Connexions Developers Blog: Connexions Makes the Switch to MathJax

Today, we updated Connexions to use MathJax to display MathML. MathJax is a JavaScript library that can render MathML across all browsers. This is allowing us make several improvements:

• Support Math display and module editing in Chrome and Safari.
• Remove the requirement of the MathPlayer plugin for Internet Explorer.
• Remove all of the warning messages regarding math not rendering correctly in certain browsers.
  

MathJax has a nice feature that opens a "zoom box" when users click on math. You can see an example in the screenshot with this post. The switch to MathJax also included an upgrade to our content MathML to presentation MathML conversion stylesheet. We are now using the latest from the W3C along with some improvements of our own.

Along with the MathJax change, we have fixed several defects. Two of the defects are worth mentioning.

• Adobe based ebook readers (Original B&N Nook, Entourage Edge, etc.) will now render math correctly. We embedded the needed math fonts in our EPUBs.
• We removed original authors from the author role on derived copies. This was a big source of confusion for authors. The original authors are still listed when a derived copy is published, they are just not included in the author role of the derived copy.

You can see the full list of corrected defects in our release notes. Please let us know what you think of the new math either in the comments or at cnx@cnx.org.