Internet Explorer, Compatibility, and Security

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Submitted by Bryan on

I found a great list on the blog/news section for the ocPortal CMS, 10 IE compatibility problems that you might not have realised. While the post is related to ocPortal, the Internet Explorer compatibility issues likely will apply to any CMS viewed by the browser.

Over the year's ocProducts has maintained a private list of issues in different web browsers, and if there's one thing that is consistent it is that Internet Explorer has the majority of the problems. Sometimes they are bugs, but as you'll see from this list sometimes other browsers just do things better. I am writing this blog post not to bash Microsoft, but hopefully to provide some useful information to other web developers. Thankfully IE8 fixed a ton of problems, and I can't wait until we can ditch IE6 and IE7, but unfortunately this will inevitably be years away; never-the-less, as far as I am aware every problem here applies to IE8 as well as older versions.

I wouldn't be surprised if IE8 fixes some of the incompatibility issues that the author lists. I've been using IE8 at both home and work and have found the browser to be an improvement over IE6 and IE7. Nevertheless, I still prefer Firefox over Internet Explorer.

Now, the following rant isn't directed toward ocPortal but something that has hit a sore spot with me.

Just plain busy

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Submitted by Bryan on
This is a busy week for me with an all-day software load scheduled this week for my work's operational systems.  Translation...you likely will not see many original posts from me for a few days.  I will however continue to post some links and excerpts  on CMS news items that catch my attention.

The good news, it looks like the layout issues with the Drupal theme I'm using, Zen, are finally being resolved.  The layout issues were with how the theme displayed in Internet Explorer 6.  No one has had time to patch and commit the changes into a new version for the theme but that will come soon.  Personally, I'll be glad when all the IE 6 users upgrade to IE7.  Yes, IE7 has a few issues but at least it is much more compliant to "standards" than IE6.  Either way, with the IE6 layout issues resolved, I can finally start making some real changes to this theme to make it much more my own.   Cheers!

Maintenance update for Mambo 4.5 series available

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Team Mambo released Mambo 4.5.5 which is a maintenance update for the 4.5.x series of the content maintenance system.  All Mambo 4.5.x users are encouraged by the project leaders to upgrade to 4.5.5 which will avoid the possibility of your site visitors experiencing display issues in IE7.  Fixes in the maintenance release includes:
  • IE7 fixes
  • RSS and  search engine optimization fixes
  • com_syndicate config parameter fixed
  • SQL injection fix in cancel edit functions
Mambo 4.5.5 downloads are available on the MamboXchange site. at SourceForge.

IE7 update available for Vista while Windows XP users wait

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Submitted by Bryan on
Steve Reynolds, Microsoft Internet Explorer Program Manager, announced on the Microsoft Internet Explorer Blog that an update for Internet Explorer 7 is available. The IE7 update "addresses an issue experienced by some users where CPU usage is high when they are navigating a page that contains multiple frames or when multiple frames are navigated simultaneously". If you have experienced any such performance issue, Microsoft is encouraging you to download and install the update.

While a software update is not unusual, I couldn't help but notice the following words from his post (with my own emphasis is in bold).

This update is now available on Windows Update for Windows Vista users and will be made available in February for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users. All users can download it now here along with related KB article 928089.

You can't help but wonder how much Microsoft marketing is or isn't involved in this decision. What better reason for a user to update from Windows XP to Windows Vista than the fact that security and performance updates for Windows XP will be arriving behind Microsoft's new favorite son. Sigh...

IEBlog: 100 Million IE7 Installations

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"I’m pleased to report that on January 8th, we had the 100 millionth IE7 installation. However, even more important than installations is usage. According to WebSideStory (the company we use to measure browser usage), as of this week, over 25% of all visitors to websites in the US were using IE7, making IE7 the second most used browser after IE6."

Complete Story


IEBlog: IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine

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Submitted by Bryan on

Personally, I would just use an old Windows machine with Internet Explorer 6 already on it.  Why do we always make this more complicated than it is?.

Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment. As Chris Wilson blogged about early this year, it’s unfortunately not so easy to do. There are workarounds, but they are unsupported and don’t necessarily work the same way as IE6 or IE7 would work when installed properly. As Chris said, the best way to use multiple versions of IE on one machine is via virtualization. Microsoft has recently made Virtual PC 2004 a free download; we’ve taken advantage of that by releasing a VPC virtual machine image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, IE6 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit...

Complete Story

Perhaps IE7 is an improvement

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Submitted by Bryan on

I know giving Microsoft a hard time is everyone's best pastime sport, but perhaps IE7 is an improvement over IE6. While there have been some complaints about IE7 "breaking" sites...the uproar is a lot quieter than I expected. I had anticipated a little bit more from the general public. Also, it is also nice to note that IE7 isn't included in many of the "critical"updates that the rest of the IE suite are.

From the IEBlog:

This is a “Critical” update that applies to all supported IE configurations from IE5.01 to IE6 for XPSP2 and IE6 for Server 2003 Service Pack 1 except IE7 where the associated vulnerabilities do not affect this newer platform. As always, IE security updates are cumulative and contain all previously released updates for each version of IE. Read More...

