There are always some problems when working with 3rd party frameworks when the world moves forward but the framework you’re using doesn’t. After JSF 2 was released the RichFaces development moved to 4.x version and they dropped support for the older versions although many users are still using the older versions as it’s not trivial or free to update to JSF 2 & RichFaces 4. Now if users have problems with the older versions they just have to patch it themselves as the RichFaces team isn’t going to fix e.g. the IE9 issues.
The problem with Internet Explorer 9 is that with RichFaces 3.3.3.Final the Ajax components doesn’t work and there are errors shown in the JavaScript Console. For example when testing RichFaces Ajax demos the JavaScript is assigning A.outerHTML = new XMLSerializer().serializeToString(C) which gives the following error:
SCRIPT16386: No such interface supported
Fortunately it’s relatively easy to fix it for IE9 by patching the AJAX.js JavaScript file in RichFaces. The process is discussed in RichFaces’s RF-9485 -JIRA ticket and JBoss forum message. In short the patching for AJAX.js contains following steps:
Upgrading Sarissa Framework and patching RichFaces AJAX.js file
Resources:
- Sarissa framework: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sarissa/files/
- RichFaces sources: http://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/richfaces/branches/community/3.3.X/
1) Instead of patching Sarissa as suggested in the ticket it’s better to upgrade Sarissa to 0.9.9.6 as it has some additional IE9 issues fixed.
Download Sarissa:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sarissa/files/sarissa/Sarissa%200.9.9.6/sarissa-0.9.9.6.jar/download
Extract sarissa.js from the jar:
sarissa-0.9.9.6.jar/gr/abiss/js/sarissa/sarissa.js
Replace first part of AJAX.js (till EOF comment) or replace sarissa.js in richfaces souce resources.
richfaces-impl-3.3.3.Final.jar/org/ajax4jsf/javascript/scripts/AJAX.js or richfaces-ui-3.3.3.Final\framework\impl\src\main\javascript\ajaxjsf\
2) For richfaces-impl work in non-compatibility mode in IE9, A4J.AJAX.replacePage method should be fixed in RichFaces sources in AJAX.js or JSFAJAX.js because custom document.open method does not work in IE9 document mode.
Replace (line 2125 in AJAX.js, line 1121 in JFSAJAX.js)
if(isIE) {
With
if(isIE&&!Sarissa._SARISSA_IS_IE9) {
3) You will also need to change or comment the next line in AJAX.js or JSFAJAX.js (richfaces-ui-3.3.3.Final\framework\impl\src\main\javascript\ajaxjsf\)
Replace (line 2119 in AJAX.js, line 1044 in JFSAJAX.js)
LOG.debug("Hidden JSF state fields: "+idsSpan);
to
LOG.debug("Hidden JSF state fields: ");//+idsSpan);
Otherwise you get the following error in IE9:
SCRIPT438: Object doesn't support this property or method
For this line 2648 in framework pack:
LOG.debug("Hidden JSF state fields: "+Q);
4) Now you have patched AJAX.js and you can either build a new RichFaces Jar, replace the original AJAX.js in RichFaces Jar with the patched one or just override it in your html.
The easiest way is just include the patched AJAX.js file as the last script-include within HEAD and it will take control over the bundled version of RichFaces.
In your template.jspx or similar:
<html>
<head>
<a4j:loadScript src="/js/AJAX_IE9fix.js" />
...
</head>
...
5) Done.
Other ways to fix IE9 compatibility issues has been discussed in tickets RF-10774 as forcing IE9 to use another document mode. Also suggested solutions are to implement a browser sniffer and tell the Sarissa library to use its own XMLSerializer when Internet Explorer 9 is detected and forcing IE9 to run in an emulated mode but neither of those worked for me.
