With the new CSS 3 and HTML 5 technology, web applications have gained a lot of

Question

With the new CSS 3 and HTML 5 technology, web applications have gained a lot of new tools for a better UI (user interface) interaction, beautiful templates and even responsive layout to fit into tablets and smartphones.

Within a corporate environment, those new technologies are required so the company can "follow" the IT evolution and their concurrent, but they also want that those new web applications supports old browsers.

How should I deal with this situation? By one side we are asked to follow the the evolution of technology, create responsive layouts and use a lot of cool jQuery plugins. On the other hand, we are asked to support old browsers that do not support those new responsive features, plugins or components.

I would like advice and strategies on how to create "modern" web applications that are also supported on old browsers.
How does your company deal with this situation?
Is it possible to have the same web application run well and beautifully on old browsers, and be responsive and interactive on newer browsers?

Explanation / Answer

Handling it out to a framework
As @jacktrades said, if suits and works well, handling it out to a framework would be a good solution since, theoretically, it evolves less development and maintenance effort.

But how old are the browsers you have to support? Doing it for ancient ones like IE 7 can be tough. God help you if IE 6.

Unofficially, Bootstrap should look and behave well enough in Chromium for Linux and Internet Explorer 7. Note the "unofficially".

Two styles, one front-end
The traditional approach would be having two different styles, one modern and responsive and another one more statical. Then you dynamically serve the most suitable one for the user's browsers (Modernizr comes here).

Of course there is an effort here, on both development and maintenance, and not only on shallow quantity but also on complexity.

Two front-ends
Another approach would be having two versions of the website, one more rich and complex and another one minimalist.

Of course this one seems to be a massive rework, sure, but sometimes you just have to.

This is more common when doing mobile versions of a website. Sometimes when dealing with tiny screens it is more worth to write a new front end than making all the responsive magic.

Tackling the problem directly
But the real problem may be the whole requirement of supporting old browsers.

Have you attempted to convince your organization/client to use a newer one? I know sometimes is rough, but this is definitely the best solution. It is at least, no matter how hard, worth a shot.

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