[Using Sakai] [Building Sakai] Support for additional browsers

[Matthew Jones]

Right, there's a limit to the number of browsers & operating systems QA can
realistically test against. This has typically been the community definition
of "supported browser". There is a much higher limit of number of browsers
for users of the system. At Michigan we currently do a full test suite
across nearly every tool of every (local) release on IE8, (Windows) Firefox
3.6, (Windows) and Firefox 3.6 (OSX). However users of the software might be
using various versions of Safari, IE, Firefox, Shiira, Konquerer, Chrome, or
Opera across Windows XP/Vista/7/OSX/Linux, just to name a few.

I would say that the only issues developers are less likely to look at would
be beta or release candidate browsers (like some of the jiras filed against
IE9 RC1), because many issues are fixed in the final release of the browser.
I've often found bugs in Chromium and Chrome that I've filed in Chromium's
bug tracker. They have thousands of open issues too, so it really might be a
problem with the browser. ;)

It would be good to know, as Lance said, what the the QA capacity is and
what they are QAing against. I personally have no idea for the community
release.

I'll just agree, for the moment, with Steve's developer stance of:
*"For the record . . . we have a lot of Mac users and Safari works 100%." -
Steve Swinsberg*

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 4:12 PM, Mathieu Plourde <mathieu at udel.edu> wrote:

> Hi Lance,
>
> I agree with your statement. The only thing the Sakai community can say is
> that the current code has been tested against specified browsers.
>
> So I would add to my previous list:
>
> 5) Even if an issue has been fixed for a "non-officially QAed against"
> browser, it is the institution's responsibility to participate in the
> community QA process for that browser or to test it out locally if they plan
> on supporting it for their users.
>
> This is especially true for patches that have been deployed for prior
> versions of Sakai that might need some tweaking down the road.
>
> Mathieu
>
> =================================
>
> Mathieu Plourde, MBA
> Project Leader, LMS/Instructional Designer
> IT-Client Support & Services
> mathieu at udel.edu
> Office: 302-831-4060
>
> =================================
>
> TOP LINKS:
>
> Technology Troubleshooting: http://www.udel.edu/help
> Sakai at UD Support and Training: http://www.udel.edu/sakai/training
>
> =================================
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 3:50 PM, Speelmon, Lance <lance at indiana.edu>wrote:
>
>>  Sorry if you have heard me say this before, but as a community we should
>> not be talking about which browsers are "supported" - we do not provide
>> support.  As already stated, bugs get reported against browser x.y.z and
>> bugs get fixed.  Instead, we should be talking about which browsers were
>> used to QA a release and thus how much capacity QA has to test N number of
>> browsers.
>>
>>  I am fine with local institutions and commercial partners framing the
>> discussion around support - that is what they do.  As a community, we should
>> be transparent about the QA process and which browsers were used in testing.
>>  WDYT?  Thanks, L
>>
>>  On Mar 30, 2011, at 2:59 PM, Mathieu Plourde wrote:
>>
>> Dear fellow Sakaigers,
>>
>> The use of Mac computers on our campus has grown dramatically over the
>> last few years, and as a result many faculty and students would like to be
>> able to use the Safari browser when using Sakai. The popularity of all iOS
>> devices which rely on Safari also makes a case for making Sakai compatible
>> with Sakai. Many features do work successfully in Sakai on this browser, but
>> unfortunately there are several instances where unexpected behavior can
>> occur and so we are compelled to warn our users, and request that Safari not
>> be used with Sakai.
>>
>> Similarly, Chrome has recently been rated as the third most used browser
>> behind Internet Explorer and Firefox. Since Chrome, Safari, and many mobile
>> device browsers are based on the Webkit engine, once we make one of them
>> compliant, we may find that it is relatively easy to make Sakai work with
>> others. [1]
>>
>> This is not the first time that such a call to action has circulated
>> on-list, but we believe that it is time to rethink our Firefox-centric
>> approach, not only for Sakai OAE, but for the 2.x branches as well.
>>
>> Any thoughts or progress on these fronts?
>>
>> [1] http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-na-monthly-201003-201103
>>
>> =================================
>>
>> Mathieu Plourde, MBA
>> Project Leader, LMS/Instructional Designer
>> IT-Client Support & Services
>> mathieu at udel.edu
>> Office: 302-831-4060
>>
>> =================================
>>
>> TOP LINKS:
>>
>> Technology Troubleshooting: http://www.udel.edu/help
>> Sakai at UD Support and Training: http://www.udel.edu/sakai/training
>>
>> =================================
>> _______________________________________________
>> sakai-dev mailing list
>> sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org
>> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-dev
>>
>> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to
>> sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org with a subject of
>> "unsubscribe"
>>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> sakai-dev mailing list
> sakai-dev at collab.sakaiproject.org
> http://collab.sakaiproject.org/mailman/listinfo/sakai-dev
>
> TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email to
> sakai-dev-unsubscribe at collab.sakaiproject.org with a subject of
> "unsubscribe"
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/sakai-user/attachments/20110331/f35b5c19/attachment-0001.html