Wikka Table Markup Guide

As of 1.2, Wikka introduces a flexible markup for data tables. Any kind of tables allowed by XHTML can be created using this markup, from the most basic examples (e.g. simple rows of cells) to complex tables with full support for accessibility options.

1. Table basics: cells, rows, columns

The most basic element of a table is a cell. Single cells can be created using the standard delimiter ||, e.g.:

||Hello||

Hello

Note that a cell must always be open and closed by delimiters.

Rows can be created by adding on the same line multiple cells:

||Cell 1||Cell 2||Cell 3||

Cell 1

Cell 2

Cell 3

Columns can be created by adding rows on separate lines:

||Cell 1||
||Cell 2||
||Cell 3||

Cell 1

Cell 2

Cell 3

By now you should be able to create simple tables with multiple rows and columns.

||Cell 1||Cell 2||Cell 3||
||Cell 4||Cell 5||Cell 6||
||Cell 7||Cell 8||Cell 9||

Cell 1	Cell 2	Cell 3
Cell 4	Cell 5	Cell 6
Cell 7	Cell 8	Cell 9

2. Headings

As soon as you create slightly more complex data tables, you will need to specify column and row headings. Headings are special cells that specify what kind of data rows and columns contain. The most basic way of creating a heading is by using |=| as a delimiter.

The following is an example of a simple table with column headings:

|=|Apples|=|Pears|=|
||300Kg||480Kg||

Apples	Pears
300Kg	480Kg

Row headings are created in the same way. Since they are usually followed by normal cells, they must be terminated with the || standard delimiter if the next element in the row is a simple cell:

|=|Apples||300Kg||
|=|Pears||480Kg||

Apples	300Kg
Pears	480Kg

You should be able by now to create simple tables with row and column headings:

|=| |=|Apples|=|Pears|=|
|=|Mary||300Kg||320Kg||
|=|John||400Kg||630Kg||

	Apples	Pears
Mary	300Kg	320Kg
John	400Kg	630Kg

We will describe later how to add accessibility parameters for row and column headings.

3. Captions

Usually tables are introduced with a caption that describes what the table contains. A caption element is introduced with a |?| delimiter and terminated with a standard delimiter ||.

|?|Fruit production in 2006||
|=| |=|Apples|=|Pears|=|
|=|Mary||300Kg||320Kg||
|=|John||400Kg||630Kg||

Fruit production in 2006

	Apples	Pears
Mary	300Kg	320Kg
John	400Kg	630Kg

4. Spans

Spans are used to combine multiple cells or multiple headings vertically or horizontally and are created using the following attribute parameters:

||(span options)Element content||

A cell spanning multiple columns is generated by prefixing the cell content with a (x:n) parameter, where n is the number of columns to be spanned. The following example shows how to create a cell spanning two columns:

||(x:2)Cell spanning 2 columns||Cell 3||
||Cell 4||Cell 5||Cell 6||
||Cell 7||Cell 8||Cell 9||

Cell spanning 2 columns		Cell 3
Cell 4	Cell 5	Cell 6
Cell 7	Cell 8	Cell 9

Spans can also be applied to rows. A cell spanning multiple rows is generated by prefixing the cell content with a (y:n) parameter, where n is the number of rows to be spanned. The following example shows how to create a cell spanning two rows:

||(y:2)Cell spanning 2 rows||Cell 2||Cell 3||
||Cell 5||Cell 6||
||Cell 7||Cell 8||Cell 9||

Cell spanning 2 rows	Cell 2	Cell 3
	Cell 5	Cell 6
Cell 7	Cell 8	Cell 9

Spans are particularly useful to create subheadings:

|?|Fruit production in the last two years||
|=| |=|(x:2)Apples|=|(x:2)Pears|=|
|=| |=|2005|=|2006|=|2005|=|2006|=|
|=|Mary||300Kg||320Kg||400kg||280Kg||
|=|John||400Kg||630Kg||210Kg||300Kg||

Fruit production in the last two years

	Apples		Pears
	2005	2006	2005	2006
Mary	300Kg	320Kg	400kg	280Kg
John	400Kg	630Kg	210Kg	300Kg

Column and row spans can be combined to created funky table layouts:

||(x:2;y:2)2x2||(x:2)2x1||(y:2)1x2||
||(y:2)1x2||1x1||
||1x1||1x1||(x:2)2x1||

2x2		2x1		1x2
		1x2	1x1
1x1	1x1		2x1

5. Formatting text within tables

You can use any kind of basic Wikka markup to render text within tables.
The following example adds basic formatting to cell content:

|?|Using text formatting within tables||
||##Monospaced##||//Italics//||**Bold**||__Underlined__||
||''Highlighted''||++Strikethrough++||(x:2)**//Bold italics//**||

