Thursday 19th February 2009

Is your website ready for Internet Explorer 8?

Microsoft's newest version of its web browser software, Internet Explorer 8 is expected to be released sometime in 2009, but it might break your website.

Previous versions of Internet Explorer (IE) are well known in the professional web development community for their poor implementation of web standards in HTML, CSS and Javascript. This basically means that many web designers and web developers have been forced to resort to using code workarounds (or hacks) in otherwise perfectly valid HTML, CSS and Javascript in order to get web pages to look right in the various versions of IE. Typically, this means applying different fixes for IE 6 and IE 7. Some web designers may have even written CSS hacks for IE 5.5, although this is rarely supported in more recent websites.

When Microsoft last had a major release of IE (version 7) in late 2006, many thousands of web pages were broken when viewed in the new browser. This was because hacks which had been used to make the page look correct in IE version 6 didn't work properly in IE version 7. A good deal of this was Microsoft's own fault, because they had fixed some CSS parsing bugs without fixing the underlying HTML rendering errors.

Microsoft have decided to make Internet Explorer 8 comply with web standards to a much higher level that any previous version of IE. This will be a huge departure from previous version of IE, and Microsoft are already expecting trouble!

In anticipation of problems, Microsoft have given their new browser two "modes" of operation - in default mode, it will view your web pages using its new standards compliant rendering engine. However, if your web pages look broken, the user will be able to click a button which switches the browser back into IE7 style "legacy" rendering mode, which will view your web pages using an older version of their rendering engine similar to that used in IE7.

Unfortunately this won't change the fact that when the user first views your website, it will look broken. Many users will click away from your website immediately.

All-about-Microsoft blogger Mary-Jo Foley has reported that in new standards compliant mode, the current IE 8 release candidate will not work with at least 2,400 major web sites. That includes: Microsoft websites, MSN, the BBC, CNN, some Google sites, Apple, PayPal, Amazon, Barclays, Tesco, the Royal Mail, and ITV.

With a list of large websites such as these expecting problems, it is probably worth checking to see if your website will be affected!

The solution

Start testing your website with IE8 now. Testing is the only way to ensure correct operation of your website. Here at Invent Partners we test our web site designs and HTML code in at least 2 versions of Internet Explorer and numerous other web browsers too!

Make sure that the HTML in your website is standards compliant first, then fixed for IE 7 and IE 6 using only standards compliant methods (some developers will use Javascript based hacks, user agent string sniffing, or invalid HTML to fix problems: these are poor solutions, many of which will break in IE8).

Most layout problems seen in the Internet Explorer 8 can be addressed by simply using good quality HTML and CSS code. IE8 is a huge leap forward for Microsoft in its compliance with industry standards. Most professional web designers and developers welcome it with open arms.

And if all else fails, Get in touch with Invent Partners.

“ Invent Partners supported my cycling event with a stylish website, intuitive CMS and flexible and responsive ecommerce system. Thanks to their hard work and patience, my event sold out in hours, with riders praising the easy to use event entry system and customer service. Many thanks! ”
Danial, London Edinburgh London

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