set. If the computed values are undefined for a particular case (e.g. because the canvas element is not in a document), then the relative keywords must be interpreted relative to the normal-weight 10px sans-serif default.

The textAlign DOM attribute, on getting, must return the current value. On setting, if the value is one of start, end, left, right, or center, then the value must be changed to the new value. Otherwise, the new value must be ignored. When the context is created, the textAlign attribute must initially have the value start.

The textBaseline DOM attribute, on getting, must return the current value. On setting, if the value is one of top, hanging, middle, alphabetic, ideographic, or bottom, then the value must be changed to the new value. Otherwise, the new value must be ignored. When the context is created, the textBaseline attribute must initially have the value alphabetic.

The textBaseline attribute's allowed keywords correspond to alignment points in the font:

The keywords map to these alignment points as follows:

top: The top of the em square
hanging: The hanging baseline
middle: The middle of the em square
alphabetic: The alphabetic baseline
ideographic: The ideographic baseline
bottom: The bottom of the em square

The fillText() and strokeText() methods take three or four arguments, text, x, y, and optionally maxWidth, and render the given text at the given (x, y) coordinates ensuring that the text isn't wider than maxWidth if specified, using the current font, textAlign, and textBaseline values. Specifically, when the methods are called, the user agent must run the following steps:

Let font be the current font of the context, as given by the font attribute.
Replace all the space characters in text with U+0020 SPACE characters.
Form a hypothetical infinitely wide CSS line box containing a single inline box containing the text text, with all the properties at their initial values except the 'font' property of the inline box set to font and the 'direction' property of the inline box set to the directionality of the canvas element. [CSS]
If the maxWidth argument was specified and the hypothetical width of the inline box in the hypothetical line box is greater than maxWidth CSS pixels, then change font to have a more condensed font (if one is available or if a reasonably readable one can be synthesized by applying a horizontal scale factor to the font) or a smaller font, and return to the previous step.
Let the anchor point be a point on the inline box, determined by the textAlign and textBaseline values, as follows:

Horizontal position:

If textAlign is left

If textAlign is start and the directionality of the canvas element is 'ltr'

If textAlign is end and the directionality of the canvas element is 'rtl'

Let the anchor point's horizontal position be the left edge of the inline box.

If textAlign is right

If textAlign is end and the directionality of the canvas element is 'ltr'

If textAlign is start and the directionality of the canvas element is 'rtl'

Let the anchor point's horizontal position be the right edge of the inline box.

If textAlign is center

Let the anchor point's horizontal position be half way between the left and right edges of the inline box.

Vertical position:

If textBaseline is top

Let the anchor point's vertical position be the top of the em box of the first available font of the inline box.

If textBaseline is hanging

Let the anchor point's vertical position be the hanging baseline of the first available font of the inline box.

If textBaseline is middle

Let the anchor point's vertical position be half way between the bottom and the top of the em box of the first available font of the inline box.

If textBaseline is alphabetic

Let the anchor point's vertical position be the alphabetic baseline of the first available font of the inline box.

If textBaseline is ideographic

Let the anchor point's vertical position be the ideographic baseline of the first available font of the inline box.

If textBaseline is bottom

Let the anchor point's vertical position be the bottom of the em box of the first available font of the inline box.
Paint the hypothetical inline box as the shape given by the text's glyphs, as transformed by the current transformation matrix, and anchored and sized so that before applying the current transformation matrix, the anchor point is at (x, y) and each CSS pixel is mapped to one coordinate space unit.

For fillText() fillStyle must be applied to the glyphs and strokeStyle must be ignored. For strokeText() the reverse holds and strokeStyle must be applied to the glyph outlines and fillStyle must be ignored.

Text is painted without affecting the current path, and is subject to shadow effects, global alpha, the clipping region, and global composition operators.

The measureText() method takes one argument, text. When the method is invoked, the user agent must replace all the space characters in text with U+0020 SPACE characters, and then must form a hypothetical infinitely wide CSS line box containing a single inline box containing the text text, with all the properties at their initial values except the 'font' property of the inline element set to the current font of the context, as given by the font attribute, and must then return a new TextMetrics object with its width attribute set to the width of that inline box, in CSS pixels. [CSS]

The TextMetrics interface is used for the objects returned from measureText(). It has one attribute, width, which is set by the measureText() method.

Glyphs rendered using fillText() and strokeText() can spill out of the box given by the font size (the em square size) and the width returned by measureText() (the text width). This version of the specification does not provide a way to obtain the bounding box dimensions of the text. If the text is to be rendered and removed, care needs to be taken to replace the entire area of the canvas that the clipping region covers, not just the box given by the em square height and measured text width.

A future version of the 2D context API may provide a way to render fragments of documents, rendered using CSS, straight to the canvas. This would be provided in preference to a dedicated way of doing multiline layout.

4.8.11.1.10 Images

To draw images onto the canvas, the drawImage method can be used.

This method is overloaded with three variants: drawImage(image, dx, dy), drawImage(image, dx, dy, dw, dh), and drawImage(image, sx, sy, sw, sh, dx, dy, dw, dh). (Actually it is overloaded with six; each of those three can take either an HTMLImageElement or an HTMLCanvasElement for the image argument.) If not specified, the dw and dh arguments must default to the values of sw and sh, interpreted such that one CSS pixel in the image is treated as one unit in the canvas coordinate space. If the sx, sy, sw, and sh arguments are omitted, they must default to 0, 0, the image's intrinsic width in image pixels, and the image's intrinsic height in image pixels, respectively.

The image argument must be an instance of an HTMLImageElement or HTMLCanvasElement. If the image is of the wrong type or null, the implementation must raise a TYPE_MISMATCH_ERR exception.

If the image argument is an HTMLImageElement object whose complete attribute is false, then the implementation must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception.

The source rectangle is the rectangle whose corners are the four points (sx, sy), (sx+sw, sy), (sx+sw, sy+sh), (sx, sy+sh).

If the source rectangle is not entirely within the source image, or if one of the sw or sh arguments is zero, the implementation must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

The destination rectangle is the rectangle whose corners are the four points (dx, dy), (dx+dw, dy), (dx+dw, dy+dh), (dx, dy+dh).

When drawImage() is invoked, the region of the image specified by the source rectangle must be painted on the region of the canvas specified by the destination rectangle, after applying the current transformation matrix to the points of the destination rectangle.

When a canvas is drawn onto itself, the drawing model requires the source to be copied before the image is drawn back onto the canvas, so it is possible to copy parts of a canvas onto overlapping parts of itself.

When the drawImage() method is passed, as its image argument, an animated image, the poster frame of the animation, or the first frame of the animation if there is no poster frame, must be used.

Images are painted without affecting the current path, and are subject to shadow effects, global alpha, the clipping region, and global composition operators.

4.8.11.1.11 Pixel manipulation

The createImageData(sw, sh) method must return an ImageData object representing a rectangle with a width in CSS pixels equal to the absolute magnitude of sw and a height in CSS pixels equal to the absolute magnitude of sh, filled with transparent black.

The getImageData(sx, sy, sw, sh) method must return an ImageData object representing the underlying pixel data for the area of the canvas denoted by the rectangle whose corners are the four points (sx, sy), (sx+sw, sy), (sx+sw, sy+sh), (sx, sy+sh), in canvas coordinate space units. Pixels outside the canvas must be returned as transparent black. Pixels must be returned as non-premultiplied alpha values.

If any of the arguments to createImageData() or getImageData() are infinite or NaN, the method must instead raise a NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR exception. If either the sw or sh arguments are zero, the method must instead raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

ImageData objects must be initialized so that their width attribute is set to w, the number of physical device pixels per row in the image data, their height attribute is set to h, the number of rows in the image data, and their data attribute is initialized to a CanvasPixelArray object holding the image data. At least one pixel's worth of image data must be returned.

The CanvasPixelArray object provides ordered, indexed access to the color components of each pixel of the image data. The data must be represented in left-to-right order, row by row top to bottom, starting with the top left, with each pixel's red, green, blue, and alpha components being given in that order for each pixel. Each component of each device pixel represented in this array must be in the range 0..255, representing the 8 bit value for that component. The components must be assigned consecutive indices starting with 0 for the top left pixel's red component.

The CanvasPixelArray object thus represents h×w×4 integers. The length attribute of a CanvasPixelArray object must return this number.

The XXX5(index) method must return the value of the indexth component in the array.

The XXX6(index, value) method must set the value of the indexth component in the array to value. JS undefined values must be converted to zero. Other values must first be converted to numbers using JavaScript's ToNumber algorithm, and if the result is a NaN value, then the value be must converted to zero. If the result is less than 0, it must be clamped to zero. If the result is more than 255, it must be clamped to 255. If the number is not an integer, it should be rounded to the nearest integer using the IEEE 754r convertToIntegerTiesToEven rounding mode. [ECMA262] [IEEE754R]

The above is not intended to cause these methods to get any unusual behaviour, it's just supposed to be the normal behaviour for passing values to a method expecting an octet type.

The width and height (w and h) might be different from the sw and sh arguments to the above methods, e.g. if the canvas is backed by a high-resolution bitmap, or if the sw and sh arguments are negative.

The putImageData(imagedata, dx, dy) and putImageData(imagedata, dx, dy, dirtyX, dirtyY, dirtyWidth, dirtyHeight) methods write data from ImageData structures back to the canvas.

If any of the arguments to the method are infinite or NaN, the method must raise a NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR exception.

If the first argument to the method is null or not an ImageData object then the putImageData() method must raise a TYPE_MISMATCH_ERR exception.

When the last four arguments are omitted, they must be assumed to have the values 0, 0, the width member of the imagedata structure, and the height member of the imagedata structure, respectively.

When invoked with arguments that do not, per the last few paragraphs, cause an exception to be raised, the putImageData() method must act as follows:

Let dx_device be the x-coordinate of the device pixel in the underlying pixel data of the canvas corresponding to the dx coordinate in the canvas coordinate space.

Let dy_device be the y-coordinate of the device pixel in the underlying pixel data of the canvas corresponding to the dy coordinate in the canvas coordinate space.
If dirtyWidth is negative, let dirtyX be dirtyX+dirtyWidth, and let dirtyWidth be equal to the absolute magnitude of dirtyWidth.

If dirtyHeight is negative, let dirtyY be dirtyY+dirtyHeight, and let dirtyHeight be equal to the absolute magnitude of dirtyHeight.
If dirtyX is negative, let dirtyWidth be dirtyWidth+dirtyX, and let dirtyX be zero.

If dirtyY is negative, let dirtyHeight be dirtyHeight+dirtyY, and let dirtyY be zero.
If dirtyX+dirtyWidth is greater than the width attribute of the imagedata argument, let dirtyWidth be the value of that width attribute, minus the value of dirtyX.

If dirtyY+dirtyHeight is greater than the height attribute of the imagedata argument, let dirtyHeight be the value of that height attribute, minus the value of dirtyY.
If, after those changes, either dirtyWidth or dirtyHeight is negative or zero, stop these steps without affecting the canvas.
Otherwise, for all integer values of x and y where dirtyX ≤ x < dirtyX+dirtyWidth and dirtyY ≤ y < dirtyY+dirtyHeight, copy the four channels of the pixel with coordinate (x, y) in the imagedata data structure to the pixel with coordinate (dx_device+x, dy_device+y) in the underlying pixel data of the canvas.

The handling of pixel rounding when the specified coordinates do not exactly map to the device coordinate space is not defined by this specification, except that the following must result in no visible changes to the rendering:

context.putImageData(context.getImageData(x, y, w, h), x, y);

...for any value of x, y, w, and h, and the following two calls:

context.createImageData(w, h);
context.getImageData(0, 0, w, h);

...must return ImageData objects with the same dimensions, for any value of w and h. In other words, while user agents may round the arguments of these methods so that they map to device pixel boundaries, any rounding performed must be performed consistently for all of the createImageData(), getImageData() and putImageData() operations.

The current path, transformation matrix, shadow attributes, global alpha, the clipping region, and global composition operator must not affect the getImageData() and putImageData() methods.

The data returned by getImageData() is at the resolution of the canvas backing store, which is likely to not be one device pixel to each CSS pixel if the display used is a high resolution display.

In the following example, the script generates an ImageData object so that it can draw onto it.

// canvas is a reference to a <canvas> element
var context = canvas.getContext('2d');

// create a blank slate
var data = context.createImageData(canvas.width, canvas.height);

// create some plasma
FillPlasma(data, 'green'); // green plasma

// add a cloud to the plasma
AddCloud(data, data.width/2, data.height/2); // put a cloud in the middle

// paint the plasma+cloud on the canvas
context.putImageData(data, 0, 0);

// support methods
function FillPlasma(data, color) { ... }
function AddCloud(data, x, y) { ... }

Here is an example of using getImageData() and putImageData() to implement an edge detection filter.

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Edge detection demo</title>
  <script>
   var image = new Image();
   function init() {
     image.onload = demo;
     image.src = "image.jpeg";
   }
   function demo() {
     var canvas = document.getElementsByTagName('canvas')[0];
     var context = canvas.getContext('2d');

     // draw the image onto the canvas
     context.drawImage(image, 0, 0);

     // get the image data to manipulate
     var input = context.getImageData(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);

     // get an empty slate to put the data into
     var output = context.createImageData(canvas.width, canvas.height);

     // alias some variables for convenience
     // notice that we are using input.width and input.height here
     // as they might not be the same as canvas.width and canvas.height
     // (in particular, they might be different on high-res displays)
     var w = input.width, h = input.height;
     var inputData = input.data;
     var outputData = output.data;

     // edge detection
     for (var y = 1; y < h-1; y += 1) {
       for (var x = 1; x < w-1; x += 1) {
         for (var c = 0; c < 3; c += 1) {
           var i = (y*w + x)*4 + c;
           outputData[i] = 127 + -inputData[i - w*4 - 4] -   inputData[i - w*4] - inputData[i - w*4 + 4] +
                                 -inputData[i - 4]       + 8*inputData[i]       - inputData[i + 4] +
                                 -inputData[i + w*4 - 4] -   inputData[i + w*4] - inputData[i + w*4 + 4];
         }
         outputData[(y*w + x)*4 + 3] = 255; // alpha
       }
     }

     // put the image data back after manipulation
     context.putImageData(output, 0, 0);
   }
  </script>
 </head>
 <body onload="init()">
  <canvas></canvas>
 </body>
</html>

4.8.11.1.12 Drawing model

When a shape or image is painted, user agents must follow these steps, in the order given (or act as if they do):

Render the shape or image, creating image A, as described in the previous sections. For shapes, the current fill, stroke, and line styles must be honored, and the stroke must itself also be subjected to the current transformation matrix.
Render the shadow from image A, using the current shadow styles, creating image B.
Multiply the alpha component of every pixel in B by globalAlpha.
Within the clipping region, composite B over the current canvas bitmap using the current composition operator.
Multiply the alpha component of every pixel in A by globalAlpha.
Within the clipping region, composite A over the current canvas bitmap using the current composition operator.

4.8.11.2 Color spaces and color correction

The canvas APIs must perform color correction at only two points: when rendering images with their own gamma correction and color space information onto the canvas, to convert the image to the color space used by the canvas (e.g. using the drawImage() method with an HTMLImageElement object), and when rendering the actual canvas bitmap to the output device.

Thus, in the 2D context, colors used to draw shapes onto the canvas will exactly match colors obtained through the getImageData() method.

The toDataURL() method must not include color space information in the resource returned. Where the output format allows it, the color of pixels in resources created by toDataURL() must match those returned by the getImageData() method.

In user agents that support CSS, the color space used by a canvas element must match the color space used for processing any colors for that element in CSS.

The gamma correction and color space information of images must be handled in such a way that an image rendered directly using an img element would use the same colors as one painted on a canvas element that is then itself rendered. Furthermore, the rendering of images that have no color correction information (such as those returned by the toDataURL() method) must be rendered with no color correction.

Thus, in the 2D context, calling the drawImage() method to render the output of the toDataURL() method to the canvas, given the appropriate dimensions, has no visible effect.

4.8.11.3 Security with `canvas` elements

Information leakage can occur if scripts from one origin can access information (e.g. read pixels) from images from another origin (one that isn't the same).

To mitigate this, canvas elements are defined to have a flag indicating whether they are origin-clean. All canvas elements must start with their origin-clean set to true. The flag must be set to false if any of the following actions occur:

The element's 2D context's drawImage() method is called with an HTMLImageElement whose origin is not the same as that of the Document object that owns the canvas element.
The element's 2D context's drawImage() method is called with an HTMLCanvasElement whose origin-clean flag is false.
The element's 2D context's fillStyle attribute is set to a CanvasPattern object that was created from an HTMLImageElement whose origin was not the same as that of the Document object that owns the canvas element when the pattern was created.
The element's 2D context's fillStyle attribute is set to a CanvasPattern object that was created from an HTMLCanvasElement whose origin-clean flag was false when the pattern was created.
The element's 2D context's strokeStyle attribute is set to a CanvasPattern object that was created from an HTMLImageElement whose origin was not the same as that of the Document object that owns the canvas element when the pattern was created.
The element's 2D context's strokeStyle attribute is set to a CanvasPattern object that was created from an HTMLCanvasElement whose origin-clean flag was false when the pattern was created.

Whenever the toDataURL() method of a canvas element whose origin-clean flag is set to false is called, the method must raise a security exception.

Whenever the getImageData() method of the 2D context of a canvas element whose origin-clean flag is set to false is called with otherwise correct arguments, the method must raise a security exception.

Even resetting the canvas state by changing its width or height attributes doesn't reset the origin-clean flag.

4.8.12 The `map` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

name

DOM interface:

interface HTMLMapElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString name;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection areas;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection images;
};

The map element, in conjunction with any area element descendants, defines an image map.

The name attribute gives the map a name so that it can be referenced. The attribute must be present and must have a non-empty value. Whitespace is significant in this attribute's value. If the id attribute is also specified, both attributes must have the same value.

The areas attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the map element, whose filter matches only area elements.

The images attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter matches only img and object elements that are associated with this map element according to the image map processing model.

The DOM attribute name must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

4.8.13 The `area` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected, but only if there is a map element ancestor.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific attributes:

alt

coords

shape

href

target

ping

rel

media

hreflang

type

DOM interface:

interface HTMLAreaElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString alt;
           attribute DOMString coords;
           attribute DOMString shape;
           attribute DOMString href;
           attribute DOMString target;
           attribute DOMString ping;
           attribute DOMString rel;
  readonly attribute DOMTokenList relList;
           attribute DOMString media;
           attribute DOMString hreflang;
           attribute DOMString type;
};

The area element represents either a hyperlink with some text and a corresponding area on an image map, or a dead area on an image map.

If the area element has an href attribute, then the area element represents a hyperlink. In this case, the alt attribute must be present. It specifies the text of the hyperlink. Its value must be text that, when presented with the texts specified for the other hyperlinks of the image map, and with the alternative text of the image, but without the image itself, provides the user with the same kind of choice as the hyperlink would when used without its text but with its shape applied to the image. The alt attribute may be left blank if there is another area element in the same image map that points to the same resource and has a non-blank alt attribute.

If the area element has no href attribute, then the area represented by the element cannot be selected, and the alt attribute must be omitted.

In both cases, the shape and coords attributes specify the area.

The shape 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. Some of the keywords are non-conforming, as noted in the last column.

State	Keywords	Notes
Circle state	`circ`	Non-conforming
Circle state	`circle`
Default state	`default`
Polygon state	`poly`
Polygon state	`polygon`	Non-conforming
Rectangle state	`rect`
Rectangle state	`rectangle`	Non-conforming

The attribute may be omitted. The missing value default is the rectangle state.

The coords attribute must, if specified, contain a valid list of integers. This attribute gives the coordinates for the shape described by the shape attribute. The processing for this attribute is described as part of the image map processing model.

In the circle state, area elements must have a coords attribute present, with three integers, the last of which must be non-negative. The first integer must be the distance in CSS pixels from the left edge of the image to the center of the circle, the second integer must be the distance in CSS pixels from the top edge of the image to the center of the circle, and the third integer must be the radius of the circle, again in CSS pixels.

In the default state state, area elements must not have a coords attribute. (The area is the whole image.)

In the polygon state, area elements must have a coords attribute with at least six integers, and the number of integers must be even. Each pair of integers must represent a coordinate given as the distances from the left and the top of the image in CSS pixels respectively, and all the coordinates together must represent the points of the polygon, in order.

In the rectangle state, area elements must have a coords attribute with exactly four integers, the first of which must be less than the third, and the second of which must be less than the fourth. The four points must represent, respectively, the distance from the left edge of the image to the left side of the rectangle, the distance from the top edge to the top side, the distance from the left edge to the right side, and the distance from the top edge to the bottom side, all in CSS pixels.

When user agents allow users to follow hyperlinks created using the area element, as described in the next section, the href, target and ping attributes decide how the link is followed. The rel, media, hreflang, and type attributes may be used to indicate to the user the likely nature of the target resource before the user follows the link.

The target, ping, rel, media, hreflang, and type attributes must be omitted if the href attribute is not present.

The activation behavior of area elements is to run the following steps:

If the DOMActivate event in question is not trusted (i.e. a click() method call was the reason for the event being dispatched), and the area element's target attribute is ... then raise an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception.
Otherwise, the user agent must follow the hyperlink defined by the area element, if any.

The DOM attributes alt, coords, href, target, ping, rel, media, hreflang, and type, each must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The DOM attribute shape must reflect the shape content attribute, limited to only known values.

The DOM attribute relList must reflect the rel content attribute.

4.8.14 Image maps

4.8.14.1 Authoring

An image map allows geometric areas on an image to be associated with hyperlinks.

An image, in the form of an img element or an object element representing an image, may be associated with an image map (in the form of a map element) by specifying a usemap attribute on the img or object element. The usemap attribute, if specified, must be a valid hash-name reference to a map element.

Consider an image that looks as follows:

A line with four shapes in it, equally spaced: a red hollow box, a green circle, a blue triangle, and a yellow four-pointed star.

If we wanted just the coloured areas to be clickable, we could do it as follows:

<p>
 Please select a shape:
 <img src="shapes.png" usemap="#shapes"
      alt="Four shapes are available: a red hollow box, a green circle, a blue triangle, and a yellow four-pointed star.">
 <map name="shapes">
  <area shape=rect coords="50,50,100,100"> <!-- the hole in the red box -->
  <area shape=rect coords="25,25,125,125" href="red.html" alt="Red box.">
  <area shape=circle coords="200,75,50" href="green.html" alt="Green circle.">
  <area shape=poly coords="325,25,262,125,388,125" href="blue.html" alt="Blue triangle.">
  <area shape=poly coords="450,25,435,60,400,75,435,90,450,125,465,90,500,75,465,60"
        href="yellow.html" alt="Yellow star.">
 </map>
</p>

4.8.14.2 Processing model

If an img element or an object element representing an image has a usemap attribute specified, user agents must process it as follows:

First, rules for parsing a hash-name reference to a map element must be followed. This will return either an element (the map) or null.
If that returned null, then abort these steps. The image is not associated with an image map after all.
Otherwise, the user agent must collect all the area elements that are descendants of the map. Let those be the areas.

Having obtained the list of area elements that form the image map (the areas), interactive user agents must process the list in one of two ways.

If the user agent intends to show the text that the img element represents, then it must use the following steps.

In user agents that do not support images, or that have images disabled, object elements cannot represent images, and thus this section never applies (the fallback content is shown instead). The following steps therefore only apply to img elements.

Remove all the area elements in areas that have no href attribute.
Remove all the area elements in areas that have no alt attribute, or whose alt attribute's value is the empty string, if there is another area element in areas with the same value in the href attribute and with a non-empty alt attribute.
Each remaining area element in areas represents a hyperlink. Those hyperlinks should all be made available to the user in a manner associated with the text of the img.

In this context, user agents may represent area and img elements with no specified alt attributes, or whose alt attributes are the empty string or some other non-visible text, in a user-agent-defined fashion intended to indicate the lack of suitable author-provided text.

If the user agent intends to show the image and allow interaction with the image to select hyperlinks, then the image must be associated with a set of layered shapes, taken from the area elements in areas, in reverse tree order (so the last specified area element in the map is the bottom-most shape, and the first element in the map, in tree order, is the top-most shape).

Each area element in areas must be processed as follows to obtain a shape to layer onto the image:

Find the state that the element's shape attribute represents.
Use the rules for parsing a list of integers to parse the element's coords attribute, if it is present, and let the result be the coords list. If the attribute is absent, let the coords list be the empty list.
If the number of items in the coords list is less than the minimum number given for the area element's current state, as per the following table, then the shape is empty; abort these steps.

State Minimum number of items
Circle state 3
Default state 0
Polygon state 6
Rectangle state 4
Check for excess items in the coords list as per the entry in the following list corresponding to the shape attribute's state:

Circle state

Drop any items in the list beyond the third.

Default state

Drop all items in the list.

Polygon state

Drop the last item if there's an odd number of items.

Rectangle state

Drop any items in the list beyond the fourth.
If the shape attribute represents the rectangle state, and the first number in the list is numerically less than the third number in the list, then swap those two numbers around.
If the shape attribute represents the rectangle state, and the second number in the list is numerically less than the fourth number in the list, then swap those two numbers around.
If the shape attribute represents the circle state, and the third number in the list is less than or equal to zero, then the shape is empty; abort these steps.
Now, the shape represented by the element is the one described for the entry in the list below corresponding to the state of the shape attribute:

Circle state

Let x be the first number in coords, y be the second number, and r be the third number.

The shape is a circle whose center is x CSS pixels from the left edge of the image and x CSS pixels from the top edge of the image, and whose radius is r pixels.

Default state

The shape is a rectangle that exactly covers the entire image.

Polygon state

Let x_i be the (2i)th entry in coords, and y_i be the (2i+1)th entry in coords (the first entry in coords being the one with index 0).

Let the coordinates be (x_i, y_i), interpreted in CSS pixels measured from the top left of the image, for all integer values of i from 0 to (N/2)-1, where N is the number of items in coords.

The shape is a polygon whose vertices are given by the coordinates, and whose interior is established using the even-odd rule. [GRAPHICS]

Rectangle state

Let x1 be the first number in coords, y1 be the second number, x2 be the third number, and y2 be the fourth number.

The shape is a rectangle whose top-left corner is given by the coordinate (x1, y1) and whose bottom right corner is given by the coordinate (x2, y2), those coordinates being interpreted as CSS pixels from the top left corner of the image.

For historical reasons, the coordinates must be interpreted relative to the displayed image, even if it stretched using CSS or the image element's width and height attributes.

State	Minimum number of items
Circle state	3
Default state	0
Polygon state	6
Rectangle state	4

Mouse clicks on an image associated with a set of layered shapes per the above algorithm must be dispatched to the top-most shape covering the point that the pointing device indicated (if any), and then, must be dispatched again (with a new Event object) to the image element itself. User agents may also allow individual area elements representing hyperlinks to be selected and activated (e.g. using a keyboard); events from this are not also propagated to the image.

Because a map element (and its area elements) can be associated with multiple img and object elements, it is possible for an area element to correspond to multiple focusable areas of the document.

Image maps are live; if the DOM is mutated, then the user agent must act as if it had rerun the algorithms for image maps.

4.8.15 MathML

The math element from the MathML namespace falls into the embedded content category for the purposes of the content models in this specification.

User agents must handle text other than inter-element whitespace found in MathML elements whose content models do not allow raw text by pretending for the purposes of MathML content models, layout, and rendering that that text is actually wrapped in an mtext element in the MathML namespace. (Such text is not, however, conforming.)

User agents must act as if any MathML element whose contents does not match the element's content model was replaced, for the purposes of MathML layout and rendering, by an merror element in the MathML namespace containing some appropriate error message.

To enable authors to use MathML tools that only accept MathML in its XML form, interactive HTML user agents are encouraged to provide a way to export any MathML fragment as a namespace-well-formed XML fragment.

4.8.16 SVG

The svg element from the SVG namespace falls into the embedded content category for the purposes of the content models in this specification.

To enable authors to use SVG tools that only accept SVG in its XML form, interactive HTML user agents are encouraged to provide a way to export any SVG fragment as a namespace-well-formed XML fragment.

4.8.17 Dimension attributes

The width and height attributes on img, iframe, embed, object, and video elements may be specified to give the dimensions of the visual content of the element (the width and height respectively, relative to the nominal direction of the output medium), in CSS pixels. The attributes, if specified, must have values that are valid positive non-zero integers.

The specified dimensions given may differ from the dimensions specified in the resource itself, since the resource may have a resolution that differs from the CSS pixel resolution. (On screens, CSS pixels have a resolution of 96ppi, but in general the CSS pixel resolution depends on the reading distance.) If both attributes are specified, then the ratio of the specified width to the specified height must be the same as the ratio of the intrinsic width to the intrinsic height in the resource, or alternatively, in the case of the video element, the same as the adjusted ratio. The two attributes must be omitted if the resource in question does not have both an intrinsic width and an intrinsic height.

To parse the attributes, user agents must use the rules for parsing dimension values. This will return either an integer length, a percentage value, or nothing. The user agent requirements for processing the values obtained from parsing these attributes are described in the rendering section. If one of these attributes, when parsing, returns no value, it must be treated, for the purposes of those requirements, as if it was not specified.

The width and height DOM attributes on the iframe, embed, object, and video elements must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.9 Tabular data

4.9.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

...examples, how to write tables accessibly, a brief mention of the table model, etc...

4.9.2 The `table` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

Content model:

In this order: optionally a caption element, followed by either zero or more colgroup elements, followed optionally by a thead element, followed optionally by a tfoot element, followed by either zero or more tbody elements or one or more tr elements, followed optionally by a tfoot element (but there can only be one tfoot element child in total).

Element-specific attributes:

None.

DOM interface:

interface HTMLTableElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute HTMLTableCaptionElement caption;
  HTMLElement createCaption();
  void deleteCaption();
           attribute HTMLTableSectionElement tHead;
  HTMLElement createTHead();
  void deleteTHead();
           attribute HTMLTableSectionElement tFoot;
  HTMLElement createTFoot();
  void deleteTFoot();
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection tBodies;
  HTMLElement createTBody();
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection rows;
  HTMLElement insertRow(in long index);
  void deleteRow(in long index);
};

The table element represents data with more than one dimension (a table).

we need some editorial text on how layout tables are bad practice and non-conforming

The children of a table element must be, in order:

Zero or one caption elements.
Zero or more colgroup elements.
Zero or one thead elements.
Zero or one tfoot elements, if the last element in the table is not a tfoot element.
Either:
- Zero or more tbody elements, or
- One or more tr elements. (Only expressible in the XML serialization.)
Zero or one tfoot element, if there are no other tfoot elements in the table.

The table element takes part in the table model.

The caption DOM attribute must return, on getting, the first caption element child of the table element, if any, or null otherwise. On setting, if the new value is a caption element, the first caption element child of the table element, if any, must be removed, and the new value must be inserted as the first node of the table element. If the new value is not a caption element, then a HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR DOM exception must be raised instead.

The createCaption() method must return the first caption element child of the table element, if any; otherwise a new caption element must be created, inserted as the first node of the table element, and then returned.

The deleteCaption() method must remove the first caption element child of the table element, if any.

The tHead DOM attribute must return, on getting, the first thead element child of the table element, if any, or null otherwise. On setting, if the new value is a thead element, the first thead element child of the table element, if any, must be removed, and the new value must be inserted immediately before the first element in the table element that is neither a caption element nor a colgroup element, if any, or at the end of the table otherwise. If the new value is not a thead element, then a HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR DOM exception must be raised instead.

The createTHead() method must return the first thead element child of the table element, if any; otherwise a new thead element must be created and inserted immediately before the first element in the table element that is neither a caption element nor a colgroup element, if any, or at the end of the table otherwise, and then that new element must be returned.

The deleteTHead() method must remove the first thead element child of the table element, if any.

The tFoot DOM attribute must return, on getting, the first tfoot element child of the table element, if any, or null otherwise. On setting, if the new value is a tfoot element, the first tfoot element child of the table element, if any, must be removed, and the new value must be inserted immediately before the first element in the table element that is neither a caption element, a colgroup element, nor a thead element, if any, or at the end of the table if there are no such elements. If the new value is not a tfoot element, then a HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR DOM exception must be raised instead.

The createTFoot() method must return the first tfoot element child of the table element, if any; otherwise a new tfoot element must be created and inserted immediately before the first element in the table element that is neither a caption element, a colgroup element, nor a thead element, if any, or at the end of the table if there are no such elements, and then that new element must be returned.

The deleteTFoot() method must remove the first tfoot element child of the table element, if any.

The tBodies attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the table node, whose filter matches only tbody elements that are children of the table element.

The createTBody() method must create a new tbody element, insert it immediately after the last tbody element in the table element, if any, or at the end of the table element if the table element has no tbody element children, and then must return the new tbody element.

The rows attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the table node, whose filter matches only tr elements that are either children of the table element, or children of thead, tbody, or tfoot elements that are themselves children of the table element. The elements in the collection must be ordered such that those elements whose parent is a thead are included first, in tree order, followed by those elements whose parent is either a table or tbody element, again in tree order, followed finally by those elements whose parent is a tfoot element, still in tree order.

The behavior of the insertRow(index) method depends on the state of the table. When it is called, the method must act as required by the first item in the following list of conditions that describes the state of the table and the index argument:

If index is less than −1 or greater than the number of elements in rows collection:: The method must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.
If the rows collection has zero elements in it, and the table has no tbody elements in it:: The method must create a tbody element, then create a tr element, then append the tr element to the tbody element, then append the tbody element to the table element, and finally return the tr element.
If the rows collection has zero elements in it:: The method must create a tr element, append it to the last tbody element in the table, and return the tr element.
If index is equal to −1 or equal to the number of items in rows collection:: The method must create a tr element, and append it to the parent of the last tr element in the rows collection. Then, the newly created tr element must be returned.
Otherwise:: The method must create a tr element, insert it immediately before the indexth tr element in the rows collection, in the same parent, and finally must return the newly created tr element.

When the deleteRow(index) method is called, the user agent must run the following steps:

If index is equal to −1, then index must be set to the number if items in the rows collection, minus one.
Now, if index is less than zero, or greater than or equal to the number of elements in the rows collection, the method must instead raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception, and these steps must be aborted.
Otherwise, the method must remove the indexth element in the rows collection from its parent.

4.9.3 The `caption` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: As the first element child of a table element.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The caption element represents the title of the table that is its parent, if it has a parent and that is a table element.

The caption element takes part in the table model.

4.9.4 The `colgroup` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of a table element, after any caption elements and before any thead, tbody, tfoot, and tr elements.

Content model:

Zero or more col elements.

Element-specific attributes:

span

DOM interface:

interface HTMLTableColElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute unsigned long span;
};

The colgroup element represents a group of one or more columns in the table that is its parent, if it has a parent and that is a table element.

If the colgroup element contains no col elements, then the element may have a span content attribute specified, whose value must be a valid non-negative integer greater than zero.

The colgroup element and its span attribute take part in the table model.

The span DOM attribute must reflect the respective content attribute of the same name. The value must be limited to only positive non-zero numbers.

4.9.5 The `col` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: As a child of a colgroup element that doesn't have a span attribute.
Content model:: Empty.
Element-specific attributes:: span
DOM interface:: HTMLTableColElement, same as for colgroup elements. This interface defines one member, span.

If a col element has a parent and that is a colgroup element that itself has a parent that is a table element, then the col element represents one or more columns in the column group represented by that colgroup.

The element may have a span content attribute specified, whose value must be a valid non-negative integer greater than zero.

The col element and its span attribute take part in the table model.

The span DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name. The value must be limited to only positive non-zero numbers.

4.9.6 The `tbody` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of a table element, after any caption, colgroup, and thead elements, but only if there are no tr elements that are children of the table element.

Content model:

Zero or more tr elements

Element-specific attributes:

None.

DOM interface:

interface HTMLTableSectionElement : HTMLElement {
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection rows;
  HTMLElement insertRow(in long index);
  void deleteRow(in long index);
};

The HTMLTableSectionElement interface is also used for thead and tfoot elements.

The tbody element represents a block of rows that consist of a body of data for the parent table element, if the tbody element has a parent and it is a table.

The tbody element takes part in the table model.

The rows attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the element, whose filter matches only tr elements that are children of the element.

The insertRow(index) method must, when invoked on an element table section, act as follows:

If index is less than −1 or greater than the number of elements in the rows collection, the method must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

If index is equal to −1 or equal to the number of items in the rows collection, the method must create a tr element, append it to the element table section, and return the newly created tr element.

Otherwise, the method must create a tr element, insert it as a child of the table section element, immediately before the indexth tr element in the rows collection, and finally must return the newly created tr element.

The deleteRow(index) method must remove the indexth element in the rows collection from its parent. If index is less than zero or greater than or equal to the number of elements in the rows collection, the method must instead raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

4.9.7 The `thead` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: As a child of a table element, after any caption, and colgroup elements and before any tbody, tfoot, and tr elements, but only if there are no other thead elements that are children of the table element.
Content model:: Zero or more tr elements
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: HTMLTableSectionElement, as defined for tbody elements.

The thead element represents the block of rows that consist of the column labels (headers) for the parent table element, if the thead element has a parent and it is a table.

The thead element takes part in the table model.

4.9.8 The `tfoot` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: As a child of a table element, after any caption, colgroup, and thead elements and before any tbody and tr elements, but only if there are no other tfoot elements that are children of the table element.; As a child of a table element, after any caption, colgroup, thead, tbody, and tr elements, but only if there are no other tfoot elements that are children of the table element.
Content model:: Zero or more tr elements
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: HTMLTableSectionElement, as defined for tbody elements.

The tfoot element represents the block of rows that consist of the column summaries (footers) for the parent table element, if the tfoot element has a parent and it is a table.

The tfoot element takes part in the table model.

4.9.9 The `tr` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of a thead element.

As a child of a tbody element.

As a child of a tfoot element.

As a child of a table element, after any caption, colgroup, and thead elements, but only if there are no tbody elements that are children of the table element.

Content model:

Zero or more td or th elements

Element-specific attributes:

None.

DOM interface:

interface HTMLTableRowElement : HTMLElement {
  readonly attribute long rowIndex;
  readonly attribute long sectionRowIndex;
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection cells;
  HTMLElement insertCell(in long index);
  void deleteCell(in long index);
};

The tr element represents a row of cells in a table.

The tr element takes part in the table model.

The rowIndex attribute must, if the element has a parent table element, or a parent tbody, thead, or tfoot element and a grandparent table element, return the index of the tr element in that table element's rows collection. If there is no such table element, then the attribute must return −1.

The sectionRowIndex attribute must, if the element has a parent table, tbody, thead, or tfoot element, return the index of the tr element in the parent element's rows collection (for tables, that's the rows collection; for table sections, that's the rows collection). If there is no such parent element, then the attribute must return −1.

The cells attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the tr element, whose filter matches only td and th elements that are children of the tr element.

The insertCell(index) method must act as follows:

If index is less than −1 or greater than the number of elements in the cells collection, the method must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

If index is equal to −1 or equal to the number of items in cells collection, the method must create a td element, append it to the tr element, and return the newly created td element.

Otherwise, the method must create a td element, insert it as a child of the tr element, immediately before the indexth td or th element in the cells collection, and finally must return the newly created td element.

The deleteCell(index) method must remove the indexth element in the cells collection from its parent. If index is less than zero or greater than or equal to the number of elements in the cells collection, the method must instead raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

4.9.10 The `td` element

Categories

Sectioning root.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of a tr element.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

colspan

rowspan

headers

DOM interface:

interface HTMLTableDataCellElement : HTMLTableCellElement {
           attribute DOMString headers;
};

The td element represents a data cell in a table.

The td element may have a headers content attribute specified. The headers attribute, if specified, must contain a string consisting of an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens, each of which must have the value of an ID of a th element taking part in the same table as the td element (as defined by the table model).

The exact effect of the attribute is described in detail in the algorithm for assigning header cells to data cells, which user agents must apply to determine the relationships between data cells and header cells.

The td element and its colspan and rowspan attributes take part in the table model.

The headers DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

4.9.11 The `th` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of a tr element.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

colspan

rowspan

scope

DOM interface:

interface HTMLTableHeaderCellElement : HTMLTableCellElement {
           attribute DOMString scope;
};

The th element represents a header cell in a table.

The th element may have a scope content attribute specified. The scope attribute is an enumerated attribute with five states, four of which have explicit keywords:

The row keyword, which maps to the row state: The row state means the header cell applies to all the remaining cells in the row.
The col keyword, which maps to the column state: The column state means the header cell applies to all the remaining cells in the column.
The rowgroup keyword, which maps to the row group state: The row group state means the header cell applies to all the remaining cells in the row group.
The colgroup keyword, which maps to the column group state: The column group state means the header cell applies to all the remaining cells in the column group.
The auto state: The auto state makes the header cell apply to a set of cells selected based on context.

The scope attribute's missing value default is the auto state.

The exact effect of these values is described in detail in the algorithm for assigning header cells to data cells, which user agents must apply to determine the relationships between data cells and header cells.

The th element and its colspan and rowspan attributes take part in the table model.

The scope DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

4.9.12 Attributes common to `td` and `th` elements

The td and th elements may have a colspan content attribute specified, whose value must be a valid non-negative integer greater than zero.

The td and th elements may also have a rowspan content attribute specified, whose value must be a valid non-negative integer.

The td and th elements implement interfaces that inherit from the HTMLTableCellElement interface:

interface HTMLTableCellElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute long colSpan;
           attribute long rowSpan;
  readonly attribute long cellIndex;
};

The colSpan DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name. The value must be limited to only positive non-zero numbers.

The rowSpan DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name. Its default value, which must be used if parsing the attribute as a non-negative integer returns an error, is also 1.

The cellIndex DOM attribute must, if the element has a parent tr element, return the index of the cell's element in the parent element's cells collection. If there is no such parent element, then the attribute must return 0.

4.9.13 Processing model

The various table elements and their content attributes together define the table model.

A table consists of cells aligned on a two-dimensional grid of slots with coordinates (x, y). The grid is finite, and is either empty or has one or more slots. If the grid has one or more slots, then the x coordinates are always in the range 0 ≤ x < x_width, and the y coordinates are always in the range 0 ≤ y < y_height. If one or both of x_width and y_height are zero, then the table is empty (has no slots). Tables correspond to table elements.

A cell is a set of slots anchored at a slot (cell_x, cell_y), and with a particular width and height such that the cell covers all the slots with coordinates (x, y) where cell_x ≤ x < cell_x+width and cell_y ≤ y < cell_y+height. Cells can either be data cells or header cells. Data cells correspond to td elements, and have zero or more associated header cells. Header cells correspond to th elements.

A row is a complete set of slots from x=0 to x=x_width-1, for a particular value of y. Rows correspond to tr elements.

A column is a complete set of slots from y=0 to y=y_height-1, for a particular value of x. Columns can correspond to col elements, but in the absence of col elements are implied.

A row group is a set of rows anchored at a slot (0, group_y) with a particular height such that the row group covers all the slots with coordinates (x, y) where 0 ≤ x < x_width and group_y ≤ y < group_y+height. Row groups correspond to tbody, thead, and tfoot elements. Not every row is necessarily in a row group.

A column group is a set of columns anchored at a slot (group_x, 0) with a particular width such that the column group covers all the slots with coordinates (x, y) where group_x ≤ x < group_x+width and 0 ≤ y < y_height. Column groups correspond to colgroup elements. Not every column is necessarily in a column group.

Row groups cannot overlap each other. Similarly, column groups cannot overlap each other.

A cell cannot cover slots that are from two or more row groups. It is, however, possible for a cell to be in multiple column groups. All the slots that form part of one cell are part of zero or one row groups and zero or more column groups.

In addition to cells, columns, rows, row groups, and column groups, tables can have a caption element associated with them. This gives the table a heading, or legend.

A table model error is an error with the data represented by table elements and their descendants. Documents must not have table model errors.

4.9.13.1 Forming a table

To determine which elements correspond to which slots in a table associated with a table element, to determine the dimensions of the table (x_width and y_height), and to determine if there are any table model errors, user agents must use the following algorithm:

Let x_width be zero.
Let y_height be zero.
Let pending tfoot elements be a list of tfoot elements, initially empty.
Let the table be the table represented by the table element. The x_width and y_height variables give the table's dimensions. The table is initially empty.
If the table element has no children elements, then return the table (which will be empty), and abort these steps.
Associate the first caption element child of the table element with the table. If there are no such children, then it has no associated caption element.
Let the current element be the first element child of the table element.

If a step in this algorithm ever requires the current element to be advanced to the next child of the table when there is no such next child, then the user agent must jump to the step labeled end, near the end of this algorithm.
While the current element is not one of the following elements, advance the current element to the next child of the table:
- colgroup
- thead
- tbody
- tfoot
- tr
If the current element is a colgroup, follow these substeps:
1. Column groups: Process the current element according to the appropriate case below:
  If the current element has any col element children
  Follow these steps:
  1. Let x_start have the value of x_width.
  2. Let the current column be the first col element child of the colgroup element.
  3. Columns: If the current column col element has a span attribute, then parse its value using the rules for parsing non-negative integers.
    
    If the result of parsing the value is not an error or zero, then let span be that value.
    
    Otherwise, if the col element has no span attribute, or if trying to parse the attribute's value resulted in an error, then let span be 1.
  4. Increase x_width by span.
  5. Let the last span columns in the table correspond to the current column col element.
  6. If current column is not the last col element child of the colgroup element, then let the current column be the next col element child of the colgroup element, and return to the step labeled columns.
  7. Let all the last columns in the table from x=x_start to x=x_width-1 form a new column group, anchored at the slot (x_start, 0), with width x_width-x_start, corresponding to the colgroup element.
  If the current element has no col element children
  1. If the colgroup element has a span attribute, then parse its value using the rules for parsing non-negative integers.
    
    If the result of parsing the value is not an error or zero, then let span be that value.
    
    Otherwise, if the colgroup element has no span attribute, or if trying to parse the attribute's value resulted in an error, then let span be 1.
  2. Increase x_width by span.
  3. Let the last span columns in the table form a new column group, anchored at the slot (x_width-span, 0), with width span, corresponding to the colgroup element.
2. Advance the current element to the next child of the table.
3. While the current element is not one of the following elements, advance the current element to the next child of the table:
  - colgroup
  - thead
  - tbody
  - tfoot
  - tr
4. If the current element is a colgroup element, jump to the step labeled column groups above.
Let y_current be zero.
Let the list of downward-growing cells be an empty list.
Rows: While the current element is not one of the following elements, advance the current element to the next child of the table:
- thead
- tbody
- tfoot
- tr
If the current element is a tr, then run the algorithm for processing rows, advance the current element to the next child of the table, and return to the step labeled rows.
Run the algorithm for ending a row group.
If the current element is a tfoot, then add that element to the list of pending tfoot elements, advance the current element to the next child of the table, and return to the step labeled rows.
The current element is either a thead or a tbody.

Run the algorithm for processing row groups.
Advance the current element to the next child of the table.
Return to the step labeled rows.
End: For each tfoot element in the list of pending tfoot elements, in tree order, run the algorithm for processing row groups.
If there exists a row or column in the table the table containing only slots that do not have a cell anchored to them, then this is a table model error.
Return the table.

The algorithm for processing row groups, which is invoked by the set of steps above for processing thead, tbody, and tfoot elements, is:

Let y_start have the value of y_height.
For each tr element that is a child of the element being processed, in tree order, run the algorithm for processing rows.
If y_height > y_start, then let all the last rows in the table from y=y_start to y=y_height-1 form a new row group, anchored at the slot with coordinate (0, y_start), with height y_height-y_start, corresponding to the element being processed.
Run the algorithm for ending a row group.

The algorithm for ending a row group, which is invoked by the set of steps above when starting and ending a block of rows, is:

While y_current is less than y_height, follow these steps:
1. Run the algorithm for growing downward-growing cells.
2. Increase y_current by 1.
Empty the list of downward-growing cells.

The algorithm for processing rows, which is invoked by the set of steps above for processing tr elements, is:

If y_height is equal to y_current, then increase y_height by 1. (y_current is never greater than y_height.)
Let x_current be 0.
Run the algorithm for growing downward-growing cells.
If the tr element being processed has no td or th element children, then increase y_current by 1, abort this set of steps, and return to the algorithm above.
Let current cell be the first td or th element in the tr element being processed.
Cells: While x_current is less than x_width and the slot with coordinate (x_current, y_current) already has a cell assigned to it, increase x_current by 1.
If x_current is equal to x_width, increase x_width by 1. (x_current is never greater than x_width.)
If the current cell has a colspan attribute, then parse that attribute's value, and let colspan be the result.

If parsing that value failed, or returned zero, or if the attribute is absent, then let colspan be 1, instead.
If the current cell has a rowspan attribute, then parse that attribute's value, and let rowspan be the result.

If parsing that value failed or if the attribute is absent, then let rowspan be 1, instead.
If rowspan is zero, then let cell grows downward be true, and set rowspan to 1. Otherwise, let cell grows downward be false.
If x_width < x_current+colspan, then let x_width be x_current+colspan.
If y_height < y_current+rowspan, then let y_height be y_current+rowspan.
Let the slots with coordinates (x, y) such that x_current ≤ x < x_current+colspan and y_current ≤ y < y_current+rowspan be covered by a new cell c, anchored at (x_current, y_current), which has width colspan and height rowspan, corresponding to the current cell element.

If the current cell element is a th element, let this new cell c be a header cell; otherwise, let it be a data cell. To establish what header cells apply to a data cell, use the algorithm for assigning header cells to data cells described in the next section.

If any of the slots involved already had a cell covering them, then this is a table model error. Those slots now have two cells overlapping.
If cell grows downward is true, then add the tuple {c, x_current, colspan} to the list of downward-growing cells.
Increase x_current by colspan.
If current cell is the last td or th element in the tr element being processed, then increase y_current by 1, abort this set of steps, and return to the algorithm above.
Let current cell be the next td or th element in the tr element being processed.
Return to the step labelled cells.

When the algorithms above require the user agent to run the algorithm for growing downward-growing cells, the user agent must, for each {cell, cell_x, width} tuple in the list of downward-growing cells, if any, extend the cell cell so that it also covers the slots with coordinates (x, y_current), where cell_x ≤ x < cell_x+width.

4.9.13.2 Forming relationships between data cells and header cells

Each data cell can be assigned zero or more header cells. The algorithm for assigning header cells to data cells is as follows.

For each header cell in the table, in tree order, run these substeps:
1. Let (header_x, header_y) be the coordinate of the slot to which the header cell is anchored.
2. Let header_width be the width of the header cell.
3. Let header_height be the height of the header cell.
4. Let data cells be a list of data cells, initially empty.
5. Examine the scope attribute of the th element corresponding to the header cell, and, based on its state, apply the appropriate substep:
  If it is in the row state
  
  Add all the data cells that cover slots with coordinates (slot_x, slot_y), where header_x+header_width ≤ slot_x < x_width and header_y ≤ slot_y < header_y+header_height, to the data cells list.
  
  If it is in the column state
  
  Add all the data cells that cover slots with coordinates (slot_x, slot_y), where header_x ≤ slot_x < header_x+header_width and header_y+header_height ≤ slot_y < y_height, to the data cells list.
  
  If it is in the row group state
  
  If the header cell is not in a row group, then do nothing.
  
  Otherwise, let (0, group_y) be the slot at which the row group is anchored, let height be the number of rows in the row group, and add all the data cells that cover slots with coordinates (slot_x, slot_y), where header_x ≤ slot_x < x_width and header_y ≤ slot_y < group_y+height, to the data cells list.
  
  If it is in the column group state
  
  If the header cell is not anchored in a column group, then do nothing.
  
  Otherwise, let (group_x, 0) be the slot at which that column group is anchored, let width be the number of columns in the column group, and add all the data cells that cover slots with coordinates (slot_x, slot_y), where header_x ≤ slot_x < group_x+width and header_y ≤ slot_y < y_height, to the data cells list.
  
  Otherwise, it is in the auto state
  Run these steps:
  1. If the header cell is equivalent to a wide cell, let header_width equal x_width-header_x.
  2. Let x equal header_x+header_width.
  3. Let y equal header_y+header_height.
  4. Horizontal: If x is equal to x_width, then jump down to the step below labeled vertical.
  5. If there is a header cell anchored at (x, header_y) with height header_height, then jump down to the step below labeled vertical.
  6. Add all the data cells that cover slots with coordinates (slot_x, slot_y), where slot_x = x and header_y ≤ slot_y < header_y+header_height, to the data cells list.
  7. Increase x by 1.
  8. Jump up to the step above labeled horizontal.
  9. Vertical: If y is equal to y_height, then jump to the step below labeled end.
  10. If there is a header cell cell anchored at (header_x, y), then follow these substeps:
    
    If the header cell cell is equivalent to a wide cell, then let width be x_width-header_x. Otherwise, let width be the width of the header cell cell.
    
    If width is equal to header_width, then jump to the step below labeled end.
  11. Add all the data cells that cover slots with coordinates (slot_x, slot_y), where header_x ≤ slot_x < header_x+header_width and slot_y = y, to the data cells list.
  12. Increase y by 1.
  13. Jump up to the step above labeled vertical.
  14. End: Coalesce all the duplicate entries in the data cells list, so that each data cell is only present once, in tree order.
6. Assign the header cell to all the data cells in the data cells list that correspond to td elements that do not have a headers attribute specified.
For each data cell in the table, in tree order, run these substeps:
1. If the data cell corresponds to a td element that does not have a headers attribute specified, then skip these substeps and move on to the next data cell (if any).
2. Otherwise, take the value of the headers attribute and split it on spaces, letting id list be the list of tokens obtained.
3. For each token in the id list, run the following steps:
  1. Let id be the token.
  2. If there is a header cell in the table whose corresponding th element has an ID that is equal to the value of id, then assign the first such header cell in tree order to the data cell.

A header cell anchored at (header_x, header_y) with width header_width and height header_height is said to be equivalent to a wide cell if all the slots with coordinates (slot_x, slot_y), where header_x+header_width ≤ slot_x < x_width and header_y ≤ slot_y < header_y+header_height, are all either empty or covered by empty data cells.

A data cell is said to be an empty data cell if it contains no elements and its text content, if any, consists only of White_Space characters.

User agents may remove empty data cells when analyzing data in a table.

4.10 Forms

Forms allow unscripted client-server interaction: given a form, a user can provide data, submit it to the server, and have the server act on it accordingly (e.g. returning the results of a search or calculation). The elements used in forms can also be used for user interaction with no associated submission mechanism, in conjunction with scripts.

Mostly for historical reasons, elements in this section fall into several overlapping (but subtly different) categories in addition to the usual ones like flow content, phrasing content, and interactive content.

A number of the elements are form-associated elements, which means they can have a form owner and, to expose this, have a form content attribute with a matching form DOM attribute.

The form-associated elements fall into several subcategories:

Submittable elements: Denotes elements that can be used for constructing the form data set when a form element is submit.
Resettable elements: Denotes elements that can be affected when a form element is reset.
Listed: Denotes elements that are listed in the form.elements and fieldset.elements APIs.
Labelable: Denotes elements that can be associated with label elements.

In addition, some submittable elements can be, depending on their attributes, buttons. The prose below defines when an element is a button. Some buttons are specifically submit buttons.

4.10.1 The `form` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

Content model:

Flow content, but with no form element descendants.

Element-specific attributes:

accept-charset

action

enctype

method

name

target

DOM interface:

interface HTMLFormElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString accept-charset;
           attribute DOMString action;
           attribute DOMString enctype;
           attribute DOMString method;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString target;

  readonly attribute HTMLFormControlsCollection elements;
  readonly attribute long length;
  [IndexGetter] HTMLElement XXX7(in unsigned long index);
  [NameGetter] Object XXX8(in DOMString name);

  void submit();
  void reset();
  boolean checkValidity();

  void dispatchFormInput();
  void dispatchFormChange();
};

The form element represents a collection of form-associated elements, some of which can represent editable values that can be submitted to a server for processing.

The accept-charset attribute gives the character encodings that are to be used for the submission. If specified, the value must be an ordered set of unique space-separated tokens, and each token must be the preferred name of an ASCII-compatible character encoding. [IANACHARSET]

The name attribute represents the form's name within the forms collection. The value must not be the empty string, and the value must be unique amongst the form elements in the forms collection that it is in, if any.

The action, enctype, method, and target attributes are attributes for form submission.

The accept-charset and name DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The elements DOM attribute must return an HTMLFormControlsCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter matches listed elements whose form owner is the form element, with the exception of input elements whose type attribute is in the Image Button state, which must, for historical reasons, be excluded from this particular collection.

The length DOM attribute must return the number of nodes represented by the elements collection.

The XXX7() method must return the value that would be returned by the item() method of the elements collection if it was invoked with the same arguments.

The XXX8() method must return the value that would be returned by the namedItem() method of the elements collection if it was invoked with the same arguments.

The submit() method, when invoked, must submit the form element from the form element itself.

The reset() method, when invoked, must reset the form element.

If the checkValidity() method is invoked, the user agent must statically validate the constraints of the form element, and return true if the constraint validation return a positive result, and false if it returned a negative result.

If the dispatchFormInput() method is invoked, the user agent must broadcast forminput events from the form element.

If the dispatchFormChange() method is invoked, the user agent must broadcast formchange events from the form element.

4.10.2 The `fieldset` element

Categories

Listed form-associated element.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

Content model:

One legend element follwed by flow content.

Element-specific attributes:

disabled

form

name

DOM interface:

interface HTMLFieldSetElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean disabled;
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute DOMString name;

  readonly attribute DOMString type;

  readonly attribute HTMLFormControlsCollection elements;

  readonly attribute boolean willValidate;
  readonly attribute ValidityState validity;
  readonly attribute DOMString validationMessage;
  boolean checkValidity();
  void setCustomValidity(in DOMString error);
};

The fieldset element represents a set of form controls grouped under a common name.

The name of the group is given by the first legend element that is a child of the fieldset element. The remainder of the descendants form the group.

The disabled attribute, when specified, causes all the form control descendants of the fieldset element to be disabled.

The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the fieldset element with its form owner. The name attribute represents the element's name.

The disabled DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

The type DOM attribute must return the string "fieldset".

The elements DOM attribute must return an HTMLFormControlsCollection rooted at the fieldset element, whose filter matches listed elements.

The willValidate, validity, and validationMessage attributes, and the checkValidity() and setCustomValidity() methods, are part of the constraint validation API.

Constraint validation: fieldset elements are always barred from constraint validation.

4.10.3 The `label` element

Categories

Form-associated element.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

If the element has a for attribute: Phrasing content, but with no descendant labelable form-associated elements or label elements.

Otherwise: Phrasing content, but with at most one descendant labelable form-associated element, and with no descendant label elements.

Element-specific attributes:

form

for

DOM interface:

interface HTMLLabelElement : HTMLElement {
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute DOMString htmlFor;
  readonly attribute HTMLElement control;
};

The label represents a caption in a user interface. The caption can be associated with a specific form control, known as the label element's labeled control.

Unless otherwise specified by the following rules, a label element has no labeled control.

The for attribute may be specified to indicate a form control with which the caption is to be associated. If the attribute is specified, the attribute's value must be the ID of a labelable form-associated element in the same Document as the label element. If the attribute is specified and there is an element in the Document whose ID is equal to the value of the for attribute, and the first such element is a labelable form-associated element, then that element is the label element's labeled control.

If the for attribute is not specified, but the label element has a labelable form-associated element descendant, then the first such descendant in tree order is the label element's labeled control.

The label element's exact default presentation and behavior, in particular what its activation behavior might be, if anything, should match the platform's label behavior.

For example, on platforms where clicking a checkbox label checks the checkbox, clicking the label in the following snippet could trigger the user agent to run synthetic click activation steps on the input element, as if the element itself had been triggered by the user:

<label><input type=checkbox name=lost> Lost</label>

On other platforms, the behavior might be just to focus the control, or do nothing.

The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the label element with its form owner.

The htmlFor DOM attribute must reflect the for content attribute.

The control DOM attribute must return the label element's labeled control, if any, or null if there isn't one.

Labelable form-associated elements have a NodeList object associated with them that represents the list of label elements, in tree order, whose labeled control is the element in question. The labels DOM attribute of labelable form-associated elements, on getting, must return that NodeList object.

4.10.4 The `input` element

Categories

Listed, labelable, submittable, and resettable form-associated element.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific attributes:

accept

action

alt

autocomplete

autofocus

checked

disabled

enctype

form

list

max

maxlength

method

min

name

pattern

readonly

required

size

src

step

target

type

value

DOM interface:

interface HTMLInputElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString accept;
           attribute DOMString action;
           attribute DOMString alt;
           attribute boolean autocomplete;
           attribute boolean autofocus;
           attribute boolean defaultChecked;
           attribute boolean checked;
           attribute boolean disabled;
           attribute DOMString enctype;
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
  readonly attribute HTMLElement list;
           attribute DOMString max;
           attribute long maxLength;
           attribute DOMString method;
           attribute DOMString min;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString pattern;
           attribute boolean readOnly;
           attribute boolean required;
           attribute unsigned long size;
           attribute DOMString src;
           attribute DOMString step;
           attribute DOMString target;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString defaultValue;
           attribute DOMString value;
           attribute DOMTimeStamp valueAsDate;
           attribute float valueAsNumber;
  readonly attribute HTMLOptionElement selectedOption;

  void stepUp(in long n);
  void stepDown(in long n);

  readonly attribute boolean willValidate;
  readonly attribute ValidityState validity;
  readonly attribute DOMString validationMessage;
  boolean checkValidity();
  void setCustomValidity(in DOMString error);

  readonly attribute NodeList labels;
};

The input element represents a typed data field, usually with a form control to allow the user to edit the data.

The type attribute controls the data type (and associated control) of the element. It 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	Data type	Control type
`hidden`	Hidden	An arbitrary string	n/a
`text`	Text	Text with no line breaks	Text field
`email`	E-mail	An e-mail address	A text field
`url`	URL	An IRI	A text field
`password`	Password	Text with no line breaks (sensitive information)	Text field that obscures data entry
`datetime`	Date and Time	A date and time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second, fraction of a second) with the time zone set to UTC	A date and time control
`date`	Date	A date (year, month, day) with no time zone	A date control
`month`	Month	A date consisting of a year and a month with no time zone	A month control
`week`	Week	A date consisting of a week-year number and a week number with no time zone	A week control
`time`	Time	A time (hour, minute, seconds, fractional seconds) with no time zone	A time control
`datetime-local`	Local Date and Time	A date and time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second, fraction of a second) with no time zone	A date and time control
`number`	Number	A numerical value	A text field or spinner control
`range`	Range	A numerical value, with the extra semantic that the exact value is not important	A slider control or similar
`checkbox`	Checkbox	A set of zero or more values from a predefined list	A checkbox
`radio`	Radio Button	An enumerated value	A radio button
`file`	File Upload	Zero or more files each with a MIME type and optionally a file name	A label and a button
`submit`	Submit Button	An enumerated value, with the extra semantic that it must be the last value selected and initiates form submission	A button
`image`	Image Button	A coordinate, relative to a particular image's size, with the extra semantic that it must be the last value selected and initiates form submission	Either a clickable image, or a button
`reset`	Reset Button	n/a	A button
`button`	Button	n/a	A button

The missing value default is the Text state.

Which of the accept, action, alt, autocomplete, checked, enctype, and list, max, maxlength, method, min, pattern, readonly, required, size, src, step, and target attributes apply to an input element depends on the state of its type attribute. Similarly, the checked, valueAsDate, valueAsNumber, list, and selectedOption DOM attributes, and the stepUp() and stepDown() methods, are specific to certain states. The following table is non-normative and summarises which content attributes, DOM attrbutes, and methods apply to each state:

	Hidden	Text, E-mail, URL	Password	Date and Time, Date, Month, Week, Time	Local Date and Time, Number	Range	Checkbox, Radio Button	File Upload	Submit Button	Image Button	Reset Button, Button
`accept`	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	·	·	·
`action`	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	·
`alt`	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	·
`autocomplete`	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`checked`	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	·	·	·	·
`enctype`	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	·
`list`	·	Yes	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`max`	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`maxlength`	·	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·
`method`	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	·
`min`	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`pattern`	·	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·
`readonly`	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·	·
`required`	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	Yes	Yes	·	·	·
`size`	·	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·
`src`	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	·
`step`	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`target`	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	·
`checked`	·	·	·	·	·	·	Yes	·	·	·	·
`value`	value	value	value	value	value	value	default/on	·	default	default	default
`valueAsDate`	·	·	·	Yes	·	·	·	·	·	·	·
`valueAsNumber`	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`list`	·	Yes	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`selectedOption`	·	Yes	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`stepUp()`	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`stepDown()`	·	·	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·	·
`input` event	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·	·
`change` event	·	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	·	·	·

When an input element's type attribute changes state, and when the element is first created, the element's rendering and behaviour must change to the new state's accordingly and the value sanitization algorithm, if one is defined for the type attribute's new state, must be invoked.

Each input element has a value, which is exposed by the value DOM attribute. Some states define an algorithm to convert a string to a number, an algorithm to convert a number to a string, an algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, and an algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, which are used by max, min, step, valueAsDate, valueAsNumber, stepUp(), and stepDown().

Each input element has a boolean dirty value flag. When it is true, the element is said to have a dirty value. The dirty value flag must be initially set to false when the element is created, and must be set to true whenever the user interacts with the control in a way that changes the value.

The value content attribute gives the default value of the input element. When the value content attribute is added, set, or removed, if the control does not have a dirty value, the user agent must set the value of the element to the value of the value content attribute, if there is one, or the empty string otherwise, and then run the current value sanitization algorithm, if one is defined.

Each input element has a checkedness, which is exposed by the checked DOM attribute.

Each input element has a boolean dirty checkedness flag. When it is true, the element is said to have a dirty checkedness. The dirty checkedness flag must be initially set to false when the element is created, and must be set to true whenever the user interacts with the control in a way that changes the checkedness.

The checked content attribute gives the default checkedness of the input element. When the checked content attribute is added, if the control does not have dirty checkedness, the user agent must set the checkedness of the element to true; when the checked content attribute is removed, if the control does not have dirty checkedness, the user agent must set the checkedness of the element to false.

The reset algorithm for input elements is to set the dirty value flag and dirty checkedness flag back to false, set the value of the element to the value of the value content attribute, if there is one, or the empty string otherwise, set the checkedness of the element to true if the element has a checked content attribute and false if it does not, and then invoke the value sanitization algorithm, if the type attribute's current state defines one.

Each input element has a boolean mutability flag. When it is true, the element is said to be mutable, and when it is false the element is immutable. Unless otherwise specified, an input element is always mutable. Unless otherwise specified, the user agent should not allow the user to modify the element's value or checkedness.

When an input element is disabled, it is immutable.

When an input element does not have a Document node as one of its ancestors (i.e. when it is not in the document), it is immutable.

The readonly attribute can also in some cases make an input element immutable.

The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the input element with its form owner. The name attribute represents the element's name. The disabled attribute is used to make the control non-interactive and to prevent its value from being submitted. The autofocus attribute controls focus.

The accept, alt, autocomplete, max, min, pattern, required, size, src, step, and type DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. The maxLength DOM attribute must reflect the maxlength content attribute. The readOnly DOM attribute must reflect the readonly content attribute. The defaultChecked DOM attribute must reflect the checked content attribute. The defaultValue DOM attribute must reflect the value content attribute.

The willValidate, validity, and validationMessage attributes, and the checkValidity() and setCustomValidity() methods, are part of the constraint validation API. The labels attribute provides a list of the element's labels.

4.10.4.1 States of the `type` attribute

4.10.4.1.1 Hidden state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Hidden state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a value that is not intended to be examined or manipulated by the user.

Constraint validation: If an input element's type attribute is in the Hidden state, it is barred from constraint validation.

If the name attribute is present and has a value that is a case-sensitive match for the string "_charset_", then the element's value attribute must be omitted.

The value DOM attribute applies to this element and is in mode value.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, autocomplete, checked, enctype, list, max, maxlength, method, min, pattern, readonly, required, size, src, step, and target.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, list, selectedOption, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber DOM attributes stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.

4.10.4.1.2 Text state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Text state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a one line plain text edit control for the element's value.

If the element is mutable, its value should be editable by the user. User agents must not allow users to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters into the element's value.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that contains no U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value.

The following common input element content attributes and DOM attributes apply to the element: autocomplete, list, maxlength, pattern, readonly, required, and size content attributes; list, selectedOption, and value DOM attributes.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, max, method, min, src, step, and target.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber DOM attributes stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

4.10.4.1.3 E-mail state

When an input element's type attribute is in the E-mail state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for editing a single e-mail address given in the element's value.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the e-mail address represented by its value. User agents may allow the user to set the value to a string that is not an e-mail address. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string. User agents must not allow users to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters into the value.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid e-mail address.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value.

Constraint validation: While the value of the element is not a valid e-mail address, the element is suffering from a type mismatch.

A valid e-mail address is a string that matches the addr-spec production defined in RFC 2822 section 3.4.1, excluding the CFWS production everywhere, and excluding the FWS production everywhere except in the quoted-string production. [RFC2822]

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, max, method, min, src, step, and target.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

4.10.4.1.4 URL state

When an input element's type attribute is in the URL state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for editing a single URL given in the element's value.

If the is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the URL represented by its value. User agents may allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid URL, but may also or instead automatically escape characters entered by the user so that the value is always a valid URL (even if that isn't the actual value seen and edited by the user in the interface). User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string. User agents must not allow users to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters into the value.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid URL.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value.

Constraint validation: While the value of the element is not a valid URL, the element is suffering from a type mismatch.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, max, method, min, src, step, and target.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

4.10.4.1.5 Password state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Password state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a one line plain text edit control for the element's value. The user agent should obscure the value so that people other than the user cannot see it.

If the element is mutable, its value should be editable by the user. User agents must not allow users to insert U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters into the value.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that contains no U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: Strip line breaks from the value.

The following common input element content attributes and DOM attributes apply to the element: autocomplete, maxlength, pattern, readonly, required, and size content attributes; value DOM attribute.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, list, max, method, min, src, step, and target.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, list, selectedOption, valueAsDate, and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

4.10.4.1.6 Date and Time state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Date and Time state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a specific global date and time. User agents may display the date and time in whatever timezone is appropriate for the user.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the global date and time represented by its value, as obtained by parsing a global date and time from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid global date and time string expressed in UTC, though user agents may allow the user to set and view the time in another timezone and silently translate the time to and from the UTC timezone in the value. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a global date and time, then the value must be set to a valid global date and time string expressed in UTC representing the user's selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid global date and time string.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is a valid global date and time string, then adjust the time so that the value represents the same point in time but expressed in the UTC timezone, otherwise, set it to the empty string instead.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid global date and time string. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid global date and time string.

