Test browsers compatibility with my website - html

Recently users of my website complained about the lack of support to IE6\7.
Is there an offline tool to test if a page-HTML isn't compatible with a specif browser and where is the problem?
Where can I find a list of things I need to be aware of in order to support IE6?
Update: The problems the users describe are in the UI, <Div>are not in the right places and that kind of problems, not JavaScript issues.
I can't force the users to upgrade theirs browsers.

IE6 is an ancient browser. Tell people who complain about lack of support that it's no longer supported and they should upgrade.
There is no "syntax checking" tool to find all incompatibilities, because the problems are not in syntax but how it's interpreted. There is no way around visual testing I'm afraid.
Here are some interesting SO questions on the topic:
One fix for all IE6 problems
How are programmers tackling ie6 bugs these days?
Running Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 on the same machine

IE tester is useful for testing across version of internet explorer. It may not tell you what is wrong but you will at least be able to see / verify what users are reporting.
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

I have some offer about this for you :
Try to use Jquery more,because Jquery is compatible with most browsers
there are 3 useful addons for Mozilla : Firebug , Web Developer , IE tab
IE 9 has a developer windows that you can change your page standard into IE 8 or 7
Use syntax liek this :
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="Styles/ie-fix.css" />
maybe this is useful dude for you :)

If your users are complaining about IE6, you should give support to IE, thats theory. BUT, if possible do as google has been doing for years, if the user is using IE6/7 or lower show some links to download newer browsers and tell them that their browser is too old.

You can use a seperate stylesheet for IE.
There is a third party software named Utilu. Utilu IE Collection contains multiple standalone versions of the browser Internet Explorer, which can be used at the same time. It has more than 10 versions of IE. But its used for viewing the web pages. This software also has firefox and chrome collections.

Related

How important it is to get website to also work with Internet Explorer?

I have been using HTML, CSS, JS and jQuery in my web development and it is my first time. I have been testing my design on Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge, and it works perfectly.
But when it comes to Internet Explorer, things just don't work well. Squeezed images, animation not working, margin/padding issues, flickering image when scrolling etc...
So my question is, are there any merits in getting any websites to work flawlessly with IE? IE is like the least popular browser now that Microsoft Edge is here (from what I read sometime ago). Just wondering if I should invest my time in getting my website to work with Internet Explorer.
#zaraku27
I think you should make a website which is compatible on every browser although Internet Explorer is not commonly used by everyone because of some other modern browsers but some of the application are optimized only for IE and some websites can only be used on IE whereas it is faster with windows computer because it is integrated. It is also simpler to use then other modern browser like Chrome, FireFox, Opera and etc and it is highly compatible with almost all the Operating System.
The versions 9 and above of Internet Explorer use HTML5 which enhances browsing experience, This lets the user to stream videos and audios excluding any type requirements of installing additional plugins IE being one of the oldest and conventional web browsers support many of the applications which some modern web browsers may not support .

About Internet Explorer 9 document and browser mode

Good day! I have got a question about the Internet Explorer 9. Can anyone tell me if its document and browser mode (I mean rendering as Internet Explorer 8 and 7 when chosen) is appropriate to test HTML and CSS in different versions of the browser?
I used to use something like Multiple IE on my virtual Windows machine, but my colleague use the Internet Explorer 9 to test HTML and CSS "directly". So none of us has a sense of correctness of the chosen solution.
So, that's the question.
In my subjective experience, IE9's 8/7 "Browser Modes" have always been an accurate reflection of the actual browsers - at least for pure HTML/CSS.
However, there are subtle differences when it comes to JavaScript, see the "Differences between IE8 Compatibility View and IE7" section here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2009/03/12/site-compatibility-and-ie8.aspx
I usually test with IE9's older "Browser Modes", but if I'm feeling paranoid or I want to be absolutely sure, I use my virtual machines.
IMHO the answer to your question is yes - go with the browser modes.
Here is a good article for you
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/10/19/testing-sites-with-browser-mode-vs-doc-mode.aspx
Few differences that I have seen in IE9 Doc Mode vs real IE8 or IE7:
1) If a PNG image is given opacity (via Proprietary CSS filter), 'Real IE8/IE7' shows black linings.
2) JavaScript performance in 'Real IE8/IE7' is obviously not as fast as IE9.
3) Fonts also tend to have some display issue in various modes: http://blog.typekit.com/2013/03/14/the-dangers-of-cross-browser-testing-with-ie9s-browser-modes/ and font smoothing is an issue in windows XP.
4) Embedded YouTube videos have z-index issues overlapping other elements (fixed by wmode).
5) Proprietary CSS filters work properly in 'Real IE8' but are not shown if applied to an HTML5 element in IE9 doc mode. (Faced this once)
Summary: If the site you are making is JavaScript intense or the client is very much concerned about users on IE7/8, have a check on Real IE 7/8 and get the issues ironed out.

