WebKit Comparison on CSS3

Bitstream has launched a new mobile browser called Bolt, which is a J2ME browser and use WebKit as a rendering engine.

Instead of writing a review on this new WebKit browser, I decided to just do some quick CSS3 test on variety of WebKit browsers!
If you rather read the review, I recommend WAP Review. There’s a very detailed great article on Bolt there.

WebKit browsers I used

1. WebKit Nightly for Mac OS X (as a Control)
   Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_4; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0dp1 Safari/526.11.2
2. iPhone Safari
   Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20
3. Chrome by Google
   Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/1.0.154.43 Safari/525.19
4. HTC Dream Android
   Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.0; en-us; dream) AppleWebKit/525.10+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0.4 Mobile Safari/523.12.2
5. Nokia N95 8GB
   Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.2 U; Series60/3.1 NokiaN95_8GB/10.0.021; Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 ) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413
6. Bolt 0.74 on Nokia N95 8GB
   Mozilla/5.0 (X11; 78; CentOS; US-en) AppleWebKit/527+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Bolt/0.741 Version/3.0 Safari/523.15

CSS3 Styling I tested

.opracity {opacity: .5;}
.textShadow {text-shadow: #777 2px 2px 2px;}
.textShadows2 {text-shadow: rgba(0,0,255, .7) 3px 3px 2px, rgba(255,0,0, .7) -3px -3px 2px;
.ellipsis{text-overflow: ellipsis; width: 200px; overflow: hidden;}
.borderRadius {background-color: #666; color: #fff; width: 200px; padding: 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 10px;}
.boxShodow{-webkit-box-shadow: #000 3px 2px 6px; width: 200px; padding:5px;}
.strokeAndFill{-webkit-text-stroke: 1px green; -webkit-text-fill-color: #ccc; font-size: 2em; }
.borderImg{-webkit-border-image: url(button.gif) 0 13 0 13 stretch stretch; border-width: 0px 13px; padding: 5px 0 7px;}

Results

Summary

* Basic feature is spported, but not multiple shodows.
** Not degraded gracefully. Contents become unreadable so should be avoided.

Additional Notes

Besides the CSS3 test, it is noticeable that Bolt does not honer css font size, weight and header with H tag. This is happening to another J2ME browser, Opera Mini 4 (not tested here since Opera Mini is not WebKit-based). Additionally, like Opera Mini, Bolt uses proxy for rendering and compression. Data is passed through proxy before sending to device.

Palm Got its Mojo

Happy new year, and happy new government, America!
I am still recovering from flu I got while visiting freezing New York City, and finally feel like blogging again.

The first topic I write in this year, besides Whitehouse 2.0 and Steve Jobs’ health is a whole new Palm.

I know it is not a new news anymore, but I was shocked when they announced Palm Pre at CES (although I have not been there since nobody sends some lowly engineers to Vegas). Honestly, after Blackberry then iPhone, I though there’s no way Palm can win the market again, so it is shocking to see their stock price rising after the announcement.

As a web developer, great news for me is that Palm will switch their web browser engine to Webkit. Since 200 when Palm acquired Handspring, their standard web browser was Blazer, running on Palm OS.
Now Palm OS has become legacy and, will have a completely new OS, called “WebOS”. which is based on Linux.

Palm webOS applications are easy to write using Mojo – a new application framework based on the HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript
Yesh! HTML5! – means you can even use offline database!
Also, reportedly Adobe is working on a Flash plug-in for the webOS browser.

Interestingly, Ajaxian has reported that Dojo is used as a base for Mojo.
The Mojo Framework source code can be found on Palm’s site.

The official Palm Mojo SDK is not available yet, but stay tuned by following the developer’s blog.

Additionally, unlike iPhone, which uses Samsung’s S3C6400 processor, Pre even has wicked fast processor, TI OMAP 3440, which embeds Imagination Technologies’ POWERVR SGX graphics core, suitable for advanced multimedia.

Links:

• Palm Pre
• Palm Developer’s Network (oooh, all the legacy blazer stuff were gone!)
• Palm Developer’s Network Blog
• High-Performance: OMAP3440 by Texas Instruments
• Axaian on Mojo
• The Mojo Framework source code

Another WebKit browser – Chrome by Google

So Google has just released Chrome browser, which Mac user still have to wait for its Mac release. I tried to install on VMWare to see how it is like.

It is a WebKit-based with a brand-new V8 JavaScript engine, which supposed to be much faster than existing JavaScript interpreters. Also, Chrome currently supports almost as much CSS3 that Safari 3 supports.