By the way, the "uproar" from the enterprise may be quiet for a different reason. Many larger organizations have blocked IE7 from installing on their network until then get a better handle on what IE7 doesn't do that IE6 did do. At least that's what I did for my office...

One cool Web design tool

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While browsing some of my favorite sites looking for quirks in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that I needed to be aware of for Web design, I came across one of the most helpful design tools I've seen in a long time. Caleb Gilbert recommended at Drupal.org a site called Browsershots. His recommendation was prompted on the need for non-IE7 users such as Mac users to actually see what their sites would look like in IE7. This is a design tool not only useful for those designing themes for Drupal, but about any other content management system or Web page you may get your hands on.

Browsershots is a "free online platform where you can test your web design in different browsers." You just submit your web address along with which browsers you would like Browsershots to view the site with and in several minutes you'll find screenshots of your requested site. Browsershots not only offers screenshots using various browsers such as IE, Firefox, and Opera but also through more than one platform. Currently the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms are being offered.

What I like about Browsershots is that not only could I render screenshots of a site as it is viewed in IE7, but also in other versions of Internet Explorer such as IE5 (which surprisingly renders CSS sites well). Several versions of Firefox are also offered but only one version of the Mac's Safari and other less used browsers (Dilo, Phoenix, Netscape Navigator 4.8, etc.) are offered.

Lorelle on WP: Firefox 2 versus Internet Explorer versus WordPress

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Lorelle VanFossen makes some great observations in his post with regards to which browser, Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2, work with Wordpress. Internet Explorer 7 was just released for Windows XP last week. If everything sticks to schedule, Firefox 2 will likely be out sometime this week.

Ms. VanFossen's article doesn't say it, but IE7 has been noticed to work better with AJAX type sites than IE6. Of course the original question though is how does IE7 compare with Firefox when running Wordpress?

The great Firefox 2 vs. IE 7 memory test by Scobleizer is a very interesting, if not scientific, comparison between Firefox 2 and IE 7. The test compares the “memory footprint”, the amount of memory consumed between two identical setups. In Scoble’s test...

Complete Story


IE Team: How IE7 Strikes a Balance Between Security and Compatibility

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"We’ve been talking for a long time about making sure IE7 is as secure as possible but still compatible with the Internet. The principle that helps us balance security and compatibility is to not impact existing websites unless we need to change IE to help protect end users. As we asked web developers and server administrators to make changes, they spoke frankly with us about what they could and what they couldn’t change. Today, we’ll look at a couple timely examples of how this principle played out in IE7."

Complete Story


PunBB 1.2.14 and Internet Explorer 7

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PunBB 1.2.14 has been released. According to the original announcement at PunBB.org the new point version it not only fixes some bugs, but also provides some minor enhancements:

  • Addresses a few security problems
  • Fixes a bug or two
  • Adds a search performance tweak
  • Adds stylesheet fixes to fully support the up-and-coming Internet Explorer 7 release

I'm extremely excited to to see the stylesheet fixes for IE7. A few open source projects have been extremely slow in addressing the fix changes for IE. Some developers, in my opinion, seem to be personal opinions ahead of the needs of their projects and their users. Granted, IE7 may not be fully CSS compliant. However, Microsoft has come a long way in trying to develop a more compliant IE6 by listening to many of the demands in the open source community. The fact is that IE7 has a better chance of alienating IE6 users since it is a big change for the Microsoft Windows drone user. I think it's time we cut Microsoft some slack...

 

IEBlog: Are you ready for Internet Explorer 7?

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"The final release of IE7 is fast approaching … and I mean really fast … and will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates a few weeks after it’s available for download. We want to ensure that you are ready and the information below will help get you there.

Compatibility with sites, extensions and applications has been a very high priority for us as we develop new features, enhance the existing features and move the platform forward to be more secure and standards compliant. We are continually listening to feedback from our customers, partners and leaders in the industry to resolve major compatibility issues to ensure our common customers have a great experience with IE7. As we make key improvements in areas such as layout and security, some changes need to be made by site owners to work smoothly with IE7."

Complete Story


mojoPortal 2.1.3 Released

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mojoPortal 2.1.3 was released over the weekend. Since mojoPortal 2.1.2 was released just a day sooner...we'll lump all the changes since mojoPortal 2.1.1. New features and enhancements in the new versions of mojoPortal include:

  • Improved Module Caching
  • New CollapseLinkButton Control in mojoPortal.Web.Controls - this control can hide any other server control using cleint side javascript and css, you just enter the server side id in markup using the ControlToCollapse property. I used this in several administrative pages to hide sections of settings that don't need to be changed often
  • A new skin by Jasmin Savard, currently being used at mojoPortal.com
  • FriendlyUrls are now automatically created when creating pages
  • Multi Sites Feature theme caching issue is now fixed and can now run multiple sites in a single application due to improvements in SiteMapProvider configuration
  • Users are now logged in automatically upon registration (thanks to Bo Rey for this fix)
  • Newest version of NeatUpload
  • The VS 2005 Solution now works with the VS Web Server, its no longer neccessary to setup an IIS application, just set your connection string and go
  • Updated the new CSS Menu adapter release from Microsoft and now menus working correctly in IE7 running on Vista RC1.
  • Usual bug fixes

Further information can be found at the mojoPortal site.

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