Hi,

This module works great in other browsers I've tried, but in IE6 I'm having major problems.

The first time around everything loads fine, then the text loads way above and off the screen on the rounds that follow. I've tried setting different transitions but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Unfortunately, I just can't ignore IE6 as all State of Washington offices as well as my current employer use it. It's also the default browser on a lot of Netbooks, like my Acer Aspire. If it were just a matter of slightly off presentation I'd put up with it, but it's just too broken.

I've attached a screenshot, and you can see what it should look like by using any other browser at this link:

http://www.tacomamama.com

This is a customization of the Themesnap Drupal Magazine theme. Their demo has the same issue in IE 6. You can visit their demo site here:

http://www.themesnap.com/theme-demos/magazine-plus/

I have also posted in their forums, but since I am not the only one reporting strange IE6 issues I suspect it's a problem with the module. (Or rather, a problem with IE6 that effects the way the module displays. )

I'm open to any work around you suggest.

CommentFileSizeAuthor
mamascreenshot.gif73.69 KBjenyum

Comments

ppblaauw’s picture

ppblaauw commented
Category: bug » support
Priority: Critical » Normal
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)

I recognize that IE6 users can not take full advantage of the dynamic display block module.
The only issue I know of is:

The background of the slidetext is not transparent.

The issue you have is theme related (CSS) and I am afraid you have to seek help from Themesnap for that.

dman’s picture

dman commented

As ever, Validate first and only then try to figure out what's wrong with IE. Until then, it's a problem with your own code.

To begin with, these first two lines are directly contradictory, and are willfully attempting to confuse the browser before it even starts!

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">

Make up your mind, is it html4 or XHTML? That's like claiming to speak German but using French grammar.

(note that even validating may not always solve all your woes, but it's the proper place to start)

jenyum’s picture

jenyum commented

Fixing the doctype has no effect, and were that the problem I'd expect much more pervasive issues.

The Slidetext background is set to transparent. I think it's probably a hasLayout issue but I'm having difficulty tracking down the right element, given that the block is dynamic.

Anyway, I leave it to Themesnap to figure this out, since my intent in purchasing a commercial theme was not to have these issues. I don't get paid to develop this site, and I need it to just work and stop sucking up my time.

IE6 support is unfortunately still critical for commercial web development. Believe me, I don't enjoy that any more than you do.

dman’s picture

dman commented

Validation is not always the silver bullet, but it may shave your current 82 nasty code errors down to the one or two issues that actually do matter, so you can identify them - that's the biggest advantage.
The validator says you have repeated IDs - that is one good way to screw up DOM handling.

We had a similar (not the same) issue with views slideshow in IE6. Frankly, I said we just disable the behaviour for that thing - graceful degradation. Otherwise it's another lost day or two of hair-pulling, for a small effect, without even a guarantee that it's at all fix-able.

If you WANT to lose more hair, did you try the developer toolbar from MSDN for IE? It's nowhere near as cool as firebug, but does provide some clues.

ppblaauw’s picture

ppblaauw commented

Have a look at the issue http://drupal.org/node/486074 where I explain more what my experiences are with IE and transparent fading images and what I use as a workaround.

When someone finds a better solution which solves transparent fading images in all cases with IE6 I will be glad to implement it in the dynamic display block module.

This is as far as I know the only issue with the ddblock module with IE6.

When other themebuilders use the ddblock module to build custom themes which have other issues in IE6, I can NOT help you and you have to get help form the themebuilder in question where you purchased the theme.

When you buy a commercial dynamic display block theme from Themes.myalbums.biz I will always support Issues with IE6 (except there seems to be no satisfying solution for transparent fading background images)

Hope this clarifies the status of this issue.
We are testing the commercial themes we sell for IE6.

Help appreciated with a satisfying solution.

ppblaauw’s picture

ppblaauw commented
Status: Closed (won't fix) » Active

Set status to active so people can help find a satisfying solution.

ppblaauw’s picture

ppblaauw commented

#3

The transparant background issue is indeed the so called haslayout issue with IE6.
When someone finds a satisfying solution for this issue I will be glad to implement it in the ddblock module.

