XBL 1.0 Reference

Abstract

This document describes Extensible Binding Language (XBL) 1.0 as implemented in Gecko browsers.

Extensible Binding Language is a XML-based markup language to implement reusable components (bindings) that can be bound to elements in other documents. The element with a binding specified, called the bound element, acquires the new behavior specified by the binding. Bindings can be bound to elements using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) or DOM. One element can be bound to several bindings at once.

Functionally bindings should be correlated with Behaviors and Viewlink but being implemented as one integrated XML solution.

Bindings can contain event handlers that are registered on the bound element, an implementation of new methods and properties that become accessible from the bound element, and anonymous content that is inserted around the bound element.

XBL Elements

XBL 1.0 elements are in the https://www.mozilla.org/xbl namespace.

• bindings
• binding
• content
• children
• implementation
• constructor
• destructor
• field
• property
• getter
• setter
• method
• parameter
• body
• handlers
• handler
• resources
• stylesheet
• image

Binding Attachment and Detachment

• Attachment using CSS
• Attachment using element.style property
• <constructor> call
• <destructor> call
• Binding Documents

DOM Interfaces

• The nsIDOMDocumentXBL Interface

Anonymous Content

• Introduction
• Scoping and Access Using the DOM
• Content Generation
  • Rules for Generation
  • The contentgenerated Event
  • The contentdestroyed Event
• Attribute Forwarding
• Insertion Points
  • <children> and <element>
  • Handling DOM Changes
• Event Flow and Targeting
  • Flow and Targeting Across Scopes
  • Focus and Blur Events
  • Mouseover and Mouseout Events
• Anonymous Content and CSS
  • Selectors and Scopes
  • Binding Stylesheets

Binding Implementations

• Introduction
• Methods
• Properties
• Inheritance of Implementations

Event Handlers

Example - Sticky Notes

Updated and adjusted for the current Firefox implementation.

• notes.html
• notes.xml
• notes.css

View this example

Download all files (.zip archive) need to ask to adjust the server - it gives "Access denied" for zip files (?)

References

• Initial XBL 1.0 proposal submitted as a Note to W3C (does not reflect Mozilla implementation, nor future plans)
• XBL 2.0 Project