GUI Constraints

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Introduction[edit]

This page should give a short overview on browser-related requirements. As a rough approach it was decided that eSciDoc solutions need to support browsers with respect to layout consistency only 3 years back. Older browsers like IE 5,5.5 or FF1.x should offer the functionality but may be limited regarding the GUI display. The GUI constraints are set up to develop all GUIs against a clear target. This doesn't mean, Solutions benefit from now on. As far as GUI V2 is implemented and tested, these constraints will be fulfilled.

Supported Desktop Browsers - productive[edit]

name version release date[1] market share[2] Layout supported Function supported Testing
Internet Explorer 7.0 2006/10 22,2% yes yes required
8.0 2009/03 yes yes required
9.0 2011/03 yes yes required
Firefox 2.0 2006/10 37.3 % yes yes required
3.0 2008/07 yes yes required
4.0 2011/03 yes yes required
Safari 4.0 2009/06 8.5% yes yes required
5.0 2010/06 yes yes required
Google Chrome 8.x-10.x 2010/12 unknown % ??? ??? required

Required web techniques[edit]

name version release date activation[3] support
Cascading Style Sheets 2.0 05/1998 100%[4] yes
2.1 2007 specials only[5]
Cookies - - 98.8%[6] yes[7]
JavaScript[8][9] 1.5 2000-2001 99.7 % yes
HTML 1-4 1990-2000 conditioned by browser yes
X 1.0 2000/01 conditioned by doctype yes

Media Types[edit]

Type Style Usability
PRINT Navigation is not printed Content is readable
SCREEN screen presentation, without small mobile devices Browser/Device dependent
MOBILE Device/Browser dependent (textmode via CSS degradation) Device/Browser dependent

Supported Desktop Browsers - non productive[edit]

name version release date[1] market share[2] Layout supported Function supported Testing
Internet Explorer 9.0 2011/03 ~ yes yes Occasionally, client logic + GUI
Firefox 3.6 2008/07 37.3 % yes yes client logic, GUI - CSS3
4.0 2011/03 yes yes Occasionally, GUI
Google Chrome 9.x-11.x 2010/12 unknown % yes yes GUI
Safari 5.0 2010/06 8.5% yes yes GUI (Mac)
Opera 10.5+ 2009/09 1.0% not required yes -
11.x 2010/12 not required yes -
Mini mobile not required yes -
Konqueror - 2010/12 unknown % no yes GUI 
-- standing: 2011/01 / update every 6 month

Functionality for older Browsers like Safari 2.x - 3.x, Opera 7.x, Firefox 1.x should be available but will not be evaluated.

Statistcs of awstats from edoc is falsified by 28.6% of unknown brosers, caused by the apache webserver itself. Functionality for older Browsers like Opera 7.x, Firefox 1.x should be available but will not be evaluated.

Required web techniques[edit]

name version release date activation[10] support elementary supported by
Cascading Style Sheets 2.0 05/1998 100%[11] yes
2.1 2007 specials only[12]
3.0 -[13] conditioned by browser yes [14]IE6 - 10% / IE7 - 13% / IE8 - >13%
FF3 -27% / Opera9 - 19%
Safari 4 & 5 - ?% / Chrome 8 & 9 - ?%
Cookies - - 98.8%[15] yes[16]
JavaScript[17][18] 1.5 2000-2001 99.7 % yes
HTML 1-4 1990-2000 conditioned by browser yes
X 1.0 2000/01 conditioned by doctype yes
5 >=2011 conditioned by browser yes IE >= 9, FF > 3.5, Safari >= 5

Media Types[edit]

Type Style Usability
PRINT Navigation is not printed Content is readable
SCREEN screen presentation, without small mobile devices Browser/Device dependent
MOBILE Device/Browser dependent (textmode via CSS degradation) Device/Browser dependent

Browser Support Reasoning[edit]

Change of the browser zoo[edit]

As at least 4 new browsers will appear in 2011, all with relevant market share, there is a strong need for focussing on testing and compatibility. Only a set of five browsers can be maintained properly by UIE. There is a urgent need of taking out old browsers and decide for new ones on short term.

Three browsers need to be supported any way:

  1. IE9
  2. FF4
  3. Safari 5
  4. Google Chrome

The following browsers will not be tested and developed on a regular base

  1. IE6
  2. IE7
  3. FF2
  4. Safari 3
  1. reasons for Safari / Webkit:
    1. more usage of safari browser
    2. more power on googles chrome
    3. safari & chrome has the same basic engine with a minimum of divergence
    4. a lot of mobile devices are apple devices with webkit engines
  2. reasons against IE Version 6 & 7:
    1. uncomfortable design / layout [2] [3] [4]
      1. object-tag with automatic padding for images
      2. double margin bug
      3. ignore min width & min height
      4. non-alpha transparent PNG files
    2. general stagnancy of IE
      1. IE 6 decreased under 2.5% - January 2011 2.2%
    3. deprecate new web-based developments and new technologies
  • scientific projects & innovatioin
  • first productive scenarios minimum x+2 years

Browser usage on edoc[2][edit]

IE edoc.jpg Firefox edoc.jpg Other browser edoc.jpg Browser allocation.jpg

NEW BROWSER FEATURES[edit]

all about new features in new browser versions

IE 9[edit]

