Browser agnostic ?

[Chakra]

I have been designing my ASP.NET forms by just placing the controls on the
form. However, i noticed that some people used a HTML table as the parent
control, and then placed the ASP.NET server controls within the cells of
the table , to make the output browser neutral. Is this a trick that is
necessary to make ASP.NET consistently, (more or less), in any standard
browser , including Mozilla ?


Regards,

Chak.

 

[KMA]

With the code that you looked at: do the authors explicitly say they use
table to accomplish browser neutrality? It may be their intention, but I
doubt whether that's what they actually achieve. Maybe their pages render
similarly on the major PC browsers, but handhelds too?

Just my 2c worth. Don't concern yourself with pixel perfect similarity
between browsers. Just render interesting content in a presentable layout.
Mark the logical elements as css classes and let stylsheets do the
positioning.

Tables should be used to present tabular content, like an adress list.

Don't forget to change the Browser Caps section of the web.config so that
the html output is suitable for each browser type.

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

Chak,

I am using html tables a lot. And I don't care about browser compatibility
since my customers are happy with IE. One thing has nothing to do with
another. Using tables is just a general way of achieving nice page layout.
It's much easier to align page components properly when they are inside
tables.

Eliyahu

 

[bradley]

Style sheet formatting vs. <TABLE> formatting is not so much an issue of
Mozilla vs. Internet Explorer than it is version 6.0 vs. 5.0 vs. 4.0. In
some cases, people may be browsing the internet from a university lab, web
appliance or kiosk and have no control over whether or not the latest
browser version has been installed. Even browsers a couple of years old may
fail to properly handle basic style sheets features. However, <TABLE>
formatting works every time.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

It's a trick. In fact, it's the toughest trick on the Internet.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
Ambiguity has a certain quality to it.

 

[darrel]

I am using html tables a lot. And I don't care about browser compatibility

since my customers are happy with IE.

That's a bit shortsighted. Are your customers customers happy with IE?

It's much easier to align page components properly when they are inside
tables.

That's an opinion. Many people agree. Many people would say CSS is just as
easy.

There's no argument that a form can be considered tabular data, though.

-Darrel

 

[Eliyahu Goldin]

That's a bit shortsighted. Are your customers customers happy with IE?

Why should I care? I am getting paid for making my programs work with IE.
The customers wouldn't agree to pay for the extra time needed for providing
browser compatibility. I should mention that the end users are not general
public and my customers can impose a sort of discipline on them.

That's an opinion. Many people agree. Many people would say CSS is just as
easy.

I know. I didn't mean to put my 2c in this argument. I've just said what
many people are using tables for.

 

[Chakra]

To summarise : Some of the pros of table as parent control is that

1) it makes an ASP.NET form more elegant, but we lose pixel level control
IF we want very precise alignments.

2) The outputs are , to the best of my understanding , browser neutral.

The cons :-

1) If we have to re-shuffle the design , i have to tear down the table and
re-design the whole form ?

2) It adds an extra control and according to some people this slows down the
performance a bit.

Anyway thanks for all your inputs.

Regards,

Chak.