HTML question

Here's a question for anyone who makes websites.

The client wanted pull down menus, so I made CSS ones but they didn't work in f**king Explorer. The code was good, it was just Explorer's partial support for css. I tried a few different variations - including spry - which were all over the shop - and finally ended up using the suckerfish ones, which most people said would work. I tested them with Explorer 6 and 7 and they were ugly but they worked.

Now the client has come back to me and said they've had complaints about the menus not working with Explorer. Firstly why do some versions of 6 or 7 seem to work and some don't. Is this a service pack issue?
I use a Mac so this is not something I can experiment with. Anyone got any code that definitely works? Or knows what's happening with the suckerfish menus?

I've wasted too much time on this already - cheers microsoft.

Here's the site: http://www.baruaassociates.com/

Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 2 2008, 3:32 PM GMT

Here's a question for anyone who makes websites.

The client wanted pull down menus, so I made CSS ones but they didn't work in f**king Explorer. The code was good, it was just Explorer's partial support for css. I tried a few different variations - including spry - which were all over the shop - and finally ended up using the suckerfish ones, which most people said would work. I tested them with Explorer 6 and 7 and they were ugly but they worked.

Now the client has come back to me and said they've had complaints about the menus not working with Explorer. Firstly why do some versions of 6 or 7 seem to work and some don't. Is this a service pack issue?
I use a Mac so this is not something I can experiment with. Anyone got any code that definitely works? Or knows what's happening with the suckerfish menus?

I've wasted too much time on this already - cheers microsoft.

Here's the site: http://www.baruaassociates.com/

View original

Some of them drop down some don't I dunno if thats how it's meant to be?

Alright Gav.

'Associates', 'Body Therapies' and 'Courses and Workshops' are the ones that have drop down menus. If they're working for you in Explorer can i ask you what version of windows and Explorer you're using?

Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 2 2008, 3:40 PM GMT

Alright Gav.

'Associates', 'Body Therapies' and 'Courses and Workshops' are the ones that have drop down menus. If they're working for you in Explorer can i ask you what version of windows and Explorer you're using?

View original

Yeh thats right those ones look ok

I'm on IE8

Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 2 2008, 3:32 PM GMT

I use a Mac so this is not something I can experiment with.

View original

If it's an Intel-based Mac you can dual-boot into Windows or run it concurrently within OS X if you use Parallels or VMWare Fusion. I know a lot of Mac developers who do just that in order to test code under Windows.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 2 2008, 3:32 PM GMT

Here's a question for anyone who makes websites.

The client wanted pull down menus, so I made CSS ones but they didn't work in f**king Explorer. The code was good, it was just Explorer's partial support for css. I tried a few different variations - including spry - which were all over the shop - and finally ended up using the suckerfish ones, which most people said would work. I tested them with Explorer 6 and 7 and they were ugly but they worked.

Now the client has come back to me and said they've had complaints about the menus not working with Explorer. Firstly why do some versions of 6 or 7 seem to work and some don't. Is this a service pack issue?
I use a Mac so this is not something I can experiment with. Anyone got any code that definitely works? Or knows what's happening with the suckerfish menus?

I've wasted too much time on this already - cheers microsoft.

Here's the site: http://www.baruaassociates.com/

View original

You haven't said what effect you were trying to create?

Drop-down menues need Javascript coding as well as CSS, usually, though I suppose that you could use OnMouserOver to use the bare minimum javascript to change the Z coordinate of pre-prepared <div>s creating a drop-down mmenu effect.

Not something I've ever tried, I tend to just have a conventional context-relevant menu in the left column, with maybe a horizontal main menue accross the top below any logos etc.

Quote: Griff @ December 2 2008, 3:48 PM GMT

I'm a Mac user Godot and your site looks fine on my Mac using Firefox (as you already know) - all the dropdowns are working as per your list.

I don't suppose it helps much but you can download some versions of "Internet Explorer for Mac" here: http://mac.oldapps.com/internet_explorer.php

However MS stopped making it back in IE5 days so it probably doesn't have up to date support for CSS, JavaScript etc anyway. Might be worth a quick test though to see if it recreates your client's problems?

