blockquote Element

Module

The blockquote element is a block-level element declared by the XHTML 1.1 Text Module (Block Phrasal)

Elements in the Text Module are:
span | br (Inline Structural Support Module)
em | strong | q | cite | abbr | acronym | code | var | kbd | samp | dfn (Inline Phrasal Support Module)
div | p (Block Structural Support Module)
h1 - h6 | blockquote | pre | address (Block Phrasal Support Module)

Description

The blockquote element is very like the q element except that the quotation contained within a blockquote is at least one paragraph long (and commonly more). The quotation within a blockquote is usually indented by the browser, but blockquote should not be used merely to achieve this effect on text which is not a quotation. To indent arbitrary text which is not a quotation, use CSS.

The cite attribute may be used to specify a URI from which the quotation has been taken. However, currently there are no browsers of which I am aware that recognise the cite attribute and present the user with an actual link to the URI. Unless something is done by the author (for example including JavaScript to find the cite attributes and explicitly create links to the URIs) there is no easy way for someone viewing the page to even know the citation is there. It is probably best to acknowledge your source using a cite element in combination with a hyperlink (but include the cite attribute as well to explicitly link that quote to that URI - as far as search engines are concerned, for example). The JavaScript method is a solution, of course, but you can never guarantee that viewers of your page will have a compatible version of JavaScript installed and enabled. Your quoted source may also insist on a conventional hyperlink as their citation.

A blockquote element cannot have text or inline elements as children - all its children must be block level elements.

<blockquote cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus"
            title="This quotation was taken from 'Wikipedia: Hippopotamus' on 9th October 2008">
  <p>
    Hippos spend most of their days wallowing in the water or the mud,
    with the other members of their pod. The water serves to keep their
    body temperature cool, and to keep their skin from drying out.
    With the exception of eating, most of hippopotamuses' lives
    - from childbirth, fighting with other hippos, and reproduction -
    occur in the water.
  </p>
  <div class="cite">
    This quotation was taken on 9th October 2008 from
    <cite><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus">Wikipedia: Hippopotamus</a></cite>
  </div>
</blockquote>

#REQUIRED Attributes

There are no #REQUIRED attributes on the blockquote element.

Specific Attributes

From the Text Module (Block Phrasal) - the Element's own Module

cite [ type URI ]

The URI from which the quotation has been taken

Common Attributes

From the Core Attribute Collection

class [ type NMTOKENS ]

One or more space separated classes

id [ type ID ]

A unique identifier for the element

style [ type CDATA ], from the Style Attribute Module (deprecated)

Element-specific styles

title [ type Text ]

Descriptive title for the element (in some user agents this may appear as a "tooltip" when the mouse hovers over the element)

xmlns [ type URI - #FIXED 'http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' ]

XML namespace

From the I18N Attribute Collection

dir [ type Enumeration (ltr | rtl) ], from the Bi-directional Text Module

Left-to-right or right-to-left directionality

xml:lang [ type LanguageCode ]

A language code for the element

From the Events Attribute Collection

All attributes in the Events Attribute Collection are supported:
onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove, onmouseout, onkeypress, onkeydown, onkeyup

Content Model

Block.mix+

NOTE: This element cannot be empty

See Content Model & Nesting for information about Content Model syntax and Nesting Groups.

Valid children of blockquote

• From the Text Module: address, blockquote, div, h1 - h6, p, pre
• From the List Module: dl, ol, ul
• From the Tables Module: table
• From the Forms Module: fieldset, form
• From the Presentation Module: hr
• From the Scripting Module: noscript, script
• From the Edit Module: del, ins

Valid parents of blockquote

• From the Structure Module: body
• From the Text Module: blockquote, div
• From the List Module: dd, li
• From the Tables Module: td, th
• From the Forms Module: button, fieldset, form
• From the Client-side Image Map Module: map
• From the Scripting Module: noscript
• From the Edit Module: del, ins
• From the Object Module: object