Firefox/Safari support

Hi all,
Our major client is moving to a more Mac-based environment. We have found a
number of different ways to work around SRS' browser limitations, but it
looks like there are some showstoppers. It seems that you can *mostly* work
around problems in Mac FireFox, but Safari is pretty hopeless, as is Mac IE.
For example, we aren't able to show charts in Safari, but they do work on
Mac FF, although the fonts are an issue. Spacing on tables is funky on any
browser other than IE6.0 on the PC, but you can use transparent GIFs set to
a specific size to force a particular table width. We generate our reports
for the Mac using a web service that talks to IE, then display them as PDFs,
rather than dealing with browser issues head-on, but this kills any
opportunity to do a dashboard with drill-through capability.
I'd love to hear what other workarounds people have come up with, because we
have had great success with SRS to date. Browser issues are getting to be a
showstopper, though, and we're starting to look at ColdFusion/Flash
reporting, which has some nice advantages in its new version...
JimIs this SRS 2000 or 2005? I know that ASP.NET 2005 is supposed to be
very Firefox / Safari friendly, so I am curious as to how SRS has
improved, if at all.
Jim wrote:
> Hi all,
> Our major client is moving to a more Mac-based environment. We have found a
> number of different ways to work around SRS' browser limitations, but it
> looks like there are some showstoppers. It seems that you can *mostly* work
> around problems in Mac FireFox, but Safari is pretty hopeless, as is Mac IE.
> For example, we aren't able to show charts in Safari, but they do work on
> Mac FF, although the fonts are an issue. Spacing on tables is funky on any
> browser other than IE6.0 on the PC, but you can use transparent GIFs set to
> a specific size to force a particular table width. We generate our reports
> for the Mac using a web service that talks to IE, then display them as PDFs,
> rather than dealing with browser issues head-on, but this kills any
> opportunity to do a dashboard with drill-through capability.
> I'd love to hear what other workarounds people have come up with, because we
> have had great success with SRS to date. Browser issues are getting to be a
> showstopper, though, and we're starting to look at ColdFusion/Flash
> reporting, which has some nice advantages in its new version...
> Jim
>|||SRS 2000. We can't switch yet. I'm not overly optimistic that MS will
really improve their browser support, but I'm certainly open to hear
something to the contrary. If you have any links to somebody impartial
(non-MS) who says FF & Safari are better supported, please let me know.
"Jeremy Hannon" <Jeremy.Hannon@.amr.net> wrote in message
news:ue$OU4J5FHA.2624@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Is this SRS 2000 or 2005? I know that ASP.NET 2005 is supposed to be very
> Firefox / Safari friendly, so I am curious as to how SRS has improved, if
> at all.
> Jim wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> Our major client is moving to a more Mac-based environment. We have
>> found a number of different ways to work around SRS' browser limitations,
>> but it looks like there are some showstoppers. It seems that you can
>> *mostly* work around problems in Mac FireFox, but Safari is pretty
>> hopeless, as is Mac IE. For example, we aren't able to show charts in
>> Safari, but they do work on Mac FF, although the fonts are an issue.
>> Spacing on tables is funky on any
>> browser other than IE6.0 on the PC, but you can use transparent GIFs set
>> to a specific size to force a particular table width. We generate our
>> reports for the Mac using a web service that talks to IE, then display
>> them as PDFs, rather than dealing with browser issues head-on, but this
>> kills any opportunity to do a dashboard with drill-through capability.
>> I'd love to hear what other workarounds people have come up with, because
>> we have had great success with SRS to date. Browser issues are getting
>> to be a showstopper, though, and we're starting to look at
>> ColdFusion/Flash reporting, which has some nice advantages in its new
>> version...
>> Jim|||Better FF support was a design goal in 2005 but I don't know anyone who has
tested it yet.
I suggest getting the 120 day evaluation edition (SQL 2005). Note that you
can use RS 2005 with SQL 2000 as its object//metadata store.
Try it out and let us know if/how much has it improved. Sure seems worth
taking a little time to look at it versus totally switching to a new
product.
