Progress Towards 1.5.0

1. Some new layout design issues have arisen with 1.5.0 so this is up in the air at the moment

2. There is a 3rd party shipping estimator that works great at the moment, but I think daniel did mention he'd like to add one at some point. Doubtful to be in 1.5.0, maybe 1.5.2 or so

3. Screw IE6.. the current one was barely made compatible with IE6 for the whiners, but little time will be wasted on IE6 from now on. I'd recommend adding a javascript warning to your site telling people to come out of their caves and get the latest version

Screw IE6.. the current one was barely made compatible with IE6 for the whiners, but little time will be wasted on IE6 from now on. I'd recommend adding a javascript warning to your site telling people to come out of their caves and get the latest version

Well said

I'm so sick if seeing IE6 showing it's face in development forums and appreciate you letting the damn thing go.

Happy New Year

Andrew

Qphoria wrote:Screw IE6.. little time will be wasted on IE6 from now on. I'd recommend adding a javascript warning to your site telling people to come out of their caves and get the latest version

I have one site using a straight to PayPal/Google cart that works brilliant APART from the fact the design elements REALLY get messed up when viewed through IE6. Although I have an IE6 warning on the home page text, that too gets screwed. Never though about using Javascript, thanks for that idea Q.

Looks like it going to be a mix of the lumbering Zen and my instant pay carts for quite a while yet then.

Yes, IE6 was discussed a while ago...

Xsecrets wrote:... VAST majority of people that are using ie6 are coming from corporations that refuse to upgrade because they wrote some buggy POS intranet that only works with ie6. So I would say honestly unless you are in a business that caters to corporate users your probably only going to see maybe 1% ie6 usage..

..and as they upgrade to Windows 7 it could (should?) be even less of an issue.

Still a slight problem with IE9, but that's the current template, and IE9 still very much beta.

Actually I've just found a brilliant stats site that shows detailed browser usage by country. For the UK and the States, IE6 usage had dropped dramatically from over 7% in the summer, to less than 2.5% in December so its demise is rapidly accelerating now.

I know a lot of mainstream sites no longer support it, but I'm guessing that those dynamic reduction in figures is just as much down to folks replacing their clapped out computers and buying newer ones equipped with Windows 7.0. The ones in business hanging onto IE6 will still probably represent a slight dent in sales though, purely from lunchtime surfers using the works computers.

Yea I too found some stats of IE6 being down to 6% late summer 2010 so i'd say its best to just let it die a painful, horrible death for all the bad that it has done in its life.

I no do ie nor windows ... will have to test for ie, though

I am having a hard time what do you mean support ie6?
CSS wise?
jquery wise?

If you are using a paid for template then that should be solved by the designer.

I have CSS fixes for ie6 every where and doubt they will work but I added them in anyway.
My round CSS corners will probably end up square

As for the javascript, yep it tiz a good idea, except I'd make it a full screen thing with a link to the microsoftie site and possibly take the risk and make it autodownload for them

i think he means default template wise.. ie6 tends to add shifting and other misalignment and element float off issues. IE7 is no better.. check out the default site in IE8 with compatibility mode. Screw IE all together

Amen brother

CUSTOM_UK wrote:IE6 usage had dropped dramatically to less than 2.5% in December

I would love that to be the case so I just checked statistics on three of my hobby websites, all of which do well over 10,000 pageviews per month but sadly, they all report a completely unchanged 10.1% overall IE6 usage.

That said, I no longer test in IE6.

I figure if google and microsoft can drop support for ie6 I can too.
I remember when microsoft updated hotmail to not work with ie6 anymore my brother worked support for a large company that still mandated ie6 and he got tons of complaints. That was over a year ago.

mystifier wrote:

CUSTOM_UK wrote:IE6 usage had dropped dramatically to less than 2.5% in December

I would love that to be the case so I just checked statistics on three of my hobby websites, all of which do well over 10,000 pageviews per month but sadly, they all report a completely unchanged 10.1% overall IE6 usage.

