IE 8 Support Ending April 2015

[jessica.t]

Hello BIM 360 Field users!

The following communication was sent out to BIM administrators regarding the ending of support for Internet Explorer 8 for the April 2015 release of BIM 360 Field:

As a BIM 360 Field administrator, we want to let you know about an important change to the browsers we support for use with BIM 360 Field. 
 
What is changing?
Microsoft has announced that they will end support for IE8 in January 2015. BIM 360 Field will also stop supporting these older browsers with our April 2015 release.
 
Beginning with that release some features may no longer work in IE8 browsers. Bugs or performance issues that appear only when using IE8 will not be investigated or fixed by BIM 360 Field after this release.
 
Why are we ending support for IE8? As we evaluate which browsers to support, we consider which ones will give our users the best experience and enable us to focus on areas that will add the most value for customers. 
 
Four key reasons we decided to do this:

• IE8 is less secure. There have been multiple security vulnerabilities discovered IE 8 over the years, so we are enhancing our ability to keep your data safe by ending support for this less secure browser.

• IE8 is not HTML5 compatible.  IE8 was released in 2009 and does not support the rich internet apps our customers have come to expect, including HTML5, which is the new industry standard and key to supporting important features like pushpins and markup as well as an overall simpler, faster, and more consistent user experience.

• Microsoft stopped supporting IE8 in January 2015. For more details, please see Microsoft’s website http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help.

• Our customers are moving to newer browsers. Less than 5% of our customers are using IE8. Our customers are trending towards newer browsers, and we want to focus on the newer, standards-based browsers so we can deliver the best experience for you.

 
What action do I need to take?
We are giving you advance notice to ensure you have as much time as possible to plan for alternative strategies. We strongly recommend that you and your company’s IT administrators upgrade to one of our supported browsers prior to the April 2015 release. 
 
Our list of currently supported browsers (as of January, 2015):
•Mozilla® Firefox®, most recent stable version
•Google Chrome™, most recent stable version
•Apple® Safari®, most recent stable version on Mac OS X
•Microsoft® Internet Explorer® versions 11, 10, and 9
 
Partial support is available for Internet Explorer 8 - Markup from the Library and the Pushpin feature are not supported.
 
What will happen if I take no action?
Users may not be able to access the service from IE8 after the April 2015 release. New and/or existing features and functionality may no longer work in these browsers. In addition, bugs or performance issues that appear only when using IE8 will not be investigated or fixed by BIM 360 Field after this release.
 
How can I get more information?
BIM 360 Support is always available to answer any questions you may have about this change. We appreciate your business and look forward to working with you during this transition to support your project teams. 

Thank you,

The Autodesk BIM 360 Field Team

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this communication please let us know by replying to this post. Thank you!