The CSS Regions module allows content from one or more elements to flow through one or more boxes called CSS Regions, fragmented as defined in [CSS3-BREAK]. This module also defines CSSOM to expose both the inputs and outputs of this fragmentation.
CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents
(such as HTML and XML)
on screen, on paper, in speech, etc.
Status of this document
This section describes the status of this document at the time of
its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of
current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report
can be found in the W3C technical reports
index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C
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obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this
document as other than work in progress.
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mailing list www-style@w3.org (see
instructions) is preferred
for discussion of this specification. When sending e-mail, please put the
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These two declarations will take
the element that matches #this,
put it into a flow named "my-flow",
and display the contents of "my-flow"
in the box from the element that matches #there.
This example has a single content source for the named flow,
and a single box for the region chain.
Named flows can also have multiple sources
and use multiple boxes for the region chain.
The named flow mechanism can be used
in several different ways -
some of which are
custom overflow handling,
aggregating content,
linked display boxes,
magazine-style layout,
and flowing content through areas in a paginated view.
Linked display boxes can be created
to display article content above and below
other content on a page.
Given markup like this:
<article> ...some content... </article>
<aside> ad or image content </aside>
The <aside> content will be displayed
below all of the article content.
On a large screen the page might display without scrolling,
but on a small screen the <aside> content
might not be visible until the view scrolls.
If it’s important to show at least some
of the <aside> content in the initial view,
CSS Regions can fragment the article content across two boxes -
one above the <aside> and one below.
In this example (for simplicity’s sake)
we create the boxes with additional elements:
<article> ...some content... </article>
<div class="top region"></div>
<aside> ad or image content </aside>
<div class="region"></div>
So the top box in the region chain
is limited to 80% of the viewport height.
If the article content doesn’t fit in that box,
the article will continue
in the second box after the <aside> content.
Rendering without CSS Regions
Rendering with CSS Regions
In the images above,
the gray area represents
the content below the screen edge
in the initial view.
This example links just two boxes together,
but more boxes could be added to the region chain
to regularly interleave other content with the article.
Custom overflow handling can be accomplished by linking a separate overflow box. In this example, the overflow box is nestled inside a menu in the markup, and only displays if the menu is toggled.
If the links in the main nav element are placed in a named flow, that flow can be directed through both the main nav element and the overflow nav box in the menu:
nav a {
flow-into: nav-link-flow;
}
nav {
flow-from: nav-link-flow;
}
Then the main nav element and the menu can be arranged with constraints such that when the screen is too narrow for the main nav element to display all of the navigation links, the overflow moves to the menu.
Wide rendering with menu shown
Narrow rendering with menu shown
Since content is assigned to a named flow using a CSS selector, the content can come from multiple sources. The resulting aggregation can be displayed in a single box or flowed through multiple boxes as above.
Given more data accessible to CSS selectors, you could rearrange the articles in other ways (sports on top, etc.) depending on the user’s preferences.
Note
CSS Regions are independent from layout
Any of the CSS layout facilities can be used
to create, position and size boxes that can become CSS Regions.
The CSS Regions module does not
define a layout mechanism
and is meant to integrate
with existing and future CSS layout facilities.
Note
CSS Regions do not have to be elements
The CSS Regions module is independent
of the layout of boxes and
the mechanisms used to create them.
For simplicity,
our examples tend to
use elements to define the boxes.
Any other mechanism available
in markup or style
to create stylable boxes could be used instead,
such as pseudo-elements
or the @slot rule proposed
by the CSS Page Template Module [CSS3-PAGE-TEMPLATE].
The only requirement
for box to become a CSS Region
is that the flow-from property applies to the box.
2.
CSS Regions concepts
2.1.
Regions
A CSS Region
is a block container
that has an associated
named flow
(see the flow-from property).
2.2.
Region chain
A region chain
is the sequence of regions
that are associated with
a named flow.
CSS Regions in a
region chain receive content from the
named flow following their order in the chain.
CSS Regions are organized
into a region chain
according to the document order.
2.3.
Named flows
A named flow is the ordered sequence of content
associated with a flow with a given identifier.
Contents in a named flow are ordered
according to the document order.
Content is placed into a named flow
with the flow-into property.
The content in a named flow is laid out
in the region chain
that is associated with this named flow
using the flow-from property.
Content from a named flow
is broken up between regions
according to the regions flow breaking rules.
