Copyright © 2015 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark and document use rules apply.
This document defines an interface definition language, Web IDL, that can be used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in web browsers. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. How interfaces described with Web IDL correspond to constructs within ECMAScript execution environments is also detailed in this document. It is expected that this document acts as a guide to implementors of already-published specifications, and that newly published specifications reference this document to ensure conforming implementations of interfaces are interoperable.
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
This document is the 17 July 2015 Editor’s Draft of the Web IDL (Second Edition) specification. Please send comments about this document to public-script-coord@w3.org (archived).
This is the Second Edition of Web IDL, branched off from the Candidate Recommendation of the First Edition. This Second Edition includes new features that could not have been added to the First Edition without delaying its progress along the Recommendation track.
This document is produced by the Web Applications Working Group, part of the Rich Web Clients Activity in the W3C Interaction Domain. Changes made to this document can be found in the specification’s commit log on GitHub: recent changes, older changes.
There is a bug tracker for the specification.
Publication as an Editor’s Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. 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 5 February 2004 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 section is informative.
Technical reports published by the W3C that include programming language interfaces have typically been described using the Object Management Group’s Interface Definition Language (IDL) [OMGIDL]. The IDL provides a means to describe these interfaces in a language independent manner. Usually, additional language binding appendices are included in such documents which detail how the interfaces described with the IDL correspond to constructs in the given language.
However, the bindings in these specifications for the language most commonly used on the web, ECMAScript, are consistently specified with low enough precision as to result in interoperability issues. In addition, each specification must describe the same basic information, such as DOM interfaces described in IDL corresponding to properties on the ECMAScript global object, or the unsigned long IDL type mapping to the Number type in ECMAScript.
This specification defines an IDL language similar to OMG IDL for use by specifications that define interfaces for Web APIs. A number of extensions are given to the IDL to support common functionality that previously must have been written in prose. In addition, precise language bindings for ECMAScript Edition 6 are given.
The following typographic conventions are used in this document:
a = b + obj.f()
interface identifier { interface-members… };(Red text is used to highlight specific parts of the syntax discussed in surrounding prose.)
[5] | ExampleGrammarSymbol | → | OtherSymbol "sometoken" | AnotherSymbol | ε // nothing |
This is a note.
This is an example.
This is a warning.
// This is an IDL code block.
interface Example {
attribute long something;
};
// This is an ECMAScript code block.
window.onload = function() { window.alert("loaded"); };
Everything in this specification is normative except for diagrams, examples, notes and sections marked as being informative.
The keywords “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY” and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels [RFC2119].
The following conformance classes are defined by this specification:
A set of IDL fragments is considered to be a conforming set of IDL fragments if, taken together, they satisfy all of the MUST-, REQUIRED- and SHALL-level criteria in this specification that apply to IDL fragments.
A user agent is considered to be a conforming implementation relative to a conforming set of IDL fragments if it satisfies all of the MUST-, REQUIRED- and SHALL-level criteria in this specification that apply to implementations for all language bindings that the user agent supports.
A user agent is considered to be a conforming ECMAScript implementation relative to a conforming set of IDL fragments if it satisfies all of the MUST-, REQUIRED- and SHALL-level criteria in this specification that apply to implementations for the ECMAScript language binding.
This section describes a language, Web IDL, which can be used to define interfaces for APIs in the Web platform. A specification that defines Web APIs can include one or more IDL fragments that describe the interfaces (the state and behavior that objects can exhibit) for the APIs defined by that specification. An IDL fragment is a sequence of definitions that matches the Definitions grammar symbol. The set of IDL fragments that an implementation supports is not ordered. See Appendix A for the complete grammar and an explanation of the notation used.
The different kinds of definitions that can appear in an IDL fragment are: interfaces, partial interface definitions, dictionaries, partial dictionary definitions, typedefs and implements statements. These are all defined in the following sections.
Each definition (matching Definition) can be preceded by a list of extended attributes (matching ExtendedAttributeList), which can control how the definition will be handled in language bindings. The extended attributes defined by this specification that are language binding agnostic are discussed in section 3.11, while those specific to the ECMAScript language binding are discussed in section 4.3.
[extended-attributes] interface identifier { interface-members… };
[1] | Definitions | → | ExtendedAttributeList Definition Definitions | ε |
[2] | Definition | → | CallbackOrInterface | Partial | Dictionary | Enum | Typedef | ImplementsStatement |
[3] | CallbackOrInterface | → | "callback" CallbackRestOrInterface | Interface |
The following is an example of an IDL fragment.
interface Paint { };
interface SolidColor : Paint {
attribute double red;
attribute double green;
attribute double blue;
};
interface Pattern : Paint {
attribute DOMString imageURL;
};
[Constructor]
interface GraphicalWindow {
readonly attribute unsigned long width;
readonly attribute unsigned long height;
attribute Paint currentPaint;
void drawRectangle(double x, double y, double width, double height);
void drawText(double x, double y, DOMString text);
};
Here, four interfaces are being defined. The GraphicalWindow interface has two read only attributes, one writable attribute, and two operations defined on it. Objects that implement the GraphicalWindow interface will expose these attributes and operations in a manner appropriate to the particular language being used.
In ECMAScript, the attributes on the IDL interfaces will be exposed as accessor properties and the operations as Function-valued data properties on a prototype object for all GraphicalWindow objects; each ECMAScript object that implements GraphicalWindow will have that prototype object in its prototype chain.
The [Constructor] that appears on GraphicalWindow
is an extended attribute.
This extended attribute causes a constructor to exist in ECMAScript implementations,
so that calling new GraphicalWindow()
would return a new object
that implemented the interface.
Every interface, partial interface definition, dictionary, partial dictionary definition, enumeration, callback function and typedef (together called named definitions) and every constant, attribute, and dictionary member has an identifier, as do some operations. The identifier is determined by an identifier token somewhere in the declaration:
interface
,
dictionary
, enum
or callback
keyword
determines the identifier of that definition.
interface interface-identifier { interface-members… }; partial interface interface-identifier { interface-members… }; dictionary dictionary-identifier { dictionary-members… }; partial dictionary dictionary-identifier { dictionary-members… }; enum enumeration-identifier { enumeration-values… }; callback callback-identifier = callback-signature;
interface identifier { attribute type attribute-identifier; }; typedef type typedef-identifier; dictionary identifier { type dictionary-member-identifier; };
const type constant-identifier = value;
return-type operation-identifier(arguments…);
Operations can have no identifier when they are being used to declare a special kind of operation, such as a getter or setter.
For all of these constructs, the identifier is the value of the identifier token with any leading U+005F LOW LINE ("_") character (underscore) removed.
A leading "_" is used to escape an identifier from looking like a reserved word so that, for example, an interface named “interface” can be defined. The leading "_" is dropped to unescape the identifier.
Operation arguments can take a slightly wider set of identifiers. In an operation declaration, the identifier of an argument is specified immediately after its type and is given by either an identifier token or by one of the keywords that match the ArgumentNameKeyword symbol. If one of these keywords is used, it need not be escaped with a leading underscore.
return-type operation-identifier(argument-type argument-identifier, …);
[71] | ArgumentNameKeyword | → |
"attribute" | "callback" | "const" | "deleter" | "dictionary" | "enum" | "getter" | "implements" | "inherit" | "interface" | "iterable" | "legacycaller" | "legacyiterable" | "maplike" | "partial" | "required" | "serializer" | "setlike" | "setter" | "static" | "stringifier" | "typedef" | "unrestricted" |
If an identifier token is used, then the identifier of the operation argument is the value of that token with any leading U+005F LOW LINE ("_") character (underscore) removed. If instead one of the ArgumentNameKeyword keyword token is used, then the identifier of the operation argument is simply that token.
The identifier of any of the abovementioned IDL constructs MUST NOT be “constructor”, “toString”, “toJSON”, or begin with a U+005F LOW LINE ("_") character. These are known as reserved identifiers.
Further restrictions on identifier names for particular constructs may be made in later sections.
Within the set of IDL fragments that a given implementation supports, the identifier of every interface, dictionary, enumeration, callback function and typedef MUST NOT be the same as the identifier of any other interface, dictionary, enumeration, callback function or typedef.
Within an IDL fragment, a reference to a definition need not appear after the declaration of the referenced definition. References can also be made across IDL fragments.
Therefore, the following IDL fragment is valid:
interface B : A {
void f(SequenceOfLongs x);
};
interface A {
};
typedef sequence<long> SequenceOfLongs;
The following IDL fragment demonstrates how identifiers are given to definitions and interface members.
// Typedef identifier: "number"
typedef double number;
// Interface identifier: "System"
interface System {
// Operation identifier: "createObject"
// Operation argument identifier: "interface"
object createObject(DOMString _interface);
// Operation argument identifier: "interface"
sequence<object> getObjects(DOMString interface);
// Operation has no identifier; it declares a getter.
getter DOMString (DOMString keyName);
};
// Interface identifier: "TextField"
interface TextField {
// Attribute identifier: "const"
attribute boolean _const;
// Attribute identifier: "value"
attribute DOMString? _value;
};
Note that while the second attribute on the TextField interface need not have been escaped with an underscore (because “value” is not a keyword in the IDL grammar), it is still unescaped to obtain the attribute’s identifier.
IDL fragments are used to describe object oriented systems. In such systems, objects are entities that have identity and which are encapsulations of state and behavior. An interface is a definition (matching Interface or "callback" Interface) that declares some state and behavior that an object implementing that interface will expose.
interface identifier { interface-members… };
An interface is a specification of a set of interface members (matching InterfaceMembers), which are the constants, attributes, operations and other declarations that appear between the braces in the interface declaration. Attributes describe the state that an object implementing the interface will expose, and operations describe the behaviors that can be invoked on the object. Constants declare named constant values that are exposed as a convenience to users of objects in the system.
Interfaces in Web IDL describe how objects that implement the interface behave. In bindings for object oriented languages, it is expected that an object that implements a particular IDL interface provides ways to inspect and modify the object's state and to invoke the behavior described by the interface.
An interface can be defined to inherit from another interface. If the identifier of the interface is followed by a U+003A COLON (":") character and an identifier, then that identifier identifies the inherited interface. An object that implements an interface that inherits from another also implements that inherited interface. The object therefore will also have members that correspond to the interface members from the inherited interface.
interface identifier : identifier-of-inherited-interface { interface-members… };
The order that members appear in has no significance except in the case of overloading.
Interfaces may specify an interface member that has the same name as one from an inherited interface. Objects that implement the derived interface will expose the member on the derived interface. It is language binding specific whether the overridden member can be accessed on the object.
Consider the following two interfaces.
interface A {
void f();
void g();
};
interface B : A {
void f();
void g(DOMString x);
};
In the ECMAScript language binding, an instance of B will have a prototype chain that looks like the following:
[Object.prototype: the Object prototype object] ↑ [A.prototype: interface prototype object for A] ↑ [B.prototype: interface prototype object for B] ↑ [instanceOfB]
Calling instanceOfB.f()
in ECMAScript will invoke the f defined
on B. However, the f from A
can still be invoked on an object that implements B by
calling A.prototype.f.call(instanceOfB)
.
The inherited interfaces of a given interface A is the set of all interfaces that A inherits from, directly or indirectly. If A does not inherit from another interface, then the set is empty. Otherwise, the set includes the interface B that A inherits from and all of B’s inherited interfaces.
An interface MUST NOT be declared such that its inheritance hierarchy has a cycle. That is, an interface A cannot inherit from itself, nor can it inherit from another interface B that inherits from A, and so on.
Note that general multiple inheritance of interfaces is not supported, and objects also cannot implement arbitrary sets of interfaces. Objects can be defined to implement a single given interface A, which means that it also implements all of A’s inherited interfaces. In addition, an implements statement can be used to define that objects implementing an interface will always also implement another interface.
Each interface member can be preceded by a list of extended attributes (matching ExtendedAttributeList), which can control how the interface member will be handled in language bindings.
interface identifier { [extended-attributes] const type identifier = value; [extended-attributes] attribute type identifier; [extended-attributes] return-type identifier(arguments…); };
A callback interface is
an interface
that uses the callback
keyword at the start of
its definition. Callback interfaces are ones that can be
implemented by user objects
and not by platform objects,
as described in section 3.9
below.
callback interface identifier { interface-members… };
See also the similarly named callback function definition.
Callback interfaces MUST NOT inherit from any non-callback interfaces, and non-callback interfaces MUST NOT inherit from any callback interfaces. Callback interfaces MUST NOT have any consequential interfaces.
Static attributes and static operations MUST NOT be defined on a callback interface.
Specification authors SHOULD NOT define callback interfaces that have only a single operation, unless required to describe the requirements of existing APIs. Instead, a callback function SHOULD be used.
The definition of EventListener as a callback interface is an example of an existing API that needs to allow user objects with a given property (in this case “handleEvent”) to be considered to implement the interface. For new APIs, and those for which there are no compatibility concerns, using a callback function will allow only a Function object (in the ECMAScript language binding).
Perhaps this warning shouldn't apply if you are planning to extend the callback interface in the future. That's probably a good reason to start off with a single operation callback interface.
I think we need to support operations not being implemented on a given user object implementing a callback interface. If specs extending an existing callback interface, we probably want to be able to avoid calling the operations that aren't implemented (and having some default behavior instead). So we should perhaps define a term that means whether the operation is implemented, which in the ECMAScript binding would correspond to checking for the property's existence.
Specification authors wanting to define APIs that take ECMAScript objects as “property bag” like function arguments are suggested to use dictionary types rather than callback interfaces.
For example, instead of this:
callback interface Options {
attribute DOMString? option1;
attribute DOMString? option2;
attribute long? option3;
};
interface A {
void doTask(DOMString type, Options options);
};
to be used like this:
var a = getA(); // Get an instance of A.
a.doTask("something", { option1: "banana", option3: 100 });
instead write the following:
dictionary Options {
DOMString? option1;
DOMString? option2;
long? option3;
};
interface A {
void doTask(DOMString type, Options options);
};
The IDL for interfaces can be split into multiple parts by using partial interface definitions (matching "partial" PartialInterface). The identifier of a partial interface definition MUST be the same as the identifier of an interface definition. All of the members that appear on each of the partial interfaces are considered to be members of the interface itself.
interface SomeInterface { interface-members… }; partial interface SomeInterface { interface-members… };
Partial interface definitions are intended for use as a specification editorial aide, allowing the definition of an interface to be separated over more than one section of the document, and sometimes multiple documents.
The order of appearance of an interface definition and any of its partial interface definitions does not matter.
A partial interface definition cannot specify that the interface inherits from another interface. Inheritance must be specified on the original interface definition.
Extended attributes can be specified on partial interface definitions, with some limitations. The following extended attributes MUST NOT be specified on partial interface definitions: [Constructor], [ImplicitThis], [LegacyArrayClass], [NamedConstructor], [NoInterfaceObject].
The above list of extended attributes is all of those defined in this document that are applicable to interfaces except for [Exposed], [Global], [OverrideBuiltins], [PrimaryGlobal] and [Unforgeable].
Any extended attribute specified on a partial interface definition is considered to appear on the interface itself.
The relevant language binding determines how interfaces correspond to constructs in the language.
The following extended attributes are applicable to interfaces: [Constructor], [Exposed], [Global], [ImplicitThis], [LegacyArrayClass], [NamedConstructor], [NoInterfaceObject], [OverrideBuiltins]. [PrimaryGlobal], [Unforgeable].
[3] | CallbackOrInterface | → | "callback" CallbackRestOrInterface | Interface |
[4] | CallbackRestOrInterface | → | CallbackRest | Interface |
[5] | Interface | → | "interface" identifier Inheritance "{" InterfaceMembers "}" ";" |
[6] | Partial | → | "partial" PartialDefinition |
[7] | PartialDefinition | → | PartialInterface | PartialDictionary |
[8] | PartialInterface | → | "interface" identifier "{" InterfaceMembers "}" ";" |
[9] | InterfaceMembers | → | ExtendedAttributeList InterfaceMember InterfaceMembers | ε |
[10] | InterfaceMember | → | Const | Operation | Serializer | Stringifier | StaticMember | Iterable | ReadonlyMember | ReadWriteAttribute | ReadWriteMaplike | ReadWriteSetlike |
[18] | Inheritance | → | ":" identifier | ε |
The following IDL fragment
demonstrates the definition of two mutually referential interfaces.
Both Human and Dog
inherit from Animal. Objects that implement
either of those two interfaces will thus have a name
attribute.
interface Animal {
attribute DOMString name;
};
interface Human : Animal {
attribute Dog? pet;
};
interface Dog : Animal {
attribute Human? owner;
};
The following IDL fragment defines simplified versions of a few DOM interfaces, one of which is a callback interface.
interface Node {
readonly attribute DOMString nodeName;
readonly attribute Node? parentNode;
Node appendChild(Node newChild);
void addEventListener(DOMString type, EventListener listener);
};
callback interface EventListener {
void handleEvent(Event event);
};
Since the EventListener interface is annotated callback interface, user objects can implement it:
var node = getNode(); // Obtain an instance of Node.
var listener = {
handleEvent: function(event) {
...
}
};
node.addEventListener("click", listener); // This works.
node.addEventListener("click", function() { ... }); // As does this.
It is not possible for a user object to implement Node, however:
var node = getNode(); // Obtain an instance of Node.
var newNode = {
nodeName: "span",
parentNode: null,
appendChild: function(newchild) {
...
},
addEventListener: function(type, listener) {
...
}
};
node.appendChild(newNode); // This will throw a TypeError exception.
A constant is a declaration (matching Const) used to bind a constant value to a name. Constants can appear on interfaces.
Constants have in the past primarily been used to define named integer codes in the style of an enumeration. The Web platform is moving away from this design pattern in favor of the use of strings. Specification authors who wish to define constants are strongly advised to discuss this on the public-script-coord@w3.org mailing list before proceeding.
const type identifier = value;
The identifier of a constant MUST NOT be the same as the identifier of another interface member defined on the same interface. The identifier also MUST NOT be “length”, “name” or “prototype”.
These three names are the names of properties that exist on all Function objects.
The type of a constant (matching ConstType) MUST NOT be any type other than a primitive type or a nullable primitive type. If an identifier is used, it MUST reference a typedef whose type is a primitive type or a nullable primitive type.
The ConstValue part of a
constant declaration gives the value of the constant, which can be
one of the two boolean literal tokens (true
and false
),
the null
token, an
integer token,
a float token,
or one of the three special floating point constant values
(-Infinity
, Infinity
and NaN
).
These values – in addition to strings and the empty sequence – can also be used to specify the
default value
of a dictionary member or of
an optional argument. Note that strings and the
empty sequence []
cannot be used as the value of a
constant.
The value of the boolean literal tokens true
and
false
are the IDL boolean values
true and false.
The value of an integer token is an integer whose value is determined as follows:
The type of an integer token is the same as the type of the constant, dictionary member or optional argument it is being used as the value of. The value of the integer token MUST NOT lie outside the valid range of values for its type, as given in section 3.10 below.
The value of a float token is either an IEEE 754 single-precision floating point number or an IEEE 754 double-precision floating point number, depending on the type of the constant, dictionary member or optional argument it is being used as the value for, determined as follows:
The value of a constant value specified as
Infinity
, -Infinity
or NaN
is either
an IEEE 754 single-precision floating point number or an IEEE 754
double-precision floating point number, depending on the type of the
constant, dictionary member or optional argument is is being used as the
value for:
Infinity
Infinity
-Infinity
-Infinity
NaN
NaN
The type of a float token is the same
as the type of the constant, dictionary member or optional argument it is being used as the value of. The value of the
float token MUST NOT
lie outside the valid range of values for its type, as given in
section 3.10 below.
Also, Infinity
, -Infinity
and NaN
MUST NOT
be used as the value of a float
or double.
The value of the null
token is the special
null value that is a member of the
nullable types. The type of
the null
token is the same as the
type of the constant, dictionary member or optional argument it is being used as the value of.
If VT is the type of the value assigned to a constant, and DT is the type of the constant, dictionary member or optional argument itself, then these types MUST be compatible, which is the case if DT and VT are identical, or DT is a nullable type whose inner type is VT.
Constants are not associated with particular instances of the interface on which they appear. It is language binding specific whether constants are exposed on instances.
The ECMAScript language binding does however allow constants to be accessed through objects implementing the IDL interfaces on which the constants are declared. For example, with the following IDL:
interface A {
const short rambaldi = 47;
};
the constant value can be accessed in ECMAScript either as
A.rambaldi
or instanceOfA.rambaldi
.
The following extended attributes are applicable to constants: [Exposed].
[26] | Const | → | "const" ConstType identifier "=" ConstValue ";" |
[27] | ConstValue | → | BooleanLiteral | FloatLiteral | integer | "null" |
[28] | BooleanLiteral | → | "true" | "false" |
[29] | FloatLiteral | → | float | "-Infinity" | "Infinity" | "NaN" |
[80] | ConstType | → | PrimitiveType Null | identifier Null |
The following IDL fragment demonstrates how constants of the above types can be defined.
interface Util {
const boolean DEBUG = false;
const octet LF = 10;
const unsigned long BIT_MASK = 0x0000fc00;
const double AVOGADRO = 6.022e23;
};
An attribute is an interface member (matching "static" AttributeRest, "stringifier" AttributeRest, or Attribute) that is used to declare data fields with a given type and identifier whose value can be retrieved and (in some cases) changed. There are two kinds of attributes:
attribute type identifier;
static attribute type identifier;
If an attribute has no static
keyword, then it declares a
regular attribute. Otherwise,
it declares a static attribute.
The identifier of an attribute MUST NOT be the same as the identifier of another interface member defined on the same interface. The identifier of a static attribute MUST NOT be “prototype”.
The type of the attribute is given by the type (matching Type)
that appears after the attribute
keyword.
If the Type is an
identifier or an identifier followed by ?
,
then the identifier MUST
identify an interface, enumeration,
callback function or typedef.
The type of the attribute, after resolving typedefs, MUST NOT be a nullable or non-nullable version of any of the following types:
The attribute is read only if the
readonly
keyword is used before the attribute
keyword.
An object that implements the interface on which a read only attribute
is defined will not allow assignment to that attribute. It is language
binding specific whether assignment is simply disallowed by the language,
ignored or an exception is thrown.
readonly attribute type identifier;
A regular attribute
that is not read only
can be declared to inherit its getter
from an ancestor interface. This can be used to make a read only attribute
in an ancestor interface be writable on a derived interface. An attribute
inherits its getter if
its declaration includes inherit
in the declaration.
The read only attribute from which the attribute inherits its getter
is the attribute with the same identifier on the closest ancestor interface
of the one on which the inheriting attribute is defined. The attribute
whose getter is being inherited MUST be
of the same type as the inheriting attribute, and inherit
MUST NOT appear on a read only
attribute or a static attribute.
interface Ancestor { readonly attribute TheType theIdentifier; }; interface Derived : Ancestor { inherit attribute TheType theIdentifier; };
When the stringifier
keyword is used
in a regular attribute
declaration, it indicates that objects implementing the
interface will be stringified to the value of the attribute. See
section 3.2.4.2
below for details.
stringifier attribute DOMString identifier;
If an implementation attempts to get or set the value of an attribute on a user object (for example, when a callback object has been supplied to the implementation), and that attempt results in an exception being thrown, then, unless otherwise specified, that exception will be propagated to the user code that caused the implementation to access the attribute. Similarly, if a value returned from getting the attribute cannot be converted to an IDL type, then any exception resulting from this will also be propagated to the user code that resulted in the implementation attempting to get the value of the attribute.
The following extended attributes are applicable to regular and static attributes: [Clamp], [EnforceRange], [Exposed], [SameObject], [TreatNullAs].
The following extended attributes are applicable only to regular attributes: [LenientThis], [PutForwards], [Replaceable], [Unforgeable].
