Older browser support for the ServiceNow Developer Site

[patrickd2]

The new ServiceNow Developer Site is built on the Now® Experience UI Framework to showcase the latest features and functionalities. But if you are on an older browser, it cannot display these sitewide enhancements.  For most of these browsers, you will be redirected to an "incompatible browser page" with guidance and instructions to find a browser that is compatible.  However, due to customer demand, currently there is a different behavior for Microsoft IE and Edge legacy versions.

What happens when you use an outdated browser? 

When you try to access the new site with IE 11 or Edge prior to version 70, you will be automatically redirected to an archived version of the site. This archived site allows users to obtain a personal developer instance and information on the Now Platform.  Unfortunately, the older site is no longer maintained or updated with new learning materials, guides, Now UI Framework reference, guidance, or UI components. 

To see the new Developer Site and the latest content, update to a recommended browser. 

Recommended browsers 

For the best ServiceNow Developer Site experience, we recommend using the most current version of a modern browser, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. 

For more information on browser support for each version of the user interface (UI), refer to our documentation for browser support in Orlando. 

[Raymond Ferguso]

IE11 is still using a javascript runtime built to standards published over a decade ago and has been considered legacy by Microsoft for nearly as long.  The last reluctant release was seven years ago.  Supporting it holds back progress and forces everyone to code like it's 2005 just in case someone is using IE.  It really should not be supported anymore by anyone. It's like having a cobol version of servicenow just in case someone wants to run it on a mainframe. 

The only reason it still exists is to support some legacy corporate sites and tools that were coded to be exclusively for IE 10 years ago, in the bad old days of vendor lock in then never updated or retired. 

What should be a best practice is putting up a nag box on login, so when users are using the deprecated microsoft browser, they get a warning telling them that their site experience will be diminished and eventually unsupported in IE, and that they should use microsoft's supported browser. Most of the users that still use it are doing so because it is there and familiar and the icon looks just like edge that was supposed to replace it, and a million programmers spent a billion hours coding to make it mostly work on every site in the world rather than telling them what a bad idea it is for them to keep using it. I know we're an avoidant bunch, but it's time to break down and actually talk to the user. Let them know it is time to cut the cord and get rid of the albatross.

Please do not create two versions of everything just to continue supporting it.  We have better things to work on, and setting the standard of not supporting it makes it easier for the rest of us to have those conversations.