The `interesttarget` attribute

[mfreed7]

WebKittens

@annevk, @nt1m

Title of the proposal

The interesttarget attribute

URL to the spec

whatwg/html#11006

URL to the spec's repository

https://github.com/whatwg/html

Issue Tracker URL

No response

Explainer URL

https://open-ui.org/components/interest-invokers.explainer/

TAG Design Review URL

No response

Mozilla standards-positions issue URL

mozilla/standards-positions#1181

WebKit Bugzilla URL

No response

Radar URL

No response

Description

See also, whatwg/html#10309, which has reached Stage 1 of the WHATWG.

This is closely related to both the popover=hint feature, the commandfor attribute, and the anchor positioning API. This API (interesttarget) is the final piece needed in order to unlock the ability to declaratively build tooltips, hovercards, and menus that are triggered by mouse-hover or keyboard/touchscreen.

I am requesting standards positions early in the process, in the hopes of getting valuable technical input on the shape of this API. The current explainer has the latest plan, but that's evolving rapidly. While there is a very draft spec PR, it doesn't yet contain all of the details, so the explainer should be the source of truth for now. Your input is appreciated now, as critical decisions are being made.

If you'd like to try out a prototype implementation, Chrome Canary with "Experimental Web Platform Features" enabled can be used with this quick demo: https://jsbin.com/cosusih/edit?html,output. Note that touchscreen behaviors have not yet been implemented, and details are again changing rapidly.

[annevk]

#305 (comment) onward is still very relevant unfortunately.

[mfreed7]

#305 (comment) onward is still very relevant unfortunately.

Thanks for the quick response here. Please help me understand the specifics of the concern, though. In particular, the critical part of that comment seems to be this (correct?):

However, we currently don't see a good UX for this across the many platforms that the web has to support. Tooltips as we know them on desktop are notably absent on "mobile" platforms and have been for close to two decades.

If that's the concern, we've hopefully alleviated much/all of it via the new (and very detailed) section on exactly what the behavior should look like on touchscreen/mobile. (That came out of a ton of brainstorming and discussion that was triggered by your comment, starting here.) If the "touchscreen" section of the explainer doesn't alleviate your concerns, it'd be super-helpful to understand the specifics of what's still missing, so we can continue to work on it.

[annevk]

Not really, see whatwg/html#11058. (And to be clear, there might be other concerns here too.)

[mfreed7]

Not really, see whatwg/html#11058.

Thanks - I hadn't noticed that comment. I just replied there.

(And to be clear, there might be other concerns here too.)

Ok, makes sense. It'd be good to know what those might be, so we can start working on them.