A named flow is created when
some content is moved
into the flow with the given identifier
or when at least one CSS Region
requests content from that flow.
2.4.
Regions flow breaking rules
Breaking a named flow across a region chain
is similar to breaking a document’s content across 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 a region chain is a set of recipient boxes
for the named flow content
whose dynamic generation is not in the scope
of this specification.
Each CSS 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 CSS Regions
in the region chain
and there is still content in the flow,
the positioning of the remaining content
is controlled by the region-fragment property
on the last CSS Region in the chain.
The CSS regions module follows
the fragmentation rules defined
in the CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3
(see [CSS3-BREAK]).
The ‘flow-into’ property can place an element
or its contents
into a named flow.
Content that belongs to the same flow
is laid out in the region chain
associated with that flow.
If the keyword element is present
or neither keyword is present,
then the element is taken out
of its parent’s flow
and placed into the flow
with the name '<ident>'.
If the keyword content is present,
then only the element’s contents
are placed into the named flow.
The element or content is said to have
a specified flow.
The values none, inherit, default, auto and initial
are invalid flow names.
The flow-into property affects
the visual formatting of elements or contents
placed into a named flow
and of the region chain laying out content
from a named 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 does not affect the
DOM[DOM] position of an element or its contents.
The flow-into property does not affect ordering
in non-visual media
(such as speech).
Likewise, flow-into does not affect
the default traversal order
of sequential navigation modes
(such as cycling through links,
see e.g. nav-index[CSS3UI]
or tabindex[HTML40]).
A named flow needs to be associated
with a region chain
(one or more CSS Regions)
for its content to be visually formatted.
If no region chain is associated
with a given named flow,
the content in the named flow
is not rendered:
it does not generate boxes
and is not displayed.
The children of an element or content
with a specified flow
may themselves have a specified flow,
in which case they become
the next sibling of the latest element
or content collected in that flow.
In some cases,
the child can become the next sibling
for one of its ancestors in the same flow.
Content in a named flow
is sequenced in document order.
The visual formatting model
uses the relationships between content
in the named flow as input,
rather than the contents’ position
in the DOM.
Each CSS region in a region chain
establishes a containing block for absolutely positioned
elements in the named flow (see [CSS21]).
That first CSS region in a region chain
establishes the initial containing block for such absolutely
positioned elements.
Regions don’t establish a containing block for
fixed positioned elements in the named flow.
Such fixed positioned elements are still positioned relative
to the viewport or the page area even if they have been
redirected into a named flow
The first region defines the principal
writing mode
for the entire flow.
The writing mode
on subsequent regions is ignored.
Note
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 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.
Note
Another consequence of moving elements
into named flows is that surrounding whitespace
is not moved into the named flow.
If you have code like this:
Then the "span-content" named flow contents
will contain this:
<span>one</span><span>two</span>
Which will change the display
from "one two" to "onetwo".
If whitespace is significant,
then moving the parent
that contains the whitespace
to the named flow
is required.
Non-replaced block containers. This might be expanded in future versions of the specification to allow other types of containers to receive flow content.
The block container becomes a CSS Region
(except as detailed in the text below),
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 block container does not
format any content visually.
If the content property computes
to something else than normal
(or none for a pseudo-element),
the block container does not become
a CSS Region.
If the display property
of the block container
or one of its ancestors
computes to none,
the block container does not become
a CSS Region.
A CSS Region’s document children
are not visually formatted
unless they are directed
to a named flow
with an associated region chain.
Block container pseudo-elements where
the value of flow-from computes to an
<ident>
and the value of content computes to none
are generated as CSS Regions,
which is an update to the behavior
described in [CSS21].
Note
A block container becomes a CSS 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:
There is no element matching
the .article selector
and therefore no content
in the thread flow.
However, the block container matching
the .region selector
is still associated with
that empty named flow
and, consequently,
its children are not formatted visually.
Note
At the time of this note-writing, the display values that
always result in a non-replaced block container include
block, inline-block, table-cell,
table-caption, and list-item. All of these
display values work as regions with non-replaced elements.
The flex and grid display values do not
result in block containers (they are defined as flex containers and grid
elements, respectively). So ‘flow-from’ combined with those display values
does not result in a CSS Region.
With region chains,
an element may be split across multiple boxes
and these boxes 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 CSS Region creates
a new stacking context,
it is clear that each fragment is rendered separately
and their rendering order follows
the regular CSS rendering model.
