Conditional Comments - What Is This?

[Andrea]

This code is part of a navigation list I'm trying to work on (somebody else's work, very complex site)

<!--[if gte IE 7]><!--></a><!--<![endif]-->

I get the first part and the end - but what in the world is this:

<!--></a>

That is, the closing 'a' would be if the browser is IE8 or higher, then we want to close the a tag.

Why would I only want to close a link in IE8 or higher? Why not in FX, Chrome, or IE7?

 

And what could this

<!-->

possible be good for?

 

And what about the <!-- before the actual end if part? Does that have any kind of purpose, or did whoever wrote this thing simply mess up?

[administrator]

conditional comments allow you to hide code from all other browsers except for IE. 

 

In this case:

gte IE 7

Means: if greater than or equal to IE7 ... display this tag. Since the code is in comments:

<!-->

.. The other browsers just ignore it.

Stef

[administrator]

Holy crap ... here's an old video I did on this in 2006:

 

http://www.killersites.com/videoTutorials/Tutorial_WebDesign2/ie_conditional_comments.html

 

 

Here a blog post related to it:

 

http://www.killersites.com/blog/2006/ie-conditional-comments-video/

 

Stef

[administrator]

Oops .. disregard my posts!

 

... I should have read your whole question!

 

 

At first glance, it looks like messed up code. Did you run it ... does it display ok?

 

Stef

[Andrea]

Just finished the video   - you didn't talk about the mystery code, but I could confirm that I understand IE Conditional Comments.

 

Knowing where the code comes from, my first guess is that it's somebody's mess, but I didn't want to point out a mistake to find out it's actually just fancy coding.

 

It seems to work ok in IE11, but it's a huge site, and I'm not even sure if I'm looking at the right page.

 

But to sum it up - can you confirm these 2 points:

 

There is no reason to have a link close ONLY in IE7 and greater?

 

There is absolutely no point in the red stuff:

<!--[if gte IE 7]><!--></a><!--<![endif]-->

[Andrea]

I was too impatient to wait for a reply here, so I sent an email to our website people, saying this looks like a mistake to me, but if it's something new, I'd love an explanation, and this is the response I got:

 

I can’t explain because I didn’t set it up. Our designer researched CSS flyouts, and that’s what she found that worked with our website.

 

I just copy and tweak to fit whatever site I’m working on.

 

So there you have it, folks

[newseed]

If my memory serves me correctly, I think that code came from Stu at cssplay.com where flyouts didn't work for IE7 or earlier unless that comment was in there. I know it's weird but it did work and without it just broke.  Of course that flyout example is long gone but I bet if I dug through all my old codes I could find it.

[Andrea]

Thanks Eddie, no need to waste time. Still makes no sense to me, so.

[newseed]

No biggie but just in case you are curious, here's the link:

 

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/flyout2.html