HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
attribute Function onscroll;
attribute Function onseeked;
attribute Function onseeking;
attribute Function onselect;
attribute Function onshow;
attribute Function onstalled;
attribute Function onsubmit;
attribute Function onsuspend;
attribute Function ontimeupdate;
attribute Function onvolumechange;
attribute Function onwaiting;
};
As you can see, this interface defines common attributes like
id
,
title
,
lang
,
dir
, and
so on. It also defines numerous event handlers like
onclick
,
onscroll
,
onselect
, and so
on that are associated with functions. Numerous methods are also defined.
Specific elements will inherit these scripting hooks and add to them. For example, note
the interface for the new HTML5
time
element:
interface HTMLTimeElement : HTMLElement {
attribute DOMString dateTime;
attribute boolean pubDate;
readonly attribute Date valueAsDate;
};
This takes all the features of
HTMLElement
and adds to them
dateTime
,
pubDate
, and
valueAsDate
properties.
As you look closely at the HTML5 script bindings, you'll notice that the difference
between an HTML5 element's attributes and the corresponding script properties is minimal.
In general, if an element has an attribute, its property will be the same, with two exceptions:
•
If the name of an HTML attribute is composed of multiple words, the first letter of
the all but the first word is uppercase when the name is used as a scriptable
property name. For example, the
time
element has a
pubdate
attribute; following
the previous rule, the corresponding DOM property is
pubDate
.
•
If the name of the attribute is a reserved word in JavaScript, it will be redefined
somehow. The most common attribute this rule is applied to is the
class
attribute,
which is widely used. The word “class” can't be used as a scriptable property name
because keyword
class
is reserved for future versions of JavaScript. Thus, to
change the
class
attribute via JavaScript, use
className
instead.
As long as you are aware of these two rules, the mappings between markup and script
are actually pretty straightforward.
We certainly don't expect you to become familiar with the DOM here; a sister topic,
JavaScript: The Complete Reference
, of nearly the same page count covers JavaScript and its
usage with HTML and CSS. However, we do want to make it clear that the HTML5
specification combines the DOM and markup specifications together, so from here on out
the two ideas should stay more in harmony. This is generally a good thing, though it does
make the specification quite a bit larger.
