The HTML Disclosure Summary element (<summary>
) element specifies a summary, caption, or legend for a <details>
element's disclosure box. Clicking the <summary>
element toggles the state of the parent <details>
element open and closed.
The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.
Permitted content | Phrasing content or one element of Heading content |
---|---|
Tag omission | None, both the start tag and the end tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parents | The <details> element. |
Implicit ARIA role | button |
Permitted ARIA roles | No role permitted |
DOM interface | HTMLElement |
Attributes
This element only includes the global attributes.
Usage notes
The <summary>
element's contents can be any heading content, plain text, or HTML that can be used within a paragraph.
A <summary>
element may only be used as the first child of a <details>
element. When the user clicks on the summary, the parent <details>
element is toggled open or closed, and then a toggle
event is sent to the <details>
element, which can be used to let you know when this state change occurs.
Default label text
If a <details>
element's first child is not a <summary>
element, the user agent will use a default string (typically "Details") as the label for the disclosure box.
Default style
Per the HTML specification, the default style for <summary>
elements includes display: list-item
. This makes it possible to change or remove the icon displayed as the disclosure widget next to the label from the default, which is typically a triangle.
You can also change the style to display: block
to remove the disclosure triangle.
See the Browser compatibility section for details, as not all browsers support full functionality of this element yet.
Examples
Below are some examples showing <summary>
in use. You can find more examples in the documentation for the <details>
element.
Basic example
A simple example showing the use of <summary>
in a <details>
element:
<details open> <summary>Overview</summary> <ol> <li>Cash on hand: $500.00</li> <li>Current invoice: $75.30</li> <li>Due date: 5/6/19</li> </ol> </details>
Summaries as headings
You can use heading elements in <summary>
, like this:
<details open> <summary><h4>Overview</h4></summary> <ol> <li>Cash on hand: $500.00</li> <li>Current invoice: $75.30</li> <li>Due date: 5/6/19</li> </ol> </details>
This currently has some spacing issues that could be addressed using CSS.
Warning: Because the <summary>
element has a default role of button (which strips all roles from child elements), this example will not work for users of assistive technologies such as screen readers. The <h4>
will have its role removed and thus will not be treated as a heading for these users.
HTML in summaries
This example adds some semantics to the <summary>
element to indicate the label as important:
<details open> <summary><strong>Overview</strong></summary> <ol> <li>Cash on hand: $500.00</li> <li>Current invoice: $75.30</li> <li>Due date: 5/6/19</li> </ol> </details>
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
HTML Living Standard The definition of '<summary>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
HTML 5.1 The definition of '<summary>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
summary | Chrome Full support 12 | Edge Full support 79 | Firefox Full support 49 | IE No support No | Opera Full support 15 | Safari Full support 6 | WebView Android Full support 4 | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support 49 | Opera Android Full support 14 | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
display: list-item | Chrome
No support
No
| Edge
No support
No
| Firefox Full support 49 | IE No support No | Opera No support No | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android
No support
No
| Firefox Android Full support 49 | Opera Android No support No | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- No support
- No support
- See implementation notes.
- See implementation notes.