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| JavaScript Style Sheets | |
|---|---|
| Internet media type | text/javascript |
| Developed by | Netscape Communications Corporation |
| Type of format | Style sheet language |
| Standard | Netscape's JavaScript-Based Style Sheets submission to the W3C |
JavaScript Style Sheets (JSSS) was astylesheet language technology proposed byNetscape Communications in 1996 to provide facilities for defining the presentation ofwebpages.[1] It was an alternative to theCascading Style Sheets (CSS) technology.[1]
Although Netscape submitted it to theWorld Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the technology was never accepted as a formal standard and it never gained acceptance in theweb browser market. OnlyNetscape Communicator 4 implemented JSSS, with rivalInternet Explorer choosing not to implement the technology. Soon after Netscape Communicator's release in 1997, Netscape stopped promoting JSSS, instead focusing on the rival CSS standard, which was also supported by Internet Explorer and had a much wider industry acceptance.
The follow-up to Netscape Communicator,Netscape 6 (released in 2000), dropped support for JSSS. It now remains little more than a historical footnote, withweb developers generally unaware of its previous existence. The proposal did not become a W3C standard.
UsingJavaScript code as a stylesheet, JSSS styles individual element by modifying properties of adocument.tags object. For example, the CSS:
h1{font-size:20pt;}
is equivalent to the JSSS:
document.tags.H1.fontSize="20pt";
JSSS element names are case sensitive.
JSSS lacks the various CSS selector features, supporting only simple tag name, class and id selectors. On the other hand, since it is written using a completeprogramming language, stylesheets can include highly complex dynamic calculations and conditional processing. (In practice, however, this can be achieved usingJavaScript to modify the stylesheets applicable to the document at runtime.)Because of this JSSS was often used in the creation ofdynamic web pages.
The following example shows part of the source code of an HTML document:
<styletype="text/javascript">tags.H1.color="red";tags.p.fontSize="20pt";with(tags.H3){color="green";}with(tags.H2){color="red";fontSize="16pt";marginTop="4cm";}</style>
Similar toCascading Style Sheets, JSSS could be used in a<style> tag. This example shows two different methods to select tags.
Javascript Style Sheets were only supported by Netscape 4.x (4.0–4.8) but no later versions. No otherweb browser has ever implemented JSSS.
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