60840 - exlibris-usa.com - Aleph 500 library software requires document.layers/document.all

Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME

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

Description

[Kathleen :Brade]

The following is a report from Horst Prillinger at
http://www.macintouch.com/netscape6.html

[it's probably a duplicate but I haven't yet found the bug on this issue; maybe
this is really an evangelism issue?]

I'm sorry to say that Netscape 6 is completely incompatible with the library
catalogues of scientific libraries in Austria, and along with that, the
catalogues of *all* libraries using the Aleph 500 library software (version
505.11.5 and earlier).

This is due to the lack of some JavaScript DOMs that are used by Aleph 500, but
not implemented in Netscape 6. The Mozilla web site explicitly mentions that
this is not a bug, but rather a feature: these DOMs are not implemented, and
there is no plan to implement them.

To check this out, try accessing the library catalogue of the Vienna University
Library.

You'll get about 20 "Unknkown DOM" errors, and then you're left with a
navigation-less catalogue (there should be a navigation menu on the left-hand
side, which does not appear).

I do not know how widely Aleph 500 is used internationally; at any rate almost
all of Austria's libraries are affected.

Regards, Horst Prillinger

Comment 1

[Kathleen :Brade]

although this was reported on a Macintosh website, it is cross-platform (I see
the dialogs on Linux as well).  Adding nsmac2 keyword for tracking purposes;
changing to All platform/OS.

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Bug 58311 is similar (site also uses the ALEPH 500 library).  Unfortunately,
said library not only depends on non-standard DOMs but will throw alerts when it
encounters a standards-compliant DOM.

This should be an evangelism bug to evangelize the Aleph 500 people to issue an
update to their software, in my opinion, since Mozilla is not planning on
supporting document.layers/document.all

The company which makes Aleph 500 is at http://www.exlibris-usa.com/  I am
putting that in the URL field instead of http://aleph.univie.ac.at:4505/ALEPH

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Bug 58399 has just gotten resolved worksforme (no more alerts, all is good).  I
am also not seeing an alert on the original site this bug was filed against.

I can't tell whether the library has been fixed or whether people are no longer
using it.

Comment 4

[Blake Ross]

Reassigning evangelism bugs to [e-mail].

Comment 5

[Fabian Guisset]

*** Bug 79085 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

the site now has w3c DOM level 1 support and everything works fine

Comment 7

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

All Evangelism Bugs are now in the Product Tech Evangelism. See bug 86997 for
details.

Comment 8

[Brant Gurganus]

Verified
2002030908/WinXP

Comment 9

[Frankie]

*** Bug 193702 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***