User experience running BAM Portal in different browsers

In my last post, I wrote about BAM Portal running in Internet Explorer 11, the browser we normally have on the BizTalk Server machine. However, the BAM Portal can and should be remotely accessed by the users and not directly from the server.

But this can lead us to other problems. Each user has their own preference regarding browsers, some of them like Google Chrome, others Firefox, and others IE. As I recently upgraded my laptop to Windows 10, I took this opportunity to validate the BAM Portal behavior in different browsers, including the new browser from Microsoft – Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge

As I expected, BAM Portal does not perform well with the new Microsoft Edge browser. It asks for the authentication credentials with a nice window, with a very clean layout

But after that, you still have the same compatibility problem between Internet Explorer and the site: the menu has problems, and you cannot select the columns to perform the queries

But unfortunately for us, Microsoft Edge doesn’t have the Compatibility View option; instead, you have to use the Open with Internet Explorer option.

Conclusion: BAM Portal is not supported on Microsoft Edge.

Internet Explorer 11

Again, BAM Portal does not perform well with IE11, as I described in my last post: Running BAM Portal in Internet Explorer 11: Enable Compatibility view, and to fix all the problems, you need to add this site to the Compatibility View Settings.

Once you turn on Compatibility View, Internet Explorer will automatically show the BAM Portal in Compatibility View each time you visit, fixing all the previous behavior problems.

Conclusion: IE is the best browser to run the BAM Portal.

Google Chrome

I did not have much hope that Google Chrome would be any different. And again, when we try to access the BAM Portal, a pop-up asking for the authentication credentials is presented.

But after that, you still have the same compatibility problem, again, the menu has problems, and you cannot select the columns to perform the queries.

Google Chrome doesn’t have the Compatibility View Settings option that exists in IE. However, there are some extensions that you will find in the Chrome Web Store, like IE Tab, that will display web pages using IE within Chrome.

After installing this extension, you will have an option in the right corner of the browser to display the BAM Portal using IE within Chrome.

And using this technique, you will be able to run BAM Portal in Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox

The exact same behavior happens in Firefox; the authentication pop-up is presented, but after that, you still have the same compatibility problem, again, the menu has problems, and you cannot select the columns to perform the queries.

As with Chrome, Firefox also does not have the Compatibility View Settings option and relies upon extensions like IE Tab to render the page using IE.

After installing this extension, by right-clicking over the BAM Portal, you can find the option View Page in IE Tab and this will do the trick for you.

A new window asking credentials is shown and after that, you will have BAM Portal running fine in Firefox

In short, Microsoft Edge does not support the BAM Portal. IE is the best browser to run BAM Portal, and you can run BAM Portal in Chrome or Firefox using extensions to emulate IE.

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