WordPress users that have been interested to explore some of what HTML5 has to offer should check out the latest post from Sameer Borate. He shows how to embed a HTML5 Canvas element you can use to make a "drawable" area of your page. You can test to see if your browser supports it by scrolling to the end of the post.

Only if partially, but HTML 5 is slowly getting increased support from various browsers. Some of the HTML 5 features like ‘canvas’ and ‘video’ are supported by browsers like Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome and Opera. [...] The Canvas element consists of a drawable region defined in HTML on which you can dynamically draw graphics and animations using Javascript. The canvas API provides a nice set of drawing functions to play with.

His example detects to see if the browser has canvas support (using Modernizr), creates a div container to hold the region and creates a Javascript to define the canvas as a 520 by 220 pixel box. The animation should be loaded automatically.

In this new post on his blog, John Maver gives a step-by-step guide for creating a PHP5 application for the popular social networking site Bebo.com.

I have been answering a lot of email requests for how to get started with a Bebo application. Since applications can be written in any language that supports interaction with the Bebo REST API, developers have a lot of choices in how they build their application. The focus of this article will be on the "officially supported language" - PHP.

He defines the parts of the application first (the callback, canvas page, profile box, invitation and news stories). Much like the Facebook API, the Bebo system has you host the application on your own servers and use their developer libraries to interface with their systems. He makes a simple application that has a "story" published to it that shows to each visitor.

He also tosses in a method for knowing a bit more about the user - like if they've just added the application, if they're a normal user or if they've just removed it from their application list.

WordPress, one of the most popular pieces of PHP-based weblog software out there, has never been famous for it's templating system - specifically, making them. Thankfully, there's a new utility that's looking to make that a thing of the past - Canvas.

The tool integrates its results with your existing WordPress installation to make for quick and easy layout editing without you having to know a single bit of PHP, HTML, or CSS. The interface allows you to drag and drop elements into place and includes a plugin system to make for easy enhancements down the line.

WordPress, one of the most popular pieces of PHP-based weblog software out there, has never been famous for it's templating system - specifically, making them. Thankfully, there's a new utility that's looking to make that a thing of the past - Canvas.

The tool integrates its results with your existing WordPress installation to make for quick and easy layout editing without you having to know a single bit of PHP, HTML, or CSS. The interface allows you to drag and drop elements into place and includes a plugin system to make for easy enhancements down the line.