HTML5 is the latest version of the markup language – HTML. It has been built keeping in mind tablets and smartphones and now it is one of the biggest tools for cross platform development. Apart from the ‘build once, run anywhere’ function, it also provides many benefits for developers. Let us take a look at some of the features of HTML5 that are beneficial for the developers:
Video and audio integration
There is absolutely no doubt that developers’ still rate Flash very highly when it comes to web application development, but there is also very little doubt that it makes things difficult for developers. Moreover, there are certain things about Flash that are quite frustrating; take for example the need for embedding different plug-ins, frequent updates and the fact that mobile applications developed using Flash sap up the power of mobile devices.
With HTML5, developers can use Video and Audio tags to render and define video and audio content respectively. And at long last, there is a built-in support for captions and subtitles, which has eased the whole process of adding video and audio elements to a website.
Web Storage
Web Storage is very much like an advanced cookie or a client-side database but way more secure and faster. With a storage capacity of up to 10 MB, it helps store a large amount of data and that too without affecting the website’s performance.
Thus, most of the data will be stored on the browser itself eliminating the need for fetching data from the server; until and unless users close the browser, their data will remain as it is. This web storage is of two types- local and session, both of which use the same basic API and supported by various browsers that are used on different devices.
The whole idea behind the web storage feature is enable the building of complex applications faster and which work with seamless functionality, more importantly these applications can also load very quickly as well.
Geolocation API
The Geolocation API lets developers use JavaScript to define various objects that help determine the geographical location of a device; previously, Geolocation apps were native to a few, handful devices. But things are changing with HTML 5 at the helm. It gives developers the ability to integrate Geolocation capabilities in their web applications. Thus, users can get location based results irrespective of the device they are using to access the web browsers.
Cleaner code
Developers will rejoice at the thought of having a cleaner, simpler code that HTML 5 brings with itself. It makes a clear cut difference between the style and content and this in turn makes the code cleaner and easier to understand and use by the developers in their web applications.
Better website interaction
Any good web application is characterized by the user-interaction it provides. With the Canvas tag in HTML 5, developers can embed various interactive elements. For instance, they can use the Canvas tag to render games, graphs and various other images with ease in their web application(s). Add to this HTML5’s ability to recognize various mobile gestures such as – swipe, pinching to zoom and tap and you get an enhanced, interactive web app quite easily.
The above mentioned features make HTML5 a cutting-edge tool for all web developers out there. They can make the most of it to develop various cross platform web apps.
Here are some good sources and demos of HTML5.
