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Links show up but don't work in Netscape

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Links show up but don't work in Netscape
I'm hoping someone can help me with this problem... I set up Links2 a couple of months ago and everything is working well... at least in IE... I had a note from a visitor who has Netscape who could not click on the links... sure enough, the links *look* like links, but they are not clickable. I am using version 4.08 to test this and links work on the other pages of my website... just not the links pages.

The url is:
http://florenceproject.org/links2/

Thanks in advance for any help! I really hate to think that those poor souls who actually count on Netscape to view the internet cannot use our links pages....

[This message has been edited by cnjswish (edited July 07, 1999).]
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
Your HTML code is fine, but something is seriously wrong with your stylesheet. I downloaded your main page, removed the CSS call, and was able to load it with hot links no problem.

NS does not support CSS as well as IE just yet. I'm not exactly sure what would cause this behavior off the top of my head (lots of things actually). I do note that the layout is jacked up--for want of a less colorful term--your menu runs in a column instead of across the page.

Have you run your stylesheet through a CSS validator? Maybe IE is overlooking a syntax problem that NS can't tolerate. You may also be doing something that is only supported by IE and is leaving NS gasping for air. It's not possible to say what it could be without actually looking at your CSS file. You may need to do some "tweek and test" work to pinpoint the problem if nothing seems obvious.

I don't have a CSS validator link handy, but Project Cool has a compatibilty table that I've found useful at
www.projectcool.com/develop/reference/css_style.html

If you're not that commited to using the stylesheet, you can always take it out and use regular CSS (there's instructions in the Links FAQ if you're not sure how).

[soapbox]
Keep in mind that those "poor souls who actually count on Netscape" represent about half the people on the internet. Not testing pages in both browsers, especially when using "new" code techniques like CSS, is suicide!
[/soapbox]
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
I just visited the site with Netscape Navigator 4.07 (I don't use communicator) and everything looked and worked as it should. Maybe this is something specific to the version of Netscape that the person was using? For example, Netscape Navigator v3 does not support style sheets at all but, it should recognize the links as being links regardless.
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
As an FYI...I'm using NS 4.51 for windows (Mac versions have their own issues...unfortunately I don't have any way to test on a Mac). I don't think it makes a difference if you use communicator or the stand alone browser because the rendering engine is the same.

Since Bobsie viewed with no trouble, perhaps NS fixed a CSS bug in the latest version?? If you can't get it working and want to e-mail your CSS file to me I'd be happy to take a shot at it.
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
Hi

I don't have a problem in NN4 in windoze but this *does* happen with the version of NN shipped with RedHat 6.

Two things which might be causing the problem:

1. a couple of HTML errors: http://validator.w3.org/...ject.org%2Flinks2%2F

2. having background images on the a.link (etc) tags - try changing it to background: transparent;

Your style sheet is valid but NN4 is bad (but not as bad as MSIE3!) at some CSS things...

BTW your navigation menu gets split onto multiple lins in NN4 *and* Mozilla - I suspect that you have done thing to make these links render as block-level elements rather than in-line ones.

It you don't get any joy with 1, and 2, try posting to the usenet group (address in links.css) - I'm sure there are people there who could work out what is happening.

Chris
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
Thanks for all the suggestions... I'm still working on it & will let you know if & when I get it fixed. Am I right in figuring that I need to look at the links.css and site_html.pl files for the problem? Or might there me another file I need to check?

FYI - I am using version 4.08 of NN to check the page -- curious why the page works for Bobsie, but not me.

You're right Brad re checking websites in other browsers. I guess many of us tend to get spoiled with IE and what it lets us do that we forget that not all browsers are equal. Well, I've learned my lesson and from now on will be sure to check everything in *both* IE and Netscape.

Thanks again...

[This message has been edited by cnjswish (edited July 07, 1999).]
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
Hi

Yeah, all the HTML is in site_html.pl (well apart from a few tiny bits!) and all the .css is in links.css.

You might however want to put all .css stuff which is not supported by NN4 and MSIE3 into another .css file feel free to copy the @import bit needed for this from this version of Links: www.citinet.org.uk/weblinks/ and the .css files: www.citinet.org.uk/css/

Chris


[This message has been edited by Chris Croome (edited July 08, 1999).]
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
Chris:

Quote:
having background images on the a.link

You were definitely on the right track here. IE has no problem with background images on inline elements...apparently, depending on the version, NS may have very serious issues. I was surprized to see this make the links unclickable though...major flaw by NS on that one!

Heads up to others: Avoid this problem by ONLY adding background images to block level elements, never to inline elements. If you aren't sure which is which, WDG has a complete list of both www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/block.html

BTW: I didn't see an @import reference in the URL you listed (just the link rel tag). Are you using JavaScript to serve different stylesheets to different browsers? Or something else? I'd be interested in seeing how you do this.
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
Hi Brad

Glad you worked it out Smile I've not played with backgrounds for anything but the body tag for a while.

It's in the first .css file, at the top:

Code:
@import url(/links/morelinks.css);

There is no need to call it from the HTML/CGI page.

I have written it up for the Resources /FAQ section, I guess it'll appear when Alex rebuilds this part of the site.

Chris
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
This thread points out a major problem with style sheets.

I've removed them all, and reworked the templates to use tables to accomplish most of the features.

Once the next few releases of browsers come out, maybe 6 months, I'll start adding style sheets in slowly.

But after trying my site in different browsers, and on different computers, I've realized that unless you are running a 'cutting-edge' site, the style sheets just introduce a lot of problems that you don't realize until you look at the site on other hardware/software.

Links engines are pretty basic. So, IMHO keeping the output basic helps everyone. Me, as sysadmin with user-support issues, and the users with not getting bizzare formats and errors.

Just a thought -- if you don't really need style sheets for what you NEED to do, don't use them. Your site will be infinitely more predictable and viewable in the near to mid term.

Scott
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
My problem is with Netscape browser, I cannot get the links/index.html file at all. In MSIE it works fine. What do I have to do to get it to work in NN?
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Re: Links show up but don't work in Netscape In reply to
Bert99,

You are probably missing closing table codes that is causing the page not to show up. If you can't figure out which HTML codes you are missing, please post a link to your LINKS directory, so that we can assist you in debugging the problem.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee....
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