The step attribute is expressed in seconds. The step scale factor is 1000 (which converts the seconds to milliseconds, as used in the other algorithms). The default step is 60 seconds.

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the element's value to the nearest global date and time for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a global date and time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of milliseconds elapsed from midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z") to the parsed global date and time, ignoring leap seconds.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid global date and time string expressed in UTC that represents the global date and time that is input milliseconds after midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z").

The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a global date and time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a Date object representing the parsed global date and time, expressed in UTC.

The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input, is as follows: Return a valid global date and time string expressed in UTC that represents the global date and time that is represented by input.

The following common input element content attributes, DOM attributes, and methods apply to the element: autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsDate, valueAsNumber, and selectedOption DOM attributes; stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, action, checked, enctype, maxlength, method, pattern, size, src, and target.

The checked DOM attribute does not apply to the element.

4.10.4.1.7 Date state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Date state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a specific date.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the date represented by its value, as obtained by parsing a date from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid date string. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a date, then the value must be set to a valid date string representing the user's selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid date string.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid date string, then set it to the empty string instead.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid date string. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid date string.

The step attribute is expressed in days. The step scale factor is 86,400,000 (which converts the days to milliseconds, as used in the other algorithms). The default step is 1 day.

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the element's value to the nearest date for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a date from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of milliseconds elapsed from midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z") to midnight UTC on the morning of the parsed date, ignoring leap seconds.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid date string that represents the date that, in UTC, is current input milliseconds after midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z").

The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a date from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a Date object representing midnight UTC on the morning of the parsed date.

The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input, is as follows: Return a valid date string that represents the date current at the time represented by input in the UTC timezone.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, maxlength, method, pattern, size, src, and target.

The checked DOM attribute does not apply to the element.

4.10.4.1.8 Month state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Month state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a specific month.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the month represented by its value, as obtained by parsing a month from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid month string. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a month, then the value must be set to a valid month string representing the user's selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid month string.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid month string, then set it to the empty string instead.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid month string. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid month string.

The step attribute is expressed in months. The step scale factor is 1 (there is no conversion needed as the algorithms use months). The default step is 1 month.

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the element's value to the nearest month for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a month time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of months between January 1970 and the parsed month.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid month string that represents the month that has input months between it and January 1970.

The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a month from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a Date object representing midnight UTC on the morning of the first day of the parsed month.

The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input, is as follows: Return a valid month string that represents the month current at the time represented by input in the UTC timezone.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, maxlength, method, pattern, size, src, and target.

The checked DOM attribute does not apply to the element.

4.10.4.1.9 Week state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Week state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a specific week.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the week represented by its value, as obtained by parsing a week from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid week string. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a week, then the value must be set to a valid week string representing the user's selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid week string.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid week string, then set it to the empty string instead.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid week string. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid week string.

The step attribute is expressed in weeks. The step scale factor is 604,800,000 (which converts the weeks to milliseconds, as used in the other algorithms). The default step is 1 week.

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the element's value to the nearest week for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a week string from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of milliseconds elapsed from midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z") to midnight UTC on the morning of the Monday of the parsed week, ignoring leap seconds.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid week string that represents the week that, in UTC, is current input milliseconds after midnight UTC on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0Z").

The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a week from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a Date object representing midnight UTC on the morning of the Monday of the parsed week.

The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input, is as follows: Return a valid week string that represents the week current at the time represented by input in the UTC timezone.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, maxlength, method, pattern, size, src, and target.

The checked DOM attribute does not apply to the element.

4.10.4.1.10 Time state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Time state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a specific time.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the time represented by its value, as obtained by parsing a time from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid time string. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a time, then the value must be set to a valid time string representing the user's selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid time string.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid time string, then set it to the empty string instead.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid time string. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid time string.

The step attribute is expressed in seconds. The step scale factor is 1000 (which converts the seconds to milliseconds, as used in the other algorithms). The default step is 60 seconds.

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the element's value to the nearest time for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of milliseconds elapsed from midnight to the parsed time on a day with no time changes.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid time string that represents the time that is input milliseconds after midnight on a day with no time changes.

The algorithm to convert a string to a Date object, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return a Date object representing the parsed time in UTC on 1970-01-01.

The algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, given a Date object input, is as follows: Return a valid time string that represents the UTC time component that is represented by input.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, maxlength, method, pattern, size, src, and target.

The checked DOM attribute does not apply to the element.

4.10.4.1.11 Local Date and Time state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Local Date and Time state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a local date and time, with no time zone information.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the date and time represented by its value, as obtained by parsing a date and time from it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid local date and time string. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a local date and time, then the value must be set to a valid local date and time string representing the user's selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid local date and time string.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid local date and time string, then set it to the empty string instead.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid local date and time string. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid local date and time string.

The step attribute is expressed in seconds. The step scale factor is 1000 (which converts the seconds to milliseconds, as used in the other algorithms). The default step is 60 seconds.

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the element's value to the nearest local date and time for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If parsing a date and time from input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the number of milliseconds elapsed from midnight on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0") to the parsed local date and time, ignoring leap seconds.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid local date and time string that represents the date and time that is input milliseconds after midnight on the morning of 1970-01-01 (the time represented by the value "1970-01-01T00:00:00.0").

The following common input element content attributes, DOM attributes, and methods apply to the element: autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsNumber, and selectedOption DOM attributes; stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, maxlength, method, pattern, size, src, and target.

The following DOM attributes do not apply to the element: valueAsDate and checked.

4.10.4.1.12 Number state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Number state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a number.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the number represented by its value, as obtained from applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid floating point number. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a number, then the value must be set to a valid floating point number representing the user's selection. User agents should allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid floating point number, then set it to the empty string instead.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number.

The step scale factor is 1. The default step is 1 (allowing only integers, unless the min attribute has a non-integer value).

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent may round the element's value to the nearest number for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch.

The algorithm to convert a string to a number, given a string input, is as follows: If applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to input results in an error, then return an error; otherwise, return the resulting number.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid floating point number that represents input.

The following common input element content attributes, DOM attributes, and methods apply to the element: autocomplete, list, max, min, readonly, required, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsNumber, and selectedOption DOM attributes; stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, maxlength, method, pattern, size, src, and target.

The following DOM attributes do not apply to the element: valueAsDate and checked.

4.10.4.1.13 Range state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Range state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a number, but with the caveat that the exact value is not important, letting UAs provide a simpler interface than they do for the Number state.

In this state, the range and step constraints are enforced even during user input, and there is no way to set the value to the empty string.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the number represented by its value, as obtained from applying the rules for parsing floating point number values to it. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to a string that is not a valid floating point number. If the user agent provides a user interface for selecting a number, then the value must be set to a valid floating point number representing the user's selection. User agents must not allow the user to set the value to the empty string.

The value attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number.

The value sanitization algorithm is as follows: If the value of the element is not a valid floating point number, then set it to a valid floating point number that represents the default value.

The min attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number. The default minimum is 0. The max attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid floating point number. The default minimum is 100.

The default value is the minimum plus half the difference between the minimum and the maximum, unless the maximum is less than the minimum, in which case the default value is the minimum.

When the element is suffering from a range underflow, the user agent must set the element's value to a valid floating point number that represents the minimum.

When the element is suffering from a range overflow, if the maximum is not less than the minimum, the user agent must set the element's value to a valid floating point number that represents the maximum.

The step scale factor is 1. The default step is 1 (allowing only integers, unless the min attribute has a non-integer value).

When the element is suffering from a step mismatch, the user agent must round the element's value to the nearest number for which the element would not suffer from a step mismatch, and which is greater than or equal to the minimum, and, if the maximum is not less than the minimum, which is less than or equal to the maximum.

The algorithm to convert a number to a string, given a number input, is as follows: Return a valid floating point number that represents input.

The following common input element content attributes, DOM attributes, and methods apply to the element: autocomplete, list, max, min, and step content attributes; list, value, valueAsNumber, and selectedOption DOM attributes; stepUp(), and stepDown() methods.

The value DOM attribute is in mode value.

The input and change events apply.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, checked, enctype, maxlength, method, pattern, readonly, required, size, src, and target.

The following DOM attributes do not apply to the element: valueAsDate and checked.

4.10.4.1.14 Checkbox state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Checkbox state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a two-state control that represents the element's checkedness state. If the element's checkedness state is true, the control represents a positive selection, and if it is false, a negative selection.

If the element is mutable, then: The pre-click activation steps consist of setting the element's checkedness to its opposite value (i.e. true if it is false, false if it is true). The canceled activation steps consist of setting the checkedness back to the value it had before the pre-click activation steps were run. The activation behavior is to fire a simple event called change at the element, then broadcast formchange events at the element's form owner.

Constraint validation: If the element is required and its checkedness is false, then the element is suffering from being missing.

The following common input element content attributes and DOM attributes apply to the element: checked, and required content attributes; checked and value DOM attributes.

The value DOM attribute is in mode default/on.

The change event applies.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, action, alt, autocomplete, enctype, list, max, maxlength, method, min, pattern, readonly, size, src, step, and target.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: list, selectedOption, valueAsDate and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The input event does not apply.

4.10.4.1.15 Radio Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Radio Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a control that, when used in conjunction with other input elements, forms a radio button group in which only one control can have its checkedness state set to true. If the element's checkedness state is true, the control represents the selected control in the group, and if it is false, it indicates a control in the group that is not selected.

The radio button group that contains an input element a also contains all the other input elements b that fulfill all of the following conditions:

The input element b's type attribute is in the Radio Button state.
Either neither a nor b have a form owner, or they both have one and it is the same for both.
They both have a name attribute, and the value of a's name attribute is a compatibility caseless match for the value of b's name attribute.

A document must not contain an input element whose radio button group contains only that element.

When any of the following events occur, if the element's checkedness state is true after the event, the checkedness state of all the other elements in the same radio button group must be set to false:

The element's checkedness state is set to true (for whatever reason).
The element's name attribute is added, removed, or changes value.
The element's form owner changes.

If the element is mutable, then: The pre-click activation steps consist of setting the element's checkedness to true. The canceled activation steps consist of setting the element's checkedness to false. The activation behavior is to fire a simple event called change at the element, then broadcast formchange events at the element's form owner.

Constraint validation: If the element is required and all of the input elements in the radio button group have a checkedness that is false, then the element is suffering from being missing.

If none of the radio buttons in a radio button group are checked when they are inserted into the document, then they will all be initially unchecked in the interface, until such time as one of them is checked (either by the user or by script).

The following common input element content attributes and DOM attributes apply to the element: checked and required content attributes; checked and value DOM attributes.

The value DOM attribute is in mode default/on.

The change event applies.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: list, selectedOption, valueAsDate and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The input event does not apply.

4.10.4.1.16 File Upload state

When an input element's type attribute is in the File Upload state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a list of selected files, each file consisting of a file name, a file type, and a file body (the contents of the file).

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to change the files on the list, e.g. adding or removing files. Files can be from the filesystem or created on the fly, e.g. a picture taken from a camera connected to the user's device.

Constraint validation: If the element is required and the list of selected files is empty, then the element is suffering from being missing.

There must be no more than one file in the list of selected files.

The accept attribute may be specified to provide user agents with a hint of what file types the server will be able to accept.

If specified, the attribute must consist of a set of comma-separated tokens, each of which must be an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of the following:

The string audio/*: Indicates that sound files are accepted.
The string video/*: Indicates that video files are accepted.
The string image/*: Indicates that image files are accepted.
A valid MIME type, with no parameters: Indicates that files of the specified type are accepted. [RFC2046]

The tokens must not be ASCII case-insensitive matches for any of the other tokens (i.e. duplicates are not allowed).

User agents should prevent the user from selecting files that are not accepted by one (or more) of these tokens.

The following common input element content attributes apply to the element: accept and required.

The change event applies.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: action, alt, autocomplete, checked, enctype, list, max, maxlength, method, min, pattern, readonly, size, src, step, and target.

The element's value attribute must be omitted.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, list, selectedOption, value, valueAsDate and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The input event does not apply.

4.10.4.1.17 Submit Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Submit Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a button that, when activated, submits the form. If the element has a value attribute, the button's label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be an implementation-defined string that means "Submit" or some such. The element is a button, specifically a submit button.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to activate the element.

The element's activation behavior, if the element has a form owner, is to submit the form owner from the input element; otherwise, it is to do nothing.

The action, enctype, method, and target attributes are attributes for form submission.

The following common input element content attributes and DOM attributes apply to the element: action, enctype, method, and target content attributes; value DOM attribute.

The value DOM attribute is in mode default.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, alt, autocomplete, checked, list, max, maxlength, min, pattern, readonly, required size, src, and step.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, list, selectedOption, valueAsDate and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.

4.10.4.1.18 Image Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Image Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents either an image from which a user can select a coordinate and submit the form, or alternatively a button from which the user can submit the form. The element is a button, specifically a submit button.

The image is given by the src attribute. The src attribute must be present, and must contain a valid URL referencing a non-interactive, optionally animated, image resource that is neither paged nor scripted.

When any of the following events occur, the user agent must fetch the resource specifed by the src attribute's value, unless the user agent cannot support images, or its support for images has been disabled, or the user agent only fetches elements on demand:

The input element's type attribute is first set to the Image Button state (possibly when the element is first created), and the src attribute is present.
The input element's type attribute is changed back to the Image Button state, and the src attribute is present, and its value has changed since the last time the type attribute was in the Image Button state.
The input element's type attribute is in the Image Button state, and the src attribute is set or changed.

Fetching the image must delay the load event.

If the image was successfully obtained, with no network errors, and the image's type is a supported image type, and the image is a valid image of that type, then the image is said to be available. If this is true before the image is completely downloaded, each task that is queued by the networking task source while the image is being fetched must update the presentation of the image appropriately.

User agents must not support non-image resources with the input element. User agents must not run executable code embedded in the image resource. User agents must only display the first page of a multipage resource. User agents must not allow the resource to act in an interactive fashion, but should honour any animation in the resource.

The task that is queued by the networking task source once the resource has been fetched, must, if the download was successful and the image is available, queue a task to fire a load event on the input element; and otherwise, if the fetching process fails without a response from the remote server, or completes but the image is not a valid or supported image, queue a task to fire an error event on the input element.

The alt attribute provides the textual label for the alternative button for users and user agents who cannot use the image. The alt attribute must also be present, and must contain a non-empty string.

If the src attribute is set, and the image is available and the user agent is configured to display that image, then: The element represents a control for selecting a coordinate from the image specified by the src attribute; if the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to select this coordinate. The activation behavior in this case consists of taking the user's selected coordinate, and then, if the element has a form owner, submitting the input element's form owner from the input element. If the user activates the control without explicitly selecting a coordinate, then the coordinate (0,0) must be assumed.

Otherwise, the element represents a submit button whose label is given by the value of the alt attribute; if the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to activate the button. The activation behavior in this case consists of setting the selected coordinate to (0,0), and then, if the element has a form owner, submitting the input element's form owner from the input element.

The selected coordinate must consist of an x-component and a y-component. The x-component must be greater than or equal to zero, and less than or equal to the rendered width, in CSS pixels, of the image. The y-component must be greater than or equal to zero, and less than or equal to the rendered height, in CSS pixels, of the image.

The action, enctype, method, and target attributes are attributes for form submission.

The following common input element content attributes and DOM attributes apply to the element: action, alt, enctype, method, src, and target content attributes; value DOM attribute.

The value DOM attribute is in mode default.

The following content attributes must not be specified and do not apply to the element: accept, autocomplete, checked, list, max, maxlength, min, pattern, readonly, required size, and step.

The element's value attribute must be omitted.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, list, selectedOption, valueAsDate and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.

Many aspects of this state's behavior are similar to the behavior of the img element. Readers are encouraged to read that section, where many of the same requirements are described in more detail.

4.10.4.1.19 Reset Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Reset Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a button that, when activated, resets the form. If the element has a value attribute, the button's label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be an implementation-defined string that means "Reset" or some such. The element is a button.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to activate the element.

The element's activation behavior, if the element has a form owner, is to reset the form owner; otherwise, it is to do nothing.

Constraint validation: The element is barred from constraint validation.

The value DOM attribute applies to this element and is in mode default.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, list, selectedOption, valueAsDate and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.

4.10.4.1.20 Button state

When an input element's type attribute is in the Button state, the rules in this section apply.

The input element represents a button with no default behavior. If the element has a value attribute, the button's label must be the value of that attribute; otherwise, it must be the empty string. The element is a button.

If the element is mutable, the user agent should allow the user to activate the element. The element's activation behavior is to do nothing.

Constraint validation: The element is barred from constraint validation.

The value DOM attribute applies to this element and is in mode default.

The following DOM attributes and methods do not apply to the element: checked, list, selectedOption, valueAsDate and valueAsNumber DOM attributes; stepDown() and stepUp() methods.

The input and change events do not apply.

4.10.4.2 Common `input` element attributes

These attributes only apply to an input element if its type attribute is in a state whose definition declares that the attribute applies. When an attribute doesn't apply to an input element, user agents must ignore the attribute.

4.10.4.2.1 The `autocomplete` attribute

The autocomplete attribute is an enumerated attribute. The attribute has two states. The on keyword maps to the on state, and the off keyword maps to the off state. The attribute may also be omitted. The missing value default is the on state.

The off state indicates that the control's input data is either particularly sensitive (for example the activation code for a nuclear weapon) or is a value that will never be reused (for example a one-time-key for a bank login) and the user will therefore have to explicitly enter the data each time, instead of being able to rely on the UA to prefill the value for him.

Conversely, the on state indicates that the value is not particularly sensitive and the user can expect to be able to rely on his user agent to remember values he has entered for that control.

When an input element's autocomplete attribute is in the on state, the user agent may store the value entered by the user so that if the user returns to the page, the UA can prefill the form. When an input element's autocomplete attribute is in the off state, the user agent should not remember the control's value.

The autocompletion mechanism must be implemented by the user agent acting as if the user had modified the element's value, and must be done at a time where the element is mutable (e.g. just after the element has been inserted into the document, or when the user agent stops parsing).

Banks frequently do not want UAs to prefill login information:

<p>Account: <input type="text" name="ac" autocomplete="off"></p>
<p>PIN: <input type="text" name="pin" autocomplete="off"></p>

A user agent may allow the user to disable support for this attribute's off state (causing the attribute to always be in the on state and always allowing values to be remembered and prefilled). Support for the off state should be enabled by default, and the ability to disable support should not be trivially accessible, as there are significant security implications for the user if support for this attribute is disabled.

4.10.4.2.2 The `list` attribute

The list attribute is used to identify an element that lists predefined options suggested to the user.

If present, its value must be the ID of a datalist element in the same document.

The suggestions source element is the first element in the document in tree order to have an ID equal to the value of the list attribute, if that element is a datalist element. If there is no list attribute, or if there is no element with that ID, or if the first element with that ID is not a datalist element, then there is no suggestions source element.

If there is a suggestions source element, then each option element that is a descendant of the suggestions source element, that is not disabled, and whose value is a string that isn't the empty string and that the user would be allowed to enter as the input element's value, represents a suggestion. Each suggestion has a value and a label.

When the user agent is allowing the user to edit the input element's value, the user agent should offer the suggestions to the user in a manner suitable for the type of control used. The user agent may use the suggestion's label to identify the suggestion if appropriate. If the user selects a suggestion, then the input element's value must be set to the selected suggestion's value, as if the user had written that value himself.

User agents should filter the suggestions to hide suggestions that would cause the element to not satisfy its constraints.

If the list attribute does not apply, there is no suggestions source element.

4.10.4.2.3 The `readonly` attribute

The readonly attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified, the element is immutable.

Constraint validation: If the readonly attribute is specified on an input element, the element is barred from constraint validation.

4.10.4.2.4 The `size` attribute

The size attribute gives the number of characters that, in a visual rendering, the user agent is to allow the user to see while editing the element's value.

The size attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid non-negative integer greater than zero.

If the attribute is present, then its value must be parsed using the rules for parsing non-negative integers, and if the result is a number greater than zero, then the user agent should ensure that at least that many characters are visible.

The rendering section will define this in more detail.

The size DOM attribute limited to only positive non-zero numbers.

4.10.4.2.5 The `required` attribute

The required attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified, the element is required.

Constraint validation: If the element is required, and its value DOM attribute applies and is in the mode value, and the element is mutable, and the element's value is the empty string, then the element is suffering from being missing.

4.10.4.2.6 The `maxlength` attribute

The maxlength attribute, when it applies, is a form control maxlength attribute controlled by the input element's dirty value flag.

If the input element has a maximum allowed value length, then the codepoint length of the value of the element's value attribute must be equal to or less than the element's maximum allowed value length.

4.10.4.2.7 The `pattern` attribute

The pattern attribute specifies a regular expression against which the control's value is to be checked.

If specified, the attribute's value must match the Pattern production of ECMA 262's grammar. [ECMA262]

Constraint validation: If the element's value is not the empty string, and the element's pattern attribute is specified and the attribute's value, when compiled as an ECMA 262 regular expression with the global, ignoreCase, and multiline flags disabled (see ECMA 262, sections 15.10.7.2 through 15.10.7.4), compiles successfully but the resulting regular expression does not match the entirety of the element's value, then the element is suffering from a pattern mismatch. [ECMA262]

This implies that the regular expression language used for this attribute is the same as that defined in ECMA 262, except that the pattern attribute must match the entire value, not just any subset (somewhat as if it implied a ^(?: at the start of the pattern and a )$ at the end).

When an input element has a pattern attribute specified, authors should include a title attribute to give a description of the pattern. User agents may use the contents of this attribute, if it is present, when informing the user that the pattern is not matched, or at any other suitable time, such as in a tooltip or read out by assistive technology when the control gains focus.

For example, the following snippet:

<label> Part number:
 <input pattern="[0-9][A-Z]{3}" name="part"
        title="A part number is a digit followed by three uppercase letters."/>
</label>

...could cause the UA to display an alert such as:

 part number is a digit followed by three uppercase letters.
You cannot complete this form until the field is correct.

When a control has a pattern attribute, the title attribute, if used, must describe the pattern. Additional information could also be included, so long as it assists the user in filling in the control. Otherwise, assistive technology would be impaired.

For instance, if the title attribute contained the caption of the control, assistive technology could end up saying something like The text you have entered does not match the required pattern. Birthday, which is not useful.

UAs may still show the title in non-error situations (for example, as a tooltip when hovering over the control), so authors should be careful not to word titles as if an error has necessarily occurred.

4.10.4.2.8 The `min` and `max` attributes

The min and max attributes indicate the allowed range of values for the element.

Their syntax is defined by the section that defines the type attribute's current state.

If the element has a min attribute, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the value of the min attribute is a a number, then that number is the element's minimum; otherwise, if the the type attribute's current state defines a default minimum, then that is the minimum; otherwise, the element has no minimum.)

Constraint validation: When the element has a minimum, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the string given by the element's value is a number, and the number obtained from that algorithm is less than the minimum, the element is suffering from an underflow.

The min attribute also defines the step base.

If the element has a max attribute, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the value of the max attribute is a a number, then that number is the element's maximum; otherwise, if the the type attribute's current state defines a default maximum, then that is the maximum; otherwise, the element has no maximum.)

Constraint validation: When the element has a maximum, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the string given by the element's value is a number, and the number obtained from that algorithm is more than the maximum, the element is suffering from an overflow.

The max attribute's value (the maximum) must not be less than the min attribute's value (its minimum).

If an element has a maximum that is less than its minimum, then so long as the element has a value, it will either be suffering from an underflow or suffering from an overflow.

4.10.4.2.9 The `step` attribute

The step attribute indicates the granularity that is expected (and required) of the value, by limiting the allowed values. The section that defines the type attribute's current state also defines the default step and the step scale factor, which are used in processing the attribute as described below.

The step attribute, if specified, must either have a value that is a valid floating point number that parses to a number that is greater than zero, or must have a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "any".

The attribute provides the allowed value step for the element, as follows:

If the attribute is absent, then the allowed value step is the default step multiplied by the step scale factor.
Otherwise, if the attribute's value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "any", then there is no allowed value step.
Otherwise, if the rules for parsing floating point number values, when they are applied to the attribute's value, return an error, zero, or a number less than zero, then the allowed value step is the default step multiplied by the step scale factor.
Otherwise, the allowed value step is the number returned by the rules for parsing floating point number values when they are applied to the attribute's value, multiplied by the step scale factor.

The step base is the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the value of the min attribute, unless the element does not have a min attribute specified or the result of applying that algorithm is an error, in which case the step base is zero.

Constraint validation: When the element has an allowed value step, and the result of applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the string given by the element's value is a number, and that number subtracted from the step base is not an integral multiple of the allowed value step, the element is suffering from a step mismatch.

4.10.4.3 Common `input` element APIs

The value DOM attribute allows scripts to manipulate the value of an input element. If the attribute applies, then it is in one of the following modes, which define its behavior:

value: On getting, it must return the current value of the element. On setting, it must set the element's value to the new value, set the element's dirty value flag to true, and then invoke the value sanitization algorithm, if the element's type attribute's current state defines one.
default: On getting, if the element has a value attribute, it must return that attribute's value; otherwise, it must return the empty string. On setting, it must set the element's value attribute to the new value.
default/on: On getting, if the element has a value attribute, it must return that attribute's value; otherwise, it must return the string "on". On setting, it must set the element's value attribute to the new value.

If the attribute does not apply, then on getting and setting it must throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception.

The checked DOM attribute allows scripts to manipulate the checkedness of an input element. On getting, it must return the current checkedness of the element; and on setting, it must set the element's checkedness to the new value and set the element's dirty checkedness flag to true.

The valueAsDate DOM attribute represents the value of the element, interpreted as a date.

On getting, if the valueAsDate attribute does not apply, as defined for the input element's type attribute's current state, then return null. Otherwise, run the algorithm to convert a string to a Date object defined for that state; if the algorithm returned a Date object, then return it, otherwise, return null.

On setting, if the valueAsDate attribute does not apply, as defined for the input element's type attribute's current state, then throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception; otherwise, if the new value is null, then set the value of the element to the empty string; otherwise, run the algorithm to convert a Date object to a string, as defined for that state, on the new value, and set the value of the element to resulting string.

The valueAsNumber DOM attribute represents the value of the element, interpreted as a number.

On getting, if the valueAsNumber attribute does not apply, as defined for the input element's type attribute's current state, then return a Not-a-Number (NaN) value. Otherwise, if the valueAsDate attribute applies, run the algorithm to convert a string to a Date object defined for that state; if the algorithm returned a Date object, then return the time value of the object (the number of milliseconds from midnight UTC the morning of 1970-01-01 to the time represented by the Date object), otherwise, return a Not-a-Number (NaN) value. Otherwise, run the algorithm to convert a string to a number defined for that state; if the algorithm returned a number, then return it, otherwise, return a Not-a-Number (NaN) value.

On setting, if the valueAsNumber attribute does not apply, as defined for the input element's type attribute's current state, then throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception. Otherwise, if the valueAsDate attribute applies, run the algorithm to convert a Date object to a string defined for that state, passing it a Date object whose time value is the new value, and set the value of the element to resulting string. Otherwise, run the algorithm to convert a number to a string, as defined for that state, on the new value, and set the value of the element to resulting string.

The stepUp() and stepDown() methods, when invoked, must run the following algorithm:

If the stepUp() and stepDown() methods do not apply, as defined for the input element's type attribute's current state, then throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception, and abort these steps.
If the element has no allowed value step, then throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception, and abort these steps.
If applying the algorithm to convert a string to a number to the string given by the element's value results in an error, then throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception, and abort these steps; otherwise, let value be the result of that algorithm.
If the method invoked was the stepDown() method, negate value.
Let value be the result of adding the allowed value step to value.
Let value as string be the result of running the algorithm to convert a number to a string, as defined for the input element's type attribute's current state, on value.
If the element has a minimum, and the value is less than that minimum, then throw a INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception.
If the element has a maximum, and the value is greater than that maximum, then throw a INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception.
Set the value of the element to value as string.

The list DOM attribute must return the current suggestions source element, if any, or null otherwise.

The selectedOption DOM attribute must return the first option element, in tree order, to be a child of the suggestions source element and whose value matches the input element's value, if any. If there is no suggestions source element, or if it contains no matching option element, then the selectedOption attribute must return null.

4.10.4.4 Common event behaviors

When the input event applies, the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called input at the input element, then broadcast forminput events at the input element's form owner, any time the user causes the element's value to change. User agents may wait for a suitable break in the user's interaction before queuing the task; for example, a user agent could wait for the user to have not hit a key for 100ms, so as to only fire the event when the user pauses, instead of continuously for each keystroke.

When the change event applies, if the element does not have an activation behavior defined but uses a user interface that involves an explicit commit action, then the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called change at the input element, then broadcast formchange events at the input element's form owner, any time the user commits a change to the element's value or list of selected files.

An example of a user interface with a commit action would be a File Upload control that consists of a single button that brings up a file selection dialog: when the dialog is closed, if that the file selection changed as a result, then the user has commited a new file selection.

Another example of a user interface with a commit action would be a Date control that allows both text-based user input and user selection from a drop-down calendar: while text input might not have an explicit commit step, selecting a date from the drop down calendar and then dismissing the drop down would be a commit action.

In addition, when the change event applies, change events can also be fired as part of the element's activation behavior and as part of the unfocusing steps.

The task source for these task is the user interaction task source.

4.10.5 The `button` element

Categories

Listed, labelable, and submittable form-associated element.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

action

autofocus

disabled

enctype

form

method

name

target

type

value

DOM interface:

interface HTMLButtonElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString action;
           attribute boolean autofocus;
           attribute boolean disabled;
           attribute DOMString enctype;
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute DOMString method;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute DOMString target;
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString value;

  readonly attribute boolean willValidate;
  readonly attribute ValidityState validity;
  readonly attribute DOMString validationMessage;
  boolean checkValidity();
  void setCustomValidity(in DOMString error);

  readonly attribute NodeList labels;
};

The button element represents a button. If the element is not disabled, then the user agent should allow the user to activate the button.

The element is a button.

The type attribute controls the behavior of the button when it is activated. It 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
`submit`	Submit Button	Submits the form.
`reset`	Reset Button	Resets the form.
`button`	Button	Does nothing.

The missing value default is the Submit Button state.

If the type attribute is in the Submit Button state, the element is specifically a submit button.

If the element is not disabled, the activation behavior of the button element is to run the steps defined in the following list for the current state of the element's type attribute.

Submit Button: If the element has a form owner, the element must submit the form owner from the button element.
Reset Button: If the element has a form owner, the element must reset the form owner.
Button: Do nothing.

The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the button element with its form owner. The name attribute represents the element's name. The disabled attribute is used to make the control non-interactive and to prevent its value from being submitted. The autofocus attribute controls focus. The action, enctype, method, and target attributes are attributes for form submission.

The value attribute gives the element's value for the purposes of form submission. The value attribute must not be present unless the form attribute is present. The element's value is the value of the element's value attribute, if there is one, or the empty string otherwise.

The value and type DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.10.6 The `select` element

Categories

Listed, labelable, submittable, and resettable form-associated element.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Zero or more option or optgroup elements.

Element-specific attributes:

autofocus

disabled

form

multiple

name

size

DOM interface:

interface HTMLSelectElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean autofocus;
           attribute boolean disabled;
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute boolean multiple;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute boolean size;

  readonly attribute DOMString type;

  readonly attribute HTMLOptionsCollection options;
           attribute unsigned long length;
  [IndexGetter] HTMLElement XXX9(in unsigned long index);
  void add(in HTMLElement element, in HTMLElement before);
  void add(in HTMLElement element, in long before);
  void remove(in long index);

  readonly attribute HTMLCollection selectedOptions;
           attribute long selectedIndex;
           attribute DOMString value;

  readonly attribute boolean willValidate;
  readonly attribute ValidityState validity;
  readonly attribute DOMString validationMessage;
  boolean checkValidity();
  void setCustomValidity(in DOMString error);

  readonly attribute NodeList labels;
};

The select element represents a control for selecting amongst a set of options.

The multiple attribute is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, then the select element represents a control for selecting zero or more options from the list of options. If the attribute is absent, then the select element represents a control for selecting a single option from the list of options.

The list of options for a select element consists of all the option element children of the select element, and all the option element children of all the optgroup element children of the select element, in tree order.

The size attribute gives the number of options to show to the user. The size attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid non-negative integer greater than zero. If the multiple attribute is present, then the size attribute's default value is 4. If the multiple attribute is absent, then the size attribute's default value is 1.

If the multiple attribute is absent, and the element is not disabled, then the user agent should allow the user to pick an option element in its list of options that is itself not disabled. Upon this option element being picked (either through a click, or through unfocusing the element after changing its value, or through a menu command, or through any other mechanism), and before the relevant user interaction event is queued (e.g. before the click event), the user agent must set the selectedness of the picked option element to true and then queue a task to fire a simple event called change at the select element, using the user interaction task source as the task source, then broadcast formchange events at the element's form owner.

If the multiple attribute is absent, whenever an option element in the select element's list of options has its selectedness set to true, and whenever an option element with its selectedness set to true is added to the select element's list of options, the user agent must set the selectedness of all the other option element in its list of options to false.

If the multiple attribute is absent, whenever there are no option elements in the select element's list of options that have their selectedness set to true, the user agent must set the selectedness of the first option element in the list of options in tree order that is not disabled, if any, to true.

If the multiple attribute is present, and the element is not disabled, then the user agent should allow the user to toggle the selectedness of the option elements in its list of options that are themselves not disabled (either through a click, or through a menu command, or any other mechanism). Upon the selectedness of one or more option elements being changed by the user, and before the relevant user interaction event is queued (e.g. before a related click event), the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event called change at the select element, using the user interaction task source as the task source, then broadcast formchange events at the element's form owner.

The reset algorithm for select elements is to go through all the option elements in the element's list of options, and set their selectedness to true if the option element has a selected attribute, and false otherwise.

The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the select element with its form owner. The name attribute represents the element's name. The disabled attribute is used to make the control non-interactive and to prevent its value from being submitted. The autofocus attribute controls focus.

The type DOM attribute, on getting, must return the string "select-one" if the multiple attribute is absent, and the string "select-multiple" if the multiple attribute is present.

The options DOM attribute must return an HTMLOptionsCollection rooted at the select node, whose filter matches the elements in the list of options.

The length DOM attribute, on getting and setting, must act like the length attribute on the HTMLOptionsCollection object returned by the options attribute. Similarly, the add() and remove() methods must act like their namesake methods on that same HTMLOptionsCollection object.

The selectedOptions DOM attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the select node, whose filter matches the elements in the list of options that have their selectedness set to true.

The selectedIndex DOM attribute, on getting, must return the index of the first option element in the list of options in tree order that has its selectedness set to true, if any. If there isn't one, then it must return -1.

On setting, the selectedIndex attribute must set the selectedness of all the option elements in the list of options to false, and then the option element in the list of options whose index is the given new value, if any, must have its selectedness set to true.

The value DOM attribute, on getting, must return the value of the first option element in the list of options in tree order that has its selectedness set to true, if any. If there isn't one, then it must return the empty string.

On setting, the value attribute must set the selectedness of all the option elements in the list of options to false, and then first the option element in the list of options, in tree order, whose value is equal to the given new value, if any, must have its selectedness set to true.

The multiple and size DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. The size DOM attribute limited to only positive non-zero numbers.

4.10.7 The `datalist` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Either: phrasing content.

Or: Zero or more option elements.

Element-specific attributes:

None.

DOM interface:

interface HTMLDataListElement : HTMLElement {
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection options;
};

The datalist element represents a set of option elements that represent predefined options for other controls. The contents of the element represents fallback content for legacy user agents, intermixed with option elements that represent the predefined options. In the rendering, the datalist element represents nothing and it, along with its children, should be hidden.

The datalist element is hooked up to an input element using the list attribute on the input element.

The options DOM attribute must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the datalist node, whose filter matches option elements.

Constraint validation: If an element has a datalist element ancestor, it is barred from constraint validation.

4.10.8 The `optgroup` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of a select element.

Content model:

Zero or more option elements.

Element-specific attributes:

disabled

label

DOM interface:

interface HTMLOptGroupElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean disabled;
           attribute DOMString label;
};

The optgroup element represents a group of option elements with a common label.

The element's group of option elements consists of the option elements that are children of the optgroup element.

When showing option elements in select elements, user agents should show the option elements of such groups as being related to each other and separate from other option elements.

The disabled attribute is a boolean attribute and can be used to disable a group of option elements together.

The label attribute must be specified. Its value gives the name of the group, for the purposes of the user interface. User agents should use this attribute's value when labelling the group of option elements in a select element.

The disabled and label attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.10.9 The `option` element

Categories

None.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

As a child of a select element.

As a child of a datalist element.

As a child of an optgroup element.

Content model:

Text.

Element-specific attributes:

disabled

label

selected

value

DOM interface:

[Constructor(),
 Constructor(in DOMString text),
 Constructor(in DOMString text, in DOMString value),
 Constructor(in DOMString text, in DOMString value, in boolean defaultSelected),
 Constructor(in DOMString text, in DOMString value, in boolean defaultSelected, in boolean selected)]
interface HTMLOptionElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean disabled;
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute DOMString label;
           attribute boolean defaultSelected;
           attribute boolean selected;
           attribute DOMString value;

  readonly attribute DOMString text;
  readonly attribute long index;
};

The option element represents an option in a select element or as part of a list of suggestions in a datalist element.

The disabled attribute is a boolean attribute. An option element is disabled if its disabled attribute is present or if it is a child of an optgroup element whose disabled attribute is present.

An option element that is disabled must prevent any click events that are queued on the user interaction task source from being dispatched on the element.

The label attribute provides a label for element. The label of an option element is the value of the label attribute, if there is one, or the textContent of the element, if there isn't.

The value attribute provides a value for element. The value of an option element is the value of the value attribute, if there is one, or the textContent of the element, if there isn't.

The selected attribute represents the default selectedness of the element.

The selectedness of an option element is a boolean state, initially false. If the element is disabled, then the element's selectedness is always false and cannot be set to true. Unless othewise specified, when the element is created, its selectedness must be set to true if the element has a selected attribute. Whenever an option element's selected attribute is added, its selectedness must be set to true.

The Option() constructor with two or more arguments overrides the initial state of the selectedness state to always be false even if the third argument is true (implying that a selected attribute is to be set).

An option element's index is the number of option element that are in the same list of options but that come before it in tree order. If the option element is not in a list of options, then the option element's index is zero.

The disabled, label, and value DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. The defaultSelected DOM attribute must reflect the selected content attribute.

The selected DOM attribute must return true if the element's selectedness is true, and false otherwise.

The index DOM attribute must return the element's index.

The text DOM attribute must return the same value as the textContent DOM attribute on the element.

The form DOM attribute's behavior depends on whether the option element is in a select element or not. If the option has a select element as its parent, or has a colgroup element as its parent and that colgroup element has a select element as its parent, then the form DOM attribute must return the same value as the form DOM attribute on that select element. Otherwise, it must return null.

Several constructors are provided for creating HTMLOptionElement objects (in addition to the factory methods from DOM Core such as createElement()): Option(), Option(text), Option(text, value), Option(text, value, defaultSelected), and Option(text, value, defaultSelected, selected). When invoked as constructors, these must return a new HTMLOptionElement object (a new option element). If the text argument is present, the new object must have a text node with the value of that argument as its data as its only child. If the value argument is present, the new object must have a value attribute set with the value of the argument as its value. If the defaultSelected argument is present and true, the new object must have a selected attribute set with no value. If the selected argument is present and true, the new object must have its selectedness set to true; otherwise the fouth argument is absent or false, and the selectedness must be set to false, even if the defaultSelected argument is present and true.

4.10.10 The `textarea` element

Categories

Listed, labelable, submittable, and resettable form-associated element.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Text.

Element-specific attributes:

autofocus

cols

disabled

form

maxlength

name

readonly

required

rows

wrap

DOM interface:

interface HTMLTextAreaElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean autofocus;
           attribute unsigned long cols;
           attribute boolean disabled;
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute long maxLength;
           attribute DOMString name;
           attribute boolean readOnly;
           attribute boolean required;
           attribute unsigned long rows;
           attribute DOMString wrap;

  readonly attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString defaultValue;
           attribute DOMString value;

  readonly attribute boolean willValidate;
  readonly attribute ValidityState validity;
  readonly attribute DOMString validationMessage;
  boolean checkValidity();
  void setCustomValidity(in DOMString error);

  readonly attribute NodeList labels;
};

The textarea element represents a multiline plain text edit control for the element's raw value. The contents of the control represent the control's default value.

The raw value of a textarea control must be initially the empty string.

The readonly attribute is a boolean attribute used to control whether the text can be edited by the user or not.

Constraint validation: If the readonly attribute is specified on a textarea element, the element is barred from constraint validation.

A textarea element is mutable if it is neither disabled nor has a readonly attribute specified.

When a textarea is mutable, its raw value should be editable by the user.

A textarea element has a dirty value flag, which must be initially set to false, and must be set to true whenever the user interacts with the control in a way that changes the raw value.

When the textarea element's textContent DOM attribute changes value, if the element's dirty value flag is false, then the element's raw value must be set to the value of the element's textContent DOM attribute.

The reset algorithm for textarea elements is to set the element's value to the value of the element's textContent DOM attribute.

The cols attribute specifies the expected maximum number of characters per line. If the cols attribute is specified, its value must be a valid non-negative integer greater than zero. If applying the rules for parsing non-negative integers to the attribute's value results in a number greater than zero, then the element's character width is that value; otherwise, it is 20.

The user agent may use the textarea element's character width as a hint to the user as to how many characters the server prefers per line (e.g. for visual user agents by making the width of the control be that many characters). In visual renderings, the user agent should wrap the user's input in the rendering so that each line is no wider than this number of characters.

The rows attribute specifies the number of lines to show. If the rows attribute is specified, its value must be a valid non-negative integer greater than zero. If applying the rules for parsing non-negative integers to the attribute's value results in a number greater than zero, then the element's character height is that value; otherwise, it is 2.

Visual user agents should set the height of the control to the number of lines given by character height.

The wrap attribute is an enumerated attribute with two keywords and states: the soft keyword which maps to the Soft state, and the the hard keyword which maps to the Hard state. The missing value default is the Soft state.

If the element's wrap attribute is in the Hard state, the cols attribute must be specified.

The element's value is defined to be the element's raw value with the following transformation applied:

Replace every occurance of a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character not followed by a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character, and every occurance of a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character not proceeded by a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character, by a two-character string consisting of a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN - U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pair.
If the element's wrap attribute is in the Hard state, insert U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN - U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pairs into the string using a UA-defined algorithm so that each line so that each line has no more than character width characters. The the purposes of this requirement, lines are delimited by the start of the string, the end of the string, and U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN - U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pairs.

The maxlength attribute is a form control maxlength attribute controlled by the textarea element's dirty value flag.

If the textarea element has a maximum allowed value length, then the element's children must be such that the codepoint length of the value of the element's textContent DOM attribute is equal to or less than the element's maximum allowed value length.

The required attribute is a boolean attribute.

Constraint validation: If the element has its required attribute specified, and the element is mutable, and the element's value is the empty string, then the element is suffering from being missing.

The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the textarea element with its form owner. The name attribute represents the element's name. The disabled attribute is used to make the control non-interactive and to prevent its value from being submitted. The autofocus attribute controls focus.

The cols, required, rows, and wrap attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name. The cols and rows attributes are limited to only positive non-zero numbers. The maxLength DOM attribute must reflect the maxlength content attribute. The readOnly DOM attribute must reflect the readonly content attribute.

The type DOM attribute must return the value "textarea".

The defaultValue DOM attribute must act like the element's textContent DOM attribute.

The value attribute must, on getting, return the element's raw value; on setting, it must set the element's raw value to the new value.

4.10.11 The `output` element

Categories

Listed and resettable form-associated element.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Element-specific attributes:

for

form

name

DOM interface:

interface HTMLOutputElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString htmlFor;
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute DOMString name;

  readonly attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString defaultValue;
           attribute DOMString value;

  readonly attribute boolean willValidate;
  readonly attribute ValidityState validity;
  readonly attribute DOMString validationMessage;
  boolean checkValidity();
  void setCustomValidity(in DOMString error);
};

The output element represents the result of a calculation.

The for content attribute allows an explicit relationship to be made between the result of a calculation and the elements that represent the values that went into the calculation or that otherwise influenced the calculation. The for attribute, if specified, must contain a string consisting of an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens, each of which must have the value of an ID of an element in the same Document.

The form attribute is used to explicitly associate the output element with its form owner. The name attribute represents the element's name.

The element has a value mode flag which is either value or default. Initially the value mode flag must be set to default.

When the to value mode flag is in mode default, the contents of the element represent both the value of the element and its default value. When the value mode flag is in mode value, the contents of the element represent the value of the element only, and the default value is only accessible using the defaultValue DOM attribute.

The element also has a default value. Initially, the default value must be the empty string.

Whenever the element's descendants are changed in any way, if the value mode flag is in mode default, the element's default value must be set to the value of the element's textContent DOM attribute.

The reset algorithm for textarea elements is to set the element's textContent DOM attribute to the value of the element's defaultValue DOM attribute (thus replacing the element's child nodes), and then to set the element's value mode flag to default.

The value DOM attribute must act like the element's textContent DOM attribute, except that on setting, in addition, before the child nodes are changed, the element's value mode flag must be set to value.

The defaultValue DOM attribute, on getting, must return the element's default value. On setting, the attribute must set the element's default value, and, if the element's value mode flag is in the mode default, set the element's textContent DOM attribute as well.

The type attribute must return the string "output".

The htmlFor DOM attribute must reflect the for content attribute.

The willValidate, validity, and validationMessage attributes, and the checkValidity() and setCustomValidity() methods, are part of the constraint validation API.

Constraint validation: output elements are always barred from constraint validation.

4.10.12 Association of controls and forms

A form-associated element can have a relationship with a form element, which is called the element's form owner. If a form-associated element is not associated with a form element, its form owner is said to be null.

A form-associated element is, by default, associated with its nearest ancestor form element (as described below), but may have a form attribute specified to override this.

If a form-associated element has a form attribute specified, then its value must be the ID of a form element in the element's owner Document.

When a form-associated element is created, its form owner must be initialized to null (no owner).

When a form-associated element is to be associated with a form, its form owner must be set to that form.

When a form-associated element's ancestor chain changes, e.g. because it or one of its ancestors was inserted or removed from a Document, then the user agent must reset the form owner of that element.

When a form-associated element's form attribute is added, removed, or has its value changed, then the user agent must reset the form owner of that element.

When a form-associated element has a form attribute and the ID of any of the form elements in the Document changes, then the user agent must reset the form owner of that form-associated element.

When the user agent is to reset the form owner of a form-associated element, it must run the following steps:

If the element's form owner is not null, and the element's form content attribute is not present, and the element's form owner is one of the ancestors of the element after the change to the ancestor chain, then do nothing, and abort these steps.
Let the element's form owner be null.
If the element has a form content attribute, then run these substeps:
1. If the first element in the Document to have an ID that is equal to the element's form content attribute's value is a form element, then associate the form-associated element with that form element.
2. Abort the "reset the form owner" steps.
Otherwise, if the form-associated element in question has an ancestor form element, then associate the form-associated element with the nearest such ancestor form element.
Otherwise, the element is left unassociated.

Form-associated elements have a form DOM attribute, which, on getting, must return the element's form owner, or null if there isn't one.

Constraint validation: If an element has no form owner, it is barred from constraint validation.

4.10.13 Attributes common to form controls

4.10.13.1 Naming form controls

The name content attribute gives the name of the form control, as used in form submission and in the form element's elements object. If the attribute is specified, its value must not be the empty string.

Constraint validation: If an element does not have a name attribute specified, or its name attribute's value is the empty string, then it is barred from constraint validation.

The name DOM attribute must reflect the name content attribute.

4.10.13.2 Enabling and disabling form controls

The disabled content attribute is a boolean attribute.

A form control is disabled if its disabled attribute is set, or if it is a descendant of a fieldset element whose disabled attribute is set.

A form control that is disabled must prevent any click events that are queued on the user interaction task source from being dispatched on the element.

Constraint validation: If an element is disabled, it is barred from constraint validation.

The disabled DOM attribute must reflect the disabled content attribute.

4.10.13.3 A form control's value

Form controls have a value and a checkedness. (The latter is only used by input elements.) These are used to describe how the user interacts with the control.

4.10.13.4 Autofocusing a form control

The autofocus content attribute allows the user to indicate that a control is to be focused as soon as the page is loaded, allowing the user to just start typing without having to manually focus the main control.

The autofocus attribute is a boolean attribute.

There must not be more than one element in the document with the autofocus attribute specified.

Whenever an element with the autofocus attribute specified is inserted into a document, the user agent should queue a task that checks to see if the element is focusable, and if so, runs the focusing steps for that element. User agents may also change the scrolling position of the document, or perform some other action that brings the element to the user's attention. The task source for this task is the DOM manipulation task source.

User agents may ignore this attribute if the user has indicated (for example, by starting to type in a form control) that he does not wish focus to be changed.

Focusing the control does not imply that the user agent must focus the browser window if it has lost focus.

The autofocus DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

In the following snippet, the text control would be focused when the document was loaded.

<input maxlength="256" name="q" value="" autofocus>
<input type="submit" value="Search">

4.10.13.5 Limiting user input length

A form control maxlength attribute, controlled by a dirty value flag declares a limit on the number of characters a user can input.

If an element has its form control maxlength attribute specified, the attribute's value must be a valid non-negative integer. If the attribute is specified and applying the rules for parsing non-negative integers to its value results in a number, then that number is the element's maximum allowed value length. If the attribute is omitted or parsing its value results in an error, then there is no maximum allowed value length.

Constraint validation: If an element has a maximum allowed value length, and its dirty value flag is false, and the codepoint length of the element's value is greater than the element's maximum allowed value length, then the element is suffering from being too long.

User agents may prevent the user from causing the element's value to be set to a value whose codepoint length is greater than the element's maximum allowed value length.

4.10.13.6 Form submission

Attributes for form submission can be specified both on form elements and on elements that represent buttons that submit forms, e.g. an input element whose type attribute is in the Submit Button state. The attributes on the buttons, when omitted, default to the values given on the corresponding the form element.

The action content attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid URL.

The action of an element is the value of the element's action attribute, if it has one, or the value of its form owner's action attribute, if it has one, or else the empty string.

The method content attribute is an enumerated attribute with the following keywords and states:

The keyword GET, mapping to the state GET, indicating the HTTP GET method.
The keyword POST, mapping to the state POST, indicating the HTTP POST method.
The keyword PUT, mapping to the state PUT, indicating the HTTP PUT method.
The keyword DELETE, mapping to the state DELETE, indicating the HTTP DELETE method.

The missing value default is the GET state.

The method of an element is one of those four states. If the element has a method attribute, then the element's method is that attribute's state; otherwise, it is the form owner's method attribute's state.

The enctype content attribute is an enumerated attribute with the following keywords and states:

The "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" keyword and corresponding state.
The "multpart/form-data" keyword and corresponding state.
The "text/plain" keyword and corresponding state.

The missing value default is the application/x-www-form-urlencoded state.

The enctype of an element is one of those four states. If the element has a enctype attribute, then the element's enctype is that attribute's state; otherwise, it is the form owner's enctype attribute's state.

The target content attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name or keyword.

The target of an element is the value of the element's target attribute, if it has one; or the value of its form owner's target attribute, if it has one; or, if one of the child nodes of the head element is a base element with a target attribute, then the the value of the target attribute of the first such base element; or, if there is no such element, the empty string.

The action, method, enctype, and target DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.10.14 Constraints

4.10.14.1 Definitions

A listed form-associated element is a candidate for constraint validation unless a condition has barred the element from constraint validation. (For example, an element is barred from constraint validation if it is an output or fieldset element.)

An element can have a custom validity error message defined. Initially, an element must have its custom validity error message set to the empty string. When its value is not the empty string, the element is suffering from a custom error. It can be set using the setCustomValidity() method. The user agent should use the custom validity error message when alerting the user to the problem with the control.

An element can be constrained in various ways. The following is the list of validity states that a form control can be in, making the control invalid for the purposes of constraint validation. (The definitions below are non-normative; other parts of this specification define more precisely when each state applies or does not.)

Suffering from being missing: When a control has no value but has a required attribute (input required, textarea required).
Suffering from a type mismatch: When a control that allows arbitrary user input has a value that is not in the correct syntax (E-mail, URL).
Suffering from a pattern mismatch: When a control has a value that doesn't satisfy the pattern attribute.
Suffering from being too long: When a control has a value that is too long for the form control maxlength attribute (input maxlength, textarea maxlength).
Suffering from an underflow: When a control has a value that is too low for the min attribute.
Suffering from an overflow: When a control has a value that is too high for the max attribute.
Suffering from a step mismatch: When a control has a value that doesn't fit the rules given by the step attribute.
Suffering from a custom error: When a control's custom validity error message (as set by the element's setCustomValidity() method) is not the empty string.

An element can still suffer from these states even when the element is disabled; thus these states can be represented in the DOM even if validating the form during submission wouldn't indicate a problem to the user.

An element satisfies its constraints if it is not suffering from any of the above validity states.

4.10.14.2 Constraint validation

When the user agent is required to statically validate the constraints of form element form, it must run the following steps, which return either a positive result (all the controls in the form are valid) or a negative result (there are invalid controls) along with a (possibly empty) list of elements that are invalid and for which no script has claimed responsibility:

Let controls be a list of all the submittable elements whose form owner is form, in tree order.
Let invalid controls be an initially empty list of elements.
For each element field in controls, in tree order, run the following substeps:
1. If field is not a candidate for constraint validation, then move on to the next element.
2. Otherwise, if field satisfies its constaints, then move on to the next element.
3. Otherwise, add field to invalid controls.
If invalid controls is empty, then return a positive result and abort these steps.
Let unhandled invalid controls be an initially empty list of elements.
For each element field in invalid controls, if any, in tree order, run the following substeps:
1. Fire a simple event named invalid at field.
2. If the event was not canceled, then add field to unhandled invalid controls.
Return a negative result with the list of elements in the unhandled invalid controls list.

If a user agent is to interactively validate the constraints of form element form, then the user agent must run the following steps:

Statically validate the constraints of form, and let unhandled invalid controls be the list of elements returned if the result was negative.
If the result was positive, then return that result and abort these steps.
Report the problems with the constraints of at least one of the elements given in unhandled invalid controls to the user. User agents may focus one of those elements in the process, by running the focusing steps for that element, and may change the scrolling position of the document, or perform some other action that brings the element to the user's attention. User agents may report more than one constraint violation. User agents may coalesce related constraint violation reports if appropriate (e.g. if multiple radio buttons in a set are marked as required, only one error need be reported). If one of the controls is not visible to the user (e.g. it has the hidden attribute set) then user agents may report a script error.
Return a negative result.

4.10.14.3 The constraint validation API

The willValidate attribute must return true if an element is a candidate for constraint validation, and false otherwise (i.e. false if any conditions are barring it from constraint validation).

The setCustomValidity(message), when invoked, must set the custom validity error message to the value of the given message argument.

The validity attribute must return a ValidityState object that represents the validity states of the element. This object is live, and the same object must be returned each time the element's validity attribute is retrieved.

interface ValidityState {
  readonly attribute boolean valueMissing;
  readonly attribute boolean typeMismatch;
  readonly attribute boolean patternMismatch;
  readonly attribute boolean tooLong;
  readonly attribute boolean rangeUnderflow;
  readonly attribute boolean rangeOverflow;
  readonly attribute boolean stepMismatch;
  readonly attribute boolean customError;
  readonly attribute boolean valid;
};

A ValidityState object has the following attributes. On getting, they must return true if the corresponding condition given in the following list is true, and false otherwise.

valueMissing: The control is suffering from being missing.
typeMismatch: The control is suffering from a type mismatch.
patternMismatch: The control is suffering from a pattern mismatch.
tooLong: The control is suffering from being too long.
rangeUnderflow: The control is suffering from an underflow.
rangeOverflow: The control is suffering from an overflow.
stepMismatch: The control is suffering from a step mismatch.
customError: The control is suffering from a custom error.
valid: None of the other conditions are true.

When the checkValidity() method is invoked, if the element is a candidate for constraint validation and does not satisfy its constaints, the user agent must fire a simple event named invalid at the element and return false. Otherwise, it must only return true without doing anything else.

The validationMessage attribute must return the empty string if the element is not a candidate for constraint validation or if it is one but it satisfies its constaints; otherwise, it must return a suitably localised message that the user agent would show the user if this were the only form with a validity constraint problem. If the element is suffering from a custom error, then the custom validity error message should be present in the return value.

4.10.14.4 Security

Servers should not rely on client-side validation. Client-side validation can be intentionally bypassed by hostile users, and unintentionally bypassed by users of older user agents or automated tools that do not implement these features. The constraint validation features are only intended to improve the user experience, not to provide any kind of security mechanism.

4.10.15 Form submission

4.10.15.1 Implicit submission

User agents may establish a button in each form as being the form's default button. This should be the first submit button in tree order whose form owner is that form element, but user agents may pick another button if another would be more appropriate for the platform. If the platform supports letting the user submit a form implicitly (for example, on some platforms hitting the "enter" key while a text field is focused implicitly submits the form), then doing so must cause the form's default button's activation behavior, if any, to be run.

Consequently, if the default button is disabled, the form is not submitted when such an implicit submission mechanism is used. (A button has no activation behavior when disabled.)

If the form has no submit button, then the implicit submission mechanism must just submit the form element from the form element itself.

4.10.15.2 Form submission algorithm

When a form form is submitted from an element submitter (typically a button), the user agent must run the following steps:

If form is in a Document that has no associated browsing context or whose browsing context has its sandboxed forms browsing context flag set, then abort these steps without doing anything.
If the submitter is anything but a form element, then interactively validate the constraints of form and examine the result: if the result is negative (the constraint validation concluded that there were invalid fields and probably informed the user of this) then abort these steps.
If the submitter is anything but a form element, then fire a simple event that bubbles, named submit, at form. If the event's default action is prevented (i.e. if the event is canceled) then abort these steps. Otherwise, continue (effectively the default action is to perform the submission).
Let controls be a list of all the submittable elements whose form owner is form, in tree order.
Let the form data set be a list of name-value-type tuples, initially empty.
Constructing the form data set. For each element field in controls, in tree order, run the following substeps:
1. If any of the following conditions are met, then skip these substeps for this element:
  - The field element has a datalist element ancestor.
  - The field element is disabled.
  - The field element is a button but it is not submitter.
  - The field element is an input element whose type attribute is in the Checkbox state and whose checkedness is false.
  - The field element is an input element whose type attribute is in the Radio Button state and whose checkedness is false.
  - The field element is an input element whose type attribute is in the File Upload state but the control does not have any files selected.
  Otherwise, process field as follows:
2. Let type be the value of the type DOM attribute of field.
3. If the field element is an input element whose type attribute is in the Image Button state, then run these further nested substeps:
  1. If the field element has an name attribute specified and value is not the empty string, let name be that value followed by a single U+002E FULL STOP (.) character. Otherwise, let name be the empty string.
  2. Let name_x be the string consisting of the concatenation of name and a single U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X (x) character.
  3. Let name_y be the string consisting of the concatenation of name and a single U+0079 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y (y) character.
  4. The field element is submitter, and before this algorithm was invoked the user indicated a coordinate. Let x be the x-component of the coordindate selected by the user, and let y be the y-component of the coordinate selected by the user.
  5. Append an entry in the form data set with the name name_x, the value x, and the type type.
  6. Append an entry in the form data set with the name name_y and the value y, and the type type.
  7. Skip the remaining substeps for this element: if there are any more elements in controls, return to the top of the constructing the form data set step, otherwise, jump to the next step in the overall form submission algorithm.
4. If the field element does not have a name attribute specified, or its name attribute's value is the empty string, skip these substeps for this element: if there are any more elements in controls, return to the top of the constructing the form data set step, otherwise, jump to the next step in the overall form submission algorithm.
5. Let name be the value of the field element's name attribute.
6. If the field element is a select element, then for each option element in the select element whose selectedness is true, append an entry in the form data set with the name as the name, the value of the option element as the value, and type as the type.
7. Otherwise, if the field element is an input element whose type attribute is in the Checkbox state or the Radio Button state, then then run these further nested substeps:
  1. If the field element has a value attribute specified, then let value be the value of that attribute; otherwise, let value be the string "on".
  2. Append an entry in the form data set with name as the name, value as the value, and type as the type.
8. Otherwise, if the field element is an input element whose type attribute is in the File Upload state, then for each file selected in the input element, append an entry in the form data set with the name as the name, the file (consisting of the name, the type, and the body) as the value, and type as the type.
9. Otherwise, append an entry in the form data set with name as the name, the value of the field element as the value, and type as the type.
Let action be the submitter element's action.
If action is the empty string, let action be the document's address.

This step is a willful violation of RFC 3986. [RFC3986]
Resolve the URL action. If this fails, abort these steps.
Let scheme be the <scheme> of the resulting absolute URL.
Let enctype be the submitter element's enctype.
Let method be the submitter element's method.
Let target be the submitter element's target.

Select the appropriate row in the table below based on the value of scheme as given by the first cell of each row. Then, select the appropriate cell on that row based on the value of method as given in the first cell of each column. Then, jump to the steps named in that cell and defined below the table.

	GET	POST	PUT	DELETE
`http`	Mutate action	Submit as entity body	Submit as entity body	Delete action
`https`	Mutate action	Submit as entity body	Submit as entity body	Delete action
`ftp`	Get action	Get action	Get action	Get action
`javascript`	Get action	Get action	Get action	Get action
`data`	Get action	Post to data:	Put to data:	Get action
`mailto`	Mail with headers	Mail as body	Mail with headers	Mail with headers

If scheme is not one of those listed in this table, then the behavior is not defined by this specification. User agents should, in the absence of another specification defining this, act in a manner analogous to that defined in this specification for similar schemes.

The behaviors are as follows:

Mutate action

Let query be the result of encoding the form data set using the application/x-www-form-urlencoded encoding algorithm, interpreted as a US-ASCII string.

Let destination be a new URL that is equal to the action except that its <query> component is replaced by query (adding a U+003F QUESTION MARK (?) character if appropriate).

Let target browsing context be the form submission target browsing context.

Navigate target browsing context to destination. If target browsing context was newly created for this purpose by the steps above, then it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Submit as entity body

Let entity body be the result of encoding the form data set using the appropriate form encoding algorithm.

Let target browsing context be the form submission target browsing context.

Let MIME type be determined as follows:

If enctype is application/x-www-form-urlencoded: Let MIME type be "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".
If enctype is multpart/form-data: Let MIME type be "multipart/form-data".
If enctype is text/plain: Let MIME type be "text/plain".

Navigate target browsing context to action using the HTTP method given by method and with entity body as the entity body, of type MIME type. If target browsing context was newly created for this purpose by the steps above, then it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Delete action

Let target browsing context be the form submission target browsing context.

Navigate target browsing context to action using the DELETE method. If target browsing context was newly created for this purpose by the steps above, then it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Get action

Let target browsing context be the form submission target browsing context.

Navigate target browsing context to action. If target browsing context was newly created for this purpose by the steps above, then it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Post to data:

Let data be the result of encoding the form data set using the appropriate form encoding algorithm.

If action contains the string "%%%%" (four U+0025 PERCENT SIGN characters), then %-escape all bytes in data that, if interpreted as US-ASCII, do not match the unreserved production in the URI Generic Syntax, and then, treating the result as a US-ASCII string, further %-escape all the U+0025 PERCENT SIGN characters in the resulting string and replace the first occurance of "%%%%" in action with the resulting double-escaped string. [RFC3986]

Otherwise, if action contains the string "%%" (two U+0025 PERCENT SIGN characters in a row, but not four), then %-escape all characters in data that, if interpreted as US-ASCII, do not match the unreserved production in the URI Generic Syntax, and then, treating the result as a US-ASCII string, replace the first occurance of "%%" in action with the resulting escaped string. [RFC3986]

Let target browsing context be the form submission target browsing context.

Navigate target browsing context to the potentially modified action. If target browsing context was newly created for this purpose by the steps above, then it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Put to data:

Let data be the result of encoding the form data set using the appropriate form encoding algorithm.

Let MIME type be determined as follows:

If enctype is application/x-www-form-urlencoded: Let MIME type be "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".
If enctype is multpart/form-data: Let MIME type be "multipart/form-data".
If enctype is text/plain: Let MIME type be "text/plain".

Let destination be the result of concatenating the following:

The string "data:".
The value of MIME type.
The string ";base64,".
A base-64 encoded representation of data. [RFC2045]

Let target browsing context be the form submission target browsing context.

Navigate target browsing context to destination. If target browsing context was newly created for this purpose by the steps above, then it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Mail with headers

Let headers be the resulting encoding the form data set using the application/x-www-form-urlencoded encoding algorithm, interpreted as a US-ASCII string.

Replace occurances of U+002B PLUS SIGN characters (+) in headers with the string "%20".

Let destination consist of all the characters from the first character in action to the character immediately before the first U+003F QUESTION MARK character (?), if any, or the end of the string if there are none.

Append a single U+003F QUESTION MARK character (?) to destination.

Append headers to destination.

Let target browsing context be the form submission target browsing context.

Navigate target browsing context to destination. If target browsing context was newly created for this purpose by the steps above, then it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Mail as body

Let body be the resulting encoding the form data set using the appropriate form encoding algorithm and then %-escaping all the bytes in the resulting byte string that, when interpreted as US-ASCII, do not match the unreserved production in the URI Generic Syntax. [RFC3986]

Let destination have the same value as action.

If destination does not contain a U+003F QUESTION MARK character (?), append a single U+003F QUESTION MARK character (?) to destination. Otherwise, append a single U+0026 AMPERSAND character (&).

Append the string "body=" to destination.

Append body, interpreted as a US-ASCII string, to destination.

Let target browsing context be the form submission target browsing context.

Navigate target browsing context to destination. If target browsing context was newly created for this purpose by the steps above, then it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

The form submission target browsing context is obtained, when needed by the behaviors described above, as follows: If the user indicated a specific browsing context to use when submitting the form, then that is the target browsing context. Otherwise, apply the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name using target as the name and the browsing context of form as the context in which the algorithm is executed; the resulting browsing context is the target browsing context.

The appropriate form encoding algorithm is determined as follows:

If enctype is application/x-www-form-urlencoded: Use the application/x-www-form-urlencoded encoding algorithm.
If enctype is multpart/form-data: Use the multipart/form-data encoding algorithm.
If enctype is text/plain: Use the text/plain encoding algorithm.

4.10.15.3 URL-encoded form data

The application/x-www-form-urlencoded encoding algorithm is as follows:

Let result be the empty string.
If the form element has an accept-charset attribute, then, taking into account the characters found in the form data set's names and values, and the character encodings supported by the user agent, select a character encoding from the list given in the form's accept-charset attribute that is an ASCII-compatible character encoding. If none of the encodings are supported, then let the selected character encoding be UTF-8.

Otherwise, if the document's character encoding is an ASCII-compatible character encoding, then that is the selected character encoding.

Otherwise, let the selected character encoding be UTF-8.
Let charset be the preferred MIME name of the selected character encoding.
If the entry's name is "_charset_" and its type is "hidden", replace its value with charset.
If the entry's type is "file", replace its value with the file's filename only.
For each entry in the form data set, perform these substeps:
1. For each character in the entry's name and value that cannot be expressed using the selected character encoding, replace the character by a string consisting of a U+0026 AMPERSAND character (&), one of more characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9) representing the Unicode codepoint of the character in base ten, and finally a U+003B SEMICOLON character (;).
2. For each character in the entry's name and value, apply the following subsubsteps:
  1. If the character isn't in the range U+0020, U+002A, U+002D, U+002E, U+0030 .. U+0039, U+0041 .. U+005A, U+005F, U+0061 .. U+007A then replace the character with a string formed as follows: Start with the empty string, and then, taking each byte of the character when expressed in the selected character encoding in turn, append to the string a U+0025 PERCENT SIGN character (%) followed by two characters in the ranges U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9) and U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z representing the hexadecimal value of the byte (zero-padded if necessary).
  2. If the character is a U+0020 SPACE character, replace it with a single U+002B PLUS SIGN character (+).
3. If the entry's name is "isindex", its type is "text", and this is the first entry in the form data set, then append the value to result and skip the rest of the substeps for this entry, moving on to the next entry, if any, or the next step in the overall algorithm otherwise.
4. If this is not the first entry, append a single U+0026 AMPERSAND character (&) to result.
5. Append the entry's name to result.
6. Append a single U+003D EQUALS SIGN character (=) to result.
7. Append the entry's value to result.
Encode result as US-ASCII and return the resulting byte stream.

4.10.15.4 Multipart form data

The multipart/form-data encoding algorithm is to encode the form data set using the rules described by RFC2388, Returning Values from Forms: multipart/form-data, and return the resulting byte stream. [RFC2388]

Each entry in the form data set is a field, the name of the entry is the field name and the value of the entry is the field value.

The order of parts must be the same as the order of fields in the form data set. Multiple entries with the same name must be treated as distinct fields.

4.10.15.5 Plain text form data

The text/plain encoding algorithm is as follows:

Let result be the empty string.
If the form element has an accept-charset attribute, then, taking into account the characters found in the form data set's names and values, and the character encodings supported by the user agent, select a character encoding from the list given in the form's accept-charset attribute. If none of the encodings are supported, then let the selected character encoding be UTF-8.

Otherwise, the selected character encoding is the document's character encoding.
Let charset be the preferred MIME name of the selected character encoding.
If the entry's name is "_charset_" and its type is "hidden", replace its value with charset.
If the entry's type is "file", replace its value with the file's filename only.
For each entry in the form data set, perform these substeps:
1. Append the entry's name to result.
2. Append a single U+003D EQUALS SIGN character (=) to result.
3. Append the entry's value to result.
4. Append a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character pair to result.
Encode result using the selected character encoding and return the resulting byte stream.

4.10.16 Resetting a form

When a form form is reset, the user agent must invoke the reset algorithm of each resettable elements whose form owner is form, and must then broadcast formchange events from form.

Each resettable element defines its own reset algorithm.

4.10.17 Event dispatch

When the user agent is to broadcast forminput events or broadcast formchange events from a form element form, it must run the following steps:

Let controls be a list of all the resettable elements whose form owner is form.
If the user agent was to broadcast forminput events, let event name be forminput. Otherwise the user agent was to broadcast formchange events; let event name be formchange.
For each element in controls, in tree order, fire a simple event named event name at the element.