But I can not agree with what you say on the forum at themesnap.com

"It concerns me that the developer does not appear to have tested this in IE6. I don't feel that a module that has never been tested in IE6 is really viable for commercial sites, unfortunately. My issue was set to "won't fix" by the developer."

The won't fix was meant for the other issue with the layout of the theme and not the transparent background image (the issue with the background image is not in the screenshot, so I did not know that that was your main concern). The main issue (http://drupal.org/node/486074) for the background image is still open and as you can see it has been active since june 9.

The ddblock layouts we create are tested for IE6, only I don't have a satisfying solution for the transparent background. Again when someone finds a satisfying solution for this issue I will be glad to implement it in the ddblock module.

You could say the same about IE6 (don't use it for looking at the internet if you want to have a full internet experience) I think more and more Internet sites will not support IE6 anymore since IE8 is out. (but an IE6 user will never know if the things he sees at the site are all the options a site offers)

Did you contact Microsoft about this issue? What did they say? (Microsoft shows in IE8 they know the solution) Ask them to backport it to IE6? But maybe their answer will be: Won't fix.

aloyr’s picture

aloyr commented

Could ie7.js or ie8.js possibly help out here?
http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/

ppblaauw’s picture

ppblaauw commented

Yes, for some people this can help out like all other javascript/jquery solutions.

But it is not a solution to add standard with the ddblock module because it has potential to break a lot of other things on your site.

(if this would be the solution, why does Drupal itself not include the IE7.js or IE8.js file)

I think all javascript/jquery options to solve this can be used in particular cases, but you have the risk that it breaks your site somewhere else.
(also have a look at the issues with all the javascript/jquery solutions)

It's a customization you have to do as a developer of a site. (it's not easy to test all this)
Hopefully the time spend on testing a solution with javascript/jquery will justify the amount of IE6 users.

jenyum’s picture

jenyum commented

Tried ie7.js with no change. ie8.js doesn't fix it either.

jenyum’s picture

jenyum commented
Status: Active » Needs review

Found a fix that works. At least where the Magazine Plus theme is concerned, the class "clear-block" needs to be set to position: relative, but only in IE6 and only within the ddblock module. Because the behavior of clear-block comes from Drupal core, this means renaming the class to something else to avoid having to hack core.

Here's how I did it in Magazine Plus, obviously these instructions are specific to that theme but they may prove useful for others who run into this problem. You'll have to customize them for your own theme.

The "clear-block" class needs to be set to position: relative, but only in IE6, and only on the front page within the Dynamic block. This means you need to change the name of the class when it appears within the ddblock module. I changed it to "clear-block-front," but "clear-block-dynamic" might be better.

Step by step:

Add to your style.css file in sites/all/themes/drupalmagazine:

.clear-block-front {
display: block
}

This replaces the behavior of "clear-block" from Drupal core. We don't want to change this behavior in any way for other browsers, just IE6.

Add to your ie6-fixes.css file in sites/all/themes/drupalmagazine:

div.clear-block-front {
position: relative ! important;}

and then because IE6 is a really, really dumb browser you have to tell it exactly how to format the rest of the block:

div.ddblock-cycle-drupalmagazine #top-c div.slider {width: 480px; padding-right: 0px; margin-left: -20px}
div.ddblock-cycle-drupalmagazine #top-c div.slider-inner {width: 476px;}
div.ddblock-cycle-drupalmagazine .top-left div.slide-body-inner {padding: 4px;}

and then (and only then) change your template files to include the new class.

change all instances of "clear-block" to "clear-block-front" in all tpl.php files in sites/all/themes/drupalmagazine/custom/modules/ddblock

(There are many of these and they have very similar names, so if it's not working for you make sure you didn't forget one.)

I also changed the files at sites/all/modules/ddblock but I'm not sure if that was necessary.

So happy to never have to think about this again.

Hope it works for you, too!