[39] | ReadonlyMember | → | "readonly" ReadonlyMemberRest |
[41] | ReadWriteAttribute | → | "inherit" Readonly AttributeRest | AttributeRest |
[42] | AttributeRest | → | "attribute" Type AttributeName ";" |
[43] | AttributeName | → | AttributeNameKeyword | identifier |
[44] | AttributeNameKeyword | → | "required" |
[45] | Inherit | → | "inherit" | ε |
[46] | ReadOnly | → | "readonly" | ε |
The following IDL fragment demonstrates how attributes can be declared on an interface:
interface Animal {
// A simple attribute that can be set to any string value.
readonly attribute DOMString name;
// An attribute whose value can be assigned to.
attribute unsigned short age;
};
interface Person : Animal {
// An attribute whose getter behavior is inherited from Animal, and need not be
// specified in the description of Person.
inherit attribute DOMString name;
};
An operation is an interface member (matching "static" OperationRest, "stringifier" OperationRest, "serializer" OperationRest, ReturnType OperationRest or SpecialOperation) that defines a behavior that can be invoked on objects implementing the interface. There are three kinds of operation:
return-type identifier(arguments…);
special-keywords… return-type identifier(arguments…); special-keywords… return-type (arguments…);
static return-type identifier(arguments…);
If an operation has an identifier but no static
keyword, then it declares a regular operation.
If the operation has one or more
special keywords
used in its declaration (that is, any keyword matching
Special, or
the stringifier
keyword),
then it declares a special operation. A single operation can declare
both a regular operation and a special operation; see
section 3.2.4 below
for details on special operations.
If an operation has no identifier, then it MUST be declared to be a special operation using one of the special keywords.
The identifier of a regular operation or static operation MUST NOT be the same as the identifier of a constant or attribute defined on the same interface. The identifier of a static operation MUST NOT be “prototype”.
The identifier can be the same as that of another operation on the interface, however. This is how operation overloading is specified.
The identifier of a static operation also MUST NOT be the same as the identifier of a regular operation defined on the same interface.
The return type of the operation is given
by the type (matching ReturnType)
that appears before the operation’s optional identifier.
A return type of void
indicates that the operation returns no value.
If the return type is an
identifier followed by ?
,
then the identifier MUST
identify an interface, dictionary, enumeration,
callback function or typedef.
An operation’s arguments (matching ArgumentList) are given between the parentheses in the declaration. Each individual argument is specified as a type (matching Type) followed by an identifier (matching ArgumentName).
For expressiveness, the identifier of an operation argument can also be specified as one of the keywords matching the ArgumentNameKeyword symbol without needing to escape it.
If the Type of an operation argument is an identifier
followed by ?
,
then the identifier MUST identify an interface,
enumeration, callback function
or typedef.
If the operation argument type is an identifier
not followed by ?
, then the identifier MUST
identify any one of those definitions or a dictionary.
return-type identifier(type identifier, type identifier, …);
The identifier of each argument MUST NOT be the same as the identifier of another argument in the same operation declaration.
Each argument can be preceded by a list of extended attributes (matching ExtendedAttributeList), which can control how a value passed as the argument will be handled in language bindings.
return-type identifier([extended-attributes] type identifier, [extended-attributes] type identifier, …);
The following IDL fragment demonstrates how regular operations can be declared on an interface:
interface Dimensions {
attribute unsigned long width;
attribute unsigned long height;
};
interface Button {
// An operation that takes no arguments and returns a boolean.
boolean isMouseOver();
// Overloaded operations.
void setDimensions(Dimensions size);
void setDimensions(unsigned long width, unsigned long height);
};
An operation is considered to be variadic
if the final argument uses the ...
token just
after the argument type. Declaring an operation to be variadic indicates that
the operation can be invoked with any number of arguments after that final argument.
Those extra implied formal arguments are of the same type as the final explicit
argument in the operation declaration. The final argument can also be omitted
when invoking the operation. An argument MUST NOT
be declared with the ...
token unless it
is the final argument in the operation’s argument list.
return-type identifier(type... identifier); return-type identifier(type identifier, type... identifier);
Extended attributes
that take an argument list
([Constructor] and
[NamedConstructor], of those
defined in this specification) and callback functions
are also considered to be variadic
when the ...
token is used in their argument lists.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface that has two variadic operations:
interface IntegerSet {
readonly attribute unsigned long cardinality;
void union(long... ints);
void intersection(long... ints);
};
In the ECMAScript binding, variadic operations are implemented by functions that can accept the subsequent arguments:
var s = getIntegerSet(); // Obtain an instance of IntegerSet.
s.union(); // Passing no arguments corresponding to 'ints'.
s.union(1, 4, 7); // Passing three arguments corresponding to 'ints'.
A binding for a language that does not support variadic functions might specify that an explicit array or list of integers be passed to such an operation.
An argument is considered to be an optional argument
if it is declared with the optional
keyword.
The final argument of a variadic operation
is also considered to be an optional argument. Declaring an argument
to be optional indicates that the argument value can be omitted
when the operation is invoked. The final argument in an
operation MUST NOT explicitly be declared to be
optional if the operation is variadic.
return-type identifier(type identifier, optional type identifier);
Optional arguments can also have a default value specified. If the argument’s identifier is followed by a U+003D EQUALS SIGN ("=") and a value (matching DefaultValue), then that gives the optional argument its default value. The implicitly optional final argument of a variadic operation MUST NOT have a default value specified. The default value is the value to be assumed when the operation is called with the corresponding argument omitted.
return-type identifier(type identifier, optional type identifier = value);
It is strongly suggested not to use default value of true for boolean-typed arguments, as this can be confusing for authors who might otherwise expect the default conversion of undefined to be used (i.e., false).
If the type of an argument is a dictionary type or a union type that has a dictionary type as one of its flattened member types, and that dictionary type and its ancestors have no required members, and the argument is either the final argument or is followed only by optional arguments, then the argument MUST be specified as optional. Such arguments are always considered to have a default value of an empty dictionary, unless otherwise specified.
This is to encourage API designs that do not require authors to pass an empty dictionary value when they wish only to use the dictionary’s default values.
Dictionary types cannot have a default value specified explicitly, so the “unless otherwise specified” clause above can only be invoked for a union type that has a dictionary type as one of its flattened member types.
When a boolean literal token (true
or false
),
the null
token,
an integer token, a
float token or one of
the three special floating point literal values (Infinity
,
-Infinity
or NaN
) is used as the
default value,
it is interpreted in the same way as for a constant.
Optional argument default values can also be specified using a string token, whose value is a string type determined as follows:
If the type of the optional argument is an enumeration, then its default value if specified MUST be one of the enumeration’s values.
Optional argument default values can also be specified using the
two token value []
, which represents an empty sequence
value. The type of this value is the same the type of the optional
argument it is being used as the default value of. That type
MUST be a
sequence type or a
nullable type.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface with a single operation that can be invoked with two different argument list lengths:
interface ColorCreator {
object createColor(double v1, double v2, double v3, optional double alpha);
};
It is equivalent to an interface that has two overloaded operations:
interface ColorCreator {
object createColor(double v1, double v2, double v3);
object createColor(double v1, double v2, double v3, double alpha);
};
If an implementation attempts to invoke an operation on a user object (for example, when a callback object has been supplied to the implementation), and that attempt results in an exception being thrown, then, unless otherwise specified, that exception will be propagated to the user code that caused the implementation to invoke the operation. Similarly, if a value returned from invoking the operation cannot be converted to an IDL type, then any exception resulting from this will also be propagated to the user code that resulted in the implementation attempting to invoke the operation.
The following extended attributes are applicable to operations: [Exposed], [NewObject], [TreatNullAs], [Unforgeable].
The following extended attributes are applicable to operation arguments: [Clamp], [EnforceRange], [TreatNullAs].
[17] | DefaultValue | → | ConstValue | string | "[" "]" |
[47] | Operation | → | ReturnType OperationRest | SpecialOperation |
[48] | SpecialOperation | → | Special Specials ReturnType OperationRest |
[49] | Specials | → | Special Specials | ε |
[50] | Special | → | "getter" | "setter" | "deleter" | "legacycaller" |
[51] | OperationRest | → | OptionalIdentifier "(" ArgumentList ")" ";" |
[52] | OptionalIdentifier | → | identifier | ε |
[53] | ArgumentList | → | Argument Arguments | ε |
[54] | Arguments | → | "," Argument Arguments | ε |
[55] | Argument | → | ExtendedAttributeList OptionalOrRequiredArgument |
[56] | OptionalOrRequiredArgument | → | "optional" Type ArgumentName Default | Type Ellipsis ArgumentName |
[57] | ArgumentName | → | ArgumentNameKeyword | identifier |
[58] | Ellipsis | → | "..." | ε |
[71] | ArgumentNameKeyword | → |
"attribute" | "callback" | "const" | "deleter" | "dictionary" | "enum" | "getter" | "implements" | "inherit" | "interface" | "iterable" | "legacycaller" | "legacyiterable" | "maplike" | "partial" | "required" | "serializer" | "setlike" | "setter" | "static" | "stringifier" | "typedef" | "unrestricted" |
[89] | ReturnType | → | Type | "void" |
A special operation is a declaration of a certain kind of special behavior on objects implementing the interface on which the special operation declarations appear. Special operations are declared by using one or more special keywords in an operation declaration.
There are seven kinds of special operations. The table below indicates for a given kind of special operation what special keyword is used to declare it and what the purpose of the special operation is:
Special operation | Keyword | Purpose |
---|---|---|
Getters | getter |
Defines behavior for when an object is indexed for property retrieval. |
Setters | setter |
Defines behavior for when an object is indexed for property assignment or creation. |
Deleters | deleter |
Defines behavior for when an object is indexed for property deletion. |
Legacy callers | legacycaller |
Defines behavior for when an object is called as if it were a function. |
Stringifiers | stringifier |
Defines how an object is converted into a DOMString. |
Serializers | serializer |
Defines how an object is converted into a serialized form. |
Not all language bindings support all of the six kinds of special object behavior. When special operations are declared using operations with no identifier, then in language bindings that do not support the particular kind of special operations there simply will not be such functionality.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface with a getter and a setter:
interface Dictionary {
readonly attribute unsigned long propertyCount;
getter double (DOMString propertyName);
setter void (DOMString propertyName, double propertyValue);
};
In language bindings that do not support property getters and setters, objects implementing Dictionary will not have that special behavior.
Defining a special operation with an identifier is equivalent to separating the special operation out into its own declaration without an identifier. This approach is allowed to simplify prose descriptions of an interface’s operations.
The following two interfaces are equivalent:
interface Dictionary {
readonly attribute unsigned long propertyCount;
getter double getProperty(DOMString propertyName);
setter void setProperty(DOMString propertyName, double propertyValue);
};
interface Dictionary {
readonly attribute unsigned long propertyCount;
double getProperty(DOMString propertyName);
void setProperty(DOMString propertyName, double propertyValue);
getter double (DOMString propertyName);
setter void (DOMString propertyName, double propertyValue);
};
A given special keyword MUST NOT appear twice on an operation.
Getters and setters come in two varieties: ones that take a DOMString as a property name, known as named property getters and named property setters, and ones that take an unsigned long as a property index, known as indexed property getters and indexed property setters. There is only one variety of deleter: named property deleters. See section 3.2.4.4 and section 3.2.4.5 for details.
On a given interface, there MUST exist at most one stringifier, at most one serializer, at most one named property deleter, and at most one of each variety of getter and setter. Multiple legacy callers can exist on an interface to specify overloaded calling behavior.
If an interface has a setter of a given variety, then it MUST also have a getter of that variety. If it has a named property deleter, then it MUST also have a named property getter.
Special operations declared using operations MUST NOT be variadic nor have any optional arguments.
Special operations MUST NOT be declared on callback interfaces.
If an object implements more than one interface that defines a given special operation, then it is undefined which (if any) special operation is invoked for that operation.
When an interface has one or more
legacy callers, it indicates that objects that implement
the interface can be called as if they were functions. As mentioned above,
legacy callers can be specified using an operation
declared with the legacycaller
keyword.
legacycaller return-type identifier(arguments…); legacycaller return-type (arguments…);
If multiple legacy callers are specified on an interface, overload resolution is used to determine which legacy caller is invoked when the object is called as if it were a function.
Legacy callers MUST NOT be defined to return a promise type.
Legacy callers are universally recognised as an undesirable feature. They exist only so that legacy Web platform features can be specified. Legacy callers SHOULD NOT be used in specifications unless required to specify the behavior of legacy APIs, and even then this should be discussed on the public-script-coord@w3.org mailing list before proceeding.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface with a legacy caller.
interface NumberQuadrupler {
// This operation simply returns four times the given number x.
legacycaller double compute(double x);
};
An ECMAScript implementation supporting this interface would allow a platform object that implements NumberQuadrupler to be called as a function:
var f = getNumberQuadrupler(); // Obtain an instance of NumberQuadrupler.
f.compute(3); // This evaluates to 12.
f(3); // This also evaluates to 12.
When an interface has a
stringifier, it indicates that objects that implement
the interface have a non-default conversion to a string. As mentioned above,
stringifiers can be specified using an operation
declared with the stringifier
keyword.
stringifier DOMString identifier(); stringifier DOMString ();
If an operation used to declare a stringifier does not have an identifier, then prose accompanying the interface MUST define the stringification behavior of the interface. If the operation does have an identifier, then the object is converted to a string by invoking the operation to obtain the string.
Stringifiers declared with operations MUST be declared to take zero arguments and return a DOMString.
As a shorthand, if the stringifier
keyword
is declared using an operation with no identifier, then the
operation’s return type and
argument list can be omitted.
stringifier;
The following two interfaces are equivalent:
interface A {
stringifier DOMString ();
};
interface A {
stringifier;
};
The stringifier
keyword
can also be placed on an attribute.
In this case, the string to convert the object to is the
value of the attribute. The stringifier
keyword
MUST NOT be placed on an attribute unless
it is declared to be of type DOMString or USVString.
It also MUST NOT be placed on
a static attribute.
stringifier attribute DOMString identifier;
[35] | Stringifier | → | "stringifier" StringifierRest |
[36] | StringifierRest | → | Readonly AttributeRest | ReturnType OperationRest | ";" |
The following IDL fragment defines an interface that will stringify to the value of its name attribute:
[Constructor]
interface Student {
attribute unsigned long id;
stringifier attribute DOMString name;
};
In the ECMAScript binding, using a Student object in a context where a string is expected will result in the value of the object’s “name” property being used:
var s = new Student();
s.id = 12345678;
s.name = '周杰倫';
var greeting = 'Hello, ' + s + '!'; // Now greeting == 'Hello, 周杰倫!'.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface that has custom stringification behavior that is not specified in the IDL itself.
[Constructor]
interface Student {
attribute unsigned long id;
attribute DOMString? familyName;
attribute DOMString givenName;
stringifier DOMString ();
};
Thus, prose is required to explain the stringification behavior, such as the following paragraph:
Objects that implement the Student interface must stringify as follows. If the value of the familyName attribute is null, the stringification of the object is the value of the givenName attribute. Otherwise, if the value of the familyName attribute is not null, the stringification of the object is the concatenation of the value of the givenName attribute, a single space character, and the value of the familyName attribute.
An ECMAScript implementation of the IDL would behave as follows:
var s = new Student();
s.id = 12345679;
s.familyName = 'Smithee';
s.givenName = 'Alan';
var greeting = 'Hi ' + s; // Now greeting == 'Hi Alan Smithee'.
When an interface has a
serializer, it indicates that objects provide
a way for them to be converted into a serialized form. Serializers can be declared
using the serializer
keyword:
serializer;
Prose accompanying an interface that declares a serializer in this way MUST define the serialization behavior of the interface. Serialization behavior is defined as returning a serialized value of one of the following types:
How the serialization behavior is made available on an object in a language binding, and how exactly the abstract serialized value is converted into an appropriate concrete value, is language binding specific.
In the ECMAScript language binding,
serialization behavior
is exposed as a toJSON
method which returns the
serialized value converted
into an ECMAScript value that can be serialized to JSON by the
JSON.stringify
function. See section 4.5.8.2
below for details.
Serialization behavior
can also be specified directly in IDL, rather than separately as prose.
This is done by following the serializer
keyword with
a U+003D EQUALS SIGN ("=") character and
a serialization pattern,
which can take one of the following six forms:
A map with entries corresponding to zero or more attributes from the interface, and optionally attributes from an inherited interface:
serializer = { attribute-identifier, attribute-identifier, … }; serializer = { inherit, attribute-identifier, attribute-identifier, … };
Each identifier MUST be the identifier of an attribute declared on the interface. The identified attributes all MUST have a serializable type.
The inherit
keyword MUST NOT be used unless
the interface inherits from another that defines a serializer, and the closest such interface
defines its serializer using this serialization pattern
form or the following form (i.e. { attribute }
).
The serialization behavior for this form of serialization pattern is as follows:
inherit
keyword was used, then set map to be the result of
the serialization behavior of the
closest inherited interface that declares a serializer.A map with entries corresponding to all attributes from the interface that have a serializable type, and optionally attributes from an inherited interface:
serializer = { attribute }; serializer = { inherit, attribute };
The inherit
keyword MUST NOT be used unless
the interface inherits from another that defines a serializer, and the closest such interface
defines its serializer using this serialization pattern
form or the previous form.
The serialization behavior for this form of serialization pattern is as follows:
inherit
keyword was used, then set map to be the result of
the serialization behavior of the
closest inherited interface that declares a serializer.A map with entries corresponding to the named properties:
serializer = { getter };
This form MUST NOT be used unless the interface or one it inherits from supports named properties and the return type of the named property getter is a serializable type.
The serialization behavior for this form of serialization pattern is as follows:
A list of value of zero or more attributes on the interface:
serializer = [ attribute-identifier, attribute-identifier, … ];
Each identifier MUST be the identifier of an attribute declared on the interface. The identified attributes all MUST have a serializable type.
The serialization behavior for this form of serialization pattern is as follows:
A list with entries corresponding to the indexed properties:
serializer = [ getter ];
This form MUST NOT be used unless the interface or one it inherits from supports indexed properties and the return type of the indexed property getter is a serializable type.
The serialization behavior for this form of serialization pattern is as follows:
A single attribute:
serializer = attribute-identifier;
The identifier MUST be the identifier of an attribute declared on the interface, and this attribute MUST have a serializable type.
The serialization behavior for this form of serialization pattern is as follows:
Entries are added to maps in a particular order so that in the ECMAScript language binding
it is defined what order properties are added to objects. This is because this order
can influence the serialization that JSON.stringify
can produce.
The list of serializable types and how they are converted to serialized values is as follows:
Serializers can also be specified using an operation
with the serializer
keyword:
serializer type identifier();
Serializers declared with operations MUST be declared to take zero arguments and return a serializable type.
The serialization behavior of the interface with a serializer declared with an operation is the result of converting the value returned from invoking the operation to a serialized value.
[30] | Serializer | → | "serializer" SerializerRest |
[31] | SerializerRest | → | OperationRest | "=" SerializationPattern | ε |
[32] | SerializationPattern | → | "{" SerializationPatternMap "}" | "[" SerializationPatternList "]" | identifier |
[33] | SerializationPatternMap | → | "getter" | "inherit" Identifiers | identifier Identifiers | ε |
[34] | SerializationPatternList | → | "getter" | identifier Identifiers | ε |
[91] | Identifiers | → | "," identifier Identifiers | ε |
The following IDL fragment defines an interface Transaction that has a serializer defines in prose:
interface Transaction {
readonly attribute Account from;
readonly attribute Account to;
readonly attribute double amount;
readonly attribute DOMString description;
readonly attribute unsigned long number;
serializer;
};
interface Account {
DOMString name;
unsigned long number;
};
The serializer could be defined as follows:
The serialization behavior of the Transaction interface is to run the following algorithm, where O is the object that implements Transaction:
- Let map be an empty map.
- Add an entry to map whose key is “from” and whose value is the serialized value of the
number
attribute on the Account object referenced by thefrom
attribute on O.- Add an entry to map whose key is “to” and whose value is the serialized value of the
number
attribute on the Account object referenced by thefrom
attribute on O.- For both of the attributes
amount
anddescription
, add an entry to map whose key is the identifier of the attribute and whose value is the serialized value of the value of the attribute on O.- Return map.
If it was acceptable for Account objects to be serializable on their own, then serialization patterns could be used to avoid having to define the serialization behavior in prose:
interface Transaction {
readonly attribute Account from;
readonly attribute Account to;
readonly attribute double amount;
readonly attribute DOMString description;
readonly attribute unsigned long number;
serializer = { from, to, amount, description };
};
interface Account {
DOMString name;
unsigned long number;
serializer = number;
};
In the ECMAScript language binding, there would exist a toJSON
method on
Transaction objects:
// Get an instance of Transaction.
var txn = getTransaction();
// Evaluates to an object like this:
// {
// from: 1234
// to: 5678
// amount: 110.75
// description: "dinner"
// }
txn.toJSON();
// Evaluates to a string like this:
// '{"from":1234,"to":5678,"amount":110.75,"description":"dinner"}'
JSON.stringify(txn);
An interface that defines an indexed property getter is said to support indexed properties.
If an interface supports indexed properties, then the interface definition MUST be accompanied by a description of what indices the object can be indexed with at any given time. These indices are called the supported property indices.
Indexed property getters MUST be declared to take a single unsigned long argument. Indexed property setters MUST be declared to take two arguments, where the first is an unsigned long.
getter type identifier(unsigned long identifier); setter type identifier(unsigned long identifier, type identifier); getter type (unsigned long identifier); setter type (unsigned long identifier, type identifier);
The following requirements apply to the definitions of indexed property getters and setters:
Note that if an indexed property getter or setter is specified using an operation with an identifier, then indexing an object with an integer that is not a supported property index does not necessarily elicit the same behavior as invoking the operation with that index. The actual behavior in this case is language binding specific.
In the ECMAScript language binding, a regular property lookup is done. For example, take the following IDL:
interface A {
getter DOMString toWord(unsigned long index);
};
Assume that an object implementing A has supported property indices in the range 0 ≤ index < 2. Also assume that toWord is defined to return its argument converted into an English word. The behavior when invoking the operation with an out of range index is different from indexing the object directly:
var a = getA();
a.toWord(0); // Evalautes to "zero".
a[0]; // Also evaluates to "zero".
a.toWord(5); // Evaluates to "five".
a[5]; // Evaluates to undefined, since there is no property "5".
The following IDL fragment defines an interface OrderedMap which allows retrieving and setting values by name or by index number:
interface OrderedMap {
readonly attribute unsigned long size;
getter any getByIndex(unsigned long index);
setter void setByIndex(unsigned long index, any value);
getter any get(DOMString name);
setter void set(DOMString name, any value);
};
Since all of the special operations are declared using
operations with identifiers, the only additional prose
that is necessary is that which describes what keys those sets
have. Assuming that the get()
operation is
defined to return null if an
attempt is made to look up a non-existing entry in the
OrderedMap, then the following
two sentences would suffice:
An object map implementing OrderedMap supports indexed properties with indices in the range 0 ≤ index <
map.size
.Such objects also support a named property for every name that, if passed to
get()
, would return a non-null value.
As described in section 4.7, an ECMAScript implementation would create properties on a platform object implementing OrderedMap that correspond to entries in both the named and indexed property sets. These properties can then be used to interact with the object in the same way as invoking the object’s methods, as demonstrated below:
// Assume map is a platform object implementing the OrderedMap interface.
var map = getOrderedMap();
var x, y;
x = map[0]; // If map.length > 0, then this is equivalent to:
//
// x = map.getByIndex(0)
//
// since a property named "0" will have been placed on map.
// Otherwise, x will be set to undefined, since there will be
// no property named "0" on map.
map[1] = false; // This will do the equivalent of:
//
// map.setByIndex(1, false)
y = map.apple; // If there exists a named property named "apple", then this
// will be equivalent to:
//
// y = map.get('apple')
//
// since a property named "apple" will have been placed on
// map. Otherwise, y will be set to undefined, since there
// will be no property named "apple" on map.
map.berry = 123; // This will do the equivalent of:
//
// map.set('berry', 123)
delete map.cake; // If a named property named "cake" exists, then the "cake"
// property will be deleted, and then the equivalent to the
// following will be performed:
//
// map.remove("cake")
An interface that defines a named property getter is said to support named properties.
