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InfoQ Homepage News Updated, Open Sourced Status.IE Site Boosts Multiplatform Web Development

Updated, Open Sourced Status.IE Site Boosts Multiplatform Web Development

The Status.IE project provides compatibility information for 4 major web browsers, allowing developers to see which features are available based on the browsers they need to support.  Microsoft has open-sourced both the code serving the project and the data it offers, making it easy for developers to further their own web development projects.

status.modern.IE provides a detailed directory of various web browser features and web standards, such as <datalist> , <img srcset>, and Application Cache.  The site contains information on Firefox, Chrome, Safari and IE— and so it is easy to see how well each feature is supported.  For example, the <datalist> element is supported on IE10+, Chrome, and Firefox but not currently supported by Safari.  Where applicable, links to more information on a particular element or standard are provided to MSDN, webplatform.org, and w3.org.

The directory is not limited to just listing a catalog of features, it is possible to search for a particular item or to filter based on the browsers that need to be supported by your particular web application.  Need to see what is available if IE8, IE9, and Chrome browsers are required?  Adjust the filter accordingly (naturally the IE8 requirement greatly limits what advanced options are available).  The filter also allows for searching by whether or not a feature is in development or under consideration, providing guidance as to when it will be available.

The full source code for the Node.js project serving this data is available on the project’s GitHub page.  The data itself is also available as a JSON document under http://status.modern.IE/features providing an alternate way to access the information.

Some work remains for additional improvement, as when a feature is listed as “under consideration” or “not currently planned”, no timeline is presented for when it will be completed or re-evaluated respectively.  Another limitation of the filter is that it is currently not possible to filter by date, so that only new(er) features could be reviewed.

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