What's New in Internet Explorer 5

The Document Object Model (DOM) represents the Web document structure and provides ready access to all parts of any document. Web authoring that uses the DOM makes cross-platform scripting more reliable and extensible. You'll find the DOM references incorporated into the DHTML references in Workshop. For more information, see the W3C DOM Specification .

The power to build HTML Applications (HTA) brings Internet Explorer 5 to the forefront as a viable Microsoft® Windows® development platform. HTAs are full-fledged applications. These applications are trusted and display only the menus, icons, toolbars, and title information that the Web developer creates. In short, HTAs pack all the power of Internet Explorer—its object model, protocol support, rendering power, and channel-download technology—without enforcing the strict security model and user interface of the browser.

Learn how to add timelines to your HTML pages and synchronize multimedia elements with HTML+TIME. This new technology allows you to easily create complex, interactive, HTML-based multimedia presentations.

Beginning with Internet Explorer 5, Web authors can create custom elements in an HTML document. For example, in the absence of a predefined <JUSTIFY> tag in HTML that justifies the contained text within a specified width, you could define your own <JUSTIFY> tag in your document.

Web developers now can incorporate more of the typical UI behaviors that users have come to expect of software applications. The extensive DHTML data-transfer implementation in Internet Explorer 5 enables everything from drag-and-drop editing to cut/copy/paste behavior through the shortcut menu. For more information, see the Data Transfer Overview.

New mouse capture functionality speeds the process of creating menus and context menus in Internet Explorer 5. The releaseCapture and setCapture methods and the onlosecapture event allow the Web developer to designate one object to fire all mouse events for the document. The oncontextmenu gives Web authors control over shortcut menus as well. Mouse capture features are outlined in the Mouse Capture Overview.

Web page navigation now goes beyond the onscroll event of Internet Explorer 4.0. Web authors can identify scrolling components with the componentFromPoint method and move them using the doScroll method.

Access to the scrolling components makes it possible to respond programmatically to in-page navigation. Moreover, accessibility-related hardware, such as screen readers, now relay more navigational information to users with special needs.

DHTML behaviors are simple, lightweight components that, when applied to standard HTML elements through style sheets, can enhance the elements' default behavior. Behaviors provide easy separation of script from content on a page, facilitating code reuse across multiple pages while also improving overall manageability of the page.

Internet Explorer 5 contains several default behaviors, including CLIENTCAPS, persistence, HOMEPAGE, and more.

An entire DHTML behaviors library is available separately for use with Internet Explorer 5. These behaviors provide some of the most requested functionality for Web pages. You can download directly from each reference page the source code for the behaviors in this library. The individual behavior definitions include the custom properties, methods, and events exposed by these behaviors.

HTML Components (HTC) are the hottest new thing for behaviors in Internet Explorer. HTCs provide a mechanism for implementing DHTML behaviors in script. Saved with an .htc extension, an HTC file is much like an HTML file that contains scripts and a set of HTC-specific XML elements, objects, methods, and events that define the component. To enhance your behavior-writing process, see the HTC Reference.

The CLIENTCAPS behavior retrieves information about the client's browser. Client capabilities have been associated with the back-end strength of a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script or server solution. By utilizing browser-based client capabilities, a Web author does not need to devote either processor or server-side development time to achieve what now can be handled on the client.

In addition to providing information about Internet Explorer-supported features, the CLIENTCAPS behavior allows Web authors to install browser components using the following new methods: addComponentRequest, doComponentRequest, clearComponentRequest, compareVersions, getComponentVersion, and isComponentInstalled.

Web folder behaviors allow users to navigate to a folder view and include support for Distributed Authoring and Versioning (DAV) and Web Extender Client (WEC) protocols. The behaviors enable authors to view sites in a Web folder view, which is similar to the Windows Explorer folder view. This view provides convenient access to folders and files on an HTTP server. The Web folder view also maintains a consistent look and feel when navigating between the local file system, a networked drive, and an Internet Web site.

Ever wanted to download a file through script and be notified when the download is complete? If you're a C++ developer, you have probably known how to do so through the IBindStatusCallback interface since Internet Explorer 3.0. In Internet Explorer 5, knowledge of C++ and COM is no longer a requirement to dynamically download a file. Similar functionality has been exposed to script developers through the new DOWNLOAD behavior.

One of the most exciting features of Internet Explorer 5 is the ability to save data on the client system. By using the saveFavorite, saveHistory, saveSnapshot, and userData behaviors, Web authors can persist form data, dynamic positions and content, styles, and script variables. The persistence behaviors can preserve documents exactly as they display. The results are more predictable than relying on cookies to maintain designated settings for a document on a remote server. Persistence in Web pages comprises a powerful tool for both Web browsing and Web application development.

Cascading style sheets (CSS) have extensive object model support through the currentStyle and runtimeStyle objects and the clipBottom, clipLeft, clipRight, and clipTop properties.

Authors can retrieve what style has been applied to a particular object through the currentStyle object. It detects all styles that apply to a given object, even values that it inherits from parent elements. Reading the currentStyle object differs from reading the style object, where style properties are not set inline. In contrast to the currentStyle object, the runtimeStyle object sets and retrieves the format and style of a given object. It overrides existing formats and styles in the process. The runtimeStyle object takes precedence over the style object and does not persist. The runtimeStyle object is otherwise analogous to the the style object.

Dynamic properties make script authoring faster, because they take care of many of the property updates and positioning calculations previously hammered out by Web authors. The recalc method recalculates all dynamic properties in the current document. With the help of recalc, authors can dynamically size and position objects on a Web site using the setExpression, getExpression, and removeExpression methods. For more information, see Dynamic Properties.

