What's New in Internet Explorer 8

64-Bit Downloads

Internet Explorer now supports download of files whose size exceeds 4 gigabytes (GB). Users of Internet Explorer 8 can take advantage of this functionality by default. Third-party extensions need to implement IBindStatusCallbackEx and return BINDF2_READ_DATA_GREATER_THAN_4GB from their GetBindInfoEx callback method. Download progress is reported through OnProgress by using the BINDSTATUS_64BIT_PROGRESS flag. These callback methods are supported by IMoniker::BindToObject and IMoniker::BindToStorage.
Accelerators

Because the Internet has become increasingly interactive, Internet Explorer 8 makes it easier to interact with content on a Web page. Accelerators are a type of browser extensions that act on Web page content by sending the information to a service of the user's choosing. Services then perform actions on the content (such as "email" or "bookmark") or provide more information ("translate" or "map"). Users can install and access Accelerators from the browser shortcut menu, making their browsing experience more efficient.

For more information, see OpenService Accelerators Developer Guide.
Accessibility and ARIA

In response to the increase in user interface (UI) complexity on the Web, the Web Accessibility Initiative World Wide Web link group has defined a roadmap for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA), which introduces ways for Web site authors to define how custom UI elements are accessed. ARIA accomplishes this by defining a set of HTML attributes that map back to common UI controls. As a result, users with disabilities can access Web sites with a rich interaction model. By exposing ARIA through the Microsoft Active Accessibility API in Internet Explorer 8, assistive technologies that already use Microsoft Active Accessibility can also support ARIA easily.

    * The alt attribute is no longer displayed as the image tooltip when the browser is running in IE8 mode. Instead, the target of the longDesc attribute is used as the tooltip if present; otherwise, the title is displayed. The alt attribute is still used as the Microsoft Active Accessibility name, and the title attribute is used as the fallback name only if alt is not present.
    * ARIA attribute syntax is the same in both IE8 mode and IE7 mode. Earlier releases of Internet Explorer 8 required a legacy property syntax when setting ARIA attributes in compatibility view. For cross-browser compatibility, always use the WAI-ARIA attribute syntax to access and modify ARIA properties, for example object.setAttribute("aria-valuenow", newValue).

For more information, see:

    * ARIA Implementation Guide for AT Vendors: Internet Explorer 8
    * Mapping ARIA Roles, States, and Properties to UI Automation
    * What's New for Accessibility in Internet Explorer 8

ActiveX Improvements

Internet Explorer 8 offers greater control over your Microsoft ActiveX installation and debugging.

    * Per-site ActiveX — Nearly half of all ActiveX controls meant to run on only one site do not use any form of site locking technology. This means that many controls are not secure by default and could be misused by malicious Web sites. To prevent this in Internet Explorer 8, users can decide whether to allow ActiveX controls to run on a site-by-site basis. For more information, see Per-Site ActiveX Controls.
    * Non-administrator installation — Standard users (those without administrator privileges) can install ActiveX controls to their user profiles without a UAC prompt or administrator involvement of any kind. In the event that a user does install a malicious ActiveX control, only the user profile is affected; the system itself is not compromised. For more information, see Non-Admin ActiveX Controls.
    * ActiveX Logging — Internet Explorer 8 can report the most common installation and instantiation failures, such as security restrictions preventing an ActiveX control from being instantiated properly. ActiveX logging is performed the same as other Internet Explorer compatibility logging, by using the Internet Explorer Application Compatibility Toolkit. For more information, see Using the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool.

AJAX Enhancements

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) is changing the way Web applications are built. Internet Explorer 8 brings new functionality to the XMLHttpRequest object that enables AJAX applications.

    * AJAX Navigation — Client requests that do not trigger traditional Web page navigation can now update the hash property, which allows the Back button to function appropriately.
    * Connection Events — Where data reliability is a priority, AJAX applications can choose to save data locally if they are disconnected from a network. See onoffline, ononline.
    * Connections Per Server —  Internet Explorer 8 raises the number of connections per host by default, for a potential drop in Web page load times and increased parallelism in AJAX scenarios.
    * Cross-document Messaging — Documents in different domains can securely exchange data using postMessage. Documents that receive messages listen for the onmessage event.
    * Cross-domain Request (XDR) — To allow developers to more safely combine services from different Web sites, the XDomainRequest object restricts and secures communication between untrusted modules in a Web page. The browser shields the user from potential threats while allowing powerful cross-site interaction.
    * Timeout Requests —  Internet Explorer 8 adds the ability to set a timeout property on server requests.
    * Sanitize HTML — Easily remove event properties and script from HTML fragments with window.toStaticHTML.
    * Native JSON Support — JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) objects (used widely in AJAX scenarios) can now be serialized and parsed directly in Microsoft JScript. Use JSON.stringify to transform object data to a string and JSON.parse to revive JSON-formatted text. You can also fine-tune your object's output by implementing a toJSON method. These new methods are much faster than script, and safer than using eval.

Posted in: Others| Tags: ajax IE IE 8 New 64-bit Information accessibility quot bit download callback accelerators explorer web content

---

ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX Preview 4

The preview contains the following new features:

• ADO.NET Data Services support
• WCF and ASMX Web service integration
• ASP.NET AJAX Client Templates
• Declarative instantiation of client-side controls and behaviors
• Observable pattern for plain JavaScript objects
• Live Bindings
• Markup Extensions
• DataView control and DataContext component
• Command Bubbling
• Change tracking and identity management
• Support for managing complex links and associations between entities from multiple entity sets or tables
• Extension methods allowing change tracking and read-write client-server scenarios using other JSON services, including RESTful or JSONP based services

ASP.NET AJAX templates let you specify the UI for data controls by using HTML markup. You can create dynamic pages such as master-detail views that render data from a Web service or an ADO.NET data service, with little or no JavaScript code. The UI is rendered dynamically in the browser, and it can respond automatically to changes in the data without requiring any request or postback to the server. This preview provides full support for read-write scenarios, in which data changes in the client are uploaded to the server in a single batch update.

Download: ASP.NET AJAX 4.0 Preview 4

Note: To use the new features in a Web page, you must first enable the updated version of Microsoft Ajax on the page.
See the Asp.Net Ajax Preview 4 Readme for details.
New with this release:

• Full Client Reference documentation
• A set of Code Samples using ASP.NET AJAX templates

The Code Samples will be updated from time to time, with additional samples.
The last update to the samples was on March 23rd 2009. Posted in: Website-asp.net| Tags: WCF asp.net ajax Preview ado.net

---