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i work for a company where all our sites currently use the XHTML 1.0 transitional doctype (yes i know it is very old school). I want to change them all to use the HTML5 doctype seeing as it is backwards compatible. One of the reasons why i want to make the switch is because in IE8 if someone has the developer tools installed then the old XHTML doctype switches the browser into compatibility mode and renders the page as IE7. From reading up on it i was led to believe that the HTML5 doctype will set any page to render in standards mode, but this is not happening when i test it on our staging server it still flips into IE7 rendering mode.
The weird thing is if i save the page with HTML5 doctype locally and open it, it is rendering in IE8 standards mode. There must be something else causing it to drop into compatibility IE7 rendering. Any ideas what this could be?
Below is the head of the test page i have been looking at:
<!DOCTYPE html >
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:og="http://opengraphprotocol.org/schema/" xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml">
<head>
<title>Burton - Mens Clothing - Mens Fashion - Burton Menswear</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="description" content="Burton is one of the UK's leading men's clothing & fashion retailers, with a range of men's clothing designed to make you look & feel good. Find formal & casual clothes & accessories for men online at Burton menswear"/>
<meta name="keywords" content="menswear, clothes for men, clothing for men, men clothes, men's fashion, men's wear, men's clothing online, men's clothes online, men's clothes shop, burton men's, burton menswear, burton uk, burton"/>
<script type="text/javascript">document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0].className = 'js';</script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://eu.burton-menswear.com/wcsstore/ConsumerDirectStorefrontAssetStore/images/colors/color2/v3/css/screen.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://eu.burton-menswear.com/wcsstore/ConsumerDirectStorefrontAssetStore/images/colors/color2/v3/css/print.css" media="print"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://eu.burton-menswear.com/wcsstore/ConsumerDirectStorefrontAssetStore/images/colors/color2/v3/css/brand.css" />
<!--[if lt IE 8]>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://eu.burton-menswear.com/wcsstore/ConsumerDirectStorefrontAssetStore/images/colors/color2/v3/css/ie.css" type="text/css" media="screen, projection">
<![endif]-->
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-gb" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" href="http://eu.burton-menswear.com/favicon.ico" />
<link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="burton.co.uk Search" href="http://eu.burton-menswear.com/burton-search.xml"/>
<!-- Start Summit Tag -->
<script type="text/javascript">
var __stormJs = "t1.stormiq.com/dcv4/jslib/3286_D92B7532_4A18_46A8_864A_5FDF1DF25844.js";
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://eu.burton-menswear.com/javascript/track.js"></script>
<!-- End Summit Tag -->
<!-- Start QuBit Tag -->
<script src=//d3c3cq33003psk.cloudfront.net/opentag-31935-42109.js async defer></script>
<!-- End QuBit Tag -->
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="http://reviews.br.wcstage.arcadiagroup.ltd.uk/bvstaging/static/6028-en_gb/bazaarvoice.css" ></link>
</head>
254
Explanation: The correct syntax of HTML5 doctype is <! doctype html>, doctype is the very first thing to write in HTML5.
Standards mode: Standards mode is called upon to provide support for standardized HTML and CSS in major web browsers. Based on DOCTYPE it will render HTML and CSS.
In Firefox and Opera you can determine if your browser is in "quirks mode" by checking page info. Using document. compatMode , will tell you the mode you are in with most browsers.
Quirks mode means your page is running without a document type declared, the document type is defined at the very top of a page and it denotes how the browser should read the HTML.
There’s a couple of settings in IE 8 that can cause pages to render in Compatibility Mode, regardless of the page’s HTML content or HTTP headers:
Page > Compatibility View Settings
If “Display intranet sites in Compatibility View” is checked, then IE will render all sites on the local network in compatibility view. (This has happened to me a few times during development.)
If “Include updated website lists from Microsoft” is checked, then IE will download a list of websites from Microsoft and render them all in compatibility view.
If “Display all websites in Compatibility View” is checked, then, well, you can guess what happens.
Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Browsing
And, finally, if you navigate to a page and then click on Page > Compatibility View (or click on the compatibility view icon in the address bar), then that page will be rendered in compatibility view.
So, although it’s worth putting X-UA-Compatible in there and using a doctype like the HTML5 one (so that your intentions are clear), always check these settings first when testing.
158
I'm not sure if this helps, but in IE9, you must use:
<!DOCTYPE html>
and the following meta tag:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9">
After testing combinations of these two, here's what I found:
No Doctype or Meta Tag:
Quirks Mode, IE Engine = 5
Doctype Only:
Standards Mode, IE Engine = 7
Doctype and Meta Tag
Standards Mode, IE Engine = 9
Meta Tag Only
Standards Mode, IE Engine = 9
How to detemine mode type and engine:
document.compatMode: CSS1Compat = standards mode, otherwise you're in quirks mode
document.documentMode: returns which engine IE is using to render the document
Notes:
<HEAD>
window.document.compatMode and window.document.documentMode to determine if they are viable under IE8<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8">
I spent hours trying to figure this out and posting this article so I hope someone actually gets some use out of my research. May the source be with you...
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