Web Mapping Applications Display Or Behave Unexpectedly In Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 late last month. Since then I have installed it on a number of my workstations. Performance has been great and I haven’t had any major problems.

Almost a year ago I tested the first beta release of IE8 on a number of web mapping applications. The results can be found here: http://geo.geek.nz/development/… Most sites have worked to add support for IE8. With the new Compatibility View mode on IE8 which emulates IE8 as IE7 it makes it very easy for websites to support the browser. Developers can add a meta tag which will tell IE8 to emulate the browser as IE7 on load, maintaining compatibility.

For ArcGIS Server 9.2, 9.3 web mapping applications, ESRI has added a technical article to the ESRI Support Centre talking about how you can make these work in IE8.

When using a Web Mapping Application in Internet Explorer 8, the display of the application is incorrect or features do not work as expected. The same Web application works as expected when viewed in Internet Explorer 7.

A common problem is that graphics may not display with the correct symbology or graphics may not render at all. Text and images may also be offset from the expected location.

This issue applies to Web applications built with the versions of ArcGIS Server Web ADF for the Microsoft .NET Framework prior to version 9.3.1

Two solutions or workarounds are available. For developers, adding the following line will tell IE8 to emulate as IE7.

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

For non-developers, users can added the website address to the Compatibility View settings of IE8.

This technical article showing you how to implement these solutions or workarounds can be found here: http://support.esri.com/index.cfm…