[css3-regions] message topic
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Copyright © 2012 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark and document use rules apply.
The CSS regions module allows content to flow across multiple areas called regions. The regions are not necessarily contiguous in the document order. The CSS regions module provides an advanced content flow mechanism, which can be combined with positioning schemes as defined by other CSS modules such as the Multi-Column Module [CSS3COL] or the Grid Layout Module [CSS3-GRID-LAYOUT] to position the regions where content flows.
Note This document uses an experimental style sheet. We welcome your feedback on the styles at site-comments@w3.org.
This is a public copy of the editors' draft. It is provided for discussion only and may change at any moment. Its publication here does not imply endorsement of its contents by W3C. Don't cite this document other than as work in progress.
The (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org (see instructions) is preferred for discussion of this specification. When sending e-mail, please put the text “css3-regions” in the subject, preferably like this: “[css3-regions] …summary of comment…”
This document was produced by the CSS Working Group (part of the Style Activity).
This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
This draft is related to the drafts about Multi-column Layout [CSS3COL], Grid Layout [CSS3GRID], Flexible Box Layout [CSS3-FLEXBOX], and Template Layout [CSS3LAYOUT].
This section is non-normative.
Add code samples to the CSS regions use cases page
Capturing the complex layouts of a typical magazine, newspaper, or textbook requires capabilities beyond those available in existing CSS modules. This is the purpose of the CSS regions module.
The CSS regions module can be seen as an extension of the concept of multi-column elements. With CSS Multi-column layout [CSS3COL], columns share the same dimensions and define column boxes organized in rows. Content flows from one column to the next.
The multi-column model is an example of flowing content from one area to another, where the areas are the multi-column element's column boxes and the flow is made of the multi-column element's children.
Should the region specification define a mechanism to create blocks that can be regions with CSS syntax?
However, for more complex layouts, content needs to flow from one area of the page to the next without limitation of the areas' sizes and positions. These arbitrary areas are the target of specific content flows. In this document these areas are called regions, and the content flows are called named flows. Regions are based on the rectangular geometry of the CSS box model. Elements in a named flow are taken out of the normal visual formatting and rendered in a chain of regions.
Consider the layout illustrated in figure 1.
Add layout to initial example
The designer's intent is to position an image in box ‘A
’ and to flow an article's text from region
‘1
’ to regions ‘2
’, ‘3
’ and
‘4
’. Note that the second region should
have two columns.
Figure 2 shows an example of the intended visual rendering of the content.
The following code snippet shows the content to flow between the regions 1, 2, 3 and 4.
<div id="article"> <h1>Introduction</h1> <p>This is an example ...</p> <h2>More Details</h2> <p>This illustrates ...</p> <p>Then, the example ...</p> <p>Finally, this ...</p> </div>
And the following snippet shows an example using grid cells to define, size and position the region areas:
<style> #grid { width: 80vw; height: 60vw; grid-template: "aaa.d" "....d" "bbb.d" "....d" "ccc.d"; grid-rows: 52% 4% 20% 4% 20%; grid-columns: 30% 5% 30% 5% 30%; } #region1 { grid-cell: a; } #region2 { grid-cell: b; } #boxA { grid-cell: c; } #region3 { grid-cell: d; } #region4 { width: 80vw; } #region2 { column-count: 2; } </style> <div id="grid"> <div id="region1"></div> <div id="region2"></div> <div id="boxA"></div> <div id="region3"></div> </div> <div id="region4"></div>
However, there is no existing mechanism to associate the content with the regions so that content flows as intended. The CSS regions module properties provide that mechanism.
The following code example illustrates how the content of the
article
element becomes a flow and how the areas ‘region1
’, ‘region2
’, ‘region3
’ and ‘region4
’ become regions that consume the
‘article_flow
’ content.
<style> #article { flow-into: article_flow; } #region1, #region2, #region3, #region4 { flow-from: article_flow; } </style>
The ‘article_flow
’ value on the
‘flow-into
’ property directs the
‘#article
’ element to the ‘article_flow
’ named
flow. Setting the elements' ‘flow-from
’ property to ‘article_flow
’ on elements makes them regions and
associates these regions with the named flow:
the flow is ‘poured
’ into the desired
regions.
Note that a multi-column element is used for region 2, which is a bit gratuitous here (because grid cells could be used). The reason to use a multi-column element here is to illustrate that regions can be multi-column.
CSS regions are independent from layout
Any of the CSS layout facilities can be used to create, position and size regions as needed.
Using a grid layout (see [CSS3-GRID-LAYOUT] is just an example. The example could use a flexible box layout as well, see [CSS3-FLEXBOX].
The CSS regions specification does not define a layout mechanism and is meant to integrate with existing and future CSS layout facilities.
Regions do not have to be elements
The CSS regions module is independent of the layout of regions and the mechanism used to create them. For simplicity, our example uses elements as regions as shown in the previous code snippet.
