216879 - marktheworld.com - staples.marktheworld.com doesn't work with any Mozilla browser

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[Kathleen :Brade]

When I was clicking around at staples.marktheworld.com, I eventually got to a
page that gave me this error:
 The web browser you are using is incompatible

We are sorry for the inconvenience. Our site currently supports only Internet
Explorer version 4.0 and 5.0. This is due to the advanced features used in the
real-time designer.

We are working to support Netscape in the very near future. If you do not have
Internet Explorer, it may be downloaded for free at Microsoft's website here.

If you are currently using Internet Explorer version 4.0 or 5.0 and are reading
this message, there may have been an error. Please inform the webmaster.

Comment 1

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

brade, "clicking around" isn't much help in trying to reproduce this. Can you be
more specific?

Comment 2

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

ok. nevermind. The page I clicked on loaded then redirected me.

1. visit site.
2. click stamps and labels
3. page loads then redirects to http://www.staples.marktheworld.com/browsercheck.asp

Comment 3

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

This pages uses UA detection, MM Dreamweaver 3.x code. Spoofing the UA to IE6
allows entry to the page where you see

Warning: The stylesheet http://www.staples.marktheworld.com/styles_default.inc
was loaded as CSS even though its MIME type, "application/octet-stream", is not
"text/css".

Error: document.all has no properties

Contacting web master at [e-mail]

Hello,

I am a Technology Evangelist and wonder what specifically causes you to not
support Mozilla-based browsers on your web site. This issue was reported to me
in <http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216879>.

The code in the page
<http://www.staples.marktheworld.com/products.asp?associatenum=1&sessionGUID=900842172&membernum=621761267114400&prod=stamps_labels>
uses obsolete versions of Macromedia's Dreamweaver script. In particular
MM_findObj version 3.0. Version 4.0 supports any browser which supports the W3C
Standards for the HTML Document Object model.

For example,

function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v3.0
  var p,i,x;  if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) {
    d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);}
  if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++)
x=d.forms[i][n];
  for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++)
x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); return x;
}

Can be replaced by

function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v3.0 upgraded to support W3C DOM HTML
  var p,i,x;  if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) {
    d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);}
  if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n];
  if(!(x)&&d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n);
  for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n];
  for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++)
x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); return x;
}


Changing the user agent string in Mozilla to MSIE6 allows entry into your page
where the following errors were detected:

Warning: The stylesheet http://www.staples.marktheworld.com/styles_default.inc
was loaded as CSS even though its MIME type, "application/octet-stream", is not
"text/css".

Error: document.all has no properties


Although Mozilla will load CSS files with incorrect MIME Types in Quirks mode,
it is better if you properly reported the MIME Type as text/css as required in
the standards.

The error related to document.all is due to the use of an IE only property that
could be replaced either by using the corrected version of MM_findObj or by
using the appropriate W3C DOM HTML method document.getElementById.

You can find more information regarding supporting modern browsers which support
the W3C DOM Standards at http://devedge.netscape.com or you may contact me directly.

Considering that Staples does not retrict Mozilla and that Mozilla and it's
related browsers (Netscape 6.x, Netscape 7.x, CompuServe 7, AOL for Mac OS X,
Mozilla Firebird, Galeon, etc) have considerably more marketshare than MS IE
4.x, I would hope that you do not force users of Mozilla-based browsers to use
other sites.

Bob Clary

Comment 4

[Kathleen :Brade]

Sorry; I was in a hurry.  I composed a long message giving them 2 days to reply
to my message or I was going to take my business elsewhere.  I did include
portions of the standard evangelism letter and point them to the various urls.

bclary--Thanks!!!

Comment 5

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

MarkTheWorld.com apologizes for any inconvenience.  We hope to have the web site
accessible to other browser options in the future. It is not our intention to
stop other browser users from accessing the site.  Please contact Staples Direct
at 800-547-7224 ext. 35688 to try to place your order.

Sincerely,
[e-mail]
877-419-1721
www.staples.marktheworld.com

Comment 6

[Kathleen :Brade]

Gee, that's the same personal message I got too! ;-)

Comment 7

[Ian Schorr]

Sent email to [e-mail] again.

Comment 8

[Ian Schorr]

I got this back from [e-mail]:

Thank you for choosing MarktheWorld.com.

Presently, we restrict Mozilla-based browsers from our site due to the DHTML
present in our Designer Area.  Since most of our products involve this
application in some form, we redirect Mozilla and it's related browsers to
prevent script errors.  At the time of it's original creation, such DHTML
functions were impossible or difficult in these browsers.  Rewriting this
application to incorporate Mozilla's advancing technology is on our project
list, but shares time with new applications and regular maintenance.  Once this
key component is converted, we will review all client scripts for compatibility
issues and corrections.

------------------------------------------------

Not so fond of the reasoning given here (Mozilla wasn't capable?  My thought is
that it just didn't use the same broken DHTML as IE?  Dreamweaver didn't support
standards-based DHTML?), but the answer seems thought out.

Moving forward?

Comment 9

[Cyrille VIVION]

[bug248549notfixed]

Comment 10

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

I'm gonna send them an e-mail. this is ridiculous

Comment 11

[Tom Ellins [:TMZ]]

reassigned based on comment #10 as this is still not working and times have moved on

Comment 12

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

E-Mail has been sent

Comment 13

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

goodness they said:
MarktheWorld.com apologizes for any inconvenience.  We hope to have the website accessible to other browser options in the future.  It is not our intention to stop other browser users from accessing the site.  Please contact Staples Direct at 1-800-547-7224 ext. 35688 to try to place your order. 
 
Sincerely,
[e-mail]
877-419-1721
www.staples.marktheworld.com
but this is the same message that got sent in 2003!!
I'm gonna have to send them another e-mail

Comment 14

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

INCOMPLETE due to lack of activity since the end of 2009.

If someone is willing to investigate the issues raised in this bug to determine whether they still exist, *and* work with the site in question to fix any existing issues, please feel free to re-open and assign to yourself.

Sorry for the bugspam; filter on "NO MORE PRE-2010 TE BUGS" to remove.