syntax-tree/hast

Hypertext Abstract Syntax Tree format

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README

Hypertext Abstract Syntax Tree format.

hast is a specification for representing HTML (and embedded SVG or MathML) as an abstract syntax tree. It implements the unist spec.

This document may not be released. See releases for released documents. The latest released version is 2.4.0.

Introduction
- Where this specification fits
- Virtual DOM
Types
Nodes (abstract)
- Literal
- Parent
Nodes
- Comment
- Doctype
- Element
- Root
- Text
Other types
Glossary
List of utilities
Related HTML utilities
References
Security
Related
Contribute
Acknowledgments
License

Introduction

This document defines a format for representing hypertext as an abstract syntax tree. Development of hast started in April 2016 for rehype. This specification is written in a Web IDL-like grammar.

Where this specification fits

hast extends unist, a format for syntax trees, to benefit from its ecosystem of utilities.

hast relates to JavaScript in that it has an ecosystem of utilities for working with compliant syntax trees in JavaScript. However, hast is not limited to JavaScript and can be used in other programming languages.

hast relates to the unified and rehype projects in that hast syntax trees are used throughout their ecosystems.

Virtual DOM

The reason for introducing a new “virtual” DOM is primarily:

The DOM is very heavy to implement outside of the browser, a lean and stripped down virtual DOM can be used everywhere
Most virtual DOMs do not focus on ease of use in transformations
Other virtual DOMs cannot represent the syntax of HTML in its entirety (think comments and document types)
Neither the DOM nor virtual DOMs focus on positional information

Types

If you are using TypeScript, you can use the hast types by installing them with npm:

npm install @types/hast

Nodes (abstract)

`Literal`

interface Literal <: UnistLiteral {
  value: string
}

Literal (UnistLiteral) represents a node in hast containing a value.

`Parent`

interface Parent <: UnistParent {
  children: [Comment | Doctype | Element | Text]
}

Parent (UnistParent) represents a node in hast containing other nodes (said to be children).

Its content is limited to only other hast content.

Nodes

`Comment`

interface Comment <: Literal {
  type: 'comment'
}

Comment (Literal) represents a Comment ([DOM]).

For example, the following HTML:

<!--Charlie-->

Yields:

{type: 'comment', value: 'Charlie'}

`Doctype`

interface Doctype <: Node {
  type: 'doctype'
}

Doctype (Node) represents a DocumentType ([DOM]).

For example, the following HTML:

<!doctype html>

Yields:

{type: 'doctype'}

`Element`

interface Element <: Parent {
  type: 'element'
  tagName: string
  properties: Properties
  content: Root?
  children: [Comment | Element | Text]
}

Element (Parent) represents an Element ([DOM]).

A tagName field must be present. It represents the element’s local name ([DOM]).

The properties field represents information associated with the element. The value of the properties field implements the Properties interface.

If the tagName field is 'template', a content field can be present. The value of the content field implements the Root interface.

If the tagName field is 'template', the element must be a leaf.

If the tagName field is 'noscript', its children should be represented as if scripting is disabled ([HTML]).

For example, the following HTML:

<a href="https://alpha.com" class="bravo" download></a>

Yields:

{
  type: 'element',
  tagName: 'a',
  properties: {
    href: 'https://alpha.com',
    className: ['bravo'],
    download: true
  },
  children: []
}

`Root`

interface Root <: Parent {
  type: 'root'
}

Root (Parent) represents a document.

Root can be used as the root of a tree, or as a value of the content field on a 'template' Element, never as a child.

`Text`

interface Text <: Literal {
  type: 'text'
}

Text (Literal) represents a Text ([DOM]).

For example, the following HTML:

<span>Foxtrot</span>

Yields:

{
  type: 'element',
  tagName: 'span',
  properties: {},
  children: [{type: 'text', value: 'Foxtrot'}]
}

Other types

`Properties`

interface Properties {}

Properties represents information associated with an element.

Every field must be a PropertyName and every value a PropertyValue.

`PropertyName`

typedef string PropertyName

Property names are keys on Properties objects and reflect HTML, SVG, ARIA, XML, XMLNS, or XLink attribute names. Often, they have the same value as the corresponding attribute (for example, id is a property name reflecting the id attribute name), but there are some notable differences.

These rules aren’t simple. Use hastscript (or property-information directly) to help.

The following rules are used to transform HTML attribute names to property names. These rules are based on how ARIA is reflected in the DOM ([ARIA]), and differs from how some (older) HTML attributes are reflected in the DOM.

any name referencing a combinations of multiple words (such as “stroke miter limit”) becomes a camelcased property name capitalizing each word boundary; this includes combinations that are sometimes written as several words; for example, stroke-miterlimit becomes strokeMiterLimit, autocorrect becomes autoCorrect, and allowfullscreen becomes allowFullScreen
any name that can be hyphenated, becomes a camelcased property name capitalizing each boundary; for example, “read-only” becomes readOnly
compound words that are not used with spaces or hyphens are treated as a normal word and the previous rules apply; for example, “placeholder”, “strikethrough”, and “playback” stay the same
acronyms in names are treated as a normal word and the previous rules apply; for example, itemid become itemId and bgcolor becomes bgColor

Exceptions

Some jargon is seen as one word even though it may not be seen as such by dictionaries. For example, nohref becomes noHref, playsinline becomes playsInline, and accept-charset becomes acceptCharset.