Browser Compatablitiy, Support, Modern Browsers and older Versions

This is a question to all web-developers working in the industry more than a few years.
Today the server guy at my work told me that his browser didn't render a Google font I used on a site properly, so I checked his browser - it was Firefox 3.5. (Google font Raleway).. This made me think.. I know for some of our sites its a requirement to support IE6 (larger corporate sites) but for the rest (personal sites) should I be looking at developing for all increments of Firefox, Chrome, IE and Safari?
Does your company still support IE6?
Does your company support previous versions of modern browsers or just the latest ones?
And finally, has anyone else had this problem with FF 3.5 and Google Hosted font Raleway..(the font displays extra extra thing so the font is almost unreadable)
http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Raleway:100&v1' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
If anyone's interested I found a working solution to my font problem here:
http://www.jshsolutions.net/google-webfonts-cross-browser-fix-howto/
Users of FF/Chrome/Safari usually keep their browsers up to date. Keeping antiques around like IE6 is a corporate thing. Some users keep IE7 and IE8 around due to their unnecessary fear of things breaking. We promise to support the current version of browsers plus one version backwards. If someone wants anything further back than that, there's an extra charge.
It depends entirely on the user base and also the size of the user base. For example , the user base for governrment sites will be substantially different to personal sites.
A site with 10,000,000 visitors per year with 1% IE6 usage should ideally cater for thoses users. But a site that gets 10,000 visitors a year with 1% IE6 usage could probably afford to ignore IE6.
You should always support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera. If the client needs an older browser to be supported he should pay extra.
My company supports IE6 for our intranet website - but somewhat reluctantly. However, last quarter, they rolled out mandatory updates for XP systems (IE7 and SP3).
IMO, it is unnecessary to break your head over tweaking CSS for every version of the browser. I'd suggest creating CSS for major versions like IE7, FF3 and webkit-based browsers and have a disclaimer stating the minimum requirements for the website.
Alternatively, you can load content based on the user's browser. Nevertheless, it would be more tedious.
Importantly, check the current browser shares (http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?spider=1&qprid=0) and decide which browsers you want to support.
Yes I am suffering from the same. We support IE 6,7,8,9 ,FF 3.6,4 and Safari. It seems to be the worst thing to write one code for all this browsers. I never understand why client use IE6. Check this http://ie6countdown.com/ will give you idea about how many are using IE6.

How to solve the problems that html page works well in firefox and chrome, but wrong with IE?

I meet a problem that my page works well in firefox and chrome(almost the same look and feel) but very bad in IE. It's time consuming to adjust the differences. Is there any research has been done already to tell the differenceS, or any automation tool to examine the uncompatibilities?
BTW: which tool you guys are using when debugging in IE(like firebug for IE)?
Your best starting point is to always use some kind of "reset mechanism" like Eric Meyer's CSS Reset or framework like HTML5 Boilerplate, they help in reducing differences between browsers (not all, but most of it). If this is not possible (project is already in finishing phase, etc.) you can always ask questions here, check Position Is Everything for description of bugs, Quirks Mode, SitePoint reference and various other sites (Google is your friend :)). Hope this helps.
There is "debugging" tool for IE - IE Developer Toolbar - but it's usefulness can't compare to that of Firebug, Dragonfly and such. IE8+ does have better support for debugging, though… There are some articles that suggest using Visual Studio, but I haven't tried it. Mostly it's just trial and error with IE :).
ie7-js is a JavaScript file that automatically fixes many Internet Explorer bugs for all versions. Works like magic.
For fast and better results in IE you can use CSS Hacks for adjusting the HTML elements.
For IE we have IE Developer AddOn
you can download it here : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=95e06cbe-4940-4218-b75d-b8856fced535
Welcome to the tiresome world of IE.
IE8 has some version of developers tools, hit F12 on your keyboard and it will pop up. (not present in 6&7)
There are many documented bugs in IE, a simple Google Search would help you out better, but a lot cannot be accounted for until you have your site working in FF.
What most developers I know do is to make the site in FF, make small changes for Webkit browsers then go over to IE (not including 6) and debug.
In my experience there really is no way to tell what IE is going to mess up next, so you'll probably just have to deal with it as it happens.

Fixing problems on a site that only breaks on IE7

I did a new Drupal theme for my site based on the Zen theme. Since I am on Windows 7, I did testing with IE8, Firefox 3.5, and the most recent version of Chrome. The site looks great in all of those, but I just found out that it breaks on IE7. Unfortunately there is no way to put IE7 on Windows 7, so I'm at a loss for how I am going to find the exact cause and test a fix without flagging down a friend with IE7 on Vista or older.
My hope is that someone here might see what the issue is and point it out as something obvious. My HTML and CSS fu is not strong.
The site in question and some specific pages:
http://byswarm.com/
http://byswarm.com/setting-concept/mejijpunk
http://byswarm.com/page/plan
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
If you can use Microsoft Virtual PC. you can get IE6, IE7, IE8 VPC image free for development.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en
Use Sun VirtualBox (freeware) to create Virtual Comps with Windows XP (for IE7) and Windows 2000 or 2003 (for IE6), also recommend to install additionally IEDevTools (tools like Firebug for Firefox) for these IEs...
For fast previewing pages in IE you can use IETester (support 5,6,7,8 versions of IE)
Normally IE8 has a button right to the address bar where you can display it rendered by IE7. If not, you can always try this header, that forces IE8 to render as IE7: