Section: Software

Timesheets Library

Participants : Fabien Cazenave, Cécile Roisin.

The goal of the Timesheets library is to synchronize HTML5 content using declarative synchronization languages defined by W3C standards (namely, SMIL Timing and Synchronization and SMIL Timesheets ).

With the raise of HTML5 which natively supports continuous content (audio, video) there is a dramatic need for handling synchronization, animation and user interaction in an efficient and homogeneous way. As web browsers do not support SMIL, except for SVG Animation (which rely on the SMIL BasicAnimation module), multimedia web authoring remains difficult and relies on code-based, non-standard solutions.

Therefore we are developing a generic, cross-browser JavaScript implementation for scheduling the dynamic behavior of HTML5 content that can be described with declarative SMIL markup. Using a declarative language makes sense for the most common tasks, that currently require JavaScript programming:

• it is much easier for web authors and for web authoring tool developers;

• it is a much better way to achieve good accessibility and indexability;

• it is easier to maintain, since no specific JavaScript code is used.