HTML Concepts: Form Owners
Published on Dec 18, 2021, filed under development (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)
Today in “HTML Concepts”: form owners. It’s not what you are when you put a form on a page.
What are form owners? In essence, form
elements that so-called form-associated elements are tied to.
Form-associated elements are the following:
button
, fieldset
, input
, object
, output
, select
, textarea
, img
, as well as form-associated custom elements.
(These fall into certain categories, namely listed, submittable, resettable, and autocapitalize-inheriting elements.)
Form ownership is straightforward, as the connection of a form-associated element with a form owner is simple:
The element is associated with its nearest ancestor form
element—unless it is a form-associated listed element (anything not img
) and has a form
attribute that overrides this association. (One can construct scenarios in which neither is the case.)
In many cases one can say that each form element has a form owner, its parent form
element. (And you, if you own a web form, can still call yourself a form owner, too.)
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for small and large enterprises, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)