FF 4[edit]

  • New JS values: Changes to the C++ representation of JavaScript values allow Firefox to execute heavy, numeric code more efficiently, resulting in cleaner graphics and a better browsing experience.
  • 3D on the Web: WebGL brings 3D graphic
  • new / better HTML5 support
    • new parser and full support for web video, audio, drag & drop, and file handling
      • Audio API - <audio><video> - for developers to use JS to read and write audio data.
  • Stylin’ Pages with CSS3 - Support for new CSS3 features like Transitions and Transformations
  • SVG files can be used as images and backgrounds
  • Experience super-fast graphics acceleration with Direct2D and Direct3D on Windows, XRender on Linux and OpenGL on Mac, now enabled by default, on all supported hardware
  • source: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/features/

Safari (Google Chrome) - Webkit[edit]

  • CSS 2.1, CSS3 support:
    • border-image
    • border-radius
    • background-size
    • text stroke vs. fill [5]
  • Styleable form controls ( demo 1[6], demo 2[7])
  • DOM web inspector [8]
  • Drosera (JS debugger)
  • Enhanced Rich Text Editing ( demo[9])
  • XML techologies:
    • XPath
    • SVG (partial SVG 1.1 FULL)[10]
    • XSLTProcessor JavaScript API for XSLT
  • Plugins:
    • Netscape-style (NPAPI) plugins and WebKit plugins (Mac OS X only).
    • The following plugins are known to work with the Gtk port, others may work but have not been tested:
      • mplayer
      • Adobe Flash Player
      • DiamondX
  • source: http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/WebKitFeatures


Progressive Enhancements (related to productive solutions only)[edit]

GUI components may make use of progressive enhancements. Standard conform and more modern browser benefit from new features. The result will be detail improvements that will give an advantage in usability and appearance in modern browsers. They do not affect older browser versions at all:

To preserve consistency of layout and behaviour components only make use of:

  • visual details (border appearance, additional background decoration)
  • details in interaction (typing, dragging, hover)

the following aspects should not be affected

  1. functionality (as described by use cases)
  2. application logic
  3. overall user experience

Supported Dialogs[edit]

standard dialog - clickable - support yes
overlay dialog - hover - support yes
elevated dialog - clickable - support yes
modal dialog - no

Layout Engines and Mobile Browsers[edit]

WebKit (Chrome, Safari) Also used for the mobile devices. Layout, and functional features may appear different.

Gecko (FF, Netscape) Also used for the mobile devices. Layout, and functional features may appear different.

Trident (IE) Also used for the mobile devices. Layout, and functional features may appear different.

Presto (Opera) Also used for the mobile devices. Layout, and functional features may appear different.

Screen Resolution Optimization[edit]

Screen Resolution optimized for
800 / 600 scroll only[19]
1024 / 768 optimized
1152 / 864 optimized
1280 / 1024 optimized
1600 / 1200 optimized
  • screen resolution
    • standard: 1024x768
    • for mobile: separate discussion
      • maybe: CSS Media Queries for different range's of resolutions

The situation has changed here. Mobile clients are advancing with very different resolutions and density:

  • iphone3: 480x320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi
  • iphone4: 960x640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi

Although the layout runs fine we still lack a mobile stylesheet here.

Browser resolution ww.jpg
source: [11]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 [1]
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 share according to the edoc webstats (November 2010)
  3. ↑ percentage of users with activated technique according to www.webhits.de (march 2008)
  4. ↑ although all modern browsers support at least CSS1, the implementation level and the level of support differs
  5. ↑ although CSS 2.0 is not explicitly required its support will enable some rare extra features
  6. ↑ (february, 11th 2011)
  7. ↑ cookies support is required for system login
  8. ↑ JavaScript version 1.5 is used by 99.7% of all users with activated JavaScript according to www.webhits.de (january 2011)
  9. ↑ (february, 11th 2011)
  10. ↑ percentage of users with activated technique according to www.webhits.de (march 2008)
  11. ↑ although all modern browsers support at least CSS1, the implementation level and the level of support differs
  12. ↑ although CSS 2.0 is not explicitly required its support will enable some rare extra features
  13. ↑ still work in progress
  14. ↑ (last check: february, 11th 2011)
  15. ↑ (february, 11th 2011)
  16. ↑ cookies support is required for system login
  17. ↑ JavaScript version 1.5 is used by 99.7% of all users with activated JavaScript according to www.webhits.de (january 2011)
  18. ↑ (february, 11th 2011)
  19. ↑ on monitors with too small resolutions the solutions will be viewable via horizontal scrolling only


Known Development Bugs[edit]

Please take care on Addons in Internet Explorer!

IE Bug - DivX Addon & tagName[edit]

- relevant browser version: 8+
- Error: tagName is null or non object
- Fix: deactivate the addons for divx about extras -> manage addons
- Info: the addon breaks the basic javascript function getElementsByTagName

Internet Explorer

Graphical User Interface

Hypertext Markup Language

Cascading Style Sheets

User Interface Engineering

Document Object Model

Scalable Vector Graphics

Application Programming Interface

Extensible Markup Language

Expression Language Used to Navigate and to Find Structures in XML Documents

Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations

Operating System

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