Multiple Browser support issues

[Steve Mauldin]

I have recently converted an ASP website to ASP.NET and I am receiving a lot
of complaints about the site no longer working for people running Netscape,
FireFox, or even IE on a Mac. The issues run the gamut from Issues with
DIV, StyleSheets, Colors not being displayed properly, Etc.. Is there
anything I can do short of going back to ASP or writing 5 versions of the
same website to get my ASP.NET code to work with more browsers than just the
latest version of IE for windows? I thought the reason for going to ASP.NET
was to try and eliminate these types of problems not make them worse. An
help or comments are greatly appreciated.

 

[Steve C. Orr [MVP, MCSD]]

It's just like Java: Write Once, Test Everywhere.
You must choose which browsers you'll support and test it with each browser
to ensure it looks and works acceptably.
There's no single way to get it all working, but here are a couple tips for
you that may help:

* FlowLayout tends to be more compatible than GridLayout (for the pageLayout
property of your pages).
* To keep control widths consistent across browsers, setting the style
manually can help:
MyControl.Attributes.Add("style, "width:220px;");
* You might also try fiddling with the targetSchema and clientTarget
properties of the page to get more consistent results between client
environments.

Here's more info:
http://www.learn247.net/community/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=52
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/crossbrowercompatibility.htm
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2004/11/09/254583.aspx

 

[Otis Mukinfus]

One thing I discovered when testing with Netscape and FireFox was that setting
the width property of textboxes causes problems with those two controls, but if
you set the "width" of text boxes with the Columns property they will display
correctly in NS and FF.

There's a catch though. Now they won't display quite right in relation to other
controls in IE, but it's a small amount that most folks won't notice.

I have recently converted an ASP website to ASP.NET and I am receiving a lot
of complaints about the site no longer working for people running Netscape,
FireFox, or even IE on a Mac. The issues run the gamut from Issues with
DIV, StyleSheets, Colors not being displayed properly, Etc.. Is there
anything I can do short of going back to ASP or writing 5 versions of the
same website to get my ASP.NET code to work with more browsers than just the
latest version of IE for windows? I thought the reason for going to ASP.NET
was to try and eliminate these types of problems not make them worse. An
help or comments are greatly appreciated.

Otis Mukinfus
http://www.otismukinfus.com

 

[fd123456]

Hi Steve,

To complement Steve's judicious tips, you might also do a search in
Google for "BrowserCaps" (of which a stripped-down version is given in
the third link Steve just gave you). Basically, .Net considers that
everything not Explorer is Mosaic 1.0, and you must add a BrowserCaps
file in your web.config that tells it what the real capabilities
limits of each browser are. I have done this and I'm now like 99.9%
compatible.

HTH,

Michel