Windows 8 Application Development with HTML5 For Dummies

Chapter 5

Using Everyday Controls

In This Chapter

Getting navigation in place

Letting users select items

Creating ratings and sliders

HTML5 has a lot of wonderful controls. Some of them are even useful. Many of them, even some of the useful ones, have been Windows 8–enabled. Many of the HTML controls work well in the Windows interface, and the WinJS library helps them handle touch better. WinJS makes touch interaction better everywhere, making the check boxes bigger, the selectable items more accessible, and the margins wider. Also, where it makes sense, WinJS implements WinRT in place of browser functionality.

There are also controls that don’t normally appear in the HTML stack. The Windows 8 interface is well modeled by the browser, but not perfectly. Navigation, for one, is different in the Windows 8 app as compared to the browser, so I start there. User-level communication is different, too, and I end the chapter there.

The core of what HTML is all about is the same as it has been for years. The way a user uses a form, text boxes, radio buttons, and whatnot, is all the same.

Using Basic HTML

After the user has started your app, he creates information or consumes information. ...