Web Development: how to test IE compatibility

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Lately, we have seen an increasing interest in HTML5 and CSS3. The (not really recent) introduction of new features has been cautiously followed by web developers, and I don't know what's your feeling, however my impression is that the path to the new web is just full of pitfalls.

I recently had to develop a new web site and, because it was a very basic one, I decided to experiment a bit. I must say it has been quite satisfactory (coding-wise), however I had to spend quite some time to test it. I wanted to have almost a full compatibility and - as we have seen lately - the browser that gave me most troubles has been Internet Explorer.

In order to test a web site for compatibility issues, I usually publish it in a not-known sub-dir and then display it with different browsers. I test it with Safari, Opera, FireFox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. In addition, I use services like Browsershots and IE NetRenderer. However, they usually take a lot of time (especially the first) and because we know that time is money, I recently decided to look for something else.

JavaScript: get data from an xml file (like a Blogger backup file) and display it (or print it) - Part 2

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As promised, in the following article I will explain the code published in my previous post. I don't know how many of you are interested in explanations, but because I think that understanding things is better than merely copying examples, I will torture you with this. You've been warned!

JavaScript: get data from an xml file (like a Blogger backup file) and display it (or print it) - Part 1

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I've been running around this post quite a lot. I know that it could contain valuable information for everyone and specifically for Bloggers, but there's so much into it that I don't know where to start.
Anyway... The point here is:
1) take the Blogger backup file (xml) - or any other properly formed xml file (an Atom feed as well);
2) clean it up - if needed;
3) build an HTML page that gets the data from the xml file (using JavaScript);
4) properly style the page.

As you can see the task is not that easy... or is it? Read on, and judge for yourself.

Google+

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Just a quick note out of the ordinary stream of articles... if you are on Google+, I would be delighted if you add me to your circles.
In the meantime, keep on following The web thought, and have a spledid day!

ADODB: How to query a database (the command and recordset objects)

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In almost every article on The web thought, we are talking about retrieving data from a database. I recently realized that we've never really talked about how to do it. I don't want to get into it in a too technical way, however I would like to share the two ways I use to get data from a database using the command object and the recordset object. We will concentrate only on data collection, while manipulation (update, insert and delete) could be the topic for future posts.

Ok, let's begin then.

Browser Support: even Google is dealing with compatibility issues

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As of August 1st, we will discontinue support for the following browsers and their predecessors: Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari 3. In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Blogger as well as many other Google Apps such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites.
 
This is some news. It has been published on Blogger Buzz just last Friday (July 14th).

I've been talking about browser compatibility and support a lot lately. Older browser versions are still around, and - as web developers - we have to face more and more troubles just to make "everybody happy". When I recently had to show a new web site I developed, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw IE6 running on the meeting room pc. And you can imagine how difficult has been to explain how IE6 is some very old software ("I bought the pc just 5 years ago! It's not old!") and that it should have been replaced a few years ago with a newer version.

I believe the above news is definitely a very good news. Everyone should force people to use newer browsers - and possibly auto-updating ones. That will make us, web developers, take a deep breath of relief!

You can read the original post (Blogger Buzz: Update on Browser Support) and then, please leave a comment about it in the section below.

CSS3: Use CSS3 in IE 6-8 with PIE

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"Marco, the design department has prepared the layout for the new site. Please, now you can start developing it."

That's what I found in my company mailbox, the other day. Interesting enough, the design department is mainly a smart guy who's very skilled using Photoshop and stuff like that. But placing shadows, neat and polished background textures, rounded corners and every other embellishment you can think of, is drammatically easier to do with Photoshop than actually designing it with CSS, ASP and plain HTML.

Upon looking at the drafts, I immediately realized there were troubles ahead. The problem was compatibility...
I know, I know... we've been talking about CSS3 compatibility issues many times, however I believe that we can now start to talk about possible solutions... or not?

... drum roll ... the solution is already out there!