ARgg!! Netscape Printing of POST data?!

jnutter

Ok, I REALLY HATE NETSCAPE! (just had to get that off my chest).

Anyone know how to get around this one (I've searched and searched and searched... nothin)?

I've got a site that generates all sorts of reports on the fly both by including text files with content and pulling stuff from a database all based on user selections from a form.

Needless to say, users HAVE to be able to print these reports for this thing to have any applicable use whatsoever.

My Problem: Netscape will not print these pages. The error is:

Data Missing.

This document resulted from a POST operation and has expired from the cache. If you wish you can repost the form data to recreate the document by pressing the reload button.

It seems the most moronic browser on the planet will only print pages from its cache. I've tried everything I can think of to get Netscrape to cache these pages (even though this seems utterly ludicrous to me - did they not anticipate "Dynamic" pages down there at moron hq?).

Anyway, no-go on that. No matter what I've done, every time I try to print one of these forms I instead print out yet another wasted sheet with the above message on it.

Any advice and/or Plans to write a Global Netscape-killer virus would be immensely appreciated.

Thanks =)

nutter

roel_v

First, that 'moronic browser' made 'down there at moron hq' is the only browser that at least tries to be available on all platforms, and has been the only browser for us Real Men using free Unix clones for years.

Anyway, what version of netscape and on what platform are you using? I have no problems here using Netscape with a cache of 0kb, and printing from that.

jnutter

Ok, I'm not going to get into a mud-slinging contest here (but really... challenging my masculinity based on my hatred for a browser thats cost me at least 200 man-hours in the past year alone? give me a break!)

That said, what version of Netscape and what Platform are irrelevant. I can't control the browser or the platform of my users (duh).

I need a solution that is 100% code-based and 100% platform/browser/idiot user independant.

And really, IMHO, problems such as these with printing dynamic pages is a rather serious oversight for a company as large as Netscape to make. (did they not anticipate dynamic content?)

So far, what I can gather from the community is that the solution lies in sending the right "Cache This" headers to the browser... but I still haven't found the magic combination for that.

nutter

roel_v

It was not my intention to challenge your masculinity, I was only stating that Netscape isn't the Big Bad Beast that a lot of people nowadays are saying it is. It may not be the best browser out there, but it's starting to get on my nerves that a lot of people seem to forget that without Netscape, the internet would not be what it is today. That is no excuse for them to write crappy software now, but at least it gives them the advantage of the doubt.
About the Real Men part, it was inappropriate of me to word it like this in this context. It was not only bad advocacy (sp?) but it was completely irrelevant.

jnutter

No worries, it was inappropriate of me to blow off such steam in a public venue like this anyway.

Trust me, one of the main reasons I'm so frustrated with Netscape is because I used to be one of their biggest supporters. I'm hugely dissapointed that they haven't managed to keep up the commitment to quality and standards compliance that they had a major role in establishing in the first place.

The kinds of things that drive me nuts about the browser mostly relate to the fact that it still doesn't handle some of the most basic HTML elements properly (such as tables). Which for me, as a coder that cannot put something out there on the market until it absolutely works in all ways - is totally unnacceptable.

I wish Andreesen would take Netscape back from the clutches of AOL and turn it back into the standard-setting kick-butt piece of software it used to be.

But in the meantime... as a developer working under fixed-cost scenarios - its costing huge amounts of money and making me a very unhappy camper.

Peace.

nutter

jnutter

Its a crazy work-around but oh well.

Scenario: your form data is potentially too large to use GET as the method so you need to use POST. You also need to be able to print this page and cannot cache it (its generated dynamically from the form).

Problem: Netscape won't print because the page is not cached and is the results of a POST operation.

Solution: POST your data to a script that writes a hard-copy of the contents to be displayed in a text file with a randomly-generated name. Pass the name (id) to another page through the url in a header redirect. The interim script is invisible (nothing printed to screen) but serves as an
"in between" step to get away from the post operation (which Netscape treats as an error).

In general, if you can get away with it, use GET rather than post in your forms anyway. This will also solve your problem (my forms are often defined dynamically anyway so I don't often have the luxury).

Thanks all to those who helped me with this one =)

nutter

webshifter

Two other solutions come to mind - 1 that I know works, that was mentioned in this thread before the flame skirmish began, and the other is only a theory.

In your options settings set your cache size to 0KB. This is how I used to do it when I used netscape exclusively.
Have your php save the output html to a file called file.html and then redirect to that html file. Then it will be printable.

As mentioned above, #2 is just a brainstorm, not tested.

Best of luck!

Nutter wrote:

Its a crazy work-around but oh well.

Problem: Netscape won't print because the page is not cached and is the results of a POST operation.

Thanks all to those who helped me with this one =)....

jnutter

Hmmm I like your thinking with option #2. Nice, clean, everything should be able to handle it well. Could write the .html file with very clean html code to ensure compatibilities and all that. Sounds great!

Two things:

It should be noted that the above problem relates only to very large amounts of data being transferred (ie. GET just won't do). If you can use GET, use GET. You won't have this problem at all.
With this file.html solution you would have to give the file some unique stamp and redirect to the uniquefile.html. This of course to handle multiple users on the site doing the same thing and all that ya? 😉

I'll post the code once I've written it =)

nutter

Anon

This isn\'t a Netscape only issue. I\'m currently experiencing this exact same problem using IE 5.5. So, does your tirade apply to IE also? Just wondering.

jnutter

No. My tirade applies to netscape only. It also applies primarily to the indifferent stance that Netscape has taken towards implementing what are taken to be global web standards. In other words, why is it that tables still don't render properly in version 4.7 when they were first implemented in version 2.0?? Why does the browser support percentile width but not percentile height? (is there anything in the 2-dimensional world that has width but not height??)

Its them missing the simple stuff that really bothers me.

I am, however, interested in how you managed to re-produce this in IE? I did some extensive testing myself when I first came across this problem and never had any problems with IE... curious.

Anon

I have had this problem many times, and this is the easiest way I have found to fix it. That does not depend on client side settings tweaking.

Just add the following tags to the <head> of the page you want to print.

Also make sure not to set a header("Expires: -1"); value.

lizard

I have tried using some of the suggestion above, no resolve to the same problem.
Netscape will not print out my posted info. Tried the meta tag trick with the page, no luck.
I do not want to use GET, my whole site is set using POST, too many changes required also data is too large to consider using GET.
If there are any other suggestions different from those above please forward them on.
Thanks.

Anon

Do you have an example of how to implement your suggestion?

Thanks,
Juliana.

Anon

hi all,

I have this problem and i use this solution.

i send the form with POST to a intermediary page, this intermediary page receive the POST variables and transform to variables of
session and redirect to page will to be printer. this page work with variable of session and dont have problem with netshitcape.

not a beautiful, but, solved. In my land i call this a "ganmbiarra" 🙂

[]s