Add text imports by eemeli · Pull Request #11933 · whatwg/html

eemeli · 2025-11-20T07:01:19Z

This is the HTML counterpart for the newly-introduced TC39 Import Text Stage 2 proposal; this has been previously discussed here in #9444, and is closely related (but not blocking on) PR #11657, which correspondingly adds byte imports.

The type: 'text' import attribute is introduced here without any MIME type requirement, and without any validity or well-formedness checks on the returned string value. @sffc has raised some concerns about additional validation steps being desirable for text content, which would be appropriate for consideration in this spec, rather than the JS spec.

The implementer support noted below is based on feedback from delegates at the 2025 November TC39 meeting.

At least two implementers are interested (and none opposed):
- Chromium
- Gecko
- Deno
- Node.js
- …
Tests are written and can be reviewed and commented upon at:
- Add tests for text modules web-platform-tests/wpt#56812
- Add tests for Import Text proposal tc39/test262#4607
Implementation bugs are filed:
- Chromium: issue 494350643
- Gecko: bug 2014230
- WebKit: bug 310340
- Deno (only for timers, structured clone, base64 utils, channel messaging, module resolution, web workers, and web storage): Stabilize bytes and text imports denoland/deno#29904
- Node.js (only for timers, structured clone, base64 utils, channel messaging, and module resolution): Support for importing text modules nodejs/node#62082
Corresponding HTML AAM & ARIA in HTML issues & PRs: N/A
MDN issue is filed: Add type: "text" import attribute mdn/content#43505
The top of this comment includes a clear commit message to use.

/infrastructure.html ( diff )
/links.html ( diff )
/references.html ( diff )
/webappapis.html ( diff )

Adds support for the `{ type: 'text' }` import attribute, which enables importing text content as a JavaScript string.

annevk · 2025-11-20T07:50:19Z

cc @nicolo-ribaudo @bakkot

bakkot · 2025-11-22T18:27:54Z

Looks good. I do wonder whether there ought to be a required MIME type, especially given that the other types all have one. If type: "bytes" had a similar requirement (which IMO would be much more annoying), that would allay the concerns in this issue.

Alternatively there could be a requirement not to have certain MIME types, e.g. to disallow importing JavaScript as text.

I think I am personally inclined not to impose such requirements, but I could see the argument either way.

zcorpan · 2025-11-25T15:46:50Z

Would this make available the same content that is already available via fetch()? Is it possible to use CSP (connect-src ?) to restrict these imports?

bakkot · 2025-11-25T17:34:19Z

Good question. Looks like type: "json" imports are governed by connect-src, so I assume these should be as well. This will require filing a PR against CSP updating the "Get the effective directive for request" algorithm to list requests with destination "text" as having effective directive connect-src. (Not strictly necessary because connect-src is the fallback, but it would be weird to leave it out given that "json" imports are listed explicitly.)

For clarity it might be good to rename the destination to "text-import" or something, incidentally.

Anyway, yes, this ends up letting you get the exact same content as fetch.

nicolo-ribaudo · 2025-11-25T17:39:29Z

Do we actually want a text destination? We added one for json because it's a specific format, but in most cases a text import will then be parsed by something else. fetch uses an empty destination because, similarly, we don't actually know how its result is going to be used.

bakkot · 2025-11-25T17:43:05Z

json doesn't seem any more specific than text to me, really. It's just data either way.

annevk · 2025-11-25T17:47:02Z

It's specific in that we can ask the server for JSON with Accept: application/json (and we do).

Given that the destination is exposed these days through Sec-Fetch-Dest as well it would probably be useful to have a dedicated value here as well. text seems fine to me.

bakkot · 2025-11-25T18:17:55Z

Oh, nice, I didn't realize that it got exposed there and wasn't just editorial. In that case I agree text is fine, as long as we don't imagine later introducing a new kind of "text" destination where the distinction is important.

