electronet » Browsers

Fixing the zoom:1; IE fix?

Todd Baker — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:04:53 +0000

Much has been written about the “magical fix” that *{zoom:1; } has on IE6 and IE7. By using this to force hasLayout onto IE a lot of the display issues we are used to are fixed easily.

BUT.. as i’ve just discovered… it can also create some of its own problems.

I had an issue reffered to me where IE6 was rendering some text way out of alignment, it seemed like a float clearing problem but clearing didnt have any affect. So I removed the zoom declaration and and that removed the problem, but restored a bunch of other problems the initial zoom:1; had fixed.

So, I had to find a way to reset the zoom property and the answer is “normal”. I also has to use * to apply it to ALL items in that box.

Browser here Browser there.. Browser’s everywhere!

Todd Baker — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:53:00 +0000

Well its an exciting month for browsers what with Google entering the fray and Microsoft dropping IE8 Beta 2 to the public.

Much has been written about both so I wont delve into it too much but to say I think its very exciting.

Google's business is the web so its no shock they've built a browser and that they seem to have done it well. The javascript engine is lightning fast and I havent found many layout problems. Whilst Mozilla have done a great job with Firefox I expect to see Chrome surpase it in browser stats within a few months and start to eat into IE's % also. Maybe it will also give MS another jolt towards a better browser.

Live Validation

Todd Baker — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:32:00 +0000

A very neat solution to javascript validation..

"LiveValidation is a small open source javascript library for making
client-side validation quick, easy, and powerful. It comprises of two
main parts. Firstly, it provides developers with a rich set of core
validation methods, which can also be used outside the context of
forms. Secondly, it provides your visitors with real-time validation
information as they fill out forms, helping them to get it right first
time, making the forms easier, quicker and less daunting to complete"

http://www.livevalidation.com/

Good form design

Todd Baker — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:31:00 +0000

Forms dont always get the design time they probably deserve. Obviously a form needs to be familiar and easy to use but it shouldnt be imune from the design process.

Smashing Mag have another great showcase article, this time it's forms! They've collected some great examples of creative forms.

Lite Box

Todd Baker — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:42:00 +0000

The way we implement photo galleries have change a lot since the V2 release of Lightbox. It was smooth and funky and DIDN'T use pop-ups. The only draw back was it was kinda big in size. Lite Box to the rescue. If you dont need the full prototype library it comes in at only 30k.

Planetozh has a good rundown of all the lightbox clones.

Cool AJAX Tools

Todd Baker — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:40:00 +0000

There is a great article over at Smashing Magazine
that shows off some of the neat effects achievable with a
healthy dose of javascript and CSS.

Their older Ajax & CSS and Photo Gallery articles are also still quite relevant.

IE8

Todd Baker — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:10:00 +0000

Much has been written about the 8th version in the Internet Explorer line and whilst the *news is good, unfortunately there is no escaping IE6 and 7 in the foreseeable future.

The IE dev team
at Microsoft genuinely seem to want produce a good standards compliant
browser but I suspect the big brass at Microsoft are scared of breaking
the long list of web applications that were built during *IE6’s reign.

This was evident when Microsoft announced that IE8 would render websites with the IE7 engine by default
and require a meta tag to force it into standards mode. This seemed
like sound logic on the surface but it was short sighted and caused an uproar amongst the web community. Microsoft, to its credit, relented and now IE8 will render in all its standards compliant glory
(I’ll get to that in a minute) by default. Sure some old applications
will break, but that’s the price of progress. Any vendors who refuse to
fix the issues can insert the appropriate meta tag and party like its
1999!

One CSS to rule them all.

Don’t get me wrong, IE6 was a great browser when it was launched almost 10 years ago, but the web has moved on and IE6’s erraddic css support and quirky bugs
make’s developing websites to support it difficult and costly. IE7 was
a small step but it was really 6.5. Several of the bugs from IE6 remain
and css support was only marginally improved.

So the only question left to answer is how good IE8 ends up being.
None of the current crop of browsers are perfect but we seem to be
getting closer to the holy grail of one css for everyone devoid of
nasty hacks. As I said earlier, it will be a while before it happens,
but we seem to be on the right track.