Internet explorer support for clutch?

Discussion of the Web Interface for Transmission, formerly known as Clutch. This applies to all version of Transmission
fingaz
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat May 17, 2008 2:47 pm

Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by fingaz »

Firstly, i know i'll get the grilling of a lifetime for even mentioning this but... Why doesn't clutch support IE?
Is it a deliberate software design? Or is there something physically not possible to incorporate with IE?

The only reason i ask is i'd like to monitor my torrents from work, but the systems are locked down to the extent of not being able to install additional software/plugins.
I've looked towards PortableApps, but due to the machines using a Novell system, i don't think this is possible either.
I've considered getting a USB linux with mozilla, and just boot from that at lunch... but i don't think the IT Crowd would approve :D

Thanks in advance, and make your grillings light :)

FingAZ
hawkman
Web Interface Developer
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:48 pm

Post by hawkman »

Because IE is a pain in the buttocks. :)

The major browsers Clutch supports - Webkit, Opera and Firefox - are fairly similar in their rendering and support of standards. They only need slight tweaks in order to cope with Clutch. IE, however, has traditionally been dire in the compatibility and standards stakes, requiring essentially entirely custom code. Clutch is a small project, it can't be good and support IE.

IE is improving. It may be possible to get it working one day - or at least support a minimal subset of features. Absolutely zero promises in that regard though, I'm afraid.
neonkoala
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:27 pm

Post by neonkoala »

Hopefully IE8 will be supported, reportedly it works with the ACID2 test!

As for IE6/IE7 a quick and easy bodge (not sure how functional this is) you can modify the file /js/transmission.js and replace the browser detect for msie with some random text to allow clutch to load. Now add to the /index.html file another javascript code linking this: http://ie7-js.googlecode.com/svn/versio ... a3)/IE7.js that fixes most of IE6/IE7s problems and provides a quick fix to getting a functional Clutch. Use at own risk, not a proper solution etc.
BioHazard
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:32 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Re: Internet explorer support?

Post by BioHazard »

Any new word on this? I just discovered the Web Interface through 1.32 and I love it. I too would like to monitor my torrents at work but do not have access to the web browser I choose, and thus must use IE 7.0 (or VNC to my MAC and manage through this).

Firefox is steadily becoming more prominent, but with IE still having well over 70% of the market perhaps to make Transmission's Web Interface more successful, efforts to making it support the browser with over 70% of the market would be wise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_shar ... b_browsers

I realize perhaps the work to do this might be a bit much right now, but with tools such as: http://ie7-js.googlecode.com to help you, the work should be minimized a lot. Is there any known hacks right now to get the Web Interface bundled with Transmission 1.32 workable with IE 7.0? I attempted the suggestion in the previous post but it doesn't seem to work with the bundled Transmission 1.32 Web Interface anymore?

Furthermore, I realize most of Transmission users are MAC and Linux, which probably use Firefox or one of the supported browsers (if not 100% of them). But if they were accessing their Transmission from their MAC systems, they wouldn't need the Web Interface. The Web Interface (from how I see it) is most useful for managing the torrents AWAY from the computer with Transmission installed on it. This could be any system (and following statistics) most probable IE 7.0, and should be one of the main browsers to support before any other.

Also being able to control your MAC Bittorent Server through a Windows machine (w/ IE 7.0) probably would be one of the greatest selling points of this Web Interface for new users, if it becomes available.
zack13532
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:20 am
Location: MD

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by zack13532 »

What about a really dumbed-down version of transmission's remote ui? Like an official quick fix. Instead of interactivity and stuff, maybe just something to view torrents and an auto-refresher. Not that difficult right? Then again, I'm no advanced programmer, so I wouldn't REALLY know.
BioHazard
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:32 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by BioHazard »

Would be good. Something really simple just so you can support the other 3/4 of the market would be a great idea. The main features I think someone would need would be:
  • View Current Torrents
  • Refresh Button to update torrent list
  • Add new torrent from Remote Computer
With these features everyone can use it. I'm not saying Transmission did this (it seems clear to me you didn't support IE mainly because it doesn't follow the WC3 standards 100% correctly), but I have some friends who make web pages deliberately that will not view in IE, just because they have this unfounded "hate" of IE. So they make some code, if it works in IE they change it so it doesn't work, then they put a picture up saying "FireFox Only" and say done and done. It irritates me a bit that these web pages are made for 25.28% (2008 Q2 Stats) and think they are done.

