HTML5 Edition for Web Authors revision 1.4626

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4.11.5 Commands

A command is the abstraction behind menu items, buttons, and links.

Type: The kind of command: "command", meaning it is a normal command; "radio", meaning that triggering the command will, amongst other things, set the Checked State to true (and probably uncheck some other commands); or "checkbox", meaning that triggering the command will, amongst other things, toggle the value of the Checked State.
ID: The name of the command, for referring to the command from the markup or from script. If a command has no ID, it is an anonymous command.
Label: The name of the command as seen by the user.
Hint: A helpful or descriptive string that can be shown to the user.
Icon: An absolute URL identifying a graphical image that represents the action. A command might not have an Icon.
Access Key: A key combination selected by the user agent that triggers the command. A command might not have an Access Key.
Hidden State: Whether the command is hidden or not (basically, whether it should be shown in menus).
Disabled State: Whether the command is relevant and can be triggered or not.
Checked State: Whether the command is checked or not.
Action: The actual effect that triggering the command will have. This could be a scripted event handler, a URL to which to navigate, or a form submission.

These facets are exposed on elements using the command API:

element . commandType: Exposes the Type facet of the command.
element . id: Exposes the ID facet of the command.
element . label: Exposes the Label facet of the command.
element . title: Exposes the Hint facet of the command.
element . icon: Exposes the Icon facet of the command.
element . accessKeyLabel: Exposes the Access Key facet of the command.
element . hidden: Exposes the state of the element's hidden attribute, which is generally equivalent to the Hidden State facet of the command. For label and legend elements (used in conjunction with the accesskey attribute), the Hidden State facet is derived from another element (the one that the assigned access key will trigger), and cannot be directly accessed from the element.
element . disabled: Exposes the Disabled State facet of the command.
element . checked: Exposes the Checked State facet of the command.
element . click(): Triggers the Action of the command.

document . commands: Returns an HTMLCollection of the elements in the Document that define commands and have IDs.

User agents may expose the commands whose Hidden State facet is false (visible), e.g. in the user agent's menu bar. User agents are encouraged to do this especially for commands that have Access Keys, as a way to advertise those keys to the user.