As a Web Developer, it’s not always easy to follow-up with all the browsers, good practices, and at the same time, supporting old browsers our customers are using. Modern.ie is a new tool we created to help developers make the Web a better place to live with standards like HTML5, and CSS3, while supporting older versions of IE.
Scan a Web page
The biggest feature for me, that I already started to use, is the option to scan a Web page. You enter the URL of your site, and Modern.ie will give you a report on three sections:
- Fix common problems from supporting old versions of IE
- Help this webpage work well across browsers, across devices
- Consider building with some new features in Windows 8
The first, and third categories are the main reason you want to use Modern.ie in comparison with other tools like this. It will give you some results around the support of older versions of IE, but also how you can leverage the features of Windows 8 on your website, without penalizing other browsers. The second one is all about helping to move the Web forward by respecting the standard, and good practices. Things like specific vendor-prefix, non responsive site or dependencies on browser plugin will be flagged, and the tool will suggest you some enhancements that you can do, and why you should do it!
You can see we have stuff to fix on webnotwar.ca
Virtualization
It’s nice to use a tool to see code problem, but what about viewing my site on Internet Explorer if I don’t have Windows or I just don’t want to find a way to manage many IE versions on my computer? For Mac, and Windows users, the launch of Modern.ie come with an amazing offer from BrowserStack. Starting now, until January 2014, you can get a free 3 months subscription to test your websites. Using Chrome or Firefox? You can also install their respective BrowserStack plugin to test easily in the comfort of your browser of choice.
Do you prefer to setup, and manage your own virtualization environment locally? You can download a VM for Hyper-V if you are on Windows. Please note that VMs for Mac, and Linux will come soon.
At the end, like our very own Rey Bango said on Twitter, “Less time testing for IE, more time building what matters to me”. It’s all about being more effective with testing, knowing what we can change as Web Developers to improve our site, and give the best experience for our visitors or customers, whether they are on a modern browser like Firefox, Google, Opera, and Internet Explorer or whether they used an older version of IE! Another good tool to add to your Web ninja arsenal!
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