x-tabs

Overview

x-tabs is a tab system container that coordinates multiple x-tab triggers and their associated tab panels.

It manages:

• selected tab state
• keyboard navigation
• roving tabindex
• panel visibility
• tab selection events

x-tabs complements x-tab and provides the coordination layer for a full tab interface.

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Installation

import { init } from "app.exports.x-tabs";

init();

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Basic Usage

<x-tabs>
  <x-tab value="overview" controls="panel-overview">Overview</x-tab>
  <x-tab value="analytics" controls="panel-analytics">Analytics</x-tab>
  <x-tab value="reports" controls="panel-reports">Reports</x-tab>
</x-tabs>

<section id="panel-overview">Overview content</section>
<section id="panel-analytics" hidden>Analytics content</section>
<section id="panel-reports" hidden>Reports content</section>

x-tabs will automatically:

• select the first enabled tab
• manage keyboard navigation
• show the associated panel

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Attributes

Attribute	Type	Default	Description
value	string	—	Controlled selected tab
orientation	horizontal	vertical	horizontal
activation	auto	manual	auto
label	string	—	Accessible label
loop	boolean	false	Enables keyboard wrap navigation

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Properties

Property	Type	Description
value	string	Current selected tab value

Example:

tabs.value = "analytics";

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Events

value-change

Fired when the selected tab changes.

tabs.addEventListener("value-change", event => {
  console.log(event.detail.value);
});

Event detail:

{
  value: string
}

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Keyboard Navigation

Keyboard behavior follows the WAI-ARIA tab pattern.

Horizontal

Key	Action
ArrowRight	Next tab
ArrowLeft	Previous tab

Vertical

Key	Action
ArrowDown	Next tab
ArrowUp	Previous tab

Global

Key	Action
Home	First enabled tab
End	Last enabled tab

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Activation Modes

auto

Selecting a tab occurs immediately during keyboard navigation.

manual

Arrow keys move focus only. Selection occurs when pressing:

• Enter
• Space

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Disabled Tabs

Disabled tabs:

• cannot be selected
• are skipped during keyboard navigation

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Panel Coordination

Panels are associated using the controls attribute on x-tab.

Example:

<x-tab value="analytics" controls="panel-analytics">

The container will automatically:

• show the panel for the selected tab
• hide other panels using the hidden attribute

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Styling

x-tabs is intentionally lightweight.

Most visual styling is handled by x-tab.

CSS Custom Properties

--x-tabs-gap
--x-tabs-panel-gap
--x-tabs-transition-duration
--x-tabs-transition-timing

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Parts

Part	Description
base	Internal container

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Accessibility

x-tabs coordinates the tablist pattern.

Element	Role
internal base	tablist
x-tab	tab
associated panels	tabpanel (user supplied)

The component:

• preserves DOM reading order
• does not override semantics of slotted content
• applies ARIA coordination only where necessary

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Motion

x-tabs introduces minimal or no motion. Any transitions respect:

prefers-reduced-motion

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Example

<x-tabs activation="auto">
  <x-tab value="overview" controls="p1">Overview</x-tab>
  <x-tab value="analytics" controls="p2">Analytics</x-tab>
  <x-tab value="reports" controls="p3">Reports</x-tab>
</x-tabs>

<section id="p1">Overview content</section>
<section id="p2" hidden>Analytics content</section>
<section id="p3" hidden>Reports content</section>