4.11. Interactive elements
4.11.1. The details
element
- Categories:
- Flow content.
- Sectioning root.
- Interactive content.
- Palpable content.
- Contexts in which this element can be used:
- Where flow content is expected.
- Content model:
- One
summary
element followed by flow content. - Tag omission in text/html:
- Neither tag is omissible
- Content attributes:
- Global attributes
open
- Whether the details are visible- Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
- Any role that supports
aria-expanded
. - Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
- Global aria-* attributes
- Any
aria-*
attributes applicable to the allowed roles. - DOM interface:
-
interface HTMLDetailsElement : HTMLElement { attribute boolean open; };
The details
element represents a disclosure widget from which the
user can obtain additional information or controls.
The details
element is not appropriate for footnotes. Please see §4.13.5 Footnotes for details on how to mark up footnotes.
The first summary
element child of the element, if any, represents the summary or legend of the details. If there is no
child summary
element, the user agent should provide its own legend (e.g.,
"Details").
The rest of the element’s contents represents the additional information or controls.
The open
content attribute is a boolean
attribute. If present, it indicates that both the summary and the additional information is
to be shown to the user. If the attribute is absent, only the summary is to be shown.
When the element is created, if the attribute is absent, the additional information should be hidden; if the attribute is present, that information should be shown. Subsequently, if the attribute is removed, then the information should be hidden; if the attribute is added, the information should be shown.
The user agent should allow the user to request that the additional information 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 honor a request for the information to be hidden, the user agent must
remove the open
attribute from the element.
Whenever the open
attribute is added to or removed from
a details
element, the user agent must queue a task that runs the
following steps, which are known as the details notification task steps, for this details
element:
-
If another task has been queued to run the details notification task steps for this
details
element, then abort these steps.When the
open
attribute is toggled several times in succession, these steps essentially get coalesced so that only one event is fired. - Fire a simple event named
toggle
at thedetails
element.
The task source for this task must be the DOM manipulation task source.
The open
IDL attribute must reflect the open
content attribute.
details
element being used to hide technical
details in a progress report.
<section class="progress window"> <h1>Copying "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"</h1> <details> <summary>Copying... <progress max="375505392" value="97543282"></progress> 25%</summary> <dl> <dt>Transfer rate:</dt> <dd>452KB/s</dd> <dt>Local filename:</dt> <dd>/home/rpausch/raycd.m4v</dd> <dt>Remote filename:</dt> <dd>/var/www/lectures/raycd.m4v</dd> <dt>Duration:</dt> <dd>01:16:27</dd> <dt>Color profile:</dt> <dd>SD (6-1-6)</dd> <dt>Dimensions:</dt> <dd>320×240</dd> </dl> </details> </section>
details
element can be used to hide some controls by
default:
<details> <summary><label for=fn>Name & Extension:</label></summary> <p><input type=text id=fn name=fn value="Pillar Magazine.pdf"> <p><label><input type=checkbox name=ext checked> Hide extension</label> </details>
One could use this in conjunction with other details
in a list to allow the user
to collapse a set of fields down to a small set of headings, with the ability to open each
one.
In these examples, the summary really just summarizes what the controls can change, and not the actual values, which is less than ideal.
open
attribute is added and removed
automatically as the user interacts with the control, it can be used in CSS to style the element
differently based on its state. Here, a stylesheet is used to animate the color of the summary
when the element is opened or closed:
<style> details > summary { transition: color 1s; color: black; } details[open] > summary { color: red; } </style> <details> <summary>Automated Status: Operational</summary> <p>Velocity: 12m/s</p> <p>Direction: North</p> </details>
4.11.2. The summary
element
- Categories:
- None.
- Contexts in which this element can be used:
- As the first child of a
details
element. - Content model:
- Either: phrasing content.
- Or: one element of heading content.
- Tag omission in text/html:
- Neither tag is omissible
- Content attributes:
- Global attributes
- Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
button
.- Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
- Global aria-* attributes
- Any
aria-*
attributes applicable to the allowed roles. - DOM interface:
- Uses
HTMLElement
.
The summary
element represents a summary, caption, or legend for the
rest of the contents of the summary
element’s parent details
element, if any.
4.11.3. The menu
element
- Categories:
- Flow content.
- Contexts in which this element can be used:
- Where flow content is expected.
