File Manager: Internet Explorer 11 loop on first load

[swelljoe]

See thread here: https://www.virtualmin.com/node/52621

Copy-pasted for convenience:

I noticed that there are two problems in the recent version.

The virtualhost list combo box often does not appear. Especially in ie11(korean). It works well in Chrome.

Others / File manager in ie11 (Korean), the Folder List will repeat indefinitely. It works well in Chrome.

We mainly use IE11.

If you have any answers, please let me know.

CentOS 6.9
webmin 1.844 virtualmin 5.99 Authentic Theme 18.49-8

[iliajie]

Alright, I will have to take a look. Thanks, Joe.

[humansoft]

How are you.
Thank you for your interest.
I expect a good results.
Best regards.

[iliajie]

I'm aware about File Manager looping on the first load. I have no solution for this branch of the theme (18.xx) to solve this issue. It's only happening in Internet Explorer 11 and looks more like its inner bug rather than a theme bug. Here is why I think that:

However, before I made any changes to the code, after I opened console in IE, and run File Manager again from the left menu - the looping had disappeared. 🪲

About dropdown in Virtualmin - I can't reproduce it. I have proper select arrow down displayed anytime I click around. How could I reproduce it?

I have tested it in MIE11 11.1198.14393 (11.0.42) version and the File Manager bug was there. Will see what happens with the version 11.0.9600.18697 (11.0.43) after update.

I stand strong against using MSIE and try using at least MSEDGE browser or Chromium at best.

@humansoft Could you tell me sacredly, why are you using IE11?

[iliajie]

11.0.43 is till loop reloading File Manager unless console was opened at least once.

[humansoft]

Thank you.
I use IE11 Ver 11.0.9600.18665(11.0.42) in Windows 7.
I know that most Koreans use IE11 (korean).
About 80~90%.
Some people use IE10, Edge.
Few people use Chrome.

Best Regards.

[iliajie]

I think it should be much less. Browser Market Share in South Korea.

Nevertheless, I think it should be fixed. I just don't have a chance to do it right now. I am about to begin a complete rework of the theme as SPA (version 19). It will take time but going to bring user experience to completely new level.

Besides that, I'm personally still interested about your reason to use Internet Explorer over Chrome. Could you please tell me why?

[humansoft]

Thank you.

I think your link statistics are bogus.

Here I present the statistics link in Korea.

https://www.koreahtml5.kr/jsp/infoSquare/browserUseStatsKor.jsp

I do not have the technical knowledge to compare IE and Chrome.

I simply think Chrome is less friendly than IE.

The Korean language displayed in Chrome is not natural.

I think Chrome has a weak page refresh feature,
The ability to refresh page is difficult in Chrome.

I think that the various features are not included such as flash player and multi media function.
Simple users avoid complicated processes.

Also, I would like to inform you that many public and financial sites in Korea are optimized for IE.

I am using Virtualmin framed theme.
In this theme, the list combo box looks good.

Best Regards.

[iliajie]

Hi,

Due to raised complexity in the core code, there is no way it's possible to support Internet Explorer 11 any longer, starting from version 19.00.

Microsoft itself recommends switching to new Microsoft Edge browser, that will work just fine with new 19.00 release.

The numbers above can not be applied to Virtualmin community. In general, users that use Internet browser only for searching Google are drastically different from the people that are using webserver hosting panel.

It's very easy to start Microsoft Edge instead of Internet Explorer and get better, safer and smoother experience, unlike supporting dated and dying-out technology.

---

Starting from 19.00, the theme will produce a notice saying that things might and will be broken if using unsupported browser. Google Drive and other Google products produce such notifications and it's absolutely normal.

[broxinagil]

How do you tell it's easy to start with Edge ? In my company we're at all limited to Win7/IE11 ! And as Win7 is in Support till 2020 it's a fault to stop supporting a Browser only for reason that your code got too complex ! I fully DISAGREE this decision !

[iliajie]

Hi,

It's all about market share, in other words users that are using it. I can't invest great amount of time and make the code that is harder to maintain for potentially only few users. There was the same situation about Internet Explorer 6 just few years ago. It kept back and created lots of mess for every single developer. Eventually everybody suffered - developers and most importantly users that were ready to use up to date technology and not always got it, as supporting dated browsers is utter mess and very time consuming.

Please understand, I feel sorry for your situation. All I could recommend, is that you go and try to convince your company's technical support team, with raw facts (there are plenty of them), that using dated browsers is not solid, and potentially dangerous idea for eveybody. There is another obvious solution - install 18.49-49 package of the theme. You could always use Gray Theme while working from work and Authentic Theme from home.

I will not be able to invest time into Internet Explorer any more. Please understand.

[Zen4All]

I do not agree with your reasoning about market share and ie6, as people then had the choice to upgrade to ie 7 or 8. If you are on windows 7 you can not upgrade to edge as you know, And ie6 was no longer supported by MS

Downgrading the theme version is also not an option, as I am not the only one using the server, but other people with different operating systems and browsers.
I am a fan of cutting edge technology, but you have to take care of existing tech too, as it is in common use all over the world.

This is the last will say about it, as it is obvious not going to change, but it is a big disappointment

[gnadelwartz]

what about switching to grey framed theme for actual session automatically if ie11- or older ff or older chrome browser is detected? counts also for lynx or w3 terminal browsers

[iliajie]

Detection would have to be done on the server-side. Sounds like a feature request for Webmin.

[gnadelwartz]

may be as combination:webmin ask theme do you support this browser string and fallback to grey theme if response is false ..

[gnadelwartz]

done webmin/webmin#859

[gnadelwartz]

@Zen4All I can understand that ie11 is used in some environments. also my company switched to win10 but keep ie11 as default browser because of internally developed applications not running with edge, FF or chrome 🙁

nevertheless the IT guys was smart enough to provide Firefox ESR for accessing internet.
it's very easy to install Firefox portable without admin rigths on every windows PC:
https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

[Zen4All]

@gnadelwartz I like the idea of the auto-detection. For me normally it is no problem to use other browsers, and am smart enough to find a solution 😄 , but my customers I have no control over.
It was not so much the incompatibility, but more the annoying message showing up at each mouse click..

I am glad you guys are looking in to a workaround. 👍 keep up the good work.