<template>: The Content Template element

The HTML Content Template (<template>) element is a mechanism for holding HTML that is not to be rendered immediately when a page is loaded but may be instantiated subsequently during runtime using JavaScript.

Think of a template as a content fragment that is being stored for subsequent use in the document. While the parser does process the contents of the <template> element while loading the page, it does so only to ensure that those contents are valid; the element's contents are not rendered, however.

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

However, the HTMLTemplateElement has a content property, which is a read-only DocumentFragment containing the DOM subtree which the template represents. Note that directly using the value of the content could lead to unexpected behavior, see Avoiding DocumentFragment pitfall section below.

Examples

First we start with the HTML portion of the example.

<table id="producttable">
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <td>UPC_Code</td>
      <td>Product_Name</td>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <!-- existing data could optionally be included here -->
  </tbody>
</table>

<template id="productrow">
  <tr>
    <td class="record"></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
    var tbody = document.querySelector("tbody");
    var template = document.querySelector('#productrow');

    // Clone the new row and insert it into the table
    var clone = template.content.cloneNode(true);
    var 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
    var clone2 = template.content.cloneNode(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 JavaScript:

table {
  background: #000;
}
table td {
  background: #fff;
}

Avoiding DocumentFragment pitfall

A DocumentFragment is not a valid target for various events, as such it is often preferable to clone or refer to the elements within it.

Consider the following HTML and JavaScript:

HTML

<div id="container"></div>

<template id="template">
  <div>Click me</div>
</template>

JavaScript

const container = document.getElementById("container");
const template = document.getElementById("template");

function clickHandler(event) {
  alert("Clicked a div");
}

const firstClone = template.content.cloneNode(true);
firstClone.addEventListener("click", clickHandler);
container.appendChild(firstClone);

const secondClone = template.content.firstElementChild.cloneNode(true);
secondClone.addEventListener("click", clickHandler);
container.appendChild(secondClone);

Result

firstClone is a DocumentFragment instance, so while it gets appended inside the container as expected, clicking on it does not trigger the click event. secondClone is an HTMLDivElement instance, clicking on it works as one would expect.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Web components: <slot> (and historical: <shadow>)
• Using templates and slots