Serious Formatting error - IE8 and new Sarafi browser

by **John T** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:05 pm

There is a serious bug, making that chatrooms unusable in IE8 and the new Sarafi browser
Also some versions of IE7 - seems to be sporadic.
Started 2 weeks ago.
Problem - the right coloumn that lists names of people in the room appears at the bottom of the screen - over where you enter the text - makes it impossible to join in the converations.

Firefox - still works fine.

Please find a fix as this is driving all my members away, I tell them to download Firefox, but not all know how to/ give up

HELP!!! HELP

by **OldWolf** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:27 pm

Can you reproduce this problem on the official demo? I haven't had any problems with this.

by **John T** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:32 pm

Hi OldWolf,

Yes, I went into the demo in IE7 and 8 and the problem happened and it doesn't happen in Firefox.
I run a social networking site of 30,000 members - AllJoinOn.com in the last 2 weeks the number of complaints is increasing, so this isn't confined to me!!
Thanks for looking into this.

by **OldWolf** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:08 pm

Well I wasn't wondering if it was confined to your computer, but rather the way you have your site set up. However if you're getting it off of the official demo that would rule out that problem. This is really an issue for Kerphi to look into, but I don't know when he'll next been on the site (he hasn't been here for some time :/)

by **John T** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:58 pm

Hi, Thanks for your reply. Maybe you can advise on what I should do.
phpfree chat doesn't work for anyone who has upgraded their browser to IE8, or sarafi and latest versions IE7.
This is going to become a huge problem - the software will become oscelete.
I appreciate you this is not your full time job, but you guys have obviously invested alot of time making this work - are you really going to give all that up? letting the software die?

I this is a formatting fix, it can't be too hard, is there any way you could have a look?
Thank you

by **OldWolf** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:07 pm

Not only is it not my full time job... I'm not paid at all.

I'm sure Kerphi will want to look into it when he next comes by the site. Otherwise, if you've developed a whole networking site, you should be able to work out the issue as well. Let us know if you do find a solution... I do have access to the source control.

by **kriko** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:40 pm

Gosh! Indeed IE8 screws up the layout. Will take a look at css.

by **phpfreechat** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:34 pm

Hello,

I had a quick look in IE7 and I didn't have any formating problems on the official demo... I tested with this version : IE 7.0.5730.11
I can't test on IE8 because I just don't have it.
Could you check your IE7 version ?

regards,

by **kriko** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:37 pm

Quick workaround: In IE8 enable compatibility mode. Currently the fix is a bit over my head.

by **John T** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:24 pm

Hi,

Thank you for looking into this.

I checked which version of IE7 I had - it turned out it was IE8 - it must have upgraded without my realising! - so apologies for that.
It is just an IE 8 issue.

by **Kelly** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 12:25 am

To resolve this issue in IE8, instruct your IE8 Users as follows:

Go to Tools
Select Compatibility View Settings
The URL where your chat is should be displayed if the user is currently in your chat or on your site
Click Add
---OR---
Alternatively, the user can manually enter the URL
Click Close

ALSO - Strongly Recommended:

Alternatively, before clicking Close, the user should click the following Check Boxes:

Include updated website lists from Microsoft
Display all websites in Compatibility View
Click Close

To instruct users en masse: consider sending an email alert to your user mailing list, or posting a set of instructions beneath the chat window on the page it's hosted on. For example, I'll be adding to my page a list of commands that are available to users, along with a list of chat room rules and some 'how to" ideas. This is where I'll be adding the text on this fix for my users.

I don't use Safari, so I can't recommend a fix for that browser.

Kerphi - I don't have the programming knowledge to be able to determine what it is about IE8 that causes this issue, but it is clearly an IE8 issue...probably a known bug within IE - otherwise they wouldn't have built in a "Compatibility Mode" to begin with. But if you're going to research the issue at some future date, that might be a good place to start.

Seems like, based on posts found here, that the same issue is to be found in the newest version of the Safari browser as well.

Hope this helps

by **John T** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:52 am

Kelly - you are amazing, thank you so much for your post :-)

by **Kelly** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:41 pm

John - you're quite welcome and thanks for the compliment

But credit should go to Kriko for posting the initial idea

I came here looking for a fix, as you did, and his tip for a quick workaround pointed me in the right direction. All I did was type out the step by step instructions for his suggestion so folks could post it on their chat pages or send announcement emails to their chatters

The downside to this workaround is that it's inconvenient for chatters, some chatters won't read the email or the page post and will consistently (and annoyingly) ask how to fix it - or worse.... just go away because it doesn't look right. Also on the downside is that AOL users (IE is the default browser for AOL) don't have access to their browser settings, so they can't access this workaround. Fortunately, either AOL is currently still using IE7 or they've chosen to enable compatibility view on IE8 for all users...either way, this issue doesn't appear on IE via AOL.

In any event, I'm grateful for the workaround, despite any inconveniences associated with it. Thanks to Kriko for the tip!

by **sicrob007** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:22 pm

This is my first post to the forum. But this bug was driving me crazy and I wanted to share my solution with the community. I wanted to avoid having to explain to my end users (who aren't very computer literate in the first place) how to enable compatibility mode. I spent a lot of time trying to update and hack the CSS to work in IE8.

Thankfully there is a much easier way. Microsoft created a META tag that can be used to define the IE7 rendering engine on pages. This addition to the meta tag on all your chat pages will fix it until a long term solution can be made.

Code: Select all: <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" />

by **OldWolf** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:19 pm

That's a much better solution... I'll add it to the FAQ, thank you.

Serious Formatting error - IE8 and new Sarafi browser

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