Although users can accomplish the majority of SharePoint tasks in any modern browser, there are some key limitations to be aware of. For example, a common complaint is that advanced Office integration is exclusive to Internet Explorer due to ActiveX.
While looking for a breakdown of browser compatibility with WSS and MOSS, the best article I found was an article on TechNet titled "Plan browser support (Office SharePoint Server)". That article lays a good foundation for understanding browser support. It outlines Microsoft’s support model, which separates browsers into two categories: Level 1 Web Browsers (IE6, IE7) and Level 2 Web Browsers (FF1.5, MOZ1.7, NN7.2, NN8.1, Safari2).
Do you see the problem with those classifications? They’re completely stale! That article (the most current I’ve come across) is dated May 19th, 2007 and it excludes the current generation of browsers. Instead of Chrome and Opera, it details Netscape Navigator! Clearly, we’re long overdue for an update.
Browsers Tested
Curious about the differences, I decided to re-run the tests myself with modern web browsers. According to the most recent statistics from analytics firm Net Applications, the following browsers together represent over 97% of the market:
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| Browser | Market Share |
|---|---|
| Windows Internet Explorer 7.0 | 46.77% |
| Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 | 20.46% |
| Mozilla Firefox 3.0 | 17.18% |
| Apple Safari 3.x | 7.22% |
| Mozilla Firefox 2.0 | 3.77% |
| Google Chrome | 1.06% |
| Windows Internet Explorer 8.0 | 0.82% |
| Opera 9.x | 0.68% |
Source: Net Applications Browser Market Share (December 2008)
I installed the eight browsers (each in their own virtual machine to avoid version conflicts) and began to reevaluate the features Microsoft documented as incompatible. For my purposes, I focused on the first 24 features in the TechNet article; exclusive support for InfoPath with Internet Explorer leaves the last three items unchanged.
Test Results
Over several hours, I combed through each feature/browser pair using repeatable use cases (downloadable below). The results were somewhat surprising, as some features previously marked as incompatible now work (and vice versa). Additionally, Chrome and Safari behaved differently despite both being built on the WebKit engine.
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 = Full Support = Partial Support = No Support |
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0
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Windows Internet Explorer 7.0
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Windows Internet Explorer 8.0 (Beta 2)
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Mozilla Firefox 2.0
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Mozilla Firefox 3.0
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Apple Safari 3.2
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Google Chrome 1.0
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Opera 9.6
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| Connect to Outlook/Client |
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| Context menu 1 |
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| Drag and Drop (of Web Parts) 2 |
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| Edit in Datasheet view |
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| Edit In (Microsoft Office application) |
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| Explorer view 3 |
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| List attachments 4 |
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| Multiple file upload |
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| New Document |
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| Part to Part Connections |
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| People Picker 5 |
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| Rich text Toolbar |
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| Send To 6 |
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| Web Discussions 7 |
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| Export to Spreadsheet 8 |
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| Date Picker Control |
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| Summary Links Web Part 9 |
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| Excel Calculation Services 10 |
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| Slide Library |
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| Excel Web Access 11 |
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| Open in Excel 12 |
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| Open Snapshot 12 |
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| Sorting and Filtering (Excel Services) |
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Browser-Specific Notes
(2) Drag and Drop (of Web Parts): Besides Internet Explorer, no other browser supports drag and drop. This conflicts with Microsoft’s own documentation.
(3) Explorer view: Internet Explorer 7.0 doesn’t support Explorer view when working with NTLM authentication. It works correctly with basic and forms-based authentication.
(4) List attachments: Since Microsoft’s last documentation, a bug fix in Safari now allows list attachments.
(5) People Picker: For non-IE browsers, the name checker performs authentication but does not resolve display names. In Firefox, Safari and Chrome, browsing doesn’t work.
(6) Send To: Non-IE browsers are unable to send documents to addresses outside their own farm.
(7) Web Discussions: Web discussion functionality works in all browsers. However, rich text editing has limited support, as outlined above.
(8) Export to Spreadsheet: Google Chrome’s content type handler doesn’t properly handle the export.
(9) Summary Links Web Part: When using Safari, the dialog box’s sizing obscures bottom content.
(10) Excel Calculation Services: All browsers tested support the underlying Excel Calculations Services infrastructure. This is in contrast to Microsoft’s official documentation.
(11) Excel Web Access: In non-IE browsers, content is rendered correctly, but context menus get hidden behind Excel graphs and controls.
(12) Open in Excel: Although context menus are obscured behind graphs and controls, clicks work correctly in Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.
Browser Tests Methodology
The full testing methodology (with step-by-step instructions) is available for download:
MOSS 2007 – Browser Compatibility Tests.pdf (PDF Document)
MOSS 2007 – Browser Compatibility Tests.xps (XPS Document)
Room For Improvement
While these tests covered 192 browser-feature combinations, additional tests would be ideal. By no means are these tests comprehensive. They merely revisit the 24 scenarios Microsoft highlighted as incompatible.
In most cases, functionality should be consistent across browsers built on the same rendering engine. For example, the Mozilla browser and modern Netscape browsers should resemble Firefox; likewise, Konqueror should behave similar to Safari and Chrome.
SharePoint’s list is of features is intimidating, so I won’t get a chance to test them in all browsers. Nonetheless, as I come across show-stoppers, I’ll update this article. If you discover other inconsistencies, please share them in the comments below.
