Cookies the issue it seems: Reported EBSCO database problems with Firefox

[Char!ie]

Thanks to all who replied.

It seems thus far that the problem appears to be with cookies. If you clear
the cookies in FireFox or Netscape (same problems with both), the problem
goes away in EBSCO (see problem below).

However, it can come right back again next time you try a similar type of
search. If fact, one way to recreate the problem is to try the search
described below and then quit Firefox. Restart Firefox, redo the search and
this message appears in a popup box: "the document contains no data" fairly
consistently. But if you clear the cookies and redo the search again, it
works fine.

Now, how to get this word out to our Firefox and Netscape users each time
they search EBSCO....

Thanks again -

char!ie

-----Original Message-----
From: Char!ie [mailto:umassdlcc at umassd.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 12:00 PM
To: 'web4lib at webjunction.org'
Subject: Reported EBSCO database problems with Firefox

Today one our reference librarians told me they have been having problems
with EBSCO databases and Firefox. For example, when they click on an article
title in a results list from an Advanced Search in either CINAHL or Inspect
a pop-up box appears stating "the document contains no data". So no detailed
citation/abstract is displayed. Also, if you try to add citations to a
"folder" within these EBSCO databases and choose "folder has items" the same
pop-up appears. 

All of the above seems to work fine in IE.

One of our librarians tried to troubleshoot this with EBSCO with the last
response being:

"..It seems there is a common problem with everyone across the board from
Yahoo to EBSCO with Mozilla,
Firefox or Netscape and Tech Support suggested using Internet Explorer to
see if it resolved the problem. ."

We have recently switched half of our workstations to Firefox to test it
out. Other than this problem we have received no other reported problems.
However, some librarians are suggesting we switch the browser back to IE
from Firefox. I said this might be a temporary solution, but that it would
not help our users that use other browsers from home or other places on
campus.

Have others experience this problem with Firefox? I looked through the list
and only saw problems reported related to ActiveX. Thoughts?

charlie mcneil
systems & digital services librarian
umass dartmouth library
(508) 999-8680
cmcneil at umassd.edu