While the example uses elements as regions (since [CSS3-GRID-LAYOUT]
requires elements to create grid items) it is important to note that this
is not required for regions. Regions can be pseudo-elements, such as
‘::before
’ and ‘::after
’. The only requirement for an element or
pseudo-element to become a region is that it needs to be subject to CSS
styling to receive the ‘flow-from
’ property. The CSS page
template module (see [CSS3-PAGE-TEMPLATE])
proposes another mechanism to create regions with the @slot
syntax.
Region styling allows content to be styled depending on the region it
flows into. It is a more sophisticated form of pseudo-element styling such
as ::first-line
which apply a particular style to a
fragment of content. With region styling, additional selectors may apply
depending on the region into which content flows.
In our example, the designer wants to make text flowing into region 1 dark blue and bold.
This design can be expressed with region styling as shown below.
<style> /* * Default article styling. */ #article { color:#777; text-align: justify; } #article h1 { color: crimson; display: run-in; } #article h2 { border-left: 1px solid #777; padding-left: 2ex; } /* * Additional styling to apply to content when it falls into * region1 */ @region #region1 { p { color: #0C3D5F; font-weight: bold; } } /* * Style that would apply to region1's normal content but * will not apply to its named flow content. */ #region1 p { color: red; } </style>
The ‘@region
’ rule for region 1
limits its selectors to content flowing into region 1. The following
figure shows how the rendering changes if we apply styling specific to
region 1. Note how less text fits into region 1 now that the ‘font-weight
’ is bold instead of normal.
Finally, note how the ‘red
’
color specified for <p>
elements under
#region1
does not apply to content that flows into the
region. This specified style does not apply to the named flow content because the
<p>
elements in the ‘article
’ named flow
are not descendants of the #region1
element and consequently
the "#region1 p"
selector does not apply to these elements.
Is a mechanism to auto-generate regions necessary in order to support reusable style sheets?
Explain how regions and pages interact. How can regions be placed onto certain pages, and how can they be positiond wrt. pages.
A region is an element that generates
a block
container box and has an associated named flow (see the
‘flow-from
’ property). The column boxes
of multi-column elements which have an associated named flow are also regions
(see the section on multi-column
regions).
A named flow is the ordered sequence of elements associated with a flow with a given identifier. Elements in a named flow are ordered according to the document order.
Elements are placed into a named flow with
the ‘flow-into
’ property. The elements in a named flow are laid out in the chain of regions
that are associated with this named flow. Regions are organized into a region chain according to the document order.
Content from a named flow is broken up between regions according to the regions flow breaking rules.
Breaking a named flow across multiple regions is similar to breaking a document's content across multiple pages (see [CSS3PAGE]) or a multi-column element's content across column boxes (see [CSS3COL]). One difference is that page boxes are generated based on the available content whereas regions are a set of recipient boxes for the named flow content whose dynamic generation is not in the scope of this specification.
Regions are organized in to a region chain.
Each region in turn consumes content from its associated named flow. The named
flow content is positioned in the current region until a natural or forced region
break occurs, at which point the next region in the region chain becomes the current region. If there
are no more regions in the region chain and there is still
content in the flow, the positioning of the remaining content is
controlled by the ‘region-overflow
’ property on the last
region in the chain.
The CSS regions module follows the fragmentation rules defined in the CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3 (see [CSS3-BREAK]).
flow-into
’
propertyCreating a named flow from external resource
The ‘flow-into’ property can place an element into a named flow. Elements that belong to the same flow are laid out in the regions associated with that flow.
Name: | flow-into |
---|---|
Value: | <ident> | none | inherit |
Initial: | none |
Applies to: | any element.
The ‘ |
Inherited: | no |
Percentages: | N/A |
Media: | visual |
Computed value: | as specified |
<ident>
’. The
element is said to have a specified flow.
The values ‘none
’, ‘inherit
’, ‘default
’, ‘auto
’ and ‘initial
’ are invalid flow names.
A named flow needs to be associated with one or more regions for its elements to be visually formatted. If no region is associated with a given named flow, the elements in the named flow are not rendered: they do not generate boxes and are not displayed.
The children of an element with a specified flow may themselves have a specified flow.
If an element has the same specified flow as one of its ancestors, it becomes a sibling of it's ancestor for the purpose of layout in the regions laying out content from that flow.
The ‘flow-into
’ property does not affect the
CSS cascade and inheritance for the elements on which it is specified. The
‘flow-into
’ property affects the visual
formatting of elements placed into a named flow
and of regions laying out content from a named
flow.
Should first region be ICB for flow content?
Describe how containing blocks are used for element fragments
The edges of the first region in a region chain associated with a named flow establish the rectangle that is the containing
block used for absolutely positioned elements in the named flow which do not have an ancestor with a
‘position
’ of ‘absolute
’, ‘relative
’ or ‘fixed
’ (see [CSS21]). That first region rectangle
is used as the containing block instead of the initial containing block.
The first region defines the writing mode for the entire flow. The writing mode on subsequent regions is ignored.
Elements in a named flow are sequenced in document order.
The ‘flow-into
’ property moves an element into
the flow and the interplay with selectors should be considered carefully.
