The Importance of HTML Specific Syntax: Exploring Attributes and Tag Structure
In our previous lesson, we became familiar with the tree-like structure of HTML and learned how to navigate the tree to access specific elements. We did not pay much attention to the actual HTML tags nor the specifics of HTML syntax beyond this tree-like structure. However, in this lesson, we delve deeper into some of the HTML specific syntax you may ask why we want to get more specific here it turns out that sometimes we want to access information that is held within the HTML tags themselves.
We often want to access this info in order to find the URL pointed to by a specific link on the site or because it can potentially give us another method to select specific HTML elements with a more friendly syntax than traversing the entire HTML tree. To achieve this, we need to understand the abstract tag formatting and how many HTML tag types follow the same formatting.
We have already seen three tag names, namely the HTML div and P tags. These tags can also contain attributes which provide special instructions for the contents contained within that tag. Specific HTML attribute names are followed by an equal sign followed by information which is being passed to that attribute within the tag in well-formatted HTML the information is in quotes.
This may sound confusing, but don't worry, it's not as complex as it seems. To look at a specific example, let's consider a div tag with two attributes ID and class. We chose these two attributes here because they arise frequently in practice in well-formatted HTML. The ID attribute can be used as a unique identifier for the tag element in this case, the ID is unique and should only belong to this specific development giving us a quick way to identify it.
The class attribute some class can also help us identify this div element but even in well-formatted HTML it doesn't need to be unique. Note that a tag needs to have an ID nor a class attribute, but all tags can be given an ID and a class. A point that will find its way into a future lesson is that a tag can belong to multiple classes and this is done when the class attribute that is the quoted text assigned for that class has multiple class names separated by spaces.
In fact, this div tag would belong to both classes sum and class. Let's look at another example of the a tag name, which is the specific tag for hyperlinks. The links we click on within a website to redirect somewhere the most important attribute within these hyperlink tags is the href attribute. This attribute is used to identify the URL where the hyperlink redirects.
It turns out that there are many allowable tag types in HTML and many allowable attributes which sometimes depend on those tag types. We will not be able to nor want to go through each and every one of these in this course rather we're going to learn techniques that will be applicable regardless of the tag with a special focus on ID class and href attributes.
We saw in this lesson building up methods that can easily apply to other attributes as you encounter them. Don't worry even with only those three attributes, we will get a lot of traction. So what did we learn in this lesson? We focused on HTML specific syntax learning the general abstract structure of HTML tags we saw how to identify the tag name and attributes within those tags.
Learning the General Abstract Structure of HTML Tags
In our previous lessons, we became familiar with the tree-like structure of HTML and learned how to navigate the tree to access specific elements. However, in this lesson, we delve deeper into some of the HTML specific syntax you may ask why we want to get more specific here it turns out that sometimes we want to access information that is held within the HTML tags themselves.
We often want to access this info in order to find the URL pointed to by a specific link on the site or because it can potentially give us another method to select specific HTML elements with a more friendly syntax than traversing the entire HTML tree. To achieve this, we need to understand the abstract tag formatting and how many HTML tag types follow the same formatting.
We have already seen three tag names, namely the HTML div and P tags. These tags can also contain attributes which provide special instructions for the contents contained within that tag. Specific HTML attribute names are followed by an equal sign followed by information which is being passed to that attribute within the tag in well-formatted HTML the information is in quotes.
The Importance of Understanding Tag Attributes
In order to understand how HTML works, we need to learn about the attributes that are associated with each tag. These attributes provide special instructions for the contents contained within that tag. By understanding these attributes, we can create more complex and interactive web pages.
Specifically, we saw in this lesson building up methods that can easily apply to other attributes as you encounter them. Don't worry even with only those three attributes, we will get a lot of traction. The ID attribute is used to identify the tag element and provide a unique identifier for it. This makes it easy to select or manipulate the element using its ID.
The class attribute is used to group elements together based on their functionality or design style. By using the same class name consistently, we can easily select or manipulate all elements with that class. For example, if we want to change the background color of a page, we can apply a CSS rule to all elements with the "background-color" class.
The href attribute is used to specify the URL where the hyperlink redirects when clicked. This is an essential attribute for creating links on our web pages. By understanding how to use these attributes effectively, we can create more complex and interactive web pages.
Techniques for Applying Attributes Effectively
In order to apply HTML attributes effectively, we need to understand how to use them in conjunction with each other. We saw in this lesson building up methods that can easily apply to other attributes as you encounter them. Don't worry even with only those three attributes, we will get a lot of traction.
The key is to understand how the different attributes work together to create more complex and interactive web pages. By learning these techniques, we can create more dynamic and engaging web pages that provide a better user experience.
By understanding the abstract tag formatting and how many HTML tag types follow the same formatting, we can learn to apply HTML attributes effectively. This will enable us to create more complex and interactive web pages that are rich in content and functionality.