Opera Problems Posting

[MikePA]

When posting a new message or replying to a message with Opera, many times TBN will report that it can't post the message because there's data missing. I click the back button, click Continue again. Sometimes it successfully posts, sometimes not and I have to go through this process again. This never happened with IE.

Any one else using Opera see this problem?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Yes, I have done this several times with Opera, other forums however it works fine... just messes up here on TBN?...

I'm trying to come up with a work around solution... also page refresh is fast but you must force reload to update page... I can't get it to update on it's own...

 

[TerryinMD]

I'd venture to say that Opera is having some issues with the way TBN discussion forms are processed. If the screens are working fine in IE and Netscape (remember AOL owns this product now - yuck), then Opera may be the culprit.

Don't know boo about Opera - except for some fat lady screaming at the top of her lungs. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Dumb question - doesn't opera have some error reporting capabilties like IE or Netscape.

Terry

 

[MikePA]

I posted a question at the Opera Tech Support page. I have not heard anything yet. Attached is a screen shot of the error.

 

[Muhammad]

This is simply an issue with your browser... not the forum. The error message is generated by the forum, so your browser isn't recognizing something correctly on the previous page, wherever you enter info... if you enter anything in. If you just look at the way Opera renders the page (generated in basic HTML) it's no surprise there are other errors.

80% of our users use IE5 or later, 15% use netscape, and 5% use the rest... we TRY to make it work with netscape, but can't promise it will since even netscape has serious issues with rendering the most simple HTML. Designer's nightmare.

 

[TerryinMD]

Netscape - remember owned by AOL. Where do you think the support is going to go.... AOL lays off people and guess which groups have taken the hit. AOL is more concerned about content than applications.

Terry

 

[Andyfr]

Yes Mike, I have exactly the same problem. It doesn't always give the error, I would say about half the posts are fine. If you have mouse gestures enabled then you can hold the right button down and click the left button to go back. I find that quicker than moving the mouse pointer up to the back button. It is strange that the error isn't consistent though.

Andrew.

 

[RPM]

Try posting the HTML behind the multi-part form POST to the bug-tracking people at Opera also. I'm guessing that for some reason Opera is choking on this -- sounds like a buffer issue for the POST -- which would also explain the random nature.

To really test it, try posting a short message - and then try posting a very long one. If Opera chokes on the long messages but not the short then you have your culprit.

Just a guess,

Patrick

 

[Andyfr]

Hi Patrick

It doesn't seem to matter on the length. I have had it happen with a short post and had a long post go through without a problem. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Andrew.

 

[MikePA]

Ditto

 

[RPM]

The only other simple explanation I can think of is that Opera is not parsing the POST back to the server properly. It may occasionally get confused by the mark-up tags that TBN uses or some unusual combination of punctuation.

Next time it happens take a look and see if you were using any particular elements of the TBN mark-up tags OR punctuation that could have been badly handled by Opera.

Barring that, I would recommend that you do a 'View Source' on one of these reply forms and post the HTML on the Opera web-site for them to chew on. Must be some specific combination of issues.

Good luck with it!

Patrick

 

[MikePA]

The other IE/Opera difference I have noticed is that after a reload, IE will move the browser down to where you were whereas Opera takes you to the top of the page.

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>confused by the mark-up tags that TBN uses</font color=blue>

My understanding is that the TBN mark-up tags are submitted as plain text and come back as standard HTML. Shouldn't be anything confusing either way. The screen shot MikePA posted does demonstrate that Opera has some shortcomings.

As a web developer myself (as are many of you out there), I can tell you that all browsers are deficient, or at least deviant, in one respect or another, making it a nightmare to create "perfect" web pages. Based on public usage, I use Muhammad's approach of catering first to IE, then Netscape and then pretty much hope for the best.

I'm a big supporter of industry standards. Too bad people like Mr. Gates believe that the only standard is the one they create. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[Andyfr]

Mike

When I refresh in Opera it stays where I am on the page. It could be something to do with how Opera is set up. In File...Preferences...Connections you can choose to identify the browser. Mine is set to Identify as MSIE 5.0. Is yours set to Mozilla?

Andrew.

 

[MikePA]

Mine is set to IE 5.0. Just to be clear...

If I am on the Discussions page, down at Forum Feedback and do a Refresh, I get sent back to the top of the Discussions page when I use Opera.

 

[Andyfr]

If I do the same I stay at the Forum Feedback down at the bottom. Weird eh?/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Andrew.

 

[Andyfr]

Harv writes...

<font color=blue>I'm a big supporter of industry standards. Too bad people like Mr. Gates believe that the only standard is the one they create.</font color=blue>

I totally agree with you that industry standards should be set and adhered to. It needs a body outside of M$ to set the standard. It wouldn't be so bad if Microsoft set standards that worked.