Question

I’m developing on a system that was originally developed five years ago. I don’t have access to the complete source code of the system, but it is completely driven by XML and runs on ASP.NET 2.0. This was originally written for IE6, but since Microsoft has officially decided to dump it, we moved to IE7. Some javascript is added on the client side, but nothing that changes the UI has been done. (We had to integrate a credit card reader into the system)

This code is accessed primarily on tablet PCs running windows, but I’d like to persuade my company to use the iPad. [The tablet somehow costs around 3k$. I think selling a 3000$ device to a client when you have the iPad for 500$ is ridiculous.]

Now, my problem is if we open it in any other browser (Tested it on safari / firefox), the UI is completely messed up with elements completely out of place. Doesn’t ASP.NET generate HTML that runs on any browser?

My second question is if there are any credit card readers available in the market that integrate with the iPad. I don’t really care about the software part as it’s taken care by our company, I just need it to read the card details and post it to the server.

Thanks,

Teja.

Answer 1

While I cannot answer the question with regards to a scanner for the iPad, I can answer the question with respect to ASP.NET. ASP.NET will try to render a control properly based on the given browser. However, it cannot accommodate markup and CSS outside of the control itself. IE6 is especially finicky and requires many hacks to get something to look correct. It is so bad, that many designers would create an entirely separate stylesheet just for IE6. You have a couple of solutions:

1. Abandon IE6 support and modify the CSS to accommodate standards supporting browsers like IE8, Firefox and Chrome/Safari.
2. Build a separate CSS with code to swap the CSS based on the browser.

The simplest solution is obviously #1 but your company may not be willing to give up IE6 support just yet.