Fragments rendering separately
is also relevant to elements that might normally
be rendered as a unit
(for example,
an element with its own stacking context,
or with transparency).
Each fragment of these elements
is separately contained in the stacking context
created by the CSS Region,
so each fragment of these elements
is rendered separately.
named flows containing elements
where the value of flow-from computes to an
<ident>
can produce nonsensical circular relationships,
such as a named flow
containing CSS Regions
in its own region chain.
These relationships can be easily
and reliably detected and resolved, however,
by keeping track of a dependency graph
and using common cycle-detection algorithms.
The dependency graph consists of edges such that:
Every named flow depends on its elements
where the value of flow-from computes to an
<ident>.
Every element in a named flow
where the value of flow-from computes to an
<ident>
depends on the named flow with the
<ident>
name.
If the graph contains a cycle,
any elements where the value of flow-from
computes to an
<ident>
participating in the cycle
do not become CSS Regions.
Note
For example, styling like this:
#id {
flow-into: foolish;
flow-from: foolish;
}
would move the #id element to a "foolish" named flow,
and try to make the #id element
a CSS Region for the "foolish" named flow.
The "foolish" named flow would then contain its own region,
creating a cycle.
So the #id element does not become a CSS Region.
3.2.2.
Nested fragmentation contexts
A CSS Region that contains
a fragment of a named flow
can itself be fragmented if it is nested
within a fragmentation context [CSS3-BREAK],
such as when a layout
using a region chain is printed.
In these cases break opportunities
in the named flow fragment
contained by the CSS Region
are determined using the standard
fragmentation rules.
In other words,
each region box and its associated fragment
should break as if it were a simple div
containing the fragment contents.
This can be controlled by using
an avoid break value on the CSS Region,
if that is desired.
A CSS Region can be part
of the contents of a separate named flow,
as long as there are no cycles broken
by the Cycle Detection
described above.
This case is a nested region context,
which has an effect
on the Visual Formatting Steps
described below.
This section is also defined in [CSS3-BREAK].
If that specification moves to last call
with the region values,
the section here can be replaced by a reference.
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
Media:
visual
Computed value:
as specified
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
Media:
visual
Computed value:
as specified
Name:
break-inside
Value:
auto | avoid | avoid-page | avoid-column | avoid-region
Initial:
auto
Applies to:
block-level elements
Inherited:
no
Media:
visual
Computed value:
as specified
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:
region
Always force a region break before (after) the generated box.
avoid-region
Avoid a region break before (after, inside) the generated box.
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].
The region-fragment property controls the behavior
of the last region
associated with a named flow.
auto
Content flows as it would in a regular content box.
If the content exceeds the container box,
it is subject to the
overflow
property’s computed value on the CSS Region.
Region breaks must be ignored on the last region.
break
If the content fits within the CSS Region,
then this property has no effect.
If the content does not fit within the CSS Region,
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 is not rendered.
The region-fragment property does not influence
the size of the region it applies to.
The following code sample illustrates
the usage of the region-fragment property.
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]).
4.
CSSOM
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.
4.1.
The NamedFlow interface
The following APIs allow scripts
to reference a NamedFlow
object representation of a named flow.
An additional attribute on the
Document
interface provide access to named flows.
The
namedFlows
attribute on the
Document
interface returns a static snapshot
of all the current named flows
in the document.
The namedFlows
map must include all named flows
that are currently in the CREATED state.
The list must not include named flows
that are in the NULL state.
The
NamedFlowMap
interface provides a map of current
NamedFlow instances
in the document.
The NamedFlowMap object
is a snapshot of the data,
and is read-only.
The map entries in a
NamedFlowMap object
are the named flow idents
paired with their
NamedFlow objects.
The get()
and has()
methods return null and false respectively
if there is no NamedFlow
with the given ident.
The set()
and delete()
methods always throw an
InvalidAccessError exception,
as this map is read-only.
The NamedFlowMap interface
uses the rest of the default map
class methods.
The NamedFlow
interface offers a representation
of a named flow instance.
The NamedFlow interface
can be used for different purposes.
For example, the getRegionsByContent() method
can help navigate by bookmark:
a script can find the CSS 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 name attribute
returns the name of the NamedFlow instance.
The overset
attribute returns true
if there are named flow fragments
that do not fit
in the associated region chain
(including the case where
there are named flow fragments
but no regions in the region chain).
