More graceful IE support

[tophtucker]

so it seems there were some frustrated trustees today who couldn't read about klingenstein etc because, being fools (or on a work computer with reduced privileges on a network administered by fools), they were using <IE9.

so, i say we call this a successful experiment. conclusion: the redirect for all <IE9 users is probs too blunt an instrument.

the site renders miserably on <IE9, but you can at least read articles, so i guess we should just let it render (miserably).

ideally, i would still like a notice at the top of the page. in views/template/bodyheader.php we have this little block used to show notices (like vacation notices or breaking news):

<? if(isset($alerts)): ?>
    <div id="alertbar">
        <? foreach($alerts as $alert): ?>
            <div class="alert<?if($alert->urgent == '1'):?> urgent<?endif;?>">
                &#9758; <?=$alert->message ?>
            </div>
        <? endforeach; ?>
    </div>
<? endif; ?>

i could tackle this by thursday, probably, but not at the moment. brian, if you want to have a go at it, be my guest.

and at some point i'd love to undo your hard work on browser detection and replace it with codeigniter's $this->agent->is_browser('MSIE'), documented here: http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/libraries/user_agent.html

also note that IE5+ supports these funky conditional comments, great for IE-specific code:

<!--[if IE 6]>
Special instructions for IE 6 here
<![endif]-->

http://www.quirksmode.org/css/condcom.html

and let's try out this HTML5 IE shim: https://code.google.com/p/html5shim/

[bjacobel]

We could give an alert bar that says something along the lines of "things look wrong?" And then ask them to install chrome frame, which they should be able to install on all but the most locked down workstations. I don't know, something like that. I'm drunk.

I don't have much time until Tuesday afternoon but ill give it a shot then.

On Saturday, April 6, 2013, Toph Tucker wrote:

so it seems there were some frustrated trustees today who couldn't read about klingenstein etc because, being fools (or on a work computer with reduced privileges on a network administered by fools), they were using <IE9.

so, i say we call this a successful experiment. conclusion: the redirect for all <IE9 users is probs too blunt an instrument.

the site renders miserably on <IE9, but you can at least read articles, so i guess we should just let it render (miserably).

ideally, i would still like a notice at the top of the page. in views/template/bodyheader.php we have this little block used to show notices (like vacation notices or breaking news):

<? if(isset($alerts)): ?>

<? foreach($alerts as $alert): ?>

☞ <?=$alert->message ?>

<? endforeach; ?>

<? endif; ?>

i could tackle this by thursday, probably, but not at the moment. brian, if you want to have a go at it, be my guest.

and at some point i'd love to undo your hard work on browser detection and replace it with codeigniter's $this->agent->is_browser('MSIE'), documented here: http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/libraries/user_agent.html

also note that IE5+ supports these funky conditional comments, great for IE-specific code:

http://www.quirksmode.org/css/condcom.html

and let's try out this HTML5 IE shim: https://code.google.com/p/html5shim/

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/BowdoinOrient/bonus/issues/61 .

Brian (mobile)

[bjacobel]

I have a branch called better_noie which:

• moves the browser update message to its own page, bowdoinorient.com/browser
• adds language to it suggestion the Google Chrome Frame as an alternative to installing a browser (which as of its latest stable release doesn't require admin privileges to install)
• adds Chrome Frame support to the site (I think)
• adds that HTML5shiv thing (I think, I really don't even know what it does)
• replaces my weird phpbrowscap thing with the CodeIgniter user_agent lib functions
• uses conditional comments to add an alert to the site HIGHLY recommending you visit the aforementioned browser page

The thing is, testing this has gone outside the bounds of just setting the user agent in Chrome to say IE - conditional comments aren't supported in any browser besides IE, so it's impossible to test any of this without a physical IE install. And I'm nervous to deploy this code I've just written because I don't totally understand/trust a lot of what I've just done (putting jQuery inside conditional comments just feels totally wrong). Do you have a way to test your local code from a non-local machine without deploying this stuff to the orient server?

[tophtucker]

OK, site accessible here: http://139.140.166.33/~tophtucker/bonus/

I had to fix one line: [-] <!--[if IE lt 9]> [+] <!--[if lt IE 9]>

I powered up the old Windows clunker, tested in IE9, looks fine, downloaded an [http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2020](IE emulator), tried 6 and 8, no idea if Chrome Frame is working. Script inside IE conditional comment wasn't working but we didn't really need that script so now it's just static html and it works!

So now what, do I commit that to... bjacobel/better_noie?? OK I just did that haha.

[tophtucker]

i'm gonna go ahead and call this "graceful IE support" and close this issue.