I'm a big fan of WebSQL, which is, unfortunately, going the way of the Dodo since it was apparently just too easy to use. One of the nice things about the feature is that Chrome Dev Tools make it real easy to use. As an example, here is what you can see on a page making use of WebSQL.
A while back I read an interesting blog post on Microdata. While I encourage you to read the article I just linked to, the basic gist of the feature is that it provides a way to create metadata for your HTML content. By embedding certain properties into your HTML you can create search engine/robot friendly data for your content. I'm not sure how much this is actually being used in the wild (see my resources links at the bottom), but it seemed like a pretty cool thing.
This will be short and quick as I've got to hit level 24 on Guild Wars 2. A while back I posted a few demos that made use of CanIUse.com data. These demos were kinda nice I think, although not the most prettiest examples of what you could do with CSS. Based on a suggestion from one of the commenters I created something a bit simpler and more direct.
Ok, I know specs aren't the most exciting thing that will happen to you this week (and if it is, I'm sorry), but I think this is pretty cool. Yesterday the W3C (Worldwide Web Consortium) finalized the HTML5 spec. This isn't the final final version, but is the "feature complete" version, and frankly, is a good step forward. Those of you who did the extra credit homework in school should go ahead and start reading up on HTML 5.1!
What follows is an example I built to help me learn how to manipulate browser history with JavaScript. Do not consider this a tutorial, an example of best practices, or anything more than a personal learning exercise. This is a topic I've been meaning to learn for months and I finally took the time to wrap my head around it today. I wrote some code that seems to work well and wanted to share it, but keep in mind that I'm probably doing it wrong. Want a good explanation? Try one of the links below.
As much as I like animation, sometimes less is more. I know we've all seen cool animations that were, well, cool, but after you've seen it a few times you wish you could simply bypass it. Here's a simple example of how you can modify an Edge Animate project to remember that a user has seen the animation and skip to the end.
Last night I finished reading The Cross Browser Handbook by Daniel Herken and I thought I'd share some thoughts on it. The book is available in PDF form only and costs 29 dollars. He also offers a more expensive version that includes the code templates and workshops.
Before going any further, please note this blog post definitely falls into the "questionable" category. Please read the following with a large grain of salt (and a cold beer at your side). I've read a few articles recently on microdata. Today I read another good one here: Make Your Page Consumable by Robots and Humans Alike With Microdata.
Looks like O'Reilly just released the ebook for HTML5 Hacks, a new book consisting of 500 pages of great HTML5 hacks for everything from geolocation to CSS3. The book was written by Jesse Cravens and Jeff Burtoft, but also included other authors... like myself! For me, this was a great opportunity. I've been published before, but having something in an O'Reilly book is - well - different. You can pick the ebook now or use the Amazon link below. (Note, I get a small kickback of a few pennies per purchase, so buy a couple copies! ;)
p.s. Forgot to mention - there is a corresponding web site as well at html5hacks.com.
I've been fascinated lately by Edge Animate. Not that I plan on creating awesome animations any time in the future but I love how easy the tool is and I'm fascinated by how I could integrate other client-side techniques along with it. (Or in other words, I like to pretend that in an alternate universe where I also have design skills, I can bring the awesome.)
I was thinking this week about a scenario where a designer has created an EA animation and is working on integrating it in a web site. They've done the basics (dropped it in an iframe) and want to do a bit of testing. At this point, they may not be able to make changes in the main tool anymore. What could I do to help them debug/test/etc within the confines of the browser?