The Truth About HTML5

The Truth About HTML5

by Luke Stevens, RJ Owen
Released December 2013
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430264156

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Book description

The Truth About HTML5 is for web designers, web developers, and front-end coders who want to get up to speed with HTML5. The book isn't afraid to point out what everyone gets wrong about HTML5's new markup, so you don't make the same mistakes. It will show you what rocks in HTML5 today and what the future holds.

Marking up a basic web page shouldn't be a quasi-religious exercise where the high priests of HTML5 must be consulted for their interpretation of the holy texts (the HTML5 spec). Don't waste hours trawling through confusing, poorly researched, and often flat-out wrong information on the Internet. Get the truth on HTML5's markup here. You'll also find out about HTML5's new microdata standard that's being used on major websites, such as eBay and IMDB, right now, and get the low-down on the Canvas object and what it can and can't do for you. The book also covers how HTML5 affects CMSs and web apps, what HTML5 means for mobile, and what the future holds.

HTML5 isn't one big blob of technology that will be "finished" at some point in the future. It's a grab bag of cool stuff, much of which has been around for years. Learn what's well supported and ready to go today. Now that the initial wave of hype is over, it's time to learn the truth about HTML5.

What you'll learn

  • How to write elegant and up-to-date HTML5 markup

  • How to use microdata - the future of the semantic web

  • What the Canvas object can and can't do, and how to use it correctly

  • How to use new features such as enhanced forms and video and audio

  • Which HTML5 features are production ready, and what the future holds

    • Who this book is for

    The Truth About HTML5 is for web developers and designers who want to start using HTML5 properly in their web projects. Now that the dust has settled on HTML5, it's a good time for beginners to jump aboard, and for experienced developers to take stock of what's out there.

