Friday, June 23, 2006

Test in Multiple Browsers

I am a computer programmer by trade, and do most of my work on web-based applications. So you would think that I would be well versed in web testing and browser compatibility problems...

As you can hopefully see in the header now I am trying to raise funds for the Utah MS-150 Bike Tour. I have been sending out emails and letters telling people that to sponsor me they can visit the blog and click on the link.

Then yesterday I got a call from my brother wanting to know what the link was. I told him to visit the GeekCyclist and look in the header. He called back a few minutes later and told me he couldn't find it. So I jumped on and took a look using Firefox - everything looked great. Then I opened IE.

(cue scary music)
My blog looked HORRIBLE in IE!

There was no link in the header - in fact, there was no real header. All the side bar links were displayed below the posts. The background color was incorrect and the curved graphics were in the wrong places. I loaded the template into EditPlus (my favorite editor) and messed with it for about 2 hours, but I never did discover what had happened. I finally rebuilt it from backup.

Today I learned... That I have to test ALL my web projects in my browser test bed. Even my trivial blog with only 3 readers (thanks, each of you).

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