Chapter 4: Knowing the Browser Base

Overview

Author: Francis Storr

• Advantages of knowing the browser base

• Why web standards are still important

• Dealing with microsites

This chapter will look at the pros and cons of designing for just one target browser. While it can give you a nice warm feeling inside knowing that your audience all have exactly the same browser, should we really be taking the same care and consideration over our code that we would take if we were coding for the Web?

"There are many great things about designing and developing for intranets. At the top of this list is that you know your browser base."

In the outside world where there is a proliferation of operating systems and browsers, developers have to work hard to achieve consistent presentation across all of these. Browsers have vastly varying levels of support for even the most basic of standards, and this lack of a common standard is what makes Internet development so "interesting" at times. In an intranet environment however, where there will be just the one type of browser, we are in a much stronger position and can happily produce code with just the one browser in mind and forget about the rest. This may make our lives easier, but is it a good idea? We're going to be looking at the following areas over the course of this chapter:

• The browser upgrade process can be significantly slower on an intranet than it is in a home environment

• The need to ensure that existing sites are coded to standards so that they will work both now and in the future

• The possible legal implications of not coding to standards and making your site inaccessible to your colleagues

• The benefits of using standards and appropriate W3C technologies

• Trying to keep standards within the business

• What can you do with your existing browser base?

There are many great things about designing and developing for intranets. At the top of this list is that you know your browser base. You don't have to sit there with Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, Lynx et al. open, Alt-tabbing and refreshing to see whether everything looks okay. You can happily design for the one browser that you have in-house and forget about the rest. It's proprietary standards a go-go and here's to an easy life. Really? Is that wise? Let's think about this...