HTML5 Offline Storage

HTML5 introduces a pretty handy ability to cache remote resources locally for off-line use, meaning the resources are downloaded once. Then when the page is used again in the future the local (cached) copies of the file will be used instead of requesting the files from the server again.
Why would you want this? This functionality come is handy for developing sites that may need to be deployed in places with patchy Internet i.e remote satellite offices or most importantly HTML5 mobile applications.

How do I make this happen?

First up you need to make an .appcache file for your site telling the browser exactly what resources you would like to cache. In its simplest form a manifest file is just a standard text file with the .appcache extension. The first line of the manifest file contains the line “CACHE MANIFEST” and each new line afterward a filename and path for a resource to be cached is listed e.g

CACHE MANIFEST
/css/style.css
/js/scripts.js

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HTML5 Placeholders With jQuery

HTML 5 brings many new features to the browser including a lot of enhancements to the way forms are created and handled. One of my favourite features is the introduction of the placeholder attribute, this allows the display of  some text in a text input field or text area until the element is brought into focus. This allows the addition of small tips or related prompts to give the user a better understanding of what is required as input.
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