The first working draft of HTML 5 is here!

The first working draft of HTML 5 is here! In this article, we take a look at the release and what it means for the future of the web, and provide links to some of the best in-depth resources available.

SVG at the movies, take 2 - exploring SVG video

The triumvirate is now complete - we released a Windows version of our great new experimental Opera Kestrel HTML5 video/3D Canvas/SVG video build a couple of weeks ago along with an article about HTML5 video. Then Tim Johannson wrote an article about using the 3D canvas, which you'll find below. Now for the hatrick, Erik Dahlström has written an article explaining how to use SVG Video.

Opera <video> element implementation in action - Håkon Wium Lie presentation

Further to our recent experimental video release of Opera, here's a video of Håkon Wium Lie presenting on "the web way" at the Web 2.0 Expo in Japan, November 16th 2007. You need the experimental video release to watch this, if you haven't got it, you'll be redirected to the slides from the same presentation. Enjoy.

Taking the Canvas to another dimension: Opera unleashes the 3d <canvas> element

In our last Opera Labs post, we unveiled an experimental Windows build that features support for HTML5 <video>, SVG video, and last but not least, a 3d context for <canvas>. In this article, 3d canvas implementor Tim Johansson explains how it works and how you can start to play around with it.

A call for video on the web — Opera <video> release on Labs

To really make a splash on the Web, video needs an open solution that can easily be integrated into web pages without the need for proprietary plugins. The HTML 5 <video> element and Ogg Theora can provide this, and Opera is proud to announce an experimental build that supports it. So read this article, and download and play with it today.

Can Kestrels do Math? MathML support in Opera Kestrel

Traditionally, Mathematical formulas have been hard to represent using good old fashioned CSS and HTML, but a solution does exist. First, MathML, a specialised Markup language tailored specially for dealing with Math on web pages, has been around for a while. Second, the W3C has recently created a working draft called the MathML for CSS profile which deals with displaying MathML using CSS. In this article, we will show you how you can test drive this technology early using Opera Kestrel.

Update on CSS support in Kestrel

While Kestrel is getting ready to spread its wings, we are currently busy adding new features to Core-2 and deep into the QA process. I've already mentioned the CSS3 selectors are done and dusted, but what else is new since the last report? Not forgetting about CSS2.1, we're adding support for white-space: pre-line;. This edges us ever closer to full CSS2.1 support...

To download the Kestrel alpha, and find more out about it, go to www.opera.com.

It ain't EV 'til it's EV, all EV

In the past couple of weeks I have been sewing up most of the loose threads in Opera's support for Extended Validation (EV) certificates, and have actually started testing something that resembles the final system.

A first look at EV in Opera

Here is a first look at Opera 9.5 ("Kestrel") with full support for Extended Validation (EV) certificates enabled.

Extended Validation v1.0 approved

As I posted earlier on Opera Labs, work has been under way to create an improved process, Extended Validation (EV), for issuing web site certificates that can give a higher degree of assurance to the user that the SSL/TLS website in question really is who it claims it is, and how to tell the browsers that this process has been used.

10 years of SSL in Opera

April 30th, 1997 (give or take a few days; remembering exact days can be hard) was the first time Opera's SSL implementation completed a full transaction.

The four months prior to this largely unnoticed (but for Opera significant) event, had been very busy. I had to study and learn about SSL and general cryptography, then do intense design and development work, followed by a lot of testing and debugging.

The SSL support in Opera was my first assignment when I started working at Opera. You might say that I was thrown in at the deep end. The benefit, of course, was that my hands weren't tied by a pre-exisiting design.

A call for video on the web

It's time to make video a first-class citizen of the web. We, the users, have video cameras in our pockets and the bandwidth to tranfer more clips and streams than we can watch. What's missing is a an easy way to integrate video into web pages, and native support for video in browsers. We, the web community, should address this by adding a video element to HTML:

<video src="demo.ogg">

In addition to giving video an HTML element, we must also agree on a baseline video format that will be universally supported, just like the GIF, JPEG and PNG image format are universally supported. It's important that the video format we choose can be supported by a wide range of devices an that it's royalty-free (RF). RF is a well-establish principle for W3C standards.

The Ogg Theora format is a promising candidate which has been chosen by Wikipedia.

