ADF RC support for IE 8 & FF 3?

Question

Hi!
I wonder if ADF RC will support new generation of popular browsers? While ADF RC is still in "tech preview" phase, it is aimed to current browsers (IE 7 & FF 2). But, it is expected that new browsers will "go live" during Q2 (MS announced IE 8 for summer, while FF is now in beta 5 phase pointing to conclusion that it will be ready to go in similar time-frame as IE 8).
So, the question is: will ADF RC, in TP4 or R1, support the new browsers?
PaKo

Answer 1

Hello Pavle,
I think you should calm down a little bit, take a deep breath and think rationally about what you're asking here. Let take care of all the points, one by one:
Jan pointed out that even 10g is not certified for current browsers (more than 1.5 years from release and with market share of more than 40%), and you agree with him.
You must put that in context also. ADF Faces 10g evolution is pretty much dead, beside some maintenance fixes. ADF Faces was given to Apache a while back as project Trinidad, actively maintained by Oracle, that supports Firefox 2 and IE 7 and did so for a while. Comparing ADF Faces 10g status with ADF Faces RC at this time is unfair. It's going to be more legitimate if and only if all the following hold true:
1. FF3 and IE8 goes in production before the code grant to Apache RCF;
2. At that time ADF Faces RC is not yet FF3 and IE8 certified;
3. The code maintenance on ADF Faces RC stop or drastically slow down after the code grant.
customers that we are working with during the beta is that none of them yet has the plan to standardize on IE8 or FF3
Sorry to tell you, but that's pretty true (although quite irrelevant imho). standardize either if we go right down to the semantics here would meant that they would force the usage of either, hence why I find it irrelevant. On the other hand, if the meaning was that no customer actively plan to support IE8 and FF3, then I agree that something is wrong, especially for widely public applications.
Second, as I pointed out, the ADF 11g rich-ajax-based components are unpleasantly slow on "current" browsers.
Actually the performances are ok. Not great, I agree, but ok, unless you have Firebug running, then yes it get sluggish. However, to ADF Faces RC defense, even GMail dislikes Firebug now and warns you if you're using it.
So, what you say sounds like logical contradiction to me: you are developing the platform for "new wave" apps while you refuse to make it compatible with new browsers that are just aimed for that "new wave"???
As far as I know, Frank never said anything like that. What would you like, have Frank say something like "Yes, we certify that it's going to work! They're in beta, we have no clue when they're going to get in production, we have no clue what is going to change in their API by then, they might be more bugged than Netscape 1.0 alpha, but hey! It's going to work for sure! You can put Oracle's reputation on that!"... please... Oracle developers are still working on fixing issues, improving performances and functionalities for current browser and maybe add support for other current browser like maybe Safari or Opera which, although having small market shares, do have larger market shares than IE8 and FF3 for now. Once either of those browsers get RC maybe I'll give more credits to your complains, but for now I think you should be more aware of some market and management realities. Whining about hypothetical situation that might potentially arise in an uncertain future is not very constructive imho.
Is there any way that we can, beside this forum, influence the Oracle strategy? I personally think that there are some issues on that side...
Well, once JDeveloper 11g goes in production (or beta, dunno, I'm not an Oracle support expert), then there's always Metalink.
My 2¢,
~ Simon