A platform that works for you, not against you

Isn't it painful to build web apps? Luckily, smart folks are improving the underlying (core) platform to make our lives easier. These improvements include additions to ECMAScript (the JavaScript language), ways to interact with the DOM, and even old friends like XMLHttpRequest and <input type="file">. Here are just a few:

• JavaScript Typed Arrays
• New selectors: querySelector(), querySelectorAll(), matchesSelector()
• Custom data-* attributes: Element.dataset
• Element.classList
• XMLHttpRequest2
• Mutation Observers
• Context menus
• Web Intents

These additions make apps easier to build, offload more work to the browser, and reduce your footprint (e.g. by removing the need for libraries that handle the same functionality).

With smarter APIs, we can build smarter apps

The platform includes APIs that give you greater insight into what is happening in your application. These APIs allow you to make smarter choices in your app, save battery/CPU, and create a better user experience.

• Smarter animations: window.requestAnimationFrame()
• Form factor detection: window.matchMedia() and CSS media queries.
• History API
• Page Visibility API
• online/offline events
• Custom protocol/content handlers

Demos

Resources

• Using the Page Visibility API Whitepaper on using the Page Visibility API.
• Web Developer's Guide to Prerendering in Chrome How to use the rel='prerender' attribute to prerender content in a background tab.
• Online and offline events documentation MDN reference on online/offline events.
• JavaScript Typed Arrays documentation MDN reference on JS typed arrays.
• requestAnimationFrame() documentation MDN refernce on window.requestAnimationFrame()
• HTML5 History API documentation MDN reference on the window.history API.
• Web-based protocol handlers MDN documentation for navigator.registerProtocolHandler().
• Web-based content handlers MDN documentation for navigator.registerContentHandler().
• Web Intents Allows apps to register an intent to handle common user actions.
• Using XMLHttpRequest2 MDN reference on using features in XMLHttpRequest2.
• Cross-Origin Resource Sharing specification