I’m running a CapCut-related website, and I’ve noticed compatibility issues when accessing it through GNOME Web (Epiphany). The problems include:
Video Playback Issues: Embedded tutorial videos hosted on my site fail to load or buffer indefinitely, even though they work fine on other browsers like Firefox and Chrome.
Layout Rendering: Certain elements of the site, such as buttons and navigation menus, are misaligned or not displaying as intended.
JavaScript Errors: The browser’s developer tools show JavaScript errors related to ES6 features, which I thought were fully supported in Epiphany.
The site is built with a modern stack (HTML5, CSS3, and vanilla JavaScript) and passes W3C validation. I’ve also ensured that no browser-specific features are being used.
Has anyone encountered similar issues with GNOME Web? Are there specific polyfills or workarounds I can implement to improve compatibility?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions and advice!
Feel free to report bugs on WebKit Bugzilla. Just make sure to have only one problem per bug report, so you’d want at least three separate bug reports here.
Anything multimedia-related is currently in pretty bad shape unfortunately; crashes are extremely common. But failing to play a video at all is unusual unless you’re just outright missing required GStreamer elements. Multimedia bugs are almost always platform-specific, so use the WebKitGTK component when reporting these.
Layout and JavaScript are both in generally pretty good shape. These bugs are generally cross-platform issues; if you have access to Safari or to somebody else who does, try to reproduce there to confirm. If you select the appropriate component when creating your bug report, the right developers should see it.
Thank you for your response and the detailed guidance!
I’ll proceed with reporting the issues on WebKit Bugzilla as separate bug reports, as suggested. To clarify:
Video Playback Issues: I’ll double-check for missing GStreamer elements on my system before filing this. It’s helpful to know multimedia issues can be platform-specific.
Layout Rendering: I’ll try to replicate the issue on Safari to determine if this is a cross-platform bug. If it reproduces, I’ll include that in the report.
JavaScript Errors: Since these errors seem ES6-related, I’ll confirm if there’s any inconsistency across WebKit-based browsers before submitting the bug report.
Thanks again for the tips and for pointing me to the correct components. I’ll make sure to provide detailed reproduction steps in each report.
Layout problems are usually not platform-specific, but sometimes weird bugs occur so it is possible. But a difference in Safari vs. Epiphany would be more likely caused by different underlying WebKit version. You can also try stable Epiphany vs. Epiphany Tech Preview or stable Safari vs. Safari Tech Preview to see if the version matters.
JavaScript language problems are almost never platform-specific, but again bugs are possible. It is common for WebKitGTK to not implement particular web APIs, but the JS language itself should be consistent regardless of operating system.
I appreciate the insight regarding the differences in WebKit versions and the potential impact on rendering and JavaScript behavior. I’ll test my website on both stable and Tech Preview versions of Epiphany and Safari to see if there are any discrepancies.
Regarding the layout issues, I agree that platform-specific bugs seem less likely, but it’s curious that the same site renders fine on other WebKit-based browsers like Safari. I’ll double-check for any subtle CSS issues that might behave differently across WebKit versions.
For the JavaScript errors, I’ll investigate further to see if they’re related to missing web APIs rather than ES6 compatibility itself. Are there specific debugging tools or resources you’d recommend for identifying unsupported WebKitGTK features?
Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction! I’ll follow up with more details after conducting the tests.
Normally you would see a suspicious error message in the web inspector if the web content tries to use an API that is missing. Enable the web inspector context menu item using the Show Developer Actions toggle at the bottom of the first page of the preferences dialog.