Opera 6.2

Poster: Dom
Dated: Monday December 16 2002 - 15:56:00 GMT

We are just about to release our Website

http://beta.learninglab.org.uk

Looks good in most browsers, but it has pulled it apart in Opera 6.2 (the version I'm using). ANy ideas ??

Dom

Poster: bobwill
Dated: Wednesday December 18 2002 - 2:40:49 GMT

I viewed your web site using Opera 6.05 and it looks good to me. I had the "identify" set as MSIE 5.0. But then I am not sure what you mean by "pulled it apart". I did not know there was a Opera 6.2

Poster: kevin3442
Dated: Wednesday December 18 2002 - 3:34:34 GMT

Ummm... I might be having a brain spasm here (wouldn't be the first time), but I don't see any Milonic Menu at the URL you gave???

Kevin

Poster: Dom
Dated: Wednesday December 18 2002 - 7:15:40 GMT

Hi guys the site went live now, so the URL is http://www.learninglab.org.uk.

About the it been pulled apart, on the browser we got, it stretches the menu to 2-3 times the width of the normal size on other browsers. And each section, eg The Lab, COnference are all a fixed width

Cheers

Poster: bobwill
Dated: Wednesday December 18 2002 - 14:05:45 GMT

This is the message I got when I tried to access your "live" web site.


Directory Listing Denied

This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.

Poster: Dom
Dated: Wednesday December 18 2002 - 14:10:05 GMT

Take off the last full stop

http://www.learninglab.org.uk

Poster: kevin3442
Dated: Thursday December 19 2002 - 3:49:30 GMT

Hi Dom,

I looked at the site using Opera 6.05 under Win2k and I saw the stretch... big stretch! It looked to me like the text in the first main menu item ("The Lab") was trying to center itself horizontally on the page, pushing everything else to the right. Sure enough, when I resized the window, "The Lab" changed position so that it was centered. I looked at your menu_array code and reproduced it locally, so I could play with it. The Alignment element (array[8]) of your "mainmenu" array is the only thing I saw that was set to "center". I know this setting is supposed to affect the alignment of the text within the menu items, but I tinkered with it anyway. If you leave that element blank, or set it to "left" (which I think is the default), then the problem goes away. Oddly enough, if you set it to "right" then "The Lab" right justifies itself on the page. It appears that this element affects alignment of the menu item text on the page in Opera, rather than within the menu.

I tried the same tests with other example pages I've worked with, including some downloaded from the Milonic site. I got the same results, so it doesn't appear to have anything to do with your specific implementation. Experimenting further, I've found that the effect only applies to menu arrays that do not have a width specified, and it can affect vertical menus as well.

In summary, in Opera 6.05 under win2k:

(1) Setting array[8] to "center" or "right" can cause menu text to align on the page according to the setting, rather than aligning within the menu as intended. Using "left" does not cause the problem.

(2) The problem affects the first item of a horizontal menu; all others are pushed further to the right. The problem affects all items of a vertical menu.

(3) The effect it negated if the menu is given an explicit width in array[3].

I have not tried this in any other version of Opera, nor in any other version of Windows; just Opera 6.05 under win2k pro.

I tried adjusting various other settings, to see if the problem might be some sort of interactive effect. But no go. I'm left wondering if this is a bug that'll have to be dealt with in mmenu.js (Andy?....). For now, it looks like your only recourses would be to use "left" alignment or specify a width in your main menu (which will set every item in the horizontal menu to the specified width).

Also, I noticed that the menu border disappears around the main menu, in Opera, even though you've specified a border color and a border width. Don't know why.

Good luck,

Kevin

Poster: Dom
Dated: Thursday December 19 2002 - 7:15:16 GMT

Cheers Kevin

Thanks for having a look !!

I will have a play once I get into work this morning, and will let you know of the outcome I get.

Cheers

Dom

Poster: bobwill
Dated: Thursday December 19 2002 - 14:31:31 GMT

Kevin, How do you go about looking and reviewing the menu files that users have created on their web site. I realize that you can view the source of the page that loads the files, but how do you get the the actual files??

Poster: Dom
Dated: Thursday December 19 2002 - 15:17:02 GMT

Yeah,

Most people store the menu_array.js file in a certain place.

You just have to figure out where they have stored it on the web server. I also complicated it for Kevin, by making it a .asp file instead, but he eventually found it this morning.

Once you find it, you should be able to either d/l via the browser, then look at it in notepad (any text editor), or view it by view source.

Dom

PS

And Many thanks for helping us, the fix worked

Poster: trytrix
Dated: Thursday December 19 2002 - 19:44:31 GMT

HI,

Bobwill wrote:

Iexplorer stores these files into his tempory directories.. i.e. :
C:\...\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\...

In your browser:
Tools - Internet Options -> "General" TAB -> click Delete files
cleans up these temporary files.

Now, when refreshing the page your visiting, only the files concerning that site are being cached.. and you have all you need to investigate things !

Greetings,
Trytrix

Poster: kevin3442
Dated: Friday December 20 2002 - 7:35:03 GMT

Hi Bob,

Generally, I find it easier to do what Dom suggested (but that's just me). First, view the source for the page. On rare occasion, people actually have the scripts right in the html file. More often, however, you'll find that the scripts are loaded from source .js files on the web server. You can easily look through the source code for the page and find the <script> tags that load the .js files for the menu. The "src=..." attribute will tell you the paths and file names of the menu script files used (it also helps that they are often called mmenu.js and menu_array.js, since people don't generally rename them from the downloaded examples). I copy/paste the path and filename from the "src=..." attribute into the appropriate place in the site's URL, within the browser's Address field, then hit enter to start the download. Depending on your browser (e.g., IE), you may be asked ask if you want to Open or Save the file (like any other download); I select Open to download the file and have it opened in the editor I normally use for .js files (I like ConTEXT).

Sometimes, if I need additional files, like images, etc., or if someone uses .asp files to generate the menu array scripts -- yes, you Dom -- I'll peruse the cache, as Trytrix suggested. And as he wisely pointed out, it's a lot better to clear the cache, then reload the page before perusing, so that the cache contains only the files for that page.

Ironically, these approaches that make it easier for us to help one another are the same approaches that have some scripters concerned over other people ripping off their code!

Happy code examining!

Kevin

Poster: John
Dated: Tuesday December 24 2002 - 16:08:38 GMT

I do the same as Kevin. Haven't seen a page yet where I couldn't find the call to the .js files, add that to the URL (in proper context) and you're in business.

The biggest problem is too many folks ask for help (which is fine), but don't give any URL at all for us to look at. Micro-magic is involved, I guess...