Now that IE8 has become an important download from Microsoft, I expect to see the asp:menu bug raising its head more frequently. Mostly the asp.Net controls seem to work well in IE8. Unfortunately there is a bug in the menu control that is highlighted when using a standards compliant browser (like IE8, but interestingly Firefox does not comply with this particular standard).
The symptom is that the dynamic portion of an asp:menu is rendered entirely in white (i.e. unreadable) in IE8. There are several solutions:
- View the site in compatibility mode
- Download the hotfix from Microsoft
- Use a CSS adapter for your controls
- Add a z-order to the CSS for your dynamic menu
- Add a meta tag to the web site
Personally, I went for the z-order solution as it was the quickest to implement (am I not Agile?). To implement this, change the CSS class of your Dynamic menu. I do this using the DynamicMenuStyle-CssClass attribute of the asp:menu control.
e.g.
<asp:Menu ID="Menu1" runat="server" DataSourceID="StdSiteMapDataSource" Orientation="Horizontal"
StaticMenuStyle-CssClass="StaticMenu" StaticMenuItemStyle-CssClass="StaticMenuItem"
DynamicMenuItemStyle-CssClass="DynamicMenuItem" DynamicMenuStyle-CssClass="DynamicMenu"
StaticHoverStyle-CssClass="StaticMenuHover" StaticSelectedStyle-CssClass="StaticMenuSelected"
OnMenuItemDataBound="Menu1_MenuItemDataBound" StaticEnableDefaultPopOutImage="False">
<StaticMenuItemStyle ItemSpacing="0" />
</asp:Menu>
In my CSS file I have this:
.DynamicMenu
{
background-color: #3e6fc8;
margin-top: 1px;
z-index: 100; /* IE 8 menu fix */
}
Check this blog entry out for some futher information about this.
After my debacle a couple of days ago removing my RAID array, I was thinking about how undramatic the shift to 64 bit has been for me.
I moved my server and principle development PC to 64 bit over the last few weeks. For the server I bought a completely new machine and installed 64 bit from scratch. My server and desktop are similar specs, both having quad core processors with 4Gb RAM (I'm thinking about upgrading the RAM further...)
In general, the move to 64 bit has been pretty simple. Almost everything I have installed works without problems. My desktop PC feels faster now and certainly gets to the Windows login screen much faster than it used to. It is tricky to specifically attribute that to the 64 bit move as I completely reinstalled Windows which always makes things move a bit faster! However, weeks (and several program installations) later, things are still moving along pretty quickly. I even installed Elder Scrolls Morrowind which runs without a hitch on a 64 bit platform!
My only real problem as been IIS 7 on a 64 bit platform. On the server I struggled to get Outlook Web Access working (and any other web site). I had to do a bit of Googling, but I eventually found out how to configure the server to permit 32 and 64 web sites to run side by side.
So overall, I would recommend looking at 64 computing for developers (and Morrowind fans).