239739 - sabc2.co.za - invalid JavaScript

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English Other, defect)

Description

[Gary]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040326 Firefox/0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040326 Firefox/0.8

Unfortunatly there is a JavaScript error that Firefox doesn't like, of which is
that of trying to click on the "Previous" or "Next" hyperlinks on the website
mentioned above, thus nothing happening when you click on the hyperlinks. It
doesn't ignore some of the code, which whould thus allow the  javascript to be
executed "correctly", even if their is a mistake in the javascript that was
written. Please can you correct this problem as I am sure this  problem does
occur on other sites, other than this.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to the website mentioned above
2. Click on the "Previous" or "Next" hyperlinks on the website
3. And Nothing happens due to a javascript error

Actual Results:  
Nothing happens due to a javascript error: (frmLineUp is not defined - on this
site which is preventing the javascript from being executed)

Expected Results:  
The hyperlink should try to execute the javascript function/procedure thus
redirecting you to another page

Comment 1

[Bill Mason]

This is not a browser error.  Their javascript syntax is invalid.

		<script language=JavaScript>
		<!--
			function Prev_OnClick(){
				frmLineUp.sDay.value = "P"
				document.frmLineUp.submit()
			}
			function Next_OnClick(){
				frmLineUp.sDay.value = "N"
				document.frmLineUp.submit()
			}
		//-->
		</script>

frmLineUp should be preceded by "document." in all cases.

You should write to the site and ask them to correct the code.

->TE

Comment 2

[Gary]

---"This is not a browser error. Their javascript syntax is invalid."

I know this isn't a brower error as such, but the javascipt within the browser
should still try to be executed/work eventhough there is an error (as works with
some other browsers).

It isn't the person who wrote the javascipt for the website's fault, causing an
error. It is also the duty for the javascript console from the browser to  try
and reslove/prevent problems from occuring.

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

if we ignore web standards, what's the point of pushing web standards?

If the author writes bad code, it IS their fault.  Just because some browsers
try to read/parse mangled code doesn't mean its right or that we should too. 
The point of web standards is that if you follow them, there are predictable,
identical results.  If everyone has to guess at what the author means with
invalid syntax like this, then you're looking at a whole world of possible bad
guesses.  Its better to follow the spec, which is why this becomes evangelism.

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

404