When testing the various operating systems and browsers for image uploading, I noticed that in particular Internet Explorer prior to IE10 .. sucked. IF you're going to use IE at all, I recommend at least IE10. If you can't, then use another browser.

The rest of this thread will focus on some of the various ways that things fail, more for Robin's sake than anything. I'm hoping Robin's official position will be "Use IE10+ or another browser". I don't know how much of this is worth fixing - only his web server stats can say.

I'll occasionally come back to edit this top post with a 1 line status to avoid needing to wade through the rest of it.

All testing is being done using Parallels on Mac, using official Windows images downloaded from http://modern.ie . The only software add-ons I'm doing beyond this are Charles Proxy, http://charlesproxy.com, in order to man-in-the-middle the SSL API calls and report what the Pinside server is reporting to IE.

IE6 on XP: Does not connect.
IE8 on XP: Does not connect.

IE8 on Win7: Missing visual elements. Bad response to image uploads.
IE9 on Win7: Bad response to image uploads.
IE10 on Win7: Works.
IE11 on Win7: Works.

IE10 on Win8: Works
IE11 on Win8.1: Works

IE8 on Win7

First problem: Not all of the elements show up. Such as the list of topics.

Parallels DesktopScreenSnapz004.png

On a whim, I tried narrowing the screen, to see of the mobile version would look better. Not so much.

Parallels DesktopScreenSnapz005.png

Okay. Fine. Bring up a thread, and try putting in an image.

Observation: The "ADD FILES TO YOUR POST" box did not automatically open when scrolling to that part of the screen. This did not lazy open. I had to click it.

Parallels DesktopScreenSnapz006.png

Now, when trying to bring in the new file:

Parallels DesktopScreenSnapz007.png

When I last looked at this with CharlesProxy, this is a normal HTTP 200 status code response, served chunked, serving JSON output. Nothing special. But IE8 chokes on it.

This is what CharlesProxy shows.

On the request side:

POST /api/pinsideForum/uploadForumImage2 HTTP/1.1
Accept: image/jpeg, application/x-ms-application, image/gif, application/xaml+xml, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-xbap, */*
Referer: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/harlem-globetrottersmy-first-complete-restoration
Accept-Language: en-US
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; .NET4.0C)
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=---------------------------7df22c3a70234
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Host: pinside.com
Content-Length: 9832
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cache-Control: no-cache
Cookie: pinsideSession=censored

And the response,

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 2015 04:04:15 GMT
Content-Type: application/json
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Connection: keep-alive
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Pragma: no-cache
Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate
Content-Encoding: gzip

{"success":1...snip}

IE9, Win7

On this version, the list of subforums actually show. That is the good news.

Parallels DesktopScreenSnapz008.png

Like IE8, the "ADD FILES TO YOUR POST" dialogue is not expanded automatically, unlike modern browsers.

Parallels DesktopScreenSnapz009.png

Uploads fail. The messaging is similar to IE8; but the visual representation is better!

Parallels DesktopScreenSnapz010.png

IE10 on Win7: Works.

Uploading via drag and drop works; as does "click here for file upload dialog".

Parallels_DesktopScreenSnapz012.png

Oh, I agree. But people were reporting image uploading problems with all sorts of crap that most of us would be surprised to see still in use. Much of it due to corporate policy, due to antiquated IT systems; or antiquated IT operators.

I'm documenting the current state of things. I'll let Robin decide whether to decree the obsolete as such; or to try and accommodate. He has a business decision (grin) to make on whether to support pre-IE10.

IE11 on Win7: uploads seem to work.

Also does not auto-open the "ADD FILES TO YOUR POST". Interesting. Looks like perhaps all versions of IE fail to open the "ADD FILES" box.

IE6 on XP: Just doesn't connect. Gold star, in my opinion! Other major web sites refuse to talk to IE6.
IE8 on XP: Same thing.

Expect all XP to fail with underlying connection libraries (i.e. socket and TLS transport class, versus browser class). Not testing any other XP.

IE10 on Win8: Works
IE11 on Win8.1: Works

Guys, you don't have to convince me. Personally, I say burn those pesky Windows machines to the ground. I'm a mac guy.

The reality is, when crap was broken, we had lots of reports from various systems - many of them obsolete. I'd like Robin to be declare what the expected level of support is - and then be able to quote it and then consider bug reports from those old browsers as invalid. And, to let the people reporting it, know they should switch or upgrade browsers.