I fixed the safari/asp:menu issue using addedcontrol method. Why does this work?

Question

I used the following code in the cs file of the masterpage to fix the rendering issue of the safari and the asp:menu control. I was curious on why it actually fixes the problem. Here is the code:

protected override void AddedControl(Control control, int index)
{
   if (Request.ServerVariables["http_user_agent"].IndexOf("Safari", 
       StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) != -1)

   this.Page.ClientTarget = "uplevel";

   base.AddedControl(control, index);

}

Answer 1

The problem is that ASP.NET erroneously recognizes Safari as a "downlevel" browser (e.g. ancient). Your fix is forcing it to recognize it as a more modern browser that is capable of handling some of the menu's javascript.

This will also work via a bunch of other techniques such as overriding Page_PreInit or adding a properly configured safari.browser to App_Browsers.