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Compatibility Issues

© Robin Friedman

The single main problem with emerging technology is compatability. For example, VRML can do some of the coolest stuff on the Web, but there's no standardized plug-in, and hardly anyone has any plug-in at all. One of the worst things you can do to a page is to have a whole lot of cool animations and high-tech stuff, and yet have no alternative site and high compatibility problems.

With a few tricks I've learned, you can increase your hits by 10 to 25 percent. That's how much traffic most sites lose on incompatability problems, says Infoworld magazine. If you can learn to make your sites compatable for IE to Netscape to Opera and even to Lynx, you'll notice a much more positive look and feel to your pages.

The thing I can't stress the most is creating a seperate incompatibility page. It is essential to any page. No animated gifs, minimal images, no javascript, java, VRML, hardly anything. I suggest making sure this is Lynx compatible. This page will be your link to Netscape 1.x, IE 2.x, and Lynx. Then, by means of a simple javascript, you can "bump" visitors away from this incompatability page, and the old browsers will simply skip over the javascript. Take this coding, for example:

<Script language="javascript"> //<!-- this comment insures that older // browsers will skip over the javascript! if(navigator.appVersion = THE REQUIREMENTS){ top.location.href="THE COMPATABLE PAGE"; } //--> end hiding </script>

Using this method, you can also detect for plugins and send visitors to a plug-in-compatible page. For more information on this, check out Netscape's Guide.

A few tips for improving general compatibility:

Always provide ALT tags. I know it's a drag, but they can look great in Lynx, and plenty of influential people use Lynx.

If you provide a plug-in specific feature, such as VRML, always tell people on your page, and link to the download spot for the plug-in. Also include which version of the plug-in is needed (i.e., I only program in Cosmo Player VRML)

Avoid imagemaps, java sitemaps, and other difficult to use sitemaps. (Note: This is acceptable if you're using the javascript example above.)

Test your pages with most of the following browsers: Netscape 3.x, 2.x, and 4.x, IE 3.x and 4.x, Opera 4.x, Lynx 2.x, as well as at different resolutions, and if possible, different operating systems. Poor testing can take down a good solid site.

Remember: Never alienate a visitor, and watch your hits skyrocket.

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