Is there an element in HTML that represents an UI widget?
I wonder if any of the semantic HTML elements is designed for widgets like draggable clocks, weather forecasts or address book contacts?
I’m not sure if <aside> makes sense for an interactive UI element and whether <dialog> is intended for anything other than a modal dialog or if I should stick to <section> or even <div>.
Yes, there is: By definition, the <article> element is designed for, among other things, representing an interface widget.
The W3C specifies:
The article element represents a complete, or self-contained, composition in a document, page, application, or site and that is, in principle, independently distributable or reusable, e.g. in syndication. This could be ( … ) an interactive widget or gadget, or any other independent item of content.
That fits well with the Wikipedia definition of “widget”:
- a generic type of software application comprising portable code intended for one or more different software platforms
- a reusable element of a graphical user interface