Frameset problems with Firefox

[BigGee]

Hello All,

Before I start please don't reply with statements like "don't use frames" - it's not helpful. The site in question is for a local community gardening association & the use of frames is specifically required (unfortunately).

URL: http://aberaeronallotments.org If you access it via this link it will work but if you copy & paste the address into your browsers you'll see the problem.

The site is under construction. So far everything works fine in IE however in Firefox & Opera the "Home" & "Seeds" tab links work fine, if any other tab is selected then the next one will only open in a new window. From there on ALL tab links open in a new window. I've checked & double checked the frameset index page coding - can't find a ny problems. All links in the "header" page are coded identically (as far as I can see) but their behaviour is different.

Strangest of all: if the site is accessed from an external link - as opposed to the address being typed into the browser's address bar, then everything works fine. If the site is opened in a second browser tab it seems to work OK. Do you think this is a Firefox bug or is it something to do with the HTML coding used? Incidentally it's being produced via the Front Page WYSIWYG programme.

I've also validated the "index" page on the W3C validation service page, but still no joy.

Any ideas? It's totally flummoxed me!

G.

[Snookerman]

Don't use frames!
Hehe just kidding. To answer your question about accessing the link or typing it, the problem only occurs when the www. is there. When you click the link, there is no www. part and no problem, however when you type it your browser might add the www. part automatically. Your problem has something to do with the names of the frames, the target values of the links and maybe the links themselves. You might wanna take a look at all those and see if you haven't made any mistakes.

[jscheuer1]

I pasted the address into the FF and Opera browsers and all links loaded properly in the 'main' frame. Perhaps you need to clear your browser's cache to remove an older improperly working version of the pages from it.

However, this doesn't explain why it works for you when you navigate to it from a link. But, it's worth a shot, as cached pages can behave oddly until the cache is cleared, and that part might be due to some variation on the www/no www theme.

[Snookerman]

Try this link:
http://www.aberaeronallotments.org/
I get the problem when I use that one, and I haven't got anything cached from that page.

[BigGee]

Thank you both,
It seems you've hit on it regarding http/ www Snookerman. That clears up that little mystery (I think), but it doesn't get to the root cause for it.

I've already cleared the cache John - I also thought that might be the cause but it wasn't.

I can't for the life of me see anything wrong with the frames file names. And I've gone through the links attributes etc. and can't find anything wrong there (when comparing all link attributes they all seem identical). The strange thing is two links work fine but the other three don't and if one of the ones that don't work get used the ones that did work stop working from then on. The ones that seem to work OK are the "Home" & "Seeds" tabs. However they all seem to work correctly in IE & apparently if the "www" is not used in the browser's address bar they also work OK in Firefox!

You're welcome to copies of the coding for the index, header & main frame pages to see if you can pick something up.

Regards,

G.

[BigGee]

Good news Chaps - it's sorted.

The key was the http/www thing. The links that opened in a new window all had the "www" attribute in the hyperlink addresses, the ones that did work simply had http://(domain name). So I changed all links in the header so that they didn't show "www" and changed the external links to open in new windows - problem solved.

HOWEVER I'm still scratching for a reason why this quirk happens in the Gecko Layout Engine used by FF & Opera browsers - any ideas?

Thanks in bundles for your contribution,

Kind Regards,

G.

[jscheuer1]

It could be the src/href attributes. You are not allowed to access pages from another domain in many situations that involve frames and iframes. Having www and not www can look to the browser as cross domain, even when the paths still point to the same domain. If this is the problem, replace all your link href attributes and frame src attributes with ones which use relative paths. Further, this may be a configurable setting in the browser.

Now, if any javascript is involved in the page changes, make sure the paths given in that code are also relative.

I'm not 100% sure this is the issue, but it would make a certain kind of perverse sense, so is worth a try.

Oh, and get rid of all of your no right click scripts, they often mess things up.

[BigGee]

Spot-on John,

That's probably it. I know that some sites use frame-breaker JS to prevent their pages being displayed in another site's frames. Also quite likely by including the "www" in any link addresses, certain browsers may interpret it as a cross domain access and then display the page in a new window.

For anyone else experiencing the same problem with a Gecko Engine based browser the answer is to use relative attributes in all links (just http) and open all other links to external sites in new windows.

Live & learn! Amazing how such a basically simple problem can cause such pain. I must have compared the links in the header page a hundred times, but because I was looking for something else my brain skipped the differences in the address - assuming that they were all OK because they all opened up. The clue was in the fact that two worked properly & three didn't.

Thanks,

G.