[WEB4LIB] script error

[Thomas Dowling]

To my knowledge, OhioLINK is the only organization that is mirroring
Project Muse (if anyone else is, please drop me a line) and trying to
extract Muse metadata to load into another system.  So I've actually poked
and prodded a few of their scripts trying to understand them, and I'm not
surprised to hear that they're brittle enough to break when you stick them
in a frame.

[Moderate rant: IMO the Javascript/browser detection employed by Project
Muse demonstrates the worst excesses of these two hacks.  I have one
browser which is incorrectly sent to the non-Javascript menus because of
faulty browser detection, and another which is incorrectly sent to
Javascript-only menus which are absolutely unusable because I choose to
disable scripting in that browser.  Their Mac- or X-based developers are
also entranced with <font face="helvetica"> in apparent ignorance of just
how crappy a screen font Helvetica is on the few Windows machines that
have it.  Their energies would be better spent on making usable metadata.]

(Dowling pauses, catches his breath, goes on...)

All that aside, I think I know what you're trying to accomplish with the
frame setup, but have you a) established with your vendors that this is
okay with them, and b) worked out what to tell your users when someone
throws in a target="_top" and blows your frame out of the water?


Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu



----- Original Message -----
From: Tami-Jo Eckley <eckleyt at mville.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at sunsite.Berkeley.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 1999 8:16 AM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] script error


> I thought I would repost this since I am not sure if I actually sent it
> the first time.
>
> I am creating a frames page in FrontPage for our subscription databases.
> When I try to connect to the database Project Muse - I get a message:
> "An error has occurred in the script on this page."  There are some
codes
> and then it says "Do you want to continue runnin scripts on this page?"
> If you select "no" it seems to work fine.  Is this happening because it
> is part of a frames page and can I adjust or fix this problem in any
way?
>
> Tami-Jo Eckley
> Electronic Services & Media Librarian
> Manhattanville College Library
> Purchase, New York 10577
> http://www.mville.edu
>