Is there any compelling reason why we shouldn't use custom tag names for tabular data?

[Chris Gallo]

Because of browser inconsistency with table related elements, I'd like to use non-table tags for displaying tabular data.

I also hate div soup. My solution is just to use my own tags for the various table elements (table-header, table-body, row, cell) 

and give them the appropriate display property. 

This seems to work just fine across browsers, are there any pitfalls to this approach that anyone can think of?

[Rob Dodson]

I immediately think of accessibility. Depending on what you're building, you could type extend the native elements (ex: <table is="foo-table"> , <tr is="foo-tr">, etc) and still benefit from built in accessiblity

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[Chris Gallo]

You could use Aria roles for accesibility. So your markup could look like:

<data-table role="grid">

    <row role="row">

        <cell role="columnheader">...</cell>

        ....

    </row>

    <row role="row">

        <cell role="gridcell">...</cell>

        ...

    </row>

</data-table>

This page has an example with spans: 

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Accessibility/TableHeaders

But my argument is, if we're just using div's and span's, why not use custom tags that are more descriptive? 

[Rob Dodson]

Yeah you can totally go that route (using ARIA roles). I was just pointing that out as a potential pitfall. Otherwise, I see no other reason. Table is a notoriously non-responsive element, so having a nicer alternative is something I'm all for :)

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[Steve Faulkner]

Note that ARIA grid/gridcell roles do not map directly to table/cell

see
Notes on fixing incorrect table structure using ARIA
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2014/10/notes-on-fixing-incorrect-table-structure-using-aria/

--

Regards

SteveF

HTML 5.1

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