Interoperability issue with university website after porting to Linux
 

Issue: University webtool (WebTycho) not longer works after I ported my system to Umbutu 6.06. University help desk no help: "we only support Microsoft XP, and MAC OSX."

In my spare time (ha!) I'm 3/4 of the way through my Master of Science Program at University of Maryland University College (Informatioin Assurance). UMUC uses a collaboration environment called WebTycho, which uses JavaScript 1.5 to display interactive course content.

I initially used the default Firefox 1.5.0.4 (since updated to 1.5.0.5) that comes with the Dapper Drake release. I've additionally installed Mozilla, and Opera, Sun Java 5.0 Runtime, and the JavaScript 1.5 plugin all in an effort to solve my problem.

I can log in ot the site no problem, but then get a popup saying:
Quote:
---
UPGRADE JAVASCRIPT (Required)

This browser is not configured with JavaScript 1.5 which is required for using WebTycho. Before you may enter class, you must download and install JavaScript 1.5. JavaScript 1.5 is needed to be able to see course materials, announcements, and conference notes that have been written with the Text Formatting Editor (TFE). Even if you choose to not compose with the TFE yourself, you must be able to see what others have posted.

---End Quote}

Obviously, the provided link to install JS 1.5 is Windows and MAC only.

Then the main page displays, but minus the all important "Course Content" frame which should render as the left pane on the main page.

One potential clue is that the Javascript Console "Warnings" tab displays the following message:

Quote:
---///Warning: The stylesheet [DELETED from this post due to policy regarding URL posting...] was loaded as CSS even though its MIME type, "text/html", is not "text/css".
Source File: [DELETED from this post due to policy regarding URL posting...]
Line: 0
///End Quote

Again, while I'm certainly very interested in solving this little mystery, I am extremely impressed with Ubuntu 6.06, Linux, and Open Source software.

I'm actually experiencing the exact same scenario. Student at UMUC, decided to dual boot my machine with Ubuntu 6.06 to see if I could move away from Win2K, and can't access the WebTycho content. I tried Opera with even worse results. Opera loads only to the browser check and stops with one frame stating "Initializing Classes..." and another frame stating "Checking your browser status, please wait..."

Clearly I'm fairly new to Linux and am a bit unsure where to begin with this. Any suggestions?

Funny you should mention Opera. I use Opera now, successfully. It has one quirk, which you describe -- it hangs after login. However, I found that if I use the inner back arrow (vice the double outer back arrow), it brings up a dialog box that says "Java Script: You must have Java enabled for all features of WebTycho to work correctly." I click OK, and it takes me through to Web Tycho. Recommend trying it. Please let me know if you are successful. The other option is to try to load IE under Wine )or just buy Crossover Office -- I did). Good luck. Chuck

Thanks!! I tried the single back arrow with Opera and it worked exactly as you described. I can't believe I was SO close. Well, that's one less thing that I have to do in Windows.

Slowly making the transition.

Outstanding! Good luck in your studies. Chuck

Update: After upgrading to Edgy, Firefox now works perfectly with WebTycho. No more workaround needed!

Running Ubuntu 7.10 and Firefox 2.0.8, I have the same problem with running WebTyco in Linux. Does anyone have a suggestion that may fix this so I can use Firefox? I wanted to know what my options before I download opera.

Thanks

OK, the problem is that WebTycho requires Javascript 1.5 (Javascript, not Java, which it also requires, but that's not the problem)

Funny thing is, the non-Ubuntu version of Firefox supports Javascript 1.5

Ubuntu 7.04 version of Firefox did actually support Javascript 1.5, but or some reason the Ubuntu 7.10 version of Firefox retrograded to Javascript 1.4

I don't know why; however, I'm assuming that there is some technical, security, or license issue involved?

Anyway, options at this point appear to be using Opera (remember quirk -- just after log in click single, inner-arrow backspace, then click OK on warning msgbox that Java required). TFE editor will not work, but everything else works.

Other option is to install IE under Wine or crossover, but it doesn't work any better than Opera -- still no TFE, only HTML or text.

There is one more risky option -- I don't recommend it because I don't know what else it might break (again, assuming that there was a technical reason for dumbing down Firefox. That is to go to Mozilla and download and install the standard Firefox into a directory that you set up in your home directory. Then make symbolic links inside the new Firefox directory pointing to the Java Plugin in your Ubuntu Firefox plugin directory. You can do the same thing for Flash, etc.

Then, when you want to open the special webtycho version, open in a terminal (or make a script) pointing to the special Firefox, e.g., /home/whateverdirectorycalled/firefox/firefox&

BTW, the above wasn't my original thought -- I found these rough directions elsewhere, but like a numbskull forgot to bookmark. I actually tried it, and it worked. Now I can't find it, so apologies to the guy who originally found this workaround for not giving proper credit. If you see this, please point to your original directions, because they were very detailed and clear.

So...what I'm actually sort of hoping is that whatever the Ubuntu developer team issue was that motivated them dumb down Firefox 2.0.0.8 is eventually resolved in an update at some point.

WebTycho solved! Attention all WebTycho Linux users!
 

I stumbled on the solution to fully functional WebTycho support:

The GNOME Epiphany web browser--

It works 100% with lal WebTycho functions, even the Text Format Editor (TFE).

Best of all, in Ubuntu, it can be found using Add/remove under Applications. For other distributions, it can be found on the GNOME site, http://www.gnome.org/projects/epiphany/

Thats good to know, I've been using opera and it can get kind of annoying. Thanks