Somebody is royally pissed off with ivory.

The Independent on Sunday reports that Britain’s Prince William remarked to famous primate researcher Jane Goodall that he would 

“like to see all the ivory owned by Buckingham Palace destroyed.”

If he follows through, Prince William’s initiative could be quite a smashing event. The Royal Family owns around 1,200 items.

Conservationists and activists are praising the Prince’s stance. Dr Paula Kahumbu, executive director of Kenyan-based charity Wildlife Direct stated: 

“Ninety nine per cent of ivory that is in people’s hands comes from elephants being gunned down. Handing it in shows: ‘I’m going to wash my hands of this despicable business.’ It shows the royals are not above taking a practical, personal action. It would probably result in similar support from other countries.”

Last Thursday London hosted the Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade where 46 countries agreed to toughen restrictions on poachers and illegal trading. A declaration was created that emphasizes cleaning up corruption and focusing on enforcement.

Prince William and his brother attended along with celebrities David Beckham and Jackie Chan (kick some poacher butt, Jackie!).

While the fight against elephant’s ivory poaching escalates, the international effort comes at a time when, according to the Guardian, other species are under attack.  The rhinoceros is seriously threatened as the price of its horn has raised to $60,000 a kilo. That’s more than gold or cocaine.

Rhino horn‘s high demand is, in part, because it is thought to have healing powers. It has been used, along with other animal parts, in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for centuries.

Still, Prince William’s stance is a welcome one. It will take more than destroying the family’s ivory to save the elephant or rhino,no doubt. But such an action provides a good example for how we should treat animals. Way to use your royal influence, Willy!

I bet all of you have seen that little trick where an SVG path is animated to look like it's drawing itself. It's super cool. Jake Archibald pioneered the technique and has a super good interactive blog post on how it works. Brian Suda wrote about it on 24 Ways. Polygon used it to great effect on a custom designed article and wrote about it. Codrops has some neat examples.

I have very little to add, except my brain just kinda figured it out, so I thought I would explain it one more time the way it clicked for me.

1. You have an SVG shape

2. The shape must have a stroke

3. Strokes can be dashed

We could do that from Illustrator, but we can also do it programatically. Let's target the path with CSS (assuming we're using inline SVG here, or via an <object>) and apply the dash that way.

<svg ...>
      <path class="path" stroke="#000000" ... >
    </svg>

.path {
      stroke-dasharray: 20;
    }

That gives us dashes of 20px in length.

4. Those dashes could be longer...

.path {
      stroke-dasharray: 100;
    }

5. We can also "offset" the stroke, which moves the position of those dashes

Watch as we animate the offset of those long strokes:

That was a simple as:

.path {
      stroke-dasharray: 100;
      animation: dash 5s linear;
    }
    
    @keyframes dash {
      to {
        stroke-dashoffset: 1000;
      }
    }

6. Imagine a dash so long it covers the entire shape

Nothing really to see, it looks just like the complete shape if it wasn't dashed at all. You just need to make stroke-dasharray a longer value than the length of the stroke.

7. Now offset that stroke so that instead of covering the entire shape, it NOT covers the entire shape.

It will look like the shape isn't there at all.

8. Now animate the stroke offset back to 0

If doing it with CSS, you'll want the animation to have animation-fill-mode of forwards so the final state remains how the animation ends.

.path {
      stroke-dasharray: 1000;
      stroke-dashoffset: 1000;
      animation: dash 5s linear forwards;
    }
    
    @keyframes dash {
      to {
        stroke-dashoffset: 0;
      }
    }

Tada!

Live Example

See the Pen bGyoz by Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier) on CodePen.

So why all the JavaScript?

Most of the examples you see of SVG line animations use JavaScript. That's because it's hard to know what the length of that stroke actually is. We just used 1000 in our example because that happens to be about the right length.

You can get that length in JavaScript like:

var path = document.querySelector('.path');
    var length = path.getTotalLength();

Then use it however you will. Those articles I linked to at the top go far more into all this, so I'll let you consult those for more fancy stuff. I just wanted to cover the concept so perhaps it can click for you too.

How SVG Line Animation Works is a post from CSS-Tricks

HTML5 has seen the introduction of a number of sectioning elements that can be used to mark up your web pages. Using these elements gives more semantic meaning to your pages, allowing computer programs to better understand your content.

In this post you’ll learn how to use these sectioning elements in your own web sites. I’ll be explaining when you should use certain elements over others, as well as when it’s best to stick to a good old <div>.

Lets get started.

The main Element

The <main> element should contain the main content for your web page. All of this content should be unique to the individual page, and should not appear elsewhere on the site. Any content that is repeated on multiple pages (logos, search boxes, footer links, etc.) should not be placed within the <main> element.