At Opera, we have built an experimental version that has native support for Ogg Theora. For now, it is only available on Windows. NOTE! Do not choose to start Opera in the installation process. After installing, exit the installation process and start the the experimental build manually.

Here are some pages using the video element:

• opacity
• simple
• three
• hiof
• hiof

Making the future based on HTML

The W3C recently renewed its HTML activity. Opera joined the new HTML Working Group to help shape the future of the web and so can you. The HTML Working Group allows virtually everyone to participate. A set of simple steps on how to join is outlined on the WHATWG blog: W3C restarts HTML effort. If you have any questions or want to discuss HTML with members of the Working Group you can join the public IRC channel #html-wg on irc.w3.org (port 80 or 6665). As a starting point for the new Working Group Opera, together with Mozilla and Apple, submitted the WHATWG HTML5 proposal as initial input to base future work on. We hope that it proves to be a good starting point for the future of HTML.

Opera 9.20 beta

Here's your first look at Speed Dial, a brand new way to get to your favorite sites. Speed Dial opens in any blank tab to give you immediate access to your favorite sites. Once you've tried Speed Dial in the Beta of Opera 9.2, visit the Desktop Team blog to let us know what's on your Speed Dial.

[Download]

Opera OLPC Edition

Posted on January 23, 2007
by Claudio Santambrogio

This is a special edition of the Opera desktop version - the Opera OLPC Edition.

We have been testing Opera on the OLPC laptop since we received the "lean-mean-green-machine", as some here at the office like to call it. I have been keeping both the Opera page on the OLPC Wiki as well as my own blog up-to-date about work on it. We feel the time to be ready to show you the progress we have made.

Upcoming CSS3 support in Opera

Posted on January 23, 2007
by David Storey

CSS3 development work is going full steam ahead here at Opera. In this article we reveal some of the new CSS features upcoming versions will support.

Mobile AJAX project

Posted on November 29, 2006
by Jan Standal

Would you like to get personalized and always updated newsfeed directly on the idle-screen of your mobile phone? How about location based traffic information or a map service similar to Google Maps? This is what Opera, Telenor and FAST set out to test in a R&D study named Aida earlier this year. The solution was tested on a large number of end users over many months and was very well received among the testers. Follow the link below and check out the video from the solution running live on a Windows Mobile phone.

Introducing Extended Validation Certificates

Posted on November 9, 2006
by Yngve Pettersen

Last year it became clear that the procedures for verifying data used to issue SSL certificates (and other types of certificates) were not as uniform as might be desired. This led to a situation where information in certificates might be misleading.

Limited Opera Mini™ 3.0 Beta

Posted on November 1, 2006
by Thomas Ford

This is your chance to make Opera Mini even better and try out brand new features. During a limited time, on a first-come-first-served basis, we offer you the chance of trying out a preview of Opera Mini 3.0.

Highlights of Opera Mini 3.0 Beta

• Secure browsing (advanced version)
• Feed (RSS) preview and aggregation
• Photo upload
• Content folding: automatic folding of long lists of links

Download

To download Opera Mini 3.0 Beta, enter beta.mini.opera.com in the WAP browser on your phone. Read more at Opera Mini beta page.

Event Streaming to Web Browsers

Posted on September 1, 2006
by Arve Bersvendsen

One cool feature we added to Opera 9 is Server-Sent Events from the WHATWG Web Applications 1.0 specification. Using SSE you can push DOM events continously from your web server to the visitor's browser. This creates a lot of exciting opportunities for web application authors.

Traditionally, when building an Ajax application, the browser continually polls the server, sending requests to the server, asking to get data back, making new HTTP requests for every single poll, putting more strain on the server than needed.

What's a browser Security Issue, anyway?

Posted on August 2, 2006
by Yngve Pettersen

A large number of people are looking for security problems and vulnerabilities in Opera and other applications. Some people don't like this, but I think it is actually fine. When done responsibly this can increase security for the application and is thus of great benefit to the users. However, when done irresponsibly, the activity can cause needless alarm and waste the time of the application vendors AND the end users.

One example of irresponsibility is concerned with how they report and classify the issues they find, and how the issues are communicated to the application vendor.