    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Contents at a Glance
    3. Contents
    4. About the Author
    5. About the Technical Reviewer
    6. Foreword
    7. Introduction
    8. CHAPTER 1: A Somewhat Sensationalized History of HTML5
      1. How Architecture Astronauts and the W3C Tried to Kill HTML
      2. You Probably Use XML
      3. XHTML 2.0: Unloved and Alone
      4. HTML5: A New Hope . . . We Hope
      5. HTML5 Is the New Black or Hotness or Something
      6. Hixie or Bust
      7. XHTML 2.0 Is Dead and Everyone Is Happy
      8. HTML5 . . . er . . . HTML, wait . . . HTML.next?
      9. Should We Just Kill Off the W3C Altogether or Embrace It?
      10. How Does New Stuff Get Added to HTML5 Now?
      11. WHATWG and W3C Diversions
      12. TL;DR
      13. What We’ll Be Focusing On
    9. CHAPTER 2: The Truth About a Basic HTML5 Web Page
      1. Formatting Changes in HTML5
      2. What About an HTML5 Shim and CSS for the New Elements?
      3. What About the HTML5 Boilerplate and Modernizr?
    10. CHAPTER 3: The Truth About Structuring an HTML5 Page
      1. A Little Taste of Pain: The Sectioning Elements
      2. Where Did These Elements Come From?
      3. Who Cares?
      4. The Contradiction at the Heart of HTML5’s New Elements
      5. Outline What?
      6. What Is an Outline, and Why Should I Care?
      7. How We Currently Create Outlines (Even Without Realizing It)
      8. “Sectioning” Is an Old Problem
      9. If We Care About Blind Users, We Should Care About Headings
      10. HTML5’s “Improved” Outlining Was Dead Before It Ever Shipped
      11. Sneaking in Big Ideas Leads to Dead Ideas
      12. We Forked the Spec
      13. The Exception Is <main> (Sort Of)
      14. How Should We Structure an HTML5 Page?
      15. Styling Headings HTML5-Style Is Kind of Insane
      16. This Is Not Inconsequential: People Have to Teach This Stuff
      17. Where Does This Leave Us?
      18. A Sane Approach to Structural Markup for Accessibility
      19. ARIA Benefits
      20. Layout Recommendations
    11. CHAPTER 4: The Truth About HTML5’s Structural Elements
      1. <header>
      2. <nav>
      3. <section> and <article>
      4. <aside>
      5. <footer>
      6. <main>
      7. Other ARIA Landmarks
      8. A Funny Thing Happened…Graceful Degradation Died and JavaScript Became Mandatory
      9. Uh…Web Design Community, What Happened?
      10. Conclusion: R.I.P. HTML5 Structural Elements
    12. CHAPTER 5: The Truth About HTML5 Micro-semantics and Schema.org
      1. Semantics in a Nutshell
      2. These Problems Have Been Solved
      3. There’s No Such Thing As “More” Semantic
      4. Big Ideas in Semantic Markup: The Semantic Web
      5. Semantics: Not Dead Yet (Or: Google & Co Drop a Micro-Semantic Bombshell)
      6. E-commerce with Real (Micro) Semantics
      7. Can the Real Semantics Please Stand Up?
      8. Why Should We Care About Micro-semantics?
      9. Schema.org: The Future of Semantics?
      10. Couldn’t We Do This Before?
      11. The Semantic Web We’ve Been Waiting For?
      12. Microdata and Schema.org
      13. How Not to Launch an Initiative
      14. What Do the People Behind Schema.org Think?
      15. Wrapping Up: Semantics and HTML
    13. CHAPTER 6: The Truth About HTML5 and SEO
      1. SEO in the Dark Ages
      2. Stuff Your Keywords
      3. HTML and SEO
      4. But What If It Helped … Somehow?
      5. Zombie Myths Must Die … Eventually
    14. CHAPTER 7: The Truth About HTML5’s Other New Elements
      1. Be Bold or Die Trying
      2. Wrap Your Anchor Around This, and Other Bits and Pieces
      3. Should We Even Use These Obscure Little Tags?
    15. CHAPTER 8: The Truth About HTML5 Forms
      1. Going Native Slowly
      2. Forms Can Make or Break a Site
      3. Good News, Bad News
      4. HTML5 Forms Resources
      5. HTML5 Forms: The No-Brainers
      6. HTML5 Forms: The Kinda Maybes
      7. HTML5 Forms: The “I Wouldn’t Yet But You Can If You Really Want”
      8. Input Type: Color (Color Picker)
      9. You Hypocrite. I Thought Requiring JavaScript Was the Worst Thing Ever
      10. What About Accessibility?
    16. CHAPTER 9: The Truth About HTML5’s Canvas, Gaming, and Flash
      1. Flash Is Dying, and HTML5 Is All We’ve Got
      2. Can Canvas and HTML5 Fill the Gap?
      3. Flash Authoring for HTML5?
      4. And Then Apps Happened
      5. Let’s Bury Flash-isms with Flash
      6. We’re Not in Canvas Anymore
      7. Cool Things with Canvas
      8. The Haphazard World of Web Standards (Or: How Did We End Up with Canvas?)
      9. The Canvas Element and Accessibility
      10. The Current State of Canvas
      11. HTML5 Gaming: Canvas or Not?
      12. Getting Started with Canvas Game Development
      13. Canvas: What’s in It for Me?
      14. 2D Canvas’s 3D Future: WebGL
      15. 3D on the Web: WebGL Alternatives
      16. Show Me the Demos!
      17. Epic Citadel
      18. Still Early Days for WebGL
    17. CHAPTER 10: The Truth About Audio and Video in HTML5
      1. Native <video> and <audio> in Action
      2. The <audio> Element
      3. The <video> Element
      4. Codecs: What to Do?
      5. Reality Bites
      6. Video Types…Oh My
      7. Querying Supported Video Types with JavaScript
      8. Audio and Video Media Players to the Rescue
      9. Other Flies in the HTML5 Video Ointment: DRM, Streaming, and Full-Screen Video
      10. DRM
      11. Streaming
      12. Fullscreen API
      13. Is HTML5 <audio> Ready for Games?
      14. Wrapping Up
    18. CHAPTER 11: The Truth About SVG: The Flash Challenger That Was, Wasn’t, and Now…
      1. SVG, SVG…
      2. SVG: Browser Support Arrives at Last
      3. Yes, There Is Real-World SVG We Can Use Right Now
      4. The Many Faces of SVG
      5. SVG in the ’00s: The Great Hope That Wasn’t
      6. SVG Browser Support: Android, What the Hell? Oh, and IE…
      7. SVG Demos: What Is It Good For?
      8. Snap.svg-Powered Demos
      9. Raphael.js-Powered Demos
      10. Working with SVG
      11. Responsive Web Design and SVG
      12. SVG Gotchas
      13. SVG: Heir to Flash?
    19. CHAPTER 12: The Truth About HTML5 Web Apps, Mobile, and What Comes Next
      1. HTML5 Web App Browser Support
      2. HTML5 on Mobile: WebKit and Beyond
      3. Mobile Is a Moving Target: Microsoft’s Big Push
      4. Firefox OS: Mozilla’s Ambitious Mobile Platform, and the WebAPI
      5. HTML5 Mobile Compatibility
      6. HTML5-Powered Content Management
      7. The JavaScript Age
      8. JavaScript Killed the HTML Star
      9. Modernizr, When Can I Use . . . , and Polyfills
      10. HTML5 Web App APIs
      11. History API (pushState)
      12. HTML5 Web Storage (and JavaScript-Rendered CSS)
      13. Database Storage
      14. HTML5 Offline (Application Cache)
      15. Geolocation API
      16. Other APIs That May Be of Interest to You
      17. What Comes Next: HTML 5.1
      18. Wrapping Up
    20. CHAPTER 13: The Truth About the Future of Web Design: Performance-Based Design
      1. Operating in the Dark
      2. Performance vs. Production
      3. Measure When You Redesign
      4. Let’s Get Objective
    21. Index

    Product information

    • Title: The Truth About HTML5
    • Author(s): Luke Stevens, RJ Owen
    • Release date: December 2013
    • Publisher(s): Apress
    • ISBN: 9781430264156