Issues with IE Compatibility

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Be aware of the difference between the Browser Mode vs. Document Mode.

  • Browser Mode is controlled by the client browser - is affected primarily by "Compatibility View" settings as well as domain 
  • Document Mode is controlled by the web server, and/ or the web page 

Using IE 8-9, some strange behaviour has been observed.

Enabling Compatibility View (for either intranet, all websites) would result in the following for affected sites:
  1. IE conditional comments would detect IE7
  2. User-agent sent would be IE7 (compatible)
  3. Browser mode would show IE 9 Compatibility View
  4. Document mode would be IE 7 standard
The above behaviour would not be affected by X-UA-Compatible meta-tags within the page. 
However, sending X-UA-Compatible HTTP header would alter the behaviour as follows:
  1. IE conditional comments would detect IE9
  2. User-agent sent would be IE7 (compatible)
  3. Browser mode would show IE 9 Compatibility View
  4. Document mode would depend on the value of the X-UA-Compatibility (E.g. IE=edge)
In a corporate intranet environment where IE 8-9 is ubiquitous, the recommended practice would be to:
  • If there is intention to support IE7: Design and test the site/ application for IE7 up to the latest prevailing IE
  • Otherwise: Send the X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge HTTP header so that testers using IE 8-9 would not be affected by browser mode "Compatibility View" - which would have forced the document mode to be IE 7.
Some resources:
  1. Javascript inspector
  2. IE9 Compatibility Cookbook
  3. IE9 Javascript changes
  4. Preparing website for IE9
  5. IE9 document modes and Javascript support
  6. Even Baidu uses DocType to resolve issues!

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