--
Bruce Loehle-Conger
MVP SQL Server Reporting Services
"Jim" <floopdog@.bodiddy.com> wrote in message
news:uTuoUAK5FHA.3384@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> SRS 2000. We can't switch yet. I'm not overly optimistic that MS will
> really improve their browser support, but I'm certainly open to hear
> something to the contrary. If you have any links to somebody impartial
> (non-MS) who says FF & Safari are better supported, please let me know.
> "Jeremy Hannon" <Jeremy.Hannon@.amr.net> wrote in message
> news:ue$OU4J5FHA.2624@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>> Is this SRS 2000 or 2005? I know that ASP.NET 2005 is supposed to be
>> very Firefox / Safari friendly, so I am curious as to how SRS has
>> improved, if at all.
>> Jim wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> Our major client is moving to a more Mac-based environment. We have
>> found a number of different ways to work around SRS' browser
>> limitations, but it looks like there are some showstoppers. It seems
>> that you can *mostly* work around problems in Mac FireFox, but Safari is
>> pretty hopeless, as is Mac IE. For example, we aren't able to show
>> charts in Safari, but they do work on Mac FF, although the fonts are an
>> issue. Spacing on tables is funky on any
>> browser other than IE6.0 on the PC, but you can use transparent GIFs set
>> to a specific size to force a particular table width. We generate our
>> reports for the Mac using a web service that talks to IE, then display
>> them as PDFs, rather than dealing with browser issues head-on, but this
>> kills any opportunity to do a dashboard with drill-through capability.
>> I'd love to hear what other workarounds people have come up with,
>> because we have had great success with SRS to date. Browser issues are
>> getting to be a showstopper, though, and we're starting to look at
>> ColdFusion/Flash reporting, which has some nice advantages in its new
>> version...
>> Jim
>|||FF is good, but of course Safari is the default browser on the Mac. As
you're aware, 80% of people never change their defaults on their computers.
While it's good if FF is better supported, we've met quite a few Mac users
who'd never even *heard* of FF, much less use it.
Probably we will get the SRS 2005 eval and work with it, but the lack of
Safari support is discouraging. This seems to be a Microsoft wide thing:
the .NET 2.0 Beta 2 didn't work at all with Safari, in any way. We'll see
how things go now that it's been released...
Thanks, Jim
"Bruce L-C [MVP]" <bruce_lcNOSPAM@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uzviJDT5FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Better FF support was a design goal in 2005 but I don't know anyone who
> has tested it yet.
> I suggest getting the 120 day evaluation edition (SQL 2005). Note that you
> can use RS 2005 with SQL 2000 as its object//metadata store.
> Try it out and let us know if/how much has it improved. Sure seems worth
> taking a little time to look at it versus totally switching to a new
> product.
> --
> Bruce Loehle-Conger
> MVP SQL Server Reporting Services
> "Jim" <floopdog@.bodiddy.com> wrote in message
> news:uTuoUAK5FHA.3384@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> SRS 2000. We can't switch yet. I'm not overly optimistic that MS will
>> really improve their browser support, but I'm certainly open to hear
>> something to the contrary. If you have any links to somebody impartial
>> (non-MS) who says FF & Safari are better supported, please let me know.
>> "Jeremy Hannon" <Jeremy.Hannon@.amr.net> wrote in message
>> news:ue$OU4J5FHA.2624@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>> Is this SRS 2000 or 2005? I know that ASP.NET 2005 is supposed to be
>> very Firefox / Safari friendly, so I am curious as to how SRS has
>> improved, if at all.
>> Jim wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> Our major client is moving to a more Mac-based environment. We have
>> found a number of different ways to work around SRS' browser
>> limitations, but it looks like there are some showstoppers. It seems
>> that you can *mostly* work around problems in Mac FireFox, but Safari
>> is pretty hopeless, as is Mac IE. For example, we aren't able to show
>> charts in Safari, but they do work on Mac FF, although the fonts are an
>> issue. Spacing on tables is funky on any
>> browser other than IE6.0 on the PC, but you can use transparent GIFs
>> set to a specific size to force a particular table width. We generate
>> our reports for the Mac using a web service that talks to IE, then
>> display them as PDFs, rather than dealing with browser issues head-on,
>> but this kills any opportunity to do a dashboard with drill-through
>> capability.
>> I'd love to hear what other workarounds people have come up with,
>> because we have had great success with SRS to date. Browser issues are
>> getting to be a showstopper, though, and we're starting to look at
>> ColdFusion/Flash reporting, which has some nice advantages in its new
>> version...