(If your theme doesn't have a separate stylesheet for IE6, you'll need to create one and call it with a conditional statement. Just type "conditional statement ie6" into your search engine of choice and you'll find plentiful instructions regarding how to accomplish this.)

I set this to "needs review" instead of "fixed" to make sure you'd see it. I'm not sure how this fix would effect this module in other configurations, but it's probably worth testing.

ppblaauw’s picture

ppblaauw commented
Status: Needs review » Closed (won't fix)

#11

It looks like you are talking about how to fix the layout issue with the customized ddblock theme in the Magazine plus theme.

When I look at your site I see now that the layout issue you had before is gone, but I don't see a transparent background or slidetext at all on the slide in IE6. (I use IETester).

Can you please also read #1 and #7 where I explain why I set this issue to: won't fix in the first place.
Set issue to won't fix again, because this solution is not ddblock module related, but related to the Magazine plus theme which is developed and supported by Themesnap.com

Again, I can not give support for custom ddblock themes developed and incorporated in themes, which are purchased from other themebuilders.

For the remaining issue with IE6 transparent fading PNG background image see issue: http://drupal.org/node/486074

jenyum’s picture

jenyum commented
Title: Another Big Problem in IE6 (With Screenshot) » Fix HasLayout Bug in IE6
Assigned: Unassigned » jenyum
Status: Closed (won't fix) » Needs work

I'm fine without the transparency in IE6, it's not a huge deal the way my block is set up, which is why I haven't worried about it.

This is an issue because others (with different themes) have reported oddities in the way in which IE6 positions their dynamic block text. Since divs with the clear-block class contain other divs within the module, I'd expect to see this problem arise for others. (It triggers the HasLayout bug.) This structure is within the module itself (in the template files) out of the box, not just in my theme. Unfortunately, it is not 100% predictable and might be difficult to trigger. I'd like to hear from others who have experienced this issue.

For example, in this issue:

http://drupal.org/node/486074
The description of the text rendering on the next line sounds to me like a positioning issue, not a transparency issue. Therefore, it may be related to the HasLayout bug.

This also sounds like essentially the same problem:
http://drupal.org/node/367829

I'd be curious to know how the module would behave if it came with a new class in place of clear-block and a separate style sheet for IE6 with the position of that block set to relative, and if that would fix some of the problems others have experienced. I think that would be worth testing. Dealing with IE6 is very painful and it would be nice to save others some time. If there is a simple solution (and it appears there may be) I'm not sure what the downside is.

I have set this to "needs work" and assigned it to myself. I would like it if you would please leave this issue in the queue where others can find it until I or someone else who must have their site work with IE6 has time for more testing. I will not be able to finish this assignment this week because I have other things on my plate, so if someone else would like to have a go at it in the mean time, please do.

And for the record, yes I hate IE6 and it should go away.

ppblaauw’s picture

ppblaauw commented

#13 Thank you for looking into IE6 Related issues.

I had a look at both issues you mention, but they are both NOT related to this issue.

The first one I assume is an issue by putting more text in a pager-item then fits, but I am not really sure because never have seen the real issue on an Internet site.
(yes, we could make a solution not to show more then fits, but maybe it is better is to limit the amount of text from in the field in the content type for the pager text or you could add a trim with ... in the template.php file., and add a help text for your users what happens with the pager-item text when it is to long)

The second issue is with a basic slideshow, and I did no have an opportunity at all to look at this, because the poster did not react anymore, and on his site he uses a flash slideshow now.

The themes for the module are not more then a starting point which can be adjusted according to own requirements. As far as I know I have not seen a haslayout issue with them.

I would also like to hear from others who have experienced a haslayout issue with the ddblock themes.

The block you mention which has the issue is a customization made. Its a separate slideshow within the slideshow. No ddblock theme we have published so far has that.

Thanks again for looking into this.

ppblaauw’s picture

ppblaauw commented
Assigned: jenyum » Unassigned
Status: Needs work » Closed (won't fix)

Set status to won't fix again. after 10 weeks no activity
assigned to anonymous

Have a look at the issue http://drupal.org/node/486074 for the remaining issue with IE6 transparent fading PNG background image.