For example,
table {flow-into: table-content}
will move all tables in the ‘table-content
’ named
flow. However, the
table > * {flow-into: table-content} ...
selector will move all immediate children of all table elements into the ‘table-content’ named flow (which may be useful as it will usually result, if the immediate children are rows, in merging rows of multiple tables), but the
table * {flow-into: table-content}
selector will move all descendants of table elements into the
‘table-content’ named flow, transforming
the element tree into a flat list in order of opening tags (which is
probably not intentional). This will make all the descendants of table
elements siblings in the named flow. Having
the descendants become siblings in the named
flow results in a different processing (see the CSS
2.1‘s anonymous table objects
). This
note illustrates how authors must exercise caution when choosing a
particular selector for setting the ’flow-into' property to avoid
unintended results.
flow-from
’
propertyThe ‘flow-from
’ property makes an element a
region and associates it with a named flow.
Should we allow multi-column elements to be regions?
Name: | flow-from |
---|---|
Value: | <ident> | none | inherit |
Initial: | none |
Applies to: | Elements that generate a block
container box. This might be expanded in future versions of the specification to allow other types of containers to receive flow content. |
Inherited: | no |
Percentages: | N/A |
Media: | visual |
Computed value: | as specified |
content
’ property
computes to something else than ‘normal
’, the element does not become a
region. If the ‘content
’ property
computes to ‘normal
’, then the
element becomes a region and is ordered in a region
chain according to its document order. The content from the flow
with the <ident>
name will be broken into fragments and
visually formatted in the principal
boxes of the regions in the region chain. If there is no flow with
name <ident>, then the element does not format any content
visually. Note A region's document children are not visually formatted unless they are directed to a named flow referenced by one or more regions.
An element becomes a region when its ‘flow-from
’ property is set to a valid
<ident> value, even if there is no content contributing to the
referenced flow. For example:
<style> .article{ flow-into: thread; } .region{ flow-from: thread; } </style> <html> <body> <div class=region>div content</div> </body> </html>There is no element matching the
.article
selector and
therefore no content in the thread
flow. However, the element
matching the .region
selector is still associated with that
empty named flow and, consequently, its
children are not formatted visually.Should regions be non-breakable?
Should regions not create a new stacking context?
Specify behavior of stacking contexts that are split between regions
Regions create a new stacking context. Regions establish a new block formatting Context.
With regions, an element may be split across multiple regions and these regions may overlap (for example if they are absolutely positioned). So fragments of the same element can overlap each other. Since each element has a single z-index, it would be required to find another mechanism to decide in which order the fragments are rendered. Since each region creates a new stacking context, it is clear that each region is rendered separately and their rendering order follows the regular CSS rendering model.
Floats or other exclusions (see [CSS3-EXCLUSIONS]) potentially impact the content laid out in regions, just as for non-regions.
See the regions visual
formatting details section for a description of how ‘width
’ and ‘height
’ values are resolved for
region boxes.
break-before
’, ‘break-after
’,
‘break-inside
’User agents laying out content in multiple regions must determine where content breaks occur. The problem of breaking content into fragments fitting in regions is similar to breaking content into pages or columns.
Each break ends layout in the current region and causes remaining pieces of content from the named flow to be visually formatted in the following region in the region chain, if there is one.
The following extends the ‘break-before
’, ‘break-after
’ and
‘break-inside
’ properties from the [CSS3COL]
specification to account for regions. The additional values are described
below.
Name: | break-before |
Value: | auto | always | avoid | left | right | page | column | region | avoid-page | avoid-column | avoid-region |
Initial: | auto |
Applies to: | block-level elements |
Inherited: | no |
Percentages: | N/A |
Media: | paged |
Computed value: | specified value |
Name: | break-after |
Value: | auto | always | avoid | left | right | page | column | region | avoid-page | avoid-column | avoid-region |
Initial: | auto |
Applies to: | block-level elements |
Inherited: | no |
Percentages: | N/A |
Media: | paged |
Computed value: | specified value |
Name: | break-inside |
Value: | auto | avoid | avoid-page | avoid-column | avoid-region |
Initial: | auto |
Applies to: | block-level elements |
Inherited: | no |
Percentages: | N/A |
Media: | paged |
Computed value: | specified value |
These properties describe page, column and region break behavior before/after/inside the generated box. These values are normatively defined in [CSS3COL]:
This specification adds the following new values:
The behavior of region breaks with regards to regions is identical to the behavior of page breaks with regards to pages, as defined in the [CSS21].
region-overflow:nobreak
Name: | region-overflow |
Value: | auto | break |
Initial: | auto |
Applies to: | region elements |
Inherited: | no |
Percentages: | N/A |
Media: | paged |
Computed value: | specified value |
Should we have region-overflow:nobreak and have
‘region-overflow
’ apply to all regions,
not just the last?
The ‘region-overflow
’ property controls the
behavior of the last region associated with a named flow.
If the content fits within the region element, then this property has no effect. If the content does not fit within the region element, the content breaks as if flow was going to continue in a subsequent region. See the breaking rules section. A forced region break takes precedence over a natural break point.
Flow content that follows the last break in the last region, if any is not rendered.