If an interface supports named properties, then the interface definition MUST be accompanied by a description of the ordered set of names that can be used to index the object at any given time. These names are called the supported property names.
Named property getters and deleters MUST be declared to take a single DOMString argument. Named property setters MUST be declared to take two arguments, where the first is a DOMString.
getter type identifier(DOMString identifier); setter type identifier(DOMString identifier, type identifier); deleter type identifier(DOMString identifier); getter type (DOMString identifier); setter type (DOMString identifier, type identifier); deleter type (DOMString identifier);
The following requirements apply to the definitions of named property getters, setters and deleters:
As with indexed properties, if an named property getter, setter or deleter is specified using an operation with an identifier, then indexing an object with a name that is not a supported property name does not necessarily elicit the same behavior as invoking the operation with that name; the behavior is language binding specific.
Static attributes and
static operations are ones that
are not associated with a particular instance of the
interface
on which it is declared, and is instead associated with the interface
itself. Static attributes and operations are declared by using the
static
keyword in their declarations.
It is language binding specific whether it is possible to invoke a static operation or get or set a static attribute through a reference to an instance of the interface.
Static attributes and operations MUST NOT be declared on callback interfaces.
[37] | StaticMember | → | "static" StaticMemberRest |
[38] | StaticMemberRest | → | Readonly AttributeRest | ReturnType OperationRest |
The following IDL fragment defines an interface Circle that has a static operation declared on it:
interface Point { /* ... */ };
interface Circle {
attribute double cx;
attribute double cy;
attribute double radius;
static readonly attribute long triangulationCount;
static Point triangulate(Circle c1, Circle c2, Circle c3);
};
In the ECMAScript language binding, the Function object for
triangulate
and the accessor property for triangulationCount
will exist on the interface object
for Circle:
var circles = getCircles(); // an Array of Circle objects
typeof Circle.triangulate; // Evaluates to "function"
typeof Circle.triangulationCount; // Evaluates to "number"
Circle.prototype.triangulate; // Evaluates to undefined
Circle.prototype.triangulationCount; // Also evaluates to undefined
circles[0].triangulate; // As does this
circles[0].triangulationCount; // And this
// Call the static operation
var triangulationPoint = Circle.triangulate(circles[0], circles[1], circles[2]);
// Find out how many triangulations we have done
window.alert(Circle.triangulationCount);
If a regular operation or static operation defined on an interface has an identifier that is the same as the identifier of another operation on that interface of the same kind (regular or static), then the operation is said to be overloaded. When the identifier of an overloaded operation is used to invoke one of the operations on an object that implements the interface, the number and types of the arguments passed to the operation determine which of the overloaded operations is actually invoked. If an interface has multiple legacy callers defined on it, then those legacy callers are also said to be overloaded. In the ECMAScript language binding, constructors can be overloaded too. There are some restrictions on the arguments that overloaded operations, legacy callers and constructors can be specified to take, and in order to describe these restrictions, the notion of an effective overload set is used.
Operations and legacy callers MUST NOT be overloaded across interface and partial interface definitions.
For example, the overloads for both f and g are disallowed:
interface A {
void f();
};
partial interface A {
void f(double x);
void g();
};
partial interface A {
void g(DOMString x);
};
Note that the [Constructor] and [NamedConstructor] extended attributes are disallowed from appearing on partial interface definitions, so there is no need to also disallow overloading for constructors.
An effective overload set represents the allowable invocations for a particular operation, constructor (specified with [Constructor] or [NamedConstructor]), legacy caller or callback function. The algorithm to compute an effective overload set operates on one of the following six types of IDL constructs, and listed with them below are the inputs to the algorithm needed to compute the set.
An effective overload set is used, among other things, to determine whether there are ambiguities in the overloaded operations, constructors and callers specified on an interface.
The elements of an effective overload set are tuples of the form <callable, type list, optionality list>. If the effective overload set is for regular operations, static operations or legacy callers, then callable is an operation; if it is for constructors or named constructors, then callable is an extended attribute; and if it is for callback functions, then callable is the callback function itself. In all cases, type list is a list of IDL types, and optionality list is a list of three possible optionality values – “required”, “optional” or “variadic” – indicating whether the argument at a given index was declared as being optional or corresponds to a variadic argument. Each tuple represents an allowable invocation of the operation, constructor, legacy caller or callback function with an argument value list of the given types. Due to the use of optional arguments and variadic operations and constructors, there may be multiple entries in an effective overload set identifying the same operation or constructor.
The algorithm below describes how to compute an effective overload set. The following input variables are used, if they are required:
Whenever an argument of an extended attribute is mentioned, it is referring to an argument of the extended attribute’s named argument list.
So void f(long x, long... y);
is considered to be declared to take two arguments.
This leaves off the final, variadic argument.
For the following interface:
interface A {
/* f1 */ void f(DOMString a);
/* f2 */ void f(Node a, DOMString b, double... c);
/* f3 */ void f();
/* f4 */ void f(Event a, DOMString b, optional DOMString c, double... d);
};
assuming Node and Event
are two other interfaces of which no object can implement both,
the effective overload set
for regular operations with
identifier f
and argument count 4 is:
Two types are distinguishable if at most one of the two includes a nullable type or is a dictionary type, and at least one of the following three conditions is true:
The two types (taking their inner types if they are nullable types) appear in the following table and there is a “●” mark in the corresponding entry or there is a letter in the corresponding entry and the designated additional requirement below the table is satisfied:
boolean | numeric types | string types | interface | object | callback function |
dictionary | sequence<T> | FrozenArray<T> | Date | RegExp | exception types | buffer source types | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
boolean | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |
numeric types | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||
string types | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||
interface | (a) | (b) | (b) | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||
object | |||||||||||||
callback function | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||
dictionary | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||
sequence<T> | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||||
FrozenArray<T> | ● | ● | ● | ● | |||||||||
Date | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||
RegExp | ● | ● | |||||||||||
exception types | ● | ||||||||||||
buffer source types |
Promise types do not appear in the above table, and as a consequence are not distinguishable with any other type.
If there is more than one entry in an effective overload set that has a given type list length, then for those entries there MUST be an index i such that for each pair of entries the types at index i are distinguishable. The lowest such index is termed the distinguishing argument index for the entries of the effective overload set with the given type list length.
Consider the effective overload set shown in the previous example. There are multiple entries in the set with type lists 2, 3 and 4. For each of these type list lengths, the distinguishing argument index is 0, since Node and Event are distinguishable.
The following use of overloading however is invalid:
interface B {
void f(DOMString x);
void f(double x);
};
In addition, for each index j, where j is less than the distinguishing argument index for a given type list length, the types at index j in all of the entries’ type lists MUST be the same and the booleans in the corresponding list indicating argument optionality MUST be the same.
The following is invalid:
interface B {
/* f1 */ void f(DOMString w);
/* f2 */ void f(long w, double x, Node y, Node z);
/* f3 */ void f(double w, double x, DOMString y, Node z);
};
For argument count 4, the effective overload set is:
Looking at entries with type list length 4, the distinguishing argument index is 2, since Node and DOMString are distinguishable. However, since the arguments in these two overloads at index 0 are different, the overloading is invalid.
An interface can be declared to be iterable by using an iterable declaration (matching Iterable) in the body of the interface.
iterable<value-type>; iterable<key-type, value-type>;
Objects implementing an interface that is declared to be iterable support being iterated over to obtain a sequence of values.
In the ECMAScript language binding, an interface that is iterable will have “entries”, “keys”, “values” and @@iterator properties on its interface prototype object.
If a single type parameter is given, then the interface has a value iterator and provides values of the specified type. If two type parameters are given, then the interface has a pair iterator and provides value pairs, where the first value is a key and the second is the value associated with the key.
Prose accompanying an interface with a value iterator MUST define what the list of values to iterate over is, unless the interface also supports indexed properties, in which case the values of the indexed properties are implicitly iterated over. Prose accompanying an interface with a pair iterator MUST define what the list of value pairs to iterate over is.
Interfaces that support indexed properties need to have a “length” attribute for the iterator to work correctly.
The prose is responsible for defining that the list of values or value pairs to iterate over is snapshotted at the time iteration begins, if that is desired. To handle lists that can change during iteration, the behavior of an iterator defined to to loop through the items in order, starting at index 0, and advancing this index on each iteration. Iteration ends when the index has gone past the end of the list.
This is how array iterator objects work. For interfaces that support indexed properties, the iterator objects returned by “entries”, “keys”, “values” and @@iterator are actual array iterator objects.
Interfaces with iterable declarations MUST NOT have any interface members named “entries”, “keys” or “values”, or have any inherited or consequential interfaces that have interface members with these names.
Consider the following interface SessionManager, which allows access to a number of Session objects:
interface SessionManager {
Session getSessionForUser(DOMString username);
readonly attribute unsigned long sessionCount;
iterable<Session>;
};
interface Session {
readonly attribute DOMString username;
// ...
};
The behavior of the iterator could be defined like so:
The values to iterate over are a snapshot of the open Session objects on the SessionManager sorted by username.
In the ECMAScript language binding, the interface prototype object
for the SessionManager interface
has a values
method that is a function, which, when invoked,
returns an iterator object that itself has a next
method that returns the
next value to be iterated over. It has values
and entries
methods that iterate over the indexes of the list of session objects
and [index, session object] pairs, respectively. It also has
a @@iterator method that allows a SessionManager
to be used in a for..of
loop:
// Get an instance of SessionManager.
// Assume that it has sessions for two users, "anna" and "brian".
var sm = getSessionManager();
typeof SessionManager.prototype.values; // Evaluates to "function"
var it = sm.values(); // values() returns an iterator object
String(it); // Evaluates to "[object SessionManager Iterator]"
typeof it.next; // Evaluates to "function"
// This loop will alert "anna" and then "brian".
for (;;) {
let result = it.next();
if (result.done) {
break;
}
let session = result.value;
window.alert(session.username);
}
// This loop will also alert "anna" and then "brian".
for (let session of sm) {
window.alert(session.username);
}
If the SessionManager interface supported indexed properties and had an attribute named “length” that reflected the number of session objects, we could avoid defining the values to iterate over.
For legacy reasons, it might be needed to expose the iterator in
a more restricted way. The legacyiterable
keyword can
be used to indicate this.
legacyiterable<type>;
The legacyiterable
keyword is intended for use on a limited number
of interfaces, such as HTMLCollection, where it
would not be Web compatible to expose the “entries”, “keys”, and “values”
properties.
An interface MUST NOT have more than one iterable declaration. The inherited and consequential interfaces of an interface with an iterable declaration MUST NOT also have an iterable declaration. An interface with an iterable declaration and its inherited and consequential interfaces MUST NOT have a maplike declaration or setlike declaration.
The following extended attributes are applicable to iterable declarations: [Exposed].
[59] | Iterable | → | "iterable" "<" Type OptionalType ">" ";" | "legacyiterable" "<" Type ">" ";" |
[60] | OptionalType | → | "," Type | ε |
An interface can be declared to be maplike by using a maplike declaration (matching ReadWriteMaplike or "readonly" MaplikeRest) in the body of the interface.
readonly maplike<key-type, value-type>; maplike<key-type, value-type>;
Objects implementing an interface that is declared to be maplike represent an ordered list of key–value pairs known as its map entries. The types used for the keys and values are given in the angle brackets of the maplike declaration. Keys are required to be unique.
The map entries of an object implementing a maplike interface is empty at the of the object’s creation. Prose accompanying the interface can describe how the map entries of an object change.
Maplike interfaces support an API for querying the map entries
appropriate for the language binding. If the readonly
keyword is not used, then it also supports an API for modifying
the map entries.
In the ECMAScript language binding, the API for interacting
with the map entries is similar to that available on ECMAScript
Map objects. If the readonly
keyword is used, this includes “entries”, “forEach”, “get”, “has”,
“keys”, “values”, @@iterator methods and a “size” getter.
For read–write maplikes, it also includes “clear”, “delete” and
“set” methods.
Maplike interfaces MUST NOT have any interface members named “entries”, “forEach”, “get”, “has”, “keys”, “size”, or “values”, or have any inherited or consequential interfaces that have interface members with these names. Read–write maplike interfaces MUST NOT have any attributes or constants named “clear”, “delete”, or “set”, or have any inherited or consequential interfaces that have attributes or constants with these names.
Operations named “clear”, “delete”, or “set” are allowed on read–write maplike interfaces and will prevent the default implementation of these methods being added to the interface prototype object in the ECMAScript language binding. This allows the default behavior of these operations to be overridden.
An interface MUST NOT have more than one maplike declaration. The inherited and consequential interfaces of a maplike interface MUST NOT also have a maplike declaration. A maplike interface and its inherited and consequential interfaces MUST NOT have an iterable declaration or setlike declaration.
[39] | ReadonlyMember | → | "readonly" ReadonlyMemberRest |
[40] | ReadonlyMemberRest | → | AttributeRest | ReadWriteMaplike | ReadWriteSetlike |
[61] | ReadWriteMaplike | → | MaplikeRest |
[63] | MaplikeRest | → | "maplike" "<" Type "," Type ">" ";" |
No extended attributes defined in this specification are applicable to maplike declarations.
Add example.
An interface can be declared to be setlike by using a setlike declaration (matching ReadWriteSetlike or "readonly" SetlikeRest) in the body of the interface.
readonly setlike<type>; setlike<type>;
Objects implementing an interface that is declared to be setlike represent an ordered list of values known as its set entries. The type of the values is given in the angle brackets of the setlike declaration. Values are required to be unique.
The set entries of an object implementing a setlike interface is empty at the of the object’s creation. Prose accompanying the interface can describe how the set entries of an object change.
Setlike interfaces support an API for querying the set entries
appropriate for the language binding. If the readonly
keyword is not used, then it also supports an API for modifying
the set entries.
In the ECMAScript language binding, the API for interacting
with the set entries is similar to that available on ECMAScript
Set objects. If the readonly
keyword is used, this includes “entries”, “forEach”, “has”,
“keys”, “values”, @@iterator methods and a “size” getter.
For read–write setlikes, it also includes “add”, “clear”, and “delete” methods.
Setlike interfaces MUST NOT have any interface members named “entries”, “forEach”, “has”, “keys”, “size”, or “values”, or have any inherited or consequential interfaces that have interface members with these names.. Read–write setlike interfaces MUST NOT have any attributes or constants named “add”, “clear”, or “delete”, or have any inherited or consequential interfaces that have attributes or constants with these names.
Operations named “add”, “clear”, or “delete” are allowed on read–write setlike interfaces and will prevent the default implementation of these methods being added to the interface prototype object in the ECMAScript language binding. This allows the default behavior of these operations to be overridden.
An interface MUST NOT have more than one setlike declaration. The inherited and consequential interfaces of a setlike interface MUST NOT also have a setlike declaration. A setlike interface and its inherited and consequential interfaces MUST NOT have an iterable declaration or maplike declaration.
[39] | ReadonlyMember | → | "readonly" ReadonlyMemberRest |
[40] | ReadonlyMemberRest | → | AttributeRest | ReadWriteMaplike | ReadWriteSetlike |
[62] | ReadWriteSetlike | → | SetlikeRest |
[64] | SetlikeRest | → | "setlike" "<" Type ">" ";" |
No extended attributes defined in this specification are applicable to setlike declarations.
Add example.
A dictionary is a definition (matching Dictionary) used to define an associative array data type with a fixed, ordered set of key–value pairs, termed dictionary members, where keys are strings and values are of a particular type specified in the definition.
dictionary identifier { dictionary-members… };
Dictionaries are always passed by value. In language bindings where a dictionary is represented by an object of some kind, passing a dictionary to a platform object will not result in a reference to the dictionary being kept by that object. Similarly, any dictionary returned from a platform object will be a copy and modifications made to it will not be visible to the platform object.
A dictionary can be defined to inherit from another dictionary. If the identifier of the dictionary is followed by a colon and a identifier, then that identifier identifies the inherited dictionary. The identifier MUST identify a dictionary.
A dictionary MUST NOT be declared such that its inheritance hierarchy has a cycle. That is, a dictionary A cannot inherit from itself, nor can it inherit from another dictionary B that inherits from A, and so on.
dictionary Base { dictionary-members… }; dictionary Derived : Base { dictionary-members… };
The inherited dictionaries of a given dictionary D is the set of all dictionaries that D inherits from, directly or indirectly. If D does not inherit from another dictionary, then the set is empty. Otherwise, the set includes the dictionary E that D inherits from and all of E’s inherited dictionaries.
A dictionary value of type D can have key–value pairs corresponding to the dictionary members defined on D and on any of D’s inherited dictionaries. On a given dictionary value, the presence of each dictionary member is optional, unless that member is specified as required. When specified in the dictionary value, a dictionary member is said to be present, otherwise it is not present. Dictionary members can also optionally have a default value, which is the value to use for the dictionary member when passing a value to a platform object that does not have a specified value. Dictionary members with default values are always considered to be present.
As with operation argument default values, is strongly suggested not to use of true as the default value for boolean-typed dictionary members, as this can be confusing for authors who might otherwise expect the default conversion of undefined to be used (i.e., false).
Each dictionary member (matching
DictionaryMember) is specified
as a type (matching Type) followed by an
identifier
(given by an identifier token following
the type). The identifier is the key name of the key–value pair.
If the Type
is an identifier
followed by ?
, then the identifier
MUST identify an
interface, enumeration,
callback function or typedef.
If the dictionary member type is an identifier
not followed by ?
, then the identifier MUST
identify any one of those definitions or a dictionary.
dictionary identifier { type identifier; };
If the identifier is followed by a U+003D EQUALS SIGN ("=") and a value (matching DefaultValue), then that gives the dictionary member its default value.
dictionary identifier { type identifier = value; };
When a boolean literal token (true
or false
),
the null
token,
an integer token, a
double token,
one of the three special floating point literal values (Infinity
,
-Infinity
or NaN
),
a string token or
the two token sequence []
used as the
default value,
it is interpreted in the same way as for an operation’s
optional argument default value.
If the type of the dictionary member is an enumeration, then its default value if specified MUST be one of the enumeration’s values.
If the type of the dictionary member is preceded by the
required
keyword, the member is considered a
required dictionary member
and must be present on the dictionary. A
required dictionary
member MUST NOT have a default value.
dictionary identifier { required type identifier; };
The type of a dictionary member MUST NOT include the dictionary it appears on. A type includes a dictionary D if at least one of the following is true:
As with interfaces, the IDL for dictionaries can be split into multiple parts by using partial dictionary definitions (matching "partial" Dictionary). The identifier of a partial dictionary definition MUST be the same as the identifier of a dictionary definition. All of the members that appear on each of the partial dictionary definitions are considered to be members of the dictionary itself.
dictionary SomeDictionary { dictionary-members… }; partial dictionary SomeDictionary { dictionary-members… };
As with partial interface definitions, partial dictionary definitions are intended for use as a specification editorial aide, allowing the definition of an interface to be separated over more than one section of the document, and sometimes multiple documents.
The order of the dictionary members on a given dictionary is such that inherited dictionary members are ordered before non-inherited members, and the dictionary members on the one dictionary definition (including any partial dictionary definitions) are ordered lexicographically by the Unicode codepoints that comprise their identifiers.
For example, with the following definitions:
dictionary B : A {
long b;
long a;
};
dictionary A {
long c;
long g;
};
dictionary C : B {
long e;
long f;
};
partial dictionary A {
long h;
long d;
};
the order of the dictionary members of a dictionary value of type C is c, d, g, h, a, b, e, f.
Dictionaries are required to have their members ordered because in some language bindings the behavior observed when passing a dictionary value to a platform object depends on the order the dictionary members are fetched. For example, consider the following additional interface:
interface Something {
void f(A a);
};
and this ECMAScript code:
var something = getSomething(); // Get an instance of Something.
var x = 0;
var dict = { };
Object.defineProperty(dict, "d", { get: function() { return ++x; } });
Object.defineProperty(dict, "c", { get: function() { return ++x; } });
something.f(dict);
The order that the dictionary members are fetched in determines what values they will be taken to have. Since the order for A is defined to be c then d, the value for c will be 1 and the value for d will be 2.
The identifier of a dictionary member MUST NOT be the same as that of another dictionary member defined on the dictionary or on that dictionary’s inherited dictionaries.
Dictionaries MUST NOT be used as the type of an attribute or constant.
The following extended attributes are applicable to dictionaries: [Constructor], [Exposed].
The following extended attributes are applicable to dictionary members: [Clamp], [EnforceRange].
[6] | Partial | → | "partial" PartialDefinition |
[7] | PartialDefinition | → | PartialInterface | PartialDictionary |
[11] | Dictionary | → | "dictionary" identifier Inheritance "{" DictionaryMembers "}" ";" |
[12] | DictionaryMembers | → | ExtendedAttributeList DictionaryMember DictionaryMembers | ε |
[13] | DictionaryMember | → | Required Type identifier Default ";" |
[15] | PartialDictionary | → | "dictionary" identifier "{" DictionaryMembers "}" ";" |
[16] | Default | → | "=" DefaultValue | ε |
[17] | DefaultValue | → | ConstValue | string | "[" "]" |
[18] | Inheritance | → | ":" identifier | ε |
One use of dictionary types is to allow a number of optional arguments to an operation without being constrained as to the order they are specified at the call site. For example, consider the following IDL fragment:
[Constructor]
interface Point {
attribute double x;
attribute double y;
};
dictionary PaintOptions {
DOMString? fillPattern = "black";
DOMString? strokePattern = null;
Point position;
};
interface GraphicsContext {
void drawRectangle(double width, double height, optional PaintOptions options);
};
In an ECMAScript implementation of the IDL, an Object can be passed in for the optional PaintOptions dictionary:
// Get an instance of GraphicsContext.
var ctx = getGraphicsContext();
// Draw a rectangle.
ctx.drawRectangle(300, 200, { fillPattern: "red", position: new Point(10, 10) });
Both fillPattern and strokePattern are given default values, so if they are omitted, the definition of drawRectangle can assume that they have the given default values and not include explicit wording to handle their non-presence.
An exception is a type of object that represents an error and which can be thrown or treated as a first class value by implementations. Web IDL does not allow exceptions to be defined, but instead has a number of pre-defined exceptions that specifications can reference and throw in their definition of operations, attributes, and so on. Exceptions have an error name, a DOMString, which is the type of error the exception represents, and a message, which is an optional, user agent-defined value that provides human readable details of the error.
There are two kinds of exceptions available to be thrown from specifications. The first is a simple exception, which is identified by one of the following names:
These correspond to all of the ECMAScript error objects ([ECMA-262], section 19.5) (apart from SyntaxError, which is deliberately omitted as it is for use only by the ECMAScript parser). The meaning of each simple exception matches its corresponding Error object in the ECMAScript specification.
The second kind of exception is a DOMException, which is an exception that encapsulates a name and an optional integer code, for compatibility with historically defined exceptions in the DOM.
For simple exceptions, the error name is the name of the exception. For a DOMException, the error name MUST be one of the names listed in the error names table below. The table also indicates the DOMException's integer code for that error name, if it has one.
There are two types that can be used to refer to exception objects: Error, which encompasses all exceptions, and DOMException which includes just DOMException objects. This allows for example an operation to be declared to have a DOMException return type or an attribute to be of type Error.
Exceptions can be created by providing its error name. Exceptions can also be thrown, by providing the same details required to create one.
The resulting behavior from creating and throwing an exception is language binding-specific.
See section 4.12 below for details on what creating and throwing an exception entails in the ECMAScript language binding.
Here is are some examples of wording to use to create and throw exceptions. To throw a new simple exception named TypeError:
Throw a TypeError.
To throw a new DOMException with error name IndexSizeError:
Throw an IndexSizeError.
To create a new DOMException with error name SyntaxError:
Let object be a newly created SyntaxError.
The error names table below lists all the allowed error names for DOMExceptions, a description, and legacy code values.
If an error name is not listed here, please file a bug as indicated at the top of this specification and it will be addressed shortly. Thanks!
