The HTML5 Shiv

The HTML5 Shiv enables use of HTML5 sectioning elements in legacy Internet Explorer and provides basic HTML5 styling for Internet Explorer 6-9, Safari 4.x (and iPhone 3.x), and Firefox 3.x.

What do these files do?

html5shiv.js

• This includes the basic createElement() shiv technique, along with monkeypatches for document.createElement and document.createDocumentFragment. It also applies basic styling for HTML5 elements.

####html5shiv-printshiv.js

• This includes all of the above, as well as a mechanism allowing HTML5 elements to be styled and contain children while being printed in IE 6-8.

Who can I get mad at now?

HTML5 Shiv is maintained by Alexander Farkas, Jonathan Neal and Paul Irish, with many contributions from John-David Dalton. It is also distributed with Modernizr, and the two google code projects, html5shiv and html5shim, maintained by Remy Sharp.

If you have any issues in these implementations, you can report them here! :)

For the full story of HTML5 Shiv and all of the people involved in making it, read The Story of the HTML5 Shiv.

HTML5 Shiv API

HTML5 Shiv works as a simple drop-in solution. In most cases there is no need to configure HTML5 Shiv or use methods provided by HTML5 Shiv.

html5.elements option

The elements option is a space seprated string or array, which describes the full list of the elements to shiv.

Configuring elements before html5shiv.js is included.

//create a global html5 options object
window.html5 = {
  'elements': 'mark section customelement' 
};

Configuring elements after html5shiv.js is included.

//change the html5shiv options object 
window.html5.elements = 'mark section customelement';
//and re-invoke the `shivDocument` method
html5.shivDocument(document);

html5.shivCSS

If shivCSS is set to true HTML5 Shiv will add basic styles (mostly display: block) to sectioning elements (like section, article). In most cases a webpage author should include those basic styles in his normal stylesheet to ensure older browser support (i.e. Firefox 3.6) without JavaScript.

The shivCSS is true by default and can be set false, only before html5shiv.js is included:

//create a global html5 options object
window.html5 = {
	'shivCSS': false
};

html5.shivMethods

If the shivMethods option is set to true (by default) HTML5 Shiv will override document.createElement/document.createDocumentFragment in IE8- to allow dynamic DOM creation of HTML5 elements.

Known issue: If an element is created using the overridden createElement method this element returns a document fragment as its parentNode, but should be normally null. If a script relays on this behavior, shivMethodsshould be set to false. Note: jQuery 1.7+ has implemented his own HTML5 DOM creation fix for IE8-. If all your scripts (including Third party scripts) are using jQuery's manipulation and DOM creation methods, you might want to set this option to false.

Configuring shivMethods before html5shiv.js is included.

//create a global html5 options object
window.html5 = {
	'shivMethods': false
};

Configuring elements after html5shiv.js is included.

//change the html5shiv options object 
window.html5.shivMethods = false;

html5.createElement( nodeName [, document] )

The html5.createElement method creates a shived element, even if shivMethods is set to false.

var container = html5.createElement('div');
//container is shived so we can add HTML5 elements using `innerHTML`
container.innerHTML = '<section>This is a section</section>';

html5.createDocumentFragment( [document] )

The html5.createDocumentFragment method creates a shived document fragment, even if shivMethods is set to false.

var fragment = html5.createDocumentFragment();
var container = document.createElement('div');
fragment.appendChild(container);
//fragment is shived so we can add HTML5 elements using `innerHTML`
container.innerHTML = '<section>This is a section</section>';

HTML5 Shiv Known Issues and Limitations

• The shivMethods option (overriding document.createElement) and the html5.createElement method create elements, which are not disconnected and have a parentNode (see also issue #64)
• The cloneNode problem is currently not addressed by HTML5 Shiv. HTML5 elements can be dynamically created, but can't be cloned in all cases.
• The printshiv version of HTML5 Shiv has to alter the print styles and the whole DOM for printing. In case of complex websites and or a lot of print styles this might cause performance and/or styling issues. A possible solution could be the htc-branch of HTML5 Shiv, which uses another technique to implement print styles for IE8.

What about the other HTML5 element projects?

• The original conception and community collaboration story of the project is described at The History of the HTML5 Shiv.
• IEPP, by Jon Neal, addressed the printing fault of the original html5shiv. It was merged into html5shiv.
• Shimprove, in April 2010, patched cloneNode and createElement was later merged into html5shiv
• innerShiv, introduced in August 2010 by JD Barlett, addressed dynamically adding new HTML5 elements into the DOM. jQuery added support that made innerShiv redundant and html5shiv addressed the same issues as well, so the project was completed.
• The html5shim and html5shiv sites on Google Code are maintained by Remy Sharp and are identical distribution points of this html5shiv project.
• Modernizr is developed by the same people as html5shiv and can include the latest version in any custom builds created at modernizr.com
• This html5shiv repo now contains tests for all the edge cases pursued by the above libraries and has been extensively tested, both in development and production.

A detailed changelog of html5shiv is available.

Why is it called a shiv?

The term shiv originates from John Resig, who used the term for its slang meaning, a sharp object used as a knife-like weapon, intended for Internet Explorer. Now, there's a small chance that John was having an etymological seizure, and that he actually intended to use the word [shim](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shim_(computing), which, in computing means an application compatibility workaround. As reasonable as the later explanation may seem, John is actually a well known homie.