Re: nesting colgroup and rowgroups (PR#7881)

On 4/5/06, Shane McCarron <xhtml2-issues@mn.aptest.com> wrote:
> While there are notional "rowgroups" there are no explicit arbitrary rowgroups
> in HTML nor in XHTML because rows are explicit in tables.  colgroups, on the
> other hand, exist because HTML / XHTML needs a way of referring to columns.
>
> Could you please provide a concrete example of what you are looking for, along
> with a description of what the advantages would be?

rowgroup:

Some of the tables I generate now have a multidimensional key, like


SystemA   PartA   LocationA   data ....
SystemA   PartA   LocationB   data ...
SystemA   PartB   LocationX   data ...
SystemB   PartC   LocationY   data

At the moment, I can (ignoring browser bugs) treat SystemA and System
B as separate rowgroups by placing multiple tbody elements in a single
table.  Alternatively, I could group SystemA-PartA.

I would like to group System A, and also group PartA within that group.

Users often want to focus on (or exclude) certain sections. 
Workarounds I have seen include

(1)  mangling the key name into a CSS class and toggling visibility
with javascript (redundant and ugly)
(2)  requiring users to pick columns and rows in advance and submit
again if they change their minds (slow and inefficient).

colgroup:

Often, the data groups naturally into subobjects, and I would like to
group them.  The example already suggests an Address grouping, which
may be repeated for Permanent Address and Temporary Address.

I would like to extend this to additional levels.  With the address, I
would like the sub-colgroup "mailing address" to include street
address, city, state, and zip, but not to include phone number.

The workarounds I usually see are to either concatenate columns that
are logically distinct (possibly with font tags to redistinguish
them), or to spread them out so they take a disproportionate share of
the visual display.

-jJ

> > From: Jim Jewett <jimjjewett@gmail.com>
> > To: www-html-editor@w3.org
> > Subject: nesting colgroup and rowgroups
> > Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 11:32:49 -0500
> > Message-ID: <fb6fbf560602020832j6542395eo2e45aa905556538e@mail.gmail.com>
> > X-Archived-At: http://www.w3.org/mid/fb6fbf560602020832j6542395eo2e45aa905556538e@mail.gmail.com
> >
> > The colgroup example discusses grouping permanent and local contact
> > information separately.  Even within these groupings, there may be
> > subgroupings, such as physical address vs phone number.
> >
> > I would prefer that a colgroup could contain other colgroups (and a
> > rowgroup other rowgroups).  If this has been rejected, I would like to
> > see at least a brief summary of the reasoning behind the limit in that
> > section of the spec.
> >
> >
>

Received on Wednesday, 5 April 2006 20:41:27 UTC