The Element.attachShadow()
method attaches a shadow DOM tree to the specified element and returns a reference to its ShadowRoot
.
Elements you can attach a shadow to
Note that you can't attach a shadow root to every type of element. There are some that can't have a shadow DOM for security reasons (for example <a>
), and more besides. The following is a list of elements you can attach a shadow root to:
- Any autonomous custom element with a valid name
<article>
<aside>
<blockquote>
<body>
<div>
<footer>
<h1>
<h2>
<h3>
<h4>
<h5>
<h6>
<header>
<main>
<nav>
<p>
<section>
<span>
Syntax
var shadowroot = element.attachShadow(shadowRootInit);
Parameters
shadowRootInit
- A
ShadowRootInit
dictionary, which can contain the following fields:mode
-
A string specifying the encapsulation mode for the shadow DOM tree. This can be one of:
open
: Elements of the shadow root are accessible from JavaScript outside the root, for example usingElement.shadowRoot
:
element.shadowRoot; // Returns a ShadowRoot obj
closed
: Denies access to the node(s) of a closed shadow root from JavaScript outside it:
element.shadowRoot; // Returns null
delegatesFocus
- A boolean that, when set to
true
, specifies behavior that mitigates custom element issues around focusability. When a non-focusable part of the shadow DOM is clicked, the first focusable part is given focus, and the shadow host is given any available:focus
styling.
Return value
Returns a ShadowRoot
object.
Exceptions
Exception | Explanation |
---|---|
InvalidStateError |
The element you are trying to attach to is already a shadow host. |
NotSupportedError |
You are trying to attach a shadow root to an element outside the HTML namespace, or the element cannot have a shadow attached to it (see above). |
Examples
The following example is taken from our word-count-web-component demo (see it live also). You can see that we use attachShadow()
in the middle of the code to create a shadow root, which we then attach our custom element's contents to.
// Create a class for the element class WordCount extends HTMLParagraphElement { constructor() { // Always call super first in constructor super(); // count words in element's parent element var wcParent = this.parentNode; function countWords(node){ var text = node.innerText || node.textContent return text.trim().split(/\s+/g).length; } var count = 'Words: ' + countWords(wcParent); // Create a shadow root var shadow = this.attachShadow({mode: 'open'}); // Create text node and add word count to it var text = document.createElement('span'); text.textContent = count; // Append it to the shadow root shadow.appendChild(text); // Update count when element content changes setInterval(function() { var count = 'Words: ' + countWords(wcParent); text.textContent = count; }, 200) } } // Define the new element customElements.define('word-count', WordCount, { extends: 'p' });
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
DOM The definition of 'attachShadow()' in that specification. |
Living Standard |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
attachShadow | Chrome Full support 53 | Edge Full support 79 | Firefox
Full support
63
| IE No support No | Opera Full support 40 | Safari Full support 10 | WebView Android Full support 53 | Chrome Android Full support 53 | Firefox Android
Full support
63
| Opera Android Full support 41 | Safari iOS Full support 10 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 6.0 |
delegatesFocus option of ShadowRootInit dictionary. | Chrome Full support Yes | Edge Full support 79 | Firefox No support No | IE No support No | Opera ? | Safari ? | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Firefox Android No support No | Opera Android ? | Safari iOS ? | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- No support
- No support
- Compatibility unknown
- Compatibility unknown
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- User must explicitly enable this feature.
- User must explicitly enable this feature.