IE 6 conditional image issues

[btimms]

Hey Brian,

I just located a problem on one of my pages with IE6 and I'm not sure if anything can be done in your kit or not with this. I use some conditional if statements for IE versions less than 7 that substitute gif images for png images in the CSS using the IE conditional comments placed in the head section. These conditional images are converted using the JT kit to "CMS images" and of course some php code is added to the image reference. This causes everything to break under IE 6. When I eliminate the php code and replace with the straight html the images appear as they should. If I'm off base here I would appreciate suggestions.

I detected this by a friend telling me I couldn't get a 100% reliable IE6 page view with the "stand alone" version of IE6 and needed to download and set up the MS virtual PC along with the IE6 image to get a true page view. Sure enough, the IE6 stand alone had been giving false readings as the in virtual PC version the problems showed up.

Thanks

Bob

[admin]

Hi Bob,

It’s not the Joomla template kit PHP code it only print’s out the path to your templates images folder and has nothing to do with the image that you’re having an issue with both IE 6 and 7 have issues with PNG images. It’s out of the scope of our support.

What I can tell you is don’t use PNG images the compression is not as good as GIF.
The only thing I know of is the IF conditions your talking about but those are for style sheets not image path issues if you have images in you’re style sheets then add the IF conditions and make a copy of the code pointing to style sheet template_css.css file call it IE6.css or something. Make sure that it the last call so its overrides the master style if the condition is met.

You could try MSDN site.

Last minute add on IEBlog

This site has the conditions
Hack-free CSS for IE - Arve Bersvendsen

This is why it drives me crazy about the BS about “the standards” what Standers you design a site for a client and six months later knock-knock hey my sites broken fix it for free on your time. But sir it was made with “the standards” ok call Microsoft for your billable hours.

As for you’re question can the Joomla Template Kit fix this I know it’s an issue for designers so I added this to the flow of CSS in the Joomla Template Kit 3.0 version.

See this post The Browser hacks are there this list is going to get long as time goes on.
I can’t track every hack some issues are made when you use div layouts some are when CSS2 is used.
Joomla Template kit 2.5 Beta Progress Report 3

I think we should all switch to FF or Lynx ok just FF.

Cheers,
Brian Diaz

[btimms]

Thanks Brian,

Whatever the reason, ie6 does not like the php within the conditional comments. Not a problem - I just changed them back to the html path and all is good to go and as conditional IFs reside in the head section they are all easy to find. BTW, the IF conditions do refer to the CSS - it just maps the pngs to gifs for IE6.

The pngs I'm using are only about 2k per image larger than the gifs and I wanted to use alpha transparency here. The pngs render fine in both IE7 and FF and now the gifs map out fine for IE6.

Thanks for the sites - I'd had already probably checked them out a while back as I've been using the conditional ifs for some time with html.

I agree about switching to FF - I check out the browser marketshares every couple of months and hopefully IE7 will have ramped up - not the best solution but anything is better than IE6.


I'm a Pacino fan too. Years ago I had a small sales force working for me and at a "tranining session" on "How to Negotiate" I showed them the movie Scarface. The Tony Montana way!

Thanks

Bob

[admin]

Hi Bob,

What's the PHP code that your using?

I know this sounds crazy but are you echoing the code out so it writes.
If it works in HTML it will work in PHP. That way you don't have to write the
Template name and path.

You may need to edit

1. template_css.css | replace with your ie css.
2. media="all" the property to screen and other to ?

PHP Code:

<link href="<?php echo "$GLOBALS[mosConfig_live_site]/templates/$GLOBALS[cur_template]/css/template_css.css";?>" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" />

Cheers,
Brian

[btimms]

Hi Brian,

I've been peeling the onion a little more and I think I've nailed it. My path for the alternate ie6 images in the if statement were (incorrectly) stated like

* html .bb div {background-image:url(/images/box.gif);}


the correct way being

* html .bb div {background-image:url(../images/box.gif);}

The problem appears to be my original testing was in a stand-alone version of ie6 which rendered the images in the incorrect path looking good so naturally I quit testing. When using the ie6 virtual pc image the images don't show up at all with the incorrect path. Once the path is correct it works in both stand alone and the virtual - go figure.

So, I feel bad about taking you away from getting 2.1 ready to go. Sorry for the exercise - thanks for the patience.

Regards

Bob

ps: I forgot to add that I tested after using the template kit cms image conversion so I think I good to go.