4.11 Interactive elements

4.11.1 The `details` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

Content model:

One legend element followed by flow content.

Element-specific attributes:

open

DOM interface:

interface HTMLDetailsElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean open;
};

The details element represents additional information or controls which the user can obtain on demand.

The details element is not appropriate for footnotes. Please see the section on footnotes for details on how to mark up footnotes.

The first element child of a details element, if it is a legend element, represents the summary of the details.

If the first element is not a legend element, the UA should provide its own legend (e.g. "Details").

The open content attribute is a boolean attribute. If present, it indicates that the details should be shown to the user. If the attribute is absent, the details should not be shown.

If the attribute is removed, then the details should be hidden. If the attribute is added, the details should be shown.

The user agent should allow the user to request that the details be shown or hidden. To honor a request for the details to be shown, the user agent must set the open attribute on the element to the value open. To honour a request for the details to be hidden, the user agent must remove the open attribute from the element.

The open attribute must reflect the open content attribute.

Rendering will be described in the Rendering section in due course. Basically CSS :open and :closed match the element, it's a block-level element by default, and when it matches :closed it renders as if it had an XBL binding attached to it whose template was just <template>▶<content includes="legend:first-child">Details</content></template>, and when it's :open it acts as if it had an XBL binding attached to it whose template was just <template>▼<content includes="legend:first-child">Details</content><content/></template> or some such.

4.11.2 The `datagrid` element

Categories

getCellData(i, j), getCellClasses(i, j, classes), getCellCheckedState(i, j, state), cycleCell(i, j), and editCell(i, j, data): See the common definitions below.

Sectioning root.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

Content model:

Either: Nothing.

Or: Flow content, but where the first element child node, if any, is not a table, select, or datalist element.

Or: A single table element.

Or: A single select element.

Or: A single datalist element.

Element-specific attributes:

multiple

disabled

DOM interface:

interface HTMLDataGridElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DataGridDataProvider data;
  readonly attribute DataGridSelection selection;
           attribute boolean multiple;
           attribute boolean disabled;
  void updateEverything();
  void updateRowsChanged(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long count);
  void updateRowsInserted(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long count);
  void updateRowsRemoved(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long count);
  void updateRowChanged(in RowSpecification row);
  void updateColumnChanged(in unsigned long column);
  void updateCellChanged(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long column);
};

One possible thing to be added is a way to detect when a row/selection has been deleted, activated, etc, by the user (delete key, enter key, etc).

The datagrid element represents an interactive representation of tree, list, or tabular data.

The data being presented can come either from the content, as elements given as children of the datagrid element, or from a scripted data provider given by the data DOM attribute.

The multiple and disabled attributes are boolean attributes. Their effects are described in the processing model sections below.

The multiple and disabled DOM attributes must reflect the multiple and disabled content attributes respectively.

4.11.2.1 The `datagrid` data model

This section is non-normative.

In the datagrid data model, data is structured as a set of rows representing a tree, each row being split into a number of columns. The columns are always present in the data model, although individual columns may be hidden in the presentation.

Each row can have child rows. Child rows may be hidden or shown, by closing or opening (respectively) the parent row.

Rows are referred to by the path along the tree that one would take to reach the row, using zero-based indices. Thus, the first row of a list is row "0", the second row is row "1"; the first child row of the first row is row "0,0", the second child row of the first row is row "0,1"; the fourth child of the seventh child of the third child of the tenth row is "9,2,6,3", etc.

The columns can have captions. Those captions are not considered a row in their own right, they are obtained separately.

Selection of data in a datagrid operates at the row level. If the multiple attribute is present, multiple rows can be selected at once, otherwise the user can only select one row at a time.

The datagrid element can be disabled entirely by setting the disabled attribute.

Columns, rows, and cells can each have specific flags, known as classes, applied to them by the data provider. These classes affect the functionality of the datagrid element, and are also passed to the style system. They are similar in concept to the class attribute, except that they are not specified on elements but are given by scripted data providers.

4.11.2.2 How rows are identified

The chains of numbers that give a row's path, or identifier, are represented by objects that implement the RowSpecification interface.

[NoInterfaceObject] interface RowSpecification {
  // binding-specific interface
};

In ECMAScript, two classes of objects are said to implement this interface: Numbers representing non-negative integers, and homogeneous arrays of Numbers representing non-negative integers. Thus, [1,0,9] is a RowSpecification, as is 1 on its own. However, [1,0.2,9] is not a RowSpecification object, since its second value is not an integer.

User agents must always represent RowSpecifications in ECMAScript by using arrays, even if the path only has one number.

The root of the tree is represented by the empty path; in ECMAScript, this is the empty array ([]). Only the getRowCount() and GetChildAtPosition() methods ever get called with the empty path.

4.11.2.3 The data provider interface

The conformance criteria in this section apply to any implementation of the DataGridDataProvider, including (and most commonly) the content author's implementation(s).

// To be implemented by Web authors as a JS object
[NoInterfaceObject] interface DataGridDataProvider {
  void initialize(in HTMLDataGridElement datagrid);
  unsigned long getRowCount(in RowSpecification row);
  unsigned long getChildAtPosition(in RowSpecification parentRow, in unsigned long position);
  unsigned long getColumnCount();
  DOMString getCaptionText(in unsigned long column);
  void getCaptionClasses(in unsigned long column, in DOMTokenList classes);
  DOMString getRowImage(in RowSpecification row);
  HTMLMenuElement getRowMenu(in RowSpecification row);
  void getRowClasses(in RowSpecification row, in DOMTokenList classes);
  DOMString getCellData(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long column);
  void getCellClasses(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long column, in DOMTokenList classes);
  void toggleColumnSortState(in unsigned long column);
  void setCellCheckedState(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long column, in long state);
  void cycleCell(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long column);
  void editCell(in RowSpecification row, in unsigned long column, in DOMString data);
};

The DataGridDataProvider interface represents the interface that objects must implement to be used as custom data views for datagrid elements.

Not all the methods are required. The minimum number of methods that must be implemented in a useful view is two: the getRowCount() and getCellData() methods.

Once the object is written, it must be hooked up to the datagrid using the data DOM attribute.

The following methods may be usefully implemented:

initialize(datagrid): Called by the datagrid element (the one given by the datagrid argument) after it has first populated itself. This would typically be used to set the initial selection of the datagrid element when it is first loaded. The data provider could also use this method call to register a select event handler on the datagrid in order to monitor selection changes.
getRowCount(row): Must return the number of rows that are children of the specified row, including rows that are off-screen. If row is empty, then the number of rows at the top level must be returned. If the value that this method would return for a given row changes, the relevant update methods on the datagrid must be called first. Otherwise, this method must always return the same number. For a list (as opposed to a tree), this method must return 0 whenever it is called with a row identifier that is not empty.
getChildAtPosition(parentRow, position): Must return the index of the row that is a child of parentRow and that is to be positioned as the positionth row under parentRow when rendering the children of parentRow. If parentRow is empty, then position refers to the positionth row at the top level of the data grid. May be omitted if the rows are always to be sorted in the natural order. (The natural order is the one where the method always returns position.) For a given parentRow, this method must never return the same value for different values of position. The returned value x must be in the range 0 ≤ x < n, where n is the value returned by getRowCount(parentRow).
getColumnCount(): Must return the number of columns currently in the data model (including columns that might be hidden). May be omitted if there is only one column. If the value that this method would return changes, the datagrid's updateEverything() method must be called.
getCaptionText(column): Must return the caption, or label, for column column. May be omitted if the columns have no captions. If the value that this method would return changes, the datagrid's updateColumnChanged() method must be called with the appropriate column index.
getCaptionClasses(column, classes): Must add the classes that apply to column column to the classes object. May be omitted if the columns have no special classes. If the classes that this method would add changes, the datagrid's updateColumnChanged() method must be called with the appropriate column index. Some classes have predefined meanings.
getRowImage(row): Must return a URL giving the address of an image that represents row row, or the empty string if there is no applicable image. May be omitted if no rows have associated images. If the value that this method would return changes, the datagrid's update methods must be called to update the row in question.
getRowMenu(row): Must return an HTMLMenuElement object that is to be used as a context menu for row row, or null if there is no particular context menu. May be omitted if none of the rows have a special context menu. As this method is called immediately before showing the menu in question, no precautions need to be taken if the return value of this method changes.
getRowClasses(row, classes): Must add the classes that apply to row row to the classes object. May be omitted if the rows have no special classes. If the classes that this method would add changes, the datagrid's update methods must be called to update the row in question. Some classes have predefined meanings.
getCellData(row, column): Must return the value of the cell on row row in column column. For text cells, this must be the text to show for that cell. For progress bar cells, this must be either a floating point number in the range 0.0 to 1.0 (converted to a string representation), indicating the fraction of the progress bar to show as full (1.0 meaning complete), or the empty string, indicating an indeterminate progress bar. If the value that this method would return changes, the datagrid's update methods must be called to update the rows that changed. If only one cell changed, the updateCellChanged() method may be used.
getCellClasses(row, column, classes): Must add the classes that apply to the cell on row row in column column to the classes object. May be omitted if the cells have no special classes. If the classes that this method would add changes, the datagrid's update methods must be called to update the rows or cells in question. Some classes have predefined meanings.
toggleColumnSortState(column): Called by the datagrid when the user tries to sort the data using a particular column column. The data provider must update its state so that the GetChildAtPosition() method returns the new order, and the classes of the columns returned by getCaptionClasses() represent the new sort status. There is no need to tell the datagrid that it the data has changed, as the datagrid automatically assumes that the entire data model will need updating.
setCellCheckedState(row, column, state): Called by the datagrid when the user changes the state of a checkbox cell on row row, column column. The checkbox should be toggled to the state given by state, which is a positive integer (1) if the checkbox is to be checked, zero (0) if it is to be unchecked, and a negative number (−1) if it is to be set to the indeterminate state. There is no need to tell the datagrid that the cell has changed, as the datagrid automatically assumes that the given cell will need updating.
cycleCell(row, column): Called by the datagrid when the user changes the state of a cyclable cell on row row, column column. The data provider should change the state of the cell to the new state, as appropriate. There is no need to tell the datagrid that the cell has changed, as the datagrid automatically assumes that the given cell will need updating.
editCell(row, column, data): Called by the datagrid when the user edits the cell on row row, column column. The new value of the cell is given by data. The data provider should update the cell accordingly. There is no need to tell the datagrid that the cell has changed, as the datagrid automatically assumes that the given cell will need updating.

The following classes (for rows, columns, and cells) may be usefully used in conjunction with this interface:

Class name	Applies to	Description
`checked`	Cells	The cell has a checkbox and it is checked. (The `cyclable` and `progress` classes override this, though.)
`cyclable`	Cells	The cell can be cycled through multiple values. (The `progress` class overrides this, though.)
`editable`	Cells	The cell can be edited. (The `cyclable`, `progress`, `checked`, `unchecked` and `indeterminate` classes override this, though.)
`header`	Rows	The row is a heading, not a data row.
`indeterminate`	Cells	The cell has a checkbox, and it can be set to an indeterminate state. If neither the `checked` nor `unchecked` classes are present, then the checkbox is in that state, too. (The `cyclable` and `progress` classes override this, though.)
`initially-hidden`	Columns	The column will not be shown when the `datagrid` is initially rendered. If this class is not present on the column when the `datagrid` is initially rendered, the column will be visible if space allows.
`initially-closed`	Rows	The row will be closed when the `datagrid` is initially rendered. If neither this class nor the `initially-open` class is present on the row when the `datagrid` is initially rendered, the initial state will depend on platform conventions.
`initially-open`	Rows	The row will be opened when the `datagrid` is initially rendered. If neither this class nor the `initially-closed` class is present on the row when the `datagrid` is initially rendered, the initial state will depend on platform conventions.
`progress`	Cells	The cell is a progress bar.
`reversed`	Columns	If the cell is sorted, the sort direction is descending, instead of ascending.
`selectable-separator`	Rows	The row is a normal, selectable, data row, except that instead of having data, it only has a separator. (The `header` and `separator` classes override this, though.)
`separator`	Rows	The row is a separator row, not a data row. (The `header` class overrides this, though.)
`sortable`	Columns	The data can be sorted by this column.
`sorted`	Columns	The data is sorted by this column. Unless the `reversed` class is also present, the sort direction is ascending.
`unchecked`	Cells	The cell has a checkbox and, unless the `checked` class is present as well, it is unchecked. (The `cyclable` and `progress` classes override this, though.)

4.11.2.4 The default data provider

The user agent must supply a default data provider for the case where the datagrid's data attribute is null. It must act as described in this section.

The behavior of the default data provider depends on the nature of the first element child of the datagrid.

While the first element child is a table element

getRowCount(row): The number of rows returned by the default data provider for the root of the tree (when row is empty) must be the total number of tr elements that are children of tbody elements that are children of the table, if there are any such child tbody elements. If there are no such tbody elements then the number of rows returned for the root must be the number of tr elements that are children of the table.

When row is not empty, the number of rows returned must be zero.

The table-based default data provider cannot represent a tree.

Rows in thead elements do not contribute to the number of rows returned, although they do affect the columns and column captions. Rows in tfoot elements are ignored completely by this algorithm.

getChildAtPosition(row, i): The default data provider must return the mapping appropriate to the current sort order.

getColumnCount(): The number of columns returned must be the number of td element children in the first tr element child of the first tbody element child of the table, if there are any such tbody elements. If there are no such tbody elements, then it must be the number of td element children in the first tr element child of the table, if any, or otherwise 1. If the number that would be returned by these rules is 0, then 1 must be returned instead.

getCaptionText(i): If the table has no thead element child, or if its first thead element child has no tr element child, the default data provider must return the empty string for all captions. Otherwise, the value of the textContent attribute of the ith th element child of the first tr element child of the first thead element child of the table element must be returned. If there is no such th element, the empty string must be returned.

getCaptionClasses(i, classes): If the table has no thead element child, or if its first thead element child has no tr element child, the default data provider must not add any classes for any of the captions. Otherwise, each class in the class attribute of the ith th element child of the first tr element child of the first thead element child of the table element must be added to the classes. If there is no such th element, no classes must be added. The user agent must then:

Remove the sorted and reversed classes.
If the table element has a class attribute that includes the sortable class, add the sortable class.
If the column is the one currently being used to sort the data, add the sorted class.
If the column is the one currently being used to sort the data, and it is sorted in descending order, add the reversed class as well.

The various row- and cell- related methods operate relative to a particular element, the element of the row or cell specified by their arguments.

For rows: Since the default data provider for a table always returns 0 as the number of children for any row other than the root, the path to the row passed to these methods will always consist of a single number. In the prose below, this number is referred to as i.

If the table has tbody element children, the element for the ith row is the ith tr element that is a child of a tbody element that is a child of the table element. If the table does not have tbody element children, then the element for the ith real row is the ith tr element that is a child of the table element.

For cells: Given a row and its element, the row's ith cell's element is the ith td element child of the row element.

The colspan and rowspan attributes are ignored by this algorithm.

getRowImage(i): The URL of the row's image is the absolute URL obtained by resolving the value of the src attribute of the first img element child of the row's first cell's element, if there is one and resolving its attribute is successful. Otherwise, the URL of the row's image is the empty string.

getRowMenu(i): If the row's first cell's element has a menu element child, then the row's menu is the first menu element child of the row's first cell's element. Otherwise, the row has no menu.

getRowClasses(i, classes): The default data provider must never add a class to the row's classes.

toggleColumnSortState(i): If the data is already being sorted on the given column, then the user agent must change the current sort mapping to be the inverse of the current sort mapping; if the sort order was ascending before, it is now descending, otherwise it is now ascending. Otherwise, if the current sort column is another column, or the data model is currently not sorted, the user agent must create a new mapping, which maps rows in the data model to rows in the DOM so that the rows in the data model are sorted by the specified column, in ascending order. (Which sort comparison operator to use is left up to the UA to decide.)

When the sort mapping is changed, the values returned by the getChildAtPosition() method for the default data provider will change appropriately.

The data provider must call the datagrid's update methods appropriately whenever the descendants of the datagrid mutate. For example, if a tr is removed, then the updateRowsRemoved() methods would probably need to be invoked, and any change to a cell or its descendants must cause the cell to be updated. If the table element stops being the first child of the datagrid, then the data provider must call the updateEverything() method on the datagrid. Any change to a cell that is in the column that the data provider is currently using as its sort column must also cause the sort to be reperformed, with a call to updateEverything() if the change did affect the sort order.

While the first element child is a select or datalist element

The default data provider must return 1 for the column count, the empty string for the column's caption, and must not add any classes to the column's classes.

For the rows, assume the existence of a node filter view of the descendants of the first element child of the datagrid element (the select or datalist element), that skips all nodes other than optgroup and option elements, as well as any descendents of any option elements.

Given a path row, the corresponding element is the one obtained by drilling into the view, taking the child given by the path each time.

Given the following XML markup:

<datagrid>
 <select>
  <!-- the options and optgroups have had their labels and values removed
       to make the underlying structure clearer -->
  <optgroup>
   <option/>
   <option/>
  </optgroup>
  <optgroup>
   <option/>
   <optgroup id="a">
    <option/>
    <option/>
    <bogus/>
    <option id="b"/>
   </optgroup>
   <option/>
  </optgroup>
 </select>
</datagrid>

The path "1,1,2" would select the element with ID "b". In the filtered view, the text nodes, comment nodes, and bogus elements are ignored; so for instance, the element with ID "a" (path "1,1") has only 3 child nodes in the view.

getRowCount(row) must drill through the view to find the element corresponding to the method's argument, and return the number of child nodes in the filtered view that the corresponding element has. (If the row is empty, the corresponding element is the select element at the root of the filtered view.)

getChildAtPosition(row, position) must return position. (The select/datalist default data provider does not support sorting the data grid.)

getRowImage(i) must return the empty string, getRowMenu(i) must return null.

getRowClasses(row, classes) must add the classes from the following list to classes when their condition is met:

If the row's corresponding element is an optgroup element: header
If the row's corresponding element contains other elements that are also in the view, and the element's class attribute contains the closed class: initially-closed
If the row's corresponding element contains other elements that are also in the view, and the element's class attribute contains the open class: initially-open

The getCellData(row, cell) method must return the value of the label attribute if the row's corresponding element is an optgroup element, otherwise, if the row's corresponding element is an optionelement, its label attribute if it has one, otherwise the value of its textContent DOM attribute.

The getCellClasses(row, cell, classes) method must add no classes.

autoselect some rows when initialized, reflect the selection in the select, reflect the multiple attribute somehow.

The data provider must call the datagrid's update methods appropriately whenever the descendants of the datagrid mutate.

While the first element child is another element

The default data provider must return 1 for the column count, the empty string for the column's caption, and must not add any classes to the column's classes.

For the rows, assume the existence of a node filter view of the descendants of the datagrid that skips all nodes other than li, h1–h6, and hr elements, and skips any descendants of menu elements.

Given this view, each element in the view represents a row in the data model. The element corresponding to a path row is the one obtained by drilling into the view, taking the child given by the path each time. The element of the row of a particular method call is the element given by drilling into the view along the path given by the method's arguments.

getRowCount(row) must return the number of child elements in this view for the given row, or the number of elements at the root of the view if the row is empty.

In the following example, the elements are identified by the paths given by their child text nodes:

<datagrid>
 <ol>
  <li> row 0 </li>
  <li> row 1
   <ol>
    <li> row 1,0 </li>
   </ol>
  </li>
  <li> row 2 </li>
 </ol>
</datagrid>

In this example, only the li elements actually appear in the data grid; the ol element does not affect the data grid's processing model.

getChildAtPosition(row, position) must return position. (The generic default data provider does not support sorting the data grid.)

getRowImage(i) must return the absolute URL obtained from resolving the value of the src attribute of the first img element descendant (in the real DOM) of the row's element, that is not also a descendant of another element in the filtered view that is a descendant of the row's element, if such an element exists and resolving its attribute is successful. Otherwise, it must return the empty string.

In the following example, the row with path "1,0" returns "http://example.com/a" as its image URL, and the other rows (including the row with path "1") return the empty string:

<datagrid>
 <ol>
  <li> row 0 </li>
  <li> row 1
   <ol>
    <li> row 1,0 <img src="http://example.com/a" alt=""> </li>
   </ol>
  </li>
  <li> row 2 </li>
 </ol>
</datagrid>

getRowMenu(i) must return the first menu element descendant (in the real DOM) of the row's element, that is not also a descendant of another element in the filtered view that is a descendant of the row's element. (This is analogous to the image case above.)

getRowClasses(i, classes) must add the classes from the following list to classes when their condition is met:

If the row's element contains other elements that are also in the view, and the element's class attribute contains the closed class: initially-closed
If the row's element contains other elements that are also in the view, and the element's class attribute contains the open class: initially-open
If the row's element is an h1–h6 element: header
If the row's element is an hr element: separator

The getCellData(i, j), getCellClasses(i, j, classes), getCellCheckedState(i, j, state), cycleCell(i, j), and editCell(i, j, data) methods must act as described in the common definitions below, treating the row's element as being the cell's element.

selection handling?

The data provider must call the datagrid's update methods appropriately whenever the descendants of the datagrid mutate.

Otherwise, while there is no element child

The data provider must return 0 for the number of rows, 1 for the number of columns, the empty string for the first column's caption, and must add no classes when asked for that column's classes. If the datagrid's child list changes such that there is a first element child, then the data provider must call the updateEverything() method on the datagrid.

4.11.2.4.1 Common default data provider method definitions for cells

These definitions are used for the cell-specific methods of the default data providers (other than in the select/datalist case). How they behave is based on the contents of an element that represents the cell given by their first two arguments. Which element that is is defined in the previous section.

Cyclable cells

If the first element child of a cell's element is a select element that has a no multiple attribute and has at least one option element descendent, then the cell acts as a cyclable cell.

The "current" option element is the selected option element, or the first option element if none is selected.

The getCellData() method must return the textContent of the current option element (the label attribute is ignored in this context as the optgroups are not displayed).

The getCellClasses() method must add the cyclable class and then all the classes of the current option element.

The cycleCell() method must change the selection of the select element such that the next option element after the current option element is the only one that is selected (in tree order). If the current option element is the last option element descendent of the select, then the first option element descendent must be selected instead.

The setCellCheckedState() and editCell() methods must do nothing.

Progress bar cells

If the first element child of a cell's element is a progress element, then the cell acts as a progress bar cell.

The getCellData() method must return the value returned by the progress element's position DOM attribute.

The getCellClasses() method must add the progress class.

The setCellCheckedState(), cycleCell(), and editCell() methods must do nothing.

Checkbox cells

If the first element child of a cell's element is an input element that has a type attribute with the value checkbox, then the cell acts as a check box cell.

The getCellData() method must return the textContent of the cell element.

The getCellClasses() method must add the checked class if the input element's checkedness is true, and the unchecked class otherwise.

The setCellCheckedState() method must set the input element's checkbox checkedness to true if the method's third argument is 1, and to false otherwise.

The cycleCell() and editCell() methods must do nothing.

Editable cells

If the first element child of a cell's element is an input element that has a type attribute with the value text or that has no type attribute at all, then the cell acts as an editable cell.

The getCellData() method must return the value of the input element.

The getCellClasses() method must add the editable class.

The editCell() method must set the input element's value DOM attribute to the value of the third argument to the method.

The setCellCheckedState() and cycleCell() methods must do nothing.

4.11.2.5 Populating the `datagrid` element

A datagrid must be disabled until its end tag has been parsed (in the case of a datagrid element in the original document markup) or until it has been inserted into the document (in the case of a dynamically created element). After that point, the element must fire a single load event at itself, which doesn't bubble and cannot be canceled.

The end-tag parsing thing should be moved to the parsing section.

The datagrid must then populate itself using the data provided by the data provider assigned to the data DOM attribute. After the view is populated (using the methods described below), the datagrid must invoke the initialize() method on the data provider specified by the data attribute, passing itself (the HTMLDataGridElement object) as the only argument.

When the data attribute is null, the datagrid must use the default data provider described in the previous section.

To obtain data from the data provider, the element must invoke methods on the data provider object in the following ways:

To determine the total number of columns

Invoke the getColumnCount() method with no arguments. The return value is the number of columns. If the return value is zero or negative, not an integer, or simply not a numeric type, or if the method is not defined, then 1 must be used instead.

To get the captions to use for the columns

Invoke the getCaptionText() method with the index of the column in question. The index i must be in the range 0 ≤ i < N, where N is the total number of columns. The return value is the string to use when referring to that column. If the method returns null or the empty string, the column has no caption. If the method is not defined, then none of the columns have any captions.

To establish what classes apply to a column

Invoke the getCaptionClasses() method with the index of the column in question, and an object implementing the DOMTokenList interface, associated with an anonymous empty string. The index i must be in the range 0 ≤ i < N, where N is the total number of columns. The tokens contained in the string underlying DOMTokenList object when the method returns represent the classes that apply to the given column. If the method is not defined, no classes apply to the column.

To establish whether a column should be initially included in the visible columns

Check whether the initially-hidden class applies to the column. If it does, then the column should not be initially included; if it does not, then the column should be initially included.

To establish whether the data can be sorted relative to a particular column

Check whether the sortable class applies to the column. If it does, then the user agent should offer the user the option to have the data displayed sorted by that column; if it does not, then the user agent must not allow the user to ask for the data to be sorted by that column.

To establish if a column is a sorted column

If the user agent can handle multiple columns being marked as sorted simultaneously: Check whether the sorted class applies to the column. If it does, then that column is the sorted column, otherwise it is not.

If the user agent can only handle one column being marked as sorted at a time: Check each column in turn, starting with the first one, to see whether the sorted class applies to that column. The first column that has that class, if any, is the sorted column. If none of the columns have that class, there is no sorted column.

To establish the sort direction of a sorted column

Check whether the reversed class applies to the column. If it does, then the sort direction is descending (down; first rows have the highest values), otherwise it is ascending (up; first rows have the lowest values).

To determine the total number of rows

Determine the number of rows for the root of the data grid, and determine the number of child rows for each open row. The total number of rows is the sum of all these numbers.

To determine the number of rows for the root of the data grid

Invoke the getRowCount() method with a RowSpecification object representing the empty path as its only argument. The return value is the number of rows at the top level of the data grid. If the return value of the method is negative, not an integer, or simply not a numeric type, or if the method is not defined, then zero must be used instead.

To determine the number of child rows for a row

Invoke the getRowCount() method with a RowSpecification object representing the path to the row in question. The return value is the number of child rows for the given row. If the return value of the method is negative, not an integer, or simply not a numeric type, or if the method is not defined, then zero must be used instead.

To determine what order to render rows in

Invoke the getChildAtPosition() method with a RowSpecification object representing the path to the parent of the rows that are being rendered as the first argument, and the position that is being rendered as the second argument. The return value is the index of the row to render in that position.

If the rows are:

Row "0"
1. Row "0,0"
2. Row "0,1"
Row "1"
1. Row "1,0"
2. Row "1,1"

...and the getChildAtPosition() method is implemented as follows:

function getChildAtPosition(parent, child) {
  // always return the reverse order
  return getRowCount(parent)-child-1;
}

...then the rendering would actually be:

Row "1"
1. Row "1,1"
2. Row "1,0"
Row "0"
1. Row "0,1"
2. Row "0,0"

If the return value of the method is negative, larger than the number of rows that the getRowCount() method reported for that parent, not an integer, or simply not a numeric type, then the entire data grid should be disabled. Similarly, if the method returns the same value for two or more different values for the second argument (with the same first argument, and assuming that the data grid hasn't had relevant update methods invoked in the meantime), then the data grid should be disabled. Instead of disabling the data grid, the user agent may act as if the getChildAtPosition() method was not defined on the data provider (thus disabling sorting for that data grid, but still letting the user interact with the data). If the method is not defined, then the return value must be assumed to be the same as the second argument (an identity transform; the data is rendered in its natural order).

To establish what classes apply to a row

Invoke the getRowClasses() method with a RowSpecification object representing the row in question, and a DOMTokenList associated with an empty string. The tokens contained in the DOMTokenList object's underlying string when the method returns represent the classes that apply to the row in question. If the method is not defined, no classes apply to the row.

To establish whether a row is a data row or a special row

Examine the classes that apply to the row. If the header class applies to the row, then it is not a data row, it is a subheading. The data from the first cell of the row is the text of the subheading, the rest of the cells must be ignored. Otherwise, if the separator class applies to the row, then in the place of the row, a separator should be shown. Otherwise, if the selectable-separator class applies to the row, then the row should be a data row, but represented as a separator. (The difference between a separator and a selectable-separator is that the former is not an item that can be actually selected, whereas the second can be selected and thus has a context menu that applies to it, and so forth.) For both kinds of separator rows, the data of the rows' cells must all be ignored. If none of those three classes apply then the row is a simple data row.

To establish whether a row is openable

Determine the number of child rows for that row. If there are one or more child rows, then the row is openable.

To establish whether a row should be initially open or closed

If the row is openable, examine the classes that apply to the row. If the initially-open class applies to the row, then it should be initially open. Otherwise, if the initially-closed class applies to the row, then it must be initially closed. Otherwise, if neither class applies to the row, or if the row is not openable, then the initial state of the row should be based on platform conventions.

To obtain a URL identifying an image representing a row

Invoke the getRowImage() method with a RowSpecification object representing the row in question. The return value is a URL. Immediately resolve that URL as if it came from an attribute of the datagrid element to obtain an absolute URL identifying the image that represents the row. If the method returns the empty string, null, or if the method is not defined, then the row has no associated image.

To obtain a context menu appropriate for a particular row

Invoke the getRowMenu() method with a RowSpecification object representing the row in question. The return value is a reference to an object implementing the HTMLMenuElement interface, i.e. a menu element DOM node. (This element must then be interpreted as described in the section on context menus to obtain the actual context menu to use.) If the method returns something that is not an HTMLMenuElement, or if the method is not defined, then the row has no associated context menu. User agents may provide their own default context menu, and may add items to the author-provided context menu. For example, such a menu could allow the user to change the presentation of the datagrid element.

To establish the value of a particular cell

Invoke the getCellData() method with the first argument being a RowSpecification object representing the row of the cell in question and the second argument being the index of the cell's column. The second argument must be a non-negative integer less than the total number of columns. The return value is the value of the cell. If the return value is null or the empty string, or if the method is not defined, then the cell has no data. (For progress bar cells, the cell's value must be further interpreted, as described below.)

To establish what classes apply to a cell

Invoke the getCellClasses() method with the first argument being a RowSpecification object representing the row of the cell in question, the second argument being the index of the cell's column, and the third being an object implementing the DOMTokenList interface, associated with an empty string. The second argument must be a non-negative integer less than the total number of columns. The tokens contained in the DOMTokenList object's underlying string when the method returns represent the classes that apply to that cell. If the method is not defined, no classes apply to the cell.

To establish the type of a cell

Examine the classes that apply to the cell. If the progress class applies to the cell, it is a progress bar. Otherwise, if the cyclable class applies to the cell, it is a cycling cell whose value can be cycled between multiple states. Otherwise, none of these classes apply, and the cell is a simple text cell.

To establish the value of a progress bar cell

If the value x of the cell is a string that can be converted to a floating-point number in the range 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0, then the progress bar has that value (0.0 means no progress, 1.0 means complete). Otherwise, the progress bar is an indeterminate progress bar.

To establish how a simple text cell should be presented

Check whether one of the checked, unchecked, or indeterminate classes applies to the cell. If any of these are present, then the cell has a checkbox, otherwise none are present and the cell does not have a checkbox. If the cell has no checkbox, check whether the editable class applies to the cell. If it does, then the cell value is editable, otherwise the cell value is static.

To establish the state of a cell's checkbox, if it has one

Check whether the checked class applies to the cell. If it does, the cell is checked. Otherwise, check whether the unchecked class applies to the cell. If it does, the cell is unchecked. Otherwise, the indeterminate class applies to the cell and the cell's checkbox is in an indeterminate state. When the indeterminate class applies to the cell, the checkbox is a tristate checkbox, and the user can set it to the indeterminate state. Otherwise, only the checked and/or unchecked classes apply to the cell, and the cell can only be toggled between those two states.

If the data provider ever raises an exception while the datagrid is invoking one of its methods, the datagrid must act, for the purposes of that particular method call, as if the relevant method had not been defined.

A RowSpecification object p with n path components passed to a method of the data provider must fulfill the constraint 0 ≤ p_i < m-1 for all integer values of i in the range 0 ≤ i < n-1, where m is the value that was last returned by the getRowCount() method when it was passed the RowSpecification object q with i-1 items, where p_i = q_i for all integer values of i in the range 0 ≤ i < n-1, with any changes implied by the update methods taken into account.

The data model is considered stable: user agents may assume that subsequent calls to the data provider methods will return the same data, until one of the update methods is called on the datagrid element. If a user agent is returned inconsistent data, for example if the number of rows returned by getRowCount() varies in ways that do not match the calls made to the update methods, the user agent may disable the datagrid. User agents that do not disable the datagrid in inconsistent cases must honor the most recently returned values.

User agents may cache returned values so that the data provider is never asked for data that could contradict earlier data. User agents must not cache the return value of the getRowMenu method.

The exact algorithm used to populate the data grid is not defined here, since it will differ based on the presentation used. However, the behavior of user agents must be consistent with the descriptions above. For example, it would be non-conformant for a user agent to make cells have both a checkbox and be editable, as the descriptions above state that cells that have a checkbox cannot be edited.

4.11.2.6 Updating the `datagrid`

Whenever the data attribute is set to a new value, the datagrid must clear the current selection, remove all the displayed rows, and plan to repopulate itself using the information from the new data provider at the earliest opportunity.

There are a number of update methods that can be invoked on the datagrid element to cause it to refresh itself in slightly less drastic ways:

When the updateEverything() method is called, the user agent must repopulate the entire datagrid. If the number of rows decreased, the selection must be updated appropriately. If the number of rows increased, the new rows should be left unselected.

When the updateRowsChanged(row, count) method is called, the user agent must refresh the rendering of the rows starting from the row specified by row, and including the count next siblings of the row (or as many next siblings as it has, if that is less than count), including all descendant rows.

When the updateRowsInserted(row, count) method is called, the user agent must assume that count new rows have been inserted, such that the first new row is identified by row. The user agent must update its rendering and the selection accordingly. The new rows should not be selected.

When the updateRowsRemoved(row, count) method is called, the user agent must assume that count rows have been removed starting from the row that used to be identifier by row. The user agent must update its rendering and the selection accordingly.

The updateRowChanged(row) method must be exactly equivalent to calling updateRowsChanged(row, 1).

When the updateColumnChanged(column) method is called, the user agent must refresh the rendering of the specified column column, for all rows.

When the updateCellChanged(row, column) method is called, the user agent must refresh the rendering of the cell on row row, in column column.

Any effects the update methods have on the datagrid's selection is not considered a change to the selection, and must therefore not fire the select event.

These update methods should be called only by the data provider, or code acting on behalf of the data provider. In particular, calling the updateRowsInserted() and updateRowsRemoved() methods without actually inserting or removing rows from the data provider is likely to result in inconsistent renderings, and the user agent is likely to disable the data grid.

4.11.2.7 Requirements for interactive user agents

This section only applies to interactive user agents.

If the datagrid element has a disabled attribute, then the user agent must disable the datagrid, preventing the user from interacting with it. The datagrid element should still continue to update itself when the data provider signals changes to the data, though. Obviously, conformance requirements stating that datagrid elements must react to users in particular ways do not apply when one is disabled.

If a row is openable, then the user agent should offer to the user the option of toggling the row's open/closed state. When a row's open/closed state changes, the user agent must update the rendering to match the new state.

If a cell is a cell whose value can be cycled between multiple states, then the user agent should allow the user to activate the cell to cycle its value. When the user activates this "cycling" behavior of a cell, then the datagrid must invoke the data provider's cycleCell() method, with a RowSpecification object representing the cell's row as the first argument and the cell's column index as the second. The datagrid must then act as if the datagrid's updateCellChanged() method had been invoked with those same arguments.

When a cell has a checkbox, the user agent should allow the user to set the checkbox's state. When the user changes the state of a checkbox in such a cell, the datagrid must invoke the data provider's setCellCheckedState() method, with a RowSpecification object representing the cell's row as the first argument, the cell's column index as the second, and the checkbox's new state as the third. The state should be represented by the number 1 if the new state is checked, 0 if the new state is unchecked, and −1 if the new state is indeterminate (which must be possible only if the cell has the indeterminate class set). The datagrid must then act as if the datagrid's updateCellChanged() method had been invoked, specifying the same cell.

If a cell is editable, the user agent should allow the user to edit the data for that cell, and doing so must cause the user agent to invoke the editCell() method of the data provider with three arguments: a RowSpecification object representing the cell's row, the cell's column's index, and the new text entered by the user. The user agent must then act as if the updateCellChanged() method had been invoked, with the same row and column specified.

4.11.2.8 The selection

This section only applies to interactive user agents. For other user agents, the selection attribute must return null.

interface DataGridSelection {
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  [IndexGetter] RowSpecification item(in unsigned long index);
  boolean isSelected(in RowSpecification row);
  void setSelected(in RowSpecification row, in boolean selected);

  void selectAll();
  void invert();
  void clear();
};

Each datagrid element must keep track of which rows are currently selected. Initially no rows are selected, but this can be changed via the methods described in this section.

The selection of a datagrid is represented by its selection DOM attribute, which must be a DataGridSelection object.

DataGridSelection objects represent the rows in the selection. In the selection the rows must be ordered in the natural order of the data provider (and not, e.g., the rendered order). Rows that are not rendered because one of their ancestors is closed must share the same selection state as their nearest rendered ancestor. Such rows are not considered part of the selection for the purposes of iterating over the selection.

This selection API doesn't allow for hidden rows to be selected because it is trivial to create a data provider that has infinite depth, which would then require the selection to be infinite if every row, including every hidden row, was selected.

The length attribute must return the number of rows currently present in the selection. The item(index) method must return the indexth row in the selection. If the argument is out of range (less than zero or greater than the number of selected rows minus one), then it must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception. [DOM3CORE]

The isSelected() method must return the selected state of the row specified by its argument. If the specified row exists and is selected, it must return true, otherwise it must return false.

The setSelected() method takes two arguments, row and selected. When invoked, it must set the selection state of row row to selected if selected is true, and unselected if it is false. If row is not a row in the data grid, the method must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception. If the specified row is not rendered because one of its ancestors is closed, the method must do nothing.

The selectAll() method must mark all the rows in the data grid as selected. After a call to selectAll(), the length attribute will return the number of rows in the data grid, not counting children of closed rows.

The invert() method must cause all the rows in the selection that were marked as selected to now be marked as not selected, and vice versa.

The clear() method must mark all the rows in the data grid to be marked as not selected. After a call to clear(), the length attribute will return zero.

If the datagrid element has a multiple attribute, then the user agent should allow the user to select any number of rows (zero or more). If the attribute is not present, then the user agent must not allow the user to select more than a single row at a time, and selecting another one must unselect all the other rows.

This only applies to the user. Scripts can select multiple rows even when the multiple attribute is absent.

Whenever the selection of a datagrid changes, whether due to the user interacting with the element, or as a result of calls to methods of the selection object, a select event that bubbles but is not cancelable must be fired on the datagrid element. If changes are made to the selection via calls to the object's methods during the execution of a script, then the select events must be coalesced into one, which must then be fired when the script execution has completed.

The DataGridSelection interface has no relation to the Selection interface.

4.11.2.9 Columns and captions

This section only applies to interactive user agents.

Each datagrid element must keep track of which columns are currently being rendered. User agents should initially show all the columns except those with the initially-hidden class, but may allow users to hide or show columns. User agents should initially display the columns in the order given by the data provider, but may allow this order to be changed by the user.

If columns are not being used, as might be the case if the data grid is being presented in an icon view, or if an overview of data is being read in an aural context, then the text of the first column of each row should be used to represent the row.

If none of the columns have any captions (i.e. if the data provider does not provide a getCaptionText() method), then user agents may avoid showing the column headers at all. This may prevent the user from performing actions on the columns (such as reordering them, changing the sort column, and so on).

Whatever the order used for rendering, and irrespective of what columns are being shown or hidden, the "first column" as referred to in this specification is always the column with index zero, and the "last column" is always the column with the index one less than the value returned by the getColumnCount() method of the data provider.

If a column is sortable, then the user agent should allow the user to request that the data be sorted using that column. When the user does so, then the datagrid must invoke the data provider's toggleColumnSortState() method, with the column's index as the only argument. The datagrid must then act as if the datagrid's updateEverything() method had been invoked.

4.11.3 The `command` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where metadata content is expected.

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Empty.

Element-specific attributes:

type

label

icon

disabled

checked

radiogroup

default

Also, the title attribute has special semantics on this element.

DOM interface:

interface HTMLCommandElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString label;
           attribute DOMString icon;
           attribute boolean disabled;
           attribute boolean checked;
           attribute DOMString radiogroup;
           attribute boolean default;
 void click(); // shadows HTMLElement.click()
};

The Command interface must also be implemented by this element.

The command element represents a command that the user can invoke.

The type attribute indicates the kind of command: either a normal command with an associated action, or a state or option that can be toggled, or a selection of one item from a list of items.

The attribute's value must be either "command", "checkbox", or "radio", denoting each of these three types of commands respectively. The attribute may also be omitted if the element is to represent the first of these types, a simple command.

The label attribute gives the name of the command, as shown to the user.

The title attribute gives a hint describing the command, which might be shown to the user to help him.

The icon attribute gives a picture that represents the command. If the attribute is specified, the attribute's value must contain a valid URL.

The disabled attribute is a boolean attribute that, if present, indicates that the command is not available in the current state.

The distinction between disabled and hidden is subtle. A command should be disabled if, in the same context, it could be enabled if only certain aspects of the situation were changed. A command should be marked as hidden if, in that situation, the command will never be enabled. For example, in the context menu for a water faucet, the command "open" might be disabled if the faucet is already open, but the command "eat" would be marked hidden since the faucet could never be eaten.

The checked attribute is a boolean attribute that, if present, indicates that the command is selected.

The radiogroup attribute gives the name of the group of commands that will be toggled when the command itself is toggled, for commands whose type attribute has the value "radio". The scope of the name is the child list of the parent element.

If the command element is used when generating a context menu, then the default attribute indicates, if present, that the command is the one that would have been invoked if the user had directly activated the menu's subject instead of using its context menu. The default attribute is a boolean attribute.

Need an example that shows an element that, if double-clicked, invokes an action, but that also has a context menu, showing the various command attributes off, and that has a default command.

The type, label, icon, disabled, checked, radiogroup, and default DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

The click() method's behavior depends on the value of the type attribute of the element, as follows:

If the type attribute has the value checkbox

If the element has a checked attribute, the UA must remove that attribute. Otherwise, the UA must add a checked attribute, with the literal value checked. The UA must then fire a click event at the element.

If the type attribute has the value radio

If the element has a parent, then the UA must walk the list of child nodes of that parent element, and for each node that is a command element, if that element has a radiogroup attribute whose value exactly matches the current element's (treating missing radiogroup attributes as if they were the empty string), and has a checked attribute, must remove that attribute and fire a click event at the element.

Then, the element's checked attribute attribute must be set to the literal value checked and a click event must be fired at the element.

Otherwise

The UA must fire a click event at the element.

Firing a synthetic click event at the element does not cause any of the actions described above to happen.

should change all the above so it actually is just triggered by a click event, then we could remove the shadowing click() method and rely on actual events.

Need to define the command="" attribute

command elements are not rendered unless they form part of a menu.

4.11.4 The `bb` element

Categories

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Phrasing content, but there must be no interactive content descendant.

Element-specific attributes:

type

DOM interface:

interface HTMLBrowserButtonElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString type;
  readonly attribute boolean supported;
  readonly attribute boolean disabled;
};

The Command interface must also be implemented by this element.

The bb element represents a user agent command that the user can invoke.

The type attribute indicates the kind of command. The type 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 listed in the cell in the second column on the same row as the keyword.

Keyword	State
`makeapp`	make application

The missing value default state is the null state.

Each state has an action and a relevance, defined in the following sections.

When the attribute is in the null state, the action is to not do anything, and the relevance is unconditionally false.

A bb element whose type attribute is in a state whose relevance is true must be enabled. Conversely, a bb element whose type attribute is in a state whose relevance is false must be disabled.

If a bb element is enabled, it must match the :enabled pseudo-class; otherwise, it must match the :disabled pseudo-class.

User agents should allow users to invoke bb elements when they are enabled. When a user invokes a bb element, its type attribute's state's action must be invoked.

When the element has no descendant element children and has no descendant text node children of non-zero length, the element represents a browser button with a user-agent-defined icon or text representing the type attribute's state's action and relevance (enabled vs disabled). Otherwise, the element represents its descendants.

The type DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

The supported DOM attribute must return true if the type attribute is in a state other than the null state and the user agent supports that state's action (i.e. when the attribute's value is one that the user agent recognises and supports), and false otherwise.

The disabled DOM attribute must return true if the element is disabled, and false otherwise (i.e. it returns the opposite of the type attribute's state's relevance).

4.11.4.1 Browser button types

4.11.4.1.1 The make application state

Some user agents support making sites accessible as independent applications, as if they were not Web sites at all. The make application state exists to allow Web pages to offer themselves to the user as targets for this mode of operation.

The action of the make application state is to confirm the user's intent to use the current site in a standalone fashion, and, provided the user's intent is confirmed, offer the user a way to make the resource identified by the document's address available in such a fashion.

The confirmation is needed because it is relatively easy to trick users into activating buttons. The confirmation could, e.g. take the form of asking the user where to "save" the application, or non-modal information panel that is clearly from the user agent and gives the user the opportunity to drag an icon to their system's application launcher.

The relevance of the make application state is false if the user agent is already handling the site in such a fashion, or if the user agent doesn't support making the site available in that fashion, and true otherwise.

In the following example, a few links are listed on an application's page, to allow the user perform certain actions, including making the application standalone:

<menu>
 <li><a href="settings.html" onclick="panels.show('settings')">Settings</a>
 <li><bb type="makeapp">Download standalone application</bb>
 <li><a href="help.html" onclick="panels.show('help')">Help</a>
 <li><a href="logout.html" onclick="panels.show('logout')">Sign out</a>
</menu>

With the following stylesheet, it could be make to look like a single line of text with vertical bars separating the options, with the "make app" option disappearing when it's not supported or relevant:

menu li { display: none; }
menu li:enabled { display: inline; }
menu li:not(:first-child)::before { content: ' | '; }

This could look like this:

"Settings | Download standalone application | Help | Sign out"

The following example shows another way to do the same thing as the previous one, this time not relying on CSS support to hide the "make app" link if it doesn't apply:

<menu>
 <a href="settings.html" onclick="panels.show('settings')">Settings</a> |
 <bb type="makeapp" id="makeapp"> </bb>
 <a href="help.html" onclick="panels.show('help')">Help</a> |
 <a href="logout.html" onclick="panels.show('logout')">Sign out</a>
</menu>
<script>
 var bb = document.getElementById('makeapp');
 if (bb.supported && bb.enabled) {
   bb.parentNode.nextSibling.textContent = ' | ';
   bb.textContent = 'Download standalone application';
 } else {
   bb.parentNode.removeChild(bb);
 }
</script>

4.11.5 The `menu` element

Categories

If the element's type attribute is in the tool bar state: Interactive content.

If there is a menu element ancestor: phrasing content.

Contexts in which this element may be used:

Where flow content is expected.

If there is a menu element ancestor: where phrasing content is expected.

Content model:

Either: Zero or more li elements.

Or: Phrasing content.

Element-specific attributes:

type

label

DOM interface:

interface HTMLMenuElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute DOMString type;
           attribute DOMString label;
};

The menu element represents a list of commands.

The type attribute is an enumerated attribute indicating the kind of menu being declared. The attribute has three states. The context keyword maps to the context menu state, in which the element is declaring a context menu. The toolbar keyword maps to the tool bar state, in which the element is declaring a tool bar. The attribute may also be omitted. The missing value default is the list state, which indicates that the element is merely a list of commands that is neither declaring a context menu nor defining a tool bar.

If a menu element's type attribute is in the context menu state, then the element represents the commands of a context menu, and the user can only interact with the commands if that context menu is activated.

If a menu element's type attribute is in the tool bar state, then the element represents a list of active commands that the user can immediately interact with.

If a menu element's type attribute is in the list state, then the element either represents an unordered list of items (each represented by an li element), each of which represents a command that the user can perform or activate, or, if the element has no li element children, flow content describing available commands.

The label attribute gives the label of the menu. It is used by user agents to display nested menus in the UI. For example, a context menu containing another menu would use the nested menu's label attribute for the submenu's menu label.

The type and label DOM attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.

4.11.5.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

...

4.11.5.2 Building menus and tool bars

A menu (or tool bar) consists of a list of zero or more of the following components:

Commands, which can be marked as default commands
Separators
Other menus (which allows the list to be nested)

The list corresponding to a particular menu element is built by iterating over its child nodes. For each child node in tree order, the required behavior depends on what the node is, as follows:

An element that defines a command: Append the command to the menu, respecting its facets. If the element is a command element with a default attribute, mark the command as being a default command.
An hr element
An option element that has a value attribute set to the empty string, and has a disabled attribute, and whose textContent consists of a string of one or more hyphens (U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS): Append a separator to the menu.
An li element: Iterate over the children of the li element.
A menu element with no label attribute
A select element: Append a separator to the menu, then iterate over the children of the menu or select element, then append another separator.
A menu element with a label attribute
An optgroup element: Append a submenu to the menu, using the value of the element's label attribute as the label of the menu. The submenu must be constructed by taking the element and creating a new menu for it using the complete process described in this section.
Any other node: Ignore the node.

We should support label in the algorithm above -- just iterate through the contents like with li, to support input elements in label elements. Also, optgroup elements without labels should be ignored (maybe? or at least should say they have no label so that they are dropped below), and select elements inside label elements may need special processing.

Once all the nodes have been processed as described above, the user agent must the post-process the menu as follows:

Any menu item with no label, or whose label is the empty string, must be removed.
Any sequence of two or more separators in a row must be collapsed to a single separator.
Any separator at the start or end of the menu must be removed.

4.11.5.3 Context menus

The contextmenu attribute gives the element's context menu. The value must be the ID of a menu element in the DOM. If the node that would be obtained by the invoking the getElementById() method using the attribute's value as the only argument is null or not a menu element, then the element has no assigned context menu. Otherwise, the element's assigned context menu is the element so identified.

When an element's context menu is requested (e.g. by the user right-clicking the element, or pressing a context menu key), the UA must fire a contextmenu event on the element for which the menu was requested.

Typically, therefore, the firing of the contextmenu event will be the default action of a mouseup or keyup event. The exact sequence of events is UA-dependent, as it will vary based on platform conventions.

The default action of the contextmenu event depends on whether the element has a context menu assigned (using the contextmenu attribute) or not. If it does not, the default action must be for the user agent to show its default context menu, if it has one.

Context menus should inherit (so clicking on a span in a paragraph with a context menu should show the menu).

If the element does have a context menu assigned, then the user agent must fire a show event on the relevant menu element.

The default action of this event is that the user agent must show a context menu built from the menu element.

The user agent may also provide access to its default context menu, if any, with the context menu shown. For example, it could merge the menu items from the two menus together, or provide the page's context menu as a submenu of the default menu.

If the user dismisses the menu without making a selection, nothing in particular happens.

If the user selects a menu item that represents a command, then the UA must invoke that command's Action.

Context menus must not, while being shown, reflect changes in the DOM; they are constructed as the default action of the show event and must remain like that until dismissed.

User agents may provide means for bypassing the context menu processing model, ensuring that the user can always access the UA's default context menus. For example, the user agent could handle right-clicks that have the Shift key depressed in such a way that it does not fire the contextmenu event and instead always shows the default context menu.

The contextMenu attribute must reflect the contextmenu content attribute.

4.11.5.4 Toolbars

Toolbars are a kind of menu that is always visible.

When a menu element has a type attribute with the value toolbar, then the user agent must build the menu for that menu element and render it in the document in a position appropriate for that menu element.

The user agent must reflect changes made to the menu's DOM immediately in the UI.

4.11.6 Commands

A command is the abstraction behind menu items, buttons, and links. Once a command is defined, other parts of the interface can refer to the same command, allowing many access points to a single feature to share aspects such as the disabled state.

Type: The kind of command: "command", meaning it is a normal command; "radio", meaning that triggering the command will, amongst other things, set the Checked State to true (and probably uncheck some other commands); or "checkbox", meaning that triggering the command will, amongst other things, toggle the value of the Checked State.
ID: The name of the command, for referring to the command from the markup or from script. If a command has no ID, it is an anonymous command.
Label: The name of the command as seen by the user.
Hint: A helpful or descriptive string that can be shown to the user.
Icon: An absolute URL identifying a graphical image that represents the action. A command might not have an Icon.
Hidden State: Whether the command is hidden or not (basically, whether it should be shown in menus).
Disabled State: Whether the command is relevant and can be triggered or not.
Checked State: Whether the command is checked or not.
Action: The actual effect that triggering the command will have. This could be a scripted event handler, a URL to which to navigate, or a form submission.
Triggers: The list of elements that can trigger the command. The element defining a command is always in the list of elements that can trigger the command. For anonymous commands, only the element defining the command is on the list, since other elements have no way to refer to it.

Commands are represented by elements in the DOM. Any element that can define a command also implements the Command interface:

Actually even better would be to just mix it straight into those interfaces somehow.

[NoInterfaceObject] interface Command {
  readonly attribute DOMString commandType;          
  readonly attribute DOMString id;
  readonly attribute DOMString label;
  readonly attribute DOMString title;
  readonly attribute DOMString icon;
  readonly attribute boolean hidden;
  readonly attribute boolean disabled;              
  readonly attribute boolean checked;              
  void click();
  readonly attribute HTMLCollection triggers;
  readonly attribute Command command;
};

The Command interface is implemented by any element capable of defining a command. (If an element can define a command, its definition will list this interface explicitly.) All the attributes of the Command interface are read-only. Elements implementing this interface may implement other interfaces that have attributes with identical names but that are mutable; in bindings that flatten all supported interfaces on the object, the mutable attributes must shadow the readonly attributes defined in the Command interface.

The commandType attribute must return a string whose value is either "command", "radio", or "checked", depending on whether the Type of the command defined by the element is "command", "radio", or "checked" respectively. If the element does not define a command, it must return null.

The id attribute must return the command's ID, or null if the element does not define a command or defines an anonymous command. This attribute will be shadowed by the id DOM attribute on the HTMLElement interface.

The label attribute must return the command's Label, or null if the element does not define a command or does not specify a Label. This attribute will be shadowed by the label DOM attribute on option and command elements.

The title attribute must return the command's Hint, or null if the element does not define a command or does not specify a Hint. This attribute will be shadowed by the title DOM attribute on the HTMLElement interface.

The icon attribute must return the absolute URL of the command's Icon. If the element does not specify an icon, or if the element does not define a command, then the attribute must return null. This attribute will be shadowed by the icon DOM attribute on command elements.

The hidden attribute must return true if the command's Hidden State is that the command is hidden, and false if it is that the command is not hidden. If the element does not define a command, the attribute must return false. This attribute will be shadowed by the hidden DOM attribute on the HTMLElement interface.

The disabled attribute must return true if the command's Disabled State is that the command is disabled, and false if the command is not disabled. This attribute is not affected by the command's Hidden State. If the element does not define a command, the attribute must return false. This attribute will be shadowed by the disabled attribute on button, input, option, and command elements.

The checked attribute must return true if the command's Checked State is that the command is checked, and false if it is that the command is not checked. If the element does not define a command, the attribute must return false. This attribute will be shadowed by the checked attribute on input and command elements.

The click() method must trigger the Action for the command. If the element does not define a command, this method must do nothing. This method will be shadowed by the click() method on HTML elements, and is included only for completeness.

The triggers attribute must return a list containing the elements that can trigger the command (the command's Triggers). The list must be live. While the element does not define a command, the list must be empty.

The commands attribute of the document's HTMLDocument interface must return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter matches only elements that define commands and have IDs.

The following elements can define commands: a, button, input, option, command, bb.

4.11.6.1 Using the `a` element to define a command

An a element with an href attribute defines a command.

The Type of the command is "command".

The ID of the command is the value of the id attribute of the element, if the attribute is present and not empty. Otherwise the command is an anonymous command.

The Label of the command is the string given by the element's textContent DOM attribute.

The Hint of the command is the value of the title attribute of the element. If the attribute is not present, the Hint is the empty string.

The Icon of the command is the absolute URL obtained from resolving the value of the src attribute of the first img element descendant of the element, if there is such an element and resolving its attribute is successful. Otherwise, there is no Icon for the command.

The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false otherwise.

The Disabled State facet of the command is always false. (The command is always enabled.)

The Checked State of the command is always false. (The command is never checked.)

The Action of the command is to fire a click event at the element.

4.11.6.2 Using the `button` element to define a command

A button element always defines a command.

The Type, ID, Label, Hint, Icon, Hidden State, Checked State, and Action facets of the command are determined as for a elements (see the previous section).

The Disabled State of the command mirrors the disabled state of the button.

4.11.6.3 Using the `input` element to define a command

An input element whose type attribute is in one of the Submit Button, Reset Button, Button, Radio Button, or Checkbox states defines a command.

The Type of the command is "radio" if the type attribute is in the Radio Button state, "checkbox" if the type attribute is in the Checkbox state, and "command" otherwise.

The ID of the command is the value of the id attribute of the element, if the attribute is present and not empty. Otherwise the command is an anonymous command.

The Label of the command depends on the Type of the command:

If the Type is "command", then it is the string given by the value attribute, if any, and a UA-dependent value that the UA uses to label the button itself if the attribute is absent.

Otherwise, the Type is "radio" or "checkbox". If the element is a labeled control, the textContent of the first label element in tree order whose labeled control is the element in question is the Label (in DOM terms, this the string given by element.labels[0].textContent). Otherwise, the value of the value attribute, if present, is the Label. Otherwise, the Label is the empty string.

The Hint of the command is the value of the title attribute of the input element. If the attribute is not present, the Hint is the empty string.

There is no Icon for the command.

The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false otherwise.

The Disabled State of the command mirrors the disabled state of the control.

The Checked State of the command is true if the command is of Type "radio" or "checkbox" and the element is checked attribute, and false otherwise.

The Action of the command is to fire a click event at the element.

4.11.6.4 Using the `option` element to define a command

An option element with an ancestor select element and either no value attribute or a value attribute that is not the empty string defines a command.

The Type of the command is "radio" if the option's nearest ancestor select element has no multiple attribute, and "checkbox" if it does.

The ID of the command is the value of the id attribute of the element, if the attribute is present and not empty. Otherwise the command is an anonymous command.

The Label of the command is the value of the option element's label attribute, if there is one, or the value of the option element's textContent DOM attribute if there isn't.

The Hint of the command is the string given by the element's title attribute, if any, and the empty string if the attribute is absent.

There is no Icon for the command.

The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false otherwise.

The Disabled State of the command is true (disabled) if the element is disabled or if its nearest ancestor select element is disabled, and false otherwise.

The Checked State of the command is true (checked) if the element's selectedness is true, and false otherwise.

The Action of the command depends on its Type. If the command is of Type "radio" then it must pick the option element. Otherwise, it must toggle the option element.

4.11.6.5 Using the `command` element to define a command

A command element defines a command.

The Type of the command is "radio" if the command's type attribute is "radio", "checkbox" if the attribute's value is "checkbox", and "command" otherwise.

The ID of the command is the value of the id attribute of the element, if the attribute is present and not empty. Otherwise the command is an anonymous command.

The Label of the command is the value of the element's label attribute, if there is one, or the empty string if it doesn't.

The Hint of the command is the string given by the element's title attribute, if any, and the empty string if the attribute is absent.

The Icon for the command is the absolute URL obtained from resolving the value of the element's icon attribute, if it has such an attribute and resolving it is successful. Otherwise, there is no Icon for the command.

The Hidden State of the command is true (hidden) if the element has a hidden attribute, and false otherwise.

The Disabled State of the command is true (disabled) if the element has a disabled attribute, and false otherwise.

The Checked State of the command is true (checked) if the element has a checked attribute, and false otherwise.

The Action of the command is to invoke the behavior described in the definition of the click() method of the HTMLCommandElement interface.

4.11.6.6 Using the `bb` element to define a command

A bb element always defines a command.

The Type of the command is "command".

The ID of the command is the value of the id attribute of the element, if the attribute is present and not empty. Otherwise the command is an anonymous command.

The Label of the command is the string given by the element's textContent DOM attribute, if that is not the empty string, or a user-agent-defined string appropriate for the bb element's type attribute's state.

The Hint of the command is the value of the title attribute of the element. If the attribute is not present, the Hint is a user-agent-defined string appropriate for the bb element's type attribute's state.

The Hidden State facet of the command is true (hidden) if the bb element's type attribute's state is null or if the element has a hidden attribute, and false otherwise.

The Disabled State facet of the command is true if the bb element's type attribute's state's relevance is false, and true otherwise.

The Checked State of the command is always false. (The command is never checked.)

The Action of the command is to perform the action of the bb element's type attribute's state.

4.12 Miscellaneous elements

4.12.1 The `legend` element

Categories: None.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: As the first child of a fieldset element.; As the first child of a details element.; As a child of a figure element, if there are no other legend element children of that element.
Content model:: Phrasing content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The legend element represents a title or explanatory caption for the rest of the contents of the legend element's parent element.

4.12.2 The `div` element

Categories: Flow content.
Contexts in which this element may be used:: Where flow content is expected.
Content model:: Flow content.
Element-specific attributes:: None.
DOM interface:: Uses HTMLElement.

The div element represents nothing at all. It can be used with the class, lang/xml:lang, and title attributes to mark up semantics common to a group of consecutive elements.

Allowing div elements to contain phrasing content makes it easy for authors to abuse div, using it with the class="" attribute to the point of not having any other elements in the markup. This is a disaster from an accessibility point of view, and it would be nice if we could somehow make such pages non-compliant without preventing people from using divs as the extension mechanism that they are, to handle things the spec can't otherwise do (like making new widgets).

5 Web browsers

This section describes features that apply most directly to Web browsers. Having said that, unless specified elsewhere, the requirements defined in this section do apply to all user agents, whether they are Web browsers or not.

5.1 Browsing contexts

A browsing context is a collection of one or more Document objects, and one or more views.

At any one time, one of the Documents in a browsing context is the active document. The collection of Documents is the browsing context's session history.

A view is a user agent interface tied to a particular media used for the presentation of Document objects in some media. A view may be interactive. Each view is represented by an AbstractView object. Each view belongs to a browsing context. [DOM2VIEWS]

The document attribute of an AbstractView object representing a view gives the Document object of the view's browsing context's active document. [DOM2VIEWS]

Events that use the UIEvent interface are related to a specific view (the view in which the event happened); the AbstractView of that view is given in the event object's view attribute. [DOM3EVENTS]

A typical Web browser has one obvious view per browsing context: the browser's window (screen media). If a page is printed, however, a second view becomes evident, that of the print media. The two views always share the same underlying Document, but they have a different presentation of that document. A speech browser also establishes a browsing context, one with a view in the speech media.

A Document does not necessarily have a browsing context associated with it. In particular, data mining tools are likely to never instantiate browsing contexts.

The main view through which a user primarily interacts with a user agent is the default view.

The default view of a Document is given by the defaultView attribute on the Document object's DocumentView interface. [DOM3VIEWS]

When a browsing context is first created, it must be created with a single Document in its session history, whose address is about:blank, which is marked as being an HTML document, and whose character encoding is UTF-8. The Document must have a single child html node, which itself has a single child body node. If the browsing context is created specifically to be immediately navigated, then that initial navigation will have replacement enabled.

The origin of the about:blank Document is set when the Document is created, in a manner dependent on whether the browsing context created is a nested browsing context, as follows:

If the new browsing context is a nested browsing context: The origin of the about:blank Document is the origin of the active document of the new browsing context's parent browsing context at the time of its creation.
If the new browsing context is an auxiliary browsing context: The origin of the about:blank Document is the origin of the active document of the new browsing context's opener browsing context at the time of the new browsing context's creation.
Otherwise: The origin of the about:blank Document is a globally unique identifier assigned when the new browsing context is created.

5.1.1 Nested browsing contexts

Certain elements (for example, iframe elements) can instantiate further browsing contexts. These are called nested browsing contexts. If a browsing context P has an element E in one of its Documents D that nests another browsing context C inside it, then P is said to be the parent browsing context of C, C is said to be a child browsing context of P, C is said to be nested through D, and E is said to be the browsing context container of C.

A browsing context A is said to be an ancestor of a browsing context B if there exists a browsing context A' that is a child browsing context of A and that is itself an ancestor of B, or if there is a browsing context P that is a child browsing context of A and that is the parent browsing context of B.

The browsing context with no parent browsing context is the top-level browsing context of all the browsing contexts nested within it (either directly or indirectly through other nested browsing contexts).

The transitive closure of parent browsing contexts for a nested browsing context gives the list of ancestor browsing contexts.

A Document is said to be fully active when it is the active document of its browsing context, and either its browsing context is a top-level browsing context, or the Document through which that browsing context is nested is itself fully active.

Because they are nested through an element, child browsing contexts are always tied to a specific Document in their parent browsing context. User agents must not allow the user to interact with child browsing contexts of elements that are in Documents that are not themselves fully active.

A nested browsing context can have a seamless browsing context flag set, if it is embedded through an iframe element with a seamless attribute.

5.1.1.1 Navigating nested browsing contexts in the DOM

The top DOM attribute on the Window object of a browsing context b must return the Window object of its top-level browsing context (which would be its own Window object if it was a top-level browsing context itself).

The parent DOM attribute on the Window object of a browsing context b must return the Window object of the parent browsing context, if there is one (i.e. if b is a child browsing context), or the Window object of the browsing context b itself, otherwise (i.e. if it is a top-level browsing context).

The frameElement DOM attribute on the Window object of a browsing context b, on getting, must run the following algorithm:

If b is not a child browsing context, return null and abort these steps.
If the parent browsing context's active document does not have the same effective script origin as the script that is accessing the frameElement attribute, then throw a security exception.
Otherwise, return the browsing context container for b.

5.1.2 Auxiliary browsing contexts

It is possible to create new browsing contexts that are related to a top level browsing context without being nested through an element. Such browsing contexts are called auxiliary browsing contexts. Auxiliary browsing contexts are always top-level browsing contexts.

An auxiliary browsing context has an opener browsing context, which is the browsing context from which the auxiliary browsing context was created, and it has a furthest ancestor browsing context, which is the top-level browsing context of the opener browsing context when the auxiliary browsing context was created.

5.1.2.1 Navigating auxiliary browsing contexts in the DOM

The opener DOM attribute on the Window object must return the Window object of the browsing context from which the current browsing context was created (its opener browsing context), if there is one and it is still available.

5.1.3 Secondary browsing contexts

User agents may support secondary browsing contexts, which are browsing contexts that form part of the user agent's interface, apart from the main content area.

5.1.4 Security

A browsing context A is allowed to navigate a second browsing context B if one of the following conditions is true:

Either the origin of the active document of A is the same as the origin of the active document of B, or
The browsing context A is a nested browsing context and its top-level browsing context is B, or
The browsing context B is an auxiliary browsing context and A is allowed to navigate B's opener browsing context, or
The browsing context B is not a top-level browsing context, but there exists an ancestor browsing context of B whose active document has the same origin as the active document of A (possibly in fact being A itself).

5.1.5 Groupings of browsing contexts

Each browsing context is defined as having a list of zero or more directly reachable browsing contexts. These are:

All the browsing context's child browsing contexts.
The browsing context's parent browsing context.
All the browsing contexts that have the browsing context as their opener browsing context.
The browsing context's opener browsing context.

The transitive closure of all the browsing contexts that are directly reachable browsing contexts forms a unit of related browsing contexts.

Each unit of related browsing contexts is then further divided into the smallest number of groups such that every member of each group has an effective script origin that, through appropriate manipulation of the document.domain attribute, could be made to be the same as other members of the group, but could not be made the same as members of any other group. Each such group is a unit of related similar-origin browsing contexts.

5.1.6 Browsing context names

Browsing contexts can have a browsing context name. By default, a browsing context has no name (its name is not set).

A valid browsing context name is any string with at least one character that does not start with a U+005F LOW LINE character. (Names starting with an underscore are reserved for special keywords.)

A valid browsing context name or keyword is any string that is either a valid browsing context name or that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for one of: _blank, _self, _parent, or _top.

The rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name are as follows. The rules assume that they are being applied in the context of a browsing context.

If the given browsing context name is the empty string or _self, then the chosen browsing context must be the current one.
If the given browsing context name is _parent, then the chosen browsing context must be the parent browsing context of the current one, unless there isn't one, in which case the chosen browsing context must be the current browsing context.
If the given browsing context name is _top, then the chosen browsing context must be the most top-level browsing context of the current one.
If the given browsing context name is not _blank and there exists a browsing context whose name is the same as the given browsing context name, and the current browsing context is allowed to navigate that browsing context, and the user agent determines that the two browsing contexts are related enough that it is ok if they reach each other, then that browsing context must be the chosen one. If there are multiple matching browsing contexts, the user agent should select one in some arbitrary consistent manner, such as the most recently opened, most recently focused, or more closely related.
Otherwise, a new browsing context is being requested, and what happens depends on the user agent's configuration and/or abilities:

If the current browsing context has the sandboxed navigation browsing context flag set.

The user agent may offer to create a new top-level browsing context or reuse an existing top-level browsing context. If the user picks one of those options, then the designated browsing context must be the chosen one (the browsing context's name isn't set to the given browsing context name). Otherwise (if the user agent doesn't offer the option to the user, or if the user declines to allow a browsing context to be used) there must not be a chosen browsing context.

If the user agent has been configured such that in this instance it will create a new browsing context, and the browsing context is being requested as part of following a hyperlink whose link types include the noreferrer keyword

A new top-level browsing context must be created. If the given browsing context name is not _blank, then the new top-level browsing context's name must be the given browsing context name (otherwise, it has no name). The chosen browsing context must be this new browsing context. If it is immediately navigated, then the navigation will be done with replacement enabled.

If the user agent has been configured such that in this instance it will create a new browsing context, and the noreferrer keyword doesn't apply

A new auxiliary browsing context must be created, with the opener browsing context being the current one. If the given browsing context name is not _blank, then the new auxiliary browsing context's name must be the given browsing context name (otherwise, it has no name). The chosen browsing context must be this new browsing context. If it is immediately navigated, then the navigation will be done with replacement enabled.

If the user agent has been configured such that in this instance it will reuse the current browsing context

The chosen browsing context is the current browsing context.