The ‘region-overflow
’ property does not
influence the size of the region it applies to.
The following code sample illustrates the usage of the ‘region-overflow
’ property.
<style> #article { flow-into: "article"; } #region_1, #region_2 { flow-from: article; region-overflow: break; /* or none */ overflow: visible; /* or hidden */ } </style> <div id="article">...</div> <div id="region_1"></div> <div id="region_2"></div>
‘flow-into: "article" ’
| region_1 and region_2
| ‘region-overflow: auto ’‘ overflow:visible ’
|
‘region-overflow: break ’
| ‘region-overflow: auto ’‘ overflow:hidden ’
| |
The ‘overflow
’ property is
honored on a region: if region content overflows, such as the borders of
elements on the last line, the ‘overflow
’ property controls the visibility of
the overflowing content. See the ‘overflow
’ property definition ([CSS21]).
Add CSS OM Interface for @region style rules
An ‘@region
’ rule contains style
declarations specific to particular regions.
@region <selector> { ... CSS styling rules ... }
The ‘@region
’ rule consists of the
keyword ‘@region
’ followed by a selector
and a block of style rules. The ‘@region
’ rule and the selector constitute the
region's ‘flow fragment
’ selector. The
region's flow fragment selector specifies which range of elements in the
flow are subject to the style rules in the following block: it applies to
the range (see [DOM])
from the region's flow that flows in the selected region(s).
Model for styling element fragments
Elements that are fully or partially in the ‘flow
fragment
’ may match any of the selectors found in the style
rule. However, the style rules only apply to the portion of the element
that falls into the corresponding region.
Only a limited list of properties can be set in a region style rule:
List of region style properties
word-spacing
’
letter-spacing
’
text-decoration
’
text-transform
’
line-height
’
text-shadow
’ property
box-shadow
’ property
box-decoration-break
’ property
width
’ property
In the following example, the named flow
‘article_flow
’ flows through
‘region_1
’ and ‘region_2
’.
<style> #div_1 { flow-into: article_flow; } #region1, #region2 { flow-from: article_flow; } /* region style "RSA" */ @region #region1, #region2 { div {...} p {...} } /* region style "RSB" */ @region #region1 { p {...} } </style> <div id="div_1"> <p id="p_1">...</p> <p id="p_2">...</p> </div> <div id="region1"></div> <div id="region2"></div>
The region style ‘RSA
’ applies to
flow content that is laid out in either ‘region_1
’ or ‘region_2
’.
The first rule set ‘div {...}
’
applies to all <div>
elements that fit
partially or fully into ‘region_1
’ or
‘region_2
’. div_1
is split between ‘region_1
’ and ‘region_2
’ and gets the style from this style rule.
The second rule set ‘p {...}
’
applies to all <p>
elements that fit into
‘region_1
’ or ‘region_2
’. In our example, both p_1
and p_2
are selected.
The region style ‘RSB
’ applies to
flow content that fits in ‘region_1
’.
The first rule set ‘p {...}
’ matches
p_1
and p_2
because these
paragraphs flow into ‘region_1
’. Only
the fragment of p_2
that flows into region_1
is styled with this rule.
@region and specificity
The specificity of the selectors in a ‘@region
’ rule is calculated as defined in the
CSS Selectors module (see [SELECT]). In other words, the
‘@region
’ rule adds an extra condition
to the selector's matching, but does not change the selector's
specificity. This is the same behavior as selectors appearing in
‘@media
’ rules declaration blocks (see
[MEDIAQ]), where
the rule does not influence the selectors' specificity.
Consequently, selectors that match a given element (as describe above), participate in the CSS Cascading order as defined in [CSS21].
A
’ receives content from a
flow that contains region ‘B
’, the
content that flows into ‘B
’ does
not receive the region styling specified for region ‘A
’.Column boxes of a multi-column element that has an assigned named flow are regions. This means that a multi-column element can be used as a convenient short-hand to create multiple column-box regions into which content flows.
The fragment of content that flows into column-box regions is laid out
according to the multi-column specification. In particular, when computing the flow fragment
height of a multi-column element that is associated with a named flow, the ‘column-fill
’ property is honored to balance
the fragments of content that would flow across the column-box regions.
The following example:
<style> #multi-col { column-count: 2; flow-from: article; height: 6em; column-gap: 1em; } #remainder { flow-from: article; height: auto; } </style> <div id="article">...<div> <div id="multicol"></div> <div id="remainder"></div>
is equivalent but simpler than, for example:
<style> #flex { display: flex; flex-pack: justify; } #flex > div { flow-from: article; width: calc(50% - 0.5em); } #remainder { flow-from: article; height: auto; } </style> <div id="article">...<div> <div id="flex"> <div /> <div /> </div> <div id="remainder"></div>
Overflow of column-box regions is mostly handled according to the same rules as other regions. If the content does not fit in the region, then the rest of the content flows into regions that follow in the region chain. However, if a column-box region is the last region in a region chain, then the multi-column element must generate additional column-box regions if its flow fragment overflows as it would with normal content).
add functionality for having textual description like "continued here" or "continued on page x" to regions.
