Learning the World » Second Edition http://learningtheworld.eu Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:17:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.1 XHTML 1.1 Second Edition with Target Attribute http://learningtheworld.eu/2007/xhtml-with-target/ http://learningtheworld.eu/2007/xhtml-with-target/#comments Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:30:35 +0000 http://learningtheworld.eu/2007/xhtml-with-target/ HTML 4 to XHTML 1.1 a couple of years ago, I soon found the target attribute was missing. I have never been in love with the target attribute anyway, but some clients insisted that their links should open in a new window. So I did some research. […]]]> When I switched from HTML 4 to XHTML 1.1 a couple of years ago, I soon found the target attribute was missing. I have never been in love with the target attribute anyway, but some clients insisted that their links should open in a new window. So I did some research.

You won’t believe how much myth and misinformation is out there. Some say it’s deprecated. In fact it never was. It is part of XHTML 2 and XHTML Basic, and there is a target module in XHTML 1.1, the modularized version of XHTML. The attribute is not included in HTML 4.01 Strict and XHTML 1.0 Strict because it was then considered to be related to frames and iframes, but it’s not marked “deprecated.” It was simply not in the core set of modules for the XHTML 1.1 driver.

Some people argued it’s a behavior and thus belongs into unobtrusive JavaScript. But then clicking on a link to get to another page is also some functionality, and nobody would think of replacing anchors with loads of bloated script to simulate such a basic behavior.

So I ended up extending the extensible with a customized DTD:

  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
  2. <!-- Bring in the XHTML 1.1 driver -->
  3. <!ENTITY % xhtml11.dtd
  4. PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
  5. "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/ DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
  6. %xhtml11.dtd;
  7.  
  8. <!-- Bring in the Target Module -->
  9. <!ENTITY % xhtml-target.mod
  10. PUBLIC "-//W3C//ELEMENTS XHTML Target 1.0//EN"
  11. "http://www.w3.org/TR/ xhtml-modularization/DTD/ xhtml-target-1.mod">
  12. %xhtml-target.mod;

However, now I have to bid farewell to that bizarre old friend: the working draft of XHTML 1.1 Second Edition includes the target module in the core set, finally. I’m relieved because tinkering with DTDs is a pain, but it had style …

Note that in the current version target is not yet included in XHTML 1.1 Schema, but I have been assured it will definitely be in the final version.

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