I am making a website, where when i preview it in safari. It turns out exactly as i want it to be. But when i test it out with firefox.
In my page i have a element that is aligned on the page using
Padding-left and Margin-top. Which works perfectly when i preview it in safari. But when i open the file in firefox. The element's Margin-top increases by a few pixels.
How do i code my css file so that i can have the same page for different browsers. I have tried looking on the web for a solution, but none of them so far has helped with the problem.
Reply's will be much appreciated.
As jsteinmann said, check use http://validator.w3.org/ to ensure your page validates. This will take some time to figure out if you are new, but it is an essential step.
If you are having an issue with FireFox, you are probably going to die when you look in IE. Bookmark this link! http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537512(v=vs.85).aspx
You have a lot to learn and google will help: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=introduction+to+cross+browser+testing&oq=introduction+to+cross+browser+testing&aqs=chrome.0.57.5763&sugexp=chrome,mod=12&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
In future, use stackoverflow for specific questions with code examples. You will find that you get specific answers quite quickly.
Also, don't forget to tick the answer that you find most useful, and also vote some up a level. That's why people spend the time answering your questions.
Enjoy the long road ahead :)
Specify all four margin and all four padding values explicitly. That will eliminate the diffferences in the browsers' built-in default stylesheets.
There can be several reasons why your finding your layouts aren't cross-browser compatible, so it would take a considerable amount of info of the markup and css to make any kind of determination on how to help you code a 100% W3C valid web page.
I would suggest using a css framework like blueprint or 960 for your layouts, so you have less issues in this way. It's a good way to start and maintain projects, and learn how to create layouts if you choose not to use a framework.
Also, I would suggest testing all of your projects in chrome and firefox first, then safari, simply because of the amount of users that use those two browsers compared to safari. I would also say, if it looks good in chrome, it will probably look good in safari and firefox, but it's always worth testing.
Related
I just got into web development 2 months ago for a personal project. I am know facing an issue for which I would appreciate some advice of experienced people. In my project, I am using a lot css3 "effects": border-radius, box-shadows, gradients,etc. The thing is, I am now confronted to cross-browser issues. So my question is simple. Is it better to apply css hacks or use images (psd slicing)? Thank you in advance for your replies. Cheers. Marc.
I think you want to do a combination of both. PSD slicing will make it harder to update and maintain, whereas hacks don't usually get you what you want. Check out http://css3pie.com/ to see how you can incorporate most of the CSS3 techniques with IE. It's a great resource and I use it every day. It only works well for some items though, like drop shadow doesn't work well with PIE. For something like that you might do a background image of a drop shadow.
If you use some psd slicing make sure that the people that are visiting your website will not have any issues with slow loading. Truth be told, lots of people have a decent internet connection now so having a few more psd slicing will not be a problem.
Just make sure your images are well optimised for web and that should do the trick !
There are certainly items that you can use images for, but above all else, you are better off embracing the principals of progressive enhancement and making something that is compliant with current web standards. Older browsers are slowly going away, but web standards are not.
Ensure that all visitors to the site are able to access the most important parts of the site. Parts of the site may need to gracefully degrade and hide some features that are mainly aesthetic. You can then apply appropriate fixes for those areas that could either be CSS hacks or images (for example, drop shadows and gradients).
Webkit is an awful renderer in my opinion. As a web designer/developer, I take into account how my design looks at every magnification. Webkit handles this extremely poorly. Margins, padding, and borders all get rendered extremely poorly across various magnifications and there is no CSS you can use that is "cross-zoom" compliant in WebKit. Zoom in and out of any webpage in IE, Firefox, Opera and it is consistent. Take a look at this site, for instance:
http://development.mminc.co/davidphotos/
Try using the carousel at the bottom at different magnifications in IE or Firefox. Works fine, right? Now try the same thing in Chrome or Safari. BOOM! A developer's nightmare! Please, if anyone knows of any tricks of the trade to get Webkit to behave with something that even Trident is able to successfully do I'd like to hear it. I've heard of a jQuery zoom plugin, but that is sort of a last resort. I've looked everywhere for the issue but no one even mentions Webkit zoom issues. It's like it's taboo or something. Personally I think it's one of the biggest blunders of the modern browser era, especially when such a (otherwise) great browser like Chrome is giving me more trouble with presentation issues than IE7.
EDIT: I feel I should be more general and use an example where it is obvious only HTML and CSS are implemented.
http://www.gamespot.com/
Webkit forces a line-break with the top menu w/ zoom tests, but other browsers don't. It is a major issue with the engine and if there are any concrete solutions I'd like to hear them. If there isn't then I think this issue should be addressed and resolved immediately; it is an eyesore to users and a nightmare for developers. The fact that it isn't addressed anywhere on the net is troublesome.
This isn't answering how to fix WebKit zoom issues in general, but it should help with your specific problem.
You're using jCarousel.
Even the simple demo shows the same problems you describe.
So, that plugin is simply broken when it comes to zooming with WebKit browsers.
You could either ask the author of the plugin for advice, or find a different carousel plugin.
For instance, this one doesn't seem to have any problems when you zoom in using a WebKit browser:
http://www.thomaslanciaux.pro/jquery/jquery_carousel.htm (look at the "dispItems" demo)
i've created some pages using css, but on viewing the page through different browsers it appeared as irregular arrangement of contents..
