Developing Web Applications

Dynamic HTML

Dynamic HTML (DHTML), which is supported by Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5, is an emerging standard that is more than just an extension of standard HTML. With DHTML, you can easily add advanced functionality that was previously difficult to achieve without client-side controls. For example, you can:

Hide text and images in your document and keep this content hidden until a given time elapses or until the user wants to view it.
Animate text and images in your document, independently moving each element from any point to another in the document, following a path that you choose, or that you let the user choose.
Create a ticker that automatically refreshes its content with the latest news, stock quotes, or other data.
Create a form; then instantly read, process, and respond to the data the user enters in the form.

Internet Explorer 5 does not require additional support from Java applets or embedded controls to achieve these effects. It automatically reformats and redisplays the DHTML page to reflect dynamic changes in content styles. It does not need to reload the document, load a new document, or depend on the server to generate new content. Instead, it uses the power of the user’s computer to calculate and carry out changes.

DHTML documents make heavy use of styles and script to process user input and directly manipulate the HTML tags, attributes, and text in the document. Through the Internet Explorer 5 object model, you can control every property of every HTML tag to precisely control the layout, appearance and function of your page.

Note Not all the features of DHTML are compatible with all browsers. Web pages intended for viewing by browsers other than Internet Explorer 5 should be tested for compatibility with other browsers.

For more information about DHTML, see http://msdn.microsoft.com.