Starting from the next CKEditor and CKFinder releases, we will be managing browser compatibility support of our projects in a different and modern way. After some consideration, we have decided to use the YUI Graded Browser Support (also known as “GBS”) as the basis for our products. We will, however, add a few exceptions to the YUI GBS model that we feel are important for our user base.
YUI Graded Browser Support is an approach to progressive enhancement proposed by Yahoo!. Detailed information about this initiative can be found on its dedicated page, including the reasoning behind their choices.
From now on, not only do we intend to provide a similar browser support that YUI GBS proposes, but we will also incorporate their culture and behavior regarding the grades of support and our QA approach to them.
CKSource A-Graded Browser Support
The following is the list of browser versions that will receive A-grade support as defined by the CKSource GBS. All CKSource projects, including CKEditor and CKFinder, aim to provide at least full A-grade support for the following products:
- Internet Explorer: 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 8.0 Quirks and 9.0
- Firefox: all major stable releases starting from 3.† (e.g. 4.†, 5.†, etc.)
- Safari: 5.†
- Chrome: latest stable
- Opera: latest stable
Cursive terms indicate our additions to the YUI GBS. The dagger symbol (†) indicates that the most current non-beta version at that branch level receives support.
All browsers are to be supported for web pages with the Document Type Declaration (doctype) of XHTML 1.0 Transitional except for IE 8 Quirks, which will support unknown doctypes.
X-Graded Browsers
We will follow the YUI GBS approach for X-graded browsers. This group encompasses rare, experimental, or unknown browsers that are assumed to be compatible and modern. QA does not test, and bugs are not opened, against X-graded browsers.
Our X-graded browsers list is different than the YUI one though. It includes the following browsers, except those already included in the A-grade list:
- Browsers based on the Gecko engine version >= 1.9.0 (Firefox 3.0).
- Browsers based on the WebKit engine version >= 522 (Safari 3).
- Opera version >= 9.5.
Accessibility Support
Besides the browser support described above we are also introducing the following table to define the list of browsers and assistive technologies supported by our products.
| Win 7 + JAWS †.† | Win XP High Contrast | |
|---|---|---|
| Firefox 4.† | A-grade | A-grade |
| Internet Explorer 8 | A-grade |
Reasoning
Accessibility is just making its first steps into the Web environment. The support for accessibility in browsers and assistive technologies is still very inadequate. In response to this the WAI-ARIA standard was created, aiming to solve this situation. Its adoption is still quite limited, though, and the only browser with good enough support for it at the moment is Firefox.
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer 8 is the first version to start offering support for WAI-ARIA. It is still not complete, but the partial support it introduces looks promising. Even if we do not officially support this browser with regard to accessibility, we are still taking it in consideration during our development, testing it, and eventually working around its limitations. Currently CKEditor should provide a good experience for Internet Explorer 8 users that need accessibility support. In any case, we still strongly recommend to use Firefox for an optimum accessibility experience.
A Word About Mobile Environments
Right now we are working on introducing iOS 5 (iPhone and iPad) support to CKEditor. As a result, we may in due course enlarge our graded support to also include iOS.
We are continuously watching the fast growing mobile market in order to find opportunities to integrate our products with a wider range of devices. We hope to have more news regarding this in the near future.
IE6 and IE Quirks
At the moment we are considering whether to support IE 6 and IE Quirks mode in the future (read CKEditor 4). These browsers are simply too limited for the needs of modern web applications, forcing the CKEditor standards down instead of helping us innovating.
It would be great to hear from our community about your expectations on having an editor that works with these old browsers versus having a more advanced and modern editor instead.
Conclusion
We hope this change will represent a step forward for the quality of our projects. Our intention is to propose clear expectations for our community regarding the level of support one can find in our software.
We are updating our documentation with the new support tables. That page will be reviewed following changes to the YUI GBS as well as changes on the browser market.
Comments
IE6
Unfortunately, IE6 is still embedded in government and highly regulated industries. I have a web site with a few hundred thousand users. Only 1% of the visitors are using IE6 but that rises to 10% for the registered users who pay for acces.
IE6
I agree with everyone, just drop IE6 and maybe even IE7.
I am biased. Since 2004 I
I am biased.
Since 2004 I use Firefox, first on Windows, then on Linux.
When I use windows, I use Firefox. I am not going to use IE at all, no matter what version.
So for my use case, indeed, I myself do not need IE6 and I would rather see it dropped entirely and instead the future web be supported, rather than have time deal with legacy stuff like IE.
Please, IE, die altogether.
Seriously DROP IE 6 support
Even Microsoft wants people to stop using it. By making this product work with IE 6 your only allowing those few holdouts to continue to use a browser that NEEDS to die
What about IE and Quirks Mode?
Thanks for the prompt feedback about IE6. I know that everybody hates IE6 and love those public opportunities to rant against it... me too!
The thing that makes me worried is not really IE6, which is easy to justify closing the doors to it, but instead IE and Quirks Mode. I mean... any page without DOCTYPE will render, even in IE9, using the IE 5.5 (!) rendering engine. I know you guys are definitely aware about it, having your prety pages with proper doctypes, but there are several systems out there that still count on quirks mode.
Being CKEditor a component, we definitely wish to have it as compatibility as possible. Is it time to stick (and force) standards mode only though?
Go both ways
To be honest, I don't have much comments on the the DOCTYPE-issue (although maybe that one will become the next IE6 dilemma of the web, who knows) but just because CKEditor v4 drops IE6 support doesn't mean that there are no versions of CKEditor with IE6 support. CKEditor at it's current shape and form is very competent and sites targeting IE6 (or without DOCTYPE) can still use it. A way to go would be to still update the 3.X version of CKEditor for security and alike until you feel fully comfortable dropping IE5.5/6-support fully.
Innovation is the way to go, but the world is not black or white and thus why not innovate and keep support?
Good point
That may be our way to go, in fact.
Do Not Support IE 6
IE 6 is a decade old browser that just limits your app and slows you down. There is no need to support it. There are so few users on IE6 and they are not users you want anyway....
Yes, please dump IE6. Besides, it only has a 3.38% browser share
According to different sources, IE6 just accounts for about 3% of the whole browser share:
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-monthly-201007-201107
At the same time, it's one of the worst browsers ever, so please help dumping it out: Don't support it!
Drop Support for IE
IE6 is extremely useless and since most projects don't support IE6 there is no point supporting it in yours.
IE6
I'd say definately don't support IE6, and even consider dropping support for IE7.
I understand that some businesses have valid reasons for not upgrading their enterprise environments to a newer version of IE (or even Firefox or Chrome) but the more software companies that pander to the enterprise the longer the worlds developers will be stuck having to support these ancient browsers with IT administrators continue using IE6 and refusing to upgrade.
Many users in the enterprise who are still stuck on IE6 or Ie7 now accept that their browing experiences are becoming more and more broken. Even microsoft are trying to get people to move away from it (http://www.ie6countdown.com/)
An uncountable amount of developer hours are lost testing against IE6 (and IE7 to a lesser extent) please CK Source team - follow Google and Facebook's lead and withdraw support for IE6!
Agree, please drop IE6
Agree, please drop IE6 support
Please,please kill IE6
Please,please kill IE6, thks
IE6
Drop IE6 support and start innovating!! This is 2011 even MS is saying that users have to update there browsers and Google has stopped supporting it ... I would say you do the same!!!
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