Best way to add metadata to HTML elements

Question

I\'m trying to put together a way of marking up various components in HTML that get parsed by a jQuery script and created when the page loads.

For example, at the moment

Answer 1

Use xhtml with custom elements mixed in from another DTD. or use html5 with custom data- attributes

Answer 2

Go ahead and use an attribute for this, but use a data- prefix on it. Attributes with the prefix data- are explicitly allowed on all elements as of HTML5. Example:

<a href="#" class="Theme-Button" data-theme="{style: 'win2007', icon: 'left', align:'center', fullWidth: true}"></a>

It works today in all browsers, and because it's now specified behavior, it's future-proofed.

Answer 3

Look at the jQuery .data() function.

Answer 4

Use jquery's ".data" property. This is very handy and many people don't know about it.

See this link for more information.

Answer 5

One could also use classes for this sort of thing.

<a href="#" class="Theme-Button Style-win2007 Icon-left Align-Center FullWidth"></a>

You will have to pre define a lot of classes, but it doesn't feel too much different than handling each key value pair that you have to create.

Answer 6

The Prototype library supports:

element.store("key","value")

and

element.retrieve("key","value").

Simple. Nice. Effective.