Contributing Writer: Matt Benya
The question of cross browser compatibility is a common topic among Web developers.
Should you or should you not make your Web site 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 Web site
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.
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Matt Benya is a co-owner of Primate
Studios 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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