The HTML attributes class and for respectively become className and htmlFor in alignment with the DOM. No other attributes gain different names as properties, other than a change in casing.

Notes

property-information lists all property names.

The property name rules differ from how HTML is reflected in the DOM for the following attributes:

View list of differences

charoff becomes charOff (not chOff)
char stays char (does not become ch)
rel stays rel (does not become relList)
checked stays checked (does not become defaultChecked)
muted stays muted (does not become defaultMuted)
value stays value (does not become defaultValue)
selected stays selected (does not become defaultSelected)
allowfullscreen becomes allowFullScreen (not allowFullscreen)
hreflang becomes hrefLang, not hreflang
autoplay becomes autoPlay, not autoplay
autocomplete becomes autoComplete (not autocomplete)
autofocus becomes autoFocus, not autofocus
enctype becomes encType, not enctype
formenctype becomes formEncType (not formEnctype)
vspace becomes vSpace, not vspace
hspace becomes hSpace, not hspace
lowsrc becomes lowSrc, not lowsrc

`PropertyValue`

typedef any PropertyValue

Property values should reflect the data type determined by their property name. For example, the HTML <div hidden></div> has a hidden attribute, which is reflected as a hidden property name set to the property value true, and <input minlength="5">, which has a minlength attribute, is reflected as a minLength property name set to the property value 5.

In JSON, the value null must be treated as if the property was not included. In JavaScript, both null and undefined must be similarly ignored.

The DOM has strict rules on how it coerces HTML to expected values, whereas hast is more lenient in how it reflects the source. Where the DOM treats <div hidden="no"></div> as having a value of true and <img width="yes"> as having a value of 0, these should be reflected as 'no' and 'yes', respectively, in hast.

The reason for this is to allow plugins and utilities to inspect these non-standard values.

The DOM also specifies comma separated and space separated lists attribute values. In hast, these should be treated as ordered lists. For example, <div class="alpha bravo"></div> is represented as ['alpha', 'bravo'].

There’s no special format for the property value of the style property name.

Glossary

See § Glossary in syntax-tree/unist.

List of utilities

See § List of utilities in syntax-tree/unist for more utilities.

hastscript — create trees
hast-util-assert — assert nodes
hast-util-class-list — simulate the browser’s classList API for hast nodes
hast-util-classnames — merge class names together
hast-util-embedded — check if a node is an embedded element
hast-util-excerpt — truncate the tree to a comment
hast-util-find-and-replace — find and replace text in a tree
hast-util-format — format whitespace
hast-util-from-dom — transform from DOM tree
hast-util-from-html — parse from HTML
hast-util-from-parse5 — transform from Parse5’s AST
hast-util-from-selector — parse CSS selectors to nodes
hast-util-from-string — set the plain-text value of a node (textContent)
hast-util-from-text — set the plain-text value of a node (innerText)
hast-util-from-webparser — transform Webparser’s AST to hast
hast-util-has-property — check if an element has a certain property
hast-util-heading — check if a node is heading content
hast-util-heading-rank — get the rank (also known as depth or level) of headings
hast-util-interactive — check if a node is interactive
hast-util-is-body-ok-link — check if a link element is “Body OK”
hast-util-is-conditional-comment — check if node is a conditional comment
hast-util-is-css-link — check if node is a CSS link
hast-util-is-css-style — check if node is a CSS style
hast-util-is-element — check if node is a (certain) element
hast-util-is-event-handler — check if property is an event handler
hast-util-is-javascript — check if node is a JavaScript script
hast-util-labelable — check if node is labelable
hast-util-minify-whitespace — minify whitespace between elements
hast-util-parse-selector — create an element from a simple CSS selector
hast-util-phrasing — check if a node is phrasing content
hast-util-raw — parse a tree again
hast-util-reading-time — estimate the reading time
hast-util-sanitize — sanitize nodes
hast-util-script-supporting — check if node is script-supporting content
hast-util-select — querySelector, querySelectorAll, and matches
hast-util-sectioning — check if node is sectioning content
hast-util-shift-heading — change heading rank (depth, level)
hast-util-table-cell-style — transform deprecated styling attributes on table cells to inline styles
hast-util-to-dom — transform to a DOM tree
hast-util-to-estree — transform to estree (JavaScript AST) JSX
hast-util-to-html — serialize as HTML
hast-util-to-jsx — transform hast to JSX
hast-util-to-jsx-runtime — transform to preact, react, solid, svelte, vue, etc
hast-util-to-mdast — transform to mdast (markdown)
hast-util-to-nlcst — transform to nlcst (natural language)
hast-util-to-parse5 — transform to Parse5’s AST
hast-util-to-portable-text — transform to portable text
hast-util-to-string — get the plain-text value of a node (textContent)
hast-util-to-text — get the plain-text value of a node (innerText)
hast-util-to-xast — transform to xast (xml)
hast-util-transparent — check if node is transparent content
hast-util-truncate — truncate the tree to a certain number of characters
hast-util-whitespace — check if node is inter-element whitespace

