CSS content property: is it possible to insert HTML instead of Text?

Question

Just wondering if it's possible somehow to make the CSS content property insert html code instead string on :before or :after an element like:

.header:before{
  content: '<a href="#top">Back</a>';
}

this would be quite handy...It could be done through Javascript but using css for this would really make lives easier :)

Redemptioner

@Kaiido OMG...it is not, didn't check the date of the question, I referred to your answer...really sorry, will delete both these comments :) – Radiant

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this is not possible. Per the spec:

Generated content does not alter the document tree. In particular, it is not fed back to the document language processor (e.g., for reparsing).

In other words, for string values this means the value is always treated literally. It is never interpreted as markup, regardless of the document language in use.

As an example, using the given CSS with the following HTML:

<h1 class="header">Title</h1>

... will result in the following output:

<a href="#top">Back</a>Title

Excerpta

agreed, but if you imagine that it already have support for images with the url attributes, adding a link wouldn't be that different in this perspective. – Redemptioner

@ludicco: That's because the images themselves aren't DOM elements (not counting <img>), they're just being drawn onto existing elements, so by applying background or list images you're not really modifying the DOM. – Excerpta

got it thanks, so I think I will have to pass this idea and go straight to js, cheers – Redemptioner

@ludicco: Good question. Even I was searching through SO hoping this was possible. – Exultant

Does support svgs tho, which i just found out :) – Comanche

@watson: Just saw your answer to the other question. You're right; I probably should clarify in my answer that you cannot add arbitrary markup - you have to specify an external file via url() instead, as with any other image. – Excerpta

Answer 2

As almost noted in comments to @BoltClock's answer, in modern browsers, you can actually add some html markup to pseudo-elements using the (url()) in combination with svg's <foreignObject> element.

You can either specify an URL pointing to an actual svg file, or create it with a dataURI version (data:image/svg+xml; charset=utf8, + encodeURIComponent(yourSvgMarkup))

But note that it is mostly a hack and that there are a lot of limitations :

• You can not load any external resources from this markup (no CSS, no images, no media etc.).
• You can not execute script.
• Since this won't be part of the DOM, the only way to alter it, is to pass the markup as a dataURI, and edit this dataURI in document.styleSheets. for this part, DOMParser and XMLSerializer may help.
• While the same operation allows us to load url-encoded media in <img> tags, this won't work in pseudo-elements (at least as of today, I don't know if it is specified anywhere that it shouldn't, so it may be a not-yet implemented feature).

Now, a small demo of some html markup in a pseudo element :

/* 
**  original svg code :
*
*<svg width="200" height="60"
*     xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
*
* <foreignObject width="100%" height="100%" x="0" y="0">
*	<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" style="color: blue">
*		I am <pre>HTML</pre>
*	</div>
* </foreignObject>
*</svg>
*
*/

#log::after {
  content: url('data:image/svg+xml;%20charset=utf8,%20%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20height%3D%2260%22%20width%3D%22200%22%3E%0A%0A%20%20%3CforeignObject%20y%3D%220%22%20x%3D%220%22%20height%3D%22100%25%22%20width%3D%22100%25%22%3E%0A%09%3Cdiv%20style%3D%22color%3A%20blue%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2Fxhtml%22%3E%0A%09%09I%20am%20%3Cpre%3EHTML%3C%2Fpre%3E%0A%09%3C%2Fdiv%3E%0A%20%20%3C%2FforeignObject%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E');
}

<p id="log">hi</p>

Malkin

I came across your answer, and it is a solution to some of my own issues. Can you explain how to format a URL pointing to a file? I tried url('/relativePathToMySvg/mySvg.svg') and it didn't work – Legate

@Frank, per specs, using a relative path will be relative to your css file's path i.e, if you've got your css file in /root/css/yourFile.css, then a relative funcIRI like yourFile.svg will be pointing to /root/css/yourFile.svg/. But, I think I remember that some earlier UA had a bug and made it relative to the document's baseURI. So the securest way is just to use absolute path. – Malkin

@BoltClock, really ? I'm truly sorry about it. I came on this 6 years old question by an other one and felt I had to post it as an update, but maybe I should be even more clear that your answer is good, and was definitely correct 6 years ago ? Or if you have some good wordings that could fit as an header, feel free to edit my answer. – Malkin

Nice. I used: content: url('../../images/como-funciona.svg'); and it works fine – Sunbonnet

Here is an earlier post, which have an answer of mine, that dives a little deeper into the subject: is-it-possible-to-display-an-html-document-or-html-fragment-at-css-content – Radiant

This does not allow adding links unfortunately. – Pass

Answer 3

In CSS3 paged media this is possible using position: running() and content: element().

Example from the CSS Generated Content for Paged Media Module draft:

@top-center {
  content: element(heading); 
}

.runner { 
  position: running(heading);
}

.runner can be any element and heading is an arbitrary name for the slot.

EDIT: to clarify, there is basically no browser support so this was mostly meant to be for future reference/in addition to the 'practical answers' given already.

Embry

Hey, could you explain this a little more. I am interested in your theory but can't seem to get it to execute. How would I include, say, an anchor tag using this method or a div. – Ombudsman

the problem is that there is currently basically no browser support, but dedicated HTML renderers implement it as per the spec. The next not-so-good news are that there doesn't seem to be a good open source implementation; most are SaaS products like princexml.com. – Embry

From your link (emphasis mine): position: running(custom-ident) removes the element (and associated ::before and ::after pseudo-elements) from the normal flow, and **makes it available to place in a page margin box using element().** Sounds like this will only be available to place elements in margins, not on top of other elements. Is it possible to target the margin of an element, or is this not a viable solution? – Miscarriage

Answer 4

It is not possible probably because it would be so easy to XSS. Also, current HTML sanitizers that are available don't disallow content property.

(Definitely not the greatest answer here but I just wanted to share an insight other than the "according to spec... ")

Ottinger

Answer 5

If you have the ability to add a HTML elsewhere on the page, you can reposition it over the area where your CSS content shows up.

So you add your CSS content:

   .cssClass::after {
    content: "Content and Words and Things";
    color: #0000EE;
        }

I added hyperlink blue so it looks like a link.

Then you add an href that has no text in between the tags with an id or class that you can reference. It can be anywhere as long as it's on the same page.

<a id="link" href="#"></a>

And then position the link over the content where you want it:

a#link{
    height: 20px;
    width: 100%;
    left: 0;
    top: 5%;
    position: absolute;
}

Henchman

I also need to make similar examples but I did not understand from your example how you place the element <a> in the content – Frequentative

Is there a way to do this without hardcoding positions? – Miscarriage