Now that the IE 9 beta is available, people have started popping up on some of the stats of a few of the websites I maintain, and this is proving to be just as troublesome as just about every other new release of IE. The thing I noticed right off the bat, in fact it was impossible to miss, is that a site running a DHTML menu throws JavaScript errors like they were free, but only in IE 9, and only if it is not in compatibility mode. So, rather than monkey about in some damn fugly JavaScript, I opted to just set the site to force IE to render in compatibility mode.

There are a couple of ways to do this, the most basic is to drop a meta tag in the head:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" />

or

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

This way would have been laborious and quite tedious going through all of the pages in the site and making sure the ones that are not content managed have this new tag. Meh – so not doing that.

The way I opted for was to simply add it as a custom header in IIS (thanks to Joel Varty for the nudge), and be done with it. It’s pretty simple, just open up the IIS snap-in, right click on your site and open properties. Select the  HTTP Headers tab, click add then enter “X-UA-Compatible” in the custom header name field, and “IE=7″ or “IE=EmulateIE7″ in the custom header value field. I used the IE=EmulateIE7 value because it seems to be the most flexible, and doesn’t absolutely force IE7 rendering, especially for pages using Quirks mode.

Pretty simple: now it’s all fine for even the most cutting edge of IE users.

You’re welcome.

Looking for a functional way to get IE 8 and IE 7 to run on my machine today, I found the IE Tester project, and I have to say that for an all in one IE testing app, it works quite well. Up until today the only tool I had at my disposal was Multiple IEs from TredoSoft and the biggest limitation here is that it doesn't incorporate 7 or the 8 beta (1 or 2); which IE Tester does. Since IE 8 is due out this quarter (I think) it is absolutely imperative that devs start testing (if they haven't already) for this new wonderful application to see how it destroys, or interacts with the web. For more detail on what the IE team is doing with version 8, check the IE Blog.

The biggest benefit to IE Tester so far is that it can be installed along side all of your other browsers (including Multiple IEs), unlike the frustrating paradigm that Microsoft operates under of not allowing multiple versions of IE installed on a single desktop. Instead they say you should test using Virtual PC and load up separate version of the OS virtually – yeah…. that's a lot better than just opening a browser.

Working with IE 8 so far I have found a lot of the expected CSS weirdness but above that I have also found that the xFx JumpStart DHTML Menu Builder menus fail irrecoverably, and since there is an open thread posted in May with no replies, I have a very low confidence threshold that anyone cares enough to fix it. This is bothersome simply because I have sites that use this menu, and now I am forced to find alternative solutions since a wait-and-see mentality doesn't really work for me.

IE 8 has a compelling list of new features and standards oriented enhancements, being a quantum leap in the right direction for the kings of the one-way road. Continually having to go to battle to get everything to work across 5 browsers and something like almost 8 versions is a bit tiresome and far more complicated than necessary. I still get a ton of hits from IE 6 users both here and my day-job sites, which I mainly attribute to the bad press IE 7 received after launch – much in the same way Vista has gotten vilified. People and corporations have made the flawed decision to not migrate to IE 7 under some false ideology that they are better off with 6, never mind the gaping security holes and out dated rendering engines.

Okay, so I getting off topic… again. Since I have to find a new menu anyway, I am compiling a list of AJAX menus to replace the DHTML menu, so once I have that worked out I will post that list here – in the meantime test your sites with IE Tester.

The world doesn't need another web browser. As a web designer this move by Google to further tighten their stranglehold on the web is annoying as hell. With the addition of Google Chrome to the wonderful world of the interwebs, this simply means there will be another browser than will need to be develop and tested for. Why? Why do we need another browser?

With IE, Firefox, Opera, Flock, Safari, and the various of these that render a web page differently there are already like 15 browsers/variations that could be tested for; so sure, by all means let's add another! But at least they have this comic book to make me feel better about it.

After playing with it for a while, it's nice enough, but there is a lot of work left to be done. Sure, I know it's a beta – but that's why they put it out right? To get feedback? What I have found is that naturally it renders differently than everything else, also handling JavaScript and forms sufficiently different that functions, features and layouts were broken. I've seen divs that have scrollbars where none are present anywhere else, check boxes and radio buttons not showing up in forms at all, the HTML content of a pop-up page not loading and the chrome of the UI itself doesn't render correctly with WindowBlinds, and still turns ugly with missing parts when I disable it. The UI funkiness with WindowBlinds surprised me, in that every other application I run (except iTunes) will run perfectly under it with the specified skin. So this leads me to wonder if Google is doing something funky with the Chrome window in Windows; something out of the ordinary. Which, is more than likely due to the way they handle tabs, and the lack of the traditional menu at the top of the window.

I know I'm being sarcastic, but hey… that's what I do. I do like it though, it's clean and simple. The UI isn't so foreign that it would prohibit me from getting into it quickly, and it has some nice features; for a browser which looks to be designed after a Poke-ball that is….

The biggest issue is that we don't need another browser to have to design to. There are more than enough browsers available with their own little idiosyncrasies that having one more just makes building pages that much harder. I know, WebKit is standards based, but that's what Opera and Firefox say too and they render things differently. IE 8 is supposedly the most standards oriented IE version yet, but so far the beta hasn't impressed me with it's ability to not break the web.

I don't know if I will ultimately like Chrome more or less than Firefox, but I do know my development life just got that much more difficult.

One persitent trend I really enjoy about blogging is the outlandish claims that are made with no supporting data or apparent research. I was reading my email this morning, and I come across the usual spam from SitePoint (sometimes good, sometimes not) and I read that IE is on track to go the way of the Dodo. Intrigued I follow the link only to find a narrow view of reality based only on a single sites statistics that IE will meet its demise in 2013. Pardon me for finding this a bit hard to swallow, not to mention just a wee bit arrogant. The presumption that SitePoint is a litmus test for the browser health of the web is a bit of a stretch to say the least, so to make the leap to say that IE will cease to be used based solely on the visitor trending for this site strikes me as nothing more than SEO/SEM spam to get more hits.

It's just as easy to find sites where the IE to Firefox ration is heading the other way, or remaining quite static or lower than the average as reported by the W3C. This site averages 31% Firefox and has been about that for some time, while another site I administer averages 24% Firefox up from 19% last year, compared to the averages of 2008 (39%) and 2007 (36%). The stats do support a regular growth in Firefox, and reduction in IE users, but it isn't so fast or dramatic to warrant any near-term speculation about the demise of IE as a web browser.

While there have been many predictions about whether or not Firefox will overtake IE which have fallen flat, it is refreshing and encouraging to see a good browser get a more persistent and growing foothold among non-technical users. The growth of Firefox is not on the fast-track to eclipse IE anytime soon. Most folks just don't care, and simply use what comes on their computer when they buy it, and IE is always there. The real benefit from all of this pontificating is that Microsoft is building IE better with every version and becoming more standards aware in their builds. IE 8 is a huge step forward for how well IE renders the web.

Any way, for the foreseeable future IE and Microsoft will have a significant web presence and all of the blog posts in the world aren't going to change that, which quite frankly everyone should be thankful for. Without competition products grow stale, and if Firefox or Opera, or some new browser became the only kid on the block – how would that be any different than what IE was just a few years ago?