WHATWG Wiki - User contributions [en]

CustomData

2008-04-09T01:08:52Z

Distobj: /* Rejected */

Here are some ideas for how to include custom data in HTML documents.

== Candidates ==
<pre>
bla bla

if (span.dataSet.thing > 10) { ... }
span.dataSet.doohickey = '1,2,3,4';
</pre>

== Rejected ==

<pre>
bla bla
(rejected because colons have special meaning in XML and so this would lead to
the HTML and XML DOM representations differing, which violates our intent to
keep the DOM accessors serialisation-agnostic.)
</pre>

<pre>
<param name=my-thing value="50"><param name=my-other-thing value="4,5,1,2">bla bla
(rejected because it's so verbose that people would likely just do what
they do now, violating the spec, instead of using it.)
</pre>

<pre>
bla bla
(rejected because "custom-" is not as good a prefix as "data-".)
</pre>

If "custom" was site-specific, then wouldn't, e.g. "markbaker-my-thing" be better than a global "data-my-thing"? Otherwise there's a pretty good chance of collisions. Much more author friendly than namespaces. "data-" suggests that a central registry/wiki would be required to avoid collision.

CustomData

2008-04-09T01:01:39Z

Distobj: Value of site-specific prefixes

Here are some ideas for how to include custom data in HTML documents.

== Candidates ==
<pre>
bla bla

if (span.dataSet.thing > 10) { ... }
span.dataSet.doohickey = '1,2,3,4';
</pre>

== Rejected ==

<pre>
bla bla
(rejected because colons have special meaning in XML and so this would lead to
the HTML and XML DOM representations differing, which violates our intent to
keep the DOM accessors serialisation-agnostic.)
</pre>

<pre>
<param name=my-thing value="50"><param name=my-other-thing value="4,5,1,2">bla bla
(rejected because it's so verbose that people would likely just do what
they do now, violating the spec, instead of using it.)
</pre>

<pre>
bla bla
(rejected because "custom-" is not as good a prefix as "data-".)

If "custom" was site-specific, then wouldn't, e.g. "markbaker-my-thing" be better than a global "data-my-thing"? Otherwise there's a pretty good chance of collisions. Much more author friendly than namespaces. "data-" suggests that a central registry/wiki would be required to avoid collision.
</pre>

CustomData

2008-04-04T19:43:36Z

Distobj: Why?

Here are some ideas for how to include custom data in HTML documents.

== Candidates ==
<pre>
bla bla

if (span.dataset.thing > 10) { ... }
span.dataset.doohickey = '1,2,3,4';
</pre>

== Rejected ==

<pre>
bla bla
</pre>

<pre>
bla bla
</pre>

<pre>
<param name=my-thing value="50"><param name=my-other-thing value="4,5,1,2">bla bla
</pre>

What are the reasons for rejection? The first uses namespaces which suck, and the third is super verbose, but what's wrong with the second?