The example below uses a <main> element to represent the main content for the page

<body>
      <header>
        <div id="logo">Rocking Stone</div>
        <nav>...</nav>
      </header>
      <main role="main">
        <h1>Guitars</h1>
        <p>The greatest guitars ever built.</p>
    
        <article>
          <h2>Gibson SG</h2>
          <p>...</p>
        </article>
    
        <article>
          <h2>Fender Telecaster</h2>
          <p>...</p>
        </article>
      </main>
    </body>

Note: We’ve used the ARIA role=”main” attribute here is it indicates the significance of this element to programs that don’t yet support the <main> element (such as some screen readers).

You should only use one <main> element on a page, and it shouldn’t be placed within an <article>, <aside>, <header>, <footer>, or <nav> element.

The article Element

The <article> element should contain a piece of self-contained content that could be distributed outside the context of the page. This includes things like news articles, blog posts, or user comments.

<article>
      <header>
        <h1>Blog Post Title</h1>
        <p>Posted 13th February 2014</p>
      </header>
      <p>
        ...
      </p>
    </article>

You can nest <article> elements within one another. In this case it’s implied that the nested elements are related to the outer <article> element.

<article>
      <header>
        <h1>Blog Post Title</h1>
        <p>Posted 13th February 2014</p>
      </header>
      <p>...</p>
      <p>...</p>
      <p>...</p>
      <section>
        <h2>Comments</h2>
        <article>
          <footer>
            <p>Posted by: Joe Balochio</p>
          </footer>
          <p>This was a great article</p>
        </article>
        <article>
          <footer>
            <p>Posted by: Casey Brock</p>
          </footer>
          <p>How do you think this applies to the plan for world domination?</p>
        </article>
      </section>
    </article>

In this example we’ve used <article> elements to mark up the blog post, and each of the comments. This nesting pattern implies that the comments are related to the topic of the main blog post.

The section Element

The <section> element is used to represent a group of related content. This is similar to the purpose of an <article> element with the main difference being that the content within a <section> element doesn’t necessarily need to make sense out of the context of the page.

It’s advisable to use a heading element (<h1> – <h6>) to define the topic for the section.

Using this blog post as an example, you could have <section> elements that represent each of the individual parts within the post.

<article>
      <h1>How to use HTML5 Sectioning Elements</h1>
      <p>...</p>
    
      <section>
        <h2>The <main> Element</h2>
        <p>...</p>
      </section>
      <section>
        <h2>The <article> Element</h2>
        <p>...</p>
      </section>
      <section>
        <h2>The <section> Element</h2>
        <p>...</p>
      </section>
      ...
    </article>

Here we’ve used an <article> element to represent the post as a whole, and then multiple <section> elements to represent each of the sub-topics discussed in the post.

If you just need to group content together for styling purposes you should use a <div> element rather than a <section>.

The nav Element

The <nav> element is used to mark up a collection of links to external pages or sections within the current page. As well as being used for the main website navigation, the <nav> element is also a good fit for things like a table of contents, or a blogroll.

<nav>
      <ul>
        <li><a href="#chapter-one">Chapter One</a>
        <li><a href="#chapter-two">Chapter Two</a>
        <li><a href="#chapter-three">Chapter Three</a>
      </ul>
    </nav>

Marking up your links within a list will often make your navigation easier to use, however this is not a requirement when using a <nav> element.

The aside Element

The <aside> element is used to represent content that is tangibly related to the content surrounding it, but could be considered separate. This includes things like sidebars (like those you might find in a book), groups of <nav> elements, figures and pull quotes.

<article>
      <header>
        <h1>Google Buys Nest</h1>
        <p>Posted at 11:34am 13th January 2014</p>
      </header>
      <p>...</p>
      <p>...</p>
    
      <aside>
        <h1>Google (GOOG)</h1>
        <p>Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The company...</p>
      </aside>
    </article>

In this example we’ve used an <aside> element to mark up information about Google within a news article. The company information in the <aside> could be considered useful by the reader but it’s not directly related to the news story.

The header Element

The <header> element is used to represent the introductory content to an article or web page. This will usually contain a heading element as well as some metadata that’s relevant to the content, such as the post date of a news article for example. It could also contain a table of contents (within a <nav> element) for a longer document.

A <header> element will be associated with the nearest sectioning element, usually it’s direct parent in the page structure.

<header>
      <h1>Google buys Nest</h1>
      <p>Posted at 11:34am 13th January 2014</p>
    </header>

In this example the <header> element contains the title and posted date for a news article.

The footer Element

The <footer> element is used to represent information about a section such as the author, copyright information, or links to related web pages.

<footer>
    Copyright Matt West 2014
    </footer>

As with <header>, the <footer> element is associated with the nearest sectioning element.

The address Element

The <address> element is one of the most commonly misunderstood HTML elements. This element is not for marking up postal address, but rather for representing the contact information for an article or web page. This could be a link to the author’s website or their email address.

<address>
      Contact <a href="mailto:matt@example.com">Matt West</a>
    </address>

This element is often used within the <footer> for an <article>.

