The development of HTML5 is now so far advanced that it was incorporated into the MediaWiki software and has been the default on Wikimedia wikis since September 2012. This project serves to organize the adaptation of articles and other Wikipedia pages to HTML5.

Scope

Implementation of the new HTML5 attributes accepted by MediaWiki software. These include:

• The data-sort-value attributes in table cells. This is associated to the replacement of templates like Sort, SortDate, Sortname, Number table sorting, Dts and Dtsx.
• Other data attributes.

{| align="center"
|- align="center"
| align="center" | …

{| class="center"           <!-- corresponds to text-align: center,
                                       and also margin: auto on inner elements -->
{| class="centered"               <!-- corresponds to margin: auto -->
{| style="margin:auto;"
|- style="text-align:center;"
| class="center"

• The following attributes relevant for Wikipedia tables are also considered obsolete in HTML5: bgcolor, border, bordercolor, cellpadding, cellspacing.
• The following elements were formerly obsolete in HTML4 and "rehabilitated" in HTML5: u and s^[6]

1. ^ HTML element#Presentation
2. ^ http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/obsolete.html#non-conforming-features
3. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/html5-diff/#obsolete-elements
4. ^ SELFHTML – List of items for markup
5. ^ http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/obsolete.html#non-conforming-features
6. ^ ^{a b} SELFHTML – HTML/deprecated

Participants[edit]

Participating users:

• All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 20:04, 15 October 2015 (UTC).
  
• ...

Collection of ideas[edit]

• A bot to insert data attributes based on the syntax of the SortKey. ÅñŧóñŜûŝî (Ð)
• Warn the user using Special:AbuseFilter.
• Adapt de:MediaWiki:Gadget-Extra-Editbuttons.js (discussion)
• Adapt de:Benutzer:PerfektesChaos/js/WikiSyntaxTextMod

Obsolete elements and attributes[edit]

big[edit]

<big> can usually be replaced by {{big}}.

If CSS styling already exists, then add font-size: large;.

Where <big> is nested to create a larger font use the font-size property. Use of large fonts in articles and templates is typically inappropriate and you should consider if it is really needed. See MOS:FONTSIZE.

center

Text

For most text, <center>...</center> can be replaced with {{center}}.

Templates

To center templates, check the template documentation as most have a parameter for general styling or specifically for alignment. If the template does not have an alignment parameter, consider adding one.

Parser tags

Some parser tags can use CSS styles:

Tables

To center a table, use CSS styling:

And likewise to center a cell:

Header cells are centered by default.

font

The <font> element has three attributes with equivalent CSS properties:

Note that in HTML the value for the size attribute does not correspond to any CSS value; it only accepts values 1 through 7.

strike

<strike>...</strike> formats strike-through characters. (search articles) (search all)

• Use <s>...</s> for text that is no longer correct, accurate or relevant.
• Use <del>...</del> for text that has been deleted.

tt

<tt>...</tt> formats text in a fixed-width font. (search articles) (search all)

• Use <code> for computer code.
• Use <kbd> for keyboard input.
• Use <samp> for sample output from a computer program.

Table attributes

Obsolete table attributes.^[1]

Allowed, obsolete but rarely used table attributes:

• frame: Use CSS for borders. (search articles) (search all)
• rules: Use CSS for borders. (search articles) (search all)
• axis: Use scopeon the table header. (search articles) (search all)
• align on <caption>. (search articles) (search all)
• height: Use height or line-height. (search articles) (search all)

Additionally, these attributes are obsolete on table cells.^[2][3]

• abbr: Elaborate content of the cell
• scope on table cell: scopeis valid only on table header

There are instances where a table is used to align a template. In many cases the template has an alignment parameter; if not, one should be added.

{|align=right
|{{navbar|Foo}}
|} 

Other obsolete attributes

• clear on <br />

• align on <div>

Obsolete, allowed but rarely used attributes:

• width on <hr>...</hr> (search articles) (search all)
• align on <h1>...</h1> through <h6>...</h6>
• type on <li>...</li> (search articles) (search all)
• align on <p>...</p> (search articles) (search all)
• width on <pre>...</pre> [ns0 (search articles)] (search all)
• type on <ul>...</ul> (search articles) (search all)

Misused elements

cite

Under the previous XHTML 4.01 usage <cite>...</cite> defined an entire citation. With HTML5, <cite> now defines only the title of a work. There are still many uses of <cite> used to define an entire citation and often to apply an anchor id. Note that uses of <cite> exist without the closing </cite> or incorrectly closed by </span>.

Where used with a Citation Style 1 or Citation Style 2 template, the <cite> should be removed:

Where an anchor id is used with a citation template, the id should be moved to the |ref= parameter.

In this instance, the anchor can be formed by using |ref=harv, but the |anchor= parameters must be updated to |last= and |first=.

See also

• Help:HTML in wikitext
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Check_Wikipedia Finds some obsolete HTML tags
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Accessibility

References