222369 - library.kaist.ac.kr uses MSDOM

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect)

Description

[Jungshik Shin]

Javascript at the URL above refers to html forms with 'name' attribute the way
only MS IE understands.

Using getElementById() along with 'id' attribute (instead of/along with 'name'
attribute) in html forms would fix this. I'll contact the webmaster of the site.

Comment 1

[Seo Sanghyeon]

Contacted an email adress specified on the site:
[e-mail]

He said he is not a programmer, and he told me an email to the one:
[e-mail]

He said the website is mainly developed in Explorer so there may
be a compatibility problem. I said I will figure out what is causing
the problem, and will mail him. He said `thanks'.

Comment 2

[Seo Sanghyeon]

Problem seems to be a little more than just mere getElementByID
issue...

Comment 3

[Jungshik Shin]

Thanks for following this up. I should've done it, but haven't gotten around.

> mainly developed in Explorer

 That's exactly the problem with so many Korean web designers/developers as you
know too well. They have to test their sites against __the__ standard instead of
MS IE. Doing so wouldn't hurt them because MS IE, too, supports most of standard
(although MS is known for its penchant to do things its own way). Anyway, it's a
good sign that they're at least willing to listen to you. You may refer them to 

http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/browser-detection/

and links therein (especially DOM central. CSS central and Gecko central should
help, too). It's not only for supportin gecko-based browsers but also for making
web pages more standard-compliant and more accessible regardless of the user
device, the platform and the disability end users may have.(http://www.w3.org/WAI)
 The device/platform independence, the interoperability and the universal
accessibility are the most important features of the web we need to pursue
vigorously. When it comes to the library web site of one of the premier research
universities in Korea, it's even more important.

> seems to be a little more than just mere getElementByID

I'm sure there are problems other than referring to DOM elements the MS way
(instead of the W3C way), but fixing that would help quite a lot as you may have
already figured out. For instance, if I press 'Journal browsing' button, it ends
up in the following ECMAscript function in 
http://library.kaist.ac.kr/w01_02s.html

            function lf_journalbrows(ar_gubun){
                if(ar_gubun == 'a'){
                    brows.action='./w05_01s.html';
                    brows.submit();
                }else if(ar_gubun='e'){
                    brows.action='./w05_02s.html';
                    brows.submit();
                }

As you can see, brows is the name of a form and should be referred to as
document.getElementById("brows").

You may also ask them to take a look at 
http://devedge.netscape.com/toolbox/examples/2002/xb/xbStyle/

Using these classes (xb for cross-browser), they can avoid most of problems
related with incompatibilities of browsers when using DOM and CSS. 

Comment 4

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

The site seems to have changed since.