BUG: "reactnow" news feedback form is Netscape-unfriendly

I just found this site a bit over a week ago, and noticed that the "reactnow" feedback form for news articles is unfriendly to Netscape browsers (and to any other browsers that follow NS's design lead...of which there are many). Specifically, the Javascript in the form doesn't use a fully-qualified notation for referencing form elements, something demanded by the JS spec. For example

function smilie(smiley)
{
var smiley;
form1.FReaction.value = form1.FReaction.value + smiley
}

must be written as

function smilie(smiley)
{
var smiley;
document.form1.FReaction.value = document.form1.FReaction.value + smiley
}

to work in all JS-enabled browsers. (References to page elements must begin with "document".) There are also several other places where the scripts fail, but these are the only JS problems I've found here so far. I'd appreciate you fixing this ASAP.

(Has the site really been running in its present form for about 7 months? And I'm the FIRST person to report this?! That's, well, REALLY LAME on all counts. May I suggest that you test the site with multiple browsers? Mozilla does contain a Javascript debugger.)

Thanks,

Todd

No replies yet? If it will take a little while to fix, that's cool...I just want to know I'm not being ignored. Or if I know you'll take me seriously, I will fix the code myself and email it to somebody. Let me know.

No you are not being ignored!! We appreciate your input and will correct the problem. It's just that the management of CD Freaks is currently very busy with upgrading the servers for the forum and mainpage. Besides that CD Freaks will attend a Dutch event at the end of this month called the HCC. This event requires a lot of preparation and thus we're also working on that full time. Once these two things have been done we can spend more time on improving the site. Thanks again for your input!

As GF mentioned we are very busy and it's all about priorities at the moment. However the bug should be fixed now. Thanks for the report!

Well, it's half-fixed. You repaired the smilie() function I cited, but the CheckValue() and LockButton() functions (and maybe something else) are still broken in the same way. There may be similar problems elsewhere on the site, too, but so far all I've done is read news and reviews, and so maybe haven't found them yet. In the future, please consider testing code changes with multiple browsers. Having said that, though, you can take your time on the final fix. I can wait.

The holidays are over, but the "React Now" form for your news articles is still broken. For every news reaction I post, I must fix the code manually each time. Can you fix it permanently now?

The bit I posted initially was just an example. If it helps, here are the rest of the changes:

function LockButton (form,element) {
if ( ! submitted ) {
document.form1.elements[element].disabled=true;
submitted = 1;
document.form1.AddReactionButton;
}
else { alert("Reaction is being added, please be patient..."); }
}

function CheckValue(element) {


if ((document.form1.FReaction.value.length==0) ||
(document.form1.FReaction.value==null))
{
alert ("Please add some text!");
return false;


It's just a matter of placing "document." at the start of every form reference. IE (and browsers that emulate it) doesn't require this, but Netscape/Mozilla (and browsers emulating them) do, as does the official Javascript spec.

Thanks!

Todd

Hi TheTAO,

Thanks for your report, I have made the changes as your proposed, I hope it helps. On our policy for more browsers you can read on here.

Thanks, it works fine now! And as I have yet to find any other problems, cdfreaks.com now seems "clean".

But I do take offense at your browser policy. Using fully-qualified references to page elements (that is, adding "document." to the start of each) is simply following the Javascript specs, as documented *anywhere*, going back to 1996. If you code your site through trial-and-error, naturally you're going to miss the mark sometimes and get complaints. Remember "embrace, extend, extinguish"??? Microsoft began "embrace" with IE2, began "extend" with IE4, and by today have nearly accomplished "extinguish". I find it hypocritical to read so many statements on this site about "fair use" and "open standards" (though not necessarily from the management), while at the same time seeing so many people kissing Microsoft's butt by using their buggy, outdated, and proprietary browser! A better policy would simply be

"We will make every effort to design our site using established, open standards."

If a user has trouble due to a browser bug, you would leave it to the browser maker to offer a fix. But if/when the site slips into proprietary code, you would then take-up the burden yourselves. Please think about it.

Todd

If developers were free and time wasn't money I'd agree with you, but unfortunately this isn't the case and therefor we have to choose the most efficient way.

But dealing with incompatibilites and complaints afterwards isn't so efficient, is it? I'm not going to start an argument (this is likely my last post on this thread), but believe there's great virtue in making a web site universally-accesible (isn't that the whole point of the web?) and in "doing it right the first time". If the developer writes buggy code, they should fix it for free. If they continue causing you grief, find a better developer. Or find somebody like me who would be willing to write some short scripts for free.