FPWD Request for ContentEditable - content-editable

[siusin]

Document title, URLs, estimated publication date

ContentEditable
https://w3c.github.io/contentEditable/
-> https://www.w3.org/TR/content-editable/
20 March 2025

Abstract

This specification defines allowed values and expected behaviors for the contentEditable attribute. This specification builds on [HTML].

This specification defines additional values for the contentEditable attribute which is already defined by [HTML].

Status

This document was published by the Web Editing Working Group as a First Public Working Draft using the Recommendation track.

Publication as a First Public Working Draft does not imply endorsement by W3C and its Members.

This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

This document is governed by the 03 November 2023 W3C Process Document.

Is it a delta specification intended to become a W3C Recommendation?

No.

Link to group's decision to request transition

w3c/editing#480

Issues

https://github.com/w3c/editing/issues

The WG plans to publish the document entitled "ContentEditable" as an FPWD, and then immediately republish it as a Discontinued Draft, and then stop working on it

Information about implementations known to the Working Group

Quoted from the CfC
[[
there is a non-zero chance that we will need to go back to this document as we did a number of times around 2013-2016. So far we have one implementation of EditContext and one major independent user of it who https://github.com/w3c/edit-context/issues/111#issuecomment-2618931646 which we hope to change in the spec, but it's not clear we will be able to. We also do not have a second implementation of EditContext. There is also the question of places carets need to be able to go which is not dealt with in any other document that came up again just a few days ago.

Even though neither the contentEditable nor the execCommand specs have any formal standing in the W3C (both pre-FPWD, both have not been worked on formally for years), they continue to be referred to and used as if they were official. It was when we discussed which documents to put on the deliverables list for the next charter that it was suggested to add the contentEditable document to it and I had to explain the status of the document again (it is listed as "archived" in our overview at https://github.com/w3c/editing ). This is why we wanted to publish it as a note to make it clear that it is not moving on (in our current view) while preserving it in its current state just in case it needs to be reanimated in the future.
]]

[plehegar]

The Status section needs to set proper expectations, given the rational for making the group decision. A boilerplate SOTD does not help anyone here.

[siusin]

How about...
[[
This document is a collection of proposals developed by the Web Editing Working Group. Some of these proposals are further defined in EditContext API, which supersedes this document. The working group intend to publish this document as a Discontinued Draft and cease further work on it. This does not affect the definition of contenteditable=true, contenteditable=false and contenteditable=plaintext-only as they can be found in [HTML]. Nor does it affect execCommand which is described in another unofficial draft document.

This document was published by the Web Editing Working Group as a First Public Working Draft using the Recommendation track.

Publication as a First Public Working Draft does not imply endorsement by W3C and its Members.

This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

This document is governed by the 03 November 2023 W3C Process Document.
]]

(this section has been reviewed by the editor)

[plehegar]

One improvement:

The working group intend to publish this document as a Discontinued Draft and cease further work on it.

The Working Group ceased work on this specification in 2022 prior to publishing a First Public Working Draft. This FPWD is intended to archive the prior work. Following the publication of this FPWD the Working Group intends to publish this document as a Discontinued Draft and cease further work on it.

Approved.