206 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
206 lines
9.3 KiB
Markdown
[HTML5 Boilerplate homepage](https://html5boilerplate.com/) | [Documentation
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table of contents](TOC.md)
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# The HTML
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By default, HTML5 Boilerplate provides two `html` pages:
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* [`index.html`](#indexhtml) - a default HTML skeleton that should form the
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basis of all pages on your website
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* `404.html` - a placeholder 404 error page
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## `index.html`
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### The `no-js` Class
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The `no-js` class is provided in order to allow you to more easily and
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explicitly add custom styles based on whether JavaScript is disabled
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(`.no-js`) or enabled (`.js`). Using this technique also helps [avoid the
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FOUC](https://www.paulirish.com/2009/avoiding-the-fouc-v3/).
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## Language Attribute
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Please consider specifying the language of your content by adding a [value](https://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry/language-subtag-registry) to the `lang`
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attribute in the `<html>` as in this example:
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```html
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<html class="no-js" lang="en">
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```
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### The order of the `<title>` and `<meta>` tags
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The charset declaration (`<meta charset="utf-8">`) must be included completely
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within the [first 1024 bytes of the document](https://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/semantics.html#charset)
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and should be specified as early as possible (before any content that could
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be controlled by an attacker, such as a `<title>` element) in order to avoid a
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potential [encoding-related security issue](https://code.google.com/archive/p/doctype-mirror/wikis/ArticleUtf7.wiki)
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in Internet Explorer
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## Meta Description
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The `description` meta tag provides a short description of the page.
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In some situations this description is used as a part of the snippet
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shown in the search results.
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```html
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<meta name="description" content="This is a description">
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```
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Google's [Create good meta descriptions](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624?hl=en#meta-descriptions)
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documentation has useful tips on creating an effective description.
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## Mobile Viewport
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There are a few different options that you can use with the [`viewport` meta
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tag](https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dkx3qtm_22dxsrgcf4 "Viewport and
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Media Queries - The Complete Idiot's Guide"). You can find out more in [the
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MDN Web Docs](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Mobile/Viewport_meta_tag).
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HTML5 Boilerplate comes with a simple setup that strikes a good balance for general use cases.
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```html
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
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```
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If you want to take advantage of edge-to-edge displays of iPhone X/XS/XR you can do
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so with additional viewport parameters. [Check the WebKit blog](https://webkit.org/blog/7929/designing-websites-for-iphone-x/)
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for details.
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## Web App Manifest
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HTML5 Boilerplate includes a simple web app manifest file.
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The web app manifest is a simple JSON file that allows you to control how your
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app appears on a device's home screen, what it looks like when it launches
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in that context and what happens when it is launched. This allows for much greater
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control over the UI of a saved site or web app on a mobile device.
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It's linked to from the HTML as follows:
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```html
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<link rel="manifest" href="site.webmanifest">
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```
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Our [site.webmanifest](https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate/blob/master/src/site.webmanifest) contains a very skeletal "app" definition, just to show the basic usage.
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You should fill this file out with [more information about your site or application](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Manifest)
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## Favicons and Touch Icon
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The shortcut icons should be put in the root directory of your site. `favicon.ico`
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is automatically picked up by browsers if it's placed in the root. HTML5
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Boilerplate comes with a default set of icons (include favicon and one Apple
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Touch Icon) that you can use as a baseline to create your own.
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Please refer to the more detailed description in the [Extend section](extend.md)
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of these docs.
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## The Content Area
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The central part of the boilerplate template is pretty much empty. This is
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intentional, in order to make the boilerplate suitable for both web page and
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web app development.
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### Browser Upgrade Prompt
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The main content area of the boilerplate includes a prompt to install an up to
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date browser for users of IE 9 and lower. If you intended to support IE, then you
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should edit or remove the snippet of code.
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## Modernizr
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HTML5 Boilerplate uses a custom build of Modernizr.
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[Modernizr](https://modernizr.com/) is a JavaScript library which adds classes to
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the `html` element based on the results of feature test and which ensures that
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all browsers can make use of HTML5 elements (as it includes the HTML5 Shiv).
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This allows you to target parts of your CSS and JavaScript based on the
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features supported by a browser.