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
in document order.
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()
method 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 contents
that were moved to the named flow
by the flow-into property
but not any 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
if it belongs to the named flow directly
or one of its ancestors belongs to the named flow.
Otherwise, the method returns
an empty sequence.
The returned value
is a static sequence
in document order.
The named flow states are :
NULL: the named flow
contains no conent and has no region chain.
CREATED: the named flow
either contains content or has a region chain.
A NamedFlow object is live:
it always represents the named flow
with the corresponding name even if
that named flow has transitioned
to the NULL state.
4.2.
The Region interface
The Region
interface is a
supplemental interface
which must be implemented by all objects
(Elements,
pseudo-elements or other CSS constructs
such as slots) in an implementation which can be CSS Regions.
The regionOverset
attribute returns one of the following values:
overset
The region is the last one in the
region chain and
not able to fit the remaining content from the named flow.
Note that the region’s
overflow
property value can be used to control the
visibility of the overflowing content and the
region-fragment property controls whether or not fragmentation happens
on the content that overflows the last region.
fit
The region’s flow fragment content
fits into the region’s
content box.
If the region is the last one
in the region chain,
it means that the content
fits without overflowing.
If the region is not the last one
in the region chain,
that means the named flow content
may be further fitted in subsequent regions.
In this last case,
note that the named flow fragment may be empty
(for example if the region is too small
to accommodate any content).
This value is returned if the Region object
is not (or no longer) a region.
empty
All content from the named flow was fitted in prior regions.
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 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 has not received a 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
and therefore the collapsed attribute
on the Range is true.
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 an 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.
4.3.
Named flow events
NamedFlow
objects are EventTargets
which dispatch the following events
for their respective triggers.
These events are asynchronous,
and fire at the end of the
regions visual formatting
steps.
The regionfragmentchange event is dispatched
on any change to a named flow’s fragmentation through its region chain,
including changes to any overset fragment.
Event.target:
NamedFlow whose fragmentation has changed.
The regionoversetchange event is dispatched
if any of the regionOverset values change
in a named flow’s region chain,
including when regions are added or removed from the chain.
Event.target:
NamedFlow whose region chain has regionOverset values that have changed.
4.4.
Clarifications on pre-existing APIs
4.4.1. getClientRects() and getBoundingClientRect()
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
the (possibly) multiple boxes
generated for an element in a named flow
flowing through a region chain.
The getClientRects() method
returns the list of boxes generated
for each of the element fragments
laid out in 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().
4.4.2. offsetTop, offsetLeft,
offsetWidth, offsetHeight and offsetParent
The computation of the
offset attributes
for elements laid out in a named flow follow the
specification[CSSOM].
For the purpose of these algorithms,
the first CSS layout box associated
with an element laid out in a named flow
is the first box generated for the first region the element is laid out into.
In the offsetParent algorithm,
the nearest ancestor search skips
from the topmost named flow elements directly to the body element.
5.
Multi-column regions
A
multi-column[CSS3COL]
element can be
assigned to a region chain.
The element becomes part
of the region chain
for the associated named flow,
and flows its content fragments
through columns according to
the multi-column specification
[CSS3COL].
In particular,
when computing the
flow fragment height
of a multi-column element
that is associated with a named flow,
the column-fill[CSS3COL]
property is honored
to balance the fragments of content
that would flow through
its columns.
Overflow of multicol regions
is mostly handled
according to the same rules
as other CSS Regions.
If the remainder of the named flow
does not fit
in the multicol region,
then the rest
of the content flows into
the remaining region chain.
However,
if a multicol region
is the last region
in a region chain,
then the multicol region must follow the
overflow column rules[CSS3COL].
It can be useful
to visually mark the content
to highlight that a content thread
is flowing through the region chain.
For example, a marker
such as 'continued below' clearly indicates,
at the end of a CSS Region,
that there is more content in the flow
which can be found by scrolling past
whatever content interrupts the region chain.
The '::before' and '::after' pseudo-elements (see [SELECT])
let content authors mark the beginning
and end of a region with such markers.
7.
Regions visual formatting details
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.
7.1.
Processing model
The '::before' content is laid out
in the region prior to
any other content coming from the flow.
The '::after' content is laid out
in the region after laying out
the flow fragment content into the RFCB.
Then, flow content is removed from the fragment
to accommodate the '::after' content.
