<template>: The Content Template element

Baseline Widely available *

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨November 2015⁩.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

The<template>HTML element serves as a mechanism for holdingHTML fragments, which can either be used later via JavaScript or generated immediately into shadow DOM.

Attributes

This element includes theglobal attributes.

shadowrootmode

Creates ashadow root for the parent element.It is a declarative version of theElement.attachShadow() method and accepts the sameenumerated values.

open: Exposes the internal shadow root DOM for JavaScript (recommended for most use cases).
closed: Hides the internal shadow root DOM from JavaScript.

Note:The HTML parser creates aShadowRoot object in the DOM for the first<template> in a node with this attribute set to an allowed value.If the attribute is not set, or not set to an allowed value — or if aShadowRoot has already been declaratively created in the same parent — then anHTMLTemplateElement is constructed.AHTMLTemplateElement cannot subsequently be changed into a shadow root after parsing, for example, by settingHTMLTemplateElement.shadowRootMode.

Note:You may find the non-standardshadowroot attribute in older tutorials and examples that used to be supported in Chrome 90-110. This attribute has since been removed and replaced by the standardshadowrootmode attribute.

shadowrootclonable

Sets the value of theclonable property of aShadowRoot created using this element totrue.If set, a clone of the shadow host (the parent element of this<template>) created withNode.cloneNode() orDocument.importNode() will include a shadow root in the copy.

shadowrootdelegatesfocus

Sets the value of thedelegatesFocus property of aShadowRoot created using this element totrue.If this is set and a non-focusable element in the shadow tree is selected, then focus is delegated to the first focusable element in the tree.The value defaults tofalse.

shadowrootserializable

Sets the value of theserializable property of aShadowRoot created using this element totrue.If set, the shadow root may be serialized by calling theElement.getHTML() orShadowRoot.getHTML() methods with theoptions.serializableShadowRoots parameter settrue.The value defaults tofalse.

Usage notes

This element has no permitted content, because everything nested inside it in the HTML source does not actually become the children of the<template> element. TheNode.childNodes property of the<template> element is always empty, and you can only access said nested content via the specialcontent property. However, if you callNode.appendChild() or similar methods on the<template> element, then you would be inserting children into the<template> element itself, which is a violation of its content model and does not actually update theDocumentFragment returned by thecontent property.

Due to the way the<template> element is parsed, all<html>,<head>, and<body> opening and closing tags inside the template are syntax errors and are ignored by the parser, so<template><head><title>Test</title></head></template> is the same as<template><title>Test</title></template>.

There are two main ways to use the<template> element.

Template document fragment

By default, the element's content is not rendered.The correspondingHTMLTemplateElement interface includes a standardcontent property (without an equivalent content/markup attribute). Thiscontent property is read-only and holds aDocumentFragment that contains the DOM subtree represented by the template.

TheNode.cloneNode() andDocument.importNode() methods both create a copy of a node. The difference is thatimportNode() clones the node in the context of the calling document, whereascloneNode() uses the document of the node being cloned. The document context determines theCustomElementRegistry for constructing any custom elements. For this reason, usedocument.importNode() to clone thecontent fragment so that custom element descendants are constructed using the definitions in the current document, rather than the separate document that owns the template content. See theNode.cloneNode() page's examples for more details.

Note that theDocumentFragment container itself should not have data attached to it. See theData on the DocumentFragment is not cloned example for more details.

Declarative Shadow DOM

If the<template> element contains theshadowrootmode attribute with a value of eitheropen orclosed, the HTML parser will immediately generate a shadow DOM. The element is replaced in the DOM by its content wrapped in aShadowRoot, which is attached to the parent element.This is the declarative equivalent of callingElement.attachShadow() to attach a shadow root to an element.

If the element has any other value forshadowrootmode, or does not have theshadowrootmode attribute, the parser generates aHTMLTemplateElement.Similarly, if there are multiple declarative shadow roots, only the first one is replaced by aShadowRoot — subsequent instances are parsed asHTMLTemplateElement objects.

Examples

Generating table rows

First we start with the HTML portion of the example.

html

<table>  <thead>    <tr>      <td>UPC_Code</td>      <td>Product_Name</td>    </tr>  </thead>  <tbody>    <!-- existing data could optionally be included here -->  </tbody></table><template>  <tr>    <td></td>    <td></td>  </tr></template>

First, we have a table into which we will later insert content using JavaScript code. Then comes the template, which describes the structure of an HTML fragment representing a single table row.

Now that the table has been created and the template defined, we use JavaScript to insert rows into the table, with each row being constructed using the template as its basis.

