How to display browser specific HTML?

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/738831

Question

I'm trying to find a way to display one link to an IE user and another link to all other browsers using javascript or conditional comments (or whatever it takes).

Basically...

//pseudo code
<!--[if IE]>
    <a href"ie-only.html">click here!</a>
<!--[else]>
    <a href"all-other-browsers.html">click here!</a>
<![endif]-->

I don't think this is possible with conditional comment tags (which only work in internet explorer). Plus I don't think there is an "else" statement.

Is there a way to do this with javascript? Please help! Thanks!

Was it helpful?

Solution

I don't think this is possible with conditional comment tags (which only work in internet explorer)

Sure it is. You just have to leave the content for non-IE browsers in a position such that it's part of a conditional comment clause but not actually inside a <!-- comment -->. Then browsers that don't know about conditional comments will see the content fine. This is known as a downlevel-revealed conditional comment.

Unfortunately the markup Microsoft give you there is invalid HTML (and not even well-formed XML). To make it pass muster you just need a few additional ‘--’s:

<!--[if IE]> This is IE! <![endif]-->
<!--[if !IE]><!--> This ain't IE! <!--<![endif]-->

Although I have to echo AnonJr's non-answer, in that it's rare you should need a completely separate link/page for IE compared to other browsers. If you're doing something tricky like complex VML and ActiveX work in IE with Flash on other browsers I guess there could be a reason for it, but usually a few CSS and script hacks over the same basic page should suffice.

OTHER TIPS

This is not going to be the popular answer, but its damn time somebody started posting it - stop with the browser-specific junk. You're only perpetuating future problems when new versions come out.

If developers had taken the additional time (yes, it takes time and hard work. If you can't convince your clients you aren't trying hard enough) then we wouldn't have seen IE7 "break the web" and there would have been even less of a brouhaha with IE8.

Yes, IE is less standards compliant than the others. But, Fx is also missing certain things that are a part of the standard too. They all suck when it comes to "standards". But they are all getting better. (At different rates, but they are all getting better.)

Think first why you are trying to do this, and ask yourself if you really want to deal with this when the next browser version comes out and you have to re-jigger your browser detection and how you handle version X of browser Y.

[/rant]

Edit: To answer some of the comments that point out the obvious fact that I didn't really answer the question, without more information this question makes me wonder if we're not trying to help a person decide to hammer in a nail with a glass bottle or a shoe...

This is the Microsoft-approved way:

<!--[if IE]>
    <a href="ie-only.html">click here!</a>
<![endif]-->
<![if !IE]>
    <a href="all-other-browsers.html">click here!</a>
<![endif]>

More information available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537512(VS.85).aspx.

Edit

This code is implicitly guaranteed to work in all current and future versions of IE starting with IE 5. For non-IE browsers, the code works by relying on those browsers ignoring the "nonsensical" <![if !IE]> tag, which they all do, and I've never seen it fail. For a version that uses nothing but good ol' HTML comments, see bobince's answer, which I actually prefer to the Microsoft-provided solution.

One way that I've figured out how to do it:

Get the javascript code from http://www.quirksmode.org/js/detect.html and put it in the <head> tag.

Then in your <body> tag use:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
if (BrowserDetect.browser == 'Explorer') {
    document.write('<a href="#">Explorer</a>');
} else {
    document.write('<a href="#">Other Browsers</a>');
}
// -->
</script>

Not sure if this is the most simple way to do it but it got the job done.

A shot in the dark, maybe, but would this work?

<style>

    a.forIeOnly {display: none; }
    a.notForIe  {display: block; }

</style>

<!--[if ie]>

<style>
    a.forIeOnly {display: block;}
    a.notForIe  {display: none; }
</style>

<![endif]-->

<a href="#" class="forIeOnly">Link One</a>
<a href="#" class="notForIe">Link Two</a>

It's nowhere near as clean/attractive as an if/else statement could be, but...it was the easiest way I could think of to implement a solution. Though it may well be fraught with issues all of its own.

I didn't try, but maybe you could use IE flaws on CSS. Eric Meyer has written this article on the subject: Tricking Browsers and Hiding Styles.

You could always use CSS to hide the code from specific browsers. For instance, considering the following code:

<a href"ie-only.html" id="ie-only">click here!</a>
<a href"all-other-browsers.html" id="other-browsers">click here!</a>

You could apply the following CSS hacks, and the appropriate links would be displayed to the appropriate browsers.

/* Display settings for most browsers */
#ie-only {display: none;}
#other-browsers {display: block;}

/* Display settings for IE <= 6 */
* html #ie-only {display: block;}
* html #other-browsers {display: none;}

IE supports conditional compilation, which you can use to easily deliver IE-only code without needing to perform user agent sniffing or feature detection.

/*@cc_on
   /*@if (@_jscript)
      alert("IE.");
   @else @*/
      alert("Not IE.");
   /*@end
@*/

Add this to your header : 

<script src="http://github.com/rafaelp/css_browser_selector/raw/master/css_browser_selector.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Then whatever you want to your .css page :

/* Chrome Only */
.chrome embed {
    display: none;
}

/* Firefox Only */
.gecko video {
    display: none;
}

Source : http://rafael.adm.br/css_browser_selector/

Available Browser Codes [browser]:

ie - Internet Explorer (All versions)
ie8 - Internet Explorer 8.x
ie7 - Internet Explorer 7.x
ie6 - Internet Explorer 6.x
ie5 - Internet Explorer 5.x
gecko - Mozilla, Firefox (all versions), Camino
ff2 - Firefox 2
ff3 - Firefox 3
ff3_5 - Firefox 3.5
ff3_6 - Firefox 3.6 new
opera - Opera (All versions)
opera8 - Opera 8.x
opera9 - Opera 9.x
opera10 - Opera 10.x
konqueror - Konqueror
webkit or safari - Safari, NetNewsWire, OmniWeb, Shiira, Google Chrome
safari3 - Safari 3.x
chrome - Google Chrome
iron - SRWare Iron
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