If the user agent has been configured such that in this instance it will not find a browsing context

There must not be a chosen browsing context.

User agent implementors are encouraged to provide a way for users to configure the user agent to always reuse the current browsing context.

5.2 The default view

The AbstractView object of default views must also implement the Window and EventTarget interfaces.

[NoInterfaceObject] interface Window {
  // the current browsing context
  readonly attribute Window window;
  readonly attribute Window self;
           attribute DOMString name;
  [PutForwards=href] readonly attribute Location location;
  readonly attribute History history;
  readonly attribute UndoManager undoManager;
  Selection getSelection();

  // other browsing contexts
  readonly attribute Window frames;
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  [IndexGetter] Window XXX4(in unsigned long index); 
  readonly attribute Window top;
  readonly attribute Window opener;
  readonly attribute Window parent;
  readonly attribute Element frameElement;
  Window open();
  Window open(in DOMString url);
  Window open(in DOMString url, in DOMString target);
  Window open(in DOMString url, in DOMString target, in DOMString features);
  Window open(in DOMString url, in DOMString target, in DOMString features, in DOMString replace);

  // the user agent
  readonly attribute Navigator navigator; 
  readonly attribute Storage localStorage;
  readonly attribute Storage sessionStorage;
  Database openDatabase(in DOMString name, in DOMString version, in DOMString displayName, in unsigned long estimatedSize);

  // user prompts
  void alert(in DOMString message);
  boolean confirm(in DOMString message);
  DOMString prompt(in DOMString message);
  DOMString prompt(in DOMString message, in DOMString default);
  void print();
  any showModalDialog(in DOMString url);
  any showModalDialog(in DOMString url, in any arguments);
  void showNotification(in DOMString title, in DOMString subtitle, in DOMString description);
  void showNotification(in DOMString title, in DOMString subtitle, in DOMString description, in VoidCallback onclick);

  // cross-document messaging
  void postMessage(in DOMString message, in DOMString targetOrigin);
  void postMessage(in DOMString message, in MessagePort messagePort, in DOMString targetOrigin);

  // event handler DOM attributes
           attribute EventListener onabort;
           attribute EventListener onbeforeunload;
           attribute EventListener onblur;
           attribute EventListener onchange;
           attribute EventListener onclick;
           attribute EventListener oncontextmenu;
           attribute EventListener ondblclick;
           attribute EventListener ondrag;
           attribute EventListener ondragend;
           attribute EventListener ondragenter;
           attribute EventListener ondragleave;
           attribute EventListener ondragover;
           attribute EventListener ondragstart;
           attribute EventListener ondrop;
           attribute EventListener onerror;
           attribute EventListener onfocus;
           attribute EventListener onhashchange;
           attribute EventListener onkeydown;
           attribute EventListener onkeypress;
           attribute EventListener onkeyup;
           attribute EventListener onload;
           attribute EventListener onmessage;
           attribute EventListener onmousedown;
           attribute EventListener onmousemove;
           attribute EventListener onmouseout;
           attribute EventListener onmouseover;
           attribute EventListener onmouseup;
           attribute EventListener onmousewheel;
           attribute EventListener onresize;
           attribute EventListener onscroll;
           attribute EventListener onselect;
           attribute EventListener onstorage;
           attribute EventListener onsubmit;
           attribute EventListener onunload;
};

// VoidCallback waiting on WebIDL

The window, frames, and self DOM attributes must all return the Window object itself.

The Window object also provides the scope for script execution. Each Document in a browsing context has an associated list of added properties that, when a document is active, are available on the Document's default view's Window object. A Document object's list of added properties must be empty when the Document object is created.

5.2.1 Security

User agents must raise a security exception whenever any of the members of a Window object are accessed by scripts whose effective script origin is not the same as the Window object's browsing context's active document's effective script origin, with the following exceptions:

The location object
The postMessage() method with two arguments
The postMessage() method with three arguments
The frames attribute
The XXX4 method

User agents must not allow scripts to override the location object's setter.

5.2.2 APIs for creating and navigating browsing contexts by name

The open() method on Window objects provides a mechanism for navigating an existing browsing context or opening and navigating an auxiliary browsing context.

The method has four arguments, though they are all optional.

The first argument, url, must be a valid URL for a page to load in the browsing context. If no arguments are provided, or if the first argument is the empty string, then the url argument defaults to "about:blank". The argument must be resolved to an absolute URL (or an error) when the method is invoked.

The second argument, target, specifies the name of the browsing context that is to be navigated. It must be a valid browsing context name or keyword. If fewer than two arguments are provided, then the name argument defaults to the value "_blank".

The third argument, features, has no effect and is supported for historical reasons only.

The fourth argument, replace, specifies whether or not the new page will replace the page currently loaded in the browsing context, when target identifies an existing browsing context (as opposed to leaving the current page in the browsing context's session history). When three or fewer arguments are provided, replace defaults to false.

When the method is invoked, the user agent must first select a browsing context to navigate by applying the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name using the target argument as the name and the browsing context of the script as the context in which the algorithm is executed, unless the user has indicated a preference, in which case the browsing context to navigate may instead be the one indicated by the user.

For example, suppose there is a user agent that supports control-clicking a link to open it in a new tab. If a user clicks in that user agent on an element whose onclick handler uses the window.open() API to open a page in an iframe, but, while doing so, holds the control key down, the user agent could override the selection of the target browsing context to instead target a new tab.

Then, the user agent must navigate the selected browsing context to the absolute URL (or error) obtained from resolving url. If the replace is true, then replacement must be enabled; otherwise, it must not be enabled unless the browsing context was just created as part of the the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name. The navigation must be done with the script browsing context of the script that invoked the method as the source browsing context.

The method must return the Window object of the default view of the browsing context that was navigated, or null if no browsing context was navigated.

The name attribute of the Window object must, on getting, return the current name of the browsing context, and, on setting, set the name of the browsing context to the new value.

The name gets reset when the browsing context is navigated to another domain.

5.2.3 Accessing other browsing contexts

The length DOM attribute on the Window interface must return the number of child browsing contexts of the active Document.

The XXX4(index) method must return the indexth child browsing context of the active Document, sorted in document order of the elements nesting those browsing contexts.

5.3 Origin

The origin of a resource and the effective script origin of a resource are both either opaque identifiers or tuples consisting of a scheme component, a host component, a port component, and optionally extra data.

The extra data could include the certificate of the site when using encrypted connections, to ensure that if the site's secure certificate changes, the origin is considered to change as well.

These characteristics are defined as follows:

For URLs

The origin and effective script origin of the URL is whatever is returned by the following algorithm:

Let url be the URL for which the origin is being determined.
Parse url.
If url does not use a server-based naming authority, or if parsing url failed, or if url is not an absolute URL, then return a new globally unique identifier.
Let scheme be the <scheme> component of url, converted to lowercase.
If the UA doesn't support the protocol given by scheme, then return a new globally unique identifier.
If scheme is "file", then the user agent may return a UA-specific value.
Let host be the <host> component of url.
Apply the IDNA ToASCII algorithm to host, with both the AllowUnassigned and UseSTD3ASCIIRules flags set. Let host be the result of the ToASCII algorithm.

If ToASCII fails to convert one of the components of the string, e.g. because it is too long or because it contains invalid characters, then return a new globally unique identifier. [RFC3490]
Let host be the result of converting host to lowercase.
If there is no <port> component, then let port be the default port for the protocol given by scheme. Otherwise, let port be the <port> component of url.
Return the tuple (scheme, host, port).

In addition, if the URL is in fact associated with a Document object that was created by parsing the resource obtained from fetching URL, and this was done over a secure connection, then the server's secure certificate may be added to the origin as additional data.

For scripts

The origin and effective script origin of a script are determined from another resource, called the owner:

If a script is in a script element: The owner is the Document to which the script element belongs.
If a script is in an event handler content attribute: The owner is the Document to which the attribute node belongs.
If a script is a function or other code reference created by another script: The owner is the script that created it.
If a script is a javascript: URL that was returned as the location of an HTTP redirect (or equivalent in other protocols): The owner is the URL that redirected to the javascript: URL.
If a script is a javascript: URL in an attribute: The owner is the Document of the element on which the attribute is found.
If a script is a javascript: URL in a style sheet: The owner is the URL of the style sheet.
If a script is a javascript: URL to which a browsing context is being navigated, the URL having been provided by the user (e.g. by using a bookmarklet): The owner is the Document of the browsing context's active document.
If a script is a javascript: URL to which a browsing context is being navigated, the URL having been declared in markup: The owner is the Document of the element (e.g. an a or area element) that declared the URL.
If a script is a javascript: URL to which a browsing context is being navigated, the URL having been provided by script: The owner is the script that provided the URL.

The origin of the script is then equal to the origin of the owner, and the effective script origin of the script is equal to the effective script origin of the owner.

For Document objects and images

If a Document is in a browsing context whose sandboxed origin browsing context flag is set: The origin is a globally unique identifier assigned when the Document is created.
If a Document or image was returned by the XMLHttpRequest API: The origin and effective script origin are equal to the origin and effective script origin of the Document object that was the active document of the browsing context of the Window object from which the XMLHttpRequest constructor was invoked. (That is, they track the Document to which the XMLHttpRequest object's Document pointer pointed when it was created.) [XHR]
If a Document or image was generated from a javascript: URL: The origin is equal to the origin of the script of that javascript: URL.
If a Document or image was served over the network and has an address that uses a URL scheme with a server-based naming authority: The origin is the origin of the address of the Document or image.
If a Document or image was generated from a data: URL that was returned as the location of an HTTP redirect (or equivalent in other protocols): The origin is the origin of the URL that redirected to the data: URL.
If a Document or image was generated from a data: URL found in another Document or in a script: The origin is the origin of the Document or script in which the data: URL was found.
If a Document has the address "about:blank": The origin of the Document is the origin it was assigned when its browsing context was created.
If a Document or image was obtained in some other manner (e.g. a data: URL typed in by the user, a Document created using the createDocument() API, a data: URL returned as the location of an HTTP redirect, etc): The origin is a globally unique identifier assigned when the Document or image is created.

When a Document is created, unless stated otherwise above, its effective script origin is initialized to the origin of the Document. However, the document.domain attribute can be used to change it.

The Unicode serialization of an origin is the string obtained by applying the following algorithm to the given origin:

If the origin in question is not a scheme/host/port tuple, then return the literal string "null" and abort these steps.
Otherwise, let result be the scheme part of the origin tuple.
Append the string "://" to result.
Apply the IDNA ToUnicode algorithm to each component of the host part of the origin tuple, and append the results — each component, in the same order, separated by U+002E FULL STOP characters (".") — to result.
If the port part of the origin tuple gives a port that is different from the default port for the protocol given by the scheme part of the origin tuple, then append a U+003A COLON character (":") and the given port, in base ten, to result.
Return result.

The ASCII serialization of an origin is the string obtained by applying the following algorithm to the given origin:

If the origin in question is not a scheme/host/port tuple, then return the literal string "null" and abort these steps.
Otherwise, let result be the scheme part of the origin tuple.
Append the string "://" to result.
Apply the IDNA ToASCII algorithm the host part of the origin tuple, with both the AllowUnassigned and UseSTD3ASCIIRules flags set, and append the results result.

If ToASCII fails to convert one of the components of the string, e.g. because it is too long or because it contains invalid characters, then return the empty string and abort these steps. [RFC3490]
If the port part of the origin tuple gives a port that is different from the default port for the protocol given by the scheme part of the origin tuple, then append a U+003A COLON character (":") and the given port, in base ten, to result.
Return result.

Two origins are said to be the same origin if the following algorithm returns true:

Let A be the first origin being compared, and B be the second origin being compared.
If A and B are both opaque identifiers, and their value is equal, then return true.
Otherwise, if either A or B or both are opaque identifiers, return false.
If A and B have scheme components that are not identical, return false.
If A and B have host components that are not identical, return false.
If A and B have port components that are not identical, return false.
If either A or B have additional data, but that data is not identical for both, return false.
Return true.

5.3.1 Relaxing the same-origin restriction

The domain attribute on Document objects must be initialized to the document's domain, if it has one, and the empty string otherwise. On getting, the attribute must return its current value, unless the document was created by XMLHttpRequest, in which case it must throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception. On setting, the user agent must run the following algorithm:

If the document was created by XMLHttpRequest, throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception and abort these steps.
Apply the IDNA ToASCII algorithm to the new value, with both the AllowUnassigned and UseSTD3ASCIIRules flags set. Let new value be the result of the ToASCII algorithm.

If ToASCII fails to convert one of the components of the string, e.g. because it is too long or because it contains invalid characters, then throw a security exception and abort these steps. [RFC3490]
If new value is not exactly equal to the current value of the document.domain attribute, then run these substeps:
1. If the current value is an IP address, throw a security exception and abort these steps.
2. If new value, prefixed by a U+002E FULL STOP ("."), does not exactly match the end of the current value, throw a security exception and abort these steps.
Set the attribute's value to new value.
Set the host part of the effective script origin tuple of the Document to new value.
Set the port part of the effective script origin tuple of the Document to "manual override" (a value that, for the purposes of comparing origins, is identical to "manual override" but not identical to any other value).

The domain of a Document is the host part of the document's origin, if that is a scheme/host/port tuple. If it isn't, then the document does not have a domain.

The domain attribute is used to enable pages on different hosts of a domain to access each others' DOMs.

5.4 Scripting

Various mechanisms can cause author-provided executable code to run in the context of a document. These mechanisms include, but are probably not limited to:

Processing of script elements.
Processing of inline javascript: URLs (e.g. the src attribute of img elements, or an @import rule in a CSS style element block).
Event handlers, whether registered through the DOM using addEventListener(), by explicit event handler content attributes, by event handler DOM attributes, or otherwise.
Processing of technologies like XBL or SVG that have their own scripting features.

When a script is created, it is associated with a script execution context, a script browsing context, and a script document context.

5.4.1 Script execution contexts

The script execution context of a script is defined when that script is created. In this specification, it is either a Window object or an empty object; other specifications might make the script execution context be some other object.

When the script execution context of a script is an empty object, it can't do anything that interacts with the environment.

A script execution context always has an associated browsing context, known as the script browsing context. If the script execution context is a Window object, then that object's browsing context is it. Otherwise, the script execution context is associated explicitly with a browsing context when it is created.

Every script whose script execution context is a Window object is also associated with a Document object, known as its script document context. It is used to resolve URLs. The document is assigned when the script is created, as with the script browsing context.

It is said that scripting is disabled in a script execution context when any of the following conditions are true:

The user agent does not support scripting.
The user has disabled scripting for this script execution context. (User agents may provide users with the option to disable scripting globally, on a per-origin basis, or in other ways down to the granularity of individual script execution contexts.)
The script execution context's associated browsing context's active document has designMode enabled.
The script execution context's associated browsing context has the sandboxed scripts browsing context flag set.

A node is said to be without script if either the Document object of the node (the node itself, if it is itself a Document object) does not have an associated browsing context, or scripting is disabled in that browsing context.

A node is said to be with script if it is not without script.

If you can find a better pair of terms than "with script" and "without script" let me know. The only things I can find that are less confusing are also way, way longer.

When a script is to be executed in a script execution context in which scripting is disabled, the script must do nothing and return nothing (a void return value).

Thus, for instance, enabling designMode will disable any event handler attributes, event listeners, timeouts, etc, that were set by scripts in the document.

5.4.2 Event loops

To coordinate events, user interaction, scripts, rendering, networking, and so forth, user agents must use event loops as described in this section.

There must be at least one event loop per user agent, and at most one event loop per unit of related similar-origin browsing contexts.

An event loop always has at least one browsing context. If an event loop's browsing contexts all go away, then the event loop goes away as well. A browsing context always has an event loop coordinating its activities.

An event loop has one or more task queues. A task queue is an ordered list of tasks, which can be:

Events

Asynchronously dispatching an Event object at a particular EventTarget object is a task.

Not all events are dispatched using the task queue, many are dispatched synchronously during other tasks.

Parsing

The HTML parser tokenising a single byte, and then processing any resulting tokens, is a task.

Callbacks

Calling a callback asynchronously is a task.

Using a resource

When an algorithm fetches a resource, if the fetching occurs asynchronously then the processing of the resource once some or all of the resource is available is a task.

Reacting to DOM manipulation

Some elements have tasks that trigger in response to DOM manipulation, e.g. when that element is inserted into the document.

When a user agent is to queue a task, it must add the given task to one of the task queues of the relevant event loop. All the tasks from one particular task source (e.g. the callbacks generated by timers, the events dispatched for mouse movements, the tasks queued for the parser) must always be added to the same task queue, but tasks from different task sources may be placed in different task queues.

For example, a user agent could have one task queue for mouse and key events (the user interaction task source), and another for everything else. The user agent could then give keyboard and mouse events preference over other tasks three quarters of the time, keeping the interface responsive but not starving other task queues, and never processing events from any one task source out of order.

An event loop must continually run through the following steps for as long as it exists:

Run the oldest task on one of the event loop's task queues. The user agent may pick any task queue.
Remove that task from its task queue.
If necessary, update the rendering or user interface of any Document or browsing context to reflect the current state.
Return to the first step of the event loop.

5.4.2.1 Generic task sources

The following task sources are used by a number of mostly unrelated features in this and other specifications.

The DOM manipulation task source

This task source is used for features that react to DOM manipulations, such as things that happen asynchronously when an element is inserted into the document.

Asynchronous mutation events must be dispatched using tasks queued with the DOM manipulation task source. [DOMEVENTS]

The user interaction task source

This task source is used for features that react to user interaction, for example keyboard or mouse input.

Asynchronous events sent in response to user input (e.g. click events) must be dispatched using tasks queued with the user interaction task source. [DOMEVENTS]

The networking task source

This task source is used for features that trigger in response to network activity.

5.4.3 Security exceptions

Define security exception.

5.4.4 The `javascript:` protocol

A URL using the javascript: protocol must, if and when dereferenced, be evaluated by executing the script obtained using the content retrieval operation defined for javascript: URLs. [JSURL]

When a browsing context is navigated to a javascript: URL, and the active document of that browsing context has the same origin as the script given by that URL, the script execution context must be the Window object of the browsing context being navigated, and the script document context must be that active document.

When a browsing context is navigated to a javascript: URL, and the active document of that browsing context has an origin that is not the same as that of the script given by the URL, the script execution context must be an empty object, and the script browsing context must be the browsing context being navigated.

Otherwise, if the Document object of the element, attribute, or style sheet from which the javascript: URL was reached has an associated browsing context, the script execution context must be an empty object, and the script execution context's associated browsing context must be that browsing context.

Otherwise, the script is not executed and its return value is void.

If the result of executing the script is void (there is no return value), then the URL must be treated in a manner equivalent to an HTTP resource with an HTTP 204 No Content response.

Otherwise, the URL must be treated in a manner equivalent to an HTTP resource with a 200 OK response whose Content-Type metadata is text/html and whose response body is the return value converted to a string value.

Certain contexts, in particular img elements, ignore the Content-Type metadata.

So for example a javascript: URL for a src attribute of an img element would be evaluated in the context of an empty object as soon as the attribute is set; it would then be sniffed to determine the image type and decoded as an image.

A javascript: URL in an href attribute of an a element would only be evaluated when the link was followed.

The src attribute of an iframe element would be evaluated in the context of the iframe's own browsing context; once evaluated, its return value (if it was not void) would replace that browsing context's document, thus changing the variables visible in that browsing context.

The rules for handling script execution in a script execution context include making the script not execute (and just return void) in certain cases, e.g. in a sandbox or when the user has disabled scripting altogether.

5.4.5 Events

We need to define how to handle events that are to be fired on a Document that is no longer the active document of its browsing context, and for Documents that have no browsing context. Do the events fire? Do the handlers in that document not fire? Do we just define scripting to be disabled when the document isn't active, with events still running as is? See also the script element section, which says scripts don't run when the document isn't active.

5.4.5.1 Event handler attributes

HTML elements can have event handler attributes specified. These act as bubbling event listeners for the element on which they are specified.

Each event handler attribute has two parts, an event handler content attribute and an event handler DOM attribute. Event handler attributes must initially be set to null. When their value changes (through the changing of their event handler content attribute or their event handler DOM attribute), they will either be null, or have an EventListener object assigned to them.

Objects other than Element objects, in particular Window, only have event handler DOM attribute (since they have no content attributes).

Event handler content attributes, when specified, must contain valid ECMAScript code matching the ECMAScript FunctionBody production. [ECMA262]

When an event handler content attribute is set, if the element is owned by a Document that is in a browsing context, its new value must be interpreted as the body of an anonymous function with a single argument called event, with the new function's scope chain being linked from the activation object of the handler, to the element, to the element's form element if it is a form control, to the Document object, to the Window object of the browsing context of that Document. The function's this parameter must be the Element object representing the element. The resulting function must then be set as the value of the corresponding event handler attribute, and the new value must be set as the value of the content attribute. If the given function body fails to compile, then the corresponding event handler attribute must be set to null instead (the content attribute must still be updated to the new value, though).

See ECMA262 Edition 3, sections 10.1.6 and 10.2.3, for more details on activation objects. [ECMA262]

The script execution context of the event handler must be the Window object at the end of the scope chain. The script document context of the event handler must be the Document object that owns the event handler content attribute that was set.

When an event handler content attribute is set on an element owned by a Document that is not in a browsing context, the corresponding event handler attribute is not changed.

Removing an event handler content attribute does not reset the corresponding event handler attribute either.

How do we allow non-JS event handlers?

Event handler DOM attributes, on setting, must set the corresponding event handler attribute to their new value, and on getting, must return whatever the current value of the corresponding event handler attribute is (possibly null).

The following are the event handler attributes that must be supported by all HTML elements, as both content attributes and DOM attributes, and on Window objects, as DOM attributes:

onabort

Must be invoked whenever an abort event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onbeforeunload

Must be invoked whenever a beforeunload event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onblur

Must be invoked whenever a blur event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onchange

Must be invoked whenever a change event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onclick

Must be invoked whenever a click event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

oncontextmenu

Must be invoked whenever a contextmenu event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

ondblclick

Must be invoked whenever a dblclick event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

ondrag

Must be invoked whenever a drag event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

ondragend

Must be invoked whenever a dragend event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

ondragenter

Must be invoked whenever a dragenter event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

ondragleave

Must be invoked whenever a dragleave event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

ondragover

Must be invoked whenever a dragover event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

ondragstart

Must be invoked whenever a dragstart event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

ondrop

Must be invoked whenever a drop event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onerror

Must be invoked whenever an error event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

The onerror handler is also used for reporting script errors.

onfocus

Must be invoked whenever a focus event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onhashchange

Must be invoked whenever a hashchange event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onkeydown

Must be invoked whenever a keydown event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onkeypress

Must be invoked whenever a keypress event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onkeyup

Must be invoked whenever a keyup event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onload

Must be invoked whenever a load event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onmessage

Must be invoked whenever a message event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onmousedown

Must be invoked whenever a mousedown event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onmousemove

Must be invoked whenever a mousemove event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onmouseout

Must be invoked whenever a mouseout event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onmouseover

Must be invoked whenever a mouseover event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onmouseup

Must be invoked whenever a mouseup event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onmousewheel

Must be invoked whenever a mousewheel event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onresize

Must be invoked whenever a resize event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onscroll

Must be invoked whenever a scroll event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onselect

Must be invoked whenever a select event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onstorage

Must be invoked whenever a storage event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onsubmit

Must be invoked whenever a submit event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

onunload

Must be invoked whenever an unload event is targeted at or bubbles through the element.

When an event handler attribute is invoked, its argument must be set to the Event object of the event in question. If the function returns the exact boolean value false, the event's preventDefault() method must then invoked. Exception: for historical reasons, for the HTML mouseover event, the preventDefault() method must be called when the function returns true instead.

All event handler attributes on an element, whether set to null or to a function, must be registered as event listeners on the element, as if the addEventListenerNS() method on the Element object's EventTarget interface had been invoked when the element was created, with the event type (type argument) equal to the type described for the event handler attribute in the list above, the namespace (namespaceURI argument) set to null, the listener set to be a target and bubbling phase listener (useCapture argument set to false), the event group set to the default group (evtGroup argument set to null), and the event listener itself (listener argument) set to do nothing while the event handler attribute is null, and set to invoke the function associated with the event handler attribute otherwise. (The listener argument is emphatically not the event handler attribute itself.)

5.4.5.2 Event firing

maybe this should be moved higher up (terminology? conformance? DOM?) Also, the whole terminology thing should be changed so that we don't define any specific events here, we only define 'simple event', 'progress event', 'mouse event', 'key event', and the like, and have the actual dispatch use those generic terms when firing events.

Certain operations and methods are defined as firing events on elements. For example, the click() method on the HTMLElement interface is defined as firing a click event on the element. [DOM3EVENTS]

Firing a click event means that a click event with no namespace, which bubbles and is cancelable, and which uses the MouseEvent interface, must be dispatched at the given element. The event object must have its screenX, screenY, clientX, clientY, and button attributes set to 0, its ctrlKey, shiftKey, altKey, and metaKey attributes set according to the current state of the key input device, if any (false for any keys that are not available), its detail attribute set to 1, and its relatedTarget attribute set to null. The getModifierState() method on the object must return values appropriately describing the state of the key input device at the time the event is created.

Firing a contextmenu event means that a contextmenu event with no namespace, which bubbles and is cancelable, and which uses the Event interface, must be dispatched at the given element.

Firing a simple event called e means that an event with the name e, with no namespace, which does not bubble but is cancelable (unless otherwise stated), and which uses the Event interface, must be dispatched at the given element.

Firing a show event means firing a simple event called show. Actually this should fire an event that has modifier information (shift/ctrl etc), as well as having a pointer to the node on which the menu was fired, and with which the menu was associated (which could be an ancestor of the former).

Firing a load event means firing a simple event called load. Firing an error event means firing a simple event called error.

Firing a progress event called e means something that hasn't yet been defined, in the [PROGRESS] spec.

The default action of these event is to do nothing unless otherwise stated.

If you dispatch a custom "click" event at an element that would normally have default actions, should they get triggered? If so, we need to go through the entire spec and make sure that any default actions are defined in terms of any event of the right type on that element, not those that are dispatched in expected ways.

5.4.5.3 Events and the `Window` object

When an event is dispatched at a DOM node in a Document in a browsing context, if the event is not a load event, the user agent must also dispatch the event to the Window, as follows:

In the capture phase, the event must be dispatched to the Window object before being dispatched to any of the nodes.
In the bubble phase, the event must be dispatched to the Window object at the end of the phase, unless bubbling has been prevented.

5.4.5.4 Runtime script errors

This section only applies to user agents that support scripting in general and ECMAScript in particular.

Whenever a runtime script error occurs in one of the scripts associated with the document, the value of the onerror event handler DOM attribute of the Window object must be processed, as follows:

If the value is a function

The function referenced by the onerror attribute must be invoked with three arguments, before notifying the user of the error.

The three arguments passed to the function are all DOMStrings; the first must give the message that the UA is considering reporting, the second must give the absolute URL of the resource in which the error occurred, and the third must give the line number in that resource on which the error occurred.

If the function returns false, then the error should not be reported to the user. Otherwise, if the function returns another value (or does not return at all), the error should be reported to the user.

Any exceptions thrown or errors caused by this function must be reported to the user immediately after the error that the function was called for, without calling the function again.

If the value is null

The error should not reported to the user.

If the value is anything else

The error should be reported to the user.

The initial value of onerror must be undefined.

5.5 User prompts

5.5.1 Simple dialogs

The alert(message) method, when invoked, must show the given message to the user. The user agent may make the method wait for the user to acknowledge the message before returning; if so, the user agent must pause while the method is waiting.

The confirm(message) method, when invoked, must show the given message to the user, and ask the user to respond with a positive or negative response. The user agent must then pause as the method waits for the user's response. If the user responds positively, the method must return true, and if the user responds negatively, the method must return false.

The prompt(message, default) method, when invoked, must show the given message to the user, and ask the user to either respond with a string value or abort. The user agent must then pause as the method waits for the user's response. The second argument is optional. If the second argument (default) is present, then the response must be defaulted to the value given by default. If the user aborts, then the method must return null; otherwise, the method must return the string that the user responded with.

5.5.2 Printing

The print() method, when invoked, must run the printing steps.

User agents should also run the printing steps whenever the user attempts to obtain a physical form (e.g. printed copy), or the representation of a physical form (e.g. PDF copy), of a document.

The printing steps are as follows:

The user agent may display a message to the user and/or may abort these steps.

For instance, a kiosk browser could silently ignore any invocations of the print() method.

For instance, a browser on a mobile device could detect that there are no printers in the vicinity and display a message saying so before continuing to offer a "save to PDF" option.
The user agent must fire a simple event called beforeprint at the Window object of the browsing context of the Document that is being printed, as well as any nested browsing contexts in it.

The beforeprint event can be used to annotate the printed copy, for instance adding the time at which the document was printed.
The user agent should offer the user the opportunity to obtain a physical form (or the representation of a physical form) of the document. The user agent may wait for the user to either accept or decline before returning; if so, the user agent must pause while the method is waiting. Even if the user agent doesn't wait at this point, the user agent must use the state of the relevant documents as they are at this point in the algorithm if and when it eventually creates the alternate form.
The user agent must fire a simple event called afterprint at the Window object of the browsing context of the Document that is being printed, as well as any nested browsing contexts in it.

The afterprint event can be used to revert annotations added in the earlier event, as well as showing post-printing UI. For instance, if a page is walking the user through the steps of applying for a home loan, the script could automatically advance to the next step after having printed a form or other.

5.5.3 Dialogs implemented using separate documents

The showModalDialog(url, arguments) method, when invoked, must cause the user agent to run the following steps:

If the user agent is configured such that this invocation of showModalDialog() is somehow disabled, then the method returns the empty string; abort these steps.

User agents are expected to disable this method in certain cases to avoid user annoyance. For instance, a user agent could require that a site be white-listed before enabling this method, or the user agent could be configured to only allow one modal dialog at a time.
Let the list of background browsing contexts be a list of all the browsing contexts that:
- are part of the same unit of related browsing contexts as the browsing context of the Window object on which the showModalDialog() method was called, and that
- have an active document whose origin is the same as the origin of the script that called the showModalDialog() method at the time the method was called,
...as well as any browsing contexts that are nested inside any of the browsing contexts matching those conditions.
Disable the user interface for all the browsing contexts in the list of background browsing contexts. This should prevent the user from navigating those browsing contexts, causing events to to be sent to those browsing context, or editing any content in those browsing contexts. However, it does not prevent those browsing contexts from receiving events from sources other than the user, from running scripts, from running animations, and so forth.
Create a new auxiliary browsing context, with the opener browsing context being the browsing context of the Window object on which the showModalDialog() method was called. The new auxiliary browsing context has no name.

This browsing context implements the ModalWindow interface.
Let the dialog arguments of the new browsing context be set to the value of arguments.
Let the dialog arguments' origin be the origin of the script that called the showModalDialog() method.
Navigate the new browsing context to url, with replacement enabled, and with the script browsing context of the script that invoked the method as the source browsing context.
Wait for the browsing context to be closed. (The user agent must allow the user to indicate that the browsing context is to be closed.)
Reenable the user interface for all the browsing contexts in the list of background browsing contexts.
Return the auxiliary browsing context's return value.

Browsing contexts created by the above algorithm must implement the ModalWindow interface:

[XXX] interface ModalWindow {
  readonly attribute any dialogArguments;
           attribute DOMString returnValue;
};

Such browsing contexts have associated dialog arguments, which are stored along with the dialog arguments' origin. These values are set by the showModalDialog() method in the algorithm above, when the browsing context is created, based on the arguments provided to the method.

The dialogArguments DOM attribute, on getting, must check whether its browsing context's active document's origin is the same as the dialog arguments' origin. If it is, then the browsing context's dialog arguments must be returned unchanged. Otherwise, if the dialog arguments are an object, then the empty string must be returned, and if the dialog arguments are not an object, then the stringification of the dialog arguments must be returned.

These browsing contexts also have an associated return value. The return value of a browsing context must be initialized to the empty string when the browsing context is created.

The returnValue DOM attribute, on getting, must return the return value of its browsing context, and on setting, must set the return value to the given new value.

5.5.4 Notifications

Notifications are short, transient messages that bring the user's attention to new information, or remind the user of scheduled events.

Since notifications can be annoying if abused, this specification defines a mechanism that scopes notifications to a site's existing rendering area unless the user explicitly indicates that the site can be trusted.

To this end, each origin can be flagged as being a trusted notification source. By default origins should not be flagged as such, but user agents may allow users to whitelist origins or groups of origins as being trusted notification sources. Only origins flagged as trusted in this way are allowed to show notification UI outside of their tab.

For example, a user agent could allow a user to mark all subdomains and ports of example.org as trusted notification sources. Then, mail.example.org and calendar.example.org would both be able to show notifications, without the user having to flag them individually.

The showNotification(title, subtitle, description, onclick) method, when invoked, must cause the user agent to show a notification.

If the method was invoked from a script whose script browsing context has the sandboxed annoyances browsing context flag set, then the notification must be shown within that browsing context. The notification is said to be a sandboxed notification.

Otherwise, if the origin of the script browsing context of the script that invoked the method is not flagged as being a trusted notification source, then the notification should be rendered within the top-level browsing context of the script browsing context of the script that invoked the method. The notification is said to be a normal notification. User agents should provide a way to set the origin's trusted notification source flag from the notification, so that the user can benefit from notifications even when the user agent is not the active application.

Otherwise, the origin is flagged as a trusted notification source, and the notification should be shown using the platform conventions for system-wide notifications. The notification is said to be a trusted notification. User agents may provide a way to unset the origin's trusted notification source flag from within the notification, so as to allow users to easily disable notifications from sites that abuse the privilege.

For example, if a site contains a gadget of a mail application in a sandboxed iframe and that frame triggers a notification upon the receipt of a new e-mail message, that notification would be displayed on top of the gadget only.

However, if the user then goes to the main site of that mail application, the notification would be displayed over the entire rendering area of the tab for the site.

The notification, in this case, would have a button on it to let the user indicate that he trusts the site. If the user clicked this button, the next notification would use the system-wide notification system, appearing even if the tab for the mail application was buried deep inside a minimised window.

The style of notifications varies from platform to platform. On some, it is typically displayed as a "toast" window that slides in from the bottom right corner. In others, notifications are shown as semi-transparent white-on-grey overlays centered over the screen. Other schemes could include simulated ticker tapes, and speech-synthesis playback.

When a normal notification (but not a sandboxed notification) is shown, the user agent may bring the user's attention to the top-level browsing context of the script browsing context of the script that invoked the method, if that would be useful; but user agents should not use system-wide notification mechanisms to do so.

When a trusted notification is shown, the user agent should bring the user's attention to the notification and the script browsing context of the script that invoked the method, as per the platform conventions for attracting the user's attention to applications.

In the case of normal notifications, typically the only attention-grabbing device that would be employed would be something like flashing the tab's caption, or making it bold, or some such.

In addition, in the case of a trusted notification, the entire window could flash, or the browser's application icon could bounce or flash briefly, or a short sound effect could be played.

Notifications should include the following content:

The title, subtitle, and description strings passed to the method. They may be truncated or abbreviated if necessary.
The application name, if available, or else the document title, of the active document of the script browsing context of the script that invoked the method.
An icon chosen from the external resource links of type icon, if any are available.

If a new notification from one browsing context has title, subtitle, and description strings that are identical to the title, subtitle, and description strings of an already-active notification from the same browsing context or another browsing context with the same origin, the user agent should not display the new notification, but should instead add an indicator to the already-active notification that another identical notification would otherwise have been shown.

For instance, if a user has his mail application open in three windows, and thus the same "New Mail" notification is fired three times each time a mail is received, instead of displaying three identical notifications each time, the user agent could just show one, with the title "New Mail x3".

Notifications should have a lifetime based on the platform conventions for notifications. However, the lifetime of a notification should not begin until the user has had the opportunity to see it, so if a notification is spawned for a browsing context that is hidden, it should be shown for its complete lifetime once the user brings that browsing context into view.

User agents should support multiple notifications at once.

User agents should support user interaction with notifications, if and as appropriate given the platform conventions. If a user activates a notification, and the onclick callback argument was present and is not null, then the script browsing context of the function given by onclick should be brought to the user's attention, and the onclick callback should then be invoked.

5.6 System state and capabilities

The navigator attribute of the Window interface must return an instance of the Navigator interface, which represents the identity and state of the user agent (the client), and allows Web pages to register themselves as potential protocol and content handlers:

interface Navigator {
  // client identification
  readonly attribute DOMString appName;
  readonly attribute DOMString appVersion;
  readonly attribute DOMString platform;
  readonly attribute DOMString userAgent;

  // system state
  readonly attribute boolean onLine;
  void registerProtocolHandler(in DOMString protocol, in DOMString url, in DOMString title);
  void registerContentHandler(in DOMString mimeType, in DOMString url, in DOMString title);

  // abilities
  short canPlayType(in DOMString type);
};

5.6.1 Client identification

In certain cases, despite the best efforts of the entire industry, Web browsers have bugs and limitations that Web authors are forced to work around.

This section defines a collection of attributes that can be used to determine, from script, the kind of user agent in use, in order to work around these issues.

Client detection should always be limited to detecting known current versions; future versions and unknown versions should always be assumed to be fully compliant.

appName: Must return either the string "Netscape" or the full name of the browser, e.g. "Mellblom Browsernator".
appVersion: Must return either the string "4.0" or a string representing the version of the browser in detail, e.g. "1.0 (VMS; en-US) Mellblomenator/9000".
platform: Must return either the empty string or a string representing the platform on which the browser is executing, e.g. "MacIntel", "Win32", "FreeBSD i386", "WebTV OS".
userAgent: Must return the string used for the value of the "User-Agent" header in HTTP requests, or the empty string if no such header is ever sent.

5.6.2 Custom protocol and content handlers

The registerProtocolHandler() method allows Web sites to register themselves as possible handlers for particular protocols. For example, an online fax service could register itself as a handler of the fax: protocol ([RFC2806]), so that if the user clicks on such a link, he is given the opportunity to use that Web site. Analogously, the registerContentHandler() method allows Web sites to register themselves as possible handlers for content in a particular MIME type. For example, the same online fax service could register itself as a handler for image/g3fax files ([RFC1494]), so that if the user has no native application capable of handling G3 Facsimile byte streams, his Web browser can instead suggest he use that site to view the image.

User agents may, within the constraints described in this section, do whatever they like when the methods are called. A UA could, for instance, prompt the user and offer the user the opportunity to add the site to a shortlist of handlers, or make the handlers his default, or cancel the request. UAs could provide such a UI through modal UI or through a non-modal transient notification interface. UAs could also simply silently collect the information, providing it only when relevant to the user.

There is an example of how these methods could be presented to the user below.

The arguments to the methods have the following meanings:

protocol (registerProtocolHandler() only)

A scheme, such as ftp or fax. The scheme must be compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner by user agents for the purposes of comparing with the scheme part of URLs that they consider against the list of registered handlers.

The protocol value, if it contains a colon (as in "ftp:"), will never match anything, since schemes don't contain colons.

mimeType (registerContentHandler() only)

A MIME type, such as model/vrml or text/richtext. The MIME type must be compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner by user agents for the purposes of comparing with MIME types of documents that they consider against the list of registered handlers.

User agents must compare the given values only to the MIME type/subtype parts of content types, not to the complete type including parameters. Thus, if mimeType values passed to this method include characters such as commas or whitespace, or include MIME parameters, then the handler being registered will never be used.

url

The URL of the page that will handle the requests. When the user agent uses this URL, it must replace the first occurrence of the exact literal string "%s" with an escaped version of the URL of the content in question (as defined below), then resolve the resulting URL (using the document base URL of the script document context of the script that originally invoked the registerContentHandler() or registerProtocolHandler() method), and then fetch the resulting URL using the GET method (or equivalent for non-HTTP URLs).

To get the escaped version of the URL of the content in question, the user agent must resolve the URL, and then every character in the URL that doesn't match the <query> production defined in RFC 3986 must be replaced by the percent-encoded form of the character. [RFC3986]

If the user had visited a site at http://example.com/ that made the following call:

navigator.registerContentHandler('application/x-soup', 'soup?url=%s', 'SoupWeb™')

...and then, much later, while visiting http://www.example.net/, clicked on a link such as:

<a href="chickenkïwi.soup">Download our Chicken Kiwi soup!</a>

...then, assuming this chickenkïwi.soup file was served with the MIME type application/x-soup, the UA might navigate to the following URL:

http://example.com/soup?url=http://www.example.net/chickenk%C3%AFwi.soup

This site could then fetch the chickenkïwi.soup file and do whatever it is that it does with soup (synthesize it and ship it to the user, or whatever).

title

A descriptive title of the handler, which the UA might use to remind the user what the site in question is.

User agents should raise security exceptions if the methods are called with protocol or mimeType values that the UA deems to be "privileged". For example, a site attempting to register a handler for http URLs or text/html content in a Web browser would likely cause an exception to be raised.

User agents must raise a SYNTAX_ERR exception if the url argument passed to one of these methods does not contain the exact literal string "%s".

User agents must not raise any other exceptions (other than binding-specific exceptions, such as for an incorrect number of arguments in an ECMAScript implementation).

This section does not define how the pages registered by these methods are used, beyond the requirements on how to process the url value (see above). To some extent, the processing model for navigating across documents defines some cases where these methods are relevant, but in general UAs may use this information wherever they would otherwise consider handing content to native plugins or helper applications.

UAs must not use registered content handlers to handle content that was returned as part of a non-GET transaction (or rather, as part of any non-idempotent transaction), as the remote site would not be able to fetch the same data.

5.6.2.1 Security and privacy

These mechanisms can introduce a number of concerns, in particular privacy concerns.

Hijacking all Web usage. User agents should not allow protocols that are key to its normal operation, such as http or https, to be rerouted through third-party sites. This would allow a user's activities to be trivially tracked, and would allow user information, even in secure connections, to be collected.

Hijacking defaults. It is strongly recommended that user agents do not automatically change any defaults, as this could lead the user to send data to remote hosts that the user is not expecting. New handlers registering themselves should never automatically cause those sites to be used.

Registration spamming. User agents should consider the possibility that a site will attempt to register a large number of handlers, possibly from multiple domains (e.g. by redirecting through a series of pages each on a different domain, and each registering a handler for video/mpeg — analogous practices abusing other Web browser features have been used by pornography Web sites for many years). User agents should gracefully handle such hostile attempts, protecting the user.

Misleading titles. User agents should not rely wholly on the title argument to the methods when presenting the registered handlers to the user, since sites could easily lie. For example, a site hostile.example.net could claim that it was registering the "Cuddly Bear Happy Content Handler". User agents should therefore use the handler's domain in any UI along with any title.

Hostile handler metadata. User agents should protect against typical attacks against strings embedded in their interface, for example ensuring that markup or escape characters in such strings are not executed, that null bytes are properly handled, that over-long strings do not cause crashes or buffer overruns, and so forth.

Leaking Intranet URLs. The mechanism described in this section can result in secret Intranet URLs being leaked, in the following manner:

The user registers a third-party content handler as the default handler for a content type.
The user then browses his corporate Intranet site and accesses a document that uses that content type.
The user agent contacts the third party and hands the third party the URL to the Intranet content.

No actual confidential file data is leaked in this manner, but the URLs themselves could contain confidential information. For example, the URL could be http://www.corp.example.com/upcoming-aquisitions/the-sample-company.egf, which might tell the third party that Example Corporation is intending to merge with The Sample Company. Implementors might wish to consider allowing administrators to disable this feature for certain subdomains, content types, or protocols.

Leaking secure URLs. User agents should not send HTTPS URLs to third-party sites registered as content handlers, in the same way that user agents do not send Referer headers from secure sites to third-party sites.

Leaking credentials. User agents must never send username or password information in the URLs that are escaped and included sent to the handler sites. User agents may even avoid attempting to pass to Web-based handlers the URLs of resources that are known to require authentication to access, as such sites would be unable to access the resources in question without prompting the user for credentials themselves (a practice that would require the user to know whether to trust the third-party handler, a decision many users are unable to make or even understand).

5.6.2.2 Sample user interface

This section is non-normative.

A simple implementation of this feature for a desktop Web browser might work as follows.

The registerProtocolHandler() method could display a modal dialog box:

||[ Protocol Handler Registration ]|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|                                                            |
| This Web page:                                             |
|                                                            |
|    Kittens at work                                         |
|    http://kittens.example.org/                             |
|                                                            |
| ...would like permission to handle the protocol "x-meow:"  |
| using the following Web-based application:                 |
|                                                            |
|    Kittens-at-work displayer                               |
|    http://kittens.example.org/?show=%s                     |
|                                                            |
| Do you trust the administrators of the "kittens.example.   |
| org" domain?                                               |
|                                                            |
|              ( Trust kittens.example.org )  (( Cancel ))   |
|____________________________________________________________|

...where "Kittens at work" is the title of the page that invoked the method, "http://kittens.example.org/" is the URL of that page, "x-meow" is the string that was passed to the registerProtocolHandler() method as its first argument (protocol), "http://kittens.example.org/?show=%s" was the second argument (url), and "Kittens-at-work displayer" was the third argument (title).

If the user clicks the Cancel button, then nothing further happens. If the user clicks the "Trust" button, then the handler is remembered.

When the user then attempts to fetch a URL that uses the "x-meow:" scheme, then it might display a dialog as follows:

||[ Unknown Protocol ]||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|                                                            |
| You have attempted to access:                              |
|                                                            |
|    x-meow:S2l0dGVucyBhcmUgdGhlIGN1dGVzdCE%3D               |
|                                                            |
| How would you like FerretBrowser to handle this resource?  |
|                                                            |
|  (o) Contact the FerretBrowser plugin registry to see if   |
|      there is an official way to handle this resource.     |
|                                                            |
|  ( ) Pass this URL to a local application:                 |
|      [ /no application selected/             ] ( Choose )  |
|                                                            |
|  ( ) Pass this URL to the "Kittens-at-work displayer"      |
|      application at "kittens.example.org".                 |
|                                                            |
|  [ ] Always do this for resources using the "x-meow"       |
|      protocol in future.                                   |
|                                                            |
|                                     ( Ok )  (( Cancel ))   |
|____________________________________________________________|

...where the third option is the one that was primed by the site registering itself earlier.

If the user does select that option, then the browser, in accordance with the requirements described in the previous two sections, will redirect the user to "http://kittens.example.org/?show=x-meow%3AS2l0dGVucyBhcmUgdGhlIGN1dGVzdCE%253D".

The registerContentHandler() method would work equivalently, but for unknown MIME types instead of unknown protocols.

5.6.3 Client abilities

The canPlayType(type) method must return 1 if type is a MIME type that the user agent is confident represents a media resource that it can render if used in a audio or video element, 0 if it cannot determine whether it could do so, and −1 if it is confident that it would not be able to render resources of that type.

5.7 Offline Web applications

5.7.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

...

5.7.2 Application caches

An application cache is a collection of resources. An application cache is identified by the absolute URL of a resource manifest which is used to populate the cache.

Application caches are versioned, and there can be different instances of caches for the same manifest URL, each having a different version. A cache is newer than another if it was created after the other (in other words, caches in a group have a chronological order).

Each group of application caches for the same manifest URL has a common update status, which is one of the following: idle, checking, downloading.

Each group of application caches for the same manifest URL also has a common lifecycle status, which is one of the following: new, mature, obsolete. A relevant application cache is an application cache whose lifecycle status is mature.

A browsing context is associated with the application cache appropriate for its active document, if any. A Document initially has no appropriate cache, but steps in the parser and in the navigation sections cause cache selection to occur early in the page load process. A browsing context's associated cache can also change during session history traversal.

An application cache consists of:

One of more resources (including their out-of-band metadata, such as HTTP headers, if any), identified by URLs, each falling into one (or more) of the following categories:

Master entries
Documents that were added to the cache because a browsing context was navigated to that document and the document indicated that this was its cache, using the manifest attribute.
The manifest
The resource corresponding to the URL that was given in an master entry's html element's manifest attribute. The manifest is fetched and processed during the application cache update process. All the master entries have the same origin as the manifest.
Explicit entries
Resources that were listed in the cache's manifest. Explicit entries can also be marked as foreign, which means that they have a manifest attribute but that it doesn't point at this cache's manifest.
Fallback entries
Resources that were listed in the cache's manifest as fallback entries.
Dynamic entries
Resources that were added to the cache by the add() method.
A URL in the list can be flagged with multiple different types, and thus an entry can end up being categorized as multiple entries. For example, an entry can be an explicit entry and a dynamic entry at the same time.
Zero or more fallback namespaces: URLs, used as prefix match patterns, each of which is mapped to a fallback entry. Each namespace URL has the same origin as the manifest.
Zero or more URLs that form the online whitelist namespaces.

Multiple application caches can contain the same resource, e.g. if their manifests all reference that resource. If the user agent is to select an application cache from a list of relevant application caches that contain a resource, that the user agent must use the application cache that the user most likely wants to see the resource from, taking into account the following:

which application cache was most recently updated,
which application cache was being used to display the resource from which the user decided to look at the new resource, and
which application cache the user prefers.

5.7.3 The cache manifest syntax

5.7.3.1 A sample manifest

This section is non-normative.

This example manifest requires two images and a style sheet to be cached and whitelists a CGI script.

CACHE MANIFEST
# the above line is required

# this is a comment
# there can be as many of these anywhere in the file
# they are all ignored
  # comments can have spaces before them
  # but most be alone on the line

# blank lines are ignored too

# these are files that need to be cached they can either be listed
# first, or a "CACHE:" header could be put before them, as is done
# lower down.
images/sound-icon.png
images/background.png
# note that each file has to be put on its own line

# here is a file for the online whitelist -- it isn't cached, and 
# references to this file will bypass the cache, always hitting the
# network (or trying to, if the user is offline).
NETWORK:
comm.cgi

# here is another set of files to cache, this time just the CSS file.
CACHE:
style/default.css

5.7.3.2 Writing cache manifests

Manifests must be served using the text/cache-manifest MIME type. All resources served using the text/cache-manifest MIME type must follow the syntax of application cache manifests, as described in this section.

An application cache manifest is a text file, whose text is encoded using UTF-8. Data in application cache manifests is line-based. Newlines must be represented by U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters, U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters, or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) U+000A LINE FEED (LF) pairs.

This is a willful double violation of RFC2046. [RFC2046]

The first line of an application cache manifest must consist of the string "CACHE", a single U+0020 SPACE character, the string "MANIFEST", and zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters. The first line may optionally be preceded by a U+FEFF BYTE ORDER MARK (BOM) character. If any other text is found on the first line, the user agent will ignore the entire file.

Subsequent lines, if any, must all be one of the following:

A blank line

Blank lines must consist of zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters only.

A comment

Comment lines must consist of zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters, followed by a single U+0023 NUMBER SIGN (#) character, followed by zero or more characters other than U+000A LINE FEED (LF) and U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters.

Comments must be on a line on their own. If they were to be included on a line with a URL, the "#" would be mistaken for part of a fragment identifier.

A section header

Section headers change the current section. There are three possible section headers:

CACHE:: Switches to the explicit section.
FALLBACK:: Switches to the fallback section.
NETWORK:: Switches to the online whitelist section.

Section header lines must consist of zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters, followed by one of the names above (including the U+003A COLON (:) character) followed by zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters.

Ironically, by default, the current section is the explicit section.

Data for the current section

The format that data lines must take depends on the current section.

When the current section is the explicit section or the online whitelist section, data lines must consist of zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters, a valid URL identifying a resource other than the manifest itself, and then zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters.

When the current section is the fallback section, data lines must consist of zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters, a valid URL identifying a resource other than the manifest itself, one or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters, another valid URL identifying a resource other than the manifest itself, and then zero or more U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters.

The URLs in data lines can't be empty strings, since those would be relative URLs to the manifest itself. Such lines would be confused with blank or invalid lines, anyway.

Manifests may contain sections more than once. Sections may be empty.

URLs that are to be fallback pages associated with fallback namespaces, and those namespaces themselves, must be given in fallback sections, with the namespace being the first URL of the data line, and the corresponding fallback page being the second URL. All the other pages to be cached must be listed in explicit sections.

Fallback namespaces and fallback entries must have the same origin as the manifest itself.

A fallback namespace must not be listed more than once.

URLs that the user agent is to put into the online whitelist must all be specified in online whitelist sections. (This is needed for any URL that the page is intending to use to communicate back to the server.)

Relative URLs must be given relative to the manifest's own URL.

URLs in manifests must not have fragment identifiers (i.e. the U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character isn't allowed in URLs in manifests).

5.7.3.3 Parsing cache manifests

When a user agent is to parse a manifest, it means that the user agent must run the following steps:

The user agent must decode the byte stream corresponding with the manifest to be parsed, treating it as UTF-8. Bytes or sequences of bytes that are not valid UTF-8 sequences must be interpreted as a U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER.
Let explicit URLs be an initially empty list of explicit entries.
Let fallback URLs be an initially empty mapping of fallback namespaces to fallback entries.
Let online whitelist URLs be an initially empty list of URLs for a online whitelist.
Let input be the decoded text of the manifest's byte stream.
Let position be a pointer into input, initially pointing at the first character.
If position is pointing at a U+FEFF BYTE ORDER MARK (BOM) character, then advance position to the next character.
If the characters starting from position are "CACHE", followed by a U+0020 SPACE character, followed by "MANIFEST", then advance position to the next character after those. Otherwise, this isn't a cache manifest; abort this algorithm with a failure while checking for the magic signature.
Collect a sequence of characters that are U+0020 SPACE or U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters.
If position is not past the end of input and the character at position is neither a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters nor a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character, then this isn't a cache manifest; abort this algorithm with a failure while checking for the magic signature.
This is a cache manifest. The algorithm cannot fail beyond this point (though bogus lines can get ignored).
Let mode be "explicit".
Start of line: If position is past the end of input, then jump to the last step. Otherwise, collect a sequence of characters that are U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR), U+0020 SPACE, or U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters.
Now, collect a sequence of characters that are not U+000A LINE FEED (LF) or U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters, and let the result be line.
Drop any trailing U+0020 SPACE and U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) characters at the end of line.
If line is the empty string, then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".
If the first character in line is a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN (#) character, then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".
If line equals "CACHE:" (the word "CACHE" followed by a U+003A COLON (:) character), then set mode to "explicit" and jump back to the step labeled "start of line".
If line equals "FALLBACK:" (the word "FALLBACK" followed by a U+003A COLON (:) character), then set mode to "fallback" and jump back to the step labeled "start of line".
If line equals "NETWORK:" (the word "NETWORK" followed by a U+003A COLON (:) character), then set mode to "online whitelist" and jump back to the step labeled "start of line".
If line ends with a U+003A COLON (:) character, then set mode to "unknown" and jump back to the step labeled "start of line".
This is either a data line or it is syntactically incorrect.
Let position be a pointer into line, initially pointing at the start of the string.
Let tokens be a list of strings, initially empty.
While position doesn't point past the end of line:
1. Let current token be an empty string.
2. While position doesn't point past the end of line and the character at position is neither a U+0020 SPACE nor a U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) character, add the character at position to current token and advance position to the next character in input.
3. Add current token to the tokens list.
4. While position doesn't point past the end of line and the character at position is either a U+0020 SPACE or a U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION (tab) character, advance position to the next character in input.
Process tokens as follows:

If mode is "explicit"

Resolve the first item in tokens; ignore the rest.

If this fails, then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".

If the resulting absolute URL has a different <scheme> component than the manifest's URL (compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner), then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".

Drop the <fragment> component of the resulting absolute URL, if it has one.

Add the resulting absolute URL to the explicit URLs.

If mode is "fallback"

Let part one be the first token in tokens, and let part two be the second token in tokens.

Resolve part one and part two.

If either fails, then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".

If the absolute URL corresponding to either part one or part two does not have the same origin as the manifest's URL, then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".

Drop any the <fragment> components of the resulting absolute URLs.

If the absolute URL corresponding to part one is already in the fallback URLs mapping as a fallback namespace, then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".

Otherwise, add the absolute URL corresponding to part one to the fallback URLs mapping as a fallback namespace, mapped to the absolute URL corresponding to part two as the fallback entry.

If mode is "online whitelist"

Resolve the first item in tokens; ignore the rest.

If this fails, then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".

If the resulting absolute URL has a different <scheme> component than the manifest's URL (compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner), then jump back to the step labeled "start of line".

Drop the <fragment> component of the resulting absolute URL, if it has one.

Add the resulting absolute URL to the online whitelist URLs.

If mode is "unknown"

Do nothing. The line is ignored.
Jump back to the step labeled "start of line". (That step jumps to the next, and last, step when the end of the file is reached.)
Return the explicit URLs list, the fallback URLs mapping, and the online whitelist URLs.

If a resource is listed in the explicit section and matches an entry in the online whitelist, or if a resource matches both an entry in the fallback section and the online whitelist, the resource will taken from the cache, and the online whitelist entry will be ignored.

5.7.4 Updating an application cache

When the user agent is required (by other parts of this specification) to start the application cache update process for a manifest URL or for an application cache, potentially given a particular browsing context, and potentially given a new master resource, the user agent must run the following steps:

the event stuff needs to be more consistent -- something about showing every step of the ui or no steps or something; and we need to deal with showing ui for browsing contexts that open when an update is already in progress, and we may need to give applications control over the ui the first time they cache themselves (right now the original cache is done without notifications to the browsing contexts); also, we need to update this so all event firing uses queues

Atomically, so as to avoid race conditions, perform the following substeps:
1. Let manifest URL be the URL of the manifest to be updated, or of the manifest of the application cache to be updated, as appropriate.
2. If these steps were invoked with a URL (as opposed to a specific cache), and there is no application cache identified by manifest URL whose lifecycle status is not obsolete, then create a new application cache identified with that URL and set the group's lifecycle status to new.
3. If these steps were invoked with a new master resource, then flag the resource's Document as a candidate for this manifest URL's caches, so that it will be associated with an application cache identified by this manifest URL later, when such an application cache is ready.
4. Let cache group be the group of application caches identified by manifest URL.
5. Let cache be the most recently updated application cache identified by manifest URL (that is, the newest version found in cache group).
6. If these steps were invoked with a browsing context, and the status of the cache group is checking or downloading, then fire a simple event called checking at the ApplicationCache singleton of that browsing context.
7. If these steps were invoked with a browsing context, and the status of the cache group is downloading, then also fire a simple event called downloading at the ApplicationCache singleton of that browsing context.
8. If the status of the cache group is either checking or downloading, then abort this instance of the update process, as an update is already in progress for them.
9. Set the status of this group of caches to checking.
The remainder of the steps run asychronously.
If there is already a resource with the URL of manifest URL in cache, and that resource is categorized as a manifest, then this is an upgrade attempt. Otherwise, this is a cache attempt.

If this is a cache attempt, then cache is forcibly the only application cache in cache group, and it hasn't ever been populated from its manifest (i.e. this update is an attempt to download the application for the first time). It also can't have any browsing contexts associated with it.
Fire a simple event called checking at the ApplicationCache singleton of each browsing context whose active document is associated with a cache in cache group. The default action of this event should be the display of some sort of user interface indicating to the user that the user agent is checking for the availability of updates.

Again, if this is a cache attempt, then cache group has only one cache and it has no browsing contexts associated with it, so no events are dispatched due to this step or any of the other steps that fire events other than the final cached event.
Fetch the resource from manifest URL, and let manifest be that resource.

If the resource is labeled with the MIME type text/cache-manifest, parse manifest according to the rules for parsing manifests, obtaining a list of explicit entries, fallback entries and the fallback namespaces that map to them, and entries for the online whitelist.
If the previous step fails due to a 404 or 410 response or equivalent, then run the cache removal steps

If the previous step fails in some other way (e.g. the server returns another 4xx or 5xx response or equivalent, or there is a DNS error, or the connection times out, or the user cancels the download, or the parser for manifests fails when checking the magic signature), or if the server returned a redirect, or if the resource is labeled with a MIME type other than text/cache-manifest, then run the cache failure steps.
If this is an upgrade attempt and the newly downloaded manifest is byte-for-byte identical to the manifest found in cache, or if the server reported it as "304 Not Modified" or equivalent, then run these substeps:
1. Fire a simple event called noupdate at the ApplicationCache singleton of each browsing context whose active document is associated with a cache in cache group. The default action of this event should be the display of some sort of user interface indicating to the user that the application is up to date.
2. If there are any pending downloads of master entries that are being stored in the cache, then wait for all of them to have completed. If any of these downloads fail (e.g. the server returns a 4xx or 5xx response or equivalent, or there is a DNS error, or the connection times out, or the user cancels the download), then run the cache failure steps.
3. Let the status of the group of caches to which cache belongs be idle. If appropriate, remove any user interface indicating that an update for this cache is in progress.
4. Abort the update process.
Set the status of cache group to downloading.
Fire a simple event called downloading at the ApplicationCache singleton of each browsing context whose active document is associated with a cache in cache group. The default action of this event should be the display of some sort of user interface indicating to the user that a new version is being downloaded.
If this is an upgrade attempt, then let new cache be a newly created application cache identified by manifest URL, being a new version in cache group. Otherwise, let new cache and cache be the same version of the application cache.
Let file list be an empty list of URLs with flags.
Add all the URLs in the list of explicit entries obtained by parsing manifest to file list, each flagged with "explicit entry".
Add all the URLs in the list of fallback entries obtained by parsing manifest to file list, each flagged with "fallback entry".
If this is an upgrade attempt, then add all the URLs of master entries in cache to file list, each flagged with "master entry".
If this is an upgrade attempt, then add all the URLs of dynamic entries in cache to file list, each flagged with "dynamic entry".
If any URL is in file list more than once, then merge the entries into one entry for that URL, that entry having all the flags that the original entries had.
For each URL in file list, run the following steps. These steps may be run in parallel for two or more of the URLs at a time.
1. If the resource URL being processed was flagged as neither an "explicit entry" nor or a "fallback entry", then the user agent may skip this URL.
  
  This is intended to allow user agents to expire resources (other than those in the manifest itself) from the cache. Generally, implementors are urged to use an approach that expires lesser-used resources first.
2. Fire a simple event called progress at the ApplicationCache singleton of each browsing context whose active document is associated with a cache in cache group. The default action of this event should be the display of some sort of user interface indicating to the user that a file is being downloaded in preparation for updating the application.
3. Fetch the resource. If this is an upgrade attempt, then use cache as an HTTP cache, and honor HTTP caching semantics (such as expiration, ETags, and so forth) with respect to that cache. User agents may also have other caches in place that are also honored.
  
  If the resource in question is already being downloaded for other reasons then the existing download process can be used for the purposes of this step, as defined by the fetching algorithm.
  
  An example of a resource that might already be being downloaded is a large image on a Web page that is being seen for the first time. The image would get downloaded to satisfy the img element on the page, as well as being listed in the cache manifest. According to the rules for fetching that image only need be downloaded once, and it can be used both for the cache and for the rendered Web page.
4. If the previous step fails (e.g. the server returns a 4xx or 5xx response or equivalent, or there is a DNS error, or the connection times out, or the user cancels the download), or if the server returned a redirect, then run the first appropriate step from the following list:
  
  If the URL being processed was flagged as an "explicit entry" or a "fallback entry"
  
  Run the cache failure steps.
  
  Redirects are fatal because they are either indicative of a network problem (e.g. a captive portal); or would allow resources to be added to the cache under URLs that differ from any URL that the networking model will allow access to, leaving orphan entries; or would allow resources to be stored under URLs different than their true URLs. All of these situations are bad.
  
  If the error was a 404 or 410 HTTP response or equivalent
  
  Skip this resource. It is dropped from the cache.
  
  Otherwise
  
  Copy the resource and its metadata from cache, and act as if that was the fetched resource, ignoring the resource obtained from the network.
  
  User agents may warn the user of these errors as an aid to development.
  
  These rules make errors for resources listed in the manifest fatal, while making it possible for other resources to be removed from caches when they are removed from the server, without errors, and making non-manifest resources survive server-side errors.
5. Otherwise, the fetching succeeded. Store the resource in the new cache.
6. If the URL being processed was flagged as an "explicit entry" in file list, then categorize the entry as an explicit entry.
7. If the URL being processed was flagged as a "fallback entry" in file list, then categorize the entry as a fallback entry.
8. If the URL being processed was flagged as an "master entry" in file list, then categorize the entry as a master entry.
9. If the URL being processed was flagged as an "dynamic entry" in file list, then categorize the entry as a dynamic entry.
10. As an optimization, if the resource is an HTML or XML file whose root element is an html element with a manifest attribute whose value doesn't match the manifest URL of the application cache being processed, then the user agent should mark the entry as being foreign.
Store the list of fallback namespaces, and the URLs of the fallback entries that they map to, in new cache.
Store the URLs that form the new online whitelist in new cache.
Wait for all pending downloads of master entries that are being stored in the cache to have completed.

For example, if the browsing context's active document isn't itself listed in the cache manifest, then it might still be being downloaded.

If any of these downloads fail (e.g. the connection times out, or the user cancels the download), then run the cache failure steps.
Fetch the resource from manifest URL again, and let second manifest be that resource.
If the previous step failed for any reason, or if the fetching attempt involved a redirect, or if second manifest and manifest are not byte-for-byte identical, then schedule a rerun of the entire algorithm with the same parameters after a short delay, and run the cache failure steps.
Otherwise, store manifest in new cache, if it's not there already, and categorize this entry (whether newly added or not) as the manifest.
If this is a cache attempt, then:

Associate any Document objects that were flagged as candidates for this manifest URL's caches with cache.

Fire a simple event called cached at the ApplicationCache singleton of each browsing context whose active document is associated with a cache in cache group. The default action of this event should be the display of some sort of user interface indicating to the user that the application has been cached and that they can now use it offline.

Set the lifecycle status of cache group to mature.

Set the update status of cache group to idle.
Otherwise, this is an upgrade attempt:

Fire a simple event called updateready at the ApplicationCache singleton of each browsing context whose active document is associated with a cache in cache group. The default action of this event should be the display of some sort of user interface indicating to the user that a new version is available and that they can activate it by reloading the page.

Set the status of cache group to idle.

The cache removal steps are as follows:

If this is a cache attempt, then discard cache and abort the update process.
Fire a simple event called obsolete at the ApplicationCache singleton of each browsing context whose active document is associated with a cache in cache group. The default action of this event should be the display of some sort of user interface indicating to the user that the application is no longer available for offline use.
Set the lifecycle status of cache group to obsolete.
Let the update status of the group of caches to which cache belongs be idle. If appropriate, remove any user interface indicating that an update for this cache is in progress. Abort the update process.

The cache failure steps are as follows:

Fire a simple event called error at the ApplicationCache singleton of each browsing context whose active document is associated with a cache in cache group. The default action of this event should be the display of some sort of user interface indicating to the user that the user agent failed to save the application for offline use.
If this is a cache attempt, then discard cache and abort the update process.
Otherwise, let the status of the group of caches to which cache belongs be idle. If appropriate, remove any user interface indicating that an update for this cache is in progress. Abort the update process.

User agents may invoke the application cache update process, in the background, for any application cache, at any time (with no browsing context). This allows user agents to keep caches primed and to update caches even before the user visits a site.

5.7.5 Processing model

The processing model of application caches for offline support in Web applications is part of the navigation model, but references the algorithms defined in this section.

A URL matches a fallback namespace if there exists a relevant application cache whose manifest's URL has the same origin as the URL in question, and that has a fallback namespace that is a prefix match for the URL being examined. If multiple fallback namespaces match the same URL, the longest one is the one that matches. A URL looking for an fallback namespace can match more than one application cache at a time, but only matches one namespace in each cache.

If a manifest http://example.com/app1/manifest declares that http://example.com/resources/images is a fallback namespace, and the user navigates to HTTP://EXAMPLE.COM:80/resources/images/cat.png, then the user agent will decide that the application cache identified by http://example.com/app1/manifest contains a namespace with a match for that URL.

When the application cache selection algorithm algorithm is invoked with a manifest URL, the user agent must run the first applicable set of steps from the following list:

If the resource is not being loaded as part of navigation of a browsing context

Do nothing.

If the resource being loaded was loaded from an application cache and the URL of that application cache's manifest is the same as the manifest URL with which the algorithm was invoked

Associate the Document with the cache from which it was loaded. Invoke the application cache update process for that cache and with the browsing context being navigated.

If the resource being loaded was loaded from an application cache and the URL of that application cache's manifest is not the same as the manifest URL with which the algorithm was invoked

Mark the entry for this resource in the application cache from which it was loaded as foreign.

Restart the current navigation from the top of the navigation algorithm, undoing any changes that were made as part of the initial load (changes can be avoided by ensuring that the step to update the session history with the new page is only ever completed after the application cache selection algorithm is run, though this is not required).

The navigation will not result in the same resource being loaded, because "foreign" entries are never picked during navigation.

User agents may notify the user of the inconsistency between the cache manifest and the resource's own metadata, to aid in application development.

If the resource being loaded was not loaded from an application cache, but it was loaded using HTTP GET or equivalent

If the manifest URL does not have the same origin as the resource's own URL, then invoke the application cache selection algorithm again, but without a manifest, and abort these steps.
Otherwise, invoke the application cache update process for the given manifest URL, with the browsing context being navigated, and with the resource's Document as the new master resource.

Otherwise

Invoke the application cache selection algorithm again, but without a manifest.

When the application cache selection algorithm is invoked without a manifest, then the user agent must run the first applicable set of steps from the following list:

If the resource is being loaded as part of navigation of a browsing context, and the resource was fetched from a particular application cache: The user agent must associate the Document with that application cache and invoke the application cache update process for that cache, with that browsing context.
If the resource is being loaded as part of navigation of a child browsing context: The user agent must associate the Document with that application cache associated with the active document of the parent browsing context.
Otherwise: Nothing special happens with respect to application caches.

5.7.5.1 Changes to the networking model

When a browsing context is associated with an application cache, any and all resource loads must go through the following steps instead of immediately invoking the mechanisms appropriate to that resource's scheme:

If the resource is not to be fetched using the HTTP GET mechanism or equivalent, then fetch the resource normally and abort these steps.
If the resource's URL is an master entry, the manifest, an explicit entry, a fallback entry, or a dynamic entry in the application cache, then get the resource from the cache (instead of fetching it), and abort these steps.
If the resource's URL has the same origin as the manifest's URL, and there is a fallback namespace in the application cache that is a prefix match for the resource's URL, then:

Fetch the resource normally. If this results in a redirect to a resource with another origin (indicative of a captive portal), or a 4xx or 5xx status code or equivalent, or if there were network errors (but not if the user canceled the download), then instead get, from the cache, the resource of the fallback entry corresponding to the matched namespace. Abort these steps.
If there is an entry in the application cache's online whitelist that has the same origin as the resource's URL and that is a prefix match for the resource's URL, then fetch the resource normally and abort these steps.
Fail the resource load.