Actually I haven’t really tested yet (cuz my main machine is a Mac of course, and my Vaio is dead now), but as long as I quickly took a look at the test page I made, some are not working quite right – e.g. text-shadow and box-shadow (Correction: box shadow works with webkit extension, as -webkit-box-shadow). Animation and Transform CSS work as expected. (Just like Safari 3.2)

So how about mobile? Current Android browser already uses WebKit engine, so Chrome Mobile will be the future browser for Android?

Yes. According to Sergey Brin, Chrome is going to be available for the platform later.

(This is not a real Android UI. I just photoshopped.)

More Update on CSS Animation

OK, so now I am trying to clarify how to make the css animation works using class name swap.

The conclusion is that it does work! – but you need to apply the -webkit-transition to “destination” class not the “origin” as I first attempted. Thanks for Dave and Dean from Apple, who pointed it out.

Go to The Actual Example Page

HTML Markup used for these examles (from Apple’s doc):

			
<div class="box"
	style="width:100px;
	height:100px;
	background-color:blue;"
	onclick="this.className = 'boxFade'">
Tap to fade
</div>
			
		

What *Not* To Do

This worked on some older WebKit nightly builds, but not on the latest build.

The reason is the -webkit-transition properties into the newClassName definition.

			
/* *** This is a bad example *** */

div.box { /* this applies only to the 'before' transition state */
-webkit-transition-property: opacity;
-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
}
div.boxFade {
opacity:0;
}
			
		

Click the box. On clicking event, the box’s opacity turns 0 immediately because the transition properties are not set for the “after” state.

What To Do – 1

This is the actual example snippet from Apple’s documentation, Safari CSS Animation Guide for iPhone OS page 13-14.
The reason this example works is that the -webkit-transition properties are defined in a generic <div> tag, not in a specified class that applied only for “before” state.

			
div { /* this applies for both 'before' and 'after' states */
	-webkit-transition-property: opacity;
	-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
}
div.fadeAway {
	opacity:0;
}
			
		

What To Do – 2

Move all the -webkit-transition properties into the newClassName definition.

			
div.fadeAway { /* give the transition rules to "after" state */
	opacity:0;
	-webkit-transition-property: opacity;
	-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
}
			
		

Now really a JavaScript-free. Yay.

Update: WebKit CSS Animation

Regarding to the bug on CSS animation I mentioned on last blog entry, I got a reply from an Apple developer (Quick!)

The issue:
CSS animation doesn’t work with onclick=”this.className=’newClassName’” anymore on the latest WebKit nightly build

I filed the bug on WebKit Bugzilla, and got the answer already. See the ticket.

Basically, this bug was closed (invalid) because they have decided to change the animation implementaion, from “source transition” model to “destination
transition” model.
(Read the whole explanation)

Stay tuned for the new documentation from WebKit or Apple!

UPDATE / CORRECTION (July 23, 08) – please see “More Update on CSS Animation”

WebKit CSS Animation Examples

According to WebKit.org, the WebKit supports the simplest kind of animation called a transition.

Transitions are specified using the following properties:

• transition-property – What property should animate, e.g., opacity.
• transition-duration – How long the transition should last.
• transition-timing-function – The timing function for the transition (e.g., linear vs. ease-in vs. a custom cubic bezier function).
• transition – A shorthand for all three properties.

Last week, I’ve noticed that Apple had published some new documentations at Developer Connection, including
Safari CSS Animation Guide for iPhone OS and Safari CSS Transforms Guide for iPhone OS (Go to download page).
Since I read the WebKit.org blog entry last year, I was interested in the CSS animation so I finally decided to give it try.

I spent some time writing several CSS tests, ran on several different WebKit browsers. and my conclusion is that:

1. the animation and transforms are pretty buggy on current iPhone Safari.
2. the current WebKit nightly (as of July 19) has some bugs so animation doesn’t work when swapping class names

with oncick event handler attributes like, using this.className='newClassName'.

The className swap was working perfectly, until I installed the newer build, r35231.
I will file the bug to Webit.org soon.

On latest build, build r35075 – r35231 (the newest one I tested),
changing the values of style object properties, instead, as
onclick="this.style.opacity='0'"

I wanted to create the animation entirely absent of JavaScript, but now I need to use a function to handle multiple style properties…

UPDATE / CORRECTION (July 23, 08) – please see “More Update on CSS Animation”

I still haven’t gotten a chance to try iPhone 3G yet, and I tested only on my old iPhone with the latest upgrade.
Are there any differences in between two Safaris? I doubt it.

Anyway, Open the test page I wrote in a new window!