View original

Thanks Griff, The original dropdowns (the css ones) worked fine on a mac. As I say the code was good. They worked on a pc using anything other than Explorer. The spry ones also worked fine on a pc except for Explorer. All browsers display code slightly differently and have quirks - but Explorer takes the piss and has been holding up web development for years. This job has taken three times longer than it should because of the need to find a work around for Explorer because most people use it. By the way IE for the mac always had better support for css. I've got a copy of it on my machine.

Quote: Gavin @ December 2 2008, 3:51 PM GMT

Yeh thats right those ones look ok

I'm on IE8

View original

IE 8 is supposed to be fully compliant Gav, so theoretically it should work with the original menus as well as these.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 2 2008, 4:15 PM GMT

IE 8 is supposed to be fully compliant Gav, so theoretically it should work with the original menus as well as these.

View original

They say that but I've had no end of hassle with css that's why this machine has IE8 on so I can check all the coding on 6-7 and 8

Having looked at the site & the CSS file, I'm surprised?

When did CSS allow things like li:hover
I've only ever used A:hover etc i.e applying such acffect to LINKS not other items.

If li:hover is part of the latest CSS specification, I'm not at all surprised that it does not work in Microsoft IE.

LATER...
This bit of your CSS file might be the problem the a:hover does not start on its own line.

#dropdownservices {
position: absolute;
left: 248px;
width: 175px;
color: #666666;
height: 92px;
top: 110px;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
line-height: 12px;
padding-top: 10px;
padding-left: 6px;
padding-bottom: 4px;
visibility: hidden;
border-top-width: 1px;
border-right-width: 1px;
border-bottom-width: 1px;
border-left-width: 1px;
border-right-style: ridge;
border-bottom-style: ridge;
border-left-style: ridge;
border-right-color: #999999;
border-bottom-color: #999999;
border-left-color: #999999;
z-index: 14;
font-weight: bold;
background-image: url(menuback.gif);
border-top-style: ridge;
border-top-color: #999999;
}a:hover {
border-top-width: 0px;
border-right-width: 0px;
border-bottom-width: 0px;
border-left-width: 0px;
border-top-style: solid;
border-right-style: solid;
border-left-style: solid;
border-bottom-style: solid;
display: block;
padding: 0px;
height: auto;
width: auto;
margin: 0px;
white-space: nowrap;
}

Quote: billwill @ December 2 2008, 4:09 PM GMT

You haven't said what effect you were trying to create?

Drop-down menues need Javascript coding as well as CSS, usually, though I suppose that you could use OnMouserOver to use the bare minimum javascript to change the Z coordinate of pre-prepared <div>s creating a drop-down mmenu effect.

Not something I've ever tried, I tend to just have a conventional context-relevant menu in the left column, with maybe a horizontal main menue accross the top below any logos etc.

View original

Thanks Bill, I did exactly what you said to make the ORIGINAL (not the ones on the site now) menus - using javascript and layers. They worked fine and the code was neat. Load the page in Explorer 6 or 7 and the menus didn't always drop down. Don't know whether it was the javascript or the css or both. But it was definitely only an explorer problem. Spry menus didn't work either, so I used the suckerfish code that a lot of people have been using. I tested it on explorer 6 and 7 and it worked. Several people since have told me it doesn't work, so that's why I'm mystified.

Thanks for pointing out the a:hover line error - I've corrected this.

The stylesheet is really messy as it's undergone lots of cutting and pasting. 'li:hover' comes from the suckerfish menus. I haven't touched it because it seemed to work with explorer and my compliant code didn't.

The problem is essentially this. Pure css dropdowns didn't work in IE 6 or 7. Undeniably IE's fault, but potential customers for the site use IE so had to find a workaround. Spry menus also didn't work, so find some code that is KNOWN to work. That seemed to be the Suckerfish code, but now I'm hearing that doesn't work either.

I can ditch the dropdown menus, but the problem is i want to spend as little time on this job as possible and don't want to have to draw some tab pages or something else.

Blimey, CSS a bit bloated as well.

Still, perhaps easiest for debugging.

My.Brain.Hurts.

We know.

There is no html tag at the top of the home web page (I did not look at other pages)

goodness knows what that omission would do to a browser.

Well spotted Bill!