Firefox and IE

[kev wood]

anyone ever had this problem before

 

I have created an web based application and it all works fine in firefox but when it is loaded into IE it all starts going wrong.  When some links are pressed it opens two windows with the same page.  All of the div tags have ended up all over the page (which i kind of expected to happen) I have a drop down menu an option is selected it should change the contents of a text box this does not work you can select the options but it has no effect on what goes on in the text box.

 

Why are firefox and IE so different and why is IE so sh*t.

[haku]

IE sucks. That's all there is to it. But unfortunately we are stuck with it (63% of the users on my company site are still using IE6!).

 

But, there are ways to minimize those problems. First off is to make sure your code is valid (http://validator.w3.org/). Next, you can use conditional comments (wikipedia this) to adjust for only IE.

 

Javascript will cause a whole different range of problems, as IE doesn't actually use javascript, it uses its own version - jscript - which overlaps a lot with javascript but unfortunately also has a lot of jscript specific code.

[rhodesa]

Do you have a link to the site? I'm sure lot's of people will have tips on how to fix some stuff if we had something to look at.

[TheFilmGod]

You should stop supporting IE6. It is crap and IE7 has already come out. As a matter of fact, IE8 beta already came out too (but its actually worse than IE6).

 

Here's my advice ==> Learn to use full CSS, with semantic code. Remember to clear floats, use margins correctly, use position: inline for floated divs within parent divs that are floated, use padding plentiful, use <h> <p> for text instead of other divs.... The list keeps going.

 

[haku]

I'd love to stop supporting IE6, except that looking at the server stats for one of the sites I maintain the other day, I discovered that 63% of my users are using IE6! Sucks.

[kev wood]

thanks for the replies the problems caused with this site where not created by me i had finished the majority of someone else's work it is actually a web application for distributing email news letters for companies and local councils.  the person who started had undertook all design work and has he had worked in the industry for a lot longer than me i was expecting all these problems to be sorted to start.

 

to get round these problems for this application i just added a bit of php code to check what browser they are using and if it not firefox it directs them to the firefox download page.  the more people we can get to not use IE then just maybe Microsoft will bring IE up to speed with the web standards that we are supposed to be using.

[haku]

While I applaud your efforts to get people to use firefox, you should be aware that you will lose a significant number of your Internet Explorer users in this manner, as many/most people are not willing to download software in order to be able view a website.

[kev wood]

it is actually a web application and for it to run as intended it needs to be run in firefox so i will install it for them when i am installing it on there servers.  i will have to go and give tutorials on how to use it anyway.  most of them will not have a clue so i will just be able to tell them the benefits of using firefox and hopefully make more of them move across for good.

[dbrimlow]

When some links are pressed it opens two windows with the same page.

 

Without seeing the code I can only guess, but in general, I've had this happen if you have any blank tags in an image source or links, eg:

 

<img id="Ath_Slide" src=" " alt=" " >

 

The example is drastic, but the idea is the same, make sure you don't have blank (null) elements in your dynamic html tags.