Using text formatting within tables

Monospaced	Italics	Bold	Underlined
Highlighted	Strikethrough	Bold italics

6. Adding actions and images within tables

Simple, content-generating actions (including images) can be added within table cells and headings.

|?|Using actions within tables||
||This wiki contains {{countpages}} pages||
||{{image url="images/wikka_logo.jpg" class="center" alt="a w" title="w image"}}||
||{{color c="red" text="some colored text"}}||

Using actions within tables

This wiki contains 886 pages

some colored text

7. Adding links within tables

All the available options to create links can be used within table cells or headings:

|?|Adding links within tables||
||Camelcase links: SandBox||
||Escaped camelcase links: ""SandBox"" escaped||
||Forced links: [[HomePage main]]||
||Interwiki links: Wikipedia:Wikka||
||Forced interwiki links: [[Wikipedia:Wikka Wikka article on Wikipedia]]||
||External links: http://www.example.com ||
||Forced external links: [[http://www.example.com Example.com]]||
||Image links: {{image url="images/wizard.gif" alt="wizard" title="Display an index of pages on this wiki" link="PageIndex"}}||

Adding links within tables

Camelcase links: SandBox

Escaped camelcase links: SandBox escaped

Forced links: main

Interwiki links: Wikipedia:Wikka

Forced interwiki links: Wikka article on Wikipedia

External links: http://www.example.com

Forced external links: Example.com

Image links:

8. Adding HTML within tables

You can also use embedded HTML in table elements:

|?|Embedding HTML within tables||
||Here's some superscript: ""a²⁺¹""||
||And here's some subscript too: ""a_2k""||
||I love acronyms: ""<acronym title="What You See Is What You Get">WYSIWYG</acronym>""||

Embedding HTML within tables

Here's some superscript: a2+1

And here's some subscript too: a2k

I love acronyms: WYSIWYG

9. Adding a touch of style

The table markup introduces a new style selector. CSS style options can be added to any element by enclosing them within single braces, right before the element content, e.g.:
||{style options}Element content||

For example, to render a cell with red background and white text color, you can do the following:

||{background-color:red; color:white}Hello||

Hello

You can play with font size and text alignment:

|?|Adding some more style||
||{font-size:190%; text-align:right}Please scale me!||
||{font-size:170%; text-align:right}Please scale me!||
||{font-size:150%; text-align:right}Please scale me!||
||{font-size:130%; text-align:right}Please scale me!||
||{font-size:110%; text-align:right}Please scale me!||
||{font-size:90%; text-align:right}Please scale me!||
||{font-size:70%; text-align:right}Please scale me!||

Adding some more style

Please scale me!

Please scale me!

Please scale me!

Please scale me!

Please scale me!

Please scale me!

Please scale me!

You can also apply style to headings and captions:

|?|{border:1px dotted red; color:red}Style can be applied anywhere||
|=|{color:#000; font-size:150%; font-style:italic; font-family:Georgia, Hoefler Text, Georgia, serif; font-weight:normal; line-height:150%}Emphemeral Quibus|=|
||Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Duis auctor auctor pede.||

Style can be applied anywhere

Emphemeral Quibus
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Duis auctor auctor pede.

Please note that style parameters should always follow attribute parameters, when both are specified for an element (see the table markup reference):

|?|Give priority||
||(x:2;y:2){background-color:pink}2x2||(x:2){background-color:lightblue}2x1||(y:2){background-color:lightyellow}1x2||
||(y:2){background-color:lightyellow}1x2||{background-color:#333;color:white}1x1||
||{background-color:lightblue}1x1||{background-color:#333;color:white}1x1||(x:2){background-color:pink}2x1||

Give priority

2x2		2x1		1x2
		1x2	1x1
1x1	1x1		2x1

10. Adding style through classes

You can apply existing classes from your stylesheet to any element using the class parameter (c:class). Note that custom style declarations specified through braced markup override class attributes.

