Hallvord R. M. Steen

sniff and die

Thursday, 4. May 2006, 12:49:43

browsers, compatibility, coding, sniffing, live.com

Well, I didn't quite get to the bottom of the Live.com problems last time but now I know: it's a bug in their browser sniffer. They say

Web.Browser._isIE=!Web.Browser.isMozilla()&&!Web.Browser._isOpera;

but mean

Web.Browser._isIE=!Web.Browser.isMozilla()&&!Web.Browser.isOpera();

.. so isIE is set to true even though we're Opera. That means the script gets into the wrong branches of the getElementsByTagName stuff in my previous post.

Yet another proof that all the world's evils come from browser sniffing. If sniffing wasn't necessary, we would have peace in the Middle East, no starvation in Africa .. OK, sorry, I'm getting carried away here but at the very least Live.com would be alive and kicking.

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Comments

Rafal # 4. May 2006, 13:12

Can we set this property through userjs to fix it?

Daniel Goldman # 4. May 2006, 13:30

Nice find, Hallvord. Do you know whether Microsoft has been made aware of this?

FataL # 4. May 2006, 16:19

This browser sniffing just stupid. What if user use Safari or iCab... or anything else?...
But anyway, nice catch Hallvord!

Hallvord R. M. Steen # 4. May 2006, 20:57

This can certainly be fixed with a user js, since it is deep inside som of the Atlas objects I think a BeforeScript event handler with a simple replace of the two strings in this post should do.

I have sent Microsoft's Atlas architect an E-mail so I expect a fix. We'll see how long it takes them..

Rafal # 4. May 2006, 22:25

But this fix alone won't help, will it?
I have tried to correct it manually in this script ( http://stj.live.com/live/extern/atlas/bindings/2.060314.1/AtlasBindings.js ) and it still flooded my error console with errors.

Also some other problems from "last time" needs to be fixed?

Hallvord R. M. Steen # 5. May 2006, 08:17

Make sure you
- ID as Opera
- use some Opera 9 build, not 8.5.
- re-load from cache (Tools > Advanced > Refresh display) rather than F5

I did get Live basically working with that change thought I have not tried to use it extensively later and I have not checked the JS console closely either.

By the way, my Live.com contact confirms that the fix is pending release, it should work fine again some time next week. 8-)