218090 - reslife.tamu.edu - bad browser detect causes JS to not render nav menu

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect, P3)

Description

[[e-mail]]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030728 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030728 Mozilla Firebird/0.6.1

In the page reslife.tamu.edu, there is supposed to be a menu displayed on the
left side of the screen to give options to navigate the site.  In Firebird, this
menu is not there.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Site uses a lot of browser-sniffing and browser-specific logic.  I would not be
surprised if there is a mistake in the branch Mozilla takes.

Comment 2

[Bill Mason]

It looks to me like it fails right here:

	var AgntUsr=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
	var DomYes=(document.getElementById)?1:0;
	var NavYes=(AgntUsr.indexOf('mozilla')!=-1&&AgntUsr.indexOf('compatible')==-1)?1:0;
	var ExpYes=(AgntUsr.indexOf('msie')!=-1)?1:0;
	var Opr5=(AgntUsr.indexOf('opera 5')!=-1||AgntUsr.indexOf('opera/5')!=-1)?1:0;
	var DomNav=(DomYes&&NavYes)?1:0;
 	var DomExp=(DomYes&&ExpYes)?1:0;
	var Nav4=(NavYes&&!DomYes&&document.layers)?1:0;
	var Exp4=(ExpYes&&!DomYes&&document.all)?1:0;
	var PosStrt=((NavYes||ExpYes)&&!Opr5)?1:0;

DomYes will be true.  NavYes will be false (since "compatible" is not in the
Mozilla UA string) and ExYes will be false (since we are not IE).

DomNav is false since NavYes is false, so the script decides this is not a
Netscape browser.  DomExp is false since ExpYes is false, so the script knows
this is not Internet Explorer.  Nav4 is false since NavYes and document.layers
is false.  Exp4 is false since ExpYes and document.all is false.

Therefore, the script is returning no result for a Mozilla browser, so no menu
is generated.

Reporter, I would suggest you write to the site owners and ask them to fix the
script.  You can refer them to this bug as well as to
http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2001/updating-dhtml-web-pages/ for
references on how to fix the script.

Moving bug to Tech Evangelism.

Comment 3

[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.