New on the web platform in July: Firefox 153 and Chrome 151
Rachel Andrew summarizes July's stable releases, and one item outweighs the rest: Firefox 153 widened how the select element is parsed, so any nested element is allowed inside it. That opens the path to genuinely customizable dropdowns without a JavaScript replacement, which is the most troublesome category of hand-built component on client sites. The same release brings the Picture-in-Picture API to desktop, the Intl.Locale Info API with getCalendars(), getTimeZones(), and getWeekInfo(), and IndexedDB getAllRecords(). Chrome 151 adds the CSS ruby-overhang property, manual slot assignment in declarative Shadow DOM through the shadowrootslotassignment attribute, and the animation property on the AnimationEvent and TransitionEvent interfaces.
Rachel Andrew summarizes July's stable browser releases. One item matters considerably more than the rest.
Firefox 153
- The way the select element is parsed was widened so that any nested element is allowed inside it, opening the path to genuinely customizable dropdowns without JavaScript replacements.
- The Picture-in-Picture API arrived on desktop.
- The
Intl.LocaleInfo API bringsgetCalendars(),getTimeZones(), andgetWeekInfo(). IndexedDBgainsgetAllRecords().
Chrome 151
- The CSS
ruby-overhangproperty was added. - Manual slot assignment in declarative Shadow DOM arrived, through the
shadowrootslotassignmentattribute. - The animation property is available on the AnimationEvent and TransitionEvent interfaces.
Why the customizable select matters most
The hand-built dropdown has been the leading source of accessibility problems on client sites for decades. Every library solved it slightly differently, and all of them were worse than the native control on mobile. A native select you can style removes that entire category of problem.
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