SA-18240

Summary

When users point the Internet Explorer 11 browser to a Pega 7.1.9 environment for their Pega Marketing 7.13 application, they see a screen indicating that the browser is unsupported. The users tried a couple of approaches to solve this issue. 

First, at the desktop level, they cleared the check box labeled "Display intranet sites in compatibility view".  But this setting must be checked for all other non-Pega applications, and the setting is automatically refreshed every day in accordance with a policy setting. Therefore, changing the desktop setting is not an acceptable solution.

Next, they tried the pyMetaTag configuration workaround and the developer tool (F12 tool) in the browser. But this is unacceptable because the F12 tool might not be available on production environment desktops, that is, the desktops of the application users, in accordance with enterprise policy.

Is there a one-time solution, either inside or outside of Pega, that allows compatibility view to be automatically overridden when Pega is being used? The pyMetaTag solution sounded ideal but clearly does not work for the log-in screen.

Error Messages

You're using an unsupported browser.

Steps to Reproduce

Try to log in to a Pega 7 application using Internet Explorer 11.

Root Cause

Pega has stopped support for Internet Explorer 8 Compatibility Mode for Pega 7.1.9 and later releases.

Pega clearly states that Compatibility Mode must be turned off for Pega 7.1.9 as explained in this release note, End of support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and quirks mode applications in Pega 7.1.9. The link to this policy statement release note is included in the Unsupported Browser message in the log-in screen.

See also the Pega Platform Support Guide: "Pega 7 will no longer support the IE8 “compatibility mode” (EmulateIE8). Browsers in IE8 compatibility mode will not display correctly."

Saving the pyMetaTags rule in the highest available ruleset and setting it to “<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">” allows users to log into a Pega application when Compatibility View is enabled on Internet Explorer 11. However, an Unsupported Browser message displays on the initial log-in screen. Compatibility View on Internet Explorer 11 forces the doctype to Internet Explorer 7. This is why the Unsupported Browser message displays when application users log in.

Resolution

Consider the following approaches and choose the one that best suits your needs.

Best Practice: The recommended approach is to set each and every harness to be rendered in HTML5 standards mode. See the Pega 7.1.9 Help topic, HTML5 Application Readiness. The HTML5 Application Readiness tool does not list the built-in Pega 7 harnesses because they are HTML5-compliant by default and lists only customized harnesses and early-release Pega 7.x  built-in harnesses, in case of upgrades.

Another approach is to set the browser to Enterprise mode. This helps resolve compatibility issues. See the Microsoft Developer IEBlog, Stay up to date with Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer 11. This approach allows users to run all legacy applications, except Pega 7 applications, in Compatibility Mode.

A third approach, the pyMetaTags approach, is not a fool-proof solution and does not work in certain scenarios:

1. Turn off the Unsupported Browser message by overriding the When rule, pyUnsupportedBrowsers, in your application ruleset as explained in the article, Modifying unsupported browser lists and error messages. 
2. Customize the HTML instance ``Web-Login`` to remove the When check:

Here are some additional details:

• Option 1 : Check the possibility of excluding the Pega 7 URL from Compatibility View settings:
  • Option 1.1 : In Internet Explorer 11 Group Policy, you can use the Site to Zone assignment list to place the site in question into the trusted sites zone instead. Compatibility View is disabled by default in that zone. This setting is described in the Microsoft Windows IT ProCenter article, Group Policy and compatibility with Internet Explorer 11.
  • Option 1.2 : Turn on Enterprise Mode and use a site list as explained in the Microsoft Windows IT ProCenter article, Group Policy and compatibility with Internet Explorer 11.
• Option 2 : Update all harnesses used in with the X-UA-Compatible <META> tag / header. This tag is something you use in page content / server-side and, when present, completely overrides Compatibility View settings on the client. The HTML5 Application Readiness tool can be used for this purpose. However, with this workaround on Internet Explorer 11 with Compatibility View enabled, Pega shows the Unsupported Browser message at the time of log in. The only way to get around this is to turn off the message by overriding the when rule  pyUnsupportedBrowsers rule in your application ruleset as explained in the article, Modifying unsupported browser lists and error messages