Enables Enterprise-Ready Applications |
Multiple CSS class support |
Any element can take a list of CSS classes,
making it much simpler to write script when different
actions are to occur on a single element. For example,
it's much shorter to write the code for a picture that
changes once when the mouse moves over it, and then again
when it is clicked. |
XML Support |
XML can be embedded
into a document as data or meta-data, with the entire XML
Document Object Model exposed. XML tags can also be
intermixed within the HTML document, where CSS properties
can be directly applied to them, thereby controlling
their appearance. |
Dynamic Properties |
Instead of creating
long, complicated scripts to perform relatively simple
activities, now any property on a page can be defined as
a function of any other property. For example, the font
size of a section of text can be set to 20% of the width
of a table or the whole page, and then the font size will
change dynamically (almost like a Microsoft Excel formula
recalculating) if the page is resized, without refreshing
the page from the Web server. |
"CurrentStyle"
Object |
The currentStyle
object exposes the exact value that each element on a
page is using for all of its CSS properties, not just the
ones that have been explicitly placed on that object. |
Dynamic Relative /
Absolute Positioning Support |
Authors can enable
actions like Drag and Drop functionality in their
applications much easier, as elements can be placed on a
page with Relative Positioning, but can then revert to an
Absolute Position "on the fly." |
Full Drag and Drop
Object Model Support |
While users have
always had a rich way of sharing content between
applications with drag and drop, Microsoft has extended
the Internet Explorer object model to provide further
mouse actions, such as cursor control, drag
initialization, and clipboard support, to create even
richer applications. You can now build applications that
allow users to drag content between frames and even to
other applications. |
Retaining
Persistence |
Any element on a
page, such as a collapsible outline, can remain in its
current state, even when your users leave that page and
return later. While developers have had a limited way to
do this in the past with cookies, Internet Explorer's new
persistence technology provides a richer XML-based way to
accomplish this, thus eliminating the cookie 4K limit. |
Client Capabilities |
In order for
content providers and authors to provide the best level
of content for their users, it's becoming crucially
important for these developers to know not only what
version of each browser is being used, but also what
technologies have been turned on or off by the user.
Through scripting, authors can query which features of
the browser are available or not (perhaps Java or ActiveX
has been disabled), so that they can serve up the right
content, and have the pages appear exactly as intended on
the clients' platform. |
<HTMLAREA> |
Internet Explorer
5.0 introduces a new intrinsic control similar to text
boxes or drop-down boxes, allowing developers to insert a
separate HTML-enabled area into their pages where users
can insert content. This will allow users to insert
comments or any content they wish, and embelish it with
all the power and functionality of HTML. |
Browser-less
applications (.hta) |
Applications are
being built today with the powerful technologies that the
Internet brings, from HTML to scripting, ActiveX, and
Java. However, it doesn't always make sense to require
these applications to appear inside a browser. By
building a "browser-less" application,
developers can create anything from a calculator to a
401K tool that is not cluttered by the user interface of
browsing software. |
New Debugging
Messages |
When debugging an
application, authors need descriptive feedback to know
exactly where problems may be occurring. The Error
messages in Internet Explorer 5.0 have been improved to
provide detailed messages about scripting errors, HTML
structure errors, and other useful information for
diagnosing application errors. This option is turned off
by default for the majority of users who are simply
browsing the Web. |