How to downgrade Bootstrap 3 to 2

Question

I am using Bootstrap 3.3.2 but it can not run well on IE7,8 so I need to downgrade it to version 2. How can I do that?

Thanks a ton.

Answer 1

Well, go download the necessary files for version 2 (using http://getbootstrap.com/2.3.2/ is likely going to be quite helpful) and set your site up to use those in place of the 3.x assets. This is a major-version change, so there's going to be breaking functionality all over the place. Things changed a lot from 2.x to 3.x, so you're going to have to make a lot of syntactic changes in your code to match the 2.x docs. There isn't a "downgrading" guide published, but the log at https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/releases may help you.

Answer 2

As per this article from Techrepublic it seems not possible : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/software-engineer/bootstrap-3-says-mobile-first-everything-else-later/

Not backward compatible

The reason the latest version is not backward compatible is a number of class changes. The most notable changes include the removal of the fluid classes (.container-fluid and .row-fluid) that were used to build responsive interfaces. With Bootstrap 3.0.0, sites are responsive by default, but there is an option to disable that feature. Gone are the days of pixel width pages -- say hello to percentage-based layouts going forward. Other changes that caused problems include the removal of search form controls (.form-actions and .form-search) and the .navbar-inner class.

There are too many class changes to cover here, but the online documentation provides all the necessary details as well as 3.0.0 equivalent features (where available). In addition, the official Bootstrap blog post announcing the new version contains useful information.