Jai Ivarsson

Menu bug - is Safari too fast?

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +1300

Let me say, before I talk about the recent Safari problem I found, that I am a huge fan of animating drop down menu's in CSS3 and not relying on javascript.

However, historically, before CSS3 my preferred method of drop menus was using the famous Suckerfish technique. However good old IE6 caused issues with this so instead of using the javascript mentioned in the above Suckerfish method, I tended to use the Superfish javascript file, because it was integrated with jQuery and was just easier to include in my Jojo themes. In fact it was just a case of inserting my code snippet into the customhead.tpl file and all done.

On a side note the first time I did this, I only loaded the javascript on IE6. You know, why load something if you don't need it. Well wouldn't you know it, the client wanted to know why Firefox didn't animate the menu like IE did. I now just load it always.

Anyway, back to the point of the post. I have just had my first occasion of having a problem with this way of working in Safari 5, no less. So lets explain the problem.

I had a website that would load it's horizontal menu fine however if you selected one of the children in one of the drop down menu's then in Safari 5 (I didn't test earlier versions), it would render some of the parent top level menu items with no width.

Interestingly, if you just refreshed it fixed it straight away. Still, not a good look.

The solution

So lets cut this long story short (great band by the way). I followed the HTML5 boiler plate example and moved the links to the javascript and the obviously the javascript that calls the menu, to the bottom of the page. Easy as that.

So with very limited (almost none) amount of research and testing on this, my guess is that processing of the javascript before the content and CSS has fully rendered is what caused this. Interestingly Chrome didn't have the issue, so I ask you, is this a purely speed thing? Is Safari starting to get too fast for itself? Or is this the future of web development and we do now need to start paying more attention to loading the javascript last when doing progressive enhancement?

Source: Menu bug - is Safari too fast?

YouTube Auto-Captioning now we'll be SEO'ing Video content

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1300

So for those that having seen it yet, YouTube have launched Auto-Captioning for their video content. Mashable have a great article discussing the launch here.

This launch is being billed as a way to create greater accessibility for the deaf and the rest of the internet and quite frankly it is. I have a friend who is a early childhood teacher at a deaf school and I know how important break throughs like this are.

However I think there are far greater possibilities for this technology than just accessibility. Search engines rely on text to understand what is on a webpage. If through captioning or embedded metadata search engines can understand what a piece of web video is about, it can then start serving up video content in the organic search result, like they currently does using alt tags on pictures.

Adobe showed off the speech to text metadata embedding when they launched CS4. they used the Obama acceptance speech on the New York Times as the shinning example. But with Google now able to index text from Flash and text embedded in the Flash video, it can't be long before the text of a video is indexed as a part of content.

Source: YouTube Auto-Captioning now we'll be SEO'ing Video content

Form Tag Not Rendering in IE

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1300

I was recently working on a very simple website for a new school that is being built in the near by area, when I came across a very interesting problem in Internet Explorer. The form tag in the header would not render, and as a result the entire formating in IE8 went totally bonkers.

The form tag wouldn't render in IE7 either though the mess wasn't anywhere near as bad. Basically I was floating the site search form right so it sat in the top right corner. Taking the float off had no effect.

Up until this point I had been using IE's developer toolbar to track what was going on in IE and while it certainly isn't Firebug was usually good enough, however this time I decided to try out Firebug Lite. It, like Developer Toolbar showed that the form tag wasn't rendering.

What was also interesting was that, even though the form tags weren't rendering, the action for the form was still performed when the submit button was clicked. I tried putting the form inside a div with no luck.

So what was the solution? Well it turns out that by just having another element in the header div makes the form tags render. In fact the other element could even be another form tag. Though the first form tag to appear in the div won't render.

So looking at the code that wouldn't work:

<div id="header">

<div id="searchbox">

<form class="search" method="post" action="search/">

      <input class="textbox" type="text" name="q" value="" />

      <input class="button" type="submit" name="Submit" value="Search" />

    </form>

</div>

And this is all it takes to make it work.

<div id="header">

<a href="" alt="Back to Homepage" title="Back to Homepage"><img class="logo" src="images/logo.gif" alt="jaijaz logo" border="0" align="left" /></a>

<div id="searchbox">

<form class="search" method="post" action="search/">

      <input class="textbox" type="text" name="q" value="" />

      <input class="button" type="submit" name="Submit" value="Search" />

    </form>

</div>

You can see that I now have the site name as an image with home link, which actually should have been done in the first place as a mater of best practice. This image link appearing before the form means the form tag now renders.

Now I'm not going to run out and call this a bug in IE, as I haven't done anywhere enough testing on this. Perhaps someone else has seen or experienced something similar to this and can add something else. For now at least, I have learned a good lesson.

Source: Form Tag Not Rendering in IE

Jojo's hidden javascript functions

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +1300

I have recently been fine tuning and fixing a few loose ends on the Studio8 yoga studio website I did the development on for Shaun from Wagtail Productions, who did the great design. One of the really cool features of the site is the calendar at the bottom of every page. It gives you a really quick idea of whether there is a class and/or workshop on any given day. However the biggest feedback from Studio8 students is the each time they went to another page on the site the calendar would forget which month they were viewing.