The above algorithm ensures that resources that are not present in the manifest will always fail to load (at least, after the cache has been primed the first time), making the testing of offline applications simpler.

5.7.6 Application cache API

interface ApplicationCache {

  // update status
  const unsigned short UNCACHED = 0;
  const unsigned short IDLE = 1;
  const unsigned short CHECKING = 2;
  const unsigned short DOWNLOADING = 3;
  const unsigned short UPDATEREADY = 4;
  const unsigned short OBSOLETE = 5;
  readonly attribute unsigned short status;

  // updates
  void update();
  void swapCache();

  // dynamic entries
  readonly attribute DOMStringList items;
  boolean hasItem(in DOMString url);
  void add(in DOMString url);
  void remove(in DOMString url);

  // events
           attribute EventListener onchecking;
           attribute EventListener onerror;
           attribute EventListener onnoupdate;
           attribute EventListener ondownloading;
           attribute EventListener onprogress;
           attribute EventListener onupdateready;
           attribute EventListener oncached;
           attribute EventListener onobsolete;

};

Objects implementing the ApplicationCache interface must also implement the EventTarget interface.

There is a one-to-one mapping from Document objects to ApplicationCache objects. The applicationCache attribute on Window objects must return the ApplicationCache object associated with the active document of the Window's browsing context.

An ApplicationCache object might be associated with an application cache. When the Document object that the ApplicationCache object maps to is associated with an application cache, then that is the application cache with which the ApplicationCache object is associated. Otherwise, the ApplicationCache object is associated with the application cache that the Document object's browsing context is associated with, if any.

The status attribute, on getting, must return the current state of the application cache ApplicationCache object is associated with, if any. This must be the appropriate value from the following list:

UNCACHED (numeric value 0): The ApplicationCache object is not associated with an application cache at this time.
IDLE (numeric value 1): The ApplicationCache object is associated with an application cache whose group is in the idle update status and the mature lifecycle status and that application cache is the newest cache in its group.
CHECKING (numeric value 2): The ApplicationCache object is associated with an application cache whose group is in the checking update status.
DOWNLOADING (numeric value 3): The ApplicationCache object is associated with an application cache whose group is in the downloading update status.
UPDATEREADY (numeric value 4): The ApplicationCache object is associated with an application cache whose group is in the idle update status and the mature lifecycle status but that application cache is not the newest cache in its group.
OBSOLETE (numeric value 5): The ApplicationCache object is associated with an application cache whose group is in the obsolete lifecycle status.

The dynamic entries in the application cache are ordered in the same order as they were added to the cache by the add() method, with the oldest entry being the zeroth entry.

The items DOM attribute must return a new DOMStringList object. If the ApplicationCache object has an associated application cache with one or more dynamic entries, then the DOMStringList object's items must be the absolute URLs of the dynamic entries in that application cache, in order; otherwise, the object must have no entries.

The hasItem(url) method must run the following steps:

If the ApplicationCache object is not associated with any application cache, then raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception and abort these steps.
Resolve the url argument. If this fails, raise a SYNTAX_ERR exception and abort these steps.
If there is already a resource in in the application cache with which the ApplicationCache object is associated that has the address url, and that entry is categorized as a dynamic entry, then return true.
Otherwise, return false.

The add(url) method must run the following steps:

If the ApplicationCache object is not associated with any application cache, then raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception and abort these steps.
Resolve the url argument. If this fails, raise a SYNTAX_ERR exception and abort these steps.
If there is already a resource in in the application cache with which the ApplicationCache object is associated that has the address url, then ensure that entry is categorized as a dynamic entry and return and abort these steps.
If url has a different <scheme> component than the manifest's URL, then raise a security exception.
Return, but do not abort these steps.
Fetch the resource referenced by url.
If this results in a redirect, or a 4xx or 5xx status code or equivalent, or if there were network errors, or if the user canceled the download, then abort these steps.
Add the fetched resource to the application cache and categorize it as a dynamic entry.

The remove(url) method must resolve the url argument and, if that is successful, remove the dynamic entry categorization of any entry whose address is the resulting absolute URL in the application cache with which the ApplicationCache object is associated. If this removes the last categorization of an entry in that cache, then the entry must be removed entirely (such that if it is re-added, it will be loaded from the network again). If the ApplicationCache object is not associated with any application cache, then the method must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception instead.

Authors should bear in mind that multiple scripts could be simultaneously modifying the same application cache.

If the update() method is invoked, the user agent must invoke the application cache update process, in the background, for the application cache with which the ApplicationCache object is associated, but with no browsing context. If there is no such application cache, then the method must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception instead.

If the swapCache() method is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:

Let document be the Document with which the ApplicationCache object is associated.
Check that document is associated with an application cache. If it is not, then raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception and abort these steps.

This is not the same thing as the ApplicationCache object being itself associated with an application cache! In particular, the Document with which the ApplicationCache object is associated can only itself be associated with an application cache if it is in a top-level browsing context.
Let cache be the application cache with which the ApplicationCache object is associated. (By definition, this is the same as the one that was found in the previous step.)
If the group of application caches to which cache belongs has the lifecycle status obsolete, unassociate document from cache and abort these steps.
Otherwise, check that there is an application cache in the same group as cache which has an entry categorized as a manifest that is newer than cache. If there is not, then raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception and abort these steps.
Let new cache be the newest application cache in the same group as cache which has an entry categorized as a manifest.
Unassociate document from cache and instead associate it with new cache.

The following are the event handler DOM attributes that must be supported by objects implementing the ApplicationCache interface:

onchecking: Must be invoked whenever an checking event is targeted at or bubbles through the ApplicationCache object.
onerror: Must be invoked whenever an error event is targeted at or bubbles through the ApplicationCache object.
onnoupdate: Must be invoked whenever an noupdate event is targeted at or bubbles through the ApplicationCache object.
ondownloading: Must be invoked whenever an downloading event is targeted at or bubbles through the ApplicationCache object.
onprogress: Must be invoked whenever an progress event is targeted at or bubbles through the ApplicationCache object.
onupdateready: Must be invoked whenever an updateready event is targeted at or bubbles through the ApplicationCache object.
oncached: Must be invoked whenever a cached event is targeted at or bubbles through the ApplicationCache object.
onobsolete: Must be invoked whenever an obsolete event is targeted at or bubbles through the ApplicationCache object.

5.7.7 Browser state

The navigator.onLine attribute must return false if the user agent will not contact the network when the user follows links or when a script requests a remote page (or knows that such an attempt would fail), and must return true otherwise.

When the value that would be returned by the navigator.onLine attribute of the Window changes from true to false, the user agent must fire a simple event called offline at the body element.

On the other hand, when the value that would be returned by the navigator.onLine attribute of the Window changes from false to true, the user agent must fire a simple event called online at the body element.

5.8 Session history and navigation

5.8.1 The session history of browsing contexts

The sequence of Documents in a browsing context is its session history.

History objects provide a representation of the pages in the session history of browsing contexts. Each browsing context has a distinct session history.

Each Document object in a browsing context's session history is associated with a unique instance of the History object, although they all must model the same underlying session history.

The history attribute of the Window interface must return the object implementing the History interface for that Window object's active document.

History objects represent their browsing context's session history as a flat list of session history entries. Each session history entry consists of either a URL or a state object, or both, and may in addition have a title, a Document object, form data, a scroll position, and other information associated with it.

This does not imply that the user interface need be linear. See the notes below.

URLs without associated state objects are added to the session history as the user (or script) navigates from page to page.

A state object is an object representing a user interface state.

Pages can add state objects between their entry in the session history and the next ("forward") entry. These are then returned to the script when the user (or script) goes back in the history, thus enabling authors to use the "navigation" metaphor even in one-page applications.

Every Document in the session history is defined to have a last activated entry, which is the state object entry associated with that Document which was most recently activated. Initially, the last activated entry of a Document must be the first entry for the Document, representing the fact that no state object entry has yet been activated.

At any point, one of the entries in the session history is the current entry. This is the entry representing the active document of the browsing context. The current entry is usually an entry for the location of the Document. However, it can also be one of the entries for state objects added to the history by that document.

Entries that consist of state objects share the same Document as the entry for the page that was active when they were added.

Contiguous entries that differ just by fragment identifier also share the same Document.

All entries that share the same Document (and that are therefore merely different states of one particular document) are contiguous by definition.

User agents may discard the Document objects of entries other than the current entry that are not referenced from any script, reloading the pages afresh when the user or script navigates back to such pages. This specification does not specify when user agents should discard Document objects and when they should cache them.

Entries that have had their Document objects discarded must, for the purposes of the algorithms given below, act as if they had not. When the user or script navigates back or forwards to a page which has no in-memory DOM objects, any other entries that shared the same Document object with it must share the new object as well.

When state object entries are added, a URL can be provided. This URL is used to replace the state object entry if the Document is evicted.

When a user agent discards the Document object from an entry in the session history, it must also discard all the entries that share that Document but do not have an associated URL (i.e. entries that only have a state object). Entries that shared that Document object but had a state object and have a different URL must then have their state objects removed. Removed entries are not recreated if the user or script navigates back to the page. If there are no state object entries for that Document object then no entries are removed.

5.8.2 The `History` interface

interface History {
  readonly attribute long length;
  void go(in long delta);
  void go();
  void back();
  void forward();
  void pushState(in DOMObject data, in DOMString title);
  void pushState(in DOMObject data, in DOMString title, in DOMString url);
  void clearState();
};

The length attribute of the History interface must return the number of entries in this session history.

The actual entries are not accessible from script.

The go(delta) method causes the UA to move the number of steps specified by delta in the session history.

If the index of the current entry plus delta is less than zero or greater than or equal to the number of items in the session history, then the user agent must do nothing.

If the delta is zero, then the user agent must act as if the location.reload() method was called instead.

Otherwise, the user agent must cause the current browsing context to traverse the history to the specified entry. The specified entry is the one whose index equals the index of the current entry plus delta.

When the user navigates through a browsing context, e.g. using a browser's back and forward buttons, the user agent must translate this action into the equivalent invocations of the history.go(delta) method on the various affected window objects.

Some of the other members of the History interface are defined in terms of the go() method, as follows:

Member	Definition
`go()`	Must do the same as `go(0)`
`back()`	Must do the same as `go(-1)`
`forward()`	Must do the same as `go(1)`

The pushState(data, title, url) method adds a state object to the history.

When this method is invoked, the user agent must run the following steps:

If a third argument is specified, run these substeps:
1. Resolve the value of the third argument.
2. If that fails, raise a security exception and abort the pushState() steps.
3. Compare the resulting absolute URL to the document's address. If any part of these two URLs differ other than the <path>, <query>, and <fragment> components, then raise a security exception and abort the pushState() steps.
For the purposes of the comparison in the above substeps, the <path> and <query> components can only be the same if the URLs use a hierarchical <scheme>.
Remove from the session history any entries for the Document from the entry after the current entry up to the last entry in the session history that references the same Document object, if any. If the current entry is the last entry in the session history, or if there are no entries after the current entry that reference the same Document object, then no entries are removed.
Add a state object entry to the session history, after the current entry, with the specified data as the state object, the given title as the title, and, if the third argument is present, the absolute URL that was found in the first step as the URL of the entry.
Set this new entry as being the last activated entry for the Document.
Update the current entry to be the this newly added entry.

The title is purely advisory. User agents might use the title in the user interface.

User agents may limit the number of state objects added to the session history per page. If a page hits the UA-defined limit, user agents must remove the entry immediately after the first entry for that Document object in the session history after having added the new entry. (Thus the state history acts as a FIFO buffer for eviction, but as a LIFO buffer for navigation.)

The clearState() method removes all the state objects for the Document object from the session history.

When this method is invoked, the user agent must remove from the session history all the entries from the first state object entry for that Document object up to the last entry that references that same Document object, if any.

Then, if the current entry was removed in the previous step, the current entry must be set to the last entry for that Document object in the session history.

5.8.3 Activating state object entries

When an entry in the session history is activated (which happens during session traversal, as described above), the user agent must run the following steps:

First, the user agent must set this new entry as being the last activated entry for the Document to which the entry belongs.
If the entry is a state object entry, let state be that state object. Otherwise, the entry is the first entry for the Document; let state be null.
The user agent must then fire a popstate event in no namespace on the body element using the PopStateEvent interface, with the state attribute set to the value of state. This event bubbles but is not cancelable and has no default action.

interface PopStateEvent : Event {
  readonly attribute DOMObject state;
  void initPopStateEvent(in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMObject stateArg);
  void initPopStateEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURIArg, in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMObject stateArg);
};

The initPopStateEvent() and initPopStateEventNS() methods must initialize the event in a manner analogous to the similarly-named methods in the DOM3 Events interfaces. [DOM3EVENTS]

The state attribute represents the context information for the event, or null, if the state represented is the initial state of the Document.

5.8.4 The `Location` interface

Each Document object in a browsing context's session history is associated with a unique instance of a Location object.

The location attribute of the HTMLDocument interface must return the Location object for that Document object, if it is in a browsing context, and null otherwise.

The location attribute of the Window interface must return the Location object for that Window object's active document.

Location objects provide a representation of their document's address, and allow the current entry of the browsing context's session history to be changed, by adding or replacing entries in the history object.

interface Location {
  readonly attribute DOMString href;
  void assign(in DOMString url);
  void replace(in DOMString url);
  void reload();

    // URL decomposition attributes 
           attribute DOMString protocol;
           attribute DOMString host;
           attribute DOMString hostname;
           attribute DOMString port;
           attribute DOMString pathname;
           attribute DOMString search;
           attribute DOMString hash;
};

The href attribute must return the address of the page represented by the associated Document object, as an absolute URL.

On setting, the user agent must act as if the assign() method had been called with the new value as its argument.

When the assign(url) method is invoked, the UA must navigate the browsing context to the specified url.

When the replace(url) method is invoked, the UA must navigate the browsing context to the specified url with replacement enabled.

Navigation for the assign() and replace() methods must be done with the script browsing context of the script that invoked the method as the source browsing context.

The Location interface also has the complement of URL decomposition attributes, protocol, host, port, hostname, pathname, search, and hash. These must follow the rules given for URL decomposition attributes, with the input being the address of the page represented by the associated Document object, as an absolute URL (same as the href attribute), and the common setter action being the same as setting the href attribute to the new output value.

5.8.4.1 Security

User agents must raise a security exception whenever any of the members of a Location object are accessed by scripts whose effective script origin is not the same as the Location object's associated Document's effective script origin, with the following exceptions:

The href setter, if the script is running in a browsing context that is allowed to navigate the browsing context with which the Location object is associated

User agents must not allow scripts to override the href attribute's setter.

5.8.5 Implementation notes for session history

This section is non-normative.

The History interface is not meant to place restrictions on how implementations represent the session history to the user.

For example, session history could be implemented in a tree-like manner, with each page having multiple "forward" pages. This specification doesn't define how the linear list of pages in the history object are derived from the actual session history as seen from the user's perspective.

Similarly, a page containing two iframes has a history object distinct from the iframes' history objects, despite the fact that typical Web browsers present the user with just one "Back" button, with a session history that interleaves the navigation of the two inner frames and the outer page.

Security: It is suggested that to avoid letting a page "hijack" the history navigation facilities of a UA by abusing pushState(), the UA provide the user with a way to jump back to the previous page (rather than just going back to the previous state). For example, the back button could have a drop down showing just the pages in the session history, and not showing any of the states. Similarly, an aural browser could have two "back" commands, one that goes back to the previous state, and one that jumps straight back to the previous page.

In addition, a user agent could ignore calls to pushState() that are invoked on a timer, or from event handlers that do not represent a clear user action, or that are invoked in rapid succession.

5.9 Browsing the Web

5.9.1 Navigating across documents

Certain actions cause the browsing context to navigate to a new resource. Navigation always involves source browsing context, which is the browsing context which was responsible for starting the navigation.

For example, following a hyperlink, form submission, and the window.open() and location.assign() methods can all cause a browsing context to navigate.

A user agent may provide various ways for the user to explicitly cause a browsing context to navigate, in addition to those defined in this specification.

When a browsing context is navigated to a new resource, the user agent must run the following steps:

If the source browsing context is not the same as the browsing context being navigated, and the source browsing context is not one of the ancestor browsing contexts of the browsing context being navigated, and the source browsing context has its sandboxed navigation browsing context flag set, then abort these steps. The user agent may offer to open the new resource in a new top-level browsing context or in the top-level browsing context of the source browsing context, at the user's option, in which case the user agent must navigate that designated top-level browsing context to the new resource as if the user had requested it independently.
If the source browsing context is the same as the browsing context being navigated, and this browsing context has its seamless browsing context flag set, then find the nearest ancestor browsing context that does not have its seamless browsing context flag set, and continue these steps as if that browsing context was the one that was going to be navigated instead.
Cancel any preexisting attempt to navigate the browsing context.
Resolve the URL of the new resource. If that fails, the user agent may abort these steps, or may treat the URL as identifying some sort of user-agent defined error resource, which could display some sort of inline content, or could be handled using a mechanism that does not affect the browsing context.
Fragment identifiers: If the absolute URL of the new resource is the same as the address of the active document of the browsing context being navigated, ignoring any <fragment> components of those URLs, and the new resource is to be fetched using HTTP GET or equivalent, then navigate to that fragment identifier and abort these steps.
If the new resource is to be handled by displaying some sort of inline content, e.g. an error message because the specified scheme is not one of the supported protocols, or an inline prompt to allow the user to select a registered handler for the given scheme, then display the inline content and abort these steps.
If the new resource is to be handled using a mechanism that does not affect the browsing context, e.g. ignoring the navigation request altogether because the specified scheme is not one of the supported protocols, then abort these steps and proceed with that mechanism instead.
If the new resource is to be fetched using HTTP GET or equivalent, then check if there are any relevant application caches that are identified by a URL with the same origin as the URL in question, and that have this URL as one of their entries, excluding entries marked as foreign. If so, then the user agent must then get the resource from the most appropriate application cache of those that match.

Otherwise, fetch the new resource. If this results in a redirect, return to the step labeled "fragment identifiers" with the new resource.

For example, imagine an HTML page with an associated application cache displaying an image and a form, where the image is also used by several other application caches. If the user right-clicks on the image and chooses "View Image", then the user agent could decide to show the image from any of those caches, but it is likely that the most useful cache for the user would be the one that was used for the aforementioned HTML page. On the other hand, if the user submits the form, and the form does a POST submission, then the user agent will not use an application cache at all; the submission will be made to the network.
If fetching the resource is synchronous (i.e. for javascript: URLs and about:blank), then this must be synchronous, but if fetching the resource depends on external resources, as it usually does for URLs that use HTTP or other networking protocols, then at this point the user agents must yield to whatever script invoked the navigation steps, if they were invoked by script.
Wait for one or more bytes to be available or for the user agent to establish that the resource in question is empty. During this time, the user agent may allow the user to cancel this navigation attempt or start other navigation attempts.
If the resource was not fetched from an application cache, and was to be fetched using HTTP GET or equivalent, and its URL matches the fallback namespace of one or more relevant application caches, and the user didn't cancel the navigation attempt during the previous step, and the navigation attempt failed (e.g. the server returned a 4xx or 5xx status code or equivalent, or there was a DNS error), then:

Let candidate be the fallback resource specified for the fallback namespace in question. If multiple application caches match, the user agent must use the fallback of the most appropriate application cache of those that match.

If candidate is not marked as foreign, then the user agent must discard the failed load and instead continue along these steps using candidate as the resource.

For the purposes of session history (and features that depend on session history, e.g. bookmarking) the user agent must use the URL of the resource that was requested (the one that matched the fallback namespace), not the fallback resource, as the resource's address. However, the user agent may indicate to the user that the original page load failed, that the page used was a fallback resource, and what the URL of the fallback resource actually is.
If the document's out-of-band metadata (e.g. HTTP headers), not counting any type information (such as the Content-Type HTTP header), requires some sort of processing that will not affect the browsing context, then perform that processing and abort these steps.
Such processing might be triggered by, amongst other things, the following:
- HTTP status codes (e.g. 204 No Content or 205 Reset Content)
- HTTP Content-Disposition headers
- Network errors
Let type be the sniffed type of the resource.
If the user agent has been configured to process resources of the given type using some mechanism other than rendering the content in a browsing context, then skip this step. Otherwise, if the type is one of the following types, jump to the appropriate entry in the following list, and process the resource as described there:

"text/html"

Follow the steps given in the HTML document section, and abort these steps.

Any type ending in "+xml"

"application/xml"

"text/xml"

Follow the steps given in the XML document section. If that section determines that the content is not to be displayed as a generic XML document, then proceed to the next step in this overall set of steps. Otherwise, abort these steps.

"text/plain"

Follow the steps given in the plain text file section, and abort these steps.

A supported image type

Follow the steps given in the image section, and abort these steps.

A type that will use an external application to render the content in the browsing context

Follow the steps given in the plugin section, and abort these steps.
Non-document content: If, given type, the new resource is to be handled by displaying some sort of inline content, e.g. a native rendering of the content, an error message because the specified type is not supported, or an inline prompt to allow the user to select a registered handler for the given type, then display the inline content and abort these steps.
Otherwise, the document's type is such that the resource will not affect the browsing context, e.g. because the resource is to be handed to an external application. Process the resource appropriately.

Some of the sections below, to which the above algorithm defers in certain cases, require the user agent to update the session history with the new page. When a user agent is required to do this, it must follows the set of steps given below that is appropriate for the situation at hand. From the point of view of any script, these steps must occur atomically.

pause for scripts -- but don't use the "pause" definition since that involves not running script!
onbeforeunload, and if present set flag that we will kill document
onunload, and if present set flag that we will kill document
if flag is set: discard the Document
If the navigation was initiated for entry update of an entry
1. Replace the entry being updated with a new entry representing the new resource and its Document object and related state. The user agent may propagate state from the old entry to the new entry (e.g. scroll position).
2. Traverse the history to the new entry.
Otherwise
1. Remove all the entries after the current entry in the browsing context's Document object's History object.
  
  This doesn't necessarily have to affect the user agent's user interface.
2. Append a new entry at the end of the History object representing the new resource and its Document object and related state.
3. Traverse the history to the new entry.
4. If the navigation was initiated with replacement enabled, remove the entry immediately before the new current entry in the session history.

5.9.2 Page load processing model for HTML files

When an HTML document is to be loaded in a browsing context, the user agent must create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, create an HTML parser, associate it with the document, and begin to use the bytes provided for the document as the input stream for that parser.

The input stream converts bytes into characters for use in the tokeniser. This process relies, in part, on character encoding information found in the real Content-Type metadata of the resource; the "sniffed type" is not used for this purpose.

When no more bytes are available, an EOF character is implied, which eventually causes a load event to be fired.

After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has finished parsing, the user agent must update the session history with the new page.

Application cache selection happens in the HTML parser.

5.9.3 Page load processing model for XML files

When faced with displaying an XML file inline, user agents must first create a Document object, following the requirements of the XML and Namespaces in XML recommendations, RFC 3023, DOM3 Core, and other relevant specifications. [XML] [XMLNS] [RFC3023] [DOM3CORE]

The actual HTTP headers and other metadata, not the headers as mutated or implied by the algorithms given in this specification, are the ones that must be used when determining the character encoding according to the rules given in the above specifications. Once the character encoding is established, the document's character encoding must be set to that character encoding.

If the root element, as parsed according to the XML specifications cited above, is found to be an html element with an attribute manifest, then, as soon as the element is inserted into the document, the user agent must resolve the value of that attribute, and if that is successful, must run the application cache selection algorithm with the resulting absolute URL as the manifest URL. Otherwise, if the attribute is absent or resolving it fails, then as soon as the root element is inserted into the document, the user agent must run the application cache selection algorithm with no manifest.

Because the processing of the manifest attribute happens only once the root element is parsed, any URLs referenced by processing instructions before the root element (such as <?xml-styleesheet?> and <?xbl?> PIs) will be fetched from the network and cannot be cached.

User agents may examine the namespace of the root Element node of this Document object to perform namespace-based dispatch to alternative processing tools, e.g. determining that the content is actually a syndication feed and passing it to a feed handler. If such processing is to take place, abort the steps in this section, and jump to the next step (labeled "non-document content") in the navigate steps above.

Otherwise, then, with the newly created Document, the user agents must update the session history with the new page. User agents may do this before the complete document has been parsed (thus achieving incremental rendering).

Error messages from the parse process (e.g. XML namespace well-formedness errors) may be reported inline by mutating the Document.

5.9.4 Page load processing model for text files

When a plain text document is to be loaded in a browsing context, the user agent should create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, create an HTML parser, associate it with the document, act as if the tokeniser had emitted a start tag token with the tag name "pre", set the tokenization stage's content model flag to PLAINTEXT, and begin to pass the stream of characters in the plain text document to that tokeniser.

The rules for how to convert the bytes of the plain text document into actual characters are defined in RFC 2046, RFC 2646, and subsequent versions thereof. [RFC2046] [RFC2646]

The document's character encoding must be set to the character encoding used to decode the document.

Upon creation of the Document object, the user agent must run the application cache selection algorithm with no manifest.

When no more character are available, an EOF character is implied, which eventually causes a load event to be fired.

After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has finished parsing, the user agent must update the session history with the new page.

User agents may add content to the head element of the Document, e.g. linking to stylesheet or an XBL binding, providing script, giving the document a title, etc.

5.9.5 Page load processing model for images

When an image resource is to be loaded in a browsing context, the user agent should create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, append an html element to the Document, append a head element and a body element to the html element, append an img to the body element, and set the src attribute of the img element to the address of the image.

Then, the user agent must act as if it had stopped parsing.

Upon creation of the Document object, the user agent must run the application cache selection algorithm with no manifest.

After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has finished fully loading, the user agent must update the session history with the new page.

User agents may add content to the head element of the Document, or attributes to the img element, e.g. to link to stylesheet or an XBL binding, to provide a script, to give the document a title, etc.

5.9.6 Page load processing model for content that uses plugins

When a resource that requires an external resource to be rendered is to be loaded in a browsing context, the user agent should create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, append an html element to the Document, append a head element and a body element to the html element, append an embed to the body element, and set the src attribute of the embed element to the address of the resource.

Then, the user agent must act as if it had stopped parsing.

Upon creation of the Document object, the user agent must run the application cache selection algorithm with no manifest.

After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has finished fully loading, the user agent must update the session history with the new page.

User agents may add content to the head element of the Document, or attributes to the embed element, e.g. to link to stylesheet or an XBL binding, or to give the document a title.

If the sandboxed plugins browsing context flag is set on the browsing context, the synthesized embed element will fail to render the content.

5.9.7 Page load processing model for inline content that doesn't have a DOM

When the user agent is to display a user agent page inline in a browsing context, the user agent should create a Document object, mark it as being an HTML document, and then either associate that Document with a custom rendering that is not rendered using the normal Document rendering rules, or mutate that Document until it represents the content the user agent wants to render.

Once the page has been set up, the user agent must act as if it had stopped parsing.

Upon creation of the Document object, the user agent must run the application cache selection algorithm with no manifest.

After creating the Document object, but potentially before the page has been completely set up, the user agent must update the session history with the new page.

5.9.8 Navigating to a fragment identifier

When a user agent is supposed to navigate to a fragment identifier, then the user agent must update the session history with the new page, where "the new page" has the same Document as before but with the URL having the newly specified fragment identifier.

Part of that algorithm involves the user agent having to scroll to the fragment identifier, which is the important part for this step.

When the user agent is required to scroll to the fragment identifier, it must change the scrolling position of the document, or perform some other action, such that the indicated part of the document is brought to the user's attention. If there is no indicated part, then the user agent must not scroll anywhere.

The indicated part of the document is the one that the fragment identifier, if any, identifies. The semantics of the fragment identifier in terms of mapping it to a specific DOM Node is defined by the MIME type specification of the document's MIME Type (for example, the processing of fragment identifiers for XML MIME types is the responsibility of RFC3023).

For HTML documents (and the text/html MIME type), the following processing model must be followed to determine what the indicated part of the document is.

Parse the URL, and let fragid be the <fragment> component of the URL.
If fragid is the empty string, then the indicated part of the document is the top of the document.
If there is an element in the DOM that has an ID exactly equal to fragid, then the first such element in tree order is the indicated part of the document; stop the algorithm here.
If there is an a element in the DOM that has a name attribute whose value is exactly equal to fragid, then the first such element in tree order is the indicated part of the document; stop the algorithm here.
Otherwise, there is no indicated part of the document.

For the purposes of the interaction of HTML with Selectors' :target pseudo-class, the target element is the indicated part of the document, if that is an element; otherwise there is no target element. [SELECTORS]

5.9.9 History traversal

When a user agent is required to traverse the history to a specified entry, the user agent must act as follows:

If there is no longer a Document object for the entry in question, the user agent must navigate the browsing context to the location for that entry to perform an entry update of that entry, and abort these steps. The "navigate" algorithm reinvokes this "traverse" algorithm to complete the traversal, at which point there is a Document object and so this step gets skipped. The navigation must be done using the same source browsing context as was used the first time this entry was created.
If appropriate, update the current entry in the browsing context's Document object's History object to reflect any state that the user agent wishes to persist.

For example, some user agents might want to persist the scroll position, or the values of form controls.
If the specified entry has a different Document object than the current entry then the user agent must run the following substeps:
1. freeze any timers, intervals, XMLHttpRequests, database transactions, etc
2. The user agent must move any properties that have been added to the browsing context's default view's Window object to the active document's Document's list of added properties.
3. If the browsing context is a top-level browsing context (and not an auxiliary browsing context), and the origin of the Document of the specified entry is not the same as the origin of the Document of the current entry, then the following sub-sub-steps must be run:
  1. The current browsing context name must be stored with all the entries in the history that are associated with Document objects with the same origin as the active document and that are contiguous with the current entry.
  2. The browsing context's browsing context name must be unset.
4. The user agent must make the specified entry's Document object the active document of the browsing context. (If it is a top-level browsing context, this might change which application cache it is associated with.)
5. If the specified entry has a browsing context name stored with it, then the following sub-sub-steps must be run:
  1. The browsing context's browsing context name must be set to the name stored with the specified entry.
  2. Any browsing context name stored with the entries in the history that are associated with Document objects with the same origin as the new active document, and that are contiguous with the specified entry, must be cleared.
6. The user agent must move any properties that have been added to the active document's Document's list of added properties to browsing context's default view's Window object.
7. unfreeze any timers, intervals, XMLHttpRequests, database transactions, etc
If there are any entries with state objects between the last activated entry for the Document of the specified entry and the specified entry itself (not inclusive), then the user agent must iterate through every entry between that last activated entry and the specified entry, starting with the entry closest to the current entry, and ending with the one closest to the specified entry. For each entry, if the entry is a state object, the user agent must activate the state object.
If the specified entry is a state object or the first entry for a Document, the user agent must activate that entry.
If the specified entry has a URL that differs from the current entry's only by its fragment identifier, and the two share the same Document object, then fire a simple event with the name hashchange at the body element, and, if the new URL has a fragment identifier, scroll to the fragment identifier.
User agents may also update other aspects of the document view when the location changes in this way, for instance the scroll position, values of form fields, etc.
The current entry is now the specified entry.

how does the changing of the global attributes affect .watch() when seen from other Windows?

5.9.10 Closing a browsing context

Closing a browsing context and discarding it (vs closing it and keeping it around in memory).

when a browsing context is closed, all session history entries' Document objects must be discarded.

When a user agent is to discard a Document, any frozen timers, intervals, XMLHttpRequests, database transactions, etc, must be killed, and any MessagePorts owned by the Window object must be unentangled.

Also, unload events should fire.

5.10 Structured client-side storage

5.10.1 Storing name/value pairs

5.10.1.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

This specification introduces two related mechanisms, similar to HTTP session cookies, for storing structured data on the client side. [RFC2109] [RFC2965]

The first is designed for scenarios where the user is carrying out a single transaction, but could be carrying out multiple transactions in different windows at the same time.

Cookies don't really handle this case well. For example, a user could be buying plane tickets in two different windows, using the same site. If the site used cookies to keep track of which ticket the user was buying, then as the user clicked from page to page in both windows, the ticket currently being purchased would "leak" from one window to the other, potentially causing the user to buy two tickets for the same flight without really noticing.

To address this, this specification introduces the sessionStorage DOM attribute. Sites can add data to the session storage, and it will be accessible to any page from the same site opened in that window.

For example, a page could have a checkbox that the user ticks to indicate that he wants insurance:

<label>
 <input type="checkbox" onchange="sessionStorage.insurance = checked">
 I want insurance on this trip.
</label>

A later page could then check, from script, whether the user had checked the checkbox or not:

if (sessionStorage.insurance) { ... }

If the user had multiple windows opened on the site, each one would have its own individual copy of the session storage object.

The second storage mechanism is designed for storage that spans multiple windows, and lasts beyond the current session. In particular, Web applications may wish to store megabytes of user data, such as entire user-authored documents or a user's mailbox, on the client side for performance reasons.

Again, cookies do not handle this case well, because they are transmitted with every request.

The localStorage DOM attribute is used to access a page's local storage area.

The site at example.com can display a count of how many times the user has loaded its page by putting the following at the bottom of its page:

<p>
  You have viewed this page
  <span id="count">an untold number of</span>
  time(s).
</p>
<script>
  if (!localStorage.pageLoadCount)
    localStorage.pageLoadCount = 0;
  localStorage.pageLoadCount = parseInt(localStorage.pageLoadCount, 10) + 1;
  document.getElementById('count').textContent = localStorage.pageLoadCount;
</script>

Each site has its own separate storage area.

Storage areas (both session storage and local storage) store strings. To store structured data in a storage area, you must first convert it to a string.

5.10.1.2 The `Storage` interface

interface Storage {
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  [IndexGetter] DOMString key(in unsigned long index);
  [NameGetter] DOMString getItem(in DOMString key);
  [NameSetter] void setItem(in DOMString key, in DOMString data);
  [XXX] void removeItem(in DOMString key); 
  void clear();
};

Each Storage object provides access to a list of key/value pairs, which are sometimes called items. Keys and values are strings. Any string (including the empty string) is a valid key.

To store more structured data, authors may consider using the SQL interfaces instead.

Each Storage object is associated with a list of key/value pairs when it is created, as defined in the sections on the sessionStorage and localStorage attributes. Multiple separate objects implementing the Storage interface can all be associated with the same list of key/value pairs simultaneously.

The length attribute must return the number of key/value pairs currently present in the list associated with the object.

The key(n) method must return the name of the nth key in the list. The order of keys is user-agent defined, but must be consistent within an object between changes to the number of keys. (Thus, adding or removing a key may change the order of the keys, but merely changing the value of an existing key must not.) If n is less than zero or greater than or equal to the number of key/value pairs in the object, then this method must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

The getItem(key) method must return the current value associated with the given key. If the given key does not exist in the list associated with the object then this method must return null.

The setItem(key, value) method must first check if a key/value pair with the given key already exists in the list associated with the object.

If it does not, then a new key/value pair must be added to the list, with the given key and value.

If the given key does exist in the list, then it must have its value updated to the value given in the value argument.

If it couldn't set the new value, the method must raise an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception. (Setting could fail if, e.g., the user has disabled storage for the domain, or if the quota has been exceeded.)

The removeItem(key) method must cause the key/value pair with the given key to be removed from the list associated with the object, if it exists. If no item with that key exists, the method must do nothing.

The setItem() and removeItem() methods must be atomic with respect to failure. That is, changes to the data storage area must either be successful, or the data storage area must not be changed at all.

The clear() method must atomically cause the list associated with the object to be emptied of all key/value pairs.

When the setItem(), removeItem(), and clear() methods are invoked, events are fired on other HTMLDocument objects that can access the newly stored or removed data, as defined in the sections on the sessionStorage and localStorage attributes.

5.10.1.3 The `sessionStorage` attribute

The sessionStorage attribute represents the set of storage areas specific to the current top-level browsing context.

Each top-level browsing context has a unique set of session storage areas, one for each origin.

User agents should not expire data from a browsing context's session storage areas, but may do so when the user requests that such data be deleted, or when the UA detects that it has limited storage space, or for security reasons. User agents should always avoid deleting data while a script that could access that data is running. When a top-level browsing context is destroyed (and therefore permanently inaccessible to the user) the data stored in its session storage areas can be discarded with it, as the API described in this specification provides no way for that data to ever be subsequently retrieved.

The lifetime of a browsing context can be unrelated to the lifetime of the actual user agent process itself, as the user agent may support resuming sessions after a restart.

When a new HTMLDocument is created, the user agent must check to see if the document's top-level browsing context has allocated a session storage area for that document's origin. If it has not, a new storage area for that document's origin must be created.

The Storage object for the document's associated Window object's sessionStorage attribute must then be associated with that origin's session storage area for that top-level browsing context.

When a new top-level browsing context is created by cloning an existing browsing context, the new browsing context must start with the same session storage areas as the original, but the two sets must from that point on be considered separate, not affecting each other in any way.

When a new top-level browsing context is created by a script in an existing browsing context, or by the user following a link in an existing browsing context, or in some other way related to a specific HTMLDocument, then the session storage area of the origin of that HTMLDocument must be copied into the new browsing context when it is created. From that point on, however, the two session storage areas must be considered separate, not affecting each other in any way.

When the setItem(), removeItem(), and clear() methods are called on a Storage object x that is associated with a session storage area, then in every HTMLDocument object whose Window object's sessionStorage attribute's Storage object is associated with the same storage area, other than x, a storage event must be fired, as described below.

5.10.1.4 The `localStorage` attribute

The localStorage object provides a Storage object for an origin.

User agents must have a set of local storage areas, one for each origin.

User agents should expire data from the local storage areas only for security reasons or when requested to do so by the user. User agents should always avoid deleting data while a script that could access that data is running. Data stored in local storage areas should be considered potentially user-critical. It is expected that Web applications will use the local storage areas for storing user-written documents.

When the localStorage attribute is accessed, the user agent must check to see if it has allocated local storage area for the for the origin of the active document of the browsing context of the Window object on which the method was invoked. If it has not, a new storage area for that origin must be created.

The user agent must then create a Storage object associated with that origin's local storage area, and return it.

When the setItem(), removeItem(), and clear() methods are called on a Storage object x that is associated with a local storage area, then in every HTMLDocument object whose Window object's localStorage attribute's Storage object is associated with the same storage area, other than x, a storage event must be fired, as described below.

5.10.1.5 The `storage` event

The storage event is fired in an HTMLDocument when a storage area changes, as described in the previous two sections (for session storage, for local storage).

When this happens, the user agent must dispatch an event with the name storage, with no namespace, which does not bubble but is cancelable, and which uses the StorageEvent, at the body element of each active HTMLDocument object affected.

If the event is being fired due to an invocation of the setItem() or removeItem() methods, the event must have its key attribute set to the name of the key in question, its oldValue attribute set to the old value of the key in question, or null if the key is newly added, and its newValue attribute set to the new value of the key in question, or null if the key was removed.

Otherwise, if the event is being fired due to an invocation of the clear() method, the event must have its key, oldValue, and newValue attributes set to null.

In addition, the event must have its url attribute set to the address of the page whose Storage object was affected, and its source attribute set to the Window object of the browsing context that that document is in, if the two documents are in the same unit of related browsing contexts, or null otherwise.

5.10.1.5.1 Event definition

interface StorageEvent : Event {
  readonly attribute DOMString key;
  readonly attribute DOMString oldValue;
  readonly attribute DOMString newValue;
  readonly attribute DOMString url;
  readonly attribute Window source;
  void initStorageEvent(in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMString keyArg, in DOMString oldValueArg, in DOMString newValueArg, in DOMString urlArg, in Window sourceArg);
  void initStorageEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMString keyArg, in DOMString oldValueArg, in DOMString newValueArg, in DOMString urlArg, in Window sourceArg);
};

The initStorageEvent() and initStorageEventNS() methods must initialize the event in a manner analogous to the similarly-named methods in the DOM3 Events interfaces. [DOM3EVENTS]

The key attribute represents the key being changed.

The oldValue attribute represents the old value of the key being changed.

The newValue attribute represents the new value of the key being changed.

The url attribute represents the address of the document that changed the key.

The source attribute represents the Window that changed the key.

5.10.1.6 Threads

Multiple browsing contexts must be able to access the local storage areas simultaneously in a predictable manner. Scripts must not be able to detect any concurrent script execution.

This is required to guarantee that the length attribute of a Storage object never changes while a script is executing, other than in a way that is predictable by the script itself.

There are various ways of implementing this requirement. One is to just have one event loop for all browsing contexts. Another is that if a script running in one browsing context accesses a storage area, the user agent blocks scripts in other browsing contexts when they try to access the same storage area until the event loop running the first script has completed running the task that started that script. Another (potentially more efficient but certainly more complex) implementation strategy is to use optimistic transactional script execution. This specification does not require any particular implementation strategy, so long as the requirement above is met.

5.10.2 Database storage

5.10.2.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

...

5.10.2.2 Databases

Each origin has an associated set of databases. Each database has a name and a current version. There is no way to enumerate or delete the databases available for a domain from this API.

Each database has one version at a time, a database can't exist in multiple versions at once. Versions are intended to allow authors to manage schema changes incrementally and non-destructively, and without running the risk of old code (e.g. in another browser window) trying to write to a database with incorrect assumptions.

The openDatabase() method returns a Database object. The method takes four arguments: a database name, a database version, a display name, and an estimated size, in bytes, of the data that will be stored in the database.

The openDatabase() method must use and create databases from the origin of the active document of the browsing context of the Window object on which the method was invoked.

If the database version provided is not the empty string, and the database already exists but has a different version, then the method must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception.

The user agent may also raise a security exception in case the request violates a policy decision (e.g. if the user agent is configured to not allow the page to open databases).

Otherwise, if the database version provided is the empty string, or if the database doesn't yet exist, or if the database exists and the version provided to the openDatabase() method is the same as the current version associated with the database, then the method must return a Database object representing the database that has the name that was given. If no such database exists, it must be created first.

All strings including the empty string are valid database names. Database names must be compared in a case-sensitive manner.

Implementations can support this even in environments that only support a subset of all strings as database names by mapping database names (e.g. using a hashing algorithm) to the supported set of names.

User agents are expected to use the display name and the estimated database size to optimize the user experience. For example, a user agent could use the estimated size to suggest an initial quota to the user. This allows a site that is aware that it will try to use hundreds of megabytes to declare this upfront, instead of the user agent prompting the user for permission to increase the quota every five megabytes.

interface Database {
  void transaction(in SQLTransactionCallback callback);
  void transaction(in SQLTransactionCallback callback, in SQLTransactionErrorCallback errorCallback);
  void transaction(in SQLTransactionCallback callback, in SQLTransactionErrorCallback errorCallback, in VoidCallback successCallback);

  readonly attribute DOMString version;
  void changeVersion(in DOMString oldVersion, in DOMString newVersion, in SQLTransactionCallback callback, in SQLTransactionErrorCallback errorCallback, in VoidCallback successCallback);
};

interface SQLTransactionCallback {
  void handleEvent(in SQLTransaction transaction);
};

interface SQLTransactionErrorCallback {
  void handleEvent(in SQLError error);
};

The transaction() method takes one or two arguments. When called, the method must immediately return and then asynchronously run the transaction steps with the transaction callback being the first argument, the error callback being the second argument, if any, the success callback being the third argument, if any, and with no preflight operation or postflight operation.

The version that the database was opened with is the expected version of this Database object. It can be the empty string, in which case there is no expected version — any version is fine.

On getting, the version attribute must return the current version of the database (as opposed to the expected version of the Database object).

The changeVersion() method allows scripts to atomically verify the version number and change it at the same time as doing a schema update. When the method is invoked, it must immediately return, and then asynchronously run the transaction steps with the transaction callback being the third argument, the error callback being the fourth argument, the success callback being the fifth argument, the preflight operation being the following:

Check that the value of the first argument to the changeVersion() method exactly matches the database's actual version. If it does not, then the preflight operation fails.

...and the postflight operation being the following:

Change the database's actual version to the value of the second argument to the changeVersion() method.
Change the Database object's expected version to the value of the second argument to the changeVersion() method.

5.10.2.3 Executing SQL statements

The transaction() and changeVersion() methods invoke callbacks with SQLTransaction objects.

typedef sequence<Object> ObjectArray;

interface SQLTransaction {
  void executeSql(in DOMString sqlStatement);
  void executeSql(in DOMString sqlStatement, in ObjectArray arguments);
  void executeSql(in DOMString sqlStatement, in ObjectArray arguments, in SQLStatementCallback callback);
  void executeSql(in DOMString sqlStatement, in ObjectArray arguments, in SQLStatementCallback callback, in SQLStatementErrorCallback errorCallback);
};

interface SQLStatementCallback {
  void handleEvent(in SQLTransaction transaction, in SQLResultSet resultSet);
};

interface SQLStatementErrorCallback {
  boolean handleEvent(in SQLTransaction transaction, in SQLError error);
};

When the executeSql(sqlStatement, arguments, callback, errorCallback) method is invoked, the user agent must run the following algorithm. (This algorithm is relatively simple and doesn't actually execute any SQL — the bulk of the work is actually done as part of the transaction steps.)

If the method was not invoked during the execution of a SQLTransactionCallback, SQLStatementCallback, or SQLStatementErrorCallback then raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception. (Calls from inside a SQLTransactionErrorCallback thus raise an exception. The SQLTransactionErrorCallback handler is only called once a transaction has failed, and no SQL statements can be added to a failed transaction.)
Parse the first argument to the method (sqlStatement) as an SQL statement, with the exception that ? characters can be used in place of literals in the statement. [SQL]
Replace each ? placeholder with the value of the argument in the arguments array with the same position. (So the first ? placeholder gets replaced by the first value in the arguments array, and generally the nth ? placeholder gets replaced by the nth value in the arguments array.)

If the second argument is omitted or null, then treat the arguments array as empty.

The result is the statement.

Implementation feedback is requested on what to do with arguments that are of types that are not supported by the underlying SQL backend. For example, SQLite doesn't support booleans, so what should the UA do if passed a boolean? The Gears team suggests failing, not silently converting types.
If the syntax of sqlStatement is not valid (except for the use of ? characters in the place of literals), or the statement uses features that are not supported (e.g. due to security reasons), or the number of items in the arguments array is not equal to the number of ? placeholders in the statement, or the statement cannot be parsed for some other reason, then mark the statement as bogus.
If the Database object that the SQLTransaction object was created from has an expected version that is neither the empty string nor the actual version of the database, then mark the statement as bogus. (Error code 2.)
Queue up the statement in the transaction, along with the third argument (if any) as the statement's result set callback and the fourth argument (if any) as the error callback.

The user agent must act as if the database was hosted in an otherwise completely empty environment with no resources. For example, attempts to read from or write to the file system will fail.

SQL inherently supports multiple concurrent connections. Authors should make appropriate use of the transaction features to handle the case of multiple scripts interacting with the same database simultaneously (as could happen if the same page was opened in two different browsing contexts).

User agents must consider statements that use the BEGIN, COMMIT, and ROLLBACK SQL features as being unsupported (and thus will mark them as bogus), so as to not let these statements interfere with the explicit transactions managed by the database API itself.

A future version of this specification will probably define the exact SQL subset required in more detail.

5.10.2.4 Database query results

The executeSql() method invokes its callback with a SQLResultSet object as an argument.

interface SQLResultSet {
  readonly attribute long insertId;
  readonly attribute long rowsAffected;
  readonly attribute SQLResultSetRowList rows;
};

The insertId attribute must return the row ID of the row that the SQLResultSet object's SQL statement inserted into the database, if the statement inserted a row. If the statement inserted multiple rows, the ID of the last row must be the one returned. If the statement did not insert a row, then the attribute must instead raise an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception.

The rowsAffected attribute must return the number of rows that were affected by the SQL statement. If the statement did not affected any rows, then the attribute must return zero. For "SELECT" statements, this returns zero (querying the database doesn't affect any rows).

The rows attribute must return a SQLResultSetRowList representing the rows returned, in the order returned by the database. If no rows were returned, then the object will be empty (its length will be zero).

interface SQLResultSetRowList {
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  [IndexGetter] DOMObject item(in unsigned long index);
};

SQLResultSetRowList objects have a length attribute that must return the number of rows it represents (the number of rows returned by the database).

The item(index) attribute must return the row with the given index index. If there is no such row, then the method must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception.

Each row must be represented by a native ordered dictionary data type. In the ECMAScript binding, this must be Object. Each row object must have one property (or dictionary entry) per column, with those properties enumerating in the order that these columns were returned by the database. Each property must have the name of the column and the value of the cell, as they were returned by the database.

5.10.2.5 Errors

Errors in the database API are reported using callbacks that have a SQLError object as one of their arguments.

interface SQLError {
  readonly attribute unsigned long code;
  readonly attribute DOMString message;
};

The code DOM attribute must return the most appropriate code from the following table:

Code	Situation
0	The transaction failed for reasons unrelated to the database itself and not covered by any other error code.
1	The statement failed for database reasons not covered by any other error code.
2	The statement failed because the expected version of the database didn't match the actual database version.
3	The statement failed because the data returned from the database was too large. The SQL "LIMIT" modifier might be useful to reduce the size of the result set.
4	The statement failed because there was not enough remaining storage space, or the storage quota was reached and the user declined to give more space to the database.
5	The statement failed because the transaction's first statement was a read-only statement, and a subsequent statement in the same transaction tried to modify the database, but the transaction failed to obtain a write lock before another transaction obtained a write lock and changed a part of the database that the former transaction was depending upon.
6	An `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, or `REPLACE` statement failed due to a constraint failure. For example, because a row was being inserted and the value given for the primary key column duplicated the value of an existing row.

We should define a more thorough list of codes. Implementation feedback is requested to determine what codes are needed.

The message DOM attribute must return an error message describing the error encountered. The message should be localized to the user's language.

5.10.2.6 Processing model

The transaction steps are as follows. These steps must be run asynchronously. These steps are invoked with a transaction callback, optionally an error callback, optionally a success callback, optionally a preflight operation, and optionally a postflight operation.

Open a new SQL transaction to the database, and create a SQLTransaction object that represents that transaction.
If an error occurred in the opening of the transaction, jump to the last step.
If a preflight operation was defined for this instance of the transaction steps, run that. If it fails, then jump to the last step. (This is basically a hook for the changeVersion() method.)
Queue a task to invoke the transaction callback with the aforementioned SQLTransaction object as its only argument, and wait for that task to be run.
If the callback couldn't be called (e.g. it was null), or if the callback was invoked and raised an exception, jump to the last step.
While there are any statements queued up in the transaction, perform the following steps for each queued up statement in the transaction, oldest first. Each statement has a statement, optionally a result set callback, and optionally an error callback.
1. If the statement is marked as bogus, jump to the "in case of error" steps below.
2. Execute the statement in the context of the transaction. [SQL]
3. If the statement failed, jump to the "in case of error" steps below.
4. Create a SQLResultSet object that represents the result of the statement.
5. If the statement has a result set callback, queue a task to invoke it with the SQLTransaction object as its first argument and the new SQLResultSet object as its second argument, and wait for that task to be run.
6. If the callback was invoked and raised an exception, jump to the last step in the overall steps.
7. Move on to the next statement, if any, or onto the next overall step otherwise.
In case of error (or more specifically, if the above substeps say to jump to the "in case of error" steps), run the following substeps:
1. If the statement had an associated error callback, then queue a task to invoke that error callback with the SQLTransaction object and a newly constructed SQLError object that represents the error that caused these substeps to be run as the two arguments, respectively, and wait for the task to be run.
2. If the error callback returns false, then move on to the next statement, if any, or onto the next overall step otherwise.
3. Otherwise, the error callback did not return false, or there was no error callback. Jump to the last step in the overall steps.
If a postflight operation was defined for this instance of the transaction steps, run that. If it fails, then jump to the last step. (This is basically a hook for the changeVersion() method.)
Commit the transaction.
If an error occurred in the committing of the transaction, jump to the last step.
Queue a task to invoke the success callback.
End these steps. The next step is only used when something goes wrong.
Queue a task to invoke the error callback with a newly constructed SQLError object that represents the last error to have occurred in this transaction. Rollback the transaction. Any still-pending statements in the transaction are discarded.

5.10.3 Disk space

User agents should limit the total amount of space allowed for storage areas and databases.

User agents should guard against sites storing data in the storage areas or databases of subdomains, e.g. storing up to the limit in a1.example.com, a2.example.com, a3.example.com, etc, circumventing the main example.com storage limit.

User agents may prompt the user when quotas are reached, allowing the user to grant a site more space. This enables sites to store many user-created documents on the user's computer, for instance.

User agents should allow users to see how much space each domain is using.

A mostly arbitrary limit of five megabytes per domain is recommended. Implementation feedback is welcome and will be used to update this suggestion in future.

5.10.4 Privacy

5.10.4.1 User tracking

A third-party advertiser (or any entity capable of getting content distributed to multiple sites) could use a unique identifier stored in its local storage area or in its client-side database to track a user across multiple sessions, building a profile of the user's interests to allow for highly targeted advertising. In conjunction with a site that is aware of the user's real identity (for example an e-commerce site that requires authenticated credentials), this could allow oppressive groups to target individuals with greater accuracy than in a world with purely anonymous Web usage.

There are a number of techniques that can be used to mitigate the risk of user tracking:

Blocking third-party storage: user agents may restrict access to the localStorage and database objects to scripts originating at the domain of the top-level document of the browsing context, for instance denying access to the API for pages from other domains running in iframes.
Expiring stored data: user agents may automatically delete stored data after a period of time.

For example, a user agent could treat third-party local storage areas as session-only storage, deleting the data once the user had closed all the browsing contexts that could access it.

This can restrict the ability of a site to track a user, as the site would then only be able to track the user across multiple sessions when he authenticates with the site itself (e.g. by making a purchase or logging in to a service).

However, this also puts the user's data at risk.
Treating persistent storage as cookies: user agents should present the persistent storage and database features to the user in a way that does not distinguish them from HTTP session cookies. [RFC2109] [RFC2965]

This might encourage users to view persistent storage with healthy suspicion.
Site-specific white-listing of access to local storage areas and databases: user agents may allow sites to access session storage areas in an unrestricted manner, but require the user to authorize access to local storage areas and databases.
Origin-tracking of persistent storage data: user agents may record the origins of sites that contained content from third-party origins that caused data to be stored.

If this information is then used to present the view of data currently in persistent storage, it would allow the user to make informed decisions about which parts of the persistent storage to prune. Combined with a blacklist ("delete this data and prevent this domain from ever storing data again"), the user can restrict the use of persistent storage to sites that he trusts.
Shared blacklists: user agents may allow users to share their persistent storage domain blacklists.

This would allow communities to act together to protect their privacy.

While these suggestions prevent trivial use of these APIs for user tracking, they do not block it altogether. Within a single domain, a site can continue to track the user during a session, and can then pass all this information to the third party along with any identifying information (names, credit card numbers, addresses) obtained by the site. If a third party cooperates with multiple sites to obtain such information, a profile can still be created.

However, user tracking is to some extent possible even with no cooperation from the user agent whatsoever, for instance by using session identifiers in URLs, a technique already commonly used for innocuous purposes but easily repurposed for user tracking (even retroactively). This information can then be shared with other sites, using using visitors' IP addresses and other user-specific data (e.g. user-agent headers and configuration settings) to combine separate sessions into coherent user profiles.

If the user interface for persistent storage presents data in the persistent storage features separately from data in HTTP session cookies, then users are likely to delete data in one and not the other. This would allow sites to use the two features as redundant backup for each other, defeating a user's attempts to protect his privacy.

5.10.5 Security

5.10.5.1 DNS spoofing attacks

Because of the potential for DNS spoofing attacks, one cannot guarantee that a host claiming to be in a certain domain really is from that domain. To mitigate this, pages can use SSL. Pages using SSL can be sure that only pages using SSL that have certificates identifying them as being from the same domain can access their local storage areas and databases.

5.10.5.2 Cross-directory attacks

Different authors sharing one host name, for example users hosting content on geocities.com, all share one persistent storage object and one set of databases. There is no feature to restrict the access by pathname. Authors on shared hosts are therefore recommended to avoid using the persistent storage features, as it would be trivial for other authors to read from and write to the same storage area or database.

Even if a path-restriction feature was made available, the usual DOM scripting security model would make it trivial to bypass this protection and access the data from any path.

5.10.5.3 Implementation risks

The two primary risks when implementing these persistent storage features are letting hostile sites read information from other domains, and letting hostile sites write information that is then read from other domains.

Letting third-party sites read data that is not supposed to be read from their domain causes information leakage, For example, a user's shopping wishlist on one domain could be used by another domain for targeted advertising; or a user's work-in-progress confidential documents stored by a word-processing site could be examined by the site of a competing company.

Letting third-party sites write data to the storage areas of other domains can result in information spoofing, which is equally dangerous. For example, a hostile site could add items to a user's wishlist; or a hostile site could set a user's session identifier to a known ID that the hostile site can then use to track the user's actions on the victim site.

Thus, strictly following the origin model described in this specification is important for user security.

5.10.5.4 SQL and user agents

User agent implementors are strongly encouraged to audit all their supported SQL statements for security implications. For example, LOAD DATA INFILE is likely to pose security risks and there is little reason to support it.

In general, it is recommended that user agents not support features that control how databases are stored on disk. For example, there is little reason to allow Web authors to control the character encoding used in the disk representation of the data, as all data in ECMAScript is implicitly UTF-16.

5.10.5.5 SQL injection

Authors are strongly recommended to make use of the ? placeholder feature of the executeSql() method, and to never construct SQL statements on the fly.

5.11 Links

5.11.1 Hyperlink elements

The a, area, and link elements can, in certain situations described in the definitions of those elements, represent hyperlinks.

The href attribute on a hyperlink element must have a value that is a valid URL. This URL is the destination resource of the hyperlink.

The href attribute on a and area elements is not required; when those elements do not have href attributes they do not represent hyperlinks.

The href attribute on the link element is required, but whether a link element represents a hyperlink or not depends on the value of the rel attribute of that element.

The target attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name or keyword. User agents use this name when following hyperlinks.

The ping attribute, if present, gives the URLs of the resources that are interested in being notified if the user follows the hyperlink. The value must be a space separated list of one or more valid URLs. The value is used by the user agent when following hyperlinks.

For a and area elements that represent hyperlinks, the relationship between the document containing the hyperlink and the destination resource indicated by the hyperlink is given by the value of the element's rel attribute, which must be a set of space-separated tokens. The allowed values and their meanings are defined below. The rel attribute has no default value. If the attribute is omitted or if none of the values in the attribute are recognized by the UA, then the document has no particular relationship with the destination resource other than there being a hyperlink between the two.

The media attribute describes for which media the target document was designed. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid media query. [MQ] The default, if the media attribute is omitted, is all.

The hreflang attribute on hyperlink elements, if present, gives the language of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid RFC 3066 language code. [RFC3066] User agents must not consider this attribute authoritative — upon fetching the resource, user agents must use only language information associated with the resource to determine its language, not metadata included in the link to the resource.

The type attribute, if present, gives the MIME type of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid MIME type, optionally with parameters. [RFC2046] User agents must not consider the type attribute authoritative — upon fetching the resource, user agents must not use metadata included in the link to the resource to determine its type.

5.11.2 Following hyperlinks

When a user follows a hyperlink, the user agent must navigate a browsing context to the URL given by the href attribute of that hyperlink. In the case of server-side image maps, the URL of the hyperlink must further have its hyperlink suffix appended to it.

If the user indicated a specific browsing context when following the hyperlink, or if the user agent is configured to follow hyperlinks by navigating a particular browsing context, then that must be the browsing context that is navigated.

Otherwise, if the hyperlink element is an a or area element that has a target attribute, then the browsing context that is navigated must be chosen by applying the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name, using the value of the target attribute as the browsing context name. If these rules result in the creation of a new browsing context, it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Otherwise, if the hyperlink element is a sidebar hyperlink and the user agent implements a feature that can be considered a secondary browsing context, such a secondary browsing context may be selected as the browsing context to be navigated.

Otherwise, if the hyperlink element is an a or area element with no target attribute, but one of the child nodes of the head element is a base element with a target attribute, then the browsing context that is navigated must be chosen by applying the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name, using the value of the target attribute of the first such base element as the browsing context name. If these rules result in the creation of a new browsing context, it must be navigated with replacement enabled.

Otherwise, the browsing context that must be navigated is the same browsing context as the one which the hyperlink element itself is in.

The navigation must be done with the browsing context that contains the Document object with which the hyperlink's element in question is associated as the source browsing context.

5.11.2.1 Hyperlink auditing

If an a or area hyperlink element has a ping attribute and the user follows the hyperlink, the user agent must take the ping attribute's value, split that string on spaces, resolve each resulting token, and then should send a request (as described below) to each of the resulting absolute URLs. (Tokens that fail to resolve are ignored.) This may be done in parallel with the primary request, and is independent of the result of that request.

User agents should allow the user to adjust this behavior, for example in conjunction with a setting that disables the sending of HTTP Referer headers. Based on the user's preferences, UAs may either ignore the ping attribute altogether, or selectively ignore URLs in the list (e.g. ignoring any third-party URLs).

For URLs that are HTTP URLs, the requests must be performed by fetching the specified URLs using the POST method, with an empty entity body in the request. All relevant cookie and HTTP authentication headers must be included in the request. Which other headers are required depends on the URLs involved.

If both the address of the Document object containing the hyperlink being audited and the ping URL have the same origin: The request must include a Ping-From HTTP header with, as its value, the address of the document containing the hyperlink, and a Ping-To HTTP header with, as its value, the address of the absolute URL of the target of the hyperlink. The request must not include a Referer HTTP header.
Otherwise, if the origins are different, but the document containing the hyperlink being audited was not retrieved over an encrypted connection: The request must include a Referer HTTP header [sic] with, as its value, the location of the document containing the hyperlink, a Ping-From HTTP header with the same value, and a Ping-To HTTP header with, as its value, the address of the target of the hyperlink.
Otherwise, the origins are different and the document containing the hyperlink being audited was retrieved over an encrypted connection: The request must include a Ping-To HTTP header with, as its value, the address of the target of the hyperlink. The request must neither include a Referer HTTP header nor include a Ping-From HTTP header.

To save bandwidth, implementors might also wish to consider omitting optional headers such as Accept from these requests.

User agents must, unless otherwise specified by the user, honor the HTTP headers (including, in particular, redirects and HTTP cookie headers), but must ignore any entity bodies returned in the responses. User agents may close the connection prematurely once they start receiving an entity body. [RFC2109] [RFC2965]

For URLs that are not HTTP URLs, the requests must be performed by fetching the specified URL normally, and discarding the results.

When the ping attribute is present, user agents should clearly indicate to the user that following the hyperlink will also cause secondary requests to be sent in the background, possibly including listing the actual target URLs.

The ping attribute is redundant with pre-existing technologies like HTTP redirects and JavaScript in allowing Web pages to track which off-site links are most popular or allowing advertisers to track click-through rates.

However, the ping attribute provides these advantages to the user over those alternatives:

It allows the user to see the final target URL unobscured.
It allows the UA to inform the user about the out-of-band notifications.
It allows the paranoid user to disable the notifications without losing the underlying link functionality.
It allows the UA to optimize the use of available network bandwidth so that the target page loads faster.

Thus, while it is possible to track users without this feature, authors are encouraged to use the ping attribute so that the user agent can improve the user experience.

5.11.3 Link types

The following table summarizes the link types that are defined by this specification. This table is non-normative; the actual definitions for the link types are given in the next few sections.

In this section, the term referenced document refers to the resource identified by the element representing the link, and the term current document refers to the resource within which the element representing the link finds itself.

To determine which link types apply to a link, a, or area element, the element's rel attribute must be split on spaces. The resulting tokens are the link types that apply to that element.

Unless otherwise specified, a keyword must not be specified more than once per rel attribute.

Link type	Effect on...		Brief description
Link type	`link`	`a` and `area`	Brief description
`alternate`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Gives alternate representations of the current document.
`archives`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Provides a link to a collection of records, documents, or other materials of historical interest.
`author`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Gives a link to the current document's author.
`bookmark`	not allowed	Hyperlink	Gives the permalink for the nearest ancestor section.
`external`	not allowed	Hyperlink	Indicates that the referenced document is not part of the same site as the current document.
`feed`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Gives the address of a syndication feed for the current document.
`first`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Indicates that the current document is a part of a series, and that the first document in the series is the referenced document.
`help`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Provides a link to context-sensitive help.
`icon`	External Resource	not allowed	Imports an icon to represent the current document.
`index`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Gives a link to the document that provides a table of contents or index listing the current document.
`last`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Indicates that the current document is a part of a series, and that the last document in the series is the referenced document.
`license`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Indicates that the current document is covered by the copyright license described by the referenced document.
`next`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Indicates that the current document is a part of a series, and that the next document in the series is the referenced document.
`nofollow`	not allowed	Hyperlink	Indicates that the current document's original author or publisher does not endorse the referenced document.
`noreferrer`	not allowed	Hyperlink	Requires that the user agent not send an HTTP `Referer` header if the user follows the hyperlink.
`pingback`	External Resource	not allowed	Gives the address of the pingback server that handles pingbacks to the current document.
`prefetch`	External Resource	not allowed	Specifies that the target resource should be preemptively cached.
`prev`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Indicates that the current document is a part of a series, and that the previous document in the series is the referenced document.
`search`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Gives a link to a resource that can be used to search through the current document and its related pages.
`stylesheet`	External Resource	not allowed	Imports a stylesheet.
`sidebar`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Specifies that the referenced document, if retrieved, is intended to be shown in the browser's sidebar (if it has one).
`tag`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Gives a tag (identified by the given address) that applies to the current document.
`up`	Hyperlink	Hyperlink	Provides a link to a document giving the context for the current document.

Some of the types described below list synonyms for these values. These are to be handled as specified by user agents, but must not be used in documents.

5.11.3.1 Link type "`alternate`"

The alternate keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, if the rel attribute does not also contain the keyword stylesheet, it creates a hyperlink; but if it does also contain the keyword stylesheet, the alternate keyword instead modifies the meaning of the stylesheet keyword in the way described for that keyword, and the rest of this subsection doesn't apply.

The alternate keyword indicates that the referenced document is an alternate representation of the current document.

The nature of the referenced document is given by the media, hreflang, and type attributes.

If the alternate keyword is used with the media attribute, it indicates that the referenced document is intended for use with the media specified.

If the alternate keyword is used with the hreflang attribute, and that attribute's value differs from the root element's language, it indicates that the referenced document is a translation.

If the alternate keyword is used with the type attribute, it indicates that the referenced document is a reformulation of the current document in the specified format.

The media, hreflang, and type attributes can be combined when specified with the alternate keyword.

For example, the following link is a French translation that uses the PDF format:

<link rel=alternate type=application/pdf hreflang=fr href=manual-fr>

If the alternate keyword is used with the type attribute set to the value application/rss+xml or the value application/atom+xml, then the user agent must treat the link as it would if it had the feed keyword specified as well.

The alternate link relationship is transitive — that is, if a document links to two other documents with the link type "alternate", then, in addition to implying that those documents are alternative representations of the first document, it is also implying that those two documents are alternative representations of each other.

5.11.3.2 Link type "`archives`"

The archives keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The archives keyword indicates that the referenced document describes a collection of records, documents, or other materials of historical interest.

A blog's index page could link to an index of the blog's past posts with rel="archives".

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "archive" like the archives keyword.

5.11.3.3 Link type "`author`"

The author keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

For a and area elements, the author keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further information about the author of the section that the element defining the hyperlink applies to.

For link elements, the author keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further information about the author for the page as a whole.

The "referenced document" can be, and often is, a mailto: URL giving the e-mail address of the author. [MAILTO]

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat link, a, and area elements that have a rev attribute with the value "made" as having the author keyword specified as a link relationship.

5.11.3.4 Link type "`bookmark`"

The bookmark keyword may be used with a and area elements.

The bookmark keyword gives a permalink for the nearest ancestor article element of the linking element in question, or of the section the linking element is most closely associated with, if there are no ancestor article elements.

The following snippet has three permalinks. A user agent could determine which permalink applies to which part of the spec by looking at where the permalinks are given.

 ...
 <body>
  <h1>Example of permalinks</h1>
  <div id="a">
   <h2>First example</h2>
   <p><a href="a.html" rel="bookmark">This</a> permalink applies to
   only the content from the first H2 to the second H2. The DIV isn't
   exactly that section, but it roughly corresponds to it.</p>
  </div>
  <h2>Second example</h2>
  <article id="b">
   <p><a href="b.html" rel="bookmark">This</a> permalink applies to
   the outer ARTICLE element (which could be, e.g., a blog post).</p>
   <article id="c">
    <p><a href="c.html" rel="bookmark">This</a> permalink applies to
    the inner ARTICLE element (which could be, e.g., a blog comment).</p>
   </article>
  </article>
 </body>
 ...

5.11.3.5 Link type "`external`"

The external keyword may be used with a and area elements.

The external keyword indicates that the link is leading to a document that is not part of the site that the current document forms a part of.

5.11.3.6 Link type "`feed`"

The feed keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The feed keyword indicates that the referenced document is a syndication feed. If the alternate link type is also specified, then the feed is specifically the feed for the current document; otherwise, the feed is just a syndication feed, not necessarily associated with a particular Web page.

The first link, a, or area element in the document (in tree order) that creates a hyperlink with the link type feed must be treated as the default syndication feed for the purposes of feed autodiscovery.

The feed keyword is implied by the alternate link type in certain cases (q.v.).

The following two link elements are equivalent: both give the syndication feed for the current page:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="data.xml">

<link rel="feed alternate" href="data.xml">

The following extract offers various different syndication feeds:

 <p>You can access the planets database using Atom feeds:</p>
 <ul>
  <li><a href="recently-visited-planets.xml" rel="feed">Recently Visited Planets</a></li>
  <li><a href="known-bad-planets.xml" rel="feed">Known Bad Planets</a></li>
  <li><a href="unexplored-planets.xml" rel="feed">Unexplored Planets</a></li>
 </ul>

5.11.3.7 Link type "`help`"

The help keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

For a and area elements, the help keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further help information for the parent of the element defining the hyperlink, and its children.

In the following example, the form control has associated context-sensitive help. The user agent could use this information, for example, displaying the referenced document if the user presses the "Help" or "F1" key.

 <p><label> Topic: <input name=topic> <a href="help/topic.html" rel="help">(Help)</a></label></p>

For link elements, the help keyword indicates that the referenced document provides help for the page as a whole.

