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Senior Member
If you've viewed Premise Browser using Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) then you've probably noticed that the Watermark looks different. What's the Watermark? It's the area at the top of the screen displaying the name of the current location or object. In IE9, the Watermark has a dark background whereas in previous versions of IE the Watermark was transparent. Why?
Premise does not have a proprietary 'touchscreen builder/viewer' to create/display a touchscreen-friendly user-interface. Premise uses Internet Explorer as its 'viewer' and the AutomationBrowser module is responsible for generating HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to render Premise Browser's user-interface. In other words, Premise uses open, evolving standards and the key word is evolving.
IE9 supports CSS version 3 which defines an 'opacity' CSS tag. Others browsers have supported this tag for awhile but not IE until now. AutomationBrowser has a 'CSS' class that defines the available Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) tags in Premise. However, this class does not define an 'opacity' property because it did not exist as a recognized CSS tag in early versions of IE (in the days of yore when Premise was alive and kicking).
To alter the opacity of an element, Premise's AutomationBrowser uses the CSS 'filter' tag combined with a bit of IE-specific jibber-jabber:
The short-hand version is:
Although we see the words 'alpha' and 'opacity', the tag that is responsible for the magic is 'filter'. Curiously, Premise's 'CSS' class also defines an 'alpha' tag which, to my knowledge, doesn't correspond to any recognized CSS tag. Based on my experiments with Premise and IE8, setting 'alpha' to any value gives you no results in IE. In contrast, setting 'filter' to 'alpha(opacity=25)' results in a faint font (25% opaque). I know this because I recently used 'alpha(opacity=0)' to hide some text (more about that later).
OK, so up until IE9 you'd use 'filter:alpha(opacity=50)' to change opacity to 50% and Premise included some sort of do-nothing tag called 'alpha'.
The area at the very top of Premise Browser, where the current location/object's name is displayed, is called the Watermark. If you go to Modules > Plugins > Themes > WindowsXP > Watermark you'll find a CSS 'alpha' tag set to '60' (i.e. 60% opaque or 40% transparent). Quite honestly, I've never noticed the Watermark having the slightest bit of opacity; it always had a transparent background. It supports my theory that IE has always ignored the 'alpha' tag.
IE9 does not ignore the 'alpha' tag. IE9 readily interprets 'alpha:60' and renders the Watermark area 60% opaque. That's why Premise Browser's Watermark looks different when viewed with IE9.
If you don't like the Watermark's new look, go to Modules > Plugins > Themes > YourFavoriteTheme > Watermark > Alpha and delete the value.
Here's something else I discovered while working with Premise. In IE8 a 'Transparent' font color is rendered as black whereas in IE9 it becomes truly transparent and blends in with the background (i.e. vanishes).
Premise does not have a proprietary 'touchscreen builder/viewer' to create/display a touchscreen-friendly user-interface. Premise uses Internet Explorer as its 'viewer' and the AutomationBrowser module is responsible for generating HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to render Premise Browser's user-interface. In other words, Premise uses open, evolving standards and the key word is evolving.
IE9 supports CSS version 3 which defines an 'opacity' CSS tag. Others browsers have supported this tag for awhile but not IE until now. AutomationBrowser has a 'CSS' class that defines the available Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) tags in Premise. However, this class does not define an 'opacity' property because it did not exist as a recognized CSS tag in early versions of IE (in the days of yore when Premise was alive and kicking).
To alter the opacity of an element, Premise's AutomationBrowser uses the CSS 'filter' tag combined with a bit of IE-specific jibber-jabber:
Code:
filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=30);
Code:
filter:alpha(opacity=30);Although we see the words 'alpha' and 'opacity', the tag that is responsible for the magic is 'filter'. Curiously, Premise's 'CSS' class also defines an 'alpha' tag which, to my knowledge, doesn't correspond to any recognized CSS tag. Based on my experiments with Premise and IE8, setting 'alpha' to any value gives you no results in IE. In contrast, setting 'filter' to 'alpha(opacity=25)' results in a faint font (25% opaque). I know this because I recently used 'alpha(opacity=0)' to hide some text (more about that later).
OK, so up until IE9 you'd use 'filter:alpha(opacity=50)' to change opacity to 50% and Premise included some sort of do-nothing tag called 'alpha'.
The area at the very top of Premise Browser, where the current location/object's name is displayed, is called the Watermark. If you go to Modules > Plugins > Themes > WindowsXP > Watermark you'll find a CSS 'alpha' tag set to '60' (i.e. 60% opaque or 40% transparent). Quite honestly, I've never noticed the Watermark having the slightest bit of opacity; it always had a transparent background. It supports my theory that IE has always ignored the 'alpha' tag.
IE9 does not ignore the 'alpha' tag. IE9 readily interprets 'alpha:60' and renders the Watermark area 60% opaque. That's why Premise Browser's Watermark looks different when viewed with IE9.
If you don't like the Watermark's new look, go to Modules > Plugins > Themes > YourFavoriteTheme > Watermark > Alpha and delete the value.
Here's something else I discovered while working with Premise. In IE8 a 'Transparent' font color is rendered as black whereas in IE9 it becomes truly transparent and blends in with the background (i.e. vanishes).