It can be useful to visually mark the content to highlight that a
content thread is flowing from region to region. For example, a marker
such as ‘continues on page 3
’
clearly indicates, at the end of a region, that there is more content in
the flow which can be found on ‘page 3
’
(in this example, the notion of page is application specific).
The ‘::before
’ and ‘::after
’ pseudo-elements (see [SELECT]) let content authors mark
the beginning and end of a region with such markers.
If ::before or ::after pseudo-elements are used on a multi-column element that has an assigned named flow then the ::before pseudo-element is only applied to the first column-box region, and the ::after pseudo-element is only applied to the last column-box region in that multi-column element.
The ‘::before
’ content is laid out in
the region prior to any other content coming from the flow. Note that it
is possible to set the ‘::before
’
pseudo-element's ‘display
’
property to ‘run-in
’ to align it
with the content's inline boxes.
The ‘::after
’ content is laid out in
the region after laying out the flow content. Then, flow content is
removed from the region to accommodate for the ‘::after
’ content. Accommodating means that the
‘::after
’ content is laid out without
overflowing the region. If there is still not enough room to accommodate
for the ‘::after
’ content after
removing all flow content, then the ‘::after
’ content overflows. The ‘display
’ property of the ‘::after
’ content can be set to ‘run-in
’ to align with the region's content's
inline boxes. In that case, the ‘::after
’ content becomes the last inline box of the
previous element in the flow that has some visual rendering in the region
and can accommodate for the ‘::after
’
box.
elementFromPoint and CSS regions
Since content may flow into multiple regions, authors need a way to determine if there are enough regions to flow all the content from a named flow. This is especially important considering that the size of regions or the size of the content may change depending on the display context. For example, flowing the same content on a mobile phone with a small screen may require more regions than on a large desktop display. Another example is the user changing the font size of text flowing through regions. Depending on the change, new regions may be needed to accommodate for the additional space required to fit the larger text or some regions may need to be removed for smaller text.
Need to add a CSSRegionRule to Region OM
A named flow is created when it becomes
referenced by the ‘flow-into
’ and/or ‘flow-from
’
computed values. The following APIs allow scripts to reference a NamedFlow
object
representation of a named flow.
The possible states for a named flow are described in the following figure. These states are referenced in subsequent text.
What should getFlowByName return if there is no flow with the given name?
An addition method and attribute on the Document
interface provide access to named flows.
partial interface Document { readonly attribute NamedFlowCollection namedFlows; NamedFlow? getFlowByName(DOMString name); };
The namedFlows
attribute on the Document
interface returns the live list of all the
current named flows in the document.
The namedFlows
collection must include all named flows that
are currently in the CREATED
and
CREATED-REFERENCED
states. The list may include named flows that are in the
REFERENCED
state. The list may also include named flowsthat are in the STALE state.
The getFlowByName
method on the Document
interface provides access to the document's
NamedFlow
instances.
The return value depends on the named flow
state:
NULL
: the user agent must return
null
.
STALE
: the user agent may return null or a
valid NamedFlow
instance. If the user agent returns a valid instance, subsequent calls to
the getFlowByName
method for the same name argument must
return the same object instance, no matter what the state of the named flow is.
CREATED
or CREATED-REFERENCED
: the user agent must return a valid
NamedFlow
instance.
REFERENCED
: the user agent may return
null
or it may return a valid NamedFlow
instance. If
the user agent returns a valid object, subsequent calls to the getFlowByName
method with the same name argument must return the same object instance,
no matter what the state of the named flow is.
Should add a ‘name
’
property on NamedFlow and should have a Document method to get all
existing NamedFlow instances.
The NamedFlowCollection
interface provides a list of
current NamedFlow
instances in the document. The collection is live and methods operate on
the underlying data, not a snapshot of the data.
interface NamedFlowCollection { readonly attribute unsigned long length; getter NamedFlow? item (unsigned long index); };
The length
attribute returns the number of items in the
collection.
The item(index)
method returns the item at index
index in the collection or null
if
index is out of range. An object collection
implementing NamedFlowCollection
supports indices in the range 0 ≤ index <
collection.length
.
The NamedFlow
interface offers a representation of the named
flow. A NamedFlow
object is live meaning that it always represents the named flow with the corresponding name, even if
that named flow has transitioned to the
REFERENCED
or the STALE
states.
getRegionsByContentNode and contentNodes: change naming?
interface NamedFlow implements EventTarget { readonly attribute DOMString name; readonly attribute boolean overset; sequence<Region> getRegions(); readonly attribute integer firstEmptyRegionIndex; NodeList getContent(); sequence<Region> getRegionsByContent(Node node); };
The name
attribute returns the name of the NamedFlow
instance.
The overset
attribute returns true if the named flow does
not fully fit in the associated regions. Otherwise, it returns false.
The getRegions()
method returns the sequence of regions
in the region chain associated with the named flow. Note that the returned values is a
static sequence.
The firstEmptyRegionIndex is
the index of the first region in the region chain with the regionOverset
attribute
set to empty
. If all regions have the regionOverset
attribute
set to fit
or overset
, the value for firstEmptyRegionIndex
is -1
. If there are no regions in the region
chain, the value is -1
as well.
