Inside Technique : DHTMLLib 2.0 : Enter DHTMLLib

Most cross-browser libraries require you to learn a custom set of functions to script your page. We have chosen instead to build our compatibility layer to be a subset of Internet Explorer. We chose Internet Explorer over Netscape because it is more powerful and can encompass almost all of Netscape's functionality. In addition, this approach basically makes the library a no-op in Internet Explorer. In Internet Explorer, the library actually does nothing and with an optimization script, Internet Explorer user's don't even have to download the library.

In addition, the Internet Explorer object model is fairly intuitive. Rather than require you to understand and navigate the hierarchy of positioned elements, DHTMLLib exposes all named elements in the document through an Internet Explorer compatible all collection. We adopted the Internet Explorer event bubbling mechanism and implemented it on all elements that support events in Netscape. This automates the event process and does not require manually capturing and routing events. We believe this greatly simplifies your event handling.

The best way to understand the DHTMLLib is to walk through our demonstrations and read the reference page. When reading the reference, we are explaining the model exposed by DHTMLLib and supported cross-browser, not the complete model as exposed by Internet Explorer. Therefore, if you are familiar with Internet Explorer, some of our explanations may be more limited than the actual model exposed by Internet Explorer.

So What Does DHTMLLib Cost?

DHTMLLib is free for use on your web-site with the following restrictions:

• The copyright notice contained within the library must be maintained in its entirety.
• Any page that uses the library must have a visible link back to SiteExperts.com's home page (http://www.siteExperts.com).
• We ask that you notify us at dhtmllib@siteExperts.com with the URL where DHTMLLib is used (for Intranets just let us know you are using it).

DHTMLLib cannot be distributed in any other fashion or used in a commercial product. If you are interested in any special uses of DHTMLLib, please contact Scott Isaacs.

Where to Now?

At this point you have two paths you can take. You can either jump right in and look at the DHTMLLib reference page or start exploring the different demonstrations. With each demonstration we show you the code and explain any techniques used. None of the code samples are doing any browser detection.

DHTMLLib Roadmap | DHTMLLib Demonstrations

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