# I tried a Javascript forum to no avail, what say dopers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 3, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807 "2005-03-03T21:43:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/1 "2005-03-03T21:43:17Z")

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I have a frameset with 3 hidden frames using a size of 0 in the rows property (see FRAMESET ID = MapSomedataFS below).

I want to expand the frame “TextFrame” when I load an .htm into it. Fine. The code - parent.MapSomdataFS.rows = “\*,170,0,0”; Works fine…… In IE. Won’t work in FireFox. (The code executes as soon as the .htm loads into the frame).

It was recommended that I try - parent.document.getElementById(“MapSomedataFS”).setAttribute(‘rows’,’_,170,0,0’,0);  
And I did. It fails in IE with the error parent.document.getElementById(…) is not an object.  
FRAMESET CODE - (I tried to change the font, and it screwed up all my indents. It’s tabbed out properly before the preview)  
\<FRAMESET ROWS="35,_"\>  
\<FRAME NAME=“ToolFrame” SRC=“blank.htm”\>  
\<FRAMESET COLS=“175,_,110"\>  
\<FRAMESET rows="40,_\>  
\<FRAME NAME=“ModeFrame” SRC=“bottom.htm”  
\<FRAME NAME=“TOCFrame” SRC=“blank.htm”\>  
\</FRAMESET\>  
\<FRAMESET rows=”\*,0,0,0" ID=“MapSomdataFS”\>  
\<FRAME NAME=“MapFrame” SRC=“MapFrame.htm”\>  
\<FRAME NAME="TextFrame"SRC=“blank.htm”\>  
\<FRAME NAME=“PostFrame” SRC=“blank.htm”\>  
\<FRAME NAME=“BottomFrame” SRC=“bottom.asp”\>  
\</FRAMESET\>  
\<FRAME NAME=“QueryFrame” SRC=“ParcelQuery.htm”\>  
\</FRAMESET\>  
\</FRAMESET\>

Any ideas?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/2 "2005-03-03T21:51:33Z")

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Yea, I’ve run into this. The problem is that IE wants one format of specifying page objects, while Netscape-based browsers such as Firefox want a different format, and the two formats are mutually exclusive. You’ll need to do a browser check and do one OR the other based on which browser is found.

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/3 "2005-03-04T00:14:46Z")

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Thanks, I’ll give that a try. I honestly didn’t know that FireFox was Netscape based. :smack:

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**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/4 "2005-03-04T00:40:32Z")

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> [@Ponder Stibbons](#):
>
> Yea, I’ve run into this. The problem is that IE wants one format of specifying page objects, while Netscape-based browsers such as Firefox want a different format, and the two formats are mutually exclusive. You’ll need to do a browser check and do one OR the other based on which browser is found.

Man, if that isn’t the mantra for Javascript, I don 't know what is. 😃

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/5 "2005-03-04T03:00:16Z")

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> [@ccwaterback](#):
>
> Man, if that isn’t the mantra for Javascript, I don 't know what is. 😃

Could you elaborate? Just a little?

I’m tring to modify a very big out of the box app to fit our needs. I do as many modifications as I can in VBscript (I know it better), but the vast majority of the original app is in javaScript. I think I’ve got a monster on my hands.

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**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/6 "2005-03-04T03:18:43Z")

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> [@enipla](#):
>
> I think I’ve got a monster on my hands.

Well Javascript is OK if you only need to support ONE version of ONE browser. The problem is, Javascript is NOT generally portable from one browser to another, or one browser version to another. Indeed, a nightmare. I really don’t know what else to say.

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**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/7 "2005-03-04T04:13:50Z")

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But VBscript is _way_ less portable than Javascript.

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/8 "2005-03-04T15:08:58Z")

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Thanks for the responses.

One last thing. Does anyone know where the setting in FireFox is for it to check for new versions of web pages? I’m making changes in my code, but FireFox is still bringing up the older/original versions of the code.

Making it a bit hard to trouble shoot :mad:

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/9 "2005-03-04T19:42:50Z")

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> [@enipla](#):
>
> Thanks for the responses.
> 
> One last thing. Does anyone know where the setting in FireFox is for it to check for new versions of web pages? I’m making changes in my code, but FireFox is still bringing up the older/original versions of the code.
> 
> Making it a bit hard to trouble shoot :mad:

I don’t know about the setting you are asking about, but try out some of the “Useful META Tags” on [this site](http://www.i18nguy.com/markup/metatags.html) to see if they help with your caching problem.

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**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/10 "2005-03-04T21:44:47Z")

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> [@ccwaterback](#):
>
> Well Javascript is OK if you only need to support ONE version of ONE browser. The problem is, Javascript is NOT generally portable from one browser to another, or one browser version to another. Indeed, a nightmare. I really don’t know what else to say.

To be fair to Javascript, it’s not actually the language that’s different across browsers, it’s the objects available in the browser’s object model, which would be the case no matter what language you were programming in. IE’s “document” object contains a collection called “all”, but Netscape’s doesn’t, for example. That’s not Javascript’s fault.

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/11 "2005-03-05T01:32:24Z")

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> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> I don’t know about the setting you are asking about, but try out some of the “Useful META Tags” on [this site](http://www.i18nguy.com/markup/metatags.html) to see if they help with your caching problem.

Thank you Zipper. I’m looking for something like IE 'tools\>Internet Options\>Settings\>Check for newer versions on stored pages.

That Meta tag may do it.

I did find out today, that FireFox does not have the ability to resize frames, after the original is loaded. Without reloading the master frame document.

Maybe a table would be a better idea. If the \<TD\> and \<TR\> can be resized.

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tried-a-javascript-forum-to-no-avail-what-say-dopers/292807/12 "2005-03-05T04:46:55Z")

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Could you exaplain what you’re actually trying to do? It’s not clear from your example.

In generally, the only time I’ll use a hidden frame is when I have to transfer data back and forth to a server without the main page reloading and flickering. If it’s just a case of wanting to hide data unless a user chooses to show it, you’d be better off using a DIV and setting its display property to none in Javascript when you want to hide it.

If you want to dynamically build a table, you can use Javascript to insert table rows and columns directly into the object heirarchy.

What exactly is the requirement?