The getContent() methods returns an ordered collection of nodes that constitute the named flow. The returned list is a static snapshot of the named flow content at the time the method is invoked. This list contains the elements that were moved to the named flow but not their descendants (unless the descendants are themselves moved to the named flow).
The getRegionsByContent() method returns the sequence of regions that contain at least part of the target content node. Note that the returned values is a static sequence.
The NamedFlow
interface can be used for different purposes. For example, the getRegionsByContent()
method can help navigate by bookmark: a script can find the
regions that display a particular anchor and bring them to
view.
Likewise, the interface allows authors to check if all content has been
fitted into existing regions. If it has, the overset
attribute would be
false.
The Region
interface provides an abstraction for Element
s, pseudo-elements or other CSS constructs
(such as slots
[CSS3-PAGE-TEMPLATE])
which can be regions.
interface Region { readonly attribute DOMString regionOverset; readonly attribute DOMString flowFrom; sequence<Range>? getRegionFlowRanges(); };
The regionOverset
attribute returns one of the
following values:
overset
’
overflow
property value can be used to control the
visibility of the overflowing content and the ‘region-overflow
’ property controls
whether or not fragmentation happens on the content that overflows the
last region.
fit
’
empty
’
Note that if there is no content in the named
flow, all regions associated with that named
flow should have their regionOverset
attribute return ‘empty
’. If there is content in the flow but
that content does not generate any box for visual formatting, the
‘overset
’ attribute on the first region in
the region chain associated with the flow will return ‘fit
’.
The flowFrom attribute returns the name of the named flow this region is associated with.
The getRegionFlowRanges
method returns an array of Range instances
corresponding to fragment from the named flow
that is laid out in the region. If the region does not received any
fragment because it is too small to accommodate any, the method returns a
single Range
where the startContainer
and startOffset
have the same values as the
endContainer
and endOffset
. In that situation,
if the region is the first in the region chain, the
startContainer
is the first Node
in the named flow and the startOffset
is
zero. If the region is the last region in the region chain (but not the
first and only one), the startContainer
and
startOffset
are the same values as the
endContainer
and endOffset
on the previous
region in the region chain. The method returns null if the
region object is not (or no longer) a region.
A Region
instance may represent and object that
is no longer a region. This may happen, for example if the
‘flow-from
’ property on the corresponding
pseudo-element, element or other construct becomes ‘none
’ but a script is still holding a
reference to the Region
object.
If a Region
instance is no longer a
region, accessing its attributes (regionOverset
and flowFrom
) or
invoking its getRegionFlowRanges
method throws a DOMException
with the INVALID_ACCESS_ERR
error code.
Should we have additional events for CSS Regions?
NamedFlow
objects
are Event Targets which dispatch regionLayoutUpdate
events when there is a possible layout
change of their named flow fragment. Note that
the event is asynchronous.
Type | regionLayoutUpdate
|
---|---|
Interface | UIEvent
(see [DOM-LEVEL-3-EVENTS])
|
Sync / Async | Async |
Bubbles | Yes |
Target | NamedFlow
|
Cancelable | Yes |
Default action | none |
Context info |
|
getClientRects()
and
getBoundingClientRects()
The CSSOM View Module
defines how user agents compute the bounding client rectangle for an
element (getBoundingClientRect()
) and its generated
boxes (getClientRects()
).
This definition applies to CSS regions and the multiple boxes generated
for an element flowing through multiple regions. The getClientRects()
method returns the list of boxes
generated for each of the element fragment laid out different regions. The
getBoundingClientRect()
method operates as specified in the
CSSOM View Module as well
and is computed from the set of rectangles returned by getClientRects()
.
offsetTop
, offsetLeft
, offsetWidth
and offsetWidth
The computation of the offset attributes for elements laid out in a named flow follow the specification. For the purpose of the algorithm, the first CSS layout box associated with an element laid out in a named flow is the box generated for the first region the element is laid out into.
Regions are laid out by CSS and take part in the normal box model and other layout models offered by CSS modules such as flexible boxes ([CSS3-FLEXBOX]). However, regions lay out a fragment of their named flow instead of laying out descendant content as happens with other boxes.
This section describes the model for laying out regions and for laying out named flow content into regions. The descriptions in this section are biased towards a horizontal writing mode, using width for logical width (or measure) and height for logical height (or extent) as defined in the CSS Writing Modes Module [CSS3-WRITING-MODES]). To use this model in a vertical writing mode apply the principles described in that specification.
A region box lays out the following boxes:
::before
and ::after
pseudo-elements, if any.
Laying out a region box follows the same processing rules as for any other block container box.
The RFCB is a block container
box with a computed ‘width
’ of ‘auto
’ and a whose used
‘height
’ is resolved as detailed
below.
width
’ resolutionAt various points in the visual formatting of documents containing
regions, the used ‘width
’ of RFCBs
and regions need to be resolved. In all cases, the resolution is done
following the rules for calculating
widths and margins (see [CSS21]). Sometimes, resolving the
used ‘width
’ value requires
measuring the content's min-content
and max-content
values (as defined
in the CSS Writing Modes Module [CSS3-WRITING-MODES]).