Animate Opacity

Opacity Transition Test

Expected result: When a user mouse-overs the box, an object appears smoothly (opacity=.5) in 2 sec.
On mouse-click, the image fades in completely (opacity=1).

	
.box1 img{
	opacity: 0;
	-webkit-transition: opacity 2s ease-out;   /* shorthand for all three properties */
}
.box1 img:hover {
	opacity: .8;
}
	

	
<div class="box1">
	<img src="images/apple.png"/>
</div>
	

Animate Position – Move to right

Position Transition Test

Expected result: the image moves to the right as fading out.

	
.box2{
	opacity: 1;
  	-webkit-transition-property: opacity, left;
	-webkit-transition-duration: 1s, 1.5s;
	transition-timing-function: ease-in;
}
	

	
<div class="box2" onclick="this.style.opacity='0'; this.style.position='relative'; this.style.left='500px'">
	<img src="images/apple.png"/>
</div>
	

Animate Letters – Letter-Spacing

Letter-Spacing Test

Expected result: When the text is clicked, each letter spaces out as fading away.

It is pretty cumbersome to handle multiple style properties with onclick, so I added a JavaScript function to take care:

	
function switchStyles(style,obj) {
	for(var prop in obj)
		style[prop] = obj[prop];
}
	

UPDATE / CORRECTION (July 23, 08) – You don’t need this hassle with JS. Please see “More Update on CSS Animation”

	
.box3{
	color: green;
	opacity: 1;
  	-webkit-transition-property: opacity, letter-spacing;
	-webkit-transition-duration: 1.5s, 2s;
	transition-timing-function: ease-out, linear;
}
	

	
<div class="box3"
     onclick="switchStyles(this.style,{
	    color : 'lime',
	    opacity : '0',
	    letterSpacing : '3em'
});">
	some text to be clicked here.
</div>
	

Transform – Click to spin the image and fade away

Position Transition Test

Expected result: the image rotates twice (360 deg x 2) around the Z axis, as fading.

	
.box4{
  	-webkit-transition-property: -webkit-transform, opacity;
	-webkit-transition-duration: 2s;
	transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.42, 0, 0.58, 1.0); /* equivalent to ease-in-out */
}
	

	
<div class="box4"
	 onclick="switchStyles(this.style,{
	    webkitTransform: 'rotate(720deg) translate(1000px,0px)',
		opacity: '0'
});">
	<img src="images/apple.png"/>
</div>
	

Also, I tried CSS gradients. These still don’t seem to work on iPhone but worked on all recent WebKit nightly.

CSS Gradients – Linear and Radial

Gradients Test

Expected results:
Linear – Green to white top-to-bottom linear gradient
Radial – White to pink center-to-outer radial gradient
Actual results:
Nicely working on WbKit nightly builds. Failed miserably on both Mac desktop and iPhone Safari 3.1.

Screenshot of the results on WebKit nightly


The syntax is as follows:
-webkit-gradient(<type>, <point> [, <radius>]?, <point> [, <radius>]? [, <stop>]*)

	
#gradientLinear{
	float: left;
	width: 180px;
	height: 180px;
	border: 1px solid #11276c;
	background:
		-webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(rgba(158,192,0,.85)), color-stop(1, #fff));
}

#gradientRadial{
	float: left;
	margin-left: .5em;
	width: 180px;
	height: 180px;
	border: 1px solid #11276c;
	background:
		-webkit-gradient(radial, center center, 3, 80 80, 100, from(rgb(255,255,255)), to(rgba(228,56,132,.85)), color-stop(0%,#fff));
}
	

Resources:

1. Surfin’ Safari – CSS Animation
2. Surfin’ Safari – Introducing CSS Gradients
3. Safari CSS Animation Guide for iPhone OS
4. Safari CSS Transform Guide for iPhone OS

Android Uses WebKit

My guess was wrong.

I somehow thought Google will partner with Firefox as a defaul browser for their new mobile project (now “Android”), however, Google’s choice was WebKit, accordeing to their SDK. Actually now I think this is a wise choice, since many (mobile) web devs are familiar with developing with WebKit thanks to Apple to make iPhone popular. And needless to say, WebKit for mobile including Nokia N-series is the one of the beat browser around.Anyway, as the storonger-than-ever WebKit is gaining even more power, “Sarfin’ Safari” (Webkit.org’s blog) has announced new features for Safari 3:

1. Enhanced Rich Text Editing
2. Faster JavaScript and DOM
3. Faster Page Loading
4. SVG
5. XPath
6. New and Improved XML Technologies
7. Styleable Form Controls
8. Advanced CSS Styling
9. Reduced Memory Use
10. Web Developer Tools