Browser support
As stated in the VCU Web Standards and Guidelines, university websites must work on modern browsers.
The Compass repo supports the following browsers:
- defaults and last 2 versions
- not Explorer <= 11
- not ExplorerMobile 11
- not OperaMini all
Recommendations for viewing a Compass site:
- If you have access to newer browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, please use those when trying to visit a Compass site; Compass has been tested within these browsers and are verified to work properly.
- If your organization has older websites/apps that require IE to run, but you have access to the newer versions of Edge, please use that browser instead; the newer Chromium-based versions of Edge, Microsoft's replacement to Internet Explorer, have an integrated "IE Mode", which allows older sites/web-applications targeting IE to run using the old web engine, while allowing newer sites to use the latest in web technologies.
Note: IE 11 is not supported by the Compass build system at this time, as the necessary CSS changes and JS polyfills are not included out of the box. This is due to the fact that IE 11 is insecure and deprecated by Microsoft.
Updated Jan. 12, 2022
- Android Chrome 94
- Android Firefox 92
- Android QQ Browser 10.4
- Android UC Browser 12.12
- Android Browser 94
- Baidu Browser 7.12
- Chrome 95
- Chrome 94
- Edge 95
- Edge 94
- Firefox 93
- Firefox 82
- iOS Safari 15
- iOS Safari 14.5-14.8
- KaiOS Browser 2.5
- Opera Mobile 64
- Opera 80
- Opera 79
- Safari 15
- Safari 14.1
- Samsung Internet 15.0
- Samsung Internet 14.0
Compass is not Internet Explorer compatible, as the browser is insecure and deprecated by Microsoft. Our recommendation is to use a newer browser, such as Edge, Chrome, or Firefox.
If IE support is required for your project, you will need additional resources beyond what Compass provides. Any custom support for IE should be scoped at the beginning of a project, since it will impact the technical strategy and dependencies needed for development.
The Compass development team is not pursuing support for IE 11, since Microsoft has announced end of life for the product.
- Microsoft stopped development for Internet Explorer in 2015. Edge is the replacement.
- IE11 will only be supported by Microsoft until August 2021. Until then, the support they provide is very minimal – only security fixes and bug fixes.
- IE 11 has limited feature support compared to modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox. To provide support for IE 11 requires additional code polyfills, fallbacks and testing.
- Development time typically increases by 20-25% to provide IE 11 support.
- Maintenance/testing time increases, as IE11 considerations and compatibility fixes aren’t required for future updates.
If you are using one of the mainstream browsers that updates itself automatically (eg: Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari), you should not have to worry about manually updating your browser since it will be handled dynamically. If you have questions about installing browsers, contact your department IT representative to discuss.