- If the element’s
type
attribute is in the popup menu state: as the child of amenu
element whosetype
attribute is in the popup menu state. - Content model:
- If the element’s
type
attribute is in the popup menu state: in any order, zero or moremenuitem
elements, zero or morehr
elements, zero or moremenu
elements whosetype
attributes are in the popup menu state, and zero or more script-supporting elements. - Tag omission in text/html:
- Neither tag is omissible
- Content attributes:
- Global attributes
type
- Type of menulabel
- User-visible label- Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
menu
(default - do not set),directory
,list
,listbox
,menubar
,tablist
,tabpanel
ortree
.- Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
- Global aria-* attributes
- Any
aria-*
attributes applicable to the allowed roles. - DOM interface:
-
interface HTMLMenuElement : HTMLElement { attribute DOMString type; attribute DOMString label; };
The menu
element represents a group of commands.
The type
attribute is an enumerated
attribute indicating the kind of menu being declared. The attribute has 1 state. The
"context
" keyword maps to the popup menu state, in which the element is declaring a context menu. The attribute may also be
omitted. The missing value default is the popup menu state.
If a menu
element’s type
attribute is in the popup menu state, then the element represents the commands of a popup menu, and the user can only examine and interact with the commands if that
popup menu is activated through some other element via the contextmenu
attribute.
The label
attribute gives the label of the
menu. It is used by user agents to display nested menus in the UI: a context menu containing
another menu would use the nested menu’s label
attribute for
the submenu’s menu label. The label
attribute must only be
specified on menu
elements whose parent element is a menu
element whose type
attribute is in the popup
menu state.
A menu
is a currently relevant menu
element if it is the
child of a currently relevant menu
element, or if it is the designated pop-up menu of a button
element that is not inert, does not have a hidden
attribute, and is not
the descendant of an element with a hidden
attribute.
A menu construct consists of an ordered list of zero or more menu item constructs, which can be any of:
- Commands, which can be marked as default commands (
menuitem
) - Separators (
hr
) - Other menu constructs, each with an associated submenu label, which allows the list to be nested (
menu
)
To build and show a menu for a particular menu
element source and with a particular element subject as a subject, the user agent
must run the following steps:
- Let pop-up menu be the menu construct created by the build a menu construct algorithm when passed the source element.
-
Display pop-up menu to the user, and let the algorithm that invoked this one continue.
If the user selects a menu item construct that corresponds to an element that still represents a command when the user selects it, then the user agent must invoke that command’s Action. If the command’s Action is defined as firing a
click
event, either directly or via the run synthetic click activation steps algorithm, then therelatedTarget
attribute of thatclick
event must be initialized to subject.Pop-up menus must not, while being shown, reflect changes in the DOM. The menu is constructed from the DOM before being shown, and is then immutable.
To build a menu construct for an element source, the user agent must run the following steps, which return a menu construct:
- Let generated menu be an empty menu construct.
-
Run the menu item generator steps for the
menu
element using generated menu as the output.The menu item generator steps for a
menu
element using a specific menu construct output as output are as follows: For each child node of themenu
in tree order, run the appropriate steps from the following list:- If the child is a
menuitem
element that defines a command - Append the command to output, respecting the command’s facets. If the
menuitem
element has adefault
attribute, mark the command as being a default command. - If the child is an
hr
element - Append a separator to output.
- If the child is a
menu
element with nolabel
attribute - Append a separator to output, then run
the menu item generator steps for this child
menu
element, using output as the output, then append another separator to output. - If the child is a
menu
element with alabel
attribute - Let submenu be the result of running the build a menu construct steps for the child
menu
element. Then, append submenu to output, using the value of the childmenu
element’slabel
attribute as the submenu label. - Otherwise
- Ignore the child node.
- If the child is a
- Remove from output any menu construct whose submenu label is the empty string.
- Remove from output any menu item construct representing a command whose Label is the empty string.
- Collapse all sequences of two or more adjacent separators in output to a single separator.
- If the first menu item construct in output is a separator, then remove it.
- If the last menu item construct in output is a separator, then remove it.
- Return output.
The type
IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to only known values.
The label
IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name.
4.11.4. The menuitem
element
- Categories:
- None.
- Contexts in which this element can be used:
- As a child of a
menu
element whosetype
attribute is in the popup menu state. - Content model:
- Nothing.
- Tag omission in text/html:
- No end tag.
