Having problems viewing with Netscape/Mozilla

[Nagual]

The admin is aware of the problem; at least for Mozilla/Netscape running in Windows...

[Nick]

Yes, its a wierd bug that seems to happen with Mozilla 1.6 as far as I can tell. I have Mozilla 1.6 at work with a Windows system and I get the big white gap thing.

However, at home I run linux on both my laptop and desktop. The Mozilla versions on both of those computers is version 1.4 and it renders just fine.

There is a Mozilla forum, but I haven't posted there on this as of yet. If I do come up with a fix I'll be sure to post it here.

Very best,

[shedt]

I'm having the same problem using firefox from Mozzila on my Mac, OS 10.3 Panther

[Sygmoral]

I just installed FireFox 0.8, especially to find out if this bug would be solved then. It isn't..

Also, the drop down menu looks a lot more... 'matte' than in IE.



Sygmoral

[Nick]

Originally posted by Sygmoral

quote: I just installed FireFox 0.8, especially to find out if this bug would be solved then. It isn't..

Yes, I have noticed that at work where I use Firefox. When I checked, I found out that it is based on a Mozilla 1.6 platform. It is a strange phenomena, and only seems to be evident here. [?]

[Sygmoral]

Right,

it has taken me some time, but I have found an (intermediate) solution.


I have decided to take a close look on the code. LOTS of code - way too much to generate this forum actually, but whatever. The most important thing that I discovered, is that this forum (actually the menu system) looks which browser you're using, with an enormous amount of code (instead of simply asking the browser [xx(]) in the javascript file sniffer.js, and then decides how it's gonna make the menu.

Somewhat amazing I find this - the menu system has a seperate javascript file for each browser (that is: ie4+macIe5, ie5, ns4, ns6+mz7 (our case), op6, op5). Each of those files is 30 kB (which I find enormously big - just to create a simple dropdown menu...).
The reason for the problems we're having is simple: the menu system (some other parts of the forum also, perhaps - I only checked the menu part) is outdated compared to the new browser versions... the fact that the menu uses entirely different javascript files for each browser means, in my opinion, that it not written very 'compatibility'-something...

Most probably, there will be newer of these javascript files available for the newer browsers. Also, sniffer.js will have to be updated. Next time that I have time (actually just now I didn't have time, but I'm sacrificing some sleep for this.. []) I will find out if I can find such a thing.


Well, my 'intermediate solution'. This is however not really a good solution. It will improve the looks for Firefox 0.8 users and mozilla 1.6 users a lot, though not making it perfect, but it will decrease the looks for mozilla 1.4 users and others that use the same javascript file...
It goes like this: open the file http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/resources/menu.js, look for the word "moz" (it only appears once), and change it into "op5". Indeed: let the menu think that we're using Opera 5... and then it will look better - though not perfect yet. It will have the same error as the one that I get when I currently open the forum with opera 6.


Sygmoral

[bmw]

Adrian,
I don't want to sound pessimistic or degrading, but maybe the source for this forum should be rewritten.  I know some people who could greatly improve the code.  The only differences the lay user would see are better compatibility with other browsers and faster loading times.  This might be more attractive serverside also, as the file sizes would be smaller.  Furthermore, the people I know are great at designing sites that are easily modified and updated.  The top person I'm thinking of is a friend of mine, Eric.  He has designed a forum before.  We wouldn't have to worry about the forum going down at all, for Eric could design the new forum while this one is still running, then seamlessly move to the new one.  Anyway, if you and/or Robert Bruce are interested, Just PM me and I'll talk to some people.  If you are already taking care of it, then thanks!

[Adrian]

Greetings bmw,

quote:Originally posted by bmw

Adrian,
I don't want to sound pessimistic or degrading, but maybe the source for this forum should be rewritten.  I know some people who could greatly improve the code.  The only differences the lay user would see are better compatibility with other browsers and faster loading times.  This might be more attractive serverside also, as the file sizes would be smaller.  Furthermore, the people I know are great at designing sites that are easily modified and updated.  The top person I'm thinking of is a friend of mine, Eric.  He has designed a forum before.  We wouldn't have to worry about the forum going down at all, for Eric could design the new forum while this one is still running, then seamlessly move to the new one.  Anyway, if you and/or Robert Bruce are interested, Just PM me and I'll talk to some people.  If you are already taking care of it, then thanks!

Thank you for your comments and kind offer.

The fact is however that there is probably hundreds of thousands of line of advanced ASP code that drive these forums, and believe me that is alot of man years to write! The SQL Server database on the backend of these forums is probably one of the largest there is online for a forums application. Of course this is not only forums but alot more in addition such as the various libraries.

Of course I am always interested to hear how the forums could be improved upon, providing that it retains all of the existing functionality. If you know anyone who would be interested in enhancing these forums, then please do have them contact me.

Thanks once again.

With best regards,

Adrian.

[Sygmoral]

It would indeed be way too much work to recode a whole forum from scratch that would have the same functionality like the one that's running here now.  However, enhancing the current forum may be a very good idea - if done by somebody that knows what he's doing.  

I have 'enhanced' two phpBB forums (yes yes I know - it's just as an example []); in one of them I made that in one of the forums (one where you could 'anonymously' complain about stuff) you could not see the nicks of those that posted, except for the Moderator's nicks and your own, and yet you could edit your posts. Most people with scripting abilities will probably agree that this must have been a though thing to do... it involves a LOT of pags where the nicks had to be replaced by "Guest", yet the correct nick must be kept in the database so that the Moderators can know who's complaining, and that they can edit their posts.

In the other one, I have set up a seperate database that keeps hold of which forums one is interested in, and only these ones are showed in the index page.

I'm just saying this to illustrate my scripting abilities [] exactly one year ago I didn't know ANY php or mysql, but still I've done all that stuff. I learn quickly, I expect ASP to be not sooo different from php (only some syntax), and will therefore start learning ASP as soon as my exams are over, which is on June 21 (yes I'm a student). Then I will be able to do the same to this forum as I can do with phpBB forums []

So, well, I'll let you know when I know asp []

Sygmoral

[Epsilon]

I use Mozilla and the page isn't displayed corectly.

The top of the screen looks normal, with the menu bar in blue, but then there's a a big white gap and the word "Forum" followed by another huge gap.  When a page loads, all I see is thw word Forum in the middle (half way down) of the screen on the left.  I then have to scroll down to see the forums/posts.

Is this a local problem or a problem with Netscape in general?
Thanks
Ep