What is described is a method to allow older version of web
browsers to view web pages that may have been designed to be viewed by
newer version of web browsers.
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Method for a downlevel browser to view uplevel HTML web pages via temporary, local downleveling of HTML source.
One of the problems faced by users of web browsers is the growing distance between new HTML/HTTP protocols versus established, older browsers. Specifically, as web authors include new tags which give enhanced functionality to a web page, these newer tags cause browsers to incorrectly display or fail to display a web page. The user must hit the "reload" button a couple of times, then try a different web browser or try a new web browser before they can deduce that something in the html source includes a reference to a newer type of tag that an older or different version of web browser is incapable of displaying.
The solution might be to download a newer browser. However, some users prefer not to do this because:
a) they get their browser from a site license and cannot change browsers
b) their older browser is stable and only incurs problems only on a few web pages
c) a newer browser might cause instability on their computers
What is proposed is a method for a downlevel browser to pull down a tag-alternative file from a web site. This file would list the latest HTML tags and suitable alternatives. When a browser downloads a page that is too "uplevel" for the downlevel browser to display, there is a button or option called "ALTERNATIVE DISPLAY". This would then have the browser contact the web page server and ask for the HTML source of the page. The source is downloaded into a temporary file. Then, the plug-in program for ALTERNATIVE DISPLAY would perform a scan on key tags listed in the html source. Referencing the tag-alternative file, would substitute "uplevel" tags for "downlevel" tags and perform screen refresh to let the user see if...
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