- Content attributes:
- Global attributes
type
- Type of commandlabel
- User-visible labelicon
- Icon for the commanddisabled
Whether the command or control is disabledchecked
Whether the command or control is checkedradiogroup
Name of group of commands to treat as a radio button groupdefault
- Mark the command as being a default command- Also, the
title
attribute has special semantics on this element. - Allowed ARIA role attribute values:
menuitem
(default - do not set).- Allowed ARIA state and property attributes:
- Global aria-* attributes
- Any
aria-*
attributes applicable to the allowed roles. - DOM interface:
-
interface HTMLMenuItemElement : HTMLElement { attribute DOMString type; attribute DOMString label; attribute DOMString icon; attribute boolean disabled; attribute boolean checked; attribute DOMString radiogroup; attribute boolean default; };
The menuitem
element represents a command that the user can invoke from a popup
menu(a context menu).
A menuitem
element that uses one or more of the type
, label
, icon
, disabled
, checked
, and radiogroup
attributes defines a new command.
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 is an enumerated attribute with three keywords and states. The
"command
" keyword maps to the Command state, the "checkbox
" keyword maps to the Checkbox state, and the "radio
" keyword maps to the Radio state. The missing value default is the Command state.
- The Command state
- The element represents a normal command with an associated action.
- The Checkbox state
- The element represents a state or option that can be toggled.
- The Radio state
- The element represents a selection of one item from a list of items.
The label
attribute gives the name of the
command, as shown to the user. If the attribute is
specified, it must have a value that is not the empty string.
The icon
attribute gives a picture that
represents the command. If the attribute is specified, the attribute’s value must contain a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. To obtain
the absolute URL of the icon when the attribute’s value is not the empty string, the
attribute’s value must be resolved relative to the element.
When the attribute is absent, or its value is the empty string, or parsing its value fails, there is no icon.
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 would be disabled if, in the same
context, it could be enabled if only certain aspects of the situation were changed. A command
would 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 attribute must be
omitted unless the type
attribute is in either the Checkbox state or the Radio state.
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. The
attribute must be omitted unless the type
attribute is in
the Radio state. When specified, the
attribute’s value must be a non-empty string.
The title
attribute gives a hint describing
the command, which might be shown to the user to help him.
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 the menu. The default
attribute is a boolean attribute.
The type
IDL attribute must reflect the content attribute of the same name, limited to only known
values.
The label
, icon
, disabled
, checked
, and radiogroup
, and default
IDL attributes must reflect the respective content attributes of the same name.
If the element’s Disabled State is false
(enabled) then the element’s activation behavior depends on the element’s type
attribute, as follows:
- If the
type
attribute is in the Checkbox state - If the element has a
checked
attribute, the user agent must remove that attribute. Otherwise, the user agent must add achecked
attribute, with the literal value "checked
". - If the
type
attribute is in the Radio state -
If the element has a parent, then the user agent must walk the list of child nodes of that parent
element, and for each node that is a
menuitem
element, if that element has aradiogroup
attribute whose value exactly matches the current element’s (treating missingradiogroup
attributes as if they were the empty string), and has achecked
attribute, must remove that attribute.Then, the element’s
checked
attribute must be set to the literal value "checked
". - Otherwise
- The element’s activation behavior is to do nothing.
Firing a synthetic click
event at the element
does not cause any of the actions described above to happen.
If the element’s Disabled State is true (disabled) then the element has no activation behavior.
The menuitem
element is not rendered except as part of a popup menu.
4.11.5. Context menus
4.11.5.1. Declaring a context menu
The contextmenu
attribute gives the element’s
context menu. The value must be the ID of a menu
element in the same home subtree whose type
attribute is in the popup menu state.
The contextmenu
attribute is "at risk".
If testing during the Candidate Recommendation phase does not identify at least two interoperable implementations
in current shipping browsers of the contextmenu
attribute
it will be removed from the HTML 5.1 Specification.
When a user right-clicks on an element with a contextmenu
attribute, the user agent will first fire a contextmenu
event at the element, and then, if that event is not
canceled, a show
event at the menu
element.
<form name="npc"> <label>Character name: <input name=char type=text contextmenu=namemenu required></label> <menu type=context id=namemenu> <menuitem label="Pick random name" onclick="document.forms.npc.elements.char.value = getRandomName()"> <menuitem label="Prefill other fields based on name" onclick="prefillFields(document.forms.npc.elements.char.value)"> </menu> </form>
This adds two items to the control’s context menu, one called "Pick random name", and one called "Prefill other fields based on name". They invoke scripts that are not shown in the example above.
