Goodbye Internet Explorer!
With the release of Joomla! 4.0 to production and its dependency on Bootstrap 5.0 Internet Explorer support ended for me. Support from the vendor for Internet Explorer formally ended in November 2020 so it really was time to say goodbye to Internet Explorer!
Bootstrap 5 is quite an update to the Bootstrap framework. Bootstrap 5 no longer depends on jQuery and drops support completely for Internet Explorer in the name of performance, fewer dependencies, and better API's for developers.
TL:DR Joomla 5.0 is now in production. It uses Bootstrap 5. Bootstrap 5 doesnt support Internet Explorer so neither can you!
Bootstrap 5
- No support for Internet Explorer — Support for Internet Explorer formally ended in November 2020. It is out of scope.
- No dependency on jQuery — This is "one of the largest changes to the framework in years and means projects built on Bootstrap 5 will be significantly lighter on file size and page load moving forward." Joomla 4 will still ship with an official version of jQuery though, for those that need it.
- JavaScript changes — Changes and enhancements to JavaScript for code quality.
- New Buttons — HTML and CSS only approach to toggle states. Now toggle buttons are powered by checkboxes and radio buttons and are much more reliable.
- CSS custom properties — In a handful of components and layout options in 5.0 with more usage expected in components like buttons in the near future.
- Customisation — Themes, customisation and extension of Bootstrap, global options, a colour system and more.
- New Forms — Form control stykes, layout options and custom components overhauled with a custom appearance to unify style and behaviours across OS and browser.
- New Utilities API — Aimed at those who build on Bootstrap via the source files. Necessitates some former utilities be reassigned as "helpers".
Internet Explorer is dead, but "enterprises"
Some enterprise customers, particularly in government, healthcare and education will have huge issues decomissioning Internet Explorer from their Windows based computers now that it is no longer supported, and this may be a pressure for keeping it alive in your projects. Resist it. It surely is not your issue. To me, no longer supported means that there is no longer a requirement for anyone to test with it at all. It is simply out of scope.
Developers and the technically minded know that Internet Explorer is dead. A draft obituary appeared in the article The perils of using Internet Explorer as your default browser. Support formally ended in November 2020 and Microsoft Teams stopped supporting it at that point. There is no development of features for Internet Explorer going on and Joomla 4 will not be able to support Internet Explorer, by virtue of the decision to use Bootstrap 5 which does not support Internet Explorer.
Clients, or perhaps senior managers might pressure people to support Internet Explorer. That is understandable for people who may not be well versed in current browser technologies. Refer them to information to support the collapse in market share of Internet Explorer and point out that it will effectively be moot when the remaining Office 365 applications end support in August 2021.
