eServices Unofficially Supports Firefox

For the past several years, the NHQ eServices site has only officially supported using Internet Explorer to access the applications, and only when run under Windows. While other platforms (Mac, Linux, etc.) and browsers (Firefox, Netscape, Safari, etc.) would work most of the time with eServices, there were several applications that just would not work at all (for technical reasons, the applications required components that were only found in Internet Explorer). With the recent changes made to eServices, some of these applications have been updated (the overhaul of Interactive Personnel System into the new Member Search comes to mind) and it's great to see that programmers in the NHQ IT department are now testing applications in other browsers, especially Firefox.

Upon logging into eServices, you'll now notice this at the bottom of the main page:


Note the bottom link is to Firefox 1.5.

Now the footer on the main eServices page continues to read, "We are trying to make applications available as quickly as possible. Our goal is to develop the applications for all browsers. Where significant development time is required, there may be a delay in support of browsers other than Internet Explorer." But the link to Firefox really shows they're concerned with developing applications that adhere to Web standards and browser security (in today's world of spyware, malware, and identity theft, browser security is a very good thing). Internet Explorer has been hit with some very bad security issues the past few years (really technical stuff that I won't go into here) and many users have begun switching to Firefox as a more secure browser. While NHQ's addition of Firefox to their downloads marks unofficial support for the browser on eServices, it does show that the fine IT staff at NHQ are really making an effort to design applications that are secure and work across multiple platforms and browsers. Excellent job fellas! Keep up the good work!!