XenForo and Internet Explorer

[Forsaken]

Cant really take anyone seriously who uses IE - explain to your members that its likely a browser issue, due to most versions of IE being out of date. If they are on Windows XP but dont want to use the much superior webkit based browsers, ask them to install chromeframe.

If people still refuse then screw them. Sorry but IE is a plague on the internet.

None of that is an option for many industries.

 

[Chris D]

A simple HTML notice will suffice:

<!--[if IE]>
<p>Upgrade to a more modern browser</p>
<![endif]-->

Or: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/customisable-browser-update-org-widget.764/

 

[Robbo]

Maybe you should disable all your javascript stuff for IE 8 and lower. That way everything should at least function.

 

[mike os]

Cant really take anyone seriously who uses IE - explain to your members that its likely a browser issue, due to most versions of IE being out of date. If they are on Windows XP but dont want to use the much superior webkit based browsers, ask them to install chromeframe.

If people still refuse then screw them. Sorry but IE is a plague on the internet.

odd, because i find it utterly unbelievable that anyone involved in IT would not do their best to support what is still if not the most used, the second most used browser in the world.

Wheter you or i like it or not is utterly irrelevant.

 

[mike os]

The only "error" i have found with IE &XF is that people need to code notices correctly if they are not to affect the rest of the display. eg not closing all open <center> will cause whole page to center.... but that is a programmer error not an IE error

 

[Chris D]

odd, because i find it utterly unbelievable that anyone involved in IT would not do their best to support what is still if not the most used, the second most used browser in the world.

Wheter you or i like it or not is utterly irrelevant.

I think he's more referring to IE6 and IE7 which has a browser share of 1.5%.

And IE as a whole is only 16%. 3rd - nowhere near second.

 

[whynot]

And IE as a whole is only 16%. 3rd - nowhere near second.

According to Wikipedia it is second with 22.01%
According to Pcworld it is second with 31.94%

 

[Chris D]

Well it depends where the stats come from.

Still, the comments are still more geared towards IE6 and IE7. There's no place in this world for either browser. They are insecure, incompatible and provide a poor internet experience. IE8 - IE10, XenForo runs fine and it's worth supporting.

 

[RickM]

Chris is right - it was geared more towards IE6 and 7. Although IE8 is not much better IMO. IE9 and 10 are much better, but still use the crappy Trident engine.

In an ideal world, everyone would use one of those "YOUR BROWSER IS OUT OF DATE" messages that forces people to update to see the site, unfortunately it wont happen though.

 

[RickM]

None of that is an option for many industries.

Chrome Frame is an option. Network admins can install it, and it'll only activate on sites with a specific metatag. Obviously a lot of places are stuck with IE 6 or 7, as their internal systems were written by idiots who couldnt get cross-browser development right. Chromeframe is an ideal option for these corporations as it still allows the Trident engine to work within IE.

 

[Chris D]

It's a shame as this one I created ages ago is really unobtrusive: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/customisable-browser-update-org-widget.764/ and easy to set up, install and configure.

 

[mike os]

w3 counter 27% 2% behind chrome
statcounter 32% chrome 34%

old versions are a pita, but that goes for any browser, not just IE

 

[mike os]

In an ideal world, everyone would use one of those "YOUR BROWSER IS OUT OF DATE" messages that forces people to update to see the site, unfortunately it wont happen though.

at that point you alienate many on a buisiness machine .......

 

[Chris D]

that goes for any browser, not just IE

Absolutely.

Any browser older than 3 years should not be supported. And maybe if people stopped supporting them, maybe there wouldn't be so much of an issue.

 

[RickM]

at that point you alienate many on a buisiness machine .......

The actual percentage of people using IE7/IE6 to access your XenForo forums on 'business machines' (I.e at work on a semi-locked down network) is probably minuscule. Theres certainly no reason why people cant at least put the out-of-date notice that Chris pointed to onto their sites (http://xenforo.com/community/resources/customisable-browser-update-org-widget.764/)

 

[craigiri]

More and more users are complaining that XenForo is hard to use with Internet Explorer. We even hear that users are not able to post if they use that browser.

What are your experiences with XenForo and IE?

Could it be that the very old jQuery version XenForo uses is the reason for that?

This is a big thing - here is my goog page speed report - notice that IE is 2 to 3X slower than other browsers! There has to be a clear reason for this when spread over so many instances. Any guesses?

Given the number of IE loads, I would assume mostly modern instances of IE.
Edit - checked and most are 8 and 9

 

[Digital Doctor]

How do I get Internet Explorer ? (to test it).

 

[craigiri]

Here is another hint and possible anomaly. It appears that many pages in IE are only slightly slower than the other browsers, but one particular forum is massively slower! Since that is a "normal" forum, it's hard to put a finger on what could be wrong....nothing different about that forum in terms of ads, etc.....

 

[Chris D]

I wonder if that particular forum is a more popular one? Perhaps a lot of people have it bookmarked or it is particularly well indexed and relevant to search results and it is the first page they get to when they visit your site. If so, the first page load of any site often takes longer than subsequent ones while the sites resources are cached by the browser.

IE is slower than most other browsers in general. This isn't XF specific.

 

[craigiri]

I wonder if that particular forum is a more popular one? Perhaps a lot of people have it bookmarked or it is particularly well indexed and relevant to search results and it is the first page they get to when they visit your site. If so, the first page load of any site often takes longer than subsequent ones while the sites resources are cached by the browser.

IE is slower than most other browsers in general. This isn't XF specific.

It is not my most popular forum......and my server load is always well less than 1, so it's hard to see how that can account for 10 and 20 second load times.....

Here is that page sorted by top browsers.....21 seconds for IE!