Technical related stuffs will be discussed here.

The title says it all :)

Modernizr is a Javascript library that detects various HTML5 and CSS3 features and lets you know if you can use them in that browser. The main aim of “Modernizr” is to put a full-stop to “UA sniffing” method. Modernizr does feature detection and lets you know what various browsers can and cannot do.

Modernizr makes it convenient for you in a variety of ways,

  • It tests for over 20 next-generation features, all in a matter of milliseconds;
  • It creates a JavaScript object (named Modernizr) that contains the results of these tests as boolean properties;
  • It adds classes to the html element that explain precisely what features are and are not natively supported

How it works?

To install Modenizr, download the javascript file from this URL and include modernizr-1.5.min.js file in your page as

<script src="js/modernizr-1.5.min.js"> <script>

The second step is to add a class of “no-js” on your html tag as

<html class="no-js">

Modernizr sets a boolean property for each feature it tests. Thus, checking for “Drag and Drop” is pretty straightforward, indeed a one-liner,

if (Modernizr.draganddrop) {
// Browser supports HTML5 DnD.
} else {
// Fallback to a library solution.
}


Modernizr also allows you to use the new HTML5 elements such as “headerhgroupsectionfootervideo, etc.,” and style them.But this doesn’t mean that these HTML5 elements will start working in Internet Explorer. All you can do is to style them in such a way that IE will understand them and not ignore them..

Have a look at this Modernizr documentation for more details.

Do you already use Modernizr? If not, how do you deal with browser compatibility?

Google Chrome Frame

If you still use IE read on, others may happily skip this post.

There are many people who still use IE and can’t update to a better browser including Google Chrome, Firefox etc.,  For these people Google has released a plugin called Google Chrome Frame. It is an open source browser plugin that brings Google Chrome’s open web technologies and speedy Javascript engine to Internet Explorer.

With Google Chrome Frame plugin you can,

  • Start using open web technologies – like the HTML5 canvas tag – right away, even technologies that aren’t yet supported in Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8.
  • Take advantage of JavaScript performance improvements to make your apps faster and more responsive.

If you’re a developer you can allow your website to use the plug-in by using the following piece of code in your web pages,

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1" />

When Google Chrome Frame detects this tag it automatically switches to Google Chrome’s speedy rendering engine.

Google Chrome Frame is already used by many Google services including Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Reader, etc., Chromium’s blog says that the main goals are to “to improve performance and ease the transition for users as they drop support for legacy browsers”

Also Google Chrome Frame is now out of beta and is more stable,

Today, we’re very happy to take the Beta tag off of Google Chrome Frame and promote it to the Stable channel. This stable channel release provides our most polished version of Google Chrome Frame to date, allowing users to access modern web technologies like HTML5 on legacy browsers. You now can download the stable version of Google Chrome Frame and users of the Beta will be automatically updated to it in the days ahead. If you’re an IT administrator, we’ve also posted an MSI installer for deploying Google Chrome Frame in your network.

Join Google Chrome Frame discussion group for any feedback or file any bugs through the Chromium issue tracker.

P.S: Switch to Google Chrome for better browsing experience with speed, security and stability. My next post will be on why to use Google Chrome :)

I’m back :)

Hey folks,

Itz been a year since I’ve written something here! The conversation and easy banter @twitter and @Facebook is enhanced which stopped me from blogging! So blame it on twitter, Facebook or Friendfeed :)

Recently I read an interesting piece of article by Robert Scoble. He says that “thought leaders should avoid spending a lot of time @twitter or @friendfeed because that time will be mostly wasted”. I totally agree with the fact that any micro-blogging site simply cannot replace a blog. I admit that blogging is not going away and 140 characters just isn’t enough!

I’ve decided to post something at least once a week. So if anyones still here, do check back soon. I’m back :)

Naveen

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