Web Templates
Testing and validation
University of Minnesota web templates pass all HTML and CSS validation and work on all browsers and platforms, except where noted below.
Test and validate
When you add code to the templates, you must test them to make sure they still validate and work on various browsers and platforms.
Browser and platform testing and support
The templates have been tested using Yahoo's list of A-grade browsers as a baseline. Other browser and platform combinations tested include Firefox 3 on Mac 10.4 and Safari 3 on Windows XP.
Known template issues
- The search button does not align with the search field properly in Firefox 2 on Windows and Opera 9 on Mac. (These browsers account for 1% of traffic to University websites.)
- The text in the search field does not disappear when you click into the field in Safari.
U browser and platform traffic
Below are the top browser and platform combinations hitting the University's home page in September 2010. The arrows indicate an upward or downward trend in browser use since summer 2009. No arrow indicates the statistic is new or hasn't significantly changed.
Browser and Platform |
Percent of visitors |
||
IE - Windows |
33.85% |
 |
|
Of that 33.85 %: |
IE 6.0 |
4.97% |
|
IE 7.0 |
35.79% |
|
|
IE 8.0 |
59% |
 |
|
Firefox - Windows |
30.75% |
|
|
Safari - Mac |
14.47% |
|
|
Chrome - Windows |
9.77% |
|
|
Firefox - Mac |
6.67% |
|
|
Chrome - Mac |
1.3% |
|
|
Firefox - Linux |
0.96% |
|
|
Safari - iPhone |
0.42% |
|
|
Chrome-Linux |
0.29% |
||
Safari - Android |
0.25% |
|
|
Operating systems
The use of handheld devices is slowly rising. The table below shows the operating systems coming in to the U's home page in September 2010.
Operating Systems |
Percent of visitors |
|
Windows |
74.96% |
|
Macintosh |
22.54% |
|
Linux |
1.29% |
|
Android |
0.25% |
|
iPhone |
0.43% |
|
iPod |
0.20% |
|
iPad |
0.14% |
|
Test the bare HTML
Try loading your site with bare HTML: no styles, no scripts. Are menu options available? Does primary content precede secondary content? Is the site usable, even if ugly?
Text-to-speech readers
JAWS is a text-to-speech reader for Internet Explorer on Windows. JAWS is available to students, staff, and faculty in adaptive technology labs throughout campus. Contact the Computer Accommodations Program for more information on text-to-speech readers.
Validation of XHTML and CSS
Be sure to check all of your website’s pages for validation XHTML and CSS.
The CSS files available with the templates have been validated with the W3C CSS validator at http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/. When validated the template CSS shows one error, caused by the .htc file used for the rollovers in the horizontal navigation. If you’re not using horizontal navigation, the link to this style sheet can be removed. You will need the unit footer styles from the optional.css, however, if you’re using a unit footer.
The XHTML pages have been validated with the W3C XHTML validator at http://validator.w3.org/ as valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.