[html] What is the correct value for the disabled attribute?

What is the correct value for the disabled attribute for a textbox or textarea?

I've seen the following used before:

<input type="text" disabled />
<input type="text" disabled="disabled" />
<input type="text" disabled="true" />

From MDN by setAttribute():

To set the value of a Boolean attribute, such as disabled, you can specify any value. An empty string or the name of the attribute are recommended values. All that matters is that if the attribute is present at all, regardless of its actual value, its value is considered to be true. The absence of the attribute means its value is false. By setting the value of the disabled attribute to the empty string (""), we are setting disabled to true, which results in the button being disabled.

Link to MDN

Solution

• I mean that in XHTML Strict is right disabled="disabled",
• and in HTML5 is only disabled, like <input name="myinput" disabled>
• In javascript, I set the value to true via e.disabled = true;
  or to "" via setAttribute( "disabled", "" );

Test in Chrome

var f = document.querySelectorAll( "label.disabled input" );
for( var i = 0; i < f.length; i++ )
{
    // Reference
    var e = f[ i ];

    // Actions
    e.setAttribute( "disabled", false|null|undefined|""|0|"disabled" );
    /*
        <input disabled="false"|"null"|"undefined"|empty|"0"|"disabled">
        e.getAttribute( "disabled" ) === "false"|"null"|"undefined"|""|"0"|"disabled"
        e.disabled === true
    */
    
    e.removeAttribute( "disabled" );
    /*
        <input>
        e.getAttribute( "disabled" ) === null
        e.disabled === false
    */

    e.disabled = false|null|undefined|""|0;
    /*
        <input>
        e.getAttribute( "disabled" ) === null|null|null|null|null
        e.disabled === false
    */

    e.disabled = true|" "|"disabled"|1;
    /*
        <input disabled>
        e.getAttribute( "disabled" ) === ""|""|""|""
        e.disabled === true
    */
}

I just tried all of these, and for IE11, the only thing that seems to work is disabled="true". Values of disabled or no value given didnt work. As a matter of fact, the jsp got an error that equal is required for all fields, so I had to specify disabled="true" for this to work.

In HTML5, there is no correct value, all the major browsers do not really care what the attribute is, they are just checking if the attribute exists so the element is disabled.

HTML5 spec:

http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/forms.html#enabling-and-disabling-form-controls:-the-disabled-attribute :

The checked content attribute is a boolean attribute

http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/infrastructure.html#boolean-attributes :

The presence of a boolean attribute on an element represents the true value, and the absence of the attribute represents the false value.

If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace.

Conclusion:

The following are valid, equivalent and true:

<input type="text" disabled />
<input type="text" disabled="" />
<input type="text" disabled="disabled" />
<input type="text" disabled="DiSaBlEd" />

The following are invalid:

<input type="text" disabled="0" />
<input type="text" disabled="1" />
<input type="text" disabled="false" />
<input type="text" disabled="true" />

The absence of the attribute is the only valid syntax for false:

<input type="text" />

Recommendation

If you care about writing valid XHTML, use disabled="disabled", since <input disabled> is invalid and other alternatives are less readable. Else, just use <input disabled> as it is shorter.