Theme Builder Plugin

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  • Created by Unknown User (charles.hall@astrium.eads.net), last modified on Aug 12, 2008

As I evaluate ThemeBuilder for use within our company, we're really won over by the flexibility the tool offers. However a number of issues are being identified with it working happily with Internet Explorer. My version is 6 (6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254CO), and I've conducted testing with all add-ons disabled.

This set of issues occurs in the Administration interface for ThemeBuilder. The attached Word document contains screen captures to illustrate the issues.

1. Clicking on the Manage Spaces tab loses the tab strip. Need to click on Theme Administration in the ThemeBuilder group of menu options in order to get it back.

2. Second issue occurs with "Default Layouts". If I go to the Dashboard tab first it works fine, but if I choose Theme Administration and then go straight to Default Layouts I get a Javascript error.

3. If the Dashboard tab displays correctly and I choose to Restore the window position (or Maximize it) then the contents of the web page re-adjust to fit and the tab strip is lost once more.

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6 Comments

  1. Unknown User (gfraser)

    We support IE6 for normal end-user screens - pages, search, dashboard, etc.

    The admin and manage layout screens need at least IE7 and ideally a non-broken browser such as Firefox, Safari or Opera.

  2. Unknown User (gordon.williamson@redwahoo.com)

    We are having similar issues with Theme Builder in the same version (6.0.29). For example, the Manage Layouts content panel appears all the way to the left of the screen, and is about 40px wide. There is a Left Sidebar, but the width and maxWidth of this element are set to 225px.

    Unfortunately changing browsers is not an option for our clients.
    As IE6 is still a widely used browser, are there any plans to support it? This is a vital requirement for our continued use of Theme Builder.

    1. Unknown User (gfraser)

      We're looking to remove a javascript library called ExtJS from Builder in a later release - it's been causing us a great deal of pain, especially in IE6 (then again, everything is pain in IE6 - the browser itself is broken and there's only so much we can do to try and work round it's bugs).

      For now, however, we're more focussed on maintaining compatibility with the frequent changes to the Confluence APIs and fixing any bugs that arise, including in IE6, in the main wiki interface that all users use.

      In the interim, for the admin screens, we recommend installing a standards-compliant browser such as Mozilla Firefox alongside MSIE for the small number of users that have admin privileges. You'll benefit for pages displaying as they were designed and also being much more responsive due to modern technology that's found in the standards-compliant browsers.

  3. Unknown User (erutanlive)

    IE6 is still widely used, but it's 7 years old. For all the bashing it gets, it was actually a really good browser - in 2001. Supporting the front end / display of a complex product like confluence + builder is work enough already.

    At some point your organizations are going to have to upgrade from IE6, no matter how crappy intranet/vendor sites are designed. I'd check out the IE8 beta2 "compatible mode" button and how it behaves. Another solution is using IE Tab extension for firefox and white-listing certain sites to automatically render in IE6.

    It's a question of time really. After a while IE6 will stop working for major websites as they adapt to modern browsers...

    1. Unknown User (gfraser)

      What browsers do they use at your university Carl?

      IE6 is actually older than East Timor and although web standards existed 3 years before IE6 was released, Microsoft have yet to release a browser that supports standards (IE8 beta 2 has reverted back to broken mode for intranet sites).

      1. Unknown User (erutanlive)

        If IE6 didn't revert to "broken" mode most IS departments would skip it just like they did with IE7...

        My university is extremeley decentralized, some departments are on macs, most are on dells, etc. In my department IE7 wasn't a mandatory push, a lot of people have voluntarily installed IE7 and/or Firefox but some are still on IE6. My team (10 of 130 in the dept) use macbook pros, though only the bootcap/vmware windows instance is supported more than half of us use OS X for regular use. I'm not sure about our computer labs, but I know our student "loaner notebooks" are dual boot macbooks, though they default boot to windows afaik.

        I imagine IE8 will be pushed out once it's been tested and "broken" mode will keep people from whining and staying with IE6 while having non-intranet sites (or those that tag themselves for it) will render more modernly.