[WEB4LIB] Re: Netscape 6 and FirstSearch

[Darryl Friesen]

> What you're saying is that the FirstSearch login script cannot handle a
> correctly hex-encoded colon character.

I'm not saying for sure that this is the problem with FirstSearch, but yes,
that's what's wrong with SiteSearch;  it does not convert %3A back to ":"
(at least not in certain places of the URL).

The example from the SiteSearch list:

  .../WebZ/html/homeframe.html:&context;:name=value:etc...
                              ^
The above URL is problematic because NS6 encodes the ':' so the URL becomes

  .../WebZ/html/homeframe.html%3A&context;...

which SS does not decode properly.  It was suggested the URLs be of the
form:

  .../WebZ/html/homeframe.html?&context;:name=value:etc...
                              ^ notice this

Where the ':' occurs determines if it's a problem.

> I suppose the good folks in Dublin have a "We don't test on beta browsers"
> policy.

Umm.  Well, yes that was mentioned.

Hopefully someone at OCLC can provide more detail, and verify if indeed this
is the problem with FS.

- Darryl

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  Darryl Friesen, B.Sc., Programmer/Analyst    Darryl.Friesen at usask.ca
  Education & Research Technology Services,     http://gollum.usask.ca/
  Department of Computing Services,
  University of Saskatchewan
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  "Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes"