AOL Browser & ASP.NET 2

[Mark Rae]

Hi,

I've just received a support call, and the initial diagnostics tell me that
the user is running AOL 9 on WinXP Home. The problem relates to a
custom-built shopping cart - in fact, it's nothing more than a Hashtable
stored in Session. The user clicks on an item in the merchandise page which
adds it to the shopping cart - a JavaScript alert confirms (as far as I can
ascertain) that the item has been successfully added to the cart. However,
later when the user tries to view the cart, he receives a message saying
that the cart is empty. Problem is that, at this moment, I can't be sure if
it is the adding of the item to the Hashtable that has failed, or the
processing of the Hashtable contents and displaying them as a shopping cart
that has failed.

An initial trawl through Google tells me under no circumstances should I
install the AOL software on any of my regular machines. Therefore, I'm
thinking that the best course of action would be to build a Virtual PC with
WinXP home and install it on that.

Does anyone have any experience of ASP.NET 2 websites running in the AOL 9
browser? Presumably, I will need to create myself an AOL account even to do
this...?

Further searching indicates a whole slew of issues with the AOL browser...

Any assistance gratefully received.

Mark

 

[Guest]

Hi Mark

Not sure why AOL specifically would be causing you a problem - I'm on AOL
myself although I don't use the software that often.

I believe the browser is based on IE 6, why is even more bizarre why ud be
geting problems.

Anyway, if you wanna email me ([email protected]) I'd be happy to try
it in my copy of AOL for you..

Cheers


Dan

 

[Mark Rae]

Hi Mark

Not sure why AOL specifically would be causing you a problem - I'm on AOL
myself although I don't use the software that often.

I believe the browser is based on IE 6, why is even more bizarre why ud be
geting problems.

I'd be happy to try it in my copy of AOL for you..

That's really good of you - I'm very grateful.

1) http://www.sanctuaryrig.co.uk

2) Enter site

3) Click "Merchandise" on the menu

4) Click "Add to cart" - you should see a JavaScript alert telling you that
the CD has been added to the cart

5) Click "View cart" - you should see a tabular representation of the
shopping cart with all the expected options (remove from cart, proceed to
checkout etc) - apparently, this was not happening for the user in question.

Best regards,

Mark

 

[Mark Rae]

I'd be happy to try it in my copy of AOL for you..

I built a Virtual PC, downloaded the AOL 9 software and ran the
installation.

However, was unable to proceed as it required me to register with a credit
card and pay them money every month. After several protracted conversations
with their support staff in India, they were immovable on this.

Therefore, unless I want to pay AOL for the privilege, I'm unable to test my
websites on their browser...

 

[Guest]

Hi Mark

Right, well the good news is - it works?

AOL 9 Browser, followed your instructions to the letter, I've got "Sail On"
in my cart, I moved around the site a bit, came back to the shopping, it's
still in my cart. I added it again, I get 2 copies, I click the 'X', I'm down
to one copy, clicked Proceed, it said select a delivery destination, so i
did, clicked proceed again.. and it goes to the final page with the "return
to cart" / "make payment" buttons.

Seems to be working perfectly to me, so here's some versioning info which
might be useful...

AOL 9.0 revision 4156.5012

I'm not sure which version of IE it's working with - I think it uses IE6,
although my machine has IE7 as well. I know someone on tech sup @ aol so I'll
find out from him which version it uses and post back.

Cart works fine though!

Cheers



Dan

----------

 

[Mark Rae]

Dan,

Cart works fine though!

Thanks so much for your help on this.

See my later post - it seems that there's no way for software developers
like us to test our websites on the AOL browser without actually becoming
registered AOL members and paying them a monthly fee. I most certainly have
no intention whatsoever of doing that.

I tried to contact them via their on-line email form this morning, but even
that's not working properly!

Mark

 

[Guest]

Yup that is a bit silly on their part. Then again, I did hear that they were
coming out of the market anyway. But who knows..

As far as I'm aware, it uses an exact replica of the engine from another
browser, as I said I *think* it's IE6, but I can't be certain. Got an e out
to my friend at aol who should be able to confirm.

I'd have thought.. if it works in the base browser, it'll work in AOL...

If not, I can't imagine AOL wanting to give accounts away, so as you say
it's a tad on the annoying side for us store owners / developers!!

-------------

 

[Mark Rae]

If not, I can't imagine AOL wanting to give accounts away, so as you say
it's a tad on the annoying side for us store owners / developers!!

All I can do is add a disclaimer saying something like "This site cannot be
guaranteed to work correctly on the AOL browser"

AAMOI, would you know how reliable the Request.Browser.AOL method is...? Can
this always correctly identify an AOL browser...?

Also, please email me privately (remove the NOSPAM, obviously!) and I'll
send you a few bits and pieces as a thank you for your help...

 

[Guest]

right then, few bits and peices to add to this from AOL support..

AOL 9.0 runs on an unmodified IE6 engine, so testing wise.. if it works in
IE6, then it should work in AOL, although there are some rendering issues,
apparently. Which is annoying, cos that means we still need to test it! GRR.

There have been a few instances where IE6 has failed to install properly
when installed with AOL9 (specifically on win 9x though) - but it might be
worth suggesting a reinstall to any customers. (and the disclaimer, and maybe
a website called "programmers need access to aol!!!" - try and get a change
in policy!)

Not sure about the Request.Browser.AOL method (never heard of it!), but I'm
sure someone on here from MS would be able to help there..?

Think thats it for now.........

Cheers



Dan

 

[Mark Rae]

AOL 9.0 runs on an unmodified IE6 engine, so testing wise.. if it works in
IE6, then it should work in AOL, although there are some rendering issues,
apparently. Which is annoying, cos that means we still need to test it!
GRR.

Hmm - so that means it would support things like client-side VBScript,
showModalDialog, the IE Web Controls etc...? Not that I want to use those,
but you get my point...

There have been a few instances where IE6 has failed to install properly
when installed with AOL9 (specifically on win 9x though) - but it might be
worth suggesting a reinstall to any customers. (and the disclaimer, and
maybe
a website called "programmers need access to aol!!!" - try and get a
change
in policy!)

LOL! I think a change in policy is pretty unlikely... ;-)

Not sure about the Request.Browser.AOL method (never heard of it!), but
I'm
sure someone on here from MS would be able to help there..?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...rlrfsystemwebhttprequestclassbrowsertopic.asp

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

Hi, Dan.

re:

Not sure about the Request.Browser.AOL method (never heard of it!)

That's because it doesn't exist.

You should be able to ID the AOL browser with :

Request.Browser.Type and Request.Browser.Name

Please hit : http://asp.net.do/test/browserDetect.aspx
with the AOL browser and post back what you get for Type and Name.

Thanks!

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

re:

Request.Browser.AOL

Oops...it *does* exist.

My script at : http://asp.net.do/test/browserDetect.aspx already includes it,
except I had forgotten that.

Mark, you may have, finally, caught me in a "senior moment".

 

[Mark Rae]

Mark, you may have, finally, caught me in a "senior moment".

<smugmode>
That's OK - it happens to the best of us... ;-)
</smugmode>

Joking aside, though, not being able to test on the AOL browser without
paying AOL for the privilege is really annoying...