Script Attribute Type

 

The Script Attribute Type is a data type defined by XHTML Modularisation 1.1, declared in the DTD as XML 1.0 type CDATA.
Reference: *W3C - XHTML Modularisation 1.1 - Attribute Types

Specific Attributes with Type Script

1. onblur:
   This is declared on the elements: a, area, label, input, textarea, select, button
2. onchange:
   This is declared on the elements: input type="text", input type="password", input type="file", input type="checkbox", input type="radio", textarea, select
3. onfocus:
   This is declared on the elements: a, area, label, input, textarea, select, button
4. onload:
   This is declared on the element: body
5. onreset:
   This is declared on the element: form
6. onselect:
   This is declared on the elements: input type="text", input type="password", input type="file", textarea
7. onsubmit:
   This is declared on the element: form
8. onunload:
   This is declared on the element: body

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Common Attributes with Type Script

From the Events Attribute Collection:

1. onclick
2. ondblclick
3. onmousedown
4. onmouseup
5. onmouseover
6. onmousemove
7. onmouseout
8. onkeypress
9. onkeydown
10. onkeyup

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Attribute Value for Type Script

A script expression to be passed to the appropriate scripting engine

If you use any attributes of Type Script, the MIME type of the scripting language used should always be provided in a Content-Script-Type HTTP header.

It is good practice not to use these attributes, however, and instead to include external scripts (via script elements) which add any handlers unobtrusively. This makes code more self-contained and also the XHTML is easier to maintain if it doesn't contain any events attributes.

Handling Invalid Characters

Within XHTML 1.1 attribute values:

• Every less-than character (<) within an attribute value must be escaped as < (or <).
• Every ampersand character (&) which does not denote the start of an entity or character reference (e.g. <) must be escaped as & (or &).
• Every double quote character (") must be escaped as " (or ") if using double quotes to delimit the attribute value
• Every single quote character (') must be escaped as ' if using single quotes to delimit the attribute value (alternatively ' may be used if compatibility with HTML isn't necessary - see Character Entities Predefined by XML 1.0)

Each of the & entity references in the above example will be replaced by an ampersand character by the XML Processor during *Attribute-Value Normalisation. The upshot of this is that the scripting engine will not see the entity references but instead the intended onload code: