MODx Manager freezes after upgrade to Evolution 1.0 upon login when using IE6

After an upgrade to Evolution from 0.9.6.3 I quickly noticed some very odd behavior using IE6 on some older workstations that access the MODx Manager. Immediately upon logging into the Manager, the browser locks up (freezes) and the only option to proceed is killing the process (IEXPLORE.EXE).

After much testing, I have tied this issue directly to the use of /manager/media/script/forIE/htcmime.php via the IE6 conditional comments. The weird part is that these are the same scripts that have been in place for years....since revisions 1530 and 3281.

I’m not quite sure what change would have caused this, but our exact same server environment running MODx 0.9.6.3 on IE6 does not have this "lock up" issue when accessing the manager. I thought it may be related to the new Carbon theme, but even changing the theme back to MODxLight has the same effect.

The only way I was able to work around this issue was by altering /manager/media/script/forIE/htcmime.php (I just renamed the file). I have ensured .htc files are served with the proper MIME-type (AddType text/x-component .htc), and have never had problems with .HTC files on the front-end or back-end (manager) with 0.9.6.3 or less in the past.

Has anyone else tested logging into the manager with Evolution under IE6 and seen this issue? Seems very odd and am looking for some confirmation that it may be happening elsewhere and not just in our environment. (Hopefully not though!)

Regards,

Mike

That sounds more like a feature than a bug.

In all seriousness though, we won’t officially be testing IE6 very rigorously much, if at all. It’s simply too much of a drag on time and energy for a project where our time is 100% donated. If someone wants to take the initiative to do so though we’ll happily commit anything which we can quickly verify into a future release. IE7 and IE8 should be fully supported.

I agree. I’ve already started adding code to all my client websites by default that warn against IE6. It is time for everyone to move on from this horrible browser!

I wonder if this has anything to do with the zlib compression issue? Since it appears suddenly and for no discernable reason, just as the zlib problem does, it makes me wonder...perhaps a character set difference somewhere?

This doesn’t surprise me at all. In my experience htc files used to fix png transparency issues cause IE6 to hang *randomly*. It may work pretty well overall, but once in a while it will suddenly cause a hang. After that it may work again, or it may continue to hang on future page loads (or randomly work again). Some people never have a problem or go years without a problem. Because of this you will find numerous people on various forums warning against using any iepngfix.htc, and a few recommending it just to give IE6 users a worse user experience!

You could still log an issue in JIRA for this and we can switch to an alternate png-fixing solution for ancient IE versions.

Quote from: nclemente at Aug 16, 2009, 11:54 AM

I agree. I’ve already started adding code to all my client websites by default that warn against IE6. It is time for everyone to move on from this horrible browser!

So has YouTube. Soon, their videos won’t run in IE6. That should kill it once and for all.