Hi there,

This is actually a follow up on my previous thread regarding a good host. We've settled on IX Hosting as our host.

I'd just like to clarify something: we don't want to use PHP or any other coding language for the website, because my 'associate' is an ASP programmer in his real-life job, and he has the needed skill for programming everything.

This is our website: http://www.iWebRate.com. It is only in basic alpha testing, so the design there is not even close to the design we're going to implement in the final version of the website. The website deals with quick & easy website rating, as you can see Please ignore any bugs in the website, they are being taken care of and will be fixed tomorrow

Well, we are having some trouble with the website. Specifically, with choosing descriptions. What I mean is: in Explorer, you may click on the text next to the radio box, and not only on the radio box itself, to select a website description. <-- The clicking area is marked by the red circle.

However, in Firefox, we have trouble with this. You cannot click all the box, as shown in the image, but only the radio-box itself. Clicking the text highlights it, and doesn't select it.

Now, this is only a part of the problem. If you've noticed, the website is built to allow only 10 descriptions to be selected, per website. This works fine in Explorer: when you exceed the description limit, a message pops up. However, in Firefox, nothing happens and you are free to select as many boxes as you want. Also, there is a counter below, showing how many selections you have made. It works on IE, but again, doesn't in Firefox.

In the previous version of the website, every click on the box made a callback to the server, and highlighted the box. It worked fine with both browsers. However, we've decided to change it because it creates excess load on the server, so now everything there is made with Javascript. This means the browser does a callback to the server only when the user has clicked submit.

So, essentially, my question is: what is the problem with the Javascript code, that doesn't work on Firefox? I know I've explained all of this in a very confused manner, so please, excuse me

I'd be very grateful if someone could look over the website code, and see if you could point your finger on the blame

Thanks!

Tal.

I'm getting a blank page in IE6 & 7.
Johanna

FF is not going to be so forgiving of the code errors as it meets more of the CSS2 standards than other browsers. Some of the problems you are having are probably because of this. You're using the XHTML 1.0 Transitional doc type which requires tighter code than normal.

I'm currently getting a lot of the same flags on the JS functions for each box. These are the two that are being flagged:

var input = document.SubmitForm.item(name); (document.SubmitForm.item is not a function
[Break on this error] var input = document.SubmitForm.item(name)
ar input = document.SubmitForm.item(name); (document.SubmitForm.item is not a function
[Break on this error] var input = document.SubmitForm.item(name)

Don't know JS that well to help solve this between FF and the cause.

Anyway I can talk you out of using tables? Tables are for tabular data and not layout design of the page. CSS should be used for styling content. Your site will be outdated sooner if you stick to using tables.

Ron

This post has been edited by Major Payne: Nov 23 2007, 02:30 PM

Major Payne is on the right track. "SubmitForm" is actually the form name and what that bit of javascript is doing is trying to get the input value for the element on the form. You should really be using "form.elements()" or even "document.getElementById", rather than "form.item()". This may resolve the issue with the counter, not sure exactly though because I just skimmed the logic.

As for the checkbox selection issue, you can try using the "display:block;" CSS code, along with maybe some anchor tags (not sure if they're required), in your CheckBoxList control.

As far as tables are concerned, Microsoft wonderfully set up all of their ASP.NET controls to use tables, rather than divs. This means that if you use any of the controls (such as the CheckBoxList, as it appears to be in this case), it will display it as a table. There are a couple ways around this, one being to build a custom control which can be tedious. The other being to use a Repeater control, which still allows you to build the control based on database values. But who knows, maybe the developer decided to use tables inside a Repeater control.

The checkbox selection issue seems to only be a problem in Firefox, Opera checks out fine. Both Firefox and Opera suffer from unable to view the counter, leading me back to the same assumption as Major Payne, the javascript was coded for IE.

When developing websites, it is highly recommended to start with getting it to work in a non-IE browser. After that, the changes are much easier to make to get it to work in IE as well. If you do it the other way around, you end up with situations like this and need to put bandages on the logic.

Regards,

Ax

Howdy,

Many thanks for your prompt & quick replies, they are highly appreciated!

First and foremost, let me make it clear that I do not code the website As I've said, my associate is dealing with the coding. He works with ASP in his daily job. I assumed he uses tables because he's used to from his daily job

He did develop the website for IE, and I told him that's the root of the problem. I too, assumed this because of the CSS2 support which varies from IE to Firefox, so building the website for Firefox works, and for IE - it doesn't.

As I am totally unfamiliar with Javascript and ASP, with only basic knowledge in XHTML and HTML, I'll pass this info to the developer, and I'll let you know what he says

Anyway, I too think using ASP is not a great idea. However, the developer has access to expensive ASP Development tools as part of his daily job, and he does not want to purchase expensive PHP development tools. Also neither of us has experience with that programming language

Thank you very much, again! I will follow up on this thread tomorrow as he replies with his answers

This post has been edited by landlord: Nov 23 2007, 07:03 PM

Hello landlord,

No problem, glad to share the information. I realize from your first post that you didn't code the website, so that'd be great for you to pass along the information to your associate. As for the tables, it's really not a huge deal. Let me put it this way, if he is using the "expensive" tools to develop the ASP.NET logic, tables will be integrated regardless.

I don't know that you could say ASP.NET is a bad idea, it actually does pretty well, especially when you have Microsoft back-end systems. It's nice to have managed code and using compiled code is sometimes faster than interpreted. PHP has a great many benefits as well, especially with version 5 and its improved object-orientation support.

You don't need expensive tools to develop in ASP.NET though, you can use the Visual Web Developer Express Edition (2005 or 2008) for free. There is also a free PHP Editor. Fortunately in both cases, Notepad is always a valid option.

Regards,

Ax

Hi there,

The developer, Micheal, is very grateful for your help He's not a member, so unfortunately he can't thank you personally, so I'd like to pass his thanks to you

He said he is going to fix these problems and upload them in the next version of the website. This should be ready in a day or two.

Again, many, many thanks for your help. I will let you know on how it's working

This post has been edited by landlord: Nov 25 2007, 07:31 AM

Update. Fully FF compatible version is up

Thanks again guys! Everything seems to be in a good working order.

No problem, looks good in all three (IE, Firefox, Opera)!

Yes, it works great with Opera (I got hooked on Opera while testing its compatability with the website! ), and it also support Safari!

Thanks again!