[Resolved] Browser error message - why?

Norman_Graham

Hi guys

If this one has been done before, I apologise. I have searched the forum, but I'm not really sure what keywords to use. Anyway, I'd appreciate and answer to the following query:

I have a sitemap and for each webpage listed (in an <ol> list) I offer a link to the actual page (obviously) as well as a link to some details about the page. If the visitor clicks on the 'details' link, a little JavaScript URL produces a pop-up window with details about the page. The code for this looks like this example:

<ol class="sitemaplink">
<li>Geography: <a href="javascript:window.open('sitemap_details.php?page=geo', 
'_blank', 'toolbar=no, resizable=yes, scrollbars=yes, status=no,
 height=400, width=500')">details</a></li>

So the pop-up window appears and it contains PHP code (sitemap_details.php) to pull out the details of the page 'Geography' from a little MySQL table. The code in the file sitemap_details.php looks like this:

<?php

//Various includes for HTML header, db connection etc ...

$newpage = $page; // Pick up chosen page from sitemap.php, reg_glob is on

// Extract page content from DB

$result=mysql_query("SELECT title, description, 
status, page FROM sitemap WHERE page='$newpage'");

if (!$result) // Procedure for failure here

//blah, blah, blah ...

else // Display content from DB
{
   $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);

   echo ("<h2>" . $row["title"] . "</h2><h3>" . 
$row["description"] . "</h3><p>Status: " . $row["status"] . "</p>");

   print "<br /><br />";

   print "<p><a href=\"javascript:window.close();\">Close Window</a></p>";

print "</body>";

print "</html>";
}

?>

All this works like a dream - window pops up, content is correct ... but the browser seems to try and download something (download dialogue appears) and then immediately produces an error dialogue saying that a file couldn't be downloaded and you have to click on OK to make it go away. What's the problem and can I suppress this nasty download attempt and error dialogue?

Thank you very much for your help

Norman

Norman_Graham

... anyone out there can help?

Very grateful for your assistance.

Norman

zhabala

Could you post here the HTML content, which is shown in the new window ?

Norman_Graham

You mean the content shown if I select View/Show source code? I assume you don't just mean what's shown in the window, because that works perfectly.

OK, will do - I never thought of looking at that. I'll have to wait a bit though. I have no PHP on this PC. I'll need to test it at home and copy the source-code page when the window displays.

I'll be in touch.

Thanx

Norman

zhabala

Sure I mean the HTML code which can be shown by View source code.

Norman_Graham

Right, I've tested various options. The error dialogue only appears if the javascript link is running on my Apache Webserver.

I suggest it is a configuration problem with Apache. Javascript links produce this error dialogue. Normal links don't. Any clues as to what it could be?

Thanks

Norman

zhabala

Show us how your java script link looks like, we do not have crystal sphere to know it 🙂

Norman_Graham

... I don't wish to be impertinent, but I already did - look at the code in my initial post - here it is again:

<ol class="sitemaplink">
<li>Geography: <a href="javascript:window.open('sitemap_details.php?page=geo', 
'_blank', 'toolbar=no, resizable=yes, scrollbars=yes, status=no,
 height=400, width=500')">details</a></li>

and here is the file which is opened by this link:

<?php

/*Sitemap_details.php: display of further details on each web page*/

//Various includes for HTML header, db connection etc ...

$newpage = $page; // Pick up chosen page from sitemap.php, register_globals is on

// Extract page content from DB

$result=mysql_query("SELECT title, description, 
status, page FROM sitemap WHERE page='$newpage'");

if (!$result) // Procedure for failure here ...

//blah, blah, blah ...

else // Display content from DB
{
   $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);

   echo ("<h2>" . $row["title"] . "</h2><h3>" . 
$row["description"] . "</h3><p>Status: " . $row["status"] . "</p>");

   print "<br /><br />";

   print "<p><a href=\"javascript:window.close();\">Close Window</a></p>";

print "</body>";

print "</html>";
}

?>

As I said, the file opens up in the pop-up window just fine and dandy, but then the browser produces and error message saying that it's trying to download the file sitemap_details.php but can't, despite the fact that it already has. I tested various options yesterday and have established that the error message only appears if I'm running a Javascript URL on Apache. If I just make two HTML files and point them to each other using a Javascript link but leaving out the webserver, the error message doesn't appear. If I make two basic HTML files and point them to each other with a javascript link and run it across Apache, the message appears again. Ergo: it has something to do with the Apache settings. Is there perhaps something in http.conf that I should change?

I'd be very grateful for any insight you can offer, Zhabala

Thanks very much

Norman

Weedpacket

Well, Javascript is hardly my forte, but I've never seen code used as an href attribute value before. It's always been something more like:

<a href="#" onClick="javascript:window.close()">Window close</a>

Otherwise the browser tries to send a request back to the server for "javascript:window.close()"

Norman_Graham

Thanks, Weedpacket, I'll test that to see if it is the problem. I haven't started learning JS properly yet and just stole that code from one of those Javascript libraries on the net. It's obviously a bad source in this case - I've just checked at DevShed etc and they all suggest what you've written - standard href statement and then an onclick event handler.

I must start reading that O'Reilly book on Javascript on which I spent 50 euros a year ago - it has been gathering dust while I've been learning PHP, but I'm starting to realise how useful it can be to have both technologies at your fingertips.

If I don't reply, then it has worked. Thanks very much to you and Zhabala for your help

Norman

Norman_Graham

... I'm confused - it doesn't do anything at all now, except produce an error message saying that the script is faulty and then the browser opens sitemap_details.php?page=geo in the same window.

I have discovered that doing <a href="javascript:window.open('url', 'title', 'features');">Title</a> is what is called a JavaScript URL and is legitimate (O'Reilly - JavaScript: The Definitive Guide).

However, I can see that the relationship to PHP is fading here and that I should go to a JavaScript forum. If anyone has a solution for my problem, I'd be grateful, but I don't want to waste your time with JavaScript.

Thanks for your help

Norman

Weedpacket

Originally posted by Norman Graham
I have discovered that doing <a href="javascript:window.open('url', 'title', 'features');">Title</a> is what is called a JavaScript URL and is legitimate (O'Reilly - JavaScript: The Definitive Guide).

Remind me to go down to Techbooks and pick myself up a copy 🙂

altexis

well i am no JS guru either but i'll show you what i have in my pages and it works fine:

i have a normal JavaScript function in the head of the page:
function openUserAgreementWindow() {
popupWin=window.open('../faq/agreement_user.php','','scrollbars,resizable,toolbar,width=640,height=640,left=50,top=50');
popupWin.focus();
}

and in my code i have this:
<a href="javascript:openUserAgreementWindow();">

so i suppose in your case maybe this would work:

<a href="javascript:window.open('sitemap_details.php?page=geo',
'', 'toolbar=no, resizable, scrollbars, status=no,
height=400, width=500')">details</a>

have you checked if the file sitemap_details.php is in the same directory with the one that calls it?

Norman_Graham

Thanks for that, Altexis. The file is definitely in the same directory, so that can't be the problem. I did consider writing a function in the <head> section and then calling it as a JS URL, but the URL contains the query (?page=geo) and is therefore different every time. I could write a PHP array and pull out the appropriate URL each time, but that would be quite a lot of code.

I'll fiddle around with various options and see what happens. O'Reilly also suggests adding void=0; to the end of JS URLs to avoid having the browser attempt to overwrite the existing window. Don't know if this will make a difference, but we'll see.

Thanx

Norman

Norman_Graham

Got this one fixed now. The solution was this:

<ol class="sitemaplink">
<li>Geography: <a href="java script:window.open('sitemap_details.php?page=geo', 
'', 'toolbar=no, resizable=yes, scrollbars=yes, status=no,
 height=400, width=500'); void 0">details</a></li>

The title in the JS window.open() call was clashing with the actual title of the page, so I left it blank in the JS function, and the browser was trying to overwrite the existing page, hence I added the 'void 0'.

Thanks for all your help.

Norman