Firefox User Agent Switch

[irishcrazy2005]

I have a question about the Firefox User Agent Switch extension. When and how can I actually use this? I can't figure out how to do it. For instance, if I go to the website www.davematthewsband.com, the webpage will not display properly. If I try to use the User Agent Switch over to Internet Explorer 6, it does nothing. It loads fine if I actually use IE. Thanks for the help.

-Phil

[jazzbo]

Not knowing what the site is supposed to look like, I have to say that it looks okay to me when I view it with Firefox (oh, wait I tried the Flash version, and is the problem with the 'news' box?)

As far as the agent switcher, realize that all it does is make the website think your using IE so it won't lock you out. It doesn't make Firefox emulate the way IE renders html, stylesheets, or runs javascript. So if the code on the site is crappy, the agent switcher won't fix that.

edit: what I mean by 'crappy', is non-standard and written to conform to the way IE renders things.

[RainDawg]

I am reading the html site now, and it looks fine. Then I switch over the flash version, and some of the content won't render in Firefox, but will with IE. As jazzbo said, the user agent should just identify itself as IE to websites, but it will not actually use the IE engine to render the page, so poorly designed websites made to only render correctly on IE will not display properly in Firefox.

This is one issue that I have become increasinly aware of lately. There are far too many ignorant developers who have fallen into the trap of using MS-specific code, and it seems whoever built this page has done the same thing. By not adhering to standards, they have become browser-specifc and thus not all contents works on alternate browsers. There are an embarassingly high amount of corporate and private websites that simply won't display on Firefox because of the use of ActiveX controls and other IE specific garbage. Web designers who are worth their salt should make pages that will display on any browser....

As much as I hate to say it, I still have to keep IE around for these types of cases.

With Flash, there is no reason or excuse to not have it cross-browser supported, in my opinion.

[irishcrazy2005]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up for me guys! Yeah, I should have mentioned that I was looking at the Flash version. Thanks again.

-Phil

[saltman]

I like the ieview extension for times like these.... it works with 1.0 now

[RainDawg]

Agreed, though I use the "view this page in ie" less and less these days, it's nice nice for when you come across a page designed by an incompetent web developer.