Name | Description | Legacy code name and value |
---|---|---|
"IndexSizeError " |
The index is not in the allowed range. | INDEX_SIZE_ERR (1) |
"HierarchyRequestError " |
The operation would yield an incorrect node tree. | HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR (3) |
"WrongDocumentError " |
The object is in the wrong document. | WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR (4) |
"InvalidCharacterError " |
The string contains invalid characters. | INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR (5) |
"NoModificationAllowedError " |
The object can not be modified. | NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR (7) |
"NotFoundError " |
The object can not be found here. | NOT_FOUND_ERR (8) |
"NotSupportedError " |
The operation is not supported. | NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR (9) |
"InUseAttributeError " |
The attribute is in use. | INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR (10) |
"InvalidStateError " |
The object is in an invalid state. | INVALID_STATE_ERR (11) |
"SyntaxError " |
The string did not match the expected pattern. | SYNTAX_ERR (12) |
"InvalidModificationError " |
The object can not be modified in this way. | INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR (13) |
"NamespaceError " |
The operation is not allowed by Namespaces in XML. [XMLNS] | NAMESPACE_ERR (14) |
"InvalidAccessError " |
The object does not support the operation or argument. | INVALID_ACCESS_ERR (15) |
"SecurityError " |
The operation is insecure. | SECURITY_ERR (18) |
"NetworkError " |
A network error occurred. | NETWORK_ERR (19) |
"AbortError " |
The operation was aborted. | ABORT_ERR (20) |
"URLMismatchError " |
The given URL does not match another URL. | URL_MISMATCH_ERR (21) |
"QuotaExceededError " |
The quota has been exceeded. | QUOTA_EXCEEDED_ERR (22) |
"TimeoutError " |
The operation timed out. | TIMEOUT_ERR (23) |
"InvalidNodeTypeError " |
The supplied node is incorrect or has an incorrect ancestor for this operation. | INVALID_NODE_TYPE_ERR (24) |
"DataCloneError " |
The object can not be cloned. | DATA_CLONE_ERR (25) |
"EncodingError " |
The encoding operation (either encoded or decoding) failed. | — |
"NotReadableError " |
The I/O read operation failed. | — |
"UnknownError " |
The operation failed for an unknown transient reason (e.g. out of memory). | — |
"ConstraintError " |
A mutation operation in a transaction failed because a constraint was not satisfied. | — |
"DataError " |
Provided data is inadequate. | — |
"TransactionInactiveError " |
A request was placed against a transaction which is currently not active, or which is finished. | — |
"ReadOnlyError " |
The mutating operation was attempted in a "readonly" transaction. | — |
"VersionError " |
An attempt was made to open a database using a lower version than the existing version. | — |
"OperationError " |
The operation failed for an operation-specific reason. | — |
An enumeration is a definition (matching Enum) used to declare a type whose valid values are a set of predefined strings. Enumerations can be used to restrict the possible DOMString values that can be assigned to an attribute or passed to an operation.
enum identifier { enumeration-values… };
The enumeration values are specified as a comma-separated list of string literals. The list of enumeration values MUST NOT include duplicates.
It is strongly suggested that enumeration values be all lowercase,
and that multiple words be separated using dashes or not be
separated at all, unless there is a specific reason to use another
value naming scheme. For example, an enumeration value that
indicates an object should be created could be named
"createobject"
or 'create-object"
.
Consider related uses of enumeration values when deciding whether
to dash-separate or not separate enumeration value words so that
similar APIs are consistent.
The behavior when a string value that is not one a valid enumeration value is used when assigning to an attribute, or passed as an operation argument, whose type is the enumeration, is language binding specific.
In the ECMAScript binding, assignment of an invalid string value to an attribute is ignored, while passing such a value as an operation argument results in an exception being thrown.
No extended attributes defined in this specification are applicable to enumerations.
[19] | Enum | → | "enum" identifier "{" EnumValueList "}" ";" |
[20] | EnumValueList | → | string EnumValueListComma |
[21] | EnumValueListComma | → | "," EnumValueListString | ε |
[22] | EnumValueListString | → | string EnumValueListComma | ε |
The following IDL fragment defines an enumeration that is used as the type of an attribute and an operation argument:
enum MealType { "rice", "noodles", "other" };
interface Meal {
attribute MealType type;
attribute double size; // in grams
void initialize(MealType type, double size);
};
An ECMAScript implementation would restrict the strings that can be assigned to the type property or passed to the initializeMeal function to those identified in the enumeration.
var meal = getMeal(); // Get an instance of Meal.
meal.initialize("rice", 200); // Operation invoked as normal.
try {
meal.initialize("sandwich", 100); // Throws a TypeError.
} catch (e) {
}
meal.type = "noodles"; // Attribute assigned as normal.
meal.type = "dumplings"; // Attribute assignment ignored.
meal.type == "noodles"; // Evaluates to true.
The “Custom DOM Elements” spec wants to use callback function types for platform object provided functions. Should we rename “callback functions” to just “functions” to make it clear that they can be used for both purposes?
A callback function is a definition (matching "callback" CallbackRest) used to declare a function type.
callback identifier = return-type (arguments…);
See also the similarly named callback interfaces.
The identifier on the left of the equals sign gives the name of the callback function and the return type and argument list (matching ReturnType and ArgumentList) on the right side of the equals sign gives the signature of the callback function type.
Callback functions MUST NOT be used as the type of a constant.
The following extended attribute is applicable to callback functions: [TreatNonObjectAsNull].
[3] | CallbackOrInterface | → | "callback" CallbackRestOrInterface | Interface |
[4] | CallbackRestOrInterface | → | CallbackRest | Interface |
[23] | CallbackRest | → | identifier "=" ReturnType "(" ArgumentList ")" ";" |
The following IDL fragment defines a callback function used for an API that invokes a user-defined function when an operation is complete.
callback AsyncOperationCallback = void (DOMString status);
interface AsyncOperations {
void performOperation(AsyncOperationCallback whenFinished);
};
In the ECMAScript language binding, a Function object is passed as the operation argument.
var ops = getAsyncOperations(); // Get an instance of AsyncOperations.
ops.performOperation(function(status) {
window.alert("Operation finished, status is " + status + ".");
});
A typedef is a definition (matching Typedef) used to declare a new name for a type. This new name is not exposed by language bindings; it is purely used as a shorthand for referencing the type in the IDL.
typedef type identifier;
The type being given a new name is specified after the typedef
keyword (matching Type), and the
identifier token following the
type gives the name.
The Type MUST NOT identify the same or another typedef.
No extended attributes defined in this specification are applicable to typedefs.
[24] | Typedef | → | "typedef" Type identifier ";" |
The following IDL fragment demonstrates the use of typedefs to allow the use of a short identifier instead of a long sequence type.
interface Point {
attribute double x;
attribute double y;
};
typedef sequence<Point> Points;
interface Widget {
boolean pointWithinBounds(Point p);
boolean allPointsWithinBounds(Points ps);
};
An implements statement is a definition (matching ImplementsStatement) used to declare that all objects implementing an interface A (identified by the first identifier) MUST additionally implement interface B (identified by the second identifier), including all other interfaces that B inherits from.
identifier-A implements identifier-B;
Transitively, if objects implementing B are declared with an implements statement to additionally implement interface C, then all objects implementing A do additionally implement interface C.
The two identifiers MUST identify two different interfaces.
The interface identified on the left-hand side of an implements statement MUST NOT inherit from the interface identifier on the right-hand side, and vice versa. Both identified interfaces also MUST NOT be callback interfaces.
If each implements statement is considered to be an edge in a directed graph, from a node representing the interface on the left-hand side of the statement to a node representing the interface on the right-hand side, then this graph MUST NOT have any cycles.
Interfaces that a given object implements are partitioned into those that are considered supplemental interfaces and those that are not. An interface A is considered to be a supplemental interface of an object O if:
B implements A
; orSpecification authors are discouraged from writing implements statements where the interface on the left-hand side is a supplemental interface. For example, if author 1 writes:
interface Window { ... };
interface SomeFunctionality { ... };
Window implements SomeFunctionality;
and author 2 later writes:
interface Gizmo { ... };
interface MoreFunctionality { ... };
SomeFunctionality implements MoreFunctionality;
Gizmo implements SomeFunctionality;
then it might be the case that author 2 is unaware of exactly which
interfaces already are used on the left-hand side of an
implements SomeFunctionality
statement, and so has
required more objects implement MoreFunctionality
than he or she expected.
Better in this case would be for author 2 to write:
interface Gizmo { ... };
interface MoreFunctionality { ... };
Gizmo implements SomeFunctionality;
Gizmo implements MoreFunctionality;
The consequential interfaces of an interface A are:
A implements B
;C implements D
,
where C is a consequential interface of A.For a given interface, there MUST NOT be any member defined on any of its consequential interfaces whose identifier is the same as any other member defined on any of those consequential interfaces or on the original interface itself.
For example, that precludes the following:
interface A { attribute long x; };
interface B { attribute long x; };
A implements B; // B::x would clash with A::x
interface C { attribute long y; };
interface D { attribute long y; };
interface E : D { };
C implements E; // D::y would clash with C::y
interface F { };
interface H { attribute long z; };
interface I { attribute long z; };
F implements H;
F implements I; // H::z and I::z would clash when mixed in to F
No extended attributes defined in this specification are applicable to implements statements.
[25] | ImplementsStatement | → | identifier "implements" identifier ";" |
The following IDL fragment defines two interfaces, stating that one interface is always implemented on objects implementing the other.
interface Entry {
readonly attribute unsigned short entryType;
// ...
};
interface Observable {
void addEventListener(DOMString type,
EventListener listener,
boolean useCapture);
// ...
};
Entry implements Observable;
An ECMAScript implementation would thus have an “addEventListener” property in the prototype chain of every Entry:
var e = getEntry(); // Obtain an instance of Entry.
typeof e.addEventListener; // Evaluates to "function".
Note that it is not the case that all Observable objects implement Entry.
In a given implementation of a set of IDL fragments, an object can be described as being a platform object, a user object, or neither. There are two kinds of object that are considered to be platform objects:
In a browser, for example, the browser-implemented DOM objects (implementing interfaces such as Node and Document) that provide access to a web page’s contents to ECMAScript running in the page would be platform objects. These objects might be exotic objects, implemented in a language like C++, or they might be native ECMAScript objects. Regardless, an implementation of a given set of IDL fragments needs to be able to recognize all platform objects that are created by the implementation. This might be done by having some internal state that records whether a given object is indeed a platform object for that implementation, or perhaps by observing that the object is implemented by a given internal C++ class. How exactly platform objects are recognised by a given implementation of a set of IDL fragments is implementation specific.
All other objects in the system would not be treated as platform objects. For example, assume that a web page opened in a browser loads an ECMAScript library that implements DOM Core. This library would be considered to be a different implementation from the browser provided implementation. The objects created by the ECMAScript library that implement the Node interface will not be treated as platform objects that implement Node by the browser implementation.
User objects are those that authors would create, implementing callback interfaces that the Web APIs use to be able to invoke author-defined operations or to send and receive values to the author’s program through manipulating the object’s attributes. In a web page, an ECMAScript object that implements the EventListener interface, which is used to register a callback that the DOM Events implementation invokes, would be considered to be a user object.
Note that user objects can only implement callback interfaces and platform objects can only implement non-callback interfaces.
This section lists the types supported by Web IDL, the set of values corresponding to each type, and how constants of that type are represented.
The following types are known as integer types: byte, octet, short, unsigned short, long, unsigned long, long long and unsigned long long.
The following types are known as numeric types: the integer types, float, unresticted float, double and unrestricted double.
The primitive types are boolean and the numeric types.
The string types are DOMString, all enumeration types, ByteString and USVString.
The exception types are Error and DOMException.
The typed array types are Int8Array, Int16Array, Int32Array, Uint8Array, Uint16Array, Uint32Array, Uint8ClampedArray, Float32Array and Float64Array.
The buffer source types are ArrayBuffer, DataView, and the typed array types.
The object type, all interface types and the exception types are known as object types.
Every type has a type name, which is a string, not necessarily unique, that identifies the type. Each sub-section below defines what the type name is for each type.
When conversions are made from language binding specific types to IDL types in order to invoke an operation or assign a value to an attribute, all conversions necessary will be performed before the specified functionality of the operation or attribute assignment is carried out. If the conversion cannot be performed, then the operation will not run or the attribute will not be updated. In some language bindings, type conversions could result in an exception being thrown. In such cases, these exceptions will be propagated to the code that made the attempt to invoke the operation or assign to the attribute.
[73] | Type | → | SingleType | UnionType Null |
[74] | SingleType | → | NonAnyType | "any" |
[75] | UnionType | → | "(" UnionMemberType "or" UnionMemberType UnionMemberTypes ")" |
[76] | UnionMemberType | → | NonAnyType | UnionType Null |
[77] | UnionMemberTypes | → | "or" UnionMemberType UnionMemberTypes | ε |
[78] | NonAnyType | → | PrimitiveType Null | PromiseType Null | "ByteString" Null | "DOMString" Null | "USVString" Null | identifier Null | "sequence" "<" Type ">" Null | "object" Null | "Date" Null | "RegExp" Null | "Error" Null | "DOMException" Null | BufferRelatedType Null | "FrozenArray" "<" Type ">" Null |
[80] | ConstType | → | PrimitiveType Null | identifier Null |
[81] | PrimitiveType | → | UnsignedIntegerType | UnrestrictedFloatType | "boolean" | "byte" | "octet" |
[82] | UnrestrictedFloatType | → | "unrestricted" FloatType | FloatType |
[83] | FloatType | → | "float" | "double" |
[84] | UnsignedIntegerType | → | "unsigned" IntegerType | IntegerType |
[85] | IntegerType | → | "short" | "long" OptionalLong |
[86] | OptionalLong | → | "long" | ε |
[87] | PromiseType | → | "Promise" "<" ReturnType ">" |
[88] | Null | → | "?" | ε |
The any type is the union of all other possible non-union types. Its type name is “Any”.
The any type is like a discriminated union type, in that each of its values has a specific non-any type associated with it. For example, one value of the any type is the unsigned long 150, while another is the long 150. These are distinct values.
The particular type of an any value is known as its specific type. (Values of union types also have specific types.)
The boolean type has two values: true and false.
boolean constant values in IDL are
represented with the true
and
false
tokens.
The byte type is a signed integer type that has values in the range [−128, 127].
byte constant values in IDL are represented with integer tokens.
The octet type is an unsigned integer type that has values in the range [0, 255].
octet constant values in IDL are represented with integer tokens.
The short type is a signed integer type that has values in the range [−32768, 32767].
short constant values in IDL are represented with integer tokens.
The unsigned short type is an unsigned integer type that has values in the range [0, 65535].
unsigned short constant values in IDL are represented with integer tokens.
The type name of the unsigned short type is “UnsignedShort”.
The long type is a signed integer type that has values in the range [−2147483648, 2147483647].
long constant values in IDL are represented with integer tokens.
The unsigned long type is an unsigned integer type that has values in the range [0, 4294967295].
unsigned long constant values in IDL are represented with integer tokens.
The type name of the unsigned long type is “UnsignedLong”.
The long long type is a signed integer type that has values in the range [−9223372036854775808, 9223372036854775807].
long long constant values in IDL are represented with integer tokens.
The unsigned long long type is an unsigned integer type that has values in the range [0, 18446744073709551615].
unsigned long long constant values in IDL are represented with integer tokens.
The type name of the unsigned long long type is “UnsignedLongLong”.
The float type is a floating point numeric type that corresponds to the set of finite single-precision 32 bit IEEE 754 floating point numbers. [IEEE-754]
float constant values in IDL are represented with float tokens.
The unrestricted float type is a floating point numeric type that corresponds to the set of all possible single-precision 32 bit IEEE 754 floating point numbers, finite and non-finite. [IEEE-754]
unrestricted float constant values in IDL are represented with float tokens.
The type name of the unrestricted float type is “UnrestrictedFloat”.
The double type is a floating point numeric type that corresponds to the set of finite double-precision 64 bit IEEE 754 floating point numbers. [IEEE-754]
double constant values in IDL are represented with float tokens.
The unrestricted double type is a floating point numeric type that corresponds to the set of all possible double-precision 64 bit IEEE 754 floating point numbers, finite and non-finite. [IEEE-754]
unrestricted double constant values in IDL are represented with float tokens.
The type name of the unrestricted double type is “UnrestrictedDouble”.
The DOMString type corresponds to the set of all possible sequences of code units. Such sequences are commonly interpreted as UTF-16 encoded strings [RFC2781] although this is not required. While DOMString is defined to be an OMG IDL boxed sequence<unsigned short> valuetype in DOM Level 3 Core ([DOM3CORE], section 1.2.1), this document defines DOMString to be an intrinsic type so as to avoid special casing that sequence type in various situations where a string is required.
Note also that null
is not a value of type DOMString.
To allow null, a
nullable DOMString,
written as DOMString?
in IDL, needs to be used.
Nothing in this specification requires a DOMString value to be a valid UTF-16 string. For example, a DOMString value might include unmatched surrogate pair characters. However, authors of specifications using Web IDL might want to obtain a sequence of Unicode scalar values given a particular sequence of code units. The following algorithm defines a way to convert a DOMString to a sequence of Unicode scalar values:
There is no way to represent a constant DOMString value in IDL, although DOMString dictionary member and operation optional argument default values can be specified using a string literal.
The ByteString type corresponds to the set of all possible sequences of bytes. Such sequences might be interpreted as UTF-8 encoded strings [RFC3629] or strings in some other 8-bit-per-code-unit encoding, although this is not required.
There is no way to represent a constant ByteString value in IDL.
The type name of the ByteString type is “ByteString”.
Specifications SHOULD only use ByteString for interfacing with protocols that use bytes and strings interchangably, such as HTTP. In general, strings SHOULD be represented with DOMString values, even if it is expected that values of the string will always be in ASCII or some 8 bit character encoding. Sequences, frozen arrays or Typed Arrays with octet or byte elements SHOULD be used for holding 8 bit data rather than ByteString. [TYPEDARRAYS]
The USVString type corresponds to the set of all possible sequences of Unicode scalar values, which are all of the Unicode code points apart from the surrogate code points.
There is no way to represent a constant USVString value in IDL, although USVString dictionary member and operation optional argument default values can be specified using a string literal.
The type name of the USVString type is “USVString”.
Specifications SHOULD only use USVString for APIs that perform text processing and need a string of Unicode scalar values to operate on. Most APIs that use strings should instead be using DOMString, which does not make any interpretations of the code units in the string. When in doubt, use DOMString.
The object type corresponds to the set of all possible non-null object references.
There is no way to represent a constant object value in IDL.
To denote a type that includes all possible object references plus the null value, use the nullable type object?.
An identifier that identifies an interface is used to refer to a type that corresponds to the set of all possible non-null references to objects that implement that interface.
For non-callback interfaces, an IDL value of the interface type is represented just by an object reference. For callback interfaces, an IDL value of the interface type is represented by a tuple of an object reference and a callback context. The callback context is a language binding specific value, and is used to store information about the execution context at the time the language binding specific object reference is converted to an IDL value.
For ECMAScript objects, the callback context is used to hold a reference to the incumbent script [HTML] at the time the Object value is converted to an IDL callback interface type value. See section 4.2.20 below.
There is no way to represent a constant object reference value for a particular interface type in IDL.
To denote a type that includes all possible references to objects implementing the given interface plus the null value, use a nullable type.
The type name of an interface type is the identifier of the interface.
An identifier that identifies a dictionary is used to refer to a type that corresponds to the set of all dictionaries that adhere to the dictionary definition.
There is no way to represent a constant dictionary value in IDL.
The type name of a dictionary type is the identifier of the dictionary.
An identifier that identifies an enumeration is used to refer to a type whose values are the set of strings (sequences of code units, as with DOMString) that are the enumeration’s values.
Like DOMString, there is no way to represent a constant enumeration value in IDL, although enumeration-typed dictionary member default values can be specified using a string literal.
The type name of an enumeration type is the identifier of the enumeration.
An identifier that identifies a callback function is used to refer to a type whose values are references to objects that are functions with the given signature.
An IDL value of the callback function type is represented by a tuple of an object reference and a callback context.
As with callback interface types, the callback context is used to hold a reference to the incumbent script [HTML] at the time an ECMAScript Object value is converted to an IDL callback function type value. See section 4.2.23 below.
There is no way to represent a constant callback function value in IDL.
The type name of a callback function type is the identifier of the callback function.
A nullable type is an IDL type constructed from an existing type (called the inner type), which just allows the additional value null to be a member of its set of values. Nullable types are represented in IDL by placing a U+003F QUESTION MARK ("?") character after an existing type. The inner type MUST NOT be any, another nullable type, or a union type that itself has includes a nullable type or has a dictionary type as one of its flattened member types.
Although dictionary types can in general be nullable, they cannot when used as the type of an operation argument or a dictionary member.
Nullable type constant values in IDL are represented in the same way that
constant values of their inner type
would be represented, or with the null
token.
The type name of a nullable type is the concatenation of the type name of the inner type T and the string “OrNull”.
For example, a type that allows the values true, false and null is written as boolean?:
interface MyConstants {
const boolean? ARE_WE_THERE_YET = false;
};
The following interface has two attributes: one whose value can be a DOMString or the null value, and another whose value can be a reference to a Node object or the null value:
interface Node {
readonly attribute DOMString? namespaceURI;
readonly attribute Node? parentNode;
// ...
};
The sequence<T> type is a parameterized type whose values are (possibly zero-length) sequences of values of type T.
Sequences are always passed by value. In language bindings where a sequence is represented by an object of some kind, passing a sequence to a platform object will not result in a reference to the sequence being kept by that object. Similarly, any sequence returned from a platform object will be a copy and modifications made to it will not be visible to the platform object.
There is no way to represent a constant sequence value in IDL.
Sequences MUST NOT be used as the type of an attribute or constant.
This restriction exists so that it is clear to specification writers and API users that sequences are copied rather than having references to them passed around. Instead of a writable attribute of a sequence type, it is suggested that a pair of operations to get and set the sequence is used.
The type name of a sequence type is the concatenation of the type name for T and the string “Sequence”.
A promise type is a parameterized type whose values are references to objects that “is used as a place holder for the eventual results of a deferred (and possibly asynchronous) computation result of an asynchronous operation” [ECMA-262]. See section 25.4 of the ECMAScript specification for details on the semantics of promise objects.
There is no way to represent a promise value in IDL.
The type name of a promise type is the concatenation of the type name for T and the string “Promise”.
A union type is a type whose set of values
is the union of those in two or more other types. Union types (matching
UnionType)
are written as a series of types separated by the or
keyword
with a set of surrounding parentheses.
The types which comprise the union type are known as the
union’s member types.
For example, you might write (Node or DOMString)
or (double or sequence<double>)
. When applying a
?
suffix to a
union type
as a whole, it is placed after the closing parenthesis,
as in (Node or DOMString)?
.
Note that the member types
of a union type do not descend into nested union types. So for
(double or (Date or Event) or (Node or DOMString)?)
the member types
are double
, (Date or Event)
and
(Node or DOMString)?
.
Like the any type, values of union types have a specific type, which is the particular member type that matches the value.
The flattened member types of a union type is a set of types determined as follows:
For example, the flattened member types
of the union type
(Node or (Date or Event) or (XMLHttpRequest or DOMString)? or sequence<(sequence<double> or NodeList)>)
are the six types Node
, Date
, Event
,
XMLHttpRequest
, DOMString
and
sequence<(sequence<double> or NodeList)>
.
The number of nullable member types of a union type is an integer determined as follows:
The any type MUST NOT be used as a union member type.
The number of nullable member types of a union type MUST be 0 or 1, and if it is 1 then the union type MUST also not have a dictionary type in its flattened member types.
A type includes a nullable type if:
Each pair of flattened member types in a union type, T and U, MUST be distinguishable.
Union type constant values in IDL are represented in the same way that constant values of their member types would be represented.
The type name of a union type is formed by taking the type names of each member type, in order, and joining them with the string “Or”.