The obvious answer of course is to add a cookie that remembers the state, in this case which month, it is at and check that on each page load. Now any search of the internet will give you all kinds of scripts and methods for doing such a thing, but in this instance, because we're using JojoCMS, all the hard work is done for me.

A little known feature of Jojo is that not only does it have a great PHP framework but there is also a list of javascript functions that anyone can take advantage of, that are included in the jojo core. While most of these are really based around the CMS, the cookie based ones are really helpful. I'm talking about the following:

function setCookie(name, value, expires, path, domain, secure)

function getCookie(name)

function deleteCookie(name, path, domain)

Because these functions are in the jojo core functions.js file they are always available for any plugin or theme to use. Definitely saves a lot of coding and reduces the amount of duplicate javascript code.

Source: Jojo's hidden javascript functions

It's Offical: The Keywords meta tag isn't used

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +1200

Matt Cutts has just blogged about the keywords meta tag is not used in Google's search algorithm. In the article he links to another article about how legal people tend to get wound up about meta tags and the words that are used in them.

While he doesn't mention the eBay case I blogged about recently, I can't help but wonder if he was prompted to write about the issue as a result of the cases outcome. What I find really interesting is the NZ Herald article I linked to in my blog said that "Paris-based LVMH SA conglomerate had sued eBay, accusing the web auction site of using its brands as keywords in internet searches." Now if this means that it was found guilty of using the keyword meta tag then, in Google's eyes, they were found guilty of doing something that had no effect.

Source: It's Offical: The Keywords meta tag isn't used

eBay Guilty of Standard SEO practice

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +1200

I have just read in the New Zealand Herald that eBay have been found guilty of counterfeiting. After reading the article, I think the ruling has some series consequences for search engine optimisation as what they were found guilty of is a standard SEO practice.

With dynamic websites it is common practice to use formulas to dynamically generate titles and meta descriptions passed on the products name. Reading between the lines, this appears to be what eBay have been found guilty of. So where does this leave all optimized e-commerce sites? But this could extend further. If you are a blogger and you blog about your experience with a brand and it is in the title, meta description, keywords etc, you too could be sued for "counterfieting".

Talk about a game changing court decision.

Source: eBay Guilty of Standard SEO practice

Ding Dong the witch is dead - maybe???

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +1200

I'm not sure if you haven't heard this, actually I'm sure you probably have, but YouTube have announced that they are ".. phasing out support .." for IE6 and earlier versions. They may not be the only ones, with rumors that Digg and Facebook are seriously considering the same thing.

However before we all start dancing a jig, as Sitepoint and me in an earlier post on IE6 point out, corporates aren't the biggest users of those sites, in fact they are banned in some companies, and they probably make up the largest users of IE6.

Still it is definitely a step in the right direction and will definitely put the topic of browser version in the minds of people who do use out of date browsers.

Source: Ding Dong the witch is dead - maybe???

We Are Ever Going to Loose IE6

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +1200

As a web developer I have a vested interest in Windows 7 being a success. Now I should also mention that I am a bit of a "Apple fanboy". So why do I want Microsoft's next operating system to be a success?

As this post on Sitepoint displays, the average internet user doesn't even now what a browser is. Combine this with the fact that many people refuse to upgrade to Vista means that the default web browser is still running on many machines out there and doesn't hope to be upgraded until the operating system is upgraded. For "joe public", on the whole, it is a case of them buying a new computer. For corporate, that is a case of IT departments giving the go ahead for and installing a new operating system.

To add to this problem Digg recently posted a discussion of whether they should support IE6 with some results of surveying they have been doing that states that 70% of their users can't upgrade to IE6 as it is out of their control. So 70% of the minority that know what a browser is and knows there is an alternative, aren't allow to do anything about it.

I am currently finishing a project that will be primarily run in government departments. Over 75% of computers in this area are running IE6 with of course, Windows XP. With this in mind I have been praying for Windows 7 to be a success.

Currently around 25% of my html/css time is taken up with making IE6 display everything correctly. When you think of the total hours involved here, I could be so much more productive is IE6 would just lay down and die.

So you can imagine my dismay when I read this article on Macworld this morning, stating the of 1,100 IT administrators surveyed, 59.3% aren't going to be adopting Windows 7. Of course the "fanboy" in me goes: "YEAH!". However the web developer in me is crying and unfortunately it is the later that is winning my internal emotional struggle. Of course it is early days. The OS hasn't even been released yet and most of the participants in the survey probably haven't had a chance to do too much playing with it but I am still greatly concerned.

Source: We Are Ever Going to Loose IE6

Welcome to jaiivarsson.com

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +1200

Here it is. While this isn't my first attempt at a blog it is my first in the field of my work. I big plans for this site with free Jojo Themes and plugins coming in the future, but for now posts will be comments on things I come across in my daily working life and also my comments on how I see the world. I hope you enjoy.

Source: Welcome to jaiivarsson.com