<article>
      <header>
        <h1>Google buys Nest</h1>
        <p>Posted at 11:34am 13th January 2014</p>
      </header>
      <p>...</p>
      <p>...</p>
      <footer>
        <address>
          By <a href="mailto:matt@example.com">Matt West</a>
        </address>
        <p>Copyright Matt West 2014</p>
      </footer>
    </article>

Final Thoughts on the Sectioning Elements

In this post you’ve learned how to use the HTML5 sectioning elements when marking up your web pages. Using these elements has a number of benefits. One of the biggest being that it gives certain areas of your page more semantic meaning, allowing computer programs to identify key elements like the main content and page navigation. This information is extremely useful to applications like screen readers.

Note: Not all screen readers have support for these semantic elements yet. You may want to continue using ARIA roles just to be safe.

Using these sectioning elements also has the benefit of making developers think more about the structure of their web pages. Selecting which element to use for a piece of content isn’t always obvious, but it raises important questions about the purpose of that content, and whether it belongs on the page at all. This is an example of where web standards are not only helping to improve the quality of our markup, but the quality of our web pages as a whole.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on the HTML5 sectioning elements. Share your views in the comments below.

Useful Links

• W3C HTML5 Spec

The post How to Use The HTML5 Sectioning Elements appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) invites media, analysts, and other attendees of Mobile World Congress to meet with us in App Planet, Stand 8.1G15 and learn how the Open Web Platform is transforming industry. CEO Jeff Jaffe, W3C staff, and participating W3C Members will be available as expert resources for media stories and analyst reports on how the Web is impacting mobile, television, advertising, publishing, automotive, health care, and other industries.

We will showcase many Open Web Platform demonstrations from Baidu, Ericsson, Espial, Igalia, Intel, Klickfilm, Kolor, Mozilla, Opera, and Zaragoza. Be sure to check W3C’s up-to-the-minute demo schedule.

This year we also invite everyone to help us mark two special occasions: the Web’s 25th anniversary and W3C’s 20th anniversary.

Read the full press release and come meet with us at the booth.

It's been too long since I've done a Chronicle. I'm going to try and get in the habit again.

It's been a pretty rough winter here in Wisconsin. Relentlessly cold and plenty of snow. It's been my first winter back in a number of years and it's as much of a slog as I remember it being. There was some crazy days with a high of like -15°F. I hope to plan more escapes next year than I did this year. My only escape so far has been out to Bend, Oregon for skiing, which was incredibly fun but it sure wasn't much warmer.

Fortunately next week I get an escape. I'm headed down for my third trip to Hilton Head Health to keep the weight loss going. I'm kind hoping this will be the last time for me as some much healthier habits are starting to take hold. This time I'm going with my dad, and I hope this kicks off a good journey for him too.

After that, the next time I get on a plane will be to An Event Apart Seattle. I've been working on a new talk for this, which I'll use in the rest of my handful of talks in 2014, refining it along the way. It's going to be all about SVG and the simple and practical ways I've been using it.

ShopTalk has been going strong this year. We had our 100th episode! We didn't do anything super special, but had Rachel Andrew on and she was a great guest. The next week we had John Resig on and people loved that one.

We have guests and sponsors lined up for months to come so chug'a'lug.

As always my primary job is working on CodePen. We've been steadily working on that and have crossed some notable milestones like 100k registered users. We have so many ideas for CodePen. They will all happen in time. I'm finding it interesting how much more effort it takes to maintain software than to build it. Truth be told, new features slow down a bit when so much of our time is spent on maintenance and as those new features touch so many other aspects of the app.

We've released plenty of stuff recently though, including a WordPress plugin, an infastructural change we call Boomerang that helped fix a slew of bugs, and a feature to see details right from the editor.

Here on CSS-Tricks, I've actually started tinkering with a new design. Like most design iterations around here (but unlike the last huge one), it will be very incremental. Mostly a simplification both of content presentation and aesthetic. I'd guess I'll have it out within a month or two. Stay tuned!

CSS-Tricks Chronicle XVI is a post from CSS-Tricks

The Technical Architecture Group has published a Working Draft of Good Practices for Capability URLs. Capability URLs grant access to a resource to anyone who has the URL. There are times when this is useful, for example one-shot password reset URLs, but overuse can be problematic as URLs cannot generally be kept secret. This document provides some good practices for web developers who wish to incorporate capability URLs into their applications. Learn more about the Technical Architecture Group.

The HTML Working Group has published a Working Draft of Encrypted Media Extensions. This proposal extends HTMLMediaElement providing APIs to control playback of protected content. The API supports use cases ranging from simple clear key decryption to high value video (given an appropriate user agent implementation). License/key exchange is controlled by the application. This specification does not define a content protection or Digital Rights Management system. Rather, it defines a common API that may be used to discover, select and interact with such systems as well as with simpler content encryption systems. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Regions Module Level 1. The CSS Regions module allows content from one or more elements to flow through one or more boxes called CSS Regions, fragmented as defined in CSS3-BREAK. This module also defines CSSOM to expose both the inputs and outputs of this fragmentation. Learn more about the Style Activity.