last update : 18 January 2012
Modernizr is a small JavaScript library that detects the availability of native implementations for next-generation web technologies. These technologies are new features that stem from the ongoing HTML 5 and CSS 3 specifications. Many of these features are already implemented in at least one major browser. Modernizr tell you whether the current browser has this feature natively implemented or not.
- Modernizr tests for over 40 next-generation features, all in a matter of milliseconds;
- Modernizr creates a JavaScript object (named Modernizr) that contains the results of these tests as boolean properties;
- Modernizr adds classes to the html element that explain precisely what features are and are not natively supported. It allow you to target specific browser functionality in your stylesheet ( if-statements in your CSS ). You don’t actually need to write any Javascript to use it.
I started with version 1.6. and experienced a problem with Chrome 9 (beta) which was also reported by other people. The current version 2 was released on 1st June 2011.
With the help of the Modernizr library, the website haz.io gives a quick overview of a browser’s support for recent technologies in the world of HTML, CSS and Javascript.