[75] | UnionType | → | "(" UnionMemberType "or" UnionMemberType UnionMemberTypes ")" |
[76] | UnionMemberType | → | NonAnyType | UnionType Null |
[77] | UnionMemberTypes | → | "or" UnionMemberType UnionMemberTypes | ε |
[78] | NonAnyType | → | PrimitiveType Null | PromiseType Null | "ByteString" Null | "DOMString" Null | "USVString" Null | identifier Null | "sequence" "<" Type ">" Null | "object" Null | "Date" Null | "RegExp" Null | "Error" Null | "DOMException" Null | BufferRelatedType Null | "FrozenArray" "<" Type ">" Null |
The Date type is a type that represents an instant in time with millisecond accuracy. The instants in time that this type can represent are the same that can be represented with ECMAScript Date objects ([ECMA-262], section 20.3) – namely, every millisecond in the 200,000,000 days centered around midnight of 1 January, 1970 UTC, except for any millisecond that is part of an inserted leap second, because they cannot be represented by this type.
An additional value that this type can represent is one that indicates an indeterminate or undefined time, which we write as undefined.
There is no way to represent a constant Date value in IDL.
The RegExp type is a type whose values are references to objects that represent regular expressions. The particular regular expression language and the features it supports is language binding specific.
There is no way to represent a constant RegExp value in IDL.
The Error type corresponds to the set of all possible non-null references to exception objects, including simple exceptions and DOMExceptions.
There is no way to represent a constant Error value in IDL.
The DOMException type corresponds to the set of all possible non-null references to objects representing DOMExceptions.
There is no way to represent a constant DOMException value in IDL.
The type name of the DOMException type is “DOMException”.
There are a number of types that correspond to sets of all possible non-null references to objects that represent a buffer of data or a view on to a buffer of data. The table below lists these types and the kind of buffer or view they represent.
Type | Kind of buffer |
---|---|
ArrayBuffer | An object that holds a pointer (which may be null) to a buffer of a fixed number of bytes |
DataView | A view on to an ArrayBuffer that allows typed access to integers and floating point values stored at arbitrary offsets into the buffer |
Int8Array, Int16Array, Int32Array |
A view on to an ArrayBuffer that exposes it as an array of two’s complement signed integers of the given size in bits |
Uint8Array, Uint16Array, Uint32Array |
A view on to an ArrayBuffer that exposes it as an array of unsigned integers of the given size in bits |
Uint8ClampedArray | A view on to an ArrayBuffer that exposes it as an array of unsigned 8 bit integers with clamped conversions |
Float32Array, Float64Array |
A view on to an ArrayBuffer that exposes it as an array of IEEE 754 floating point numbers of the given size in bits |
These types all correspond to classes defined in ECMAScript.
To detach an ArrayBuffer is to set its buffer pointer to null.
There is no way to represent a constant value of any of these types in IDL.
The type name of all of these types is the name of the type itself.
At the specification prose level, IDL buffer source types are simply references to objects. To inspect or manipulate the bytes inside the buffer, specification prose MUST first either get a reference to the bytes held by the buffer source or get a copy of the bytes held by the buffer source. With a reference to the buffer source’s bytes, specification prose can get or set individual byte values using that reference.
Extreme care must be taken when writing specification text that gets a reference to the bytes held by a buffer source, as the underyling data can easily be changed by the script author or other APIs at unpredictable times. If you are using a buffer source type as an operation argument to obtain a chunk of binary data that will not be modified, it is strongly recommended to get a copy of the buffer source’s bytes at the beginning of the prose defining the operation.
Requiring prose to explicitly get a reference to or copy of the bytes is intended to help specification reviewers look for problematic uses of these buffer source types.
When designing APIs that take a buffer, it is recommended to use the BufferSource typedef rather than ArrayBuffer or any of the view types.
When designing APIs that create and return a buffer, it is recommended to use the ArrayBuffer type rather than Uint8Array.
Attempting to get a reference to or get a copy of the bytes held by a buffer source when the ArrayBuffer has been detached will fail in a language binding-specific manner.
See section 4.2.32 below for how interacting with buffer source types works in the ECMAScript language binding.
We should include an example of specification text that uses these types and terms.
A frozen array type is a parameterized type whose values are references to objects that hold a fixed length array of unmodifiable values. The values in the array are of type T.
Since FrozenArray<T> values are references, they are unlike sequence types, which are lists of values that are passed by value.
There is no way to represent a constant frozen array value in IDL.
The type name of a frozen array type is the concatenation of the type name for T and the string “Array”.
An extended attribute is an annotation that can appear on definitions, interface members, dictionary members, and operation arguments, and is used to control how language bindings will handle those constructs. Extended attributes are specified with an ExtendedAttributeList, which is a square bracket enclosed, comma separated list of ExtendedAttributes.
The ExtendedAttribute grammar symbol matches nearly any sequence of tokens, however the extended attributes defined in this document only accept a more restricted syntax. Any extended attribute encountered in an IDL fragment is matched against the following six grammar symbols to determine which form (or forms) it is in:
Grammar symbol | Form | Example |
---|---|---|
ExtendedAttributeNoArgs | takes no arguments |
[Replaceable]
|
ExtendedAttributeArgList | takes an argument list |
[Constructor(double x, double y)]
|
ExtendedAttributeNamedArgList | takes a named argument list |
[NamedConstructor=Image(DOMString src)]
|
ExtendedAttributeIdent | takes an identifier |
[PutForwards=name]
|
ExtendedAttributeIdentList | takes an identifier list |
[Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
|
This specification defines a number of extended attributes that are applicable to the ECMAScript language binding, which are described in section 4.3. Each extended attribute definition will state which of the above six forms are allowed.
This section describes how definitions written with the IDL defined in section 3 correspond to particular constructs in ECMAScript, as defined by the ECMAScript Language Specification 6th Edition [ECMA-262].
Objects defined in this section have internal properties as described in ECMA-262 sections 9.1 and 9.3.1 unless otherwise specified, in which case one or more of the following are redefined in accordance with the rules for exotic objects: [[Call]], [[Set]], [[DefineOwnProperty]], [[GetOwnProperty]], [[Delete]] and [[HasInstance]].
Unless otherwise specified, the [[Extensible]] internal property of objects defined in this section has the value true.
Unless otherwise specified, the [[Prototype]] internal property of objects defined in this section is the Object prototype object.
Some objects described in this section are defined to have a class string, which is the string to include in the string returned from Object.prototype.toString. If an object has a class string, then the object MUST, at the time it is created, have a property whose name is the @@toStringTag symbol and whose value is the specified string.
Should define whether @@toStringTag is writable, enumerable and configurable. All @@toStringTag properties in the ES6 spec are non-writable and non-enumerable, and configurable.
If an object is defined to be a function object, then it has characteristics as follows:
The list above needs updating for the latest ES6 draft.
Algorithms in this section use the conventions described in ECMA-262 section 5.2, such as the use of steps and substeps, the use of mathematical operations, and so on. The ToBoolean, ToNumber, ToUint16, ToInt32, ToUint32, ToString, ToObject, IsAccessorDescriptor and IsDataDescriptor abstract operations and the Type(x) notation referenced in this section are defined in ECMA-262 sections 6 and 7.
When an algorithm says to “throw a SomethingError” then this means to construct a new ECMAScript SomethingError object and to throw it, just as the algorithms in ECMA-262 do.
Note that algorithm steps can call in to other algorithms and abstract operations and not explicitly handle exceptions that are thrown from them. When an exception is thrown by an algorithm or abstract operation and it is not explicitly handled by the caller, then it is taken to end the algorithm and propagate out to its caller, and so on.
Consider the following algorithm:
Since ToString can throw an exception (for example if passed the object
({ toString: function() { throw 1 } })
), and the exception is
not handled in the above algorithm, if one is thrown then it causes this
algorithm to end and for the exception to propagate out to its caller, if there
is one.
In an ECMAScript implementation of a given set of IDL fragments, there will exist a number of ECMAScript objects that correspond to definitions in those IDL fragments. These objects are termed the initial objects, and comprise the following:
Each ECMAScript global environment ([ECMA-262], section 8.2) MUST have its own unique set of each of the initial objects, created before control enters any ECMAScript execution context associated with the environment, but after the global object for that environment is created. The [[Prototype]]s of all initial objects in a given global environment MUST come from that same global environment.
In an HTML user agent, multiple global environments can exist when multiple frames or windows are created. Each frame or window will have its own set of initial objects, which the following HTML document demonstrates:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<title>Different global environments</title>
<iframe id=a></iframe>
<script>
var iframe = document.getElementById("a");
var w = iframe.contentWindow; // The global object in the frame
Object == w.Object; // Evaluates to false, per ECMA-262
Node == w.Node; // Evaluates to false
iframe instanceof w.Node; // Evaluates to false
iframe instanceof w.Object; // Evaluates to false
iframe.appendChild instanceof Function; // Evaluates to true
iframe.appendChild instanceof w.Function; // Evaluates to false
</script>
Unless otherwise specified, each ECMAScript global environment exposes all interfaces that the implementation supports. If a given ECMAScript global environment does not expose an interface, then the requirements given in section 4.5 are not followed for that interface.
This allows, for example, ECMAScript global environments for Web Workers to expose different sets of supported interfaces from those exposed in environments for Web pages.
This section describes how types in the IDL map to types in ECMAScript.
Each sub-section below describes how values of a given IDL type are represented in ECMAScript. For each IDL type, it is described how ECMAScript values are converted to an IDL value when passed to a platform object expecting that type, and how IDL values of that type are converted to ECMAScript values when returned from a platform object.
Since the IDL any type is the union of all other IDL types, it can correspond to any ECMAScript value type.
How to convert an ECMAScript value to an IDL any value depends on the type of the ECMAScript value:
An IDL any value is converted to an ECMAScript value as follows. If the value is an object reference to a special object that represents an ECMAScript undefined value, then it is converted to the ECMAScript undefined value. Otherwise, the rules for converting the specific type of the IDL any value as described in the remainder of this section are performed.
The only place that the void type may appear in IDL is as the return type of an operation. Functions on platform objects that implement an operation whose IDL specifies a void return type MUST return the undefined value.
ECMAScript functions that implement an operation whose IDL specifies a void return type MAY return any value, which will be discarded.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL boolean value by running the following algorithm:
The IDL boolean value true is converted to the ECMAScript true value and the IDL boolean value false is converted to the ECMAScript false value.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL byte value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL byte value to an ECMAScript value is a Number that represents the same numeric value as the IDL byte value. The Number value will be an integer in the range [−128, 127].
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL octet value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL octet value to an ECMAScript value is a Number that represents the same numeric value as the IDL octet value. The Number value will be an integer in the range [0, 255].
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL short value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL short value to an ECMAScript value is a Number that represents the same numeric value as the IDL short value. The Number value will be an integer in the range [−32768, 32767].
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL unsigned short value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL unsigned short value to an ECMAScript value is a Number that represents the same numeric value as the IDL unsigned short value. The Number value will be an integer in the range [0, 65535].
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL long value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL long value to an ECMAScript value is a Number that represents the same numeric value as the IDL long value. The Number value will be an integer in the range [−2147483648, 2147483647].
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL unsigned long value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL unsigned long value to an ECMAScript value is a Number that represents the same numeric value as the IDL unsigned long value. The Number value will be an integer in the range [0, 4294967295].
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL long long value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL long long value to an ECMAScript value is a Number value that represents the closest numeric value to the long long, choosing the numeric value with an even significand if there are two equally close values ([ECMA-262], section 6.1.6). If the long long is in the range [−253 + 1, 253 − 1], then the Number will be able to represent exactly the same value as the long long.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL unsigned long long value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL unsigned long long value to an ECMAScript value is a Number value that represents the closest numeric value to the unsigned long long, choosing the numeric value with an even significand if there are two equally close values ([ECMA-262], section 6.1.6). If the unsigned long long is less than or equal to 253 − 1, then the Number will be able to represent exactly the same value as the unsigned long long.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL float value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL float value to an ECMAScript value is the Number value that represents the same numeric value as the IDL float value.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL unrestricted float value by running the following algorithm:
Since there is only a single ECMAScript NaN value, it must be canonicalized to a particular single precision IEEE 754 NaN value. The NaN value mentioned above is chosen simply because it is the quiet NaN with the lowest value when its bit pattern is interpreted as an unsigned 32 bit integer.
The result of converting an IDL unrestricted float value to an ECMAScript value is a Number:
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL double value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL double value to an ECMAScript value is the Number value that represents the same numeric value as the IDL double value.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL unrestricted double value by running the following algorithm:
Since there is only a single ECMAScript NaN value, it must be canonicalized to a particular double precision IEEE 754 NaN value. The NaN value mentioned above is chosen simply because it is the quiet NaN with the lowest value when its bit pattern is interpreted as an unsigned 64 bit integer.
The result of converting an IDL unrestricted double value to an ECMAScript value is a Number:
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL DOMString value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL DOMString value to an ECMAScript value is the String value that represents the same sequence of code units that the IDL DOMString represents.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL ByteString value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL ByteString value to an ECMAScript value is a String value whose length is the length of the ByteString, and the value of each element of which is the value of the corresponding element of the ByteString.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL USVString value by running the following algorithm:
An IDL USVString value is converted to an ECMAScript value by running the following algorithm:
IDL object values are represented by ECMAScript Object values.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL object value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL object value to an ECMAScript value is the Object value that represents a reference to the same object that the IDL object represents.
IDL interface type values are represented by ECMAScript Object or Function values.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL interface type value by running the following algorithm (where I is the interface):
The result of converting an IDL interface type value to an ECMAScript value is the Object value that represents a reference to the same object that the IDL interface type value represents.
IDL dictionary type values are represented by ECMAScript Object values. Properties on the object (or its prototype chain) correspond to dictionary members.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL dictionary type value by running the following algorithm (where D is the dictionary):
The order that dictionary members are looked up on the ECMAScript object are not necessarily the same as the object’s property enumeration order.
An IDL dictionary value V is converted to an ECMAScript Object value by running the following algorithm (where D is the dictionary):
({})
.IDL enumeration types are represented by ECMAScript String values.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL enumeration type value as follows (where E is the enumeration):
The result of converting an IDL enumeration type value to an ECMAScript value is the String value that represents the same sequence of code units as the enumeration value.
IDL callback function types are represented by ECMAScript Function objects, except in the [TreatNonObjectAsNull] case, when they can be any object.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL callback function type value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL callback function type value to an ECMAScript value is a reference to the same object that the IDL callback function type value represents.
IDL nullable type values are represented by values of either the ECMAScript type corresponding to the inner IDL type, or the ECMAScript null value.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL nullable type T? value (where T is the inner type) as follows:
The result of converting an IDL nullable type value to an ECMAScript value is:
IDL sequence<T> values are represented by ECMAScript Array values.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL sequence<T> value as follows:
An IDL sequence value S of type sequence<T> is converted to an ECMAScript Array object as follows:
[]
.To create an IDL value of type sequence<T> given an iterable iterable and an iterator getter method, perform the following steps:
The following interface defines an attribute of a sequence type as well as an operation with an argument of a sequence type.
interface Canvas {
sequence<DOMString> getSupportedImageCodecs();
void drawPolygon(sequence<double> coordinates);
sequence<double> getLastDrawnPolygon();
// ...
};
In an ECMAScript implementation of this interface, an Array
object with elements of type String is used to
represent a sequence<DOMString>, while an
Array with elements of type Number
represents a sequence<double>. The
Array objects are effectively passed by
value; every time the getSupportedImageCodecs()
function is called a new Array is
returned, and whenever an Array is
passed to drawPolygon
no reference
will be kept after the call completes.
// Obtain an instance of Canvas. Assume that getSupportedImageCodecs()
// returns a sequence with two DOMString values: "image/png" and "image/svg+xml".
var canvas = getCanvas();
// An Array object of length 2.
var supportedImageCodecs = canvas.getSupportedImageCodecs();
// Evaluates to "image/png".
supportedImageCodecs[0];
// Each time canvas.getSupportedImageCodecs() is called, it returns a
// new Array object. Thus modifying the returned Array will not
// affect the value returned from a subsequent call to the function.
supportedImageCodecs[0] = "image/jpeg";
// Evaluates to "image/png".
canvas.getSupportedImageCodecs()[0];
// This evaluates to false, since a new Array object is returned each call.
canvas.getSupportedImageCodecs() == canvas.getSupportedImageCodecs();
// An Array of Numbers...
var a = [0, 0, 100, 0, 50, 62.5];
// ...can be passed to a platform object expecting a sequence<double>.
canvas.drawPolygon(a);
// Each element will be converted to a double by first calling ToNumber().
// So the following call is equivalent to the previous one, except that
// "hi" will be alerted before drawPolygon() returns.
a = [false, '',
{ valueOf: function() { alert('hi'); return 100; } }, 0,
'50', new Number(62.5)];
canvas.drawPolygon(s);
// Modifying an Array that was passed to drawPolygon() is guaranteed not to
// have an effect on the Canvas, since the Array is effectively passed by value.
a[4] = 20;
var b = canvas.getLastDrawnPolygon();
alert(b[4]); // This would alert "50".
IDL promise type values are represented by ECMAScript Promise objects.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL Promise<T> value as follows:
ECMAScript should grow a %Promise_resolve% well-known intrinsic object that can be referenced here.
The result of converting an IDL promise type value to an ECMAScript value is the Promise value that represents a reference to the same object that the IDL promise type represents.
One can perform some steps once a promise is settled. There can be one or two sets of steps to perform, covering when the promise is fulfilled, rejected, or both. When a specification says to perform some steps once a promise is settled, the following steps MUST be followed:
Include an example of how to write spec text using this term.
IDL union type values are represented by ECMAScript values that correspond to the union’s member types.
To convert an ECMAScript value V to an IDL union type value is done as follows:
An IDL union type value is converted to an ECMAScript value as follows. If the value is an object reference to a special object that represents an ECMAScript undefined value, then it is converted to the ECMAScript undefined value. Otherwise, the rules for converting the specific type of the IDL union type value as described in this section (4.2).
IDL Date values are represented by ECMAScript Date objects.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL Date value by running the following algorithm:
An IDL Date value V is converted to an ECMAScript value by running the following the algorithm:
Platform objects returning an ECMAScript Date object from attributes or operations do not hold on to a reference to the Date object. A script that modifies a Date object so retrieved cannot affect the platform object it was retrieved from.
IDL RegExp values are represented by ECMAScript RegExp objects.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL RegExp value by running the following algorithm:
new RegExp(V)
, where RegExp
is the standard built-in constructor with that name
from the current global environment.
Note that this can result in an exception being thrown, if V, when converted to a string, does not have valid regular expression syntax.
The result of converting an IDL RegExp value to an ECMAScript value is the RegExp value that represents a reference to the same object that the IDL RegExp represents.
IDL Error values are represented by native ECMAScript Error objects and platform objects for DOMExceptions.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL Error value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL Error value to an ECMAScript value is the Error value that represents a reference to the same object that the IDL Error represents.
IDL DOMException values are represented by platform objects for DOMExceptions.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL DOMException value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL DOMException value to an ECMAScript value is the Object value that represents a reference to the same object that the IDL DOMException represents.
Values of the IDL buffer source types are represented by objects of the corresponding ECMAScript class.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL ArrayBuffer value by running the following algorithm:
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL DataView value by running the following algorithm:
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL Int8Array, Int16Array, Int32Array, Uint8Array, Uint16Array, Uint32Array, Uint8ClampedArray, Float32Array or Float64Array value by running the following algorithm:
The result of converting an IDL value of any buffer source type to an ECMAScript value is the Object value that represents a reference to the same object that the IDL value represents.
When getting a reference to or getting a copy of the bytes held by a buffer source that is an ECMAScript ArrayBuffer, DataView or typed array object, these steps MUST be followed:
To detach an ArrayBuffer, these steps MUST be followed:
Values of frozen array types are represented by frozen ECMAScript Array object references.
An ECMAScript value V is converted to an IDL FrozenArray<T> value by running the following algorithm:
To create a frozen array from a sequence of values of type T, follow these steps:
"frozen"
).The result of converting an IDL FrozenArray<T> value to an ECMAScript value is the Object value that represents a reference to the same object that the IDL FrozenArray<T> represents.
To create an IDL value of type FrozenArray<T> given an iterable iterable and an iterator getter method, perform the following steps:
This section defines a number of extended attributes whose presence affects only the ECMAScript binding.
If the [Clamp] extended attribute appears on an operation argument, writable attribute or dictionary member whose type is one of the integer types, it indicates that when an ECMAScript Number is converted to the IDL type, out of range values will be clamped to the range of valid values, rather than using the operators that use a modulo operation (ToInt32, ToUint32, etc.).
The [Clamp] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
The [Clamp] extended attribute MUST NOT appear on a read only attribute, or an attribute, operation argument or dictionary member that is not of an integer type. It also MUST NOT be used in conjunction with the [EnforceRange] extended attribute.
See the rules for converting ECMAScript values to the various IDL integer types in section 4.2 for the specific requirements that the use of [Clamp] entails.
In the following IDL fragment, two operations are declared that take three octet arguments; one uses the [Clamp] extended attribute on all three arguments, while the other does not:
interface GraphicsContext {
void setColor(octet red, octet green, octet blue);
void setColorClamped([Clamp] octet red, [Clamp] octet green, [Clamp] octet blue);
};
In an ECMAScript implementation of the IDL, a call to setColorClamped with Number values that are out of range for an octet are clamped to the range [0, 255].
// Get an instance of GraphicsContext.
var context = getGraphicsContext();
// Calling the non-[Clamp] version uses ToUint8 to coerce the Numbers to octets.
// This is equivalent to calling setColor(255, 255, 1).
context.setColor(-1, 255, 257);
// Call setColorClamped with some out of range values.
// This is equivalent to calling setColorClamped(0, 255, 255).
context.setColorClamped(-1, 255, 257);
If the [Constructor] extended attribute appears on an interface, it indicates that the interface object for this interface will have an [[Construct]] internal method, allowing objects implementing the interface to be constructed.
If it appears on a dictionary, then it indicates that the ECMAScript global object will have a property whose name is the identifier of the dictionary and whose value is a constructor function that can return an ECMAScript object that represents a dictionary value of the given type.
Multiple [Constructor] extended attributes may appear on a given interface or dictionary.
The [Constructor]
extended attribute MUST either
take no arguments or
take an argument list.
The bare form, [Constructor]
, has the same meaning as
using an empty argument list, [Constructor()]
. For each
[Constructor] extended attribute
on the interface, there will be a way to construct an object that implements
the interface by passing the specified arguments.
The prose definition of a constructor MUST either return an IDL value of a type corresponding to the interface or dictionary the [Constructor] extended attribute appears on, or throw an exception.
If the [Constructor] extended attribute is specified on an interface, then the [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute MUST NOT also be specified on that interface.
The [Constructor] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on a callback interface.
See section 4.5.1.1 below for details on how a constructor for an interface is to be implemented, and section 4.5.3 for how a constructor for a dictionary is to be implemented.
The following IDL defines two interfaces. The second has the [Constructor] extended attribute, while the first does not.
interface NodeList {
Node item(unsigned long index);
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
};
[Constructor,
Constructor(double radius)]
interface Circle {
attribute double r;
attribute double cx;
attribute double cy;
readonly attribute double circumference;
};
An ECMAScript implementation supporting these interfaces would have a [[Construct]] property on the Circle interface object which would return a new object that implements the interface. It would take either zero or one argument. The NodeList interface object would not have a [[Construct]] property.
var x = new Circle(); // The uses the zero-argument constructor to create a
// reference to a platform object that implements the
// Circle interface.
var y = new Circle(1.25); // This also creates a Circle object, this time using
// the one-argument constructor.
var z = new NodeList(); // This would throw a TypeError, since no
// [Constructor] is declared.
The following IDL defines a dictionary type with a constructor:
[Constructor(unsigned long patties, unsigned long cheeseSlices)]
dictionary BurgerOrder {
unsigned long pattyCount;
unsigned long cheeseSliceCount;
};
The constructor is defined with the following prose:
When the BurgerOrder constructor is invoked, it must return a dictionary value of type BurgerOrder whose pattyCount and cheeseSliceCount members are set to the values of the patties and cheeseSlices arguments, respectively.
