Flexi Slideshow

**daveydoom** · 07-28-2006, 02:28 AM

1) Script Title: Flexi Slideshow

2) Script URL (on DD):http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamici...flexislide.htm

3) Describe problem:

Hi all. I just tried using Flexi Slideshow and it looks nice but I have a couple of questions:

Why would the images from Flexi Slideshow be offset to the right when viewed by Opera and Firefox when they are supposed to be centered? They are perfect when viewed using IE. Also, why would the text that is supposed to be below the images be overlapping the images when the page is viewed in FireFox?

The HTML code looks fine so I am suspecting the Javascript? Has anyone seen this before?

Thanks, Dave

**jscheuer1** · 07-28-2006, 04:57 AM

Think again, the demo page looks and works nearly identically in the three browsers that you mention so, it is most likely your layout. It may be helpful to remember, if a bit disheartening, that 99 times out of 100, FF and Opera are displaying the page as it is actually laid out and IE is the one, due to its lack of accurate parsing that is doing something wrong. The fact that hings look right in IE and not in other standards compliant browsers is most likely due to the fact that you are used to designing for IE and working with its handicaps. Generally it is easier to design a page in a compliant browser though and using a DOCTYPE will often cause IE to render it nearly the same. There are many tricks available to tweak IE into presenting a page as other browsers do. To work the other way around though, you will likely find your self needing a 'fix' for each and every other browser.

**daveydoom** · 07-28-2006, 10:32 AM

Well, I'm no expert in HTML by any means but I've been using it for a long time. I've also had other people look at the code and say there's nothing wrong with the HTML. Without the script the page displays fine in all three browsers. All other pages on the site look identical when viewed from all three browsers. It's just the page with the script that is messed up. If there was a coding problem there would always have been an issue when viewing with FireFox.......but it's always looked fine before. I always test the pages on all three browsers to see what they look like, I don't just use IE and expect it to be right.

Do you have any tips on what to look for to fix my layout?

**jscheuer1** · 07-28-2006, 04:16 PM

OK, then please supply the link to this. Preferably two links, one to the problem page and one to the layout without the script. At the very least I would want to see the problem page. I could just look at the script itself and guess and I might come up with an answer but, it would be much easier if I had a link to your page.

I apologise if my tone seemed (and it did) condescending. Usually that's the problem though, folks get used to coding for IE and then wonder why a standards compliant browser is 'messed up'. Sorry about that.

**daveydoom** · 07-28-2006, 09:46 PM

No worries, no offense taken

I'm going out of town for a few days on holidays but I will check back when I return and provide the info you need.

I appreciate your time and willingness to help and if you can find some flaw in my HTML code I would be grateful for any guidance in fixing it. Again, I'm no expert in HTML (I just update and maintain a few sites for friends) so any chance I get to learn something new is a bonus.

Regards, Dave

**daveydoom** · 08-06-2006, 12:16 PM

Ok, sorry to take so long. Here's the link with the script in place. I really don't want to take the script out right now because he'll wonder what the heck I'm doing

.

I just got to thinking and I'm actually hoping you do find something wrong with the HTML code because I didn't design this site in the first place

. I've done a lot of updates but I didn't set it up so there may be something I'm missing that sticks out to you. I hope that's the case because it seems like the easiest fix.

Thanks for your time.

**jscheuer1** · 08-06-2006, 06:57 PM

There really are a number of problems with the page. However, Opera 9, IE 6, and FF 1.5.0.6 are all forgiving of these as far as I can tell. Most notable:

1 ) You have a closing </html> tag near the top of the page.

2 ) The opening <body> tag doesn't appear until quite a ways through the actual body content section.

I suggest running the page through the validator* if you are bored sometime and want a few laughs. Anyways, the problem with the layout of the script is that you neglected to set the image max width and max height as instructed (albeit not quite as clearly as possible) here (highlighted red and corrected):

Code:

//configure the below 3 variables to set the dimension/background color of the slideshow

var slidewidth='250px' //set to width of LARGEST image in your slideshow
var slideheight='170px' //set to height of LARGEST image in your slideshow, plus any text description
var slidebgcolor='#F3F3F3'

//configure the below variable to determine the delay between image rotations (in miliseconds)
var slidedelay=5000

* validator link for the page itself

**daveydoom** · 08-06-2006, 08:15 PM

Thanks for your help. I'm always up for a good laugh so I'll have a closer look at that link

It looks like some of the errors it reports are with the script itself

I'm not surprised by the HTML errors after updating this site for some time now and having to work with what was handed to me. However, I didn't think it was so messed up.

Thanks for the info on the script, I honestly didn't know what to use for those values so I will try your edits and let you know how I make out.

Thanks again for your time and input. Greatly appreciated.

Regards, Dave

**daveydoom** · 08-06-2006, 08:27 PM

Worked like a charm. Great help here at the forum

**jscheuer1** · 08-06-2006, 08:59 PM

Any errors that the validator (a robotic program, after all) reports in scripts are generally erroneous unless they are preventing the script from working or displaying properly in some browsers. The exception being that in very old browsers, they could cause problems.

That is why the strict recommendation on scripts is that they be made external. This will prevent these 'false positives' as well as protect any browser from interpreting script code as regular HTML.

In actual practice, using a script like this 'as is' is generally fine. If the errors bother you, there are ways to trick the validator without mucking up the script but, one's time would be better spent fixing the actual errors in the actual HTML code.

Working even just at correcting these errors can seem daunting if one is not familiar with the validator's way of describing the errors and the usual ways to correctly remedy the errors it finds.

If you want help with that, start a new thread in the HTML forum.

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