The New Features of Internet Explorer 9: HTML5, CSS3, SVG, DOM

 The first stage of the Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) development process will come to an end next month, with Microsoft gearing up to release the first Beta build by the end of September 2010, eight weeks after the launch of Platform Preview 4. IE9 has already brought to the table a range of new features, albeit, end users haven’t really been able to enjoy any for themselves. This because the four Platform Preview releases of Internet Explorer 9 have been offered to a developer audience. As a direct consequence the new features introduced in IE9 so far are also designed mainly for developers.




It will be with the Beta milestone that the Redmond company will produce the first full IE9 browser that end users will also be able to test drive. Full browser in the sense that the release will feature the most basic elements that it currently lacks, Address Bar, Back and Forward buttons, Tabs, etc.


Still, the previews of IE9 managed to generate a lot of interest already. According to statistics shared by Microsoft over Internet Explorer 9 has already been downloaded in excess of 2.5 million times. In addition, the IE Test Drive website has attracted over 20 million visitors since its introduction in March 2010 with the launch of Platform Preview 1.


With IE9, Microsoft’s focus has been placed on bringing Internet Explorer on par with its rivals, with modern web standards support, same markup and interoperability being high on the software giant’s priorities list. It’s no wonder then that the main features already available in IE9 are related to the company’s main focus with the successor of Internet Explorer 8.


HTML5, CSS3, SVG, DOM


In the IE9 PP4 Fact Sheet, Microsoft has enumerated some of the new additions to the browser. Of course, for a more complete overview of Internet Explorer 9 developer features, Microsoft is offering the Developer Guide, with the fact sheet containing only a selection of new features.


New HTML5 Features


- HTML5 features were first introduced in Internet Explorer 8 with support for the Document Object Model (DOM) Storage, cross-document messaging, AJAX navigation and others.
- As part of Microsoft’s commitment to HTML5 support, Internet Explorer 9 continues to add features from the HTML5 specification, and the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Previews offers the first glimpse of some of its offerings:
o HTML parsing improvements, including parsing of generic elements and overlapping tags
o Support for parsing XHTML
o Text selection APIs to enable programmatic selection of text.



New CSS3 Features

- The Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview adds the following CSS3 features:
o Rounded corners via the border-radius property
o Support for the CSS opacity property and RGBA color model, allowing developers to specify the transparency or opacity of an element
o Selectors API to enable developers to use patterns to find elements and apply CSS styles to those matched elements
o On the CSS3 Selectors test at CSS3.info, a Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview score of 100 percent (578/578), compared with 60 percent for Internet Explorer 8 (349/578)


New SVG Features


- Microsoft is proud to introduce key SVG support in Internet Explorer 9. SVG is an XML format for drawing two-dimensional vector graphics and is an easy and powerful way to add attention-grabbing visuals to a website with minimal markup and low bandwidth overhead.
o This version of the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview supports the following SVG features:
 Document structure, including metadata and extensibility functionality
 Basic shapes, including rectangles, circles, ellipses, lines, polylines and polygons
 Coordinate systems, transformations and units
 Paths, including full capabilities of the path element and d attribute


New DOM Enhancements and Features


- Internet Explorer 8 improved on its DOM and added new features, such as mutable DOM prototypes. Building modern Web applications requires enhanced DOM features, which have been added to Internet Explorer 9, including these:
o New support for DOM Level 2 Core namespaces, ranges and views
o New support for DOM Level 3 Events
o Improved support for DOM Level 2 Style and HTML features.”


Devs should definitely familiarize themselves with the IE9 Developer Guide, especially if they are looking to take advantage of the new features that the browser brings to the table.
Download IE9 Platform Preview 4


In the three videos embedded below you will be able to see various members of the IE team demonstrate some of the new features of IE9 Platform Preview 4 in concert with new tests uploaded to the IE Test Drive site. The demonstrations involve HTML5 audio, SVG, HTML5 Canvas, audio, and ES5. Of course, there are additional tests available from Microsoft, and users can grab Build 1.9.7.9.16.6000 of IE9 and start checking them out.


Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 4 Build 1.9.7.9.16.6000 is available for download here.
                                                                  
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