[whatwg] Client-side includes proposal

[Jonas Sicking]

Greg Houston wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 4:01 PM, João Eiras <joao.eiras at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> <include src="static-header" />
>>> <include src="user-specific-data" />
>>> <include src="dynamic-daily-content" />
>> This is something that would probably not be represented with a new element,
>> because elements are  preserved in the DOM tree so they can be accessed and
>> queried.
>> So then you'd have a question: keep <include>in the dom and allow access to
>> children like an iframe, or replace <include> entirely ?
>> The answer could be intuitive, but that can open a can of worms. Then you
>> can do all sorts of dynamic manipulation, which would have to be very well
>> specified.
>> I think the way to go would be a processing instruction.
>>
>> The idea is good though ! But I think could be better implemented with a css
>> template like feature. I don't like the idea of a new element.
>>
>> Bye.
> 
> This seems to be mostly useful for people creating small websites that
> are afraid of server side scripting languages like PHP, Python and
> Ruby. That being the case, if something like this is implemented the
> included content should definitely not be accessed like with an
> iframe. The elements included should be in the DOM tree of the parent
> just as if the includes were done server side. Accessing the DOM of an
> iframe from the parent and vice versa causes people a lot of
> confusion. I don't think we need to add that level of confusion to the
> group of users that would most likely use this feature.
> 
> Also, a bonus of keeping <include src="some-content.html" /> in the
> DOM, is that changing the source could reload the content of that
> element. You would have instant AJAX/XHR for dummies.

This is basically what i've suggested in a thread some months back. 
Basically an <iframe> but that renders as if the inner was included inline.

This is far from easy to implement since you have to do layout across 
several documents. But I think it would be a pretty useful feature to 
simplify AJAXy pages.

If I ever get time I'm going to attempt an implementation in firefox 
which will hopefully provide experience to build a spec on.

/ Jonas