Category Archives: HTML5test

Browsers, HTML5test

Coming soon: New scores for the Xbox One

Last week Microsoft released the Xbox One in certain countries and fortunately one of the first sites that people are going to check out is HTML5test. So I was able to quickly add the test results for Internet Explorer 10 on the Xbox One.

I also quickly discovered a discrepancy between the documentation that Microsoft released and the test results I was seeing. It looked like Geolocation and the File API were available on the Xbox One, but the documentation specifically said they were not. With the help of Anna Debenham I was able to quickly pin point the problems and discovered some bugs in the browser and errors in the documentation.

In case of Geolocation the documentation was right that it is not supported, but due to a bug in the browser it is impossible to determine this using feature detection. The basic implementation is still there, it just does not give any location and even worse not even an error. A more detailed write up of this bug can be found here: Geolocation on the Xbox.

The problem with File API was with the documentation: it is supported and fully functional. But in practice it is of limited use, because input fields of the file type are not working. If you click on the field nothing happens. You simply can’t select any file. But the FileList interface is functional, however because you can’t select any files, the list of files it is always empty. That that is not the only use of the File API: you can still load binary files using XMLHttpRequest and use Blob and FileReader to get the contents of the file.

Unfortunately these bugs also mean that the score needs to be adjusted – and in this case downwards. The new results will show it does not support Geolocation and also no support for input type=file. These changes will go live in a couple of hours, together with some other fixes we are still working on.

Photo by Steve Petrucelli

HTML5test 4 Comments

The new HTML5test is here!

After months of preparations I am very proud to be able to launch the new HTML5test. Personally I think it is the biggest improvement yet. Not only do we have new and improved tests, but it’s a completely new, lighter and flatter design with many new features.

Some of the more notable changes are:

  • We’ve got a new maximum score of 555 points. And the bonus points are gone.
  • Many new tests and improvements for already existing specifications, but also for new specs.
  • Click on a test result to get more information about the test. Find out how many points the test is worth, the status of the specification and links to the specification and other sites such as WebPlatform.org
  • Save the results, so you can view them at a later time, or on another device. Use a QR code to immediately view the results of a device with a small screen on your tablet. Use html5te.st/qr to run the test and show just the QR code.
  • Give feedback and correct the browser identification so we can improve WhichBrowser – our browser identification library
  • A handy browser overview table which shows the scores for the current versions of the major browsers, but also the upcoming and older versions.
  • See a list of the 100 most recent test results and search through our database for results of specific browsers.
  • Compare up to five browsers at the same time.

Of course there are many more changes and over the next week I will explain some of the new features in more detail. The number of confirmed results are also still limited, because we just started collecting data a couple of days ago. This too will grow over the coming days and weeks. There is still plenty of work to be done and I am already working on some new ideas. But first take a look around on the new site, I hope you like it as much as I do!

HTML5test 2 Comments

Upcoming changes

It’s has been a busy time for me at HTML5test HQ, but we’re not done yet! I’ve got a lot of changes coming to the site in the next couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, I already unveiled the next version of HTML5test and at the time I was hoping to be able to launch it this week. But it will take just a little while longer before it will replace the current version. There are still some outstanding issues we are looking into and I also expect to tweak the scoring a little bit too before we launch.

As you can see, the next version of the site not only introduces new tests, but the site has also been completely redesigned. I hope you like the new lighter and flatter design.

The blog has already been moved to the new design and once the next version of the site is ready, so will the rest of the site. One other part of the site that already uses the new design is the home of the HTML5test Device Lab which will open tomorrow.

HTML5test

Using QR-codes with HTML5test

One new features of the upcoming HTML5test redesign is the use of QR codes. By scanning the QR code of a test, you can view the results on another device and are no longer limited to the small screen of the phone.

HTML5test

Html5test now also works on S60 3.x… Yeah…

I managed to get my hands on a Nokia N95 and N96 yesterday and I quickly found out that they had some problem running HTML5test. It turned out that HTML5test never worked on older versions of S60 due to a bug in the S60 browser. It was simple enough to fix so I can now officially announce full support for S60 3.x. Okay not exactly earth shattering news, but it is still nice to fix these little bugs.

The score was about what I expected for four year old phones: 14 points and no bonus points.

HTML5test

A new version of HTML5test.com

A couple of days ago html5test.com was updated to version 4.0. The update brought a number of bugfixes and a couple of new tests. The maximum score is still 500 points, but the number of points awarded by each tests were modified in certain cases. The most notable changes are the getUserMedia method which was worth 20 points and now only 10 and IndexedDB which was worth 10 points and now 15.

In a couple of cases I decided to stop awarding points altogether. The HTML5 doctype isn’t worth any points anymore because every browser supports this. The filesystem API which failed to gain traction as a standard and isn’t implemented besides by some Webkit based browsers also loses its poins.

And finally ‘drag and drop’ is no longer worth any points because I figured it could only properly be implemented on systems with a mouse. Given that touch based devices are now ubiquitous, it seemed unfair that they could not get the maximum number of points. Of course it didn’t take long to prove me wrong, because Opera Mobile 12.10 does support drag and drop. I still need to take a proper look at their implementation, but I’ll happily restore points for drag and drop in the next update if that means other vendors are also going to implement it for their mobile browsers.

New tests added in version 4 are Mutation Observer, Pointerlock and Opus audio support.

HTML5test

HTML5 test updated: how well does your browser support HTML5 now?

Earlier today I’ve released a new version of the HTML5 test. The goal is still the same: to show an indication of how well your browser supports the upcoming HTML5 standard and related specifications.

It was clearly time for an updated test, because browsers were starting to get very close to the original maximum score of 160 points. If you disregard the codecs for a bit: a current nightly of Safari scores 95 out of 106. That is very close and demands a new challenge. The maximum of 160 was always intended to be a moving goalpost. The original test suite did not test for all of the new HTML5 features and I always intended to keep adding tests until the specification is stable and all features are properly tested.

Continue reading →

HTML5test

The HTML5 Test

Want to know how well your browser supports HTML5? Try the HTML5 test and find out. Points are awarded for every HTML5 feature that is supported. Added together these points give a total score between 0 and 160. Compare multiple browsers or different versions of the same browser and find out which vendor is slacking off and which vendor is pushing the web forward.

Apart from the total score, the test also shows exactly which feature is supported and groups the results into easy to compare sections. Ideal for developers wanting to keep track of the capabilities of the browsers they develop for. In fact, the whole test started out just as a small internal tool for doing just that.

Of course there are some inherent problems with doing automated tests. The tests are only trying to detect if a feature is offered by the browser. It does not test the actual functionality of each feature. Also, the HTML5 standard and other related specifications are still in development. As the specification matures I hope to add new tests to test for these new features. The upper limit of 160 is a moving goalpost. Despite these shortcomings we hope that by quantifying the level of support users and web developers will get an idea of how hard the browser manufacturers work on improving their browsers and the web as a development platform.

Continue reading →