Trouble with all published stats, is that you have to take them at face value. Sites selling 'techie goods' are more likely to have aware users utilising modern browsers, other sites may attract users with the 'authorised browser' that came with XP on their machine, who will NEVER upgrade from IE6. Excluding up to one in ten of your potential customers is a brave move for many businesses. On some sites it isn't just a few misaligned site elements when using IE6, but some of those site elements end up actually missing from the display and even things like add to cart buttons that no longer function.

The web has to evolve though, so I guess us shop owners are going to have to grit our teeth and lose the customers that cling to IE6, although I am pretty certain that the vast majority of IE6 users are totally clueless as to WHY they should upgrade their browsers. Outside of developer and 'techie' forums, it is hardly well publicised. Until you get the big players like Amazon, eBay and Google to put something bold and informative on their sites about upgrading browsers, IE6 will be a problem for some time to come yet.

I don't bother to check in IE6 any more, despite a fairly staggering 1 in 10 usage. I am not sure that it is as severe as loosing customers though.

By and large, pages are malformed but still generally usable. I suspect that IE6 users must be resigned to some pages obviously not looking exactly as intended but will probably recognise that it is because they are using very old software.

mystifier wrote: I am not sure that it is as severe as loosing customers though.

On one of the templates for OpenCart, can't remember exactly which one as a few months ago now, the site looked fine, until I tried it in IE6 and the checkout button was totally non functioning. Now I'm sure THAT would lose customers.... lol

I think there is a real danger that some developers will just get totally lazy as regards IE6 now and whilst some folks may say good riddance, the fact that virtually all of Zen's templates and a substantial amount of other open source cart's templates still work with IE6 isn't something to be overlooked. Having a cart that has DISADVANTAGES over other carts, is hardly a promotional virtue. I am all for IE6 getting ditched if it causes problems, but feel the IE6 browser detect and warning message should be an essential part of the core program in 1.50. From my understanding it isn't a massive amount of coding involved and would probably pacify everyone.

Progress forward should be measured by the amount of luggage and legacy you have to carry just to keep people happy

Even though I love to take the piss out of m$, I feel sorry for them in regards to this.

To solve the ie6 issue, put something in your phpini that redirects them to a mosaic bowser version of your site.
That will solve all of the problems.

I agree. I think that v1.5.1b should maintain compatibility with mosaic.

I had to Google 'Mosaic Browser' as been so long since I had heard the term.

Sadly 1.5 not having the shipping estimator built in now and probably also without PayPal Express and Google Checkout being part of the CORE program for a while, OpenCart just isn't a viable option for me in the near future now. Maybe by the time those items appear in the core program, the whole IE6 thing won't be an issue due to radically reduced usage.


The one 'kick ass' extension for OpenCart would be a 'select shipping destination' dropdown on the cart page, dynamically update the totals, then click checkout to go straight out to Paypal or Google. Whilst not suitable for every venture, it gives a highly rapid checkout for customers. Filling in forms is MORE dinosaur than IE6, that's why so many of the big web sites now offer payment by PayPal and Google Checkout.

Paypal and Google Checkout are not the answer every where though.
The 10th rank by population country has no clue what you are talking about.
That's almost 2% of the worlds population alone!

CUSTOM_UK wrote:Sadly 1.5 not having the shipping estimator built in now and probably also without PayPal Express and Google Checkout being part of the CORE program for a while, OpenCart just isn't a viable option for me in the near future now. Maybe by the time those items appear in the core program, the whole IE6 thing won't be an issue due to radically reduced usage

I agree that these should be part of the core of OpenCart.

SapporoGuy wrote:Paypal and Google Checkout are not the answer every where though.

They might not "be the answer" but they are important if OpenCart is to compete with other carts that offer this as the core. Especially since the first place finisher for Open Source ECommerce software (that OpenCart came in 2nd to) has it built in.