Weird Select object problem

[fig000]

Hi,

I have an asp form which, against my better judgement, I filled with
seven select objects, a couple of text boxes, and seven checkboxes.
The form also passes upwards of 20 querystrings.

The problem is that sometimes the form sometimes calls itself (e.g.
in case of errors). It ends up with all the query strings it passed
itself and redraws itself. What's happening is that one or more of the
selects will have the following problem:

The usual behavior for select objects is that you can click on it,
expand the data in it and then hit a letter key that will bring you to
the first item that starts with that letter.

In this case, I click on the select, it opens up, I hit a letter key
and nothing happens at all. Oddly when I click again and the select
"closes" (meaning that you only see one line of data) it will react as
it should when I hit a letter key.

I experimented with this and found that, if I limited the number of
entries in the select below a certain number (which varies) it will
work as expected. Once I exceed this number, the I can expand the list
but it won't respond when a letter key is hit. This happens randomly
to some extent, though I do think it gets worse after the screen first
comes up.

My suspicion is that I've got too many objects on the screen along
with two many querystring variables (however I've read in the
newsgroups that a POST has no data limit).

This isn't a big deal to me (I figure you can use the mouse in any
case) but it is to some of my users. Any help would be appreciated.

Neil

 

[Larry Bud]

In this case, I click on the select, it opens up, I hit a letter key

and nothing happens at all. Oddly when I click again and the select
"closes" (meaning that you only see one line of data) it will react as
it should when I hit a letter key.
....

My suspicion is that I've got too many objects on the screen along
with two many querystring variables (however I've read in the
newsgroups that a POST has no data limit).

But this has nothing to do with ASP. The problem you're having is
with the browser. Seems to me your drop downs might have some HTML
coding problems associated with them that's giving them odd behavior.
Any special characters in those drop downs, such as < or > chars?

 

[fig000]

Larry,

Thanks for answering. The fact that it works when I limit the
number of entries leads me to believe that there is something in my
asp code that makes this happen. I even tried changing which entries
were in the list (thinking that it was, as you suggested, something in
the data going into the drop down). This didn't help.

There are no weird characters in this drop down that I can see. I
realize that the browser may be interpreting something that I have
generated from asp and that's causing the problem but I can't change
the browser . So I guess it's something in the asp code causing it
and that's what I have to change. Unless there's a bug in the browser
which I doubt.

Neil

 

[roger]

There are no weird characters in this drop down that I can see. I
realize that the browser may be interpreting something that I have
generated from asp and that's causing the problem but I can't change
the browser . So I guess it's something in the asp code causing it
and that's what I have to change. Unless there's a bug in the browser
which I doubt.

No, Larry's right, It's a browser problem.

Although, as you say, it's probably your ASP that is
writing junk data, or exposing a feature/bug in the browser.

Have you tried copying the HTML from one of the offending
select boxes and pasting it into a blank page?

 

[fig000]

Roger,

Thanks for answering; I appreciate anyone helping me tackle this. I
guess what I meant was that only changing the asp can solve the
problem. I find this amusing but are you saying that it might be a bug
in the browser?

Anyway, this is a very complicated page. As I mentioned earlier
there are a lot of objects a few tables, and some querystrings. I
actually went through the code and made sure there were no unbalanced
tds or trs and I still had the problem. I also limited the number of
entries in the select and found that if it was below a certain number
my problem went away.

I did strip out all extraneous code (other than the select) and the
problem went away. In that process I found some weird things such as:
when I got rid of a small table (containing one text string I was
using in a title) the problem went away. This table was miles away
from the offending <select>. I tried randomly removing lines of code
that also didn't directly affect the select and, sometimes, the
problem would go away.

I am somewhat at a loss and am beginning to feel more comfortable
with the idea that I might have just done the wrong combination of
things that found the dark underbelly of the browser.

It's a small problem but I do plan to rip everything apart and start
from scratch. I'd still appreciate any advice.

Neil

Neil

 

[roger]

Thanks for answering; I appreciate anyone helping me tackle this. I
guess what I meant was that only changing the asp can solve the
problem. I find this amusing but are you saying that it might be a bug
in the browser?

Hello Neil,

Try the following -

Open your page in the browser, and verify that the page has the problem.

Save it as 'test.htm'.

Open test.htm with the browser, does the page still have the problem?

If so, it's definitely not an ASP problem.

Start cutting out blocks of HTML, to try and leave just the offending
<select> box.

At each stage test the file in the browser, if the problem still exists then
save the file as test2.htm, test3.htm etc.

If the problem disappears, then go back a stage by opening the last saved
file.

Once test.htm gets small enough the problem may become apparent.

If not then download a couple of browsers, and open the page in them.

If the problem occurs in only one browser, then ask your question in a news
group devoted to that browser.

Tell them your browser version, and post the cut down HTML as an example.

If the problem occurs in all browsers, then ask your question in a group
devoted to HTML.

Tell them your browser version, and post the cut down HTML as an example.

Probably, you will identify a problem with HTML, and will realise that your
ASP code is not producing what you think it should.

If so, cut out the offending ASP and post it here as an example. (But don't
bother about the browser version).