5.11.3.8 Link type "`icon`"

The icon keyword may be used with link elements, for which it creates an external resource link.

The specified resource is an icon representing the page or site, and should be used by the user agent when representing the page in the user interface.

Icons could be auditory icons, visual icons, or other kinds of icons. If multiple icons are provided, the user agent must select the most appropriate icon according to the type, media, and sizes attributes. If there are multiple equally appropriate icons, user agents must use the last one declared in tree order. If the user agent tries to use an icon but that icon is determined, upon closer examination, to in fact be inappropriate (e.g. because it uses an unsupported format), then the user agent must try the next-most-appropriate icon as determined by the attributes.

There is no default type for resources given by the icon keyword. However, for the purposes of determining the type of the resource, user agents must expect the resource to be an image.

The sizes attribute gives the sizes of icons for visual media.

If specified, the attribute must have a value that is an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens. The values must all be either any or a value that consists of two valid non-negative integers that do not have a leading U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) character and that are separated by a single U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X character.

The keywords represent icon sizes.

To parse and process the attribute's value, the user agent must first split the attribute's value on spaces, and must then parse each resulting keyword to determine what it represents.

The any keyword represents that the resource contains a scalable icon, e.g. as provided by an SVG image.

Other keywords must be further parsed as follows to determine what they represent:

If the keyword doesn't contain exactly one U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X character, then this keyword doesn't represent anything. Abort these steps for that keyword.
Let width string be the string before the "x".
Let height string be the string after the "x".
If either width string or height string start with a U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) character or contain any characters other than characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9), then this keyword doesn't represent anything. Abort these steps for that keyword.
Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to width string to obtain width.
Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to height string to obtain height.
The keyword represents that the resource contains a bitmap icon with a width of width device pixels and a height of height device pixels.

The keywords specified on the sizes attribute must not represent icon sizes that are not actually available in the linked resource.

If the attribute is not specified, then the user agent must assume that the given icon is appropriate, but less appropriate than an icon of a known and appropriate size.

The following snippet shows the top part of an application with several icons.

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
 <head>
  <title>lsForums — Inbox</title>
  <link rel=icon href=favicon.png sizes="16x16">
  <link rel=icon href=windows.ico sizes="32x32 48x48">
  <link rel=icon href=mac.icns sizes="128x128 512x512 8192x8192 32768x32768">
  <link rel=icon href=iphone.png sizes="59x60">
  <link rel=icon href=gnome.svg sizes="any">
  <link rel=stylesheet href=lsforums.css>
  <script src=lsforums.js></script>
  <meta name=application-name content="lsForums">
 </head>
 <body>
  ...

5.11.3.9 Link type "`license`"

The license keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The license keyword indicates that the referenced document provides the copyright license terms under which the current document is provided.

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "copyright" like the license keyword.

5.11.3.10 Link type "`nofollow`"

The nofollow keyword may be used with a and area elements.

The nofollow keyword indicates that the link is not endorsed by the original author or publisher of the page, or that the link to the referenced document was included primarily because of a commercial relationship between people affiliated with the two pages.

5.11.3.11 Link type "`noreferrer`"

The noreferrer keyword may be used with a and area elements.

If a user agent follows a link defined by an a or area element that has the noreferrer keyword, the user agent must not include a Referer HTTP header (or equivalent for other protocols) in the request.

This keyword also causes the opener attribute to remain null if the hyperlink creates a new browsing context.

5.11.3.12 Link type "`pingback`"

The pingback keyword may be used with link elements, for which it creates an external resource link.

For the semantics of the pingback keyword, see the Pingback 1.0 specification. [PINGBACK]

5.11.3.13 Link type "`prefetch`"

The prefetch keyword may be used with link elements, for which it creates an external resource link.

The prefetch keyword indicates that preemptively fetching and caching the specified resource is likely to be beneficial, as it is highly likely that the user will require this resource.

There is no default type for resources given by the prefetch keyword.

5.11.3.14 Link type "`search`"

The search keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The search keyword indicates that the referenced document provides an interface specifically for searching the document and its related resources.

OpenSearch description documents can be used with link elements and the search link type to enable user agents to autodiscover search interfaces. [OPENSEARCH]

5.11.3.15 Link type "`stylesheet`"

The stylesheet keyword may be used with link elements, for which it creates an external resource link that contributes to the styling processing model.

The specified resource is a resource that describes how to present the document. Exactly how the resource is to be processed depends on the actual type of the resource.

If the alternate keyword is also specified on the link element, then the link is an alternative stylesheet; in this case, the title attribute must be specified on the link element, with a non-empty value.

The default type for resources given by the stylesheet keyword is text/css.

Quirk: If the document has been set to quirks mode and the Content-Type metadata of the external resource is not a supported style sheet type, the user agent must instead assume it to be text/css.

5.11.3.16 Link type "`sidebar`"

The sidebar keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The sidebar keyword indicates that the referenced document, if retrieved, is intended to be shown in a secondary browsing context (if possible), instead of in the current browsing context.

A hyperlink element with with the sidebar keyword specified is a sidebar hyperlink.

5.11.3.17 Link type "`tag`"

The tag keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The tag keyword indicates that the tag that the referenced document represents applies to the current document.

5.11.3.18 Hierarchical link types

Some documents form part of a hierarchical structure of documents.

A hierarchical structure of documents is one where each document can have various subdocuments. The document of which a document is a subdocument is said to be the document's parent. A document with no parent forms the top of the hierarchy.

A document may be part of multiple hierarchies.

5.11.3.18.1 Link type "`index`"

The index keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The index keyword indicates that the document is part of a hierarchical structure, and that the link is leading to the document that is the top of the hierarchy. It conveys more information when used with the up keyword (q.v.).

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keywords "top", "contents", and "toc" like the index keyword.

5.11.3.18.2 Link type "`up`"

The up keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The up keyword indicates that the document is part of a hierarchical structure, and that the link is leading to the document that is the parent of the current document.

The up keyword may be repeated within a rel attribute to indicate the hierarchical distance from the current document to the referenced document. Each occurrence of the keyword represents one further level. If the index keyword is also present, then the number of up keywords is the depth of the current page relative to the top of the hierarchy. Only one link is created for the set of one or more up keywords and, if present, the index keyword.

If the page is part of multiple hierarchies, then they should be described in different paragraphs. User agents must scope any interpretation of the up and index keywords together indicating the depth of the hierarchy to the paragraph in which the link finds itself, if any, or to the document otherwise.

When two links have both the up and index keywords specified together in the same scope and contradict each other by having a different number of up keywords, the link with the greater number of up keywords must be taken as giving the depth of the document.

This can be used to mark up a navigation style sometimes known as bread crumbs. In the following example, the current page can be reached via two paths.

<nav>
 <p>
  <a href="/" rel="index up up up">Main</a> >
  <a href="/products/" rel="up up">Products</a> >
  <a href="/products/dishwashers/" rel="up">Dishwashers</a> >
  <a>Second hand</a>
 </p>
 <p>
  <a href="/" rel="index up up">Main</a> >
  <a href="/second-hand/" rel="up">Second hand</a> >
  <a>Dishwashers</a>
 </p>
</nav>

The relList DOM attribute (e.g. on the a element) does not currently represent multiple up keywords (the interface hides duplicates).

5.11.3.19 Sequential link types

Some documents form part of a sequence of documents.

A sequence of documents is one where each document can have a previous sibling and a next sibling. A document with no previous sibling is the start of its sequence, a document with no next sibling is the end of its sequence.

A document may be part of multiple sequences.

5.11.3.19.1 Link type "`first`"

The first keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The first keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to the document that is the first logical document in the sequence.

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keywords "begin" and "start" like the first keyword.

5.11.3.19.2 Link type "`last`"

The last keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The last keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to the document that is the last logical document in the sequence.

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "end" like the last keyword.

5.11.3.19.3 Link type "`next`"

The next keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The next keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to the document that is the next logical document in the sequence.

5.11.3.19.4 Link type "`prev`"

The prev keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. For link elements, it creates a hyperlink.

The prev keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to the document that is the previous logical document in the sequence.

Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "previous" like the prev keyword.

5.11.3.20 Other link types

Other than the types defined above, only types defined as extensions in the WHATWG Wiki RelExtensions page may be used with the rel attribute on link, a, and area elements. [WHATWGWIKI]

Anyone is free to edit the WHATWG Wiki RelExtensions page at any time to add a type. Extension types must be specified with the following information:

Keyword

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

Effect on... link

One of the following:

not allowed: The keyword is not allowed to be specified on link elements.
Hyperlink: The keyword may be specified on a link element; it creates a hyperlink link.
External Resource: The keyword may be specified on a link element; it creates a external resource link.

Effect on... a and area

One of the following:

not allowed: The keyword is not allowed to be specified on a and area elements.
Hyperlink: The keyword may be specified on a and area elements.

Brief description

A short description of what the keyword's meaning is.

Link to more details

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

Synonyms

A list of other keyword values that have exactly the same processing requirements. Authors must not use the values defined to be synonyms, they are only intended to allow user agents to support legacy content.

Status

One of the following:

Proposal: The keyword has not received wide peer review and approval. It is included for completeness because pages use the keyword. Pages should not use the keyword.
Accepted: The keyword has received wide peer review and approval. It has a specification that unambiguously defines how to handle pages that use the keyword, including when they use them in incorrect ways. Pages may use the keyword.
Rejected: The keyword has received wide peer review and it has been found to have significant problems. Pages must not use the keyword. When a keyword has this status, the "Effect on... link" and "Effect on... a and area" information should be set to "not allowed".

If a keyword is added with the "proposal" status and found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value. If a keyword is added with the "proposal" status and found to be harmful, then it should be changed to "rejected" status, and its "Effect on..." information should be changed accordingly.

Conformance checkers must use the information given on the WHATWG Wiki RelExtensions page to establish if a value not explicitly defined in this specification is allowed or not. When an author uses a new type not defined by either this specification or the Wiki page, conformance checkers should offer to add the value to the Wiki, with the details described above, with the "proposal" status.

This specification does not define how new values will get approved. It is expected that the Wiki will have a community that addresses this.

6 User Interaction

This section describes various features that allow authors to enable users to edit documents and parts of documents interactively.

6.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

Would be nice to explain how these features work together.

6.2 The `hidden` attribute

All elements may have the hidden content attribute set. The hidden attribute is a boolean attribute. When specified on an element, it indicates that the element is not yet, or is no longer, relevant. User agents should not render elements that have the hidden attribute specified.

In the following skeletal example, the attribute is used to hide the Web game's main screen until the user logs in:

  <h1>The Example Game</h1>
  <section id="login">
   <h2>Login</h2>
   <form>
    ...
    <!-- calls login() once the user's credentials have been checked -->
   </form>
   <script>
    function login() {
      // switch screens
      document.getElementById('login').hidden = true;
      document.getElementById('game').hidden = false;
    }
   </script>
  </section>
  <section id="game" hidden>
   ...
  </section>

The hidden attribute must not be used to hide content that could legitimately be shown in another presentation. For example, it is incorrect to use hidden to hide panels in a tabbed dialog, because the tabbed interface is merely a kind of overflow presentation — showing all the form controls in one big page with a scrollbar would be equivalent, and no less correct.

Elements in a section hidden by the hidden attribute are still active, e.g. scripts and form controls in such sections still render execute and submit respectively. Only their presentation to the user changes.

The hidden DOM attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.

6.3 Activation

The click() method must, if the element has a defined activation behavior, run synthetic click activation steps on the element. Otherwise, the user agent must fire a click event at the element.

6.4 Scrolling elements into view

The scrollIntoView([top]) method, when called, must cause the element on which the method was called to have the attention of the user called to it.

In a speech browser, this could happen by having the current playback position move to the start of the given element.

In visual user agents, if the argument is present and has the value false, the user agent should scroll the element into view such that both the bottom and the top of the element are in the viewport, with the bottom of the element aligned with the bottom of the viewport. If it isn't possible to show the entire element in that way, or if the argument is omitted or is true, then the user agent should instead align the top of the element with the top of the viewport. If the entire scrollable part of the content is visible all at once (e.g. if a page is shorter than the viewport), then the user agent should not scroll anything. Visual user agents should further scroll horizontally as necessary to bring the element to the attention of the user.

Non-visual user agents may ignore the argument, or may treat it in some media-specific manner most useful to the user.

6.5 Focus

When an element is focused, key events received by the document must be targeted at that element. There may be no element focused; when no element is focused, key events received by the document must be targetted at the body element.

User agents may track focus for each browsing context or Document individually, or may support only one focused elment per top-level browsing context — user agents should follow platform conventions in this regard.

Which element(s) within a top-level browsing context currently has focus must be independent of whether or not the top-level browsing context itself has the system focus.

When an element is focused, the element matches the CSS :focus pseudo-class.

The tabindex content attribute specifies whether the element is focusable, whether it can be reached using sequential focus navigation, and the relative order of the element for the purposes of sequential focus navigation. The name "tab index" comes from the common use of the "tab" key to navigate through the focusable elements. The term "tabbing" refers to moving forward through the focusable elements that can be reached using sequential focus navigation.

The tabindex attribute, if specified, must have a value that is a valid integer.

If the attribute is specified, it must be parsed using the rules for parsing integers. The attribute's values have the following meanings:

If the attribute is omitted or parsing the value returns an error

The user agent should follow platform conventions to determine if the element is to be focusable and, if so, whether the element can be reached using sequential focus navigation, and if so, what its relative order should be.

If the value is a negative integer

The user agent must allow the element to be focused, but should not allow the element to be reached using sequential focus navigation.

If the value is a zero

The user agent must allow the element to be focused, should allow the element to be reached using sequential focus navigation, and should follow platform conventions to determine the element's relative order.

If the value is greater than zero

The user agent must allow the element to be focused, should allow the element to be reached using sequential focus navigation, and should place the element in the sequential focus navigation order so that it is:

before any focusable element whose tabindex attribute has been omitted or whose value, when parsed, returns an error,
before any focusable element whose tabindex attribute has a value equal to or less than zero,
after any element whose tabindex attribute has a value greater than zero but less than the value of the tabindex attribute on the element,
after any element whose tabindex attribute has a value equal to the value of the tabindex attribute on the element but that is earlier in the document in tree order than the element,
before any element whose tabindex attribute has a value equal to the value of the tabindex attribute on the element but that is later in the document in tree order than the element, and
before any element whose tabindex attribute has a value greater than the value of the tabindex attribute on the element.

An element is focusable if the tabindex attribute's definition above defines the element to be focusable and the element is being rendered.

The tabIndex DOM attribute must reflect the value of the tabindex content attribute. If the attribute is not present, or parsing its value returns an error, then the DOM attribute must return 0 for elements that are focusable and −1 for elements that are not focusable.

6.5.2 Focus management

The focusing steps are as follows:

If focusing the element will remove the focus from another element, then run the unfocusing steps for that element.
Make the element the currently focused element in its top-level browsing context.

Some elements, most notably area, can correspond to more than one distinct focusable area. If a particular area was indicated when the element was focused, then that is the area that must get focus; otherwise, e.g. when using the focus() method, the first such region in tree order is the one that must be focused.
Fire a simple event that doesn't bubble called focus at the element.

User agents must run the focusing steps for an element whenever the user moves the focus to a focusable element.

The unfocusing steps are as follows:

If the element is an input element, and the change event applies to the element, and the element does not have a defined activation behavior, and the user has changed the element's value or its list of selected files while the control was focused without committing that change, then fire a simple event called change at the element, then broadcast formchange events at the element's form owner.
Unfocus the element.
Fire a simple event that doesn't bubble called blur at the element.

User agents should run the unfocusing steps for an element whenever the user moves the focus away from any focusable element.

6.5.3 Document-level focus APIs

The activeElement attribute must return the element in the document that is focused. If no element in the Document is focused, this must return the body element.

The hasFocus() method must return true if the document, one of its nested browsing contexts, or any element in the document or its browsing contexts currently has the system focus.

6.5.4 Element-level focus APIs

The focus() method, when invoked, must run the following algorithm:

If the element is marked as locked for focus, then abort these steps.
If the element is not focusable, then abort these steps.
Mark the element as locked for focus.
If the element is not already focused, run the focusing steps for the element.
Unmark the element as locked for focus.

The blur() method, when invoked, should run the unfocusing steps for the element. User agents may selectively or uniformly ignore calls to this method for usability reasons.

6.6 The text selection APIs

Every browsing context has a selection. The selection can be empty, and the selection can have more than one range (a disjointed selection). The user agent should allow the user to change the selection. User agents are not required to let the user select more than one range, and may collapse multiple ranges in the selection to a single range when the user interacts with the selection. (But, of course, the user agent may let the user create selections with multiple ranges.)

This one selection must be shared by all the content of the browsing context (though not by nested browsing contexts), including any editing hosts in the document. (Editing hosts that are not inside a document cannot have a selection.)

If the selection is empty (collapsed, so that it has only one segment and that segment's start and end points are the same) then the selection's position should equal the caret position. When the selection is not empty, this specification does not define the caret position; user agents should follow platform conventions in deciding whether the caret is at the start of the selection, the end of the selection, or somewhere else.

On some platforms (such as those using Wordstar editing conventions), the caret position is totally independent of the start and end of the selection, even when the selection is empty. On such platforms, user agents may ignore the requirement that the cursor position be linked to the position of the selection altogether.

Mostly for historical reasons, in addition to the browsing context's selection, each textarea and input element has an independent selection. These are the text field selections.

User agents may selectively ignore attempts to use the API to adjust the selection made after the user has modified the selection. For example, if the user has just selected part of a word, the user agent could ignore attempts to use the API call to immediately unselect the selection altogether, but could allow attempts to change the selection to select the entire word.

User agents may also allow the user to create selections that are not exposed to the API.

The datagrid and select elements also have selections, indicating which items have been picked by the user. These are not discussed in this section.

This specification does not specify how selections are presented to the user. The Selectors specification, in conjunction with CSS, can be used to style text selections using the ::selection pseudo-element. [SELECTORS] [CSS21]

6.6.1 APIs for the browsing context selection

The getSelection() method on the Window interface must return the Selection object representing the selection of that Window object's browsing context.

For historical reasons, the getSelection() method on the HTMLDocument interface must return the same Selection object.

[Stringifies] interface Selection {
  readonly attribute Node anchorNode;
  readonly attribute long anchorOffset;
  readonly attribute Node focusNode;
  readonly attribute long focusOffset;
  readonly attribute boolean isCollapsed;
  void collapse(in Node parentNode, in long offset);
  void collapseToStart();
  void collapseToEnd();
  void selectAllChildren(in Node parentNode);
  void deleteFromDocument();
  readonly attribute long rangeCount;
  Range getRangeAt(in long index);
  void addRange(in Range range);
  void removeRange(in Range range);
  void removeAllRanges();
};

The Selection interface is represents a list of Range objects. The first item in the list has index 0, and the last item has index count-1, where count is the number of ranges in the list. [DOM2RANGE]

All of the members of the Selection interface are defined in terms of operations on the Range objects represented by this object. These operations can raise exceptions, as defined for the Range interface; this can therefore result in the members of the Selection interface raising exceptions as well, in addition to any explicitly called out below.

The anchorNode attribute must return the value returned by the startContainer attribute of the last Range object in the list, or null if the list is empty.

The anchorOffset attribute must return the value returned by the startOffset attribute of the last Range object in the list, or 0 if the list is empty.

The focusNode attribute must return the value returned by the endContainer attribute of the last Range object in the list, or null if the list is empty.

The focusOffset attribute must return the value returned by the endOffset attribute of the last Range object in the list, or 0 if the list is empty.

The isCollapsed attribute must return true if there are zero ranges, or if there is exactly one range and its collapsed attribute is itself true. Otherwise it must return false.

The collapse(parentNode, offset) method must raise a WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR DOM exception if parentNode's Document is not the HTMLDocument object with which the Selection object is associated. Otherwise it is, and the method must remove all the ranges in the Selection list, then create a new Range object, add it to the list, and invoke its setStart() and setEnd() methods with the parentNode and offset values as their arguments.

The collapseToStart() method must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR DOM exception if there are no ranges in the list. Otherwise, it must invoke the collapse() method with the startContainer and startOffset values of the first Range object in the list as the arguments.

The collapseToEnd() method must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR DOM exception if there are no ranges in the list. Otherwise, it must invoke the collapse() method with the endContainer and endOffset values of the last Range object in the list as the arguments.

The selectAllChildren(parentNode) method must invoke the collapse() method with the parentNode value as the first argument and 0 as the second argument, and must then invoke the selectNodeContents() method on the first (and only) range in the list with the parentNode value as the argument.

The deleteFromDocument() method must invoke the deleteContents() method on each range in the list, if any, from first to last.

The rangeCount attribute must return the number of ranges in the list.

The getRangeAt(index) method must return the indexth range in the list. If index is less than zero or greater or equal to the value returned by the rangeCount attribute, then the method must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR DOM exception.

The addRange(range) method must add the given range Range object to the list of selections, at the end (so the newly added range is the new last range). Duplicates are not prevented; a range may be added more than once in which case it appears in the list more than once, which (for example) will cause stringification to return the range's text twice.

The removeRange(range) method must remove the first occurrence of range in the list of ranges, if it appears at all.

The removeAllRanges() method must remove all the ranges from the list of ranges, such that the rangeCount attribute returns 0 after the removeAllRanges() method is invoked (and until a new range is added to the list, either through this interface or via user interaction).

Objects implementing this interface must stringify to a concatenation of the results of invoking the toString() method of the Range object on each of the ranges of the selection, in the order they appear in the list (first to last).

In the following document fragment, the emphasised parts indicate the selection.

<p>The cute girl likes the <cite>Oxford English Dictionary</cite>.</p>

If a script invoked window.getSelection().toString(), the return value would be "the Oxford English".

The Selection interface has no relation to the DataGridSelection interface.

6.6.2 APIs for the text field selections

When we define HTMLTextAreaElement and HTMLInputElement we will have to add the IDL given below to both of their IDLs.

The input and textarea elements define four members in their DOM interfaces for handling their text selection:

  void select();
           attribute unsigned long selectionStart;
           attribute unsigned long selectionEnd;
  void setSelectionRange(in unsigned long start, in unsigned long end);

These methods and attributes expose and control the selection of input and textarea text fields.

The select() method must cause the contents of the text field to be fully selected.

The selectionStart attribute must, on getting, return the offset (in logical order) to the character that immediately follows the start of the selection. If there is no selection, then it must return the offset (in logical order) to the character that immediately follows the text entry cursor.

On setting, it must act as if the setSelectionRange() method had been called, with the new value as the first argument, and the current value of the selectionEnd attribute as the second argument, unless the current value of the selectionEnd is less than the new value, in which case the second argument must also be the new value.

The selectionEnd attribute must, on getting, return the offset (in logical order) to the character that immediately follows the end of the selection. If there is no selection, then it must return the offset (in logical order) to the character that immediately follows the text entry cursor.

On setting, it must act as if the setSelectionRange() method had been called, with the current value of the selectionStart attribute as the first argument, and new value as the second argument.

The setSelectionRange(start, end) method must set the selection of the text field to the sequence of characters starting with the character at the startth position (in logical order) and ending with the character at the (end-1)th position. Arguments greater than the length of the value in the text field must be treated as pointing at the end of the text field. If end is less than or equal to start then the start of the selection and the end of the selection must both be placed immediately before the character with offset end. In UAs where there is no concept of an empty selection, this must set the cursor to be just before the character with offset end.

To obtain the currently selected text, the following JavaScript suffices:

var selectionText = control.value.substring(control.selectionStart, control.selectionEnd);

...where control is the input or textarea element.

Characters with no visible rendering, such as U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER, still count as characters. Thus, for instance, the selection can include just an invisible character, and the text insertion cursor can be placed to one side or another of such a character.

When these methods and attributes are used with input elements that are not displaying simple text fields, they must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception.

6.7 The `contenteditable` attribute

The contenteditable attribute is an enumerated attribute whose keywords are the empty string, true, and false. The empty string and the true keyword map to the true state. The false keyword maps to the false state. In addition, there is a third state, the inherit state, which is the missing value default (and the invalid value default).

If an HTML element has a contenteditable attribute set to the true state, or it has its contenteditable attribute set to the inherit state and if its nearest ancestor HTML element with the contenteditable attribute set to a state other than the inherit state has its attribute set to the true state, or if it and its ancestors all have their contenteditable attribute set to the inherit state but the Document has designMode enabled, then the UA must treat the element as editable (as described below).

Otherwise, either the HTML element has a contenteditable attribute set to the false state, or its contenteditable attribute is set to the inherit state and its nearest ancestor HTML element with the contenteditable attribute set to a state other than the inherit state has its attribute set to the false state, or all its ancestors have their contenteditable attribute set to the inherit state and the Document itself has designMode disabled; either way, the element is not editable.

The contentEditable DOM attribute, on getting, must return the string "true" if the content attribute is set to the true state, false" if the content attribute is set to the false state, and "inherit" otherwise. On setting, if the new value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "inherit" then the content attribute must be removed, if the new value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "true" then the content attribute must be set to the string "true", if the new value is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "false" then the content attribute must be set to the string "false", and otherwise the attribute setter must raise a SYNTAX_ERR exception.

The isContentEditable DOM attribute, on getting, must return true if the element is editable, and false otherwise.

If an element is editable and its parent element is not, or if an element is editable and it has no parent element, then the element is an editing host. Editable elements can be nested. User agents must make editing hosts focusable (which typically means they enter the tab order). An editing host can contain non-editable sections, these are handled as described below. An editing host can contain non-editable sections that contain further editing hosts.

When an editing host has focus, it must have a caret position that specifies where the current editing position is. It may also have a selection.

How the caret and selection are represented depends entirely on the UA.

6.7.1 User editing actions

There are several actions that the user agent should allow the user to perform while the user is interacting with an editing host. How exactly each action is triggered is not defined for every action, but when it is not defined, suggested key bindings are provided to guide implementors.

Move the caret

User agents must allow users to move the caret to any position within an editing host, even into nested editable elements. This could be triggered as the default action of keydown events with various key identifiers and as the default action of mousedown events.

Change the selection

User agents must allow users to change the selection within an editing host, even into nested editable elements. User agents may prevent selections from being made in ways that cross from editable elements into non-editable elements (e.g. by making each non-editable descendant atomically selectable, but not allowing text selection within them). This could be triggered as the default action of keydown events with various key identifiers and as the default action of mousedown events.

Insert text

This action must be triggered as the default action of a textInput event, and may be triggered by other commands as well. It must cause the user agent to insert the specified text (given by the event object's data attribute in the case of the textInput event) at the caret.

If the caret is positioned somewhere where phrasing content is not allowed (e.g. inside an empty ol element), then the user agent must not insert the text directly at the caret position. In such cases the behavior is UA-dependent, but user agents must not, in response to a request to insert text, generate a DOM that is less conformant than the DOM prior to the request.

User agents should allow users to insert new paragraphs into elements that contains only content other than paragraphs.

For example, given the markup:

<section>
 <dl>
  <dt> Ben </dt>
  <dd> Goat </dd>
 </dl>
</section>

...the user agent should allow the user to insert p elements before and after the dl element, as children of the section element.

Break block

UAs should offer a way for the user to request that the current paragraph be broken at the caret, e.g. as the default action of a keydown event whose identifier is the "Enter" key and that has no modifiers set.

The exact behavior is UA-dependent, but user agents must not, in response to a request to break a paragraph, generate a DOM that is less conformant than the DOM prior to the request.

Insert a line separator

UAs should offer a way for the user to request an explicit line break at the caret position without breaking the paragraph, e.g. as the default action of a keydown event whose identifier is the "Enter" key and that has a shift modifier set. Line separators are typically found within a poem verse or an address. To insert a line break, the user agent must insert a br element.

If the caret is positioned somewhere where phrasing content is not allowed (e.g. in an empty ol element), then the user agent must not insert the br element directly at the caret position. In such cases the behavior is UA-dependent, but user agents must not, in response to a request to insert a line separator, generate a DOM that is less conformant than the DOM prior to the request.

Delete

UAs should offer a way for the user to delete text and elements, including non-editable descendants, e.g. as the default action of keydown events whose identifiers are "U+0008" or "U+007F".

Five edge cases in particular need to be considered carefully when implementing this feature: backspacing at the start of an element, backspacing when the caret is immediately after an element, forward-deleting at the end of an element, forward-deleting when the caret is immediately before an element, and deleting a selection whose start and end points do not share a common parent node.

In any case, the exact behavior is UA-dependent, but user agents must not, in response to a request to delete text or an element, generate a DOM that is less conformant than the DOM prior to the request.

Insert, and wrap text in, semantic elements

UAs should offer the user the ability to mark text and paragraphs with semantics that HTML can express.

UAs should similarly offer a way for the user to insert empty semantic elements to subsequently fill by entering text manually.

UAs should also offer a way to remove those semantics from marked up text, and to remove empty semantic element that have been inserted.

In response to a request from a user to mark text up in italics, user agents should use the i element to represent the semantic. The em element should be used only if the user agent is sure that the user means to indicate stress emphasis.

In response to a request from a user to mark text up in bold, user agents should use the b element to represent the semantic. The strong element should be used only if the user agent is sure that the user means to indicate importance.

The exact behavior is UA-dependent, but user agents must not, in response to a request to wrap semantics around some text or to insert or remove a semantic element, generate a DOM that is less conformant than the DOM prior to the request.

Select and move non-editable elements nested inside editing hosts

UAs should offer a way for the user to move images and other non-editable parts around the content within an editing host. This may be done using the drag and drop mechanism. User agents must not, in response to a request to move non-editable elements nested inside editing hosts, generate a DOM that is less conformant than the DOM prior to the request.

Edit form controls nested inside editing hosts

When an editable form control is edited, the changes must be reflected in both its current value and its default value. For input elements this means updating the defaultValue DOM attribute as well as the value DOM attribute; for select elements it means updating the option elements' defaultSelected DOM attribute as well as the selected DOM attribute; for textarea elements this means updating the defaultValue DOM attribute as well as the value DOM attribute. (Updating the default* DOM attributes causes content attributes to be updated as well.)

User agents may perform several commands per user request; for example if the user selects a block of text and hits Enter, the UA might interpret that as a request to delete the content of the selection followed by a request to break the paragraph at that position.

6.7.2 Making entire documents editable

Documents have a designMode, which can be either enabled or disabled.

The designMode DOM attribute on the Document object takes two values, "on" and "off". When it is set, the new value must be compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner to these two values. If it matches the "on" value, then designMode must be enabled, and if it matches the "off" value, then designMode must be disabled. Other values must be ignored.

When designMode is enabled, the DOM attribute must return the value "on", and when it is disabled, it must return the value "off".

The last state set must persist until the document is destroyed or the state is changed. Initially, documents must have their designMode disabled.

Enabling designMode causes scripts in general to be disabled and the document to become editable.

6.8 Drag and drop

This section defines an event-based drag-and-drop mechanism.

This specification does not define exactly what a drag-and-drop operation actually is.

On a visual medium with a pointing device, a drag operation could be the default action of a mousedown event that is followed by a series of mousemove events, and the drop could be triggered by the mouse being released.

On media without a pointing device, the user would probably have to explicitly indicate his intention to perform a drag-and-drop operation, stating what he wishes to drag and what he wishes to drop, respectively.

However it is implemented, drag-and-drop operations must have a starting point (e.g. where the mouse was clicked, or the start of the selection or element that was selected for the drag), may have any number of intermediate steps (elements that the mouse moves over during a drag, or elements that the user picks as possible drop points as he cycles through possibilities), and must either have an end point (the element above which the mouse button was released, or the element that was finally selected), or be canceled. The end point must be the last element selected as a possible drop point before the drop occurs (so if the operation is not canceled, there must be at least one element in the middle step).

6.8.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

It's also currently non-existent.

6.8.2 The `DragEvent` and `DataTransfer` interfaces

The drag-and-drop processing model involves several events. They all use the DragEvent interface.

interface DragEvent : UIEvent {
  readonly attribute DataTransfer dataTransfer;
  void initDragEvent(in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in AbstractView viewArg, in long detailArg, in DataTransfer dataTransferArg);
  void initDragEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURIArg, in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in AbstractView viewArg, in long detailArg, in DataTransfer dataTransferArg);
};

We should have modifier key information in here too (shift/ctrl, etc), like with mouse events and like with the context menu event.

The initDragEvent() and initDragEventNS() methods must initialize the event in a manner analogous to the similarly-named methods in the DOM3 Events interfaces. [DOM3EVENTS]

The dataTransfer attribute of the DragEvent interface represents the context information for the event.

interface DataTransfer {
           attribute DOMString dropEffect;
           attribute DOMString effectAllowed;
  readonly attribute DOMStringList types;
  void clearData(in DOMString format);
  void setData(in DOMString format, in DOMString data);
  DOMString getData(in DOMString format);
  void setDragImage(in Element image, in long x, in long y);
  void addElement(in Element element);
};

DataTransfer objects can conceptually contain various kinds of data.

When a DataTransfer object is created, it must be initialized as follows:

The DataTransfer object must initially contain no data, no elements, and have no associated image.
The DataTransfer object's effectAllowed attribute must be set to "uninitialized".
The dropEffect attribute must be set to "none".

The dropEffect attribute controls the drag-and-drop feedback that the user is given during a drag-and-drop operation.

The attribute must ignore any attempts to set it to a value other than none, copy, link, and move. On getting, the attribute must return the last of those four values that it was set to.

The effectAllowed attribute is used in the drag-and-drop processing model to initialize the dropEffect attribute during the dragenter and dragover events.

The attribute must ignore any attempts to set it to a value other than none, copy, copyLink, copyMove, link, linkMove, move, all, and uninitialized. On getting, the attribute must return the last of those values that it was set to.

DataTransfer objects can hold pieces of data, each associated with a unique format. Formats are generally given by MIME types, with some values special-cased for legacy reasons.

The clearData(format) method must clear the DataTransfer object of any data associated with the given format. If format is the value "Text", then it must be treated as "text/plain". If the format is "URL", then it must be treated as "text/uri-list".

The setData(format, data) method must add data to the data stored in the DataTransfer object, labeled as being of the type format. This must replace any previous data that had been set for that format. If format is the value "Text", then it must be treated as "text/plain". If the format is "URL", then it must be treated as "text/uri-list".

The getData(format) method must return the data that is associated with the type format, if any, and must return the empty string otherwise. If format is the value "Text", then it must be treated as "text/plain". If the format is "URL", then the data associated with the "text/uri-list" format must be parsed as appropriate for text/uri-list data, and the first URL from the list must be returned. If there is no data with that format, or if there is but it has no URLs, then the method must return the empty string. [RFC2483]

The types attribute must return a live DOMStringList that contains the list of formats that are stored in the DataTransfer object.

The setDragImage(element, x, y) method sets which element to use to generate the drag feedback. The element argument can be any Element; if it is an img element, then the user agent should use the element's image (at its intrinsic size) to generate the feedback, otherwise the user agent should base the feedback on the given element (but the exact mechanism for doing so is not specified).

The addElement(element) method is an alternative way of specifying how the user agent is to render the drag feedback. It adds an element to the DataTransfer object.

6.8.3 Events fired during a drag-and-drop action

The following events are involved in the drag-and-drop model. Whenever the processing model described below causes one of these events to be fired, the event fired must use the DragEvent interface defined above, must have the bubbling and cancelable behaviors given in the table below, and must have the context information set up as described after the table, with the view attribute set to the view with which the user interacted to trigger the drag-and-drop event, and the detail attribute set to zero.

Event Name	Target	Bubbles?	Cancelable?	`dataTransfer`	`effectAllowed`	`dropEffect`	Default Action
`dragstart`	Source node	✓ Bubbles	✓ Cancelable	Contains source node unless a selection is being dragged, in which case it is empty	`uninitialized`	`none`	Initiate the drag-and-drop operation
`drag`	Source node	✓ Bubbles	✓ Cancelable	Empty	Same as last event	`none`	Continue the drag-and-drop operation
`dragenter`	Immediate user selection or the body element	✓ Bubbles	✓ Cancelable	Empty	Same as last event	Based on `effectAllowed` value	Reject immediate user selection as potential target element
`dragleave`	Previous target element	✓ Bubbles	—	Empty	Same as last event	`none`	None
`dragover`	Current target element	✓ Bubbles	✓ Cancelable	Empty	Same as last event	Based on `effectAllowed` value	Reset the current drag operation to "none"
`drop`	Current target element	✓ Bubbles	✓ Cancelable	`getData()` returns data set in `dragstart` event	Same as last event	Current drag operation	Varies
`dragend`	Source node	✓ Bubbles	—	Empty	Same as last event	Current drag operation	Varies

The dataTransfer object's contents are empty except for dragstart events and drop events, for which the contents are set as described in the processing model, below.

The effectAllowed attribute must be set to "uninitialized" for dragstart events, and to whatever value the field had after the last drag-and-drop event was fired for all other events (only counting events fired by the user agent for the purposes of the drag-and-drop model described below).

The dropEffect attribute must be set to "none" for dragstart, drag, and dragleave events (except when stated otherwise in the algorithms given in the sections below), to the value corresponding to the current drag operation for drop and dragend events, and to a value based on the effectAllowed attribute's value and to the drag-and-drop source, as given by the following table, for the remaining events (dragenter and dragover):

`effectAllowed`	`dropEffect`
`none`	`none`
`copy`, `copyLink`, `copyMove`, `all`	`copy`
`link`, `linkMove`	`link`
`move`	`move`
`uninitialized` when what is being dragged is a selection from a text field	`move`
`uninitialized` when what is being dragged is a selection	`copy`
`uninitialized` when what is being dragged is an `a` element with an `href` attribute	`link`
Any other case	`copy`

6.8.4 Drag-and-drop processing model

When the user attempts to begin a drag operation, the user agent must first determine what is being dragged. If the drag operation was invoked on a selection, then it is the selection that is being dragged. Otherwise, it is the first element, going up the ancestor chain, starting at the node that the user tried to drag, that has the DOM attribute draggable set to true. If there is no such element, then nothing is being dragged, the drag-and-drop operation is never started, and the user agent must not continue with this algorithm.

img elements and a elements with an href attribute have their draggable attribute set to true by default.

If the user agent determines that something can be dragged, a dragstart event must then be fired.

If it is a selection that is being dragged, then this event must be fired on the node that the user started the drag on (typically the text node that the user originally clicked). If the user did not specify a particular node, for example if the user just told the user agent to begin a drag of "the selection", then the event must be fired on the deepest node that is a common ancestor of all parts of the selection.

We should look into how browsers do other types (e.g. Firefox apparently also adds text/html for internal drag and drop of a selection).

If it is not a selection that is being dragged, then the event must be fired on the element that is being dragged.

The node on which the event is fired is the source node. Multiple events are fired on this node during the course of the drag-and-drop operation.

If it is a selection that is being dragged, the dataTransfer member of the event must be created with no nodes. Otherwise, it must be created containing just the source node. Script can use the addElement() method to add further elements to the list of what is being dragged.

If it is a selection that is being dragged, the dataTransfer member of the event must have the text of the selection added to it as the data associated with the text/plain format. Otherwise, if it is an img element being dragged, then the value of the element's src DOM attribute must be added, associated with the text/uri-list format. Otherwise, if it is an a element being dragged, then the value of the element's href DOM attribute must be added, associated with the text/uri-list format. Otherwise, no data is added to the object by the user agent.

If the event is canceled, then the drag-and-drop operation must not occur; the user agent must not continue with this algorithm.

If it is not canceled, then the drag-and-drop operation must be initiated.

Since events with no event handlers registered are, almost by definition, never canceled, drag-and-drop is always available to the user if the author does not specifically prevent it.

The drag-and-drop feedback must be generated from the first of the following sources that is available:

The element specified in the last call to the setDragImage() method of the dataTransfer object of the dragstart event, if the method was called. In visual media, if this is used, the x and y arguments that were passed to that method should be used as hints for where to put the cursor relative to the resulting image. The values are expressed as distances in CSS pixels from the left side and from the top side of the image respectively. [CSS21]
The elements that were added to the dataTransfer object, both before the event was fired, and during the handling of the event using the addElement() method, if any such elements were indeed added.
The selection that the user is dragging.

The user agent must take a note of the data that was placed in the dataTransfer object. This data will be made available again when the drop event is fired.

From this point until the end of the drag-and-drop operation, device input events (e.g. mouse and keyboard events) must be suppressed. In addition, the user agent must track all DOM changes made during the drag-and-drop operation, and add them to its undo history as one atomic operation once the drag-and-drop operation has ended.

During the drag operation, the element directly indicated by the user as the drop target is called the immediate user selection. (Only elements can be selected by the user; other nodes must not be made available as drop targets.) However, the immediate user selection is not necessarily the current target element, which is the element currently selected for the drop part of the drag-and-drop operation. The immediate user selection changes as the user selects different elements (either by pointing at them with a pointing device, or by selecting them in some other way). The current target element changes when the immediate user selection changes, based on the results of event handlers in the document, as described below.

Both the current target element and the immediate user selection can be null, which means no target element is selected. They can also both be elements in other (DOM-based) documents, or other (non-Web) programs altogether. (For example, a user could drag text to a word-processor.) The current target element is initially null.

In addition, there is also a current drag operation, which can take on the values "none", "copy", "link", and "move". Initially it has the value "none". It is updated by the user agent as described in the steps below.

User agents must, every 350ms (±200ms), perform the following steps in sequence. (If the user agent is still performing the previous iteration of the sequence when the next iteration becomes due, the user agent must not execute the overdue iteration, effectively "skipping missed frames" of the drag-and-drop operation.)

First, the user agent must fire a drag event at the source node. If this event is canceled, the user agent must set the current drag operation to none (no drag operation).

Next, if the drag event was not canceled and the user has not ended the drag-and-drop operation, the user agent must check the state of the drag-and-drop operation, as follows:

First, if the user is indicating a different immediate user selection than during the last iteration (or if this is the first iteration), and if this immediate user selection is not the same as the current target element, then the current target element must be updated, as follows:
1. If the new immediate user selection is null, or is in a non-DOM document or application, then set the current target element to the same value.
2. Otherwise, the user agent must fire a dragenter event at the immediate user selection.
3. If the event is canceled, then the current target element must be set to the immediate user selection.
4. Otherwise, if the current target element is not the body element, the user agent must fire a dragenter event at the body element, and the current target element must be set to the body element, regardless of whether that event was canceled or not. (If the body element is null, then the current target element would be set to null too in this case, it wouldn't be set to the Document object.)
If the previous step caused the current target element to change, and if the previous target element was not null or a part of a non-DOM document, the user agent must fire a dragleave event at the previous target element.

If the current target element is a DOM element, the user agent must fire a dragover event at this current target element.

If the dragover event is not canceled, the current drag operation must be reset to "none".

Otherwise, the current drag operation must be set based on the values the effectAllowed and dropEffect attributes of the dataTransfer object had after the event was handled, as per the following table:

`effectAllowed`	`dropEffect`	Drag operation
`uninitialized`, `copy`, `copyLink`, `copyMove`, or `all`	`copy`	"copy"
`uninitialized`, `link`, `copyLink`, `linkMove`, or `all`	`link`	"link"
`uninitialized`, `move`, `copyMove`, `linkMove`, or `all`	`move`	"move"
Any other case		"none"

Then, regardless of whether the dragover event was canceled or not, the drag feedback (e.g. the mouse cursor) must be updated to match the current drag operation, as follows:

Drag operation	Feedback
"copy"	Data will be copied if dropped here.
"link"	Data will be linked if dropped here.
"move"	Data will be moved if dropped here.
"none"	No operation allowed, dropping here will cancel the drag-and-drop operation.

Otherwise, if the current target element is not a DOM element, the user agent must use platform-specific mechanisms to determine what drag operation is being performed (none, copy, link, or move). This sets the current drag operation.

Otherwise, if the user ended the drag-and-drop operation (e.g. by releasing the mouse button in a mouse-driven drag-and-drop interface), or if the drag event was canceled, then this will be the last iteration. The user agent must execute the following steps, then stop looping.
1. If the current drag operation is none (no drag operation), or, if the user ended the drag-and-drop operation by canceling it (e.g. by hitting the Escape key), or if the current target element is null, then the drag operation failed. If the current target element is a DOM element, the user agent must fire a dragleave event at it; otherwise, if it is not null, it must use platform-specific conventions for drag cancellation.
2. Otherwise, the drag operation was as success. If the current target element is a DOM element, the user agent must fire a drop event at it; otherwise, it must use platform-specific conventions for indicating a drop.
  
  When the target is a DOM element, the dropEffect attribute of the event's dataTransfer object must be given the value representing the current drag operation (copy, link, or move), and the object must be set up so that the getData() method will return the data that was added during the dragstart event.
  
  If the event is canceled, the current drag operation must be set to the value of the dropEffect attribute of the event's dataTransfer object as it stood after the event was handled.
  
  Otherwise, the event is not canceled, and the user agent must perform the event's default action, which depends on the exact target as follows:
  
  If the current target element is a text field (e.g. textarea, or an input element with type="text")
  
  The user agent must insert the data associated with the text/plain format, if any, into the text field in a manner consistent with platform-specific conventions (e.g. inserting it at the current mouse cursor position, or inserting it at the end of the field).
  
  Otherwise
  
  Reset the current drag operation to "none".
3. Finally, the user agent must fire a dragend event at the source node, with the dropEffect attribute of the event's dataTransfer object being set to the value corresponding to the current drag operation.
  
  The current drag operation can change during the processing of the drop event, if one was fired.
  
  The event is not cancelable. After the event has been handled, the user agent must act as follows:
  
  If the current target element is a text field (e.g. textarea, or an input element with type="text"), and a drop event was fired in the previous step, and the current drag operation is "move", and the source of the drag-and-drop operation is a selection in the DOM
  
  The user agent should delete the range representing the dragged selection from the DOM.
  
  If the current target element is a text field (e.g. textarea, or an input element with type="text"), and a drop event was fired in the previous step, and the current drag operation is "move", and the source of the drag-and-drop operation is a selection in a text field
  
  The user agent should delete the dragged selection from the relevant text field.
  
  Otherwise
  
  The event has no default action.

6.8.4.1 When the drag-and-drop operation starts or ends in another document

The model described above is independent of which Document object the nodes involved are from; the events must be fired as described above and the rest of the processing model must be followed as described above, irrespective of how many documents are involved in the operation.

6.8.4.2 When the drag-and-drop operation starts or ends in another application

If the drag is initiated in another application, the source node is not a DOM node, and the user agent must use platform-specific conventions instead when the requirements above involve the source node. User agents in this situation must act as if the dragged data had been added to the DataTransfer object when the drag started, even though no dragstart event was actually fired; user agents must similarly use platform-specific conventions when deciding on what drag feedback to use.

If a drag is started in a document but ends in another application, then the user agent must instead replace the parts of the processing model relating to handling the target according to platform-specific conventions.

In any case, scripts running in the context of the document must not be able to distinguish the case of a drag-and-drop operation being started or ended in another application from the case of a drag-and-drop operation being started or ended in another document from another domain.

6.8.5 The `draggable` attribute

All elements may have the draggable content attribute set. The draggable attribute is an enumerated attribute. It has three states. The first state is true and it has the keyword true. The second state is false and it has the keyword false. The third state is auto; it has no keywords but it is the missing value default.

The draggable DOM attribute, whose value depends on the content attribute's in the way described below, controls whether or not the element is draggable. Generally, only text selections are draggable, but elements whose draggable DOM attribute is true become draggable as well.

If an element's draggable content attribute has the state true, the draggable DOM attribute must return true.

Otherwise, if the element's draggable content attribute has the state false, the draggable DOM attribute must return false.

Otherwise, the element's draggable content attribute has the state auto. If the element is an img element, or, if the element is an a element with an href content attribute, the draggable DOM attribute must return true.

Otherwise, the draggable DOM must return false.

If the draggable DOM attribute is set to the value false, the draggable content attribute must be set to the literal value false. If the draggable DOM attribute is set to the value true, the draggable content attribute must be set to the literal value true.

6.8.6 Copy and paste

Copy-and-paste is a form of drag-and-drop: the "copy" part is equivalent to dragging content to another application (the "clipboard"), and the "paste" part is equivalent to dragging content from another application.

Select-and-paste (a model used by mouse operations in the X Window System) is equivalent to a drag-and-drop operation where the source is the selection.

6.8.6.1 Copy to clipboard

When the user invokes a copy operation, the user agent must act as if the user had invoked a drag on the current selection. If the drag-and-drop operation initiates, then the user agent must act as if the user had indicated (as the immediate user selection) a hypothetical application representing the clipboard. Then, the user agent must act as if the user had ended the drag-and-drop operation without canceling it. If the drag-and-drop operation didn't get canceled, the user agent should then follow the relevant platform-specific conventions for copy operations (e.g. updating the clipboard).

6.8.6.2 Cut to clipboard

When the user invokes a cut operation, the user agent must act as if the user had invoked a copy operation (see the previous section), followed, if the copy was completed successfully, by a selection delete operation.

6.8.6.3 Paste from clipboard

When the user invokes a clipboard paste operation, the user agent must act as if the user had invoked a drag on a hypothetical application representing the clipboard, setting the data associated with the drag as the content on the clipboard (in whatever formats are available).

Then, the user agent must act as if the user had indicated (as the immediate user selection) the element with the keyboard focus, and then ended the drag-and-drop operation without canceling it.

6.8.6.4 Paste from selection

When the user invokes a selection paste operation, the user agent must act as if the user had invoked a drag on the current selection, then indicated (as the immediate user selection) the element with the keyboard focus, and then ended the drag-and-drop operation without canceling it.

6.8.7 Security risks in the drag-and-drop model

User agents must not make the data added to the DataTransfer object during the dragstart event available to scripts until the drop event, because otherwise, if a user were to drag sensitive information from one document to a second document, crossing a hostile third document in the process, the hostile document could intercept the data.

For the same reason, user agents must consider a drop to be successful only if the user specifically ended the drag operation — if any scripts end the drag operation, it must be considered unsuccessful (canceled) and the drop event must not be fired.

User agents should take care to not start drag-and-drop operations in response to script actions. For example, in a mouse-and-window environment, if a script moves a window while the user has his mouse button depressed, the UA would not consider that to start a drag. This is important because otherwise UAs could cause data to be dragged from sensitive sources and dropped into hostile documents without the user's consent.

6.9 Undo history

There has got to be a better way of doing this, surely.

The user agent must associate an undo transaction history with each HTMLDocument object.

The undo transaction history is a list of entries. The entries are of two type: DOM changes and undo objects.

Each DOM changes entry in the undo transaction history consists of batches of one or more of the following:

Changes to the content attributes of an Element node.
Changes to the DOM attributes of a Node.
Changes to the DOM hierarchy of nodes that are descendants of the HTMLDocument object (parentNode, childNodes).

Undo object entries consist of objects representing state that scripts running in the document are managing. For example, a Web mail application could use an undo object to keep track of the fact that a user has moved an e-mail to a particular folder, so that the user can undo the action and have the e-mail return to its former location.

Broadly speaking, DOM changes entries are handled by the UA in response to user edits of form controls and editing hosts on the page, and undo object entries are handled by script in response to higher-level user actions (such as interactions with server-side state, or in the implementation of a drawing tool).

6.9.1 The `UndoManager` interface

This API sucks. Seriously. It's a terrible API. Really bad. I hate it. Here are the requirements:

Has to cope with cases where the server has undo state already when the page is loaded, that can be stuffed into the undo buffer onload.
Has to support undo/redo.
Has to cope with the "undo" action being "contact the server and tell it to undo", rather than it being the opposite of the "redo" action.
Has to cope with some undo states expiring from the undo history (e.g. server can only remember one undelete action) but other states not expiring (e.g. client can undo arbitrary amounts of local edits).

To manage undo object entries in the undo transaction history, the UndoManager interface can be used:

interface UndoManager {
  unsigned long add(in DOMObject data, in DOMString title);
  [XXX] void remove(in unsigned long index); 
  void clearUndo();
  void clearRedo();
  [IndexGetter] DOMObject item(in unsigned long index);
  readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  readonly attribute unsigned long position;
};

The undoManager attribute of the Window interface must return the object implementing the UndoManager interface for that Window object's associated HTMLDocument object.

UndoManager objects represent their document's undo transaction history. Only undo object entries are visible with this API, but this does not mean that DOM changes entries are absent from the undo transaction history.

The length attribute must return the number of undo object entries in the undo transaction history.

The item(n) method must return the nth undo object entry in the undo transaction history.

The undo transaction history has a current position. This is the position between two entries in the undo transaction history's list where the previous entry represents what needs to happen if the user invokes the "undo" command (the "undo" side, lower numbers), and the next entry represents what needs to happen if the user invokes the "redo" command (the "redo" side, higher numbers).

The position attribute must return the index of the undo object entry nearest to the undo position, on the "redo" side. If there are no undo object entries on the "redo" side, then the attribute must return the same as the length attribute. If there are no undo object entries on the "undo" side of the undo position, the position attribute returns zero.

Since the undo transaction history contains both undo object entries and DOM changes entries, but the position attribute only returns indices relative to undo object entries, it is possible for several "undo" or "redo" actions to be performed without the value of the position attribute changing.

The add(data, title) method's behavior depends on the current state. Normally, it must insert the data object passed as an argument into the undo transaction history immediately before the undo position, optionally remembering the given title to use in the UI. If the method is called during an undo operation, however, the object must instead be added immediately after the undo position.

If the method is called and there is neither an undo operation in progress nor a redo operation in progress then any entries in the undo transaction history after the undo position must be removed (as if clearRedo() had been called).

We could fire events when someone adds something to the undo history -- one event per undo object entry before the position (or after, during redo addition), allowing the script to decide if that entry should remain or not. Or something. Would make it potentially easier to expire server-held state when the server limitations come into play.

The remove(index) method must remove the undo object entry with the specified index. If the index is less than zero or greater than or equal to length then the method must raise an INDEX_SIZE_ERR exception. DOM changes entries are unaffected by this method.

The clearUndo() method must remove all entries in the undo transaction history before the undo position, be they DOM changes entries or undo object entries.

The clearRedo() method must remove all entries in the undo transaction history after the undo position, be they DOM changes entries or undo object entries.

Another idea is to have a way for scripts to say "startBatchingDOMChangesForUndo()" and after that the changes to the DOM go in as if the user had done them.

6.9.2 Undo: moving back in the undo transaction history

When the user invokes an undo operation, or when the execCommand() method is called with the undo command, the user agent must perform an undo operation.

If the undo position is at the start of the undo transaction history, then the user agent must do nothing.

If the entry immediately before the undo position is a DOM changes entry, then the user agent must remove that DOM changes entry, reverse the DOM changes that were listed in that entry, and, if the changes were reversed with no problems, add a new DOM changes entry (consisting of the opposite of those DOM changes) to the undo transaction history on the other side of the undo position.

If the DOM changes cannot be undone (e.g. because the DOM state is no longer consistent with the changes represented in the entry), then the user agent must simply remove the DOM changes entry, without doing anything else.

If the entry immediately before the undo position is an undo object entry, then the user agent must first remove that undo object entry from the undo transaction history, and then must fire an undo event on the Document object, using the undo object entry's associated undo object as the event's data.

Any calls to add() while the event is being handled will be used to populate the redo history, and will then be used if the user invokes the "redo" command to undo his undo.

6.9.3 Redo: moving forward in the undo transaction history

When the user invokes a redo operation, or when the execCommand() method is called with the redo command, the user agent must perform a redo operation.

This is mostly the opposite of an undo operation, but the full definition is included here for completeness.

If the undo position is at the end of the undo transaction history, then the user agent must do nothing.

If the entry immediately after the undo position is a DOM changes entry, then the user agent must remove that DOM changes entry, reverse the DOM changes that were listed in that entry, and, if the changes were reversed with no problems, add a new DOM changes entry (consisting of the opposite of those DOM changes) to the undo transaction history on the other side of the undo position.

If the DOM changes cannot be redone (e.g. because the DOM state is no longer consistent with the changes represented in the entry), then the user agent must simply remove the DOM changes entry, without doing anything else.

If the entry immediately after the undo position is an undo object entry, then the user agent must first remove that undo object entry from the undo transaction history, and then must fire a redo event on the Document object, using the undo object entry's associated undo object as the event's data.

6.9.4 The `UndoManagerEvent` interface and the `undo` and `redo` events

interface UndoManagerEvent : Event {
  readonly attribute DOMObject data;
  void initUndoManagerEvent(in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMObject dataArg);
  void initUndoManagerEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURIArg, in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMObject dataArg);
};

The initUndoManagerEvent() and initUndoManagerEventNS() methods must initialize the event in a manner analogous to the similarly-named methods in the DOM3 Events interfaces. [DOM3EVENTS]

The data attribute represents the undo object for the event.

The undo and redo events do not bubble, cannot be canceled, and have no default action. When the user agent fires one of these events it must use the UndoManagerEvent interface, with the data field containing the relevant undo object.

6.9.5 Implementation notes

How user agents present the above conceptual model to the user is not defined. The undo interface could be a filtered view of the undo transaction history, it could manipulate the undo transaction history in ways not described above, and so forth. For example, it is possible to design a UA that appears to have separate undo transaction histories for each form control; similarly, it is possible to design systems where the user has access to more undo information than is present in the official (as described above) undo transaction history (such as providing a tree-based approach to document state). Such UI models should be based upon the single undo transaction history described in this section, however, such that to a script there is no detectable difference.

6.10 Command APIs

The execCommand(commandId, showUI, value) method on the HTMLDocument interface allows scripts to perform actions on the current selection or at the current caret position. Generally, these commands would be used to implement editor UI, for example having a "delete" button on a toolbar.

There are three variants to this method, with one, two, and three arguments respectively. The showUI and value parameters, even if specified, are ignored unless otherwise stated.

When execCommand() is invoked, the user agent must follow the following steps:

If the given commandId maps to an entry in the list below whose "Enabled When" entry has a condition that is currently false, do nothing; abort these steps.
Otherwise, execute the "Action" listed below for the given commandId.

A document is ready for editing host commands if it has a selection that is entirely within an editing host, or if it has no selection but its caret is inside an editing host.

The queryCommandEnabled(commandId) method, when invoked, must return true if the condition listed below under "Enabled When" for the given commandId is true, and false otherwise.

The queryCommandIndeterm(commandId) method, when invoked, must return true if the condition listed below under "Indeterminate When" for the given commandId is true, and false otherwise.

The queryCommandState(commandId) method, when invoked, must return the value expressed below under "State" for the given commandId.

The queryCommandSupported(commandId) method, when invoked, must return true if the given commandId is in the list below, and false otherwise.

The queryCommandValue(commandId) method, when invoked, must return the value expressed below under "Value" for the given commandId.

The possible values for commandId, and their corresponding meanings, are as follows. These values must be compared to the argument in an ASCII case-insensitive manner.

bold

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested that the selection be wrapped in the semantics of the b element (or, again, unwrapped, or have that semantic inserted or removed, as defined by the UA).

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: True if the selection, or the caret, if there is no selection, is, or is contained within, a b element. False otherwise.

Value: The string "true" if the expression given for the "State" above is true, the string "false" otherwise.

createLink

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested that the selection be wrapped in the semantics of the a element (or, again, unwrapped, or have that semantic inserted or removed, as defined by the UA). If the user agent creates an a element or modifies an existing a element, then if the showUI argument is present and has the value false, then the value of the value argument must be used as the URL of the link. Otherwise, the user agent should prompt the user for the URL of the link.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

delete

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had performed a backspace operation.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

formatBlock

Action: The user agent must run the following steps:

If the value argument wasn't specified, abort these steps without doing anything.
If the value argument has a leading U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character ('<') and a trailing U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN character ('>'), then remove the first and last characters from value.
If value is (now) an ASCII case-insensitive match for the tag name of an element defined by this specification that is defined to be a prose element but not a phrasing element, then, for every position in the selection, take the furthest flow content ancestor element of that position that contains only phrasing content, and, if that element is editable, and has a content model that allows it to contain prose content other than phrasing content, and has a parent element whose content model allows that parent to contain any prose content, rename the element (as if the Element.renameNode() method had been used) to value, using the HTML namespace.

If there is no selection, then, where in the description above refers to the selection, the user agent must act as if the selection was an empty range (with just one position) at the caret position.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

forwardDelete

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had performed a forward delete operation.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

insertImage

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested that the selection be wrapped in the semantics of the img element (or, again, unwrapped, or have that semantic inserted or removed, as defined by the UA). If the user agent creates an img element or modifies an existing img element, then if the showUI argument is present and has the value false, then the value of the value argument must be used as the URL of the image. Otherwise, the user agent should prompt the user for the URL of the image.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

insertHTML

Action: The user agent must run the following steps:

If the document is an XML document, then throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception and abort these steps.
If the value argument wasn't specified, abort these steps without doing anything.
If there is a selection, act as if the user had requested that the selection be deleted.
Invoke the HTML fragment parsing algorithm with an arbitrary orphan body element as the context element and with the value argument as input.
Insert the nodes returned by the previous step into the document at the location of the caret.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

insertLineBreak

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested a line separator.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

insertOrderedList

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested that the selection be wrapped in the semantics of the ol element (or unwrapped, or, if there is no selection, have that semantic inserted or removed — the exact behavior is UA-defined).

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

insertUnorderedList

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested that the selection be wrapped in the semantics of the ul element (or unwrapped, or, if there is no selection, have that semantic inserted or removed — the exact behavior is UA-defined).

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

insertParagraph

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had performed a break block editing action.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

insertText

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had inserted text corresponding to the value parameter.

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

italic

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested that the selection be wrapped in the semantics of the i element (or, again, unwrapped, or have that semantic inserted or removed, as defined by the UA).

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: True if the selection, or the caret, if there is no selection, is, or is contained within, a i element. False otherwise.

Value: The string "true" if the expression given for the "State" above is true, the string "false" otherwise.

redo

Action: The user agent must move forward one step in its undo transaction history, restoring the associated state. If the undo position is at the end of the undo transaction history, the user agent must do nothing. See the undo history.

Enabled When: The undo position is not at the end of the undo transaction history.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

selectAll

Action: The user agent must change the selection so that all the content in the currently focused editing host is selected. If no editing host is focused, then the content of the entire document must be selected.

Enabled When: Always.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

subscript

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested that the selection be wrapped in the semantics of the sub element (or, again, unwrapped, or have that semantic inserted or removed, as defined by the UA).

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: True if the selection, or the caret, if there is no selection, is, or is contained within, a sub element. False otherwise.

Value: The string "true" if the expression given for the "State" above is true, the string "false" otherwise.

superscript

Action: The user agent must act as if the user had requested that the selection be wrapped in the semantics of the sup element (or unwrapped, or, if there is no selection, have that semantic inserted or removed — the exact behavior is UA-defined).

Enabled When: The document is ready for editing host commands.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: True if the selection, or the caret, if there is no selection, is, or is contained within, a sup element. False otherwise.

Value: The string "true" if the expression given for the "State" above is true, the string "false" otherwise.

undo

Action: The user agent must move back one step in its undo transaction history, restoring the associated state. If the undo position is at the start of the undo transaction history, the user agent must do nothing. See the undo history.

Enabled When: The undo position is not at the start of the undo transaction history.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

unlink

Action: The user agent must remove all a elements that have href attributes and that are partially or completely included in the current selection.

Enabled When: The document has a selection that is entirely within an editing host and that contains (either partially or completely) at least one a element that has an href attribute.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

unselect

Action: The user agent must change the selection so that nothing is selected.

Enabled When: Always.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

vendorID-customCommandID

Action: User agents may implement vendor-specific extensions to this API. Vendor-specific extensions to the list of commands should use the syntax vendorID-customCommandID so as to prevent clashes between extensions from different vendors and future additions to this specification.

Enabled When: UA-defined.

Indeterminate When: UA-defined.

State: UA-defined.

Value: UA-defined.

Anything else

Action: User agents must do nothing.

Enabled When: Never.

Indeterminate When: Never.

State: Always false.

Value: Always the string "false".

7 Communication

7.1 Event definitions

Messages in server-sent events, Web sockets, cross-document messaging, and channel messaging use the message event.

The following interface is defined for this event:

interface MessageEvent : Event {
  readonly attribute DOMString data;
  readonly attribute DOMString origin;
  readonly attribute DOMString lastEventId;
  readonly attribute Window source;
  readonly attribute MessagePort messagePort;
  void initMessageEvent(in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMString dataArg, in DOMString originArg, in DOMString lastEventIdArg, in Window sourceArg, in MessagePort messagePortArg);
  void initMessageEventNS(in DOMString namespaceURI, in DOMString typeArg, in boolean canBubbleArg, in boolean cancelableArg, in DOMString dataArg, in DOMString originArg, in DOMString lastEventIdArg, in Window sourceArg, in MessagePort messagePortArg);
};

The initMessageEvent() and initMessageEventNS() methods must initialize the event in a manner analogous to the similarly-named methods in the DOM3 Events interfaces. [DOM3EVENTS]

The data attribute represents the message being sent.

The origin attribute represents, in server-sent events and cross-document messaging, the origin of the document that sent the message (typically the scheme, hostname, and port of the document, but not its path or fragment identifier).

The lastEventId attribute represents, in server-sent events, the last event ID string of the event source.

The source attribute represents, in cross-document messaging, the Window from which the message came.

The messagePort attribute represents, in cross-document messaging and channel messaging the MessagePort being sent, if any.

Unless otherwise specified, when the user agent creates and dispatches a message event in the algorithms described in the following sections, the lastEventId attribute must be the empty string, the origin attribute must be the empty string, the source attribute must be null, and the messagePort attribute must be null.

Tasks in server-sent events and Web Sockets use their own task sources, but the task source for the tasks in cross-document messaging and channel messaging is the posted message task source.

7.2 Server-sent events

This section describes a mechanism for allowing servers to dispatch DOM events into documents that expect it. The eventsource element provides a simple interface to this mechanism.

7.2.1 The `RemoteEventTarget` interface

Any object that implements the EventTarget interface must also implement the RemoteEventTarget interface.

interface RemoteEventTarget {
  void addEventSource(in DOMString src);
  void removeEventSource(in DOMString src);
};

When the addEventSource(src) method is invoked, the user agent must resolve the URL specified in src, and if that succeeds, add the resulting absolute URL to the list of event sources for that object. The same URL can be registered multiple times. If the URL fails to resolve, then the user agent must raise a SYNTAX_ERR exception.

When the removeEventSource(src) method is invoked, the user agent must resolve the URL specified in src, and if that succeeds, remove the resulting absolute URL from the list of event sources for that object. If the same URL has been registered multiple times, removing it must remove only one instance of that URL for each invocation of the removeEventSource() method. If the URL fails to resolve, the user agent does nothing.

7.2.2 Connecting to an event stream

Each object implementing the EventTarget and RemoteEventTarget interfaces has a list of event sources that are registered for that object.

When a new absolute URL is added to this list, the user agent should queue a task to run the following steps with the new absolute URL:

If the entry for the new absolute URL has been removed from the list, then abort these steps.
Fetch the resource identified by that absolute URL.

As data is received, the tasks queued by the networking task source to handle the data must consist of following the rules given in the following sections.

When an event source is removed from the list of event sources for an object, if that resource is still being fetched, then the relevant connection must be closed.

Since connections established to remote servers for such resources are expected to be long-lived, UAs should ensure that appropriate buffering is used. In particular, while line buffering may be safe if lines are defined to end with a single U+000A LINE FEED character, block buffering or line buffering with different expected line endings can cause delays in event dispatch.

Each event source in the list must have associated with it the following:

The reconnection time, in milliseconds. This must initially be a user-agent-defined value, probably in the region of a few seconds.
The last event ID string. This must initially be the empty string.

In general, the semantics of the transport protocol specified by the URLs for the event sources must be followed, including HTTP caching rules.

For HTTP connections, the Accept header may be included; if included, it must contain only formats of event framing that are supported by the user agent (one of which must be text/event-stream, as described below).

Other formats of event framing may also be supported in addition to text/event-stream, but this specification does not define how they are to be parsed or processed.

Such formats could include systems like SMS-push; for example servers could use Accept headers and HTTP redirects to an SMS-push mechanism as a kind of protocol negotiation to reduce network load in GSM environments.

User agents should use the Cache-Control: no-cache header in requests to bypass any caches for requests of event sources.

If the event source's last event ID string is not the empty string, then a Last-Event-ID HTTP header must be included with the request, whose value is the value of the event source's last event ID string.

For connections to domains other than the document's domain, the semantics of the Access-Control HTTP header must be followed. [ACCESSCONTROL]

HTTP 200 OK responses with a Content-Type header specifying the type text/event-stream that are either from the document's domain or explicitly allowed by the Access-Control HTTP headers must be processed line by line as described below.

For the purposes of such successfully opened event streams only, user agents should ignore HTTP cache headers, and instead assume that the resource indicates that it does not wish to be cached.

If such a resource (with the correct MIME type) completes loading (i.e. the entire HTTP response body is received or the connection itself closes), the user agent should request the event source resource again after a delay equal to the reconnection time of the event source. This doesn't apply for the error cases that are listed below.

HTTP 200 OK responses that have a Content-Type other than text/event-stream (or some other supported type), and HTTP responses whose Access-Control headers indicate that the resource are not to be used, must be ignored.

HTTP 204 No Content, and 205 Reset Content responses must be treated as if they were 200 OK responses with the right MIME type but no content, and should therefore cause the user agent to refetch the resource after a delay equal to the reconnection time of the event source.

Other HTTP response codes in the 2xx range must be treated like HTTP 200 OK responses for the purposes of reopening event source resources. They are, however, likely to indicate an error has occurred somewhere and may cause the user agent to emit a warning.

HTTP 300 Multiple Choices responses should be handled automatically if possible (treating the responses as if they were 302 Found responses pointing to the appropriate resource), and otherwise must be treated as HTTP 404 responses.

HTTP 301 Moved Permanently responses must cause the user agent to reconnect using the new server specified URL instead of the previously specified URL for all subsequent requests for this event source. (It doesn't affect other event sources with the same URL unless they also receive 301 responses, and it doesn't affect future sessions, e.g. if the page is reloaded.)

HTTP 302 Found, 303 See Other, and 307 Temporary Redirect responses must cause the user agent to connect to the new server-specified URL, but if the user agent needs to again request the resource at a later point, it must return to the previously specified URL for this event source.

HTTP 304 Not Modified responses should be handled like HTTP 200 OK responses, with the content coming from the user agent cache. A new request should then be made after a delay equal to the reconnection time of the event source.

HTTP 305 Use Proxy, HTTP 401 Unauthorized, and 407 Proxy Authentication Required should be treated transparently as for any other subresource.

