Petition for Web Tycho and MyUMUC to strive for greater compatibility for the 'non-traditional student'

[Michael Hughes]

As the largest public on-line university 'dedicated to serving the
needs of the non-traditional student', UMUC would benefit to focus
toward providing resources compatible with a multitude of visitors.
Standards such as the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org)
provide goals for organizations to strive toward which encourages
interoperability for all.

I'm not sure exactly how to go about organizing this. Has anyone else
experienced trouble accessing university resources because you're not
using IE6 on WinXP? :-P

[Mark Hoffmeyer]

I've had problem accessing webTycho using Firefox (3 Beta 5) on any
platform (XP, Vista, Linux). However I can access webTycho using
either Seamonkey or IE running on Wine while I'm using Linux.


Seamonkey: http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
Easy way to install IE on linux: http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

[Michael Hughes]

Hi Mark,

Have you tested this recently? I've had problems with FF ver.
2.0.0.XX because it didn't recognize the JavaScript version correctly,
but after I install FF 3b5, it works fine.

Do you see anything interesting on the Check Your Browser page:
http://tychousa.umuc.edu/sys/browserinfo.html

-Mike

--
Doing really first-class work, and knowing it, is as good as wine,
women and song put together.
-- Richard Hamming

[Mark Hoffmeyer]

FF3b5 doesn't fare too well either. I try to login, hit enter or the
Submit button and the page just sits there, no loading, but no other
javascript error or anything else...

The site doesn't do too well if I try to validate it with the W3C
validator either...

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Ftychousa1.umuc.edu%2F&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0

[Michael Hughes]

I reported the login issue with FF3b5 to Tycho this weekend. They are
familiar enough with it to give it the name "login loop." I got back:
instructions to clear my cache and cookies; a statement that they
don't support FF3b5 because it's in beta; and a 'thanks for pointing
this out...we'll add it to the list of suggestions for future
improvements to WebTycho.'

I don't think clearing cookies helps with the login problem because it
happens on a brand new operating system installation too. Only going
through the loop several times ever gets me in. But while we're on
this topic, it seems like cookie-related errors have been extremely
common with MyUMUC. I've done a little searching on the 'net, but
can't find a good resource explaining WHY clearing cookies is so
common on certain websites. Does anyone know a good resource on
this? Is there a 'best practices' guide for using cookies? I did
find several references to Peoplesoft cookie issues. Maybe the
problem is built into that beast.

-M

On Apr 28, 9:40 pm, Mark Hoffmeyer <mhoffme...@gmail.com> wrote:
> FF3b5 doesn't fare too well either. I try to login, hit enter or the
> Submit button and the page just sits there, no loading, but no other
> javascript error or anything else...
>
> The site doesn't do too well if I try to validate it with the W3C
> validator either...
>

> http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Ftychousa1.umuc.edu%2F&...

[Michael Hughes]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for showing me the thread in the Computer Club in Tycho. While
Linux has never officially been supported by UMUC, I think we may have
the ears of some influential administrators in the school who share a
belief that a 'non-traditional student' might also have a non-Windows
computer.

I do not believe anyone is intentionally blocking Linux users from
accessing Tycho or other UMUC resources, and have made a tiny bit of
progress bringing these issues to staff members who take an interest
in 'accessibility' across the board.

A useful angle is to encourage coding to established Internet
standards', ie: w3.org and 'Section 508 Compliance.' These
catch-phrases usually translate well, and are in the interest of the
coders working within the Linux community as well as institutions who
aim to thrive using Internet-based resources.

I'm curious if there is more to the statement below that you have
learned that Linux is 'not allowed.' Have you been told anything
official that indicates this?

Thanks,
Mike

On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 6:22 AM, moaxcp <moa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have tracked the issue down and posted it in the UMUC Computing
> Club. The issue is with UMUCs browser detection and OS detection. They
> simply do not allow linux. Here is what I wrote:
>
> I've tracked the issue with web tycho down to one javascript variable
> that I'm unable to change: navigator.product. I've done this by
> changing variables that browsercheck.js uses to detect the browser. It
> seems that all of the plugins for firefox that change the user-agent
> http header, along with other identifying variables, are unable to
> change this variable. The only way I can think of changing this
> variable, which is undefined in the windows version of firefox, is to
> compile firefox from its source.
>
> Another issue, that needs to be dealt with, is how the fedora package
> of firefox changes some of the variables to get the fedora name in
> firefox. The navigator.vendor variable should be Firefox not Fedora
> (something webtycho checks) and the useragent.vendorSub is
> 3.0.2-1.fc9. I've been able to pass the browser check for web tycho by
> changing firefox variables in about:config but once I log in to a
> class the menus still don't show up. This leads me to believe webtycho
> uses a different script to detect the browser in the classroom.

>> > > -- Richard Hamming- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -

--

Steve Martin - "I've got to keep breathing. It'll be my worst
business mistake if I don't."

[moaxcp]

I put in a trouble ticket in for this and went through their standard
lines, but this issue is a result of bad browser detection. I went
through the entire script that web tycho uses to see how it works.
Basically, the js variables used to detect browsers in windows do not
have the same values in linux (I'm using Fedora). The script
completely ignores the values under linux resulting in the browser and
javascript not being recongnized. There is also the problem of every
linux browser (firefox, seamonkey, and opera) using the same rendering
engine (gecko). Every variable can be changed to trick WT in to
properly detecting that firefox is running except for one variable
related to gecko. Yes, complying with web programming standards would
make it easier for browsers to render html and process js, but not all
browsers are the same which is why browser detection is used in the
first place. The imediate issue here is browser detection and how the
browser actually works. I doubt the simple web tycho pages will brake
firefox running on linux so really all WT has to do is fix its browser
detection. By the way, if you look at the script the last time it was
updated was 2004.

> business mistake if I don't."- Hide quoted text -

[Mark Hoffmeyer]

If its a javascript problem, you might be able to use Greasemonkey in
Firefox to insert some javascript into the page to trick Tycho's
detection.
For those of us not familiar with Greasemonkey, it is a firefox
extension that allows you to run your own scripts on a page to change
its look and functionality.
http://www.greasespot.net/