The following example applies to table cells two class selectors defined in the stylesheet. The third row shows how to override a class selector with custom style attributes:

|?|Using class selectors to add style to table elements||
||(c:highlight)This cell uses the ##.highlight## class||
||(c:smaller)This cell uses the ##.smaller## class||
||(c:smaller){font-size:150%}This cell uses the ##.smaller## class overridden by custom style settings||

Using class selectors to add style to table elements

This cell uses the .highlight class

This cell uses the .smaller class

This cell uses a .smaller class overridden by custom style settings

11. Global table attributes

Table-level attributes can be specified by adding at the beginning of the table the following element: |!| ||, which is used as a container for global table attributes. For example, you can specify global style options for a table by adding them to this element:

|!|{border:3px solid blue; background-color: black; color: white; width: 300px; text-align: center}||
||Cell 1||
||Cell 2||
||Cell 3||

Cell 1

Cell 2

Cell 3

12. Referring to elements: the id attribute

id attributes are used to refer to unique elements in a page and to provide an anchor for styling and linking. You can specify an id for any table element by using the (i:id) parameter.

For example, the following markup creates a table with the id "main_table" containing two cells with id's "cell_1" and "cell_2"

|!|(i:main_table)||
|?|Using id to refer to table elements||
||(i:cell_1)This cell can be referred to by using the ##cell_1## id||
||(i:cell_2)This cell can be referred to by using the ##cell_2## id||

Using id to refer to table elements

This cell can be referred to by using the cell_1 id

This cell can be referred to by using the cell_2 id

13. Accessibility options: adding titles

Any table element can be given a title attribute to enhance its accessibility. Titles are typically displayed in graphical browsers by hovering over the corresponding element and are useful to display unobtrusive descriptions about specific elements. You can specify a title for any table element by using the (t:title) parameter.

The following example adds titles to several table elements (you can hover over the table to display them):

|!|(t:Comparative figures for fruit production in the last year){width: 350px}||
|?|Fruit production in 2006||
|=| |=|(t:yearly production of apples)Apples|=|(t:yearly production of pears)Pears|=|
|=|(t:Mary's contribution to 2006 production)Mary||(t:Mary's production of apples in 2006){text-align:center}300Kg||(t:Mary's production of pears in 2006){text-align:center}320Kg||
|=|(t:John's contribution to 2006 production)John||(t:John's production of apples in 2006){text-align:center}400Kg||(t:John's production of pears in 2006){text-align:center}630Kg||

Fruit production in 2006

	Apples	Pears
Mary	300Kg	320Kg
John	400Kg	630Kg

14. Accessibility options: adding a summary

Tables can take an optional summary attribute to describe the purpose and/or structure of the table. The description provided by the summary attribute is particularly helpful to users of non-visual browsers. You can specify a summary by adding a (u:Summary) parameter in the table global attributes.

For example, the following line:
|!|(u:This is a summary)||
will add to the table a summary attribute with the value This is a summary.

15. Accessibility options: table head, table body and table foot

Rows in a table can be grouped in a table head, table body and table foot. This division enables browsers to support scrolling of table bodies independently of the table head and foot. When long tables are printed, the table head and foot information may be repeated on each page that contains table data. The table head and table foot should contain information about the table's columns. The table body should contain rows of table data.

Wikka allows you to create groups of rows with special markers:

• The |[| marker groups the rows it precedes as a table head block;
• The |]| marker groups the rows it precedes as a table foot block;
• The |#| marker groups the rows it precedes as a table body;

The following example shows how to use these elements to create row groups. Note that Wikka uses different backgrounds to differentiate column headings in the table head and foot from row headings in the table body:

|!|(u:A table with summary, caption, head, foot and body){width: 400px}||
|?|Here's how you can group rows||
|[|
|=|Name|=|Place|=|Telephone||
|]|
|=|Name|=|Place|=|Telephone||
|#|
|=|John Smith||New York||555-1234||
|=|Jane Smith||Los Angeles||555-2345||
|=|John Doe||Unknown||Unknown||
|=|Jane Doe||Unknown||Unknown||

Here's how you can group rows

Name	Place	Telephone
Name	Place	Telephone
John Smith	New York	555-1234
Jane Smith	Los Angeles	555-2345
John Doe	Unknown	Unknown
Jane Doe	Unknown	Unknown

16. Accessibility options: heading scope

To be semantically correct and accessible to users with non-visual browsers, headings should contain scope attributes describing the cell range they refer to.

• Column heading scopes can be specified using the (o:col) parameter in the corresponding column heading;
• Row heading scopes can be specified using the (o:row) parameter in the corresponding row heading;

The following example shows how to correctly add column and row scopes to a table to make it accessible:

|!|(u:The number of employees and the foundation year of some imaginary companies.)||
|?|Table 1: Company data||
|[|
|||=|(o:col)Employees|=|(o:col)Founded||
|#|
|=|(o:row)ACME Inc||1000||1947||
|=|(o:row)XYZ Corp||2000||1973||

Table 1: Company data

	Employees	Founded
ACME Inc	1000	1947
XYZ Corp	2000	1973

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