An ECMAScript implementation supporting this dictionary type would have a constructor function on the global object that returns a plain object with properties corresponding to the dictionary’s members:
typeof BurgerOrder; // Evaluates to "function".
var order = new BurgerOrder(1, 2); // Creates a new object.
order.hasOwnProperty("pattyCount"); // Evaluates to true.
order.pattyCount; // Evaluates to 1.
Object.getPrototypeOf(order) == Object.prototype; // Evaluates to true.
If the [EnforceRange] extended attribute appears on an operation argument, writable regular attribute or dictionary member whose type is one of the integer types, it indicates that when an ECMAScript Number is converted to the IDL type, out of range values will cause an exception to be thrown, rather than converted to being a valid value using the operators that use a modulo operation (ToInt32, ToUint32, etc.). The Number will be rounded towards zero before being checked against its range.
The [EnforceRange] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
The [EnforceRange] extended attribute MUST NOT appear on a read only attribute, a static attribute, or an attribute, operation argument or dictionary member that is not of an integer type. It also MUST NOT be used in conjunction with the [Clamp] extended attribute.
See the rules for converting ECMAScript values to the various IDL integer types in section 4.2 for the specific requirements that the use of [EnforceRange] entails.
In the following IDL fragment, two operations are declared that take three octet arguments; one uses the [EnforceRange] extended attribute on all three arguments, while the other does not:
interface GraphicsContext {
void setColor(octet red, octet green, octet blue);
void setColorEnforcedRange([EnforceRange] octet red, [EnforceRange] octet green, [EnforceRange] octet blue);
};
In an ECMAScript implementation of the IDL, a call to setColorEnforcedRange with Number values that are out of range for an octet will result in an exception being thrown.
// Get an instance of GraphicsContext.
var context = getGraphicsContext();
// Calling the non-[EnforceRange] version uses ToUint8 to coerce the Numbers to octets.
// This is equivalent to calling setColor(255, 255, 1).
context.setColor(-1, 255, 257);
// When setColorEnforcedRange is called, Numbers are rounded towards zero.
// This is equivalent to calling setColor(0, 255, 255).
context.setColorEnforcedRange(-0.9, 255, 255.2);
// The following will cause a TypeError to be thrown, since even after
// rounding the first and third argument values are out of range.
context.setColorEnforcedRange(-1, 255, 256);
If the [Exposed] extended attribute appears on an interface, partial interface, an individual interface member, or dictionary with a constructor, it indicates that the interface, interface member or dictionary constructor is exposed on a particular set of global interfaces, rather than the default of being exposed only on the primary global interface.
The [Exposed] extended attribute MUST either take an identifier or take an identifier list. Each of the identifiers mentioned MUST be a global name.
Every construct that the [Exposed] extended attribute can be specified on has an exposure set, which is a set of interfaces defining which global environments the construct can be used in. The exposure set for a given construct is defined as follows:
If the [Exposed] extended attribute is specified on the construct, then the exposure set is the set of all interfaces that have a global name that is listed in the extended attribute's argument.
If the [Exposed] extended attribute does not appear on a construct, then its exposure set is defined implicitly, depending on the type of construct:
If [Exposed] appears on an overloaded operation, then it MUST appear identically on all overloads.
The [Exposed] extended attribute MUST NOT be specified on both an interface member and a partial interface definition the interface member is declared on.
If [Exposed] appears on both an interface and one of its interface members, then the interface member's exposure set MUST be a subset of the interface's exposure set.
An interface's exposure set MUST be a subset of the exposure set of all of the interface's consequential interfaces.
If an interface X inherits from another interface Y then the exposure set of X MUST be a subset of the exposure set of Y.
The [Exposed] extended attribute MUST NOT be specified on a dictionary that does not also have a [Constructor] extended attribute.
An interface, interface member or dictionary is exposed in a given ECMAScript global environment if the ECMAScript global object implements an interface that is in the interface, interface member or dictionary's exposure set.
See section 4.5, section 4.5.3, section 4.5.6, section 4.5.7, section 4.5.8 and section 4.5.9 for the specific requirements that the use of [Exposed] entails.
[Exposed] is intended to be used to control whether interfaces or individual interface members are available for use only in workers, only in the Window, or in both.
The following IDL fragment shows how that might be achieved:
[PrimaryGlobal]
interface Window {
...
};
// By using the same identifier Worker for both SharedWorkerGlobalScope
// and DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope, both can be addressed in an [Exposed]
// extended attribute at once.
[Global=Worker]
interface SharedWorkerGlobalScope : WorkerGlobalScope {
...
};
[Global=Worker]
interface DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope : WorkerGlobalScope {
...
};
// MathUtils is available for use in workers and on the main thread.
[Exposed=(Window,Worker)]
interface MathUtils {
static double someComplicatedFunction(double x, double y);
};
// WorkerUtils is only available in workers. Evaluating WorkerUtils
// in the global scope of a worker would give you its interface object, while
// doing so on the main thread will give you a ReferenceError.
[Exposed=Worker]
interface WorkerUtils {
static void setPriority(double x);
};
// Node is only available on the main thread. Evaluating Node
// in the global scope of a worker would give you a ReferenceError.
interface Node {
...
};
If the [ImplicitThis] extended attribute appears on an interface, it indicates that when a Function corresponding to one of the interface’s operations is invoked with the null or undefined value as the this value, that the ECMAScript global object will be used as the this value instead. This is regardless of whether the calling code is in strict mode.
The [ImplicitThis] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
See section 4.5.8 for the specific requirements that the use of [ImplicitThis] entails.
The [ImplicitThis] extended attribute is intended for use on the Window interface as defined in HTML5 ([HTML5], section 5.2).
In the following example, the Window interface is defined with the [ImplicitThis] extended attribute.
[ImplicitThis]
interface Window {
...
attribute DOMString name;
void alert(DOMString message);
};
Since the Window object is used as the ECMAScript global object, calls to its functions can be made without an explicit object, even in strict mode:
"use strict";
window.alert("hello"); // Calling alert with an explicit window object works.
alert("hello"); // This also works, even though we are in strict mode.
alert.call(null, "hello"); // As does passing null explicitly as the this value.
// This does not apply to getters for attributes on the interface, though.
// The following will throw a TypeError.
Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(Window.prototype, "name").get.call(null);
If the [Global] or [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute appears on an interface, it indicates that objects implementing this interface can be used as the global object in an ECMAScript environment, and that the structure of the prototype chain and how properties corresponding to interface members will be reflected on the prototype objects will be different from other interfaces. Specifically:
Placing named properties on an object in the prototype chain is done so that variable declarations and bareword assignments will shadow the named property with a property on the global object itself.
Placing properties corresponding to interface members on the object itself will mean that common feature detection methods like the following will work:
var indexedDB = window.indexedDB || window.webkitIndexedDB ||
window.mozIndexedDB || window.msIndexedDB;
var requestAnimationFrame = window.requestAnimationFrame ||
window.mozRequestAnimationFrame || ...;
Because of the way variable declarations are handled in
ECMAScript, the code above would result in the window.indexedDB
and window.requestAnimationFrame
evaluating
to undefined
, as the shadowing variable
property would already have been created before the
assignment is evaluated.
If the [Global] or [PrimaryGlobal] extended attributes is used on an interface, then:
If [Global] or [PrimaryGlobal] is specified on a partial interface definition, then that partial interface definition MUST be the part of the interface definition that defines the named property getter.
The [Global] and [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on an interface that can have more than one object implementing it in the same ECMAScript global environment.
This is because the named properties object, which exposes the named properties, is in the prototype chain, and it would not make sense for more than one object’s named properties to be exposed on an object that all of those objects inherit from.
If an interface is declared with the [Global] or [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute, then there MUST NOT be more than one interface member across the interface and its consequential interfaces with the same identifier. There also MUST NOT be more than stringifier, more than one serializer, or more than one iterable declaration, maplike declaration or setlike declaration across those interfaces.
This is because all of the members of the interface and its consequential interfaces get flattened down on to the object that implements the interface.
The [Global] and [PrimaryGlobal] extended attributes can also be used to give a name to one or more global interfaces, which can then be referenced by the [Exposed] extended attribute.
The [Global] and [PrimaryGlobal] extended attributes MUST either take no arguments or take an identifier list.
If the [Global] or [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute is declared with an identifier list argument, then those identifiers are the interface’s global names; otherwise, the interface has a single global name, which is the interface's identifier.
The identifier argument list exists so that more than one global interface can be addressed with a single name in an [Exposed] extended attribute.
The [Global] and [PrimaryGlobal] extended attributes MUST NOT be declared on the same interface. The [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute MUST be declared on at most one interface. The interface [PrimaryGlobal] is declared on, if any, is known as the primary global interface.
See section 4.5.5, section 4.7.3 and section 4.7.7 for the specific requirements that the use of [Global] and [PrimaryGlobal] entails for named properties, and section 4.5.6, section 4.5.7 and section 4.5.8 for the requirements relating to the location of properties corresponding to interface members.
The [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute is intended to be used by the Window interface as defined in HTML5 ([HTML5], section 5.2). ([Global] is intended to be used by worker global interfaces.) The Window interface exposes frames as properties on the Window object. Since the Window object also serves as the ECMAScript global object, variable declarations or assignments to the named properties will result in them being replaced by the new value. Variable declarations for attributes will not create a property that replaces the existing one.
[PrimaryGlobal]
interface Window {
getter any (DOMString name);
attribute DOMString name;
// ...
};
The following HTML document illustrates how the named properties on the Window object can be shadowed, and how the property for an attribute will not be replaced when declaring a variable of the same name:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<title>Variable declarations and assignments on Window</title>
<iframe name=abc></iframe>
<!-- Shadowing named properties -->
<script>
window.abc; // Evaluates to the iframe's Window object.
abc = 1; // Shadows the named property.
window.abc; // Evaluates to 1.
</script>
<!-- Preserving properties for IDL attributes -->
<script>
Window.prototype.def = 2; // Places a property on the prototype.
window.hasOwnProperty("length"); // Evaluates to true.
length; // Evaluates to 1.
def; // Evaluates to 2.
</script>
<script>
var length; // Variable declaration leaves existing property.
length; // Evaluates to 1.
var def; // Variable declaration creates shadowing property.
def; // Evaluates to undefined.
</script>
If the [LegacyArrayClass] extended attribute appears on an interface that is not defined to inherit from another, it indicates that the internal [[Prototype]] property of its interface prototype object will be the Array prototype object rather than the Object prototype object. This allows Array methods to be used more easily with objects implementing the interface.
The [LegacyArrayClass] extended attribute MUST take no arguments. It MUST NOT be used on an interface that has any inherited interfaces.
Interfaces using [LegacyArrayClass] will need to define a “length” attribute of type unsigned long that exposes the length of the array-like object, in order for the inherited Array methods to operate correctly. Such interfaces would typically also support indexed properties, which would provide access to the array elements.
See section 4.5.4 for the specific requirements that the use of [LegacyArrayClass] entails.
The following IDL fragment defines two interfaces that use [LegacyArrayClass].
[LegacyArrayClass]
interface ItemList {
attribute unsigned long length;
getter object getItem(unsigned long index);
setter object setItem(unsigned long index, object item);
};
[LegacyArrayClass]
interface ImmutableItemList {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter object getItem(unsigned long index);
};
In an ECMAScript implementation of the above two interfaces, with appropriate definitions for getItem, setItem and removeItem, Array methods to inspect and modify the array-like object can be used.
var list = getItemList(); // Obtain an instance of ItemList.
list.concat(); // Clone the ItemList into an Array.
list.pop(); // Remove an item from the ItemList.
list.unshift({ }); // Insert an item at index 0.
ImmutableItemList has a read only length attribute and no indexed property setter. The mutating Array methods will generally not succeed on objects implementing ImmutableItemList. The exact behavior depends on the definition of the Array methods themselves ([ECMA-262], section 22.1.3).
If the [LenientThis] extended attribute appears on a regular attribute, it indicates that invocations of the attribute’s getter or setter with a this value that is not an object that implements the interface on which the attribute appears will be ignored.
The [LenientThis] extended attribute MUST take no arguments. It MUST NOT be used on a static attribute.
Specifications SHOULD NOT use [LenientThis] unless required for compatibility reasons. Specification authors who wish to use this feature are strongly advised to discuss this on the public-script-coord@w3.org mailing list before proceeding.
See the Attributes section below for how [LenientThis] is to be implemented.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface that uses the [LenientThis] extended attribute.
interface Example {
[LenientThis] attribute DOMString x;
attribute DOMString y;
};
An ECMAScript implementation that supports this interface will allow the getter and setter of the accessor property that corresponds to x to be invoked with something other than an Example object.
var example = getExample(); // Get an instance of Example.
var obj = { };
// Fine.
example.x;
// Ignored, since the this value is not an Example object and [LenientThis] is used.
Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(Example.prototype, "x").get.call(obj);
// Also ignored, since Example.prototype is not an Example object and [LenientThis] is used.
Example.prototype.x;
// Throws a TypeError, since Example.prototype is not an Example object.
Example.prototype.y;
If the [NamedConstructor] extended attribute appears on an interface, it indicates that the ECMAScript global object will have a property with the specified name whose value is a constructor function that can create objects that implement the interface. Multiple [NamedConstructor] extended attributes may appear on a given interface.
The [NamedConstructor]
extended attribute MUST either
take an identifier or
take a named argument list.
The first form, [NamedConstructor=identifier]
, has the same meaning as
using an empty argument list, [NamedConstructor=identifier()]
. For each
[NamedConstructor] extended attribute
on the interface, there will be a way to construct an object that implements
the interface by passing the specified arguments to the constructor function
that is the value of the aforementioned property.
The identifier used for the named constructor MUST NOT be the same as that used by an [NamedConstructor] extended attribute on another interface, MUST NOT be the same as an identifier of an interface that has an interface object, and MUST NOT be one of the reserved identifiers.
The [NamedConstructor] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on a callback interface.
See section 4.5.2 below for details on how named constructors are to be implemented.
The following IDL defines an interface that uses the [NamedConstructor] extended attribute.
[NamedConstructor=Audio,
NamedConstructor=Audio(DOMString src)]
interface HTMLAudioElement : HTMLMediaElement {
// ...
};
An ECMAScript implementation that supports this interface will allow the construction of HTMLAudioElement objects using the Audio constructor.
typeof Audio; // Evaluates to 'function'.
var a1 = new Audio(); // Creates a new object that implements
// HTMLAudioElement, using the zero-argument
// constructor.
var a2 = new Audio('a.flac'); // Creates an HTMLAudioElement using the
// one-argument constructor.
If the [NewObject] extended attribute appears on a regular or static operation, then it indicates that when calling the operation, a reference to a newly created object MUST always be returned.
The [NewObject] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
The [NewObject] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on anything other than a regular or static operation whose return type is an interface type or a promise type.
As an example, this extended attribute is suitable for use on the createElement operation on the Document interface ([DOM], section 6.5), since a new object should always be returned when it is called.
interface Document : Node {
[NewObject] Element createElement(DOMString localName);
...
};
If the [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute appears on an interface, it indicates that an interface object will not exist for the interface in the ECMAScript binding.
The [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute SHOULD NOT be used on interfaces that are not solely used as supplemental interfaces, unless there are clear Web compatibility reasons for doing so. Specification authors who wish to use this feature are strongly advised to discuss this on the public-script-coord@w3.org mailing list before proceeding.
The [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
If the [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute is specified on an interface, then the [Constructor] extended attribute MUST NOT also be specified on that interface. A [NamedConstructor] extended attribute is fine, however.
The [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute MUST NOT be specified on an interface that has any static operations defined on it.
The [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute MUST NOT be specified on a callback interface unless it has a constant declared on it. This is because callback interfaces without constants never have interface objects.
An interface that does not have the [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute specified MUST NOT inherit from an interface that has the [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute specified.
See section 4.2.20 for the specific requirements that the use of [NoInterfaceObject] entails.
The following IDL fragment defines two interfaces, one whose interface object is exposed on the ECMAScript global object, and one whose isn’t:
interface Storage {
void addEntry(unsigned long key, any value);
};
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface Query {
any lookupEntry(unsigned long key);
};
An ECMAScript implementation of the above IDL would allow manipulation of Storage’s prototype, but not Query’s.
typeof Storage; // evaluates to "object"
// Add some tracing alert() call to Storage.addEntry.
var fn = Storage.prototype.addEntry;
Storage.prototype.addEntry = function(key, value) {
alert('Calling addEntry()');
return fn.call(this, key, value);
};
typeof Query; // evaluates to "undefined"
var fn = Query.prototype.lookupEntry; // exception, Query isn’t defined
If the [OverrideBuiltins] extended attribute appears on an interface, it indicates that for a platform object implementing the interface, properties corresponding to all of the object’s supported property names will appear to be on the object, regardless of what other properties exist on the object or its prototype chain. This means that named properties will always shadow any properties that would otherwise appear on the object. This is in contrast to the usual behavior, which is for named properties to be exposed only if there is no property with the same name on the object itself or somewhere on its prototype chain.
The [OverrideBuiltins] extended attribute MUST take no arguments and MUST NOT appear on an interface that does not define a named property getter or that also is declared with the [Global] or [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute. If the extended attribute is specified on a partial interface definition, then that partial interface definition MUST be the part of the interface definition that defines the named property getter.
See section 4.7.1 and section 4.7.7 for the specific requirements that the use of [OverrideBuiltins] entails.
The following IDL fragment defines two interfaces, one that has a named property getter and one that does not.
interface StringMap {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter DOMString lookup(DOMString key);
};
[OverrideBuiltins]
interface StringMap2 {
readonly attribute unsigned long length;
getter DOMString lookup(DOMString key);
};
In an ECMAScript implementation of these two interfaces, getting certain properties on objects implementing the interfaces will result in different values:
// Obtain an instance of StringMap. Assume that it has "abc", "length" and
// "toString" as supported property names.
var map1 = getStringMap();
// This invokes the named property getter.
map1.abc;
// This fetches the "length" property on the object that corresponds to the
// length attribute.
map1.length;
// This fetches the "toString" property from the object's prototype chain.
map1.toString;
// Obtain an instance of StringMap2. Assume that it also has "abc", "length"
// and "toString" as supported property names.
var map2 = getStringMap2();
// This invokes the named property getter.
map2.abc;
// This also invokes the named property getter, despite the fact that the "length"
// property on the object corresponds to the length attribute.
map2.length;
// This too invokes the named property getter, despite the fact that "toString" is
// a property in map2's prototype chain.
map2.toString;
If the [PutForwards] extended attribute appears on a read only regular attribute declaration whose type is an interface type, it indicates that assigning to the attribute will have specific behavior. Namely, the assignment is “forwarded” to the attribute (specified by the extended attribute argument) on the object that is currently referenced by the attribute being assigned to.
The [PutForwards] extended attribute MUST take an identifier. Assuming that:
then there MUST be another attribute B declared on J whose identifier is N. Assignment of a value to the attribute A on an object implementing I will result in that value being assigned to attribute B of the object that A references, instead.
Note that [PutForwards]-annotated attributes can be chained. That is, an attribute with the [PutForwards] extended attribute can refer to an attribute that itself has that extended attribute. There MUST NOT exist a cycle in a chain of forwarded assignments. A cycle exists if, when following the chain of forwarded assignments, a particular attribute on an interface is encountered more than once.
An attribute with the [PutForwards] extended attribute MUST NOT also be declared with the [Replaceable] extended attribute.
The [PutForwards] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on an attribute that is not read only.
The [PutForwards] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on a static attribute.
The [PutForwards] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on an attribute declared on a callback interface.
See the Attributes section below for how [PutForwards] is to be implemented.
The following IDL fragment defines interfaces for names and people. The [PutForwards] extended attribute is used on the name attribute of the Person interface to indicate that assignments to that attribute result in assignments to the full attribute of the Person object:
interface Name {
attribute DOMString full;
attribute DOMString family;
attribute DOMString given;
};
interface Person {
[PutForwards=full] readonly attribute Name name;
attribute unsigned short age;
};
In the ECMAScript binding, this would allow assignments to the “name” property:
var p = getPerson(); // Obtain an instance of Person.
p.name = 'John Citizen'; // This statement...
p.name.full = 'John Citizen'; // ...has the same behavior as this one.
If the [Replaceable] extended attribute appears on a read only regular attribute, it indicates that setting the corresponding property on the platform object will result in an own property with the same name being created on the object which has the value being assigned. This property will shadow the accessor property corresponding to the attribute, which exists on the interface prototype object.
The [Replaceable] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
An attribute with the [Replaceable] extended attribute MUST NOT also be declared with the [PutForwards] extended attribute.
The [Replaceable] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on an attribute that is not read only.
The [Replaceable] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on a static attribute.
The [Replaceable] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on an attribute declared on a callback interface.
See section 4.5.7 for the specific requirements that the use of [Replaceable] entails.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface with an operation that increments a counter, and an attribute that exposes the counter’s value, which is initially 0:
interface Counter {
[Replaceable] readonly attribute unsigned long value;
void increment();
};
Assigning to the “value” property on a platform object implementing Counter will shadow the property that corresponds to the attribute:
var counter = getCounter(); // Obtain an instance of Counter.
counter.value; // Evaluates to 0.
counter.hasOwnProperty("value"); // Evaluates to false.
Object.getPrototypeOf(counter).hasOwnProperty("value"); // Evaluates to true.
counter.increment();
counter.increment();
counter.value; // Evaluates to 2.
counter.value = 'a'; // Shadows the property with one that is unrelated
// to Counter::value.
counter.hasOwnProperty("value"); // Evaluates to true.
counter.increment();
counter.value; // Evaluates to 'a'.
delete counter.value; // Reveals the original property.
counter.value; // Evaluates to 3.
If the [SameObject] extended attribute appears on a read only attribute, then it indicates that when getting the value of the attribute on a given object, the same value MUST always be returned.
The [SameObject] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
The [SameObject] extended attribute MUST NOT be used on anything other than a read only attribute whose type is an interface type or object.
As an example, this extended attribute is suitable for use on the implementation attribute on the Document interface ([DOM], section 6.5), since the same object is always returned for a given Document object.
interface Document : Node {
[SameObject] readonly attribute DOMImplementation implementation;
...
};
If the [TreatNonObjectAsNull] extended attribute appears on a callback function, then it indicates that any value assigned to an attribute whose type is a nullable callback function that is not an object will be converted to the null value.
Specifications SHOULD NOT use [TreatNonObjectAsNull]
unless required to specify the behavior of legacy APIs or for consistency with these
APIs. Specification authors who
wish to use this feature are strongly advised to discuss this on the
public-script-coord@w3.org
mailing list before proceeding. At the time of writing, the only known
valid use of [TreatNonObjectAsNull]
is for the callback functions used as the type
of event handler IDL attributes
([HTML5], section 6.1.6.1)
such as onclick
and onerror
.
See section 4.2.24 for the specific requirements that the use of [TreatNonObjectAsNull] entails.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface that has one attribute whose type is a [TreatNonObjectAsNull]-annotated callback function and another whose type is a callback function without the extended attribute:
callback OccurrenceHandler = void (DOMString details);
[TreatNonObjectAsNull]
callback ErrorHandler = void (DOMString details);
interface Manager {
attribute OccurrenceHandler? handler1;
attribute ErrorHandler? handler2;
};
In an ECMAScript implementation, assigning a value that is not an object (such as a Number value) to handler1 will have different behavior from that when assigning to handler2:
var manager = getManager(); // Get an instance of Manager.
manager.handler1 = function() { };
manager.handler1; // Evaluates to the function.
try {
manager.handler1 = 123; // Throws a TypeError.
} catch (e) {
}
manager.handler2 = function() { };
manager.handler2; // Evaluates to the function.
manager.handler2 = 123;
manager.handler2; // Evaluates to null.
If the [TreatNullAs] extended attribute appears on an attribute or operation argument whose type is DOMString, it indicates that a null value assigned to the attribute or passed as the operation argument will be handled differently from its default handling. Instead of being stringified to “null”, which is the default, it will be converted to the empty string “”.
