Components "disappear" under IE6

Some components do not appear under IE6, in some cases due to a component bug, in others due to the browser itself. One of the most common source of rendering problems is the IE6 hasLayout issue, which in most cases is fixed by setting a height for the component.

Here are some known IE6 rendering issues and tips on how to workaround them:

Set a height for components

Known affected components: SplitPane, TabPane.

When added to a ContainerEx, a SplitPane will not be shown under IE6.

The workaround is to add a DisplayLayout with height set to 100% to the SplitPane before adding to the ContainerEx. The following code was extracted from the original thread discussion:

SplitPane splitPane = new SplitPane();
  splitPane.add(templateTop);
  splitPane.add(templateBottom);
  splitPane.setSeparatorPosition(new Extent(400));
  splitPane.setSeparatorColor(Color.RED);
  splitPane.setResizable(true);

  DisplayLayoutData layoutData = new DisplayLayoutData();
  layoutData.setHeight(new ExtentEx("100%"));
  splitPane.setLayoutData(layoutData);

  ContainerEx containerEx = new ContainerEx();
  containerEx.setWidth(new ExtentEx(500));
  containerEx.setHeight(new ExtentEx(500));
  containerEx.setBackground(Color.PINK);
  containerEx.setBorder(new BorderEx());

  containerEx.add(splitPane);

Setting a DisplayLayout also solves IE6 rendering problem for other components as well - e.g. TabPane.
For other components, the DisplayLayout should be set in the child component.

Avoid using Grid and Row, specially with TreeViewer

The Grid component seems to be problematic under IE6, specially when used together with TreeViewers. For example, the following hierarchy will not work under IE6:

Using Row instead of Grid, will not work either. The solution is to use Column instead:

Also, avoid unnecessary use of layout components as ContainerEx, Grid, Row, Column: it is easier to get IE6 problems when using composites of ContainerEx, for example, one Container Ex inside another.

Finally, a component that is known for having IE6 issues is ContentPaneEx - the best workaround is not to use it if you need to support your application in the problematic browser.

You can have aditional information about Grids, Rows and Columns here