Adobe's no-choice embrace of HTML5

InfoWorld - Sometimes if you can't beat 'em, it's better to join 'em. Take what Adobe is doing in the HTML5 space, even though momentum behind standards-based HTML5 presents a serious challenge to Adobe's own Flash rich Internet plug-in technology.

Adobe's Flash has been used to present videos and multimedia on the Web. But the technology is proprietary and leverages Adobe's own ActionScript programming language. With HTML5, developers can use just use the open JavaScript language, cascading style sheets (CSS), and of course HTML to build applications. The HTML5 "family" features a set of specifications that also includes CSS3, Canvas 2D tags, and WebSockets, for interbrowser communications.

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Showing it can play in the HTML5 arena, Adobe has not only dropped development of the mobile version of the Flash Player in favor of HTML5 and Adobe's AIR, but also is working on additions to CSS and pitching tools for HTML5.

The company is developing Adobe Edge, a tool for creating animated content using Web standards, says Paul Trani, an Adobe developer evangelist. Edge uses HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Adobe also backs HTML5 capabilities in its Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Illustrator tools. Additionally, Adobe's PhoneGap and PhoneGap Build enable building of cross-platform mobile applications with HTML5 and JavaScript.

With its embrace of HTML5, Adobe is recognizing marketplace realities. "We realize the momentum behind the Web standards," Trani says. Adobe is even hiring people to work on Web standards projects and is considering offering tools to convert ActionScript to JavaScript. Adobe's Wallaby project, meanwhile, is about converting artwork contained in Flash Professional files to HTML.

One developer praises Adobe's embrace of HTML5. "With SEO [search engine optimization], Flash has always caused problems for websites," says Shar Marachi, a developer at website designer and developer Digital Mark Studios, which does custom website development. "If there's certain content in that Flash element, the search engines don't pick it up."

Another developer who has worked with Flash understands Adobe's response to HTML5. "While a lot of their stuff has to do with Flash, that's not where they make their money. They make their money selling tools," says Alan Gruskoff, a developer at Digital Showcase, which does mobile and rich Internet application design. "They give away Flash."

Adobe pushes CSS improvements for HTML5Adobe has proposed its CSS regions and CSS shaders as standards for adoption by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees HTML5 and CSS. "CSS regions lets you reflow content, and shaders basically take any sort of Web standards content and make it appear as bitmapped data, so you can manipulate it," Trani says. With CSS regions and CSS shaders, Adobe is leveraging its Flash experience to bolster CSS.