XHTML Modules
Every element in XHTML, whether a textbox, a link, a paragraph, or anything else belongs to some category. For example, textbox and button elements would belong to the category of form elements. XHTML modules are the implementation of this classification system.
This tutorial focuses on:
- What are modules?
- Purpose of modules
- Different modules available in XHTML
What are modules?
In XHTML, a module is a set of related elements. For example, there is the Forms module which contains the various form elements you can display on a webpage, or the Tables module which contains the various table elements you can display on a webpage.
Purpose of modules
There are so many elements in XHTML, wouldn't it be logical to split these elements into groups of several related elements? This is what modules are for!
What if you can then take it a step further and use which ever group(s) you need for different devices?
Instead of using the entire XHTML language set, web developers can choose which modules to use for various devices. Modules allow for user agents other than web browsers to choose which elements to support while remaining consistent with the XHTML standard.
Different modules available in XHTML
The following is a brief list of the modules available in XHTML. For a full list check out our XHTML modules list reference page.
| Module name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Applet | Contains the applet element (NOTE: the applet element is deprecated in XHTML) |
| Base | Contains the base element |
| Basic Forms | Contains basic forms elements |
| Basic Tables | Contains basic table elements |
| Bi-directional Text | Contains the bdo element |
| Client Image Map | Contains client-side image map elements |
| Edit | Contains the editing elements del and ins |
| Forms | Contains all the form elements |
| Frames | Contains elements used to create frames |
| Hypertext | Contains the a element (used to create links) |