Making a site and finding out later it doesn't work in IE is of course different than making a site deliberately that will not work in IE. I know I made some sites (that validate WC3 standards) and work great in IE, but find out later FF doesn't view they 100% right as well (mainly with DIV layers)... so I realizes supporting every browser might be a bit difficult. Focusing at least limited support on the Big 3 (IE/FF/SF) I think is probably the biggest step and most useful to everyone and to Transmission itself.

Also I do not know exactly what the trouble is, but if the java code to accomplish this is 100% universal, only the Web GUI is what IE can't view... the above should be fine. If the java calls need to be re-coded maybe a bit more work. Although I would assume it's just the GUI which is the trouble and the JAVA is universal (ie get torrent list call and such).
zack13532
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:20 am
Location: MD

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by zack13532 »

Would be good. Something really simple just so you can support the other 3/4 of the market would be a great idea. The main features I think someone would need would be:
View Current Torrents
Refresh Button to update torrent list
Add new torrent from Remote Computer
Exactly! I just want to see how my downloads are coming along from ANY computer. That's the point isn't it?
j5osx
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:38 am

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by j5osx »

I did a quick test with IE6 and the body of the HTML page doesn't seem to be delivered in a format that IE can process. DEFLATE encoding is used and when I try to use Fiddler (http://www.fiddlertool.com ) to inspect the requests and responses, it can't un-compress the content.
zack13532
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:20 am
Location: MD

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by zack13532 »

I'm sorry, I just don't know what "DEFLATE" is, I'm very noobish when it comes to this. Would it be THAT difficult to make a js version?
j5osx
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:38 am

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by j5osx »

Well, what I'm saying is that the data sent by transmission's webserver is fundamentally not viewable in IE6. IE6 is not able to de-compress content compressed with DEFLATE and IE7 can have problems with it as well, depending on the method used to DEFLATE. Think of it like trying to unRAR a ZIP file and you'll have the gist.
zack13532
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:20 am
Location: MD

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by zack13532 »

gotcha, so why can't there be an option to compress the content with a different, IE6-compatible method? again, new to the whole web coding stuff.
Jordan
Transmission Developer
Posts: 2312
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 3:39 pm
Location: Titania's Room

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by Jordan »

j5osx wrote:I did a quick test with IE6 and the body of the HTML page doesn't seem to be delivered in a format that IE can process. DEFLATE encoding is used and when I try to use Fiddler (http://www.fiddlertool.com ) to inspect the requests and responses, it can't un-compress the content.
What version of Transmission are you running to serve the web ui files?
Dutchman01
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:35 pm

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by Dutchman01 »

Indeed IE is the most used Browser over the whole Wide World.


at least IE 7 and IE 8 Support must be made for this program.

I need One browser on my PC not 2 or 3.

Thanks, please add IE support.
Jordan
Transmission Developer
Posts: 2312
Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 3:39 pm
Location: Titania's Room

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by Jordan »

Dutchman01 wrote:Indeed IE is the most used Browser over the whole Wide World.


at least IE 7 and IE 8 Support must be made for this program.

I need One browser on my PC not 2 or 3.

Thanks, please add IE support.
I'd be happy for Clutch to support IE. I don't think it would be all that hard to do. However, a web developer is going to need to dig into the code and make the changes needed for IE support, and so far nobody's volunteered to to that. Currently there's only one web developer on the Transmission team, and his free time is almost nonexistent.

If someone submits a clean patch for this, it will very likely be used.
kidmidnight
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:47 pm

Re: Internet explorer support for clutch?

Post by kidmidnight »

realtalk: IE is the most used browser in the world. That included grannies, kids that dont know any better, a businesses that wont support anything other than microsoft. When you get to the subset of people that use bittorrent especially on macs or linux I'm guessing the number of IE users drops pretty significantly. So yeah, i really dont see why the guy needs to waste his time on ie6 support when almost none of transmissions users use ie.
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