[WEB4LIB] Strange formatting on Netscape search results

[Thomas Dowling]

Here's a good starting point:

http://www.htmlhelp.com/cgi-bin/validate.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Flibrary.umas
smed.edu%2FejournalsAaction.cfm%3Falpha%3DA&input=yes

Netscape's CSS support is so brittle, invalid markup is actually quite
likely to give it fits.

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


----- Original Message -----
From: "VanderHart, Robert" <Robert.VanderHart at umassmed.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2000 2:12 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Strange formatting on Netscape search results


> This message is cross-posted; please excuse any duplication.
>
> For our library online journals page at
> http://library.umassmed.edu/ejournals.cfm, which is dynamically
generated
> using ColdFusion 4.5 for Linux, our web programmer has added a script to
the
> action pages that will automatically detect when someone from off-campus
> performs a search on this page.  The purpose of this script is to
> dynamically add the proxy URL prefix to the journal title URLs (we are
> implementing EZProxy) so that off-site users are directed through our
proxy
> server for authentication.  This saves us from having to manually update
> hundreds of journal URLs in our database.
>
> The problem is that now, using Netscape 4.61, when I perform a search on
the
> journals page, the formatting of the output is messed up--journal titles
> appear as non-underlined links (which I abhor), and when you get a few
> records down in the list the font face reverts back to the browser
default
> (Times New Roman?).  I realize that Netscape really doesn't render style
> sheets correctly, but before this extra script was added to the action
pages
> the output rendered pretty much the way I wanted it.  The output in IE 5
is
> unaffected.
>
> So I'm wondering if I have a style sheet problem (I'm assuming our
> programmer didn't inadvertently modify our style sheet), or a CF
scripting
> problem/incompatability.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I
would be
> happy to send whatever script(s) anyone would like to examine to give me
a
> clue what has happened here.
>
>
> Robert J. Vander Hart
> Reference Librarian/Government Documents Specialist
> The Lamar Soutter Library
> University of Massachusetts Medical School
> 55 Lake Avenue North
> Worcester, Massachusetts 01655
>
> (508) 856-3290
> Robert.VanderHart at umassmed.edu
> http://library.umassmed.edu
>