The ACID2 smile on mobile phones

Posted on May 29, 2006
by Thomas Ford

We're working full speed on porting Opera 9 to mobile phones and our internal build just passed the very advanced ACID2 test. Congratulations to our Symbian team for their hard work!
See the screenshot.

Opera 9 Beta 2

Posted on May 23, 2006
by Thomas Ford

We released the second – and final – beta of Opera 9 today. This will be the last major milestone release before the final launch of Opera 9. The most notable change is to the widget UI. You'll notice that we've included widgets separately in the menu bar. If you click to manage widgets, your widgets open in a separate tab, similar to our transfer manager. From this tab, you can add new widgets, open downloaded widgets and remove widgets you don't want.

Download the beta and then jump over to the forums to make your thoughts heard. Remember though, Opera 9 Beta 2 is not a final version and may contain bugs. Use it only on properly backed-up computers. View the list of changes

Adding a new dimension to the web

Posted on May 19, 2006
by Thomas Ford

Opera and Mozilla are actively working on providing a hardware-accelerated 3d drawing context for the canvas element, enabling authors to author high-performance 3d applications running inside the browser. Check out the screen-shots on our Web Applications Team Blog.

What's new in the SSL/TLS engine of Opera 9?

Posted on May 16, 2006
by Yngve Pettersen

In Opera 9 Beta there are a lot of changes, as one expects from a major product release. Some of the changes (e.g. UI updates) are more apparent than other changes. Some of the major, but less obvious, changes have been done in Opera's SSL/TLS engine.

Debugging SVG

Posted on May 10, 2006
by Charles McCathieNevile

Opera 9 has a lot of new features to help developing content.
Let's look at an example of debugging SVG.

Beautiful, Scalable Web Documents

Posted on May 8, 2006
by Håkon Wium Lie

Opera 9 is built on a new version of Opera's rendering engine, featuring the some of the latest open Web standards. One of the most interesting new formats is SVG, or Scalable Vector Graphics. In Opera 9, you can not only create animated vector graphics but also let those interact with your AJAX applications. To learn more about the SVG implementation in Opera 9, visit our specification page.

Opera 9 Beta

Posted on April 20, 2006
by Thomas Ford

After a lucky 13 weekly builds on the Desktop Team blog, we are extremely proud to present the first Beta release of Opera 9. If you recall the second TP, we introduced the world to widgets in the browser, reintroduced ourselves to BitTorrent and said hello to a sophisticated content blocker. The Beta improves on all of those features with more widgets, better handling of Rich Text and several notable bug fixes. Of course BitTorrent, content blocker, site specific preferences, custom search engines all remain.

Download the beta and put it to the test. And let us know what you think and how we can improve. Of course, the usual caveats with Betas apply: Opera 9 Beta is not a final version and may contain bugs. Use it only on properly backed-up computers.
Read more about features or view the list of changes.

Developers Gone Wild:
Opera Web Applications Team Starts Blog

Posted on March 30, 2006
by Thomas Ford

Opera has been hard at work creating a browser that acts as a platform for Web applications. Our first step in realizing this new world was taken with the launch of Opera Platform, the first mobile AJAX framework. Then we turned our attention to the desktop browser. In Opera 9 Technology Preview 2, we added support for Opera Widgets. Opera Widgets extend and expand the browser's functionality in dramatic ways.

The team behind many of these innovations tired of laboring away in obscurity and decided to start a blog. We invite you to see what new developments they're working on add your voice to the discussion. Visit Opera Web Applications Team Blog.

Introduction to Web Applications

Posted on February 28, 2006
by Håkon Wium Lie

The Web is transforming from static content to dynamic applications. In this video we show how Web Applications can live outside the browser as Widgets running across your desktop, mobile phones and other devices. At the same time this video is an invitation to you, the developers, to join us in shaping the Web's future.

Opera 9 Technology Preview 2

Posted on February 7, 2006
by Håkon Wium Lie

The latest technology preview of Opera 9 is available today. We've added several big features – including BitTorrent support and Widgets. Give it a shot and let us know what you think.
An important note: Technical previews are just that – a preview. This isn't meant to replace your existing Opera browser, just give you an inside look into where we are going.
If you want to try our current browser version, head over to Opera.com.