// Test to see if the browser supports the HTML template element by checking// for the presence of the template element's content attribute.if ("content" in document.createElement("template")) {  // Instantiate the table with the existing HTML tbody  // and the row with the template  const tbody = document.querySelector("tbody");  const template = document.querySelector("#productrow");  // Clone the new row and insert it into the table  const clone = document.importNode(template.content, true);  let td = clone.querySelectorAll("td");  td[0].textContent = "1235646565";  td[1].textContent = "Stuff";  tbody.appendChild(clone);  // Clone the new row and insert it into the table  const clone2 = document.importNode(template.content, true);  td = clone2.querySelectorAll("td");  td[0].textContent = "0384928528";  td[1].textContent = "Acme Kidney Beans 2";  tbody.appendChild(clone2);} else {  // Find another way to add the rows to the table because  // the HTML template element is not supported.}

The result is the original HTML table, with two new rows appended to it via #"implementing_a_declarative_shadow_dom" >

Implementing a declarative shadow DOM

In this example, a hidden support warning is included at the beginning of the markup. This warning is later set to be displayed via JavaScript if the browser doesn't support theshadowrootmode attribute. Next, there are two<article> elements, each containing nested<style> elements with different behaviors. The first<style> element is global to the whole document. The second one is scoped to the shadow root generated in place of the<template> element because of the presence of theshadowrootmode attribute.

html

<p hidden>  ⛔ Your browser doesn't support <code>shadowrootmode</code> attribute yet.</p><article>  <style>    p {      padding: 8px;      background-color: wheat;    }  </style>  <p>I'm in the DOM.</p></article><article>  <template shadowrootmode="open">    <style>      p {        padding: 8px;        background-color: plum;      }    </style>    <p>I'm in the shadow DOM.</p>  </template></article>

const isShadowRootModeSupported = Object.hasOwn(  HTMLTemplateElement.prototype,  "shadowRootMode",);document  .querySelector("p[hidden]")  .toggleAttribute("hidden", isShadowRootModeSupported);

Declarative Shadow DOM with delegated focus

This example demonstrates howshadowrootdelegatesfocus is applied to a shadow root that is created declaratively, and the effect this has on focus.

The code first declares a shadow root inside a<div> element, using the<template> element with theshadowrootmode attribute.This displays both a non-focusable<div> containing text and a focusable<input> element.It also uses CSS to style elements with:focus to blue, and to set the normal styling of the host element.

html

<div>  <template shadowrootmode="open">    <style>      :host {        display: block;        border: 1px dotted black;        padding: 10px;        margin: 10px;      }      :focus {        outline: 2px solid blue;      }    </style>    <div>Clickable Shadow DOM text</div>    <input type="text" placeholder="Input inside Shadow DOM" />  </template></div>

The second code block is identical except that it sets theshadowrootdelegatesfocus attribute, which delegates focus to the first focusable element in the tree if a non-focusable element in the tree is selected.

html

<div>  <template shadowrootmode="open" shadowrootdelegatesfocus>    <style>      :host {        display: block;        border: 1px dotted black;        padding: 10px;        margin: 10px;      }      :focus {        outline: 2px solid blue;      }    </style>    <div>Clickable Shadow DOM text</div>    <input type="text" placeholder="Input inside Shadow DOM" />  </template></div>

Last of all we use the following CSS to apply a red border to the parent<div> element when it has focus.

css

div:focus {  border: 2px solid red;}

The results are shown below.When the HTML is first rendered, the elements have no styling, as shown in the first image.For the shadow root that does not haveshadowrootdelegatesfocus set you can click anywhere except the<input> and the focus does not change (if you select the<input> element it will look like the second image).

Screenshot of code with no focus set

For the shadow root withshadowrootdelegatesfocus set, clicking on the text (which is non-focusable) selects the<input> element, as this is the first focusable element in the tree.This also focuses the parent element as shown below.

Screenshot of the code where the element has focus

Data on the DocumentFragment is not cloned

When aDocumentFragment value is passed,Node.appendChild and similar methods move only thechild nodes of that value into the target node. Therefore, it is usually preferable to attach event handlers to the children of aDocumentFragment, rather than to theDocumentFragment itself.

Consider the following HTML and #"html" >

HTML

html

<div></div><template>  <div>Click me</div></template>

JavaScript

const container = document.getElementById("container");const template = document.getElementById("template");function clickHandler(event) {  event.target.append(" — Clicked this div");}const firstClone = document.importNode(template.content, true);firstClone.addEventListener("click", clickHandler);container.appendChild(firstClone);const secondClone = document.importNode(template.content, true);secondClone.children[0].addEventListener("click", clickHandler);container.appendChild(secondClone);

Result

SincefirstClone is aDocumentFragment, only its children are added tocontainer whenappendChild is called; the event handlers offirstClone are not copied. In contrast, because an event handler is added to the firstchild node ofsecondClone, the event handler is copied whenappendChild is called, and clicking on it works as one would expect.

Technical summary

Content categories	Metadata content,flow content,phrasing content,script-supporting element
Permitted content	Nothing (seeUsage notes)
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that acceptsmetadata content,phrasing content, orscript-supporting elements. Also allowed as a child of a`<colgroup>` element that doesnot have a`span` attribute.
Implicit ARIA role	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	No`role` permitted
DOM interface	`HTMLTemplateElement`

Specifications

Specification
HTML # the-template-element

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on⁨Dec 1, 2025⁩ byMDN contributors.

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<template>: The Content Template element

Attributes

Usage notes

Template document fragment

Declarative Shadow DOM

Examples

Generating table rows

Implementing a declarative shadow DOM

Declarative Shadow DOM with delegated focus

Data on the DocumentFragment is not cloned

HTML

JavaScript

Result

Technical summary

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

Help improve MDN