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24Ways: HTML5 heads toward desktop apps

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“Breaking Out the Edges of the Browser” by Remy Sharp reveals the future: HTML5 has features that enable web developers to write applications that work both online and offline. One commenter stated that “When this really starts to grow (with wider browser support and consumer awareness), you can forget [Adobe] AIR.”

Remy reviews two HTML5 features:

  1. Storage including localStorage and sessionStorage which are local data storage capabilites that surpass the capabilities of cookies (to say the least), and
  2. Offline Apps: specific techniques so you can tell an offline browser to load required files for a web site or web app from a local cache, thus making the web site renderable or the web app functional without a connection to the Internet. Supported presently by Safari and Firefox though the applicationCache methods.

Pretty interesting stuff to keep an eye on. These capabilities alone are a good reason to me to start using HTML5 now. As more browsers support these features we can create web sites using just HTML5 and Javascript with capabilities of full blown web apps. And they’ll work even when not connected to the Internet. Awesome.

I’ve been fascinated with the idea of “occasionally connected apps” since Macromedia Central was introduced in 2003 (since discontinuted, Adobe Central Developer Support Center, Anatomy of a Central App, Central Blog). Adobe AIR is making good inroads as the present platform of choice for occasionally connected apps. It would be a major improvement to have this capability without the requirement of a proprietary pluigin, i.e. the Flash Player. I’m excited to see active progress in that direction.