How to Tackle HTML5 for Cross Browser Compatibility?

Why HTML5? In past few years there is a sudden increase in the demand of modern hand held computers like smart phones and tablets in the industry. This is because of better user experience that these devices impart to the end users. The demand is still going up in an exponential rate with time. To meet the demand, a large volume of smart phone and tablets are flooded in the market in different shapes, sizes and budget. With such a variation in these devices, it becomes a headache for the web developer to deal with the complexities arise due to their variable size and hardware. Moreover these devices are powered with different types of browsers like Firefox, Chrome and Opera etc. So it becomes even tougher for the web developer to develop a good web application which can be run on different platforms without giving any bad experience to the end user. To achieve the same web developers are relying on HTML5 along with few other technologies to serve better to the users.

HTML5 has a wonderful local storage feature: Besides smart phones and tablets web developer also responsible to enable his application to run on desktop browsers. Since there are a good numbers of browsers in the industry it becomes an annoying task for the web developer to design a common application that can run on different browsers. Fortunately HTML5 has a local storage concept to deal with browser optimisation. It is like a big size cache for the browser that helps the application in eliminating unnecessary interaction with the data base. As a result the efficiency of the application improves and it gives a better user experience. Moreover due to large size cache it enables the browser to display web pages in offline mode due to the storage of web form data in the browser itself. So it eliminates different cache memory related issues of the browsers.

HTML5 is the key for responsive web app: With different browsers, HTML contents behave differently. This is because of configuration difference between the browsers. To tackle this situation, web developer used to write some extra codes in the style sheets so that all the browsers will display in a similar manner. Fortunately HTML5 has some inbuilt libraries that can eliminate this issue to a large extent and it can be eliminated totally with the help of CSS3 along with HTML5.

While dealing with various layouts of a web page, a web developer need to write specific codes to deal with various components of the layout like Header, Footer, Heading, Article Title, Contents and Sidebars etc. For each of these components a web developer must write a different script to achieve a proper layout. But a HTML5 developer doesn’t need those scripts for these types of layouts. This is because of the inbuilt tags which are off course extra tags in HTML5 available for HTML5 developers to deal with such layouts. It has tags like Header, Footer and Title etc which automatically deals with the layout issues. The best part is all these tags are multiple browsers compatible. To add this, HTML5 developer doesn’t need to write any long DOCTYPE as before in case of HTML4. To get maximum benefits of HTML5, you may consider hiring services of a custom HTML5 development company.

We provide HTML5 development services. If you would like to hire HTML5 developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Is HTML5 the Best Choice for Responsive Website Design?

The huge popularity of smartphones, tablets and phablets has made the web landscape complex. It has become essential for each business to create responsive websites to keep the visitors engaged by delivering solid web experience. Along with being highly responsive, the website also needs to be compatible with both conventional and mobile devices.

So website designers use a variety of tools to make the website accessible on different types of devices. Many web programmers, nowadays, use HTML5 to make the websites and web applications work on multiple devices. HTML5 has further made it easier for developers to create rich and responsive internet applications without putting any extra time and effort.

Why HTML5 is the Best Choice for Responsive Website Development?

Easy to Integrate a Variety of Content: To keep the visitors engaged, a website must be designed by integrating a wide variety of content. HTML5 enables website designers to integrate different types of content by using syntactical features like <audio>, <video> and <canvas>. Likewise, the semantic value of a document can also be enhance by using tags like <article>, <section>, <nav>, and header. As the graphic and multimedia content can be integrated with the website without using any third party plug-ins, the website can be accessed by users on any device.

Elegant Forms: Most websites interact with visitors through forms. HTML5 makes it easier for website designers to enhance the user interface by using fancier forms. Further, the user input can be validated through HTML. The native form validations make the website accessible on browsers without relying on JavaScript. Also, the programmers have option to capture different types of user inputs for search and form.

Cross Browser Compatibility: The performance of a responsive website is also affected by its compatibility with widely used web browsers. At present, HTML5 is supported by some of the hugely popular web browsers including Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 9. The developers also have option to define doctype to make the tags recognizable for old browsers. However, the older versions of certain web browsers still do not recognize new HTML tags. But the web developers can simply add JavaScript shiv to make the website compatible with older browsers. The enhanced compatibility makes websites more responsive and interactive across browsers.

Efficient Option to Place Cookies: Most responsive websites use cookies to track unique user data. But the cookie data are added to the HTTP request headers. It also results in increased response time. HTML5 allows users to reduce cookie size through two storage options, i.e., sessionStorage and localStorage. Despite not being a permanent database, these storage options can be used effectively to store structured data temporarily. Thus, the website will become more responsive due to the efficient use of cookies.

Geolocation API: To become highly responsive, a website must figure out the current location of the user. The location of a user can be determined based on his wireless internet connection, IP address or the cell phone tower his mobile device is talking to. Some web browsers are even designed with dedicated GPS hardware to capture the location of the user through satellites. The web developers can use HTML5 geolocation APIs to make the HTML5-compatible browser-based application capture the current location of the users. So it becomes easier for the website to keep the user engaged by delivering the most relevant content.

Improve User Experience through Native APIs: Each responsive website needs to enable users to interact with the content, while responding to them effectively. HTML5 makes it easier for developers to build more interactive and responsive websites by using several native APIs. For instance, they can use the drawing HTML tag <canvas> to make the website more responsive. Likewise, they can further use native APIs like timed media playback, offline storage database, document editing, browser history management, and drag and drop.

However, it is also important for the web programmers to keep in mind the shortcomings of HTML5. They also need to explore ways to enhance the responsiveness of websites by addressing these features. The developer can still rely on HTML5 to optimize the accessibility and performance of websites without writing complex code. To get maximum benefits of HTML5, you may consider hiring services of a HTML5 development company.

We provide HTML5 QA and testing services. If you would like to hire HTML5 developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.