a-rel — List of link types for rel on a / area
aria-attributes — List of ARIA attributes
collapse-white-space — Replace multiple white-space characters with a single space
comma-separated-tokens — Parse/stringify comma separated tokens
html-tag-names — List of HTML tag names
html-dangerous-encodings — List of dangerous HTML character encoding labels
html-encodings — List of HTML character encoding labels
html-element-attributes — Map of HTML attributes
html-event-attributes — List of HTML event handler content attributes
html-void-elements — List of void HTML tag names
link-rel — List of link types for rel on link
mathml-tag-names — List of MathML tag names
meta-name — List of values for name on meta
property-information — Information on HTML properties
space-separated-tokens — Parse/stringify space separated tokens
svg-tag-names — List of SVG tag names
svg-element-attributes — Map of SVG attributes
svg-event-attributes — List of SVG event handler content attributes
web-namespaces — Map of web namespaces

References

unist: Universal Syntax Tree. T. Wormer; et al.
JavaScript: ECMAScript Language Specification. Ecma International.
HTML: HTML Standard, A. van Kesteren; et al. WHATWG.
DOM: DOM Standard, A. van Kesteren, A. Gregor, Ms2ger. WHATWG.
SVG: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), N. Andronikos, R. Atanassov, T. Bah, B. Birtles, B. Brinza, C. Concolato, E. Dahlström, C. Lilley, C. McCormack, D. Schepers, R. Schwerdtfeger, D. Storey, S. Takagi, J. Watt. W3C.
MathML: Mathematical Markup Language Standard, D. Carlisle, P. Ion, R. Miner. W3C.
ARIA: Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), J. Diggs, J. Craig, S. McCarron, M. Cooper. W3C.
JSON The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format, T. Bray. IETF.
Web IDL: Web IDL, C. McCormack. W3C.

Security

As hast represents HTML, and improper use of HTML can open you up to a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack, improper use of hast is also unsafe. Always be careful with user input and use hast-util-santize to make the hast tree safe.

mdast — Markdown Abstract Syntax Tree format
nlcst — Natural Language Concrete Syntax Tree format
xast — Extensible Abstract Syntax Tree

Contribute

See contributing.md in syntax-tree/.github for ways to get started. See support.md for ways to get help.

A curated list of awesome syntax-tree, unist, mdast, hast, xast, and nlcst resources can be found in awesome syntax-tree.

This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.

Acknowledgments

The initial release of this project was authored by @wooorm.

Special thanks to @eush77 for their work, ideas, and incredibly valuable feedback!

Thanks to @andrewburgess, @arobase-che, @arystan-sw, @BarryThePenguin, @brechtcs, @ChristianMurphy, @ChristopherBiscardi, @craftzdog, @cupojoe, @davidtheclark, @derhuerst, @detj, @DxCx, @erquhart, @flurmbo, @Hamms, @Hypercubed, @inklesspen, @jeffal, @jlevy, @Justineo, @lfittl, @kgryte, @kmck, @kthjm, @KyleAMathews, @macklinu, @medfreeman, @Murderlon, @nevik, @nokome, @phiresky, @revolunet, @rhysd, @Rokt33r, @rubys, @s1n, @Sarah-Seo, @sethvincent, @simov, @StarpTech, @stefanprobst, @stuff, @subhero24, @tripodsan, @tunnckoCore, @vhf, @voischev, and @zjaml, for contributing to hast and related projects!

License

CC-BY-4.0 © Titus Wormer

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README

Contents

Introduction

Where this specification fits

Virtual DOM

Types

Nodes (abstract)

Literal

Parent

Nodes

Comment

Doctype

Element

Root

Text

Other types

Properties

PropertyName

Exceptions

Notes

PropertyValue

Glossary

List of utilities

Related HTML utilities

References

Security

Related

Contribute

Acknowledgments

License

Contributors

Similar repos

syntax-tree/hast

README

Contents

Introduction

Where this specification fits

Virtual DOM

Types

Nodes (abstract)

Literal

Parent

Nodes

Comment

Doctype

Element

Root

Text

Other types

Properties

PropertyName

Exceptions

Notes

PropertyValue

Glossary

List of utilities

Related HTML utilities

References

Security

Related

Contribute

Acknowledgments

License

Similar repos

Contributors

`Literal`

`Parent`

`Comment`

`Doctype`

`Element`

`Root`

`Text`

`Properties`

`PropertyName`

`PropertyValue`

`Literal`

`Parent`

`Comment`

`Doctype`

`Element`

`Root`

`Text`

`Properties`

`PropertyName`

`PropertyValue`