If [TreatNullAs] is specified on an operation itself, and that operation is on a callback interface, then it indicates that a user object implementing the interface will have the return value of the function that implements the operation handled in the same way as for operation arguments and attributes, as above.
The [TreatNullAs]
extended attribute MUST take the identifier
EmptyString
.
The [TreatNullAs] extended attribute MUST NOT be specified on an operation argument, attribute or operation return value whose type is not DOMString.
This means that even an attribute of type DOMString? must not use [TreatNullAs], since null is a valid value of that type.
The [TreatNullAs] extended attribute also MUST NOT be specified on an operation on a non-callback interface.
See section 4.2.16 for the specific requirements that the use of [TreatNullAs] entails.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface that has one attribute with the [TreatNullAs] extended attribute, and one operation with an argument that has the extended attribute:
interface Dog {
attribute DOMString name;
[TreatNullAs=EmptyString] attribute DOMString owner;
boolean isMemberOfBreed([TreatNullAs=EmptyString] DOMString breedName);
};
An ECMAScript implementation implementing the Dog
interface would convert a null value
assigned to the “owner” property or passed as the
argument to the isMemberOfBreed
function
to the empty string rather than "null"
:
var d = getDog(); // Assume d is a platform object implementing the Dog
// interface.
d.name = null; // This assigns the string "null" to the .name
// property.
d.owner = null; // This assigns the string "" to the .owner property.
d.isMemberOfBreed(null); // This passes the string "" to the isMemberOfBreed
// function.
If the [Unforgeable] extended attribute appears on a non-static attribute or non-static operations, it indicates that the attribute or operation will be reflected as an ECMAScript property in a way that means its behavior cannot be modified and that performing a property lookup on the object will always result in the attribute’s property value being returned. In particular, the property will be non-configurable and will exist as an own property on the object itself rather than on its prototype.
If the [Unforgeable] extended attribute appears on an interface, it indicates that all of the non-static attributes and non-static operations declared on that interface and its consequential interfaces will be similarly reflected as own ECMAScript properties on objects that implement the interface, rather than on the prototype.
An attribute or operation is said to be unforgeable on a given interface A if any of the following are true:
The [Unforgeable] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
The [Unforgeable] extended attribute MUST NOT appear on anything other than an attribute, non-static operation or an interface. If it does appear on an operation, then it MUST appear on all operations with the same identifier on that interface.
If an attribute or operation X is unforgeable on an interface A, and A is one of the inherited interfaces of another interface B, then B and all of its consequential interfaces MUST NOT have a non-static attribute or regular operation with the same identifier as X.
For example, the following is disallowed:
interface A1 {
[Unforgeable] readonly attribute DOMString x;
};
interface B1 : A1 {
void x(); // Invalid; would be shadowed by A1's x.
};
interface B2 : A1 { };
B2 implements Mixin;
interface Mixin {
void x(); // Invalid; B2's copy of x would be shadowed by A1's x.
};
[Unforgeable]
interface A2 {
readonly attribute DOMString x;
};
interface B3 : A2 {
void x(); // Invalid; would be shadowed by A2's x.
};
interface B4 : A2 { };
B4 implements Mixin;
interface Mixin {
void x(); // Invalid; B4's copy of x would be shadowed by A2's x.
};
interface A3 { };
A3 implements A2;
interface B5 : A3 {
void x(); // Invalid; would be shadowed by A3's mixed-in copy of A2's x.
};
See section 4.5.7, section 4.5.8, section 4.7, section 4.7.1 and section 4.7.7 for the specific requirements that the use of [Unforgeable] entails.
The following IDL fragment defines an interface that has two attributes, one of which is designated as [Unforgeable]:
interface System {
[Unforgeable] readonly attribute DOMString username;
readonly attribute Date loginTime;
};
In an ECMAScript implementation of the interface, the username attribute will be exposed as a non-configurable property on the object itself:
var system = getSystem(); // Get an instance of System.
system.hasOwnProperty("username"); // Evaluates to true.
system.hasOwnProperty("loginTime"); // Evaluates to false.
System.prototype.hasOwnProperty("username"); // Evaluates to false.
System.prototype.hasOwnProperty("loginTime"); // Evaluates to true.
try {
// This call would fail, since the property is non-configurable.
Object.defineProperty(system, "username", { value: "administrator" });
} catch (e) { }
// This defineProperty call would succeed, because System.prototype.loginTime
// is configurable.
var forgedLoginTime = new Date(new Date() - 3600000);
Object.defineProperty(System.prototype, "loginTime", { value: forgedLoginTime });
system.loginTime; // So this now evaluates to forgedLoginTime.
If the [Unscopeable]
extended attribute
appears on a regular attribute
or regular operation, it
indicates that an object that implements an interface with the given
interface member will not include its property name in any object
environment record with it as its base object. The result of this is
that bare identifiers matching the property name will not resolve to
the property in a with
statement. This is achieved by
including the property name on the
interface prototype object’s
@@unscopeables property’s value.
The [Unscopeable] extended attribute MUST take no arguments.
The [Unscopeable] extended attribute MUST NOT appear on anything other than a regular attribute or regular operation.
See section 4.5.4 for the specific requirements that the use of [Unscopeable] entails.
For example, with the following IDL:
interface Thing {
void f();
[Unscopeable] g();
};
the “f” property an be referenced with a bare identifier
in a with
statement but the “g” property cannot:
var thing = getThing(); // An instance of Thing
with (thing) {
f; // Evaluates to a Function object.
g; // Throws a ReferenceError.
}
Certain algorithms in the sections below are defined to perform a security check on a given object. This check is used to determine whether a given operation invocation or attribute access should be allowed. The input to the security check is the platform object on which the operation invocation or attribute access is being done, and the ECMAScript global environment associated with the Function object that implements the operation or attribute.
The expectation is that the HTML specification defines how a security check is performed, and that it will either throw an appropriate exception or return normally. [HTML]
For every interface that is exposed in a given ECMAScript global environment and:
a corresponding property MUST exist on the ECMAScript environment's global object. The name of the property is the identifier of the interface, and its value is an object called the interface object.
The property has the attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true }. The characteristics of an interface object are described in section 4.5.1 below.
In addition, for every [NamedConstructor] extended attribute on an exposed interface, a corresponding property MUST exist on the ECMAScript global object. The name of the property is the identifier that occurs directly after the “=”, and its value is an object called a named constructor, which allows construction of objects that implement the interface. The property has the attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true }. The characteristics of a named constructor are described in section 4.5.2 below.
The interface object for a given non-callback interface is a function object. It has properties that correspond to the constants and static operations defined on that interface, as described in sections 4.5.6 and 4.5.8 below.
The [[Prototype]] internal property of an interface object for a non-callback interface is determined as follows:
An interface object for a non-callback interface MUST have a property named “prototype” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: false } whose value is an object called the interface prototype object. This object has properties that correspond to the regular attributes and regular operations defined on the interface, and is described in more detail in section 4.5.4 below.
Since an interface object for a non-callback interface is a function object the typeof
operator will return
"function" when applied to
such an interface object.
The internal [[Prototype]] property of an interface object for a callback interface MUST be the Object.prototype object.
Remember that interface objects for callback interfaces only exist if they have constants declared on them; when they do exist, they are not function objects.
If the interface is declared with a [Constructor] extended attribute, then the interface object can be called as a function to create an object that implements that interface. Interfaces that do not have a constructor will throw an exception when called as a function.
In order to define how overloaded constructor invocations are resolved, the overload resolution algorithm is defined. Its input is an effective overload set, S, and a list of ECMAScript values, arg0..n−1. Its output is a pair consisting of the operation or extended attribute of one of S’s entries and a list of IDL values or the special value “missing”. The algorithm behaves as follows:
All entries in S at this point have the same type and optionality value at index i.
This is the argument that will be used to resolve which overload is selected.
The overload resolution algorithm performs both the identification of which overloaded operation, constructor, etc. is being called, and the conversion of the ECMAScript argument values to their corresponding IDL values. Informally, it operates as follows.
First, the selection of valid overloads is done by considering the number of ECMAScript arguments that were passed in to the function:
Once we have a set of possible overloads with the right number of arguments, the ECMAScript values are converted from left to right. The nature of the restrictions on overloading means that if we have multiple possible overloads at this point, then there will be one position in the argument list that will be used to distinguish which overload we will finally select; this is the distinguishing argument index.
We first convert the arguments to the left of the distinguishing argument. (There is a requirement that an argument to the left of the distinguishing argument index has the same type as in the other overloads, at the same index.) Then we inspect the type of the ECMAScript value that is passed in at the distinguishing argument index to determine which IDL type it may correspond to. This allows us to select the final overload that will be invoked. If the value passed in is undefined and there is an overload with an optional argument at this position, then we will choose that overload. If there is no valid overload for the type of value passed in here, then we throw a TypeError. The inspection of the value at the distinguishing argument index does not have any side effects; the only side effects that come from running the overload resolution algorithm are those that come from converting the ECMAScript values to IDL values.
At this point, we have determined which overload to use. We now convert the remaining arguments, from the distinguishing argument onwards, again ignoring any additional arguments that were ignored due to being passed after the last possible argument.
When converting an optional argument’s ECMAScript value to its equivalent IDL value, undefined will be converted into the optional argument’s default value, if it has one, or a special value “missing” otherwise.
Optional arguments corresponding to a final, variadic argument do not treat undefined as a special “missing” value, however. The undefined value is converted to the type of variadic argument as would be done for a non-optional argument.
The internal [[Call]] method of the interface object behaves as follows, assuming arg0..n−1 is the list of argument values passed to the constructor, and I is the interface:
If the internal [[Call]] method of the interface object returns normally, then it MUST return an object that implements interface I. This object also MUST be associated with the ECMAScript global environment associated with the interface object.
Interface objects for non-callback interfaces MUST have a property named “length” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } whose value is a Number. If the [Constructor] extended attribute does not appear on the interface definition, then the value is 0. Otherwise, the value is determined as follows:
All interface objects MUST have a property named “name” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } whose value is the identifier of the corresponding interface.
The internal [[HasInstance]] method of every interface object A MUST behave as follows, assuming V is the object argument passed to [[HasInstance]]:
A named constructor that exists due to one or more [NamedConstructor] extended attributes with a given identifier is a function object. It MUST have a [[Call]] internal property, which allows construction of objects that implement the interface on which the [NamedConstructor] extended attributes appear. It behaves as follows, assuming arg0..n−1 is the list of argument values passed to the constructor, id is the identifier of the constructor specified in the extended attribute named argument list, and I is the interface on which the [NamedConstructor] extended attribute appears:
If the internal [[Call]] method of the named constructor returns normally, then it MUST return an object that implements interface I. This object also MUST be associated with the ECMAScript global environment associated with the named constructor.
A named constructor MUST have a property named “length” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } whose value is a Number determined as follows:
A named constructor MUST have a property named “name” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } whose value is the identifier used for the named constructor.
A named constructor MUST also have a property named “prototype” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: false } whose value is the interface prototype object for the interface on which the [NamedConstructor] extended attribute appears.
For every dictionary type that has one or more [Constructor] extended attributes and which is exposed in a given ECMAScript global environment, a corresponding property MUST exist on the ECMAScript environment's global object. The name of the property is the identifier of the dictionary, and its value is a function object called the dictionary constructor.
The property has the attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true }.
The internal [[Call]] method of the interface object behaves as follows, assuming arg0..n−1 is the list of argument values passed to the constructor, and D is the dictionary type:
If the internal [[Call]] method of the named constructor returns normally, then it MUST return an object that is associated with the ECMAScript global environment associated with the dictionary constructor.
A dictionary constructor object MUST have a property named “length” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } whose value is a Number determined as follows:
A dictionary constructor object MUST have a property named “name” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } whose value is the identifier of the dictionary.
There MUST exist an interface prototype object for every non-callback interface defined, regardless of whether the interface was declared with the [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute. The interface prototype object for a particular interface has properties that correspond to the regular attributes and regular operations defined on that interface. These properties are described in more detail in sections 4.5.7 and 4.5.8 below.
As with the interface object, the interface prototype object also has properties that correspond to the constants defined on that interface, described in section 4.5.6 below.
If the [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute was not specified on the interface, then the interface prototype object MUST also have a property named “constructor” with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } whose value is a reference to the interface object for the interface.
The interface prototype object for a given interface A MUST have an internal [[Prototype]] property whose value is returned from the following steps:
The interface prototype object of an interface that is defined with the [NoInterfaceObject] extended attribute will be accessible if the interface is used as a non-supplemental interface. For example, with the following IDL:
[NoInterfaceObject]
interface Foo {
};
partial interface Window {
attribute Foo foo;
};
it is not possible to access the interface prototype object through
the interface object
(since it does not exist as window.Foo
). However, an instance
of Foo can expose the interface prototype
object by gettings its internal [[Prototype]]
property value – Object.getPrototypeOf(window.foo)
in
this example.
If the interface is used solely as a supplemental interface, then there will be no way to access its interface prototype object, since no object will have the interface prototype object as its internal [[Prototype]] property value. In such cases, it is an acceptable optimization for this object not to exist.
If the interface or any of its consequential interfaces has any interface member declared with the [Unscopeable] extended attribute, then there MUST be a property on the interface prototype object whose name is the @@unscopeables symbol and whose value is an object created as follows:
({})
.The class string of an interface prototype object is the concatenation of the interface’s identifier and the string “Prototype”.
For every interface declared with the [Global] or [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute that supports named properties, there MUST exist an object known as the named properties object for that interface.
The named properties object for a given interface A MUST have an internal [[Prototype]] property whose value is returned from the following steps:
The class string of a named properties object is the concatenation of the interface’s identifier and the string “Properties”.
The internal [[GetOwnProperty]] method of every named properties object MUST behave as follows when called with object O and property name P:
The internal [[DefineOwnProperty]] method of every named properties object MUST behave as follows when called with object O and property name P. The term “Reject” is used as defined in section @@ @@.
The internal [[Delete]] method of every named properties object MUST behave as follows when called with object O and property name P.
For each exposed constant defined on an interface A, there MUST be a corresponding property. The property has the following characteristics:
In addition, a property with the same characteristics MUST exist on the interface object, if that object exists.
For each exposed attribute of the interface, whether it was declared on the interface itself or one of its consequential interfaces, there MUST exist a corresponding property. The characteristics of this property are as follows:
This means that even if an implements statement was used to make an attribute available on the interface, I is the interface on the left hand side of the implements statement, and not the one that the attribute was originally declared on.
readonly
and has neither a
[PutForwards] nor a [Replaceable]
extended attribute declared on it.
Otherwise, it is a Function object whose behavior when invoked is as follows:
Although there is only a single property for an IDL attribute, since accessor property getters and setters are passed a this value for the object on which property corresponding to the IDL attribute is accessed, they are able to expose instance-specific data.
Note that attempting to assign to a property corresponding to a read only attribute results in different behavior depending on whether the script doing so is in strict mode. When in strict mode, such an assignment will result in a TypeError being thrown. When not in strict mode, the assignment attempt will be ignored.
For each unique identifier of an exposed operation defined on the interface, there MUST exist a corresponding property, unless the effective overload set for that identifier and operation and with an argument count of 0 has no entries. The characteristics of this property are as follows:
This means that even if an implements statement was used to make an operation available on the interface, I is the interface on the left hand side of the implements statement, and not the one that the operation was originally declared on.
If the interface has an exposed stringifier, then there MUST exist a property with the following characteristics:
The value of the property is a Function object, which behaves as follows:
stringifier
was specified:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
If the interface has an exposed serializer, then a property MUST exist whose name is “toJSON”, with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: true } and whose value is a Function object.
The location of the property is determined as follows:
The property’s Function object, when invoked, MUST behave as follows:
serializer
was specified:
The following steps define how to convert a serialized value to an ECMAScript value:
({})
.[]
.If the interface has any of the following:
then a property MUST exist whose name is the @@iterator symbol, with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } and whose value is a function object.
The location of the property is determined as follows:
If the interface has an iterable declaration, then the Function, when invoked, MUST behave as follows:
If the interface does not have an iterable declaration but does define an indexed property getter, then the Function object is %ArrayProto_values% ([ECMA-262], section 6.1.7.4).
If the interface has a maplike declaration or setlike declaration, then the Function object that is the value of the @@iterator property, when invoked, MUST behave as follows:
"key+value"
)."value"
).The value of the @@iterator Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
If the interface has any of the following:
iterable
keyword (not the legacyiterable
keyword)then a property named “forEach” MUST exist with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: true } and whose value is a function object.
The location of the property is determined as follows:
If the interface has an iterable declaration, then the Function MUST have the same behavior as one that would exist assuming the interface had this operation instead of the iterable declaration:
void forEach(Function callback, optional any thisArg = undefined);
with the following prose definition:
If the interface has a maplike declaration or setlike declaration then the Function, when invoked, MUST behave as follows:
The callbackWrapper function simply calls the incoming callbackFn with object as the third argument rather than its internal [[BackingMap]] or [[BackingSet]] object.
Can the script author observe that callbackWrapper might be a new function every time forEach is called? What's the best way of specifying that there's only one function that has captured an environment?
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 1.
If the interface has an
iterable declaration
declared using the iterable
keyword (not the legacyiterable
keyword),
then a property named “entries” MUST exist
with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: true }
and whose value is a function object.
The location of the property is determined as follows:
The Function, when invoked, MUST behave as follows:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
If the interface has an
iterable declaration
declared using the iterable
keyword (not the legacyiterable
keyword),
then a property named “keys” MUST exist
with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: true }
and whose value is a function object.
The location of the property is determined as follows:
The Function, when invoked, MUST behave as follows:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
If the interface has an
iterable declaration
declared using the iterable
keyword (not the legacyiterable
keyword),
then a property named “values” MUST exist
with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: true }
and whose value is the function object
that is the value of the @@iterator property.
The location of the property is determined as follows:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
A default iterator object for a given interface, target and iteration kind is an object whose internal [[Prototype]] property is the iterator prototype object for the interface.
A default iterator object has three internal values:
When a default iterator object is first created, its index is set to 0.
The class string of a default iterator object for a given interface is the result of concatenting the identifier of the interface and the string “ Iterator”.
The iterator prototype object for a given interface is an object that exists for every interface that has an iterable declaration. It serves as the prototype for default iterator objects for the interface.
The internal [[Prototype]] property of an iterator prototype object MUST be the Object.prototype object.
An iterator prototype object MUST have a property named “next” with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: true } and whose value is a function object that behaves as follows:
next
method.Depending on whether prose accompanying the interface defined this to be a snapshot at the time
iteration begins, the list of values might be different from the previous time the next
method was called on this iterator object.
An iterator prototype object MUST also have a property whose name is the @@iterator symbol with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } and whose value is a function object that behaves as follows when invoked:
The class string of an iterator prototype object for a given interface is the result of concatenting the identifier of the interface and the string “Iterator”.
Any object that implements an interface that has a maplike declaration MUST have a [[BackingMap]] internal slot, which is initially set to a newly created Map object. This Map object’s [[MapData]] internal slot is the object’s map entries.
If an interface A is declared with a maplike declaration, then there exists a number of additional properties on A’s interface prototype object. These additional properties are described in the sub-sections below.
Some of the properties below are defined to have a function object value that forwards to the internal map object for a given function name. Such functions behave as follows when invoked:
There MUST exist a property named “size” on A’s interface prototype object with the following characteristics:
The map size getter is a Function object whose behavior when invoked is as follows:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
A property named “entries” MUST exist on A’s interface prototype object with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } and whose value is the function object that is the value of the @@iterator property.
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
For both of “keys” and “values”, there MUST exist a property with that name on A’s interface prototype object with the following characteristics:
The value of the Function objects’ “length” properties is the Number value 0.
For both of “get” and “has”, there MUST exist a property with that name on A’s interface prototype object with the following characteristics:
The value of the Function objects’ “length” properties is the Number value 1.
If A and A’s consequential interfaces do not declare an interface member with identifier “clear”, and A was declared with a read–write maplike declaration, then a property named “clear” and the following characteristics MUST exist on A’s interface prototype object:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
If A and A’s consequential interfaces do not declare an interface member with identifier “delete”, and A was declared with a read–write maplike declaration, then a property named “delete” and the following characteristics MUST exist on A’s interface prototype object:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 1.
If A and A’s consequential interfaces do not declare an interface member with identifier “set”, and A was declared with a read–write maplike declaration, then a property named “set” and the following characteristics MUST exist on A’s interface prototype object:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 2.
Any object that implements an interface that has a setlike declaration MUST have a [[BackingSet]] internal slot, which is initially set to a newly created Set object. This Set object’s [[SetData]] internal slot is the object’s set entries.
If an interface A is declared with a setlike declaration, then there exists a number of additional properties on A’s interface prototype object. These additional properties are described in the sub-sections below.
Some of the properties below are defined to have a function object value that forwards to the internal set object for a given function name. Such functions behave as follows when invoked:
There MUST exist a property named “size” on A’s interface prototype object with the following characteristics:
The set size getter is a Function object whose behavior when invoked is as follows:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
A property named “values” MUST exist on A’s interface prototype object with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } and whose value is the function object that is the value of the @@iterator property.
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
For both of “entries” and “keys”, there MUST exist a property with that name on A’s interface prototype object with the following characteristics:
The value of the Function objects’ “length” properties is the Number value 0.
There MUST exist a property with named “has” on A’s interface prototype object with the following characteristics:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is a Number value 1.
For both of “add” and “delete”, if:
then a property with that name and the following characteristics MUST exist on A’s interface prototype object:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 1.
If A and A’s consequential interfaces do not declare an interface member with a matching identifier, and A was declared with a read–write setlike declaration, then a property named “clear” and the following characteristics MUST exist on A’s interface prototype object:
The value of the Function object’s “length” property is the Number value 0.
Some objects, which are attempting to emulate map- and set-like interfaces, will want to accept iterables as constructor parameters and initialize themselves in this way. Here we provide some algorithms that can be invoked in order to do so in the same way as in the ECMAScript spec, so that those objects behave the same as the built-in Map and Set objects.
To add map elements from an iterable iterable to an object destination with adder method name adder, perform the following steps:
'0'
).'1'
).The interface prototype object of an interface A MUST have a copy of each property that corresponds to one of the constants, attributes, operations, iterable declarations, maplike declarations and setlike declarations that exist on all of the interface prototype objects of A’s consequential interfaces. For operations, where the property is a data property with a Function object value, each copy of the property MUST have distinct Function objects. For attributes, each copy of the accessor property MUST have distinct Function objects for their getters, and similarly with their setters.
When invoking an operation by calling a Function object that is the value of one of the copies that exists due to an implements statement, the this value is checked to ensure that it is an object that implements the interface corresponding to the interface prototype object that the property is on.
For example, consider the following IDL:
interface A {
void f();
};
interface B { };
B implements A;
interface C { };
C implements A;
Attempting to call B.prototype.f
on an object that implements
A (but not B) or one
that implements C will result in a
TypeError being thrown. However,
calling A.prototype.f
on an object that implements
B or one that implements C
would succeed. This is handled by the algorithm in section 4.5.8
that defines how IDL operation invocation works in ECMAScript.
Similar behavior is required for the getter and setter Function objects that correspond to an IDL attributes, and this is handled in section 4.5.7.
Every platform object is associated with a global environment, just as the initial objects are. It is the responsibility of specifications using Web IDL to state which global environment (or, by proxy, which global object) each platform object is associated with.
The primary interface of a platform object that implements one or more interfaces is the most-derived non-supplemental interface that it implements. The value of the internal [[Prototype]] property of the platform object is the interface prototype object of the primary interface from the platform object’s associated global environment.
The global environment that a given platform object is associated with can change after it has been created. When the global environment associated with a platform object is changed, its internal [[Prototype]] property MUST be immediately updated to be the interface prototype object of the primary interface from the platform object’s newly associated global environment.
