Can I store custom attributes in HTML DOM like a database record?

Question

When developing for browsers FF3 and IE6/7 with jQuery, are there any compatibility issues when setting custom attributes on HTML tags?

First, I\'m aware of jQuery\'s

Answer 1

Take a look at this similar question I asked a while back: Can I just make up attributes on my HTML tags?

Personally, I don't really like the suggested answers of putting all your data into the class attribute. It feels, just... wrong you know? In my experience, though your page won't be valid if you make up attributes, I just do it anyway. Test it in the 4 major browsers and if it works, who cares?

The best solution which i can think of is one which isn't valid now, but will be in HTML5, so that's good. As suggested by ms2ger in that other question, prefix your custom attributes with data-

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/dom.html#embedding-custom-non-visible-data