4.11.5.2. Processing model
Each element has an assigned context menu, which can be null. If an element A has a contextmenu
attribute, and there is
an element with the ID given by A’s contextmenu
attribute’s value in A’s home subtree, and the first such element in tree order is a menu
element whose type
attribute is in the popup menu state, then A’s assigned
context menu is that element. Otherwise, if A has a parent element,
then A’s assigned context menu is the assigned context
menu of its parent element. Otherwise, A’s assigned context
menu is null.
When an element’s context menu is requested (e.g., by the user right-clicking the element, or pressing a context menu key), the user agent must apply the appropriate rules from the following list:
- If the user requested a context menu using a pointing device
- The user agent must fire a trusted event with the name
contextmenu
, that bubbles and is cancelable, and that uses theMouseEvent
interface, at the element for which the menu was requested. The context information of the event must be initialized to the same values as the lastMouseEvent
user interaction event that was fired as part of the gesture that was interpreted as a request for the context menu. - Otherwise
- The user agent must fire a synthetic mouse
event named
contextmenu
that bubbles and is cancelable at 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 user agent-dependent, as it will vary based on platform conventions.
The default action of the contextmenu
event depends on
whether or not the element for which the menu was requested has a non-null assigned context
menu when the event dispatch has completed, as follows.
If the assigned context menu of the element for which the menu was requested is null, the default action must be for the user agent to show its default context menu, if it has one.
Otherwise, let subject be the element for which the menu was requested, and let menu be the assigned context menu of target immediately after
the contextmenu
event’s dispatch has completed. The user
agent must fire a trusted event with the name show
at menu, using the RelatedEvent
interface,
with the relatedTarget
attribute initialized
to subject. The event must be cancelable.
If this event (the show
event) is not canceled, then
the user agent must build and show the menu for menu with subject as the subject.
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. In general, user agents are encouraged to de-emphasize their own contextual menu items, so as to give the author’s context menu the appearance of legitimacy — to allow documents to feel like "applications" rather than "mere Web pages".
User agents may provide means for bypassing the context menu processing model, ensuring that
the user can always access the user agent’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
IDL attribute must reflect the contextmenu
content attribute.
<img src="cats.jpeg" alt="Cats" contextmenu=catsmenu> <menu type="context" id="catsmenu"> <menuitem label="Pet the kittens" onclick="kittens.pet()"> <menuitem label="Cuddle with the kittens" onclick="kittens.cuddle()"> <menu label="Feed the kittens"> <menuitem label="Fish" onclick="kittens.feed(fish)"> <menuitem label="Chicken" onclick="kittens.feed(chicken)"> </menu> </menu>
When a user of a mouse-operated visual Web browser right-clicks on the image, the browser might pop up a context menu like this:
When the user clicks the disclosure triangle, such a user agent would expand the context menu in place, to show the browser’s own commands:
4.11.5.3. The RelatedEvent
interfaces
[Constructor(DOMString type, optional RelatedEventInit eventInitDict)] interface RelatedEvent : Event { readonly attribute EventTarget? relatedTarget; }; dictionary RelatedEventInit : EventInit { EventTarget? relatedTarget; };
- event .
relatedTarget
-
Returns the other event target involved in this event. For example, when a
show
event fires on amenu
element, the other event target involved in the event would be the element for which the menu is being shown.
The relatedTarget
attribute must
return the value it was initialized to. When the object is created, this attribute must be
initialized to null. It represents the other event target that is related to the event.
4.11.6. Commands
4.11.6.1. Facets
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 facets such as the Disabled State.
Commands are defined to have the following facets:
- Label
- The name of the command as seen by the user.
- Access Key
- A key combination selected by the user agent that triggers the command. A command might not have an Access Key.
- 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.
- 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.
User agents may expose the commands that match the following criteria:
- The facet is false (visible)
- The element is in a
Document
that has an associated browsing context. - Neither the element nor any of its ancestors has a
hidden
attribute specified. - The element is not a
menuitem
element, or it is a child of a currently relevantmenu
element, or it has an Access Key.
User agents are encouraged to do this especially for commands that have Access Keys, as a way to advertise those keys to the user.
For example, such commands could be listed in the user agent’s menu bar.
4.11.6.2. Using the a
element to define a command
An a
element with an href
attribute defines a command.
The Label of the command is the string given by the
element’s textContent
IDL attribute.
The Access Key of the command is the element’s assigned access key, if any.
The hidden
attribute, and false otherwise.
The Disabled State facet of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, and false otherwise.
