Friday, December 19, 2008

O.K. Browsers

The home and sub page templates work just fine in:

Opera ("accessibility" mode also works right)
Firefox
SeaMonkey
Safari
Google Chrome

So of course the only problem child is IE. The sub page template looks all right in IE6-8, though. That's good. (actually the search box is slightly too tall in IE6, but no one will notice unless they already know to look)

So that's 6 major browsers tested. I'd say that's enough.

EDIT:
The home page template looks all right in IE8, but that is only a beta for now.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Compatibility issues, oh boy howdy

(EDIT: These issues will likely be fixed in the near future, so it's nothing to worry about)

I was trying to see if the random image loader I have will work on our home page (it does), and ran into a (literally) little problem with IE:

(Click to enlarge)


It was always like that, because the original templates we got do that too. I have no idea why I never noticed this before. I don't use IE, and I did briefly glance at it in IE and thought it looked all right, but I really should have been paying attention :-/ [Actually, I have some memory of having seen this problem before, but it didn't seem to be a priority at the time. But now it is.]

I investigated the "library.css" file and found that the problem is that the ".hours" box and the ".announce" box, which are both inside the box called ".container3," can increase the size of ".container3" depending on how big they are. However thier height is set as "auto" so their size depends on how big the text inside looks, and text display varies by browser (*sigh*, right?):

(colors changed so you can see)


I "solved" the problem by making ".container3, ".hours," and ".announce" all a fixed height of 150px. The "side effect" of doing this is that the boxes will never get larger no matter what you write in them. That might not be too bad. Here's how that turned out:

http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/done-kn/hometest/imagestest.html
You can also see the image loader here, but that is unimportant now.

However, I also tested the web page on IE6 (which I never use, I hasten to mention!), and it still has problems even in my fixed version.

Here's the original template:


Here's my modified one:

Where did the hours go? It is a mystery.

IE6 is one of the most awful IT products ever. However, if your OS is pre-XP, you're not allowed to have IE7, and not all users may know enough to get FF or can't get used to it. So this may be a problem, or it might not be at all.

I'll try these in other browsers in the very near future.

The sub-page templates all look acceptable so far. That's good.

Friday, December 12, 2008

This is not a Web of Science

Since the database calls itself "ISI Web of Knowledge," so should we. It also makes it much more clear that its contents go beyond "science."

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Database Pages Progress

I've been working on CH's copy. Since the DBs are, as I've said, the crown jewels of our site, I think it's necessary to ask you all for input. What I have here is just about "done," although the A-Z EBSCO link is wrong on over half of the subject pages, so I'll have to go fix those anyway.

1. Databases By Name:
http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/done-kn/dbs/name.html

a) Quick List: The only difference between the "quick" and "expanded" lists is that some names have been simplified and the EBSCO DBs are not expanded. Most of our students just know EBSCOhost as "EBSCO" and don't think about it being an aggregator, etc., and might be intimidated by a big list. And really, they don't need to know that. All they want is to get in, and that's just fine.

b) I need a link for "Lexi-PALS Drug Guide," on the Health Sciences list (which, I must confess, I've never heard of before). All of the others have links, though.

c) Both of the lists also contain the DBs that are on the LOUIS DB list but not our home page.

d) Database Tools: I'm unsure if this is needed, but I put it there anyway. They're in the the other lists also, but they're not really DBs in themselves.

e) The list on name.html is made of the LOUIS list (because it had links) and CH's copy.

f) Will ARTSTOR, if it ever comes, have its own link or will it be seen as an extension of JSTOR (I recall that they used to advertise it by placing an "artstor" tab in JSTOR to trick unsubscribed people into clicking on it)?

2. Databases By Subject:
http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/done-kn/dbs/subject/

a) I decided to give each subject area its own page. An idea I had before was to have them all on one page and then use anchors to link to each one, but in order to bookmark it the user would have to take care to bookmark that particular anchor link (as in, going to the main URL and scrolling down and bookmarking would bookmark the whole page, not that particular part). Here's the yardstick: "Could my mother figure that out?" The answer is a concrete "No."

b) Since there are to be so many of them, the pages will reside in their own /subject directory. The links already work, but the pages are incomplete templates for now. "dbs" is just where I'm keeping all of these, but they will work in any directory as long as it's "X"/subject

d) There are some lesser known DBs now on the "by name" list. If you want to add/subtract DBs from your lists, let me know.

3. Newspapers:
http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/done-kn/dbs/newspapers.html

Yes. It really is that short.

Are we really going to have a page of just that? Is there anything more to add? It's even on the home page. (I suppose it's a well-known fact that I've always been skeptical of this page. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I can't envision what to put on it. Maybe someone else can.)

Monday, December 8, 2008

Library Instruction & Tours

From Megan's copy, I made a page for Library Instruction & Tours:

http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/done-kn/instours.html

It may need changes in the future, but this generally what it could be.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Library Instruction & Tours

I've made a page for "Library Instruction & Tours" out of Megan's copy. DW's status will probably change in the future as her subject liasonship.

http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/done-kn/instours.html

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Oh no!

We've been knocked down a spot!

Nov. 2008 Uni. Relations Report

Curse you, ARROW, curse yooooooouuuuuuu....