You're going to have to be more specific than this.
Which browsers display the page 'correctly' and which don't? Some older browsers have... dubious CSS support, and some of the things that work well in IE8/FF3.5 won't work in IE6/FF1.
Which CSS properties are you using & having trouble with? I take it you're talking about position or float or similar since you refer to an "irregular arrangement of contents", but that doesn't narrow it down all that much.
Are some browsers displaying the page as if there's no CSS being applied at all? It's possible you've got your stylesheet link a little wrong, and some browsers are 'fixing' it for you and some are just not loading the sheet at all.
Unfortunately, you potentially have more than one problem. Browser interoperability isn't going to be as easy as doing a setting. You have to compare some of the browser compatibilities and change your code to get it to look perfect in all browsers (if indeed such a nirvana is achievable for all page designs).
One thing you could try is a CSS reset such as MeyerWeb. This will remove some of the defaults that the browsers do not share - therefore potentially giving you similar looking pages from which, you can adapt to look as you want them too again.
There are other methods, including comparing all the differences. But unfortunately, my point is that this isn't likely to be a quick fix without knowing more about the specific issues your having.
Looking back at Stackoverflow podcast with Litmus (Podcast 78). The podcast discussed briefly the browser incompatibilities and quirks, especially with IE6 (a claim echoed everywhere). Litmus solution is to render the page in all the different browsers and look for differences.
However, I wonder how much incompatibility can be detected by simply analyzing the html and css directly, without actually rendering it.
I'm quite a newbie in this field. But I saw many references out there ... that document the IE 6 bugs and limitation, and how to avoid them when writing new documents.
If that's the case, then can a tool be made to validate and analyze the CSS and report any potential compatibility problems with the CSS?
Are there some incompatibilities that cannot be detected (due to lack of documentation) and potential limitation of such tool (when interacting with javascript and such)?
When we were developing Browsera, we tried to go about detecting cross-browser issues by looking at CSS styling alone. The problem is, it's the interaction between elements that causes the problem, rather than a specific style.
For example, if it were always the case that setting a margin would result in a double-margin, it would be detectable. However, the double margin bug in IE only occurs when there is a float in the same direction, and only for the first element in the row.
In addition to many of the IE6 layout engine issues, a lot of issues we detect are caused by different default stylesheets of browsers. For example, default margins and font size/rendering vary widely across browsers, which is probably the number one cause of layouts that look "not quite right" when you open them in other browsers.
The page seen by an Internet Explorer user is in fact built by IE parsing html and css; so, by definition, it is possible to build a tool that, knowing IE bugs, report potential problems.
Anyway, I don't think it would be easy.
Sure it can, but that's not the point of Litmus's business.
You can analyze a site and report on all the stuff that would render differently, but that wouldn't help much. Litmus's business is not designed to let you know what stuff is incompatible, it's designed to show you how it will be rendered, so you can figure out if and where your site needs improvement.
Making a website look exactly the same across all browsers is very hard, and takes a lot of resources. Often you'll need to compromise and make sure your site still looks decent on all these browsers.
No analysis tool can tell you if your site still looks decent.
I'm having major rendering issues in Safari with the web application I'm working on. Most of the design is done with divs using absolute positioning. This renders fine on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Netscape, and konqueror. In Safari, it's just a jumbled mess.
Does Safari lack support for absolute positioning of div elements?
What is the best way to trouble shoot and find out what is going on with the safari browser?
UPDATE: I'd like to note I did find the issue, and I would like to thank everyone that gave suggestions. It was the WebKit's "Inspect Element" that gave the most useful information. It appears that their were conflicts with inline styles and styles from the CSS. While safari grabed the styles from the .css file, the rest of the browsers were using the inline styles. i was able to see those conflicts with the information in the tool that was suggested.
The problem may lie somewhere in your JavaScript; one of the most noticeable things about Safari is that it likes to stop executing JavaScript after any errors.
CSS is likely not the issue, since Safari has better standards and CSS support than any other browser out there (alright, I said it.)
Use the built-in Web Inspector in a recent nightly build of WebKit to track down your issues.
1. Safari's support?
Safari is actually a decent browser. If it has its flaws, they aren't any worse than those of any other browser, and they aren't of the class of the old IE browsers, which had very serious problems and lacked even basic support for web standards. To answer you question specifically, yes, it does support absolute positioning.
Safari can certainly render modern X/HTML CSS designs, and since your audience is largely using Safari anyway, you may as well forget the notion of dismissing the browser. It's a good browser, and in any case we're powerless to change it. We simply need to take care of these bugs, whatever they are.
2. How to go about debugging?
Without having a specific example, it's not something anyone can really help you to do. It seems fair to say that you're having some issues controlling css-based layouts. You may have some invalid markup, which in some cases could produce the kind of extreme browser-specific abnormalities you've described.
Start with the basics. Validate your markup and CSS.
Markup Validator
CSS Validator
Make sure you're rendering in standards mode.
Seek out answers to specific questions
If everything validates and you're still having problems, you'll have to track them down one by one. Even if you rebuild the page, piece by piece in Safari in order to see where things begin to unwind, it will be worth it to do. If during this process you really don't understand why a certain behavior exists, you'll at least have a specific question that you can use to poke around for answers. It may be answered already on SO, and if it isn't, you can ask it.