Need resources on how to make website Mac compatible

[kayaker411]

Hi All,

I've searched through the forums here but have not been able to find any links to websites that will detail operating system compatibility issues for web builders coding for PC and Mac users. I recently came on board to help rebuild a site and am finding that our Mac users can't use many of the features of the site. I am hoping that someone here can lead to some resources that can help me resolve the problems I am having.

Clients are having both server side and client side errors. Any ideas?

Thank you!
Rich

[gsnedders]

If you use valid code, there should be no problem with it working on both PC and Macs, the chance is that you've got some Win/IE only JavaScript, which stops the page from displaying in any other browser.

[Jalenack]

try stripping down the code and taking all the stuff you don't think you need and seeing if it still works....strip it down to bare essentials or completely recode it...then apply css instead of presentational...use javascript only when absolutely positively necessary....

[kayaker411]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking that some of the errors may be due to the differences in the way that CSS is read. One of the users told me that she receives a Page Cannot Be Displayed error when she enters a page that ultimately returns some data from a db. In this case no server side code is even being executed!.

One of the most common errors is the result of this line of code that writes a piece of a css file:

BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(" & chr(34) & CFAppearance(0) & chr(34) & ");" & CRLF

which results in something like:

BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url("CFAppearance");

Would that be enough to stop a Mac's page processing dead?

The site I'm working on is pretty huge so it's going to take a long while to get everything. I'm sure once I clear up this problem a few more will occur when the Mac gets downstream of it :)

Thanks for your help on this!

Rich

[wenzel]

Hi.. yeah well.. I am designer and one of those nerds who completely recoded my "myspace" page..
There is no Javascript.. but a lot of css.. Macs still don't properly display the pages,,
I suspect it is a "layer" issue..
Other browsers such as netscape etc,
are allso not very layer friendly..
But what do you do??.. hold yourself bacK??

Does anybody know where one can find out the demographics and statistics regarding the use of different browsers and PC vs Mac users etc????

[chilipie]

Does anybody know where one can find out the demographics and statistics regarding the use of different browsers and PC vs Mac users etc????
W3Schools Browser Statistics (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp)

[wenzel]

W3Schools Browser Statistics (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp)


hey thanks a lot man.. that's great..

wow.. I didn't realize so many people use mozilla!!..

Maybe I should check that out..??...
hmmmm...

They (whoever they are),
should make a program that adjusts your codes to work on all browsers,
and if some of it won't then just takes it out, but leaves your layout in tact...
without turning it in to nonsence..

One of you wiz kids get on this emmediately!!


wenz

[chilipie]

Well there are conditional comments for IE, which contain stuff only used by that browser.

[kayaker411]

Error 404 mentioned: " the chance is that you've got some Win/IE only JavaScript, which stops the page from displaying in any other browser"

Do you know if there is a site that has a good reference for cross browser javascript issues. Ideally I'd like to go through the javascript code that is on my pages and look through a single reference site for information on it's ability to function on the Mac (or in a browser or another OS). Is there nothing like this? I'm feeling a little stupid asking this but How would I go about googling for answers on this? With 100 different lines of javascript am I to past each line and add "MAC" to the end of the query? There's gotta ba a site somewhere...right?

Thanks y'all!
Rich

[JamieR]

I don't know if there are any actual reference sites where you can reference the syntax of your code, but after a quick search on google:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cross+browser+javascript+issues&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official

http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/cross_browser/javascript.html

have you seen those?

[Spookster]

W3Schools Browser Statistics (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp)


I didn't realize that Mozilla/Firefox had gotten that popular yet. That's a pretty significant chunk of people using it. I also find it funny that Linux has edged out Macintosh. If these companies developing linux would just advertise their product better that percentage would probably jump up quite a bit.

[gsnedders]

I also find it funny that Linux has edged out Macintosh.

Yeah, but Mac's market share has also increased, so they're both cutting away at Windows :)

[JamieR]

I can't see a total abolishment of windows...well no one can - however I see a lot more people taking the plunge and getting a mac...

[Spookster]

I can't see a total abolishment of windows...well no one can - however I see a lot more people taking the plunge and getting a mac...

Or Linux. ;)

[kayaker411]

"http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cr...:en-GB:official

http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com...javascript.html

have you seen those?"

Thanks for those links. The Web Developer Journal article spoke about NN 6 as though it hadn't been released yet. That's one of the classic problems of finding info on the net I guess but it does help me get started.

I would think somewhere there's a site or a utility you could buy that would allow a developer to run multiple browser/OS tests on script to determine it's feasibility for the job. Is the only alternative to hunt down and load 5 or 6 broawsers (and keep up with the updates and patches for each) and maintain a seperate system for different OSs?

Am I seeking a Point and Click Holy Grail? :D

[chilipie]

There's BrowserCam (http://www.browsercam.com/) where you can get screenshots of your site from multiple browsers/OSs.