DevEdge News: The Netscape Gecko Cross-Browser Development Newsletter 2002 Issue #5 - August 2002 You have received this newsletter because you subscribed to xbrowser-list@netscape.com. SPECIAL NOTE: We've renamed the newsletter and changed the email alias, but the rest is the same. Subscribe and unsubscribe information is located at the end of this newsletter. <---------------I N T H I S E D I T I O N-----------------> 1) New Design for DevEdge Developer Site 2) *HOT NEWS!* AOL for Mac OS X with Netscape Gecko Released 3) JavaScript Debugger 4) Simplifying Netscape Gecko Browser Detection 5) Macromedia Flash Now Scriptable With Gecko 6) Quick Tip: Pop Up Menus Popped Too Far? <-----------------------------------------------------------> 1) New Design for DevEdge Developer Site ---------------------------------------- Netscape's DevEdge developer site has a new structure and a new home, http://devedge.netscape.com. Tech Centrals organize articles and links by technology - CSS, plugins, JavaScript and more. There's also an introduction to working with Netscape Gecko* browsers. You'll still find the historical archive for reference as well as past newsletters. *Netscape Gecko is the layout engine embedded in Netscape 6 and 7 (in beta), Mozilla, AOL for Mac OS X, CompuServe 7, a PC version of AOL (in beta), as well as other browsers. Details: http://devedge.netscape.com/central/gecko 2) AOL for Mac OS X with Netscape Gecko Released ------------------------------------------------ AOL for Mac OS X has shipped, with Netscape Gecko as its embedded browser. This is not a beta. All AOL members downloading AOL software for Mac OS X 10.1+ will use this version. http://media.aoltimewarner.com/media/cb_press_view.cfm?release_num=55252689 You can download AOL for Mac OS X at http://www.aol.com. <---------------TECH NOTES SNAPSHOT--------------> Even if your site works on Netscape 6, please review the testing section below to ensure your site is fully compatible with AOL for Mac OS X. - Netscape Gecko is the name of the layout engine embedded in Netscape 6 and 7 (in beta), Mozilla, AOL for Mac OS X, CompuServe 7, a PC version of AOL (in beta), as well as other browsers. Details: http://devedge.netscape.com/central/gecko - Sites compatible with AOL for Mac OS X 10.1+ should work equally as well across platforms on the other browsers mentioned above -- provided your browser detection is set up correctly. - This announcement pertains to a US English version only. No other languages or platforms were announced. - AOL for Mac OSX is based on Mozilla 1.0.1. - The user agent string is: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020730 AOL/7.0 - Plugins that are now scriptable with Netscape Gecko browsers, so your players can "talk" to web pages, include: Apple QuickTime 6, Macromedia Flash 6 r47, RealPlayer 8 and RealOne. Details: http://devedge.netscape.com/central/plugins <---DEVELOPMENT, TESTING & CUSTOMER SUPPORT------> IMPORTANT: We strongly suggest you download AOL for Mac OS X at http://www.aol.com and confirm ASAP: 1) that your site loads correctly 2) that your site's secure areas function correctly Some sites have had issues due to inadequate browser sniffing. ***If for some reason you're not able to run AOL at your company please reply to this message to ask Netscape's team for help. TESTING ON AOL FROM WITHIN A FIREWALL You need Internet access to test AOL; a LAN connection is not sufficient. If you need to connect to AOL via a corporate firewall, America Online has registered TCP/IP ports 5190 and 11523 so you can communicate with the AOL client software. This way you can test your site on the AOL client from behind your firewall, provided that your network administrators will open these ports. SITE COMPATIBILITY INFORMATION If you have not actively begun testing with Netscape 6+ browsers, and your site is DHTML and/or plugin heavy, the Netscape Gecko Compatibility Handbook is a good introduction: http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/gecko-compatibility/ The Netscape Gecko Central home page has useful tips as well: http://devedge.netscape.com/central/gecko Want to see right away how your site works with AOL for Mac OS X? If you're using user-agent detection, try the User-Agent Toolbar: - Launch the Netscape 7 preview release or Mozilla 1.0 for OSX (The benefit of using Mozilla is that if you're only detecting "Netscape" you'll see the issues right away.) ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/nightly/latest-1.0/mozilla-macosX-1.0.smi.bin http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/7/download.jsp - Go to http://uabar.mozdev.org/source.html - Click "Install xpi here" - Restart the browser - Paste this string in the toolbar field: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020730 AOL/7.0 - Hit Enter -> click Shift-Reload to reload the page (You can verify the string got changed by looking under Help | About) About Your Results: ------------------- a) Site look funny? If your site is already Netscape 6 compatible, then try switching back to a Netscape 6 ua string. Drop down the list, pick the string, and hit Enter -> click Shift-Reload. If it looks ok, you're probably detecting only "Netscape" or "Netscape6." Detecting "Gecko" instead is the easy way to fix this. More browser detection info: http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/browser-detection/ NOTE: Detecting "Gecko" will also "fix" your site for CompuServe 7 users. b) Still look funny? Try picking the IE 6 string. If this works, set up your detection to serve IE 6 content to visitors with "Gecko" in their ua strings. c) Give up? Please take a look at the Netscape Gecko Compatibility Handbook: http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/gecko-compatibility/ PREPARING CUSTOMER SUPPORT INFORMATION If your site lists system requirements or caveats, because your visitors will not know what "Netscape Gecko" is, we recommend that you use specific browser names as needed: -AOL for Mac OS X -CompuServe 7 -Netscape 6+ -Mozilla 3) JavaScript Debugger ---------------------- Mozilla's JavaScript debugger project, codenamed Venkman, is nearing a 1.0 release. The current builds are quite usable, and have such advanced features as conditional breakpoints, anonymous function name guessing, code profiling, pretty printing, and source code coloring. It can even process meta-comments in your JavaScript source, giving you the ability to add ASSERTs and debug messages that have no impact on production code. If you've never used Venkman, or haven't seen it since Mozilla 1.0, now is the time to have a look, at http://www.hacksrus.com/~ginda/venkman/. It can be installed on Netscape 7.0 PR1. Check out http://www.mozilla.org/projects/venkman/ and the FAQ for more information. 4) Simplifying Netscape Gecko Browser Detection ----------------------------------------------- (Note: This is not an endorsement by Netscape, so please use your own software evaluation criteria.) cyScape released BrowserHawk 6.0, a browser sniffing tool for use in web scripts. Version 6.0 makes it easy to detect the various Netscape Gecko browsers and other browsers, as well as over 120 properties such as disabled cookies/JavaScript/SSL, dozens of plug-ins such as Flash and Shockwave, SSL key sizes, browser service packs, and more. If your IE 6 content works in Netscape Gecko, you can also configure BrowserHawk 6.0 to handle your logic, as explained here: http://cyscape.com/support/kb/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=524. Visit http://www.cyscape.com/ to learn more. Read about Netscape's recommended detection practices at http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/browser-detection/ 5) Macromedia Flash Now Scriptable With Gecko --------------------------------------------- Last month Apple released a version of Quicktime scriptable with Gecko. Now Macromedia Flash 6 r47 (http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayerbutton/) is also scriptable and FSCommand compliant. FSCommands allow you to "talk" to the browser, and you can now invoke methods on the Flash player. As a quick test, go to http://www.ford.de without the new Flash, and see the difference after you install it. Visit DevEdge Plugin Central for details: http://devedge.netscape.com/central/plugins/ 6) Quick Tip: Pop Up Menus Popped Too Far? ----------------------------------------------------- The versions of HierMenu prior to 4.0.x only supported Netscape Navigator 4.x and Internet Explorer 4.x and above. HierMenu 4.0.x versions supported Netscape 6.0; however may cause mispositioned submenus due to changes in support for Internet Explorer's proprietary offsetXXX properties in Netscape 6.1 and later. Upgrade to the most recent version of HierMenu which fully support all Netscape Gecko-based browsers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- For more information and tools, visit http://devedge.netscape.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe from Netscape DevEdge News =========================================================== Feedback? Email devedge-news-request@netscape.com. * To unsubscribe send an email message to devedge-news-request@netscape.com with "unsubscribe" as the subject. * To subscribe send an email message from the address you wish to subscribe to devedge-news-request@netscape.com with "subscribe" as the subject.