Isindex

Isindex Support Key: [2\|3\|3.2\|4] [X1\|X1.1] [IE1\|M1\|N1\|O2.1*]	What is it? Attributes Tag Example	Parent/Content Model Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
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Quick Statistics
End Tag:		Omitted
Standards Details:		Deprecated in HTML 4.x/XHTML 1.0; Dropped in XHTML 1.1 in favor of other more powerful existing form controls
XHTML Modules:		NA
CSS 'display' Type:		NA
CSS Mapping:		NA
Default Rendering:		Replaced with content and a submittable form control
Official Docs:		HTML 4.x, XHTML 1.0

What is it?: The ISINDEX element indicates that the browser must allow the user to search an index by entering keywords. This legacy element from early HTML is much less common now that complex form capability is possible. Although it can be placed in other areas of an HTML document, it is usually found contained in the HEAD element.

Common Attributes
%Core%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE3|M|N4B5|O4]
%Accessibility%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4|M|N6|O5]
%Events%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4|M|N6|O4]
%Language%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4|M|N6B3|O]
%Editing%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE5.5|M|N|O]
Specific Attributes
Action
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE1|M|N1-4.x|O2.1]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
Specifies the URL of a script to be used to process the ISINDEX data.; Values: Either an absolute or relative URL. All URLs should be URL encoded where required.
Align
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N|O4]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This indicates the horizontal alignment of the content in this block element relative to the browser window.; Values: Left [DEFAULT] | Center | Right
Enctype
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N1-4.x|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute specifies the MIME media type used to encode the value sent for the ISINDEX element, in case the protocol itself does not impose a format.; Values: application/x-www-form-urlencoded [DEFAULT]
Height
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N|O4-6.x]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute explicitly specifies the height of this block element in pixels.; Values: Positive integers.
Method
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N1-4.x|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This optional attribute specifies a method or protocol for accessing the ACTION URL. A METHOD of GET will send the ISINDEX value in a query URL that looks like:
URL?value
where URL is the URL specified by the ACTION attribute, or the current document URL if no ACTION attribute was specified. In the POST method, the contents are sent in environment variables in the HTTP transaction.; Values: GET [DEFAULT] | POST
Prompt
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE1|M|N1|O2.1]: Standards Details: Deprecated in HTML 4.x/XHTML 1.0; Dropped in XHTML 1.1; Required? No; Description:
Indicates an alternate string (different from the default) to be used as the query message for the user.; Values: CDATA
SDAPref
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This is an SGML Document Access (SDA) attribute. SDA attributes are designed to transform HTML (and other SGML-based documents) to the ICADD DTD - which is used in creating accessible documents for users with visual disabilities (rendering in Braille, large print, speech synthesis, etc.) The attribute value specifies content to be added BEFORE the original element (in this case the string "<Para>[Document is indexed/searchable.]</Para>") when the SDA document is rendered.; Value: "<Para>[Document is indexed/searchable.]</Para>"
Target
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N2-4.x|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute specifies the named frame for the browser to display the isindex results after the user submits information to a processing script.; Values: The TARGET reserved names apply.
Width
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N|O4-6.x]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute explicitly specifies the width of this block element in pixels.; Values: Positive integers.

Example: <isindex prompt="query message" />

Parent Model: %Block Parent% | <head>
Content Model: This element does not accept any content.

Tips & Tricks

Because this element is not widely used, the addition of new elements that would be supported parents of ISINDEX may break some browsers. It is also not widely used anywhere but in the HEAD section, which some parsers may take for granted.

Browser Peculiarities

The beta versions of Internet Explorer 4.0 did not support this element at all - the final version of IE 4.0, however, supported it again.
[Test] The default method for sending ISINDEX data is via the GET method (the data is appended to a URL as an argument.)
[Test] In Netscape 1.0-4.x, when data is sent via POST, it is sent as a name/value pair (exactly like it is done with normal forms.) The data is sent as: The ISINDEX value is what is entered by the user, and the variable name it is assigned to is "isindex." If the GET method is used, the value is the only data that is sent.
[Test] Opera 4.x: Assigning event handlers to this element will only trigger on the isindex surrounding area, NOT the ISINDEX text input field - this seems like incorrect behavior to me.
Netscape 6 Beta Warning: Support for this element was not added to Mozilla/Netscape 6 until Beta 3 - in Betas 1 and 2 this element was not supported at all.