ASP.NET 2.0 / 3.5 / AJAX support for browsers other than IE

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VR@MSDN.COM - 16 Dec 2007 07:40 GMT

Hello,

I am a rookie web developer and faced with an important decision of choosing
the development platform and language for a brand new software my company is
about to build.

Whereas I am leaning towards ASP.NET simply because of my familiarity with
C#, a more important factor of compatibility comes to mind. The big question
is how ASP.NET 2.0, 3.5 and MS AJAX technology support Mozilla Firefox and
Safari.

I guess I am not looking for specifics as to which control or functionality
is supported and which is not (I will appreciate them though), but an
approximation of whether ASP.NET is the best platform to use when it comes to
playing with other major browsers.

Thank you in advance for any feedback.
VR

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Mark Fitzpatrick - 16 Dec 2007 08:10 GMT

They all non-ie browser just fine. Since the ASP.Net server controls render
HTML, css, and javascript it's fairly cross-platform. The ajax library is a
client-side javascsript library, it just has server-side functionality to
aid the generation of the client-side events.

That said, one of the main problems most developers face cross-platform is
simple design issues. These are essentially the same for non-ASP.Net sites
as you need to craft your basic HTML and CSS in such a way that it will work
cross-browser.

Signature

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - Expression

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> Thank you in advance for any feedback.
> VR

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VR@MSDN.COM - 16 Dec 2007 17:46 GMT

Mark,

Thanks for the post. I was really hoping to hear something like that :)

Could you recommend a good book and/or other resources on the subject
cross-platform compatibility? I'd love to get a chance to learn on the
mistakes of others :)

Thanks,
VR

> They all non-ie browser just fine. Since the ASP.Net server controls render
> HTML, css, and javascript it's fairly cross-platform. The ajax library is a
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> > Thank you in advance for any feedback.
> > VR

Reply to this Message

Mark Rae [MVP] - 16 Dec 2007 19:17 GMT

>> They all non-ie browser just fine. Since the ASP.Net server controls
>> render
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> cross-platform compatibility? I'd love to get a chance to learn on the
> mistakes of others :)

Cross-platform compatibility isn't really the issue - it's cross-browser
compatibility that you need to account for...

The problem here is mainly historical. From the mid 90s, IE has had the
lion's share of the browser market and it is only relatively recently that
FireFox and Safari have made any inroads into this. This has meant that lots
of web developers simply didn't care about any browser other than IE because
they didn't think it was worth the effort. It's not difficult to have a
certain amount of sympathy with this attitude - how many desktop developers
do you know who go out of their way to provide a Mac version of their apps,
let alone a Linux version...?

W3C is an independent body which provides standards for the web. But the
verb *provides* is the crux of the matter here - it can only *provide*
standards, because *enforcing* standards on the web is totally impossible
due to its fundamental architecture. Microsoft, to a greater or lesser
extent, ignored these standards completely right up to IE6, which remains
the least standards-compliant browser in active use today. To make matters
worse, of course, IE6 remains the most popular browser in use today :-)
However, Microsoft have responded to the criticism of IE6 with IE7 which is
much more standards-compliant, though there's still a fair way to go yet...

So what's a web developer to do?

Firstly, develop against FireFox, not IE. Install FireFox on your
development box and set that as the default browser in Visual Studio.NET.

Secondly, make all your web apps standards-compliant. Choose either HTML4.01
or XHTML 1.0 Transitional. You can set this in Visual Studio.NET.

Thirdly, develop against FireFox but test against IE.

If your web apps are 100% compliant with either one of the standards above,
and function correctly in FireFox and IE, it's a pretty safe bet that they
will function correctly in all other modern browsers too...

Signature

Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

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VR@MSDN.COM - 17 Dec 2007 03:49 GMT

Mark,

Thank you for the post.

Thank to you I regained my courage -- all of a sudden I feel I could
actually do it.

VR

> >> They all non-ie browser just fine. Since the ASP.Net server controls
> >> render
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
> and function correctly in FireFox and IE, it's a pretty safe bet that they
> will function correctly in all other modern browsers too...

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Scott Lloyd - 18 Dec 2007 20:59 GMT

Microsoft built ASP.Net and the AJAX extensions with compatibility in mind.
Features built using something specific to modern browsers will even degrade
gracefully when possible (like async postbacks converting to full
postbacks).

Scott Lloyd
Lloyd Software

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> Thank you in advance for any feedback.
> VR

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Wolfing - 19 Dec 2007 22:03 GMT

> Microsoft built ASP.Net and the AJAX extensions with compatibility in mind.
> Features built using something specific to modern browsers will even degrade
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
> > Thank you in advance for any feedback.
> > VR

I don't know, but just using some of the 2.0 AJAX controls in the
tookit without any changes, and I found that they would work in IE but
not in Firefox. Even with the standard AJAX controls, for example, I
spent hours trying to figure out why the login control wasn't working,
and suddenly I thought about trying the page in IE... it worked. I
hope they fixed those things in 3.5.

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ASP.NET 2.0 / 3.5 / AJAX support for browsers other than IE

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