lunes, 14 de marzo de 2011

Review of O’Reilly Breakdown’s video “Offline Mobile Web Applications in HTML5” by David Griffiths

17:01 by Zalakain · 0 comentarios

The quick way to get a really fast knowledge on what HTML5 has to offer for those developing the new breed of HTML apps, both online and offline.

 

David Griffiths, senior IT author for O’Reilly, and Brett McLaughlin one of their senior editors, offer a very good and quick overview on the capabilities and benefits of using HTML5 to develop HTML-based applications which are not necessarily intended for an “always-connected” to Internet use.

First things first I have to say that I’ve been happily surprised by the very clear English both speakers talk. Given that the video is recorded such as if they were a couple of friends sharing a “learning afternoon”, it is very welcomed being able to understand both of them clearly and effortlessly (which sometimes is needed in some of the other videos of the O’Reilly Breakdown series I have to say).

Now, let’s get to it. The video is divided in 5 parts most of them about 20 minutes long:

  • Blue Collar HTML5, which provides and overview of the main new features of HTML5, how the different browsers behave when interpreting the code, etc.
  • Creating HTML5 forms, with more info on the new input capabilities of HTML5 and how they work between the different browsers (David makes a good work showing how each example works on Safari (webkit), Firefox (Mozilla), Opera…). So for example now we have new data types available (date, number, range…), some new properties for them (autofocus, required,…), etc.
  • Moving an App to the browser’s cache, or how to easily set up a web app to make use of caching capabilities provided by the web browser avoiding unneeded downloads, and force them if we want to! Also, how can we easily know if we are connected or not using events on our JavaScript code.
  • Caching data with local storage, showing the local storage capabilities that HTML5 provides, a “new and different” version of the cookies’ system that allows storing string-ified data in the browser’s PC (thankfully we can use JSON "stringify" and parse methods to help us with this).
  • Syncing local storage to a server, or how and what to do in order to make sure data entered whilst on- or off- line will be properly synched to a server, something really important for any serious enterprise-intended mobile app which can be easily done using HTML5 (timestamps, that’s the key).

One thing I’m missing is the possibility to download any sample code. Not much of a problem though since the example used is very simple and easy to follow. Nevertheless, it would be even easier having the code handy.

On the plus side, I liked the subtitles that have been added to the video that from time to time show valuable URL resources or tips that we can benefit from.

So briefly a recommended video to watch if you want to attain quick understanding of how HTMl5 can help when developing apps that might be connected to the Internet, or not. Not much samples nor code here, but some simple examples that show most of the important bits that must be considered (with very good explanations by David Griffiths).

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