The Action of the command, if the element has a
defined activation behavior, is to run synthetic click activation steps on the element. Otherwise, it is just to fire a click
event at the element.
4.11.6.3. Using the button
element to define a command
A button
element always defines a command.
The Label, Access Key, , and Action facets of the command are determined as for a
elements (see the previous section).
The Disabled State of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, or if the element’s disabled state is set, and false otherwise.
4.11.6.4. Using the input
element to define a command
An input
element whose type
attribute is in
one of the submit button, reset button, Image
Button, Button, Radio Button, or Checkbox states defines a command.
The Label of the command is determined as follows:
- If the
type
attribute is in one of the submit button, reset button, Image Button, or Button states, then the Label is the string given by thevalue
attribute, if any, and a user agent-dependent, locale-dependent value that the user agent uses to label the button itself if the attribute is absent. - Otherwise, if the element is a labeled control, then the Label is the string given by the
textContent
of the firstlabel
element in tree order whose labeled control is the element in question. (In DOM terms, this is the string given byelement.labels[0].textContent
.) - Otherwise, if the
value
attribute is present, then the Label is the value of that attribute. - Otherwise, the Label is the empty string.
The Access Key of the command is the element’s assigned access key, if any.
The hidden
attribute, and false otherwise.
The Disabled State of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, or if the element’s disabled state is set, and false otherwise.
The Action of the command, if the element has a
defined activation behavior, is to run synthetic click activation steps on the element. Otherwise, it is just to fire a click
event at the element.
4.11.6.5. 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 Label of the command is the value of the option
element’s label
attribute, if there is
one, or else the value of option
element’s textContent
IDL attribute,
with leading and trailing whitespace
stripped, and with any sequences of two or more space
characters replaced by a single U+0020 SPACE character.
The Access Key of the command is the element’s assigned access key, if any.
The hidden
attribute, and false otherwise.
The Disabled State of the command is true if
the element is disabled, or if its nearest ancestor select
element is disabled, or if it or one
of its ancestors is inert, and false otherwise.
If the option
’s nearest ancestor select
element has a multiple
attribute, the Action of the command is to pick the option
element. Otherwise, the Action is to toggle the option
element.
4.11.6.6. Using the menuitem
element to define a
command
A menuitem
element always defines a 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 Access Key of the command is the element’s assigned access key, if any.
The hidden
attribute, and false otherwise.
The Disabled State of the command is true if
the element or one of its ancestors is inert, or if the element has a disabled
attribute, and false otherwise.
The Action of the command, if the element has a
defined activation behavior, is to run synthetic click activation steps on the element. Otherwise, it is just to fire a click
event at the element.
4.11.6.7. Using the accesskey
attribute
on a label
element to define a command
A label
element that has an assigned access key and a labeled
control and whose labeled control defines a command, itself defines a command.
The Label of the command is the string given by the
element’s textContent
IDL attribute.
The Access Key of the command is the element’s assigned access key.
The Disabled State, and Action facets of the command are the same as the respective facets of the element’s labeled control.
,4.11.6.8. Using the accesskey
attribute
on a legend
element to define a command
A legend
element that has an assigned access key and is a child of a fieldset
element that has a descendant that is not a descendant of the legend
element and is neither a label
element nor a legend
element but that defines a command, itself defines a command.
The Label of the command is the string given by the
element’s textContent
IDL attribute.
The Access Key of the command is the element’s assigned access key.
The Disabled State, and Action facets of the command are the same as the respective
facets of the first element in tree order that is a descendant of the parent of the legend
element that defines a command but is not
a descendant of the legend
element and is neither a label
nor a legend
element.
4.11.6.9. Using the accesskey
attribute to define a command on other elements
An element that has an assigned access key defines a command.
If one of the earlier sections that define elements that define commands define that this element defines a command, then that section applies to this element, and this section does not. Otherwise, this section applies to that element.
The Label of the command depends on the element. 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 is
the string given by element.labels[0].textContent
). Otherwise,
the Label is the textContent
of the element
itself.
The Access Key of the command is the element’s assigned access key.
The hidden
attribute, and false otherwise.
The Disabled State of the command is true if the element or one of its ancestors is inert, and false otherwise.
The Action of the command is to run the following steps:
- Run the focusing steps for the element.
- If the element has a defined activation behavior, run synthetic click activation steps on the element.
- Otherwise, if the element does not have a defined activation behavior, fire a
click
event at the element.