Ajax discrepancies

bluegospel · 11-16-2011, 02:12 PM

Hi. I've recently placed my website in public view, but I have two slight problems, one of which occurs only when my files are on this web host.

The site works almost perfectly except that my links (on the top menu, and the first and 3rd on the side menu) that are supposed to load via jQuery's ajax-rendering "load()" function default instead, loading the entire page. Please note, they work on firefox/centOS, but not IE, and this bad behavior doesn't show up at all on my own web-server. You can see from the default that the bottom right part should be the only part that reloads.

I've tested the public code on my CentOS_5/Firefox (3.6.24) which works fine on either server

I've tested it on my own XP, and another IE which I believe was Windows 7, both of which load the default pages (not the ajax pages).

Here's the link: bluebounty.net

Thanks!

sag47 · 11-16-2011, 09:31 PM

Which version of IE? BTW this is an age old tale in web design if you're new to this. It's always, design for everything, and then redesign for IE hehe.

bluegospel · 11-17-2011, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sag47

Which version of IE? BTW this is an age old tale in web design if you're new to this. It's always, design for everything, and then redesign for IE hehe.

I am new but, yeah, in the last year I've learned the stupidity of IE's defiance of reasonable standards, and the need to work around it.

I've tested on IE8 at home on XP, and probably the same version of IE on Vista--they do the same thing--load the default rather than run the ajax.

sag47 · 11-17-2011, 05:57 PM

You might want to write your own AJAX request handler for IE rather than using JQuery or XYZ JavaScript library.

See XMLHttpRequest.

You can detect the browser using JavaScript like so...

Code:

var msie=(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE")>0)?1:0;
if(msie)
{
  //do an XMLHttpRequest for IE
}
else
{
  //use JQuery or XYZ library for everything else.
}

For other detection strings you can look at QuirksMode or I wrote some stuff.

I know me telling you to reinvent the wheel is a bummer but the thing is IE is changing. Not sure for better or worse but it is changing. I know this because I use the mootools library and the AJAX doesn't work at all in IE9 (haven't tested IE8).

So basically what I'm telling you is: when bullets don't work, bombs and nuclear missiles will. Write just for IE and then account for the rest of the world; strictly speaking about AJAX. There are other nuances but I'm sure you'll discover them over time as you gain more experience doing the whole web design thing.

You might also want to alert your UserAgent on IE in case something has changed in that regard.

SAM

bluegospel · 11-17-2011, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sag47

You might want to write your own AJAX request handler for IE rather than using JQuery or XYZ JavaScript library.

See XMLHttpRequest.

You can detect the browser using JavaScript like so...

Code:

var msie=(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE")>0)?1:0;
if(msie)
{
  //do an XMLHttpRequest for IE
}
else
{
  //use JQuery or XYZ library for everything else.
}

For other detection strings you can look at QuirksMode or I wrote some stuff.

I know me telling you to reinvent the wheel is a bummer but the thing is IE is changing. Not sure for better or worse but it is changing. I know this because I use the mootools library and the AJAX doesn't work at all in IE9 (haven't tested IE8).

So basically what I'm telling you is: when bullets don't work, bombs and nuclear missiles will. Write just for IE and then account for the rest of the world; strictly speaking about AJAX. There are other nuances but I'm sure you'll discover them over time as you gain more experience doing the whole web design thing.

You might also want to alert your UserAgent on IE in case something has changed in that regard.

SAM

Thanks. Originally I bypassed jQuery and tried to do everything in javascript, but I didn't realize how jQuery covers so much. And now I know the problem I'm having in this case must be extremely simple--My code works perfectly when I refresh after the initial load; then I can click my links on my main menu and the parts of the page that should load do so. Why it works in this case is beyond me. My solution has to be very obvious to someone, but I think I've lost folks' attention.

sag47 · 11-17-2011, 11:55 PM

It could also be that you're not developing for a particular standard for the w3c. You should choose an actual standard because it will change the render mode of the browser. It makes code more reliable; this includes in IE.

http://validator.w3.org/

You should always use that to validate your code. FYI I'm still tearing apart and understanding your code so it may take some time for me to get a good grasp at it (and to look at it a couple of times).

bluegospel · 11-18-2011, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sag47

FYI I'm still tearing apart and understanding your code so it may take some time for me to get a good grasp at it (and to look at it a couple of times).

Thanks. I appreciate that a lot.

bluegospel · 11-18-2011, 11:40 AM

I took your advice and validated my code. There were 16 or 17 errors which I fixed (including dynamically written link attributes w/out quotes & some empty attributes), but I'm still having the same issue.