Re: Support for Mac OS browsers...

[Joe Sirott <sirott@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Roland,

The real problem is that there are many browsers on many platforms that 
don't conform to standards for JavaScript or to the LIveConnect standards 
for interfacing JavaScript with Java.

Version 6.1 of LAS has automatic "failover" where the browser will 
automatically redirect the user to a constraints page that doesn't use the 
applet (the equivalent of use_java=false) if the browser encounters 
problems. That will take care of many of the JavaScript/Java interaction 
problems on many browser/platform combinations. I'm not sure when this 
version will be released (I'm leaving the LAS group soon and am no longer 
involved in release decisions).

At 12:17 PM 1/22/2003 -0700, Roland Schweitzer wrote:
> Joe (and other that have responded),
>
> Thanks for the summary of your experiences using Mac OS browsers.
>
> On Wed, 22 Jan 2003, Joe Wielgosz wrote:
>
> > Roland, FYI, the way to disable the applet for a specific session is to
> > start from the following page:
> >       http://someserver/las/servlets/dataset?use_java=false
> > instead of
> >       http://someserver/las/servlets/dataset
> > When you get to the constraint page,  you just get the text boxes, and
> > the preset region menu, but no applet.
>
> Ok.  Thanks for the tip.
>
> >   Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems that the only platform/browser
> > combinations that *can* handle this applet properly are Windows/IE or
> > the obsolete Windows/Netscape 4.7.
>
> At home I use Windows XP and Netscape 7.0 which works quite well applet
> and all.
>
> > Some suggestions:
> >
> > Maybe LAS should only try to serve the applet to clients that are
> > running Windows?
>
> Seems pretty brute force.  All those folks in the "I switched" ads won't
> be pleased that we're punting on trying to resolve the problem.
>
> > And in the long run, if the applet compatibility problems can't be
> > solved, perhaps Javascript or even Flash/Shockwave, would work on a
> > wider range of browsers?
>
> Either of those have their own problems, but it might be better.  Who
> knows?
>
> Roland
>
> Roland Schweitzer
> NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center
> 325 Broadway (R/CDC1)
> Boulder, CO 80305-3328
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