IE7 Support?

[Soma]

Just curious why you didn't support IE7? Is there any main functionality that isn't working in IE7 or just html/css reasons? I'm just wondering if we could manage to make it work with IE7.

We're currently doing early prototype work for a client's intranet. It's a big client and they internally mainly work with IE7-8. So this could be a deal breaker in the worst case.

[ryan]

I honestly don't know if it works with IE7 or not. It's certainly possible that it does. Support for old versions of IE is just a matter of limited resources to support a browser that none of my clients use. However, if a big project came along and the client said they had to use IE7, then I would add IE7 support if the resources were there in the budget to do it. The same goes for anyone else's projects. I'll be happy to add IE7 support if some individual or client wants to sponsor the time to do it, or someone else may want to take upon the task (and we can merge in official support). But my experience with older versions of IE has been that anytime I change or add anything at all, it's got to be tested (and often adjusted) to work in old versions of IE… it's a bit of a ball and chain.  

[apeisa]

I wouldn't bother at this point: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/12/15/microsoft-to-launch-auto-updates-for-internet-explorer/

Of course if there is organisation which IT-admin exclusively disallows update, then it wouldn't update to IE8/9. Then I would think about supporting IE7, especially if the project is big enough.

Little OT: Currently most our clients visitors have about 5% IE7 usage. I am very interested to see that statistic after few months to see how that auto update affected.

[Pete]

That's what's always bugged me - one site had about 5% IE6 usage a few years back but I had to still make the site work in IE6 because 5% of 200,000 is still worth catering to

Hopefully most system admins will not know about the automatic update program. I'm a system admin at work, but we only use the latest software anyway

[apeisa]

5% is definitely big chunk of overall users. So I wouldn't release a site that doesn't work well on IE7, at least if audience is not it-orientated. But for admin site it requires very specific case (like I think Soma has now) to add support.

Btw Soma, have you discussed about Chrome Frame: http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/ It installs without admin rights to IE 6/7/8 and should work with PW admin without any problems (may require one meta tag). Also would add support for drag and drop uploads.

[Pete]

I keep forgetting about Chrome Frame - thanks for reminding me as I can think of one site where I could offer that as an option other than telling users to simply upgrade.

[Nico Knoll]

I would recommend Modernizr.js with IE-Specific tags (<!--[if IE]>). Did this for my schools homepage and now it's working up to IE6.

[ryan]

One thing about IE6/IE7 stats is that as part of those aren't actually IE6/IE7. There are lots of forced IE6/IE7 useragents out there because many sites require it (though hopefully not so much anymore). It used to be I couldn't use my bank's website (among others) unless I disguised Firefox as IE7 (in the useragent). This is due to crappy web developers out there that [used to] develop IE-only sites. Most crawlers and bots use one of the IE useragents when they are trying to disguise themselves as well. Though you'd see those more in the server access lots and less so in the Google Analytics type logs. Basically I think we are going to continue seeing some IE6 and IE7 useragents long after anyone is actually using them.

Good idea about Modernizr. I haven't tried it but have been meaning to. Chrome Frame also seems like a great thing.

[nikola]

Just for fun, I've installed IE7 on VirtualPC, loaded PW in it and these are my observations:

• Some <li> tags that hold inputfield boxes doesn't work as expected
  
• Sorting, deleting and adding fields under templates doesn't work at all
  
• Few changes and some hacks would have to be implemented in css files to fix the layout (it breaks on several occasions)
  

[Soma]

Thanks guys for the answers and suggestions. I think Chrome Frame would be a possible solution to temporary make it work in IE7. I will make some tests.

Thanks Nikola for testing out, haven't got the time to test out and I just thought I would ask if there's a specific reason. That's pretty much what I thought would make problems in IE7. I think the layout things would be the easiest to fix, though I'm not sure I would take that path anyway. I used to do it for a decade now, time to move on

Well the "deal breaker" would be in using PW as the CMS for this project and not the job itself though. But we would like to use PW, as it would be a good fit.