New CMSB Responsive Templates: What browsers should we support?

12 posts by 11 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: June 16, 2014   (RSS)

By Dave - February 7, 2014

Hi All, 

In the next few releases, we're looking looking to update the template of the backend with a new template the supports/implements:

  • Responsive Design (scales to smaller mobile devices and screens)
  • HTML 5
  • CSS 3
  • Flat Design
  • Bootstrap 3

Question: What's the minimum browser versions you still support (or you've been asked to support)?  

Thanks!

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

By Djulia - February 8, 2014

Hi Dave,

We have still several users with IE8.

We have several plugins which intervene on the tables (tr, td...).
Do you think that will oblige us to take again our plugins ?

Thanks!

Djulia

IE8, though I don't think it's important that IE8 users are served up a responsive backend. That's our approach for the front end of the sites we work on.

For my vote Dave I would love all those items - we are getting into responsive design more and more and are loving some of the initial testing of stuff in HTML 5.  We go back to IE8 typically.  Hopefully with the official demise of Windows XP that browser version will become a distant memory but until that point we have clients who use it.  Thanks - love CMSB!

Our contracts stipulate support and testing in "modern browsers" and common mobile clients. To this end, we never go back further than IE9 in active testing and assume that users of Chrome, FireFox and Safari remain current via updates.

We've found Bootstrap 3 to play nicely with the mobile agents we test on iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8.

Suspect that if you stick to Bootstrap standards you should be in very good shape for the most part. Customizations would be the real question-mark here.

J.

The only browser I'm concerned with is IE. At least for the next couple of years I'd be happiest to see compatibility down to IE8, with use of the respond.js.

~ Deborah

By rez - March 1, 2014 - edited: March 1, 2014

I don't worry about IE8 so much and prompt for upgrade but do use modernizr, respond. BUT I'm confused.  You are only talking about backend CMSB admins and not website visitors, correct? For CMSB, I am fine with you developing for the latest browsers only.  We aren't talking about visitors with old browsers. Since we are not talking about website visitors and only admins, we can instruct customers to update their browsers to use CMSB during training. I can't imagine a scenario where  a company / network admin can't upgrade their browser for their own website CMS access. I thought the old browser problem on a network was because the company network admin won't update the browser simply so people at work can surf better content that is not work related. What does this have to do with CMSB admins or  what audience we design for? We can develop a front end for visitors that is compatible with any browser we want, irrelevant of CMSB requirements. Every customer I have that will update their website with CMSB can upgrade their browser. I must not understand the question?

I'd like to see AJAX features for editing data tables instead of having to click modify and going into each record's details on a different screen and saving.  I think all the reloading of pages and submitting is what makes CMSB feel old school to me. If you could expand a record right on one page, fetching the details data with ajax only when needed, searches wouldn't slow down. You wouldn't lose your place while editing long lists of records. Currently,  even just saving a record bumps me back to the top of the list. I have a db of 3k records and daily, maybe 20 of  them simply need to be checked or unchecked. This is quite a task in CMSB. 

Nothing new to you I'm sure, but actual inline updating:

http://datatables.net/release-datatables/examples/server_side/editable.html

pop-ups version:

https://editor.datatables.net/release/DataTables/extras/Editor/examples/inlineControls.html

Bootstrap example:

http://vitalets.github.io/x-editable/

My favorite responsive example of what it might look like even though it's not loading details with ajax in this example ("buy now" could be "save"):

http://quanticalabs.com/script/responsive-css3-data-grids/2581249 

So just as you do now, whatever you list in ListPage Fields would be the initial data on the grid. The current "Modify" would be "Expand" or "Details" and would fetch data with a preloader.   Expanding for details would be faster for the user and so much more efficient than having to scroll around after modifying and find your place again. A save button for each record would allow inline editing of even the initial data without much extra load. (I actually paid for a custom plug to do inline editing but it initially loads everything with drop menus and checkboxes. It's very slow and even crashes the browser.)

By ht1080z - May 6, 2014 - edited: May 6, 2014

Hi Dave,

I' am very happy about this back-end upgrade not only for the responsive design but for the bootstrap framework. This will unlock many possibilities i think.

Some feature recommendations:

- ability to add custom html help (with images) for each fields within popover (that will helps on the cms design to the end users)- sidebar counter badges for multi-sections (with on/off feature)
- after-login back-end customizable modal for announcements, feature upgrades, news (admin privileged)
- true multi-language support for plugins that have front-end messages (newsletterBuilder, membership)
- please don't drop the sidebar menu designs (its really unique and very clean for end-users)
- ability to add custom placeholders (or php code) in the content of block fields (exmaple: add images or retrieve content from another section)

Thank you for hearing me,  :-)
Karls

By meg - May 14, 2014

I'm so excited about this upgrade! When will it launch? Most of my clients use ipads for everything now, so this upgrade will create a better user experience for them. 

How will you handle the sidebar responsive nav? Just curious...