…t modules

eemeli · 2025-12-17T15:39:32Z

I've now added PRs for the changes in the Fetch and CSP specs, and for WPT tests.

eemeli · 2026-03-11T17:02:05Z

The TC39 / ECMA-262 part of this proposal has now advanced to Stage 3.

noamr

I think this needs to be rebased, and properly support modulepreload like CSS/JSON.

source

noamr · 2026-03-13T09:30:26Z

Do the tests cover module preload? The spec text seemed good AFAICT!

noamr

Unofficial LGTM % tests for modulepreload

eemeli · 2026-03-20T06:56:03Z

Do the tests cover module preload?

@noamr They do now (I just updated the WPT PR).

annevk

This looks good to me. It would be great if @nicolo-ribaudo could also do a quick skim.

annevk · 2026-03-20T07:48:21Z

MDN and browser bugs should be completed for this as well before landing.

eemeli · 2026-03-20T10:01:45Z

MDN and browser bugs should be completed for this as well before landing.

Done.

nicolo-ribaudo · 2026-03-20T17:04:08Z

source

+   <li>
+    <p>Let <var>result</var> be <span>CreateTextModule</span>(<var>text</var>).</p>
+
+    <p>If this throws an exception, catch it, and set <var>script</var>'s <span


CreateTextModule never throws

nicolo-ribaudo · 2026-03-20T17:10:37Z

source

+    <p>A <span>module script</span> is a <dfn export>text module script</dfn> if its <span
+    data-x="concept-script-record">record</span> is a <span>Synthetic Module Record</span>, and it
+    was created via the <span data-x="creating a text module script">create a text module
+    script</span> algorithm. Text module scripts represent a text document.</p>


"text document" is already a different concept used in the spec (https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#read-text), which covers CSS/JSON/plain-text/WebVTT but not HTML/XML.

Maybe just "plan textual data", if we want to write something? Or we could just remove this last sentence.

Would this work? This would match what's in the TC39 proposal as well.

Or would "textual data document" be better?

Suggested change

script</span> algorithm. Text module scripts represent a text document.</p>

script</span> algorithm. Text module scripts represent textual data.</p>

Add text imports

7fa72e2

Adds support for the `{ type: 'text' }` import attribute, which enables importing text content as a JavaScript string.

annevk added addition/proposal New features or enhancements needs implementation bugs topic: script labels Nov 20, 2025

eemeli mentioned this pull request Nov 24, 2025

Archive import-text explainer mozilla/explainers#60

Merged

This was referenced Dec 17, 2025

Add tests for text modules web-platform-tests/wpt#56812

Open

Add "text" destination type, for JavaScript text imports whatwg/fetch#1898

Open

Add "text" destination type, for JavaScript text imports w3c/webappsec-csp#794

Open

Fix CreateTextModule definition + ignore mimetype when preloading tex…

2b4eeaf

…t modules

eemeli mentioned this pull request Jan 8, 2026

Input on the treatment of non-UTF-8 content when importing text in JS/HTML w3c/i18n-activity#2067

Open

eemeli mentioned this pull request Mar 3, 2026

Support for importing text modules nodejs/node#62082

Open

smaug---- added the agenda+ To be discussed at a triage meeting label Mar 12, 2026

noamr reviewed Mar 12, 2026

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eemeli added 2 commits March 12, 2026 19:07

Merge branch 'main' into import-text

64bc47b

Include "text" as a module preload destination

78c73d1

eemeli requested a review from noamr March 12, 2026 17:58

noamr approved these changes Mar 17, 2026

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annevk approved these changes Mar 20, 2026

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eemeli mentioned this pull request Mar 20, 2026

Add type: "text" import attribute mdn/content#43505

Open

nicolo-ribaudo reviewed Mar 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

Remove error handling from around CreateTextModule(text)

9503fac

eemeli requested a review from nicolo-ribaudo March 20, 2026 17:09

nicolo-ribaudo reviewed Mar 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

	script</span> algorithm. Text module scripts represent a text document.</p>
	script</span> algorithm. Text module scripts represent textual data.</p>

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