Accommodating means that the '::after' content
is laid out without overflowing the region.
If there is not enough room to accommodate
the ::before content,
the '::after' content after removing all flow fragment content,
or a combination of the two,
then the ::before and/or ::after content overflows that region.
7.2.
The Region Flow Content Box (RFCB)
A region box lays out the following boxes:
The boxes generated by its ::before and
::after pseudo-elements, if any.
The anonymous region flow content box
(called RFCB in this document)
which contains the fragment of the named flow
that the region receives.
The Region Flow Content Box (RFCB)
Laying out a region box follows the same processing rules
as for any other block container box.
Since the RFCB is a block container box, the ::before box and ::after box will also be block containers, though the contents of ::before and ::after may be inline within those boxes.
At 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]).
or 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.
Formatting documents that contain named flows laid out in regions
is a three-step process:
Step 1: RFCB flow fragment height resolution.
In this step, the heights of fragments fitting in the regions' RFCBs are resolved.
Step 2: document and regions layout.
In this step, the document content and regions are laid out.
However, named flow content is not laid out in regions yet.
Step 3: named flow layout.
In this step, the content of named flows
is laid out in their respective region chains.
Regions visual formatting steps
7.3.1.
Step 1: RFCB flow fragment height resolution
Conceptually, resolving the flow fragment height is a two phase process.
7.3.1.1.
RFCB flow fragment height resolution, Phase 1
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.
7.3.1.2.
RFCB flow fragment height resolution, Phase 2
In a nested region context,
this phase will trigger
the beginning of Step 1
for any inner named flows
whose regions are contained
in the outer named flow.
All of Step 1 for inner flows
must recursively complete before Step 1
for an outer flow completes.
7.3.2.
Step 2: region boxes layout
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.
7.3.3.
Step 3: named flows layout
In this final step,
the content of named flows
is laid out in the regions' RFCBs
along with the generated content boxes.
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.
In a nested region context,
this step will trigger Step 2
for inner named flows
whose regions are contained
in the outer named flow.
Fragmentation of the inner regions
may result as they are laid out
in the outer region chain.
Once Step 3 for an outer named flow is complete,
Step 3 for the inner named flows recursively begins.
Once Step 3 for a named flow is complete,
The conditions for the
named flow events are checked,
and if the triggers are met
the events dispatch at this point.
Note
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.
7.4.
Regions visual formatting: implementation note
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.
7.5.
Regions visual formatting example
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.
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.
7.5.1.
Step 1 - Phase 1: Laying out RFCBs with used height of zero
Applying the rules for Step 1, Phase 1,
the computed autowidth 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.
RFCB-A: stretches to fit the rA content box.
Since rA also has an autowidth, its own used width is stretched to fit the
<body> content box.
RFCB-B: stretches to fit the rB content box.
RFCB-C: stretches to fit the 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.
Step 1 - Phase 1: Layout RFCBs with used heights of 0
7.5.2.
Step 1 - Phase 2: Layout flow to compute the RFCBs' flow fragments heights
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.
Step 1 - Phase 2: Measure flow fragments heights
7.5.3.
Step 2: Layout document and regions without named flows
The used width of RFCB-A, RFCB-B and RFCB-C
are resolved as in the previous step.
However, the height is resolved differently.
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).
Step 2: Layout document and regions without named flows
7.5.4.
Step 3: named flows layout
In this final step,
the articlenamed 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.
Step 3: Final result after laying out named flows in regions
8.
Relation to document events
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.
Note
This means that in most cases
CSS Regions
will not receive user events
that trigger on their named flow content.
Event handlers for named flow content can check
getElementsFromPoint()[CSSOM-VIEW]
to find the CSS Region
where the user event occurred.
Future versions of CSS-UI may provide
a more general solution for user event bubbling
where the stack of elements
at the event coordinates
9.
Relation to other specifications
This specification is related to other specifications
as described in the references section.
In addition, it is related to the following specifications:
CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3 [CSS3-BREAK].
This module defines the rules for fragmenting content over multiple containers
and applies to CSS Regions
in addition to applying to multi-column and paged media.
CSS Pagination Templates Module Level 3 [CSS3-PAGE-TEMPLATE].
This module defines a syntax to define layout templates
which can be used when paginating content.
The page templates use regions.
CSS Exclusions Module [CSS3-EXCLUSIONS].
This module defines a generic way to define exclusions
around which content can flow.