For an RFCB, these measures are made on the entire
associated named flow content.
As a consequence, all RFCBs of regions
associated with a given named flow share the
same min-content
and max-content
measures.
This approach is consistent with the box model for breaking ([CSS3-BREAK]).
Formatting documents that contain named flows laid out in regions is a three-step process:
Conceptually, resolving the flow fragment height is a two phase process.
The document is laid out with a used height of zero for all RFCBs. In this phase, the content of named flows is not laid out in regions. This phase yields resolved position and sizes for all regions and their RFCBs in the document.
Named flows are laid out in
regions. The user agent resolves the flow fragment
height for the RFCBs using the remainder of the
flow and accounting for fragmentation rules. This
process accounts for constraints such as the ‘height
’ or ‘max-height
’ values, as described in the CSS
2.1 section on calculating
heights and margins (see the Block-level
non-replaced elements in normal flow when ‘overflow
’ computes to ‘visible
’ section and the complicated
cases section). During this phase, generated content is laid out
according to the rules described earlier
in this document.
In this step, the document is laid out according to the normal CSS layout rules.
If a measure of the content is required to resolve the used ‘width
’ of the region box, the value is
resolved as described in the RFCB width
resolution section.
If a measure of the content is required to resolve the used height of the RFCB (for example if the region box is absolutely positioned), the flow fragment height resolved in Step 1 is used for the vertical content measure of the RFCB.
At the end of this step, regions are laid out and ready to receive content from their associated named flows.
In this final step, the content of named
flows is laid out in the regions‘
RFCBs along with the generated content boxes.
The used ’width' for RFCBs is resolved as described before.
The used ‘height
’ of RFCBs is
resolved such that none of the boxes in the region box's normal flow
overflow the region's box. In other words, the RFCB boxes are stretched
vertically to accommodate as much of the flow as possible without
overflowing the region box and accounting for fragmentation rules and
generated content boxes.
During this phase, generated content is laid out according to the rules described earlier in this document.
The model for resolving auto sized regions will cause, under certain circumstances, the flow content to be overset or underset. In other words, it will not fit tightly. The model prevents having circular dependencies in the layout model. Implementations may decide to apply further layout steps to ensure that the whole flow content is displayed to the user, even in edge cases.
The process for resolving an RFCB's ‘height
’ and the three-step process used to lay
out documents containing regions and named
flows are conceptual descriptions of what the layout should
yield and implementations should optimize to reduce the number of steps
and phases necessary wherever possible.
This section is non-normative.
This example considers a document where content flows between three regions, and region boxes are intermixed with the normal document content.
<style> #article { flow-into: article; } #rA, #rB, #rC { flow-from2: article; height: auto; margin: 1em 1em 0em 1em; padding: 1em; border: 3px solid #46A4E9; } #rA { width: auto; height: auto; } #rB { float: left; width: 15em; height: auto; max-height: 150px; } #rC { float: right; width: 12em; height: auto; } #main-flow { padding: 0em 1em 0em 1em; } </style> <body> <div id="article"> <p style="region-break-after:always;">I am not a ... </p> <p>...</p> </div> <div id="rA"></div> <div id="rB"></div> <div id="rC"></div> <div id="main-flow"> <p>Lorem ipsum dolor ...</p> </div> </body>
The following sections and figures illustrate the intermediate results for the visual formatting process. In the following, we call RFCB-A, RFCB-B and RFCB-C the RFCBs for regions rA, rB and rC respectively.
Applying the rules for Step 1, Phase 1, the computed ‘auto
’ ‘width
’ values for the RFCBs are resolved to
used values according to the normal CSS
layout rules meaning they stretch to the width of their containing
block's content box.
Since rA also has an ‘auto
’
‘width
’, its own used ‘width
’ is stretched to fit the
<body>
content box.
rB
content box.
rC
content box.
Also applying the rules for Step 1, Phase 1, the used values for the
RFCBs ‘height
’ properties are all
zero.
Conceptually, this produces the layout illustrated below.
In this second phase of Step 1, the named flow is laid out in regions and the height of each fragment falling in each RFCB is computed.
The user agent lays out as much of the flow into an area with RFCB-A's
used ‘width
’. rA's ‘height
’ computes to ‘auto
’ and there is no vertical maximum height
for RFCA's ‘height
’. However,
because there is a break after the first paragraph in the ‘article
’ named
flow
, only this first paragraph is laid out in RFCB-A and FH-A
(the flow fragment height for RFCB-A) is resolved by laying out this first
paragraph in the used ‘width
’.
At this point, the user agent lays out as much of the remaining flow as
possible in RFCB-B. Because rB's ‘max-height
’ computed value is ‘150px
’, the user agent only lays out the
‘article
’ named flow using
RFCB-B's used ‘width
’ until the
point where laying out additional content would cause RFCB-B to overflow
rB's box. The fragment height for RFCB-B is resolved: FH-B (150px
).
