HTML 5 <dialog> Tag
The HTML <dialog> tag indicates a dialog between a number of people.
Examples of dialog could include a conversation, meeting minutes, a chat transcript, a dialog in a screenplay, an instant message log.
To present a dialog, this element must include a <dt> element to represent the speaker, and a <dd> to represent the quote from the speaker.
The <dialog> tag was introduced in HTML 5.
Example
Here is an example of the HTML code used to specify the <dialog> element.
Note: At the time of writing, HTML 5 is still in working draft status. This example is based on the W3C HTML 5 Working Draft, and is solely to demonstrate the context of this tag.
Attributes
HTML tags can contain one or more attributes. Attributes are added to a tag to provide the browser with more information about how the tag should appear or behave. Attributes consist of a name and a value separated by an equals (=) sign, with the value surrounded by double quotes. Here's an example, style="color:black;".
There are 3 kinds of attributes that you can add to your HTML tags: Element-specific, global, and event handler content attributes.
The attributes that you can add to this tag are listed below.
Element-Specific Attributes
The following table shows the attributes that are specific to this tag/element.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| None |
Global Attributes
The following attributes are standard across all HTML 5 tags.
| accesskey | draggable | style |
| class | hidden | tabindex |
| contenteditable | id | title |
| contextmenu | lang | |
| dir | spellcheck |
For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.
Event Handler Content Attributes
Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.
Here are the standard HTML 5 event handler content attributes.
| onabort | onerror* | onmousewheel |
| onblur* | onfocus* | onpause |
| oncanplay | onformchange | onplay |
| oncanplaythrough | onforminput | onplaying |
| onchange | oninput | onprogress |
| onclick | oninvalid | onratechange |
| oncontextmenu | onkeydown | onreadystatechange |
| ondblclick | onkeypress | onscroll |
| ondrag | onkeyup | onseeked |
| ondragend | onload* | onseeking |
| ondragenter | onloadeddata | onselect |
| ondragleave | onloadedmetadata | onshow |
| ondragover | onloadstart | onstalled |
| ondragstart | onmousedown | onsubmit |
| ondrop | onmousemove | onsuspend |
| ondurationchange | onmouseout | ontimeupdate |
| onemptied | onmouseover | onvolumechange |
| onended | onmouseup | onwaiting |
For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 event handler content attributes.
