The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Canonical EXI. Any EXI document is part of a set of EXI documents that are logically equivalent within an application context, but which vary in physical representation based on differences permitted by the Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0 (Second Edition). This specification describes a relatively simple method for generating a physical representation, the canonical form, of an EXI document that accounts for the permissible changes. An example of the applications targeted by this specification is one that needs to guarantee non-repudiation using XML Signature yet allows certain flexibility for intermediaries to reconstitute the documents before they reach final destination without breaking the signatures. Note that two documents may have differing canonical forms yet still be equivalent in a given context based on more elaborate application-specific equivalence rules which is out of scope of this specification. Comments are welcome through 16 July. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

The HTML Working Group has published a Group Note of HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives. This document contains best practice guidance for authors of HTML 5 documents on providing text alternatives for images. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

The HTML Working Group has published a Working Draft of Notes on Using ARIA in HTML. This document is a practical guide for developers on how to add accessibility information to HTML elements using the Accessible Rich Internet Applications specification WAI-ARIA-1.1, which defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. This document demonstrates how to use WAI-ARIA in HTML51, which especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3 (CSS3 UI). This specification describes user interface related properties and values that are proposed for CSS level 3 to style HTML and XML (including XHTML). It includes and extends user interface related features from the selectors, properties and values of CSS level 2 revision 1 and Selectors specifications. It uses various selectors, properties and values to style basic user interface elements in a document. Learn more about the Style Activity.

The Web Notification Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Web Notifications. Web notifications defines an API for end-user notifications. A notification allows alerting the user outside the context of a web page of an occurrence, such as the delivery of email. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

The Web Applications Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of HTML5 Web Messaging. The Web Messaging specification defines two mechanisms for communicating between browsing contexts in HTML documents. The cross-document postMessage API allows documents to communicate with each other regardless of their source domain, in a way designed to not enable cross-site scripting attacks. To enable independent pieces of code (e.g. running in different browsing contexts) to communicate directly, authors can use the MessageChannel and MessagePort APIs. Communication channels in this mechanism are implemented as two-way pipes, with a port at each end. Messages sent in one port are delivered at the other port, and vice-versa. Messages are delivered as DOM events, without interrupting or blocking running tasks. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

The Timed Text Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of TTML Text and Image Profiles for Internet Media Subtitles and Captions 1.0. This document specifies two profiles of TTML1: a text-only profile and an image-only profile. These profiles are intended to be used across subtitle and caption delivery applications worldwide, thereby simplifying interoperability, consistent rendering and conversion to other subtitling and captioning formats. The text profile is a superset of TTML Simple Delivery Profile for Closed Captions (US). Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.