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Starting with version 3 Modernizr can be customized using the [modernizr-config.json](https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate/blob/master/modernizr-config.json) and the
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[Modernizr command line utility](https://www.npmjs.com/package/modernizr-cli).
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## What About Polyfills?
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If you need to include [polyfills](https://remysharp.com/2010/10/08/what-is-a-polyfill)
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in your project, you must make sure those load before any other JavaScript. If you're
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using a polyfill CDN service, like [cdn.polyfill.io](https://cdn.polyfill.io/),
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just put it before the other scripts in the bottom of the page:
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```html
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<script src="js/vendor/modernizr-3.8.0.min.js"></script>
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<script src="https://cdn.polyfill.io/v3/polyfill.min.js"></script>
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<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.4.1.min.js" integrity="sha256-CSXorXvZcTkaix6Yvo6HppcZGetbYMGWSFlBw8HfCJo=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
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<script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="js/vendor/jquery-3.4.1.min.js"><\/script>')</script>
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<script src="js/plugins.js"></script>
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<script src="js/main.js"></script>
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</body>
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```
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If you like to just include the polyfills yourself, you could include them in
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`js/plugins.js`. When you have a bunch of polyfills to load in, you could
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also create a `polyfills.js` file in the `js/vendor` directory or include the files
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individually and combine them using a build tool. Always ensure that the polyfills
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are all loaded before any other JavaScript.
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There are some misconceptions about Modernizr and polyfills. It's important
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to understand that Modernizr just handles feature checking, not polyfilling
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itself. The only thing Modernizr does regarding polyfills is that the team
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maintains [a huge list of cross Browser polyfills](https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/wiki/HTML5-Cross-Browser-Polyfills).
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### jQuery CDN for jQuery
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The jQuery CDN version of the jQuery JavaScript library is referenced towards
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the bottom of the page. A local fallback of jQuery is included for rare instances
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when the CDN version might not be available, and to facilitate offline
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development.
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The jQuery CDN version was chosen over other potential candidates
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([like Google's Hosted Libraries](https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries/))
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because it's fast ([comparable or faster than Google by some
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measures](https://www.cdnperf.com/#jsdelivr,cdnjs,google,yandex,microsoft,jquery,bootstrapcdn/https/90))
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and, (unlike Google's CDN) is available to China's hundreds of millions of internet users.
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For many years we [chose](https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate/issues/1191)
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the Google Hosted version over the jQuery CDN because it was available
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over HTTPS (the jQuery CDN was not,) and it offered a better chance of
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hitting the cache lottery owing to the popularity of the Google CDN.
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The first issue is no longer valid and the second is far outweighed by
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being able to serve jQuery to users in China.
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While the jQuery CDN is a strong default solution your site or application may
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require a different configuration. Testing your site with services like
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[WebPageTest](https://www.webpagetest.org/) and browser tools like
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[PageSpeed Insights](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/) will help you examine the real
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world performance of your site and can show where you can optimize your specific
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site or application.
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### Google Universal Analytics Tracking Code
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Finally, an optimized version of the Google Universal Analytics tracking code is
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included.
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We use `analytics.js` rather than the newer `gtag.js` as
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[it's faster and supports tasks and plugins](https://github.com/philipwalton/analyticsjs-boilerplate/issues/19#issuecomment-333714370)
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The beacon transport mechanism is used to send all hits [which saves HTTP requests and improves performance](https://philipwalton.com/articles/the-google-analytics-setup-i-use-on-every-site-i-build/#loading-analytics.js).
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Google recommends that this script be placed at the top of the page.
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Factors to consider: if you place this script at the top of the page, you’ll
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be able to count users who don’t fully load the page, and you’ll incur the max
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number of simultaneous connections of the browser.
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Further information:
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- [Introduction to
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Analytics.js](https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/)
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- [Google Analytics Demos & Tools](https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/)
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**N.B.** The Google Analytics snippet is included by default mainly
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because Google Analytics is [currently one of the most popular tracking
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solutions](https://trends.builtwith.com/analytics/Google-Analytics) out there.
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However, its usage isn't set in stone, and you SHOULD consider exploring the
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[alternatives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_analytics_software)
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and use whatever suits your needs best.
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