Any other HTTP response code not listed here or network error (e.g. DNS errors) must be ignored.

For non-HTTP protocols, UAs should act in equivalent ways.

7.2.3 Parsing an event stream

This event stream format's MIME type is text/event-stream.

The event stream format is (in pseudo-BNF):

<stream>          ::= <bom>? <event>*
<event>           ::= [ <comment> | <field> ]* <newline>
<comment>         ::= <colon> <any-char>* <newline>
<field>           ::= <name-char>+ [ <colon> <space>? <any-char>* ]? <newline>

# characters:
<bom>             ::= a single U+FEFF BYTE ORDER MARK character
<space>           ::= a single U+0020 SPACE character (' ')
<newline>         ::= a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN character
                      followed by a U+000A LINE FEED character
                      | a single U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN character
                      | a single U+000A LINE FEED character
                      | the end of the file
<colon>           ::= a single U+003A COLON character (':')
<name-char>       ::= a single Unicode character other than
                      U+003A COLON, U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN and U+000A LINE FEED
<any-char>        ::= a single Unicode character other than
                      U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN and U+000A LINE FEED

Event streams in this format must always be encoded as UTF-8.

Lines must be separated by either a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pair, a single U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character, or a single U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character.

7.2.4 Interpreting an event stream

Bytes or sequences of bytes that are not valid UTF-8 sequences must be interpreted as the U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER.

One leading U+FEFF BYTE ORDER MARK character must be ignored if any are present.

The stream must then be parsed by reading everything line by line, with a U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED (CRLF) character pair, a single U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character, a single U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) character, and the end of the file being the four ways in which a line can end.

When a stream is parsed, a data buffer and an event name buffer must be associated with it. They must be initialized to the empty string

Lines must be processed, in the order they are received, as follows:

If the line is empty (a blank line)

Dispatch the event, as defined below.

If the line starts with a U+003A COLON character (':')

Ignore the line.

If the line contains a U+003A COLON character (':') character

Collect the characters on the line before the first U+003A COLON character (':'), and let field be that string.

Collect the characters on the line after the first U+003A COLON character (':'), and let value be that string. If value starts with a single U+0020 SPACE character, remove it from value.

Process the field using the steps described below, using field as the field name and value as the field value.

Otherwise, the string is not empty but does not contain a U+003A COLON character (':') character

Process the field using the steps described below, using the whole line as the field name, and the empty string as the field value.

Once the end of the file is reached, the user agent must dispatch the event one final time, as defined below.

The steps to process the field given a field name and a field value depend on the field name, as given in the following list. Field names must be compared literally, with no case folding performed.

If the field name is "event": Set the event name buffer the to field value.
If the field name is "data": If the data buffer is not the empty string, then append a single U+000A LINE FEED character to the data buffer. Append the field value to the data buffer.
If the field name is "id": Set the event stream's last event ID to the field value.
If the field name is "retry": If the field value consists of only characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO ('0') U+0039 DIGIT NINE ('9'), then interpret the field value as an integer in base ten, and set the event stream's reconnection time to that integer. Otherwise, ignore the field.
Otherwise: The field is ignored.

When the user agent is required to dispatch the event, then the user agent must act as follows:

If the data buffer is an empty string, set the data buffer and the event name buffer to the empty string and abort these steps.
If the event name buffer is not the empty string but is also not a valid NCName, set the data buffer and the event name buffer to the empty string and abort these steps.
Otherwise, create an event that uses the MessageEvent interface, with the event name message, which does not bubble, is cancelable, and has no default action. The data attribute must be set to the value of the data buffer, the origin attribute must be set to the Unicode serialization of the origin of the event stream's URL, and the lastEventId attribute must be set to the last event ID string of the event source.
If the event name buffer has a value other than the empty string, change the type of the newly created event to equal the value of the event name buffer.
Set the data buffer and the event name buffer to the empty string.
Queue a task to dispatch the newly created event at the RemoteEventTarget object to which the event stream is registered. The task source for this task is the remote event task source.

If an event doesn't have an "id" field, but an earlier event did set the event source's last event ID string, then the event's lastEventId field will be set to the value of whatever the last seen "id" field was.

The following event stream, once followed by a blank line:

data: YHOO
data: -2
data: 10

...would cause an event message with the interface MessageEvent to be dispatched on the eventsource element, whose data attribute would contain the string YHOO\n-2\n10 (where \n represents a newline).

This could be used as follows:

<eventsource src="http://stocks.example.com/ticker.php"
              onmessage="var data = event.data.split('\n'); updateStocks(data[0], data[1], data[2]);">

...where updateStocks() is a function defined as:

function updateStocks(symbol, delta, value) { ... }

...or some such.

The following stream contains four blocks. The first block has just a comment, and will fire nothing. The second block has two fields with names "data" and "id" respectively; an event will be fired for this block, with the data "first event", and will then set the last event ID to "1" so that if the connection died between this block and the next, the server would be sent a Last-Event-ID header with the value "1". The third block fires an event with data "second event", and also has an "id" field, this time with no value, which resets the last event ID to the empty string (meaning no Last-Event-ID header will now be sent in the event of a reconnection being attempted). Finally the last block just fires an event with the data "third event". Note that the last block doesn't have to end with a blank line, the end of the stream is enough to trigger the dispatch of the last event.

: test stream

data: first event
id: 1

data: second event
id

data: third event

The following stream fires just one event:

data

data
data

data:

The first and last blocks do nothing, since they do not contain any actual data (the data buffer remains at the empty string, and so nothing gets dispatched). The middle block fires an event with the data set to a single newline character.

The following stream fires two identical events:

data:test

data: test

This is because the space after the colon is ignored if present.

7.2.5 Notes

Legacy proxy servers are known to, in certain cases, drop HTTP connections after a short timeout. To protect against such proxy servers, authors can include a comment line (one starting with a ':' character) every 15 seconds or so.

Authors wishing to relate event source connections to each other or to specific documents previously served might find that relying on IP addresses doesn't work, as individual clients can have multiple IP addresses (due to having multiple proxy servers) and individual IP addresses can have multiple clients (due to sharing a proxy server). It is better to include a unique identifier in the document when it is served and then pass that identifier as part of the URL in the src attribute of the eventsource element.

Implementations that support HTTP's per-server connection limitation might run into trouble when opening multiple pages from a site if each page has an eventsource to the same domain. Authors can avoid this using the relatively complex mechanism of using unique domain names per connection, or by allowing the user to enable or disable the eventsource functionality on a per-page basis.

7.3 Web sockets

To enable Web applications to maintain bidirectional communications with their originating server, this specification introduces the WebSocket interface.

This interface does not allow for raw access to the underlying network. For example, this interface could not be used to implement an IRC client without proxying messages through a custom server.

7.3.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

An introduction to the client-side and server-side of using the direct connection APIs.

7.3.2 The `WebSocket` interface

[Constructor(in DOMString url)]
interface WebSocket {
  readonly attribute DOMString URL;

  // ready state
  const unsigned short CONNECTING = 0;
  const unsigned short OPEN = 1;
  const unsigned short CLOSED = 2;
  readonly attribute long readyState;

  // networking
           attribute EventListener onopen;
           attribute EventListener onmessage;
           attribute EventListener onclosed;
  void postMessage(in DOMString data);
  void disconnect();
};

WebSocket objects must also implement the EventTarget interface. [DOM3EVENTS]

The WebSocket(url) constructor takes one argument, url, which specifies the URL to which to connect. When a WebSocket object is created, the UA must parse this argument and verify that the URL parses without failure and has a <scheme> component whose value is either "ws" or "wss", when compared in an ASCII case-insensitive manner. If it does, it has, and it is, then the user agent must asynchronously establish a Web Socket connection to url. Otherwise, the constructor must raise a SYNTAX_ERR exception.

The URL attribute must return the value that was passed to the constructor.

The readyState attribute represents the state of the connection. It can have the following values:

CONNECTING (numeric value 0): The connection has not yet been established.
OPEN (numeric value 1): The Web Socket connection is established and communication is possible.
CLOSED (numeric value 2): The connection has been closed or could not be opened.

When the object is created its readyState must be set to CONNECTING (0).

The postMessage(data) method transmits data using the connection. If the connection is not established (readyState is not OPEN), it must raise an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception. If the connection is established, then the user agent must send data using the Web Socket.

The disconnect() method must close the Web Socket connection or connection attempt, if any. If the connection is already closed, it must do nothing. Closing the connection causes a close event to be fired and the readyState attribute's value to change, as described below.

7.3.3 WebSocket Events

The open event is fired when the Web Socket connection is established.

The close event is fired when the connection is closed (whether by the author, calling the disconnect() method, or by the server, or by a network error).

No information regarding why the connection was closed is passed to the application in this version of this specification.

The message event is fired when when data is received for a connection.

The following are the event handler DOM attributes that must be supported by objects implementing the WebSocket interface:

onopen: Must be invoked whenever an open event is targeted at or bubbles through the WebSocket object.
onmessage: Must be invoked whenever a message event is targeted at or bubbles through the WebSocket object.
onclosed: Must be invoked whenever an closed event is targeted at or bubbles through the WebSocket object.

7.3.4 The Web Socket protocol

The task source for all tasks queued by algorithms in this section and its subsections is the Web Socket task source.

7.3.4.1 Client-side requirements

This section only applies to user agents.

7.3.4.1.1 Handshake

When the user agent is to establish a Web Socket connection to url, it must run the following steps, in the background (without blocking scripts or anything like that):

Resolve the URL url.
If the <scheme> component of the resulting absolute URL is "ws", set secure to false; otherwise, the <scheme> component is "wss", set secure to true.
Let host be the value of the <host> component in the resulting absolute URL.
If the resulting absolute URL has a <port> component, then let port be that component's value; otherwise, if secure is false, let port be 81, otherwise let port be 815.
Let resource name be the value of the <path> component (which might be empty) in the resulting absolute URL.
If resource name is the empty string, set it to a single character U+002F SOLIDUS (/).
If the resulting absolute URL has a <query> component, then append a single 003F QUESTION MARK (?) character to resource name, followed by the value of the <query> component.
If the user agent is configured to use a proxy to connect to port port, then connect to that proxy and ask it to open a TCP/IP connection to the host given by host and the port given by port.
For example, if the user agent uses an HTTP proxy, then if it was to try to connect to port 80 on server example.com, it might send the following lines to the proxy server:
```
CONNECT example.com HTTP/1.1
```
If there was a password, the connection might look like:
```
CONNECT example.com HTTP/1.1
Proxy-authorization: Basic ZWRuYW1vZGU6bm9jYXBlcyE=
```
Otherwise, if the user agent is not configured to use a proxy, then open a TCP/IP connection to the host given by host and the port given by port.
If the connection could not be opened, then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.
If secure is true, perform a TLS handshake over the connection. If this fails (e.g. the server's certificate could not be verified), then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps. Otherwise, all further communication on this channel must run through the encrypted tunnel. [RFC2246]
Send the following bytes to the remote side (the server):
```
47 45 54 20
```
Send the resource name value, encoded as US-ASCII.

Send the following bytes:
```
20 48 54 54 50 2f 31 2e  31 0d 0a 55 70 67 72 61
64 65 3a 20 57 65 62 53  6f 63 6b 65 74 0d 0a 43
6f 6e 6e 65 63 74 69 6f  6e 3a 20 55 70 67 72 61
64 65 0d 0a
```
The string "GET ", the path, " HTTP/1.1", CRLF, the string "Upgrade: WebSocket", CRLF, and the string "Connection: Upgrade", CRLF.
Send the following bytes:
```
48 6f 73 74 3a 20
```
Send the host value, encoded as US-ASCII, if it represents a host name (and not an IP address).

Send the following bytes:
```
0d 0a
```
The string "Host: ", the host, and CRLF.
Send the following bytes:
```
4f 72 69 67 69 6e 3a 20
```
Send the ASCII serialization of the origin of the script that invoked the WebSocket() constructor.

Send the following bytes:
```
0d 0a
```
The string "Origin: ", the origin, and CRLF.
If the client has any authentication information or cookies that would be relevant to a resource with a URL that has a scheme of http if secure is false and https if secure is true and is otherwise identical to url, then HTTP headers that would be appropriate for that information should be sent at this point. [RFC2616] [RFC2109] [RFC2965]

Each header must be on a line of its own (each ending with a CR LF sequence). For the purposes of this step, each header must not be split into multiple lines (despite HTTP otherwise allowing this with continuation lines).
For example, if the server had a username and password that applied to that URL, it could send:
```
Authorization: Basic d2FsbGU6ZXZl
```
Send the following bytes:
```
0d 0a
```
Just a CRLF (a blank line).
Read the first 85 bytes from the server. If the connection closes before 85 bytes are received, or if the first 85 bytes aren't exactly equal to the following bytes, then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.
```
48 54 54 50 2f 31 2e 31  20 31 30 31 20 57 65 62
20 53 6f 63 6b 65 74 20  50 72 6f 74 6f 63 6f 6c
20 48 61 6e 64 73 68 61  6b 65 0d 0a 55 70 67 72
61 64 65 3a 20 57 65 62  53 6f 63 6b 65 74 0d 0a
43 6f 6e 6e 65 63 74 69  6f 6e 3a 20 55 70 67 72
61 64 65 0d 0a
```
The string "HTTP/1.1 101 Web Socket Protocol Handshake", CRLF, the string "Upgrade: WebSocket", CRLF, the string "Connection: Upgrade", CRLF.

What if the response is a 401 asking for credentials?
Let headers be a list of name-value pairs, initially empty.
Header: Let name and value be empty byte arrays.
Read a byte from the server.

If the connection closes before this byte is received, then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

Otherwise, handle the byte as described in the appropriate entry below:

If the byte is 0x0d (ASCII CR)

If the name byte array is empty, then jump to the headers processing step. Otherwise, fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

If the byte is 0x0a (ASCII LF)

Fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

If the byte is 0x3a (ASCII ":")

Move on to the next step.

If the byte is in the range 0x41 .. 0x5a (ASCII "A" .. "Z")

Append a byte whose value is the byte's value plus 0x20 to the name byte array and redo this step for the next byte.

Otherwise

Append the byte to the name byte array and redo this step for the next byte.

This reads a header name, terminated by a colon, converting upper-case ASCII letters to lowercase, and aborting if a stray CR or LF is found.
Read a byte from the server.

If the connection closes before this byte is received, then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

Otherwise, handle the byte as described in the appropriate entry below:

If the byte is 0x20 (ASCII space)

Ignore the byte and move on to the next step.

Otherwise

Treat the byte as described by the list in the next step, then move on to that next step for real.

This skips past a space character after the colon, if necessary.
Read a byte from the server.

If the connection closes before this byte is received, then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

Otherwise, handle the byte as described in the appropriate entry below:

If the byte is 0x0d (ASCII CR)

Move on to the next step.

If the byte is 0x0a (ASCII LF)

Fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

Otherwise

Append the byte to the name byte array and redo this step for the next byte.

This reads a header value, terminated by a CRLF.
Read a byte from the server.

If the connection closes before this byte is received, or if the byte is not a 0x0a byte (ASCII LF), then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

This skips past the LF byte of the CRLF after the header.
Append an entry to the headers list that has the name given by the string obtained by interpreting the name byte array as a UTF-8 byte stream and the value given by the string obtained by interpreting the value byte array as a UTF-8 byte stream.
Return to the header step above.
Headers processing: If there is not exactly one entry in the headers list whose name is "websocket-origin", or if there is not exactly one entry in the headers list whose name is "websocket-location", or if there are any entries in the headers list whose names are the empty string, then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.
Handle each entry in the headers list as follows:

If the entry's name is "websocket-origin"

If the value is not exactly equal to the ASCII serialization of the origin of the script that invoked the WebSocket() constructor, then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

If the entry's name is "websocket-location"

If the value is not exactly equal to the absolute URL that resulted from the first step of ths algorithm, then fail the Web Socket connection and abort these steps.

If the entry's name is "set-cookie" or "set-cookie2" or another cookie-related header name

Handle the cookie as defined by the appropriate spec, except pretend that the resource's URL actually has a scheme of http if secure is false and https if secure is true and is otherwise identical to url. [RFC2109] [RFC2965]

Any other name

Ignore it.
Change the readyState attribute's value to OPEN (1).
Queue a task to fire a simple event named open at the WebSocket object.
The Web Socket connection is established. Now the user agent must send and receive to and from the connection as described in the next section.

To fail the Web Socket connection, the user agent must close the Web Socket connection, and may report the problem to the user (which would be especially useful for developers). However, user agents must not convey the failure information to the script in a way distinguishable from the Web Socket being closed normally.

7.3.4.1.2 Data framing

Once a Web Socket connection is established, the user agent must run through the following state machine for the bytes sent by the server.

Try to read a byte from the server. Let frame type be that byte.

If no byte could be read because the Web Socket connection is closed, then abort.
Handle the frame type byte as follows:
If the high-order bit of the frame type byte is set (i.e. if frame type anded with 0x80 returns 0x80)
Run these steps. If at any point during these steps a read is attempted but fails because the Web Socket connection is closed, then abort.
1. Let length be zero.
2. Length: Read a byte, let b be that byte.
3. Let b_v be integer corresponding to the low 7 bits of b (the value you would get by anding b with 0x7f).
4. Multiply length by 128, add b_v to that result, and store the final result in length.
5. If the high-order bit of b is set (i.e. if b anded with 0x80 returns 0x80), then return to the step above labeled length.
6. Read length bytes.
7. Discard the read bytes.
If the high-order bit of the frame type byte is not set (i.e. if frame type anded with 0x80 returns 0x00)
Run these steps. If at any point during these steps a read is attempted but fails because the Web Socket connection is closed, then abort.
1. Let raw data be an empty byte array.
2. Data: Read a byte, let b be that byte.
3. If b is not 0xff, then append b to raw data and return to the previous step (labeled data).
4. Interpret raw data as a UTF-8 string, and store that string in data.
5. If frame type is 0x00, create an event that uses the MessageEvent interface, with the event name message, which does not bubble, is cancelable, has no default action, and whose data attribute is set to data, and queue a task to dispatch it at the WebSocket object. Otherwise, discard the data.
Return to the first step to read the next byte.

If the user agent is faced with content that is too large to be handled appropriately, then it must fail the Web Socket connection.

Once a Web Socket connection is established, the user agent must use the following steps to send data using the Web Socket:

Send a 0x00 byte to the server.
Encode data using UTF-8 and send the resulting byte stream to the server.
Send a 0xff byte to the server.

People often request the ability to send binary blobs over this API; also, once the other postMessage() methods support it, we should look into allowing name/value pairs, arrays, and numbers using postMessage() instead of just strings and binary data.

7.3.4.2 Server-side requirements

This section only applies to servers.

7.3.4.2.1 Minimal handshake

This section describes the minimal requirements for a server-side implementation of Web Sockets.

Listen on a port for TCP/IP. Upon receiving a connection request, open a connection and send the following bytes back to the client:

48 54 54 50 2f 31 2e 31  20 31 30 31 20 57 65 62
20 53 6f 63 6b 65 74 20  50 72 6f 74 6f 63 6f 6c
20 48 61 6e 64 73 68 61  6b 65 0d 0a 55 70 67 72
61 64 65 3a 20 57 65 62  53 6f 63 6b 65 74 0d 0a
43 6f 6e 6e 65 63 74 69  6f 6e 3a 20 55 70 67 72
61 64 65 0d 0a

Send the string "WebSocket-Origin" followed by a U+003A COLON (":") followed by the ASCII serialization of the origin from which the server is willing to accept connections, followed by a CRLF pair (0x0d 0x0a).

For instance:

WebSocket-Origin: http://example.com

Send the string "WebSocket-Location" followed by a U+003A COLON (":") followed by the URL of the Web Socket script, followed by a CRLF pair (0x0d 0x0a).

For instance:

WebSocket-Location: ws://example.com:80/demo

Send another CRLF pair (0x0d 0x0a).

Read (and discard) data from the client until four bytes 0x0d 0x0a 0x0d 0x0a are read.

If the connection isn't dropped at this point, go to the data framing section.

7.3.4.2.2 Handshake details

The previous section ignores the data that is transmitted by the client during the handshake.

The data sent by the client consists of a number of fields separated by CR LF pairs (bytes 0x0d 0x0a).

The first field consists of three tokens separated by space characters (byte 0x20). The middle token is the path being opened. If the server supports multiple paths, then the server should echo the value of this field in the initial handshake, as part of the URL given on the WebSocket-Location line (after the appropriate scheme and host).

The remaining fields consist of name-value pairs, with the name part separated from the value part by a colon and a space (bytes 0x3a 0x20). Of these, several are interesting:

Host (bytes 48 6f 73 74)

The value gives the hostname that the client intended to use when opening the Web Socket. It would be of interest in particular to virtual hosting environments, where one server might serve multiple hosts, and might therefore want to return different data.

The right host has to be output as part of the URL given on the WebSocket-Location line of the handshake described above, to verify that the server knows that it is really representing that host.

Origin (bytes 4f 72 69 67 69 6e)

The value gives the scheme, hostname, and port (if it's not the default port for the given scheme) of the page that asked the client to open the Web Socket. It would be interesting if the server's operator had deals with operators of other sites, since the server could then decide how to respond (or indeed, whether to respond) based on which site was requesting a connection.

If the server supports connections from more than one origin, then the server should echo the value of this field in the initial handshake, on the WebSocket-Origin line.

Other fields

Other fields can be used, such as "Cookie" or "Authorization", for authentication purposes.

7.3.4.2.3 Data framing

This section only describes how to handle content that this specification allows user agents to send (text). It doesn't handle any arbitrary content in the same way that the requirements on user agents defined earlier handle any content including possible future extensions to the protocols.

The server should run through the following steps to process the bytes sent by the client:

Read a byte from the client. Assuming everything is going according to plan, it will be a 0x00 byte. Behaviour for the server is undefined if the byte is not 0x00.
Let raw data be an empty byte array.
Data: Read a byte, let b be that byte.
If b is not 0xff, then append b to raw data and return to the previous step (labeled data).
Interpret raw data as a UTF-8 string, and apply whatever server-specific processing should occur for the resulting string.
Return to the first step to read the next byte.

The server should run through the followin steps to send strings to the client:

Send a 0x00 byte to the client to indicate the start of a string.
Encode data using UTF-8 and send the resulting byte stream to the client.
Send a 0xff byte to the client to indicate the end of the message.

7.3.4.3 Closing the connection

To close the Web Socket connection, either the user agent or the server closes the TCP/IP connection. There is no closing handshake. Whether the user agent or the server closes the connection, it is said that the Web Socket connection is closed.

Servers may close the Web Socket connection whenever desired.

User agents should not close the Web Socket connection arbitrarily.

When the Web Socket connection is closed, the readyState attribute's value must be changed to CLOSED (2), and the user agent must queue a task to fire a simple event named close at the WebSocket object.

7.4 Cross-document messaging

Web browsers, for security and privacy reasons, prevent documents in different domains from affecting each other; that is, cross-site scripting is disallowed.

While this is an important security feature, it prevents pages from different domains from communicating even when those pages are not hostile. This section introduces a messaging system that allows documents to communicate with each other regardless of their source domain, in a way designed to not enable cross-site scripting attacks.

7.4.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

For example, if document A contains an iframe element that contains document B, and script in document A calls postMessage() on the Window object of document B, then a message event will be fired on that object, marked as originating from the Window of document A. The script in document A might look like:

var o = document.getElementsByTagName('iframe')[0];
o.contentWindow.postMessage('Hello world', 'http://b.example.org/');

To register an event handler for incoming events, the script would use addEventListener() (or similar mechanisms). For example, the script in document B might look like:

window.addEventListener('message', receiver, false);
function receiver(e) {
  if (e.origin == 'http://example.com') {
    if (e.data == 'Hello world') {
      e.source.postMessage('Hello', e.origin);
    } else {
      alert(e.data);
    }
  }
}

This script first checks the domain is the expected domain, and then looks at the message, which it either displays to the user, or responds to by sending a message back to the document which sent the message in the first place.

7.4.2 Security

7.4.2.1 Authors

Use of this API requires extra care to protect users from hostile entities abusing a site for their own purposes.

Authors should check the origin attribute to ensure that messages are only accepted from domains that they expect to receive messages from. Otherwise, bugs in the author's message handling code could be exploited by hostile sites.

Authors should not use the wildcard keyword ("*") in the targetOrigin argument in messages that contain any confidential information, as otherwise there is no way to guarantee that the message is only delivered to the recipient to which it was intended.

7.4.2.2 User agents

The integrity of this API is based on the inability for scripts of one origin to post arbitrary events (using dispatchEvent() or otherwise) to objects in other origins (those that are not the same).

Implementors are urged to take extra care in the implementation of this feature. It allows authors to transmit information from one domain to another domain, which is normally disallowed for security reasons. It also requires that UAs be careful to allow access to certain properties but not others.

7.4.3 Posting text

When a script invokes the postMessage(message, targetOrigin) method (with only two arguments) on a Window object, the user agent must follow these steps:

If the value of the targetOrigin argument is not a single U+002A ASTERISK character ("*"), and either parsing it as a URL fails, or resolving it results in a URL with a <host-specific> component that is neither empty nor a single U+002F SOLIDUS character (/), then throw a SYNTAX_ERR exception and abort the overall set of steps.
Return from the postMessage() method, but asynchronously continue running these steps.
If the targetOrigin argument has a value other than a single literal U+002A ASTERISK character ("*"), and the active document of the browsing context of the Window object on which the method was invoked does not have the same origin as targetOrigin, then abort these steps silently.
Create an event that uses the MessageEvent interface, with the event name message, which does not bubble, is cancelable, and has no default action. The data attribute must be set to the value passed as the message argument to the postMessage() method, the origin attribute must be set to the Unicode serialization of the origin of the script that invoked the method, and the source attribute must be set to the Window object of the default view of the browsing context for which the Document object with which the script is associated is the active document.
Queue a task to dispatch the event created in the previous step at the Window object on which the method was invoked. The task source for this task is the posted message task source.

7.4.4 Posting message ports

When a script invokes the postMessage(message, messagePort, targetOrigin) method (with three arguments) on a Window object, the user agent must follow these steps:

If the value of the targetOrigin argument is not a single U+002A ASTERISK character ("*"), and either parsing it as a URL fails, or resolving it results in a URL with a <host-specific> component that is neither empty nor a single U+002F SOLIDUS character (/), then throw a SYNTAX_ERR exception and abort the overall set of steps.
If the messagePort argument is null, then act as if the method had just been called with two arguments, message and targetOrigin.
Try to obtain a new port by cloning the messagePort argument with the Window object on which the method was invoked as the owner of the clone. If this returns an exception, then throw that exception and abort these steps.
Return from the postMessage() method, but asynchronously continue running these steps.
If the targetOrigin argument has a value other than a single literal U+002A ASTERISK character ("*"), and the active document of the browsing context of the Window object on which the method was invoked does not have the same origin as targetOrigin, then abort these steps silently.
Create an event that uses the MessageEvent interface, with the event name message, which does not bubble, is cancelable, and has no default action. The data attribute must be set to the value passed as the message argument to the postMessage() method, the origin attribute must be set to the Unicode serialization of the origin of the script that invoked the method, and the source attribute must be set to the Window object of the default view of the browsing context for which the Document object with which the script is associated is the active document.
Let the messagePort attribute of the event be the new port.
Queue a task to dispatch the event created in the previous step at the Window object on which the method was invoked. The task source for this task is the posted message task source.

These steps, with the exception of the second and third steps and the penultimate step, are identical to those in the previous section.

7.4.5 Posting structured data

People often request the ability to send name/value pairs, arrays, and numbers using postMessage() instead of just strings.

7.5 Channel messaging

7.5.1 Introduction

This section is non-normative.

An introduction to the channel and port APIs.

7.5.2 Message channels

[Constructor]
interface MessageChannel {
  readonly attribute MessagePort port1;
  readonly attribute MessagePort port2;
};

When the MessageChannel() constructor is called, it must run the following algorithm:

Create a new MessagePort object owned by the script execution context, and let port1 be that object.
Create a new MessagePort object owned by the script execution context, and let port2 be that object.
Entangle the port1 and port2 objects.
Instantiate a new MessageChannel object, and let channel be that object.
Let the port1 attribute of the channel object be port1.
Let the port2 attribute of the channel object be port2.
Return channel.

The port1 and port2 attributes must return the values they were assigned when the MessageChannel object was created.

7.5.3 Message ports

Each channel has two message ports. Data sent through one port is received by the other port, and vice versa.

interface MessagePort {
  readonly attribute boolean active;
  void postMessage(in DOMString message);
  void postMessage(in DOMString message, in MessagePort messagePort);
  MessagePort startConversation(in DOMString message);
  void start();
  void close();

  // event handler attributes
           attribute EventListener onmessage;
           attribute EventListener onclose;
};

Objects implementing the MessagePort interface must also implement the EventTarget interface.

Each MessagePort object can be entangled with another (a symmetric relationship). Each MessagePort object also has a port message queue, initial empty. A port message queue can be open or closed, and is initially closed.

When the user agent is to create a new MessagePort object owned by a script execution context object owner, it must instantiate a new MessagePort object, and let its owner be owner.

When the user agent is to entangle two MessagePort objects, it must run the following steps:

If one of the ports is already entangled, then unentangle it and the port that it was entangled with.

If those two previously entangled ports were the two ports of a MessageChannel object, then that MessageChannel object no longer represents an actual channel: the two ports in that object are no longer entangled.
Associate the two ports to be entangled, so that they form the two parts of a new channel. (There is no MessageChannel object that represents this channel.)

When the user agent is to clone a port original port, with the clone being owned by owner, it must run the following steps, which return either a new MessagePort object or an exception for the caller to raise:

If the original port is not entangled without another port, then return an INVALID_STATE_ERR exception and abort all these steps.
Let the remote port be the port with which the original port is entangled.
Create a new MessagePort object owned by owner, and let new port be that object.
Move all the events in the port message queue of original port to the port message queue of new port, if any, leaving the new port's port message queue in its initial closed state.
Entangle the remote port and new port objects. The original port object will be unentangled by this process.
Return new port. It is the clone.

The active attribute must return true if the port is entangled, and false otherwise.

The postMessage() method, when called on a port source port, must cause the user agent to run the following steps:

Let message be the method's first argument.
Let data port be the method's second argument, if any.
If the source port is not entangled with another port, then return and abort these steps.
Let target port be the port with which source port is entangled.
Create an event that uses the MessageEvent interface, with the name message, which does not bubble, is cancelable, and has no default action.
Let the data attribute of the event have the value of message, the method's first argument.
If the method was called with a second argument data port and that argument isn't null, then run the following substeps:
1. If the data port is the source port or the target port, then throw an INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception and abort all these steps.
2. Try to obtain a new data port by cloning the data port with the owner of the target port as the owner of the clone. If this returns an exception, then throw that exception and abort these steps.
3. Let the messagePort attribute of the event be the new data port.
Return from the method, but continue with these steps.
Add the event to the port message queue of target port.

People often request the ability to send name/value pairs, arrays, and numbers using postMessage() instead of just strings.

The startConversation(message) method is a convenience method that simplifies create a new MessageChannel and invoking postMessage() with one of the new ports. When invoked on a port source port, it must run the following steps:

Let message be the method's first argument.
Create a new MessagePort object owned by the script execution context, and let port1 be that object.
If the source port is not entangled with another port, then return port1 and abort these steps.
Let target port be the port with which source port is entangled.
Create a new MessagePort object owned by the owner of the target port, and let port2 be that object.
Entangle the port1 and port2 objects.
Create an event that uses the MessageEvent interface, with the name message, which does not bubble, is cancelable, and has no default action.
Let the data attribute of the event have the value of message, the method's first argument.
Let the messagePort attribute of the event be port2.
Return port1 from the method, but continue with these steps.
Add the event to the port message queue of target port.

The start() method must open its port's port message queue, if it is not already open.

When a port's port message queue is open, contains an event, and its owner is available, the user agent must queue a task in the event loop to dispatch the first event in the queue on the MessagePort object, and remove the event from the queue. The task source for this task is the posted message task source.

A MessagePort's owner is available if the MessagePort is owned by an object other than a Window object, or if it is owned by a Window object and the Document that was the active document in that browsing context when the MessagePort was created is fully active. If that Document is discarded before the port's owner becomes available, then the events are lost.

The close() method, when called on a port local port that is entangled with another port, must cause the user agents to run the following steps:

Unentangle the two ports.
Queue a task to fire a simple event called close at the port on which the method was called.
Queue a task to fire a simple event called close at the other port.

The task source for the two tasks above is the posted message task source.

If the method is called on a port that is not entangled, then the method must do nothing.

The following are the event handler DOM attributes that must be supported by objects implementing the MessagePort interface:

onmessage

Must be invoked whenever a message event is targeted at or bubbles through the MessagePort object.

The first time a MessagePort object's onmessage attribute is set, the port's port message queue must be opened, as if the start() method had been called.

onclose

Must be invoked whenever an close event is targeted at or bubbles through the MessagePort object.

7.5.3.1 Ports and browsing contexts

When a Document is discarded, if there are any MessagePort objects that:

are entangled, and
are owned by the browsing context that contained that Document, and
were created while that Document was the active document of that browsing context, and
are entangled with a port that is either not owned by that browsing context or was not created while that Document was the active document of that browsing context,

...then the user agent must run the following steps for each such port:

Let surviving port be the port with which the MessagePort object in question is entangled.
Unentangle the two ports.
Queue a task to fire a simple event called close at surviving port. The task source for this task is the posted message task source.

7.5.3.2 Ports and garbage collection

User agents must act as if MessagePort objects have a strong reference to their entangled MessagePort object.

Thus, a message port can be received, given an event listener, and then forgotten, and so long as that event listener could receive a message, the channel will be maintained.

Of course, if this was to occur on both sides of the channel, then both ports would be garbage collected, since they would not be reachable from live code, despite having a strong reference to each other.

Furthermore, a MessagePort object must not be garbage collected while there exists a message in a task queue that is to be dispatched on that MessagePort object, or while the MessagePort object's port message queue is open and there exists a message event in that queue.

8 The HTML syntax

8.1 Writing HTML documents

This section only applies to documents, authoring tools, and markup generators. In particular, it does not apply to conformance checkers; conformance checkers must use the requirements given in the next section ("parsing HTML documents").

Documents must consist of the following parts, in the given order:

Optionally, a single U+FEFF BYTE ORDER MARK (BOM) character.
Any number of comments and space characters.
A DOCTYPE.
Any number of comments and space characters.
The root element, in the form of an html element.
Any number of comments and space characters.

The various types of content mentioned above are described in the next few sections.

In addition, there are some restrictions on how character encoding declarations are to be serialized, as discussed in the section on that topic.

Space characters before the root html element, and space characters at the start of the html element and before the head element, will be dropped when the document is parsed; space characters after the root html element will be parsed as if they were at the end of the body element. Thus, space characters around the root element do not round-trip.

It is suggested that newlines be inserted after the DOCTYPE, after any comments that are before the root element, after the html element's start tag (if it is not omitted), and after any comments that are inside the html element but before the head element.

Many strings in the HTML syntax (e.g. the names of elements and their attributes) are case-insensitive, but only for characters in the ranges U+0041 .. U+005A (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z) and U+0061 .. U+007A (LATIN SMALL LETTER A to LATIN SMALL LETTER Z). For convenience, in this section this is just referred to as "case-insensitive".

8.1.1 The DOCTYPE

A DOCTYPE is a mostly useless, but required, header.

DOCTYPEs are required for legacy reasons. When omitted, browsers tend to use a different rendering mode that is incompatible with some specifications. Including the DOCTYPE in a document ensures that the browser makes a best-effort attempt at following the relevant specifications.

A DOCTYPE must consist of the following characters, in this order:

A U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN (<) character.
A U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK (!) character.
A U+0044 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D or U+0064 LATIN SMALL LETTER D character.
A U+004F LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O or U+006F LATIN SMALL LETTER O character.
A U+0043 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C or U+0063 LATIN SMALL LETTER C character.
A U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T or U+0074 LATIN SMALL LETTER T character.
A U+0059 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y or U+0079 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y character.
A U+0050 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P or U+0070 LATIN SMALL LETTER P character.
A U+0045 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E or U+0065 LATIN SMALL LETTER E character.
One or more space characters.
A U+0048 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H or U+0068 LATIN SMALL LETTER H character.
A U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T or U+0074 LATIN SMALL LETTER T character.
A U+004D LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M or U+006D LATIN SMALL LETTER M character.
A U+004C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L or U+006C LATIN SMALL LETTER L character.
Optionally, a DOCTYPE legacy string (defined below).
Zero or more space characters.
A U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>) character.

In other words, <!DOCTYPE HTML>, case-insensitively.

For the purposes of XSLT generators that cannot output HTML markup without a DOCTYPE, a DOCTYPE legacy string may be inserted into the DOCTYPE (in the position defined above). This string must consist of:

One or more space characters.
A U+0050 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P or U+0070 LATIN SMALL LETTER P character.
A U+0055 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U or U+0075 LATIN SMALL LETTER U character.
A U+0042 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B or U+0062 LATIN SMALL LETTER B character.
A U+004C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L or U+006C LATIN SMALL LETTER L character.
A U+0049 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I or U+0069 LATIN SMALL LETTER I character.
A U+0043 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C or U+0063 LATIN SMALL LETTER C character.
One or more space characters.
A U+0022 QUOTATION MARK or U+0027 APOSTROPHE character.
The literal string "XSLT-compat".
The same character as in item 9 (a matching U+0022 QUOTATION MARK or U+0027 APOSTROPHE character).

In other words, <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "XSLT-compat"> or <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC 'XSLT-compat'>, case-insensitively except for the bit in quotes.

The DOCTYPE legacy string should not be used unless the document is generated from XSLT.

8.1.2 Elements

There are five different kinds of elements: void elements, CDATA elements, RCDATA elements, foreign elements, and normal elements.

Void elements: base, command, eventsource, link, meta, hr, br, img, embed, param, area, col, input, source
CDATA elements: style, script
RCDATA elements: title, textarea
Foreign elements: Elements from the MathML namespace
Normal elements: All other allowed HTML elements are normal elements.

Tags are used to delimit the start and end of elements in the markup. CDATA, RCDATA, and normal elements have a start tag to indicate where they begin, and an end tag to indicate where they end. The start and end tags of certain normal elements can be omitted, as described later. Those that cannot be omitted must not be omitted. Void elements only have a start tag; end tags must not be specified for void elements. Foreign elements must either have a start tag and an end tag, or a start tag that is marked as self-closing, in which case they must not have an end tag.

The contents of the element must be placed between just after the start tag (which might be implied, in certain cases) and just before the end tag (which again, might be implied in certain cases). The exact allowed contents of each individual element depends on the content model of that element, as described earlier in this specification. Elements must not contain content that their content model disallows. In addition to the restrictions placed on the contents by those content models, however, the five types of elements have additional syntactic requirements.

Void elements can't have any contents (since there's no end tag, no content can be put between the start tag and the end tag).

CDATA elements can have text, though it has restrictions described below.

RCDATA elements can have text and character references, but the text must not contain an ambiguous ampersand. There are also further restrictions described below.

Foreign elements whose start tag is marked as self-closing can't have any contents (since, again, as there's no end tag, no content can be put between the start tag and the end tag). Foreign elements whose start tag is not marked as self-closing can have text, character references, CDATA sections, other elements, and comments, but the text must not contain the character U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN (<) or an ambiguous ampersand.

Normal elements can have text, character references, other elements, and comments, but the text must not contain the character U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN (<) or an ambiguous ampersand. Some normal elements also have yet more restrictions on what content they are allowed to hold, beyond the restrictions imposed by the content model and those described in this paragraph. Those restrictions are described below.

Tags contain a tag name, giving the element's name. HTML elements all have names that only use characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO .. U+0039 DIGIT NINE, U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A .. U+007A LATIN SMALL LETTER Z, U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A .. U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z, and U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-). In the HTML syntax, tag names may be written with any mix of lower- and uppercase letters that, when converted to all-lowercase, matches the element's tag name; tag names are case-insensitive.

8.1.2.1 Start tags

Start tags must have the following format:

The first character of a start tag must be a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN (<).
The next few characters of a start tag must be the element's tag name.
If there are to be any attributes in the next step, there must first be one or more space characters.
Then, the start tag may have a number of attributes, the syntax for which is described below. Attributes may be separated from each other by one or more space characters.
After the attributes, there may be one or more space characters. (Some attributes are required to be followed by a space. See the attributes section below.)
Then, if the element is one of the void elements, or if the element is a foreign element, then there may be a single U+002F SOLIDUS (/) character. This character has no effect on void elements, but on foreign elements it marks the start tag as self-closing.
Finally, start tags must be closed by a U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>) character.

8.1.2.2 End tags

End tags must have the following format:

The first character of an end tag must be a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN (<).
The second character of an end tag must be a U+002F SOLIDUS (/).
The next few characters of an end tag must be the element's tag name.
After the tag name, there may be one or more space characters.
Finally, end tags must be closed by a U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>) character.

8.1.2.3 Attributes

Attributes for an element are expressed inside the element's start tag.

Attributes have a name and a value. Attribute names must consist of one or more characters other than the space characters, U+0000 NULL, U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("), U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('), U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>), U+002F SOLIDUS (/), and U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=) characters, the control characters, and any characters that are not defined by Unicode. In the HTML syntax, attribute names may be written with any mix of lower- and uppercase letters that are an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's name.

Attribute values are a mixture of text and character references, except with the additional restriction that the text cannot contain an ambiguous ampersand.

Attributes can be specified in four different ways:

Empty attribute syntax

Just the attribute name.

In the following example, the disabled attribute is given with the empty attribute syntax:

<input disabled>

If an attribute using the empty attribute syntax is to be followed by another attribute, then there must be a space character separating the two.

Unquoted attribute value syntax

The attribute name, followed by zero or more space characters, followed by a single U+003D EQUALS SIGN character, followed by zero or more space characters, followed by the attribute value, which, in addition to the requirements given above for attribute values, must not contain any literal space characters, any U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (") characters, U+0027 APOSTROPHE (') characters, U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=) characters, or U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>) characters, and must not be the empty string.

In the following example, the value attribute is given with the unquoted attribute value syntax:

<input value=yes>

If an attribute using the unquoted attribute syntax is to be followed by another attribute or by one of the optional U+002F SOLIDUS (/) characters allowed in step 6 of the start tag syntax above, then there must be a space character separating the two.

Single-quoted attribute value syntax

The attribute name, followed by zero or more space characters, followed by a single U+003D EQUALS SIGN character, followed by zero or more space characters, followed by a single U+0027 APOSTROPHE (') character, followed by the attribute value, which, in addition to the requirements given above for attribute values, must not contain any literal U+0027 APOSTROPHE (') characters, and finally followed by a second single U+0027 APOSTROPHE (') character.

In the following example, the type attribute is given with the single-quoted attribute value syntax:

<input type='checkbox'>

If an attribute using the single-quoted attribute syntax is to be followed by another attribute, then there must be a space character separating the two.

Double-quoted attribute value syntax

The attribute name, followed by zero or more space characters, followed by a single U+003D EQUALS SIGN character, followed by zero or more space characters, followed by a single U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (") character, followed by the attribute value, which, in addition to the requirements given above for attribute values, must not contain any literal U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (") characters, and finally followed by a second single U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (") character.

In the following example, the name attribute is given with the double-quoted attribute value syntax:

<input name="be evil">

If an attribute using the double-quoted attribute syntax is to be followed by another attribute, then there must be a space character separating the two.

There must never be two or more attributes on the same start tag whose names are an ASCII case-insensitive match for each other.

8.1.2.4 Optional tags

Certain tags can be omitted.

An html element's start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the html element is not a comment.

An html element's end tag may be omitted if the html element is not immediately followed by a comment and the element contains a body element that is either not empty or whose start tag has not been omitted.

A head element's start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the head element is an element.

A head element's end tag may be omitted if the head element is not immediately followed by a space character or a comment.

A body element's start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the body element is not a space character or a comment, except if the first thing inside the body element is a script or style element.

A body element's end tag may be omitted if the body element is not immediately followed by a comment and the element is either not empty or its start tag has not been omitted.

A li element's end tag may be omitted if the li element is immediately followed by another li element or if there is no more content in the parent element.

A dt element's end tag may be omitted if the dt element is immediately followed by another dt element or a dd element.

A dd element's end tag may be omitted if the dd element is immediately followed by another dd element or a dt element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

A p element's end tag may be omitted if the p element is immediately followed by an address, article, aside, blockquote, datagrid, dialog, dir, div, dl, fieldset, footer, form, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, header, hr, menu, nav, ol, p, pre, section, table, or ul, element, or if there is no more content in the parent element and the parent element is not an a element.

An rt element's end tag may be omitted if the rt element is immediately followed by an rt or rp element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

An rp element's end tag may be omitted if the rp element is immediately followed by an rt or rp element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

An optgroup element's end tag may be omitted if the optgroup element is immediately followed by another optgroup element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

An option element's end tag may be omitted if the option element is immediately followed by another option element, or if it is immediately followed by an optgroup element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

A colgroup element's start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the colgroup element is a col element, and if the element is not immediately preceded by another colgroup element whose end tag has been omitted.

A colgroup element's end tag may be omitted if the colgroup element is not immediately followed by a space character or a comment.

A thead element's end tag may be omitted if the thead element is immediately followed by a tbody or tfoot element.

A tbody element's start tag may be omitted if the first thing inside the tbody element is a tr element, and if the element is not immediately preceded by a tbody, thead, or tfoot element whose end tag has been omitted.

A tbody element's end tag may be omitted if the tbody element is immediately followed by a tbody or tfoot element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

A tfoot element's end tag may be omitted if the tfoot element is immediately followed by a tbody element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

A tr element's end tag may be omitted if the tr element is immediately followed by another tr element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

A td element's end tag may be omitted if the td element is immediately followed by a td or th element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

A th element's end tag may be omitted if the th element is immediately followed by a td or th element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

However, a start tag must never be omitted if it has any attributes.

8.1.2.5 Restrictions on content models

For historical reasons, certain elements have extra restrictions beyond even the restrictions given by their content model.

An optgroup element must not contain optgroup elements, even though these elements are technically allowed to be nested according to the content models described in this specification. (If an optgroup element is put inside another in the markup, it will in fact imply an optgroup end tag before it.)

A table element must not contain tr elements, even though these elements are technically allowed inside table elements according to the content models described in this specification. (If a tr element is put inside a table in the markup, it will in fact imply a tbody start tag before it.)

A single U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character may be placed immediately after the start tag of pre and textarea elements. This does not affect the processing of the element. The otherwise optional U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character must be included if the element's contents start with that character (because otherwise the leading newline in the contents would be treated like the optional newline, and ignored).

The following two pre blocks are equivalent:

<pre>Hello</pre>

<pre>
Hello</pre>

8.1.2.6 Restrictions on the contents of CDATA and RCDATA elements

The text in CDATA and RCDATA elements must not contain any occurrences of the string "</" (U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN, U+002F SOLIDUS) followed by characters that case-insensitively match the tag name of the element followed by one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), U+0020 SPACE, U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>), or U+002F SOLIDUS (/), unless that string is part of an escaping text span.

An escaping text span is a span of text that starts with an escaping text span start that is not itself in an escaping text span, and ends at the next escaping text span end. There cannot be any character references inside an escaping text span.

An escaping text span start is a part of text that consists of the four character sequence "<!--" (U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN, U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK, U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS).

An escaping text span end is a part of text that consists of the three character sequence "-->" (U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN) whose U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>).

An escaping text span start may share its U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS characters with its corresponding escaping text span end.

The text in CDATA and RCDATA elements must not have an escaping text span start that is not followed by an escaping text span end.

8.1.3 Text

Text is allowed inside elements, attributes, and comments. Text must consist of Unicode characters. Text must not contain U+0000 characters. Text must not contain permanently undefined Unicode characters. Text must not contain control characters other than space characters. Extra constraints are placed on what is and what is not allowed in text based on where the text is to be put, as described in the other sections.

8.1.3.1 Newlines

Newlines in HTML may be represented either as U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters, U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters, or pairs of U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR), U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters in that order.

8.1.4 Character references

In certain cases described in other sections, text may be mixed with character references. These can be used to escape characters that couldn't otherwise legally be included in text.

Character references must start with a U+0026 AMPERSAND (&). Following this, there are three possible kinds of character references:

Named character references: The ampersand must be followed by one of the names given in the named character references section, using the same case. The name must be one that is terminated by a U+003B SEMICOLON (;) character.
Decimal numeric character reference: The ampersand must be followed by a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN (#) character, followed by one or more digits in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO .. U+0039 DIGIT NINE, representing a base-ten integer that itself is a Unicode code point that is not U+0000, U+000D, in the range U+0080 .. U+009F, or in the range 0xD800 .. 0xDFFF (surrogates). The digits must then be followed by a U+003B SEMICOLON character (;).
Hexadecimal numeric character reference: The ampersand must be followed by a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN (#) character, which must be followed by either a U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X or a U+0058 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X character, which must then be followed by one or more digits in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO .. U+0039 DIGIT NINE, U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A .. U+0066 LATIN SMALL LETTER F, and U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A .. U+0046 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F, representing a base-sixteen integer that itself is a Unicode code point that is not U+0000, U+000D, in the range U+0080 .. U+009F, or in the range 0xD800 .. 0xDFFF (surrogates). The digits must then be followed by a U+003B SEMICOLON character (;).

An ambiguous ampersand is a U+0026 AMPERSAND (&) character that is followed by some text other than a space character, a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character ('<'), or another U+0026 AMPERSAND (&) character.

8.1.5 CDATA sections

CDATA sections must start with the character sequence U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN, U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK, U+005B LEFT SQUARE BRACKET, U+0043 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C, U+0044 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D, U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A, U+0054 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T, U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A, U+005B LEFT SQUARE BRACKET (<![CDATA[). Following this sequence, the CDATA section may have text, with the additional restriction that the text must not contain the three character sequence U+005D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET, U+005D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET, U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (]]>). Finally, the CDATA section must be ended by the three character sequence U+005D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET, U+005D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET, U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (]]>).

8.1.6 Comments

Comments must start with the four character sequence U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN, U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK, U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS ().

8.2 Parsing HTML documents

This section only applies to user agents, data mining tools, and conformance checkers.

The rules for parsing XML documents (and thus XHTML documents) into DOM trees are covered by the XML and Namespaces in XML specifications, and are out of scope of this specification. [XML] [XMLNS]

For HTML documents, user agents must use the parsing rules described in this section to generate the DOM trees. Together, these rules define what is referred to as the HTML parser.

While the HTML form of HTML5 bears a close resemblance to SGML and XML, it is a separate language with its own parsing rules.

Some earlier versions of HTML (in particular from HTML2 to HTML4) were based on SGML and used SGML parsing rules. However, few (if any) web browsers ever implemented true SGML parsing for HTML documents; the only user agents to strictly handle HTML as an SGML application have historically been validators. The resulting confusion — with validators claiming documents to have one representation while widely deployed Web browsers interoperably implemented a different representation — has wasted decades of productivity. This version of HTML thus returns to a non-SGML basis.

Authors interested in using SGML tools in their authoring pipeline are encouraged to use XML tools and the XML serialization of HTML5.

This specification defines the parsing rules for HTML documents, whether they are syntactically correct or not. Certain points in the parsing algorithm are said to be parse errors. The error handling for parse errors is well-defined: user agents must either act as described below when encountering such problems, or must abort processing at the first error that they encounter for which they do not wish to apply the rules described below.

Conformance checkers must report at least one parse error condition to the user if one or more parse error conditions exist in the document and must not report parse error conditions if none exist in the document. Conformance checkers may report more than one parse error condition if more than one parse error conditions exist in the document. Conformance checkers are not required to recover from parse errors.

Parse errors are only errors with the syntax of HTML. In addition to checking for parse errors, conformance checkers will also verify that the document obeys all the other conformance requirements described in this specification.

8.2.1 Overview of the parsing model

The input to the HTML parsing process consists of a stream of Unicode characters, which is passed through a tokenization stage (lexical analysis) followed by a tree construction stage (semantic analysis). The output is a Document object.

Implementations that do not support scripting do not have to actually create a DOM Document object, but the DOM tree in such cases is still used as the model for the rest of the specification.

In the common case, the data handled by the tokenization stage comes from the network, but it can also come from script, e.g. using the document.write() API.

There is only one set of state for the tokeniser stage and the tree construction stage, but the tree construction stage is reentrant, meaning that while the tree construction stage is handling one token, the tokeniser might be resumed, causing further tokens to be emitted and processed before the first token's processing is complete.

In the following example, the tree construction stage will be called upon to handle a "p" start tag token while handling the "script" start tag token:

...
<script>
 document.write('<p>');
</script>
...

8.2.2 The input stream

The stream of Unicode characters that consists the input to the tokenization stage will be initially seen by the user agent as a stream of bytes (typically coming over the network or from the local file system). The bytes encode the actual characters according to a particular character encoding, which the user agent must use to decode the bytes into characters.

For XML documents, the algorithm user agents must use to determine the character encoding is given by the XML specification. This section does not apply to XML documents. [XML]

8.2.2.1 Determining the character encoding

In some cases, it might be impractical to unambiguously determine the encoding before parsing the document. Because of this, this specification provides for a two-pass mechanism with an optional pre-scan. Implementations are allowed, as described below, to apply a simplified parsing algorithm to whatever bytes they have available before beginning to parse the document. Then, the real parser is started, using a tentative encoding derived from this pre-parse and other out-of-band metadata. If, while the document is being loaded, the user agent discovers an encoding declaration that conflicts with this information, then the parser can get reinvoked to perform a parse of the document with the real encoding.

User agents must use the following algorithm (the encoding sniffing algorithm) to determine the character encoding to use when decoding a document in the first pass. This algorithm takes as input any out-of-band metadata available to the user agent (e.g. the Content-Type metadata of the document) and all the bytes available so far, and returns an encoding and a confidence. The confidence is either tentative or certain. The encoding used, and whether the confidence in that encoding is tentative or confident, is used during the parsing to determine whether to change the encoding.

If the transport layer specifies an encoding, and it is supported, return that encoding with the confidence certain, and abort these steps.
The user agent may wait for more bytes of the resource to be available, either in this step or at any later step in this algorithm. For instance, a user agent might wait 500ms or 512 bytes, whichever came first. In general preparsing the source to find the encoding improves performance, as it reduces the need to throw away the data structures used when parsing upon finding the encoding information. However, if the user agent delays too long to obtain data to determine the encoding, then the cost of the delay could outweigh any performance improvements from the preparse.
For each of the rows in the following table, starting with the first one and going down, if there are as many or more bytes available than the number of bytes in the first column, and the first bytes of the file match the bytes given in the first column, then return the encoding given in the cell in the second column of that row, with the confidence certain, and abort these steps:

Bytes in Hexadecimal Encoding
FE FF UTF-16BE
FF FE UTF-16LE
EF BB BF UTF-8
This step looks for Unicode Byte Order Marks (BOMs).
Otherwise, the user agent will have to search for explicit character encoding information in the file itself. This should proceed as follows:
Let position be a pointer to a byte in the input stream, initially pointing at the first byte. If at any point during these substeps the user agent either runs out of bytes or decides that scanning further bytes would not be efficient, then skip to the next step of the overall character encoding detection algorithm. User agents may decide that scanning any bytes is not efficient, in which case these substeps are entirely skipped.

Now, repeat the following "two" steps until the algorithm aborts (either because user agent aborts, as described above, or because a character encoding is found):
1. If position points to:
  A sequence of bytes starting with: 0x3C 0x21 0x2D 0x2D (ASCII '' sequence) and comes after the 0x3C byte that was found. (The two 0x2D bytes can be the same as the those in the '<!--' sequence.)
  
  A sequence of bytes starting with: 0x3C, 0x4D or 0x6D, 0x45 or 0x65, 0x54 or 0x74, 0x41 or 0x61, and finally one of 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0C, 0x0D, 0x20, 0x2F (case-insensitive ASCII '<meta' followed by a space or slash)
  1. Advance the position pointer so that it points at the next 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0C, 0x0D, 0x20, or 0x2F byte (the one in sequence of characters matched above).
  2. Get an attribute and its value. If no attribute was sniffed, then skip this inner set of steps, and jump to the second step in the overall "two step" algorithm.
  3. If the attribute's name is neither "charset" nor "content", then return to step 2 in these inner steps.
  4. If the attribute's name is "charset", let charset be the attribute's value, interpreted as a character encoding.
  5. Otherwise, the attribute's name is "content": apply the algorithm for extracting an encoding from a Content-Type, giving the attribute's value as the string to parse. If an encoding is returned, let charset be that encoding. Otherwise, return to step 2 in these inner steps.
  6. If charset is a UTF-16 encoding, change it to UTF-8.
  7. If charset is a supported character encoding, then return the given encoding, with confidence tentative, and abort all these steps.
  8. Otherwise, return to step 2 in these inner steps.
  A sequence of bytes starting with a 0x3C byte (ASCII '<'), optionally a 0x2F byte (ASCII '/'), and finally a byte in the range 0x41-0x5A or 0x61-0x7A (an ASCII letter)
  1. Advance the position pointer so that it points at the next 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), 0x20 (ASCII space), or 0x3E (ASCII '>') byte.
  2. Repeatedly get an attribute until no further attributes can be found, then jump to the second step in the overall "two step" algorithm.
  A sequence of bytes starting with: 0x3C 0x21 (ASCII '<!')
  
  A sequence of bytes starting with: 0x3C 0x2F (ASCII '</')
  
  A sequence of bytes starting with: 0x3C 0x3F (ASCII '<?')
  
  Advance the position pointer so that it points at the first 0x3E byte (ASCII '>') that comes after the 0x3C byte that was found.
  
  Any other byte
  
  Do nothing with that byte.
2. Move position so it points at the next byte in the input stream, and return to the first step of this "two step" algorithm.
When the above "two step" algorithm says to get an attribute, it means doing this:
1. If the byte at position is one of 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), 0x20 (ASCII space), or 0x2F (ASCII '/') then advance position to the next byte and redo this substep.
2. If the byte at position is 0x3E (ASCII '>'), then abort the "get an attribute" algorithm. There isn't one.
3. Otherwise, the byte at position is the start of the attribute name. Let attribute name and attribute value be the empty string.
4. Attribute name: Process the byte at position as follows:
  
  If it is 0x3D (ASCII '='), and the attribute name is longer than the empty string
  
  Advance position to the next byte and jump to the step below labeled value.
  
  If it is 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), or 0x20 (ASCII space)
  
  Jump to the step below labeled spaces.
  
  If it is 0x2F (ASCII '/') or 0x3E (ASCII '>')
  
  Abort the "get an attribute" algorithm. The attribute's name is the value of attribute name, its value is the empty string.
  
  If it is in the range 0x41 (ASCII 'A') to 0x5A (ASCII 'Z')
  
  Append the Unicode character with codepoint b+0x20 to attribute name (where b is the value of the byte at position).
  
  Anything else
  
  Append the Unicode character with the same codepoint as the value of the byte at position) to attribute name. (It doesn't actually matter how bytes outside the ASCII range are handled here, since only ASCII characters can contribute to the detection of a character encoding.)
5. Advance position to the next byte and return to the previous step.
6. Spaces. If the byte at position is one of 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), or 0x20 (ASCII space) then advance position to the next byte, then, repeat this step.
7. If the byte at position is not 0x3D (ASCII '='), abort the "get an attribute" algorithm. The attribute's name is the value of attribute name, its value is the empty string.
8. Advance position past the 0x3D (ASCII '=') byte.
9. Value. If the byte at position is one of 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), or 0x20 (ASCII space) then advance position to the next byte, then, repeat this step.
10. Process the byte at position as follows:
  If it is 0x22 (ASCII '"') or 0x27 ("'")
  1. Let b be the value of the byte at position.
  2. Advance position to the next byte.
  3. If the value of the byte at position is the value of b, then advance position to the next byte and abort the "get an attribute" algorithm. The attribute's name is the value of attribute name, and its value is the value of attribute value.
  4. Otherwise, if the value of the byte at position is in the range 0x41 (ASCII 'A') to 0x5A (ASCII 'Z'), then append a Unicode character to attribute value whose codepoint is 0x20 more than the value of the byte at position.
  5. Otherwise, append a Unicode character to attribute value whose codepoint is the same as the value of the byte at position.
  6. Return to the second step in these substeps.
  If it is 0x3E (ASCII '>')
  
  Abort the "get an attribute" algorithm. The attribute's name is the value of attribute name, its value is the empty string.
  
  If it is in the range 0x41 (ASCII 'A') to 0x5A (ASCII 'Z')
  
  Append the Unicode character with codepoint b+0x20 to attribute value (where b is the value of the byte at position). Advance position to the next byte.
  
  Anything else
  
  Append the Unicode character with the same codepoint as the value of the byte at position) to attribute value. Advance position to the next byte.
11. Process the byte at position as follows:
  
  If it is 0x09 (ASCII TAB), 0x0A (ASCII LF), 0x0C (ASCII FF), 0x0D (ASCII CR), 0x20 (ASCII space), or 0x3E (ASCII '>')
  
  Abort the "get an attribute" algorithm. The attribute's name is the value of attribute name and its value is the value of attribute value.
  
  If it is in the range 0x41 (ASCII 'A') to 0x5A (ASCII 'Z')
  
  Append the Unicode character with codepoint b+0x20 to attribute value (where b is the value of the byte at position).
  
  Anything else
  
  Append the Unicode character with the same codepoint as the value of the byte at position) to attribute value.
12. Advance position to the next byte and return to the previous step.
For the sake of interoperability, user agents should not use a pre-scan algorithm that returns different results than the one described above. (But, if you do, please at least let us know, so that we can improve this algorithm and benefit everyone...)
If the user agent has information on the likely encoding for this page, e.g. based on the encoding of the page when it was last visited, then return that encoding, with the confidence tentative, and abort these steps.
The user agent may attempt to autodetect the character encoding from applying frequency analysis or other algorithms to the data stream. If autodetection succeeds in determining a character encoding, then return that encoding, with the confidence tentative, and abort these steps. [UNIVCHARDET]
Otherwise, return an implementation-defined or user-specified default character encoding, with the confidence tentative. In non-legacy environments, the more comprehensive UTF-8 encoding is recommended. Due to its use in legacy content, windows-1252 is recommended as a default in predominantly Western demographics instead. Since these encodings can in many cases be distinguished by inspection, a user agent may heuristically decide which to use as a default.

Bytes in Hexadecimal	Encoding
FE FF	UTF-16BE
FF FE	UTF-16LE
EF BB BF	UTF-8

The document's character encoding must immediately be set to the value returned from this algorithm, at the same time as the user agent uses the returned value to select the decoder to use for the input stream.

8.2.2.2 Character encoding requirements

User agents must at a minimum support the UTF-8 and Windows-1252 encodings, but may support more.

It is not unusual for Web browsers to support dozens if not upwards of a hundred distinct character encodings.

User agents must support the preferred MIME name of every character encoding they support that has a preferred MIME name, and should support all the IANA-registered aliases. [IANACHARSET]

When comparing a string specifying a character encoding with the name or alias of a character encoding to determine if they are equal, user agents must ignore all characters in the ranges U+0009 to U+000D, U+0020 to U+002F, U+003A to U+0040, U+005B to U+0060, and U+007B to U+007E (all whitespace and punctuation characters in ASCII) in both names, and then perform the comparison in an ASCII case-insensitive manner.

For instance, "GB_2312-80" and "g.b.2312(80)" are considered equivalent names.

When a user agent would otherwise use an encoding given in the first column of the following table, it must instead use the encoding given in the cell in the second column of the same row. Any bytes that are treated differently due to this encoding aliasing must be considered parse errors.

Character encoding overrides
Input encoding	Replacement encoding	References
EUC-KR	Windows-949	[EUCKR] [WIN949]
GB2312	GBK	[GB2312] [GBK]
GB_2312-80	GBK	[RFC1345] [GBK]
ISO-8859-1	Windows-1252	[RFC1345] [WIN1252]
ISO-8859-9	Windows-1254	[RFC1345] [WIN1254]
ISO-8859-11	Windows-874	[ISO885911] [WIN874]
KS_C_5601-1987	Windows-949	[RFC1345] [WIN949]
TIS-620	Windows-874	[TIS620] [WIN874]
US-ASCII	Windows-1252	[RFC1345] [WIN1252]
x-x-big5	Big5	[BIG5]

The requirement to treat certain encodings as other encodings according to the table above is a willful violation of the W3C Character Model specification. [CHARMOD]

User agents must not support the CESU-8, UTF-7, BOCU-1 and SCSU encodings. [CESU8] [UTF7] [BOCU1] [SCSU]

Support for encodings based on EBCDIC is not recommended. This encoding is rarely used for publicly-facing Web content.

Support for UTF-32 is not recommended. This encoding is rarely used, and frequently misimplemented.

This specification does not make any attempt to support EBCDIC-based encodings and UTF-32 in its algorithms; support and use of these encodings can thus lead to unexpected behavior in implementations of this specification.

8.2.2.3 Preprocessing the input stream

Given an encoding, the bytes in the input stream must be converted to Unicode characters for the tokeniser, as described by the rules for that encoding, except that the leading U+FEFF BYTE ORDER MARK character, if any, must not be stripped by the encoding layer (it is stripped by the rule below).

Bytes or sequences of bytes in the original byte stream that could not be converted to Unicode characters must be converted to U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER code points.

Bytes or sequences of bytes in the original byte stream that did not conform to the encoding specification (e.g. invalid UTF-8 byte sequences in a UTF-8 input stream) are errors that conformance checkers are expected to report.

One leading U+FEFF BYTE ORDER MARK character must be ignored if any are present.

All U+0000 NULL characters in the input must be replaced by U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTERs. Any occurrences of such characters is a parse error.

Any occurrences of any characters in the ranges U+0001 to U+0008, U+000B, U+000E to U+001F, U+007F to U+009F, U+D800 to U+DFFF , U+FDD0 to U+FDDF, and characters U+FFFE, U+FFFF, U+1FFFE, U+1FFFF, U+2FFFE, U+2FFFF, U+3FFFE, U+3FFFF, U+4FFFE, U+4FFFF, U+5FFFE, U+5FFFF, U+6FFFE, U+6FFFF, U+7FFFE, U+7FFFF, U+8FFFE, U+8FFFF, U+9FFFE, U+9FFFF, U+AFFFE, U+AFFFF, U+BFFFE, U+BFFFF, U+CFFFE, U+CFFFF, U+DFFFE, U+DFFFF, U+EFFFE, U+EFFFF, U+FFFFE, U+FFFFF, U+10FFFE, and U+10FFFF are parse errors. (These are all control characters or permanently undefined Unicode characters.)

U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) characters and U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters are treated specially. Any CR characters that are followed by LF characters must be removed, and any CR characters not followed by LF characters must be converted to LF characters. Thus, newlines in HTML DOMs are represented by LF characters, and there are never any CR characters in the input to the tokenization stage.

The next input character is the first character in the input stream that has not yet been consumed. Initially, the next input character is the first character in the input.

The insertion point is the position (just before a character or just before the end of the input stream) where content inserted using document.write() is actually inserted. The insertion point is relative to the position of the character immediately after it, it is not an absolute offset into the input stream. Initially, the insertion point is uninitialized.

The "EOF" character in the tables below is a conceptual character representing the end of the input stream. If the parser is a script-created parser, then the end of the input stream is reached when an explicit "EOF" character (inserted by the document.close() method) is consumed. Otherwise, the "EOF" character is not a real character in the stream, but rather the lack of any further characters.

8.2.2.4 Changing the encoding while parsing

When the parser requires the user agent to change the encoding, it must run the following steps. This might happen if the encoding sniffing algorithm described above failed to find an encoding, or if it found an encoding that was not the actual encoding of the file.

If the new encoding is a UTF-16 encoding, change it to UTF-8.
If the new encoding is identical or equivalent to the encoding that is already being used to interpret the input stream, then set the confidence to confident and abort these steps. This happens when the encoding information found in the file matches what the encoding sniffing algorithm determined to be the encoding, and in the second pass through the parser if the first pass found that the encoding sniffing algorithm described in the earlier section failed to find the right encoding.
If all the bytes up to the last byte converted by the current decoder have the same Unicode interpretations in both the current encoding and the new encoding, and if the user agent supports changing the converter on the fly, then the user agent may change to the new converter for the encoding on the fly. Set the document's character encoding and the encoding used to convert the input stream to the new encoding, set the confidence to confident, and abort these steps.
Otherwise, navigate to the document again, with replacement enabled, and using the same source browsing context, but this time skip the encoding sniffing algorithm and instead just set the encoding to the new encoding and the confidence to confident. Whenever possible, this should be done without actually contacting the network layer (the bytes should be re-parsed from memory), even if, e.g., the document is marked as not being cacheable.

8.2.3 Parse state

8.2.3.1 The insertion mode

The insertion mode is a flag that controls the primary operation of the tree construction stage.

Initially the insertion mode is "initial". It can change to "before html", "before head", "in head", "in head noscript", "after head", "in body", "in CDATA/RCDATA", "in table", "in caption", "in column group", "in table body", "in row", "in cell", "in select", "in select in table", "in foreign content", "after body", "in frameset", "after frameset", "after after body", and "after after frameset" during the course of the parsing, as described in the tree construction stage. The insertion mode affects how tokens are processed and whether CDATA sections are supported.

Seven of these modes, namely "in head", "in body", "in CDATA/RCDATA", "in table", "in table body", "in row", "in cell", and "in select", are special, in that the other modes defer to them at various times. When the algorithm below says that the user agent is to do something "using the rules for the m insertion mode", where m is one of these modes, the user agent must use the rules described under the m insertion mode's section, but must leave the insertion mode unchanged unless the rules in m themselves switch the insertion mode to a new value.

When the insertion mode is switched to "in CDATA/RCDATA", the original insertion mode is also set. This is the insertion mode to which the tree construction stage will return when the corresponding end tag is parsed.

When the insertion mode is switched to "in foreign content", the secondary insertion mode is also set. This secondary mode is used within the rules for the "in foreign content" mode to handle HTML (i.e. not foreign) content.

