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Are_you_cross browser_compatible
| Are you cross-browser compatible?
The question of cross browser compatibility is a common topic
among Web developers. Should you or should you not make your
website cross-browser accommodating? The answer is yes and
especially if you are an e-business. As Ripley would say,
"believe it or not" but at the time of this article slightly
more than 20% of Internet users use a browser other than IE.
This information comes from W3Schools.com, which has been keeping tabs
on browser usage since January 2002. How do you shape
up? Use of alternative browsers has only been going up,
they are no longer a niche community made up of "techies" and
anti-Microsoft advocates, they are your everyday user, your
potential customers.
If you haven't done so already I would suggest that you look at
your website in some of the other common browsers available.
These include:
Mozilla: This is currently the top browser
after IE6 and it is one of the most feature rich browsers
available today. I would personally suggest looking into Firefox
Mozilla's next generation browser as apposed to the entire
Mozilla suite due to its end users friendliness and feature rich
environment.
Opera: The
Opera browser has been making its way up the competitive ladder
of the browser arena since 2000 when Opera Software ASA released
Opera 5. Though it is free to download and use if you want to
access some of the browser's features you are required to pay a
small registration fee.
Netscape: Since Netscape provided the code
base for Mozilla in 1998 when they made the source code for
their flag ship product Netscape Communicator open-source there
is little difference between the two browsers. Still it never
hurts to see how things shape up between the two, and since they
are ultimately two different browsers checking with them both is
not a bad idea.
Additionally there are programs available that can test your
site for you in different browsers and screen resolutions and
return their findings. One such program is Browser Photo from NetMechanic. What can
you do? Okay so lets say that our site www.ihaveanerror.com
comes up with a couple of errors that cause it to render
incorrectly when we look at it in some of the alternative
browsers. How are we going to fix the problem? Well the first
thing we want to do is stay away from any propriety tags a
certain browser type might offer. These tags will only work
properly in the browser they are designed for and may cause
trouble for you in others. An example of a proprietary tag would
be <marquee> in Internet Explorer.
Another thing you should make a habit of is to validate your
pages through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C for short).
Founded in 1994 the W3C has made it its obligation to guide the
development of the Web and create a common basis to build upon.
One of the services that the W3C offers is syntax validation.
This is a useful tool when you are trying to ensure that your
visitors will get roughly the same experience when they visit
your site. Validation is easy, select the language your site was
designed in and use their free validation tools to track down
any errors that might occur. If there is an error in your source
the validation system will highlight it and provide you with
possible solutions for correcting it. Why should you
conform your site to the World Wide Web Consortium's guidelines?
The answer is that it is these guidelines that browser
developers use as a basis to display pages on the Web. While
browsers like Mozilla conform strictly to the W3C's guidelines
Internet Explorer is more relaxed. In fact Internet Explorer
will render just about anything you throw at it. You can leave
out the <html> tags, <body> tags, or forget to close
a tag all together and IE will 9 times out of 10 be able to work
with what you give it.
Be weary of Microsoft's FrontPage. While Microsoft makes some of
the world's most powerful and end user friendly applications in
my opinion, FrontPage has a tendency to do things IE's way. What
I mean when I say this is that FrontPage will overload a web
page with a lot of overhead that is either out of place or
incorrect. If you plan on using an editor of this type consider
Adobe's GoLive, this application at least has the ability to
built a page according to W3C standards and has a built in
syntax checker that can help you ensure your site will meet
their requirements. The final word, most likely
not… Remember the saying "you can't please
everyone"? The same holds true to the world of Internet
browsers, it will be pretty much impossible to make your site
render the same way on each and every browser available. This
however is not the goal; the goal is to make your site useable
by the most common browsers thus reaching the largest audience
possible. If something fails horribly under certain browsers
then it is a good time to rethink your design and find another
way to approach the issue. If your site is known to only work
under Internet Explorer and it is your desire to leave it this
way then it is good practice to let your visitors know this in
advance. They will be much likelier to switch browsers (if
possible) and come back to your site if you let them know ahead
of time rather than letting them walk into an unusable page or
badly formatted site. Don't forget presentation is everything.
About the author:
Matt Benya is a co-owner of Primate Studios (www.primatestudios.com) an independent
development house focusing on CGI illustration, Web design and
multimedia. With 20+ years of art experience and a degree in
Network administration Matt is well suited to translate your
needs to the Web.
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