The propertyName property and onpropertychange event provide a way to retrieve the name of an altered property on an object.

The new measurement model properties provide authors with a means for retrieving coordinates and distances within a Web document as well as across a user's screen. The getBoundingClientRect method, TextRectangle collection, and bottom, left, right and top properties provide page control and management by using the coordinates that describe an object or range layout. Content can be positioned and adjusted based on the client coordinates in Internet Explorer 5. They also can be converted into screen coordinates using the screenLeft and screenTop properties. Now the Web author can control the position and accessibility of even a single line of text based on its distance from an edge of the client or of the screen.

New table properties both enhance performance and visibility, and provide control over table borders. The tableLayout property drastically cuts the time required to render large tables. Set table layout to fixed and preset cell height if you want to display data immediately after it is downloaded.

Dynamically altering a table's rendering capabilities has become easier now that each table row and table cell exposes the display property. This implementation makes it straightforward to build collapsible tables. Control over a table's borders using the borderCollapse property allows Web authors to generate tables that emulate the thin border lines used in Microsoft® Excel.

The tableLayout and display properties, used in a DHTML table, supply the functionality necessary for creating an efficient file or service directory tree.

AutoComplete safely store information entered into text boxes and password fields using the INPUT tag. Storing the information helps users complete single-line text fields. When a form is submitted, the name, value, and domain of the form component are encrypted for safekeeping. The next time the user visits a Web page and begins typing into a text field of the same name, AutoComplete prompts the user with a list of previously used data.

Ever want to control printing programmatically? The new print features in Internet Explorer 5 provide just that. There is now a print method. In addition, there are two print events, onbeforeprint and onafterprint, that allow the Web developer to modify page content for printing purposes.

The Windows Search Assistant overview provides information on customizing the Search Bar, which is the primary resource for Internet Explorer search-related features. New DHTML features provide information to help developers add items to the Search Bar.

The article Enhancing Offline Favorites discusses how to make smarter offline favorites. When a Web page specifies a relationship to a CDF file, that CDF file in turn will specify which additional pages to precache when a user adds the page to favorites and chooses "Make available offline." By specifying pages to go offline with a Web page, authors can provide users access to a meaningful subset of related content. This feature can't help but enhance the experience for users viewing content offline.

Internet Explorer has long provided a way to save your favorite Internet URLs. However, if you have more than one computer, you are likely juggling two different lists of favorite sites. With Internet Explorer 5, an Internet service provider (ISP) using the importing and exporting favorites feature can allow end users to upload their favorites to the ISP site and thereafter import or export their single favorites list as a file.

Browser extensions allow developers to provide easy access to their browser enhancements by adding elements, like an Explorer Bar, to the default user interface. Introduced in Internet Explorer 4.0, this feature enables developers to create Explorer Bars and add entries into the standard context menus. Beginning with Internet Explorer 5, this feature allows developers to add entries into the Tools menu and buttons to the toolbar.

Customizing the New entry on the File menu in Internet Explorer is easier with this overview on the Client Registry Layout. New in this article are instructions for adding a default HTML editor to the registry so that it will be listed in the File menu and display as a button on the toolbar.

New overviews and tutorials covering the use of the asynchronous Win32 Internet functions are available.

• Utilizing the Win32 Internet Functions Asynchronously offers a detailed overview that includes coverage of the simultaneous download of multiple Internet resources. This increases performance in applications and allows an application to monitor the progress of the download.
• Creating Status Callback Functions describes functions that can monitor the status of an Internet request that was initiated using the Win32 Internet functions.
• Retrieving HTTP Headers details how to retrieve header information from HTTP requests by applications using Win32 Internet functions.

The new Win32 Internet functions support a variety of cache management procedures, including FindFirstUrlCacheGroup, FindNextUrlCacheGroup, GetUrlCacheGroupAttribute, and SetUrlCacheGroupAttribute. The InternetGetConnectedStateEx function retrieves the connected state of the specified Internet connection. The new FtpCommand function allows an application to send commands directly to an FTP server. And the FtpGetFileSize function retrieves the file size of the requested FTP resource.

Unicode support is now provided in many of the Win32 Internet functions and structures.

MLang is a COM component that helps Internet products function better in the international market. Many new methods are shipping in Internet Explorer 5.

The IInternetPriority interface provides a way to set the request priority being sent to a pluggable protocol handler. Request priorities can be set with the SetPriority method and retrieved with the GetPriority method.

With the Microsoft Extensible Style Language (XSL) processor, based on the latest W3C Working Draft, developers can apply style sheets to XML data and display the data in a dynamic and flexible way that can be easily customized. The querying capabilities of the Microsoft XSL processor also allow developers to programmatically find and extract information within an XML data set on the client or the server.

Schemas define the rules of an XML document, including element names and rich data types, which elements can appear in combination, and which attributes are available for each element. To enable multi-tier applications, Microsoft will be releasing a technology preview for XML Schema based on the Schema submissions to the W3C XML working group.

Server-side XML processing allows XML to be used as a standard means of passing data between multiple distributed application servers—even across operating system boundaries. For more information, see the XML overview.

The XML Document Object Model (DOM) is a standard object application programming interface that gives developers programmatic control of XML document content, structure, formats, and more. The Microsoft XML implementation includes full support for the W3C XML DOM Recommendation and is accessible from script, the Microsoft® Visual Basic® development system, C++, and other languages.

This XML Data Source Object (DSO) allows you to bind HTML elements directly to an XML data island. In addition, it has increased performance, has a greater ability to bind to various XML nodes, and takes advantage of all the new databound features within Internet Explorer 5.