A
Description
The A element brackets (or anchors) a piece of text (and/or image) which
is identified as a hypertext link.
The A element must have either an HREF attribute or a NAME attribute.
The HREF attribute identifies a destination ,
and the bracketed text is rendered as a hypertext link to the URL.
Browsers will display the contents of an A element with an HREF attribute
in a special manner to indicate that if the contents are selected,
the browser will execute that hypertext link.
The NAME attribute identifies a destination tag, and the bracketed text
is thereby identified as an available hypertext target
within this document.
Browsers do not display the contents of an A element with a NAME attribute
in any special way.
However, an A element with an HREF attribute can now be constructed
by using the document URL suffixed with #name.
This will load the document, but will position the display
starting at the location of this NAME tag.
An A element with an HREF attribute can also be constructed
to jump directly to this destination tag within the same document
by a URL consisting solely of #name
The presence of REL=relation
in document A with HREF to document/object B
identifies a relationship that B has to A that A recognizes/authorizes/verifies.
The presence of REV=relation
of the identical relation
in document B with HREF to document/object A
identifies a desired/expected/claimed relationship that B has to A,
but must be verified by checking with A.
Minimum Attributes
<A HREF="..." >characters...
</A>
or
<A NAME="..." >characters...
</A>
All Possible Attributes
<A HREF="..."
NAME="..."
REL="..."
REV="..."
URN="..."
TITLE="..."
METHODS="..."
LANG="..."
DIR=ltr|rtl
CHARSET="..."
ID="..."
CLASS="..."
MD="..."
TARGET="..."
SHAPE="...">characters...
</A>
Elements Allowed Within...
members of groups
but not element
Allowed In Content Of...
Any element that permits members of group
Variations
The LANG, DIR and CHARSET attributes are introduced with the
internationalization proposal.
The CHARSET attribute is a hint as to the expected
character set used by the hyperlink.
Earlier proposals suggest changing the NAME attribute to ID,
declaring the NAME attribute as obsolete,
and adding an ID attribute for various elements
including the paragraph and heading elements.
With the ID, MD, and CLASS attributes as part of the style sheet
proposal, this is likely to change.
At present REV and REL are rarely used or supported,
and are Level 1 attributes,
but are of growing interest to automated document environments.
These relationships are more commonly identified in the
of the document using the element.
REL and REV can be either a comma-separated or white space separated
set of relationship(s) of the HREF link.
One proposal suggests that comma imply "or" and white
space imply "and" for a list of values.
These relationships and their semantics were originally proposed
to be registered with an HTML authority, which was described at
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/RegistrationAuthority.html,
but that link no longer responds. The entire topic of link relationships
is under active discussion and change.
Early examples of relationship names are
UseIndex, UseGlossary, Annotation, Reply, Embed,
Precedes, Subdocument, Present, Search, Supersedes, History, Made,
Owns, Approves, Supports, Refutes, Includes, Interested.
URN is for a Universal Resource Number, and is not currently
used or supported, and is a Level 1 attribute.
RFC 1866 describes it as a preferred, more persistent identifier
than the value of HREF.
TITLE is little used or supported, and is a Level 1 attribute,
but is expected to be the title of the HREF document.
RFC 1866 suggests TITLE can be displayed as a margin note
or on a small box while the mouse is over the anchor.
(ed. I am unaware of any browser that has implemented this
feature.)
METHODS is little used or supported, but is expected to be
a white-space-separated list of HTTP METHODS supported by the
object and accessible to the user.
RFC 1866 suggests that the content of the A element may be
rendered differently depending upon the HTTP method.
TARGET is a Netscape 2.0 extension to define a window name for use
by the retrieved hyperlink. If the named window is not already
open, Netscape 2.0 will open a new window and assign it that name.
See also the element for naming a window.
SHAPE is proposed to provide a mechanism to define
multiple A elements and corresponding "hotzones" within the
proposed element, to perform the equivalent function
of ISMAP without the need for writing a responding cgi-bin program.
For an alternate proposal, see the element.
A is a Level 0 element.
