WebSPIRS 5 bug alert

[Stacy Pober]

Links to Webspirs 5 versions of Silver Platter databases only
work correctly the FIRST time the user clicks on a Webspirs 
database within a session.  If the user then goes back to our 
database menu page and clicks on the link for any WebSPIRS 5 
database different from their original choice, it will simply 
send them to their initial choice.  The only way to prevent this 
is to completely close the browser down and then re-open it 
between clicking on different databases in version 5 of Webspirs.

Worse yet, if the database used has multiple files (as is the 
case with most of the Silver Platter databases we get), the 
patron may not even realize they are in the  wrong database.  
The only place that the name of the database would show up is 
the database choice pull-down menu, and it will read: 
"View databases being searched".  

Unless the user opens that menu, they may not realize they're 
still in their initial database, not the one they selected 
subsequently.

This bug does not show up if you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer
v. 6.0 but it does occur in Netscape 4.79 and Mozilla 1.0 Release 
Candidate 2.  I don't have Netscape 6 on this machine, so someone
else will have to experiment.

Our main menu of databases is: 
http://www.manhattan.edu/library/palsgate.html

We're currently linking to all three versions of WebSPIRS.  Other
than the lack of a good signal for the database choice, I was 
relatively pleased with v.5 until finding this bug. (And of
course, it showed up when I was demonstrating the use of the 
database menu to an entire class.)

Silver Platter says this will be fixed in October.  Considering the
amount of user confusion it could cause, I would really like it if
they would act a bit sooner on this issue.  I tried posting this to
the SPIN-L database, but I cannot seem to post directly to it. 
I see non-SilverPlatter employee posts there every once in a while, 
so I don't think it's an announce-only type of list.  Is there some 
trick in posting to that list? 

At this point, someone's bound to pipe up with advice that we should
ditch Netscape entirely.  Certainly it looks like the world is going
in that direction.  I maintain a database of free online journals
< http://ejournals.manhattan.edu > and find that a significant 
percentage of web developers don't seem to be testing their pages
in Netscape at all. I've come to some sites that have javascript
pop-ups that warn you the site won't work at all or correctly in
Netscape, and more sites don't work in some essential way but 
give you no warning of this.  

Still, I think that as long as a significant portion of our
users have Netscape on their computers, our sites should be usable
in Netscape.  I don't care so much if they're not as attractive,
but all the essential navigation should be available.  And even 
if Netscape is not completely compliant with all web standards,
isn't Mozilla supposed to be pretty good in that respect?  When 
a page doesn't work in Mozilla, I suspect the problem is in the 
page design rather than the browser. 

-- 
Stacy Pober
Information Alchemist
Manhattan College Libraries
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.manhattan.edu/library/