Finally, the user agent lays out the remainder of the flow in RFCB-C.
Because rC has no other constraints and no region breaks, the remaining
content is laid out in RFCB-C's used ‘width
’. This results in a resolved flow
fragment height: FH-C.
The used ‘width
’ of RFCB-A,
RFCB-B and RFCB-C are resolved as in the previous step. However, the
‘height
’ is resolved differently.
Resolving the ‘height
’ of rA requires a
content measure which is FH-A (the flow fragment height for RFCB-A).
The ‘height
’ of rB results from
first computing its content
measure and then applying the rules for
‘max-height
’. Here, the
vertical content measure evaluates to FH-B. After applying the rules for
‘max-height
’ and accounting for
margins, padding and borders, the used ‘height
’ of rB is resolved to LH-B (150px
)..
The ‘height
’ of rC's box results
from calculating
its content measure: FH-C becomes rC's used ‘height
’.
In this final step, the article
named flow is laid out in its region
chain. The used ‘width
’ for
each of the RFCB is resolved as in step 1 above.
The used ‘height
’ for the RFCB
is a result of laying out the as much of the content in the
region without overflowing its content box and following the
fragmentation rules.
Because the computed ‘width
’ of
the RFCB has not changed and the fragmentation rules applied are the same
as in Phase 1, Step 2, the used ‘height
’ for RFCB-A, RFCB-B and RFCB-C are
LH-A, LH-B and LH-C, respectively.
There may be situations where the used ‘height
’ of RFCBs resolved in Step 3 are
different from the flow fragment height computed in Step 1
Phase 2.
The CSS regions module does not alter the normal processing of events in the document tree. In particular, if an event occurs on an element that is part of a named flow, the event's bubble and capture phases happen following the document tree order.
This specification is related to other specifications as described in the references section. In addition, it is related to the following specifications:
Use cases are described on this page.
content
’ property.
overflow
’ property applies to content flown
in regions from the break section, since this is covered in the section
on ‘region-overflow
’ already. See mailing
list feedback.
portion
’ of an element that falls into the
corresponding region and added an issue that the model for ‘partial
’ styling needs to be defined. See mailing
list feedback.
NodeList
returned by
getRegionsByContentNode
is live.
NamedFlow
interface. Added a NamedFlowCollection
interface and added a getNamedFlows
method on the
Document
interface, as per Bug
15828.
regionOverflow
’ to
‘regionOverset
’ to avoid confusion between
fitting a flow in regions and the concept of visual overflow that the
word ‘overflow
’ (and the
property) carry.
getFlowByName
.
Region
interface to replace the
supplemental Element interface
flowFrom
’ attribute on the Region
interface
NamedFlow
instead of region as
before. Was requested by Issue
15938 and required in the general effort to have the DOM APIs work
with non-element regions.
flow-into
’ on all
pseudo-elements because moving a ‘::before
’ element (for a example) to a named flow
does not seem useful and causes specification and implementation
complexity.
Regions visual formatting
details
’ section to better describe the model for resolving
auto sizing on regions.
content-order
’ a
<integer> and not a <float> following a working group resolution
none
’, ‘inherit
’ and ‘initial
’ from the possible identifier names
on the flow property following discussion
on the mailing list.
flow-into
’ property interacts with
object, embed and iframe elements.
default
’ from the
possible identifier names on the flow property because it may
get reserved.
auto
’ on ‘region-overflow
’ specifying that region
breaks must be ignored.
Document.flowWithName
’ to
‘Document.getFlowByName
’ since it is
not a property.
NamedFlow
’ instance is live.
undefined
’ string
value to the regionOverflow property on the Element interface extension.
Event
’ in the event name.
flow
’ to ‘flow-into
’
following working group resolution.
from-flow
’ to
‘flow-from
’ following a working group resolution.
content:
flow-from()
’ to block container box and added a note that
this might be expanded in the future, following a working group resolution.
flow
’ property
description, removed the required wrapper anonymous block as agreed on mailing
list discussion.
flow-into
’
property following a mailing
list discussion.
content:flow-from(<ident>)
’ with
‘flow-from: <ident>
’ following a
working group
resolution.
::before
’ and ‘::after
’ and explain how ‘display:run-in
’ works with regions.
region-order
’
property following implementation feedback.
auto
’ to the list of
invalid flow identifiers.
none
’ the initial value
for ‘flow-into
’ and aligned with ‘flow-from
’, as
explained in this email.
Also allowed the ‘inherit
’ value
on ‘flow-from
’ and ‘flow-into
’ (same
email).
content
’ property computes to normal,
following the resolution of Issue
22.
The editors are grateful to the CSS working group for their feedback and help with the genesis of this specification.
In addition, the editors would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions, either during the conception of CSS regions or during its development and specification review process:
getFlowByName
, 6.1.
getRegions()
, 6.1.
item(index)
, 6.1.
length
, 6.1.
name
, 6.1.
NamedFlow
, 6.1.
NamedFlowCollection
, 6.1.
namedFlows
,
6.1.
overset
,
6.1.
Region
interface, 6.2.
regionOverset
, 6.2.