>> Jim
>>
>|||I hate to say it but I've just tried FireFox on a really simple tabular
report with 2005 and its a complete mess. Maybe I'm missing something
but I started with a blank report, added a table and dropped in three
fields from a dataset driven from a simple select query.
It looks good on I.E. but in FireFox 1.5 the column widths are close to
zero. I only see part of the first letter in each column. Setting it to
render in HTML3.2 at least makes the data visible but column widths are
still nowhere near right.
I'm I doing something wrong? The rest of the whole 2005 stuff is
awesome, I appreciate all the hard work, but this is a big
disappointment.
Cheers
Ross|||I concur. I just tried several reports it in FireFox 1.5 and they
look...like chicken scratches. In FireFox, I now use Tools->'Always
View This Page in IE' options on the reporting website. Mind you, I'm
using the website that calls the reporting services' web service (whoa,
stay with me here), and then renders it in ASP.NET (.NET 1.1).
I shouldn't have to rewrite the rewrite the web control in order for it
to be web standard compliant.
tetranz wrote:
> I hate to say it but I've just tried FireFox on a really simple tabular
> report with 2005 and its a complete mess. Maybe I'm missing something
> but I started with a blank report, added a table and dropped in three
> fields from a dataset driven from a simple select query.
> It looks good on I.E. but in FireFox 1.5 the column widths are close to
> zero. I only see part of the first letter in each column. Setting it to
> render in HTML3.2 at least makes the data visible but column widths are
> still nowhere near right.
> I'm I doing something wrong? The rest of the whole 2005 stuff is
> awesome, I appreciate all the hard work, but this is a big
> disappointment.
> Cheers
> Ross|||We've been working with RS 2005 for about a week, and I have to express
tremendous disappointment that not a single report we have will render
correctly in Firefox. They're completely unreadable.
For a good laugh, take a look at the ridiculous HTML errors in the XML
template.
"Roy Assaly" wrote:
> I concur. I just tried several reports it in FireFox 1.5 and they
> look...like chicken scratches. In FireFox, I now use Tools->'Always
> View This Page in IE' options on the reporting website. Mind you, I'm
> using the website that calls the reporting services' web service (whoa,
> stay with me here), and then renders it in ASP.NET (.NET 1.1).
> I shouldn't have to rewrite the rewrite the web control in order for it
> to be web standard compliant.
> tetranz wrote:
> > I hate to say it but I've just tried FireFox on a really simple tabular
> > report with 2005 and its a complete mess. Maybe I'm missing something
> > but I started with a blank report, added a table and dropped in three
> > fields from a dataset driven from a simple select query.
> >
> > It looks good on I.E. but in FireFox 1.5 the column widths are close to
> > zero. I only see part of the first letter in each column. Setting it to
> > render in HTML3.2 at least makes the data visible but column widths are
> > still nowhere near right.
> >
> > I'm I doing something wrong? The rest of the whole 2005 stuff is
> > awesome, I appreciate all the hard work, but this is a big
> > disappointment.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Ross
>|||Hi! Jim
Have you found a solution for this problem? I am running into the same
problem. Any tricks would be very helpful.
Thanks!
Lixin
"Jim" wrote:
> Hi all,
> Our major client is moving to a more Mac-based environment. We have found a
> number of different ways to work around SRS' browser limitations, but it
> looks like there are some showstoppers. It seems that you can *mostly* work
> around problems in Mac FireFox, but Safari is pretty hopeless, as is Mac IE.
> For example, we aren't able to show charts in Safari, but they do work on
> Mac FF, although the fonts are an issue. Spacing on tables is funky on any
> browser other than IE6.0 on the PC, but you can use transparent GIFs set to
> a specific size to force a particular table width. We generate our reports
> for the Mac using a web service that talks to IE, then display them as PDFs,
> rather than dealing with browser issues head-on, but this kills any
> opportunity to do a dashboard with drill-through capability.
> I'd love to hear what other workarounds people have come up with, because we
> have had great success with SRS to date. Browser issues are getting to be a
> showstopper, though, and we're starting to look at ColdFusion/Flash
> reporting, which has some nice advantages in its new version...
> Jim
>
>