IE8 and url formats

[Paul Spiller]

I realise this problem may be related to the .htaccess file but I am not sure.
If it has nothing to do with the template you may be able to point me in the right direction (or tell me it is out of your terms of ref).
I am not using your standard home page template and have made css changes and all still under development. If my css changes have caused this I do apologise.
All ok on safari and firefox but IE8 has this problem:

if I use the url “http://www.designshack.com.au/demo3” the initial IE8 display is “stretched” or full page. If I then click on the “home” menu item, the url changes to “demo3.designshack.com.au” and from that moment on all is well according to my changes. If I use “http://demo3.designshack.com.au” to access the site, all is well immediately which makes me believe the css is fine.

What I dont understand is that if it a .htaccess issue, why only IE8 ?

I would appreciate any help.

PS. I do like the way your template can be tailored and integrates with woocommerce very well.

Paul

[Bill Robbins]

Hey Paul,

That is a rather unusual situation. The links will be the same in the HTML and also any redirects set in WordPress would also be the same as they relate to different browsers. I’m more inclined to think that it’s something that’s been cached in IE that hasn’t updated yet that’s causing the unusual redirect. I haven’t been a PC user since IE 7 was the current version so I’m afraid I don’t know how to tell you to go about clearing that out.

You might try taking a look with the BrowserStack service (http://browserstack.com/). They’ll let you create an in-browser server so you can take a look at sites in many different os/browser combinations. It should get you around any caching issues there too.

If I can help, let me know,
Bill

[Paul Spiller]

Thanks Bill,

It is a mystery. I test IE on mac bootcamp but I did find the same problem on another PC. I did notice the same problem with your demo on one test but I cannot reproduce it which makes me think (clutching at straws) of a timing related thing.

Anyway if and when I find the problem, or a workaround, I will post here for the benefit of others who may have come across the same issue.

Paul

[Bill Robbins]

Keep me updated on what you turn up, especially if the image problem is consistently there.

You might also take a look at your site’s usage and see how many people are using IE 8 on it. It’s down around 4% globally now and dropping every month. Most likely we’ll stop official support for it sometime in 2014.

Thanks,
Bill

[Paul Spiller]

Hi Bill,

I almost dont believe this but I may have “overcome” the problem – not really found the cause.

Following some research on sitemaps, on a whim, I went to settings > wordpress address url and site address url and changed both to http://designshack.com.au/demo3.
(they were both http://demo3.designshack.com.au – I assume that was set during installation somehow). I now note that going to another menu item page keeps the “http://designshack.com.au/demo3/…..” format instead of “http://demo3.designshack.com.au/….” as it did.

I dont understand why this changes things with IE8 only but I can only assume that some php function is changing things.

I certainly hope you are right about IE8 usage – many website developers will rejoice when it is “gone”.

Problem is that in Australia, there are many people who do not update and stick with old versions of everything until it does not work at all. I think many are simply frightened that if they update, things will go wrong (as they do) or that they will have to learn something very different (as they often do). That 4% I dont think is true here.

Will let you know if the problem somehow resurfaces and proves me wrong.

[Bill Robbins]

I’m glad you found a way to have that consistent even if it’s not a complete answer as to why it was happening.

If you run into any trouble, let me know.

Have a great week and Merry Christmas,
Bill

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