Scriptia.net Reviews HTML5: What’s changed?

No doubt you have heard of java script advantages, but what about the progressive arrival of HTML5 as a development language. It is that this new version of the language offers more opportunities for marketers and opens up the channels to richer applications available and accessible via a mobile browser. HTML5 is even presented as a successor or a serious competitor in the format Flash. Less closed and more respectful of the standards of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) HTML5 could well become the darling of developers in the years to come. Explanations.

HTML5, that is what it is ?

As its name suggests, HTML5 is the successor of HTML.4.0.1. This new version of the development language remains in the line of the HTML has enabled the publication of the first web pages, but it introduces a number of new features that make it a serious competitor in the format of Flash developed by Adobe. The specifications of HTML5, carried out by the W3C are not yet completed, in spite of all, we note that browsers such as Opera or Internet Explorer 9 already deal with HTML5.

Compatibility with different browsers

You can test your browser here and you will come to know the possibilities of this one.

What’s new ?

A new organization of the documents

It is first of all the whole structure and organization of the code that are going to be revised with the advent of HTML5. With this new version of the language, exit the organization based on blocks and lines. The designers favoured an arrangement by major categories in which one would find the following items :
  • Metadata content : We will find in this great theme all the information relating to the meta tags that we find always in the header of an HTML document
  • Flow content : This category brings together all the elements that we find between the tags < body > and < /body >
  • Sectioning content : This class will allow to define the different sections of the page (like the footer, for example)
  • Heading content : All the information found in the header will now be stored in this section of the document.
  • Phrasing content : This category brings together all the elements allowing to format the text in the html document.
  • Embedded content : will be able to import a resource in the document or call a item developed in a language different from that of the page.
  • Interactive content : We found in this category all the elements that will allow interaction between the page and the user.

The advanced compared to HTML 4.0.1

In addition to this new organization of the documents, HTML5 introduces especially a new layer of API. In total, no fewer than eight new APIs that will be proposed in this first version of the HTML5, among which are :
  • An API of 2D drawing using the new canvas tag
  • An API for playing videos and sounds/music enabled thanks to the tags video and audio.
  • An API used for online and offline applications;
  • A API edition in combination with the attribute contenteditable
  • API, drag-and-drop in combination with the attribute draggable;
  • An API that allows access to the history and gives the possibility to the pages to add to prevent problems with the back button-in-back.
  • An API geo-localization
  • An API allowing to analyze and reproduce a HTML page with the tag inner-HTML
This new layer of APIS that will allow developers to limit the use of libraries or functions in javascript. In this sense, the API should allow developers to provide code better organized and more conforming to the W3C standards. The arrival of the HTML5 sounding the death knell for a series of attributes whose presence is still accepted in the documents in HTML4 and gives way to a series of new attributes and new tags.

What are the business applications ?

For businesses, this new version of HTML promises of new opportunities, especially in the field of web marketing. This new version not only allows for better integration of interactive features but also offer richer content without having to systematically use the flash and its closed format, while limiting the use of javascript, not always very compliant and standard and little secure. HTML5 can also be used in the operations of mobile marketing since it should be readable from mobile browsers. A godsend for iPhone owners, since Steve Jobs has already said that flash would never be adopted by the iPhone and iPads. The adoption of HTML5 will, in particular, provide advertisements and applications more interactive and accessible from mobile browsers.

Resources

The specifications of HTML5 as defined by the W3C