this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Privacy
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I pretty much instantly lose respect for people who design sites to only support specific browsers. With the exception of Firefox, it's all Chromium anyway so they don't really need to worry about it. This isn't like when Internet Explorer was a thing and broke web pages.
i guess it's not about the actual site not supporting some browser. it's usually about not wanting to deal with users that have problems with the page in some obscure browser caused by some random plugin or something but the user blaming it on the service. or because of tracking.
So do feature testing, not user-agent sniffing! For Pete's sake, it's 2024! That's been the best practice for decades!
that's not the point. the user is going to open a ticket because something does not work because their browser does not support it. and it's way easier to tell them to install 'this browser' than to install 'a browser that supports a specific feature'. most of the users don't even know what a browser is...
Ok, but why not do both? If the browser supports all needed features, then let the user continue. If not, recommend list of supported browsers with small text at the bottom describing what feature is needed for technical users.
Read the previous comment
I guess you're completely right if you just assume your own conclusion.
Updating to the browsers listed isn’t going to solve a problem like the one you describe. Extensions and plug ins are still a thing in modern browsers.
I like that Google is always the one recommending this while also being the one that does some of the most obvious user agent sniffing
I used to work for a web hosting company and have seen so many horror cases that I agree with you that this is what is happening. I also think it's kinda lazy to just say that they won't support what people are using because it's hard. Even 5 - 7 years ago, this was much harder than it is now.
I'm working on an application right now that requires the ability to load and save data to the local file system. Firefox does not allow this, whereas Chrome does. The whole application runs from the local file system, so I don't think there is much of a security issue.
But I actually do is test for the existence of the function to open the save or load dialog. That way, if Firefox does implement it, Firefox will work as well.
That sounds like a huge security risk. I'm surprised any browser allows it.
All it can do is open a dialogue to load or save a file. The action must also be initiated by the user (e.g. clicking a button). It's not randomly allowing a page to load and save on its own.
But both of those are possible on Firefox?
Using JavaScript to open a save or load dialog is not possible on Firefox. It lacks the methods showOpenFilePicker() and showSaveFilePicker().
Is that a PWA? Firefox used to support it.
It is simply an HTML page with local JavaScript files. Nothing else. It has to run on as many platforms as possible, and be totally isolated from the outside world.