This can be seen as an extension to CSS floats.
In advanced layout designs,
it is expected that the CSS Exclusions module
will be commonly combined with the CSS Regions module.
CSS Line Grid Module [CSS3-LINE-GRID].
This module defines a concept of line grid
to align the position of lines in different elements.
The line grid functionality is related and needed
for aligning content flowing in separate regions.
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:
Erik Arvidsson,
Tab Atkins,
Catalin Badea,
Mihai Balan,
Andrei Bucur,
Razvan Caliman,
Alexandru Chiculita,
Phil Cupp,
Arron Eicholz,
John Jansen,
CJ Gammon,
Dimitri Glazkov,
Daniel Glazman,
Arno Gourdol,
Catalin Grigoroscuta,
David Hyatt,
Brian Heuston,
Ian Hickson,
Jonathan Hoersch,
Michael Jolson,
Brad Kemper,
Håkon Wium Lie,
Kang-Hao (Kenny) Lu,
Mihai Maerean,
Markus Mielke,
Robert O’Callahan,
Edward O’Connor,
Mihnea Ovidenie,
Virgil Palanciuc,
Olga Popiv,
Christoph Päper,
Anton Prowse,
Peter Sorotokin,
Elliott Sprehn,
Radu Stavila,
Christian Stockwell,
Eugene Veselov,
Boris Zbarsky,
Stephen Zilles
and the CSS Working Group members.
Conformance
Document conventions
Conformance requirements are expressed with a combination of
descriptive assertions and RFC 2119 terminology. The key words "MUST",
"MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT",
"RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in the normative parts of this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
However, for readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase
letters in this specification.
All of the text of this specification is normative except sections
explicitly marked as non-normative, examples, and notes. [RFC2119]
Examples in this specification are introduced with the words "for example"
or are set apart from the normative text with class="example",
like this:
This is an example of an informative example.
Informative notes begin with the word "Note" and are set apart from the
normative text with class="note", like this:
Note, this is an informative note.
Advisements are normative sections styled to evoke special attention and are
set apart from other normative text with <strong class="advisement">, like
this:
UAs MUST provide an accessible alternative.
Conformance classes
Conformance to this specification
is defined for three conformance classes:
A style sheet is conformant to this specification
if all of its statements that use syntax defined in this module are valid
according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each
feature defined in this module.
A renderer is conformant to this specification
if, in addition to interpreting the style sheet as defined by the
appropriate specifications, it supports all the features defined
by this specification by parsing them correctly
and rendering the document accordingly. However, the inability of a
UA to correctly render a document due to limitations of the device
does not make the UA non-conformant. (For example, a UA is not
required to render color on a monochrome monitor.)
An authoring tool is conformant to this specification
if it writes style sheets that are syntactically correct according to the
generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature in
this module, and meet all other conformance requirements of style sheets
as described in this module.
Partial implementations
So that authors can exploit the forward-compatible parsing rules to
assign fallback values, CSS renderers must
treat as invalid (and ignore
as appropriate) any at-rules, properties, property values, keywords,
and other syntactic constructs for which they have no usable level of
support. In particular, user agents must not selectively
ignore unsupported component values and honor supported values in a single
multi-value property declaration: if any value is considered invalid
(as unsupported values must be), CSS requires that the entire declaration
be ignored.
Experimental implementations
To avoid clashes with future CSS features, the CSS2.1 specification
reserves a prefixed
syntax for proprietary and experimental extensions to CSS.
Prior to a specification reaching the Candidate Recommendation stage
in the W3C process, all implementations of a CSS feature are considered
experimental. The CSS Working Group recommends that implementations
use a vendor-prefixed syntax for such features, including those in
W3C Working Drafts. This avoids incompatibilities with future changes
in the draft.
Non-experimental implementations
Once a specification reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage,
non-experimental implementations are possible, and implementors should
release an unprefixed implementation of any CR-level feature they
can demonstrate to be correctly implemented according to spec.
To establish and maintain the interoperability of CSS across
implementations, the CSS Working Group requests that non-experimental
CSS renderers submit an implementation report (and, if necessary, the
testcases used for that implementation report) to the W3C before
releasing an unprefixed implementation of any CSS features. Testcases
submitted to W3C are subject to review and correction by the CSS
Working Group.
Non-replaced block containers. This might be expanded in future versions of the specification to allow other types of containers to receive flow content.