When the steps below require the UA to reset the insertion mode appropriately, it means the UA must follow these steps:

Let last be false.
Let node be the last node in the stack of open elements.
If node is the first node in the stack of open elements, then set last to true and set node to the context element. (fragment case)
If node is a select element, then switch the insertion mode to "in select" and abort these steps. (fragment case)
If node is a td or th element and last is false, then switch the insertion mode to "in cell" and abort these steps.
If node is a tr element, then switch the insertion mode to "in row" and abort these steps.
If node is a tbody, thead, or tfoot element, then switch the insertion mode to "in table body" and abort these steps.
If node is a caption element, then switch the insertion mode to "in caption" and abort these steps.
If node is a colgroup element, then switch the insertion mode to "in column group" and abort these steps. (fragment case)
If node is a table element, then switch the insertion mode to "in table" and abort these steps.
If node is an element from the MathML namespace, then switch the insertion mode to "in foreign content", let the secondary insertion mode be "in body", and abort these steps.
If node is a head element, then switch the insertion mode to "in body" ("in body"! not "in head"!) and abort these steps. (fragment case)
If node is a body element, then switch the insertion mode to "in body" and abort these steps.
If node is a frameset element, then switch the insertion mode to "in frameset" and abort these steps. (fragment case)
If node is an html element, then: if the head element pointer is null, switch the insertion mode to "before head", otherwise, switch the insertion mode to "after head". In either case, abort these steps. (fragment case)
If last is true, then switch the insertion mode to "in body" and abort these steps. (fragment case)
Let node now be the node before node in the stack of open elements.
Return to step 3.

8.2.3.2 The stack of open elements

Initially the stack of open elements is empty. The stack grows downwards; the topmost node on the stack is the first one added to the stack, and the bottommost node of the stack is the most recently added node in the stack (notwithstanding when the stack is manipulated in a random access fashion as part of the handling for misnested tags).

The "before html" insertion mode creates the html root element node, which is then added to the stack.

In the fragment case, the stack of open elements is initialized to contain an html element that is created as part of that algorithm. (The fragment case skips the "before html" insertion mode.)

The html node, however it is created, is the topmost node of the stack. It never gets popped off the stack.

The current node is the bottommost node in this stack.

The current table is the last table element in the stack of open elements, if there is one. If there is no table element in the stack of open elements (fragment case), then the current table is the first element in the stack of open elements (the html element).

Elements in the stack fall into the following categories:

Special: The following HTML elements have varying levels of special parsing rules: address, area, article, aside, base, basefont, bgsound, blockquote, body, br, center, col, colgroup, command, datagrid, dd, details, dialog, dir, div, dl, dt, embed, eventsource fieldset, figure, footer, form, frame, frameset, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, head, header, hr, iframe, img, input, isindex, li, link, listing, menu, meta, nav, noembed, noframes, noscript, ol, p, param, plaintext, pre, script, section, select, spacer, style, tbody, textarea, tfoot, thead, title, tr, ul, and wbr.
Scoping: The following HTML elements introduce new scopes for various parts of the parsing: applet, button, caption, html, marquee, object, table, td, th.
Formatting: The following HTML elements are those that end up in the list of active formatting elements: a, b, big, em, font, i, nobr, s, small, strike, strong, tt, and u.
Phrasing: All other elements found while parsing an HTML document.

The stack of open elements is said to have an element in scope when the following algorithm terminates in a match state:

Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
If node is the target node, terminate in a match state.
Otherwise, if node is one of the following elements, terminate in a failure state:
- applet in the HTML namespace
- caption in the HTML namespace
- html in the HTML namespace
- table in the HTML namespace
- td in the HTML namespace
- th in the HTML namespace
- button in the HTML namespace
- marquee in the HTML namespace
- object in the HTML namespace
Otherwise, set node to the previous entry in the stack of open elements and return to step 2. (This will never fail, since the loop will always terminate in the previous step if the top of the stack — an html element — is reached.)

The stack of open elements is said to have an element in table scope when the following algorithm terminates in a match state:

Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
If node is the target node, terminate in a match state.
Otherwise, if node is one of the following elements, terminate in a failure state:
- html in the HTML namespace
- table in the HTML namespace
Otherwise, set node to the previous entry in the stack of open elements and return to step 2. (This will never fail, since the loop will always terminate in the previous step if the top of the stack — an html element — is reached.)

Nothing happens if at any time any of the elements in the stack of open elements are moved to a new location in, or removed from, the Document tree. In particular, the stack is not changed in this situation. This can cause, amongst other strange effects, content to be appended to nodes that are no longer in the DOM.

In some cases (namely, when closing misnested formatting elements), the stack is manipulated in a random-access fashion.

8.2.3.3 The list of active formatting elements

Initially the list of active formatting elements is empty. It is used to handle mis-nested formatting element tags.

The list contains elements in the formatting category, and scope markers. The scope markers are inserted when entering applet elements, buttons, object elements, marquees, table cells, and table captions, and are used to prevent formatting from "leaking" into applet elements, buttons, object elements, marquees, and tables.

When the steps below require the UA to reconstruct the active formatting elements, the UA must perform the following steps:

If there are no entries in the list of active formatting elements, then there is nothing to reconstruct; stop this algorithm.
If the last (most recently added) entry in the list of active formatting elements is a marker, or if it is an element that is in the stack of open elements, then there is nothing to reconstruct; stop this algorithm.
Let entry be the last (most recently added) element in the list of active formatting elements.
If there are no entries before entry in the list of active formatting elements, then jump to step 8.
Let entry be the entry one earlier than entry in the list of active formatting elements.
If entry is neither a marker nor an element that is also in the stack of open elements, go to step 4.
Let entry be the element one later than entry in the list of active formatting elements.
Perform a shallow clone of the element entry to obtain clone. [DOM3CORE]
Append clone to the current node and push it onto the stack of open elements so that it is the new current node.
Replace the entry for entry in the list with an entry for clone.
If the entry for clone in the list of active formatting elements is not the last entry in the list, return to step 7.

This has the effect of reopening all the formatting elements that were opened in the current body, cell, or caption (whichever is youngest) that haven't been explicitly closed.

The way this specification is written, the list of active formatting elements always consists of elements in chronological order with the least recently added element first and the most recently added element last (except for while steps 8 to 11 of the above algorithm are being executed, of course).

When the steps below require the UA to clear the list of active formatting elements up to the last marker, the UA must perform the following steps:

Let entry be the last (most recently added) entry in the list of active formatting elements.
Remove entry from the list of active formatting elements.
If entry was a marker, then stop the algorithm at this point. The list has been cleared up to the last marker.
Go to step 1.

8.2.3.4 The element pointers

Initially the head element pointer and the form element pointer are both null.

Once a head element has been parsed (whether implicitly or explicitly) the head element pointer gets set to point to this node.

The form element pointer points to the last form element that was opened and whose end tag has not yet been seen. It is used to make form controls associate with forms in the face of dramatically bad markup, for historical reasons.

8.2.3.5 The scripting state

The scripting flag is set to "enabled" if the Document with which the parser is associated was with script when the parser was created, and "disabled" otherwise.

8.2.4 Tokenization

Implementations must act as if they used the following state machine to tokenise HTML. The state machine must start in the data state. Most states consume a single character, which may have various side-effects, and either switches the state machine to a new state to reconsume the same character, or switches it to a new state (to consume the next character), or repeats the same state (to consume the next character). Some states have more complicated behavior and can consume several characters before switching to another state.

The exact behavior of certain states depends on a content model flag that is set after certain tokens are emitted. The flag has several states: PCDATA, RCDATA, CDATA, and PLAINTEXT. Initially it must be in the PCDATA state. In the RCDATA and CDATA states, a further escape flag is used to control the behavior of the tokeniser. It is either true or false, and initially must be set to the false state. The insertion mode and the stack of open elements also affects tokenization.

The output of the tokenization step is a series of zero or more of the following tokens: DOCTYPE, start tag, end tag, comment, character, end-of-file. DOCTYPE tokens have a name, a public identifier, a system identifier, and a force-quirks flag. When a DOCTYPE token is created, its name, public identifier, and system identifier must be marked as missing (which is a distinct state from the empty string), and the force-quirks flag must be set to off (its other state is on). Start and end tag tokens have a tag name, a self-closing flag, and a list of attributes, each of which has a name and a value. When a start or end tag token is created, its self-closing flag must be unset (its other state is that it be set), and its attributes list must be empty. Comment and character tokens have data.

When a token is emitted, it must immediately be handled by the tree construction stage. The tree construction stage can affect the state of the content model flag, and can insert additional characters into the stream. (For example, the script element can result in scripts executing and using the dynamic markup insertion APIs to insert characters into the stream being tokenised.)

When a start tag token is emitted with its self-closing flag set, if the flag is not acknowledged when it is processed by the tree construction stage, that is a parse error.

When an end tag token is emitted, the content model flag must be switched to the PCDATA state.

When an end tag token is emitted with attributes, that is a parse error.

When an end tag token is emitted with its self-closing flag set, that is a parse error.

Before each step of the tokeniser, the user agent may check to see if either one of the scripts in the list of scripts that will execute as soon as possible or the first script in the list of scripts that will execute asynchronously, has completed loading. If one has, then it must be executed and removed from its list.

The tokeniser state machine consists of the states defined in the following subsections.

8.2.4.1 Data state

Consume the next input character:

U+0026 AMPERSAND (&)

When the content model flag is set to one of the PCDATA or RCDATA states and the escape flag is false: switch to the character reference data state.

Otherwise: treat it as per the "anything else" entry below.

U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-)

If the content model flag is set to either the RCDATA state or the CDATA state, and the escape flag is false, and there are at least three characters before this one in the input stream, and the last four characters in the input stream, including this one, are U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN, U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK, U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, and U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS ("<!--"), then set the escape flag to true.

In any case, emit the input character as a character token. Stay in the data state.

U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN (<)

When the content model flag is set to the PCDATA state: switch to the tag open state.

When the content model flag is set to either the RCDATA state or the CDATA state and the escape flag is false: switch to the tag open state.

Otherwise: treat it as per the "anything else" entry below.

U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>)

If the content model flag is set to either the RCDATA state or the CDATA state, and the escape flag is true, and the last three characters in the input stream including this one are U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN ("-->"), set the escape flag to false.

In any case, emit the input character as a character token. Stay in the data state.

EOF

Emit an end-of-file token.

Anything else

Emit the input character as a character token. Stay in the data state.

8.2.4.2 Character reference data state

(This cannot happen if the content model flag is set to the CDATA state.)

Attempt to consume a character reference, with no additional allowed character.

If nothing is returned, emit a U+0026 AMPERSAND character token.

Otherwise, emit the character token that was returned.

Finally, switch to the data state.

8.2.4.3 Tag open state

The behavior of this state depends on the content model flag.

If the content model flag is set to the RCDATA or CDATA states

Consume the next input character. If it is a U+002F SOLIDUS (/) character, switch to the close tag open state. Otherwise, emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token and reconsume the current input character in the data state.

If the content model flag is set to the PCDATA state

Consume the next input character:

U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK (!): Switch to the markup declaration open state.
U+002F SOLIDUS (/): Switch to the close tag open state.
U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A through to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z: Create a new start tag token, set its tag name to the lowercase version of the input character (add 0x0020 to the character's code point), then switch to the tag name state. (Don't emit the token yet; further details will be filled in before it is emitted.)
U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A through to U+007A LATIN SMALL LETTER Z: Create a new start tag token, set its tag name to the input character, then switch to the tag name state. (Don't emit the token yet; further details will be filled in before it is emitted.)
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token and a U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN character token. Switch to the data state.
U+003F QUESTION MARK (?): Parse error. Switch to the bogus comment state.
Anything else: Parse error. Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token and reconsume the current input character in the data state.

8.2.4.4 Close tag open state

If the content model flag is set to the RCDATA or CDATA states but no start tag token has ever been emitted by this instance of the tokeniser (fragment case), or, if the content model flag is set to the RCDATA or CDATA states and the next few characters do not match the tag name of the last start tag token emitted (compared in an ASCII case insensitive manner), or if they do but they are not immediately followed by one of the following characters:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>)
U+002F SOLIDUS (/)
EOF

...then emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token, a U+002F SOLIDUS character token, and switch to the data state to process the next input character.

Otherwise, if the content model flag is set to the PCDATA state, or if the next few characters do match that tag name, consume the next input character:

U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A through to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z: Create a new end tag token, set its tag name to the lowercase version of the input character (add 0x0020 to the character's code point), then switch to the tag name state. (Don't emit the token yet; further details will be filled in before it is emitted.)
U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A through to U+007A LATIN SMALL LETTER Z: Create a new end tag token, set its tag name to the input character, then switch to the tag name state. (Don't emit the token yet; further details will be filled in before it is emitted.)
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Emit a U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN character token and a U+002F SOLIDUS character token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Parse error. Switch to the bogus comment state.

8.2.4.5 Tag name state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Switch to the before attribute name state.
U+002F SOLIDUS (/): Switch to the self-closing start tag state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current tag token. Switch to the data state.
U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A through to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z: Append the lowercase version of the current input character (add 0x0020 to the character's code point) to the current tag token's tag name. Stay in the tag name state.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current tag token's tag name. Stay in the tag name state.

8.2.4.6 Before attribute name state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Stay in the before attribute name state.
U+002F SOLIDUS (/): Switch to the self-closing start tag state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current tag token. Switch to the data state.
U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A through to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z: Start a new attribute in the current tag token. Set that attribute's name to the lowercase version of the current input character (add 0x0020 to the character's code point), and its value to the empty string. Switch to the attribute name state.
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (")
U+0027 APOSTROPHE (')
U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=): Parse error. Treat it as per the "anything else" entry below.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Start a new attribute in the current tag token. Set that attribute's name to the current input character, and its value to the empty string. Switch to the attribute name state.

8.2.4.7 Attribute name state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Switch to the after attribute name state.
U+002F SOLIDUS (/): Switch to the self-closing start tag state.
U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=): Switch to the before attribute value state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current tag token. Switch to the data state.
U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A through to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z: Append the lowercase version of the current input character (add 0x0020 to the character's code point) to the current attribute's name. Stay in the attribute name state.
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (")
U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Parse error. Treat it as per the "anything else" entry below.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current attribute's name. Stay in the attribute name state.

When the user agent leaves the attribute name state (and before emitting the tag token, if appropriate), the complete attribute's name must be compared to the other attributes on the same token; if there is already an attribute on the token with the exact same name, then this is a parse error and the new attribute must be dropped, along with the value that gets associated with it (if any).

8.2.4.8 After attribute name state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Stay in the after attribute name state.
U+002F SOLIDUS (/): Switch to the self-closing start tag state.
U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=): Switch to the before attribute value state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current tag token. Switch to the data state.
U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A through to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z: Start a new attribute in the current tag token. Set that attribute's name to the lowercase version of the current input character (add 0x0020 to the character's code point), and its value to the empty string. Switch to the attribute name state.
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (")
U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Parse error. Treat it as per the "anything else" entry below.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Start a new attribute in the current tag token. Set that attribute's name to the current input character, and its value to the empty string. Switch to the attribute name state.

8.2.4.9 Before attribute value state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Stay in the before attribute value state.
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("): Switch to the attribute value (double-quoted) state.
U+0026 AMPERSAND (&): Switch to the attribute value (unquoted) state and reconsume this input character.
U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Switch to the attribute value (single-quoted) state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Switch to the data state.
U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=): Parse error. Treat it as per the "anything else" entry below.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current attribute's value. Switch to the attribute value (unquoted) state.

8.2.4.10 Attribute value (double-quoted) state

Consume the next input character:

U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("): Switch to the after attribute value (quoted) state.
U+0026 AMPERSAND (&): Switch to the character reference in attribute value state, with the additional allowed character being U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (").
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current attribute's value. Stay in the attribute value (double-quoted) state.

8.2.4.11 Attribute value (single-quoted) state

Consume the next input character:

U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Switch to the after attribute value (quoted) state.
U+0026 AMPERSAND (&): Switch to the character reference in attribute value state, with the additional allowed character being U+0027 APOSTROPHE (').
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current attribute's value. Stay in the attribute value (single-quoted) state.

8.2.4.12 Attribute value (unquoted) state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Switch to the before attribute name state.
U+0026 AMPERSAND (&): Switch to the character reference in attribute value state, with no additional allowed character.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current tag token. Switch to the data state.
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (")
U+0027 APOSTROPHE (')
U+003D EQUALS SIGN (=): Parse error. Treat it as per the "anything else" entry below.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current attribute's value. Stay in the attribute value (unquoted) state.

8.2.4.13 Character reference in attribute value state

Attempt to consume a character reference.

If nothing is returned, append a U+0026 AMPERSAND character to the current attribute's value.

Otherwise, append the returned character token to the current attribute's value.

Finally, switch back to the attribute value state that you were in when were switched into this state.

8.2.4.14 After attribute value (quoted) state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Switch to the before attribute name state.
U+002F SOLIDUS (/): Switch to the self-closing start tag state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current tag token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Parse error. Reconsume the character in the before attribute name state.

8.2.4.15 Self-closing start tag state

Consume the next input character:

U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Set the self-closing flag of the current tag token. Emit the current tag token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the current tag token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Parse error. Reconsume the character in the before attribute name state.

8.2.4.16 Bogus comment state

(This can only happen if the content model flag is set to the PCDATA state.)

Consume every character up to and including the first U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN character (>) or the end of the file (EOF), whichever comes first. Emit a comment token whose data is the concatenation of all the characters starting from and including the character that caused the state machine to switch into the bogus comment state, up to and including the character immediately before the last consumed character (i.e. up to the character just before the U+003E or EOF character). (If the comment was started by the end of the file (EOF), the token is empty.)

Switch to the data state.

If the end of the file was reached, reconsume the EOF character.

8.2.4.17 Markup declaration open state

(This can only happen if the content model flag is set to the PCDATA state.)

If the next two characters are both U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-) characters, consume those two characters, create a comment token whose data is the empty string, and switch to the comment start state.

Otherwise, if the next seven characters are an ASCII case-insensitive match for the word "DOCTYPE", then consume those characters and switch to the DOCTYPE state.

Otherwise, if the insertion mode is "in foreign content" and the current node is not an element in the HTML namespace and the next seven characters are an ASCII case-sensitive match for the string "[CDATA[" (the five uppercase letters "CDATA" with a U+005B LEFT SQUARE BRACKET character before and after), then consume those characters and switch to the CDATA section state (which is unrelated to the content model flag's CDATA state).

Otherwise, this is a parse error. Switch to the bogus comment state. The next character that is consumed, if any, is the first character that will be in the comment.

8.2.4.18 Comment start state

Consume the next input character:

U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-): Switch to the comment start dash state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Emit the comment token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the comment token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the input character to the comment token's data. Switch to the comment state.

8.2.4.19 Comment start dash state

Consume the next input character:

U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-): Switch to the comment end state
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Emit the comment token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the comment token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-) character and the input character to the comment token's data. Switch to the comment state.

8.2.4.20 Comment state

Consume the next input character:

U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-): Switch to the comment end dash state
EOF: Parse error. Emit the comment token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the input character to the comment token's data. Stay in the comment state.

8.2.4.21 Comment end dash state

Consume the next input character:

U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-): Switch to the comment end state
EOF: Parse error. Emit the comment token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-) character and the input character to the comment token's data. Switch to the comment state.

8.2.4.22 Comment end state

Consume the next input character:

U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the comment token. Switch to the data state.
U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-): Parse error. Append a U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-) character to the comment token's data. Stay in the comment end state.
EOF: Parse error. Emit the comment token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Parse error. Append two U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS (-) characters and the input character to the comment token's data. Switch to the comment state.

8.2.4.23 DOCTYPE state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Switch to the before DOCTYPE name state.
Anything else: Parse error. Reconsume the current character in the before DOCTYPE name state.

8.2.4.24 Before DOCTYPE name state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Stay in the before DOCTYPE name state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Create a new DOCTYPE token. Set its force-quirks flag to on. Emit the token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Create a new DOCTYPE token. Set its force-quirks flag to on. Emit the token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Create a new DOCTYPE token. Set the token's name to the current input character. Switch to the DOCTYPE name state.

8.2.4.25 DOCTYPE name state

First, consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Switch to the after DOCTYPE name state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE token's name. Stay in the DOCTYPE name state.

8.2.4.26 After DOCTYPE name state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION

U+000A LINE FEED (LF)

U+000C FORM FEED (FF)

U+0020 SPACE

Stay in the after DOCTYPE name state.

U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>)

Emit the current DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.

EOF

Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.

Anything else

If the next six characters are an ASCII case-insensitive match for the word "PUBLIC", then consume those characters and switch to the before DOCTYPE public identifier state.

Otherwise, if the next six characters are an ASCII case-insensitive match for the word "SYSTEM", then consume those characters and switch to the before DOCTYPE system identifier state.

Otherwise, this is the parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus DOCTYPE state.

8.2.4.27 Before DOCTYPE public identifier state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Stay in the before DOCTYPE public identifier state.
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("): Set the DOCTYPE token's public identifier to the empty string (not missing), then switch to the DOCTYPE public identifier (double-quoted) state.
U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Set the DOCTYPE token's public identifier to the empty string (not missing), then switch to the DOCTYPE public identifier (single-quoted) state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus DOCTYPE state.

8.2.4.28 DOCTYPE public identifier (double-quoted) state

Consume the next input character:

U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("): Switch to the after DOCTYPE public identifier state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE token's public identifier. Stay in the DOCTYPE public identifier (double-quoted) state.

8.2.4.29 DOCTYPE public identifier (single-quoted) state

Consume the next input character:

U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Switch to the after DOCTYPE public identifier state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE token's public identifier. Stay in the DOCTYPE public identifier (single-quoted) state.

8.2.4.30 After DOCTYPE public identifier state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Stay in the after DOCTYPE public identifier state.
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("): Set the DOCTYPE token's system identifier to the empty string (not missing), then switch to the DOCTYPE system identifier (double-quoted) state.
U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Set the DOCTYPE token's system identifier to the empty string (not missing), then switch to the DOCTYPE system identifier (single-quoted) state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus DOCTYPE state.

8.2.4.31 Before DOCTYPE system identifier state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Stay in the before DOCTYPE system identifier state.
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("): Set the DOCTYPE token's system identifier to the empty string (not missing), then switch to the DOCTYPE system identifier (double-quoted) state.
U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Set the DOCTYPE token's system identifier to the empty string (not missing), then switch to the DOCTYPE system identifier (single-quoted) state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Switch to the bogus DOCTYPE state.

8.2.4.32 DOCTYPE system identifier (double-quoted) state

Consume the next input character:

U+0022 QUOTATION MARK ("): Switch to the after DOCTYPE system identifier state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE token's system identifier. Stay in the DOCTYPE system identifier (double-quoted) state.

8.2.4.33 DOCTYPE system identifier (single-quoted) state

Consume the next input character:

U+0027 APOSTROPHE ('): Switch to the after DOCTYPE system identifier state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Append the current input character to the current DOCTYPE token's system identifier. Stay in the DOCTYPE system identifier (single-quoted) state.

8.2.4.34 After DOCTYPE system identifier state

Consume the next input character:

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION
U+000A LINE FEED (LF)
U+000C FORM FEED (FF)
U+0020 SPACE: Stay in the after DOCTYPE system identifier state.
U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the current DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Parse error. Set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on. Emit that DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Parse error. Switch to the bogus DOCTYPE state. (This does not set the DOCTYPE token's force-quirks flag to on.)

8.2.4.35 Bogus DOCTYPE state

Consume the next input character:

U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (>): Emit the DOCTYPE token. Switch to the data state.
EOF: Emit the DOCTYPE token. Reconsume the EOF character in the data state.
Anything else: Stay in the bogus DOCTYPE state.

8.2.4.36 CDATA section state

(This can only happen if the content model flag is set to the PCDATA state, and is unrelated to the content model flag's CDATA state.)

Consume every character up to the next occurrence of the three character sequence U+005D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET U+005D RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET U+003E GREATER-THAN SIGN (]]>), or the end of the file (EOF), whichever comes first. Emit a series of text tokens consisting of all the characters consumed except the matching three character sequence at the end (if one was found before the end of the file).

Switch to the data state.

If the end of the file was reached, reconsume the EOF character.

8.2.4.37 Tokenizing character references

This section defines how to consume a character reference. This definition is used when parsing character references in text and in attributes.

The behavior depends on the identity of the next character (the one immediately after the U+0026 AMPERSAND character):

U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION

U+000A LINE FEED (LF)

U+000C FORM FEED (FF)

U+0020 SPACE

U+003C LESS-THAN SIGN

U+0026 AMPERSAND

EOF

The additional allowed character, if there is one

Not a character reference. No characters are consumed, and nothing is returned. (This is not an error, either.)

U+0023 NUMBER SIGN (#)

Consume the U+0023 NUMBER SIGN.

The behavior further depends on the character after the U+0023 NUMBER SIGN:

U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X

U+0058 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X

Consume the X.

Follow the steps below, but using the range of characters U+0030 DIGIT ZERO through to U+0039 DIGIT NINE, U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A through to U+0066 LATIN SMALL LETTER F, and U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A, through to U+0046 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F (in other words, 0-9, A-F, a-f).

When it comes to interpreting the number, interpret it as a hexadecimal number.

Anything else

Follow the steps below, but using the range of characters U+0030 DIGIT ZERO through to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (i.e. just 0-9).

When it comes to interpreting the number, interpret it as a decimal number.

Consume as many characters as match the range of characters given above.

If no characters match the range, then don't consume any characters (and unconsume the U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character and, if appropriate, the X character). This is a parse error; nothing is returned.

Otherwise, if the next character is a U+003B SEMICOLON, consume that too. If it isn't, there is a parse error.

If one or more characters match the range, then take them all and interpret the string of characters as a number (either hexadecimal or decimal as appropriate).

If that number is one of the numbers in the first column of the following table, then this is a parse error. Find the row with that number in the first column, and return a character token for the Unicode character given in the second column of that row.

Number	Unicode character
0x0D	U+000A	LINE FEED (LF)
0x80	U+20AC	EURO SIGN ('€')
0x81	U+FFFD	REPLACEMENT CHARACTER
0x82	U+201A	SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK ('‚')
0x83	U+0192	LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH HOOK ('ƒ')
0x84	U+201E	DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK ('„')
0x85	U+2026	HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS ('…')
0x86	U+2020	DAGGER ('†')
0x87	U+2021	DOUBLE DAGGER ('‡')
0x88	U+02C6	MODIFIER LETTER CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT ('ˆ')
0x89	U+2030	PER MILLE SIGN ('‰')
0x8A	U+0160	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH CARON ('Š')
0x8B	U+2039	SINGLE LEFT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK ('‹')
0x8C	U+0152	LATIN CAPITAL LIGATURE OE ('Œ')
0x8D	U+FFFD	REPLACEMENT CHARACTER
0x8E	U+017D	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH CARON ('Ž')
0x8F	U+FFFD	REPLACEMENT CHARACTER
0x90	U+FFFD	REPLACEMENT CHARACTER
0x91	U+2018	LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK ('‘')
0x92	U+2019	RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK ('’')
0x93	U+201C	LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK ('“')
0x94	U+201D	RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK ('”')
0x95	U+2022	BULLET ('•')
0x96	U+2013	EN DASH ('–')
0x97	U+2014	EM DASH ('—')
0x98	U+02DC	SMALL TILDE ('˜')
0x99	U+2122	TRADE MARK SIGN ('™')
0x9A	U+0161	LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH CARON ('š')
0x9B	U+203A	SINGLE RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK ('›')
0x9C	U+0153	LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE ('œ')
0x9D	U+FFFD	REPLACEMENT CHARACTER
0x9E	U+017E	LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH CARON ('ž')
0x9F	U+0178	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS ('Ÿ')

Otherwise, if the number is in the range 0x0000 to 0x0008, U+000B, U+000E to 0x001F, 0x007F to 0x009F, 0xD800 to 0xDFFF , 0xFDD0 to 0xFDDF, or is one of 0xFFFE, 0xFFFF, 0x1FFFE, 0x1FFFF, 0x2FFFE, 0x2FFFF, 0x3FFFE, 0x3FFFF, 0x4FFFE, 0x4FFFF, 0x5FFFE, 0x5FFFF, 0x6FFFE, 0x6FFFF, 0x7FFFE, 0x7FFFF, 0x8FFFE, 0x8FFFF, 0x9FFFE, 0x9FFFF, 0xAFFFE, 0xAFFFF, 0xBFFFE, 0xBFFFF, 0xCFFFE, 0xCFFFF, 0xDFFFE, 0xDFFFF, 0xEFFFE, 0xEFFFF, 0xFFFFE, 0xFFFFF, 0x10FFFE, or 0x10FFFF, or is higher than 0x10FFFF, then this is a parse error; return a character token for the U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER character instead.

Otherwise, return a character token for the Unicode character whose code point is that number.

Anything else

Consume the maximum number of characters possible, with the consumed characters matching one of the identifiers in the first column of the named character references table (in a case-sensitive manner).

If no match can be made, then this is a parse error. No characters are consumed, and nothing is returned.

If the last character matched is not a U+003B SEMICOLON (;), there is a parse error.

If the character reference is being consumed as part of an attribute, and the last character matched is not a U+003B SEMICOLON (;), and the next character is in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO to U+0039 DIGIT NINE, U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to U+005A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z, or U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A to U+007A LATIN SMALL LETTER Z, then, for historical reasons, all the characters that were matched after the U+0026 AMPERSAND (&) must be unconsumed, and nothing is returned.

Otherwise, return a character token for the character corresponding to the character reference name (as given by the second column of the named character references table).

If the markup contains I'm &notit; I tell you, the character reference is parsed as "not", as in, I'm ¬it; I tell you. But if the markup was I'm ∉ I tell you, the character reference would be parsed as "notin;", resulting in I'm ∉ I tell you.

8.2.5 Tree construction

The input to the tree construction stage is a sequence of tokens from the tokenization stage. The tree construction stage is associated with a DOM Document object when a parser is created. The "output" of this stage consists of dynamically modifying or extending that document's DOM tree.

This specification does not define when an interactive user agent has to render the Document so that it is available to the user, or when it has to begin accepting user input.

As each token is emitted from the tokeniser, the user agent must process the token according to the rules given in the section corresponding to the current insertion mode.

When the steps below require the UA to insert a character into a node, if that node has a child immediately before where the character is to be inserted, and that child is a Text node, and that Text node was the last node that the parser inserted into the document, then the character must be appended to that Text node; otherwise, a new Text node whose data is just that character must be inserted in the appropriate place.

DOM mutation events must not fire for changes caused by the UA parsing the document. (Conceptually, the parser is not mutating the DOM, it is constructing it.) This includes the parsing of any content inserted using document.write() and document.writeln() calls. [DOM3EVENTS]

Not all of the tag names mentioned below are conformant tag names in this specification; many are included to handle legacy content. They still form part of the algorithm that implementations are required to implement to claim conformance.

The algorithm described below places no limit on the depth of the DOM tree generated, or on the length of tag names, attribute names, attribute values, text nodes, etc. While implementors are encouraged to avoid arbitrary limits, it is recognized that practical concerns will likely force user agents to impose nesting depths.

8.2.5.1 Creating and inserting elements

When the steps below require the UA to create an element for a token in a particular namespace, the UA must create a node implementing the interface appropriate for the element type corresponding to the tag name of the token in the given namespace (as given in the specification that defines that element, e.g. for an a element in the HTML namespace, this specification defines it to be the HTMLAnchorElement interface), with the tag name being the name of that element, with the node being in the given namespace, and with the attributes on the node being those given in the given token.

The interface appropriate for an element in the HTML namespace that is not defined in this specification is HTMLElement. The interface appropriate for an element in another namespace that is not defined by that namespace's specification is Element.

When a resettable element is created in this manner, its reset algorithm must be invoked once the attributes are set. (This initializes the element's value and checkedness based on the element's attributes.)

When the steps below require the UA to insert an HTML element for a token, the UA must first create an element for the token in the HTML namespace, and then append this node to the current node, and push it onto the stack of open elements so that it is the new current node.

The steps below may also require that the UA insert an HTML element in a particular place, in which case the UA must follow the same steps except that it must insert or append the new node in the location specified instead of appending it to the current node. (This happens in particular during the parsing of tables with invalid content.)

When the steps below require the UA to insert a foreign element for a token, the UA must first create an element for the token in the given namespace, and then append this node to the current node, and push it onto the stack of open elements so that it is the new current node. If the newly created element has an xmlns attribute in the XMLNS namespace whose value is not exactly the same as the element's namespace, that is a parse error.

When the steps below require the user agent to adjust MathML attributes for a token, then, if the token has an attribute named definitionurl, change its name to definitionURL (note the case difference).

When the steps below require the user agent to adjust foreign attributes for a token, then, if any of the attributes on the token match the strings given in the first column of the following table, let the attribute be a namespaced attribute, with the prefix being the string given in the corresponding cell in the second column, the local name being the string given in the corresponding cell in the third column, and the namespace being the namespace given in the corresponding cell in the fourth column. (This fixes the use of namespaced attributes, in particular xml:lang.)

Attribute name	Prefix	Local name	Namespace
`xlink:actuate`	`xlink`	`actuate`	XLink namespace
`xlink:arcrole`	`xlink`	`arcrole`	XLink namespace
`xlink:href`	`xlink`	`href`	XLink namespace
`xlink:role`	`xlink`	`role`	XLink namespace
`xlink:show`	`xlink`	`show`	XLink namespace
`xlink:title`	`xlink`	`title`	XLink namespace
`xlink:type`	`xlink`	`type`	XLink namespace
`xml:base`	`xml`	`base`	XML namespace
`xml:lang`	`xml`	`lang`	XML namespace
`xml:space`	`xml`	`space`	XML namespace
`xmlns`	(none)	`xmlns`	XMLNS namespace
`xmlns:xlink`	`xmlns`	`xlink`	XMLNS namespace

The generic CDATA element parsing algorithm and the generic RCDATA element parsing algorithm consist of the following steps. These algorithms are always invoked in response to a start tag token.

Insert an HTML element for the token.
If the algorithm that was invoked is the generic CDATA element parsing algorithm, switch the tokeniser's content model flag to the CDATA state; otherwise the algorithm invoked was the generic RCDATA element parsing algorithm, switch the tokeniser's content model flag to the RCDATA state.
Let the original insertion mode be the current insertion mode.
Then, switch the insertion mode to "in CDATA/RCDATA".

8.2.5.2 Closing elements that have implied end tags

When the steps below require the UA to generate implied end tags, then, while the current node is a dd element, a dt element, an li element, an option element, an optgroup element, a p element, an rp element, or an rt element, the UA must pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

If a step requires the UA to generate implied end tags but lists an element to exclude from the process, then the UA must perform the above steps as if that element was not in the above list.

8.2.5.3 Foster parenting

Foster parenting happens when content is misnested in tables.

When a node node is to be foster parented, the node node must be inserted into the foster parent element, and the current table must be marked as tainted. (Once the current table has been tainted, whitespace characters are inserted into the foster parent element instead of the current node.)

The foster parent element is the parent element of the last table element in the stack of open elements, if there is a table element and it has such a parent element. If there is no table element in the stack of open elements (fragment case), then the foster parent element is the first element in the stack of open elements (the html element). Otherwise, if there is a table element in the stack of open elements, but the last table element in the stack of open elements has no parent, or its parent node is not an element, then the foster parent element is the element before the last table element in the stack of open elements.

If the foster parent element is the parent element of the last table element in the stack of open elements, then node must be inserted immediately before the last table element in the stack of open elements in the foster parent element; otherwise, node must be appended to the foster parent element.

8.2.5.4 The "initial" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "initial", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

Ignore the token.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the Document object with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

If the DOCTYPE token's name is not an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "HTML", or if the token's public identifier is neither missing nor equal to the string "XSLT-compat", or if the token's system identifier is not missing, then there is a parse error. Conformance checkers may, instead of reporting this error, switch to a conformance checking mode for another language (e.g. based on the DOCTYPE token a conformance checker could recognize that the document is an HTML4-era document, and defer to an HTML4 conformance checker.)

Append a DocumentType node to the Document node, with the name attribute set to the name given in the DOCTYPE token; the publicId attribute set to the public identifier given in the DOCTYPE token, or the empty string if the public identifier was missing; the systemId attribute set to the system identifier given in the DOCTYPE token, or the empty string if the system identifier was missing; and the other attributes specific to DocumentType objects set to null and empty lists as appropriate. Associate the DocumentType node with the Document object so that it is returned as the value of the doctype attribute of the Document object.

Then, if the DOCTYPE token matches one of the conditions in the following list, then set the document to quirks mode:

The force-quirks flag is set to on.
The name is set to anything other than "HTML".
The public identifier starts with: "+//Silmaril//dtd html Pro v0r11 19970101//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//AdvaSoft Ltd//DTD HTML 3.0 asWedit + extensions//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//AS//DTD HTML 3.0 asWedit + extensions//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Level 1//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Level 2//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Strict Level 1//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Strict Level 2//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Strict//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.1E//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.2//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Level 0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Level 1//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Level 2//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Level 3//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict Level 0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict Level 1//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict Level 2//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict Level 3//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//IETF//DTD HTML//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Metrius//DTD Metrius Presentational//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Microsoft//DTD Internet Explorer 2.0 HTML Strict//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Microsoft//DTD Internet Explorer 2.0 HTML//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Microsoft//DTD Internet Explorer 2.0 Tables//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Microsoft//DTD Internet Explorer 3.0 HTML Strict//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Microsoft//DTD Internet Explorer 3.0 HTML//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Microsoft//DTD Internet Explorer 3.0 Tables//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Netscape Comm. Corp.//DTD HTML//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Netscape Comm. Corp.//DTD Strict HTML//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//O'Reilly and Associates//DTD HTML 2.0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//O'Reilly and Associates//DTD HTML Extended 1.0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//O'Reilly and Associates//DTD HTML Extended Relaxed 1.0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//SoftQuad Software//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 6.0::19990601::extensions to HTML 4.0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//SoftQuad//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 4.0::19971010::extensions to HTML 4.0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Spyglass//DTD HTML 2.0 Extended//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//SQ//DTD HTML 2.0 HoTMetaL + extensions//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Sun Microsystems Corp.//DTD HotJava HTML//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//Sun Microsystems Corp.//DTD HotJava Strict HTML//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3 1995-03-24//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Draft//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2S Draft//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Frameset//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML Experimental 19960712//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML Experimental 970421//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3O//DTD W3 HTML 3.0//"
The public identifier is set to: "-//W3O//DTD W3 HTML Strict 3.0//EN//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//WebTechs//DTD Mozilla HTML 2.0//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//WebTechs//DTD Mozilla HTML//"
The public identifier is set to: "-/W3C/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional/EN"
The public identifier is set to: "HTML"
The system identifier is set to: "http://www.ibm.com/data/dtd/v11/ibmxhtml1-transitional.dtd"
The system identifier is missing and the public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//"
The system identifier is missing and the public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//"

Otherwise, if the DOCTYPE token matches one of the conditions in the following list, then set the document to limited quirks mode:

The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//"
The public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//"
The system identifier is not missing and the public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//"
The system identifier is not missing and the public identifier starts with: "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//"

The name, system identifier, and public identifier strings must be compared to the values given in the lists above in an ASCII case-insensitive manner. A system identifier whose value is the empty string is not considered missing for the purposes of the conditions above.

Then, switch the insertion mode to "before html".

Anything else

Set the document to quirks mode.

Switch the insertion mode to "before html", then reprocess the current token.

8.2.5.5 The "before html" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "before html", tokens must be handled as follows:

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the Document object with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Create an element for the token in the HTML namespace. Append it to the Document object. Put this element in the stack of open elements.

If the token has an attribute "manifest", then resolve the value of that attribute to an absolute URL, and if that is successful, run the application cache selection algorithm with the resulting absolute URL. Otherwise, if there is no such attribute or resolving it fails, run the application cache selection algorithm with no manifest.

Switch the insertion mode to "before head".

Anything else

Create an HTMLElement node with the tag name html, in the HTML namespace. Append it to the Document object. Put this element in the stack of open elements.

Run the application cache selection algorithm with no manifest.

Switch the insertion mode to "before head", then reprocess the current token.

Should probably make end tags be ignored, so that "</head><html>" puts the comment before the root node (or should we?)

The root element can end up being removed from the Document object, e.g. by scripts; nothing in particular happens in such cases, content continues being appended to the nodes as described in the next section.

8.2.5.6 The "before head" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "before head", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

Ignore the token.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is "head"

Insert an HTML element for the token.

Set the head element pointer to the newly created head element.

Switch the insertion mode to "in head".

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "head", "br"

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "head" and no attributes had been seen, then reprocess the current token.

Any other end tag

Parse error. Ignore the token.

Anything else

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "head" and no attributes had been seen, then reprocess the current token.

This will result in an empty head element being generated, with the current token being reprocessed in the "after head" insertion mode.

8.2.5.7 The "in head" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in head", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "base", "command", "eventsource", "link"

Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

A start tag whose tag name is "meta"

Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

If the element has a charset attribute, and its value is a supported encoding, and the confidence is currently tentative, then change the encoding to the encoding given by the value of the charset attribute.

Otherwise, if the element has a content attribute, and applying the algorithm for extracting an encoding from a Content-Type to its value returns a supported encoding encoding, and the confidence is currently tentative, then change the encoding to the encoding encoding.

A start tag whose tag name is "title"

Follow the generic RCDATA element parsing algorithm.

A start tag whose tag name is "noscript", if the scripting flag is enabled

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "noframes", "style"

Follow the generic CDATA element parsing algorithm.

A start tag whose tag name is "noscript", if the scripting flag is disabled

Insert an HTML element for the token.

Switch the insertion mode to "in head noscript".

A start tag whose tag name is "script"

Create an element for the token in the HTML namespace.
Mark the element as being "parser-inserted".

This ensures that, if the script is external, any document.write() calls in the script will execute in-line, instead of blowing the document away, as would happen in most other cases. It also prevents the script from executing until the end tag is seen.
If the parser was originally created for the HTML fragment parsing algorithm, then mark the script element as "already executed". (fragment case)
Append the new element to the current node.
Switch the tokeniser's content model flag to the CDATA state.
Let the original insertion mode be the current insertion mode.
Switch the insertion mode to "in CDATA/RCDATA".

An end tag whose tag name is "head"

Pop the current node (which will be the head element) off the stack of open elements.

Switch the insertion mode to "after head".

An end tag whose tag name is "br"

Act as described in the "anything else" entry below.

A start tag whose tag name is "head"

Any other end tag

Parse error. Ignore the token.

Anything else

Act as if an end tag token with the tag name "head" had been seen, and reprocess the current token.

In certain UAs, some elements don't trigger the "in body" mode straight away, but instead get put into the head. Do we want to copy that?

8.2.5.8 The "in head noscript" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in head noscript", tokens must be handled as follows:

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

An end tag whose tag name is "noscript"

Pop the current node (which will be a noscript element) from the stack of open elements; the new current node will be a head element.

Switch the insertion mode to "in head".

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

A comment token

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "link", "meta", "noframes", "style"

Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "br"

Act as described in the "anything else" entry below.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "head", "noscript"

Any other end tag

Parse error. Ignore the token.

Anything else

Parse error. Act as if an end tag with the tag name "noscript" had been seen and reprocess the current token.

8.2.5.9 The "after head" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "after head", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is "body"

Insert an HTML element for the token.

Switch the insertion mode to "in body".

A start tag whose tag name is "frameset"

Insert an HTML element for the token.

Switch the insertion mode to "in frameset".

A start tag token whose tag name is one of: "base", "link", "meta", "noframes", "script", "style", "title"

Push the node pointed to by the head element pointer onto the stack of open elements.

Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.

Pop the current node (which will be the node pointed to by the head element pointer) off the stack of open elements.

A start tag whose tag name is "head"

Any end tag

Parse error. Ignore the token.

Anything else

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "body" and no attributes had been seen, and then reprocess the current token.

8.2.5.10 The "in body" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in body", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert the token's character into the current node.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Parse error. For each attribute on the token, check to see if the attribute is already present on the top element of the stack of open elements. If it is not, add the attribute and its corresponding value to that element.

A start tag token whose tag name is one of: "base", "command", "eventsource", "link", "meta", "noframes", "script", "style", "title"

Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is "body"

If the second element on the stack of open elements is not a body element, or, if the stack of open elements has only one node on it, then ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise, for each attribute on the token, check to see if the attribute is already present on the body element (the second element) on the stack of open elements. If it is not, add the attribute and its corresponding value to that element.

An end-of-file token

If there is a node in the stack of open elements that is not either a dd element, a dt element, an li element, a p element, a tbody element, a td element, a tfoot element, a th element, a thead element, a tr element, the body element, or the html element, then this is a parse error.

An end tag whose tag name is "body"

If the stack of open elements does not have a body element in scope, this is a parse error; ignore the token.

Otherwise, if there is a node in the stack of open elements that is not either a dd element, a dt element, an li element, a p element, a tbody element, a td element, a tfoot element, a th element, a thead element, a tr element, the body element, or the html element, then this is a parse error.

Switch the insertion mode to "after body". Otherwise, ignore the token.

An end tag whose tag name is "html"

Act as if an end tag with tag name "body" had been seen, then, if that token wasn't ignored, reprocess the current token.

The fake end tag token here can only be ignored in the fragment case.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "address", "article", "aside", "blockquote", "center", "datagrid", "details", "dialog", "dir", "div", "dl", "figure", "footer", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6", "header", "menu", "nav", "ol", "p", "section", "ul"

If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "pre", "listing"

If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

If the next token is a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character token, then ignore that token and move on to the next one. (Newlines at the start of pre blocks are ignored as an authoring convenience.)

A start tag whose tag name is "form"

If the form element pointer is not null, then this is a parse error; ignore the token.

Otherwise:

If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token, and set the form element pointer to point to the element created.

A start tag whose tag name is "fieldset"

If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

If the form element pointer is not null and the newly created element doesn't have a form attribute, then associate the newly created fieldset element with the form element pointed to by the form element pointer.

A start tag whose tag name is "li"

Run the following algorithm:

Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
If node is an li element, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "li" had been seen, then jump to the last step.
If node is not in the formatting category, and is not in the phrasing category, and is not an address, div, or p element, then jump to the last step.
Otherwise, set node to the previous entry in the stack of open elements and return to step 2.
If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Finally, insert an HTML element for the token.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "dd", "dt"

Run the following algorithm:

Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
If node is a dd or dt element, then act as if an end tag with the same tag name as node had been seen, then jump to the last step.
If node is not in the formatting category, and is not in the phrasing category, and is not an address, div, or p element, then jump to the last step.
Otherwise, set node to the previous entry in the stack of open elements and return to step 2.
If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Finally, insert an HTML element for the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "plaintext"

If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

Switch the content model flag to the PLAINTEXT state.

Once a start tag with the tag name "plaintext" has been seen, that will be the last token ever seen other than character tokens (and the end-of-file token), because there is no way to switch the content model flag out of the PLAINTEXT state.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "address", "article", "aside", "blockquote", "center", "datagrid", "details", "dialog", "dir", "div", "dl", "fieldset", "figure", "footer", "header", "listing", "menu", "nav", "ol", "pre", "section", "ul"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error; ignore the token.

Otherwise, run these steps:

Generate implied end tags.
If the current node is not an element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an element with the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.

An end tag whose tag name is "form"

Set the form element pointer to null.

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error; ignore the token.

Otherwise, run these steps:

Generate implied end tags.
If the current node is not an element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an element with the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.

An end tag whose tag name is "p"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error; act as if a start tag with the tag name p had been seen, then reprocess the current token.

Otherwise, run these steps:

Generate implied end tags, except for elements with the same tag name as the token.
If the current node is not an element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an element with the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "dd", "dt", "li"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error; ignore the token.

Otherwise, run these steps:

Generate implied end tags, except for elements with the same tag name as the token.
If the current node is not an element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an element with the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope whose tag name is one of "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", or "h6", then this is a parse error; ignore the token.

Otherwise, run these steps:

Generate implied end tags.
If the current node is not an element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an element whose tag name is one of "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", or "h6" has been popped from the stack.

An end tag whose tag name is "sarcasm"

Take a deep breath, then act as described in the "any other end tag" entry below.

A start tag whose tag name is "a"

If the list of active formatting elements contains an element whose tag name is "a" between the end of the list and the last marker on the list (or the start of the list if there is no marker on the list), then this is a parse error; act as if an end tag with the tag name "a" had been seen, then remove that element from the list of active formatting elements and the stack of open elements if the end tag didn't already remove it (it might not have if the element is not in table scope).

In the non-conforming stream <a href="a">a<table><a href="b">b</table>x, the first a element would be closed upon seeing the second one, and the "x" character would be inside a link to "b", not to "a". This is despite the fact that the outer a element is not in table scope (meaning that a regular </a> end tag at the start of the table wouldn't close the outer a element).

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token. Add that element to the list of active formatting elements.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "b", "big", "em", "font", "i", "s", "small", "strike", "strong", "tt", "u"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token. Add that element to the list of active formatting elements.

A start tag whose tag name is "nobr"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

If the stack of open elements has a nobr element in scope, then this is a parse error; act as if an end tag with the tag name "nobr" had been seen, then once again reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token. Add that element to the list of active formatting elements.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "a", "b", "big", "em", "font", "i", "nobr", "s", "small", "strike", "strong", "tt", "u"

Follow these steps:

Let the formatting element be the last element in the list of active formatting elements that:
- is between the end of the list and the last scope marker in the list, if any, or the start of the list otherwise, and
- has the same tag name as the token.
If there is no such node, or, if that node is also in the stack of open elements but the element is not in scope, then this is a parse error; ignore the token, and abort these steps.

Otherwise, if there is such a node, but that node is not in the stack of open elements, then this is a parse error; remove the element from the list, and abort these steps.

Otherwise, there is a formatting element and that element is in the stack and is in scope. If the element is not the current node, this is a parse error. In any case, proceed with the algorithm as written in the following steps.
Let the furthest block be the topmost node in the stack of open elements that is lower in the stack than the formatting element, and is not an element in the phrasing or formatting categories. There might not be one.
If there is no furthest block, then the UA must skip the subsequent steps and instead just pop all the nodes from the bottom of the stack of open elements, from the current node up to and including the formatting element, and remove the formatting element from the list of active formatting elements.
Let the common ancestor be the element immediately above the formatting element in the stack of open elements.
If the furthest block has a parent node, then remove the furthest block from its parent node.
Let a bookmark note the position of the formatting element in the list of active formatting elements relative to the elements on either side of it in the list.
Let node and last node be the furthest block. Follow these steps:
1. Let node be the element immediately above node in the stack of open elements.
2. If node is not in the list of active formatting elements, then remove node from the stack of open elements and then go back to step 1.
3. Otherwise, if node is the formatting element, then go to the next step in the overall algorithm.
4. Otherwise, if last node is the furthest block, then move the aforementioned bookmark to be immediately after the node in the list of active formatting elements.
5. If node has any children, perform a shallow clone of node, replace the entry for node in the list of active formatting elements with an entry for the clone, replace the entry for node in the stack of open elements with an entry for the clone, and let node be the clone.
6. Insert last node into node, first removing it from its previous parent node if any.
7. Let last node be node.
8. Return to step 1 of this inner set of steps.
If the common ancestor node is a table, tbody, tfoot, thead, or tr element, then, foster parent whatever last node ended up being in the previous step.

Otherwise, append whatever last node ended up being in the previous step to the common ancestor node, first removing it from its previous parent node if any.
Perform a shallow clone of the formatting element.
Take all of the child nodes of the furthest block and append them to the clone created in the last step.
Append that clone to the furthest block.
Remove the formatting element from the list of active formatting elements, and insert the clone into the list of active formatting elements at the position of the aforementioned bookmark.
Remove the formatting element from the stack of open elements, and insert the clone into the stack of open elements immediately below the position of the furthest block in that stack.
Jump back to step 1 in this series of steps.

The way these steps are defined, only elements in the formatting category ever get cloned by this algorithm.

Because of the way this algorithm causes elements to change parents, it has been dubbed the "adoption agency algorithm" (in contrast with other possibly algorithms for dealing with misnested content, which included the "incest algorithm", the "secret affair algorithm", and the "Heisenberg algorithm").

A start tag whose tag name is "button"

If the stack of open elements has a button element in scope, then this is a parse error; act as if an end tag with the tag name "button" had been seen, then reprocess the token.

Otherwise:

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

If the form element pointer is not null and the newly created element doesn't have a form attribute, then associate the button element with the form element pointed to by the form element pointer.

Insert a marker at the end of the list of active formatting elements.

A start tag token whose tag name is one of: "applet", "marquee", "object"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

Insert a marker at the end of the list of active formatting elements.

An end tag token whose tag name is one of: "applet", "button", "marquee", "object"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in scope with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error; ignore the token.

Otherwise, run these steps:

Generate implied end tags.
If the current node is not an element with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error.
Pop elements from the stack of open elements until an element with the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.
Clear the list of active formatting elements up to the last marker.

A start tag whose tag name is "xmp"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Follow the generic CDATA element parsing algorithm.

A start tag whose tag name is "table"

If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

Switch the insertion mode to "in table".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "area", "basefont", "bgsound", "br", "embed", "img", "spacer", "wbr"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "param", "source"

Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

A start tag whose tag name is "hr"

If the stack of open elements has a p element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

A start tag whose tag name is "image"

Parse error. Change the token's tag name to "img" and reprocess it. (Don't ask.)

A start tag whose tag name is "input"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

If the form element pointer is not null and the newly created element doesn't have a form attribute, then associate the newly created input element with the form element pointed to by the form element pointer.

A start tag whose tag name is "label"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

If the form element pointer is not null and the newly created element doesn't have a form attribute, then associate the newly created label element with the form element pointed to by the form element pointer.

A start tag whose tag name is "isindex"

If the form element pointer is not null, then ignore the token.

Otherwise:

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "form" had been seen.

If the token has an attribute called "action", set the action attribute on the resulting form element to the value of the "action" attribute of the token.

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "hr" had been seen.

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "label" had been seen.

Act as if a stream of character tokens had been seen (see below for what they should say).

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "input" had been seen, with all the attributes from the "isindex" token except "name", "action", and "prompt". Set the name attribute of the resulting input element to the value "isindex".

Act as if a stream of character tokens had been seen (see below for what they should say).

Act as if an end tag token with the tag name "label" had been seen.

Act as if an end tag token with the tag name "p" had been seen.

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "hr" had been seen.

Act as if an end tag token with the tag name "form" had been seen.

If the token has an attribute with the name "prompt", then the first stream of characters must be the same string as given in that attribute, and the second stream of characters must be empty. Otherwise, the two streams of character tokens together should, together with the input element, express the equivalent of "This is a searchable index. Insert your search keywords here: (input field)" in the user's preferred language.

A start tag whose tag name is "textarea"

Insert an HTML element for the token.
If the form element pointer is not null and the newly created element doesn't have a form attribute, then associate the newly created textarea element with the form element pointed to by the form element pointer.
If the next token is a U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character token, then ignore that token and move on to the next one. (Newlines at the start of textarea elements are ignored as an authoring convenience.)
Append the new element to the current node.
Switch the tokeniser's content model flag to the RCDATA state.
Let the original insertion mode be the current insertion mode.
Switch the insertion mode to "in CDATA/RCDATA".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "iframe", "noembed"

A start tag whose tag name is "noscript", if the scripting flag is enabled

Follow the generic CDATA element parsing algorithm.

A start tag whose tag name is "select"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

If the form element pointer is not null and the newly created element doesn't have a form attribute, then associate the select element with the form element pointed to by the form element pointer.

If the insertion mode is one of in table", "in caption", "in column group", "in table body", "in row", or "in cell", then switch the insertion mode to "in select in table". Otherwise, switch the insertion mode to "in select".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "optgroup", "option"

If the stack of open elements has an option element in scope, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "option" had been seen.

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "rp", "rt"

If the stack of open elements has a ruby element in scope, then generate implied end tags. If the current node is not then a ruby element, this is a parse error; pop all the nodes from the current node up to the node immediately before the bottommost ruby element on the stack of open elements.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

An end tag whose tag name is "br"

Parse error. Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "br" had been seen. Ignore the end tag token.

A start tag whose tag name is "math"

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Adjust MathML attributes for the token. (This fixes the case of MathML attributes that are not all lowercase.)

Adjust foreign attributes for the token. (This fixes the use of namespaced attributes, in particular XLink.)

Insert a foreign element for the token, in the MathML namespace.

If the token has its self-closing flag set, pop the current node off the stack of open elements and acknowledge the token's self-closing flag.

Otherwise, let the secondary insertion mode be the current insertion mode, and then switch the insertion mode to "in foreign content".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "frame", "frameset", "head", "tbody", "td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"

Parse error. Ignore the token.

Any other start tag

Reconstruct the active formatting elements, if any.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

This element will be a phrasing element.

Any other end tag

Run the following steps:

Initialize node to be the current node (the bottommost node of the stack).
If node has the same tag name as the end tag token, then:
1. Generate implied end tags.
2. If the tag name of the end tag token does not match the tag name of the current node, this is a parse error.
3. Pop all the nodes from the current node up to node, including node, then stop these steps.
Otherwise, if node is in neither the formatting category nor the phrasing category, then this is a parse error; ignore the token, and abort these steps.
Set node to the previous entry in the stack of open elements.
Return to step 2.

8.2.5.11 The "in CDATA/RCDATA" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in CDATA/RCDATA", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token

Insert the token's character into the current node.

An end-of-file token

Reset the insertion mode appropriately.

If the current node is a script element, mark the script element as "already executed".

Pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Switch the insertion mode to the original insertion mode and reprocess the current token.

An end tag whose tag name is "script"

Let script be the current node (which will be a script element).

Pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Switch the insertion mode to the original insertion mode.

Let the old insertion point have the same value as the current insertion point. Let the insertion point be just before the next input character.

Run the script. This might cause some script to execute, which might cause new characters to be inserted into the tokeniser, and might cause the tokeniser to output more tokens, resulting in a reentrant invocation of the parser.

Let the insertion point have the value of the old insertion point. (In other words, restore the insertion point to the value it had before the previous paragraph. This value might be the "undefined" value.)

At this stage, if there is a pending external script, then:

If the tree construction stage is being called reentrantly, say from a call to document.write():

Abort the processing of any nested invocations of the tokeniser, yielding control back to the caller. (Tokenization will resume when the caller returns to the "outer" tree construction stage.)

Otherwise:

Follow these steps:

Let the script be the pending external script. There is no longer a pending external script.
Pause until the script has completed loading.
Let the insertion point be just before the next input character.
Execute the script.
Let the insertion point be undefined again.
If there is once again a pending external script, then repeat these steps from step 1.

Any other end tag

Pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Switch the insertion mode to the original insertion mode.

8.2.5.12 The "in table" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in table", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

If the current table is tainted, then act as described in the "anything else" entry below.

Otherwise, insert the character into the current node.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "caption"

Clear the stack back to a table context. (See below.)

Insert a marker at the end of the list of active formatting elements.

Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in caption".

A start tag whose tag name is "colgroup"

Clear the stack back to a table context. (See below.)

Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in column group".

A start tag whose tag name is "col"

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "colgroup" had been seen, then reprocess the current token.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "tbody", "tfoot", "thead"

Clear the stack back to a table context. (See below.)

Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in table body".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "td", "th", "tr"

Act as if a start tag token with the tag name "tbody" had been seen, then reprocess the current token.

A start tag whose tag name is "table"

Parse error. Act as if an end tag token with the tag name "table" had been seen, then, if that token wasn't ignored, reprocess the current token.

The fake end tag token here can only be ignored in the fragment case.

An end tag whose tag name is "table"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope with the same tag name as the token, this is a parse error. Ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise:

Pop elements from this stack until a table element has been popped from the stack.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "caption", "col", "colgroup", "html", "tbody", "td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "style", "script"

If the current table is tainted then act as described in the "anything else" entry below.

Otherwise, process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is "input"

If the token does not have an attribute with the name "type", or if it does, but that attribute's value is not an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "hidden", or, if the current table is tainted, then: act as described in the "anything else" entry below.

Otherwise:

Insert an HTML element for the token.

If the form element pointer is not null, then associate the input element with the form element pointed to by the form element pointer.

Pop that input element off the stack of open elements.

An end-of-file token

If the current node is not the root html element, then this is a parse error.

It can only be the current node in the fragment case.

Generate implied end tags.

Anything else

Parse error. Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode, except that if the current node is a table, tbody, tfoot, thead, or tr element, then, whenever a node would be inserted into the current node, it must instead be foster parented.

When the steps above require the UA to clear the stack back to a table context, it means that the UA must, while the current node is not a table element or an html element, pop elements from the stack of open elements.

The current node being an html element after this process is a fragment case.

8.2.5.13 The "in caption" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in caption", tokens must be handled as follows:

An end tag whose tag name is "caption"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope with the same tag name as the token, this is a parse error. Ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise:

Now, if the current node is not a caption element, then this is a parse error.

Pop elements from this stack until a caption element has been popped from the stack.

Clear the list of active formatting elements up to the last marker.

Switch the insertion mode to "in table".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "tbody", "td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"

An end tag whose tag name is "table"

Parse error. Act as if an end tag with the tag name "caption" had been seen, then, if that token wasn't ignored, reprocess the current token.

The fake end tag token here can only be ignored in the fragment case.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "col", "colgroup", "html", "tbody", "td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"

Parse error. Ignore the token.

Anything else

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

8.2.5.14 The "in column group" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in column group", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

Generate implied end tags.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is "col"

Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

An end tag whose tag name is "colgroup"

If the current node is the root html element, then this is a parse error; ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise, pop the current node (which will be a colgroup element) from the stack of open elements. Switch the insertion mode to "in table".

An end tag whose tag name is "col"

Parse error. Ignore the token.

An end-of-file token

If the current node is the root html element, then stop parsing. (fragment case)

Otherwise, act as described in the "anything else" entry below.

Anything else

Act as if an end tag with the tag name "colgroup" had been seen, and then, if that token wasn't ignored, reprocess the current token.

The fake end tag token here can only be ignored in the fragment case.

8.2.5.15 The "in table body" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in table body", tokens must be handled as follows:

A start tag whose tag name is "tr"

Clear the stack back to a table body context. (See below.)

Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in row".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "th", "td"

Parse error. Act as if a start tag with the tag name "tr" had been seen, then reprocess the current token.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "tbody", "tfoot", "thead"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope with the same tag name as the token, this is a parse error. Ignore the token.

Otherwise:

Clear the stack back to a table body context. (See below.)

Pop the current node from the stack of open elements. Switch the insertion mode to "in table".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "tbody", "tfoot", "thead"

An end tag whose tag name is "table"

If the stack of open elements does not have a tbody, thead, or tfoot element in table scope, this is a parse error. Ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise:

Clear the stack back to a table body context. (See below.)

Act as if an end tag with the same tag name as the current node ("tbody", "tfoot", or "thead") had been seen, then reprocess the current token.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "caption", "col", "colgroup", "html", "td", "th", "tr"

Parse error. Ignore the token.

Anything else

Process the token using the rules for the "in table" insertion mode.

When the steps above require the UA to clear the stack back to a table body context, it means that the UA must, while the current node is not a tbody, tfoot, thead, or html element, pop elements from the stack of open elements.

The current node being an html element after this process is a fragment case.

8.2.5.16 The "in row" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in row", tokens must be handled as follows:

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "th", "td"

Clear the stack back to a table row context. (See below.)

Insert an HTML element for the token, then switch the insertion mode to "in cell".

Insert a marker at the end of the list of active formatting elements.

An end tag whose tag name is "tr"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope with the same tag name as the token, this is a parse error. Ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise:

Clear the stack back to a table row context. (See below.)

Pop the current node (which will be a tr element) from the stack of open elements. Switch the insertion mode to "in table body".

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "tbody", "tfoot", "thead", "tr"

An end tag whose tag name is "table"

Act as if an end tag with the tag name "tr" had been seen, then, if that token wasn't ignored, reprocess the current token.

The fake end tag token here can only be ignored in the fragment case.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "tbody", "tfoot", "thead"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope with the same tag name as the token, this is a parse error. Ignore the token.

Otherwise, act as if an end tag with the tag name "tr" had been seen, then reprocess the current token.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "caption", "col", "colgroup", "html", "td", "th"

Parse error. Ignore the token.

Anything else

Process the token using the rules for the "in table" insertion mode.

When the steps above require the UA to clear the stack back to a table row context, it means that the UA must, while the current node is not a tr element or an html element, pop elements from the stack of open elements.

The current node being an html element after this process is a fragment case.

8.2.5.17 The "in cell" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in cell", tokens must be handled as follows:

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "td", "th"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope with the same tag name as that of the token, then this is a parse error and the token must be ignored.

Otherwise:

Now, if the current node is not an element with the same tag name as the token, then this is a parse error.

Pop elements from this stack until an element with the same tag name as the token has been popped from the stack.

Clear the list of active formatting elements up to the last marker.

Switch the insertion mode to "in row". (The current node will be a tr element at this point.)

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "col", "colgroup", "tbody", "td", "tfoot", "th", "thead", "tr"

If the stack of open elements does not have a td or th element in table scope, then this is a parse error; ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise, close the cell (see below) and reprocess the current token.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "body", "caption", "col", "colgroup", "html"

Parse error. Ignore the token.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "table", "tbody", "tfoot", "thead", "tr"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope with the same tag name as that of the token (which can only happen for "tbody", "tfoot" and "thead", or, in the fragment case), then this is a parse error and the token must be ignored.

Otherwise, close the cell (see below) and reprocess the current token.

Anything else

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

Where the steps above say to close the cell, they mean to run the following algorithm:

If the stack of open elements has a td element in table scope, then act as if an end tag token with the tag name "td" had been seen.
Otherwise, the stack of open elements will have a th element in table scope; act as if an end tag token with the tag name "th" had been seen.

The stack of open elements cannot have both a td and a th element in table scope at the same time, nor can it have neither when the insertion mode is "in cell".

8.2.5.18 The "in select" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in select", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token

Insert the token's character into the current node.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is "option"

If the current node is an option element, act as if an end tag with the tag name "option" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "optgroup"

If the current node is an option element, act as if an end tag with the tag name "option" had been seen.

If the current node is an optgroup element, act as if an end tag with the tag name "optgroup" had been seen.

Insert an HTML element for the token.

An end tag whose tag name is "optgroup"

First, if the current node is an option element, and the node immediately before it in the stack of open elements is an optgroup element, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "option" had been seen.

If the current node is an optgroup element, then pop that node from the stack of open elements. Otherwise, this is a parse error; ignore the token.

An end tag whose tag name is "option"

If the current node is an option element, then pop that node from the stack of open elements. Otherwise, this is a parse error; ignore the token.

An end tag whose tag name is "select"

If the stack of open elements does not have an element in table scope with the same tag name as the token, this is a parse error. Ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise:

Pop elements from the stack of open elements until a select element has been popped from the stack.

Reset the insertion mode appropriately.

A start tag whose tag name is "select"

Parse error. Act as if the token had been an end tag with the tag name "select" instead.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "input", "textarea"

Parse error. Act as if an end tag with the tag name "select" had been seen, and reprocess the token.

An end-of-file token

If the current node is not the root html element, then this is a parse error.

It can only be the current node in the fragment case.

Anything else

Parse error. Ignore the token.

8.2.5.19 The "in select in table" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in select in table", tokens must be handled as follows:

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "table", "tbody", "tfoot", "thead", "tr", "td", "th"

Parse error. Act as if an end tag with the tag name "select" had been seen, and reprocess the token.

An end tag whose tag name is one of: "caption", "table", "tbody", "tfoot", "thead", "tr", "td", "th"

If the stack of open elements has an element in table scope with the same tag name as that of the token, then act as if an end tag with the tag name "select" had been seen, and reprocess the token. Otherwise, ignore the token.

Anything else

Process the token using the rules for the "in select" insertion mode.

8.2.5.20 The "in foreign content" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in foreign content", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token

Insert the token's character into the current node.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is neither "mglyph" nor "malignmark", if the current node is an mi element in the MathML namespace.

A start tag whose tag name is neither "mglyph" nor "malignmark", if the current node is an mo element in the MathML namespace.

A start tag whose tag name is neither "mglyph" nor "malignmark", if the current node is an mn element in the MathML namespace.

A start tag whose tag name is neither "mglyph" nor "malignmark", if the current node is an ms element in the MathML namespace.

A start tag whose tag name is neither "mglyph" nor "malignmark", if the current node is an mtext element in the MathML namespace.

A start tag, if the current node is an element in the HTML namespace.

An end tag

Process the token using the rules for the secondary insertion mode.

If, after doing so, the insertion mode is still "in foreign content", but there is no element in scope that has a namespace other than the HTML namespace, switch the insertion mode to the secondary insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is one of: "b", "big", "blockquote", "body", "br", "center", "code", "dd", "div", "dl", "dt", "em", "embed", "font", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6", "head", "hr", "i", "img", "li", "listing", "menu", "meta", "nobr", "ol", "p", "pre", "ruby", "s", "small", "span", "strong", "strike", "sub", "sup", "table", "tt", "u", "ul", "var"

An end-of-file token

Pop elements from the stack of open elements until the current node is in the HTML namespace.

Switch the insertion mode to the secondary insertion mode, and reprocess the token.

Any other start tag

If the current node is an element in the MathML namespace, adjust MathML attributes for the token. (This fixes the case of MathML attributes that are not all lowercase.)

Adjust foreign attributes for the token. (This fixes the use of namespaced attributes, in particular XLink in SVG.)

Insert a foreign element for the token, in the same namespace as the current node.

If the token has its self-closing flag set, pop the current node off the stack of open elements and acknowledge the token's self-closing flag.

8.2.5.21 The "after body" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "after body", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the first element in the stack of open elements (the html element), with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

An end tag whose tag name is "html"

If the parser was originally created as part of the HTML fragment parsing algorithm, this is a parse error; ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise, switch the insertion mode to "after after body".

An end-of-file token

Anything else

Parse error. Switch the insertion mode to "in body" and reprocess the token.

8.2.5.22 The "in frameset" insertion mode

When the insertion mode is "in frameset", tokens must be handled as follows:

A character token that is one of one of U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION, U+000A LINE FEED (LF), U+000C FORM FEED (FF), or U+0020 SPACE

A comment token

Append a Comment node to the current node with the data attribute set to the data given in the comment token.

A DOCTYPE token

Parse error. Ignore the token.

A start tag whose tag name is "html"

Process the token using the rules for the "in body" insertion mode.

A start tag whose tag name is "frameset"

Insert an HTML element for the token.

An end tag whose tag name is "frameset"

If the current node is the root html element, then this is a parse error; ignore the token. (fragment case)

Otherwise, pop the current node from the stack of open elements.

If the parser was not originally created as part of the HTML fragment parsing algorithm (fragment case), and the current node is no longer a frameset element, then switch the insertion mode to "after frameset".

A start tag whose tag name is "frame"

Insert an HTML element for the token. Immediately pop the current node off the stack of open elements.

Acknowledge the token's self-closing flag, if it is set.

A start tag whose tag name is "noframes"

Process the token using the rules for the "in head" insertion mode.

An end-of-file token

If the current node is not the root html element, then this is a parse error.

It can only be the current node in the fragment case.