Every platform object that implements an [Unforgeable]-annotated interface and which does not have a stringifier that is unforgeable on any of the interfaces it implements MUST have a property with the following characteristics:
Every platform object that implements an [Unforgeable]-annotated interface and which does not have a serializer that is unforgeable on any of the interfaces it implements MUST have a property with the following characteristics:
Every platform object that implements an [Unforgeable]-annotated interface MUST have a property with the following characteristics:
The class string of a platform object that implements one or more interfaces MUST be the identifier of the primary interface of the platform object.
If a platform object implements an interface that supports indexed or named properties, the object will appear to have additional properties that correspond to the object’s indexed and named properties. These properties are not “real” own properties on the object, but are made to look like they are by being exposed by the [[GetOwnProperty]] internal method.
However, when the [Global] or [PrimaryGlobal] extended attribute has been used, named properties are not exposed on the object but on another object in the prototype chain, the named properties object.
It is permissible for an object to implement multiple interfaces that support indexed properties. However, if so, and there are conflicting definitions as to the object’s supported property indices, or if one of the interfaces is a supplemental interface for the platform object, then it is undefined what additional properties the object will appear to have, or what its exact behavior will be with regard to its indexed properties. The same applies for named properties.
The indexed property getter that is defined on the derived-most interface that the platform object implements is the one that defines the behavior when indexing the object with an array index. Similarly for indexed property setters. This way, the definitions of these special operations from ancestor interfaces can be overridden.
Platform objects implementing an interface that supports indexed or named properties cannot be fixed; if Object.freeze
, Object.seal
or Object.preventExtensions
is called on one of these objects, the function
MUST throw a TypeError.
Similarly, an interface prototype object
that exposes named properties due to the use of [Global] or
[PrimaryGlobal]
also MUST throw a TypeError
if one of the three functions above is called on it.
The name of each property that appears to exist due to an object supporting indexed properties is an array index property name, which is a property name P such that Type(P) is String and for which the following algorithm returns true:
A property name is an unforgeable property name on a given platform object if the object implements an interface that has an interface member with that identifier and that interface member is unforgeable on any of the interfaces that O implements. If the object implements an [Unforgeable]-annotated interface, then “toString” and “valueOf” are also unforgeable property names on that object.
The named property visibility algorithm is used to determine if a given named property is exposed on an object. Some named properties are not exposed on an object depending on whether the [OverrideBuiltins] extended attribute was used. The algorithm operates as follows, with property name P and object O:
This should ensure that for objects with named properties, property resolution is done in the following order:
Support for getters is handled by the platform object [[GetOwnProperty]] method defined in section 4.7.3, and for setters by the platform object [[DefineOwnProperty]] method defined in section 4.7.7 and the platform object [[Set]] method defined in section 4.7.6.
The PlatformObjectGetOwnProperty abstract operation performs the following steps when called with an object O, a property name P, and a boolean ignoreNamedProps value:
The internal [[GetOwnProperty]] method of every platform object O that implements an interface which supports indexed or named properties MUST behave as follows when called with property name P:
To invoke an indexed property setter with property name P and ECMAScript value V, the following steps MUST be performed:
To invoke a named property setter with property name P and ECMAScript value V, the following steps MUST be performed:
The internal [[Set]] method of every platform object O that implements an interface which supports indexed or named properties MUST behave as follows when called with property name P, value V, and ECMAScript language value Receiver:
The internal [[DefineOwnProperty]] method of every platform object O that implements an interface which supports indexed or named properties MUST behave as follows when called with property name P, Property Descriptor Desc and boolean flag Throw. The term “Reject” is used as defined in section @@ @@.
The internal [[Delete]] method of every platform object O that implements an interface which supports indexed or named properties MUST behave as follows when called with property name P.
The internal [[Call]] method of every platform object O that implements an interface I with at least one legacy caller MUST behave as follows, assuming arg0..n−1 is the list of argument values passed to [[Call]]:
This document does not define a complete property enumeration order for all platform objects implementing interfaces (or for platform objects representing exceptions). However, if a platform object implements an interface that supports indexed or named properties, then properties on the object MUST be enumerated in the following order:
Future versions of the ECMAScript specification may define a total order for property enumeration.
As described in section 3.9 above, callback interfaces can be implemented in script by an ECMAScript object. The following cases determine whether and how a given object is considered to be a user object implementing a callback interface:
A single operation callback interface is a callback interface that:
A user object’s operation is called with a list of IDL argument values idlarg0..n−1 by following the algorithm below. The callback this value is the value to use as the this value when a callable object was supplied as the implementation of a single operation callback interface. By default, undefined is used as the callback this value, however this MAY be overridden by other specifications.
Note that ECMAScript objects need not have properties corresponding to constants on them to be considered as user objects implementing interfaces that happen to have constants declared on them.
The value of a user object’s attribute is retrieved using the following algorithm:
The value of a user object’s attribute is set using the following algorithm:
An ECMAScript callable object that is being used as a callback function value is called in a manner similar to how operations on user objects are called (as described in the previous section). The callable object is called with a list of values arg0..n−1, each of which is either an IDL value of the special value “missing” (representing a missing optional argument), by following the algorithm below. By default, the callback this value when invoking a callback function is undefined, unless overridden by other specifications.
There MUST exist a property on the ECMAScript global object whose name is “DOMException” and value is an object called the DOMException constructor object, which provides access to legacy DOMException code constants and allows construction of DOMException instances. The property has the attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true }.
The DOMException constructor object MUST be a function object but with a [[Prototype]] value of %Error% ([ECMA-262], section 6.1.7.4).
For every legacy code listed in the error names table, there MUST be a property on the DOMException constructor object whose name and value are as indicated in the table. The property has attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: false }.
The DOMException constructor object MUST also have a property named “prototype” with attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: false } whose value is an object called the DOMException prototype object. This object also provides access to the legacy code values.
When the DOMException function is called with arguments message and name, the following steps are taken:
"name"
, PropertyDescriptor{[[Value]]: name, [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true})."code"
, PropertyDescriptor{[[Value]]: code, [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true}).The DOMException prototype object MUST have an internal [[Prototype]] property whose value is %ErrorPrototype% ([ECMA-262], section 6.1.7.4).
The class string of the DOMException prototype object is “DOMExceptionPrototype”.
There MUST be a property named “constructor” on the DOMException prototype object with attributes { [[Writable]]: true, [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true } and whose value is the DOMException constructor object.
For every legacy code listed in the error names table, there MUST be a property on the DOMException prototype object whose name and value are as indicated in the table. The property has attributes { [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: false }.
Simple exceptions are represented by native ECMAScript objects of the corresponding type.
DOMExceptions are represented by platform objects that inherit from the DOMException prototype object.
Every platform object representing a DOMException in ECMAScript is associated with a global environment, just
as the initial objects are.
When an exception object is created by calling the DOMException constructor object,
either normally or as part of a new
expression, then the global environment
of the newly created object is associated with MUST be the same as for the
DOMException constructor object itself.
The value of the internal [[Prototype]] property of a DOMException object MUST be the DOMException prototype object from the global environment the exception object is associated with.
The class string of a DOMException object MUST be “DOMException”.
The intention is for DOMException objects to be just like the other various native Error objects that the ECMAScript specification defines, apart from responding differently to being passed to Object.prototype.toString and it having a “code” property. If an implementation places non-standard properties on native Error objects, exposing for example stack traces or error line numbers, then these ought to be exposed on exception objects too.
First, we define the current global environment as the result of running the following algorithm:
When a simple exception or DOMException E is to be created, with error name N and optional user agent-defined message M, the following steps MUST be followed:
When a simple exception or DOMException E is to be thrown, with error name N and optional user agent-defined message M, the following steps MUST be followed:
The above algorithms do not restrict platform objects representing exceptions propagating out of a Function to be ones that are associated with the global environment where that Function object originated. For example, consider the IDL:
interface A {
/**
* Calls computeSquareRoot on m, passing x as its argument.
*/
double doComputation(MathUtils m, double x);
};
interface MathUtils {
/**
* If x is negative, throws a NotSupportedError. Otherwise, returns
* the square root of x.
*/
double computeSquareRoot(double x);
};
If we pass a MathUtils object from a different global environment to doComputation, then the exception thrown will be from that global environment:
var a = getA(); // An A object from this global environment.
var m = otherWindow.getMathUtils(); // A MathUtils object from a different global environment.
a instanceof Object; // Evaluates to true.
m instanceof Object; // Evaluates to false.
m instanceof otherWindow.Object; // Evaluates to true.
try {
a.doComputation(m, -1);
} catch (e) {
e instanceof DOMException; // Evaluates to false.
e instanceof otherWindow.DOMException; // Evaluates to true.
}
Any requirements in this document to throw an instance of an ECMAScript built-in Error MUST use the built-in from the current global environment.
None of the algorithms or processing requirements in the ECMAScript language binding catch ECMAScript exceptions. Whenever an ECMAScript Function is invoked due to requirements in this section and that Function ends due to an exception being thrown, that exception MUST propagate to the caller, and if not caught there, to its caller, and so on.
The following IDL fragment
defines two interfaces
and an exception.
The valueOf
attribute on ExceptionThrower
is defined to throw an exception whenever an attempt is made
to get its value.
interface Dahut {
attribute DOMString type;
};
interface ExceptionThrower {
// This attribute always throws a NotSupportedError and never returns a value.
attribute long valueOf;
};
Assuming an ECMAScript implementation supporting this interface, the following code demonstrates how exceptions are handled:
var d = getDahut(); // Obtain an instance of Dahut.
var et = getExceptionThrower(); // Obtain an instance of ExceptionThrower.
try {
d.type = { toString: function() { throw "abc"; } };
} catch (e) {
// The string "abc" is caught here, since as part of the conversion
// from the native object to a string, the anonymous function
// was invoked, and none of the [[DefaultValue]], ToPrimitive or
// ToString algorithms are defined to catch the exception.
}
try {
d.type = { toString: { } };
} catch (e) {
// An exception is caught here, since an attempt is made to invoke
// [[Call]] on the native object that is the value of toString
// property.
}
d.type = et;
// An uncaught NotSupportedError DOMException is thrown here, since the
// [[DefaultValue]] algorithm attempts to get the value of the
// "valueOf" property on the ExceptionThrower object. The exception
// propagates out of this block of code.
This section specifies some common definitions that all conforming implementations MUST support.
typedef (Int8Array or Int16Array or Int32Array or
Uint8Array or Uint16Array or Uint32Array or Uint8ClampedArray or
Float32Array or Float64Array or DataView) ArrayBufferView;
The ArrayBufferView typedef is used to represent objects that provide a view on to an ArrayBuffer.
typedef (ArrayBufferView or ArrayBuffer) BufferSource;
The BufferSource typedef is used to represent objects that are either themselves an ArrayBuffer or which provide a view on to an ArrayBuffer.
typedef unsigned long long DOMTimeStamp;
The DOMTimeStamp type is used for representing a number of milliseconds, either as an absolute time (relative to some epoch) or as a relative amount of time. Specifications that use this type will need to define how the number of milliseconds is to be interpreted.
callback Function = any (any... arguments);
The Function callback function type is used for representing function values with no restriction on what arguments are passed to it or what kind of value is returned from it.
callback VoidFunction = void ();
The VoidFunction callback function type is used for representing function values that take no arguments and do not return any value.
This section is informative.
Extensions to language binding requirements can be specified using extended attributes that do not conflict with those defined in this document. Extensions for private, project-specific use should not be included in IDL fragments appearing in other specifications. It is recommended that extensions that are required for use in other specifications be coordinated with the group responsible for work on Web IDL, which at the time of writing is the W3C Web Applications Working Group, for possible inclusion in a future version of this document.
Extensions to any other aspect of the IDL language are strongly discouraged.
This section is informative.
It is expected that other specifications that define Web platform interfaces using one or more IDL fragments will reference this specification. It is suggested that those specifications include a sentence such as the following, to indicate that the IDL is to be interpreted as described in this specification:
The IDL fragment in Appendix A of this specification must, in conjunction with the IDL fragments defined in this specification's normative references, be interpreted as required for conforming sets of IDL fragments, as described in the “Web IDL” specification. [WEBIDL]
In addition, it is suggested that the conformance class for user agents in referencing specifications be linked to the conforming implementation class from this specification:
A conforming FooML user agent must also be a conforming implementation of the IDL fragment in Appendix A of this specification, as described in the “Web IDL” specification. [WEBIDL]
This section is informative.
The editor would like to thank the following people for contributing to this specification: Glenn Adams, David Andersson, L. David Baron, Art Barstow, Nils Barth, Robin Berjon, David Bruant, Jan-Ivar Bruaroey, Marcos Cáceres, Giovanni Campagna, Domenic Denicola, Michael Dyck, Brendan Eich, João Eiras, Gorm Haug Eriksen, Sigbjorn Finne, David Flanagan, Aryeh Gregor, Dimitry Golubovsky, James Graham, Aryeh Gregor, Kartikaya Gupta, Marcin Hanclik, Jed Hartman, Stefan Haustein, Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, Ian Hickson, Björn Höhrmann, Kyle Huey, Lachlan Hunt, Oliver Hunt, Jim Jewett, Wolfgang Keller, Anne van Kesteren, Olav Junker Kjær, Magnus Kristiansen, Travis Leithead, Jim Ley, Kevin Lindsey, Jens Lindström, Peter Linss, 呂康豪 (Kang-Hao Lu), Kyle Machulis, Mark Miller, Ms2ger, Andrew Oakley, 岡坂 史紀 (Shiki Okasaka), Jason Orendorff, Olli Pettay, Simon Pieters, Andrei Popescu, François Remy, Tim Renouf, Alex Russell, Takashi Sakamoto, Doug Schepers, Jonas Sicking, Garrett Smith, Geoffrey Sneddon, Jungkee Song, Josh Soref, Maciej Stachowiak, Anton Tayanovskyy, Peter Van der Beken, Jeff Walden, Allen Wirfs-Brock, Jeffrey Yasskin and Collin Xu.
Special thanks also go to Sam Weinig for maintaining this document while the editor was unavailable to do so.
This section defines an LL(1) grammar whose start symbol, Definitions, matches an entire IDL fragment.
Each production in the grammar has on its right hand side either a non-zero sequence of terminal and non-terminal symbols, or an epsilon (ε) which indicates no symbols. Symbols that begin with an uppercase letter are non-terminal symbols. Symbols within quotes are terminal symbols that are matched with the exact text between the quotes. Symbols that begin with a lowercase letter are terminal symbols that are matched by the regular expressions (using Perl 5 regular expression syntax [PERLRE]) as follows:
integer | = | /-?([1-9][0-9]*|0[Xx][0-9A-Fa-f]+|0[0-7]*)/ |
float | = | /-?(([0-9]+\.[0-9]*|[0-9]*\.[0-9]+)([Ee][+-]?[0-9]+)?|[0-9]+[Ee][+-]?[0-9]+)/ |
identifier | = | /_?[A-Za-z][0-9A-Z_a-z-]*/ |
string | = | /"[^"]*"/ |
whitespace | = | /[\t\n\r ]+/ |
comment | = | /\/\/.*|\/\*(.|\n)*?\*\// |
other | = | /[^\t\n\r 0-9A-Za-z]/ |
The tokenizer operates on a sequence of Unicode characters [UNICODE]. When tokenizing, the longest possible match MUST be used. For example, if the input text is “a1”, it is tokenized as a single identifier, and not as a separate identifier and integer. If the longest possible match could match one of the above named terminal symbols or one of the quoted terminal symbols from the grammar, it MUST be tokenized as the quoted terminal symbol. Thus, the input text “long” is tokenized as the quoted terminal symbol "long" rather than an identifier called “long”, and “.” is tokenized as the quoted terminal symbol "." rather than an other.
The IDL syntax is case sensitive, both for the quoted terminal symbols used in the grammar and the values used for identifier terminals. Thus, for example, the input text “Const” is tokenized as an identifier rather than the quoted terminal symbol "const", an interface with identifier “A” is distinct from one named “a”, and an extended attribute [constructor] will not be recognized as the [Constructor] extended attribute.
Implicitly, any number of whitespace and comment terminals are allowed between every other terminal in the input text being parsed. Such whitespace and comment terminals are ignored while parsing.
The following LL(1) grammar, starting with Definitions, matches an IDL fragment:
The Other non-terminal matches any single terminal symbol except for "(", ")", "[", "]", "{", "}" and ",".
While the ExtendedAttribute non-terminal matches any non-empty sequence of terminal symbols (as long as any parentheses, square brackets or braces are balanced, and the "," token appears only within those balanced brackets), only a subset of those possible sequences are used by the extended attributes defined in this specification — see section 3.11 for the syntaxes that are used by these extended attributes.
This section is informative.
The following is a list of substantial changes to the document on each publication. For the list of changes during the development of the First Edition of this specification, see that document's Changes appendix.
Disallowed “length” and “name” from being used as identifiers of constants.
Added a FrozenArray<T> type.
Renamed [ArrayClass] to [LegacyArrayClass].
Removed T[] array types.
Allowed [NewObject] to be used on things with a promise type.
Fix various cases in which maplike/setlike were operating on the wrong objects.
Disallow maplike, setlike and iterable declarations from appearing more than once on an interface and its inherited and consequential interfaces. Also disallow the relevant restricted member names (such as “entries” and “values”) on the inherited and consequential interfaces.
Allowed stringifier attributes to have type USVString.
Gave interface objects, named constructors, and dictionary constructors a "name" property to match ES6.
Made the "length" property on dictionary constructors configurable.
Added types for ArrayBuffer, DataView and typed array objects.
Added USVString and allowed string literals in IDL to be used to give values for all string-typed optional argument and dictionary member default values.
Made sequences distinguishable from dictionaries, callback functions, and all interface types.
Removed IDL exceptions, baked in DOMException, and added Error and DOMException as types.
Removed [MapLike] and added iterable, maplike and setlike declarations.
Removed the custom Object.prototype.toString definition and instead defined class strings to influence the @@toStringTag property on objects.
Added the [Unscopeable] extended attribute.
Rewrote ES to IDL sequence conversion so that any iterable is convertible to a sequence.
Added grammar production for Promise<T> types and allowed T to be void.
Added a definition to "initialize an object from an iterable", which behaves like the Map constructor.
Added a default value []
that can be used for
sequence-typed operation argument default values and
dictionary member default values.
Added promise types.
Added the [NewObject] and [SameObject] extended attributes.
Allowed [Constructor] to be specified on dictionaries.
Added a RegExp type.
Added iterators that can be declared on interfaces.
Added an @@iterator method to objects with indexed properties.
Updated to ECMAScript 6th Edition.
Added serializers.
Added a ByteString type, for representing 8 bit strings without a particular encoding as ECMAScript String values.
Added static attributes.
Make it clear that an interface can't be exposed in a global where its parent interface is not exposed.
Allow dictionary-typed trailing-position operation arguments not to be optional, if and only if the dictionary type has a required dictionary member.
Added a platform object [[Set]] internal method to handle named and indexed setters better.
Removed the concept of creators; setters are always also creators.
Disallowed an interface without [NoInterfaceObject] inheriting from a [NoInterfaceObject] interface.
Removed indexed deleters.
Made the prototype of an interface object of a non-root interface be the interface object of its ancestor interface.
Clarified the property attributes of the "prototype" property of non-callback interface objects.
Made the "length" property on interface objects and named constructors configurable.
Added a way to mark dictionary members as required.
Allowed hyphens in identifiers after the first character.
Fix [Exposed] text to make it clear that the value on the interface, if any, is used as the value for its members by default.
Fixed the grammar for extended attributes that take an identifier list, such as [Exposed].
Add a term "unenumerable" to allow named properties to be exposed as properties with [[Enumerable]] set to false.
Added the [Exposed] and [PrimaryGlobal] extended attributes and allowed an identifier to be used with [Global].
Removed [TreatUndefinedAs].
Renamed [TreatNonCallableAsNull] to [TreatNonObjectAsNull] and changed its semantics to allow any object. Changed callback function invocation to be a no-op when the object is not callable, which can now happen in the [TreatNonObjectAsNull] case.
Changed the default this value for callbacks from null to undefined.
Removed the requirement for named properties objects to be function objects.
Disallowed properties from being defined on a named properties object.
Fixed infinite loop in named property visibility algorithm.
Made stringifiers and serializers not use [[Get]] or [[Call]] for the their attribute or operation delegated behavior.
Allowed trailing optional comma in enum lists.
Disallowed static interface members from being defined on a callback interface.
Added a hook to do a security check when invoking an operation or accessing an attribute.
Defined how callbacks influence the incumbent script.
Changed how callback functions are invoked to support missing optional arguments.
Renamed [NamedPropertiesObject] to [Global], which now also causes properties for interface members to appear on the object itself rather than on the interface prototype object.
Split out boolean from the other primitive types. Made boolean, numeric types and DOMString distinguishable.
Required a getter to be present on an interface if it has a setter, creator or delete.
Extended [Unforgeable] to apply to operations and interfaces.
Allowed all operation arguments to be specified as being optional and changed back to the behavior of undefined being treated as a missing optional argument value. Modified the effective overload set and overload resolution algorithms to take this into account, as well as allowing an undefined value passed as the argument value at the distinguishing index to select the overload with an optional argument at that index. Also removed [TreatUndefinedAs=Missing].
Changed the ECMAScript to IDL dictionary conversion algorithm to treat a property with the value undefined as missing.
Removed the ability to put extended attributes after the
typedef
keyword, as that feature is unused.
Fixed the long long and unsigned long long conversion algorithms to correctly identify the range of contiguous, exactly, uniquely representable integers you can get from a Number.
Clarified that Function objects for operations and attribute getters and setters are distinct on each interface they are mixed in to using an implements statement, and that each copy of the Function works only on objects that implement the interface whose interface prototype object the Function object is on.
Mention the named properties object in the list of initial objects.
Added back a custom [[HasInstance]] on interface objects to allow objects from other windows to be considered instanceof them.
Fixed conversion of Number values to any by using the conversion algorithm for unrestricted double.
Allowed an identifier to be “prototype” for any construct except constants and static operations.
Fixed a bug in the user object definition where the internal [[Call]] method would be treated as the implementation of an operation even if the callback interface had more than one operation.
Further tweaked the overload resolution algorithm and union type conversion algorithm for consistency.
Lifted the restriction on [Unforgeable] appearing on an IDL attribute if another interface inherits from the one the attribute is declared on, but required that the inheriting interface not have an attribute with the same identifier.
Made attribute setters throw if no argument was passed to them, instead of assuming undefined.
Prevented dictionaries from referencing themselves.
Made sequences, arrays and dictionaries undistingishable again, thereby allowing non-Array ECMAScript objects to be converted to sequence and array types.
Added a requirement to state what the values of an exception’s fields are when throwing it.
Changed the “length” property on Function objects for IDL operations to return the smallest number of required arguments.
Clarified that dictionaries may not be nullable when used as the type of an operation argument or dictionary member.
Specify the value of the “length” property on interface objects that do not have constructors.
Do not treat array index properties as named properties if an object supports both indexed and named properties.
Require that dictionary type arguments followed by optional arguments must also be optional, and that such optional arguments always are assumed to have a default value of an empty dictionary. Also disallow dictionary types from being used inside nullable types and from being considered distinguishable from nullable types.
Always consider dictionary members with default values as present.
Tweak [Clamp] algorithms for clarity.
Require exception objects to have [[Class]] “Error” and suggest that they have any non-standard properties that native Error objects do.
Fixed a bug in the whitespace token regular expression.
Explicitly disallow dictionaries from being used inside union types as the type of an attribute or exception field.
Fixed a bug in the definition of distinguishability where a nullable union type and a non-nullable union type that has a nullable member type were considered distinguishable.
Disallowed callback interfaces from being used in implements statements.
Renamed “exception types” to “exception names”.
Disallowed non-callback interfaces from inheriting from callback interfaces.
Changed the algorithm for conversion from a platform object with indexed properties to a sequence type to use its internal knowledge of the set of property indexes rather than getting the "length" property, which may not even exist.
Added a warning to prefer the use of double to float, unless there are good reasons to choose the 32 bit type.
Changed the restriction on operation argument default values so that all optional arguments to the left of one with a default value must also have default values. (Previously, this was to the right.)