Friday, December 19, 2008

Firefox, browsers, and plugins


Ah, my first contentious post. Okay, well here goes.


We don't currently support Firefox in the application. Unfortunately true, I wish it wasn't. While the development team is actively working on that (yes, it's coming soon), I did want to share a tip for those of us (yes, me included) who use Firefox as our default browser. It can be frustrating to have to switch back and forth in order to use two different browsers for different purposes.

The good news is that for Windows users, you can use Firefox as a default browser, and your use of Eloqua can be completely seamless. Here's how it works:


  1. Install the IETab plug in from Mozilla: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/1419

  2. Install the User Agent Switcher, again from Mozilla: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59

  3. Go to Tools > IE Tab Options and under the Sites Filter tab, add the following URLs: http://now.eloqua.com/, https://secure.eloqua.com/, then click OK.

  4. Make your Tab into an IE Tab by clicking on the IETab button

  5. Select Tools > User Agent Switcher > Internet Explorer 7 (Windows Vista). You do not have to be running the Vista OS to make this selection (Note: You only have to do this once at the beginning).

And you're up and running. From here on, you should be able to open Eloqua in Firefox completely seamlessly. There's a more detailed set of instructions here: http://eloqua.icentera.com/exLink.asp?7813408OU91F44I29388608 if you want step by step instructions (I skipped some of the "Click OK" bits), and I look forward to announcing full support in the near term future.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about native Firefox support? Linux users cannot use this hack since the plugins are windows only.

Steven Woods said...

Agreed, native support is definitely a key initiative for us. Being built, and on its way soon.

Anonymous said...

Being that I am primarily on a mac and using eloqua extensively through VM Ware, this would save me a great deal of time.

David said...

What is "soon" 1 month? 6 months? A year?

Carlos said...

Was just wondering if there is any means of using eloqua on the Mac. We don't currently have a licence for VMWare or for Windows, and it seems like a waste to set up a machine solely to access the website. (This office is Mac only, the other office is mostly mac, but has a few older windows machines waiting to be retired)

Anonymous said...

Any feedback re: how to do this for a mac?

The Axle8er said...

i tried these instruction using firefox on a mac but when i click on the secure.eloqua link, the new tab says that firefox needs to install another add-on but when i click through, it tells me it can't find an add-on. help!

Steven Woods said...

Thanks for the comments folks. Just to clarify, these instructions only work on Windows - we are dilligently working on full Firefox compliance - coming soon. Apologies for the inconvenience at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I really don't want to have to buy a Windows box in order to use Eloqua. WHEN will Eloqua work on a Mac?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I could install all this stuff. Or I could just not bother. Who looses out? I'll give you a clue: Not me.

Anonymous said...

http://labs.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341caed853ef0111689827b6970c-800wi

Thanks for accepting comments, but I agree, not supporting Firefox means not supporting a significant customer population.

Anonymous said...

For shame......5 months since "soon" was posted. When is soon anyway? Soon is 30 days. Sometime this year? Why all the politician side-stepping?

Chris Miller said...

Native Firefox support is coming --targeted for early Q4.

Anonymous said...

hurry hurry. Firefox, Safari, OS X support needed.

Anonymous said...

Yeah "coming soon" in December 2008 should have been "a future release." "Early Q4" could now qualify as "soon" since it is approx 30 days away...Unless "Early Q4" is actually "Sometime next year", which means Firefox native support was not a "key initiative", but "an initiative."

Anonymous said...

Take it easy and be nice. They're obviously trying to get it rolled out. Have you never had a project of yours take longer than expected? At least they're communicating about it.

Chris Miller said...

Appreciate the support! Beyond displaying HTML, all browsers are not created equally, so it's not as easy as it seems, and a lot of work has gone into making it happen.

Having said that, I just saw it living and breathing in Firefox, so let me quantify Q4 to be targeting end of October.

Anonymous said...

so does eloqua work on a mac now or not? I'm trying to get it to work.

Mahesh Iyer said...

Can someone from ELOQUA please give us an estimated date when Eloqua will work on Mac (Safari i.e.)

thanks,
Mahesh

Gabbo said...

"Beyond displaying HTML, all browsers are not created equally"

LOL

Beyond using HTML (and/or Java Javascript, these days Flash, and other things commonly known as STANDARDS) all websites are not created equally.

Is it only me who wonders why the developers of the internet produced these wonderful things describing the various protocols; oh, what was the name... Ah! Yes! RFCs - That's the one!

I'm sure the idea behind describing standards with RFCs was so that anyone could read them, and, because the producers of the clients all read them too, anyone who could read was producing sites that any browser made by a manufacturer who could *also* read, just, magically, 'worked'.

I KNEW there was a logic in there somewhere...

It works fine until some bright spark manufacturer produces a bright-spark client with clever little tricks that aren't part of any standard anywhere. In fact even that doesn't get in the way too badly; it doesn't fall down until bright spark web designers start creating sites that only work with the brightspark manufacturer's browser.

And then, worst of all, they start telling all the users with standards-compliant clients, that they should "upgrade" to the one built by the manufacturer that can't read :-(

Microsoft: the only software house that can't SPELL RFC!

Dave J.