NOTE: This article was written in 1997 before the release of Internet Explorer 4.0
Dynamic HTML has become a big issue. Everyone is talking about it. This page provides a brief detail of what it is and how to use it.
What is Dynamic HTML?
Dynamic HTML are what Microsoft and Netscape claims to be a new effective way to make web pages more interactive. Both Microsoft and Netscape share the same concept but they use slightly different ways to accomplish this concept. Netscape offers <LAYER> tag incorporated with JavaScript and Style Sheets as the way to get control on positioning, while Microsoft use ActiveX and CSS Style Sheets incorporated with scripting language like JScript (Microsoft's version of JavaScript) or VBScript to control positioning. Both share the same concept of positioning in which the coordinates x, y, and z can be specified. Z (z-axis) will allow designers to define the order of elements -- in front of or behind other object. Designers now can get control over the positioning.
Microsoft's Dynamic HTML:
Microsoft will have Dynamic HTML feature attached in their Internet Explorer 4.0. Key features of Microsoft's Dynamic HTML are: Cascading Style Sheets, Document Object Model (DOM), and Data Binding.
Microsoft's Dynamic HTML relies on what they call "The Dynamic HTML Object Model" (being proposed to W3C, so it isn't a standard yet). The Object Model will provides full support for keyboard, mouse, and focus events on all page elements. For example, web pages can display an updated headline, without refreshing the page.
Another core feature is "Data Binding", which reduce the process that were previously done on a server. The use of CGI will be decreased. Good news or bad news? This is accomplished by using built-in data binding. Dynamic HTML data awareness is implemented using an open architecture. Within each data-aware page is a data source control. A data source control is an invisible ActiveX Control that knows how to communicate with a data source (e.g., database). Dynamic HTML intrinsically understands how to bind HTML elements to fields in the data source control. Dynamic HTML will include three data source controls to access comma-delimited data in files, SQL data in Microsoft SQL Server™ and other open database connectivity (ODBC) sources, and Java database connectivity (JDBC) data sources. ActiveX Control and Java Applet developers can implement additional data source controls to communicate with other data sources.
Netscape's concept is to change current web pages into rich interactive document. It relies mostly on <LAYER> tag, which allow you to get control over positioning. Layers can be opaque or transparent. One layer can be placed above or below another layer. It also can be moved around by help of JavaScript and Style Sheets. Please note that unlike Internet Explorer4.0 who support Cascading Style Sheets, Netscape Communicator supports two types of style sheets: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript style sheets (JASS). There is no doubt that Netscape is fully using its JavaScript at this time.